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 28 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 148 152
Rank change year-on-year +13 +4 +64
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,618 1,036 1,317
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.38% 2.10% 1.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.36% 2.12%
Number of salaries quoted 1,131 472 644
10th Percentile £46,217 £46,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £56,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £70,996
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -1.40% -5.34%
75th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
90th Percentile £110,000 £112,500 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -3.85%

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 85,804 43,854 61,991
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.05% 88.92% 81.71%
Number of salaries quoted 59,130 24,461 33,915
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.17% -3.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £96,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 28 September 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 28 September 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 +17 1,490 £77,500 +10.71% 1,633
UK excluding London -16 800 £70,000 +7.69% 727
London +23 718 £85,000 - 1,012
Work from Home -1 487 £75,000 +6.38% 719
North of England -3 372 £75,000 +11.11% 233
North West -32 175 £79,000 +36.21% 137
South East -47 144 £64,000 -1.54% 137
Midlands -4 106 £75,000 +11.11% 101
North East +20 104 £66,805 +40.64% 35
Yorkshire -2 93 £75,000 +7.14% 62
South West -22 88 £62,500 +4.17% 75
West Midlands -4 73 £75,000 +25.00% 76
Scotland -4 36 £95,000 +31.03% 82
East Midlands -22 33 £77,500 +13.97% 25
East of England -26 29 £70,000 +40.00% 43
Wales -33 28 £63,500 +26.69% 13
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 46

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
1 163 (10.07%) Apache Spark
2 133 (8.22%) Apache Airflow
3 129 (7.97%) Apache
4 22 (1.36%) Jupyter
5 21 (1.30%) Palantir Foundry
6 13 (0.80%) Confluence
7 10 (0.62%) SAS
8 9 (0.56%) Oracle Workflow
8 9 (0.56%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.25%) Luigi
10 2 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.12%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.12%) Tornado
11 1 (0.062%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.062%) CMS
11 1 (0.062%) GeoServer
Applications
1 20 (1.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
3 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.062%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.062%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.062%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.062%) Notion
Business Applications
1 5 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.31%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
3 1 (0.062%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
3 1 (0.062%) FastStats
3 1 (0.062%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.062%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.062%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.062%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 641 (39.62%) Azure
2 466 (28.80%) AWS
3 272 (16.81%) Power Platform
4 266 (16.44%) GCP
5 184 (11.37%) Azure Data Factory
6 159 (9.83%) Snowflake
7 129 (7.97%) dbt
8 106 (6.55%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 102 (6.30%) Azure DevOps
10 101 (6.24%) Amazon S3
11 94 (5.81%) Serverless
12 67 (4.14%) AWS Lambda
13 64 (3.96%) GitHub
13 64 (3.96%) SaaS
14 52 (3.21%) Amazon EMR
15 49 (3.03%) Azure Databricks
16 48 (2.97%) Azure Machine Learning
16 48 (2.97%) Microsoft Purview
17 41 (2.53%) Amazon EC2
18 33 (2.04%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.05%) Broadband
2 7 (0.43%) Internet
3 4 (0.25%) 5G
4 2 (0.12%) Firewall
4 2 (0.12%) HTTP
5 1 (0.062%) 4G
5 1 (0.062%) ATM
5 1 (0.062%) DAB
5 1 (0.062%) MQTT
5 1 (0.062%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 278 (17.18%) Data Warehouse
2 263 (16.25%) Power BI
3 192 (11.87%) Data Lake
4 110 (6.80%) Metadata
5 102 (6.30%) BigQuery
6 98 (6.06%) Amazon Redshift
7 93 (5.75%) SQL Server
8 89 (5.50%) Tableau
9 82 (5.07%) Big Data
10 66 (4.08%) Azure SQL Database
11 62 (3.83%) NoSQL
12 60 (3.71%) Semantic Layer
13 56 (3.46%) Relational Database
14 55 (3.40%) Delta Lake
15 54 (3.34%) Star Schema
16 51 (3.15%) Amazon Athena
17 50 (3.09%) PostgreSQL
18 44 (2.72%) Spark SQL
19 35 (2.16%) Data Vault
20 34 (2.10%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 131 (8.10%) Git
2 36 (2.22%) Jenkins
3 32 (1.98%) GitLab
4 24 (1.48%) JIRA
5 10 (0.62%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) MLflow
6 5 (0.31%) Poetry
7 4 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
7 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
8 3 (0.19%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.12%) ERwin
9 2 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
10 1 (0.062%) kappa
10 1 (0.062%) RStudio
10 1 (0.062%) Selenium
10 1 (0.062%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.062%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.062%) Yeoman
General
1 421 (26.02%) Social Skills
2 407 (25.15%) Finance
3 261 (16.13%) Analytical Skills
4 149 (9.21%) Public Sector
5 113 (6.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 70 (4.33%) Banking
7 57 (3.52%) Retail
8 55 (3.40%) Marketing
9 48 (2.97%) Legal
10 38 (2.35%) Law
11 36 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
