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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 164 224
Rank change year-on-year +51 +60 +9
Contract jobs citing Data Engineering 897 513 471
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.42% 1.62% 1.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.75% 1.82% 1.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 599 357 352
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 £653
90th Percentile £750 £813 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -0.50% -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 32,565 28,230 37,893
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.70% 88.92% 87.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,598 17,153 25,051
10th Percentile £304 £308 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £743 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,982 906 1,726
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.15
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.80 £17.54
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -18.75% +17.96%
75th Percentile £56.69 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.81 £75.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.78 £40.28
% change year-on-year -22.03% -23.58% +46.45%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +53 795 £525 -8.70% 620
London +69 568 £550 -4.35% 208
Work from Home +10 260 £550 - 314
UK excluding London -10 236 £498 -0.50% 533
North of England -14 77 £450 -18.18% 96
Midlands -4 64 £542 +0.74% 65
North West -1 49 £445 -11.00% 47
West Midlands -11 45 £550 +10.00% 33
Scotland +14 36 £402 -14.65% 23
South West -5 29 £550 -17.60% 58
South East -15 27 £513 -5.09% 209
East Midlands -4 19 £433 -30.80% 30
Yorkshire -46 15 £500 -9.09% 34
North East -5 13 £400 -33.05% 15
East of England -13 11 £500 +56.25% 65
Wales -10 5 £631 +26.25% 20
Northern Ireland - 2 £430 - 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
1 126 (14.05%) Apache Spark
2 106 (11.82%) Apache Airflow
3 68 (7.58%) Apache
4 13 (1.45%) Confluence
5 5 (0.56%) SAS
6 4 (0.45%) Appian
7 3 (0.33%) 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 17 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.67%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.33%) Trello
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.67%) Aladdin
2 3 (0.33%) 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
1 420 (46.82%) Azure
2 308 (34.34%) AWS
3 176 (19.62%) Power Platform
4 162 (18.06%) Azure Data Factory
5 126 (14.05%) Snowflake
6 124 (13.82%) GCP
7 103 (11.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 99 (11.04%) Amazon S3
9 94 (10.48%) GitHub
10 91 (10.14%) Serverless
11 80 (8.92%) dbt
12 76 (8.47%) Azure DevOps
13 69 (7.69%) AWS Lambda
14 64 (7.13%) GitHub Actions
15 39 (4.35%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (2.90%) AWS Step Functions
17 22 (2.45%) Amazon SageMaker
17 22 (2.45%) Azure Machine Learning
18 20 (2.23%) Cloud Computing
18 20 (2.23%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.56%) Network Security
2 4 (0.45%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (0.45%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.33%) Firewall
3 3 (0.33%) 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
1 171 (19.06%) Data Warehouse
2 168 (18.73%) Power BI
3 120 (13.38%) Data Lake
4 76 (8.47%) Metadata
5 58 (6.47%) NoSQL
6 55 (6.13%) Big Data
6 55 (6.13%) SQL Server
7 51 (5.69%) Relational Database
8 50 (5.57%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (5.35%) Delta Lake
10 44 (4.91%) BigQuery
10 44 (4.91%) Snowflake Schema
11 41 (4.57%) Amazon Redshift
12 39 (4.35%) PostgreSQL
13 38 (4.24%) Amazon Athena
14 34 (3.79%) Tableau
15 32 (3.57%) Hadoop
16 26 (2.90%) RDBMS
17 20 (2.23%) Elasticsearch
17 20 (2.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 132 (14.72%) Git
2 51 (5.69%) GitLab
3 45 (5.02%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.57%) MLflow
5 25 (2.79%) JIRA
6 7 (0.78%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (0.45%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.45%) Selenium
7 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.33%) JMeter
8 3 (0.33%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.22%) Maven
9 2 (0.22%) Mockito
9 2 (0.22%) Poetry
9 2 (0.22%) Postman
9 2 (0.22%) Pylint
9 2 (0.22%) Robot Framework
9 2 (0.22%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.22%) TestRail
9 2 (0.22%) Zephyr
General
1 256 (28.54%) Social Skills
2 213 (23.75%) Finance
3 120 (13.38%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (7.13%) Public Sector
5 56 (6.24%) Banking
6 24 (2.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 22 (2.45%) Investment Banking
8 16 (1.78%) Front Office
9 15 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.67%) Pharmaceutical
