Data Scientist Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Data Scientist
North West > Manchester

The median Data Scientist daily rate in Manchester is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 February 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 75 -
Rank change year-on-year -12 - -
Contract jobs requiring a Data Scientist 13 7 0
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 0.96% 0.69% -
As % of the Job Titles category 1.04% 0.73% -
Number of daily rates quoted 12 6 0
10th Percentile £426 £419 -
25th Percentile £445 £426 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £453 -
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% - -
75th Percentile £488 £463 -
90th Percentile £581 £556 -
North West median daily rate £450 £455 £515
% change year-on-year -1.10% -11.65% +11.35%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Manchester

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Manchester. 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 Manchester with a recognized job title 1,248 954 1,482
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.04% 93.53% 94.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 820 618 1,060
10th Percentile £313 £304 £306
25th Percentile £389 £390 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £480
Median % change year-on-year - -6.25% -4.00%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £638 £675 £663
North West median daily rate £450 £473 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% -5.50% +2.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 32 84
10th Percentile £18.48 £15.92 £12.07
25th Percentile £22.50 £20.75 £13.45
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% +44.44% -43.75%
75th Percentile £61.81 £34.56 £62.81
90th Percentile £77.50 £60.00 £73.75
North West median hourly rate £42.69 £30.10 £26.39
% change year-on-year +41.81% +14.06% -9.93%

Data Scientist
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

Data Scientist job vacancy trend in Manchester

Data Scientist
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Manchester.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Manchester

Data Scientist
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Scientist in Manchester over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Scientist in Manchester

Data Scientist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester

For the 6 months to 18 February 2026, Data Scientist 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 Manchester region featuring Data Scientist in the job title.

1 13 (100.00%) Data Science
2 10 (76.92%) Python
3 9 (69.23%) Machine Learning
4 7 (53.85%) AWS
4 7 (53.85%) Azure
4 7 (53.85%) GCP
5 6 (46.15%) Customer Requirements
5 6 (46.15%) Data Engineering
5 6 (46.15%) ETL
5 6 (46.15%) Linear Regression
5 6 (46.15%) XGBoost
6 5 (38.46%) AI
7 3 (23.08%) Actionable Insight
7 3 (23.08%) Analytics
7 3 (23.08%) LLM
7 3 (23.08%) SQL
8 2 (15.38%) A/B Testing
8 2 (15.38%) Cognitive Science
8 2 (15.38%) Computer Science
8 2 (15.38%) Data Analysis
8 2 (15.38%) Data Quality
8 2 (15.38%) Degree
8 2 (15.38%) Generative AI
8 2 (15.38%) MLOps
8 2 (15.38%) Open Source
8 2 (15.38%) Prompt Engineering
8 2 (15.38%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
8 2 (15.38%) Statistics
9 1 (7.69%) Analytical Thinking
9 1 (7.69%) Artificial Intelligence Engineering

Data Scientist Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 1 (7.69%) Jupyter
Cloud Services
1 7 (53.85%) AWS
1 7 (53.85%) Azure
1 7 (53.85%) GCP
2 1 (7.69%) Cloud Computing
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (7.69%) Hadoop
1 1 (7.69%) Relational Database
1 1 (7.69%) Tableau
General
1 3 (23.08%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (15.38%) Social Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Finance
3 1 (7.69%) Marketing
3 1 (7.69%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (46.15%) XGBoost
2 1 (7.69%) Hugging Face
2 1 (7.69%) LangChain
2 1 (7.69%) Pandas
2 1 (7.69%) PyTorch
2 1 (7.69%) TensorFlow
2 1 (7.69%) unsloth
Miscellaneous
1 1 (7.69%) Data Protection Act
1 1 (7.69%) Distributed Computing
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (100.00%) Data Science
2 9 (69.23%) Machine Learning
3 6 (46.15%) Customer Requirements
3 6 (46.15%) Data Engineering
3 6 (46.15%) ETL
3 6 (46.15%) Linear Regression
4 5 (38.46%) AI
5 3 (23.08%) Actionable Insight
5 3 (23.08%) Analytics
5 3 (23.08%) LLM
6 2 (15.38%) A/B Testing
6 2 (15.38%) Cognitive Science
6 2 (15.38%) Computer Science
6 2 (15.38%) Data Analysis
6 2 (15.38%) Generative AI
6 2 (15.38%) MLOps
6 2 (15.38%) Open Source
6 2 (15.38%) Prompt Engineering
6 2 (15.38%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
6 2 (15.38%) Statistics
Programming Languages
1 10 (76.92%) Python
2 3 (23.08%) SQL
3 1 (7.69%) R
Qualifications
1 2 (15.38%) Degree
2 1 (7.69%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (7.69%) SC Cleared
2 1 (7.69%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (15.38%) Data Quality
Vendors
1 1 (7.69%) Microsoft