Data Science
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Data Science 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 161 142 122
Rank change year-on-year -19 -20 -45
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 1,181 1,058 2,251
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.28% 2.40% 2.31%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.74% 2.57% 2.73%
Number of salaries quoted 651 537 1,269
10th Percentile £45,000 £44,590 £42,250
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £71,991 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.77% +10.76% -7.14%
75th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £115,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £63,652 £57,500
% change year-on-year +2.12% +10.70% -11.54%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Data Science 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 Science
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Data Science relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Data Science job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Science
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Science.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Science

Data Science
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Data Science over the 6 months to 20 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Data Science in the UK

Data Science
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 Science 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 -5 1,100 £70,000 -2.77% 973
London +2 545 £80,000 -3.03% 551
UK excluding London -26 542 £65,000 +2.12% 614
Work from Home +29 399 £66,720 +4.25% 462
North of England +18 148 £68,360 +15.38% 146
South East -26 135 £70,000 +16.67% 210
South West -52 110 £60,000 -14.29% 85
North West +58 108 £70,932 +19.72% 74
Midlands -7 91 £60,000 +4.35% 74
East Midlands +4 51 £65,000 -10.34% 46
East of England -6 42 £86,725 +19.62% 70
West Midlands -38 40 £55,000 -4.24% 28
Yorkshire -49 33 £55,000 -9.20% 54
Scotland -37 10 £80,000 +30.61% 27
North East -37 7 £80,000 +39.74% 19
Wales -28 3 £39,511 -50.61% 13
Northern Ireland -37 3 - - 6

Data Science
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 90 (7.62%) Apache Spark
2 72 (6.10%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (1.86%) Apache
3 22 (1.86%) ArcGIS
4 17 (1.44%) SharePoint
5 14 (1.19%) SAS
6 12 (1.02%) Jupyter
7 5 (0.42%) Confluence
7 5 (0.42%) GeoServer
7 5 (0.42%) IIS
8 3 (0.25%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.25%) CMS
9 1 (0.085%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.085%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.085%) WordPress
Applications
1 37 (3.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.68%) Chatbot
3 4 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.17%) SPSS
6 1 (0.085%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.085%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.085%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.085%) FIS Private Capital Suite
2 1 (0.085%) HFM
2 1 (0.085%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.085%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.085%) SAP PLM
2 1 (0.085%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 317 (26.84%) AWS
2 296 (25.06%) Azure
3 206 (17.44%) GCP
4 140 (11.85%) Power Platform
5 84 (7.11%) Snowflake
6 56 (4.74%) dbt
7 48 (4.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 44 (3.73%) Azure Machine Learning
9 38 (3.22%) Azure Data Factory
10 35 (2.96%) SaaS
11 29 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
