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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 161 208
Rank change year-on-year +74 +47 +6
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,494 555 505
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.89% 1.76% 1.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.40% 1.94% 1.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,031 371 373
10th Percentile £381 £367 £365
25th Percentile £438 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £627 £661 £675
90th Percentile £738 £800 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £505
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.94% -12.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 7 15
10th Percentile £46.53 £24.75 £30.72
25th Percentile £56.31 £28.13 £31.25
Median hourly rate £69.72 £38.96 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.95% +11.31% -52.05%
75th Percentile £75.75 £53.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £89.25 £58.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £28.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +140.77% -52.08% +11.11%

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 43,890 28,628 37,028
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.04% 90.75% 85.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,271 18,064 23,618
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £415 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.98% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £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 2,636 1,406 2,527
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.46 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.25 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £24.66 £38.12
% change year-on-year +80.45% -35.31% +8.91%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +69 1,325 £525 -1.50% 692
London +60 781 £550 - 404
UK excluding London +79 563 £500 +5.26% 374
Work from Home +70 484 £525 - 322
North of England +26 171 £475 -5.00% 121
Midlands +32 141 £475 +2.70% 53
West Midlands +28 118 £469 -19.14% 35
South West +24 81 £500 -13.04% 43
South East -10 79 £525 +5.00% 127
Yorkshire -1 76 £490 +5.95% 30
Scotland +23 59 £488 +2.63% 10
North West -7 58 £500 - 66
North East -1 39 £413 -17.50% 26
East of England -17 27 £575 +71.29% 12
East Midlands -6 20 £525 +13.51% 18
Wales -8 11 £450 +75.14% 6
Northern Ireland - 5 £334 - 9

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
1 196 (13.12%) Apache Spark
2 174 (11.65%) Apache Airflow
3 117 (7.83%) Apache
4 46 (3.08%) SAS
5 38 (2.54%) Confluence
6 23 (1.54%) Jupyter
7 19 (1.27%) Palantir Foundry
8 12 (0.80%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.47%) Apache Superset
10 5 (0.33%) Appian
10 5 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.20%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.13%) Apache Synapse
13 1 (0.067%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 1 (0.067%) Camunda
13 1 (0.067%) CICS
13 1 (0.067%) IBM HTTP Server
13 1 (0.067%) PowerExchange
Applications
1 27 (1.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.20%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.067%) Notion
7 1 (0.067%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.47%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
3 5 (0.33%) BambooHR
3 5 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.27%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.27%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.13%) Endur
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.13%) SAP BPC
5 2 (0.13%) Temenos T24
6 1 (0.067%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.067%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.067%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.067%) SAP ECC
6 1 (0.067%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 642 (42.97%) Azure
2 571 (38.22%) AWS
3 331 (22.16%) Power Platform
4 221 (14.79%) Snowflake
5 200 (13.39%) GCP
6 180 (12.05%) Amazon S3
7 171 (11.45%) dbt
