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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 156 150
Rank change year-on-year +19 -6 +65
Permanent jobs citing Data Engineering 1,616 1,028 1,305
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.37% 2.07% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 2.32% 2.15%
Number of salaries quoted 1,109 471 637
10th Percentile £46,124 £46,000 £42,500
25th Percentile £55,350 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £97,500 £94,375 £92,500
90th Percentile £110,000 £112,500 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -7.69%

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 86,353 44,239 60,788
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.12% 89.09% 81.92%
Number of salaries quoted 59,227 24,477 32,914
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £59,430
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -7.45% -0.95%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -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 5 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 5 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 +19 1,480 £75,000 +7.14% 2,109
UK excluding London -16 794 £70,000 +7.69% 1,076
London +18 718 £85,000 - 1,256
Work from Home -15 482 £75,000 +6.38% 1,087
North of England -2 365 £75,000 +11.11% 318
North West -33 170 £75,000 +30.43% 169
South East -40 143 £64,500 -0.77% 253
North East +24 105 £65,000 +36.84% 60
Midlands -4 105 £75,000 +11.11% 132
Yorkshire -13 90 £75,000 +7.14% 92
South West -13 87 £62,500 +4.17% 114
West Midlands -3 73 £75,000 +25.00% 91
Scotland -2 40 £90,000 +5.88% 120
East Midlands -27 32 £80,000 +17.65% 41
East of England -30 29 £70,000 +33.33% 66
Wales -38 28 £63,500 +26.69% 33
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 44

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
1 168 (10.40%) Apache Spark
2 133 (8.23%) Apache
3 130 (8.04%) Apache Airflow
4 23 (1.42%) Jupyter
5 20 (1.24%) Palantir Foundry
6 14 (0.87%) Confluence
7 10 (0.62%) SAS
8 9 (0.56%) Oracle Workflow
8 9 (0.56%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.25%) Luigi
10 2 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.12%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.12%) Tornado
11 1 (0.062%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.062%) CMS
Applications
1 21 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
3 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.19%) Notion
5 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.062%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.062%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.062%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.31%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
3 1 (0.062%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
3 1 (0.062%) Actimize
3 1 (0.062%) FastStats
3 1 (0.062%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.062%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.062%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 634 (39.23%) Azure
2 466 (28.84%) AWS
3 277 (17.14%) Power Platform
4 270 (16.71%) GCP
5 179 (11.08%) Azure Data Factory
6 156 (9.65%) Snowflake
7 131 (8.11%) dbt
8 103 (6.37%) Amazon S3
8 103 (6.37%) Azure DevOps
9 102 (6.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 97 (6.00%) Serverless
11 69 (4.27%) GitHub
12 68 (4.21%) AWS Lambda
13 65 (4.02%) SaaS
14 54 (3.34%) Amazon EMR
15 49 (3.03%) Azure Databricks
16 47 (2.91%) Azure Machine Learning
16 47 (2.91%) Microsoft Purview
17 40 (2.48%) Amazon EC2
18 31 (1.92%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.05%) Broadband
2 7 (0.43%) Internet
3 4 (0.25%) 5G
4 3 (0.19%) HTTP
5 2 (0.12%) Firewall
6 1 (0.062%) 4G
6 1 (0.062%) ATM
6 1 (0.062%) DAB
6 1 (0.062%) DNS
6 1 (0.062%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.062%) SMS
6 1 (0.062%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.062%) tcpdump
6 1 (0.062%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 272 (16.83%) Data Warehouse
2 269 (16.65%) Power BI
3 192 (11.88%) Data Lake
4 113 (6.99%) Metadata
5 102 (6.31%) BigQuery
6 97 (6.00%) Amazon Redshift
7 89 (5.51%) SQL Server
8 87 (5.38%) Tableau
9 79 (4.89%) Big Data
10 64 (3.96%) Azure SQL Database
11 63 (3.90%) NoSQL
12 62 (3.84%) Semantic Layer
13 55 (3.40%) Delta Lake
13 55 (3.40%) Relational Database
14 52 (3.22%) Amazon Athena
14 52 (3.22%) PostgreSQL
14 52 (3.22%) Star Schema
15 44 (2.72%) Spark SQL
16 35 (2.17%) Data Vault
17 33 (2.04%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 136 (8.42%) Git
2 35 (2.17%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.10%) GitLab
4 24 (1.49%) JIRA
5 10 (0.62%) Claude Code
6 6 (0.37%) MLflow
7 5 (0.31%) Poetry
8 4 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
8 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.19%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.12%) ERwin
10 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
11 1 (0.062%) Cypress.io
11 1 (0.062%) kappa
11 1 (0.062%) RStudio
11 1 (0.062%) Selenium
11 1 (0.062%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.062%) Yeoman
General
1 427 (26.42%) Social Skills
2 409 (25.31%) Finance
3 257 (15.90%) Analytical Skills
4 153 (9.47%) Public Sector
5 111 (6.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 70 (4.33%) Banking
7 54 (3.34%) Retail
8 51 (3.16%) Marketing
9 48 (2.97%) Legal
10 36 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
10 36 (2.23%) Law
