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 £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 October 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 166 126
Rank change year-on-year +85 -40 +54
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 865 239 316
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.06% 1.52% 1.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.36% 1.70% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 507 167 211
10th Percentile £363 £348 £315
25th Percentile £413 £405 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £575
90th Percentile £625 £625 £625
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 3 3
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.43 £64.00
25th Percentile £30.96 £21.90 £70.00
Median hourly rate £44.50 £27.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +64.81% -66.25% +40.35%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.00 -
90th Percentile £70.00 £69.60 -
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £52.50 £80.00
% change year-on-year -20.85% -34.38% +29.55%

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 25,779 14,050 16,173
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.12% 89.53% 92.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,021 8,640 9,212
10th Percentile £303 £213 £217
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £670 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,448 1,313 1,302
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.65
25th Percentile £19.33 £16.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.27%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.57 £69.65 £74.43
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.96
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.45% -3.47%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 3 October 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 +73 334 £469 +1.41% 184
West Midlands +62 255 £469 -6.20% 110
North of England +30 204 £525 +10.53% 404
South East +25 124 £459 -0.76% 293
South West +28 115 £525 +5.00% 139
North West +25 111 £525 +20.69% 200
East Midlands +36 79 £388 -16.22% 74
Yorkshire +4 75 £500 - 123
Scotland 0 71 £519 +12.16% 242
East of England +7 37 £525 +5.00% 108
North East -33 19 £480 +16.36% 86
Wales -2 18 £513 +3.54% 105
Northern Ireland +4 1 - - 59
Channel Islands - 1 - -
Data Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 October 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.

1 391 (45.20%) SQL
2 329 (38.03%) Data Pipeline
3 282 (32.60%) Python
4 275 (31.79%) Data Engineering
5 272 (31.45%) Analytics
6 269 (31.10%) Data Modelling
6 269 (31.10%) ETL
7 231 (26.71%) Security Cleared
8 225 (26.01%) AWS
9 209 (24.16%) Azure
10 189 (21.85%) SC Cleared
11 177 (20.46%) Data Quality
12 154 (17.80%) CI/CD
13 147 (16.99%) Databricks
14 146 (16.88%) Data Integration
15 141 (16.30%) Migration
16 138 (15.95%) Business Intelligence
17 127 (14.68%) Agile
18 125 (14.45%) DevOps
19 115 (13.29%) AI
20 111 (12.83%) Problem-Solving
21 103 (11.91%) Power Platform
21 103 (11.91%) Validation
22 101 (11.68%) Data Warehouse
23 99 (11.45%) Power BI
24 97 (11.21%) Microsoft
25 94 (10.87%) Data Governance
26 90 (10.40%) Oracle
27 86 (9.94%) Data Transformation
28 82 (9.48%) Decision-Making

