Data Engineering Contract Job Trends

Data Engineering
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Data Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 166 220
Rank change year-on-year +49 +54 +7
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 872 488 468
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.38% 1.56% 1.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.71% 1.75% 1.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 579 338 348
10th Percentile £363 £386 £400
25th Percentile £422 £458 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £666
90th Percentile £749 £804 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -4.50% -9.09% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 13 8
10th Percentile £41.15 £21.25 £35.00
25th Percentile £50.00 £22.00 £35.47
Median hourly rate £74.26 £25.43 £42.25
Median % change year-on-year +192.02% -39.81% -43.67%
75th Percentile £87.50 £28.15 £68.25
90th Percentile £101.00 £57.63 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.13 £25.43 £78.00
% change year-on-year +144.32% -67.40% +63.50%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Data Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 32,128 27,808 37,611
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.80% 88.68% 87.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,262 16,883 24,972
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £743 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,977 884 1,589
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.62 £14.17
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.16
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.69 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.64% -21.75% +15.71%
75th Percentile £56.00 £61.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.39 £74.66 £76.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -20.58% -31.43% +51.38%

Data Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Engineering relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Data Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Engineering
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering

Data Engineering
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Engineering over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Engineering in the UK

Data Engineering
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering

Data Engineering
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Engineering over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Engineering in the UK

Data Engineering
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Engineering within the UK over the 6 months to 13 January 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
England +49 772 £525 -8.70% 666
London +60 547 £550 -4.35% 215
Work from Home +22 257 £550 -4.35% 315
UK excluding London +15 232 £478 -4.50% 562
North of England -20 73 £450 -18.18% 108
Midlands -5 60 £546 +9.15% 65
North West +1 47 £440 -12.00% 49
West Midlands -12 42 £550 +10.00% 26
Scotland +19 36 £402 -6.78% 21
South East -9 31 £513 -5.96% 208
South West -17 29 £550 -17.60% 69
East Midlands -2 18 £429 -31.40% 37
Yorkshire -39 14 £500 -9.09% 40
North East -1 12 £425 -28.87% 19
East of England -13 12 £500 +29.87% 70
Wales -17 2 £495 -1.00% 22
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 10

