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 £469, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 June 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 145 137
Rank change year-on-year +79 -8 +26
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 817 247 338
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.15% 1.83% 1.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.43% 2.01% 1.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 546 183 249
10th Percentile £363 £315 £169
25th Percentile £412 £401 £199
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £463 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% +2.78% -14.29%
75th Percentile £538 £528 £538
90th Percentile £600 £629 £588
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 4 33
10th Percentile £19.34 £17.92 £37.50
25th Percentile £36.25 £18.11 £58.75
Median hourly rate £50.00 £48.46 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.18% -35.39% -0.66%
75th Percentile £59.75 £79.03 £80.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.61 -
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £52.50 £67.50
% change year-on-year -4.76% -22.22% -10.60%

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 23,854 12,305 19,848
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.39% 92.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,676 7,721 11,791
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £517 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.30% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,740 959 2,571
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.50 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.23%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.72 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.36 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.36% -27.03% -14.77%

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 22 June 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 22 June 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 22 June 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 +50 324 £468 +4.00% 50
West Midlands +45 299 £460 - 32
North of England +16 213 £475 - 53
North West +17 130 £500 +5.26% 28
South East +23 122 £475 +11.76% 79
South West +15 87 £506 +1.20% 26
Scotland +29 66 £425 -9.33% 8
Yorkshire -14 63 £470 +1.62% 10
East Midlands -7 25 £525 +28.05% 18
Wales +5 22 £450 +3.45% 11
East of England -16 21 £498 +56.45% 15
North East -25 20 £500 +14.29% 15
Northern Ireland 0 4 £410 -18.00% 9
Data Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 June 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.

1 411 (50.31%) SQL
2 310 (37.94%) Data Pipeline
3 297 (36.35%) Analytics
4 284 (34.76%) ETL
5 270 (33.05%) Data Engineering
6 263 (32.19%) Python
7 262 (32.07%) Security Cleared
8 248 (30.35%) Data Modelling
9 217 (26.56%) SC Cleared
10 190 (23.26%) Azure
11 175 (21.42%) AWS
12 174 (21.30%) Data Quality
13 173 (21.18%) Business Intelligence
14 170 (20.81%) CI/CD
15 142 (17.38%) Agile
16 138 (16.89%) Data Integration
17 135 (16.52%) Databricks
18 126 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
19 119 (14.57%) Oracle
20 111 (13.59%) Power Platform
21 109 (13.34%) Talend
22 108 (13.22%) Power BI
23 105 (12.85%) Data Warehouse
23 105 (12.85%) DevOps
24 103 (12.61%) Migration
25 99 (12.12%) PySpark
26 93 (11.38%) Git
27 87 (10.65%) Microsoft
28 85 (10.40%) Pentaho
29 81 (9.91%) Data Governance

