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 28 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 163 207
Rank change year-on-year +74 +44 +8
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,353 503 483
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.77% 1.76% 1.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.28% 1.93% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 932 348 362
10th Percentile £400 £375 £364
25th Percentile £450 £450 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £650
90th Percentile £749 £838 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 10 15
10th Percentile £51.25 £22.45 £30.72
25th Percentile £56.75 £22.72 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £28.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +143.48% -17.86% -52.05%
75th Percentile £78.00 £50.05 £60.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £54.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £26.47 £60.00
% change year-on-year +161.55% -55.89% +71.43%

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 41,286 26,078 36,653
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.54% 91.02% 85.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,818 16,706 23,627
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.19% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,472 1,084 2,486
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.08 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.28 £27.52 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.64% -23.57% -1.09%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.84 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.19 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +78.93% -32.93% +7.14%

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 28 May 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 28 May 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 28 May 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 +73 1,218 £528 -4.09% 434
London +61 755 £550 -4.35% 235
UK excluding London +76 482 £500 +5.26% 290
Work from Home +50 398 £535 +1.90% 220
North of England +10 136 £478 -4.50% 99
Midlands +17 126 £500 +8.11% 37
West Midlands +19 104 £500 -1.09% 24
South West +28 75 £500 -16.67% 22
South East -17 66 £550 +15.79% 91
Yorkshire -10 63 £478 -13.18% 21
Scotland +29 57 £460 -3.16% 16
North West -14 51 £506 +1.25% 56
North East -7 24 £450 -5.26% 23
East of England -20 22 £575 +54.08% 13
East Midlands -17 19 £525 +13.51% 13
Wales -12 9 £450 +100.61% 10
Northern Ireland - 3 £430 - 5

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
1 185 (13.67%) Apache Spark
2 144 (10.64%) Apache Airflow
3 93 (6.87%) Apache
4 38 (2.81%) SAS
5 24 (1.77%) Confluence
6 16 (1.18%) Palantir Foundry
7 11 (0.81%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.59%) Appian
9 7 (0.52%) Apache Superset
10 4 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.30%) SharePoint
11 2 (0.15%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.074%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.074%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.074%) Camunda
12 1 (0.074%) CICS
12 1 (0.074%) CMS
12 1 (0.074%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.074%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 29 (2.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.22%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.22%) Trello
5 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (0.44%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.37%) BambooHR
3 4 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
4 3 (0.22%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.15%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.074%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.074%) Endur
6 1 (0.074%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.074%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 598 (44.20%) Azure
2 491 (36.29%) AWS
3 313 (23.13%) Power Platform
4 191 (14.12%) Azure Data Factory
5 190 (14.04%) Snowflake
6 187 (13.82%) GCP
7 147 (10.86%) Amazon S3
8 142 (10.50%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 141 (10.42%) dbt
10 130 (9.61%) GitHub
