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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 171 211
Rank change year-on-year +81 +40 0
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,554 566 456
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.91% 1.72% 1.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.43% 1.90% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,071 357 337
10th Percentile £388 £363 £400
25th Percentile £443 £427 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £575
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -9.57% -8.00%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £676
90th Percentile £750 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -15.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 7 14
10th Percentile £21.25 £32.38 £24.32
25th Percentile £35.00 £45.11 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £52.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% +50.00% -52.05%
75th Percentile £78.00 £76.25 £60.00
90th Percentile £89.00 £96.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.75 £31.98 £60.00
% change year-on-year +89.96% -46.70% -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 45,312 29,789 33,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.84% 90.47% 85.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,886 18,626 21,285
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £421 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,829 1,693 1,837
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.57% -1.35%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +17.24%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 +70 1,398 £525 - 929
London +50 832 £550 - 585
UK excluding London +92 571 £500 +5.26% 459
Work from Home +73 502 £525 +5.00% 397
North of England +29 181 £463 -2.63% 153
Midlands +42 154 £486 +6.92% 42
West Midlands +41 129 £475 -0.63% 32
South East -24 90 £525 +11.94% 128
Yorkshire +16 86 £475 +2.70% 41
South West +18 74 £505 -12.17% 62
North West -5 58 £500 +5.26% 89
Scotland +10 46 £488 +3.72% 40
North East -8 39 £425 -20.93% 24
East of England -6 28 £575 +31.43% 12
East Midlands +1 22 £525 +15.45% 10
Wales - 7 £450 - 8
Northern Ireland +9 4 £334 - 15

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
1 181 (11.65%) Apache Spark
2 178 (11.45%) Apache Airflow
3 124 (7.98%) Apache
4 47 (3.02%) SAS
5 40 (2.57%) Confluence
6 23 (1.48%) Jupyter
7 20 (1.29%) Palantir Foundry
8 11 (0.71%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.45%) Apache Superset
10 5 (0.32%) ArcGIS
11 4 (0.26%) Apache Solr
12 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Exchange
13 1 (0.064%) Apache Synapse
13 1 (0.064%) CICS
13 1 (0.064%) Ethereum
13 1 (0.064%) Hyperledger
13 1 (0.064%) nginx
13 1 (0.064%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 21 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.32%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.064%) Notion
Business Applications
1 13 (0.84%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.32%) BambooHR
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
6 2 (0.13%) Endur
6 2 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
6 2 (0.13%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 2 (0.13%) Temenos T24
7 1 (0.064%) Distributed Ledger
7 1 (0.064%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.064%) MIS ActiveH
7 1 (0.064%) R3 Corda
7 1 (0.064%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 652 (41.96%) Azure
2 583 (37.52%) AWS
3 325 (20.91%) Power Platform
4 252 (16.22%) Snowflake
5 207 (13.32%) GCP
6 197 (12.68%) dbt
7 171 (11.00%) Azure Data Factory
8 170 (10.94%) Amazon S3
9 147 (9.46%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 138 (8.88%) Azure DevOps
11 131 (8.43%) GitHub
12 127 (8.17%) Serverless
13 108 (6.95%) AWS Lambda
14 69 (4.44%) GitHub Actions
15 56 (3.60%) Amazon EMR
