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 3 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 166 202
Rank change year-on-year +74 +36 +10
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,564 573 471
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.92% 1.76% 1.23%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.45% 1.95% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,080 358 344
10th Percentile £400 £363 £363
25th Percentile £446 £426 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £514 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.19% -10.65% -4.17%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £738 £753 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £500
% change year-on-year +5.82% -5.50% -13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 7 11
10th Percentile £21.25 £37.48 £30.37
25th Percentile £28.25 £45.11 £31.25
Median hourly rate £69.00 £52.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.43% -12.50% -23.08%
75th Percentile £76.50 £76.25 -
90th Percentile £87.05 £96.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £38.96 £60.00
% change year-on-year +73.25% -35.07% -23.08%

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 45,377 29,398 32,720
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,769 18,279 20,543
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.49%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,906 1,760 1,592
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.73 £17.30 £18.69
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.03 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.58 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +88.14% -47.37% +14.67%

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 3 September 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 3 September 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 3 September 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 +72 1,402 £525 - 1,549
London +62 869 £550 - 1,041
UK excluding London +78 540 £500 +5.82% 767
Work from Home +77 511 £525 +5.00% 666
North of England +35 175 £469 -1.32% 205
Midlands +31 134 £478 +6.10% 65
West Midlands +29 110 £475 -6.31% 49
South East -14 91 £500 +8.93% 184
Yorkshire +17 83 £475 - 37
South West +20 71 £525 -8.70% 95
North West -17 57 £513 +5.13% 142
Scotland -10 44 £506 +9.16% 99
North East -9 37 £425 -20.93% 26
East of England -5 27 £575 +27.78% 56
East Midlands -9 21 £525 +20.62% 16
Wales - 7 £450 - 21
Northern Ireland +6 4 £334 - 42

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
1 186 (11.89%) Apache Airflow
2 168 (10.74%) Apache Spark
3 131 (8.38%) Apache
4 41 (2.62%) Confluence
5 39 (2.49%) SAS
6 21 (1.34%) Jupyter
7 18 (1.15%) Palantir Foundry
8 14 (0.90%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.45%) Apache Superset
10 5 (0.32%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.32%) ArcGIS
11 3 (0.19%) PowerExchange
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
13 1 (0.064%) Apache Synapse
13 1 (0.064%) CICS
13 1 (0.064%) Ethereum
13 1 (0.064%) GeoServer
13 1 (0.064%) Hyperledger
13 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Exchange
13 1 (0.064%) SugarCRM
Applications
1 18 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
3 6 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.32%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.064%) Notion
Business Applications
1 12 (0.77%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
3 4 (0.26%) Sage X3
3 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
3 4 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.13%) BambooHR
5 2 (0.13%) Endur
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 2 (0.13%) Temenos T24
6 1 (0.064%) Distributed Ledger
6 1 (0.064%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.064%) MIS ActiveH
6 1 (0.064%) R3 Corda
6 1 (0.064%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 661 (42.26%) Azure
2 583 (37.28%) AWS
3 307 (19.63%) Power Platform
4 259 (16.56%) Snowflake
5 212 (13.55%) GCP
6 211 (13.49%) dbt