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 53 (6.13%) Apache
2 48 (5.55%) Apache Spark
3 46 (5.32%) Apache Airflow
4 28 (3.24%) SAS
5 23 (2.66%) Confluence
6 7 (0.81%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.58%) Jupyter
8 3 (0.35%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.35%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.12%) nginx
Applications
1 13 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
3 3 (0.35%) Notepad++
4 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.58%) Infor LN
1 5 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.46%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.46%) Sage X3
3 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.12%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.12%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
Cloud Services
1 225 (26.01%) AWS
2 209 (24.16%) Azure
3 103 (11.91%) Power Platform
4 79 (9.13%) Azure Data Factory
4 79 (9.13%) Snowflake
5 63 (7.28%) GCP
6 56 (6.47%) dbt
7 51 (5.90%) Amazon S3
8 41 (4.74%) Serverless
9 35 (4.05%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 33 (3.82%) AWS Lambda
11 30 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
12 28 (3.24%) GitHub
13 17 (1.97%) Amazon EMR
13 17 (1.97%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (1.73%) Azure Databricks
15 14 (1.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 14 (1.62%) GitHub Actions
16 12 (1.39%) AWS Step Functions
17 9 (1.04%) Matillion
Communications & Networking
1 21 (2.43%) BGP
1 21 (2.43%) DMZ
1 21 (2.43%) DNS
1 21 (2.43%) Multicast
1 21 (2.43%) VPN
2 6 (0.69%) Firewall
3 4 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
3 4 (0.46%) Wireless
4 3 (0.35%) Intrusion Detection
4 3 (0.35%) PuTTY
4 3 (0.35%) Structured Cabling
4 3 (0.35%) WinSCP
5 1 (0.12%) HTTP
5 1 (0.12%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (11.68%) Data Warehouse
2 99 (11.45%) Power BI
3 57 (6.59%) Metadata
4 55 (6.36%) Pentaho
5 50 (5.78%) Data Lake
6 29 (3.35%) Amazon Redshift
6 29 (3.35%) SQL Server
7 28 (3.24%) Big Data
8 27 (3.12%) Amazon Athena
9 26 (3.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 24 (2.77%) Relational Database
11 22 (2.54%) BigQuery
12 19 (2.20%) Delta Lake
13 18 (2.08%) Oracle Database
14 17 (1.97%) Azure SQL Database
14 17 (1.97%) Hadoop
15 15 (1.73%) Tableau
16 14 (1.62%) Snowflake Schema
17 13 (1.50%) BusinessObjects
17 13 (1.50%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 64 (7.40%) GitLab
2 53 (6.13%) Git
3 33 (3.82%) JIRA
4 15 (1.73%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.81%) Postman
6 6 (0.69%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.35%) Newman
8 2 (0.23%) RStudio
8 2 (0.23%) Yeoman
9 1 (0.12%) MLflow
9 1 (0.12%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.12%) Toad
General
1 144 (16.65%) Social Skills
2 95 (10.98%) Analytical Skills
3 93 (10.75%) Public Sector
4 55 (6.36%) Finance
5 41 (4.74%) Banking
6 19 (2.20%) Automotive
7 18 (2.08%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.08%) Marketing
8 16 (1.85%) Aerospace
9 13 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (1.39%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.16%) Retail
12 8 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (0.81%) Law
13 7 (0.81%) Military
14 5 (0.58%) Front Office
14 5 (0.58%) Police
15 4 (0.46%) Billing
15 4 (0.46%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (8.90%) PySpark
2 64 (7.40%) Terraform
3 40 (4.62%) Kafka
4 17 (1.97%) JSON
5 13 (1.50%) REST
6 12 (1.39%) Apache NiFi
7 10 (1.16%) Pandas
7 10 (1.16%) Streamlit
8 9 (1.04%) XML
9 7 (0.81%) RESTful
10 5 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
10 5 (0.58%) pytest
11 4 (0.46%) Apache Avro
11 4 (0.46%) Great Expectations
11 4 (0.46%) Keycloak
12 3 (0.35%) .NET
12 3 (0.35%) AWS CDK
12 3 (0.35%) Spring
12 3 (0.35%) Spring Boot
12 3 (0.35%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 40 (4.62%) Cloud Native
2 25 (2.89%) Data Structures
3 21 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (1.39%) Management Information System
5 11 (1.27%) Onboarding
5 11 (1.27%) Reference Data
6 9 (1.04%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (1.04%) NHS
7 7 (0.81%) Algorithms
8 6 (0.69%) Data Fabric
8 6 (0.69%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
8 6 (0.69%) Product Ownership
9 5 (0.58%) Driving Licence
9 5 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.46%) Derivative
10 4 (0.46%) iPad
10 4 (0.46%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (0.46%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.35%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 28 (3.24%) Unix
2 16 (1.85%) Linux
3 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.23%) Windows
4 1 (0.12%) VMS
4 1 (0.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 329 (38.03%) Data Pipeline
2 275 (31.79%) Data Engineering
3 272 (31.45%) Analytics
4 269 (31.10%) Data Modelling
4 269 (31.10%) ETL
5 154 (17.80%) CI/CD
6 146 (16.88%) Data Integration
7 141 (16.30%) Migration
8 138 (15.95%) Business Intelligence
9 127 (14.68%) Agile
10 125 (14.45%) DevOps
11 115 (13.29%) AI
12 111 (12.83%) Problem-Solving
13 103 (11.91%) Validation
14 94 (10.87%) Data Governance
15 86 (9.94%) Data Transformation
16 82 (9.48%) Decision-Making
17 72 (8.32%) Data Migration
18 70 (8.09%) Test Automation
19 67 (7.75%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 391 (45.20%) SQL
2 282 (32.60%) Python
3 25 (2.89%) Java
3 25 (2.89%) PL/SQL
4 14 (1.62%) Bash
5 13 (1.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 13 (1.50%) T-SQL
6 11 (1.27%) Scala
7 8 (0.92%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.81%) PowerShell
9 4 (0.46%) Go
9 4 (0.46%) R
10 3 (0.35%) Bicep
11 2 (0.23%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.12%) C++
12 1 (0.12%) COBOL
12 1 (0.12%) Perl
12 1 (0.12%) PHP
Qualifications
1 231 (26.71%) Security Cleared
2 189 (21.85%) SC Cleared
3 26 (3.01%) DV Cleared
4 22 (2.54%) Degree
5 18 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.92%) Azure Certification
8 4 (0.46%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.46%) CISM
8 4 (0.46%) CISSP
8 4 (0.46%) City & Guilds
9 3 (0.35%) CEH
9 3 (0.35%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.35%) SnowPro
10 1 (0.12%) CISA
10 1 (0.12%) CRISC
10 1 (0.12%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 1 (0.12%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.12%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 177 (20.46%) Data Quality
2 40 (4.62%) QA
3 12 (1.39%) GDPR
4 6 (0.69%) Accessibility
4 6 (0.69%) SLA
5 5 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
5 5 (0.58%) FATCA
5 5 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.12%) COBIT
7 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.12%) GRC
7 1 (0.12%) NIST
7 1 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.12%) SNOMED CT
7 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 27 (3.12%) Docker
2 1 (0.12%) HDFS
2 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 29 (3.35%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.97%) Grafana
3 13 (1.50%) Ansible
4 3 (0.35%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.23%) Control-M
5 2 (0.23%) Kibana
5 2 (0.23%) logstash
6 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 147 (16.99%) Databricks
2 97 (11.21%) Microsoft
3 90 (10.40%) Oracle
4 62 (7.17%) Talend
5 47 (5.43%) Informatica
6 27 (3.12%) Google
7 25 (2.89%) Denodo
8 21 (2.43%) Cisco
8 21 (2.43%) F5
9 18 (2.08%) SAP
10 17 (1.97%) Salesforce
11 10 (1.16%) Palantir
12 7 (0.81%) Foundry
12 7 (0.81%) Sage
13 6 (0.69%) InterSystems
13 6 (0.69%) SYSPRO
14 5 (0.58%) Cloudera
14 5 (0.58%) Infor
15 4 (0.46%) Dynatrace
15 4 (0.46%) PagerDuty