16 36 (2.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 31 (1.99%) AWS CloudFormation
18 30 (1.93%) Azure AI
19 29 (1.87%) Amazon Bedrock
19 29 (1.87%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.32%) Firewall
2 2 (0.13%) Broadband
2 2 (0.13%) Network Security
2 2 (0.13%) RTP
3 1 (0.064%) 4G
3 1 (0.064%) 5G
3 1 (0.064%) MIMO
3 1 (0.064%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 308 (19.82%) Data Warehouse
2 306 (19.69%) Power BI
3 214 (13.77%) Data Lake
4 155 (9.97%) Metadata
5 107 (6.89%) Amazon Redshift
6 104 (6.69%) BigQuery
7 103 (6.63%) Delta Lake
8 100 (6.44%) Big Data
9 84 (5.41%) Tableau
10 76 (4.89%) Amazon Athena
11 71 (4.57%) SQL Server
12 64 (4.12%) Snowflake Schema
13 62 (3.99%) NoSQL
14 58 (3.73%) Relational Database
15 49 (3.15%) PostgreSQL
16 45 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
17 39 (2.51%) Looker
18 36 (2.32%) Hadoop
18 36 (2.32%) Star Schema
19 32 (2.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 172 (11.07%) Git
2 84 (5.41%) GitLab
3 70 (4.50%) JIRA
4 28 (1.80%) Jenkins
5 26 (1.67%) MLflow
6 7 (0.45%) ERwin
6 7 (0.45%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.39%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.26%) Selenium
8 4 (0.26%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.19%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.19%) ER Studio
9 3 (0.19%) Postman
9 3 (0.19%) Snyk
9 3 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.13%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.13%) Yeoman
11 1 (0.064%) Deequ
11 1 (0.064%) git-flow
11 1 (0.064%) TestRail
General
1 386 (24.84%) Social Skills
2 361 (23.23%) Finance
3 255 (16.41%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (10.62%) Public Sector
5 118 (7.59%) Banking
6 45 (2.90%) Marketing
7 37 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 35 (2.25%) Retail
9 29 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
10 25 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 24 (1.54%) Front Office
11 24 (1.54%) Investment Banking
12 16 (1.03%) Manufacturing
13 15 (0.97%) Financial Institution
14 14 (0.90%) Pharmaceutical
15 12 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
15 12 (0.77%) Law
16 10 (0.64%) Legal
17 9 (0.58%) Back Office
17 9 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 723 (46.53%) Data Engineer
2 215 (13.84%) Senior
3 185 (11.90%) Lead
4 176 (11.33%) Architect
5 130 (8.37%) Senior Data Engineer
6 95 (6.11%) Developer
7 94 (6.05%) Data Architect
8 84 (5.41%) AWS Engineer
9 71 (4.57%) Analyst
10 69 (4.44%) AWS Data Engineer
11 62 (3.99%) Azure Engineer
11 62 (3.99%) Lead Data Engineer
11 62 (3.99%) Snowflake Engineer
12 53 (3.41%) Azure Data Engineer
13 49 (3.15%) Python Engineer
14 47 (3.02%) Snowflake Data Engineer
15 46 (2.96%) Solutions Architect
16 44 (2.83%) Consultant
17 43 (2.77%) Data Analyst
18 41 (2.64%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 228 (14.67%) PySpark
2 128 (8.24%) Kafka
3 41 (2.64%) REST
4 33 (2.12%) Pandas
5 27 (1.74%) JSON
5 27 (1.74%) React
6 24 (1.54%) scikit-learn
7 21 (1.35%) .NET
7 21 (1.35%) PyTorch
7 21 (1.35%) Spring
8 20 (1.29%) NumPy
9 17 (1.09%) TensorFlow
10 14 (0.90%) RESTful
10 14 (0.90%) Spring Boot
11 11 (0.71%) Microsoft Graph
12 10 (0.64%) FastAPI
12 10 (0.64%) pytest
12 10 (0.64%) YAML
13 9 (0.58%) Apache Avro
13 9 (0.58%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 207 (13.32%) Cloud Native
2 74 (4.76%) Data Structures
3 63 (4.05%) Legacy Systems
4 62 (3.99%) Distributed Systems
5 60 (3.86%) Product Ownership
6 44 (2.83%) Onboarding
7 33 (2.12%) AI Agents
8 25 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
9 23 (1.48%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (1.35%) Algorithms
11 20 (1.29%) NHS
12 19 (1.22%) Distributed Computing
13 17 (1.09%) Clustering
14 16 (1.03%) Life Science
14 16 (1.03%) Virtual Team
