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 11 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 154 219
Rank change year-on-year +60 +65 -7
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,162 534 492
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.73% 1.81% 1.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.17% 2.01% 1.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 805 375 369
10th Percentile £375 £375 £375
25th Percentile £440 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £617 £663 £675
90th Percentile £749 £838 £739
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £550
% change year-on-year +2.04% -10.91% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 13 13
10th Percentile £50.63 £21.40 £30.55
25th Percentile £56.31 £22.00 £31.25
Median hourly rate £69.22 £25.43 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +172.20% -27.34% -
75th Percentile £75.00 £28.75 £43.51
90th Percentile £86.88 £58.00 £62.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £25.43 £47.69
% change year-on-year +171.33% -46.67% +139.50%

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 36,632 26,629 38,749
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.08% 90.34% 86.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,216 16,983 25,185
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.84% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,179 898 2,347
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.57 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.61 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.89% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £64.75 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.68 £76.53 £71.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £32.00 £31.80
% change year-on-year -17.02% +0.63% -9.14%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 +60 1,032 £525 -4.55% 572
London +56 678 £550 -4.35% 211
UK excluding London +38 365 £500 +2.04% 400
Work from Home +26 344 £550 -4.35% 279
North of England -2 105 £458 -8.50% 107
Midlands +14 103 £517 +3.35% 51
West Midlands +7 83 £530 +6.00% 39
South West +16 59 £550 -15.38% 43
Scotland +36 49 £440 -6.98% 20
North West -9 49 £450 - 48
South East -29 41 £550 +10.00% 142
Yorkshire -45 35 £478 -20.42% 51
North East +8 21 £450 -10.00% 8
East Midlands -21 20 £447 -12.78% 12
East of England -26 14 £575 +79.69% 33
Wales -14 7 £563 +108.33% 9
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 1

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 (15.92%) Apache Spark
2 114 (9.81%) Apache Airflow
3 84 (7.23%) Apache
4 21 (1.81%) SAS
5 20 (1.72%) Palantir Foundry
6 15 (1.29%) Confluence
7 8 (0.69%) Appian
8 4 (0.34%) Jupyter
8 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.26%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.17%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.086%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.086%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.086%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.086%) Camunda
11 1 (0.086%) CMS
11 1 (0.086%) IBM HTTP Server
11 1 (0.086%) Luigi
Applications
1 24 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.34%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.34%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.26%) Trello
7 2 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.086%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 7 (0.60%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.26%) BambooHR
2 3 (0.26%) SAP BPC
3 2 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.086%) Actimize
4 1 (0.086%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.086%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.086%) Maximo
4 1 (0.086%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.086%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.086%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 545 (46.90%) Azure
2 414 (35.63%) AWS
3 251 (21.60%) Power Platform
4 199 (17.13%) Azure Data Factory
5 164 (14.11%) GCP
6 155 (13.34%) Snowflake
7 138 (11.88%) Amazon S3
