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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 129 150 155
Rank change year-on-year +21 +5 +64
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,682 1,026 1,208
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.42% 2.09% 1.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.93% 2.35% 2.07%
Number of salaries quoted 1,129 480 623
10th Percentile £45,000 £46,225 £42,600
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £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 £92,500 £92,500
90th Percentile £106,250 £112,500 £110,000
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 87,229 43,738 58,305
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.43% 88.90% 82.16%
Number of salaries quoted 59,718 24,553 31,325
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,925
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £44,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,243 £75,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,600
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.70% -2.59%

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 15 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 15 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 +20 1,539 £75,000 +7.14% 264
UK excluding London -17 835 £70,000 +7.69% 169
London +17 741 £85,000 +1.49% 133
Work from Home -11 489 £75,000 +6.38% 177
North of England -4 373 £75,000 +11.11% 60
North West -39 164 £75,000 +30.43% 28
South East -39 147 £64,000 -1.54% 54
Midlands +13 121 £75,000 +11.11% 17
North East +24 112 £67,153 +41.37% 11
Yorkshire -2 97 £75,000 +7.14% 21
South West -7 91 £62,500 +4.17% 28
West Midlands -7 82 £72,500 +20.83% 12
Scotland +13 45 £85,000 - 4
East Midlands -7 39 £80,000 +17.65% 5
East of England -36 32 £70,000 +33.33% 3
Wales -38 29 £63,500 +26.69% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3

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
1 171 (10.17%) Apache Spark
2 134 (7.97%) Apache
3 132 (7.85%) Apache Airflow
4 24 (1.43%) Jupyter
5 22 (1.31%) Palantir Foundry
6 13 (0.77%) Confluence
7 11 (0.65%) SAS
8 10 (0.59%) 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 (0.059%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.059%) CMS
12 1 (0.059%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 21 (1.25%) 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 (0.059%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.059%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.059%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.30%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
4 1 (0.059%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
4 1 (0.059%) Actimize
4 1 (0.059%) FastStats
4 1 (0.059%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.059%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.059%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 645 (38.35%) Azure
2 488 (29.01%) AWS
3 300 (17.84%) Power Platform
4 275 (16.35%) GCP
5 183 (10.88%) Azure Data Factory
6 145 (8.62%) Snowflake
7 139 (8.26%) dbt
8 110 (6.54%) Amazon S3
9 108 (6.42%) Azure DevOps
10 99 (5.89%) Serverless
11 86 (5.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 72 (4.28%) AWS Lambda
12 72 (4.28%) GitHub
13 71 (4.22%) SaaS
14 56 (3.33%) Amazon EMR
15 50 (2.97%) Azure Databricks
16 46 (2.73%) Microsoft Purview
17 42 (2.50%) Amazon EC2
18 27 (1.61%) Azure Machine Learning
19 26 (1.55%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.01%) 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 (0.059%) 4G
5 1 (0.059%) ATM
5 1 (0.059%) DAB
5 1 (0.059%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 291 (17.30%) Power BI
2 283 (16.83%) Data Warehouse
3 191 (11.36%) Data Lake
4 125 (7.43%) Metadata
5 105 (6.24%) BigQuery
6 100 (5.95%) Amazon Redshift
7 96 (5.71%) Tableau
8 82 (4.88%) Big Data
9 69 (4.10%) SQL Server
10 68 (4.04%) Relational Database
11 62 (3.69%) NoSQL
11 62 (3.69%) Semantic Layer
12 61 (3.63%) Azure SQL Database
13 57 (3.39%) Amazon Athena
14 56 (3.33%) Delta Lake
15 53 (3.15%) Star Schema
16 48 (2.85%) PostgreSQL
17 44 (2.62%) Spark SQL
18 35 (2.08%) Data Vault
19 33 (1.96%) Looker
Development Applications
1 146 (8.68%) Git
2 38 (2.26%) GitLab
3 36 (2.14%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.43%) JIRA
5 12 (0.71%) 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 (0.059%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.059%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.059%) kappa
10 1 (0.059%) RStudio
10 1 (0.059%) Selenium
10 1 (0.059%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.059%) Yeoman
General
1 458 (27.23%) Social Skills
2 417 (24.79%) Finance
3 285 (16.94%) Analytical Skills
4 159 (9.45%) Public Sector
5 115 (6.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 72 (4.28%) Banking
7 62 (3.69%) Retail
8 55 (3.27%) Marketing
9 49 (2.91%) Legal
10 38 (2.26%) Financial Institution
10 38 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (2.20%) Law
12 26 (1.55%) Manufacturing
13 22 (1.31%) Advertising
14 18 (1.07%) Games
15 16 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (0.71%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
17 11 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
