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

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 158 220
Rank change year-on-year +45 +62 +10
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 890 513 474
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.41% 1.63% 1.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.75% 1.83% 1.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 595 357 353
10th Percentile £363 £363 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £750 £813 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -1.00% -9.09% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 13 8
10th Percentile £41.15 £21.25 £35.00
25th Percentile £50.00 £22.00 £35.47
Median hourly rate £74.26 £25.43 £42.25
Median % change year-on-year +192.02% -39.81% -43.67%
75th Percentile £87.50 £28.15 £68.25
90th Percentile £101.00 £57.63 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.13 £25.43 £78.00
% change year-on-year +144.32% -67.40% +281.05%

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 32,398 27,994 37,832
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.63% 88.92% 87.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,495 16,988 25,007
10th Percentile £305 £307 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £645
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,977 897 1,738
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.62 £14.02
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.94 £17.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -16.34% +19.54%
75th Percentile £57.00 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £69.25 £74.92 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.83 £40.28
% change year-on-year -22.15% -23.46% +54.90%

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 19 January 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 19 January 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 19 January 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 +52 789 £525 -8.70% 782
London +62 563 £550 -4.35% 214
Work from Home +9 259 £550 - 346
UK excluding London +3 234 £495 -1.00% 702
North of England -11 77 £450 -18.18% 125
Midlands 0 63 £542 +0.74% 93
North West +1 49 £445 -11.00% 54
West Midlands -10 44 £550 +10.00% 37
Scotland +17 35 £402 -14.65% 28
South West -9 29 £550 -17.60% 87
South East -11 27 £513 -5.09% 247
East Midlands -7 19 £433 -30.80% 53
Yorkshire -41 15 £500 -9.09% 51
North East -5 13 £400 -33.05% 20
East of England -14 11 £500 +56.25% 94
Wales -15 5 £631 +26.25% 30
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 14

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
1 126 (14.16%) Apache Spark
2 105 (11.80%) Apache Airflow
3 67 (7.53%) Apache
4 13 (1.46%) Confluence
5 5 (0.56%) SAS
6 4 (0.45%) Appian
7 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.22%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.22%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Pig
9 1 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.11%) CMS
9 1 (0.11%) Luigi
Applications
1 16 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.67%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.34%) Trello
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.56%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.22%) Eagle PACE
3 2 (0.22%) Markit EDM
3 2 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.11%) Actimize
4 1 (0.11%) Maximo
4 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.11%) SAP BPC
4 1 (0.11%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 416 (46.74%) Azure
2 306 (34.38%) AWS
3 175 (19.66%) Power Platform
4 160 (17.98%) Azure Data Factory
5 125 (14.04%) Snowflake
6 124 (13.93%) GCP
7 101 (11.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 99 (11.12%) Amazon S3
9 94 (10.56%) GitHub
10 91 (10.22%) Serverless
11 80 (8.99%) dbt
12 75 (8.43%) Azure DevOps
13 69 (7.75%) AWS Lambda
14 64 (7.19%) GitHub Actions
