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 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 155 157
Rank change year-on-year +24 +2 +56
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,659 1,016 1,207
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.40% 2.07% 1.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.91% 2.33% 2.06%
Number of salaries quoted 1,115 469 624
10th Percentile £45,000 £46,000 £42,650
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,233 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -3.45% -
75th Percentile £95,000 £93,750 £92,500
90th Percentile £106,250 £112,500 £110,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -11.11%

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 86,825 43,614 58,687
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.38% 88.89% 82.21%
Number of salaries quoted 59,360 24,460 31,261
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +17.02% -10.48% -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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +21 1,518 £75,000 +7.14% 1,626
UK excluding London -17 823 £70,000 +7.69% 656
London +17 732 £85,000 +3.03% 1,042
Work from Home -10 484 £75,000 +6.38% 741
North of England -5 371 £75,000 +11.11% 240
North West -39 164 £75,000 +30.43% 146
South East -27 143 £63,750 -1.92% 130
Midlands +4 119 £75,000 +11.11% 70
North East +19 111 £66,805 +40.64% 36
Yorkshire -2 96 £75,000 +7.14% 58
South West -13 89 £62,500 +4.17% 61
West Midlands +1 82 £72,500 +20.83% 47
Scotland +5 45 £85,000 - 70
East Midlands -14 37 £80,000 +17.65% 23
East of England -29 31 £70,000 +33.33% 39
Wales -45 28 £63,500 +26.69% 15
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 33

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
1 170 (10.25%) Apache Spark
2 133 (8.02%) Apache
3 131 (7.90%) Apache Airflow
4 24 (1.45%) Jupyter
5 21 (1.27%) Palantir Foundry
6 12 (0.72%) Confluence
7 11 (0.66%) SAS
8 10 (0.60%) SharePoint
9 9 (0.54%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.24%) Luigi
11 2 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 2 (0.12%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.12%) Tornado
12 1 (0.060%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.060%) CMS
12 1 (0.060%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 22 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.48%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.30%) Notion
5 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.060%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.060%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.060%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.30%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
4 1 (0.060%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
4 1 (0.060%) Actimize
4 1 (0.060%) FastStats
4 1 (0.060%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.060%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.060%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 636 (38.34%) Azure
2 482 (29.05%) AWS
3 293 (17.66%) Power Platform
4 273 (16.46%) GCP
5 184 (11.09%) Azure Data Factory
6 143 (8.62%) Snowflake
7 137 (8.26%) dbt
8 109 (6.57%) Amazon S3
9 105 (6.33%) Azure DevOps
10 100 (6.03%) Serverless
11 86 (5.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 72 (4.34%) GitHub
13 71 (4.28%) AWS Lambda
14 70 (4.22%) SaaS
15 56 (3.38%) Amazon EMR
16 50 (3.01%) Azure Databricks
17 46 (2.77%) Microsoft Purview
18 42 (2.53%) Amazon EC2
19 27 (1.63%) Azure Machine Learning
20 26 (1.57%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.02%) Broadband
2 7 (0.42%) Internet
3 4 (0.24%) 5G
3 4 (0.24%) HTTP
4 2 (0.12%) DNS
4 2 (0.12%) Firewall
4 2 (0.12%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.12%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.12%) tcpdump
4 2 (0.12%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.060%) 4G
5 1 (0.060%) ATM
5 1 (0.060%) DAB
5 1 (0.060%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 284 (17.12%) Data Warehouse
1 284 (17.12%) Power BI
2 190 (11.45%) Data Lake
3 123 (7.41%) Metadata
4 103 (6.21%) BigQuery
5 98 (5.91%) Amazon Redshift
6 93 (5.61%) Tableau
7 82 (4.94%) Big Data
8 68 (4.10%) SQL Server
9 66 (3.98%) Relational Database
10 62 (3.74%) NoSQL
10 62 (3.74%) Semantic Layer
11 61 (3.68%) Azure SQL Database
12 57 (3.44%) Amazon Athena
13 56 (3.38%) Delta Lake
14 53 (3.19%) Star Schema
15 49 (2.95%) PostgreSQL
16 45 (2.71%) Spark SQL
17 36 (2.17%) Data Vault
18 32 (1.93%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 144 (8.68%) Git
2 37 (2.23%) GitLab
3 35 (2.11%) Jenkins
4 22 (1.33%) JIRA
5 12 (0.72%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.30%) MLflow
6 5 (0.30%) Poetry
7 4 (0.24%) Octopus Deploy
7 4 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
8 3 (0.18%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.12%) ERwin
9 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
10 1 (0.060%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.060%) kappa
10 1 (0.060%) RStudio
10 1 (0.060%) Selenium
10 1 (0.060%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.060%) Yeoman
General
1 452 (27.25%) Social Skills
2 411 (24.77%) Finance
3 284 (17.12%) Analytical Skills
4 156 (9.40%) Public Sector
5 114 (6.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 70 (4.22%) Banking
7 61 (3.68%) Retail
8 53 (3.19%) Marketing
9 49 (2.95%) Legal
10 38 (2.29%) Financial Institution
10 38 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
11 36 (2.17%) Law
