Data Engineer Contract Job Trends in London

Data Engineer
England > London

The median Data Engineer daily rate in London is £521, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 67 76
Rank change year-on-year +12 +9 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 722 461 531
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.39% 3.61% 2.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.75% 3.85% 3.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 514 339 432
10th Percentile £371 £400 £360
25th Percentile £450 £456 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.27% +4.76% -8.06%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £638
90th Percentile £726 £800 £704
England median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 7 9
10th Percentile £22.73 £55.50 £48.75
25th Percentile £27.82 £65.00 £49.25
Median hourly rate £36.92 £75.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -50.77% +42.86% -17.97%
75th Percentile £46.65 £93.75 £64.53
90th Percentile £52.11 £95.25 £68.90
England median hourly rate £69.00 £70.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -1.43% +7.69% +1.56%

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 15,211 11,974 16,956
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 93.69% 93.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,192 8,088 12,251
10th Percentile £350 £338 £325
25th Percentile £425 £431 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 242 143 337
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.04 £15.98
25th Percentile £22.00 £24.66 £19.57
Median hourly rate £34.75 £35.00 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.72% +22.81% -18.57%
75th Percentile £60.12 £53.75 £47.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.22 £64.72
England median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -23.53%

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 19 March 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 19 March 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 19 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
Central London +21 99 £525 +5.00% 41
West London +11 31 £603 -10.74% 7
South London -10 9 £500 +2.56%
Data Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 19 March 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.

1 436 (60.39%) SQL
2 421 (58.31%) Python
3 340 (47.09%) Azure
4 327 (45.29%) Data Pipeline
5 308 (42.66%) Data Engineering
6 300 (41.55%) ETL
7 275 (38.09%) Analytics
8 266 (36.84%) Data Modelling
9 254 (35.18%) Databricks
10 231 (31.99%) AWS
11 222 (30.75%) Data Quality
12 211 (29.22%) CI/CD
13 177 (24.52%) Security Cleared
14 164 (22.71%) Business Intelligence
14 164 (22.71%) SC Cleared
15 161 (22.30%) DevOps
16 160 (22.16%) Data Warehouse
17 148 (20.50%) Power Platform
18 139 (19.25%) Data Governance
19 138 (19.11%) Power BI
20 135 (18.70%) Azure Data Factory
21 134 (18.56%) Agile
22 133 (18.42%) PySpark
23 119 (16.48%) Data Science
24 116 (16.07%) Terraform
25 113 (15.65%) AI
26 111 (15.37%) Data Lake
27 108 (14.96%) Microsoft
28 101 (13.99%) Snowflake
29 99 (13.71%) Data Architecture

