Data Engineer Contract Job Trends in London

Data Engineer
England > London

The median Data Engineer daily rate in London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 68 79
Rank change year-on-year +2 +11 +25
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 595 470 522
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.03% 3.46% 2.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.35% 3.69% 3.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 420 342 404
10th Percentile £363 £384 £375
25th Percentile £425 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £638
90th Percentile £738 £800 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 9 12
10th Percentile £28.19 £60.25 £36.74
25th Percentile £32.73 £65.00 £48.63
Median hourly rate £39.50 £92.50 £56.50
Median % change year-on-year -57.30% +63.72% +61.43%
75th Percentile £61.06 £97.50 £64.51
90th Percentile £90.43 - £67.65
England median hourly rate £40.50 £83.75 £60.50
% change year-on-year -51.64% +38.43% -8.68%

All Contract IT Job Roles
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in London with a recognized job title 13,669 12,721 17,328
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 93.64% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,081 8,104 12,532
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £444 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.78%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £775
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 210 139 337
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.95 £15.98
25th Percentile £23.81 £24.66 £19.00
Median hourly rate £32.98 £35.00 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.77% +22.81% -16.18%
75th Percentile £63.10 £53.75 £49.08
90th Percentile £76.58 £79.15 £65.30
England median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -14.29% - -

Data Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Data Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

Data Engineer job vacancy trend in London

Data Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in London

Data Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Engineer in London over the 6 months to 3 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Engineer in London

Data Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in London

Data Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Engineer in London over the 6 months to 3 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Engineer in London

Data Engineer
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Engineer within the London region over the 6 months to 3 February 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
Central London +7 69 £513 -8.89% 49
West London -4 24 £603 +9.55% 9
South London -8 7 £500 +1.27% 4
Data Engineer
England

Data Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 3 February 2026, Data Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the London region featuring Data Engineer in the job title.

1 363 (61.01%) Python
2 358 (60.17%) SQL
3 279 (46.89%) Azure
4 265 (44.54%) Data Pipeline
5 253 (42.52%) ETL
6 248 (41.68%) Data Engineering
7 231 (38.82%) Databricks
8 225 (37.82%) Data Modelling
9 208 (34.96%) AWS
10 207 (34.79%) Analytics
11 182 (30.59%) Data Quality
12 171 (28.74%) CI/CD
13 157 (26.39%) Security Cleared
14 146 (24.54%) Business Intelligence
15 142 (23.87%) SC Cleared
16 128 (21.51%) Data Warehouse
17 126 (21.18%) Power BI
17 126 (21.18%) Power Platform
18 125 (21.01%) DevOps
19 117 (19.66%) PySpark
20 113 (18.99%) Azure Data Factory
21 108 (18.15%) Agile
22 106 (17.82%) Data Governance
23 100 (16.81%) Data Science
24 95 (15.97%) Terraform
25 93 (15.63%) AI
26 90 (15.13%) Snowflake
27 87 (14.62%) Data Lake
28 86 (14.45%) Amazon S3
29 82 (13.78%) Apache Spark

