Technology

Data Engineer

🇺🇸 US 🇬🇧 UK 🇦🇺 AU 🇨🇦 CA

Live job postings

7,404

as of 15 Aug 2026

Demand index

0.95%

% of all job postings

Median salary

$70k

$70,000

Salary range

$50k – $70k

$50,000 – $70,000

Trend analysis & outlook

The UK data engineer market shows strong underlying demand, with current job postings at 6,761 and median annual salary around $60,000. Over the past 12 months, postings ranged from 67,404 to 75,327, with market share peaking at 9.170% in April 2026 and hot index reaching 96 in early 2026—indicating a very hot market until a sharp drop in June 2026. Recent headlines emphasize the value of self-study transition paths from data analyst, the rise of data security engineering, and the necessity of AWS EMR skills, reinforcing the trend toward cloud and infrastructure specialization. Looking ahead 6–12 months, the data suggests a cyclical market, but demand for data engineers with strong cloud and AI pipeline skills will remain robust, with the hottest period likely in early years. The sharp drop in postings from May to June 2026 (from 73,234 to 6,915) is unusual and may signal seasonal or economic factors, but the year-long trend shows sustained high demand overall.

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Salary distribution

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Core skills employers ask for

PythonSQLApache SparkApache KafkaCloud Platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)Data Warehousing (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift)ETL/ELT Pipeline DesignAirflow / Orchestration ToolsContainerization (Docker, Kubernetes)Data ModelingScala / Java

AI impact on this career

AI is shifting the role of data engineers from building pipelines to managing AI-driven data processing systems. Automated tools now handle routine ETL tasks, freeing engineers to focus on architecting scalable data platforms and integrating machine learning models. However, demand for engineers who can deploy and maintain real-time AI data streams on cloud infrastructure is growing rapidly. The field is evolving toward data platform engineering, requiring stronger DevOps and MLOps competencies.

What's happening in the market

Recent articles highlight a growing path from adjacent roles like data analyst to data engineer through self-study, reflecting a tight market for talent. Discussions of related careers—data security engineer, data center roles, and AI vs data science—signal that data engineers must increasingly broaden their skills into security and cloud management. The emphasis on AWS EMR and high-paying engineering careers suggests cloud-native tooling expertise is becoming a differentiator for UK data engineers.

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