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 97 (13.43%) Apache Spark
2 84 (11.63%) Apache Airflow
3 54 (7.48%) Apache
4 10 (1.39%) Palantir Foundry
5 8 (1.11%) Confluence
6 5 (0.69%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.42%) SAS
8 2 (0.28%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.28%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.14%) Appian
9 1 (0.14%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.14%) Camunda
9 1 (0.14%) Luigi
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 9 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.42%) Aladdin
2 2 (0.28%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.14%) Actimize
3 1 (0.14%) BambooHR
3 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.14%) iTrent
3 1 (0.14%) Maximo
3 1 (0.14%) SAP Business ByDesign
3 1 (0.14%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 340 (47.09%) Azure
2 231 (31.99%) AWS
3 148 (20.50%) Power Platform
4 135 (18.70%) Azure Data Factory
5 101 (13.99%) Snowflake
6 93 (12.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 90 (12.47%) Amazon S3
7 90 (12.47%) GCP
8 81 (11.22%) GitHub
9 79 (10.94%) Azure DevOps
10 74 (10.25%) dbt
11 68 (9.42%) Serverless
12 52 (7.20%) AWS Lambda
13 40 (5.54%) GitHub Actions
14 30 (4.16%) AWS CloudFormation
15 21 (2.91%) Amazon Kinesis
16 20 (2.77%) AWS Step Functions
17 18 (2.49%) Amazon SQS
18 17 (2.35%) Collibra
19 13 (1.80%) Matillion
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.55%) Firewall
2 3 (0.42%) SAN
3 2 (0.28%) Structured Cabling
4 1 (0.14%) 4G
4 1 (0.14%) 5G
4 1 (0.14%) Network Security
4 1 (0.14%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (22.16%) Data Warehouse
2 138 (19.11%) Power BI
3 111 (15.37%) Data Lake
4 78 (10.80%) SQL Server
5 60 (8.31%) Azure SQL Database
6 57 (7.89%) Metadata
7 54 (7.48%) BigQuery
7 54 (7.48%) Delta Lake
8 43 (5.96%) Amazon Redshift
9 40 (5.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 36 (4.99%) NoSQL
10 36 (4.99%) Tableau
11 34 (4.71%) Amazon Athena
11 34 (4.71%) Big Data
11 34 (4.71%) Snowflake Schema
12 32 (4.43%) PostgreSQL
13 26 (3.60%) Relational Database
14 21 (2.91%) Star Schema
15 20 (2.77%) Mixpanel
16 18 (2.49%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 86 (11.91%) Git
2 21 (2.91%) JIRA
3 20 (2.77%) GitLab
4 19 (2.63%) Jenkins
5 17 (2.35%) MLflow
6 2 (0.28%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.14%) DBeaver
7 1 (0.14%) Gradle
7 1 (0.14%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.14%) Poetry
7 1 (0.14%) Selenium
7 1 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.14%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 154 (21.33%) Finance
2 112 (15.51%) Social Skills
3 79 (10.94%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (7.06%) Public Sector
5 38 (5.26%) Banking
6 29 (4.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (2.35%) Front Office
8 13 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
9 9 (1.25%) Publishing
9 9 (1.25%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.11%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.11%) Marketing
10 8 (1.11%) Retail
11 4 (0.55%) Back Office
11 4 (0.55%) Corporate Banking
11 4 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.42%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.42%) Law
12 3 (0.42%) Military
12 3 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 133 (18.42%) PySpark
2 80 (11.08%) Kafka
3 34 (4.71%) Pandas
4 21 (2.91%) YAML
5 19 (2.63%) Great Expectations
6 14 (1.94%) scikit-learn
7 13 (1.80%) Matplotlib
7 13 (1.80%) REST
8 11 (1.52%) PyTorch
9 10 (1.39%) NumPy
10 9 (1.25%) GeoJSON
10 9 (1.25%) JSON
10 9 (1.25%) Polars
11 8 (1.11%) pytest
11 8 (1.11%) XML
12 7 (0.97%) TensorFlow
13 6 (0.83%) Spark Streaming
14 5 (0.69%) Apache NiFi
14 5 (0.69%) RabbitMQ
14 5 (0.69%) React
Miscellaneous
1 72 (9.97%) Cloud Native
2 24 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
3 18 (2.49%) Data Structures
4 15 (2.08%) Product Ownership
5 13 (1.80%) Onboarding
6 12 (1.66%) Greenfield Project
7 10 (1.39%) Reinsurance
8 8 (1.11%) Distributed Systems
8 8 (1.11%) Life Science
8 8 (1.11%) Replication
8 8 (1.11%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (0.97%) Public Cloud
10 6 (0.83%) Distributed Computing
11 5 (0.69%) Clustering
11 5 (0.69%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (0.69%) Derivative
11 5 (0.69%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.55%) Equities
12 4 (0.55%) Fixed Income
12 4 (0.55%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 16 (2.22%) Linux
2 5 (0.69%) Unix
3 2 (0.28%) Windows
3 2 (0.28%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 327 (45.29%) Data Pipeline
2 308 (42.66%) Data Engineering
3 300 (41.55%) ETL
4 275 (38.09%) Analytics
5 266 (36.84%) Data Modelling
6 211 (29.22%) CI/CD
7 164 (22.71%) Business Intelligence
8 161 (22.30%) DevOps
9 139 (19.25%) Data Governance
10 134 (18.56%) Agile
11 119 (16.48%) Data Science
12 113 (15.65%) AI
13 99 (13.71%) Data Architecture
14 98 (13.57%) Infrastructure as Code
15 91 (12.60%) Machine Learning
16 86 (11.91%) Problem-Solving
17 85 (11.77%) Migration
18 77 (10.66%) Data Transformation
19 72 (9.97%) Data Integration
20 70 (9.70%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 436 (60.39%) SQL
2 421 (58.31%) Python
3 72 (9.97%) Scala
4 44 (6.09%) Java
5 26 (3.60%) C#
6 21 (2.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 14 (1.94%) T-SQL
8 12 (1.66%) Bicep
9 10 (1.39%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.25%) Bash
10 9 (1.25%) PL/SQL
10 9 (1.25%) R
11 8 (1.11%) JavaScript
11 8 (1.11%) PowerShell
12 3 (0.42%) Korn
13 2 (0.28%) C
13 2 (0.28%) C++
13 2 (0.28%) Ruby
13 2 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.28%) VB
Qualifications
1 177 (24.52%) Security Cleared
2 164 (22.71%) SC Cleared
3 23 (3.19%) Degree
4 20 (2.77%) Azure Certification
5 13 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (1.66%) AWS Certification
7 11 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (1.11%) DV Cleared
9 5 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.55%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.42%) CTC Cleared
11 3 (0.42%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.42%) SnowPro
12 1 (0.14%) BICSI Certification
12 1 (0.14%) City & Guilds
12 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (30.75%) Data Quality
2 36 (4.99%) GDPR
3 23 (3.19%) QA
4 7 (0.97%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.42%) MiFID
6 2 (0.28%) Dodd-Frank
6 2 (0.28%) EMIR
6 2 (0.28%) GMP
6 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.14%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.14%) GRC
7 1 (0.14%) GxP
7 1 (0.14%) NIST
7 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.14%) PMO
7 1 (0.14%) SLA
7 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
System Software
1 34 (4.71%) Docker
2 6 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.14%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.14%) zsh
Systems Management
1 116 (16.07%) Terraform
2 33 (4.57%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.55%) Kubeflow
4 3 (0.42%) Grafana
5 2 (0.28%) EMC NetWorker
5 2 (0.28%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.28%) Thomson Reuters DACS
5 2 (0.28%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 1 (0.14%) Ansible
Vendors
1 254 (35.18%) Databricks
2 108 (14.96%) Microsoft
3 46 (6.37%) Google
4 31 (4.29%) Informatica
5 29 (4.02%) Oracle
6 13 (1.80%) Foundry
7 12 (1.66%) SAP
8 11 (1.52%) Palantir
9 10 (1.39%) IBM
9 10 (1.39%) ServiceNow
9 10 (1.39%) Talend
10 7 (0.97%) Cloudera
11 5 (0.69%) Denodo
11 5 (0.69%) MuleSoft
11 5 (0.69%) Virgin Media
12 4 (0.55%) Bloomberg
12 4 (0.55%) OpenAI
13 3 (0.42%) Cisco
13 3 (0.42%) EMC
13 3 (0.42%) Salesforce