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 1 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 159 219
Rank change year-on-year +71 +60 -10
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,272 522 484
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.85% 1.80% 1.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.33% 1.99% 1.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 876 366 366
10th Percentile £393 £375 £400
25th Percentile £450 £440 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £838 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £477 £550
% change year-on-year +4.77% -13.23% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 14 12
10th Percentile £51.25 £21.48 £30.46
25th Percentile £58.56 £22.13 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.97 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +169.59% -25.81% -
75th Percentile £77.25 £29.69 £45.19
90th Percentile £89.75 £61.63 £59.03
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.44 £25.43 £45.19
% change year-on-year +173.06% -43.72% +120.74%

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 38,255 26,278 38,264
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.62% 90.49% 86.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,265 17,064 24,859
10th Percentile £313 £308 £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 £636 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £485 £500
% change year-on-year - -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,246 966 2,352
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.00 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.26 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% -1.54% -11.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.72 £70.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.07 £31.50 £31.65
% change year-on-year +8.14% -0.47% -12.69%

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 1 April 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 1 April 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 1 April 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 +63 1,139 £525 -4.55% 542
London +55 738 £550 -4.35% 253
UK excluding London +49 404 £500 +4.77% 383
Work from Home +39 375 £550 -5.17% 229
Midlands +20 116 £517 +3.35% 51
North of England -7 111 £475 -5.00% 110
West Midlands +16 92 £528 -2.31% 36
South West +18 69 £538 -14.00% 49
North West -18 49 £471 -0.79% 59
Scotland +27 48 £440 -6.98% 21
South East -33 46 £550 +10.00% 111
Yorkshire -28 41 £475 -17.39% 40
North East +7 21 £450 -5.26% 13
East Midlands -17 21 £447 -5.89% 15
East of England -19 21 £575 +35.29% 34
Wales -14 5 £665 +181.78% 11
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
1 195 (15.33%) Apache Spark
2 130 (10.22%) Apache Airflow
3 87 (6.84%) Apache
4 31 (2.44%) SAS
5 20 (1.57%) Palantir Foundry
6 17 (1.34%) Confluence
7 8 (0.63%) Appian
8 7 (0.55%) Apache Superset
9 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.24%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.16%) Apache Synapse
11 2 (0.16%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.079%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.079%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.079%) Camunda
12 1 (0.079%) CMS
12 1 (0.079%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 28 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.31%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.24%) Trello
8 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (0.31%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.24%) BambooHR
2 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
2 3 (0.24%) SAP BPC
3 2 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.079%) Actimize
4 1 (0.079%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.079%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.079%) Maximo
4 1 (0.079%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.079%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 595 (46.78%) Azure
2 454 (35.69%) AWS
3 281 (22.09%) Power Platform
4 201 (15.80%) Azure Data Factory
5 176 (13.84%) GCP
6 170 (13.36%) Snowflake
