Data Engineering Job Trends

Data Engineering
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Data Engineering skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 157 154 168
Rank change year-on-year -3 +14 -51
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,042 847 1,484
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.38% 2.00% 1.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.78% 2.14% 1.99%
Number of salaries quoted 666 590 838
10th Percentile £46,125 £43,750 £42,439
25th Percentile £57,500 £57,209 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £80,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +14.29% -6.67%
75th Percentile £92,500 £105,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £110,000 £122,500 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £65,066
% change year-on-year - -0.10% +4.10%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 58,555 39,559 74,495
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.69% 93.50% 87.13%
Number of salaries quoted 35,503 22,222 56,291
10th Percentile £29,750 £31,750 £29,035
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,910 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,410 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%

Data Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Data Engineering relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Data Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Engineering
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Engineering

Data Engineering
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Data Engineering over the 6 months to 20 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Data Engineering in the UK

Data Engineering
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Data Engineering within the UK over the 6 months to 20 March 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
England -4 916 £75,000 -6.25% 548
London +43 498 £80,000 -15.79% 280
UK excluding London -28 444 £65,000 - 377
Work from Home -4 375 £76,250 -8.96% 255
North of England -67 108 £75,000 +25.00% 114
South East -41 107 £70,000 - 126
Midlands +2 86 £65,000 +18.18% 47
West Midlands +36 66 £60,000 +33.33% 37
East of England +24 56 £59,450 -8.54% 27
North West -26 51 £83,750 +28.85% 60
Yorkshire -59 50 £67,500 +12.50% 44
Scotland -2 48 £85,000 +47.83% 23
South West -37 33 £55,000 -33.33% 36
East Midlands -53 18 £75,000 +22.45% 10
North East -32 7 £65,000 +32.65% 12
Wales -21 6 £65,000 -18.75% 10

