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 10 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 143 199
Rank change year-on-year +59 +56 -13
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,186 463 439
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.91% 1.89% 1.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.43% 2.07% 1.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 834 321 326
10th Percentile £400 £400 £395
25th Percentile £450 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £561
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -2.00% -10.20%
75th Percentile £625 £700 £675
90th Percentile £749 £838 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 13 12
10th Percentile £52.90 £22.00 £30.46
25th Percentile £65.00 £22.50 £34.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £27.50 £38.65
Median % change year-on-year +154.55% -28.85% -48.46%
75th Percentile £82.31 £53.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £89.25 £65.00 -
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £26.47 £35.00
% change year-on-year +164.50% -24.39% -52.05%

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 34,606 22,325 31,829
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.80% 91.23% 86.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,091 14,613 20,852
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £501 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.75% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,151 936 2,252
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.56 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £46.80 £29.15 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.55% -20.14% -2.14%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.29 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £28.75 £36.50
% change year-on-year +46.09% -21.23% +1.39%

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 10 May 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 10 May 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 10 May 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 +61 737 £550 -4.35% 254
Midlands +19 127 £500 +6.67% 51
North of England +2 122 £480 -4.00% 96
West Midlands +18 104 £500 +10.38% 35
South West +23 78 £506 -15.75% 34
South East -30 60 £550 +12.02% 85
Yorkshire -16 55 £478 -13.18% 28
North West -21 47 £500 - 45
East of England -21 23 £575 +54.08% 8
North East +1 22 £450 -5.26% 23
East Midlands -21 20 £450 -4.00% 16
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
1 175 (14.76%) Apache Spark
2 113 (9.53%) Apache Airflow
3 76 (6.41%) Apache
4 30 (2.53%) SAS
5 15 (1.26%) Palantir Foundry
6 13 (1.10%) Confluence
7 8 (0.67%) Appian
7 8 (0.67%) Jupyter
8 7 (0.59%) Apache Superset
9 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.17%) Apache Synapse
10 2 (0.17%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.084%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.084%) Camunda
11 1 (0.084%) CICS
11 1 (0.084%) CMS
11 1 (0.084%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 24 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.34%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.25%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (0.42%) Aladdin
1 5 (0.42%) BambooHR
2 4 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.25%) SAP BPC
4 2 (0.17%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.084%) Actimize
5 1 (0.084%) Markit EDM
5 1 (0.084%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.084%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 537 (45.28%) Azure
2 429 (36.17%) AWS
3 272 (22.93%) Power Platform
4 179 (15.09%) Azure Data Factory
5 175 (14.76%) GCP
6 144 (12.14%) Snowflake
7 140 (11.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 124 (10.46%) Amazon S3
8 124 (10.46%) GitHub
9 114 (9.61%) dbt
10 99 (8.35%) Azure DevOps
11 95 (8.01%) Serverless
12 77 (6.49%) AWS Lambda
13 74 (6.24%) GitHub Actions
14 41 (3.46%) AWS CloudFormation
15 28 (2.36%) AWS Step Functions