11 119 (8.80%) Azure DevOps
12 106 (7.83%) Serverless
13 85 (6.28%) AWS Lambda
14 77 (5.69%) GitHub Actions
15 46 (3.40%) AWS CloudFormation
16 38 (2.81%) Amazon EMR
17 30 (2.22%) AWS Step Functions
18 27 (2.00%) Collibra
19 26 (1.92%) Azure AI
19 26 (1.92%) Dagster
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.37%) RTP
2 4 (0.30%) Firewall
3 2 (0.15%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.074%) 4G
4 1 (0.074%) 5G
4 1 (0.074%) MIMO
4 1 (0.074%) Network Security
4 1 (0.074%) SAN
4 1 (0.074%) SMS
4 1 (0.074%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.074%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 290 (21.43%) Power BI
2 254 (18.77%) Data Warehouse
3 208 (15.37%) Data Lake
4 123 (9.09%) Metadata
5 106 (7.83%) Big Data
6 96 (7.10%) SQL Server
7 85 (6.28%) Delta Lake
8 79 (5.84%) Tableau
9 78 (5.76%) BigQuery
10 76 (5.62%) NoSQL
11 74 (5.47%) Snowflake Schema
12 72 (5.32%) Amazon Redshift
13 64 (4.73%) Azure SQL Database
14 60 (4.43%) Amazon Athena
15 55 (4.07%) Relational Database
16 53 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
17 50 (3.70%) Hadoop
18 39 (2.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
19 35 (2.59%) Spark SQL
20 29 (2.14%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 170 (12.56%) Git
2 65 (4.80%) GitLab
3 55 (4.07%) JIRA
4 38 (2.81%) MLflow
5 27 (2.00%) Jenkins
6 7 (0.52%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.37%) Selenium
8 4 (0.30%) Postman
9 3 (0.22%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.22%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.22%) Snyk
9 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.15%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.15%) ERwin
10 2 (0.15%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.074%) Deequ
11 1 (0.074%) git-flow
11 1 (0.074%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.074%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.074%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 334 (24.69%) Finance
2 319 (23.58%) Social Skills
3 200 (14.78%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (8.35%) Public Sector
5 89 (6.58%) Banking
6 31 (2.29%) Marketing
7 28 (2.07%) Retail
8 27 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
9 26 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (1.48%) Front Office
11 18 (1.33%) Investment Banking
12 15 (1.11%) Telecoms
13 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
14 11 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (0.74%) Legal
16 8 (0.59%) Law
17 6 (0.44%) Back Office
17 6 (0.44%) Military
18 4 (0.30%) Billing
18 4 (0.30%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 648 (47.89%) Data Engineer
2 183 (13.53%) Senior
3 143 (10.57%) Lead
4 138 (10.20%) Architect
5 115 (8.50%) Senior Data Engineer
6 76 (5.62%) Developer
7 71 (5.25%) Data Architect
8 64 (4.73%) AWS Engineer
9 59 (4.36%) Analyst
10 58 (4.29%) Lead Data Engineer
11 54 (3.99%) Snowflake Engineer
12 51 (3.77%) AWS Data Engineer
13 50 (3.70%) Azure Engineer
14 46 (3.40%) Data Scientist
15 44 (3.25%) Azure Data Engineer
15 44 (3.25%) Solutions Architect
16 43 (3.18%) Snowflake Data Engineer
17 40 (2.96%) Consultant
18 37 (2.73%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
19 35 (2.59%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 205 (15.15%) PySpark
2 145 (10.72%) Kafka
3 59 (4.36%) Pandas
4 41 (3.03%) PyTorch
5 40 (2.96%) scikit-learn
6 35 (2.59%) NumPy
6 35 (2.59%) REST
7 32 (2.37%) TensorFlow
8 27 (2.00%) JSON
9 24 (1.77%) Spring
10 23 (1.70%) React
11 18 (1.33%) LangChain
11 18 (1.33%) RESTful
12 17 (1.26%) Great Expectations
12 17 (1.26%) Spring Boot
12 17 (1.26%) YAML
13 16 (1.18%) FastAPI
13 16 (1.18%) pytest
14 13 (0.96%) Flask
14 13 (0.96%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 180 (13.30%) Cloud Native
2 51 (3.77%) Distributed Systems
3 47 (3.47%) Product Ownership
4 46 (3.40%) Data Structures
5 44 (3.25%) Legacy Systems
6 31 (2.29%) AI Agents
7 29 (2.14%) Onboarding
8 28 (2.07%) Distributed Computing
9 24 (1.77%) Algorithms
10 22 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
11 21 (1.55%) Greenfield Project
12 19 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
13 13 (0.96%) Fixed Income