9 15 (1.67%) Retail
10 14 (1.56%) Marketing
11 11 (1.23%) Legal
12 9 (1.00%) Publishing
13 8 (0.89%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (0.89%) 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
1 392 (43.70%) Data Engineer
2 119 (13.27%) Senior
3 99 (11.04%) Lead
4 81 (9.03%) Senior Data Engineer
5 76 (8.47%) Azure Engineer
6 65 (7.25%) Developer
7 61 (6.80%) Architect
8 55 (6.13%) Azure Data Engineer
9 43 (4.79%) Analyst
10 41 (4.57%) AWS Engineer
11 40 (4.46%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 39 (4.35%) Python Engineer
12 39 (4.35%) Snowflake Engineer
13 32 (3.57%) Data Architect
13 32 (3.57%) Data Scientist
14 31 (3.46%) Snowflake Data Engineer
15 26 (2.90%) AWS Data Engineer
15 26 (2.90%) Lead Data Engineer
16 24 (2.68%) Consultant
16 24 (2.68%) Python Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 173 (19.29%) PySpark
2 95 (10.59%) Kafka
3 59 (6.58%) Pandas
4 49 (5.46%) PyTorch
5 44 (4.91%) TensorFlow
6 43 (4.79%) NumPy
7 37 (4.12%) FastAPI
8 31 (3.46%) scikit-learn
9 29 (3.23%) Flask
10 28 (3.12%) RESTful
11 23 (2.56%) React
12 22 (2.45%) LangChain
12 22 (2.45%) pytest
13 19 (2.12%) JSON
13 19 (2.12%) YAML
14 18 (2.01%) REST
15 15 (1.67%) Spark Streaming
16 14 (1.56%) Hugging Face
17 13 (1.45%) ARM Templates
17 13 (1.45%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 89 (9.92%) Cloud Native
2 41 (4.57%) Algorithms
3 25 (2.79%) Distributed Computing
3 25 (2.79%) Product Ownership
4 23 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
5 22 (2.45%) Onboarding
6 21 (2.34%) Data Structures
7 19 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
8 17 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (1.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 16 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.45%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.45%) Hedge funds
11 12 (1.34%) Life Science
12 11 (1.23%) AI Agents
12 11 (1.23%) Data Fabric
12 11 (1.23%) Fixed Income
13 10 (1.11%) Clustering
13 10 (1.11%) Derivative
13 10 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 26 (2.90%) Linux
2 3 (0.33%) 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
1 394 (43.92%) Data Pipeline
2 348 (38.80%) Analytics
3 334 (37.24%) ETL
4 321 (35.79%) CI/CD
5 308 (34.34%) Data Modelling
6 232 (25.86%) AI
7 222 (24.75%) Data Governance
8 209 (23.30%) DevOps
9 207 (23.08%) Agile
10 198 (22.07%) Machine Learning
11 196 (21.85%) Business Intelligence
12 179 (19.96%) Data Science
13 178 (19.84%) Problem-Solving
14 149 (16.61%) Data Architecture
15 110 (12.26%) Infrastructure as Code
16 92 (10.26%) Data Integration
17 91 (10.14%) Containerisation
18 87 (9.70%) Visualisation
19 86 (9.59%) Data Transformation
19 86 (9.59%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 557 (62.10%) Python
2 444 (49.50%) SQL
3 62 (6.91%) Scala
4 55 (6.13%) Java
5 36 (4.01%) C#
6 33 (3.68%) JavaScript
7 27 (3.01%) PowerShell
8 22 (2.45%) C++
9 20 (2.23%) Bash
9 20 (2.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 18 (2.01%) Bicep
10 18 (2.01%) T-SQL
11 17 (1.90%) R
12 16 (1.78%) PL/SQL
13 15 (1.67%) Go
13 15 (1.67%) TypeScript
14 13 (1.45%) Shell Script
15 12 (1.34%) Rust
16 7 (0.78%) Korn
17 2 (0.22%) VBA
Qualifications
1 169 (18.84%) Security Cleared
2 142 (15.83%) SC Cleared
3 68 (7.58%) Degree
4 51 (5.69%) Azure Certification
5 30 (3.34%) Computer Science Degree
6 29 (3.23%) Master's Degree
7 18 (2.01%) DV Cleared
8 14 (1.56%) AWS Certification
8 14 (1.56%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (1.45%) PhD
10 7 (0.78%) MCP
11 6 (0.67%) BPSS Clearance
12 4 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.33%) ISTQB
13 3 (0.33%) 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
1 233 (25.98%) Data Quality
2 72 (8.03%) GDPR
3 28 (3.12%) QA
4 18 (2.01%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (0.89%) 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%) EMIR
10 1 (0.11%) NCSC
10 1 (0.11%) Solvency II
System Software
1 139 (15.50%) Docker
2 16 (1.78%) 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 (16.28%) Terraform
2 116 (12.93%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.45%) Ansible
3 13 (1.45%) Grafana
4 11 (1.23%) Hadoop YARN
5 7 (0.78%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.56%) Puppet
7 3 (0.33%) Argo
7 3 (0.33%) Control-M
7 3 (0.33%) Kibana
7 3 (0.33%) logstash
7 3 (0.33%) Oozie
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)
9 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 273 (30.43%) Databricks
2 114 (12.71%) Microsoft
3 43 (4.79%) Google
4 29 (3.23%) Oracle
5 20 (2.23%) Informatica
6 18 (2.01%) Palantir
7 16 (1.78%) Foundry
8 15 (1.67%) Talend
9 13 (1.45%) OpenAI
9 13 (1.45%) SAP
10 12 (1.34%) Salesforce
11 8 (0.89%) Cloudera
11 8 (0.89%) Virgin Media
12 7 (0.78%) 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