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 66 (8.08%) SAS
2 49 (6.00%) Apache Spark
3 39 (4.77%) Apache Airflow
4 35 (4.28%) Apache
5 24 (2.94%) Confluence
6 5 (0.61%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.12%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.61%) Notepad++
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.61%) Infor LN
2 3 (0.37%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.37%) Sage X3
2 3 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.12%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.12%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.12%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
3 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 190 (23.26%) Azure
2 175 (21.42%) AWS
3 111 (13.59%) Power Platform
4 78 (9.55%) Azure Data Factory
5 72 (8.81%) Snowflake
6 47 (5.75%) GCP
7 42 (5.14%) dbt
8 41 (5.02%) Amazon S3
9 40 (4.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 34 (4.16%) Serverless
11 30 (3.67%) Azure DevOps
12 27 (3.30%) GitHub
13 24 (2.94%) AWS Lambda
14 20 (2.45%) Matillion
15 18 (2.20%) OpenShift
16 14 (1.71%) GitHub Actions
17 13 (1.59%) Amazon EMR
18 11 (1.35%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 10 (1.22%) Azure Functions
20 9 (1.10%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 33 (4.04%) DNS
1 33 (4.04%) VPN
2 32 (3.92%) BGP
2 32 (3.92%) DMZ
2 32 (3.92%) Multicast
3 8 (0.98%) Structured Cabling
4 5 (0.61%) PuTTY
4 5 (0.61%) WinSCP
5 4 (0.49%) Firewall
5 4 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (0.49%) Wireless
6 1 (0.12%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (13.22%) Power BI
2 105 (12.85%) Data Warehouse
3 85 (10.40%) Pentaho
4 44 (5.39%) Amazon Redshift
5 43 (5.26%) Data Lake
6 34 (4.16%) SQL Server
7 33 (4.04%) Big Data
8 27 (3.30%) MySQL
9 25 (3.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 24 (2.94%) Hadoop
10 24 (2.94%) Metadata
10 24 (2.94%) Relational Database
11 23 (2.82%) Delta Lake
12 22 (2.69%) Amazon Athena
13 20 (2.45%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (2.45%) Snowflake Schema
14 19 (2.33%) NoSQL
15 18 (2.20%) Tableau
16 15 (1.84%) BusinessObjects
16 15 (1.84%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 93 (11.38%) Git
2 58 (7.10%) GitLab
3 47 (5.75%) JIRA
4 34 (4.16%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.86%) Postman
6 5 (0.61%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.49%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.37%) Newman
9 2 (0.24%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.12%) ER Studio
10 1 (0.12%) ERwin
10 1 (0.12%) JUnit
General
1 137 (16.77%) Social Skills
2 86 (10.53%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (9.42%) Public Sector
4 65 (7.96%) Finance
5 42 (5.14%) Banking
6 22 (2.69%) Investment Banking
7 19 (2.33%) Marketing
8 18 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
9 13 (1.59%) Aerospace
10 12 (1.47%) Automotive
10 12 (1.47%) Manufacturing
10 12 (1.47%) Telecoms
11 11 (1.35%) Retail
12 9 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.49%) Billing
13 4 (0.49%) Legal
13 4 (0.49%) Local Government
14 3 (0.37%) Front Office
14 3 (0.37%) Law
15 2 (0.24%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (12.12%) PySpark
2 61 (7.47%) Kafka
3 22 (2.69%) JSON
4 13 (1.59%) Pandas
4 13 (1.59%) XML
5 10 (1.22%) Streamlit
6 9 (1.10%) REST
7 8 (0.98%) Apache Avro
7 8 (0.98%) Protocol Buffers
8 7 (0.86%) Apache Beam
9 6 (0.73%) Node.js
9 6 (0.73%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.73%) RESTful
10 5 (0.61%) Great Expectations
10 5 (0.61%) pytest
10 5 (0.61%) YAML
11 4 (0.49%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.49%) Apache NiFi
11 4 (0.49%) React
12 3 (0.37%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 32 (3.92%) Cloud Native
2 23 (2.82%) Data Structures
3 19 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
4 15 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
5 11 (1.35%) Clustering
6 9 (1.10%) Driving Licence
6 9 (1.10%) Product Ownership
7 8 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
7 8 (0.98%) NHS
8 6 (0.73%) Data Centre
8 6 (0.73%) Linux Command Line
8 6 (0.73%) Onboarding
9 5 (0.61%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.49%) Data Fabric
10 4 (0.49%) Fibre Optics
10 4 (0.49%) iPad
10 4 (0.49%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.49%) Public Cloud
10 4 (0.49%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 41 (5.02%) Unix
2 12 (1.47%) Linux
3 2 (0.24%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.12%) VMS
4 1 (0.12%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (37.94%) Data Pipeline
2 297 (36.35%) Analytics
3 284 (34.76%) ETL
4 270 (33.05%) Data Engineering
5 248 (30.35%) Data Modelling
6 173 (21.18%) Business Intelligence
7 170 (20.81%) CI/CD
8 142 (17.38%) Agile
9 138 (16.89%) Data Integration
10 126 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
11 105 (12.85%) DevOps
12 103 (12.61%) Migration
13 81 (9.91%) Data Governance
14 76 (9.30%) AI
14 76 (9.30%) Validation
15 71 (8.69%) Test Automation
16 66 (8.08%) Scrum
17 63 (7.71%) Data Science
17 63 (7.71%) Decision-Making
18 59 (7.22%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 411 (50.31%) SQL
2 263 (32.19%) Python
3 37 (4.53%) Java
3 37 (4.53%) PL/SQL
4 17 (2.08%) Bash
4 17 (2.08%) Shell Script
5 12 (1.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 10 (1.22%) PowerShell
7 9 (1.10%) T-SQL
8 6 (0.73%) Scala
9 5 (0.61%) C#
10 4 (0.49%) Bicep
11 2 (0.24%) Go
11 2 (0.24%) HiveQL
11 2 (0.24%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.12%) C++
12 1 (0.12%) COBOL
12 1 (0.12%) Perl
12 1 (0.12%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 262 (32.07%) Security Cleared
2 217 (26.56%) SC Cleared
3 18 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
3 18 (2.20%) Degree
4 12 (1.47%) DV Cleared
5 8 (0.98%) City & Guilds
6 5 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (0.61%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.49%) BICSI Certification
7 4 (0.49%) SnowPro
8 3 (0.37%) IBM Certification
9 2 (0.24%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.24%) CISM
9 2 (0.24%) CISSP
10 1 (0.12%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.12%) CCIE
10 1 (0.12%) CEH
10 1 (0.12%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.12%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.12%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (21.30%) Data Quality
2 19 (2.33%) QA
3 13 (1.59%) GDPR
4 10 (1.22%) SLA
5 8 (0.98%) FATCA
6 3 (0.37%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.24%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.12%) GMP
8 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.12%) NIST
8 1 (0.12%) SNOMED CT
8 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 42 (5.14%) Docker
2 3 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.24%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 48 (5.88%) Terraform
2 45 (5.51%) Kubernetes
3 37 (4.53%) Grafana
4 10 (1.22%) Prometheus
5 8 (0.98%) Ansible
6 3 (0.37%) Rancher
7 2 (0.24%) Apache Ranger
7 2 (0.24%) Control-M
Vendors
1 135 (16.52%) Databricks
2 119 (14.57%) Oracle
3 109 (13.34%) Talend
4 87 (10.65%) Microsoft
5 74 (9.06%) Informatica
6 54 (6.61%) Denodo
7 34 (4.16%) Cisco
7 34 (4.16%) F5
8 16 (1.96%) SAP
8 16 (1.96%) Splunk
9 15 (1.84%) Salesforce
9 15 (1.84%) ServiceNow
10 14 (1.71%) Cloudera
11 11 (1.35%) Google
12 8 (0.98%) Sage
13 7 (0.86%) Alteryx
14 6 (0.73%) Dynatrace
14 6 (0.73%) Infor
14 6 (0.73%) InterSystems
15 4 (0.49%) IBM