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
1 160 (15.36%) Apache Airflow
2 116 (11.13%) Apache Spark
3 70 (6.72%) Apache
4 30 (2.88%) Palantir Foundry
5 21 (2.02%) SAS
6 14 (1.34%) SharePoint
7 12 (1.15%) Appian
8 6 (0.58%) Moodle
9 5 (0.48%) Confluence
10 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.096%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.096%) Camunda
11 1 (0.096%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.096%) Adobe XD
4 1 (0.096%) Notion
Business Applications
1 4 (0.38%) Markit EDM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.19%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.096%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.096%) Primavera
3 1 (0.096%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 492 (47.22%) Azure
2 334 (32.05%) AWS
3 206 (19.77%) Power Platform
4 204 (19.58%) Snowflake
5 169 (16.22%) GCP
6 164 (15.74%) Azure Data Factory
7 107 (10.27%) dbt
8 104 (9.98%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 67 (6.43%) Amazon S3
10 50 (4.80%) Azure DevOps
11 47 (4.51%) GitHub
11 47 (4.51%) Serverless
12 42 (4.03%) Azure Machine Learning
13 38 (3.65%) SaaS
14 37 (3.55%) Azure AI
15 29 (2.78%) AWS Lambda
16 27 (2.59%) OpenShift
17 26 (2.50%) Amazon Kinesis
18 25 (2.40%) Power Automate
19 22 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.44%) Broadband
2 3 (0.29%) HTTP
2 3 (0.29%) Kerberos
3 2 (0.19%) DAB
3 2 (0.19%) DHCP
3 2 (0.19%) DNS
4 1 (0.096%) 4G
4 1 (0.096%) 5G
4 1 (0.096%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 280 (26.87%) Data Warehouse
2 197 (18.91%) Power BI
3 173 (16.60%) Data Lake
4 107 (10.27%) SQL Server
5 91 (8.73%) Tableau
6 87 (8.35%) Metadata
7 69 (6.62%) BigQuery
8 63 (6.05%) Amazon Redshift
9 45 (4.32%) Delta Lake
10 44 (4.22%) Relational Database
11 42 (4.03%) PostgreSQL
12 40 (3.84%) Big Data
13 39 (3.74%) Looker
14 37 (3.55%) MySQL
15 31 (2.98%) Elasticsearch
16 30 (2.88%) Apache Iceberg
16 30 (2.88%) Snowflake Schema
16 30 (2.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 29 (2.78%) Azure SQL Database
17 29 (2.78%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 73 (7.01%) Git
2 53 (5.09%) MLflow
3 13 (1.25%) Jenkins
4 12 (1.15%) IBM UrbanCode
5 11 (1.06%) JIRA
6 10 (0.96%) GitLab
7 5 (0.48%) Selenium
8 3 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.19%) Deequ
10 1 (0.096%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.096%) CMake
10 1 (0.096%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.096%) JMeter
10 1 (0.096%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.096%) Zephyr
General
1 284 (27.26%) Finance
2 227 (21.79%) Social Skills
3 141 (13.53%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (5.76%) Public Sector
5 57 (5.47%) Banking
6 43 (4.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 41 (3.93%) Retail
8 37 (3.55%) Law
9 31 (2.98%) Marketing
10 30 (2.88%) Legal
11 28 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (2.02%) Manufacturing
13 16 (1.54%) Financial Institution
14 15 (1.44%) Investment Banking
15 12 (1.15%) Games
16 11 (1.06%) Advertising
16 11 (1.06%) Automotive
17 8 (0.77%) Front Office
18 7 (0.67%) Documentation Skills
18 7 (0.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 442 (42.42%) Data Engineer
2 194 (18.62%) Senior
3 177 (16.99%) Lead
4 117 (11.23%) Senior Data Engineer
5 111 (10.65%) Architect
6 91 (8.73%) Data Architect
7 86 (8.25%) Lead Data Engineer
8 58 (5.57%) Data Manager
9 57 (5.47%) Consultant
10 44 (4.22%) Developer
11 34 (3.26%) Analyst
11 34 (3.26%) Azure Engineer
12 33 (3.17%) Engineering Manager
13 32 (3.07%) AWS Engineer
13 32 (3.07%) Data Consultant
14 29 (2.78%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
14 29 (2.78%) Principal Engineer
15 28 (2.69%) Azure Data Engineer
15 28 (2.69%) Platform Engineer
16 26 (2.50%) AWS Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (10.65%) PySpark
2 88 (8.45%) Kafka
3 60 (5.76%) PyTorch
3 60 (5.76%) TensorFlow
4 37 (3.55%) scikit-learn
5 33 (3.17%) LangChain
5 33 (3.17%) Pandas
6 32 (3.07%) REST
7 25 (2.40%) RESTful
8 21 (2.02%) Faiss
9 18 (1.73%) pytest
10 16 (1.54%) HTML
10 16 (1.54%) Spring
11 15 (1.44%) OAuth
11 15 (1.44%) React
11 15 (1.44%) Spring Boot