8 166 (11.11%) Azure Data Factory
9 132 (8.84%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 129 (8.63%) Serverless
11 126 (8.43%) GitHub
12 122 (8.17%) Azure DevOps
13 111 (7.43%) AWS Lambda
14 72 (4.82%) GitHub Actions
15 60 (4.02%) Amazon EMR
16 41 (2.74%) AWS CloudFormation
17 34 (2.28%) Azure AI
18 32 (2.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 30 (2.01%) Amazon SageMaker
20 29 (1.94%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.33%) Firewall
1 5 (0.33%) RTP
2 2 (0.13%) Network Security
3 1 (0.067%) 4G
3 1 (0.067%) 5G
3 1 (0.067%) MIMO
3 1 (0.067%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 304 (20.35%) Power BI
2 281 (18.81%) Data Warehouse
3 215 (14.39%) Data Lake
4 144 (9.64%) Metadata
5 116 (7.76%) Big Data
6 109 (7.30%) Amazon Redshift
7 93 (6.22%) Delta Lake
8 89 (5.96%) BigQuery
9 86 (5.76%) Tableau
10 83 (5.56%) SQL Server
11 79 (5.29%) Amazon Athena
12 71 (4.75%) NoSQL
12 71 (4.75%) Snowflake Schema
13 58 (3.88%) PostgreSQL
13 58 (3.88%) Relational Database
14 51 (3.41%) Hadoop
15 47 (3.15%) Azure SQL Database
16 35 (2.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 34 (2.28%) Star Schema
18 29 (1.94%) Looker
Development Applications
1 174 (11.65%) Git
2 77 (5.15%) GitLab
3 69 (4.62%) JIRA
4 36 (2.41%) MLflow
5 21 (1.41%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.40%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.27%) Postman
7 4 (0.27%) Selenium
8 3 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.20%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.20%) Snyk
8 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.13%) ERwin
9 2 (0.13%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.13%) Yeoman
10 1 (0.067%) Ant
10 1 (0.067%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.067%) JUnit
10 1 (0.067%) Maven
General
1 374 (25.03%) Social Skills
2 353 (23.63%) Finance
3 231 (15.46%) Analytical Skills
4 161 (10.78%) Public Sector
5 112 (7.50%) Banking
6 40 (2.68%) Marketing
7 37 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 36 (2.41%) Documentation Skills
9 33 (2.21%) Retail
10 21 (1.41%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.34%) Investment Banking
12 19 (1.27%) Front Office
13 14 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 14 (0.94%) Manufacturing
14 12 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
14 12 (0.80%) Law
15 11 (0.74%) Legal
16 9 (0.60%) Billing
17 8 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
18 5 (0.33%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 693 (46.39%) Data Engineer
2 216 (14.46%) Senior
3 171 (11.45%) Architect
4 163 (10.91%) Lead
5 127 (8.50%) Senior Data Engineer
6 94 (6.29%) Data Architect
7 90 (6.02%) Developer
8 77 (5.15%) AWS Engineer
9 68 (4.55%) Analyst
10 64 (4.28%) Lead Data Engineer
11 60 (4.02%) AWS Data Engineer
12 57 (3.82%) Snowflake Engineer
13 51 (3.41%) Azure Engineer
14 47 (3.15%) Data Scientist
14 47 (3.15%) Solutions Architect
15 46 (3.08%) Python Engineer
16 45 (3.01%) Azure Data Engineer
16 45 (3.01%) Snowflake Data Engineer
17 43 (2.88%) Consultant
18 40 (2.68%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 226 (15.13%) PySpark
2 147 (9.84%) Kafka
3 44 (2.95%) Pandas
4 41 (2.74%) REST
5 33 (2.21%) scikit-learn
6 32 (2.14%) JSON
7 29 (1.94%) PyTorch
8 28 (1.87%) NumPy
9 26 (1.74%) Spring
10 24 (1.61%) React
11 23 (1.54%) TensorFlow
12 19 (1.27%) Spring Boot
13 17 (1.14%) .NET
14 16 (1.07%) RESTful
15 15 (1.00%) FastAPI
15 15 (1.00%) OpenTelemetry
15 15 (1.00%) YAML
16 14 (0.94%) XML
17 13 (0.87%) Microsoft Graph
18 12 (0.80%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 206 (13.79%) Cloud Native
2 62 (4.15%) Data Structures
3 58 (3.88%) Distributed Systems
4 57 (3.82%) Legacy Systems
5 49 (3.28%) Product Ownership
6 39 (2.61%) Onboarding
7 37 (2.48%) AI Agents
8 26 (1.74%) Distributed Computing
9 25 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
10 24 (1.61%) Algorithms
11 23 (1.54%) NHS
12 22 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
