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 22 August 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 159 126
Rank change year-on-year +90 -33 +54
Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer 892 237 312
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.22% 1.55% 1.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.51% 1.72% 1.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 541 160 227
10th Percentile £363 £349 £170
25th Percentile £413 £413 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £529 £550
90th Percentile £600 £614 £613
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 4 17
10th Percentile £19.91 £20.25 £52.20
25th Percentile £30.96 £23.95 £72.50
Median hourly rate £44.75 £52.85 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.33% -33.94% +63.27%
75th Percentile £70.00 £79.03 -
90th Percentile £71.50 £79.61 -
UK median hourly rate £44.75 £52.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year -14.76% -30.00% +5.26%

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 25,402 13,799 16,779
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.72% 90.05% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,332 8,464 10,141
10th Percentile £304 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £361 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,061 1,256 1,678
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.31 £13.86
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.39 £18.20
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.55%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 +67 377 £460 -0.27% 55
West Midlands +61 318 £460 -4.17% 42
North of England +31 222 £490 +3.16% 118
South East +26 131 £467 +3.78% 116
North West +32 128 £525 +10.53% 52
South West +6 88 £525 +5.00% 45
Yorkshire -5 74 £465 -4.62% 31
East Midlands +21 59 £463 +4.82% 13
Scotland +12 59 £450 +4.41% 24
East of England +11 40 £475 +5.56% 22
North East -29 21 £515 +21.89% 35
Wales -6 16 £500 +12.36% 12
Northern Ireland +3 3 £410 -18.00% 7
Data Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 August 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 (43.83%) SQL
2 329 (36.88%) Data Pipeline
3 291 (32.62%) Analytics
4 281 (31.50%) ETL
5 265 (29.71%) Data Engineering
6 257 (28.81%) Data Modelling
7 256 (28.70%) Security Cleared
8 254 (28.48%) Python
9 218 (24.44%) Azure
10 213 (23.88%) SC Cleared
11 199 (22.31%) AWS
12 187 (20.96%) Data Quality
13 165 (18.50%) Business Intelligence
14 157 (17.60%) CI/CD
15 152 (17.04%) Data Integration
16 142 (15.92%) Databricks
17 133 (14.91%) Migration
18 127 (14.24%) Agile
19 118 (13.23%) Problem-Solving
20 111 (12.44%) Power Platform
21 110 (12.33%) Data Warehouse
21 110 (12.33%) DevOps
22 108 (12.11%) Power BI
23 104 (11.66%) Microsoft
24 101 (11.32%) Oracle
24 101 (11.32%) Validation
25 97 (10.87%) Data Governance
26 87 (9.75%) AI
27 85 (9.53%) PySpark
27 85 (9.53%) Talend

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 50 (5.61%) SAS
2 37 (4.15%) Apache Spark
3 33 (3.70%) Apache Airflow
4 32 (3.59%) Apache
5 23 (2.58%) Confluence
6 5 (0.56%) Jupyter
7 4 (0.45%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.34%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.34%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.56%) Notepad++
3 3 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.56%) Infor LN
2 4 (0.45%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.45%) Sage X3
3 3 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.11%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.11%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.11%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.11%) Oracle 11i
4 1 (0.11%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 218 (24.44%) Azure
2 199 (22.31%) AWS
3 111 (12.44%) Power Platform
4 80 (8.97%) Azure Data Factory
5 71 (7.96%) Snowflake
6 47 (5.27%) GCP
7 43 (4.82%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 39 (4.37%) Amazon S3
9 34 (3.81%) dbt
9 34 (3.81%) Serverless
10 30 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
11 26 (2.91%) GitHub
12 25 (2.80%) AWS Lambda
13 15 (1.68%) Matillion
14 12 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
15 11 (1.23%) Amazon EMR
15 11 (1.23%) OpenShift
16 10 (1.12%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 10 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
16 10 (1.12%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 32 (3.59%) VPN
2 31 (3.48%) BGP
2 31 (3.48%) DMZ
2 31 (3.48%) DNS
2 31 (3.48%) Multicast
3 9 (1.01%) Structured Cabling
4 6 (0.67%) Firewall
5 5 (0.56%) PuTTY
5 5 (0.56%) WinSCP
6 4 (0.45%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (0.45%) Wireless
7 3 (0.34%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (12.33%) Data Warehouse
2 108 (12.11%) Power BI
3 72 (8.07%) Pentaho
4 48 (5.38%) Data Lake
5 43 (4.82%) Amazon Redshift
6 42 (4.71%) Metadata
7 37 (4.15%) SQL Server
8 29 (3.25%) Relational Database
9 27 (3.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 26 (2.91%) Big Data
11 22 (2.47%) MySQL
12 21 (2.35%) Amazon Athena
13 20 (2.24%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (2.24%) Delta Lake
14 18 (2.02%) Hadoop