17 11 (0.65%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 683 (40.61%) Data Engineer
2 367 (21.82%) Senior
3 310 (18.43%) Lead
4 185 (11.00%) Senior Data Engineer
5 144 (8.56%) Architect
6 99 (5.89%) Data Architect
6 99 (5.89%) Lead Data Engineer
7 88 (5.23%) Analyst
8 85 (5.05%) Software Engineer
9 84 (4.99%) Data Manager
10 80 (4.76%) Principal Engineer
11 78 (4.64%) Developer
12 75 (4.46%) Consultant
13 50 (2.97%) Data Scientist
13 50 (2.97%) Principal Data Engineer
14 49 (2.91%) Data Consultant
15 44 (2.62%) Databricks Engineer
16 42 (2.50%) Python Engineer
17 40 (2.38%) Head of Engineering
18 38 (2.26%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 189 (11.24%) PySpark
2 137 (8.15%) Terraform
3 72 (4.28%) Kafka
4 44 (2.62%) .NET
5 35 (2.08%) REST
6 33 (1.96%) Pandas
7 32 (1.90%) LangChain
8 27 (1.61%) Node.js
9 25 (1.49%) SpaCy
10 23 (1.37%) LlamaIndex
11 22 (1.31%) scikit-learn
12 21 (1.25%) JSON
12 21 (1.25%) PyTorch
12 21 (1.25%) TensorFlow
13 18 (1.07%) React
14 17 (1.01%) RESTful
15 15 (0.89%) Apache NiFi
16 14 (0.83%) NumPy
17 13 (0.77%) FastAPI
18 11 (0.65%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 176 (10.46%) Cloud Native
2 70 (4.16%) Data Structures
3 56 (3.33%) Product Ownership
4 52 (3.09%) Onboarding
5 51 (3.03%) Distributed Systems
6 50 (2.97%) AI Agents
7 28 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
8 25 (1.49%) e-Learning
9 19 (1.13%) Hedge funds
10 18 (1.07%) Distributed Computing
10 18 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (1.07%) Low-Code
11 16 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
12 15 (0.89%) Management Information System
13 14 (0.83%) Blog
13 14 (0.83%) Distributed Architecture
13 14 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
14 12 (0.71%) Reference Data
15 11 (0.65%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 9 (0.54%) Windows
2 6 (0.36%) Linux
3 1 (0.059%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 798 (47.44%) Analytics
2 624 (37.10%) Data Pipeline
3 583 (34.66%) AI
4 559 (33.23%) Data Modelling
5 482 (28.66%) ETL
6 469 (27.88%) CI/CD
7 423 (25.15%) Business Intelligence
8 409 (24.32%) Decision-Making
9 366 (21.76%) Agile
10 357 (21.22%) Data Governance
11 340 (20.21%) Machine Learning
12 319 (18.97%) DevOps
13 317 (18.85%) Mentoring
14 306 (18.19%) Data Architecture
15 294 (17.48%) Problem-Solving
16 266 (15.81%) Data Science
17 252 (14.98%) Technical Leadership
18 221 (13.14%) Software Engineering
19 196 (11.65%) Continuous Improvement
20 193 (11.47%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 855 (50.83%) Python
2 846 (50.30%) SQL
3 117 (6.96%) Java
4 74 (4.40%) Scala
5 58 (3.45%) JavaScript
6 56 (3.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 38 (2.26%) C#
7 38 (2.26%) TypeScript
8 36 (2.14%) C++
9 33 (1.96%) R
10 18 (1.07%) Bash
11 16 (0.95%) T-SQL
12 14 (0.83%) PowerShell
13 10 (0.59%) Go
14 9 (0.54%) Bicep
15 6 (0.36%) Groovy
16 4 (0.24%) PL/SQL
16 4 (0.24%) Rust
16 4 (0.24%) VBA
17 2 (0.12%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 212 (12.60%) Security Cleared
2 164 (9.75%) Degree
3 148 (8.80%) SC Cleared
4 57 (3.39%) Master's Degree
5 50 (2.97%) Azure Certification
6 48 (2.85%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (2.26%) AWS Certification
9 32 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
9 32 (1.90%) PhD
10 24 (1.43%) DBS Check
11 18 (1.07%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.89%) ACCA
12 15 (0.89%) CIMA
13 6 (0.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 6 (0.36%) Numerate Degree
14 5 (0.30%) CBAP
14 5 (0.30%) CISSP
15 4 (0.24%) CCA
16 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 516 (30.68%) Data Quality
2 74 (4.40%) Accessibility
3 52 (3.09%) GDPR
4 43 (2.56%) QA
5 18 (1.07%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (0.54%) NCSC
7 5 (0.30%) GRC
8 3 (0.18%) EU AI Act
8 3 (0.18%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.18%) PMO
8 3 (0.18%) PSD2
8 3 (0.18%) SLA
9 2 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.059%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.059%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.059%) IASME
10 1 (0.059%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.059%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.059%) NIST
System Software
1 108 (6.42%) Docker
2 14 (0.83%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.18%) NDS
3 3 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.059%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.059%) Firmware
4 1 (0.059%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 76 (4.52%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.65%) Grafana
3 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (0.24%) Kibana
4 4 (0.24%) SCCM
5 3 (0.18%) Ansible
5 3 (0.18%) Argo
5 3 (0.18%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
7 1 (0.059%) CASB
7 1 (0.059%) Packer
Vendors
1 353 (20.99%) Databricks
2 303 (18.01%) Microsoft
3 103 (6.12%) Google
4 41 (2.44%) Salesforce
5 35 (2.08%) Oracle
6 33 (1.96%) Palantir
7 30 (1.78%) Foundry
8 28 (1.66%) SAP
9 26 (1.55%) OpenAI
10 17 (1.01%) Informatica
11 12 (0.71%) Sage
12 10 (0.59%) Alteryx
12 10 (0.59%) YouTube
13 6 (0.36%) MicroStrategy
14 5 (0.30%) IBM
15 4 (0.24%) Cognos
15 4 (0.24%) Talend
16 3 (0.18%) CyberArk
16 3 (0.18%) LexisNexis
16 3 (0.18%) Okta