15 39 (4.38%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (2.92%) AWS Step Functions
17 22 (2.47%) Amazon SageMaker
17 22 (2.47%) Azure Machine Learning
18 20 (2.25%) Cloud Computing
18 20 (2.25%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.56%) Network Security
2 4 (0.45%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.45%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.34%) Firewall
3 3 (0.34%) VPN
4 1 (0.11%) MQTT
4 1 (0.11%) SAN
4 1 (0.11%) SMS
4 1 (0.11%) SSL
4 1 (0.11%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 169 (18.99%) Data Warehouse
2 167 (18.76%) Power BI
3 119 (13.37%) Data Lake
4 76 (8.54%) Metadata
5 58 (6.52%) NoSQL
6 55 (6.18%) Big Data
7 53 (5.96%) SQL Server
8 51 (5.73%) Relational Database
9 48 (5.39%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (5.39%) Delta Lake
10 44 (4.94%) BigQuery
10 44 (4.94%) Snowflake Schema
11 41 (4.61%) Amazon Redshift
12 39 (4.38%) PostgreSQL
13 38 (4.27%) Amazon Athena
14 34 (3.82%) Tableau
15 32 (3.60%) Hadoop
16 26 (2.92%) RDBMS
17 20 (2.25%) Elasticsearch
17 20 (2.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 131 (14.72%) Git
2 51 (5.73%) GitLab
3 44 (4.94%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.60%) MLflow
5 25 (2.81%) JIRA
6 7 (0.79%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (0.45%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.45%) Selenium
7 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.34%) JMeter
8 3 (0.34%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.22%) ERwin
9 2 (0.22%) Gemini Tracker
9 2 (0.22%) JUnit
9 2 (0.22%) Maven
9 2 (0.22%) Poetry
9 2 (0.22%) Postman
9 2 (0.22%) Pylint
9 2 (0.22%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.22%) TestRail
General
1 255 (28.65%) Social Skills
2 209 (23.48%) Finance
3 119 (13.37%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (7.19%) Public Sector
5 55 (6.18%) Banking
6 23 (2.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (2.36%) Investment Banking
8 16 (1.80%) Front Office
9 15 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.69%) Retail
10 14 (1.57%) Marketing
10 14 (1.57%) Pharmaceutical
11 11 (1.24%) Legal
12 9 (1.01%) Publishing
13 8 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (0.90%) Military
14 6 (0.67%) Back Office
14 6 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.56%) Health Technology
15 5 (0.56%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 389 (43.71%) Data Engineer
2 118 (13.26%) Senior
3 99 (11.12%) Lead
4 80 (8.99%) Senior Data Engineer
5 75 (8.43%) Azure Engineer
6 62 (6.97%) Developer
7 61 (6.85%) Architect
8 55 (6.18%) Azure Data Engineer
9 43 (4.83%) Analyst
10 40 (4.49%) AWS Engineer
11 39 (4.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 38 (4.27%) Python Engineer
12 38 (4.27%) Snowflake Engineer
13 32 (3.60%) Data Architect
13 32 (3.60%) Data Scientist
14 30 (3.37%) Snowflake Data Engineer
15 26 (2.92%) Lead Data Engineer
16 25 (2.81%) AWS Data Engineer
17 24 (2.70%) Consultant
17 24 (2.70%) Python Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 173 (19.44%) PySpark
2 95 (10.67%) Kafka
3 58 (6.52%) Pandas
4 49 (5.51%) PyTorch
5 44 (4.94%) TensorFlow
6 42 (4.72%) NumPy
7 35 (3.93%) FastAPI
8 31 (3.48%) scikit-learn
9 28 (3.15%) Flask
10 27 (3.03%) RESTful
11 22 (2.47%) LangChain
11 22 (2.47%) pytest
11 22 (2.47%) React
12 19 (2.13%) YAML
13 18 (2.02%) JSON
14 17 (1.91%) REST
15 15 (1.69%) Spark Streaming
16 14 (1.57%) Hugging Face
17 13 (1.46%) ARM Templates
17 13 (1.46%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 89 (10.00%) Cloud Native
2 41 (4.61%) Algorithms
3 25 (2.81%) Distributed Computing
3 25 (2.81%) Product Ownership
4 23 (2.58%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (2.47%) Onboarding
6 20 (2.25%) Data Structures
7 19 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
8 16 (1.80%) Hybrid Cloud
8 16 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (1.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 13 (1.46%) Analytical Mindset
