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 16 March 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 98 150
Rank change year-on-year -4 +52 0
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 517 327 305
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.39% 2.56% 1.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.61% 2.76% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 380 238 228
10th Percentile £363 £276 £163
25th Percentile £408 £375 £289
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £463 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.62% +2.78% -12.62%
75th Percentile £544 £543 £550
90th Percentile £600 £640 £660
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 6 29
10th Percentile £34.88 £21.66 £36.07
25th Percentile £50.00 £25.13 £52.50
Median hourly rate £66.75 £26.50 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +151.89% -64.67% +20.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £28.22 £80.00
90th Percentile £80.10 £53.54 -
UK median hourly rate £66.75 £53.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +24.19% -14.00% -2.34%

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 19,796 11,829 19,548
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.55% 92.53% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,734 7,617 12,157
10th Percentile £250 £210 £213
25th Percentile £392 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £590
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,157 696 2,083
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.85 £20.12 £15.51
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -20.36%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.16 £75.38 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.71 £32.81 £32.90
% change year-on-year +8.84% -0.26% -22.60%

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 16 March 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 16 March 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 16 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
Midlands +14 214 £470 -1.05% 49
West Midlands +12 196 £478 -2.45% 38
North of England -17 156 £450 - 67
North West -6 93 £450 - 36
South East -37 56 £490 -2.00% 96
South West -10 49 £525 +5.00% 46
Yorkshire -34 46 £465 +3.33% 21
Scotland +2 45 £402 -8.11% 17
Wales -5 19 £418 -21.23% 4
East Midlands -23 18 £450 +20.40% 11
North East -7 17 £463 -7.50% 11
East of England -42 10 £565 +77.67% 14
Northern Ireland - 1 £430 - 1
Data Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 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 UK excluding London region featuring Data Engineer in the job title.

1 273 (52.80%) SQL
2 233 (45.07%) ETL
3 211 (40.81%) Data Pipeline
4 206 (39.85%) Analytics
4 206 (39.85%) Data Engineering
5 205 (39.65%) Python
6 175 (33.85%) Data Modelling
7 160 (30.95%) Security Cleared
8 154 (29.79%) Azure
9 137 (26.50%) SC Cleared
10 133 (25.73%) Data Quality
11 128 (24.76%) CI/CD
12 124 (23.98%) Business Intelligence
13 111 (21.47%) AWS
14 108 (20.89%) Agile
14 108 (20.89%) Problem-Solving
15 100 (19.34%) DevOps
16 96 (18.57%) Databricks
17 82 (15.86%) Data Integration
18 79 (15.28%) Git
19 78 (15.09%) Data Warehouse
19 78 (15.09%) Talend
20 77 (14.89%) Power Platform
21 74 (14.31%) Oracle
22 71 (13.73%) Power BI
22 71 (13.73%) PySpark
23 68 (13.15%) Azure Data Factory
24 66 (12.77%) Pentaho
25 64 (12.38%) Data Governance
26 61 (11.80%) Kubernetes

