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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 154 145
Rank change year-on-year +26 -9 +57
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,608 1,077 1,432
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.46% 2.15% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.00% 2.42% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,133 468 704
10th Percentile £46,217 £46,000 £42,650
25th Percentile £56,000 £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 £90,929
90th Percentile £115,000 £113,250 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,500 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.41% +8.00% -3.46%

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 80,366 44,460 65,769
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.09% 88.73% 80.84%
Number of salaries quoted 55,743 25,365 40,240
10th Percentile £31,125 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -6.67%
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 £51,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -6.86% -7.07%

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 31 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 31 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 +19 1,514 £80,000 +14.29% 842
UK excluding London -23 777 £72,500 +7.41% 460
London +32 737 £90,000 +3.15% 551
Work from Home +1 483 £82,250 +11.53% 374
North of England -12 349 £78,000 +15.56% 127
North West -29 168 £80,000 +33.33% 75
South East -42 156 £70,000 +7.69% 140
Midlands +8 103 £70,000 +3.70% 35
Yorkshire -6 98 £80,000 +14.29% 27
North East +10 83 £65,000 +36.84% 26
South West -28 77 £60,000 -9.43% 66
West Midlands -1 68 £72,500 +20.83% 27
East of England +16 56 £70,000 +40.00% 21
East Midlands -8 35 £52,500 -22.79% 8
Scotland -24 20 £95,000 +31.03% 46
Wales -52 18 £61,750 +3.67% 15
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 11

