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 31 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 164 208
Rank change year-on-year +72 +44 +4
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,553 571 471
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.89% 1.73% 1.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.42% 1.92% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,068 354 343
10th Percentile £400 £363 £365
25th Percentile £445 £427 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £575
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -9.57% -4.17%
75th Percentile £638 £642 £675
90th Percentile £738 £762 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 7 12
10th Percentile £21.25 £37.48 £30.46
25th Percentile £28.13 £45.11 £31.25
Median hourly rate £69.00 £52.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.43% +10.53% -39.10%
75th Percentile £76.50 £76.25 £60.00
90th Percentile £87.05 £96.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £38.96 £60.00
% change year-on-year +34.75% -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 45,455 29,807 32,988
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.58% 90.45% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,783 18,569 20,737
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% -3.67%
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 2,905 1,767 1,609
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.30 £18.89
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +3.56%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -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 31 August 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 31 August 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 31 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
England +69 1,397 £525 - 830
London +56 859 £550 - 547
UK excluding London +80 542 £500 +5.26% 451
Work from Home +72 502 £525 +5.00% 368
North of England +23 177 £463 -2.63% 124
Midlands +36 137 £475 +5.44% 35
West Midlands +40 112 £475 -6.31% 27
South East -14 91 £500 +11.11% 138
Yorkshire +16 84 £475 +5.56% 24
South West +15 69 £525 -8.70% 62
North West -18 58 £513 +2.50% 75
Scotland -5 43 £506 +8.87% 46
North East -5 37 £425 -20.93% 26
East of England -1 27 £575 -4.17% 21
East Midlands -2 22 £525 +20.62% 8
Wales - 7 £450 - 15
Northern Ireland +6 4 £334 - 11

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
1 183 (11.78%) Apache Airflow
2 166 (10.69%) Apache Spark
3 126 (8.11%) Apache
4 39 (2.51%) SAS
5 38 (2.45%) Confluence
6 22 (1.42%) Jupyter
7 18 (1.16%) Palantir Foundry
8 13 (0.84%) 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
Applications
1 18 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
3 6 (0.39%) 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 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.32%) BambooHR
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
6 2 (0.13%) Endur
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
6 2 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 2 (0.13%) Temenos T24
7 1 (0.064%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.064%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.064%) MIS ActiveH
7 1 (0.064%) R3 Corda
7 1 (0.064%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 651 (41.92%) Azure
2 580 (37.35%) AWS
3 314 (20.22%) Power Platform
4 260 (16.74%) Snowflake
5 210 (13.52%) dbt
6 209 (13.46%) GCP
7 172 (11.08%) Amazon S3
8 166 (10.69%) Azure Data Factory
9 136 (8.76%) Azure DevOps
9 136 (8.76%) Serverless
