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 26 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 163 203
Rank change year-on-year +74 +40 +7
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,475 531 512
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.90% 1.76% 1.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.41% 1.93% 1.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,017 355 381
10th Percentile £386 £370 £363
25th Percentile £440 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £630 £666 £675
90th Percentile £738 £825 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £510
% change year-on-year +5.26% -6.86% -9.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 7 15
10th Percentile £45.85 £24.75 £30.72
25th Percentile £55.88 £28.13 £31.25
Median hourly rate £69.44 £38.96 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.23% +11.31% -52.05%
75th Percentile £76.50 £53.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £89.50 £58.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £28.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +140.00% -52.08% -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 43,249 27,546 37,029
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 91.07% 85.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,953 17,432 23,598
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £502 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.54% -4.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £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 2,594 1,315 2,564
10th Percentile £14.81 £14.20 £12.74
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.44 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +7.14%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.95 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.71 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.66 £38.12
% change year-on-year +82.48% -35.31% +17.65%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 26 June 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 +74 1,309 £525 -2.55% 420
London +62 783 £550 -2.22% 251
UK excluding London +72 546 £500 +5.26% 278
Work from Home +66 477 £525 - 198
North of England +30 168 £475 -5.00% 65
Midlands +20 134 £500 +8.11% 37
West Midlands +30 114 £475 -18.10% 24
South West +25 81 £500 -11.11% 32
South East -14 76 £525 +5.00% 112
Yorkshire +2 73 £480 +3.78% 11
North West -9 59 £500 - 41
Scotland +22 58 £475 - 12
North East +1 38 £425 -15.00% 13
East of England -19 25 £575 +71.29% 15
East Midlands -3 17 £525 +13.51% 13
Wales -6 10 £450 +75.14% 6
Northern Ireland - 5 £334 - 4

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
1 195 (13.22%) Apache Spark
2 171 (11.59%) Apache Airflow
3 113 (7.66%) Apache
4 44 (2.98%) SAS
5 38 (2.58%) Confluence
6 23 (1.56%) Jupyter
7 18 (1.22%) Palantir Foundry
8 12 (0.81%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.47%) Apache Superset
10 6 (0.41%) Appian
11 5 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
12 3 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 2 (0.14%) Apache Synapse
14 1 (0.068%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 1 (0.068%) Camunda
14 1 (0.068%) CICS
14 1 (0.068%) IBM HTTP Server
14 1 (0.068%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 26 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.20%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.14%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.068%) Notion
7 1 (0.068%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.47%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
3 5 (0.34%) BambooHR
3 5 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.20%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.20%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.14%) Endur
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.14%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.14%) Temenos T24
6 1 (0.068%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.068%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.068%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.068%) SAP ECC