11 35 (2.17%) Financial Institution
12 26 (1.61%) Manufacturing
13 21 (1.30%) Advertising
14 16 (0.99%) Games
15 15 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
17 11 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
18 10 (0.62%) Aerospace
18 10 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 646 (39.98%) Data Engineer
2 363 (22.46%) Senior
3 294 (18.19%) Lead
4 187 (11.57%) Senior Data Engineer
5 140 (8.66%) Architect
6 97 (6.00%) Data Architect
7 94 (5.82%) Data Manager
7 94 (5.82%) Lead Data Engineer
8 80 (4.95%) Analyst
9 77 (4.76%) Software Engineer
10 75 (4.64%) Principal Engineer
11 74 (4.58%) Developer
12 65 (4.02%) Consultant
13 48 (2.97%) Engineering Manager
14 47 (2.91%) Principal Data Engineer
15 46 (2.85%) Databricks Engineer
16 43 (2.66%) Head of Engineering
16 43 (2.66%) Python Engineer
17 42 (2.60%) Data Consultant
17 42 (2.60%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (10.89%) PySpark
2 135 (8.35%) Terraform
3 75 (4.64%) Kafka
4 44 (2.72%) .NET
5 38 (2.35%) REST
6 32 (1.98%) LangChain
6 32 (1.98%) Pandas
7 27 (1.67%) Node.js
8 25 (1.55%) SpaCy
9 23 (1.42%) JSON
9 23 (1.42%) LlamaIndex
10 22 (1.36%) scikit-learn
11 21 (1.30%) PyTorch
11 21 (1.30%) TensorFlow
12 17 (1.05%) RESTful
13 16 (0.99%) React
14 15 (0.93%) Apache NiFi
15 13 (0.80%) FastAPI
16 12 (0.74%) NumPy
16 12 (0.74%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 174 (10.77%) Cloud Native
2 66 (4.08%) Data Structures
3 55 (3.40%) Product Ownership
4 53 (3.28%) Distributed Systems
5 49 (3.03%) Onboarding
6 42 (2.60%) AI Agents
7 25 (1.55%) e-Learning
8 21 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (1.05%) Distributed Computing
9 17 (1.05%) Hedge funds
9 17 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (0.93%) Analytical Mindset
12 14 (0.87%) Distributed Architecture
13 13 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (0.80%) Low-Code
14 12 (0.74%) Blog
14 12 (0.74%) Management Information System
15 11 (0.68%) IoT
15 11 (0.68%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 7 (0.43%) Windows
2 4 (0.25%) Linux
3 1 (0.062%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 759 (46.97%) Analytics
2 573 (35.46%) Data Pipeline
3 561 (34.72%) AI
4 509 (31.50%) Data Modelling
5 454 (28.09%) CI/CD
6 453 (28.03%) ETL
7 397 (24.57%) Business Intelligence
8 375 (23.21%) Agile
8 375 (23.21%) Decision-Making
9 361 (22.34%) Data Governance
10 337 (20.85%) Machine Learning
11 312 (19.31%) DevOps
12 307 (19.00%) Data Architecture
13 301 (18.63%) Mentoring
14 274 (16.96%) Problem-Solving
15 250 (15.47%) Data Science
16 227 (14.05%) Technical Leadership
17 204 (12.62%) Software Engineering
18 194 (12.00%) Roadmaps
19 189 (11.70%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 811 (50.19%) Python
2 803 (49.69%) SQL
3 117 (7.24%) Java
4 73 (4.52%) Scala
5 57 (3.53%) JavaScript
6 51 (3.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 37 (2.29%) C#
7 37 (2.29%) TypeScript
8 34 (2.10%) C++
9 26 (1.61%) R
10 20 (1.24%) Bash
11 15 (0.93%) PowerShell
12 13 (0.80%) T-SQL
13 10 (0.62%) Go
14 9 (0.56%) Bicep
15 6 (0.37%) Groovy
16 5 (0.31%) PL/SQL
17 4 (0.25%) Rust
17 4 (0.25%) VBA
18 2 (0.12%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 191 (11.82%) Security Cleared
2 154 (9.53%) Degree
3 133 (8.23%) SC Cleared
4 56 (3.47%) Master's Degree
5 46 (2.85%) Azure Certification
6 43 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 43 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 33 (2.04%) AWS Certification
8 32 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
9 30 (1.86%) PhD
10 26 (1.61%) DBS Check
11 16 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.93%) ACCA
12 15 (0.93%) CIMA
13 6 (0.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 6 (0.37%) Numerate Degree
14 5 (0.31%) CBAP
15 4 (0.25%) CCA
16 3 (0.19%) CISSP
16 3 (0.19%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 474 (29.33%) Data Quality
2 62 (3.84%) Accessibility
3 55 (3.40%) GDPR
4 41 (2.54%) QA
5 11 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (0.56%) NCSC
7 7 (0.43%) GRC
8 3 (0.19%) EU AI Act
8 3 (0.19%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.19%) PMO
8 3 (0.19%) PSD2
8 3 (0.19%) SLA
9 2 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.062%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.062%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.062%) IASME
10 1 (0.062%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.062%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.062%) NIST
System Software
1 108 (6.68%) Docker
2 20 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
3 10 (0.62%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.19%) NDS
4 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.062%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 74 (4.58%) Kubernetes
2 12 (0.74%) Grafana
3 4 (0.25%) Kibana
3 4 (0.25%) Prometheus
4 3 (0.19%) Ansible
4 3 (0.19%) Argo
4 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.19%) SCCM
5 2 (0.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
6 1 (0.062%) CASB
Vendors
1 352 (21.78%) Databricks
2 296 (18.32%) Microsoft
3 99 (6.13%) Google
4 37 (2.29%) Oracle
5 35 (2.17%) Salesforce
6 31 (1.92%) Palantir
7 28 (1.73%) Foundry
8 27 (1.67%) SAP
9 25 (1.55%) OpenAI
10 18 (1.11%) Informatica
11 11 (0.68%) Sage
12 9 (0.56%) Alteryx
13 8 (0.50%) YouTube
14 5 (0.31%) IBM
14 5 (0.31%) MicroStrategy
14 5 (0.31%) Talend
15 4 (0.25%) Cloudera
15 4 (0.25%) Cognos
16 3 (0.19%) CyberArk
16 3 (0.19%) ForgeRock