8 124 (10.67%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 119 (10.24%) Serverless
10 117 (10.07%) GitHub
11 98 (8.43%) Azure DevOps
11 98 (8.43%) dbt
12 93 (8.00%) AWS Lambda
13 73 (6.28%) GitHub Actions
14 64 (5.51%) AWS CloudFormation
15 38 (3.27%) AWS Step Functions
16 32 (2.75%) Amazon EMR
17 28 (2.41%) Collibra
18 26 (2.24%) Amazon SageMaker
18 26 (2.24%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.34%) Cisco IPT
1 4 (0.34%) Kerberos
1 4 (0.34%) Network Security
1 4 (0.34%) RTP
2 3 (0.26%) VPN
3 2 (0.17%) Firewall
4 1 (0.086%) 4G
4 1 (0.086%) 5G
4 1 (0.086%) MQTT
4 1 (0.086%) SAN
4 1 (0.086%) SMS
4 1 (0.086%) SSL
4 1 (0.086%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 232 (19.97%) Data Warehouse
2 229 (19.71%) Power BI
3 166 (14.29%) Data Lake
4 104 (8.95%) Metadata
5 84 (7.23%) Big Data
6 82 (7.06%) NoSQL
6 82 (7.06%) SQL Server
7 73 (6.28%) Delta Lake
8 61 (5.25%) Snowflake Schema
9 59 (5.08%) Amazon Athena
9 59 (5.08%) Amazon Redshift
10 58 (4.99%) Relational Database
11 57 (4.91%) BigQuery
12 56 (4.82%) PostgreSQL
13 55 (4.73%) Azure SQL Database
14 50 (4.30%) Tableau
15 49 (4.22%) Hadoop
16 34 (2.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 32 (2.75%) Spark SQL
18 22 (1.89%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 169 (14.54%) Git
2 61 (5.25%) GitLab
3 45 (3.87%) Jenkins
3 45 (3.87%) MLflow
4 29 (2.50%) JIRA
5 6 (0.52%) Selenium
6 5 (0.43%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.43%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (0.34%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.26%) JUnit
8 3 (0.26%) Maven
8 3 (0.26%) Postman
8 3 (0.26%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.26%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.17%) ERwin
9 2 (0.17%) Gemini Tracker
9 2 (0.17%) JMeter
9 2 (0.17%) Mockito
9 2 (0.17%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.17%) Zephyr
General
1 314 (27.02%) Social Skills
2 268 (23.06%) Finance
3 160 (13.77%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (8.26%) Public Sector
5 75 (6.45%) Banking
6 28 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 20 (1.72%) Investment Banking
7 20 (1.72%) Retail
8 19 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
9 18 (1.55%) Front Office
9 18 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
10 16 (1.38%) Marketing
11 11 (0.95%) Legal
11 11 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
12 10 (0.86%) Telecoms
13 9 (0.77%) Financial Institution
13 9 (0.77%) Publishing
14 6 (0.52%) Back Office
14 6 (0.52%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.52%) Military
Job Titles
1 525 (45.18%) Data Engineer
2 160 (13.77%) Lead
3 150 (12.91%) Senior
4 100 (8.61%) Senior Data Engineer
5 99 (8.52%) Architect
6 80 (6.88%) Azure Engineer
7 75 (6.45%) Developer
8 63 (5.42%) Azure Data Engineer
9 57 (4.91%) Lead Data Engineer
10 56 (4.82%) AWS Engineer
11 52 (4.48%) Analyst
11 52 (4.48%) Data Architect
12 50 (4.30%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 46 (3.96%) Snowflake Engineer
14 42 (3.61%) Data Scientist
15 39 (3.36%) Snowflake Data Engineer
16 36 (3.10%) AWS Data Engineer
17 32 (2.75%) Python Engineer
18 30 (2.58%) Consultant
19 29 (2.50%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 212 (18.24%) PySpark
2 141 (12.13%) Kafka
3 65 (5.59%) Pandas
4 60 (5.16%) PyTorch
5 49 (4.22%) TensorFlow
6 44 (3.79%) NumPy
6 44 (3.79%) scikit-learn
7 33 (2.84%) FastAPI
8 30 (2.58%) JSON
8 30 (2.58%) RESTful
9 27 (2.32%) Flask
10 26 (2.24%) pytest
10 26 (2.24%) YAML
11 24 (2.07%) LangChain
11 24 (2.07%) REST
12 23 (1.98%) React
13 17 (1.46%) Great Expectations
13 17 (1.46%) Spring
14 16 (1.38%) ARM Templates
15 15 (1.29%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 151 (12.99%) Cloud Native
2 49 (4.22%) Algorithms
3 45 (3.87%) Product Ownership
4 40 (3.44%) Distributed Systems
5 30 (2.58%) Distributed Computing
6 26 (2.24%) Onboarding
7 25 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
8 24 (2.07%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.89%) Hybrid Cloud
10 20 (1.72%) AI Agents
10 20 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