7 148 (11.64%) Amazon S3
8 144 (11.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 136 (10.69%) GitHub
10 118 (9.28%) Serverless
11 108 (8.49%) dbt
12 104 (8.18%) Azure DevOps
13 91 (7.15%) AWS Lambda
14 80 (6.29%) GitHub Actions
15 63 (4.95%) AWS CloudFormation
16 38 (2.99%) AWS Step Functions
17 34 (2.67%) Amazon EMR
18 29 (2.28%) Collibra
19 27 (2.12%) Cloud Computing
20 26 (2.04%) Amazon SageMaker
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.39%) RTP
2 4 (0.31%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.31%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.31%) Network Security
3 3 (0.24%) Firewall
3 3 (0.24%) VPN
4 1 (0.079%) 4G
4 1 (0.079%) 5G
4 1 (0.079%) MQTT
4 1 (0.079%) SAN
4 1 (0.079%) SMS
4 1 (0.079%) SSL
4 1 (0.079%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 256 (20.13%) Power BI
2 251 (19.73%) Data Warehouse
3 189 (14.86%) Data Lake
4 120 (9.43%) Metadata
5 88 (6.92%) Big Data
6 87 (6.84%) SQL Server
7 85 (6.68%) Delta Lake
8 83 (6.53%) NoSQL
9 65 (5.11%) Amazon Athena
9 65 (5.11%) Amazon Redshift
9 65 (5.11%) Azure SQL Database
9 65 (5.11%) Tableau
10 64 (5.03%) Snowflake Schema
11 61 (4.80%) BigQuery
12 59 (4.64%) Relational Database
13 57 (4.48%) PostgreSQL
14 48 (3.77%) Hadoop
15 35 (2.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 34 (2.67%) Spark SQL
17 22 (1.73%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 178 (13.99%) Git
2 62 (4.87%) GitLab
3 50 (3.93%) MLflow
4 42 (3.30%) Jenkins
5 37 (2.91%) JIRA
6 7 (0.55%) Selenium
7 6 (0.47%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.31%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.24%) JUnit
9 3 (0.24%) Maven
9 3 (0.24%) Postman
9 3 (0.24%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.24%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.16%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.16%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.16%) Gemini Tracker
10 2 (0.16%) Mockito
10 2 (0.16%) Snyk
10 2 (0.16%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.079%) REST Assured
General
1 325 (25.55%) Social Skills
2 300 (23.58%) Finance
3 187 (14.70%) Analytical Skills
4 102 (8.02%) Public Sector
5 71 (5.58%) Banking
6 29 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 23 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (1.65%) Retail
9 18 (1.42%) Front Office
10 16 (1.26%) Marketing
11 15 (1.18%) Investment Banking
12 14 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
12 14 (1.10%) Telecoms
13 12 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.94%) Legal
14 10 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (0.55%) Law
15 7 (0.55%) Publishing
16 6 (0.47%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.47%) Military
Job Titles
1 586 (46.07%) Data Engineer
2 163 (12.81%) Senior
3 150 (11.79%) Lead
4 114 (8.96%) Architect
5 106 (8.33%) Senior Data Engineer
6 80 (6.29%) Developer
7 76 (5.97%) Azure Engineer
8 62 (4.87%) Azure Data Engineer
9 61 (4.80%) AWS Engineer
9 61 (4.80%) Data Architect
10 60 (4.72%) Analyst
11 57 (4.48%) Lead Data Engineer
12 53 (4.17%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 47 (3.69%) Snowflake Engineer
14 46 (3.62%) Data Scientist
15 40 (3.14%) AWS Data Engineer
15 40 (3.14%) Consultant
15 40 (3.14%) Snowflake Data Engineer
16 35 (2.75%) Data Analyst
17 33 (2.59%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (17.22%) PySpark
2 154 (12.11%) Kafka
3 64 (5.03%) Pandas
4 59 (4.64%) PyTorch
5 48 (3.77%) TensorFlow
6 46 (3.62%) scikit-learn
7 42 (3.30%) NumPy
8 30 (2.36%) JSON
9 28 (2.20%) REST
10 26 (2.04%) FastAPI
11 25 (1.97%) pytest
11 25 (1.97%) YAML
12 23 (1.81%) LangChain
13 22 (1.73%) RESTful
14 21 (1.65%) Flask
14 21 (1.65%) React
14 21 (1.65%) Spring
15 18 (1.42%) Great Expectations
16 15 (1.18%) OAuth
17 14 (1.10%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 167 (13.13%) Cloud Native
2 48 (3.77%) Algorithms
3 46 (3.62%) Product Ownership
4 45 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
5 36 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
6 29 (2.28%) Distributed Computing
7 28 (2.20%) Onboarding
8 26 (2.04%) Data Structures
