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 2 August 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 98 86
Rank change year-on-year +46 -12 +5
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 856 404 470
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.24% 2.94% 2.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.56% 3.17% 3.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 642 298 359
10th Percentile £390 £404 £374
25th Percentile £450 £454 £471
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £558
Median % change year-on-year - -5.83% -3.04%
75th Percentile £615 £607 £669
90th Percentile £713 £704 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 6 3
10th Percentile £26.80 £46.75 -
25th Percentile £30.00 £51.25 £49.25
Median hourly rate £34.84 £52.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -33.64% +3.96% -30.34%
75th Percentile £46.75 £60.31 £51.75
90th Percentile £61.15 £86.25 -
England median hourly rate £42.50 £52.50 £80.00
% change year-on-year -19.05% -34.38% +3.23%

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 18,770 12,756 15,334
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.05% 92.95% 94.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,276 8,635 10,898
10th Percentile £363 £325 £344
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% -0.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £653 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 203 201
10th Percentile £17.60 £17.98 £17.75
25th Percentile £21.93 £22.83 £22.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £30.00 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +27.50% -9.28% -11.44%
75th Percentile £59.00 £50.50 £55.00
90th Percentile £78.69 £63.75 £71.88
England median hourly rate £45.00 £26.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.08% -42.22% +4.65%

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 2 August 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 2 August 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 2 August 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 +15 111 £555 +5.71% 41
West London -11 14 £603 +9.15% 12
South London -8 6 £500 +9.29% 2
East London +5 4 £450 - 5
Data Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 2 August 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.

1 476 (55.61%) Python
2 475 (55.49%) SQL
3 404 (47.20%) Data Pipeline
4 374 (43.69%) Data Engineering
5 329 (38.43%) Analytics
6 319 (37.27%) Azure
7 310 (36.21%) ETL
8 304 (35.51%) Data Modelling
9 293 (34.23%) AWS
10 242 (28.27%) Data Quality
11 235 (27.45%) CI/CD
12 194 (22.66%) Databricks
13 192 (22.43%) Security Cleared
14 177 (20.68%) SC Cleared
15 176 (20.56%) DevOps
16 162 (18.93%) Data Warehouse
17 158 (18.46%) Agile
18 147 (17.17%) Business Intelligence
19 145 (16.94%) Migration
20 143 (16.71%) dbt
20 143 (16.71%) Power Platform
21 142 (16.59%) PySpark
22 138 (16.12%) AI
22 138 (16.12%) Data Governance
23 135 (15.77%) Apache Airflow
24 133 (15.54%) Power BI
25 126 (14.72%) Azure Data Factory
26 123 (14.37%) Snowflake
27 120 (14.02%) Microsoft
28 116 (13.55%) Data Science

