Senior Data Scientist Job Trends

Senior Data Scientist
UK

The median Senior Data Scientist salary in the UK is £85,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 19 September 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 624 596 691
Rank change year-on-year -28 +95 +99
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Data Scientist 50 197 89
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.10% 0.25% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.26% 0.16%
Number of salaries quoted 18 69 62
10th Percentile £79,250 £49,975 £51,900
25th Percentile £80,000 £57,646 £62,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £70,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.43% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £93,750 £80,000 £96,154
90th Percentile £97,500 £104,000 £101,125
UK excluding London median annual salary £85,000 £63,940 £67,285
% change year-on-year +32.94% -4.97% -0.42%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 44,309 74,419 56,988
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.65% 95.24% 94.21%
Number of salaries quoted 26,050 44,613 44,179
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -

Senior Data Scientist
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Senior Data Scientist in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Senior Data Scientist in the UK

Senior Data Scientist
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Senior Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Senior Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK

Senior Data Scientist
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Data Scientist over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Salary histogram for Senior Data Scientist in the UK

Senior Data Scientist
Top 8 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Data Scientist within the UK over the 6 months to 19 September 2025. 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 -37 37 £85,000 +21.43% 118
London -9 31 £85,000 +13.33% 99
Work from Home -31 12 £85,000 +35.18% 46
UK excluding London +36 6 £85,000 +32.94% 40
South West +65 3 £85,000 +21.43% 1
North of England +3 2 £82,500 +31.20% 6
North West -2 2 £82,500 +37.50% 5
South East +30 1 - - 26

Senior Data Scientist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 September 2025, Senior Data Scientist job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Senior Data Scientist in the job title.

1 50 (100.00%) Data Science
2 41 (82.00%) Python
3 32 (64.00%) SQL
3 32 (64.00%) Analytics
4 30 (60.00%) Machine Learning
5 26 (52.00%) MLOps
6 25 (50.00%) Degree
7 24 (48.00%) Master's Degree
8 22 (44.00%) AWS
9 20 (40.00%) Azure
10 16 (32.00%) Statistics
11 15 (30.00%) Artificial Intelligence
11 15 (30.00%) PhD
11 15 (30.00%) Collaborative Culture
12 14 (28.00%) Analytical Skills
12 14 (28.00%) Apache Spark
12 14 (28.00%) GCP
13 13 (26.00%) Mentoring
13 13 (26.00%) DevOps
13 13 (26.00%) Mathematics
13 13 (26.00%) Marketing
13 13 (26.00%) CI/CD
13 13 (26.00%) Storytelling
14 12 (24.00%) Finance
14 12 (24.00%) Decision-Making
15 11 (22.00%) scikit-learn
15 11 (22.00%) Computer Science
16 10 (20.00%) Data Analysis
16 10 (20.00%) Performance Optimisation
16 10 (20.00%) PyTorch

Senior Data Scientist Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 14 (28.00%) Apache Spark
2 7 (14.00%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (12.00%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 22 (44.00%) AWS
2 20 (40.00%) Azure
3 14 (28.00%) GCP
4 9 (18.00%) Adobe Analytics
4 9 (18.00%) Google Analytics
5 2 (4.00%) Azure Machine Learning
6 1 (2.00%) Amazon SageMaker
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.00%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (18.00%) Tableau
2 8 (16.00%) Amazon Redshift
3 2 (4.00%) Apache Hive
3 2 (4.00%) Hadoop
3 2 (4.00%) Relational Database
4 1 (2.00%) Data Mining
4 1 (2.00%) Pinecone
General
1 14 (28.00%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (26.00%) Marketing
3 12 (24.00%) Finance
4 9 (18.00%) Banking
4 9 (18.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 9 (18.00%) Law
4 9 (18.00%) Social Skills
5 8 (16.00%) Financial Institution
6 6 (12.00%) Retail
7 4 (8.00%) Manufacturing
8 2 (4.00%) Advertising
8 2 (4.00%) Games
8 2 (4.00%) Public Sector
8 2 (4.00%) Retail Banking
9 1 (2.00%) Aviation
9 1 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (22.00%) scikit-learn
2 10 (20.00%) PyTorch
3 9 (18.00%) TensorFlow
4 8 (16.00%) SpaCy
5 7 (14.00%) NumPy
6 6 (12.00%) PySpark
7 5 (10.00%) Pandas
8 4 (8.00%) XGBoost
9 2 (4.00%) Keras
9 2 (4.00%) PyMC3
9 2 (4.00%) SciPy
9 2 (4.00%) Smart Contracts
9 2 (4.00%) Statsmodels
10 1 (2.00%) Faiss
10 1 (2.00%) Hugging Face
10 1 (2.00%) LangChain
10 1 (2.00%) LightGBM
Miscellaneous
1 9 (18.00%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (12.00%) e-Learning
3 4 (8.00%) Biopharmaceutical
4 2 (4.00%) AI Agents
4 2 (4.00%) Blockchain
4 2 (4.00%) Sports Betting
5 1 (2.00%) Algorithms
5 1 (2.00%) Cloud Native
5 1 (2.00%) Credit Risk
5 1 (2.00%) Digital Media
5 1 (2.00%) Mobile Games
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (100.00%) Data Science
2 32 (64.00%) Analytics
3 30 (60.00%) Machine Learning
4 26 (52.00%) MLOps
5 16 (32.00%) Statistics
6 15 (30.00%) Artificial Intelligence
6 15 (30.00%) Collaborative Culture
7 13 (26.00%) CI/CD
7 13 (26.00%) DevOps
7 13 (26.00%) Mathematics
7 13 (26.00%) Mentoring
7 13 (26.00%) Storytelling
8 12 (24.00%) Decision-Making
9 11 (22.00%) Computer Science
10 10 (20.00%) Data Analysis
10 10 (20.00%) Performance Optimisation
11 9 (18.00%) Data Analytics
11 9 (18.00%) Quantitative Analysis
11 9 (18.00%) Visualisation
12 8 (16.00%) Natural Language Processing
Programming Languages
1 41 (82.00%) Python
2 32 (64.00%) SQL
3 7 (14.00%) R
Qualifications
1 25 (50.00%) Degree
2 24 (48.00%) Master's Degree
3 15 (30.00%) PhD
4 1 (2.00%) AWS Certification
4 1 (2.00%) DV Cleared
4 1 (2.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 7 (14.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (4.00%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 9 (18.00%) Adobe
1 9 (18.00%) Google
1 9 (18.00%) Marketo
1 9 (18.00%) Salesforce
1 9 (18.00%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
2 8 (16.00%) Databricks