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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 158 133 96
Rank change year-on-year -25 -37 -25
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 901 1,190 1,704
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.51% 2.23% 3.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.86% 2.46% 3.39%
Number of salaries quoted 475 520 1,062
10th Percentile £41,750 £42,500 £42,439
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,750 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,000 £70,000
75th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £90,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £112,750 £120,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £64,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year -6.98% +12.17% -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 48,315 48,345 50,335
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.00% 90.62% 89.96%
Number of salaries quoted 28,473 23,469 38,401
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 £78,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%

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 13 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 13 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 -21 854 £70,000 - 1,018
London +15 455 £82,500 +13.79% 332
UK excluding London -40 402 £60,000 -6.98% 872
Work from Home -35 277 £67,000 +0.90% 436
South East -1 167 £57,500 -8.00% 335
North of England -26 87 £60,000 -4.88% 141
North West +11 56 £62,500 -3.10% 64
Midlands -7 54 £60,000 +3.45% 92
South West -10 53 £60,000 -14.29% 110
West Midlands -11 28 £65,250 +24.29% 33
Yorkshire -33 27 £57,500 +1.19% 56
East Midlands -7 26 £40,000 -51.52% 58
East of England +16 23 £70,000 +7.69% 125
Wales +7 9 £40,000 -50.00% 35
Scotland -57 9 £100,000 +76.96% 38
North East -13 4 £62,500 - 22
Northern Ireland -15 1 £40,000 -52.94% 13

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 69 (7.66%) Apache Spark
2 26 (2.89%) Apache Airflow
3 23 (2.55%) SharePoint
4 18 (2.00%) Apache
5 9 (1.00%) Jupyter
6 7 (0.78%) SAS
7 6 (0.67%) IIS
8 5 (0.55%) 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 70 (7.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.78%) Chatbot
3 5 (0.55%) 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 (0.44%) 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
1 272 (30.19%) Azure
2 238 (26.42%) AWS
3 156 (17.31%) GCP
4 138 (15.32%) Power Platform
5 43 (4.77%) Snowflake
6 39 (4.33%) Azure AI
7 36 (4.00%) Azure Machine Learning
8 32 (3.55%) SaaS
9 31 (3.44%) Amazon SageMaker
10 30 (3.33%) Vertex AI
11 27 (3.00%) Serverless
12 26 (2.89%) Azure Data Factory
13 25 (2.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 23 (2.55%) AWS Lambda
14 23 (2.55%) GitHub
15 22 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
16 20 (2.22%) dbt
17 18 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
18 15 (1.66%) Amazon S3
19 14 (1.55%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.66%) 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 (0.55%) Firewall
5 4 (0.44%) Bluetooth
5 4 (0.44%) Intrusion Detection
5 4 (0.44%) Modbus
5 4 (0.44%) Network Security
5 4 (0.44%) VLAN
5 4 (0.44%) Wireshark
5 4 (0.44%) ZigBee
6 3 (0.33%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.33%) MQTT
7 2 (0.22%) Internet
8 1 (0.11%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 131 (14.54%) Power BI
2 121 (13.43%) Data Warehouse
3 105 (11.65%) Tableau
4 77 (8.55%) Data Lake
5 44 (4.88%) Big Data
5 44 (4.88%) NoSQL
6 42 (4.66%) BigQuery
7 40 (4.44%) Metadata
8 35 (3.88%) SQL Server
9 32 (3.55%) Amazon Redshift
10 30 (3.33%) Hadoop
11 26 (2.89%) Data Mining
11 26 (2.89%) DynamoDB
12 24 (2.66%) Elasticsearch
13 23 (2.55%) MongoDB
13 23 (2.55%) MySQL
14 20 (2.22%) Relational Database
15 19 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
16 17 (1.89%) Delta Lake
17 14 (1.55%) DataStage
Development Applications
1 51 (5.66%) Git
2 34 (3.77%) MLflow
3 18 (2.00%) ERwin
4 12 (1.33%) GitLab
5 7 (0.78%) JIRA
5 7 (0.78%) PowerDesigner
6 5 (0.55%) Burp Suite
7 4 (0.44%) ER Studio
7 4 (0.44%) 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
1 334 (37.07%) Finance
2 270 (29.97%) Social Skills
3 199 (22.09%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (12.21%) Marketing
5 90 (9.99%) Banking
6 72 (7.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 69 (7.66%) Pharmaceutical
8 66 (7.33%) Law
9 57 (6.33%) Retail
10 49 (5.44%) Financial Institution
11 31 (3.44%) Manufacturing
12 26 (2.89%) Public Sector
13 23 (2.55%) Legal
13 23 (2.55%) Organisational Skills
