Senior Data Scientist Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Senior Data Scientist
UK > UK excluding London

The median Senior Data Scientist salary in the UK excluding London is £87,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 October 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 507 532 555
Rank change year-on-year +25 +23 -27
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Data Scientist 167 6 66
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.19% 0.017% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.019% 0.14%
Number of salaries quoted 80 5 29
10th Percentile £72,250 £80,500 £49,396
25th Percentile £75,000 - £57,646
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £87,500 £85,000 £62,879
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +35.18% -22.61%
75th Percentile £95,000 - £76,250
90th Percentile £100,000 - £82,000
UK median annual salary £90,000 £85,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% +21.43% -13.85%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 80,405 30,801 47,868
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.51% 89.52% 95.38%
Number of salaries quoted 55,513 17,417 26,226
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,500 £53,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.35% -2.73% -8.33%

Senior Data Scientist
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Senior Data Scientist' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Senior Data Scientist job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Senior Data Scientist
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Senior Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Senior Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Senior Data Scientist
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Data Scientist in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Data Scientist in the UK excluding London

Senior Data Scientist
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Data Scientist within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -8 54 £90,000 +9.09% 33
South East +5 45 £90,000 - 27
Midlands - 37 £75,000 - 17
East Midlands - 35 £75,000 - 7
North West -4 27 £90,000 +9.09% 19
Yorkshire - 24 £90,000 - 14
South West -56 13 £75,000 -11.76% 12
Wales - 8 £100,000 - 6
Northern Ireland - 7 £90,000 -
North East - 3 £100,000 -
West Midlands - 2 £75,013 - 10
Scotland - 2 £75,013 - 2
East of England - 1 £65,000 - 16
Senior Data Scientist
UK

Senior Data Scientist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 14 October 2026, Senior Data Scientist job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Senior Data Scientist in the job title.

1 167 (100.00%) Data Science
2 95 (56.89%) Machine Learning
3 52 (31.14%) AI
4 51 (30.54%) Python
5 37 (22.16%) SQL
6 33 (19.76%) Analytics
6 33 (19.76%) Roadmaps
7 32 (19.16%) Mentoring
8 31 (18.56%) Actionable Insight
8 31 (18.56%) Software Engineering
9 28 (16.77%) PyTorch
9 28 (16.77%) Statistics
10 27 (16.17%) TensorFlow
11 24 (14.37%) Deep Learning
11 24 (14.37%) Hugging Face
12 23 (13.77%) Project Management
13 18 (10.78%) Decision-Making
14 17 (10.18%) Generative AI
15 15 (8.98%) Agile
15 15 (8.98%) Continuous Improvement
15 15 (8.98%) Customer Insight
15 15 (8.98%) Neural Network
16 13 (7.78%) Degree
16 13 (7.78%) MLOps
17 12 (7.19%) LLM
17 12 (7.19%) Predictive Modelling
18 11 (6.59%) Azure
18 11 (6.59%) Customer Requirements
19 10 (5.99%) Git
19 10 (5.99%) Security Cleared

Senior Data Scientist Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 2 (1.20%) SAS
Applications
1 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (1.20%) Spreadsheet
1 2 (1.20%) SPSS
Cloud Services
1 11 (6.59%) Azure
2 9 (5.39%) Azure Machine Learning
2 9 (5.39%) SaaS
3 4 (2.40%) AWS
3 4 (2.40%) Azure Databricks
4 2 (1.20%) Amazon SageMaker
4 2 (1.20%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.60%) Anthropic Claude
5 1 (0.60%) GitHub
5 1 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (0.60%) Google Gemini
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.20%) Data Lake
1 2 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (1.20%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
1 2 (1.20%) Power BI
1 2 (1.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (5.99%) Git
2 1 (0.60%) MLflow
General
1 46 (27.54%) Finance
2 15 (8.98%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (7.78%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 9 (5.39%) Social Skills
6 6 (3.59%) Wearables
7 4 (2.40%) Banking
7 4 (2.40%) Retail
8 3 (1.80%) Automotive
8 3 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.80%) Marketing
9 2 (1.20%) Games
10 1 (0.60%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (16.77%) PyTorch
2 27 (16.17%) TensorFlow
3 24 (14.37%) Hugging Face
4 4 (2.40%) PySpark
5 2 (1.20%) scikit-learn
5 2 (1.20%) XGBoost
6 1 (0.60%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 5 (2.99%) Algorithms
2 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (0.60%) AI Agents
3 1 (0.60%) Cloud Native
3 1 (0.60%) Credit Risk
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (100.00%) Data Science
2 95 (56.89%) Machine Learning
3 52 (31.14%) AI
4 33 (19.76%) Analytics
4 33 (19.76%) Roadmaps
5 32 (19.16%) Mentoring
6 31 (18.56%) Actionable Insight
6 31 (18.56%) Software Engineering
7 28 (16.77%) Statistics
8 24 (14.37%) Deep Learning
9 23 (13.77%) Project Management
10 18 (10.78%) Decision-Making
11 17 (10.18%) Generative AI
12 15 (8.98%) Agile
12 15 (8.98%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (8.98%) Customer Insight
12 15 (8.98%) Neural Network
13 13 (7.78%) MLOps
14 12 (7.19%) LLM
14 12 (7.19%) Predictive Modelling
Programming Languages
1 51 (30.54%) Python
2 37 (22.16%) SQL
3 4 (2.40%) R
Qualifications
1 13 (7.78%) Degree
2 10 (5.99%) Security Cleared
3 4 (2.40%) DV Cleared
3 4 (2.40%) Master's Degree
3 4 (2.40%) Numerate Degree
4 1 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.60%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.40%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.20%) Actionable Recommendations
2 2 (1.20%) QA
3 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 1 (0.60%) Docker
Vendors
1 7 (4.19%) Workday
2 6 (3.59%) Databricks
3 4 (2.40%) Microsoft