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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 160 201
Rank change year-on-year +73 +41 +15
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,552 568 491
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.94% 1.74% 1.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.46% 1.93% 1.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,072 371 362
10th Percentile £380 £363 £375
25th Percentile £438 £450 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -8.70% -6.12%
75th Percentile £627 £650 £688
90th Percentile £736 £800 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 6 15
10th Percentile £21.25 £26.25 £30.72
25th Percentile £49.56 £32.24 £31.25
Median hourly rate £67.00 £45.73 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.51% +30.66% -52.05%
75th Percentile £75.00 £53.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £88.25 £59.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £30.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +113.33% -50.00% -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 44,825 29,480 35,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.35% 85.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,802 18,519 22,641
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,641 1,572 2,187
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £13.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.50 £50.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +84.88% -39.15% -1.95%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 +72 1,375 £525 - 587
London +48 800 £550 - 369
UK excluding London +90 591 £500 +5.26% 283
Work from Home +74 509 £525 - 249
North of England +24 175 £475 -5.00% 96
Midlands +45 158 £475 +2.70% 34
West Midlands +37 133 £469 +8.82% 21
South West +28 85 £500 -8.05% 32
South East -21 83 £525 +11.70% 95
Yorkshire +14 82 £478 +3.24% 26
Scotland +20 60 £450 -5.26% 11
North West -16 56 £513 +5.13% 46
North East -4 39 £425 -15.00% 24
East of England -3 30 £575 +39.39% 8
East Midlands -1 22 £525 +13.51% 13
Wales -10 8 £450 +82.58% 6
Northern Ireland - 5 £334 - 5

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 (12.50%) Apache Spark
2 174 (11.21%) Apache Airflow
3 126 (8.12%) Apache
4 46 (2.96%) SAS
5 44 (2.84%) Confluence
6 23 (1.48%) Jupyter
7 19 (1.22%) Palantir Foundry
8 11 (0.71%) SharePoint
9 8 (0.52%) Apache Superset
10 4 (0.26%) ArcGIS
11 3 (0.19%) Appian
12 2 (0.13%) Apache Solr
12 2 (0.13%) Apache Synapse
12 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Exchange
13 1 (0.064%) Camunda
13 1 (0.064%) CICS
13 1 (0.064%) Ethereum
13 1 (0.064%) Hyperledger
13 1 (0.064%) IBM HTTP Server
13 1 (0.064%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 24 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.19%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.064%) Notion
Business Applications
1 12 (0.77%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.32%) BambooHR
3 5 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.26%) Sage X3
4 4 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.13%) Endur
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.13%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 2 (0.13%) Temenos T24
5 2 (0.13%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.064%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.064%) Distributed Ledger
6 1 (0.064%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.064%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.064%) MIS ActiveH
6 1 (0.064%) R3 Corda
6 1 (0.064%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 651 (41.95%) Azure
2 581 (37.44%) AWS
3 323 (20.81%) Power Platform
4 237 (15.27%) Snowflake
5 206 (13.27%) GCP
6 187 (12.05%) dbt
7 184 (11.86%) Amazon S3
8 176 (11.34%) Azure Data Factory
9 145 (9.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 136 (8.76%) Serverless
11 130 (8.38%) Azure DevOps
