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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 158 147
Rank change year-on-year +23 -11 -21
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 1,632 1,017 1,327
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.38% 2.05% 1.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.30% 2.18%
Number of salaries quoted 955 491 573
10th Percentile £44,850 £41,250 £42,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +3.70% -4.36%
75th Percentile £95,000 £93,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £115,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £57,500 £61,750
% change year-on-year +30.43% -6.88% -5.00%

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 86,353 44,239 60,788
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.12% 89.09% 81.92%
Number of salaries quoted 59,227 24,477 32,914
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £59,430
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -7.45% -0.95%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £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 5 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 5 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 +30 1,517 £75,000 +7.14% 4,089
UK excluding London +18 820 £75,000 +30.43% 1,738
London +3 741 £85,000 - 2,616
Work from Home +42 478 £75,000 +15.38% 1,773
North of England +96 282 £78,250 +42.27% 436
North West +64 171 £75,000 +30.43% 229
South East -65 169 £70,000 +27.27% 413
Midlands +18 138 £60,000 +0.63% 220
South West -6 125 £60,000 -14.29% 229
East Midlands +12 83 £70,000 +75.00% 103
Yorkshire +20 78 £75,026 +33.10% 152
West Midlands -12 55 £41,494 -39.65% 117
East of England -36 34 £70,000 +16.67% 178
Scotland +10 33 £75,026 -10.40% 155
North East -36 33 £80,000 +68.42% 55
Wales -41 30 £87,500 +74.57% 72
Northern Ireland -73 9 £72,500 +81.25% 48

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
1 115 (7.05%) Apache Spark
2 47 (2.88%) Apache
3 28 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
4 15 (0.92%) SAS
5 9 (0.55%) Jupyter
6 8 (0.49%) SharePoint
7 6 (0.37%) Confluence
8 5 (0.31%) ColdFusion
9 2 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.12%) Luigi
9 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
9 2 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.12%) Tornado
10 1 (0.061%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.061%) ArcGIS
10 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%) Simulink
5 3 (0.18%) SPSS
6 2 (0.12%) Final Cut Pro
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
1 339 (20.77%) AWS
2 337 (20.65%) Azure
3 176 (10.78%) GCP
4 125 (7.66%) Power Platform
5 89 (5.45%) Snowflake
6 75 (4.60%) Azure Data Factory
7 56 (3.43%) Serverless
8 50 (3.06%) Anthropic Claude
9 48 (2.94%) Amazon Bedrock
9 48 (2.94%) Azure Machine Learning
9 48 (2.94%) SaaS
10 45 (2.76%) AWS Lambda
11 43 (2.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 40 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (2.33%) GitHub
14 36 (2.21%) Azure Databricks
15 32 (1.96%) Amazon S3
16 29 (1.78%) Microsoft Purview
17 24 (1.47%) dbt
18 20 (1.23%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.23%) 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 (0.25%) 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
1 121 (7.41%) Power BI
2 94 (5.76%) Data Warehouse
3 77 (4.72%) Data Lake
4 73 (4.47%) Tableau
5 70 (4.29%) Metadata
6 68 (4.17%) Big Data
7 54 (3.31%) Amazon Redshift
8 50 (3.06%) NoSQL
9 40 (2.45%) Delta Lake
10 39 (2.39%) SQL Server
11 38 (2.33%) Relational Database
12 35 (2.14%) Azure SQL Database
13 32 (1.96%) PostgreSQL
14 27 (1.65%) Looker
15 26 (1.59%) Hadoop
16 25 (1.53%) Data Mining
17 24 (1.47%) Spark SQL
18 23 (1.41%) BigQuery
18 23 (1.41%) MongoDB
19 20 (1.23%) Amazon QuickSight
Development Applications
1 96 (5.88%) Git
2 44 (2.70%) Claude Code
3 30 (1.84%) MLflow
4 10 (0.61%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.61%) JIRA
5 9 (0.55%) GitLab
6 5 (0.31%) Visual Studio Code
7 4 (0.25%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.12%) JUnit
8 2 (0.12%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.061%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.061%) NUnit
9 1 (0.061%) Selenium
9 1 (0.061%) Yeoman
General
1 438 (26.84%) Finance
2 332 (20.34%) Social Skills
3 283 (17.34%) Analytical Skills
4 155 (9.50%) Banking
5 135 (8.27%) Marketing
6 133 (8.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 91 (5.58%) Retail
8 85 (5.21%) Public Sector
9 84 (5.15%) Law
10 50 (3.06%) Legal