Data Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 82 (13.78%) Apache Spark
2 75 (12.61%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (7.73%) Apache
4 13 (2.18%) Palantir Foundry
5 7 (1.18%) Confluence
6 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.50%) SAS
8 2 (0.34%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.34%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.34%) Luigi
8 2 (0.34%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Pig
9 1 (0.17%) Appian
9 1 (0.17%) Camunda
9 1 (0.17%) IIS
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Application Server
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 8 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.34%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.17%) Actimize
2 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) Maximo
2 1 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
2 1 (0.17%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 279 (46.89%) Azure
2 208 (34.96%) AWS
3 126 (21.18%) Power Platform
4 113 (18.99%) Azure Data Factory
5 90 (15.13%) Snowflake
6 86 (14.45%) Amazon S3
7 76 (12.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 70 (11.76%) GCP
9 69 (11.60%) GitHub
10 63 (10.59%) Serverless
11 62 (10.42%) dbt
12 56 (9.41%) Azure DevOps
13 46 (7.73%) AWS Lambda
14 38 (6.39%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (4.03%) AWS CloudFormation
16 19 (3.19%) Amazon Kinesis
17 17 (2.86%) SaaS
18 16 (2.69%) AWS Step Functions
19 12 (2.02%) Amazon SQS
19 12 (2.02%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.67%) Firewall
2 3 (0.50%) SAN
3 1 (0.17%) Internet
3 1 (0.17%) Network Security
3 1 (0.17%) Software-Defined Networking
3 1 (0.17%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (21.51%) Data Warehouse
2 126 (21.18%) Power BI
3 87 (14.62%) Data Lake
4 78 (13.11%) SQL Server
5 44 (7.39%) Azure SQL Database
6 43 (7.23%) Delta Lake
6 43 (7.23%) Metadata
7 39 (6.55%) BigQuery
8 38 (6.39%) NoSQL
9 36 (6.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 35 (5.88%) Amazon Redshift
11 34 (5.71%) Big Data
12 31 (5.21%) Amazon Athena
12 31 (5.21%) PostgreSQL
13 28 (4.71%) Tableau
14 24 (4.03%) Relational Database
15 23 (3.87%) Star Schema
16 18 (3.03%) Snowflake Schema
17 16 (2.69%) Data Vault
17 16 (2.69%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 78 (13.11%) Git
2 18 (3.03%) Jenkins
3 17 (2.86%) JIRA
4 16 (2.69%) MLflow
5 14 (2.35%) GitLab
6 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.17%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.17%) ERwin
6 1 (0.17%) Gradle
6 1 (0.17%) Jaeger
6 1 (0.17%) Poetry
6 1 (0.17%) Selenium
6 1 (0.17%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.17%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 114 (19.16%) Finance
2 98 (16.47%) Social Skills
3 55 (9.24%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (5.71%) Public Sector
5 30 (5.04%) Banking
6 27 (4.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (2.35%) Front Office
8 11 (1.85%) Investment Banking
9 10 (1.68%) Retail
10 9 (1.51%) Pharmaceutical
11 7 (1.18%) Marketing
11 7 (1.18%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.67%) Back Office
12 4 (0.67%) Corporate Banking
12 4 (0.67%) Military
13 3 (0.50%) Law
13 3 (0.50%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.34%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.34%) International Banking
14 2 (0.34%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (19.66%) PySpark
2 69 (11.60%) Kafka
3 23 (3.87%) Pandas
4 16 (2.69%) YAML
5 11 (1.85%) NumPy
5 11 (1.85%) PyTorch
5 11 (1.85%) REST
6 10 (1.68%) Great Expectations
7 8 (1.34%) Apache NiFi
7 8 (1.34%) XML
8 7 (1.18%) RabbitMQ
8 7 (1.18%) TensorFlow
9 6 (1.01%) JSON
10 5 (0.84%) Middleware
10 5 (0.84%) RESTful
11 4 (0.67%) GraphQL
11 4 (0.67%) Matplotlib
11 4 (0.67%) Node.js
11 4 (0.67%) OAuth
11 4 (0.67%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 53 (8.91%) Cloud Native
2 18 (3.03%) Data Structures
3 14 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (2.02%) Onboarding
5 11 (1.85%) Reinsurance
6 10 (1.68%) Product Ownership
7 8 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
8 6 (1.01%) Public Cloud
8 6 (1.01%) Replication
9 5 (0.84%) Derivative
9 5 (0.84%) Equities
9 5 (0.84%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (0.84%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.67%) AI Agents
10 4 (0.67%) Algorithms
10 4 (0.67%) Credit Risk
10 4 (0.67%) Distributed Computing
10 4 (0.67%) Genomics
10 4 (0.67%) Life Science
10 4 (0.67%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.51%) Linux
2 1 (0.17%) Unix
2 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 265 (44.54%) Data Pipeline
2 253 (42.52%) ETL
3 248 (41.68%) Data Engineering
4 225 (37.82%) Data Modelling
5 207 (34.79%) Analytics
6 171 (28.74%) CI/CD
7 146 (24.54%) Business Intelligence
8 125 (21.01%) DevOps
9 108 (18.15%) Agile
10 106 (17.82%) Data Governance
11 100 (16.81%) Data Science
12 93 (15.63%) AI
13 82 (13.78%) Data Architecture
13 82 (13.78%) Infrastructure as Code
14 76 (12.77%) Problem-Solving
15 75 (12.61%) Machine Learning
16 73 (12.27%) Data Integration
17 57 (9.58%) Data Transformation
18 55 (9.24%) Migration
19 50 (8.40%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 363 (61.01%) Python
2 358 (60.17%) SQL
3 74 (12.44%) Scala
4 39 (6.55%) Java
5 17 (2.86%) C#
6 12 (2.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 11 (1.85%) Bash
7 11 (1.85%) T-SQL
8 10 (1.68%) Bicep
8 10 (1.68%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.51%) PL/SQL
10 8 (1.34%) PowerShell
10 8 (1.34%) R
11 5 (0.84%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.50%) Go
12 3 (0.50%) Korn
12 3 (0.50%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.34%) VB
14 1 (0.17%) C
14 1 (0.17%) C++
Qualifications
1 157 (26.39%) Security Cleared
2 142 (23.87%) SC Cleared
3 18 (3.03%) Azure Certification
4 17 (2.86%) Degree
5 14 (2.35%) DV Cleared
6 11 (1.85%) AWS Certification
7 10 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (0.84%) Master's Degree
8 5 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (0.50%) CTC Cleared
9 3 (0.50%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.34%) SnowPro
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.17%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 182 (30.59%) Data Quality
2 35 (5.88%) GDPR
3 10 (1.68%) QA
4 4 (0.67%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.50%) HIPAA
5 3 (0.50%) MiFID
6 2 (0.34%) Dodd-Frank
6 2 (0.34%) EMIR
6 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.34%) SLA
7 1 (0.17%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.17%) GRC
7 1 (0.17%) NIST
7 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 31 (5.21%) Docker
2 5 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
2 5 (0.84%) zsh
3 1 (0.17%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 95 (15.97%) Terraform
2 33 (5.55%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.67%) Grafana
4 3 (0.50%) Kubeflow
5 2 (0.34%) EMC NetWorker
5 2 (0.34%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.34%) Puppet
5 2 (0.34%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 1 (0.17%) Ambari
6 1 (0.17%) Argo
6 1 (0.17%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 231 (38.82%) Databricks
2 74 (12.44%) Microsoft
3 28 (4.71%) Google
4 26 (4.37%) Oracle
5 18 (3.03%) Informatica
6 15 (2.52%) Foundry
7 14 (2.35%) Palantir
8 11 (1.85%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.34%) Cloudera
9 8 (1.34%) IBM
9 8 (1.34%) SAP
10 6 (1.01%) Talend
11 5 (0.84%) Virgin Media
12 4 (0.67%) Alteryx
12 4 (0.67%) Denodo
12 4 (0.67%) Salesforce
13 3 (0.50%) Cisco
13 3 (0.50%) EMC
13 3 (0.50%) OpenAI
13 3 (0.50%) Splunk