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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 153 144
Rank change year-on-year +22 -9 +57
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,591 1,057 1,463
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.48% 2.12% 1.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.02% 2.37% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,116 453 733
10th Percentile £45,228 £45,850 £42,500
25th Percentile £56,250 £55,750 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £70,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.48% +0.71% -6.67%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £112,500 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year +11.11% +8.00% -

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 78,793 44,552 66,983
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.35% 89.17% 80.87%
Number of salaries quoted 54,339 25,245 43,003
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,650 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 18 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 18 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 +35 1,498 £80,000 +13.48% 394
UK excluding London -22 766 £75,000 +11.11% 289
London +44 734 £90,000 +2.86% 197
Work from Home +15 471 £82,500 +10.00% 198
North of England +4 335 £79,000 +17.04% 87
North West -15 168 £80,000 +33.33% 40
South East -40 156 £70,000 +7.69% 103
Midlands +13 101 £72,500 +7.41% 27
Yorkshire +4 98 £80,000 +14.29% 24
South West -24 78 £60,000 -14.29% 44
North East -2 69 £67,500 +42.11% 24
West Midlands +8 68 £75,000 +25.00% 21
East of England -5 59 £70,000 +40.00% 6
East Midlands -8 33 £52,500 -22.79% 6
Scotland -24 21 £100,000 +90.48% 13
Wales -50 17 £60,000 -13.04% 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 6

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
1 186 (11.69%) Apache Spark
2 168 (10.56%) Apache Airflow
3 129 (8.11%) Apache
4 24 (1.51%) Palantir Foundry
5 19 (1.19%) Jupyter
5 19 (1.19%) SAS
6 11 (0.69%) SharePoint
7 9 (0.57%) Confluence
8 4 (0.25%) Luigi
8 4 (0.25%) Moodle
9 2 (0.13%) Tornado
10 1 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.063%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.063%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.063%) GeoServer
Applications
1 19 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.13%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.063%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (0.19%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 2 (0.13%) SAP Business One
2 2 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.13%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.063%) FastStats
3 1 (0.063%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.063%) Markit EDM
3 1 (0.063%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.063%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.063%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.063%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 676 (42.49%) Azure
2 492 (30.92%) AWS
3 281 (17.66%) Power Platform
4 269 (16.91%) GCP
5 249 (15.65%) Snowflake
6 163 (10.25%) Azure Data Factory
7 152 (9.55%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 144 (9.05%) dbt
9 93 (5.85%) Amazon S3
10 85 (5.34%) Serverless
11 83 (5.22%) Azure DevOps
11 83 (5.22%) Azure Machine Learning
12 69 (4.34%) Azure AI
13 56 (3.52%) GitHub
14 55 (3.46%) SaaS
15 45 (2.83%) Microsoft Purview
16 41 (2.58%) AWS Lambda
17 32 (2.01%) Amazon EMR
18 24 (1.51%) AWS CloudFormation
19 23 (1.45%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.51%) Broadband
2 7 (0.44%) Internet
3 4 (0.25%) 5G
4 2 (0.13%) DAB
4 2 (0.13%) Firewall
4 2 (0.13%) HTTP
4 2 (0.13%) MQTT
5 1 (0.063%) 4G
5 1 (0.063%) ATM
5 1 (0.063%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 299 (18.79%) Data Warehouse
2 269 (16.91%) Power BI
3 226 (14.20%) Data Lake
4 141 (8.86%) SQL Server
5 128 (8.05%) Tableau
6 122 (7.67%) BigQuery
7 110 (6.91%) Amazon Redshift
8 93 (5.85%) Metadata
9 85 (5.34%) Big Data
10 65 (4.09%) Relational Database
11 61 (3.83%) NoSQL
12 59 (3.71%) Azure SQL Database
13 58 (3.65%) PostgreSQL
14 55 (3.46%) Semantic Layer
15 54 (3.39%) Star Schema
16 53 (3.33%) Delta Lake
16 53 (3.33%) Looker
17 49 (3.08%) Elasticsearch
18 46 (2.89%) Spark SQL
19 45 (2.83%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 107 (6.73%) Git
2 32 (2.01%) Jenkins
2 32 (2.01%) MLflow
3 23 (1.45%) GitLab
4 20 (1.26%) JIRA
5 12 (0.75%) IBM UrbanCode
6 8 (0.50%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.25%) Selenium
8 3 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.13%) ERwin
9 2 (0.13%) VSS/SourceSafe
10 1 (0.063%) RStudio
10 1 (0.063%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.063%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.063%) Yeoman
General
1 414 (26.02%) Finance
2 368 (23.13%) Social Skills
3 270 (16.97%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 103 (6.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 77 (4.84%) Banking
7 58 (3.65%) Retail
8 51 (3.21%) Marketing
9 49 (3.08%) Legal
10 46 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.89%) Law
12 28 (1.76%) Financial Institution
13 25 (1.57%) Advertising
13 25 (1.57%) Manufacturing
14 18 (1.13%) Games
15 12 (0.75%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.75%) Investment Banking
