Principal Data Engineer Contracts

Principal Data Engineer
UK

The median Principal Data Engineer daily rate in the UK is £700, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 513 580 700
Rank change year-on-year +67 +120 +146
Contract jobs requiring a Principal Data Engineer 7 2 18
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.024% 0.005% 0.030%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.026% 0.005% 0.032%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 14
10th Percentile - - £619
25th Percentile £675 - £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 - £725
Median % change year-on-year - - +17.89%
75th Percentile £725 - £788
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £700 - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Principal Data Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Principal Data Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Principal Data Engineer in the UK

Principal Data Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Principal Data Engineer.

Daily rate trend for Principal Data Engineer in the UK

Principal Data Engineer
Top 6 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Data Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 +61 6 £700 - 29
London +41 4 - - 14
UK excluding London +65 3 £700 - 16
North West - 2 £700 - 3
North of England - 2 £700 - 5
Wales - 1 - -

Principal Data Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Principal Data Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Principal Data Engineer in the job title.

1 6 (85.71%) Python
2 5 (71.43%) Analytics
2 5 (71.43%) Azure
2 5 (71.43%) Data Strategy
3 4 (57.14%) Containerisation
4 3 (42.86%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (42.86%) Site Reliability Engineering
4 3 (42.86%) Observability
4 3 (42.86%) NoSQL
4 3 (42.86%) SAP Data Services
4 3 (42.86%) SAP HANA
4 3 (42.86%) Low Latency
4 3 (42.86%) Big Data
4 3 (42.86%) OLTP
4 3 (42.86%) SAP BW
4 3 (42.86%) OLAP
4 3 (42.86%) SAP
4 3 (42.86%) Web Services
4 3 (42.86%) SQL
4 3 (42.86%) Agile
4 3 (42.86%) Artificial Intelligence
5 2 (28.57%) Software Engineering
5 2 (28.57%) Apache
5 2 (28.57%) Risk Management
5 2 (28.57%) SAP BPC
5 2 (28.57%) Data Ingestion
5 2 (28.57%) Databricks
5 2 (28.57%) Apache Spark
5 2 (28.57%) SDLC
5 2 (28.57%) Delta Lake

Principal Data Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (28.57%) Apache
1 2 (28.57%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 2 (28.57%) SAP BPC
Cloud Services
1 5 (71.43%) Azure
2 1 (14.29%) Amazon ECS
2 1 (14.29%) AWS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (42.86%) Big Data
1 3 (42.86%) NoSQL
1 3 (42.86%) OLAP
1 3 (42.86%) OLTP
1 3 (42.86%) SAP BW
1 3 (42.86%) SAP Data Services
1 3 (42.86%) SAP HANA
2 2 (28.57%) Delta Lake
3 1 (14.29%) Relational Database
3 1 (14.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (14.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 1 (14.29%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (42.86%) Web Services
2 1 (14.29%) Kedro
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (71.43%) Analytics
1 5 (71.43%) Data Strategy
2 4 (57.14%) Containerisation
3 3 (42.86%) Agile
3 3 (42.86%) Artificial Intelligence
3 3 (42.86%) Low Latency
3 3 (42.86%) Observability
3 3 (42.86%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (42.86%) Site Reliability Engineering
4 2 (28.57%) CI/CD
4 2 (28.57%) Data Ingestion
4 2 (28.57%) Infrastructure as Code
4 2 (28.57%) Risk Management
4 2 (28.57%) SDLC
4 2 (28.57%) Software Engineering
5 1 (14.29%) Architectural Patterns
5 1 (14.29%) Clean Code
5 1 (14.29%) Data Engineering
5 1 (14.29%) Generative AI
5 1 (14.29%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 6 (85.71%) Python
2 3 (42.86%) SQL
3 1 (14.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1 (14.29%) Degree
Vendors
1 3 (42.86%) SAP
2 2 (28.57%) Databricks