Data Engineering Contract Job Trends in England

Data Engineering
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Data Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 142 218
Rank change year-on-year +54 +76 -4
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,109 458 417
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.95% 1.89% 1.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.42% 2.08% 1.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 775 327 315
10th Percentile £400 £398 £413
25th Percentile £450 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £676 £688
90th Percentile £750 £838 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 12 10
10th Percentile £57.58 £22.00 £29.51
25th Percentile £65.00 £22.38 £32.19
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.97 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +169.59% -25.81% -53.33%
75th Percentile £84.69 £35.94 £48.56
90th Percentile £89.75 £63.88 £60.88
UK median hourly rate £69.72 £25.97 £35.00
% change year-on-year +168.52% -25.81% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Data Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 32,394 22,046 32,724
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.25% 90.85% 86.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,755 14,514 21,646
10th Percentile £313 £313 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,983 845 2,157
10th Percentile £15.34 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.30 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.55 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -1.52% -12.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £76.20 £76.25 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £32.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.81% -1.54% -9.72%

Data Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Data Engineering job vacancy trend in England

Data Engineering
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Engineering

Data Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Engineering in England over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Engineering in England

Data Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Engineering

Data Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Engineering in England over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Engineering in England

Data Engineering
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Engineering within the England region over the 6 months to 26 March 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +61 726 £550 -4.35% 253
Midlands +26 113 £514 +2.75% 51
North of England -6 106 £466 -6.75% 110
West Midlands +12 90 £525 -2.78% 36
South West +13 66 £550 -13.73% 49
North West -16 48 £471 -0.79% 59
South East -32 47 £550 +10.00% 111
Yorkshire -31 37 £473 -17.83% 40
North East +7 21 £450 -5.26% 13
East Midlands -18 21 £447 -5.89% 15
East of England -26 18 £575 +79.69% 34
Data Engineering
UK

