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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 158 212
Rank change year-on-year +69 +54 -1
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,364 508 486
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.78% 1.76% 1.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.28% 1.93% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 940 354 364
10th Percentile £390 £375 £363
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 9 15
10th Percentile £51.25 £22.67 £30.72
25th Percentile £56.75 £22.72 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £30.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +133.33% -14.29% -52.05%
75th Percentile £78.00 £53.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £56.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £26.47 £60.00
% change year-on-year +161.55% -55.89% -17.81%

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 41,610 26,282 36,757
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.67% 91.03% 85.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,026 16,812 23,631
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -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 2,481 1,100 2,513
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.30 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.26% -23.38% -1.35%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £73.88 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -33.82% +8.57%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 1,225 £528 -4.09% 427
London +63 756 £550 -4.35% 230
UK excluding London +71 489 £500 +5.26% 291
Work from Home +49 405 £530 +0.95% 206
North of England +12 141 £475 -5.00% 96
Midlands +20 126 £500 +8.11% 32
West Midlands +13 104 £500 -1.09% 21
South West +20 74 £500 -11.11% 24
South East -24 67 £538 +13.16% 99
Yorkshire -13 64 £480 -12.73% 22
Scotland +28 58 £460 -3.16% 14
North West -22 51 £506 +1.25% 53
North East -1 28 £438 -12.50% 22
East of England -22 22 £575 +54.08% 13
East Midlands -14 19 £525 +13.51% 11
Wales -9 9 £450 +100.61% 9
Northern Ireland - 3 £430 - 7

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
1 191 (14.00%) Apache Spark
2 149 (10.92%) Apache Airflow
3 100 (7.33%) Apache
4 37 (2.71%) SAS
5 24 (1.76%) Confluence
6 16 (1.17%) Palantir Foundry
7 15 (1.10%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.59%) Appian
9 7 (0.51%) Apache Superset
10 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.29%) SharePoint
11 2 (0.15%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.073%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.073%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.073%) Camunda
12 1 (0.073%) CICS
12 1 (0.073%) CMS
12 1 (0.073%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.073%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 29 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (0.44%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.37%) BambooHR
3 4 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
4 3 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.15%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.15%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.073%) Endur
6 1 (0.073%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.073%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 603 (44.21%) Azure
2 498 (36.51%) AWS
3 312 (22.87%) Power Platform
4 194 (14.22%) Snowflake
5 189 (13.86%) GCP
6 188 (13.78%) Azure Data Factory
7 148 (10.85%) Amazon S3
8 142 (10.41%) dbt
9 141 (10.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 128 (9.38%) GitHub
11 118 (8.65%) Azure DevOps
12 105 (7.70%) Serverless
13 84 (6.16%) AWS Lambda
14 76 (5.57%) GitHub Actions
15 46 (3.37%) AWS CloudFormation
16 39 (2.86%) Amazon EMR
17 30 (2.20%) AWS Step Functions
18 27 (1.98%) Collibra
19 26 (1.91%) Azure AI
19 26 (1.91%) Dagster
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.37%) RTP
2 4 (0.29%) Firewall
3 2 (0.15%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.073%) 4G
4 1 (0.073%) 5G
4 1 (0.073%) MIMO
4 1 (0.073%) Network Security
4 1 (0.073%) SAN
4 1 (0.073%) SMS
4 1 (0.073%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.073%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 289 (21.19%) Power BI
2 253 (18.55%) Data Warehouse
3 209 (15.32%) Data Lake
4 121 (8.87%) Metadata
5 108 (7.92%) Big Data
6 95 (6.96%) SQL Server
7 85 (6.23%) Delta Lake
8 79 (5.79%) Tableau
9 78 (5.72%) BigQuery
10 76 (5.57%) Snowflake Schema
11 75 (5.50%) NoSQL
12 71 (5.21%) Amazon Redshift
13 63 (4.62%) Azure SQL Database
14 61 (4.47%) Amazon Athena
15 55 (4.03%) Relational Database
16 54 (3.96%) PostgreSQL
17 50 (3.67%) Hadoop
18 38 (2.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
19 35 (2.57%) Spark SQL
20 30 (2.20%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 169 (12.39%) Git
2 69 (5.06%) GitLab
3 54 (3.96%) JIRA
4 36 (2.64%) MLflow
5 26 (1.91%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.44%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.37%) Postman
7 5 (0.37%) Selenium
8 3 (0.22%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.22%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.22%) Snyk
8 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.15%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.15%) ERwin
9 2 (0.15%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.073%) git-flow
10 1 (0.073%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.073%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.073%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.073%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 333 (24.41%) Finance
2 322 (23.61%) Social Skills
3 201 (14.74%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (8.72%) Public Sector
5 89 (6.52%) Banking
