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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 158 215
Rank change year-on-year +68 +57 +9
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,250 524 488
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 1.81% 1.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.30% 1.99% 1.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 859 372 369
10th Percentile £392 £375 £406
25th Percentile £450 £437 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £670 £675
90th Percentile £750 £838 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £550
% change year-on-year +5.26% -13.64% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 14 12
10th Percentile £51.25 £21.48 £30.46
25th Percentile £56.75 £22.13 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.97 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +169.59% -25.81% -
75th Percentile £75.00 £29.69 £45.19
90th Percentile £90.00 £61.63 £59.03
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £25.43 £45.19
% change year-on-year +172.20% -43.72% +123.80%

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 37,825 26,281 38,283
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.77% 90.55% 86.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,952 17,099 24,858
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 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,225 950 2,347
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.20 £12.83
25th Percentile £18.75 £20.49 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -1.54% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £57.91
90th Percentile £76.40 £77.22 £71.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.50 £31.64 £31.50
% change year-on-year -3.60% +0.44% -13.10%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +54 1,117 £525 -4.55% 542
London +57 730 £550 -4.35% 253
UK excluding London +44 393 £500 +5.26% 383
Work from Home +43 369 £550 -4.35% 229
Midlands +22 114 £514 +2.75% 51
North of England -8 107 £466 -6.75% 110
West Midlands +15 91 £525 -2.78% 36
South West +18 66 £550 -12.00% 49
North West -10 49 £471 -0.79% 59
Scotland +23 48 £440 -6.98% 21
South East -29 48 £550 +10.00% 111
Yorkshire -32 37 £473 -17.83% 40
North East +7 21 £450 -5.26% 13
East Midlands -16 21 £447 -5.89% 15
East of England -27 18 £575 +78.92% 34
Wales -14 5 £665 +169.82% 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
1 194 (15.52%) Apache Spark
2 130 (10.40%) Apache Airflow
3 90 (7.20%) Apache
4 27 (2.16%) SAS
5 19 (1.52%) Palantir Foundry
6 18 (1.44%) Confluence
7 8 (0.64%) Appian
8 5 (0.40%) Apache Superset
9 4 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.24%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.16%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.080%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.080%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.080%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.080%) Camunda
12 1 (0.080%) CMS
12 1 (0.080%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 28 (2.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.32%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.24%) Trello
8 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (0.32%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.24%) BambooHR
2 3 (0.24%) SAP BPC
3 2 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.080%) Actimize
4 1 (0.080%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.080%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.080%) Maximo
4 1 (0.080%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.080%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 588 (47.04%) Azure
2 452 (36.16%) AWS
3 274 (21.92%) Power Platform
4 201 (16.08%) Azure Data Factory
5 178 (14.24%) GCP
6 167 (13.36%) Snowflake
7 150 (12.00%) Amazon S3
8 142 (11.36%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 136 (10.88%) GitHub
10 121 (9.68%) Serverless
11 107 (8.56%) dbt
12 101 (8.08%) Azure DevOps
13 94 (7.52%) AWS Lambda
14 79 (6.32%) GitHub Actions
15 64 (5.12%) AWS CloudFormation
16 39 (3.12%) Amazon EMR
17 38 (3.04%) AWS Step Functions
18 29 (2.32%) Collibra
19 27 (2.16%) Cloud Computing
20 26 (2.08%) Amazon SageMaker
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.40%) RTP
2 4 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.32%) Kerberos
2 4 (0.32%) Network Security
3 3 (0.24%) Firewall
3 3 (0.24%) VPN
4 1 (0.080%) 4G
4 1 (0.080%) 5G
4 1 (0.080%) MQTT
4 1 (0.080%) SAN
4 1 (0.080%) SMS
4 1 (0.080%) SSL
4 1 (0.080%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 251 (20.08%) Power BI
2 250 (20.00%) Data Warehouse
3 184 (14.72%) Data Lake
4 116 (9.28%) Metadata
5 89 (7.12%) Big Data
6 88 (7.04%) SQL Server
7 83 (6.64%) NoSQL
8 80 (6.40%) Delta Lake
9 65 (5.20%) Azure SQL Database
10 64 (5.12%) Amazon Athena
10 64 (5.12%) Amazon Redshift
10 64 (5.12%) Relational Database
10 64 (5.12%) Snowflake Schema
11 59 (4.72%) BigQuery
11 59 (4.72%) PostgreSQL
11 59 (4.72%) Tableau
12 52 (4.16%) Hadoop
13 35 (2.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 33 (2.64%) Spark SQL
15 22 (1.76%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 176 (14.08%) Git
2 63 (5.04%) GitLab
3 49 (3.92%) MLflow
4 42 (3.36%) Jenkins
5 36 (2.88%) JIRA
6 7 (0.56%) Selenium
7 6 (0.48%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.32%) 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 (0.080%) Artifactory
General
1 326 (26.08%) Social Skills
2 300 (24.00%) Finance
3 179 (14.32%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (8.00%) Public Sector
5 73 (5.84%) Banking
6 31 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (1.68%) Retail