12 119 (7.67%) GitHub
13 115 (7.41%) AWS Lambda
14 66 (4.25%) GitHub Actions
15 62 (3.99%) Amazon EMR
16 37 (2.38%) AWS CloudFormation
17 35 (2.26%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 30 (1.93%) Amazon SageMaker
18 30 (1.93%) AWS Step Functions
18 30 (1.93%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.32%) Firewall
1 5 (0.32%) RTP
2 1 (0.064%) 4G
2 1 (0.064%) 5G
2 1 (0.064%) Broadband
2 1 (0.064%) MIMO
2 1 (0.064%) MQTT
2 1 (0.064%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 304 (19.59%) Data Warehouse
2 301 (19.39%) Power BI
3 220 (14.18%) Data Lake
4 157 (10.12%) Metadata
5 110 (7.09%) Amazon Redshift
6 109 (7.02%) Big Data
7 96 (6.19%) BigQuery
8 94 (6.06%) Delta Lake
9 88 (5.67%) Tableau
10 82 (5.28%) SQL Server
11 79 (5.09%) Amazon Athena
12 67 (4.32%) NoSQL
13 65 (4.19%) Snowflake Schema
14 60 (3.87%) PostgreSQL
15 59 (3.80%) Relational Database
16 49 (3.16%) Azure SQL Database
17 46 (2.96%) Hadoop
18 36 (2.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
19 34 (2.19%) Looker
19 34 (2.19%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 177 (11.40%) Git
2 75 (4.83%) JIRA
3 72 (4.64%) GitLab
4 32 (2.06%) MLflow
5 20 (1.29%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.39%) ERwin
6 6 (0.39%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.32%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.19%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.19%) ER Studio
8 3 (0.19%) Postman
8 3 (0.19%) Selenium
8 3 (0.19%) Snyk
8 3 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.19%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.13%) Yeoman
10 1 (0.064%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.064%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.064%) Robot Framework
General
1 375 (24.16%) Social Skills
2 357 (23.00%) Finance
3 256 (16.49%) Analytical Skills
4 168 (10.82%) Public Sector
5 121 (7.80%) Banking
6 41 (2.64%) Marketing
7 36 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 33 (2.13%) Retail
9 22 (1.42%) Front Office
9 22 (1.42%) Telecoms
10 21 (1.35%) Investment Banking
11 15 (0.97%) Manufacturing
12 14 (0.90%) Financial Institution
12 14 (0.90%) Law
13 11 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (0.71%) Legal
13 11 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
14 9 (0.58%) Billing
15 7 (0.45%) Military
Job Titles
1 717 (46.20%) Data Engineer
2 219 (14.11%) Senior
3 177 (11.40%) Architect
4 171 (11.02%) Lead
5 126 (8.12%) Senior Data Engineer
6 97 (6.25%) Data Architect
7 96 (6.19%) Developer
8 80 (5.15%) AWS Engineer
9 71 (4.57%) Analyst
10 65 (4.19%) Lead Data Engineer
11 63 (4.06%) Azure Engineer
11 63 (4.06%) Snowflake Engineer
12 62 (3.99%) AWS Data Engineer
13 56 (3.61%) Azure Data Engineer
14 49 (3.16%) Snowflake Data Engineer
15 48 (3.09%) Data Scientist
16 47 (3.03%) Consultant
16 47 (3.03%) Solutions Architect
17 45 (2.90%) Python Engineer
18 42 (2.71%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 227 (14.63%) PySpark
2 142 (9.15%) Kafka
3 42 (2.71%) REST
4 36 (2.32%) JSON
4 36 (2.32%) Pandas
5 28 (1.80%) scikit-learn
6 26 (1.68%) PyTorch
6 26 (1.68%) React
7 23 (1.48%) Spring
8 22 (1.42%) NumPy
9 21 (1.35%) TensorFlow
10 19 (1.22%) .NET
11 17 (1.10%) RESTful
12 16 (1.03%) Spring Boot
13 15 (0.97%) OpenTelemetry
14 14 (0.90%) Apache Avro
15 13 (0.84%) Microsoft Graph
15 13 (0.84%) YAML
16 12 (0.77%) FastAPI
16 12 (0.77%) Great Expectations
Miscellaneous
1 205 (13.21%) Cloud Native
2 71 (4.57%) Data Structures
3 63 (4.06%) Legacy Systems
4 60 (3.87%) Distributed Systems
5 55 (3.54%) Product Ownership
6 44 (2.84%) Onboarding
7 35 (2.26%) AI Agents
8 28 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.68%) Distributed Computing
10 25 (1.61%) Algorithms
11 22 (1.42%) NHS
12 21 (1.35%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (1.22%) Virtual Team
14 18 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (1.10%) Clustering
