Data Science Job Trends

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 16 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 134 94
Rank change year-on-year -31 -40 -23
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 897 1,178 1,708
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.48% 2.21% 3.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.83% 2.43% 3.39%
Number of salaries quoted 479 517 1,060
10th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £42,250
25th Percentile £54,375 £53,750 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,000 £70,000
75th Percentile £90,000 £88,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £115,000 £120,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £63,652 £57,500
% change year-on-year -5.74% +10.70% -8.00%

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 49,036 48,491 50,448
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.83% 90.77% 89.96%
Number of salaries quoted 28,943 23,557 38,431
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £51,528
% change year-on-year -9.09% +6.74% -6.31%

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 16 January 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 16 January 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 -13 850 £70,000 - 947
London +23 461 £82,500 +10.00% 308
UK excluding London -45 391 £60,000 -5.74% 812
Work from Home -33 282 £67,000 +3.08% 330
South East -2 156 £56,250 -10.00% 317
North of England -29 88 £60,000 -4.88% 143
South West -3 58 £60,000 -14.29% 95
North West +9 57 £62,500 -3.10% 66
Midlands -2 53 £60,000 +3.90% 87
West Midlands -8 27 £65,500 +31.00% 26
Yorkshire -31 27 £57,500 +1.19% 55
East Midlands -6 26 £40,000 -51.52% 58
East of England +15 18 £75,000 +15.38% 102
Wales +9 9 £40,000 -50.00% 34
Scotland -58 9 £100,000 +76.96% 38
North East -13 4 £62,500 - 24
Northern Ireland -15 1 £40,000 -52.94% 12

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 71 (7.92%) Apache Spark
2 28 (3.12%) Apache Airflow
3 23 (2.56%) SharePoint
4 19 (2.12%) Apache
5 11 (1.23%) Jupyter
6 7 (0.78%) SAS
7 6 (0.67%) IIS
8 5 (0.56%) Confluence
9 3 (0.33%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.22%) Luigi
11 1 (0.11%) CMS
11 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 69 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.78%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.33%) Stata
5 1 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.67%) Salesforce CRM
1 6 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.45%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.11%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.11%) Odoo
4 1 (0.11%) SAP PLM
4 1 (0.11%) Sprinklr
4 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 269 (29.99%) Azure
2 232 (25.86%) AWS
3 146 (16.28%) GCP
4 136 (15.16%) Power Platform
5 44 (4.91%) Snowflake
6 39 (4.35%) Azure AI
7 36 (4.01%) Azure Machine Learning
8 32 (3.57%) SaaS
9 31 (3.46%) Amazon SageMaker
10 29 (3.23%) Vertex AI
11 27 (3.01%) Azure Data Factory
12 26 (2.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 26 (2.90%) Serverless
13 23 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
13 23 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (2.56%) GitHub
14 20 (2.23%) dbt
15 18 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
16 15 (1.67%) Amazon S3
17 14 (1.56%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.67%) Broadband
2 10 (1.11%) 4G
2 10 (1.11%) BGP