10 133 (8.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 126 (8.11%) GitHub
12 113 (7.28%) AWS Lambda
13 80 (5.15%) Azure Databricks
14 64 (4.12%) GitHub Actions
15 52 (3.35%) Amazon EMR
16 34 (2.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 31 (2.00%) Amazon Bedrock
18 29 (1.87%) Microsoft Purview
19 27 (1.74%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.32%) Firewall
2 4 (0.26%) Broadband
3 3 (0.19%) DNS
3 3 (0.19%) Network Security
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
Database & Business Intelligence
1 318 (20.48%) Data Warehouse
2 300 (19.32%) Power BI
3 211 (13.59%) Data Lake
4 166 (10.69%) Metadata
5 113 (7.28%) BigQuery
6 112 (7.21%) Amazon Redshift
7 104 (6.70%) Delta Lake
8 92 (5.92%) Big Data
9 82 (5.28%) Tableau
10 78 (5.02%) Amazon Athena
11 66 (4.25%) SQL Server
12 65 (4.19%) Snowflake Schema
13 57 (3.67%) Relational Database
14 50 (3.22%) NoSQL
15 49 (3.16%) PostgreSQL
16 45 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
17 42 (2.70%) Looker
18 36 (2.32%) Star Schema
19 35 (2.25%) Data Vault
20 30 (1.93%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 163 (10.50%) Git
2 86 (5.54%) GitLab
3 72 (4.64%) JIRA
4 27 (1.74%) MLflow
5 26 (1.67%) Jenkins
6 8 (0.52%) ERwin
7 7 (0.45%) RStudio
7 7 (0.45%) Terragrunt
8 6 (0.39%) Bitbucket
8 6 (0.39%) 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%) Yeoman
13 1 (0.064%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 387 (24.92%) Social Skills
2 356 (22.92%) Finance
3 258 (16.61%) Analytical Skills
4 159 (10.24%) Public Sector
5 117 (7.53%) Banking
6 51 (3.28%) Marketing
7 37 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 31 (2.00%) Retail
9 26 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
10 23 (1.48%) Front Office
10 23 (1.48%) Investment Banking
11 22 (1.42%) Telecoms
12 17 (1.09%) Law
12 17 (1.09%) Manufacturing
13 14 (0.90%) Pharmaceutical
14 13 (0.84%) Financial Institution
15 12 (0.77%) Billing
15 12 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
16 11 (0.71%) Police
17 10 (0.64%) Legal
Job Titles
1 724 (46.62%) Data Engineer
2 234 (15.07%) Senior
3 175 (11.27%) Architect
4 170 (10.95%) Lead
5 143 (9.21%) Senior Data Engineer
6 97 (6.25%) Data Architect
7 94 (6.05%) Developer
8 76 (4.89%) AWS Engineer
9 67 (4.31%) Analyst
10 66 (4.25%) Snowflake Engineer
11 65 (4.19%) Databricks Engineer
12 64 (4.12%) AWS Data Engineer
13 55 (3.54%) Azure Engineer
13 55 (3.54%) Lead Data Engineer
14 51 (3.28%) Databricks Data Engineer
15 50 (3.22%) Python Engineer
16 48 (3.09%) Snowflake Data Engineer
17 45 (2.90%) Consultant
18 42 (2.70%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 42 (2.70%) Azure Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 233 (15.00%) PySpark
2 209 (13.46%) Terraform
3 122 (7.86%) Kafka
4 55 (3.54%) REST
5 33 (2.12%) JSON
6 32 (2.06%) React
7 27 (1.74%) Pandas
8 24 (1.55%) .NET
9 20 (1.29%) PyTorch
10 18 (1.16%) scikit-learn
10 18 (1.16%) TensorFlow
11 17 (1.09%) Spring
12 16 (1.03%) NumPy
13 14 (0.90%) pytest
14 13 (0.84%) FastAPI
14 13 (0.84%) XML
15 12 (0.77%) Great Expectations
16 11 (0.71%) LangChain
16 11 (0.71%) Microsoft Graph
16 11 (0.71%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 202 (13.01%) Cloud Native
2 74 (4.76%) Data Structures
3 64 (4.12%) Legacy Systems
4 60 (3.86%) Product Ownership
5 56 (3.61%) Distributed Systems
5 56 (3.61%) Onboarding
6 42 (2.70%) AI Agents
7 25 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
8 22 (1.42%) Greenfield Project
9 18 (1.16%) Distributed Computing
10 17 (1.09%) NHS
11 16 (1.03%) Algorithms
11 16 (1.03%) Clustering
