Principal Data Engineer Job Trends
Principal Data Engineer
UK
The median Principal Data Engineer salary in the UK is £90,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 23 October 2026.
The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 720 | 656 | 730 |
| Rank change year-on-year | -64 | +74 | -24 |
| Permanent Principal Data Engineer jobs | 119 | 11 | 22 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in the UK | 0.099% | 0.022% | 0.032% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.11% | 0.025% | 0.033% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 67 | 8 | 21 |
| 10th Percentile | £65,000 | £70,150 | £66,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £85,000 | £74,500 | £70,000 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £90,000 | £85,000 | £87,500 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.88% | -2.86% | -12.50% |
| 75th Percentile | £100,000 | £88,500 | £98,750 |
| 90th Percentile | - | £102,450 | £104,000 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £90,000 | £79,000 | £76,250 |
| % change year-on-year | +13.92% | +3.61% | -17.27% |
All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 23 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title | 111,319 | 44,214 | 65,925 |
| % of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title | 92.21% | 89.77% | 95.38% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 75,105 | 26,119 | 37,592 |
| 10th Percentile | £30,500 | £28,128 | £31,250 |
| 25th Percentile | £41,250 | £35,000 | £41,592 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £59,000 | £52,500 | £56,252 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +12.38% | -6.67% | -6.25% |
| 75th Percentile | £76,250 | £73,750 | £75,000 |
| 90th Percentile | £98,750 | £95,000 | £95,000 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £55,000 | £45,497 | £50,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +20.89% | -9.01% | -4.76% |
Principal Data Engineer Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent Principal Data Engineer job postings relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.
Principal Data Engineer Salary Trend
Salary distribution trend for Principal Data Engineer job vacancies in the UK.
Principal Data Engineer Salary Histogram
Salary distribution for Principal Data Engineer jobs over the 6 months to 23 October 2026.
Principal Data Engineer Top 12 Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in Principal Data Engineer jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 23 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Salary Past 6 Months |
Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | -70 | 87 | £92,500 | +8.82% | 33 |
| UK excluding London | -99 | 54 | £90,000 | +13.92% | 18 |
| London | -51 | 38 | £95,000 | +9.20% | 13 |
| North of England | -55 | 21 | £95,000 | +15.85% | 5 |
| Yorkshire | -24 | 13 | £85,000 | +7.59% | 2 |
| South West | -64 | 11 | £98,000 | +63.33% | 4 |
| East Midlands | - | 11 | £90,000 | - | 2 |
| Midlands | - | 11 | £90,000 | - | 3 |
| Work from Home | -56 | 10 | £106,250 | +22.13% | 12 |
| North West | -26 | 8 | £100,000 | +17.65% | 3 |
| South East | - | 6 | - | - | 3 |
| Scotland | - | 5 | £58,194 | - | 2 |
Principal Data Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 23 October 2026, Principal Data Engineer job ads cited the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent Principal Data Engineer job ads.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data Engineering | 42.9% | 51 |
| 2 | Technical Leadership | 41.2% | 49 |
| 3 | CI/CD | 35.3% | 42 |
| 4 | SQL | 31.9% | 38 |
| 5 | Data Modelling | 29.4% | 35 |
| 6 | Data Pipeline | 28.6% | 34 |
| 7 | Python | 27.7% | 33 |
| 8 | Mentoring | 26.1% | 31 |
| 9 | Agile | 23.5% | 28 |
| 9 | GCP | 23.5% | 28 |
| 11 | Coaching | 20.2% | 24 |
| 12 | Data Ingestion | 19.3% | 23 |
| 12 | Data Lake | 19.3% | 23 |
| 14 | Continuous Improvement | 18.5% | 22 |
| 14 | Data Quality | 18.5% | 22 |
| 16 | Data Governance | 17.6% | 21 |
| 16 | 17.6% | 21 | |
| 18 | AI | 16.8% | 20 |
| 18 | Problem-Solving | 16.8% | 20 |
| 20 | AWS | 16.0% | 19 |
| 21 | Platform Engineering | 15.1% | 18 |
| 22 | BigQuery | 14.3% | 17 |
| 23 | Apache Airflow | 13.4% | 16 |
| 23 | Collaborative Working | 13.4% | 16 |
| 23 | Semantic Layer | 13.4% | 16 |
| 26 | Cost Control | 12.6% | 15 |
| 26 | dbt | 12.6% | 15 |
| 26 | Scrum | 12.6% | 15 |
| 26 | SDLC | 12.6% | 15 |
| 30 | DBS Check | 11.8% | 14 |
Principal Data Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GCP Data Engineer | 5.9% | 7 |
| 2 | Lead Data Engineer | 3.4% | 4 |
| 3 | Azure Data Engineer | 1.7% | 2 |
| 4 | AWS Platform Engineer | 0.8% | 1 |
| 4 | Cloud Platform Engineer | 0.8% | 1 |
| 4 | Kafka Engineer | 0.8% | 1 |
| 4 | Principal Java Engineer | 0.8% | 1 |