2 10 (1.11%) Cisco IOS
2 10 (1.11%) Ethernet VPN
2 10 (1.11%) IOS XR
2 10 (1.11%) MPLS
3 7 (0.78%) TCP/IP
4 5 (0.56%) Firewall
5 4 (0.45%) Bluetooth
5 4 (0.45%) Intrusion Detection
5 4 (0.45%) Modbus
5 4 (0.45%) Network Security
5 4 (0.45%) VLAN
5 4 (0.45%) Wireshark
5 4 (0.45%) ZigBee
6 3 (0.33%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.33%) MQTT
7 2 (0.22%) Internet
7 2 (0.22%) Tactical Data Link
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (14.38%) Power BI
2 116 (12.93%) Data Warehouse
3 105 (11.71%) Tableau
4 78 (8.70%) Data Lake
5 44 (4.91%) Big Data
5 44 (4.91%) NoSQL
6 41 (4.57%) Metadata
7 37 (4.12%) BigQuery
8 35 (3.90%) SQL Server
9 33 (3.68%) Amazon Redshift
10 30 (3.34%) Hadoop
11 26 (2.90%) Data Mining
11 26 (2.90%) DynamoDB
11 26 (2.90%) Elasticsearch
12 25 (2.79%) MongoDB
13 23 (2.56%) MySQL
14 20 (2.23%) Relational Database
15 19 (2.12%) Delta Lake
15 19 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
16 14 (1.56%) DataStage
Development Applications
1 52 (5.80%) Git
2 35 (3.90%) MLflow
3 18 (2.01%) ERwin
4 12 (1.34%) GitLab
5 7 (0.78%) JIRA
5 7 (0.78%) PowerDesigner
6 5 (0.56%) Burp Suite
7 4 (0.45%) ER Studio
7 4 (0.45%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.11%) JUnit
8 1 (0.11%) MSBuild
8 1 (0.11%) Selenium
8 1 (0.11%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.11%) TestNG
General
1 338 (37.68%) Finance
2 271 (30.21%) Social Skills
3 197 (21.96%) Analytical Skills
4 98 (10.93%) Marketing
5 91 (10.14%) Banking
6 77 (8.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 69 (7.69%) Pharmaceutical
8 56 (6.24%) Retail
9 55 (6.13%) Law
10 49 (5.46%) Financial Institution
11 31 (3.46%) Manufacturing
12 26 (2.90%) Public Sector
13 23 (2.56%) Legal
13 23 (2.56%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (1.67%) Health Technology
14 15 (1.67%) Publishing
14 15 (1.67%) Telecoms
15 13 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (1.45%) Tech for Good
16 12 (1.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 202 (22.52%) Senior
2 175 (19.51%) Data Scientist
3 149 (16.61%) Lead
4 131 (14.60%) Data Engineer
5 88 (9.81%) Analyst
6 67 (7.47%) Data Analyst
7 66 (7.36%) Senior Data Scientist
8 61 (6.80%) Developer
9 45 (5.02%) Architect
10 44 (4.91%) Senior Data Engineer
11 43 (4.79%) Consultant
12 39 (4.35%) Software Engineer
13 32 (3.57%) Data Architect
14 23 (2.56%) Senior Developer
15 20 (2.23%) Senior Manager
16 18 (2.01%) Data Science Engineer
16 18 (2.01%) Senior Analyst
17 17 (1.90%) Python Developer
18 16 (1.78%) Data Consultant
18 16 (1.78%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (8.03%) PyTorch
2 65 (7.25%) TensorFlow
3 47 (5.24%) scikit-learn
4 44 (4.91%) PySpark
5 42 (4.68%) Pandas
6 40 (4.46%) React
7 33 (3.68%) LangChain
8 23 (2.56%) RESTful
9 21 (2.34%) NumPy
10 19 (2.12%) Kafka
11 16 (1.78%) Hugging Face
12 15 (1.67%) FastAPI
13 12 (1.34%) Swagger
14 11 (1.23%) HTML
14 11 (1.23%) REST
15 10 (1.11%) Django
15 10 (1.11%) FHIR
15 10 (1.11%) Jinja
15 10 (1.11%) NETCONF
15 10 (1.11%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 93 (10.37%) Life Science
2 84 (9.36%) Algorithms
3 49 (5.46%) Product Ownership
4 43 (4.79%) Self-Motivation
5 36 (4.01%) Management Information System
6 34 (3.79%) Distributed Systems
7 32 (3.57%) Cloud Native
8 26 (2.90%) Data Structures
9 23 (2.56%) Onboarding
10 21 (2.34%) Pharmacovigilance
11 18 (2.01%) Reinsurance
12 16 (1.78%) AI Agents
13 15 (1.67%) Credit Risk