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
1 176 (10.95%) Apache Spark
2 154 (9.58%) Apache Airflow
3 125 (7.77%) Apache
4 26 (1.62%) Palantir Foundry
5 20 (1.24%) Jupyter
6 18 (1.12%) SAS
7 11 (0.68%) SharePoint
8 8 (0.50%) Confluence
9 4 (0.25%) Luigi
10 3 (0.19%) Moodle
11 2 (0.12%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.12%) Tornado
12 1 (0.062%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.062%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.062%) CMS
12 1 (0.062%) GeoServer
Applications
1 19 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.12%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.062%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.062%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 2 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
2 2 (0.12%) SAP SD
3 1 (0.062%) FastStats
3 1 (0.062%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.062%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.062%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.062%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.062%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 677 (42.10%) Azure
2 476 (29.60%) AWS
3 287 (17.85%) Power Platform
4 273 (16.98%) GCP
5 231 (14.37%) Snowflake
6 171 (10.63%) Azure Data Factory
7 157 (9.76%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 144 (8.96%) dbt
9 88 (5.47%) Azure DevOps
9 88 (5.47%) Serverless
10 85 (5.29%) Azure Machine Learning
11 84 (5.22%) Amazon S3
12 69 (4.29%) Azure AI
13 60 (3.73%) SaaS
14 59 (3.67%) GitHub
15 47 (2.92%) Azure Databricks
16 46 (2.86%) Microsoft Purview
17 45 (2.80%) AWS Lambda
18 41 (2.55%) Amazon EMR
19 28 (1.74%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.49%) Broadband
2 7 (0.44%) Internet
3 4 (0.25%) 5G
4 2 (0.12%) DAB
4 2 (0.12%) Firewall
4 2 (0.12%) HTTP
4 2 (0.12%) MQTT
5 1 (0.062%) 4G
5 1 (0.062%) ATM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 306 (19.03%) Data Warehouse
2 275 (17.10%) Power BI
3 230 (14.30%) Data Lake
4 137 (8.52%) SQL Server
5 124 (7.71%) BigQuery
6 112 (6.97%) Tableau
7 109 (6.78%) Amazon Redshift
8 95 (5.91%) Metadata
9 87 (5.41%) Big Data
10 62 (3.86%) Azure SQL Database
11 61 (3.79%) NoSQL
12 60 (3.73%) Relational Database
13 59 (3.67%) PostgreSQL
13 59 (3.67%) Semantic Layer
14 58 (3.61%) Star Schema
15 56 (3.48%) Delta Lake
16 54 (3.36%) Looker
17 49 (3.05%) Elasticsearch
18 45 (2.80%) Snowflake Schema
19 41 (2.55%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 99 (6.16%) Git
2 32 (1.99%) Jenkins
3 30 (1.87%) MLflow
4 21 (1.31%) GitLab
5 19 (1.18%) 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 (0.12%) ERwin
9 2 (0.12%) Poetry
9 2 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
10 1 (0.062%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.062%) kappa
10 1 (0.062%) Octopus Deploy
10 1 (0.062%) RStudio
10 1 (0.062%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.062%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.062%) Yeoman
General
1 417 (25.93%) Finance
2 392 (24.38%) Social Skills
3 275 (17.10%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (7.52%) Public Sector
5 107 (6.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 69 (4.29%) Banking
7 56 (3.48%) Marketing
7 56 (3.48%) Retail
8 41 (2.55%) Legal
9 38 (2.36%) Influencing Skills
10 36 (2.24%) Law
11 28 (1.74%) Financial Institution
12 26 (1.62%) Manufacturing
13 25 (1.55%) Advertising
14 18 (1.12%) Games
15 12 (0.75%) Aerospace
16 11 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
17 9 (0.56%) Front Office
17 9 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
17 9 (0.56%) Police
Job Titles
1 598 (37.19%) Data Engineer
2 349 (21.70%) Senior
3 293 (18.22%) Lead
4 162 (10.07%) Senior Data Engineer
5 144 (8.96%) Architect
6 112 (6.97%) Data Manager
7 100 (6.22%) Data Architect
8 96 (5.97%) Lead Data Engineer
9 71 (4.42%) Analyst
9 71 (4.42%) Principal Engineer
10 70 (4.35%) Engineering Manager
11 69 (4.29%) Consultant
12 65 (4.04%) Developer
13 58 (3.61%) Databricks Engineer
14 48 (2.99%) Data Consultant
14 48 (2.99%) Head of Engineering
15 46 (2.86%) Databricks Data Engineer
16 43 (2.67%) Principal Data Engineer
17 42 (2.61%) Data Scientist
17 42 (2.61%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 154 (9.58%) PySpark
2 122 (7.59%) Terraform
3 98 (6.09%) Kafka
4 47 (2.92%) LangChain
5 43 (2.67%) scikit-learn
6 42 (2.61%) PyTorch
6 42 (2.61%) TensorFlow
7 40 (2.49%) LlamaIndex
7 40 (2.49%) REST
8 29 (1.80%) pgvector
9 27 (1.68%) .NET
9 27 (1.68%) Node.js
10 24 (1.49%) Pandas
11 20 (1.24%) SpaCy
12 19 (1.18%) JSON
13 17 (1.06%) Apache NiFi
14 15 (0.93%) RESTful
15 11 (0.68%) ARM Templates
15 11 (0.68%) FastAPI
16 10 (0.62%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 187 (11.63%) Cloud Native
2 69 (4.29%) Data Structures
3 67 (4.17%) Product Ownership
4 54 (3.36%) Distributed Systems
5 40 (2.49%) Onboarding
6 30 (1.87%) AI Agents
7 26 (1.62%) e-Learning
8 25 (1.55%) Clustering
8 25 (1.55%) Public Cloud
9 21 (1.31%) Distributed Computing
9 21 (1.31%) Low-Code
10 20 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (1.24%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
11 19 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
12 17 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
13 14 (0.87%) Distributed Architecture
13 14 (0.87%) Hedge funds
14 13 (0.81%) IoT
15 12 (0.75%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.44%) Windows
2 5 (0.31%) Linux
3 1 (0.062%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 760 (47.26%) Analytics
2 620 (38.56%) AI
3 559 (34.76%) Data Pipeline
4 509 (31.65%) Data Modelling
5 443 (27.55%) ETL
6 423 (26.31%) Data Governance
7 411 (25.56%) Business Intelligence
8 402 (25.00%) Machine Learning
9 389 (24.19%) CI/CD
10 371 (23.07%) Agile
11 369 (22.95%) Decision-Making
12 357 (22.20%) Data Architecture
13 298 (18.53%) DevOps
14 290 (18.03%) Mentoring
15 281 (17.48%) Data Science
16 243 (15.11%) Problem-Solving
17 241 (14.99%) Roadmaps
18 219 (13.62%) Lakehouse
19 181 (11.26%) Continuous Improvement
20 178 (11.07%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 806 (50.12%) SQL
2 799 (49.69%) Python
3 113 (7.03%) Java
4 67 (4.17%) Scala
5 51 (3.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 45 (2.80%) JavaScript
7 26 (1.62%) R
8 22 (1.37%) C#
8 22 (1.37%) TypeScript
9 18 (1.12%) Bash
10 17 (1.06%) C++
10 17 (1.06%) Go
11 15 (0.93%) T-SQL
12 14 (0.87%) PowerShell
13 8 (0.50%) Bicep
13 8 (0.50%) Groovy
14 6 (0.37%) Julia
14 6 (0.37%) VBA
15 5 (0.31%) PL/SQL
16 4 (0.25%) Rust
Qualifications
1 180 (11.19%) Degree
2 147 (9.14%) Security Cleared
3 93 (5.78%) SC Cleared
4 58 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
4 58 (3.61%) Master's Degree
5 42 (2.61%) DV Cleared
6 41 (2.55%) Azure Certification
7 35 (2.18%) DBS Check
8 28 (1.74%) BPSS Clearance
9 23 (1.43%) AWS Certification
10 21 (1.31%) PhD
11 14 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (0.81%) ACCA
12 13 (0.81%) CIMA
13 7 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.37%) 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
1 438 (27.24%) Data Quality
2 87 (5.41%) GDPR
3 53 (3.30%) Accessibility
4 41 (2.55%) QA
5 24 (1.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 15 (0.93%) GRC
7 9 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
8 7 (0.44%) PERC
9 6 (0.37%) 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 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.062%) HIPAA
14 1 (0.062%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 1 (0.062%) NIST
System Software
1 88 (5.47%) Docker
2 56 (3.48%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.37%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.12%) NDS
6 1 (0.062%) Apache Flume
6 1 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.062%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 58 (3.61%) Kubernetes
2 14 (0.87%) Grafana
3 5 (0.31%) Ansible
3 5 (0.31%) Prometheus
4 4 (0.25%) Argo
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
1 452 (28.11%) Databricks
2 300 (18.66%) Microsoft
3 89 (5.53%) Google
4 45 (2.80%) Dell
5 41 (2.55%) Informatica
6 39 (2.43%) Palantir
7 35 (2.18%) Foundry
8 34 (2.11%) Oracle
9 30 (1.87%) SAP
10 27 (1.68%) Cloudera
10 27 (1.68%) OpenAI
11 24 (1.49%) Salesforce
12 22 (1.37%) Teradata
13 20 (1.24%) Denodo
14 10 (0.62%) 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