Data Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 170 (15.33%) Apache Spark
2 115 (10.37%) Apache Airflow
3 77 (6.94%) Apache
4 21 (1.89%) SAS
5 18 (1.62%) Palantir Foundry
6 11 (0.99%) Confluence
7 8 (0.72%) Appian
8 5 (0.45%) Apache Superset
9 4 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.27%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.18%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.090%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.090%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.090%) Camunda
12 1 (0.090%) CMS
12 1 (0.090%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 22 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.36%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.27%) Trello
7 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (0.54%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.27%) BambooHR
2 3 (0.27%) SAP BPC
3 2 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.090%) Actimize
4 1 (0.090%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.090%) Maximo
4 1 (0.090%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.090%) SAP ECC
4 1 (0.090%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 525 (47.34%) Azure
2 397 (35.80%) AWS
3 254 (22.90%) Power Platform
4 188 (16.95%) Azure Data Factory
5 163 (14.70%) GCP
6 139 (12.53%) Snowflake
7 134 (12.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 125 (11.27%) GitHub
9 119 (10.73%) Amazon S3
10 99 (8.93%) dbt
10 99 (8.93%) Serverless
11 92 (8.30%) Azure DevOps
12 78 (7.03%) AWS Lambda
13 73 (6.58%) GitHub Actions
14 45 (4.06%) AWS CloudFormation
15 27 (2.43%) AWS Step Functions
16 25 (2.25%) Collibra
17 24 (2.16%) Azure Machine Learning
18 23 (2.07%) Amazon EMR
18 23 (2.07%) Amazon Kinesis
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.45%) RTP
2 4 (0.36%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.36%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.36%) Network Security
3 3 (0.27%) VPN
4 1 (0.090%) 4G
4 1 (0.090%) 5G
4 1 (0.090%) Firewall
4 1 (0.090%) SAN
4 1 (0.090%) SMS
4 1 (0.090%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 232 (20.92%) Power BI
2 221 (19.93%) Data Warehouse
3 172 (15.51%) Data Lake
4 98 (8.84%) Metadata
5 78 (7.03%) SQL Server
6 76 (6.85%) NoSQL
7 75 (6.76%) Big Data
8 73 (6.58%) Delta Lake
9 62 (5.59%) Azure SQL Database
10 59 (5.32%) Amazon Redshift
10 59 (5.32%) Snowflake Schema
11 58 (5.23%) Relational Database
12 57 (5.14%) Tableau
13 56 (5.05%) BigQuery
14 48 (4.33%) PostgreSQL
15 46 (4.15%) Amazon Athena
16 42 (3.79%) Hadoop
17 35 (3.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 31 (2.80%) Spark SQL
19 22 (1.98%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 149 (13.44%) Git
2 47 (4.24%) GitLab
3 42 (3.79%) MLflow
4 40 (3.61%) Jenkins
5 26 (2.34%) JIRA
6 7 (0.63%) Selenium
7 5 (0.45%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.27%) JUnit
8 3 (0.27%) Maven
8 3 (0.27%) Postman
8 3 (0.27%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.27%) Terragrunt
8 3 (0.27%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.18%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.18%) Mockito
9 2 (0.18%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.090%) git-flow
10 1 (0.090%) Snyk
10 1 (0.090%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 286 (25.79%) Social Skills
2 277 (24.98%) Finance
3 166 (14.97%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (8.21%) Public Sector
5 59 (5.32%) Banking
6 30 (2.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (1.80%) Retail
8 19 (1.71%) Front Office
9 16 (1.44%) Investment Banking
9 16 (1.44%) Marketing
10 15 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
11 14 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.08%) Financial Institution
12 12 (1.08%) Telecoms
13 11 (0.99%) Legal
14 9 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (0.63%) Publishing
16 6 (0.54%) Back Office
16 6 (0.54%) Military
17 5 (0.45%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 532 (47.97%) Data Engineer
2 141 (12.71%) Senior
3 137 (12.35%) Lead
4 99 (8.93%) Senior Data Engineer
5 98 (8.84%) Architect
6 70 (6.31%) Azure Engineer
7 67 (6.04%) Developer
8 58 (5.23%) Azure Data Engineer
9 55 (4.96%) Analyst
10 54 (4.87%) Lead Data Engineer
11 53 (4.78%) Data Architect
12 46 (4.15%) Snowflake Engineer
13 45 (4.06%) Data Scientist
14 43 (3.88%) AWS Engineer
15 40 (3.61%) Snowflake Data Engineer
16 37 (3.34%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 32 (2.89%) Consultant
17 32 (2.89%) Data Analyst
18 30 (2.71%) Principal Engineer
19 29 (2.61%) AWS Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 183 (16.50%) PySpark
2 142 (12.80%) Kafka
3 58 (5.23%) Pandas
4 47 (4.24%) scikit-learn
5 46 (4.15%) PyTorch
