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 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 161 126 111
Rank change year-on-year -35 -15 -43
Permanent jobs citing Data Science 1,045 1,011 2,233
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.35% 2.47% 2.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.75% 2.64% 2.93%
Number of salaries quoted 539 514 1,295
10th Percentile £44,900 £44,590 £42,250
25th Percentile £55,000 £53,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,932 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% +3.70% -4.93%
75th Percentile £90,000 £92,375 £88,750
90th Percentile £102,750 £115,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year - +8.70% -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 59,772 38,266 76,279
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.27% 93.41% 86.72%
Number of salaries quoted 36,377 22,223 57,143
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £101,250 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.42%

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 26 March 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 26 March 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 -23 970 £71,000 +1.43% 737
London +26 515 £80,000 - 384
UK excluding London -79 457 £62,500 - 486
Work from Home -34 322 £70,000 +7.69% 272
South East -28 154 £65,000 +8.33% 166
North of England -65 93 £62,500 -1.98% 119
South West -44 78 £60,000 -14.29% 69
Midlands -41 75 £60,000 +4.35% 65
North West -12 63 £65,000 +0.87% 63
West Midlands -18 40 £62,500 +38.89% 27
East Midlands -33 35 £45,000 -37.93% 38
East of England -13 33 £86,725 +42.17% 34
Yorkshire -68 26 £60,000 -5.74% 37
Scotland -65 13 £90,000 +63.64% 21
Wales -18 8 £39,756 -51.81% 15
North East -27 4 £62,500 - 21
Northern Ireland -36 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 84 (8.04%) Apache Spark
2 73 (6.99%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.11%) ArcGIS
4 21 (2.01%) SharePoint
5 20 (1.91%) Apache
6 10 (0.96%) Jupyter
7 7 (0.67%) SAS
8 5 (0.48%) Confluence
8 5 (0.48%) IIS
9 4 (0.38%) GeoServer
10 3 (0.29%) Apache Superset
10 3 (0.29%) CMS
11 1 (0.096%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.096%) WordPress
Applications
1 55 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.38%) Chatbot
2 4 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (0.57%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.096%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.096%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.096%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.096%) Odoo
3 1 (0.096%) SAP PLM
3 1 (0.096%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 316 (30.24%) AWS
2 314 (30.05%) Azure
3 193 (18.47%) GCP
4 155 (14.83%) Power Platform
5 96 (9.19%) Snowflake
6 60 (5.74%) dbt
7 46 (4.40%) Azure Machine Learning
7 46 (4.40%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 37 (3.54%) Azure AI
9 35 (3.35%) Amazon SageMaker
10 32 (3.06%) Azure Data Factory
10 32 (3.06%) Vertex AI
11 28 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
12 24 (2.30%) GitHub
13 23 (2.20%) SaaS
14 19 (1.82%) Dagster
14 19 (1.82%) Microsoft 365
15 17 (1.63%) Serverless
16 16 (1.53%) Amazon S3
16 16 (1.53%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 73 (6.99%) Broadband
2 11 (1.05%) 4G
2 11 (1.05%) BGP
2 11 (1.05%) Cisco IOS
2 11 (1.05%) Ethernet VPN
2 11 (1.05%) IOS XR
2 11 (1.05%) MPLS
3 4 (0.38%) Kerberos
4 3 (0.29%) HTTP