14 16 (1.78%) Telecoms
15 15 (1.66%) Health Technology
15 15 (1.66%) Publishing
16 14 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
17 13 (1.44%) Tech for Good
18 12 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 202 (22.42%) Senior
2 168 (18.65%) Data Scientist
3 147 (16.32%) Lead
4 127 (14.10%) Data Engineer
5 88 (9.77%) Analyst
6 67 (7.44%) Data Analyst
7 62 (6.88%) Developer
8 61 (6.77%) Senior Data Scientist
9 55 (6.10%) Architect
10 43 (4.77%) Senior Data Engineer
11 42 (4.66%) Consultant
12 38 (4.22%) Software Engineer
13 35 (3.88%) Data Architect
14 23 (2.55%) Senior Developer
15 20 (2.22%) Senior Manager
16 18 (2.00%) Data Science Engineer
16 18 (2.00%) Python Developer
17 17 (1.89%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 17 (1.89%) Python Engineer
17 17 (1.89%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (7.55%) PyTorch
2 63 (6.99%) TensorFlow
3 47 (5.22%) scikit-learn
4 43 (4.77%) Pandas
4 43 (4.77%) PySpark
5 42 (4.66%) React
6 33 (3.66%) LangChain
7 23 (2.55%) RESTful
8 22 (2.44%) NumPy
9 18 (2.00%) Kafka
10 16 (1.78%) Hugging Face
11 14 (1.55%) FastAPI
12 12 (1.33%) Swagger
13 11 (1.22%) Django
13 11 (1.22%) HTML
14 10 (1.11%) AngularJS
14 10 (1.11%) Flask
14 10 (1.11%) Jinja
14 10 (1.11%) REST
14 10 (1.11%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 93 (10.32%) Life Science
2 84 (9.32%) Algorithms
3 47 (5.22%) Product Ownership
4 43 (4.77%) Self-Motivation
5 38 (4.22%) Cloud Native
6 37 (4.11%) Management Information System
7 33 (3.66%) Distributed Systems
8 26 (2.89%) Data Structures
9 23 (2.55%) Onboarding
10 21 (2.33%) Pharmacovigilance
11 18 (2.00%) Reinsurance
12 16 (1.78%) AI Agents
12 16 (1.78%) Credit Risk
13 15 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (1.44%) Omics
15 11 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
15 11 (1.22%) 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 (0.44%) Android
3 4 (0.44%) Kali Linux
3 4 (0.44%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.22%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 471 (52.28%) Analytics
2 459 (50.94%) AI
3 455 (50.50%) Machine Learning
4 223 (24.75%) Problem-Solving
5 219 (24.31%) Agile
6 212 (23.53%) Computer Science
7 199 (22.09%) Decision-Making
8 188 (20.87%) Business Intelligence
9 180 (19.98%) Data Engineering
10 167 (18.53%) Data Modelling
11 156 (17.31%) Data Pipeline
12 155 (17.20%) Data Governance
13 150 (16.65%) Visualisation
14 149 (16.54%) Data Analysis
14 149 (16.54%) Mentoring
15 147 (16.32%) ETL
15 147 (16.32%) Roadmaps
16 138 (15.32%) Statistics
17 131 (14.54%) CI/CD
18 125 (13.87%) Mathematics
Programming Languages
1 510 (56.60%) Python
2 307 (34.07%) SQL
3 78 (8.66%) R
4 66 (7.33%) Java
5 45 (4.99%) Scala
6 22 (2.44%) Go
6 22 (2.44%) TypeScript
7 21 (2.33%) JavaScript
8 16 (1.78%) VBA
9 14 (1.55%) C++
10 13 (1.44%) C#
11 12 (1.33%) MATLAB
12 11 (1.22%) Rust
13 9 (1.00%) ANSI SQL
14 7 (0.78%) Bicep
14 7 (0.78%) PHP
15 5 (0.55%) Bash
15 5 (0.55%) C
15 5 (0.55%) PowerShell
16 3 (0.33%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 353 (39.18%) Degree
2 164 (18.20%) Master's Degree
3 90 (9.99%) PhD
4 86 (9.54%) Computer Science Degree
5 84 (9.32%) Security Cleared
6 67 (7.44%) SC Cleared
7 41 (4.55%) Numerate Degree
8 22 (2.44%) DV Cleared
9 18 (2.00%) MBA
10 16 (1.78%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.22%) 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 6 (0.67%) CFA
16 5 (0.55%) Postgraduate
17 3 (0.33%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 150 (16.65%) Data Quality
2 53 (5.88%) GDPR
3 43 (4.77%) GxP
4 36 (4.00%) Accessibility
5 27 (3.00%) QA
6 23 (2.55%) EU AI Act
7 22 (2.44%) Solvency II
8 21 (2.33%) HIPAA
8 21 (2.33%) 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 (0.44%) 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 62 (6.88%) Docker
2 3 (0.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 58 (6.44%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.44%) Terraform
3 7 (0.78%) Ansible
4 4 (0.44%) Kubeflow
4 4 (0.44%) Nessus
4 4 (0.44%) Nmap
5 2 (0.22%) Argo
5 2 (0.22%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.22%) Puppet
6 1 (0.11%) Nagios
Vendors
1 116 (12.87%) Databricks
2 80 (8.88%) Google
3 77 (8.55%) Microsoft
4 33 (3.66%) Alteryx
5 31 (3.44%) Bloomberg
6 30 (3.33%) OpenAI
7 27 (3.00%) Oracle
8 25 (2.77%) Salesforce
9 18 (2.00%) Cisco
9 18 (2.00%) SAP
10 15 (1.66%) Informatica
11 11 (1.22%) Talend
12 10 (1.11%) Palantir
13 8 (0.89%) Foundry
14 5 (0.55%) BT
14 5 (0.55%) Red Hat
15 4 (0.44%) Fortinet
15 4 (0.44%) IBM
15 4 (0.44%) Palo Alto
15 4 (0.44%) Splunk