7 170 (10.87%) Amazon S3
7 170 (10.87%) Azure Data Factory
8 141 (9.02%) Azure DevOps
9 138 (8.82%) Serverless
10 133 (8.50%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 128 (8.18%) GitHub
12 113 (7.23%) AWS Lambda
13 82 (5.24%) Azure Databricks
14 64 (4.09%) GitHub Actions
15 51 (3.26%) Amazon EMR
16 34 (2.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 33 (2.11%) Amazon Bedrock
18 32 (2.05%) Microsoft Purview
19 29 (1.85%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.32%) Firewall
2 4 (0.26%) Broadband
2 4 (0.26%) Network Security
3 3 (0.19%) DNS
4 2 (0.13%) RTP
5 1 (0.064%) Internet
5 1 (0.064%) MIMO
5 1 (0.064%) MQTT
5 1 (0.064%) SMS
5 1 (0.064%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 317 (20.27%) Data Warehouse
2 294 (18.80%) Power BI
3 212 (13.55%) Data Lake
4 172 (11.00%) Metadata
5 110 (7.03%) BigQuery
6 106 (6.78%) Delta Lake
7 105 (6.71%) Amazon Redshift
8 93 (5.95%) Big Data
9 77 (4.92%) Tableau
10 74 (4.73%) Amazon Athena
11 67 (4.28%) SQL Server
12 63 (4.03%) Snowflake Schema
13 57 (3.64%) Relational Database
14 50 (3.20%) NoSQL
15 48 (3.07%) PostgreSQL
16 46 (2.94%) Azure SQL Database
17 39 (2.49%) Looker
18 35 (2.24%) Star Schema
19 34 (2.17%) Data Vault
20 29 (1.85%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 168 (10.74%) Git
2 85 (5.43%) GitLab
3 75 (4.80%) JIRA
4 28 (1.79%) MLflow
5 25 (1.60%) Jenkins
6 8 (0.51%) ERwin
6 8 (0.51%) RStudio
7 7 (0.45%) Terragrunt
8 6 (0.38%) Bitbucket
8 6 (0.38%) Selenium
9 5 (0.32%) Claude Code
9 5 (0.32%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.26%) ER Studio
11 3 (0.19%) Artifactory
11 3 (0.19%) Snyk
11 3 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
12 2 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 2 (0.13%) Postman
12 2 (0.13%) TeamCity
12 2 (0.13%) Yeoman
General
1 389 (24.87%) Social Skills
2 360 (23.02%) Finance
3 260 (16.62%) Analytical Skills
4 161 (10.29%) Public Sector
5 121 (7.74%) Banking
6 51 (3.26%) Marketing
7 37 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 32 (2.05%) Retail
9 26 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
10 25 (1.60%) Investment Banking
11 23 (1.47%) Front Office
12 19 (1.21%) Law
12 19 (1.21%) Telecoms
13 16 (1.02%) Manufacturing
14 13 (0.83%) Financial Institution
14 13 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.83%) Pharmaceutical
15 12 (0.77%) Billing
15 12 (0.77%) Police
16 11 (0.70%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 729 (46.61%) Data Engineer
2 238 (15.22%) Senior
3 174 (11.13%) Architect
4 171 (10.93%) Lead
5 145 (9.27%) Senior Data Engineer
6 97 (6.20%) Developer
7 95 (6.07%) Data Architect
8 73 (4.67%) AWS Engineer
9 68 (4.35%) Databricks Engineer
10 67 (4.28%) Analyst
11 65 (4.16%) Snowflake Engineer
12 63 (4.03%) AWS Data Engineer
13 58 (3.71%) Azure Engineer
14 54 (3.45%) Lead Data Engineer
15 53 (3.39%) Databricks Data Engineer
16 50 (3.20%) Python Engineer
17 47 (3.01%) Snowflake Data Engineer
18 46 (2.94%) Consultant
19 43 (2.75%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
19 43 (2.75%) Azure Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 234 (14.96%) PySpark
2 211 (13.49%) Terraform
3 121 (7.74%) Kafka
4 61 (3.90%) REST
5 35 (2.24%) JSON
6 33 (2.11%) React
7 28 (1.79%) Pandas
8 26 (1.66%) .NET
9 19 (1.21%) PyTorch
10 18 (1.15%) scikit-learn
11 17 (1.09%) Spring
11 17 (1.09%) TensorFlow
12 16 (1.02%) NumPy
13 15 (0.96%) XML
14 14 (0.90%) pytest
15 13 (0.83%) FastAPI
15 13 (0.83%) LangChain
16 11 (0.70%) Great Expectations
16 11 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
16 11 (0.70%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 203 (12.98%) Cloud Native
2 75 (4.80%) Data Structures
3 63 (4.03%) Legacy Systems
4 62 (3.96%) Onboarding
5 60 (3.84%) Product Ownership
6 54 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
7 45 (2.88%) AI Agents
8 24 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (1.41%) Greenfield Project
10 18 (1.15%) Distributed Computing
10 18 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
11 17 (1.09%) NHS