4 3 (0.29%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.19%) Internet
5 2 (0.19%) MQTT
5 2 (0.19%) Software-Defined Radio
5 2 (0.19%) Tactical Data Link
6 1 (0.096%) Firewall
6 1 (0.096%) LTE
6 1 (0.096%) Modbus
6 1 (0.096%) Network Security
6 1 (0.096%) TCAP
6 1 (0.096%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (14.26%) Power BI
2 148 (14.16%) Data Warehouse
3 120 (11.48%) Tableau
4 105 (10.05%) Data Lake
5 73 (6.99%) BigQuery
6 56 (5.36%) Elasticsearch
7 53 (5.07%) Amazon Redshift
8 48 (4.59%) Looker
8 48 (4.59%) Metadata
8 48 (4.59%) NoSQL
9 35 (3.35%) Big Data
10 34 (3.25%) MongoDB
11 31 (2.97%) GIS
11 31 (2.97%) PostgreSQL
12 28 (2.68%) SQL Server
13 27 (2.58%) Data Mining
13 27 (2.58%) QGIS
14 26 (2.49%) Snowflake Schema
15 24 (2.30%) Hadoop
16 23 (2.20%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 67 (6.41%) Git
2 58 (5.55%) MLflow
3 14 (1.34%) GitLab
4 8 (0.77%) JIRA
5 7 (0.67%) ERwin
5 7 (0.67%) PowerDesigner
6 6 (0.57%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.38%) ER Studio
8 3 (0.29%) Selenium
9 2 (0.19%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.096%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.096%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.096%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 269 (25.74%) Finance
2 255 (24.40%) Social Skills
3 234 (22.39%) Analytical Skills
4 95 (9.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 86 (8.23%) Banking
6 81 (7.75%) Marketing
7 61 (5.84%) Retail
8 55 (5.26%) Pharmaceutical
9 46 (4.40%) Public Sector
10 39 (3.73%) Law
11 38 (3.64%) Financial Institution
12 23 (2.20%) Legal
13 21 (2.01%) Manufacturing
14 16 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (1.44%) Advertising
16 14 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
16 14 (1.34%) Telecoms
17 11 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
18 9 (0.86%) Investment Banking
19 6 (0.57%) Games
Job Titles
1 246 (23.54%) Data Scientist
2 224 (21.44%) Senior
3 155 (14.83%) Data Engineer
4 140 (13.40%) Lead
5 102 (9.76%) Senior Data Scientist
6 82 (7.85%) Analyst
7 74 (7.08%) Consultant
8 66 (6.32%) Data Analyst
9 61 (5.84%) Software Engineer
10 52 (4.98%) Developer
11 50 (4.78%) Senior Data Engineer
12 33 (3.16%) Artificial Intelligence Consultant
13 30 (2.87%) Systems Engineer
14 28 (2.68%) Architect
15 27 (2.58%) Data Consultant
15 27 (2.58%) Lead Data Scientist
16 25 (2.39%) Python Engineer
17 24 (2.30%) Data Management Specialist
17 24 (2.30%) Principal Data Scientist
17 24 (2.30%) Scala Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (12.54%) PyTorch
2 98 (9.38%) TensorFlow
3 63 (6.03%) scikit-learn
4 49 (4.69%) LangChain
5 48 (4.59%) Kafka
6 38 (3.64%) gRPC
7 31 (2.97%) PySpark
7 31 (2.97%) React
8 24 (2.30%) LlamaIndex
9 23 (2.20%) Pandas
9 23 (2.20%) pgvector
10 20 (1.91%) RESTful
11 19 (1.82%) HTML
12 18 (1.72%) Django
13 15 (1.44%) CSS
14 13 (1.24%) .NET
14 13 (1.24%) Node.js
15 12 (1.15%) FastAPI
15 12 (1.15%) XGBoost
16 11 (1.05%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 97 (9.28%) Algorithms
2 83 (7.94%) Life Science
3 61 (5.84%) Distributed Systems
4 50 (4.78%) Video\Live Streaming
5 48 (4.59%) Product Ownership
6 43 (4.11%) Cloud Native
7 41 (3.92%) Over-the-Top Content
8 36 (3.44%) Management Information System
9 32 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
10 26 (2.49%) Clustering
10 26 (2.49%) Data Structures
11 25 (2.39%) Public Cloud
12 23 (2.20%) AI Agents
13 21 (2.01%) Pharmacovigilance
14 20 (1.91%) Greenfield Project
