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

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 163 208
Rank change year-on-year +72 +45 -1
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 1,303 528 495
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.81% 1.79% 1.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.31% 1.97% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 376 371
10th Percentile £394 £398 £375
25th Percentile £450 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £615 £670 £663
90th Percentile £750 £838 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £550
% change year-on-year +4.22% -12.77% +2.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 12 13
10th Percentile £51.25 £21.33 £30.55
25th Percentile £58.56 £22.00 £31.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.43 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +175.27% -27.34% -35.48%
75th Percentile £77.25 £35.94 £50.25
90th Percentile £89.75 £63.88 £60.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.44 £25.43 £60.00
% change year-on-year +173.06% -57.62% +71.43%

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 39,324 26,741 37,503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.82% 90.76% 86.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,807 17,298 24,232
10th Percentile £318 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% -0.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +1.09% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,359 1,048 2,416
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.88 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £39.00 £30.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -14.29% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.50 £58.69
90th Percentile £78.31 £75.00 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £28.75 £35.00
% change year-on-year +41.01% -17.86% -6.67%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 +60 1,174 £525 -4.55% 468
London +58 741 £550 -4.35% 248
UK excluding London +59 440 £500 +4.22% 302
Work from Home +50 372 £540 -6.90% 238
Midlands +27 124 £510 +2.00% 48
North of England +1 122 £480 -4.00% 90
West Midlands +20 99 £510 -5.56% 38
South West +13 73 £525 -14.29% 39
Yorkshire -16 55 £480 -12.73% 27
South East -27 55 £550 +10.00% 76
Scotland +21 51 £440 -7.37% 20
North West -20 50 £496 +4.42% 44
East Midlands -19 22 £450 -5.26% 10
East of England -20 22 £575 +54.08% 15
North East -2 19 £463 -2.63% 21
Wales -10 5 £665 +181.78% 4
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 11

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
1 199 (15.27%) Apache Spark
2 131 (10.05%) Apache Airflow
3 91 (6.98%) Apache
4 33 (2.53%) SAS
5 18 (1.38%) Palantir Foundry
6 17 (1.30%) Confluence
7 8 (0.61%) Appian
8 7 (0.54%) Apache Superset
9 5 (0.38%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.15%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.077%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.077%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.077%) Camunda
12 1 (0.077%) CICS
12 1 (0.077%) CMS
12 1 (0.077%) IBM HTTP Server
12 1 (0.077%) SharePoint
Applications
1 28 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.23%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.23%) Trello
7 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (0.38%) BambooHR
2 4 (0.31%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.23%) SAP BPC
4 2 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.077%) Actimize
5 1 (0.077%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.077%) Markit EDM
5 1 (0.077%) Maximo
5 1 (0.077%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.077%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.077%) SAP ECC
Cloud Services
1 600 (46.05%) Azure
2 472 (36.22%) AWS
3 290 (22.26%) Power Platform
4 202 (15.50%) Azure Data Factory
5 184 (14.12%) GCP
6 163 (12.51%) Snowflake
7 152 (11.67%) Amazon S3
8 147 (11.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 132 (10.13%) GitHub
10 118 (9.06%) Serverless
11 114 (8.75%) dbt