11 16 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
11 16 (1.03%) Virtual Team
12 15 (0.97%) Life Science
13 14 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
13 14 (0.90%) Management Information System
14 13 (0.84%) Reference Data
15 12 (0.77%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 37 (2.38%) Linux
2 31 (2.00%) Unix
3 8 (0.52%) 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
1 760 (48.94%) Analytics
2 744 (47.91%) Data Pipeline
3 593 (38.18%) Data Modelling
4 540 (34.77%) ETL
5 535 (34.45%) CI/CD
6 460 (29.62%) AI
7 392 (25.24%) Business Intelligence
8 381 (24.53%) Agile
9 360 (23.18%) DevOps
10 353 (22.73%) Data Governance
11 268 (17.26%) Machine Learning
12 255 (16.42%) Problem-Solving
13 243 (15.65%) Data Transformation
13 243 (15.65%) Migration
14 237 (15.26%) Stakeholder Management
15 230 (14.81%) Data Architecture
15 230 (14.81%) Validation
16 227 (14.62%) Data Science
17 226 (14.55%) Decision-Making
18 212 (13.65%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 847 (54.54%) SQL
2 798 (51.38%) Python
3 112 (7.21%) Java
4 47 (3.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 42 (2.70%) PowerShell
6 41 (2.64%) Scala
7 38 (2.45%) Bash
8 32 (2.06%) C#
9 28 (1.80%) JavaScript
10 23 (1.48%) R
11 21 (1.35%) T-SQL
12 20 (1.29%) PL/SQL
13 16 (1.03%) Shell Script
14 15 (0.97%) Bicep
15 11 (0.71%) TypeScript
16 9 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
16 9 (0.58%) SAS Macro
17 8 (0.52%) SPARQL
18 6 (0.39%) Cypher
18 6 (0.39%) LookML
Qualifications
1 297 (19.12%) Security Cleared
2 254 (16.36%) SC Cleared
3 89 (5.73%) Degree
4 46 (2.96%) Computer Science Degree
5 30 (1.93%) Azure Certification
6 28 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 26 (1.67%) DV Cleared
8 22 (1.42%) AWS Certification
8 22 (1.42%) Master's Degree
9 14 (0.90%) DBS Check
10 12 (0.77%) SnowPro
11 11 (0.71%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 8 (0.52%) Microsoft Certification
13 6 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CSPO
14 5 (0.32%) Tableau Certification
15 4 (0.26%) PMI Certification
16 3 (0.19%) PhD
16 3 (0.19%) PMP
17 1 (0.064%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 484 (31.17%) Data Quality
2 76 (4.89%) GDPR
3 74 (4.76%) QA
4 26 (1.67%) Accessibility
5 12 (0.77%) SLA
6 4 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
7 3 (0.19%) GxP
7 3 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 3 (0.19%) MiFID
7 3 (0.19%) NIST
7 3 (0.19%) PMO
7 3 (0.19%) Solvency II
8 2 (0.13%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.13%) COPPA
8 2 (0.13%) EMIR
8 2 (0.13%) GRC
System Software
1 130 (8.37%) Docker
2 5 (0.32%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.064%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 105 (6.76%) Kubernetes
2 29 (1.87%) Grafana
3 24 (1.55%) Ansible
4 10 (0.64%) Prometheus
5 7 (0.45%) Control-M
6 6 (0.39%) Kibana
7 3 (0.19%) logstash
8 2 (0.13%) Argo
8 2 (0.13%) Puppet
8 2 (0.13%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.13%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.064%) Cilium
9 1 (0.064%) Data Guard
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
Vendors
1 420 (27.04%) Databricks
2 270 (17.39%) Microsoft
3 79 (5.09%) Informatica
4 73 (4.70%) Google
5 67 (4.31%) Oracle
6 32 (2.06%) SAP
7 28 (1.80%) Salesforce
7 28 (1.80%) Talend
8 27 (1.74%) Foundry
9 26 (1.67%) Palantir
10 15 (0.97%) Cloudera
10 15 (0.97%) OpenAI
11 14 (0.90%) ServiceNow
11 14 (0.90%) Teradata
12 12 (0.77%) Trend Micro
13 9 (0.58%) Adobe
13 9 (0.58%) Workday
14 8 (0.52%) Bloomberg
15 7 (0.45%) InterSystems
15 7 (0.45%) Splunk