6 40 (3.61%) NumPy
7 35 (3.16%) TensorFlow
8 29 (2.61%) JSON
9 24 (2.16%) FastAPI
9 24 (2.16%) pytest
9 24 (2.16%) YAML
10 23 (2.07%) REST
11 22 (1.98%) LangChain
12 21 (1.89%) React
12 21 (1.89%) RESTful
13 20 (1.80%) Flask
14 19 (1.71%) Spring
15 18 (1.62%) Great Expectations
16 14 (1.26%) Hugging Face
16 14 (1.26%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 141 (12.71%) Cloud Native
2 39 (3.52%) Product Ownership
3 36 (3.25%) Distributed Systems
4 34 (3.07%) Legacy Systems
5 33 (2.98%) Algorithms
6 29 (2.61%) Distributed Computing
7 24 (2.16%) Data Structures
8 23 (2.07%) Hybrid Cloud
9 19 (1.71%) Greenfield Project
9 19 (1.71%) Onboarding
10 18 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
11 17 (1.53%) AI Agents
12 16 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
13 14 (1.26%) Clustering
13 14 (1.26%) Fixed Income
14 11 (0.99%) Derivative
14 11 (0.99%) Management Information System
15 10 (0.90%) Equities
15 10 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
16 9 (0.81%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 28 (2.52%) Linux
2 14 (1.26%) Unix
3 8 (0.72%) VMS
4 3 (0.27%) Windows
5 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.18%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.090%) CentOS
6 1 (0.090%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 551 (49.68%) Analytics
2 500 (45.09%) Data Pipeline
3 453 (40.85%) ETL
4 441 (39.77%) Data Modelling
5 382 (34.45%) CI/CD
6 290 (26.15%) Business Intelligence
7 289 (26.06%) AI
8 283 (25.52%) DevOps
9 280 (25.25%) Agile
10 274 (24.71%) Data Governance
11 226 (20.38%) Machine Learning
12 216 (19.48%) Problem-Solving
13 208 (18.76%) Data Science
14 180 (16.23%) Data Architecture
15 134 (12.08%) Decision-Making
16 125 (11.27%) Validation
17 122 (11.00%) Infrastructure as Code
18 113 (10.19%) Data Transformation
18 113 (10.19%) Migration
19 110 (9.92%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 644 (58.07%) Python
2 611 (55.09%) SQL
3 89 (8.03%) Java
4 67 (6.04%) Scala
5 44 (3.97%) C#
6 38 (3.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 30 (2.71%) Bash
8 29 (2.61%) PowerShell
9 23 (2.07%) JavaScript
10 19 (1.71%) T-SQL
11 18 (1.62%) Bicep
12 16 (1.44%) Go
12 16 (1.44%) R
13 14 (1.26%) TypeScript
14 9 (0.81%) Shell Script
15 8 (0.72%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.63%) C++
17 6 (0.54%) Korn
18 4 (0.36%) Rust
19 3 (0.27%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 225 (20.29%) Security Cleared
2 190 (17.13%) SC Cleared
3 86 (7.75%) Degree
4 45 (4.06%) Azure Certification
5 40 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
6 35 (3.16%) Master's Degree
7 20 (1.80%) DV Cleared
8 15 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.26%) AWS Certification
10 10 (0.90%) PhD
11 8 (0.72%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (0.36%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 3 (0.27%) SnowPro
14 2 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 1 (0.090%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 1 (0.090%) CCSP
15 1 (0.090%) OCP
15 1 (0.090%) Oracle Certification
15 1 (0.090%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 312 (28.13%) Data Quality
2 87 (7.84%) GDPR
3 41 (3.70%) QA
4 13 (1.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 8 (0.72%) Accessibility
6 7 (0.63%) HIPAA
7 5 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.45%) PERC
7 5 (0.45%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 4 (0.36%) Solvency II
9 3 (0.27%) GRC
9 3 (0.27%) SLA
9 3 (0.27%) WCAG
10 2 (0.18%) HL7
10 2 (0.18%) MiFID
10 2 (0.18%) NIST
10 2 (0.18%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.18%) PMO
11 1 (0.090%) FATCA
System Software
1 130 (11.72%) Docker
2 5 (0.45%) HDFS
3 3 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.090%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 157 (14.16%) Terraform
2 129 (11.63%) Kubernetes
3 25 (2.25%) Prometheus
4 14 (1.26%) Grafana
5 5 (0.45%) Ansible
6 4 (0.36%) Argo
6 4 (0.36%) Kubeflow
7 3 (0.27%) Rancher
8 2 (0.18%) Hadoop YARN
8 2 (0.18%) Kibana
8 2 (0.18%) Nagios
8 2 (0.18%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.090%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.090%) Control-M
9 1 (0.090%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.090%) Oozie
Vendors
1 320 (28.85%) Databricks
2 163 (14.70%) Microsoft
3 59 (5.32%) Google
4 45 (4.06%) Informatica
5 31 (2.80%) Oracle
6 25 (2.25%) Talend
7 24 (2.16%) Foundry
8 22 (1.98%) OpenAI
9 21 (1.89%) Palantir
10 18 (1.62%) Splunk
11 15 (1.35%) SAP
12 14 (1.26%) Cloudera
13 10 (0.90%) Denodo
13 10 (0.90%) Salesforce
13 10 (0.90%) ServiceNow
14 9 (0.81%) UiPath
15 8 (0.72%) Automation Anywhere
16 6 (0.54%) MicroStrategy
17 5 (0.45%) Charles River
17 5 (0.45%) Murex