Data Engineer Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Data Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £470, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 May 2026.

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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 107 137
Rank change year-on-year +31 +30 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 693 291 315
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.83% 2.26% 1.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.08% 2.46% 1.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 476 219 231
10th Percentile £375 £245 £163
25th Percentile £413 £381 £183
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £460 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.17% +2.22% -13.46%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £538
90th Percentile £588 £625 £588
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 2 34
10th Percentile £19.34 £24.27 £37.50
25th Percentile £41.28 £33.34 £58.75
Median hourly rate £50.00 £48.46 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.18% -35.39% -0.66%
75th Percentile £71.50 £63.58 £80.00
90th Percentile £77.40 £72.65 -
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -19.23% - -13.91%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 22,521 11,840 18,771
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.98% 91.90% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,061 7,560 11,462
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £685 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £512 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -3.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,530 849 2,267
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.72 £17.30 £15.73
Median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -5.88%
75th Percentile £66.25 £63.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.85
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%

Data Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London.

Data Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

Data Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Engineer in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

Data Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Engineer in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding 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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 19 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
Midlands +37 292 £469 +1.96% 46
West Midlands +37 273 £468 -1.53% 31
North of England -14 190 £465 +0.54% 86
North West +4 124 £480 +2.40% 35
South East -9 92 £500 +8.11% 98
South West +6 68 £500 - 37
Scotland +10 56 £450 - 7
Yorkshire -26 51 £465 +3.33% 24
Wales +4 20 £475 +130.23% 26
East Midlands -23 19 £475 +15.85% 15
East of England -27 16 £565 +79.37% 5
North East -23 15 £463 +8.82% 29
Northern Ireland +1 3 £410 -18.00% 2
Data Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 May 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 UK excluding London region featuring Data Engineer in the job title.

1 353 (50.94%) SQL
2 270 (38.96%) Data Pipeline
3 269 (38.82%) Analytics
4 262 (37.81%) ETL
5 243 (35.06%) Data Engineering
6 237 (34.20%) Security Cleared
7 229 (33.04%) Data Modelling
8 221 (31.89%) Python
9 201 (29.00%) SC Cleared
10 171 (24.68%) Azure
11 164 (23.67%) Business Intelligence
12 152 (21.93%) Data Quality
13 135 (19.48%) CI/CD
14 130 (18.76%) Agile
14 130 (18.76%) AWS
15 121 (17.46%) Data Integration
16 116 (16.74%) Databricks
17 114 (16.45%) Problem-Solving
18 108 (15.58%) Power Platform
19 104 (15.01%) Power BI
20 97 (14.00%) Oracle
21 94 (13.56%) Talend
22 93 (13.42%) DevOps
23 90 (12.99%) Data Warehouse
24 88 (12.70%) Git
25 86 (12.41%) Migration
26 83 (11.98%) PySpark
27 75 (10.82%) Pentaho
28 74 (10.68%) Azure Data Factory
29 72 (10.39%) Microsoft