11 42 (2.57%) Influencing Skills
12 38 (2.33%) Financial Institution
13 33 (2.02%) Organisational Skills
14 29 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
15 27 (1.65%) Advertising
16 26 (1.59%) Games
17 23 (1.41%) Manufacturing
18 20 (1.23%) Back Office
19 13 (0.80%) Aerospace
19 13 (0.80%) Military
Job Titles
1 661 (40.50%) Data Scientist
2 425 (26.04%) Senior
3 365 (22.37%) Senior Data Scientist
4 241 (14.77%) Lead
5 198 (12.13%) Data Engineer
6 111 (6.80%) Lead Data Scientist
7 103 (6.31%) Software Engineer
8 87 (5.33%) Architect
9 75 (4.60%) Analyst
10 62 (3.80%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 60 (3.68%) Developer
12 44 (2.70%) Research Scientist
13 43 (2.63%) Senior Data Engineer
14 40 (2.45%) Consultant
15 38 (2.33%) Data Analyst
15 38 (2.33%) Enterprise Architect
16 36 (2.21%) Finance Manager
16 36 (2.21%) Principal Data Scientist
17 34 (2.08%) Data Architect
18 32 (1.96%) Data Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (6.80%) PyTorch
2 104 (6.37%) TensorFlow
3 80 (4.90%) PySpark
4 65 (3.98%) LangChain
5 64 (3.92%) scikit-learn
6 59 (3.62%) Terraform
7 55 (3.37%) Kafka
8 51 (3.13%) LangGraph
9 45 (2.76%) Pandas
10 39 (2.39%) Hugging Face
11 36 (2.21%) .NET
11 36 (2.21%) React
12 32 (1.96%) NumPy
13 26 (1.59%) REST
13 26 (1.59%) SpaCy
14 18 (1.10%) RESTful
15 17 (1.04%) FastAPI
15 17 (1.04%) Spring
16 16 (0.98%) Flask
17 13 (0.80%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 114 (6.99%) AI Agents
2 103 (6.31%) Algorithms
3 96 (5.88%) Cloud Native
4 56 (3.43%) Product Ownership
5 47 (2.88%) Onboarding
6 43 (2.63%) Hedge funds
7 29 (1.78%) Data Structures
7 29 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
8 27 (1.65%) Blog
9 25 (1.53%) e-Learning
10 23 (1.41%) Management Information System
11 18 (1.10%) Credit Risk
12 15 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
13 14 (0.86%) Social Media
14 13 (0.80%) Life Science
15 12 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
15 12 (0.74%) Clustering
15 12 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
15 12 (0.74%) Marketing Technology
15 12 (0.74%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 29 (1.78%) Linux
2 12 (0.74%) Windows
3 5 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
4 4 (0.25%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.18%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.18%) Rocky
6 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 839 (51.41%) AI
2 771 (47.24%) Machine Learning
3 607 (37.19%) Analytics
4 299 (18.32%) CI/CD
5 274 (16.79%) Decision-Making
6 269 (16.48%) Software Engineering
7 251 (15.38%) Roadmaps
8 250 (15.32%) Data Engineering
9 247 (15.13%) Data Pipeline
9 247 (15.13%) Problem-Solving
10 239 (14.64%) Agile
11 230 (14.09%) Generative AI
12 219 (13.42%) Mentoring
13 209 (12.81%) Business Intelligence
14 193 (11.83%) Actionable Insight
15 191 (11.70%) MLOps
16 176 (10.78%) Continuous Improvement
16 176 (10.78%) Data Modelling
17 173 (10.60%) DevOps
18 162 (9.93%) LLM
Programming Languages
1 667 (40.87%) Python
2 470 (28.80%) SQL
3 95 (5.82%) Java
4 66 (4.04%) C++
5 59 (3.62%) JavaScript
6 58 (3.55%) C#
7 46 (2.82%) R
8 43 (2.63%) Scala
9 28 (1.72%) TypeScript
10 21 (1.29%) Bicep
10 21 (1.29%) C
11 16 (0.98%) Go
12 14 (0.86%) Kotlin
13 12 (0.74%) 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
1 312 (19.12%) Degree
2 177 (10.85%) Security Cleared
3 89 (5.45%) DV Cleared
4 85 (5.21%) Master's Degree
5 78 (4.78%) SC Cleared
6 68 (4.17%) PhD
7 49 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
8 45 (2.76%) Azure Certification
9 20 (1.23%) 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 4 (0.25%) CISSP
16 3 (0.18%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
17 2 (0.12%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (12.93%) Data Quality
2 41 (2.51%) QA
3 40 (2.45%) GDPR
4 23 (1.41%) Accessibility
5 14 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
6 12 (0.74%) 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 78 (4.78%) 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 68 (4.17%) Kubernetes
2 13 (0.80%) 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
1 218 (13.36%) Databricks
2 138 (8.46%) Microsoft
3 92 (5.64%) Google
4 26 (1.59%) OpenAI
5 19 (1.16%) Oracle
6 18 (1.10%) Workday
7 17 (1.04%) LexisNexis
8 14 (0.86%) SAP
9 9 (0.55%) Foundry
9 9 (0.55%) Infor
10 7 (0.43%) IBM
11 6 (0.37%) HP
11 6 (0.37%) Salesforce
12 5 (0.31%) Alteryx
12 5 (0.31%) YouTube
13 4 (0.25%) CA Agile Central
13 4 (0.25%) Mistral
13 4 (0.25%) Palantir
13 4 (0.25%) Revolut
14 3 (0.18%) Dataiku