16 15 (0.97%) Reference Data
17 14 (0.90%) Management Information System
18 13 (0.84%) Life Science
19 12 (0.77%) Fixed Income
19 12 (0.77%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 34 (2.19%) Linux
2 27 (1.74%) Unix
3 6 (0.39%) Windows
4 4 (0.26%) VMS
5 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.064%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 798 (51.42%) Analytics
2 756 (48.71%) Data Pipeline
3 609 (39.24%) Data Modelling
4 546 (35.18%) CI/CD
5 535 (34.47%) ETL
6 435 (28.03%) AI
7 396 (25.52%) Agile
8 384 (24.74%) Business Intelligence
9 364 (23.45%) DevOps
10 350 (22.55%) Data Governance
11 286 (18.43%) Machine Learning
12 274 (17.65%) Data Science
13 273 (17.59%) Problem-Solving
14 235 (15.14%) Migration
15 228 (14.69%) Validation
16 221 (14.24%) Data Architecture
17 214 (13.79%) Decision-Making
18 192 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
19 188 (12.11%) Infrastructure as Code
20 186 (11.98%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 844 (54.38%) SQL
2 809 (52.13%) Python
3 126 (8.12%) Java
4 45 (2.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 40 (2.58%) Scala
6 37 (2.38%) Bash
7 36 (2.32%) C#
8 25 (1.61%) PowerShell
8 25 (1.61%) T-SQL
9 22 (1.42%) R
10 19 (1.22%) Bicep
10 19 (1.22%) JavaScript
11 17 (1.10%) PL/SQL
12 15 (0.97%) Shell Script
13 12 (0.77%) SAS Macro
14 11 (0.71%) TypeScript
15 8 (0.52%) SPARQL
16 7 (0.45%) Cypher
17 5 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
18 4 (0.26%) Korn
Qualifications
1 300 (19.33%) Security Cleared
2 257 (16.56%) SC Cleared
3 113 (7.28%) Degree
4 48 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 37 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 37 (2.38%) Master's Degree
6 30 (1.93%) Azure Certification
7 27 (1.74%) DV Cleared
8 19 (1.22%) AWS Certification
9 13 (0.84%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.58%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 9 (0.58%) SnowPro
11 7 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
12 6 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (0.32%) CSPO
14 3 (0.19%) IBM Certification
14 3 (0.19%) Tableau Certification
15 2 (0.13%) PhD
15 2 (0.13%) PMI Certification
16 1 (0.064%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 461 (29.70%) Data Quality
2 86 (5.54%) GDPR
3 79 (5.09%) QA
4 24 (1.55%) Accessibility
5 15 (0.97%) SLA
6 5 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.26%) NIST
7 4 (0.26%) Solvency II
8 3 (0.19%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.19%) GRC
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%) COPPA
9 2 (0.13%) EMIR
System Software
1 131 (8.44%) Docker
2 4 (0.26%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.13%) HDFS
5 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 195 (12.56%) Terraform
2 111 (7.15%) Kubernetes
3 27 (1.74%) Grafana
4 26 (1.68%) Prometheus
5 13 (0.84%) Ansible
6 5 (0.32%) Kibana
7 3 (0.19%) logstash
7 3 (0.19%) Rancher
8 2 (0.13%) Argo
8 2 (0.13%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.13%) Nagios
8 2 (0.13%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.064%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.064%) Hadoop YARN
9 1 (0.064%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.064%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.064%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.064%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.064%) QRadar
9 1 (0.064%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 397 (25.58%) Databricks
2 268 (17.27%) Microsoft
3 86 (5.54%) Informatica
4 68 (4.38%) Oracle
5 64 (4.12%) Google
6 35 (2.26%) Talend
7 34 (2.19%) SAP
8 29 (1.87%) Foundry
9 28 (1.80%) Palantir
10 24 (1.55%) OpenAI
11 23 (1.48%) Splunk
12 22 (1.42%) Salesforce
13 15 (0.97%) Cloudera
13 15 (0.97%) ServiceNow
14 12 (0.77%) Trend Micro
15 8 (0.52%) Adobe
15 8 (0.52%) Workday
16 7 (0.45%) Denodo
16 7 (0.45%) InterSystems
17 6 (0.39%) Teradata