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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 159 147
Rank change year-on-year +25 -12 -23
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 1,636 1,016 1,336
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.39% 2.05% 1.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.30% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 969 496 578
10th Percentile £44,750 £42,125 £42,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £71,096 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.49% +5.33% -4.36%
75th Percentile £95,000 £93,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £115,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £74,000 £57,500 £60,750
% change year-on-year +28.70% -5.35% -6.54%

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 86,437 44,202 61,341
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 89.12% 81.82%
Number of salaries quoted 59,483 24,460 33,440
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,500 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,465
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.93% -2.56%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £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 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 2 October 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 2 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 +29 1,520 £75,000 +7.14% 4,157
UK excluding London +15 823 £74,000 +28.70% 1,614
London +3 740 £85,000 - 2,828
Work from Home +47 487 £75,000 +15.38% 1,558
North of England +89 284 £76,263 +38.66% 376
North West +68 171 £75,000 +30.43% 219
South East -70 170 £70,000 +27.27% 396
Midlands +17 138 £60,000 +0.63% 177
South West -10 127 £60,000 -14.29% 226
East Midlands +13 83 £67,500 +68.75% 81
Yorkshire +31 79 £75,000 +35.79% 118
West Midlands -18 55 £47,988 -28.91% 96
North East -34 34 £80,000 +68.42% 39
Scotland +16 33 £75,026 -10.40% 131
East of England -44 33 £67,500 +12.50% 178
Wales -50 30 £75,000 +49.63% 90
Northern Ireland -79 8 £72,500 +81.25% 53

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
1 116 (7.09%) Apache Spark
2 47 (2.87%) Apache
3 29 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
4 15 (0.92%) SAS
5 9 (0.55%) Jupyter
5 9 (0.55%) SharePoint
6 6 (0.37%) Confluence
7 5 (0.31%) ColdFusion
8 2 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
8 2 (0.12%) Luigi
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
8 2 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.12%) Tornado
9 1 (0.061%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.061%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.061%) GeoServer
9 1 (0.061%) R Markdown
Applications
1 50 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.86%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.37%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.18%) SPSS
6 2 (0.12%) Final Cut Pro
6 2 (0.12%) Simulink
7 1 (0.061%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.061%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.061%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (0.43%) Infor M3
2 1 (0.061%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
2 1 (0.061%) HFM
2 1 (0.061%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.061%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 343 (20.97%) AWS
2 342 (20.90%) Azure
3 179 (10.94%) GCP
4 134 (8.19%) Power Platform
5 90 (5.50%) Snowflake
6 76 (4.65%) Azure Data Factory
7 56 (3.42%) Serverless
8 51 (3.12%) Anthropic Claude
9 49 (3.00%) Amazon Bedrock
10 48 (2.93%) Azure Machine Learning
10 48 (2.93%) SaaS
11 45 (2.75%) AWS Lambda
12 43 (2.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 40 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