16 25 (2.11%) Collibra
16 25 (2.11%) Dagster
17 23 (1.94%) Amazon SageMaker
17 23 (1.94%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.42%) RTP
2 4 (0.34%) Firewall
3 3 (0.25%) Kerberos
4 2 (0.17%) VPN
5 1 (0.084%) 4G
5 1 (0.084%) 5G
5 1 (0.084%) Cisco IPT
5 1 (0.084%) MIMO
5 1 (0.084%) Network Security
5 1 (0.084%) SAN
5 1 (0.084%) SMS
5 1 (0.084%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 250 (21.08%) Power BI
2 227 (19.14%) Data Warehouse
3 195 (16.44%) Data Lake
4 110 (9.27%) Metadata
5 84 (7.08%) Big Data
6 80 (6.75%) Delta Lake
6 80 (6.75%) SQL Server
7 72 (6.07%) NoSQL
7 72 (6.07%) Tableau
8 67 (5.65%) Amazon Redshift
9 66 (5.56%) BigQuery
10 63 (5.31%) Azure SQL Database
10 63 (5.31%) Snowflake Schema
11 53 (4.47%) Relational Database
12 51 (4.30%) Amazon Athena
13 43 (3.63%) PostgreSQL
14 40 (3.37%) Hadoop
15 37 (3.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 34 (2.87%) Spark SQL
17 26 (2.19%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 134 (11.30%) Git
2 51 (4.30%) GitLab
3 39 (3.29%) MLflow
4 37 (3.12%) JIRA
5 31 (2.61%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.51%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.42%) Selenium
8 3 (0.25%) Postman
8 3 (0.25%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.25%) Snyk
9 2 (0.17%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.17%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.17%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.084%) Ant
10 1 (0.084%) ERwin
10 1 (0.084%) JUnit
10 1 (0.084%) Maven
10 1 (0.084%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.084%) SoapUI
General
1 313 (26.39%) Finance
2 269 (22.68%) Social Skills
3 181 (15.26%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (8.52%) Public Sector
5 64 (5.40%) Banking
6 25 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 25 (2.11%) Retail
7 22 (1.85%) Marketing
8 17 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (1.43%) Front Office
9 15 (1.26%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.10%) Financial Institution
10 13 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (0.93%) Investment Banking
11 11 (0.93%) Legal
12 8 (0.67%) Military
13 6 (0.51%) Back Office
13 6 (0.51%) Law
14 3 (0.25%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.25%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 569 (47.98%) Data Engineer
2 158 (13.32%) Senior
3 130 (10.96%) Lead
4 119 (10.03%) Architect
5 108 (9.11%) Senior Data Engineer
6 65 (5.48%) Developer
7 60 (5.06%) Data Architect
8 53 (4.47%) Azure Engineer
9 52 (4.38%) Analyst
10 50 (4.22%) Lead Data Engineer
11 47 (3.96%) Azure Data Engineer
12 46 (3.88%) Snowflake Engineer
13 45 (3.79%) AWS Engineer
14 43 (3.63%) Data Scientist
15 40 (3.37%) Snowflake Data Engineer
16 39 (3.29%) Solutions Architect
17 35 (2.95%) AWS Data Engineer
18 34 (2.87%) Consultant
19 31 (2.61%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
20 29 (2.45%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 181 (15.26%) PySpark
2 134 (11.30%) Kafka
3 50 (4.22%) Pandas
4 41 (3.46%) scikit-learn
5 40 (3.37%) PyTorch
6 32 (2.70%) NumPy
7 31 (2.61%) TensorFlow
8 25 (2.11%) JSON
8 25 (2.11%) REST
9 23 (1.94%) React
9 23 (1.94%) Spring
10 22 (1.85%) YAML
11 20 (1.69%) LangChain
12 19 (1.60%) pytest
12 19 (1.60%) RESTful
13 18 (1.52%) Great Expectations
14 16 (1.35%) FastAPI
14 16 (1.35%) Spring Boot
15 14 (1.18%) Flask
16 13 (1.10%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 153 (12.90%) Cloud Native
2 42 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
3 38 (3.20%) Legacy Systems
3 38 (3.20%) Product Ownership
4 34 (2.87%) Data Structures
5 32 (2.70%) Distributed Computing
6 28 (2.36%) AI Agents
7 21 (1.77%) Algorithms
7 21 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
8 20 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
9 18 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
10 17 (1.43%) Onboarding
11 14 (1.18%) Fixed Income
12 13 (1.10%) Clustering