12 14 (1.34%) FastAPI
12 14 (1.34%) Flask
13 13 (1.25%) Hugging Face
13 13 (1.25%) pgvector
Miscellaneous
1 88 (8.45%) Cloud Native
2 43 (4.13%) Data Structures
3 37 (3.55%) Product Ownership
4 36 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
5 35 (3.36%) Legacy Systems
6 32 (3.07%) Low-Code
7 20 (1.92%) Greenfield Project
8 19 (1.82%) e-Learning
9 18 (1.73%) Management Information System
9 18 (1.73%) Public Cloud
10 17 (1.63%) AI Agents
10 17 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.25%) Algorithms
11 13 (1.25%) Clustering
12 11 (1.06%) Hybrid Cloud
12 11 (1.06%) Onboarding
13 10 (0.96%) Data Centre
13 10 (0.96%) Distributed Architecture
14 9 (0.86%) NHS
14 9 (0.86%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 9 (0.86%) Linux
2 3 (0.29%) Unix
2 3 (0.29%) Windows
3 2 (0.19%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.096%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 528 (50.67%) Analytics
2 463 (44.43%) Data Pipeline
3 415 (39.83%) Data Modelling
4 366 (35.12%) ETL
5 357 (34.26%) AI
6 297 (28.50%) Data Governance
7 287 (27.54%) CI/CD
8 286 (27.45%) Business Intelligence
9 252 (24.18%) Agile
10 222 (21.31%) Data Architecture
11 209 (20.06%) Machine Learning
12 205 (19.67%) Data Science
13 184 (17.66%) DevOps
14 181 (17.37%) Decision-Making
15 178 (17.08%) Mentoring
16 177 (16.99%) Problem-Solving
17 174 (16.70%) Data Integration
18 145 (13.92%) Continuous Improvement
19 127 (12.19%) Data Management
20 116 (11.13%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 558 (53.55%) Python
2 515 (49.42%) SQL
3 93 (8.93%) Java
4 48 (4.61%) Scala
5 32 (3.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 28 (2.69%) Bash
7 27 (2.59%) R
8 25 (2.40%) T-SQL
9 24 (2.30%) JavaScript
10 22 (2.11%) PowerShell
11 20 (1.92%) C#
11 20 (1.92%) Go
12 13 (1.25%) C++
13 11 (1.06%) TypeScript
14 8 (0.77%) PHP
15 6 (0.58%) Bicep
16 4 (0.38%) Julia
17 3 (0.29%) Ruby
17 3 (0.29%) VBA
18 2 (0.19%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 119 (11.42%) Degree
2 76 (7.29%) Security Cleared
3 55 (5.28%) Computer Science Degree
4 48 (4.61%) SC Cleared
5 34 (3.26%) Master's Degree
6 23 (2.21%) DBS Check
6 23 (2.21%) DV Cleared
7 20 (1.92%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.63%) AWS Certification
8 17 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (0.58%) MCSE
11 5 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.48%) CISSP
11 5 (0.48%) CRISC
11 5 (0.48%) OCP
11 5 (0.48%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.38%) PhD
13 2 (0.19%) SnowPro
14 1 (0.096%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 295 (28.31%) Data Quality
2 80 (7.68%) GDPR
3 63 (6.05%) Accessibility
4 28 (2.69%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 18 (1.73%) HIPAA
5 18 (1.73%) QA
6 13 (1.25%) GRC
7 11 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (0.96%) SLA
9 6 (0.58%) NIST
10 5 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.29%) Solvency II
12 2 (0.19%) PERC
13 1 (0.096%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.096%) GMP
13 1 (0.096%) IFRS
13 1 (0.096%) IFRS 17
13 1 (0.096%) NCSC
13 1 (0.096%) SOC 2
System Software
1 95 (9.12%) Docker
2 16 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
3 10 (0.96%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.29%) HDFS
5 1 (0.096%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 76 (7.29%) Kubernetes
2 72 (6.91%) Terraform
3 11 (1.06%) Grafana
4 10 (0.96%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.86%) Ansible
5 9 (0.86%) Argo
5 9 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (0.67%) Control-M
7 2 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.19%) SCCM
8 1 (0.096%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 300 (28.79%) Databricks
2 211 (20.25%) Microsoft
3 53 (5.09%) Informatica
4 48 (4.61%) Palantir
5 47 (4.51%) Oracle
6 42 (4.03%) Google
7 40 (3.84%) Dell
8 36 (3.45%) Foundry
9 35 (3.36%) OpenAI
10 28 (2.69%) Talend
11 19 (1.82%) Cloudera
12 17 (1.63%) Denodo
13 16 (1.54%) Teradata
14 15 (1.44%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.44%) Salesforce
15 13 (1.25%) Automation Anywhere
15 13 (1.25%) UiPath
16 9 (0.86%) SAP
17 8 (0.77%) NVIDIA
18 7 (0.67%) MuleSoft