12 27 (2.29%) Serverless
13 19 (1.61%) Amazon S3
13 19 (1.61%) AWS Lambda
14 17 (1.44%) Dagster
15 16 (1.35%) Amazon SageMaker
15 16 (1.35%) Azure AI
15 16 (1.35%) GitHub
16 13 (1.10%) Vertex AI
17 12 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 93 (7.87%) Broadband
2 11 (0.93%) 4G
2 11 (0.93%) BGP
2 11 (0.93%) Cisco IOS
2 11 (0.93%) Ethernet VPN
2 11 (0.93%) IOS XR
2 11 (0.93%) MPLS
3 6 (0.51%) 5G
3 6 (0.51%) Internet
4 5 (0.42%) Software-Defined Radio
5 4 (0.34%) HTTP
6 2 (0.17%) Firewall
6 2 (0.17%) MQTT
6 2 (0.17%) Tactical Data Link
6 2 (0.17%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.085%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.085%) LTE
7 1 (0.085%) TCAP
7 1 (0.085%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.085%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (11.52%) Data Warehouse
2 134 (11.35%) Power BI
3 88 (7.45%) Data Lake
3 88 (7.45%) Tableau
4 69 (5.84%) BigQuery
5 62 (5.25%) Amazon Redshift
6 61 (5.17%) Elasticsearch
7 49 (4.15%) Looker
7 49 (4.15%) NoSQL
8 41 (3.47%) Metadata
9 37 (3.13%) Big Data
9 37 (3.13%) GIS
9 37 (3.13%) MongoDB
9 37 (3.13%) PostgreSQL
10 30 (2.54%) Relational Database
11 27 (2.29%) Delta Lake
12 26 (2.20%) QGIS
13 24 (2.03%) Snowflake Schema
14 23 (1.95%) MySQL
15 22 (1.86%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 85 (7.20%) Git
2 56 (4.74%) MLflow
3 13 (1.10%) GitLab
4 11 (0.93%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.93%) JIRA
5 4 (0.34%) Selenium
6 2 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.085%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.085%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.085%) JUnit
7 1 (0.085%) TeamCity
General
1 239 (20.24%) Social Skills
2 234 (19.81%) Analytical Skills
3 221 (18.71%) Finance
4 94 (7.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 68 (5.76%) Marketing
6 53 (4.49%) Retail
7 48 (4.06%) Public Sector
8 41 (3.47%) Law
9 39 (3.30%) Banking
10 26 (2.20%) Pharmaceutical
11 24 (2.03%) Advertising
12 23 (1.95%) Legal
13 17 (1.44%) Financial Institution
13 17 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (1.27%) Manufacturing
15 14 (1.19%) Games
15 14 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
15 14 (1.19%) Telecoms
16 11 (0.93%) Agriculture
17 9 (0.76%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 402 (34.04%) Data Scientist
2 283 (23.96%) Senior
3 191 (16.17%) Senior Data Scientist
4 162 (13.72%) Data Engineer
5 135 (11.43%) Lead
6 72 (6.10%) Software Engineer
7 71 (6.01%) Consultant
8 58 (4.91%) Developer
9 54 (4.57%) Analyst
10 47 (3.98%) Lead Data Scientist
11 41 (3.47%) Senior Data Engineer
12 36 (3.05%) Data Analyst
13 33 (2.79%) Artificial Intelligence Consultant
14 31 (2.62%) Systems Engineer
15 30 (2.54%) Scala Engineer
16 29 (2.46%) Architect
17 28 (2.37%) Product Specialist
17 28 (2.37%) Python Engineer
18 27 (2.29%) Data Consultant
18 27 (2.29%) Research Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 139 (11.77%) PyTorch
2 101 (8.55%) TensorFlow
3 65 (5.50%) scikit-learn
4 51 (4.32%) Kafka
5 50 (4.23%) LangChain
6 47 (3.98%) gRPC
7 39 (3.30%) PySpark
8 36 (3.05%) React
9 35 (2.96%) Pandas
10 29 (2.46%) LlamaIndex
11 25 (2.12%) pgvector
12 24 (2.03%) RESTful
13 21 (1.78%) REST
14 20 (1.69%) Django
15 19 (1.61%) HTML
16 16 (1.35%) CSS
17 15 (1.27%) FastAPI
17 15 (1.27%) Hugging Face
18 14 (1.19%) Seaborn
19 13 (1.10%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 106 (8.98%) Algorithms
2 72 (6.10%) Distributed Systems
3 64 (5.42%) Video\Live Streaming
4 54 (4.57%) Cloud Native
5 53 (4.49%) Over-the-Top Content
6 43 (3.64%) Product Ownership