11 12 (1.35%) Hedge funds
12 11 (1.24%) AI Agents
12 11 (1.24%) Data Fabric
12 11 (1.24%) Life Science
13 10 (1.12%) Clustering
13 10 (1.12%) Derivative
13 10 (1.12%) Fixed Income
13 10 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 25 (2.81%) Linux
2 3 (0.34%) VMS
3 2 (0.22%) Android
3 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.22%) Windows
4 1 (0.11%) CentOS
4 1 (0.11%) Debian
4 1 (0.11%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 392 (44.04%) Data Pipeline
2 346 (38.88%) Analytics
3 331 (37.19%) ETL
4 319 (35.84%) CI/CD
5 307 (34.49%) Data Modelling
6 230 (25.84%) AI
7 221 (24.83%) Data Governance
8 208 (23.37%) DevOps
9 206 (23.15%) Agile
10 198 (22.25%) Machine Learning
11 195 (21.91%) Business Intelligence
12 179 (20.11%) Data Science
13 177 (19.89%) Problem-Solving
14 149 (16.74%) Data Architecture
15 110 (12.36%) Infrastructure as Code
16 92 (10.34%) Data Integration
17 90 (10.11%) Containerisation
18 87 (9.78%) Visualisation
19 86 (9.66%) Data Transformation
19 86 (9.66%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 551 (61.91%) Python
2 440 (49.44%) SQL
3 62 (6.97%) Scala
4 54 (6.07%) Java
5 34 (3.82%) C#
6 32 (3.60%) JavaScript
7 27 (3.03%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.36%) C++
9 20 (2.25%) Bash
9 20 (2.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (2.02%) Bicep
11 17 (1.91%) R
11 17 (1.91%) T-SQL
12 16 (1.80%) PL/SQL
13 15 (1.69%) Go
13 15 (1.69%) TypeScript
14 13 (1.46%) Shell Script
15 11 (1.24%) Rust
16 7 (0.79%) Korn
17 2 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 169 (18.99%) Security Cleared
2 142 (15.96%) SC Cleared
3 68 (7.64%) Degree
4 51 (5.73%) Azure Certification
5 30 (3.37%) Computer Science Degree
6 29 (3.26%) Master's Degree
7 18 (2.02%) DV Cleared
8 14 (1.57%) AWS Certification
8 14 (1.57%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (1.46%) PhD
10 7 (0.79%) MCP
11 6 (0.67%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.34%) ISTQB
13 3 (0.34%) Tableau Certification
14 2 (0.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.22%) CBAP
14 2 (0.22%) SnowPro
15 1 (0.11%) APMG
15 1 (0.11%) CSPO
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 232 (26.07%) Data Quality
2 71 (7.98%) GDPR
3 28 (3.15%) QA
4 18 (2.02%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (0.79%) HIPAA
7 5 (0.56%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 5 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.56%) PERC
7 5 (0.56%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.45%) WCAG
9 2 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.22%) GRC
9 2 (0.22%) HL7
9 2 (0.22%) MiFID
9 2 (0.22%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.22%) PMO
10 1 (0.11%) Dodd-Frank
10 1 (0.11%) EMIR
10 1 (0.11%) GMP
System Software
1 136 (15.28%) Docker
2 16 (1.80%) HDFS
3 2 (0.22%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.11%) ISA Server
4 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 146 (16.40%) Terraform
2 114 (12.81%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.46%) Ansible
3 13 (1.46%) Grafana
4 11 (1.24%) Hadoop YARN
5 7 (0.79%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.56%) Puppet
7 3 (0.34%) Argo
7 3 (0.34%) Kibana
7 3 (0.34%) logstash
7 3 (0.34%) Oozie
8 2 (0.22%) Control-M
8 2 (0.22%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.11%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.11%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 273 (30.67%) Databricks
2 111 (12.47%) Microsoft
3 43 (4.83%) Google
4 29 (3.26%) Oracle
5 20 (2.25%) Informatica
6 18 (2.02%) Palantir
7 16 (1.80%) Foundry
8 15 (1.69%) Talend
9 13 (1.46%) OpenAI
9 13 (1.46%) SAP
10 12 (1.35%) Salesforce
11 8 (0.90%) Cloudera
11 8 (0.90%) Virgin Media
12 7 (0.79%) Denodo
13 6 (0.67%) Guidewire
14 5 (0.56%) MicroStrategy
14 5 (0.56%) ServiceNow
15 4 (0.45%) Automation Anywhere
15 4 (0.45%) IBM
15 4 (0.45%) UiPath