6 1 (0.068%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 632 (42.85%) Azure
2 563 (38.17%) AWS
3 332 (22.51%) Power Platform
4 216 (14.64%) Snowflake
5 201 (13.63%) GCP
6 179 (12.14%) Amazon S3
7 170 (11.53%) Azure Data Factory
8 166 (11.25%) dbt
9 134 (9.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 128 (8.68%) GitHub
10 128 (8.68%) Serverless
11 121 (8.20%) Azure DevOps
12 111 (7.53%) AWS Lambda
13 73 (4.95%) GitHub Actions
14 59 (4.00%) Amazon EMR
15 42 (2.85%) AWS CloudFormation
16 33 (2.24%) Azure AI
17 32 (2.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 29 (1.97%) Amazon SageMaker
18 29 (1.97%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.34%) Firewall
1 5 (0.34%) RTP
2 2 (0.14%) Network Security
3 1 (0.068%) 4G
3 1 (0.068%) 5G
3 1 (0.068%) MIMO
3 1 (0.068%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 307 (20.81%) Power BI
2 280 (18.98%) Data Warehouse
3 217 (14.71%) Data Lake
4 144 (9.76%) Metadata
5 115 (7.80%) Big Data
6 108 (7.32%) Amazon Redshift
7 91 (6.17%) Delta Lake
8 87 (5.90%) BigQuery
9 86 (5.83%) SQL Server
10 82 (5.56%) Tableau
11 79 (5.36%) Amazon Athena
12 72 (4.88%) Snowflake Schema
13 71 (4.81%) NoSQL
14 59 (4.00%) Relational Database
15 57 (3.86%) PostgreSQL
16 51 (3.46%) Azure SQL Database
17 50 (3.39%) Hadoop
18 34 (2.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 34 (2.31%) Star Schema
19 29 (1.97%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 174 (11.80%) Git
2 80 (5.42%) GitLab
3 69 (4.68%) JIRA
4 34 (2.31%) MLflow
5 20 (1.36%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.41%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.27%) Postman
7 4 (0.27%) Selenium
8 3 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.20%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.20%) Snyk
8 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.14%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.14%) ERwin
9 2 (0.14%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.14%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.068%) Deequ
10 1 (0.068%) git-flow
10 1 (0.068%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.068%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 371 (25.15%) Social Skills
2 351 (23.80%) Finance
3 225 (15.25%) Analytical Skills
4 158 (10.71%) Public Sector
5 109 (7.39%) Banking
6 39 (2.64%) Marketing
7 35 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 33 (2.24%) Retail
9 19 (1.29%) Telecoms
10 18 (1.22%) Front Office
10 18 (1.22%) Investment Banking
11 14 (0.95%) Financial Institution
12 12 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (0.81%) Law
12 12 (0.81%) Manufacturing
13 11 (0.75%) Legal
14 8 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (0.47%) Billing
16 5 (0.34%) Military
Job Titles
1 684 (46.37%) Data Engineer
2 216 (14.64%) Senior
3 168 (11.39%) Architect
4 164 (11.12%) Lead
5 127 (8.61%) Senior Data Engineer
6 90 (6.10%) Data Architect
7 82 (5.56%) Developer
8 76 (5.15%) AWS Engineer
9 66 (4.47%) Analyst
10 65 (4.41%) Lead Data Engineer
11 59 (4.00%) AWS Data Engineer
12 55 (3.73%) Snowflake Engineer
13 51 (3.46%) Azure Engineer
14 49 (3.32%) Data Scientist
15 47 (3.19%) Solutions Architect
16 45 (3.05%) Azure Data Engineer
17 44 (2.98%) Snowflake Data Engineer
18 43 (2.92%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 43 (2.92%) Python Engineer
19 42 (2.85%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 225 (15.25%) PySpark
2 141 (9.56%) Kafka
3 45 (3.05%) Pandas
4 43 (2.92%) REST
5 34 (2.31%) scikit-learn
6 33 (2.24%) PyTorch
7 32 (2.17%) JSON
8 29 (1.97%) NumPy
9 25 (1.69%) Spring
9 25 (1.69%) TensorFlow
10 24 (1.63%) React
11 18 (1.22%) Spring Boot
12 17 (1.15%) RESTful
13 16 (1.08%) .NET
13 16 (1.08%) FastAPI
14 15 (1.02%) YAML
15 14 (0.95%) OpenTelemetry
15 14 (0.95%) XML
16 13 (0.88%) LangChain
16 13 (0.88%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 200 (13.56%) Cloud Native
2 61 (4.14%) Data Structures
3 58 (3.93%) Distributed Systems
4 56 (3.80%) Legacy Systems
5 50 (3.39%) Product Ownership