12 105 (8.06%) Azure DevOps
13 95 (7.29%) AWS Lambda
14 80 (6.14%) GitHub Actions
15 66 (5.07%) AWS CloudFormation
16 39 (2.99%) AWS Step Functions
17 33 (2.53%) Amazon EMR
18 31 (2.38%) Collibra
19 30 (2.30%) Amazon SageMaker
20 28 (2.15%) Dagster
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.38%) RTP
2 4 (0.31%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.31%) Firewall
2 4 (0.31%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.23%) Network Security
3 3 (0.23%) VPN
4 1 (0.077%) 4G
4 1 (0.077%) 5G
4 1 (0.077%) MIMO
4 1 (0.077%) SAN
4 1 (0.077%) SMS
4 1 (0.077%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 265 (20.34%) Power BI
2 259 (19.88%) Data Warehouse
3 198 (15.20%) Data Lake
4 127 (9.75%) Metadata
5 93 (7.14%) Big Data
6 91 (6.98%) SQL Server
7 88 (6.75%) Delta Lake
8 84 (6.45%) NoSQL
9 73 (5.60%) Tableau
10 72 (5.53%) Amazon Redshift
11 69 (5.30%) Amazon Athena
12 68 (5.22%) BigQuery
13 67 (5.14%) Azure SQL Database
14 65 (4.99%) Snowflake Schema
15 57 (4.37%) Relational Database
16 55 (4.22%) PostgreSQL
17 50 (3.84%) Hadoop
18 37 (2.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
19 36 (2.76%) Spark SQL
20 25 (1.92%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 170 (13.05%) Git
2 62 (4.76%) GitLab
3 49 (3.76%) MLflow
4 44 (3.38%) JIRA
5 35 (2.69%) Jenkins
6 7 (0.54%) Selenium
6 7 (0.54%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.23%) JUnit
7 3 (0.23%) Maven
7 3 (0.23%) Postman
7 3 (0.23%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.23%) Snyk
7 3 (0.23%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.15%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.15%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.15%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.15%) Mockito
8 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.077%) ERwin
9 1 (0.077%) SoapUI
General
1 321 (24.64%) Finance
2 316 (24.25%) Social Skills
3 197 (15.12%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (8.60%) Public Sector
5 74 (5.68%) Banking
6 27 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 24 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
8 22 (1.69%) Retail
9 20 (1.53%) Marketing
10 17 (1.30%) Front Office
11 15 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
11 15 (1.15%) Telecoms
12 13 (1.00%) Legal
13 12 (0.92%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.92%) Investment Banking
14 9 (0.69%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (0.54%) Law
16 6 (0.46%) Back Office
16 6 (0.46%) Military
17 5 (0.38%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 597 (45.82%) Data Engineer
2 174 (13.35%) Senior
3 145 (11.13%) Lead
4 131 (10.05%) Architect
5 108 (8.29%) Senior Data Engineer
6 80 (6.14%) Developer
7 70 (5.37%) Azure Engineer
8 69 (5.30%) Data Architect
9 60 (4.60%) AWS Engineer
10 58 (4.45%) Azure Data Engineer
11 56 (4.30%) Analyst
12 54 (4.14%) Lead Data Engineer
13 45 (3.45%) Data Scientist
14 44 (3.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 43 (3.30%) Snowflake Engineer
16 41 (3.15%) AWS Data Engineer
16 41 (3.15%) Consultant
17 38 (2.92%) Solutions Architect
18 37 (2.84%) Snowflake Data Engineer
19 32 (2.46%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 223 (17.11%) PySpark
2 154 (11.82%) Kafka
3 61 (4.68%) Pandas
4 51 (3.91%) PyTorch
5 44 (3.38%) scikit-learn
6 42 (3.22%) TensorFlow
7 39 (2.99%) NumPy
8 30 (2.30%) JSON
8 30 (2.30%) REST
9 25 (1.92%) YAML
10 23 (1.77%) React
10 23 (1.77%) Spring
11 22 (1.69%) pytest
12 21 (1.61%) LangChain
12 21 (1.61%) RESTful
13 20 (1.53%) Great Expectations
14 19 (1.46%) FastAPI
15 16 (1.23%) Flask
15 16 (1.23%) Spring Boot
16 15 (1.15%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 174 (13.35%) Cloud Native
2 49 (3.76%) Distributed Systems
3 44 (3.38%) Product Ownership
4 39 (2.99%) Algorithms
5 38 (2.92%) Legacy Systems
6 34 (2.61%) Data Structures
7 29 (2.23%) Distributed Computing
8 27 (2.07%) Onboarding
9 25 (1.92%) AI Agents
10 23 (1.77%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
12 19 (1.46%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.46%) Hybrid Cloud