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 51 (9.86%) SAS
2 39 (7.54%) Apache Spark
3 37 (7.16%) Apache Airflow
4 28 (5.42%) Apache
5 9 (1.74%) Confluence
6 4 (0.77%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.58%) Oracle Application Server
8 1 (0.19%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.19%) Apache Synapse
Applications
1 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.19%) Elite 3E
1 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle 11i
1 1 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 154 (29.79%) Azure
2 111 (21.47%) AWS
3 77 (14.89%) Power Platform
4 68 (13.15%) Azure Data Factory
5 53 (10.25%) Snowflake
6 38 (7.35%) dbt
7 36 (6.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 33 (6.38%) GCP
9 30 (5.80%) Amazon S3
10 29 (5.61%) GitHub
11 25 (4.84%) Serverless
12 20 (3.87%) Azure DevOps
13 17 (3.29%) OpenShift
14 16 (3.09%) AWS Lambda
15 12 (2.32%) Matillion
16 11 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
17 9 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
18 7 (1.35%) Amazon ECS
18 7 (1.35%) Amazon SageMaker
18 7 (1.35%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 21 (4.06%) DNS
1 21 (4.06%) VPN
2 20 (3.87%) BGP
2 20 (3.87%) DMZ
2 20 (3.87%) Multicast
3 3 (0.58%) Structured Cabling
4 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (15.09%) Data Warehouse
2 71 (13.73%) Power BI
3 66 (12.77%) Pentaho
4 41 (7.93%) Data Lake
5 32 (6.19%) PostgreSQL
6 29 (5.61%) Amazon Redshift
7 28 (5.42%) Big Data
8 25 (4.84%) SQL Server
9 24 (4.64%) Hadoop
10 21 (4.06%) NoSQL
10 21 (4.06%) Relational Database
11 20 (3.87%) Delta Lake
11 20 (3.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 19 (3.68%) MySQL
13 15 (2.90%) BigQuery
13 15 (2.90%) Elasticsearch
14 14 (2.71%) Azure SQL Database
15 13 (2.51%) Amazon RDS
16 11 (2.13%) Snowflake Schema
17 10 (1.93%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 79 (15.28%) Git
2 45 (8.70%) Jenkins
3 35 (6.77%) GitLab
4 34 (6.58%) JIRA
5 4 (0.77%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.58%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.58%) DBeaver
6 3 (0.58%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.39%) JMeter
7 2 (0.39%) JUnit
7 2 (0.39%) MLflow
7 2 (0.39%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.19%) Deequ
8 1 (0.19%) Maven
8 1 (0.19%) Mockito
8 1 (0.19%) Selenium
8 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 89 (17.21%) Social Skills
2 59 (11.41%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (10.44%) Public Sector
4 53 (10.25%) Finance
5 26 (5.03%) Banking
6 12 (2.32%) Investment Banking
7 10 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.55%) Manufacturing
9 5 (0.97%) Retail
10 4 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (0.77%) Local Government
10 4 (0.77%) Marketing
11 3 (0.58%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.58%) Law
11 3 (0.58%) Legal
11 3 (0.58%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.39%) Advertising
12 2 (0.39%) Military
12 2 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (13.73%) PySpark
2 55 (10.64%) Kafka
3 16 (3.09%) JSON
4 14 (2.71%) REST
5 12 (2.32%) Keycloak
6 11 (2.13%) Pandas
7 8 (1.55%) Node.js
8 7 (1.35%) Apache NiFi
8 7 (1.35%) XML
9 6 (1.16%) Apache Avro
9 6 (1.16%) Apache Beam
9 6 (1.16%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (1.16%) Protocol Buffers
10 5 (0.97%) NumPy
10 5 (0.97%) YAML
11 4 (0.77%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 4 (0.77%) pytest
11 4 (0.77%) React
11 4 (0.77%) RESTful
11 4 (0.77%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 28 (5.42%) Cloud Native
2 17 (3.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
3 14 (2.71%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (2.71%) Product Ownership
4 13 (2.51%) Clustering
4 13 (2.51%) Distributed Systems
5 11 (2.13%) Data Structures
6 9 (1.74%) Replication
7 7 (1.35%) Algorithms
8 5 (0.97%) Onboarding
9 4 (0.77%) Data Centre
9 4 (0.77%) Driving Licence
9 4 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.77%) Management Information System
9 4 (0.77%) NHS
9 4 (0.77%) Public Cloud
10 3 (0.58%) Distributed Computing
10 3 (0.58%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.39%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.09%) Unix
2 8 (1.55%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 233 (45.07%) ETL
2 211 (40.81%) Data Pipeline
3 206 (39.85%) Analytics
3 206 (39.85%) Data Engineering
4 175 (33.85%) Data Modelling
5 128 (24.76%) CI/CD
6 124 (23.98%) Business Intelligence
7 108 (20.89%) Agile
7 108 (20.89%) Problem-Solving
8 100 (19.34%) DevOps
9 82 (15.86%) Data Integration
10 64 (12.38%) Data Governance
11 55 (10.64%) Scrum
11 55 (10.64%) Test Automation
12 53 (10.25%) Continuous Improvement
13 48 (9.28%) Migration
14 46 (8.90%) Data Science
15 43 (8.32%) Data Analytics
15 43 (8.32%) Performance Tuning
15 43 (8.32%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 273 (52.80%) SQL
2 205 (39.65%) Python
3 38 (7.35%) Java
4 15 (2.90%) PL/SQL
5 14 (2.71%) Go
6 13 (2.51%) Bash
7 11 (2.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (1.74%) PowerShell
9 8 (1.55%) Scala
10 7 (1.35%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.35%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.16%) Bicep
11 6 (1.16%) C#
11 6 (1.16%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.77%) R
13 2 (0.39%) HiveQL
14 1 (0.19%) Groovy
14 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 160 (30.95%) Security Cleared
2 137 (26.50%) SC Cleared
3 14 (2.71%) Azure Certification
4 13 (2.51%) Degree
5 8 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.35%) AWS Certification
7 4 (0.77%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.58%) IBM Certification
8 3 (0.58%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.19%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.19%) CCIE
9 1 (0.19%) CCNP
9 1 (0.19%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.19%) CISM
9 1 (0.19%) CISSP
9 1 (0.19%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.19%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.19%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (25.73%) Data Quality
2 14 (2.71%) GDPR
3 10 (1.93%) QA
4 5 (0.97%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.58%) FATCA
5 3 (0.58%) SLA
6 2 (0.39%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.39%) NIST
7 1 (0.19%) Basel III
7 1 (0.19%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.19%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.19%) GMP
7 1 (0.19%) NCSC
7 1 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.19%) WCAG
System Software
1 53 (10.25%) Docker
2 2 (0.39%) HDFS
2 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 61 (11.80%) Kubernetes
2 27 (5.22%) Terraform
3 21 (4.06%) Grafana
4 11 (2.13%) Prometheus
5 7 (1.35%) Ansible
6 4 (0.77%) Kibana
7 3 (0.58%) NetBackup
7 3 (0.58%) Rancher
8 2 (0.39%) logstash
9 1 (0.19%) Control-M
9 1 (0.19%) Puppet
Vendors
1 96 (18.57%) Databricks
2 78 (15.09%) Talend
3 74 (14.31%) Oracle
4 57 (11.03%) Microsoft
5 46 (8.90%) Informatica
6 40 (7.74%) Denodo
7 22 (4.26%) Cisco
7 22 (4.26%) F5
8 14 (2.71%) Splunk
9 13 (2.51%) ServiceNow
10 8 (1.55%) Cloudera
10 8 (1.55%) Google
11 7 (1.35%) Alteryx
12 6 (1.16%) SAP
13 5 (0.97%) IBM
14 4 (0.77%) Dataiku
14 4 (0.77%) Sage
15 3 (0.58%) Commvault
15 3 (0.58%) Red Hat
16 2 (0.39%) Veritas