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 21 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 147 174
Rank change year-on-year +4 +27 -49
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,278 993 1,581
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.39% 2.26% 1.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.88% 2.42% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 875 528 908
10th Percentile £44,646 £45,000 £41,492
25th Percentile £57,250 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £77,500 £76,250 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.64% +8.93% -6.67%
75th Percentile £98,750 £113,125 £88,750
90th Percentile £115,000 £135,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £66,367 £65,000
% change year-on-year +5.47% +2.10% +7.89%

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 67,989 40,970 82,440
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.70% 93.29% 84.80%
Number of salaries quoted 43,964 22,120 59,644
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,033 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.39% +5.51% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,887 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.18% +3.77% -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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +6 1,141 £80,000 +1.59% 470
London +42 592 £85,000 -12.82% 239
UK excluding London -41 573 £70,000 +5.47% 333
Work from Home 0 415 £82,500 -2.94% 248
North of England -47 204 £80,000 +28.00% 95
North West -41 108 £90,000 +33.33% 50
South East -64 105 £70,000 - 118
Midlands +17 99 £65,000 +13.04% 34
Yorkshire -16 75 £67,500 +1.89% 25
West Midlands -4 67 £62,500 +8.70% 26
East of England +18 62 £70,000 +40.00% 24
South West -40 53 £48,750 -48.68% 31
Scotland +13 40 £87,500 +52.17% 16
East Midlands -11 30 £70,000 +7.69% 8
North East -27 21 £67,500 +36.71% 22
Wales -28 10 £65,000 -18.75% 16

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
1 183 (14.32%) Apache Airflow
2 141 (11.03%) Apache Spark
3 83 (6.49%) Apache
4 36 (2.82%) Palantir Foundry
5 20 (1.56%) SAS
6 14 (1.10%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.78%) Appian
7 10 (0.78%) Confluence
8 7 (0.55%) Jupyter
8 7 (0.55%) Moodle
9 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.16%) Luigi
11 1 (0.078%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.078%) Camunda
11 1 (0.078%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.078%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.23%) Markit EDM
1 3 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
1 3 (0.23%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.16%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.078%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.078%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.078%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.078%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.078%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 612 (47.89%) Azure
2 411 (32.16%) AWS
3 230 (18.00%) Snowflake
4 227 (17.76%) GCP
4 227 (17.76%) Power Platform
5 165 (12.91%) Azure Data Factory
6 148 (11.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 120 (9.39%) dbt
8 85 (6.65%) Azure Machine Learning
9 79 (6.18%) Amazon S3
10 76 (5.95%) Azure AI
11 68 (5.32%) Azure DevOps
12 65 (5.09%) Serverless
13 51 (3.99%) GitHub
14 34 (2.66%) SaaS
15 31 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
16 30 (2.35%) GitHub Actions
17 25 (1.96%) Microsoft Purview
17 25 (1.96%) Power Automate
17 25 (1.96%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.72%) Broadband
2 4 (0.31%) HTTP
3 2 (0.16%) 4G
3 2 (0.16%) 5G
3 2 (0.16%) DAB
3 2 (0.16%) DHCP
3 2 (0.16%) DNS
3 2 (0.16%) Firewall
3 2 (0.16%) MQTT
4 1 (0.078%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.078%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 275 (21.52%) Data Warehouse
2 215 (16.82%) Power BI
3 201 (15.73%) Data Lake
4 148 (11.58%) SQL Server
5 112 (8.76%) BigQuery
6 106 (8.29%) Tableau
7 92 (7.20%) Metadata
8 88 (6.89%) Amazon Redshift
9 65 (5.09%) Relational Database
10 52 (4.07%) Delta Lake
11 50 (3.91%) Spark SQL
12 49 (3.83%) Semantic Layer
13 48 (3.76%) NoSQL
14 47 (3.68%) Elasticsearch
15 46 (3.60%) Looker
16 44 (3.44%) Big Data
17 43 (3.36%) Azure SQL Database
18 41 (3.21%) PostgreSQL
19 40 (3.13%) Snowflake Schema
19 40 (3.13%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 86 (6.73%) Git
2 58 (4.54%) MLflow
3 25 (1.96%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.41%) JIRA
5 14 (1.10%) GitLab
6 12 (0.94%) IBM UrbanCode
7 7 (0.55%) Selenium
8 4 (0.31%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.31%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.078%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.078%) CMake
9 1 (0.078%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.078%) Deequ
9 1 (0.078%) JMeter
9 1 (0.078%) RStudio
9 1 (0.078%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.078%) Yeoman
9 1 (0.078%) Zephyr
General
1 313 (24.49%) Finance
2 245 (19.17%) Social Skills
3 196 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
4 79 (6.18%) Public Sector
5 76 (5.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 60 (4.69%) Banking
7 56 (4.38%) Retail
8 37 (2.90%) Influencing Skills
9 33 (2.58%) Legal
10 30 (2.35%) Marketing
11 28 (2.19%) Law
12 16 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 15 (1.17%) Advertising