12 33 (2.04%) Financial Institution
13 24 (1.48%) Manufacturing
14 22 (1.36%) Advertising
15 14 (0.87%) Games
15 14 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
16 12 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
17 11 (0.68%) Aerospace
18 10 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 651 (40.23%) Data Engineer
2 363 (22.44%) Senior
3 296 (18.29%) Lead
4 193 (11.93%) Senior Data Engineer
5 138 (8.53%) Architect
6 96 (5.93%) Data Architect
6 96 (5.93%) Lead Data Engineer
7 94 (5.81%) Data Manager
8 80 (4.94%) Analyst
9 74 (4.57%) Principal Engineer
10 72 (4.45%) Developer
11 68 (4.20%) Software Engineer
12 64 (3.96%) Consultant
13 50 (3.09%) Databricks Engineer
14 49 (3.03%) Engineering Manager
15 46 (2.84%) Head of Engineering
15 46 (2.84%) Principal Data Engineer
16 43 (2.66%) Data Consultant
17 41 (2.53%) Data Scientist
17 41 (2.53%) Databricks Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 178 (11.00%) PySpark
2 133 (8.22%) Terraform
3 76 (4.70%) Kafka
4 41 (2.53%) .NET
5 36 (2.22%) REST
6 32 (1.98%) LangChain
7 31 (1.92%) Pandas
8 27 (1.67%) Node.js
9 24 (1.48%) LlamaIndex
9 24 (1.48%) SpaCy
10 22 (1.36%) JSON
10 22 (1.36%) scikit-learn
11 21 (1.30%) PyTorch
11 21 (1.30%) TensorFlow
12 15 (0.93%) Apache NiFi
13 14 (0.87%) RESTful
14 12 (0.74%) NumPy
14 12 (0.74%) React
14 12 (0.74%) YAML
15 11 (0.68%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 174 (10.75%) Cloud Native
2 66 (4.08%) Data Structures
3 56 (3.46%) Product Ownership
4 54 (3.34%) Distributed Systems
5 49 (3.03%) Onboarding
6 37 (2.29%) AI Agents
7 24 (1.48%) e-Learning
8 21 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
9 18 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
10 17 (1.05%) Distributed Computing
10 17 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
11 16 (0.99%) Hedge funds
11 16 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
12 15 (0.93%) Management Information System
13 14 (0.87%) Distributed Architecture
14 13 (0.80%) IoT
14 13 (0.80%) Low-Code
15 11 (0.68%) Blog
15 11 (0.68%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.43%) Windows
2 4 (0.25%) Linux
3 1 (0.062%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 766 (47.34%) Analytics
2 571 (35.29%) Data Pipeline
3 563 (34.80%) AI
4 504 (31.15%) Data Modelling
5 463 (28.62%) ETL
6 445 (27.50%) CI/CD
7 397 (24.54%) Business Intelligence
8 384 (23.73%) Decision-Making
9 371 (22.93%) Agile
10 363 (22.44%) Data Governance
11 339 (20.95%) Machine Learning
12 325 (20.09%) Data Architecture
13 311 (19.22%) DevOps
14 304 (18.79%) Mentoring
15 276 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
16 250 (15.45%) Data Science
17 216 (13.35%) Technical Leadership
18 203 (12.55%) Roadmaps
19 189 (11.68%) Software Engineering
20 187 (11.56%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 808 (49.94%) Python
2 804 (49.69%) SQL
3 122 (7.54%) Java
4 74 (4.57%) Scala
5 59 (3.65%) JavaScript
6 50 (3.09%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 35 (2.16%) C#
8 33 (2.04%) C++
8 33 (2.04%) TypeScript
9 26 (1.61%) R
10 19 (1.17%) Bash
11 14 (0.87%) PowerShell
11 14 (0.87%) T-SQL
12 10 (0.62%) Go
13 9 (0.56%) Bicep
14 6 (0.37%) Groovy
15 5 (0.31%) PL/SQL
15 5 (0.31%) VBA
16 4 (0.25%) Rust
17 2 (0.12%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 183 (11.31%) Security Cleared
2 157 (9.70%) Degree
3 126 (7.79%) SC Cleared
4 55 (3.40%) Master's Degree
5 46 (2.84%) Azure Certification
6 45 (2.78%) Computer Science Degree
7 41 (2.53%) DV Cleared
8 32 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
9 30 (1.85%) AWS Certification
10 28 (1.73%) PhD
11 24 (1.48%) DBS Check
12 16 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
13 15 (0.93%) ACCA
13 15 (0.93%) CIMA
14 6 (0.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.37%) CBAP
14 6 (0.37%) Numerate Degree
15 4 (0.25%) CCA
16 3 (0.19%) CISSP
16 3 (0.19%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 471 (29.11%) Data Quality
2 60 (3.71%) Accessibility
3 56 (3.46%) GDPR
4 37 (2.29%) QA
5 10 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (0.56%) GRC
6 9 (0.56%) NCSC
7 3 (0.19%) EU AI Act
7 3 (0.19%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.19%) PERC
7 3 (0.19%) PMO
7 3 (0.19%) PSD2
7 3 (0.19%) SLA
8 2 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.062%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.062%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.062%) IASME
9 1 (0.062%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.062%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.062%) NIST
System Software
1 101 (6.24%) Docker
2 22 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (0.49%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.19%) NDS
4 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.062%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 69 (4.26%) Kubernetes
2 13 (0.80%) Grafana
3 5 (0.31%) Prometheus
4 4 (0.25%) Argo
5 3 (0.19%) Ansible
5 3 (0.19%) Kibana
5 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.19%) SCCM
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
7 1 (0.062%) CASB
Vendors
1 360 (22.25%) Databricks
2 294 (18.17%) Microsoft
3 96 (5.93%) Google
4 37 (2.29%) Oracle
5 32 (1.98%) Palantir
5 32 (1.98%) Salesforce
6 29 (1.79%) Foundry
7 28 (1.73%) SAP
8 25 (1.55%) OpenAI
9 18 (1.11%) Informatica
10 11 (0.68%) Sage
11 9 (0.56%) Alteryx
12 7 (0.43%) YouTube
13 5 (0.31%) IBM
13 5 (0.31%) MicroStrategy
13 5 (0.31%) Talend
14 4 (0.25%) Cloudera
14 4 (0.25%) Cognos
15 3 (0.19%) CyberArk
15 3 (0.19%) ForgeRock