14 20 (1.91%) Onboarding
14 20 (1.91%) Social Media
15 11 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
15 11 (1.05%) Hackathon
15 11 (1.05%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.05%) Linux
2 5 (0.48%) Unix
3 2 (0.19%) Windows
4 1 (0.096%) Android
4 1 (0.096%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.096%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 562 (53.78%) AI
2 522 (49.95%) Machine Learning
3 517 (49.47%) Analytics
4 244 (23.35%) Problem-Solving
5 226 (21.63%) Business Intelligence
6 221 (21.15%) Data Engineering
7 216 (20.67%) Agile
8 214 (20.48%) Decision-Making
9 209 (20.00%) Computer Science
10 190 (18.18%) CI/CD
11 185 (17.70%) Data Pipeline
12 180 (17.22%) Data Modelling
13 161 (15.41%) Use Case
14 155 (14.83%) ETL
15 151 (14.45%) Data Analysis
16 150 (14.35%) Generative AI
17 149 (14.26%) Visualisation
18 144 (13.78%) Mentoring
19 137 (13.11%) Mathematics
20 135 (12.92%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 589 (56.36%) Python
2 309 (29.57%) SQL
3 84 (8.04%) Scala
4 71 (6.79%) R
5 70 (6.70%) Java
6 51 (4.88%) Go
7 32 (3.06%) JavaScript
8 19 (1.82%) VBA
9 16 (1.53%) C++
10 15 (1.44%) C#
11 12 (1.15%) Bash
11 12 (1.15%) TypeScript
12 8 (0.77%) Rust
12 8 (0.77%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.57%) ANSI SQL
13 6 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 6 (0.57%) Julia
13 6 (0.57%) PHP
14 5 (0.48%) Bicep
15 4 (0.38%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 357 (34.16%) Degree
2 127 (12.15%) Master's Degree
3 105 (10.05%) Security Cleared
4 87 (8.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 62 (5.93%) PhD
6 58 (5.55%) SC Cleared
7 45 (4.31%) DV Cleared
8 35 (3.35%) Numerate Degree
9 27 (2.58%) DBS Check
10 20 (1.91%) MBA
11 17 (1.63%) Azure Certification
12 13 (1.24%) APMP
13 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
14 6 (0.57%) PMI Certification
15 5 (0.48%) BPSS Clearance
15 5 (0.48%) PMP
16 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
16 3 (0.29%) SAP Certification
17 2 (0.19%) Postgraduate
18 1 (0.096%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (15.79%) Data Quality
2 70 (6.70%) GDPR
3 55 (5.26%) Accessibility
4 29 (2.78%) QA
5 26 (2.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 25 (2.39%) GxP
7 21 (2.01%) EU AI Act
7 21 (2.01%) HIPAA
7 21 (2.01%) PSD2
7 21 (2.01%) Solvency II
8 9 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.38%) CDISC
9 4 (0.38%) HL7
10 3 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.29%) PERC
11 2 (0.19%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 1 (0.096%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.096%) GMP
12 1 (0.096%) ISO 13485
12 1 (0.096%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 102 (9.76%) Docker
2 5 (0.48%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.19%) Firmware
4 1 (0.096%) IAG
Systems Management
1 62 (5.93%) Kubernetes
2 45 (4.31%) Terraform
3 7 (0.67%) Kubeflow
4 6 (0.57%) Ansible
5 2 (0.19%) Argo
6 1 (0.096%) Nagios
6 1 (0.096%) Nessus
6 1 (0.096%) Nmap
Vendors
1 163 (15.60%) Databricks
2 84 (8.04%) Microsoft
3 72 (6.89%) Google
4 51 (4.88%) Dell
5 36 (3.44%) Typelevel
6 35 (3.35%) Informatica
7 30 (2.87%) Alteryx
7 30 (2.87%) Bloomberg
8 24 (2.30%) Denodo
8 24 (2.30%) Teradata
9 23 (2.20%) Cloudera
9 23 (2.20%) Salesforce
10 21 (2.01%) OpenAI
11 20 (1.91%) Cisco
11 20 (1.91%) Oracle
12 14 (1.34%) Palantir
13 11 (1.05%) SAP
14 8 (0.77%) Foundry
15 7 (0.67%) Talend
16 6 (0.57%) ServiceNow