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
1 135 (15.77%) Apache Airflow
2 92 (10.75%) Apache Spark
3 77 (9.00%) Apache
4 15 (1.75%) Confluence
5 11 (1.29%) Palantir Foundry
6 8 (0.93%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.58%) SAS
8 4 (0.47%) Jupyter
9 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.12%) Luigi
10 1 (0.12%) R Markdown
Applications
1 12 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (1.29%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.35%) SAP BPC
2 3 (0.35%) SimCorp Dimension
3 2 (0.23%) BambooHR
3 2 (0.23%) Maximo
4 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.12%) iTrent
4 1 (0.12%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.12%) Raiser’s Edge
4 1 (0.12%) Sage X3
4 1 (0.12%) SAP Business ByDesign
4 1 (0.12%) SAP CAR
4 1 (0.12%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 319 (37.27%) Azure
2 293 (34.23%) AWS
3 143 (16.71%) dbt
3 143 (16.71%) Power Platform
4 126 (14.72%) Azure Data Factory
5 123 (14.37%) Snowflake
6 112 (13.08%) GCP
7 103 (12.03%) Amazon S3
8 100 (11.68%) Azure DevOps
9 93 (10.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 75 (8.76%) GitHub
11 60 (7.01%) Serverless
12 56 (6.54%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (3.62%) GitHub Actions
14 25 (2.92%) Amazon EMR
15 23 (2.69%) Dagster
16 18 (2.10%) Amazon Kinesis
17 17 (1.99%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 15 (1.75%) Fivetran
19 14 (1.64%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.12%) 4G
1 1 (0.12%) 5G
1 1 (0.12%) Firewall
1 1 (0.12%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 162 (18.93%) Data Warehouse
2 133 (15.54%) Power BI
3 104 (12.15%) Data Lake
4 79 (9.23%) BigQuery
5 57 (6.66%) Delta Lake
6 55 (6.43%) Metadata
7 52 (6.07%) Amazon Redshift
8 50 (5.84%) SQL Server
9 47 (5.49%) Tableau
10 45 (5.26%) PostgreSQL
11 43 (5.02%) Snowflake Schema
12 40 (4.67%) Amazon Athena
12 40 (4.67%) Big Data
13 35 (4.09%) NoSQL
14 30 (3.50%) Azure SQL Database
15 28 (3.27%) Relational Database
16 24 (2.80%) Star Schema
17 23 (2.69%) MongoDB
17 23 (2.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 22 (2.57%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 75 (8.76%) Git
2 25 (2.92%) JIRA
3 22 (2.57%) GitLab
4 9 (1.05%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.58%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.47%) MLflow
7 3 (0.35%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.12%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.12%) ER Studio
9 1 (0.12%) ERwin
9 1 (0.12%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.12%) Selenium
9 1 (0.12%) Terragrunt
General
1 236 (27.57%) Finance
2 134 (15.65%) Social Skills
3 110 (12.85%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (7.71%) Banking
5 61 (7.13%) Public Sector
6 21 (2.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (1.75%) Front Office
7 15 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
8 12 (1.40%) Marketing
9 10 (1.17%) Publishing
9 10 (1.17%) Retail
10 9 (1.05%) Telecoms
11 7 (0.82%) Financial Institution
11 7 (0.82%) Manufacturing
12 6 (0.70%) Back Office
12 6 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.47%) Billing
13 4 (0.47%) Games
13 4 (0.47%) Legal
14 3 (0.35%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 142 (16.59%) PySpark
2 75 (8.76%) Kafka
3 24 (2.80%) Pandas
4 19 (2.22%) Spring
4 19 (2.22%) Spring Boot
5 18 (2.10%) REST
6 16 (1.87%) Great Expectations
7 13 (1.52%) Apache Beam
8 12 (1.40%) YAML
9 11 (1.29%) scikit-learn
10 10 (1.17%) Microsoft Graph
11 9 (1.05%) GeoJSON
11 9 (1.05%) JSON
11 9 (1.05%) Matplotlib
11 9 (1.05%) Polars
11 9 (1.05%) React
12 8 (0.93%) XML
13 7 (0.82%) PyTorch
14 6 (0.70%) HTML
14 6 (0.70%) Spark Streaming
Miscellaneous
1 93 (10.86%) Cloud Native
2 45 (5.26%) Legacy Systems
3 30 (3.50%) Data Structures
4 24 (2.80%) Onboarding
5 19 (2.22%) Distributed Systems
5 19 (2.22%) Reinsurance
6 15 (1.75%) Greenfield Project
7 14 (1.64%) NHS
8 13 (1.52%) Product Ownership
9 9 (1.05%) Algorithms
9 9 (1.05%) Reference Data
10 8 (0.93%) Clustering
10 8 (0.93%) Life Science
10 8 (0.93%) Virtual Team
11 7 (0.82%) AI Agents
12 6 (0.70%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (0.70%) Derivative
12 6 (0.70%) Replication
12 6 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 27 (3.15%) Linux
2 17 (1.99%) Unix
3 3 (0.35%) Windows
4 2 (0.23%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 404 (47.20%) Data Pipeline
2 374 (43.69%) Data Engineering
3 329 (38.43%) Analytics
4 310 (36.21%) ETL
5 304 (35.51%) Data Modelling
6 235 (27.45%) CI/CD
7 176 (20.56%) DevOps
8 158 (18.46%) Agile
9 147 (17.17%) Business Intelligence
10 145 (16.94%) Migration
11 138 (16.12%) AI
11 138 (16.12%) Data Governance
12 116 (13.55%) Data Science
13 107 (12.50%) Data Transformation
14 105 (12.27%) Validation
15 97 (11.33%) Decision-Making
16 95 (11.10%) Infrastructure as Code
17 93 (10.86%) Machine Learning
18 89 (10.40%) Data Architecture
19 82 (9.58%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 476 (55.61%) Python
2 475 (55.49%) SQL
3 80 (9.35%) Java
4 51 (5.96%) Scala
5 21 (2.45%) C#
6 20 (2.34%) T-SQL
7 18 (2.10%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 17 (1.99%) Shell Script
9 14 (1.64%) PowerShell
10 13 (1.52%) PL/SQL
11 12 (1.40%) R
12 11 (1.29%) JavaScript
13 8 (0.93%) Bicep
14 7 (0.82%) Bash
15 6 (0.70%) TypeScript
16 5 (0.58%) Go
17 3 (0.35%) Korn
18 2 (0.23%) C
18 2 (0.23%) Ruby
18 2 (0.23%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 192 (22.43%) Security Cleared
2 177 (20.68%) SC Cleared
3 24 (2.80%) Degree
4 22 (2.57%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (2.45%) Azure Certification
6 12 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.05%) AWS Certification
8 8 (0.93%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 5 (0.58%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.47%) SnowPro
12 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.23%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.12%) BICSI Certification
14 1 (0.12%) CISA
14 1 (0.12%) CISM
14 1 (0.12%) CISSP
14 1 (0.12%) City & Guilds
14 1 (0.12%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.12%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 242 (28.27%) Data Quality
2 34 (3.97%) QA
3 29 (3.39%) GDPR
4 13 (1.52%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.35%) MiFID
7 2 (0.23%) EMIR
7 2 (0.23%) GMP
7 2 (0.23%) PMO
7 2 (0.23%) SLA
8 1 (0.12%) GxP
8 1 (0.12%) IFRS
8 1 (0.12%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.12%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.12%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.12%) SNOMED CT
8 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 61 (7.13%) Docker
2 3 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.23%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.12%) RACF
Systems Management
1 115 (13.43%) Terraform
2 43 (5.02%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.17%) Grafana
4 4 (0.47%) Control-M
4 4 (0.47%) Kibana
5 2 (0.23%) Ansible
5 2 (0.23%) Thomson Reuters DACS
6 1 (0.12%) Kubeflow
6 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 194 (22.66%) Databricks
2 120 (14.02%) Microsoft
3 53 (6.19%) Google
4 46 (5.37%) Informatica
5 34 (3.97%) Oracle
6 18 (2.10%) Palantir
7 15 (1.75%) Foundry
8 12 (1.40%) SAP
9 10 (1.17%) Denodo
9 10 (1.17%) Salesforce
10 9 (1.05%) Bloomberg
10 9 (1.05%) Splunk
10 9 (1.05%) Talend
11 8 (0.93%) IBM
12 7 (0.82%) Amplitude
12 7 (0.82%) MuleSoft
13 5 (0.58%) Alteryx
13 5 (0.58%) New Relic
14 4 (0.47%) Cloudera
14 4 (0.47%) Hortonworks