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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 148 147 177
Rank change year-on-year -1 +30 -53
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,270 998 1,584
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.38% 2.26% 1.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 2.43% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 871 533 912
10th Percentile £44,500 £45,000 £41,492
25th Percentile £57,000 £55,000 £54,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £77,500 £77,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year - +10.71% -6.67%
75th Percentile £98,750 £112,500 £88,750
90th Percentile £115,000 £135,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £63,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +2.36% +5.40%

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 67,959 41,142 82,492
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.66% 93.29% 84.82%
Number of salaries quoted 43,928 22,326 59,700
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,269 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.97% +5.94% -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 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -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 20 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 20 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 +3 1,135 £80,000 - 454
London +50 588 £85,000 -12.82% 224
UK excluding London -44 570 £70,000 +7.69% 324
Work from Home -2 416 £82,500 -2.94% 239
North of England -50 203 £80,000 +28.00% 92
North West -40 107 £90,000 +33.33% 41
South East -65 104 £70,000 - 115
Midlands +15 99 £65,000 +13.04% 39
Yorkshire -20 75 £67,500 +5.88% 25
West Midlands +4 67 £62,500 +8.70% 31
East of England +12 62 £70,000 +40.00% 26
South West -46 53 £48,750 -48.68% 30
Scotland +15 40 £87,500 +52.17% 13
East Midlands -19 30 £70,000 +7.69% 8
North East -26 21 £67,500 +42.11% 27
Wales -24 9 £65,000 -18.75% 14

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 (14.41%) Apache Airflow
2 139 (10.94%) Apache Spark
3 82 (6.46%) Apache
4 36 (2.83%) Palantir Foundry
5 19 (1.50%) SAS
6 14 (1.10%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.79%) Appian
7 10 (0.79%) Confluence
8 7 (0.55%) Moodle
9 6 (0.47%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.16%) Luigi
12 1 (0.079%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.079%) Camunda
12 1 (0.079%) GeoServer
12 1 (0.079%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (1.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.71%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Markit EDM
1 3 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
1 3 (0.24%) SAP SD
2 2 (0.16%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.079%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.079%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.079%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.079%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.079%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 611 (48.11%) Azure
2 406 (31.97%) AWS
3 228 (17.95%) Snowflake
4 226 (17.80%) Power Platform
5 225 (17.72%) GCP
6 165 (12.99%) Azure Data Factory
7 148 (11.65%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 118 (9.29%) dbt
9 85 (6.69%) Azure Machine Learning
10 79 (6.22%) Amazon S3
11 76 (5.98%) Azure AI
12 68 (5.35%) Azure DevOps
13 65 (5.12%) Serverless
14 51 (4.02%) GitHub
15 34 (2.68%) SaaS
16 31 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
17 30 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
18 25 (1.97%) Amazon Kinesis
18 25 (1.97%) Microsoft Purview
18 25 (1.97%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.73%) 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 (0.079%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.079%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 276 (21.73%) Data Warehouse
2 214 (16.85%) Power BI
3 201 (15.83%) Data Lake
4 148 (11.65%) SQL Server
5 112 (8.82%) BigQuery
6 106 (8.35%) Tableau
7 92 (7.24%) Metadata
8 87 (6.85%) Amazon Redshift
9 65 (5.12%) Relational Database
10 51 (4.02%) Delta Lake
11 49 (3.86%) Semantic Layer
11 49 (3.86%) Spark SQL
12 47 (3.70%) Elasticsearch
12 47 (3.70%) NoSQL
13 46 (3.62%) Looker
14 44 (3.46%) Big Data
15 43 (3.39%) Azure SQL Database
16 41 (3.23%) PostgreSQL
17 40 (3.15%) Snowflake Schema
17 40 (3.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 85 (6.69%) Git
2 58 (4.57%) MLflow
3 25 (1.97%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.42%) 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 (0.079%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.079%) CMake
9 1 (0.079%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.079%) Deequ
9 1 (0.079%) JMeter
9 1 (0.079%) RStudio
9 1 (0.079%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.079%) Yeoman
9 1 (0.079%) Zephyr
General
1 312 (24.57%) Finance
2 243 (19.13%) Social Skills
3 197 (15.51%) Analytical Skills
4 78 (6.14%) Public Sector
5 74 (5.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 59 (4.65%) Banking