13 15 (1.17%) Financial Institution
14 12 (0.94%) Investment Banking
15 11 (0.86%) Games
16 10 (0.78%) Front Office
17 9 (0.70%) Automotive
17 9 (0.70%) Publishing
18 6 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 509 (39.83%) Data Engineer
2 252 (19.72%) Senior
3 228 (17.84%) Lead
4 130 (10.17%) Senior Data Engineer
5 108 (8.45%) Data Manager
6 98 (7.67%) Lead Data Engineer
7 96 (7.51%) Architect
8 75 (5.87%) Data Architect
9 73 (5.71%) Consultant
10 69 (5.40%) Engineering Manager
11 53 (4.15%) Data Consultant
12 46 (3.60%) Analyst
13 43 (3.36%) Principal Engineer
14 42 (3.29%) Developer
14 42 (3.29%) Platform Engineer
15 38 (2.97%) Azure Engineer
16 35 (2.74%) AWS Engineer
17 33 (2.58%) Finance Manager
18 32 (2.50%) Technical Leader
19 30 (2.35%) Head of Engineering
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 143 (11.19%) PySpark
2 99 (7.75%) Kafka
3 60 (4.69%) PyTorch
3 60 (4.69%) TensorFlow
4 44 (3.44%) REST
4 44 (3.44%) scikit-learn
5 39 (3.05%) LangChain
6 29 (2.27%) Pandas
7 27 (2.11%) pgvector
8 25 (1.96%) LlamaIndex
9 19 (1.49%) .NET
9 19 (1.49%) Faiss
9 19 (1.49%) Node.js
10 18 (1.41%) RESTful
11 16 (1.25%) HTML
12 14 (1.10%) FastAPI
12 14 (1.10%) React
13 13 (1.02%) CSS
13 13 (1.02%) NumPy
14 12 (0.94%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 117 (9.15%) Cloud Native
2 53 (4.15%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.44%) Data Structures
4 43 (3.36%) Distributed Systems
5 32 (2.50%) Low-Code
6 30 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
7 27 (2.11%) Public Cloud
8 24 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (1.80%) Clustering
10 21 (1.64%) e-Learning
11 20 (1.56%) Management Information System
12 17 (1.33%) Onboarding
13 15 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
15 13 (1.02%) NHS
15 13 (1.02%) Social Media
16 11 (0.86%) AI Agents
17 10 (0.78%) Cyberattack
17 10 (0.78%) Hybrid Cloud
17 10 (0.78%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.55%) Linux
2 5 (0.39%) Windows
3 2 (0.16%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.078%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 609 (47.65%) Analytics
2 521 (40.77%) Data Pipeline
3 456 (35.68%) AI
4 444 (34.74%) Data Modelling
5 415 (32.47%) ETL
6 379 (29.66%) Data Governance
7 334 (26.13%) CI/CD
8 332 (25.98%) Business Intelligence
9 321 (25.12%) Agile
10 305 (23.87%) Data Architecture
11 286 (22.38%) Machine Learning
12 231 (18.08%) Data Science
12 231 (18.08%) Decision-Making
13 229 (17.92%) DevOps
14 214 (16.74%) Mentoring
15 206 (16.12%) Problem-Solving
16 192 (15.02%) Roadmaps
17 140 (10.95%) Continuous Improvement
18 136 (10.64%) Data Integration
19 130 (10.17%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 662 (51.80%) Python
2 652 (51.02%) SQL
3 108 (8.45%) Java
4 59 (4.62%) Scala
5 38 (2.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 35 (2.74%) Bash
7 33 (2.58%) JavaScript
8 31 (2.43%) R
9 25 (1.96%) Go
10 22 (1.72%) PowerShell
11 17 (1.33%) C#
12 15 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 11 (0.86%) C++
13 11 (0.86%) TypeScript
14 6 (0.47%) Julia
14 6 (0.47%) PHP
15 5 (0.39%) Bicep
16 4 (0.31%) Rust
16 4 (0.31%) VBA
17 3 (0.23%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 147 (11.50%) Degree
2 83 (6.49%) Security Cleared
3 56 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
4 51 (3.99%) SC Cleared
5 39 (3.05%) Master's Degree
6 32 (2.50%) DBS Check
7 31 (2.43%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.72%) DV Cleared
9 13 (1.02%) AWS Certification
9 13 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
10 9 (0.70%) PhD
11 6 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.23%) CCA
13 3 (0.23%) CISSP
14 2 (0.16%) ACCA
14 2 (0.16%) CIMA
14 2 (0.16%) CompTIA Security+
14 2 (0.16%) GIAC
14 2 (0.16%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 380 (29.73%) Data Quality
2 93 (7.28%) GDPR
3 37 (2.90%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 30 (2.35%) Accessibility
5 23 (1.80%) GRC
6 21 (1.64%) QA
7 17 (1.33%) HIPAA
8 14 (1.10%) SLA
9 9 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 7 (0.55%) NIST
10 7 (0.55%) PERC
11 5 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.31%) Solvency II
13 1 (0.078%) GMP
13 1 (0.078%) NCSC
13 1 (0.078%) PMO
System Software
1 93 (7.28%) Docker
2 57 (4.46%) Virtual Machines
3 11 (0.86%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.078%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 100 (7.82%) Terraform
2 70 (5.48%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.02%) Grafana
4 10 (0.78%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (0.55%) Argo
7 6 (0.47%) Control-M
8 5 (0.39%) Ansible
8 5 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.39%) SCCM
9 2 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.16%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 2 (0.16%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 2 (0.16%) Kibana
10 1 (0.078%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 423 (33.10%) Databricks
2 235 (18.39%) Microsoft
3 60 (4.69%) Google
4 56 (4.38%) Informatica
5 52 (4.07%) Dell
5 52 (4.07%) Palantir
6 46 (3.60%) Oracle
7 42 (3.29%) Foundry
8 38 (2.97%) OpenAI
9 30 (2.35%) Cloudera
10 25 (1.96%) Teradata
11 24 (1.88%) Denodo
12 23 (1.80%) Talend
13 22 (1.72%) Salesforce
14 13 (1.02%) SAP
15 12 (0.94%) Red Hat
16 11 (0.86%) Automation Anywhere
16 11 (0.86%) UiPath
17 8 (0.63%) MicroStrategy
18 7 (0.55%) Cognos