16 11 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
17 9 (0.57%) Front Office
18 7 (0.44%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 580 (36.46%) Data Engineer
2 341 (21.43%) Senior
3 290 (18.23%) Lead
4 155 (9.74%) Senior Data Engineer
5 143 (8.99%) Architect
6 111 (6.98%) Data Manager
7 103 (6.47%) Data Architect
8 94 (5.91%) Lead Data Engineer
9 76 (4.78%) Analyst
10 71 (4.46%) Consultant
11 69 (4.34%) Engineering Manager
12 67 (4.21%) Principal Engineer
13 56 (3.52%) Developer
14 49 (3.08%) Data Consultant
15 48 (3.02%) Head of Engineering
16 43 (2.70%) Data Scientist
16 43 (2.70%) Python Engineer
17 42 (2.64%) Software Engineer
18 39 (2.45%) Principal Data Engineer
19 37 (2.33%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 153 (9.62%) PySpark
2 96 (6.03%) Kafka
3 45 (2.83%) LangChain
3 45 (2.83%) scikit-learn
4 44 (2.77%) PyTorch
4 44 (2.77%) TensorFlow
5 38 (2.39%) LlamaIndex
6 35 (2.20%) REST
7 28 (1.76%) pgvector
8 27 (1.70%) Node.js
9 24 (1.51%) Pandas
10 21 (1.32%) .NET
11 19 (1.19%) SpaCy
12 17 (1.07%) Apache NiFi
12 17 (1.07%) JSON
13 15 (0.94%) RESTful
14 11 (0.69%) ARM Templates
14 11 (0.69%) FastAPI
14 11 (0.69%) YAML
15 10 (0.63%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 181 (11.38%) Cloud Native
2 65 (4.09%) Data Structures
3 64 (4.02%) Product Ownership
4 55 (3.46%) Distributed Systems
5 35 (2.20%) Onboarding
6 28 (1.76%) AI Agents
6 28 (1.76%) e-Learning
7 26 (1.63%) Public Cloud
8 25 (1.57%) Clustering
9 24 (1.51%) Low-Code
10 22 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
11 20 (1.26%) Management Information System
12 19 (1.19%) Distributed Computing
12 19 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
13 18 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
13 18 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (0.88%) Distributed Architecture
15 13 (0.82%) IoT
16 12 (0.75%) Algorithms
16 12 (0.75%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.44%) Windows
2 6 (0.38%) Linux
3 1 (0.063%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.063%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 770 (48.40%) Analytics
2 627 (39.41%) AI
3 562 (35.32%) Data Pipeline
4 501 (31.49%) Data Modelling
5 437 (27.47%) ETL
6 434 (27.28%) Data Governance
7 403 (25.33%) Business Intelligence
8 391 (24.58%) Machine Learning
9 388 (24.39%) CI/CD
10 375 (23.57%) Agile
11 359 (22.56%) Data Architecture
12 358 (22.50%) Decision-Making
13 286 (17.98%) DevOps
14 282 (17.72%) Mentoring
15 270 (16.97%) Data Science
16 241 (15.15%) Problem-Solving
17 239 (15.02%) Roadmaps
18 192 (12.07%) Continuous Improvement
19 168 (10.56%) Technical Leadership
20 158 (9.93%) Data Strategy
Programming Languages
1 801 (50.35%) Python
2 793 (49.84%) SQL
3 110 (6.91%) Java
4 63 (3.96%) Scala
5 46 (2.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 42 (2.64%) JavaScript
7 26 (1.63%) R
8 22 (1.38%) TypeScript
9 19 (1.19%) Bash
10 17 (1.07%) C#
10 17 (1.07%) Go
11 15 (0.94%) PowerShell
12 14 (0.88%) T-SQL
13 11 (0.69%) C++
14 8 (0.50%) Bicep
14 8 (0.50%) Groovy
15 7 (0.44%) VBA
16 6 (0.38%) Julia
17 5 (0.31%) PL/SQL
18 4 (0.25%) Rust
Qualifications
1 183 (11.50%) Degree
2 142 (8.93%) Security Cleared
3 90 (5.66%) SC Cleared
4 57 (3.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 55 (3.46%) Master's Degree
6 39 (2.45%) Azure Certification
6 39 (2.45%) DV Cleared
7 32 (2.01%) DBS Check
8 26 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
9 23 (1.45%) AWS Certification
10 20 (1.26%) PhD
11 12 (0.75%) ACCA
11 12 (0.75%) CIMA
12 11 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
13 7 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.38%) 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
1 440 (27.66%) Data Quality
2 101 (6.35%) GDPR
3 54 (3.39%) Accessibility
4 40 (2.51%) QA
5 35 (2.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 16 (1.01%) GRC
7 12 (0.75%) HIPAA
8 8 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
9 7 (0.44%) PERC
10 6 (0.38%) SLA
11 4 (0.25%) 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 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.063%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 1 (0.063%) NIST
System Software
1 92 (5.78%) Docker
2 56 (3.52%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.44%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.13%) NDS
6 1 (0.063%) Apache Flume
6 1 (0.063%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.063%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 124 (7.79%) Terraform
2 61 (3.83%) Kubernetes
3 16 (1.01%) Grafana
4 7 (0.44%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.38%) Ansible
6 4 (0.25%) Argo
7 3 (0.19%) Kibana
7 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.19%) SCCM
8 2 (0.13%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 2 (0.13%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 1 (0.063%) CASB
9 1 (0.063%) Control-M
Vendors
1 462 (29.04%) Databricks
2 292 (18.35%) Microsoft
3 86 (5.41%) Google
4 50 (3.14%) Dell
5 49 (3.08%) Oracle
6 46 (2.89%) Informatica
7 37 (2.33%) Palantir
8 33 (2.07%) Foundry
9 32 (2.01%) SAP
10 27 (1.70%) Cloudera
10 27 (1.70%) OpenAI
10 27 (1.70%) Salesforce
11 26 (1.63%) Teradata
12 24 (1.51%) Denodo
13 12 (0.75%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.63%) Sage
15 9 (0.57%) Alteryx
16 6 (0.38%) MicroStrategy
17 5 (0.31%) Cognos
17 5 (0.31%) Talend