Data Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 125 (14.33%) Apache Spark
2 104 (11.93%) Apache Airflow
3 65 (7.45%) Apache
4 13 (1.49%) Confluence
5 4 (0.46%) Appian
5 4 (0.46%) SAS
6 2 (0.23%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.11%) Apache Pig
7 1 (0.11%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.11%) CMS
7 1 (0.11%) Luigi
7 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.11%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.69%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.34%) Trello
5 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 6 (0.69%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.23%) Eagle PACE
3 2 (0.23%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.11%) Actimize
4 1 (0.11%) Maximo
4 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.11%) SAP BPC
4 1 (0.11%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 401 (45.99%) Azure
2 298 (34.17%) AWS
3 160 (18.35%) Power Platform
4 155 (17.78%) Azure Data Factory
5 126 (14.45%) GCP
6 124 (14.22%) Snowflake
7 100 (11.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 97 (11.12%) Amazon S3
9 86 (9.86%) GitHub
10 85 (9.75%) Serverless
11 78 (8.94%) dbt
12 70 (8.03%) Azure DevOps
13 64 (7.34%) AWS Lambda
14 57 (6.54%) GitHub Actions
15 38 (4.36%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (2.87%) AWS Step Functions
17 22 (2.52%) Amazon SageMaker
17 22 (2.52%) Azure Machine Learning
18 20 (2.29%) Cloud Computing
19 19 (2.18%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.46%) Cisco IPT
1 4 (0.46%) Kerberos
1 4 (0.46%) Network Security
2 3 (0.34%) Firewall
2 3 (0.34%) VPN
3 2 (0.23%) SSL
3 2 (0.23%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.11%) DNS
4 1 (0.11%) MQTT
4 1 (0.11%) SAN
4 1 (0.11%) SMS
4 1 (0.11%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 167 (19.15%) Data Warehouse
2 155 (17.78%) Power BI
3 120 (13.76%) Data Lake
4 72 (8.26%) Metadata
5 56 (6.42%) NoSQL
6 55 (6.31%) Big Data
7 51 (5.85%) Relational Database
7 51 (5.85%) SQL Server
8 50 (5.73%) Azure SQL Database
9 46 (5.28%) Delta Lake
10 44 (5.05%) BigQuery
11 42 (4.82%) Snowflake Schema
12 39 (4.47%) Amazon Redshift
13 37 (4.24%) PostgreSQL
14 36 (4.13%) Amazon Athena
15 35 (4.01%) Tableau
16 33 (3.78%) Hadoop
17 24 (2.75%) RDBMS
18 19 (2.18%) Elasticsearch
18 19 (2.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 133 (15.25%) Git
2 48 (5.50%) GitLab
3 46 (5.28%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.67%) MLflow
5 24 (2.75%) JIRA
6 8 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
7 5 (0.57%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.46%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.46%) Selenium
9 3 (0.34%) JMeter
9 3 (0.34%) Poetry
10 2 (0.23%) ERwin
10 2 (0.23%) Gemini Tracker
10 2 (0.23%) JUnit
10 2 (0.23%) Maven
10 2 (0.23%) Postman
10 2 (0.23%) Pylint
10 2 (0.23%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.23%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.23%) TestRail
General
1 246 (28.21%) Social Skills
2 207 (23.74%) Finance
3 110 (12.61%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (7.00%) Public Sector
5 56 (6.42%) Banking
6 22 (2.52%) Investment Banking
7 20 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 16 (1.83%) Retail
9 15 (1.72%) Front Office
9 15 (1.72%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.72%) Pharmaceutical
10 14 (1.61%) Marketing
11 11 (1.26%) Legal
12 9 (1.03%) Publishing
13 8 (0.92%) Military
14 7 (0.80%) Documentation Skills
14 7 (0.80%) Telecoms
15 6 (0.69%) Back Office
15 6 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.57%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 373 (42.78%) Data Engineer
2 112 (12.84%) Senior
3 95 (10.89%) Lead
4 76 (8.72%) Azure Engineer
5 74 (8.49%) Senior Data Engineer
6 61 (7.00%) Developer
7 60 (6.88%) Architect
8 54 (6.19%) Azure Data Engineer
9 45 (5.16%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 42 (4.82%) Analyst
11 40 (4.59%) AWS Engineer
11 40 (4.59%) Python Engineer
12 37 (4.24%) Snowflake Engineer
13 32 (3.67%) Data Scientist
14 30 (3.44%) Data Architect
15 29 (3.33%) Snowflake Data Engineer
16 26 (2.98%) AWS Data Engineer
17 24 (2.75%) Lead Data Engineer
17 24 (2.75%) Python Data Engineer
18 23 (2.64%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 165 (18.92%) PySpark
2 90 (10.32%) Kafka
3 59 (6.77%) Pandas
4 49 (5.62%) PyTorch
5 44 (5.05%) NumPy
5 44 (5.05%) TensorFlow
6 40 (4.59%) FastAPI
7 32 (3.67%) Flask
7 32 (3.67%) scikit-learn
8 30 (3.44%) RESTful
9 24 (2.75%) LangChain
10 23 (2.64%) React
11 21 (2.41%) pytest
12 19 (2.18%) JSON