14 37 (2.26%) GitHub
15 36 (2.20%) Azure Databricks
16 32 (1.96%) Amazon S3
17 29 (1.77%) Microsoft Purview
18 24 (1.47%) dbt
19 20 (1.22%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.22%) Broadband
2 7 (0.43%) 5G
3 6 (0.37%) BGP
3 6 (0.37%) DNS
3 6 (0.37%) IPsec
3 6 (0.37%) VPN
4 4 (0.24%) Internet
5 2 (0.12%) Firewall
5 2 (0.12%) Software-Defined Radio
6 1 (0.061%) HTTP
6 1 (0.061%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (7.89%) Power BI
2 94 (5.75%) Data Warehouse
3 80 (4.89%) Tableau
4 77 (4.71%) Data Lake
5 70 (4.28%) Metadata
6 69 (4.22%) Big Data
7 53 (3.24%) Amazon Redshift
8 52 (3.18%) NoSQL
9 39 (2.38%) Delta Lake
9 39 (2.38%) Relational Database
9 39 (2.38%) SQL Server
10 35 (2.14%) Azure SQL Database
11 33 (2.02%) PostgreSQL
12 27 (1.65%) Hadoop
12 27 (1.65%) Looker
13 25 (1.53%) Data Mining
14 24 (1.47%) MongoDB
14 24 (1.47%) Spark SQL
15 22 (1.34%) BigQuery
16 20 (1.22%) Amazon QuickSight
Development Applications
1 101 (6.17%) Git
2 44 (2.69%) Claude Code
3 30 (1.83%) MLflow
4 11 (0.67%) JIRA
5 10 (0.61%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.55%) GitLab
7 5 (0.31%) Visual Studio Code
8 4 (0.24%) Octopus Deploy
9 2 (0.12%) JUnit
9 2 (0.12%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.061%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.061%) NUnit
10 1 (0.061%) Selenium
10 1 (0.061%) Yeoman
General
1 443 (27.08%) Finance
2 338 (20.66%) Social Skills
3 291 (17.79%) Analytical Skills
4 153 (9.35%) Banking
5 139 (8.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 136 (8.31%) Marketing
7 91 (5.56%) Retail
8 88 (5.38%) Public Sector
9 86 (5.26%) Law
10 52 (3.18%) Legal
11 42 (2.57%) Influencing Skills
12 38 (2.32%) Financial Institution
13 33 (2.02%) Organisational Skills
14 29 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
15 28 (1.71%) Advertising
16 26 (1.59%) Games
17 23 (1.41%) Manufacturing
18 20 (1.22%) Back Office
19 13 (0.79%) Military
19 13 (0.79%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 650 (39.73%) Data Scientist
2 427 (26.10%) Senior
3 361 (22.07%) Senior Data Scientist
4 235 (14.36%) Lead
5 200 (12.22%) Data Engineer
6 105 (6.42%) Lead Data Scientist
6 105 (6.42%) Software Engineer
7 90 (5.50%) Architect
8 77 (4.71%) Analyst
9 62 (3.79%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 62 (3.79%) Developer
10 44 (2.69%) Research Scientist
11 43 (2.63%) Consultant
11 43 (2.63%) Senior Data Engineer
12 39 (2.38%) Data Analyst
13 38 (2.32%) Enterprise Architect
14 36 (2.20%) Finance Manager
14 36 (2.20%) Principal Data Scientist
15 35 (2.14%) Data Architect
16 32 (1.96%) Machine Learning Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (6.85%) PyTorch
2 103 (6.30%) TensorFlow
3 83 (5.07%) PySpark
4 65 (3.97%) LangChain
4 65 (3.97%) scikit-learn
5 61 (3.73%) Terraform
6 56 (3.42%) Kafka
7 50 (3.06%) LangGraph
8 47 (2.87%) Pandas
9 39 (2.38%) Hugging Face
10 38 (2.32%) React
11 36 (2.20%) .NET
12 32 (1.96%) NumPy
13 27 (1.65%) REST
14 26 (1.59%) SpaCy
15 19 (1.16%) FastAPI
16 18 (1.10%) RESTful
16 18 (1.10%) Spring
17 17 (1.04%) Flask
18 13 (0.79%) Apache NiFi
Miscellaneous
1 114 (6.97%) AI Agents
2 102 (6.23%) Algorithms
3 97 (5.93%) Cloud Native
4 56 (3.42%) Product Ownership
5 47 (2.87%) Onboarding
6 43 (2.63%) Hedge funds
7 32 (1.96%) Distributed Systems
8 29 (1.77%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.65%) Blog
10 25 (1.53%) e-Learning
11 23 (1.41%) Management Information System
12 18 (1.10%) Credit Risk
13 17 (1.04%) Social Media
14 15 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (0.79%) Life Science
16 12 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
16 12 (0.73%) Clustering
16 12 (0.73%) Hybrid Cloud
