The average salary for a software engineer in UK is £56,750
The Average salary for a data engineer in the UK is estimated to be £56,750. That’s £4,700 per month or £3,500 per month after tax (26%).
Starting out in the UK as a data engineer, you can expect to earn about £41,000 annually, according to Glassdoor. As your experience and expertise grow, so does the paycheck. Senior data engineers can rake in over £60,000 per year, often with the added benefits of bonuses and equity options. To help you gain a clearer understanding of what you might earn, we've rounded up some estimates from different salary sites. For a more tailored insight, feel free to use our salary calculator.
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Salary by Experience
It's clear that with more experience, data engineers can earn higher salaries. But when it comes to junior or entry-level salaries, it's a bit trickier. These can change a lot depending on the company and the engineer's education. On average, a junior data engineer might make about £40k a year, which is roughly £20k less than a senior data engineer with over 5 years of experience. Now, let's dive into the salary ranges for three main levels: junior, mid, and senior.
Taxes in UK 🇬🇧
Understanding UK taxes is crucial because they impact what you actually take home. Let's say your contract says you'll earn £5,000 each month. But when payday comes, your bank account only gets £3,500. This happens because as a data engineer in the UK, you're likely to fall into the 40% tax bracket. So, let's break down what your net pay (the amount you take home) looks like compared to your gross pay (the amount before taxes).
If you are living in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland, and earning a gross annual salary of £56,750, or £4,729 per month, the total amount of taxes and contributions that will be deducted from your salary is £14,785. This means that your net income, or salary after tax, will be £41,965 per year, £3,497 per month, or £807 per week.
Salary by type and technology
In the realm of data engineering, the specific technology one specialises in can significantly influence salary. For instance, a data engineer specialising in Java commands a median yearly salary of £51,000. Those focusing on Python earn slightly more, around £56,500 per annum. Go developers in data engineering outperform with a yearly median income of £71,000. If R is the technology of choice, expect about £54,000, while SQL experts fetch approximately £55,000. PostgreSQL specialists match Python with £56,000. Lastly, a data engineer utilising MongoDB might see a median annual salary closer to £46,000.
To gauge which tech skills are in high demand in the UK, we can examine the number of job postings over a year. Yahoo Finance did just this in 2020, and their research indicated that SQL skills were at a premium, with the demand almost doubling that for engineers proficient in Java. Let's delve into the six most sought-after skills in the UK tech industry.
Average salary by city
Estimating engineer salaries across the UK isn't a simple task. Given its larger market size compared to countries like Germany or Austria, there's thankfully a wealth of data that can provide insights into the earnings of data engineers across the region. For a broad comparison, we can look at the average salaries of data engineers in different cities. Let's examine the salary estimates from Glassdoor for the major cities across the UK.
Salary by Company in UK
While average salary figures can provide a general picture, it's often more insightful to examine specific salaries at actual companies for a more accurate idea of what data engineers are earning. The following data doesn't necessarily represent the best companies in the UK, but rather a selection of some of the larger firms where developers have reported their salaries. A large number of these companies pay data engineers between €40k - €60k. Although these may not be the top-tier salaries in the industry (such as those in FAANG), they are generally regarded as competitive.