12 26 (1.57%) Manufacturing
13 21 (1.27%) Advertising
14 18 (1.08%) Games
15 16 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (0.72%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
17 11 (0.66%) Documentation Skills
17 11 (0.66%) Police
Job Titles
1 675 (40.69%) Data Engineer
2 361 (21.76%) Senior
3 308 (18.57%) Lead
4 185 (11.15%) Senior Data Engineer
5 143 (8.62%) Architect
6 99 (5.97%) Data Architect
6 99 (5.97%) Lead Data Engineer
7 84 (5.06%) Software Engineer
8 83 (5.00%) Data Manager
9 82 (4.94%) Analyst
10 78 (4.70%) Principal Engineer
11 77 (4.64%) Developer
12 73 (4.40%) Consultant
13 50 (3.01%) Data Scientist
14 49 (2.95%) Principal Data Engineer
15 48 (2.89%) Data Consultant
16 46 (2.77%) Databricks Engineer
17 42 (2.53%) Python Engineer
18 41 (2.47%) Head of Engineering
19 38 (2.29%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 186 (11.21%) PySpark
2 136 (8.20%) Terraform
3 73 (4.40%) Kafka
4 44 (2.65%) .NET
5 36 (2.17%) REST
6 33 (1.99%) Pandas
7 32 (1.93%) LangChain
8 27 (1.63%) Node.js
9 25 (1.51%) SpaCy
10 23 (1.39%) LlamaIndex
11 22 (1.33%) scikit-learn
12 21 (1.27%) JSON
12 21 (1.27%) PyTorch
12 21 (1.27%) TensorFlow
13 18 (1.08%) React
14 17 (1.02%) RESTful
15 15 (0.90%) Apache NiFi
16 14 (0.84%) NumPy
17 13 (0.78%) FastAPI
18 11 (0.66%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 174 (10.49%) Cloud Native
2 69 (4.16%) Data Structures
3 56 (3.38%) Product Ownership
4 51 (3.07%) Onboarding
5 50 (3.01%) Distributed Systems
6 49 (2.95%) AI Agents
7 28 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
8 25 (1.51%) e-Learning
9 18 (1.08%) Distributed Computing
9 18 (1.08%) Hedge funds
9 18 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
11 15 (0.90%) Low-Code
11 15 (0.90%) Management Information System
12 14 (0.84%) Blog
12 14 (0.84%) Distributed Architecture
12 14 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (0.78%) Reference Data
14 11 (0.66%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 8 (0.48%) Windows
2 5 (0.30%) Linux
3 1 (0.060%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 785 (47.32%) Analytics
2 612 (36.89%) Data Pipeline
3 571 (34.42%) AI
4 550 (33.15%) Data Modelling
5 479 (28.87%) ETL
6 466 (28.09%) CI/CD
7 415 (25.02%) Business Intelligence
8 405 (24.41%) Decision-Making
9 361 (21.76%) Agile
10 350 (21.10%) Data Governance
11 337 (20.31%) Machine Learning
12 316 (19.05%) DevOps
13 312 (18.81%) Mentoring
14 302 (18.20%) Data Architecture
15 292 (17.60%) Problem-Solving
16 265 (15.97%) Data Science
17 248 (14.95%) Technical Leadership
18 219 (13.20%) Software Engineering
19 192 (11.57%) Continuous Improvement
20 188 (11.33%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 846 (50.99%) Python
2 837 (50.45%) SQL
3 116 (6.99%) Java
4 74 (4.46%) Scala
5 58 (3.50%) JavaScript
6 55 (3.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 38 (2.29%) C#
7 38 (2.29%) TypeScript
8 35 (2.11%) C++
9 33 (1.99%) R
10 18 (1.08%) Bash
11 15 (0.90%) T-SQL
12 14 (0.84%) PowerShell
13 10 (0.60%) Go
14 9 (0.54%) Bicep
15 6 (0.36%) Groovy
16 5 (0.30%) PL/SQL
17 4 (0.24%) Rust
17 4 (0.24%) VBA
18 2 (0.12%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 208 (12.54%) Security Cleared
2 163 (9.83%) Degree
3 143 (8.62%) SC Cleared
4 57 (3.44%) Master's Degree
5 48 (2.89%) Azure Certification
6 47 (2.83%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (2.23%) AWS Certification
9 32 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
9 32 (1.93%) PhD
10 23 (1.39%) DBS Check
11 18 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.90%) ACCA
12 15 (0.90%) CIMA
13 6 (0.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 6 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
14 5 (0.30%) CBAP
15 4 (0.24%) CCA
15 4 (0.24%) CISSP
16 3 (0.18%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 511 (30.80%) Data Quality
2 73 (4.40%) Accessibility
3 53 (3.19%) GDPR
4 42 (2.53%) QA
5 18 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (0.54%) NCSC
7 5 (0.30%) GRC
8 4 (0.24%) SLA
9 3 (0.18%) EU AI Act
9 3 (0.18%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.18%) PMO
9 3 (0.18%) PSD2
10 2 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.060%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.060%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.060%) IASME
11 1 (0.060%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.060%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.060%) NIST
System Software
1 109 (6.57%) Docker
2 13 (0.78%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.18%) NDS
3 3 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.060%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.060%) Firmware
4 1 (0.060%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 77 (4.64%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.66%) Grafana
3 4 (0.24%) Kibana
3 4 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.18%) Ansible
4 3 (0.18%) Argo
4 3 (0.18%) Prometheus
4 3 (0.18%) SCCM
5 2 (0.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
6 1 (0.060%) CASB
6 1 (0.060%) Packer
Vendors
1 345 (20.80%) Databricks
2 296 (17.84%) Microsoft
3 100 (6.03%) Google
4 39 (2.35%) Salesforce
5 35 (2.11%) Oracle
6 32 (1.93%) Palantir
7 29 (1.75%) Foundry
8 28 (1.69%) SAP
9 26 (1.57%) OpenAI
10 17 (1.02%) Informatica
11 12 (0.72%) Sage
12 10 (0.60%) YouTube
13 8 (0.48%) Alteryx
14 6 (0.36%) MicroStrategy
15 5 (0.30%) IBM
16 4 (0.24%) Cognos
16 4 (0.24%) Talend
17 3 (0.18%) CyberArk
17 3 (0.18%) ForgeRock
17 3 (0.18%) LexisNexis