12 16 (1.02%) Algorithms
12 16 (1.02%) Clustering
12 16 (1.02%) Virtual Team
13 15 (0.96%) Management Information System
14 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (0.90%) Life Science
15 13 (0.83%) Reference Data
16 11 (0.70%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 35 (2.24%) Linux
2 31 (1.98%) Unix
3 8 (0.51%) Windows
4 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.064%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.064%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.064%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 753 (48.15%) Data Pipeline
2 752 (48.08%) Analytics
3 594 (37.98%) Data Modelling
4 549 (35.10%) CI/CD
5 543 (34.72%) ETL
6 464 (29.67%) AI
7 393 (25.13%) Agile
8 385 (24.62%) Business Intelligence
9 371 (23.72%) DevOps
10 356 (22.76%) Data Governance
11 271 (17.33%) Machine Learning
12 255 (16.30%) Problem-Solving
13 253 (16.18%) Migration
14 244 (15.60%) Data Transformation
15 241 (15.41%) Stakeholder Management
16 234 (14.96%) Validation
17 233 (14.90%) Data Science
18 231 (14.77%) Data Architecture
19 222 (14.19%) Decision-Making
20 215 (13.75%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 845 (54.03%) SQL
2 804 (51.41%) Python
3 112 (7.16%) Java
4 48 (3.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 43 (2.75%) Scala
6 40 (2.56%) PowerShell
7 35 (2.24%) Bash
8 33 (2.11%) C#
9 28 (1.79%) JavaScript
10 24 (1.53%) R
11 22 (1.41%) T-SQL
12 20 (1.28%) PL/SQL
13 15 (0.96%) Shell Script
14 14 (0.90%) Bicep
15 12 (0.77%) TypeScript
16 10 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
17 9 (0.58%) SAS Macro
17 9 (0.58%) SPARQL
18 7 (0.45%) Cypher
19 6 (0.38%) LookML
Qualifications
1 307 (19.63%) Security Cleared
2 262 (16.75%) SC Cleared
3 89 (5.69%) Degree
4 47 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 30 (1.92%) Azure Certification
6 29 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
6 29 (1.85%) DV Cleared
7 23 (1.47%) AWS Certification
8 22 (1.41%) Master's Degree
9 14 (0.90%) DBS Check
10 13 (0.83%) SnowPro
11 11 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Certification
13 5 (0.32%) CSPO
13 5 (0.32%) Tableau Certification
14 4 (0.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (0.26%) PMI Certification
15 3 (0.19%) PhD
15 3 (0.19%) PMP
16 2 (0.13%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 498 (31.84%) Data Quality
2 76 (4.86%) QA
3 72 (4.60%) GDPR
4 26 (1.66%) Accessibility
5 12 (0.77%) SLA
6 5 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.19%) GRC
8 3 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.19%) MiFID
8 3 (0.19%) NIST
8 3 (0.19%) PMO
9 2 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.13%) COPPA
9 2 (0.13%) EMIR
9 2 (0.13%) IFRS
9 2 (0.13%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.13%) Solvency II
System Software
1 132 (8.44%) Docker
2 5 (0.32%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 108 (6.91%) Kubernetes
2 28 (1.79%) Grafana
3 24 (1.53%) Ansible
4 9 (0.58%) Prometheus
5 7 (0.45%) Control-M
6 6 (0.38%) Kibana
7 3 (0.19%) logstash
8 2 (0.13%) Argo
8 2 (0.13%) Puppet
8 2 (0.13%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.064%) Cilium
9 1 (0.064%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.064%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.064%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.064%) Nagios
9 1 (0.064%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 1 (0.064%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.064%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.064%) QRadar
9 1 (0.064%) Thomson Reuters DACS
Vendors
1 427 (27.30%) Databricks
2 278 (17.77%) Microsoft
3 78 (4.99%) Informatica
4 72 (4.60%) Google
5 68 (4.35%) Oracle
6 32 (2.05%) SAP
7 29 (1.85%) Foundry
7 29 (1.85%) Salesforce
7 29 (1.85%) Talend
8 26 (1.66%) Palantir
9 17 (1.09%) OpenAI
10 16 (1.02%) Cloudera
11 14 (0.90%) ServiceNow
11 14 (0.90%) Teradata
12 12 (0.77%) Trend Micro
13 9 (0.58%) Adobe
14 8 (0.51%) Splunk
15 7 (0.45%) Bloomberg
15 7 (0.45%) Hitachi
15 7 (0.45%) InterSystems