13 20 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (1.20%) Virtual Team
15 16 (1.07%) Clustering
16 15 (1.00%) Management Information System
17 14 (0.94%) Fixed Income
18 13 (0.87%) Reference Data
18 13 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
19 11 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 29 (1.94%) Linux
2 25 (1.67%) Unix
3 5 (0.33%) VMS
4 3 (0.20%) Windows
5 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.067%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 781 (52.28%) Analytics
2 716 (47.93%) Data Pipeline
3 576 (38.55%) Data Modelling
4 544 (36.41%) CI/CD
5 524 (35.07%) ETL
6 444 (29.72%) AI
7 382 (25.57%) Business Intelligence
8 380 (25.44%) Agile
9 366 (24.50%) DevOps
10 327 (21.89%) Data Governance
11 289 (19.34%) Machine Learning
12 267 (17.87%) Problem-Solving
13 262 (17.54%) Data Science
14 215 (14.39%) Migration
15 211 (14.12%) Decision-Making
15 211 (14.12%) Validation
16 206 (13.79%) Data Architecture
17 186 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
18 180 (12.05%) Stakeholder Management
19 169 (11.31%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 816 (54.62%) SQL
2 790 (52.88%) Python
3 121 (8.10%) Java
4 47 (3.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 41 (2.74%) Scala
6 38 (2.54%) C#
7 37 (2.48%) Bash
8 25 (1.67%) T-SQL
9 24 (1.61%) PowerShell
10 22 (1.47%) R
11 21 (1.41%) JavaScript
12 19 (1.27%) Bicep
13 15 (1.00%) PL/SQL
14 13 (0.87%) Shell Script
14 13 (0.87%) TypeScript
15 12 (0.80%) SAS Macro
16 7 (0.47%) SPARQL
17 6 (0.40%) Cypher
18 5 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
19 4 (0.27%) Korn
Qualifications
1 284 (19.01%) Security Cleared
2 248 (16.60%) SC Cleared
3 116 (7.76%) Degree
4 50 (3.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 38 (2.54%) Master's Degree
6 35 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (2.07%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.41%) AWS Certification
9 15 (1.00%) DV Cleared
10 13 (0.87%) DBS Check
11 9 (0.60%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 9 (0.60%) SnowPro
12 8 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
13 6 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.33%) CSPO
15 3 (0.20%) IBM Certification
15 3 (0.20%) PhD
15 3 (0.20%) Tableau Certification
16 2 (0.13%) PMI Certification
17 1 (0.067%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 437 (29.25%) Data Quality
2 93 (6.22%) GDPR
3 69 (4.62%) QA
4 15 (1.00%) Accessibility
4 15 (1.00%) SLA
5 6 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 4 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
7 4 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.27%) MiFID
7 4 (0.27%) Solvency II
8 3 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.20%) GRC
8 3 (0.20%) GxP
8 3 (0.20%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.20%) NIST
9 2 (0.13%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (0.13%) COPPA
9 2 (0.13%) PMO
System Software
1 137 (9.17%) Docker
2 3 (0.20%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.13%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 205 (13.72%) Terraform
2 114 (7.63%) Kubernetes
3 28 (1.87%) Grafana
4 27 (1.81%) Prometheus
5 10 (0.67%) Ansible
6 5 (0.33%) Kibana
7 3 (0.20%) Argo
7 3 (0.20%) logstash
7 3 (0.20%) Nagios
7 3 (0.20%) Rancher
8 2 (0.13%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.13%) Thomson Reuters DACS
9 1 (0.067%) Control-M
9 1 (0.067%) Hadoop YARN
9 1 (0.067%) HP Fortify
9 1 (0.067%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.067%) Oozie
9 1 (0.067%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 398 (26.64%) Databricks
2 253 (16.93%) Microsoft
3 86 (5.76%) Informatica
4 60 (4.02%) Oracle
5 57 (3.82%) Google
6 32 (2.14%) Talend
7 30 (2.01%) Foundry
8 29 (1.94%) SAP
9 27 (1.81%) OpenAI
9 27 (1.81%) Palantir
10 26 (1.74%) Salesforce
11 22 (1.47%) Splunk
12 15 (1.00%) Cloudera
12 15 (1.00%) ServiceNow
13 12 (0.80%) Trend Micro
14 8 (0.54%) Denodo
15 7 (0.47%) InterSystems
16 6 (0.40%) Adobe
16 6 (0.40%) Bloomberg
16 6 (0.40%) Teradata