7 40 (3.39%) Life Science
8 32 (2.71%) Clustering
9 30 (2.54%) Data Structures
10 28 (2.37%) Management Information System
11 27 (2.29%) Social Media
12 25 (2.12%) Public Cloud
13 24 (2.03%) AI Agents
14 19 (1.61%) Greenfield Project
15 16 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (1.10%) Onboarding
17 11 (0.93%) Low-Code
18 10 (0.85%) Virtual Team
19 9 (0.76%) Hackathon
20 8 (0.68%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.02%) Linux
2 3 (0.25%) Windows
3 2 (0.17%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 546 (46.23%) AI
2 539 (45.64%) Machine Learning
3 489 (41.41%) Analytics
4 234 (19.81%) Problem-Solving
5 229 (19.39%) Data Engineering
6 216 (18.29%) Decision-Making
7 214 (18.12%) CI/CD
8 212 (17.95%) Agile
9 194 (16.43%) Data Pipeline
10 190 (16.09%) Business Intelligence
11 178 (15.07%) Software Engineering
12 167 (14.14%) Data Modelling
13 159 (13.46%) Mentoring
14 153 (12.96%) Computer Science
15 146 (12.36%) ETL
15 146 (12.36%) MLOps
16 144 (12.19%) Generative AI
16 144 (12.19%) Visualisation
17 138 (11.69%) Use Case
18 137 (11.60%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 612 (51.82%) Python
2 314 (26.59%) SQL
3 97 (8.21%) Scala
4 81 (6.86%) Java
5 66 (5.59%) R
6 63 (5.33%) Go
7 30 (2.54%) C++
8 29 (2.46%) JavaScript
9 18 (1.52%) C#
10 17 (1.44%) VBA
11 15 (1.27%) Bash
11 15 (1.27%) TypeScript
12 12 (1.02%) C
13 7 (0.59%) Julia
13 7 (0.59%) T-SQL
14 6 (0.51%) Bicep
14 6 (0.51%) PHP
14 6 (0.51%) PowerShell
15 5 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 5 (0.42%) Rust
Qualifications
1 286 (24.22%) Degree
2 125 (10.58%) Security Cleared
3 86 (7.28%) Master's Degree
4 64 (5.42%) DV Cleared
5 57 (4.83%) PhD
6 51 (4.32%) SC Cleared
7 48 (4.06%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (3.05%) DBS Check
9 19 (1.61%) Azure Certification
10 14 (1.19%) MBA
11 8 (0.68%) APMP
11 8 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
11 8 (0.68%) Postgraduate
12 5 (0.42%) Numerate Degree
13 4 (0.34%) BPSS Clearance
14 3 (0.25%) CISSP
15 2 (0.17%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.17%) GIAC
15 2 (0.17%) Oracle Certification
15 2 (0.17%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 136 (11.52%) Data Quality
2 46 (3.90%) Accessibility
2 46 (3.90%) GDPR
3 39 (3.30%) QA
4 25 (2.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 12 (1.02%) GxP
6 11 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
7 3 (0.25%) PERC
8 2 (0.17%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 2 (0.17%) IFRS
8 2 (0.17%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.17%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.085%) GMP
9 1 (0.085%) GRC
9 1 (0.085%) NCSC
9 1 (0.085%) NIST
System Software
1 115 (9.74%) Docker
2 3 (0.25%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.17%) Firmware
3 2 (0.17%) IAG
4 1 (0.085%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 67 (5.67%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.90%) Terraform
3 9 (0.76%) Kubeflow
4 3 (0.25%) Ansible
4 3 (0.25%) Argo
5 2 (0.17%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (0.17%) Computer Incident Response Team
6 1 (0.085%) Kibana
6 1 (0.085%) Nagios
Vendors
1 163 (13.80%) Databricks
2 61 (5.17%) Microsoft
3 59 (5.00%) Google
4 48 (4.06%) Dell
5 45 (3.81%) Typelevel
6 30 (2.54%) Informatica
7 25 (2.12%) Teradata
8 24 (2.03%) Denodo
9 23 (1.95%) Cloudera
9 23 (1.95%) OpenAI
10 19 (1.61%) Cisco
11 17 (1.44%) Salesforce
12 14 (1.19%) Oracle
13 12 (1.02%) Palantir
14 8 (0.68%) Foundry
15 7 (0.59%) ServiceNow
16 6 (0.51%) Talend
17 5 (0.42%) Alteryx
17 5 (0.42%) BT
18 4 (0.34%) Palo Alto