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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 151 146
Rank change year-on-year +23 -5 +51
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,599 1,067 1,458
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.47% 2.14% 1.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.00% 2.40% 2.16%
Number of salaries quoted 1,123 463 729
10th Percentile £45,750 £46,050 £42,500
25th Percentile £55,740 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £70,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £112,500 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,500 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.41% +8.00% -3.07%

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 79,759 44,399 67,357
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.20% 88.84% 80.67%
Number of salaries quoted 55,200 25,247 42,330
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%

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 26 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Data Engineering in the UK

Data Engineering
Top 17 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 26 August 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 +23 1,507 £80,000 +14.29% 426
UK excluding London -18 777 £72,500 +7.41% 249
London +37 731 £90,000 +2.86% 236
Work from Home +23 483 £80,000 +6.67% 229
North of England -7 349 £78,500 +16.30% 83
North West -25 170 £80,000 +33.33% 37
South East -47 155 £68,750 +5.77% 48
Midlands +10 104 £72,500 +7.41% 22
Yorkshire -2 99 £80,000 +17.65% 24
North East +5 80 £67,500 +42.11% 23
South West -31 77 £60,000 -9.43% 53
West Midlands 0 68 £72,500 +20.83% 20
East of England +4 56 £70,000 +40.00% 10
East Midlands -3 36 £63,750 -6.25% 2
Scotland -18 20 £97,500 +85.71% 26
Wales -44 18 £61,750 +3.67% 5
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5