7 56 (4.41%) Retail
8 37 (2.91%) Influencing Skills
9 33 (2.60%) Legal
10 30 (2.36%) Marketing
11 28 (2.20%) Law
12 16 (1.26%) Manufacturing
13 15 (1.18%) Advertising
14 14 (1.10%) Financial Institution
15 12 (0.94%) Investment Banking
16 11 (0.87%) Games
17 10 (0.79%) Front Office
18 9 (0.71%) Automotive
18 9 (0.71%) Publishing
19 6 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 503 (39.61%) Data Engineer
2 247 (19.45%) Senior
3 228 (17.95%) Lead
4 126 (9.92%) Senior Data Engineer
5 108 (8.50%) Data Manager
6 98 (7.72%) Lead Data Engineer
7 96 (7.56%) Architect
8 75 (5.91%) Data Architect
9 72 (5.67%) Consultant
10 69 (5.43%) Engineering Manager
11 52 (4.09%) Data Consultant
12 46 (3.62%) Analyst
13 42 (3.31%) Developer
13 42 (3.31%) Platform Engineer
14 41 (3.23%) Principal Engineer
15 38 (2.99%) Azure Engineer
16 35 (2.76%) AWS Engineer
17 33 (2.60%) Finance Manager
18 32 (2.52%) Technical Leader
19 30 (2.36%) Head of Engineering
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 141 (11.10%) PySpark
2 99 (7.80%) Kafka
3 60 (4.72%) PyTorch
3 60 (4.72%) TensorFlow
4 44 (3.46%) scikit-learn
5 43 (3.39%) REST
6 39 (3.07%) LangChain
7 29 (2.28%) Pandas
8 27 (2.13%) pgvector
9 25 (1.97%) LlamaIndex
10 19 (1.50%) .NET
10 19 (1.50%) Faiss
10 19 (1.50%) Node.js
11 18 (1.42%) RESTful
12 16 (1.26%) HTML
13 14 (1.10%) FastAPI
13 14 (1.10%) React
14 13 (1.02%) CSS
14 13 (1.02%) NumPy
15 12 (0.94%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 116 (9.13%) Cloud Native
2 52 (4.09%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.46%) Data Structures
4 43 (3.39%) Distributed Systems
5 32 (2.52%) Low-Code
6 30 (2.36%) Legacy Systems
7 27 (2.13%) Public Cloud
8 24 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (1.81%) Clustering
10 20 (1.57%) e-Learning
10 20 (1.57%) Management Information System
11 17 (1.34%) Onboarding
12 15 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
13 14 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
14 13 (1.02%) NHS
14 13 (1.02%) Social Media
15 11 (0.87%) AI Agents
16 10 (0.79%) Cyberattack
16 10 (0.79%) Hybrid Cloud
16 10 (0.79%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.55%) Linux
2 5 (0.39%) Windows
3 2 (0.16%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.079%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 603 (47.48%) Analytics
2 516 (40.63%) Data Pipeline
3 455 (35.83%) AI
4 441 (34.72%) Data Modelling
5 413 (32.52%) ETL
6 377 (29.69%) Data Governance
7 330 (25.98%) Business Intelligence
8 328 (25.83%) CI/CD
9 319 (25.12%) Agile
10 304 (23.94%) Data Architecture
11 285 (22.44%) Machine Learning
12 229 (18.03%) Data Science
13 228 (17.95%) DevOps
14 227 (17.87%) Decision-Making
15 211 (16.61%) Mentoring
16 206 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
17 191 (15.04%) Roadmaps
18 136 (10.71%) Continuous Improvement
19 135 (10.63%) Data Integration
20 130 (10.24%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 657 (51.73%) Python
2 648 (51.02%) SQL
3 107 (8.43%) Java
4 58 (4.57%) Scala
5 38 (2.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 35 (2.76%) Bash
7 33 (2.60%) JavaScript
8 32 (2.52%) R
9 25 (1.97%) Go
10 22 (1.73%) PowerShell
11 17 (1.34%) C#
12 15 (1.18%) T-SQL
13 11 (0.87%) C++
13 11 (0.87%) 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 (0.24%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 145 (11.42%) Degree
2 83 (6.54%) Security Cleared
3 56 (4.41%) Computer Science Degree
4 51 (4.02%) SC Cleared
5 38 (2.99%) Master's Degree
6 32 (2.52%) DBS Check
7 31 (2.44%) Azure Certification
8 22 (1.73%) DV Cleared
9 13 (1.02%) AWS Certification
9 13 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (0.63%) PhD
11 6 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.24%) CCA
13 3 (0.24%) 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
1 378 (29.76%) Data Quality
2 92 (7.24%) GDPR
3 37 (2.91%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 30 (2.36%) Accessibility
5 23 (1.81%) GRC
6 21 (1.65%) QA
7 17 (1.34%) HIPAA
8 14 (1.10%) SLA
9 9 (0.71%) 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 (0.079%) GMP
13 1 (0.079%) NCSC
13 1 (0.079%) PMO
System Software
1 93 (7.32%) Docker
2 57 (4.49%) Virtual Machines
3 11 (0.87%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.079%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 100 (7.87%) Terraform
2 70 (5.51%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.02%) Grafana
4 10 (0.79%) Prometheus
5 9 (0.71%) 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
10 1 (0.079%) Kibana
10 1 (0.079%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 422 (33.23%) Databricks
2 235 (18.50%) Microsoft
3 59 (4.65%) Google
4 56 (4.41%) Informatica
5 52 (4.09%) Dell
5 52 (4.09%) Palantir
6 45 (3.54%) Oracle
7 42 (3.31%) Foundry
8 38 (2.99%) OpenAI
9 30 (2.36%) Cloudera
10 25 (1.97%) Teradata
11 24 (1.89%) Denodo
12 23 (1.81%) Talend
13 22 (1.73%) Salesforce
14 13 (1.02%) SAP
15 12 (0.94%) Red Hat
16 11 (0.87%) Automation Anywhere
16 11 (0.87%) UiPath
17 8 (0.63%) MicroStrategy
18 7 (0.55%) Cognos