Data Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Data Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 July 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 140 133 163
Rank change year-on-year -7 +30 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 259 337 366
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.79% 1.60% 1.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.97% 1.73% 1.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 250 295
10th Percentile £315 £170 £409
25th Percentile £402 £201 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -14.29% -
75th Percentile £527 £538 £631
90th Percentile £621 £600 £691
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 31 1
10th Percentile £17.92 £37.50 -
25th Percentile £18.11 £58.75 £45.63
Median hourly rate £48.46 £75.00 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.39% +53.06% +2.94%
75th Percentile £79.03 £80.00 £52.38
90th Percentile £79.61 - -
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £66.25 £71.25
% change year-on-year -20.75% -7.02% +52.31%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 13,145 19,446 22,073
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 92.34% 94.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,143 11,680 15,182
10th Percentile £220 £213 £231
25th Percentile £363 £370 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% +4.17%
75th Percentile £575 £595 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,058 2,405 1,173
10th Percentile £13.50 £12.75 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.84 £16.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% - +100.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.52 £75.64
UK median hourly rate £26.45 £37.50 £43.63
% change year-on-year -29.47% -14.05% +74.52%

Data Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Data Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Data Engineer in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Data Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Data Engineer 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 6 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Data Engineer in the UK excluding London

Data Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Data Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Data Engineer 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 6 July 2025.

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 6 July 2025. 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
North of England +5 84 £475 +2.70% 335
Midlands +22 56 £450 +5.88% 161
North West +11 51 £475 +15.15% 172
West Midlands +13 40 £460 +2.22% 87
South East +27 37 £425 -9.33% 203
South West +8 36 £500 -4.76% 168
Scotland +4 32 £469 +3.48% 72
Yorkshire +1 27 £475 -2.06% 116
East Midlands +2 14 £410 +2.50% 73
East of England +2 13 £318 +71.89% 93
North East - 7 £438 - 47
Wales -4 3 £435 -13.00% 45
Northern Ireland -15 2 £500 +185.71% 30
Data Engineer
UK

Data Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 6 July 2025, Data Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Data Engineer in the job title.

1 131 (50.58%) SQL
2 124 (47.88%) Python
3 102 (39.38%) ETL
4 92 (35.52%) Data Pipeline
5 79 (30.50%) AWS
6 75 (28.96%) Data Modelling
6 75 (28.96%) Data Engineering
7 71 (27.41%) Azure
8 67 (25.87%) Analytics
9 65 (25.10%) Social Skills
9 65 (25.10%) Problem-Solving
10 64 (24.71%) Data Warehouse
11 60 (23.17%) Data Quality
12 53 (20.46%) Snowflake
13 51 (19.69%) Security Cleared
14 50 (19.31%) Databricks
15 39 (15.06%) CI/CD
16 38 (14.67%) Finance
17 37 (14.29%) Business Intelligence
17 37 (14.29%) SC Cleared
18 34 (13.13%) Visualisation
18 34 (13.13%) Analytical Skills
18 34 (13.13%) GCP
19 33 (12.74%) Power Platform
19 33 (12.74%) Apache Airflow
19 33 (12.74%) Data Integration
19 33 (12.74%) Agile
20 32 (12.36%) Migration
20 32 (12.36%) Data Governance
20 32 (12.36%) Power BI