6 37 (2.51%) Onboarding
7 35 (2.37%) AI Agents
8 27 (1.83%) Distributed Computing
9 24 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
10 23 (1.56%) Greenfield Project
11 22 (1.49%) Algorithms
11 22 (1.49%) NHS
12 20 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (1.15%) Virtual Team
14 16 (1.08%) Clustering
15 15 (1.02%) Management Information System
16 14 (0.95%) Fixed Income
17 13 (0.88%) Reference Data
17 13 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
18 11 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 29 (1.97%) Linux
2 25 (1.69%) Unix
3 5 (0.34%) VMS
4 3 (0.20%) Windows
5 2 (0.14%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 770 (52.20%) Analytics
2 702 (47.59%) Data Pipeline
3 567 (38.44%) Data Modelling
4 535 (36.27%) CI/CD
5 518 (35.12%) ETL
6 441 (29.90%) AI
7 384 (26.03%) Business Intelligence
8 378 (25.63%) Agile
9 365 (24.75%) DevOps
10 322 (21.83%) Data Governance
11 287 (19.46%) Machine Learning
12 266 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
13 262 (17.76%) Data Science
14 208 (14.10%) Migration
15 207 (14.03%) Decision-Making
16 206 (13.97%) Data Architecture
17 201 (13.63%) Validation
18 177 (12.00%) Infrastructure as Code
19 174 (11.80%) Stakeholder Management
20 167 (11.32%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 808 (54.78%) SQL
2 791 (53.63%) Python
3 117 (7.93%) Java
4 46 (3.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 42 (2.85%) Scala
6 37 (2.51%) Bash
7 36 (2.44%) C#
8 25 (1.69%) T-SQL
9 24 (1.63%) PowerShell
10 21 (1.42%) JavaScript
11 20 (1.36%) R
12 18 (1.22%) Bicep
13 16 (1.08%) PL/SQL
14 13 (0.88%) Shell Script
14 13 (0.88%) TypeScript
15 11 (0.75%) SAS Macro
16 7 (0.47%) SPARQL
17 6 (0.41%) Cypher
18 5 (0.34%) Kusto Query Language
19 4 (0.27%) Korn
Qualifications
1 282 (19.12%) Security Cleared
2 250 (16.95%) SC Cleared
3 109 (7.39%) Degree
4 46 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 38 (2.58%) Master's Degree
6 35 (2.37%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (2.10%) Azure Certification
8 20 (1.36%) AWS Certification
9 14 (0.95%) DV Cleared
10 13 (0.88%) DBS Check
11 9 (0.61%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 9 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
11 9 (0.61%) SnowPro
12 6 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.34%) CSPO
14 3 (0.20%) IBM Certification
14 3 (0.20%) PhD
15 2 (0.14%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.14%) Tableau Certification
16 1 (0.068%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 431 (29.22%) Data Quality
2 90 (6.10%) GDPR
3 68 (4.61%) QA
4 15 (1.02%) SLA
5 10 (0.68%) Accessibility
6 7 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.27%) MiFID
8 4 (0.27%) Solvency II
9 3 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.20%) GRC
9 3 (0.20%) GxP
9 3 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.20%) NIST
10 2 (0.14%) COPPA
10 2 (0.14%) EMIR
10 2 (0.14%) PMO
System Software
1 135 (9.15%) Docker
2 3 (0.20%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.14%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 202 (13.69%) Terraform
2 113 (7.66%) Kubernetes
3 27 (1.83%) Grafana
4 26 (1.76%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.61%) Ansible
6 4 (0.27%) Kibana
7 3 (0.20%) Argo
7 3 (0.20%) Nagios
7 3 (0.20%) Rancher
8 2 (0.14%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.14%) logstash
8 2 (0.14%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.068%) Control-M
9 1 (0.068%) Hadoop YARN
9 1 (0.068%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.068%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.068%) Oozie
Vendors
1 389 (26.37%) Databricks
2 255 (17.29%) Microsoft
3 84 (5.69%) Informatica
4 60 (4.07%) Oracle
5 57 (3.86%) Google
6 32 (2.17%) Talend
7 28 (1.90%) OpenAI
8 27 (1.83%) Foundry
9 26 (1.76%) Palantir
9 26 (1.76%) SAP
10 24 (1.63%) Salesforce
11 22 (1.49%) Splunk
12 16 (1.08%) ServiceNow
13 15 (1.02%) Cloudera
14 12 (0.81%) Trend Micro
15 8 (0.54%) Denodo
16 7 (0.47%) InterSystems
16 7 (0.47%) UiPath
17 6 (0.41%) IBM
17 6 (0.41%) Teradata