13 18 (2.06%) REST
14 15 (1.72%) OAuth
14 15 (1.72%) Spark Streaming
14 15 (1.72%) YAML
15 14 (1.61%) Hugging Face
16 12 (1.38%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 84 (9.63%) Cloud Native
2 44 (5.05%) Algorithms
3 25 (2.87%) Distributed Computing
4 23 (2.64%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (2.64%) Product Ownership
5 21 (2.41%) Data Structures
6 19 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
6 19 (2.18%) Onboarding
7 17 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
8 16 (1.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 15 (1.72%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.49%) Hedge funds
11 12 (1.38%) AI Agents
11 12 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.26%) Life Science
13 10 (1.15%) Clustering
13 10 (1.15%) Data Fabric
13 10 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
14 9 (1.03%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 27 (3.10%) Linux
2 3 (0.34%) VMS
3 2 (0.23%) Android
3 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.23%) Windows
4 1 (0.11%) CentOS
4 1 (0.11%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 380 (43.58%) Data Pipeline
2 326 (37.39%) Analytics
3 322 (36.93%) ETL
4 307 (35.21%) CI/CD
5 299 (34.29%) Data Modelling
6 227 (26.03%) AI
7 212 (24.31%) Data Governance
8 202 (23.17%) Machine Learning
9 201 (23.05%) Agile
10 198 (22.71%) DevOps
11 186 (21.33%) Business Intelligence
12 173 (19.84%) Data Science
13 172 (19.72%) Problem-Solving
14 147 (16.86%) Data Architecture
15 101 (11.58%) Infrastructure as Code
16 92 (10.55%) Containerisation
16 92 (10.55%) Data Integration
17 84 (9.63%) LLM
18 80 (9.17%) Validation
18 80 (9.17%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 549 (62.96%) Python
2 429 (49.20%) SQL
3 61 (7.00%) Scala
4 52 (5.96%) Java
5 36 (4.13%) C#
6 32 (3.67%) JavaScript
7 26 (2.98%) PowerShell
8 22 (2.52%) C++
9 19 (2.18%) Bash
9 19 (2.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 17 (1.95%) Bicep
10 17 (1.95%) T-SQL
11 16 (1.83%) PL/SQL
11 16 (1.83%) R
12 15 (1.72%) Go
12 15 (1.72%) TypeScript
13 12 (1.38%) Rust
13 12 (1.38%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.80%) Korn
15 2 (0.23%) PHP
Qualifications
1 159 (18.23%) Security Cleared
2 131 (15.02%) SC Cleared
3 68 (7.80%) Degree
4 49 (5.62%) Azure Certification
5 30 (3.44%) Master's Degree
6 29 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
7 18 (2.06%) DV Cleared
8 14 (1.61%) AWS Certification
8 14 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.38%) PhD
10 7 (0.80%) MCP
11 6 (0.69%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (0.57%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.34%) ISTQB
13 3 (0.34%) Tableau Certification
14 2 (0.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.23%) CBAP
14 2 (0.23%) SnowPro
15 1 (0.11%) APMG
15 1 (0.11%) CSPO
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 223 (25.57%) Data Quality
2 68 (7.80%) GDPR
3 28 (3.21%) QA
4 19 (2.18%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (0.92%) HIPAA
7 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.57%) PERC
8 4 (0.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 4 (0.46%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.46%) WCAG
9 3 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.23%) HL7
10 2 (0.23%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.23%) PMO
11 1 (0.11%) AIFMD
11 1 (0.11%) Dodd-Frank
11 1 (0.11%) EMIR
11 1 (0.11%) NCSC
11 1 (0.11%) Solvency II
System Software
1 136 (15.60%) Docker
2 16 (1.83%) HDFS
3 2 (0.23%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.11%) ISA Server
4 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 134 (15.37%) Terraform
2 113 (12.96%) Kubernetes
3 15 (1.72%) Grafana
4 13 (1.49%) Ansible
5 11 (1.26%) Hadoop YARN
6 9 (1.03%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.57%) Puppet
8 4 (0.46%) Argo
9 3 (0.34%) Control-M
9 3 (0.34%) Kibana
9 3 (0.34%) logstash
9 3 (0.34%) Oozie
10 2 (0.23%) Kubeflow
10 2 (0.23%) Kustomize
10 2 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Ranger
11 1 (0.11%) Istio
11 1 (0.11%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 259 (29.70%) Databricks
2 111 (12.73%) Microsoft
3 47 (5.39%) Google
4 28 (3.21%) Oracle
5 18 (2.06%) Informatica
6 17 (1.95%) Palantir
7 15 (1.72%) Foundry
8 14 (1.61%) OpenAI
9 13 (1.49%) Salesforce
9 13 (1.49%) SAP
9 13 (1.49%) Talend
10 10 (1.15%) Cloudera
11 8 (0.92%) Virgin Media
12 6 (0.69%) Denodo
12 6 (0.69%) Guidewire
13 5 (0.57%) ServiceNow
14 4 (0.46%) Automation Anywhere
14 4 (0.46%) IBM
14 4 (0.46%) MicroStrategy
14 4 (0.46%) UiPath