9 23 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
10 21 (1.65%) AI Agents
11 20 (1.57%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
13 14 (1.10%) Clustering
14 13 (1.02%) Management Information System
14 13 (1.02%) NHS
15 12 (0.94%) Fixed Income
15 12 (0.94%) Virtual Team
16 11 (0.86%) Self-Motivation
17 10 (0.79%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.28%) Linux
2 16 (1.26%) Unix
3 8 (0.63%) VMS
4 3 (0.24%) Windows
5 2 (0.16%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.16%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.079%) CentOS
6 1 (0.079%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 634 (49.84%) Analytics
2 578 (45.44%) Data Pipeline
3 499 (39.23%) ETL
4 488 (38.36%) Data Modelling
5 463 (36.40%) CI/CD
6 345 (27.12%) AI
7 333 (26.18%) Data Governance
8 320 (25.16%) Business Intelligence
9 319 (25.08%) DevOps
10 310 (24.37%) Agile
11 273 (21.46%) Machine Learning
12 251 (19.73%) Problem-Solving
13 246 (19.34%) Data Science
14 197 (15.49%) Data Architecture
15 153 (12.03%) Infrastructure as Code
16 150 (11.79%) Decision-Making
16 150 (11.79%) Validation
17 145 (11.40%) Migration
18 130 (10.22%) Data Transformation
19 125 (9.83%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 721 (56.68%) Python
2 684 (53.77%) SQL
3 98 (7.70%) Java
4 66 (5.19%) Scala
5 44 (3.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 43 (3.38%) C#
7 39 (3.07%) Bash
8 35 (2.75%) PowerShell
9 23 (1.81%) JavaScript
9 23 (1.81%) T-SQL
10 19 (1.49%) R
11 18 (1.42%) Bicep
12 15 (1.18%) Go
13 12 (0.94%) TypeScript
14 11 (0.86%) Shell Script
15 10 (0.79%) PL/SQL
16 6 (0.47%) Korn
17 5 (0.39%) C++
17 5 (0.39%) SAS Macro
18 3 (0.24%) Rust
Qualifications
1 258 (20.28%) Security Cleared
2 218 (17.14%) SC Cleared
3 113 (8.88%) Degree
4 47 (3.69%) Azure Certification
5 46 (3.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 44 (3.46%) Master's Degree
7 20 (1.57%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.49%) DV Cleared
9 18 (1.42%) AWS Certification
10 12 (0.94%) PhD
11 11 (0.86%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.31%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 4 (0.31%) SnowPro
13 3 (0.24%) IBM Certification
14 2 (0.16%) Tableau Certification
15 1 (0.079%) ACCA
15 1 (0.079%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
15 1 (0.079%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 359 (28.22%) Data Quality
2 95 (7.47%) GDPR
3 44 (3.46%) QA
4 13 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 11 (0.86%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.71%) SLA
7 6 (0.47%) HIPAA
8 5 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.39%) PERC
8 5 (0.39%) SOC 2
9 4 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 4 (0.31%) Solvency II
10 3 (0.24%) GRC
10 3 (0.24%) WCAG
11 2 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.16%) HL7
11 2 (0.16%) MiFID
11 2 (0.16%) NIST
11 2 (0.16%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.16%) PMO
System Software
1 149 (11.71%) Docker
2 6 (0.47%) HDFS
3 3 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.079%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.079%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 182 (14.31%) Terraform
2 132 (10.38%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.20%) Prometheus
4 20 (1.57%) Grafana
5 9 (0.71%) Ansible
6 4 (0.31%) Argo
6 4 (0.31%) Kubeflow
7 3 (0.24%) Rancher
8 2 (0.16%) Hadoop YARN
8 2 (0.16%) Kibana
8 2 (0.16%) Nagios
8 2 (0.16%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.079%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.079%) Control-M
9 1 (0.079%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.079%) Oozie
Vendors
1 383 (30.11%) Databricks
2 198 (15.57%) Microsoft
3 62 (4.87%) Google
4 57 (4.48%) Informatica
5 40 (3.14%) Oracle
6 32 (2.52%) Talend
7 27 (2.12%) Foundry
8 22 (1.73%) Palantir
9 21 (1.65%) OpenAI
10 19 (1.49%) Splunk
11 16 (1.26%) Cloudera
11 16 (1.26%) SAP
12 11 (0.86%) Denodo
13 10 (0.79%) Salesforce
13 10 (0.79%) ServiceNow
14 9 (0.71%) UiPath
15 8 (0.63%) Automation Anywhere
15 8 (0.63%) IBM
16 7 (0.55%) MicroStrategy
17 5 (0.39%) Virgin Media