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
1 177 (11.07%) Apache Spark
2 157 (9.82%) Apache Airflow
3 124 (7.75%) Apache
4 24 (1.50%) Palantir Foundry
5 20 (1.25%) Jupyter
6 18 (1.13%) SAS
7 11 (0.69%) SharePoint
8 8 (0.50%) Confluence
9 4 (0.25%) Luigi
9 4 (0.25%) Moodle
10 2 (0.13%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.13%) Tornado
11 1 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.063%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.063%) CMS
11 1 (0.063%) GeoServer
Applications
1 20 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.063%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
1 3 (0.19%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.13%) SAP Business One
3 1 (0.063%) FastStats
3 1 (0.063%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.063%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.063%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.063%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.063%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 675 (42.21%) Azure
2 478 (29.89%) AWS
3 285 (17.82%) Power Platform
4 274 (17.14%) GCP
5 236 (14.76%) Snowflake
6 170 (10.63%) Azure Data Factory
7 156 (9.76%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 145 (9.07%) dbt
9 90 (5.63%) Serverless
10 86 (5.38%) Azure DevOps
11 85 (5.32%) Amazon S3
12 84 (5.25%) Azure Machine Learning
13 69 (4.32%) Azure AI
14 59 (3.69%) SaaS
15 57 (3.56%) GitHub
16 47 (2.94%) AWS Lambda
17 46 (2.88%) Microsoft Purview
18 40 (2.50%) Amazon EMR
19 28 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
20 24 (1.50%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.50%) Broadband
2 7 (0.44%) Internet
3 4 (0.25%) 5G
4 2 (0.13%) DAB
4 2 (0.13%) Firewall
4 2 (0.13%) HTTP
4 2 (0.13%) MQTT
5 1 (0.063%) 4G
5 1 (0.063%) ATM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 304 (19.01%) Data Warehouse
2 273 (17.07%) Power BI
3 229 (14.32%) Data Lake
4 138 (8.63%) SQL Server
5 123 (7.69%) BigQuery
6 114 (7.13%) Tableau
7 110 (6.88%) Amazon Redshift
8 95 (5.94%) Metadata
9 86 (5.38%) Big Data
10 62 (3.88%) Relational Database
11 61 (3.81%) Azure SQL Database
11 61 (3.81%) NoSQL
12 59 (3.69%) PostgreSQL
13 58 (3.63%) Star Schema
14 57 (3.56%) Semantic Layer
15 56 (3.50%) Delta Lake
16 54 (3.38%) Looker
17 49 (3.06%) Elasticsearch
18 46 (2.88%) Snowflake Schema
19 42 (2.63%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 99 (6.19%) Git
2 33 (2.06%) Jenkins
3 30 (1.88%) MLflow
4 22 (1.38%) GitLab
5 19 (1.19%) JIRA
6 9 (0.56%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.25%) Selenium
8 3 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.13%) ERwin
9 2 (0.13%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.13%) VSS/SourceSafe
10 1 (0.063%) kappa
10 1 (0.063%) Poetry
10 1 (0.063%) RStudio
10 1 (0.063%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.063%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.063%) Yeoman
General
1 415 (25.95%) Finance
2 380 (23.76%) Social Skills
3 276 (17.26%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (7.44%) Public Sector
5 106 (6.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 69 (4.32%) Banking
7 57 (3.56%) Retail
8 55 (3.44%) Marketing
9 40 (2.50%) Legal
10 39 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (2.13%) Law
12 28 (1.75%) Financial Institution
13 26 (1.63%) Manufacturing
14 25 (1.56%) Advertising
15 18 (1.13%) Games
16 12 (0.75%) Aerospace
17 11 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
18 8 (0.50%) Front Office
18 8 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.50%) Police
Job Titles
1 593 (37.09%) Data Engineer
2 348 (21.76%) Senior
3 291 (18.20%) Lead
4 160 (10.01%) Senior Data Engineer
5 143 (8.94%) Architect
6 112 (7.00%) Data Manager
7 99 (6.19%) Data Architect
8 96 (6.00%) Lead Data Engineer
9 72 (4.50%) Analyst
10 70 (4.38%) Consultant
10 70 (4.38%) Engineering Manager
10 70 (4.38%) Principal Engineer
11 61 (3.81%) Developer
12 49 (3.06%) Data Consultant
13 48 (3.00%) Head of Engineering
14 42 (2.63%) Data Scientist
14 42 (2.63%) Principal Data Engineer
14 42 (2.63%) Python Engineer
15 41 (2.56%) Software Engineer
16 36 (2.25%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 154 (9.63%) PySpark
2 123 (7.69%) Terraform
3 99 (6.19%) Kafka
4 47 (2.94%) LangChain
5 43 (2.69%) scikit-learn
6 42 (2.63%) PyTorch
6 42 (2.63%) TensorFlow
7 40 (2.50%) LlamaIndex
8 38 (2.38%) REST
9 29 (1.81%) pgvector
10 27 (1.69%) .NET
10 27 (1.69%) Node.js
11 24 (1.50%) Pandas
12 20 (1.25%) SpaCy
13 19 (1.19%) JSON
14 17 (1.06%) Apache NiFi
15 15 (0.94%) RESTful
16 11 (0.69%) ARM Templates
16 11 (0.69%) FastAPI
17 10 (0.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 184 (11.51%) Cloud Native
2 69 (4.32%) Data Structures
3 66 (4.13%) Product Ownership
4 53 (3.31%) Distributed Systems
5 37 (2.31%) Onboarding
6 29 (1.81%) AI Agents
7 28 (1.75%) e-Learning
8 25 (1.56%) Clustering
8 25 (1.56%) Public Cloud
9 21 (1.31%) Distributed Computing
9 21 (1.31%) Low-Code
10 20 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (1.25%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
12 18 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
13 14 (0.88%) Distributed Architecture
14 13 (0.81%) IoT
15 12 (0.75%) Algorithms
15 12 (0.75%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.44%) Windows
2 5 (0.31%) Linux
3 1 (0.063%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 758 (47.40%) Analytics
2 618 (38.65%) AI
3 554 (34.65%) Data Pipeline
4 507 (31.71%) Data Modelling
5 441 (27.58%) ETL
6 421 (26.33%) Data Governance
7 415 (25.95%) Business Intelligence
8 394 (24.64%) Machine Learning
9 386 (24.14%) CI/CD
10 371 (23.20%) Agile
11 368 (23.01%) Decision-Making
12 354 (22.14%) Data Architecture
13 297 (18.57%) DevOps
14 290 (18.14%) Mentoring
15 281 (17.57%) Data Science
16 242 (15.13%) Problem-Solving
17 239 (14.95%) Roadmaps
18 182 (11.38%) Continuous Improvement
19 173 (10.82%) Technical Leadership
20 159 (9.94%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 800 (50.03%) SQL
2 792 (49.53%) Python
3 114 (7.13%) Java
4 67 (4.19%) Scala
5 49 (3.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 45 (2.81%) JavaScript
7 26 (1.63%) R
8 21 (1.31%) C#
8 21 (1.31%) TypeScript
9 18 (1.13%) Bash
10 17 (1.06%) Go
11 16 (1.00%) C++
11 16 (1.00%) T-SQL
12 14 (0.88%) PowerShell
13 8 (0.50%) Bicep
13 8 (0.50%) Groovy
14 7 (0.44%) VBA
15 6 (0.38%) Julia
16 5 (0.31%) PL/SQL
17 4 (0.25%) Rust
Qualifications
1 182 (11.38%) Degree
2 146 (9.13%) Security Cleared
3 93 (5.82%) SC Cleared
4 56 (3.50%) Computer Science Degree
4 56 (3.50%) Master's Degree
5 42 (2.63%) Azure Certification
6 41 (2.56%) DV Cleared
7 33 (2.06%) DBS Check
8 29 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
9 24 (1.50%) AWS Certification
10 21 (1.31%) PhD
11 14 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (0.81%) ACCA
12 13 (0.81%) CIMA
13 7 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.38%) Numerate Degree
15 4 (0.25%) CCA
16 3 (0.19%) CBAP
16 3 (0.19%) CISSP
16 3 (0.19%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 433 (27.08%) Data Quality
2 88 (5.50%) GDPR
3 52 (3.25%) Accessibility
4 41 (2.56%) QA
5 25 (1.56%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 14 (0.88%) GRC
7 9 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
8 7 (0.44%) PERC
9 6 (0.38%) SLA
10 5 (0.31%) NCSC
11 4 (0.25%) PMO
11 4 (0.25%) Solvency II
12 3 (0.19%) EU AI Act
12 3 (0.19%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.19%) PSD2
13 2 (0.13%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.063%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 1 (0.063%) NIST
System Software
1 90 (5.63%) Docker
2 56 (3.50%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.38%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.13%) NDS
6 1 (0.063%) Apache Flume
6 1 (0.063%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.063%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 59 (3.69%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.94%) Grafana
3 6 (0.38%) Prometheus
4 5 (0.31%) Ansible
5 4 (0.25%) Argo
6 3 (0.19%) Kibana
6 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.19%) SCCM
7 2 (0.13%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 2 (0.13%) Computer Incident Response Team
8 1 (0.063%) CASB
Vendors
1 461 (28.83%) Databricks
2 295 (18.45%) Microsoft
3 88 (5.50%) Google
4 49 (3.06%) Dell
5 45 (2.81%) Informatica
6 37 (2.31%) Palantir
7 36 (2.25%) Oracle
8 33 (2.06%) Foundry
9 31 (1.94%) SAP
10 27 (1.69%) Cloudera
10 27 (1.69%) OpenAI
11 26 (1.63%) Teradata
12 24 (1.50%) Denodo
13 23 (1.44%) Salesforce
14 10 (0.63%) Sage
15 9 (0.56%) Alteryx
16 5 (0.31%) MicroStrategy
16 5 (0.31%) Talend
17 4 (0.25%) Cognos
18 3 (0.19%) IBM