16 12 (0.73%) Marketing Technology
16 12 (0.73%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 27 (1.65%) Linux
2 12 (0.73%) Windows
3 4 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
3 4 (0.24%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.18%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.18%) Rocky
5 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 843 (51.53%) AI
2 775 (47.37%) Machine Learning
3 621 (37.96%) Analytics
4 298 (18.22%) CI/CD
5 286 (17.48%) Decision-Making
6 274 (16.75%) Software Engineering
7 255 (15.59%) Data Engineering
8 253 (15.46%) Problem-Solving
9 252 (15.40%) Roadmaps
10 250 (15.28%) Data Pipeline
11 248 (15.16%) Agile
12 230 (14.06%) Generative AI
13 226 (13.81%) Mentoring
14 212 (12.96%) Business Intelligence
15 197 (12.04%) Actionable Insight
16 194 (11.86%) MLOps
17 177 (10.82%) Continuous Improvement
17 177 (10.82%) Data Modelling
18 174 (10.64%) DevOps
19 166 (10.15%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 678 (41.44%) Python
2 481 (29.40%) SQL
3 99 (6.05%) Java
4 66 (4.03%) C++
5 59 (3.61%) JavaScript
6 58 (3.55%) C#
7 50 (3.06%) R
8 45 (2.75%) Scala
9 28 (1.71%) TypeScript
10 21 (1.28%) Bicep
10 21 (1.28%) C
11 15 (0.92%) Go
12 14 (0.86%) Kotlin
13 12 (0.73%) VBA
14 9 (0.55%) PHP
14 9 (0.55%) Rust
15 7 (0.43%) Bash
16 6 (0.37%) Groovy
16 6 (0.37%) Ruby
16 6 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 318 (19.44%) Degree
2 176 (10.76%) Security Cleared
3 89 (5.44%) DV Cleared
4 86 (5.26%) Master's Degree
5 78 (4.77%) SC Cleared
6 68 (4.16%) PhD
7 50 (3.06%) Computer Science Degree
8 45 (2.75%) Azure Certification
9 22 (1.34%) DBS Check
10 19 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.04%) AWS Certification
11 17 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
12 16 (0.98%) SnowPro
13 10 (0.61%) Numerate Degree
13 10 (0.61%) PMI Certification
13 10 (0.61%) PMP
14 6 (0.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 5 (0.31%) Postgraduate
16 4 (0.24%) CISSP
17 3 (0.18%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 216 (13.20%) Data Quality
2 41 (2.51%) QA
3 39 (2.38%) GDPR
4 24 (1.47%) Accessibility
5 15 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
6 12 (0.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 8 (0.49%) EU AI Act
8 3 (0.18%) IFRS
8 3 (0.18%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.12%) DICOM
9 2 (0.12%) Good Clinical Practice
9 2 (0.12%) HL7
9 2 (0.12%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.12%) Solvency II
9 2 (0.12%) WCAG
10 1 (0.061%) GAAP
10 1 (0.061%) GRC
10 1 (0.061%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.061%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 80 (4.89%) Docker
2 3 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
2 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.18%) vSphere
3 2 (0.12%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.061%) Firmware
4 1 (0.061%) IAG
4 1 (0.061%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 70 (4.28%) Kubernetes
2 13 (0.79%) Kubeflow
3 7 (0.43%) Ansible
4 6 (0.37%) Hadoop YARN
5 3 (0.18%) Argo
5 3 (0.18%) Grafana
5 3 (0.18%) Kibana
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
6 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.12%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.061%) Puppet
Vendors
1 220 (13.45%) Databricks
2 138 (8.44%) Microsoft
3 96 (5.87%) Google
4 27 (1.65%) OpenAI
5 19 (1.16%) Oracle
6 16 (0.98%) LexisNexis
6 16 (0.98%) Workday
7 14 (0.86%) SAP
8 9 (0.55%) Foundry
8 9 (0.55%) Infor
9 7 (0.43%) IBM
10 6 (0.37%) HP
10 6 (0.37%) Salesforce
11 5 (0.31%) Alteryx
11 5 (0.31%) YouTube
12 4 (0.24%) CA Agile Central
12 4 (0.24%) Mistral
12 4 (0.24%) Palantir
12 4 (0.24%) Revolut
13 3 (0.18%) Dataiku