13 17 (1.30%) NHS
14 14 (1.07%) Clustering
14 14 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (1.00%) Fixed Income
15 13 (1.00%) Management Information System
16 11 (0.84%) Virtual Team
17 10 (0.77%) Data Fabric
Operating Systems
1 28 (2.15%) Linux
2 17 (1.30%) Unix
3 8 (0.61%) VMS
4 3 (0.23%) Windows
5 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.077%) CentOS
6 1 (0.077%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 657 (50.42%) Analytics
2 597 (45.82%) Data Pipeline
3 505 (38.76%) Data Modelling
4 502 (38.53%) ETL
5 462 (35.46%) CI/CD
6 361 (27.71%) AI
7 338 (25.94%) Agile
8 329 (25.25%) Business Intelligence
9 327 (25.10%) Data Governance
10 324 (24.87%) DevOps
11 268 (20.57%) Machine Learning
12 253 (19.42%) Problem-Solving
13 243 (18.65%) Data Science
14 206 (15.81%) Data Architecture
15 169 (12.97%) Decision-Making
16 164 (12.59%) Migration
17 159 (12.20%) Infrastructure as Code
18 151 (11.59%) Validation
19 137 (10.51%) Data Transformation
20 129 (9.90%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 706 (54.18%) Python
2 703 (53.95%) SQL
3 105 (8.06%) Java
4 69 (5.30%) Scala
5 44 (3.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 40 (3.07%) C#
7 34 (2.61%) Bash
8 30 (2.30%) PowerShell
9 25 (1.92%) T-SQL
10 23 (1.77%) JavaScript
11 22 (1.69%) R
12 18 (1.38%) Bicep
13 12 (0.92%) Go
13 12 (0.92%) Shell Script
14 11 (0.84%) TypeScript
15 10 (0.77%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.54%) SAS Macro
17 5 (0.38%) Korn
18 3 (0.23%) C++
19 1 (0.077%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 267 (20.49%) Security Cleared
2 231 (17.73%) SC Cleared
3 106 (8.14%) Degree
4 45 (3.45%) Azure Certification
4 45 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 41 (3.15%) Master's Degree
6 20 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
7 18 (1.38%) AWS Certification
8 16 (1.23%) DV Cleared
9 11 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.61%) PhD
11 6 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (0.46%) SnowPro
12 5 (0.38%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 3 (0.23%) IBM Certification
15 2 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
16 1 (0.077%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 1 (0.077%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
16 1 (0.077%) CSPO
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 373 (28.63%) Data Quality
2 94 (7.21%) GDPR
3 45 (3.45%) QA
4 13 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (0.77%) Accessibility
5 10 (0.77%) SLA
6 5 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.31%) HIPAA
7 4 (0.31%) PERC
7 4 (0.31%) Solvency II
8 3 (0.23%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (0.23%) GRC
8 3 (0.23%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.23%) WCAG
9 2 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.15%) MiFID
9 2 (0.15%) NIST
9 2 (0.15%) PMO
9 2 (0.15%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 137 (10.51%) Docker
2 6 (0.46%) HDFS
3 3 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.077%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.077%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 184 (14.12%) Terraform
2 129 (9.90%) Kubernetes
3 29 (2.23%) Prometheus
4 21 (1.61%) Grafana
5 12 (0.92%) Ansible
6 5 (0.38%) Argo
6 5 (0.38%) Kibana
7 4 (0.31%) Kubeflow
8 3 (0.23%) Nagios
8 3 (0.23%) Rancher
9 2 (0.15%) Hadoop YARN
9 2 (0.15%) logstash
9 2 (0.15%) Thomson Reuters DACS
10 1 (0.077%) Apache Ranger
10 1 (0.077%) Control-M
10 1 (0.077%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.077%) IBM Guardium
10 1 (0.077%) Oozie
Vendors
1 389 (29.85%) Databricks
2 207 (15.89%) Microsoft
3 65 (4.99%) Google
4 59 (4.53%) Informatica
5 44 (3.38%) Oracle
6 35 (2.69%) Talend
7 25 (1.92%) Foundry
8 22 (1.69%) OpenAI
9 21 (1.61%) SAP
10 20 (1.53%) Palantir
11 19 (1.46%) Splunk
12 16 (1.23%) Cloudera
13 14 (1.07%) ServiceNow
14 11 (0.84%) Salesforce
15 10 (0.77%) IBM
16 9 (0.69%) UiPath
17 8 (0.61%) Automation Anywhere
17 8 (0.61%) Denodo
18 6 (0.46%) MicroStrategy
19 5 (0.38%) InterSystems