13 13 (0.96%) NHS
13 13 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
14 12 (0.89%) Clustering
14 12 (0.89%) Reference Data
15 11 (0.81%) Hybrid Cloud
16 10 (0.74%) Data Fabric
16 10 (0.74%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.14%) Linux
2 25 (1.85%) Unix
3 6 (0.44%) VMS
4 3 (0.22%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.22%) Windows
5 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.074%) CentOS
6 1 (0.074%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 695 (51.37%) Analytics
2 632 (46.71%) Data Pipeline
3 529 (39.10%) Data Modelling
4 503 (37.18%) ETL
5 467 (34.52%) CI/CD
6 401 (29.64%) AI
7 350 (25.87%) Business Intelligence
8 338 (24.98%) Agile
8 338 (24.98%) DevOps
9 308 (22.76%) Data Governance
10 264 (19.51%) Machine Learning
11 238 (17.59%) Problem-Solving
12 231 (17.07%) Data Science
13 187 (13.82%) Data Architecture
14 179 (13.23%) Migration
15 176 (13.01%) Decision-Making
16 168 (12.42%) Validation
17 142 (10.50%) Infrastructure as Code
18 137 (10.13%) Data Integration
18 137 (10.13%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 751 (55.51%) SQL
2 708 (52.33%) Python
3 111 (8.20%) Java
4 51 (3.77%) Scala
5 45 (3.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 38 (2.81%) C#
7 35 (2.59%) Bash
8 27 (2.00%) T-SQL
9 21 (1.55%) PowerShell
10 18 (1.33%) JavaScript
10 18 (1.33%) R
11 16 (1.18%) PL/SQL
12 15 (1.11%) Bicep
13 12 (0.89%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.74%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.52%) Go
15 7 (0.52%) SAS Macro
16 4 (0.30%) Korn
17 3 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
18 2 (0.15%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 254 (18.77%) Security Cleared
2 224 (16.56%) SC Cleared
3 101 (7.46%) Degree
4 41 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
5 37 (2.73%) Azure Certification
5 37 (2.73%) Master's Degree
6 23 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (1.03%) DBS Check
8 12 (0.89%) AWS Certification
8 12 (0.89%) DV Cleared
9 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.52%) SnowPro
11 5 (0.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.37%) PhD
12 3 (0.22%) IBM Certification
12 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.15%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
14 1 (0.074%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 1 (0.074%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 379 (28.01%) Data Quality
2 88 (6.50%) GDPR
3 66 (4.88%) QA
4 13 (0.96%) SLA
5 12 (0.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (0.52%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.30%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.30%) MiFID
8 4 (0.30%) Solvency II
9 3 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.22%) GRC
9 3 (0.22%) PMO
10 2 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.15%) EMIR
10 2 (0.15%) NIST
10 2 (0.15%) SNOMED CT
11 1 (0.074%) HL7
11 1 (0.074%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 124 (9.16%) Docker
2 4 (0.30%) HDFS
2 4 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.074%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.074%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 164 (12.12%) Terraform
2 111 (8.20%) Kubernetes
3 26 (1.92%) Prometheus
4 24 (1.77%) Grafana
5 11 (0.81%) Ansible
6 5 (0.37%) Argo
7 3 (0.22%) Kibana
7 3 (0.22%) Kubeflow
7 3 (0.22%) Nagios
7 3 (0.22%) Rancher
8 2 (0.15%) Hadoop YARN
8 2 (0.15%) logstash
8 2 (0.15%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.074%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.074%) Control-M
9 1 (0.074%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.074%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.074%) Oozie
Vendors
1 364 (26.90%) Databricks
2 223 (16.48%) Microsoft
3 68 (5.03%) Informatica
4 60 (4.43%) Google
5 53 (3.92%) Oracle
6 32 (2.37%) Talend
7 26 (1.92%) OpenAI
8 25 (1.85%) SAP
9 23 (1.70%) Foundry
10 19 (1.40%) Splunk
11 18 (1.33%) Palantir
12 16 (1.18%) Cloudera
13 13 (0.96%) ServiceNow
14 11 (0.81%) Salesforce
15 9 (0.67%) UiPath
16 8 (0.59%) Automation Anywhere
17 7 (0.52%) Denodo
17 7 (0.52%) IBM
17 7 (0.52%) InterSystems
18 6 (0.44%) Teradata