12 13 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (1.10%) NHS
12 13 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
13 10 (0.84%) Equities
13 10 (0.84%) Management Information System
14 8 (0.67%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 27 (2.28%) Linux
2 21 (1.77%) Unix
3 6 (0.51%) VMS
4 3 (0.25%) Windows
5 2 (0.17%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.17%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.084%) CentOS
6 1 (0.084%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 607 (51.18%) Analytics
2 539 (45.45%) Data Pipeline
3 466 (39.29%) Data Modelling
4 460 (38.79%) ETL
5 397 (33.47%) CI/CD
6 334 (28.16%) AI
7 309 (26.05%) Business Intelligence
8 298 (25.13%) Agile
9 291 (24.54%) DevOps
10 266 (22.43%) Data Governance
11 229 (19.31%) Machine Learning
12 208 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
13 203 (17.12%) Data Science
14 173 (14.59%) Data Architecture
15 159 (13.41%) Decision-Making
16 148 (12.48%) Validation
17 142 (11.97%) Migration
18 130 (10.96%) Infrastructure as Code
19 121 (10.20%) Data Transformation
20 115 (9.70%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 653 (55.06%) SQL
2 633 (53.37%) Python
3 97 (8.18%) Java
4 60 (5.06%) Scala
5 40 (3.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 36 (3.04%) C#
7 26 (2.19%) Bash
8 23 (1.94%) JavaScript
8 23 (1.94%) R
9 22 (1.85%) T-SQL
10 21 (1.77%) PowerShell
11 16 (1.35%) Bicep
12 12 (1.01%) PL/SQL
13 11 (0.93%) Shell Script
13 11 (0.93%) TypeScript
14 9 (0.76%) Go
15 7 (0.59%) SAS Macro
16 4 (0.34%) Korn
17 2 (0.17%) C++
18 1 (0.084%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 233 (19.65%) Security Cleared
2 203 (17.12%) SC Cleared
3 77 (6.49%) Degree
4 36 (3.04%) Azure Certification
5 34 (2.87%) Computer Science Degree
6 27 (2.28%) Master's Degree
7 15 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
8 14 (1.18%) DV Cleared
9 11 (0.93%) AWS Certification
10 8 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (0.59%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.42%) PhD
13 4 (0.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (0.34%) SnowPro
14 2 (0.17%) Tableau Certification
15 1 (0.084%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 1 (0.084%) CCSP
15 1 (0.084%) OCP
15 1 (0.084%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 333 (28.08%) Data Quality
2 84 (7.08%) GDPR
3 54 (4.55%) QA
4 13 (1.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (0.51%) Accessibility
6 5 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.42%) MiFID
6 5 (0.42%) SLA
7 4 (0.34%) HIPAA
7 4 (0.34%) Solvency II
8 3 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (0.25%) GRC
8 3 (0.25%) PMO
9 2 (0.17%) EMIR
9 2 (0.17%) HL7
9 2 (0.17%) NIST
9 2 (0.17%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.084%) FATCA
10 1 (0.084%) SNOMED CT
10 1 (0.084%) WCAG
System Software
1 114 (9.61%) Docker
2 5 (0.42%) HDFS
3 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.084%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.084%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 155 (13.07%) Terraform
2 113 (9.53%) Kubernetes
3 23 (1.94%) Prometheus
4 10 (0.84%) Grafana
5 8 (0.67%) Ansible
6 5 (0.42%) Argo
7 4 (0.34%) Kubeflow
8 3 (0.25%) Kibana
8 3 (0.25%) Nagios
8 3 (0.25%) Rancher
9 2 (0.17%) Hadoop YARN
9 2 (0.17%) logstash
9 2 (0.17%) Thomson Reuters DACS
10 1 (0.084%) Apache Ranger
10 1 (0.084%) Control-M
10 1 (0.084%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.084%) IBM Guardium
10 1 (0.084%) Oozie
Vendors
1 309 (26.05%) Databricks
2 193 (16.27%) Microsoft
3 59 (4.97%) Google
4 58 (4.89%) Informatica
5 41 (3.46%) Oracle
6 29 (2.45%) Talend
7 22 (1.85%) Foundry
7 22 (1.85%) OpenAI
7 22 (1.85%) SAP
8 19 (1.60%) Splunk
9 16 (1.35%) Palantir
10 15 (1.26%) Cloudera
11 12 (1.01%) ServiceNow
12 11 (0.93%) Salesforce
13 9 (0.76%) UiPath
14 8 (0.67%) Automation Anywhere
15 7 (0.59%) InterSystems
16 6 (0.51%) Denodo
17 5 (0.42%) Workday
18 4 (0.34%) Bloomberg