Data Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 33 (12.74%) Apache Airflow
2 31 (11.97%) Apache
3 25 (9.65%) Apache Spark
4 6 (2.32%) SharePoint
5 5 (1.93%) Confluence
6 3 (1.16%) Oracle Application Server
7 2 (0.77%) Documentum
7 2 (0.77%) R Markdown
7 2 (0.77%) SAS
8 1 (0.39%) IBM Notes
8 1 (0.39%) Luigi
Applications
1 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.77%) Windchill
2 1 (0.39%) Adobe Captivate
2 1 (0.39%) AutoCAD
2 1 (0.39%) CATIA
2 1 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.70%) Oracle EBS
2 3 (1.16%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.39%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.39%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 79 (30.50%) AWS
2 71 (27.41%) Azure
3 53 (20.46%) Snowflake
4 34 (13.13%) GCP
5 33 (12.74%) Power Platform
6 29 (11.20%) Azure Data Factory
7 23 (8.88%) Amazon S3
8 15 (5.79%) dbt
9 12 (4.63%) Matillion
10 11 (4.25%) Amazon EC2
11 10 (3.86%) AWS Lambda
11 10 (3.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 10 (3.86%) Cloud Computing
11 10 (3.86%) Serverless
12 8 (3.09%) Amazon EKS
13 6 (2.32%) GitHub
14 5 (1.93%) Amazon EMR
14 5 (1.93%) OCI
15 4 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
15 4 (1.54%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.32%) Structured Cabling
2 3 (1.16%) MQTT
3 2 (0.77%) BGP
3 2 (0.77%) LAN
3 2 (0.77%) WAN
3 2 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (0.77%) Wireless
4 1 (0.39%) 802.11
4 1 (0.39%) Cisco ISE
4 1 (0.39%) DHCP
4 1 (0.39%) DMZ
4 1 (0.39%) DNS
4 1 (0.39%) EIGRP
4 1 (0.39%) Ethernet
4 1 (0.39%) Firewall
4 1 (0.39%) Internet
4 1 (0.39%) Network Security
4 1 (0.39%) OSPF
4 1 (0.39%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.39%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (24.71%) Data Warehouse
2 32 (12.36%) Power BI
3 22 (8.49%) Relational Database
3 22 (8.49%) SQL Server
4 17 (6.56%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (6.18%) Amazon Redshift
6 14 (5.41%) Big Data
7 12 (4.63%) Data Lake
7 12 (4.63%) Delta Lake
8 11 (4.25%) Hadoop
8 11 (4.25%) Oracle Database
9 10 (3.86%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (3.86%) BigQuery
9 10 (3.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 9 (3.47%) Elasticsearch
10 9 (3.47%) Metadata
10 9 (3.47%) NoSQL
10 9 (3.47%) Tableau
11 6 (2.32%) Flink
12 5 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 17 (6.56%) Git
2 10 (3.86%) Jenkins
3 8 (3.09%) GitLab
4 7 (2.70%) JIRA
5 4 (1.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 4 (1.54%) Visual Studio
6 3 (1.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 3 (1.16%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.77%) DBeaver
8 1 (0.39%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.39%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.39%) Flyway
8 1 (0.39%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.39%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.39%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.39%) Vagrant
General
1 65 (25.10%) Social Skills
2 38 (14.67%) Finance
3 34 (13.13%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (7.34%) Banking
5 15 (5.79%) Public Sector
6 8 (3.09%) Financial Institution
7 6 (2.32%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.93%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.54%) Automotive
9 4 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.54%) Tech for Good
10 3 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.16%) Marketing
10 3 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.16%) Retail
10 3 (1.16%) Retail Banking
11 2 (0.77%) Legal
11 2 (0.77%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (11.58%) PySpark
2 23 (8.88%) Kafka
3 11 (4.25%) Apache NiFi
4 6 (2.32%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (1.93%) Pandas
6 4 (1.54%) REST
7 3 (1.16%) AngularJS
7 3 (1.16%) JDBC
7 3 (1.16%) Keycloak
7 3 (1.16%) React
8 2 (0.77%) .NET
8 2 (0.77%) NumPy
8 2 (0.77%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 2 (0.77%) Shiny
8 2 (0.77%) Spark Streaming
9 1 (0.39%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.39%) Gherkin
9 1 (0.39%) OAuth
9 1 (0.39%) Oracle Fusion
9 1 (0.39%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 15 (5.79%) Onboarding
2 14 (5.41%) Legacy Systems
3 9 (3.47%) Cloud Native
4 8 (3.09%) Data Protection Act
5 7 (2.70%) Data Structures
5 7 (2.70%) Replication
6 6 (2.32%) Fibre Optics
6 6 (2.32%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (2.32%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.54%) Data Centre
7 4 (1.54%) Renewable Energy
8 3 (1.16%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.77%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.77%) Data Fabric
9 2 (0.77%) Distributed Computing
9 2 (0.77%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.77%) IoT
9 2 (0.77%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 1 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.39%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 9 (3.47%) Linux
2 7 (2.70%) Unix
3 2 (0.77%) Windows
3 2 (0.77%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2003
4 1 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (39.38%) ETL
2 92 (35.52%) Data Pipeline
3 75 (28.96%) Data Engineering
3 75 (28.96%) Data Modelling
4 67 (25.87%) Analytics
5 65 (25.10%) Problem-Solving
6 39 (15.06%) CI/CD
7 37 (14.29%) Business Intelligence
8 34 (13.13%) Visualisation
9 33 (12.74%) Agile
9 33 (12.74%) Data Integration
10 32 (12.36%) Data Governance
10 32 (12.36%) Migration
11 27 (10.42%) Decision-Making
12 26 (10.04%) Containerisation
12 26 (10.04%) Data Migration
12 26 (10.04%) Data Security
13 25 (9.65%) Data Transformation
13 25 (9.65%) Performance Tuning
14 24 (9.27%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 131 (50.58%) SQL
2 124 (47.88%) Python
3 19 (7.34%) Java
4 14 (5.41%) PL/SQL
5 10 (3.86%) Scala
6 8 (3.09%) Shell Script
7 6 (2.32%) T-SQL
8 4 (1.54%) Bash
8 4 (1.54%) JavaScript
9 3 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (1.16%) R
9 3 (1.16%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.77%) C#
10 2 (0.77%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.77%) SPARQL
11 1 (0.39%) C++
11 1 (0.39%) Ruby
11 1 (0.39%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.39%) VBA
Qualifications
1 51 (19.69%) Security Cleared
2 37 (14.29%) SC Cleared
3 20 (7.72%) Degree
4 12 (4.63%) DV Cleared
5 9 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.70%) AWS Certification
6 7 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 4 (1.54%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.54%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.54%) SnowPro
8 1 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.39%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (23.17%) Data Quality
2 12 (4.63%) GDPR
3 10 (3.86%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.93%) QA
5 4 (1.54%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (1.16%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.77%) WCAG
8 1 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.39%) PMO
8 1 (0.39%) SLA
System Software
1 27 (10.42%) Docker
2 1 (0.39%) Veritas Cluster Server
2 1 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.39%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 28 (10.81%) Kubernetes
2 11 (4.25%) Terraform
3 6 (2.32%) Ansible
3 6 (2.32%) Grafana
3 6 (2.32%) Kibana
3 6 (2.32%) logstash
4 3 (1.16%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.77%) Puppet
6 1 (0.39%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.39%) Kustomize
6 1 (0.39%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 50 (19.31%) Databricks
2 27 (10.42%) Oracle
3 21 (8.11%) Microsoft
4 11 (4.25%) Google
5 9 (3.47%) Commvault
5 9 (3.47%) Informatica
6 7 (2.70%) Virgin Media
7 6 (2.32%) Talend
8 5 (1.93%) IBM
9 4 (1.54%) Cisco
10 3 (1.16%) Atlassian
10 3 (1.16%) Denodo
10 3 (1.16%) Foundry
10 3 (1.16%) Palantir
10 3 (1.16%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.77%) Adobe
11 2 (0.77%) EMC
11 2 (0.77%) McAfee
11 2 (0.77%) SAP
11 2 (0.77%) ServiceNow