6 33 (2.42%) Marketing
7 29 (2.13%) Retail
8 28 (2.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 27 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (1.47%) Front Office
11 17 (1.25%) Investment Banking
12 15 (1.10%) Telecoms
13 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
14 11 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (0.73%) Legal
16 9 (0.66%) Law
17 6 (0.44%) Back Office
17 6 (0.44%) Manufacturing
17 6 (0.44%) Military
17 6 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 652 (47.80%) Data Engineer
2 185 (13.56%) Senior
3 144 (10.56%) Lead
4 141 (10.34%) Architect
5 116 (8.50%) Senior Data Engineer
6 75 (5.50%) Developer
7 74 (5.43%) Data Architect
8 65 (4.77%) AWS Engineer
9 60 (4.40%) Analyst
10 59 (4.33%) Lead Data Engineer
11 55 (4.03%) Snowflake Engineer
12 52 (3.81%) AWS Data Engineer
13 49 (3.59%) Azure Engineer
14 47 (3.45%) Data Scientist
15 44 (3.23%) Snowflake Data Engineer
15 44 (3.23%) Solutions Architect
16 43 (3.15%) Azure Data Engineer
17 41 (3.01%) Consultant
18 36 (2.64%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
19 35 (2.57%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (14.74%) PySpark
2 144 (10.56%) Kafka
3 58 (4.25%) Pandas
4 40 (2.93%) PyTorch
4 40 (2.93%) scikit-learn
5 37 (2.71%) REST
6 35 (2.57%) NumPy
7 32 (2.35%) TensorFlow
8 28 (2.05%) JSON
9 24 (1.76%) Spring
10 23 (1.69%) React
11 18 (1.32%) RESTful
12 17 (1.25%) Great Expectations
12 17 (1.25%) LangChain
12 17 (1.25%) Spring Boot
12 17 (1.25%) YAML
13 16 (1.17%) FastAPI
14 15 (1.10%) pytest
15 13 (0.95%) Django
15 13 (0.95%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 184 (13.49%) Cloud Native
2 51 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
3 49 (3.59%) Data Structures
4 48 (3.52%) Product Ownership
5 45 (3.30%) Legacy Systems
6 30 (2.20%) AI Agents
7 29 (2.13%) Onboarding
8 27 (1.98%) Distributed Computing
9 24 (1.76%) Algorithms
10 23 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
12 13 (0.95%) Fixed Income
12 13 (0.95%) NHS
13 12 (0.88%) Clustering
13 12 (0.88%) Reference Data
13 12 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (0.73%) Data Fabric
14 10 (0.73%) Equities
14 10 (0.73%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.13%) Linux
2 25 (1.83%) Unix
3 5 (0.37%) VMS
4 3 (0.22%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.22%) Windows
5 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.073%) CentOS
6 1 (0.073%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 704 (51.61%) Analytics
2 635 (46.55%) Data Pipeline
3 530 (38.86%) Data Modelling
4 500 (36.66%) ETL
5 477 (34.97%) CI/CD
6 406 (29.77%) AI
7 351 (25.73%) Business Intelligence
8 342 (25.07%) Agile
9 341 (25.00%) DevOps
10 307 (22.51%) Data Governance
11 269 (19.72%) Machine Learning
12 236 (17.30%) Problem-Solving
13 231 (16.94%) Data Science
14 190 (13.93%) Data Architecture
15 182 (13.34%) Migration
16 177 (12.98%) Decision-Making
17 170 (12.46%) Validation
18 146 (10.70%) Infrastructure as Code
19 141 (10.34%) Use Case
20 136 (9.97%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 756 (55.43%) SQL
2 719 (52.71%) Python
3 111 (8.14%) Java
4 50 (3.67%) Scala
5 45 (3.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 38 (2.79%) C#
7 35 (2.57%) Bash
8 26 (1.91%) T-SQL
9 21 (1.54%) PowerShell
10 18 (1.32%) JavaScript
10 18 (1.32%) R
11 16 (1.17%) PL/SQL
12 15 (1.10%) Bicep
13 12 (0.88%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.73%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.51%) SAS Macro
16 6 (0.44%) Go
17 5 (0.37%) Korn
18 3 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
19 2 (0.15%) C++
Qualifications
1 259 (18.99%) Security Cleared
2 229 (16.79%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.48%) Degree
4 41 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 36 (2.64%) Master's Degree
6 35 (2.57%) Azure Certification
7 23 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
8 14 (1.03%) DBS Check
9 12 (0.88%) AWS Certification
9 12 (0.88%) DV Cleared
10 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (0.51%) SnowPro
12 5 (0.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.37%) PhD
13 3 (0.22%) IBM Certification
13 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.15%) CSPO
14 2 (0.15%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
15 1 (0.073%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 378 (27.71%) Data Quality
2 88 (6.45%) GDPR
3 67 (4.91%) QA
4 13 (0.95%) SLA
5 12 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (0.51%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.29%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.29%) MiFID
8 4 (0.29%) 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%) GxP
10 2 (0.15%) NIST
10 2 (0.15%) SNOMED CT
11 1 (0.073%) HL7
System Software
1 128 (9.38%) Docker
2 4 (0.29%) HDFS
2 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.073%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.073%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 168 (12.32%) Terraform
2 109 (7.99%) Kubernetes
3 26 (1.91%) Prometheus
4 24 (1.76%) 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 (0.073%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.073%) Control-M
9 1 (0.073%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.073%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.073%) Oozie
Vendors
1 368 (26.98%) Databricks
2 226 (16.57%) Microsoft
3 67 (4.91%) Informatica
4 61 (4.47%) Google
5 56 (4.11%) Oracle
6 32 (2.35%) Talend
7 26 (1.91%) OpenAI
8 25 (1.83%) SAP
9 23 (1.69%) Foundry
10 19 (1.39%) Splunk
11 18 (1.32%) Palantir
12 16 (1.17%) Cloudera
13 13 (0.95%) ServiceNow
14 11 (0.81%) Salesforce
15 9 (0.66%) UiPath
16 8 (0.59%) Automation Anywhere
16 8 (0.59%) Denodo
17 7 (0.51%) IBM
17 7 (0.51%) InterSystems
18 5 (0.37%) Teradata