15 15 (0.97%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (0.84%) Management Information System
17 12 (0.77%) Fixed Income
17 12 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 37 (2.38%) Linux
2 30 (1.93%) Unix
3 7 (0.45%) Windows
4 2 (0.13%) VMS
4 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.064%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.064%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 780 (50.19%) Analytics
2 754 (48.52%) Data Pipeline
3 602 (38.74%) Data Modelling
4 548 (35.26%) CI/CD
5 537 (34.56%) ETL
6 434 (27.93%) AI
7 399 (25.68%) Agile
8 392 (25.23%) Business Intelligence
9 376 (24.20%) DevOps
10 350 (22.52%) Data Governance
11 275 (17.70%) Machine Learning
12 260 (16.73%) Problem-Solving
13 244 (15.70%) Data Science
14 234 (15.06%) Migration
15 231 (14.86%) Decision-Making
16 221 (14.22%) Validation
17 219 (14.09%) Data Architecture
18 215 (13.84%) Stakeholder Management
19 212 (13.64%) Data Transformation
20 196 (12.61%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 841 (54.12%) SQL
2 791 (50.90%) Python
3 117 (7.53%) Java
4 45 (2.90%) Bash
4 45 (2.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 41 (2.64%) Scala
6 36 (2.32%) PowerShell
7 34 (2.19%) C#
8 26 (1.67%) T-SQL
9 23 (1.48%) JavaScript
10 20 (1.29%) R
11 18 (1.16%) Bicep
12 17 (1.09%) PL/SQL
13 14 (0.90%) Shell Script
14 12 (0.77%) SAS Macro
15 9 (0.58%) TypeScript
16 8 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.51%) SPARQL
17 7 (0.45%) Cypher
18 5 (0.32%) Korn
Qualifications
1 300 (19.31%) Security Cleared
2 256 (16.47%) SC Cleared
3 98 (6.31%) Degree
4 50 (3.22%) Computer Science Degree
5 35 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
6 31 (1.99%) Azure Certification
7 25 (1.61%) DV Cleared
7 25 (1.61%) Master's Degree
8 19 (1.22%) AWS Certification
9 13 (0.84%) DBS Check
10 11 (0.71%) SnowPro
11 9 (0.58%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Certification
13 6 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.32%) CSPO
14 5 (0.32%) Tableau Certification
15 3 (0.19%) PhD
16 2 (0.13%) CCSP
16 2 (0.13%) Cisco Certification
16 2 (0.13%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 463 (29.79%) Data Quality
2 80 (5.15%) QA
3 79 (5.08%) GDPR
4 22 (1.42%) Accessibility
5 13 (0.84%) SLA
6 5 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.26%) NIST
7 4 (0.26%) Solvency II
8 3 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.19%) GxP
8 3 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.19%) MiFID
8 3 (0.19%) PMO
9 2 (0.13%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.13%) COPPA
9 2 (0.13%) EMIR
9 2 (0.13%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 133 (8.56%) Docker
2 5 (0.32%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 203 (13.06%) Terraform
2 112 (7.21%) Kubernetes
3 29 (1.87%) Grafana
4 19 (1.22%) Ansible
5 18 (1.16%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.32%) Kibana
7 3 (0.19%) Control-M
7 3 (0.19%) logstash
8 2 (0.13%) Argo
8 2 (0.13%) Rancher
8 2 (0.13%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.064%) Cilium
9 1 (0.064%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.064%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.064%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.064%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.064%) Nagios
9 1 (0.064%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.064%) QRadar
9 1 (0.064%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 403 (25.93%) Databricks
2 276 (17.76%) Microsoft
3 81 (5.21%) Informatica
4 70 (4.50%) Google
5 65 (4.18%) Oracle
6 36 (2.32%) SAP
7 32 (2.06%) Talend
8 31 (1.99%) Foundry
9 29 (1.87%) Palantir
10 25 (1.61%) Salesforce
11 18 (1.16%) Cloudera
11 18 (1.16%) OpenAI
11 18 (1.16%) Splunk
12 15 (0.97%) ServiceNow
13 12 (0.77%) Trend Micro
14 9 (0.58%) Workday
15 8 (0.51%) Denodo
15 8 (0.51%) Teradata
16 7 (0.45%) Adobe
16 7 (0.45%) InterSystems