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 9 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 162 161 178
Rank change year-on-year -1 +17 -62
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 989 830 1,396
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.37% 1.88% 1.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.76% 2.01% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 625 594 834
10th Percentile £46,100 £42,875 £42,439
25th Percentile £57,500 £56,661 £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 £90,000 £105,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £120,000 £111,250
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 56,331 41,289 73,115
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.05% 93.69% 87.56%
Number of salaries quoted 33,961 22,320 55,807
10th Percentile £29,750 £32,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £39,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.78%
75th Percentile £76,299 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £94,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 9 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 9 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 +15 867 £75,000 -6.25% 685
London +52 477 £80,000 -15.79% 240
UK excluding London -12 417 £65,000 - 515
Work from Home -9 356 £75,000 -7.69% 322
South East -25 103 £68,750 -1.79% 176
North of England -60 101 £70,000 +16.67% 125
Midlands +15 83 £65,000 +23.81% 71
West Midlands +34 63 £60,000 +33.33% 49
North West -24 48 £75,000 +15.38% 57
East of England +28 46 £59,450 -8.54% 45
Scotland +4 46 £85,000 +47.83% 27
Yorkshire -58 46 £70,500 +17.50% 54
South West -30 32 £55,000 -29.03% 62
East Midlands -25 18 £75,000 +30.43% 22
North East -24 7 £65,000 +13.04% 14
Wales -8 6 £65,000 -18.75% 12

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
1 147 (14.86%) Apache Airflow
2 116 (11.73%) Apache Spark
3 70 (7.08%) Apache
4 24 (2.43%) Palantir Foundry
5 18 (1.82%) SAS
6 13 (1.31%) SharePoint
7 12 (1.21%) Appian
8 5 (0.51%) Confluence
8 5 (0.51%) Moodle
9 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.10%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.10%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.10%) Camunda
10 1 (0.10%) GeoServer
10 1 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
4 1 (0.10%) Notion
4 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.40%) Markit EDM
2 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.20%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.20%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.10%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.10%) Primavera
3 1 (0.10%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 456 (46.11%) Azure
2 328 (33.16%) AWS
3 205 (20.73%) Power Platform
4 188 (19.01%) Snowflake
5 158 (15.98%) GCP
6 154 (15.57%) Azure Data Factory
7 103 (10.41%) dbt
8 83 (8.39%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 73 (7.38%) Amazon S3
10 49 (4.95%) Azure DevOps
11 44 (4.45%) Serverless
12 43 (4.35%) GitHub
13 38 (3.84%) SaaS
14 36 (3.64%) AWS Lambda
15 28 (2.83%) OpenShift
16 27 (2.73%) Amazon Kinesis
17 26 (2.63%) Azure Machine Learning
18 24 (2.43%) Power Automate
19 23 (2.33%) Amazon SageMaker
20 21 (2.12%) Matillion
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.91%) Broadband
2 3 (0.30%) DHCP
2 3 (0.30%) DNS
2 3 (0.30%) HTTP
2 3 (0.30%) Kerberos
3 2 (0.20%) DAB
4 1 (0.10%) 4G
4 1 (0.10%) 5G
4 1 (0.10%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 273 (27.60%) Data Warehouse
2 195 (19.72%) Power BI
3 162 (16.38%) Data Lake
4 99 (10.01%) SQL Server
5 87 (8.80%) Metadata
6 86 (8.70%) Tableau
7 66 (6.67%) Amazon Redshift
8 58 (5.86%) BigQuery
9 44 (4.45%) Relational Database
10 42 (4.25%) Delta Lake
11 38 (3.84%) Big Data
12 37 (3.74%) Looker
12 37 (3.74%) PostgreSQL
13 34 (3.44%) MySQL
14 32 (3.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 31 (3.13%) Apache Iceberg
16 30 (3.03%) NoSQL
17 28 (2.83%) Azure SQL Database
17 28 (2.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
18 27 (2.73%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 72 (7.28%) Git
2 47 (4.75%) MLflow
3 12 (1.21%) IBM UrbanCode
3 12 (1.21%) Jenkins
4 11 (1.11%) GitLab
5 10 (1.01%) JIRA
6 4 (0.40%) Selenium
7 3 (0.30%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.20%) Deequ
9 1 (0.10%) CMake
9 1 (0.10%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.10%) JMeter
9 1 (0.10%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.10%) Zephyr
General
1 269 (27.20%) Finance
2 232 (23.46%) Social Skills
3 123 (12.44%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (6.27%) Banking
5 51 (5.16%) Public Sector
6 41 (4.15%) Law
7 38 (3.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 37 (3.74%) Retail
9 29 (2.93%) Legal
10 27 (2.73%) Influencing Skills
11 26 (2.63%) Marketing
12 23 (2.33%) Manufacturing
13 18 (1.82%) Financial Institution
14 15 (1.52%) Investment Banking
15 11 (1.11%) Advertising
15 11 (1.11%) Automotive
16 8 (0.81%) Front Office