8 18 (1.44%) Front Office
9 17 (1.36%) Marketing
10 16 (1.28%) Investment Banking
11 14 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
11 14 (1.12%) Telecoms
12 12 (0.96%) Financial Institution
13 11 (0.88%) Legal
14 10 (0.80%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (0.56%) Publishing
16 6 (0.48%) Back Office
16 6 (0.48%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.48%) Military
Job Titles
1 577 (46.16%) Data Engineer
2 159 (12.72%) Senior
3 152 (12.16%) Lead
4 109 (8.72%) Architect
5 104 (8.32%) Senior Data Engineer
6 78 (6.24%) Developer
7 75 (6.00%) Azure Engineer
8 61 (4.88%) AWS Engineer
8 61 (4.88%) Azure Data Engineer
9 59 (4.72%) Analyst
9 59 (4.72%) Data Architect
10 58 (4.64%) Lead Data Engineer
11 52 (4.16%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 47 (3.76%) Data Scientist
12 47 (3.76%) Snowflake Engineer
13 40 (3.20%) AWS Data Engineer
13 40 (3.20%) Snowflake Data Engineer
14 37 (2.96%) Consultant
15 35 (2.80%) Data Analyst
16 34 (2.72%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 221 (17.68%) PySpark
2 151 (12.08%) Kafka
3 67 (5.36%) Pandas
4 59 (4.72%) PyTorch
5 48 (3.84%) scikit-learn
5 48 (3.84%) TensorFlow
6 45 (3.60%) NumPy
7 30 (2.40%) JSON
8 28 (2.24%) FastAPI
8 28 (2.24%) REST
9 26 (2.08%) YAML
10 25 (2.00%) pytest
11 24 (1.92%) LangChain
12 23 (1.84%) Flask
13 22 (1.76%) React
13 22 (1.76%) RESTful
14 19 (1.52%) Spring
15 18 (1.44%) Great Expectations
16 15 (1.20%) OAuth
17 14 (1.12%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 164 (13.12%) Cloud Native
2 50 (4.00%) Algorithms
3 46 (3.68%) Product Ownership
4 44 (3.52%) Distributed Systems
5 35 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
6 31 (2.48%) Distributed Computing
7 27 (2.16%) Onboarding
8 25 (2.00%) Data Structures
9 24 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
10 20 (1.60%) AI Agents
10 20 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (1.60%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
12 14 (1.12%) Clustering
13 13 (1.04%) Management Information System
14 12 (0.96%) Fixed Income
14 12 (0.96%) Virtual Team
15 11 (0.88%) NHS
15 11 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
16 10 (0.80%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.32%) Linux
2 15 (1.20%) Unix
3 8 (0.64%) VMS
4 3 (0.24%) Windows
5 2 (0.16%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.16%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.080%) CentOS
6 1 (0.080%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 619 (49.52%) Analytics
2 571 (45.68%) Data Pipeline
3 495 (39.60%) ETL
4 482 (38.56%) Data Modelling
5 458 (36.64%) CI/CD
6 337 (26.96%) AI
7 330 (26.40%) Data Governance
8 315 (25.20%) DevOps
9 314 (25.12%) Business Intelligence
10 311 (24.88%) Agile
11 271 (21.68%) Machine Learning
12 251 (20.08%) Problem-Solving
13 242 (19.36%) Data Science
14 198 (15.84%) Data Architecture
15 149 (11.92%) Decision-Making
15 149 (11.92%) Infrastructure as Code
16 147 (11.76%) Validation
17 139 (11.12%) Migration
18 126 (10.08%) LLM
19 124 (9.92%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 717 (57.36%) Python
2 675 (54.00%) SQL
3 95 (7.60%) Java
4 68 (5.44%) Scala
5 45 (3.60%) C#
6 43 (3.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 38 (3.04%) Bash
8 35 (2.80%) PowerShell
9 24 (1.92%) JavaScript
10 23 (1.84%) T-SQL
11 18 (1.44%) Bicep
11 18 (1.44%) R
12 16 (1.28%) Go
13 14 (1.12%) TypeScript
14 11 (0.88%) Shell Script
15 10 (0.80%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.56%) C++
17 6 (0.48%) Korn
18 4 (0.32%) Rust
18 4 (0.32%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 252 (20.16%) Security Cleared
2 212 (16.96%) SC Cleared
3 114 (9.12%) Degree
4 47 (3.76%) Azure Certification
5 46 (3.68%) Computer Science Degree
5 46 (3.68%) Master's Degree
6 20 (1.60%) DV Cleared
7 19 (1.52%) AWS Certification
7 19 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (0.96%) PhD
9 11 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.32%) DBS Check
10 4 (0.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.24%) IBM Certification
11 3 (0.24%) SnowPro
12 1 (0.080%) ACCA
12 1 (0.080%) CIMA
12 1 (0.080%) CISM
12 1 (0.080%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 359 (28.72%) Data Quality
2 94 (7.52%) GDPR
3 44 (3.52%) QA
4 13 (1.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 11 (0.88%) Accessibility
6 8 (0.64%) SLA
7 6 (0.48%) HIPAA
8 5 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.40%) PERC
8 5 (0.40%) SOC 2
9 4 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 4 (0.32%) 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
1 150 (12.00%) Docker
2 6 (0.48%) HDFS
3 3 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.080%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.080%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 178 (14.24%) Terraform
2 132 (10.56%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.24%) Prometheus
4 18 (1.44%) Grafana
5 9 (0.72%) Ansible
6 4 (0.32%) Argo
6 4 (0.32%) 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 (0.080%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.080%) Control-M
9 1 (0.080%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.080%) Oozie
Vendors
1 375 (30.00%) Databricks
2 191 (15.28%) Microsoft
3 63 (5.04%) Google
4 54 (4.32%) Informatica
5 38 (3.04%) Oracle
6 30 (2.40%) Talend
7 25 (2.00%) Foundry
8 22 (1.76%) OpenAI
8 22 (1.76%) Palantir
9 19 (1.52%) Splunk
10 15 (1.20%) Cloudera
10 15 (1.20%) SAP
11 10 (0.80%) Denodo
11 10 (0.80%) Salesforce
11 10 (0.80%) ServiceNow
12 9 (0.72%) UiPath
13 8 (0.64%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (0.64%) IBM
14 7 (0.56%) MicroStrategy
15 5 (0.40%) Virgin Media