15 17 (1.91%) BigQuery
15 17 (1.91%) BusinessObjects
15 17 (1.91%) Tableau
16 15 (1.68%) Oracle Database
16 15 (1.68%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 82 (9.19%) Git
2 55 (6.17%) GitLab
3 40 (4.48%) JIRA
4 28 (3.14%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.78%) Postman
6 5 (0.56%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.34%) Newman
8 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.22%) Yeoman
9 1 (0.11%) ER Studio
9 1 (0.11%) ERwin
9 1 (0.11%) MLflow
9 1 (0.11%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.11%) Toad
General
1 141 (15.81%) Social Skills
2 100 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
3 93 (10.43%) Public Sector
4 62 (6.95%) Finance
5 42 (4.71%) Banking
6 21 (2.35%) Investment Banking
7 20 (2.24%) Marketing
8 19 (2.13%) Automotive
9 15 (1.68%) Aerospace
9 15 (1.68%) Telecoms
10 14 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
11 12 (1.35%) Manufacturing
12 11 (1.23%) Retail
13 10 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.67%) Law
15 5 (0.56%) Billing
15 5 (0.56%) Front Office
15 5 (0.56%) Police
16 4 (0.45%) Legal
16 4 (0.45%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (9.53%) PySpark
2 51 (5.72%) Terraform
3 47 (5.27%) Kafka
4 16 (1.79%) JSON
5 12 (1.35%) Pandas
6 10 (1.12%) XML
7 9 (1.01%) Streamlit
8 8 (0.90%) REST
9 7 (0.78%) RESTful
10 6 (0.67%) Apache NiFi
11 5 (0.56%) Great Expectations
12 4 (0.45%) Apache Avro
12 4 (0.45%) AWS CDK
12 4 (0.45%) Spring
12 4 (0.45%) Spring Boot
13 3 (0.34%) .NET
13 3 (0.34%) AngularJS
13 3 (0.34%) Node.js
13 3 (0.34%) pytest
13 3 (0.34%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 34 (3.81%) Cloud Native
2 32 (3.59%) Legacy Systems
3 27 (3.03%) Data Structures
4 11 (1.23%) Management Information System
4 11 (1.23%) Reference Data
5 9 (1.01%) NHS
6 8 (0.90%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (0.90%) Driving Licence
6 8 (0.90%) Onboarding
7 7 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
8 6 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (0.67%) Linux Command Line
8 6 (0.67%) Product Ownership
9 4 (0.45%) Data Centre
9 4 (0.45%) Data Fabric
9 4 (0.45%) Fibre Optics
9 4 (0.45%) iPad
10 3 (0.34%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.34%) Life Science
10 3 (0.34%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 37 (4.15%) Unix
2 14 (1.57%) Linux
3 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.11%) VMS
4 1 (0.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 329 (36.88%) Data Pipeline
2 291 (32.62%) Analytics
3 281 (31.50%) ETL
4 265 (29.71%) Data Engineering
5 257 (28.81%) Data Modelling
6 165 (18.50%) Business Intelligence
7 157 (17.60%) CI/CD
8 152 (17.04%) Data Integration
9 133 (14.91%) Migration
10 127 (14.24%) Agile
11 118 (13.23%) Problem-Solving
12 110 (12.33%) DevOps
13 101 (11.32%) Validation
14 97 (10.87%) Data Governance
15 87 (9.75%) AI
16 82 (9.19%) Decision-Making
17 76 (8.52%) Data Transformation
18 70 (7.85%) Data Migration
19 69 (7.74%) Test Automation
20 57 (6.39%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 391 (43.83%) SQL
2 254 (28.48%) Python
3 33 (3.70%) PL/SQL
4 27 (3.03%) Java
5 16 (1.79%) Bash
6 14 (1.57%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 12 (1.35%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.01%) Scala
9 6 (0.67%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.22%) HiveQL
10 2 (0.22%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.11%) Bicep
11 1 (0.11%) C++
11 1 (0.11%) COBOL
11 1 (0.11%) Go
11 1 (0.11%) Perl
11 1 (0.11%) R
Qualifications
1 256 (28.70%) Security Cleared
2 213 (23.88%) SC Cleared
3 19 (2.13%) Degree
4 18 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (1.79%) DV Cleared
6 9 (1.01%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.90%) City & Guilds
8 4 (0.45%) BICSI Certification
8 4 (0.45%) CISM
8 4 (0.45%) CISSP
8 4 (0.45%) SnowPro
9 3 (0.34%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.34%) CEH
9 3 (0.34%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.22%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 187 (20.96%) Data Quality
2 24 (2.69%) QA
3 15 (1.68%) GDPR
4 9 (1.01%) SLA
5 5 (0.56%) FATCA
6 4 (0.45%) Accessibility
6 4 (0.45%) HIPAA
6 4 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.11%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.11%) NIST
9 1 (0.11%) SNOMED CT
9 1 (0.11%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (4.26%) Docker
2 2 (0.22%) HDFS
3 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 36 (4.04%) Kubernetes
2 33 (3.70%) Grafana
3 10 (1.12%) Ansible
4 3 (0.34%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.22%) Apache Ranger
5 2 (0.22%) Control-M
5 2 (0.22%) Rancher
6 1 (0.11%) Kibana
6 1 (0.11%) logstash
Vendors
1 142 (15.92%) Databricks
2 104 (11.66%) Microsoft
3 101 (11.32%) Oracle
4 85 (9.53%) Talend
5 59 (6.61%) Informatica
6 47 (5.27%) Denodo
7 32 (3.59%) Cisco
7 32 (3.59%) F5
8 19 (2.13%) SAP
9 17 (1.91%) Salesforce
10 14 (1.57%) Google
11 12 (1.35%) ServiceNow
12 9 (1.01%) Cloudera
13 8 (0.90%) Sage
14 6 (0.67%) Dynatrace
14 6 (0.67%) Infor
14 6 (0.67%) InterSystems
14 6 (0.67%) Palantir
14 6 (0.67%) SYSPRO
15 4 (0.45%) Foundry