Data Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding 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 62 (8.95%) SAS
2 47 (6.78%) Apache Spark
3 36 (5.19%) Apache Airflow
4 30 (4.33%) Apache
5 18 (2.60%) Confluence
6 3 (0.43%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.14%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.72%) Notepad++
3 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
2 1 (0.14%) Infor LN
2 1 (0.14%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.14%) Oracle 11i
2 1 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
2 1 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 171 (24.68%) Azure
2 130 (18.76%) AWS
3 108 (15.58%) Power Platform
4 74 (10.68%) Azure Data Factory
5 63 (9.09%) Snowflake
6 44 (6.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 38 (5.48%) dbt
7 38 (5.48%) GCP
8 28 (4.04%) Amazon S3
9 26 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
10 23 (3.32%) GitHub
11 21 (3.03%) Serverless
12 19 (2.74%) OpenShift
13 16 (2.31%) Matillion
14 15 (2.16%) AWS Lambda
15 9 (1.30%) Amazon EMR
15 9 (1.30%) AWS CloudFormation
15 9 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (1.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 8 (1.15%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 33 (4.76%) DNS
1 33 (4.76%) VPN
2 32 (4.62%) BGP
2 32 (4.62%) DMZ
2 32 (4.62%) Multicast
3 8 (1.15%) Structured Cabling
4 5 (0.72%) PuTTY
4 5 (0.72%) WinSCP
5 3 (0.43%) Firewall
6 2 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (15.01%) Power BI
2 90 (12.99%) Data Warehouse
3 75 (10.82%) Pentaho
4 43 (6.20%) Data Lake
5 35 (5.05%) Big Data
6 34 (4.91%) Amazon Redshift
7 31 (4.47%) SQL Server
8 26 (3.75%) Hadoop
8 26 (3.75%) Metadata
9 24 (3.46%) Delta Lake
9 24 (3.46%) MySQL
10 23 (3.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 22 (3.17%) Relational Database
12 20 (2.89%) PostgreSQL
13 19 (2.74%) NoSQL
14 18 (2.60%) Tableau
15 17 (2.45%) Azure SQL Database
15 17 (2.45%) Snowflake Schema
16 15 (2.16%) BusinessObjects
17 14 (2.02%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 88 (12.70%) Git
2 46 (6.64%) GitLab
3 44 (6.35%) JIRA
4 33 (4.76%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.58%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.29%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.29%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.14%) ER Studio
7 1 (0.14%) ERwin
7 1 (0.14%) JUnit
7 1 (0.14%) Postman
General
1 109 (15.73%) Social Skills
2 74 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (9.52%) Public Sector
4 63 (9.09%) Finance
5 40 (5.77%) Banking
6 22 (3.17%) Investment Banking
7 14 (2.02%) Aerospace
8 13 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.73%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.15%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.01%) Marketing
11 7 (1.01%) Retail
12 4 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.58%) Local Government
13 3 (0.43%) Front Office
13 3 (0.43%) Law
13 3 (0.43%) Legal
14 2 (0.29%) Advertising
14 2 (0.29%) Aviation
14 2 (0.29%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (11.98%) PySpark
2 66 (9.52%) Kafka
3 18 (2.60%) JSON
4 13 (1.88%) REST
5 10 (1.44%) Pandas
6 8 (1.15%) Apache Avro
6 8 (1.15%) Apache Beam
6 8 (1.15%) Node.js
6 8 (1.15%) Protocol Buffers
7 7 (1.01%) XML
8 6 (0.87%) Apache NiFi
8 6 (0.87%) OpenTelemetry
9 5 (0.72%) YAML
10 4 (0.58%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.58%) AWS CDK
10 4 (0.58%) Keycloak
10 4 (0.58%) pytest
10 4 (0.58%) React
10 4 (0.58%) Streamlit
11 3 (0.43%) Great Expectations
Miscellaneous
1 29 (4.18%) Cloud Native
2 19 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
3 18 (2.60%) Data Structures
4 15 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (1.59%) Clustering
7 10 (1.44%) Product Ownership
8 7 (1.01%) Driving Licence
8 7 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
8 7 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (0.87%) Data Centre
9 6 (0.87%) Linux Command Line
9 6 (0.87%) NHS
9 6 (0.87%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.58%) Data Fabric
10 4 (0.58%) Distributed Computing
10 4 (0.58%) Fibre Optics
10 4 (0.58%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.58%) Replication
10 4 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 35 (5.05%) Unix
2 9 (1.30%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (38.96%) Data Pipeline
2 269 (38.82%) Analytics
3 262 (37.81%) ETL
4 243 (35.06%) Data Engineering
5 229 (33.04%) Data Modelling
6 164 (23.67%) Business Intelligence
7 135 (19.48%) CI/CD
8 130 (18.76%) Agile
9 121 (17.46%) Data Integration
10 114 (16.45%) Problem-Solving
11 93 (13.42%) DevOps
12 86 (12.41%) Migration
13 67 (9.67%) Scrum
14 66 (9.52%) Data Governance
15 63 (9.09%) Validation
16 58 (8.37%) AI
16 58 (8.37%) Test Automation
17 55 (7.94%) Decision-Making
18 51 (7.36%) Continuous Improvement
19 48 (6.93%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 353 (50.94%) SQL
2 221 (31.89%) Python
3 33 (4.76%) Java
4 28 (4.04%) PL/SQL
5 16 (2.31%) Shell Script
6 15 (2.16%) Bash
7 10 (1.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (1.30%) PowerShell
9 8 (1.15%) T-SQL
10 6 (0.87%) C#
10 6 (0.87%) Go
10 6 (0.87%) Scala
11 5 (0.72%) Bicep
12 2 (0.29%) HiveQL
12 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
13 1 (0.14%) C++
13 1 (0.14%) Groovy
13 1 (0.14%) Perl
13 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 237 (34.20%) Security Cleared
2 201 (29.00%) SC Cleared
3 18 (2.60%) Degree
4 13 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (1.30%) DV Cleared
6 6 (0.87%) Azure Certification
6 6 (0.87%) City & Guilds
7 5 (0.72%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.58%) BICSI Certification
8 4 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.43%) IBM Certification
9 3 (0.43%) SnowPro
10 1 (0.14%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.14%) CCIE
10 1 (0.14%) CCNP
10 1 (0.14%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.14%) CISM
10 1 (0.14%) CISSP
10 1 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.14%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (21.93%) Data Quality
2 14 (2.02%) GDPR
3 13 (1.88%) QA
4 8 (1.15%) FATCA
5 7 (1.01%) SLA
6 4 (0.58%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.14%) Basel III
9 1 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.14%) GMP
9 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.14%) NIST
9 1 (0.14%) SNOMED CT
9 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 42 (6.06%) Docker
2 2 (0.29%) HDFS
2 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 45 (6.49%) Kubernetes
2 39 (5.63%) Grafana
3 34 (4.91%) Terraform
4 11 (1.59%) Prometheus
5 9 (1.30%) Ansible
6 3 (0.43%) Rancher
7 2 (0.29%) Apache Ranger
7 2 (0.29%) Kibana
7 2 (0.29%) logstash
8 1 (0.14%) Control-M
Vendors
1 116 (16.74%) Databricks
2 97 (14.00%) Oracle
3 94 (13.56%) Talend
4 72 (10.39%) Microsoft
5 67 (9.67%) Informatica
6 50 (7.22%) Denodo
7 34 (4.91%) Cisco
7 34 (4.91%) F5
8 16 (2.31%) Splunk
9 14 (2.02%) SAP
10 13 (1.88%) ServiceNow
11 11 (1.59%) Cloudera
11 11 (1.59%) Google
12 7 (1.01%) Alteryx
13 6 (0.87%) Dynatrace
13 6 (0.87%) InterSystems
14 5 (0.72%) Sage
15 4 (0.58%) Dataiku
15 4 (0.58%) IBM
16 2 (0.29%) OpenAI