13 15 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (1.45%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (1.45%) Omics
15 11 (1.23%) Hybrid Cloud
15 11 (1.23%) Social Media
16 10 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
17 9 (1.00%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.11%) Linux
2 6 (0.67%) Unix
3 4 (0.45%) Android
3 4 (0.45%) Kali Linux
3 4 (0.45%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.22%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 471 (52.51%) Analytics
2 458 (51.06%) AI
3 451 (50.28%) Machine Learning
4 224 (24.97%) Problem-Solving
5 219 (24.41%) Agile
6 215 (23.97%) Computer Science
7 201 (22.41%) Decision-Making
8 192 (21.40%) Business Intelligence
9 176 (19.62%) Data Engineering
10 166 (18.51%) Data Modelling
11 155 (17.28%) Data Governance
11 155 (17.28%) Data Pipeline
12 151 (16.83%) Data Analysis
13 148 (16.50%) Visualisation
14 145 (16.16%) ETL
15 140 (15.61%) Statistics
16 135 (15.05%) Roadmaps
17 134 (14.94%) Mentoring
18 133 (14.83%) CI/CD
19 127 (14.16%) Mathematics
Programming Languages
1 509 (56.74%) Python
2 308 (34.34%) SQL
3 76 (8.47%) R
4 62 (6.91%) Java
5 47 (5.24%) Scala
6 22 (2.45%) TypeScript
7 20 (2.23%) JavaScript
8 17 (1.90%) Go
9 16 (1.78%) VBA
10 14 (1.56%) C++
11 13 (1.45%) C#
12 12 (1.34%) MATLAB
13 11 (1.23%) Rust
14 9 (1.00%) ANSI SQL
15 7 (0.78%) Bicep
15 7 (0.78%) PHP
16 6 (0.67%) Bash
17 5 (0.56%) C
17 5 (0.56%) PowerShell
18 3 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 354 (39.46%) Degree
2 162 (18.06%) Master's Degree
3 94 (10.48%) PhD
4 88 (9.81%) Security Cleared
5 85 (9.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 66 (7.36%) SC Cleared
7 41 (4.57%) Numerate Degree
8 26 (2.90%) DV Cleared
9 18 (2.01%) MBA
10 16 (1.78%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.23%) Azure Certification
12 10 (1.11%) AWS Certification
12 10 (1.11%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (0.89%) PMI Certification
14 7 (0.78%) APMP
14 7 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
14 7 (0.78%) PMP
15 5 (0.56%) CFA
16 3 (0.33%) SAP Certification
17 2 (0.22%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 149 (16.61%) Data Quality
2 53 (5.91%) GDPR
3 43 (4.79%) GxP
4 37 (4.12%) Accessibility
5 26 (2.90%) QA
6 23 (2.56%) EU AI Act
7 22 (2.45%) Solvency II
8 21 (2.34%) HIPAA
8 21 (2.34%) PSD2
9 10 (1.11%) CDISC
9 10 (1.11%) HL7
10 7 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 6 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.45%) NIST
13 3 (0.33%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 3 (0.33%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
14 2 (0.22%) PCI DSS
15 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 63 (7.02%) Docker
2 3 (0.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 52 (5.80%) Kubernetes
2 23 (2.56%) Terraform
3 7 (0.78%) Ansible
4 4 (0.45%) Kubeflow
4 4 (0.45%) Nessus
4 4 (0.45%) Nmap
5 2 (0.22%) Argo
5 2 (0.22%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.22%) Puppet
6 1 (0.11%) Nagios
Vendors
1 118 (13.15%) Databricks
2 79 (8.81%) Microsoft
3 70 (7.80%) Google
4 32 (3.57%) Alteryx
5 31 (3.46%) Bloomberg
6 27 (3.01%) OpenAI
6 27 (3.01%) Oracle
7 26 (2.90%) Salesforce
8 19 (2.12%) Cisco
9 17 (1.90%) SAP
10 15 (1.67%) Informatica
11 11 (1.23%) Palantir
11 11 (1.23%) Talend
12 8 (0.89%) Foundry
13 5 (0.56%) BT
13 5 (0.56%) Red Hat
14 4 (0.45%) Fortinet
14 4 (0.45%) IBM
14 4 (0.45%) Palo Alto
14 4 (0.45%) Splunk