11 18 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.12%) Fixed Income
12 13 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
13 12 (1.03%) Clustering
13 12 (1.03%) Derivative
13 12 (1.03%) Management Information System
13 12 (1.03%) NHS
14 11 (0.95%) Life Science
14 11 (0.95%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 24 (2.07%) Linux
2 8 (0.69%) Unix
3 7 (0.60%) VMS
4 2 (0.17%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.17%) Windows
5 1 (0.086%) CentOS
5 1 (0.086%) Debian
5 1 (0.086%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 549 (47.25%) Analytics
2 527 (45.35%) Data Pipeline
3 465 (40.02%) ETL
4 444 (38.21%) Data Modelling
5 428 (36.83%) CI/CD
6 315 (27.11%) AI
7 312 (26.85%) Data Governance
8 296 (25.47%) DevOps
9 294 (25.30%) Agile
10 284 (24.44%) Business Intelligence
11 259 (22.29%) Machine Learning
12 236 (20.31%) Problem-Solving
13 232 (19.97%) Data Science
14 179 (15.40%) Data Architecture
15 150 (12.91%) Infrastructure as Code
16 129 (11.10%) Decision-Making
17 126 (10.84%) Validation
18 121 (10.41%) LLM
19 112 (9.64%) Migration
20 110 (9.47%) Data Ingestion
Programming Languages
1 688 (59.21%) Python
2 619 (53.27%) SQL
3 91 (7.83%) Java
4 65 (5.59%) Scala
5 45 (3.87%) C#
6 35 (3.01%) Bash
6 35 (3.01%) PowerShell
7 34 (2.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 32 (2.75%) JavaScript
9 22 (1.89%) Bicep
10 21 (1.81%) T-SQL
11 17 (1.46%) TypeScript
12 16 (1.38%) Go
13 14 (1.20%) R
14 11 (0.95%) C++
15 9 (0.77%) PL/SQL
16 6 (0.52%) Korn
16 6 (0.52%) Rust
17 5 (0.43%) Shell Script
18 3 (0.26%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 230 (19.79%) Security Cleared
2 189 (16.27%) SC Cleared
3 112 (9.64%) Degree
4 50 (4.30%) Azure Certification
5 46 (3.96%) Computer Science Degree
5 46 (3.96%) Master's Degree
6 22 (1.89%) DV Cleared
7 19 (1.64%) AWS Certification
7 19 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
8 14 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
9 12 (1.03%) PhD
10 4 (0.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.34%) DBS Check
10 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.26%) IBM Certification
12 1 (0.086%) ACCA
12 1 (0.086%) CIMA
12 1 (0.086%) CISM
12 1 (0.086%) ISTQB
12 1 (0.086%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 327 (28.14%) Data Quality
2 92 (7.92%) GDPR
3 39 (3.36%) QA
4 15 (1.29%) Accessibility
5 11 (0.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (0.69%) HIPAA
6 8 (0.69%) SLA
7 6 (0.52%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 5 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.43%) PERC
8 5 (0.43%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.26%) GRC
9 3 (0.26%) Solvency II
9 3 (0.26%) WCAG
10 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.17%) HL7
10 2 (0.17%) MiFID
10 2 (0.17%) NIST
10 2 (0.17%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.086%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 149 (12.82%) Docker
2 6 (0.52%) HDFS
3 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.086%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.086%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 179 (15.40%) Terraform
2 138 (11.88%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.41%) Prometheus
4 17 (1.46%) Grafana
5 7 (0.60%) Ansible
6 4 (0.34%) Argo
7 3 (0.26%) Kubeflow
7 3 (0.26%) Rancher
8 2 (0.17%) Hadoop YARN
8 2 (0.17%) Kibana
8 2 (0.17%) Nagios
9 1 (0.086%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.086%) Control-M
9 1 (0.086%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.086%) Oozie
9 1 (0.086%) Thomson Reuters DACS
Vendors
1 352 (30.29%) Databricks
2 165 (14.20%) Microsoft
3 60 (5.16%) Google
4 39 (3.36%) Informatica
5 37 (3.18%) Oracle
6 27 (2.32%) Talend
7 26 (2.24%) Foundry
8 24 (2.07%) Palantir
9 22 (1.89%) OpenAI
10 17 (1.46%) Splunk
11 14 (1.20%) SAP
12 11 (0.95%) Cloudera
12 11 (0.95%) Salesforce
13 9 (0.77%) Denodo
13 9 (0.77%) UiPath
14 8 (0.69%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (0.69%) IBM
15 7 (0.60%) ServiceNow
16 6 (0.52%) Guidewire
16 6 (0.52%) Virgin Media