17 7 (0.71%) Documentation Skills
17 7 (0.71%) Telecoms
18 5 (0.51%) French Language
Job Titles
1 432 (43.68%) Data Engineer
2 186 (18.81%) Senior
3 155 (15.67%) Lead
4 116 (11.73%) Senior Data Engineer
5 105 (10.62%) Architect
6 86 (8.70%) Data Architect
7 79 (7.99%) Lead Data Engineer
8 49 (4.95%) Consultant
8 49 (4.95%) Data Manager
9 44 (4.45%) Developer
10 38 (3.84%) Analyst
11 37 (3.74%) AWS Engineer
12 34 (3.44%) Azure Engineer
13 31 (3.13%) AWS Data Engineer
14 29 (2.93%) Azure Data Engineer
15 28 (2.83%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 28 (2.83%) Principal Engineer
16 26 (2.63%) Data Consultant
17 22 (2.22%) Platform Engineer
18 21 (2.12%) Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (10.41%) PySpark
2 86 (8.70%) Kafka
3 58 (5.86%) PyTorch
3 58 (5.86%) TensorFlow
4 35 (3.54%) Pandas
5 32 (3.24%) scikit-learn
6 28 (2.83%) LangChain
7 25 (2.53%) REST
8 24 (2.43%) RESTful
9 21 (2.12%) Faiss
10 18 (1.82%) pytest
10 18 (1.82%) React
11 17 (1.72%) Spring
12 16 (1.62%) FastAPI
12 16 (1.62%) Spring Boot
13 15 (1.52%) NumPy
13 15 (1.52%) OAuth
14 14 (1.42%) Flask
15 13 (1.31%) HTML
15 13 (1.31%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 78 (7.89%) Cloud Native
2 40 (4.04%) Data Structures
3 37 (3.74%) Legacy Systems
4 34 (3.44%) Distributed Systems
5 29 (2.93%) Product Ownership
6 27 (2.73%) Low-Code
7 21 (2.12%) Greenfield Project
8 19 (1.92%) e-Learning
9 17 (1.72%) AI Agents
9 17 (1.72%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.31%) Data Centre
11 13 (1.31%) Public Cloud
12 12 (1.21%) Hybrid Cloud
12 12 (1.21%) Onboarding
13 10 (1.01%) Distributed Architecture
14 8 (0.81%) Clustering
14 8 (0.81%) NHS
15 7 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
15 7 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 8 (0.81%) Linux
2 5 (0.51%) Unix
3 4 (0.40%) Windows
4 3 (0.30%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 510 (51.57%) Analytics
2 459 (46.41%) Data Pipeline
3 385 (38.93%) Data Modelling
4 374 (37.82%) ETL
5 305 (30.84%) AI
6 281 (28.41%) CI/CD
7 275 (27.81%) Business Intelligence
8 269 (27.20%) Data Governance
9 231 (23.36%) Agile
10 199 (20.12%) Data Architecture
11 188 (19.01%) Data Science
12 181 (18.30%) Machine Learning
13 176 (17.80%) DevOps
14 174 (17.59%) Decision-Making
15 172 (17.39%) Data Integration
16 170 (17.19%) Problem-Solving
17 159 (16.08%) Mentoring
18 136 (13.75%) Continuous Improvement
19 119 (12.03%) Data Management
20 107 (10.82%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 542 (54.80%) Python
2 495 (50.05%) SQL
3 92 (9.30%) Java
4 51 (5.16%) Scala
5 30 (3.03%) Bash
5 30 (3.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 26 (2.63%) T-SQL
7 24 (2.43%) R
8 21 (2.12%) JavaScript
8 21 (2.12%) PowerShell
9 19 (1.92%) C#
10 14 (1.42%) Go
11 13 (1.31%) C++
12 12 (1.21%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.81%) Bicep
14 7 (0.71%) PHP
15 3 (0.30%) Groovy
15 3 (0.30%) Ruby
15 3 (0.30%) VBA
16 1 (0.10%) ANSI SQL
Qualifications
1 114 (11.53%) Degree
2 71 (7.18%) Security Cleared
3 48 (4.85%) Computer Science Degree
4 44 (4.45%) SC Cleared
5 30 (3.03%) Master's Degree
6 20 (2.02%) DV Cleared
6 20 (2.02%) Microsoft Certification
7 19 (1.92%) Azure Certification
8 17 (1.72%) AWS Certification
9 13 (1.31%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.91%) MCSE
11 8 (0.81%) CISSP
11 8 (0.81%) OCP
11 8 (0.81%) Oracle Certification
12 6 (0.61%) BPSS Clearance
12 6 (0.61%) PhD
13 5 (0.51%) CRISC
14 4 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 2 (0.20%) SnowPro
16 1 (0.10%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 279 (28.21%) Data Quality
2 75 (7.58%) GDPR
3 61 (6.17%) Accessibility
4 23 (2.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 18 (1.82%) HIPAA
6 12 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (1.01%) QA
8 9 (0.91%) GRC
9 8 (0.81%) SLA
10 6 (0.61%) NIST
11 5 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.10%) GMP
12 1 (0.10%) IFRS
12 1 (0.10%) IFRS 17
12 1 (0.10%) NCSC
12 1 (0.10%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.10%) Solvency II
System Software
1 98 (9.91%) Docker
2 11 (1.11%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.40%) HDFS
4 1 (0.10%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 79 (7.99%) Kubernetes
2 69 (6.98%) Terraform
3 11 (1.11%) Grafana
3 11 (1.11%) Prometheus
4 9 (0.91%) Argo
4 9 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.81%) Ansible
6 7 (0.71%) Control-M
7 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.30%) SCCM
8 1 (0.10%) Istio
8 1 (0.10%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 256 (25.88%) Databricks
2 197 (19.92%) Microsoft
3 49 (4.95%) Informatica
3 49 (4.95%) Oracle
4 40 (4.04%) Palantir
5 38 (3.84%) Google
6 36 (3.64%) OpenAI
7 33 (3.34%) Dell
8 29 (2.93%) Foundry
9 28 (2.83%) Talend
10 15 (1.52%) Red Hat
11 14 (1.42%) Cloudera
11 14 (1.42%) Salesforce
12 13 (1.31%) Automation Anywhere
12 13 (1.31%) Denodo
12 13 (1.31%) UiPath
13 12 (1.21%) Teradata
14 10 (1.01%) SAP
15 9 (0.91%) NVIDIA
16 8 (0.81%) MuleSoft