Income & Employment Guides UK — Maximise Your Earnings
How Much Do Data Scientists Earn in the UK? — 2026 Salary Guide
Complete guide to data scientist salaries in the UK for 2026. Junior to principal data scientist pay, data analyst, machine learning engineer, by industry and company type, contractor rates, and career progression.
Data science continues to be one of the highest-paid technology careers in the UK. Here’s the complete breakdown of what data scientists and related roles earn.
Data Scientist Salary by Level (2025/26)
By Experience Level
| Level |
Salary (National) |
Salary (London) |
| Graduate/Junior (0-2 years) |
£35,000-£50,000 |
£40,000-£60,000 |
| Mid-level (2-5 years) |
£50,000-£75,000 |
£60,000-£90,000 |
| Senior (5-8 years) |
£70,000-£100,000 |
£85,000-£120,000 |
| Lead/Staff (8-12 years) |
£90,000-£130,000 |
£110,000-£160,000 |
| Principal (12+ years) |
£110,000-£160,000 |
£130,000-£200,000 |
| Head of Data Science |
£120,000-£180,000 |
£140,000-£220,000 |
Pay by Company Type
Big Tech (FAANG and Similar)
| Level |
Base Salary |
Stock (RSUs) |
Total Comp |
| Junior/L3 |
£55,000-£70,000 |
£15,000-£30,000 |
£70,000-£100,000 |
| Mid/L4 |
£75,000-£95,000 |
£30,000-£60,000 |
£105,000-£155,000 |
| Senior/L5 |
£95,000-£130,000 |
£50,000-£100,000 |
£145,000-£230,000 |
| Staff/L6 |
£120,000-£160,000 |
£80,000-£150,000 |
£200,000-£310,000 |
| Principal/L7 |
£150,000-£200,000 |
£100,000-£200,000 |
£250,000-£400,000 |
Fintech and Finance
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£45,000-£60,000 |
| Mid-level |
£60,000-£85,000 |
| Senior |
£85,000-£120,000 |
| Lead |
£110,000-£150,000 |
| Head of Data Science |
£140,000-£200,000 |
Banks and Investment Firms
| Level |
Base |
Bonus |
Total |
| Junior (AVP equivalent) |
£55,000-£70,000 |
£10,000-£20,000 |
£65,000-£90,000 |
| Mid (VP equivalent) |
£75,000-£100,000 |
£20,000-£50,000 |
£95,000-£150,000 |
| Senior (Director) |
£100,000-£140,000 |
£40,000-£100,000 |
£140,000-£240,000 |
| Managing Director |
£140,000-£200,000 |
£80,000-£200,000+ |
£220,000-£400,000+ |
Startups and Scale-ups
| Level |
Salary |
Equity |
| Junior |
£35,000-£50,000 |
Variable (often significant) |
| Mid-level |
£50,000-£70,000 |
0.01-0.1% |
| Senior |
£70,000-£95,000 |
0.05-0.3% |
| Lead |
£90,000-£120,000 |
0.1-0.5% |
| Head |
£110,000-£150,000 |
0.3-1%+ |
Consulting
| Firm Type |
Junior |
Senior/Manager |
| Big 4 (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) |
£40,000-£55,000 |
£70,000-£110,000 |
| MBB (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) |
£55,000-£70,000 |
£100,000-£180,000 |
| Boutique data consultancy |
£38,000-£50,000 |
£65,000-£100,000 |
Retail, FMCG, and Corporate
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£32,000-£45,000 |
| Mid-level |
£45,000-£62,000 |
| Senior |
£60,000-£85,000 |
| Lead |
£80,000-£110,000 |
| Head |
£100,000-£140,000 |
Data Analyst
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£25,000-£35,000 |
| Mid-level |
£35,000-£48,000 |
| Senior |
£45,000-£62,000 |
| Lead |
£55,000-£75,000 |
Machine Learning Engineer
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£40,000-£55,000 |
| Mid-level |
£55,000-£80,000 |
| Senior |
£80,000-£120,000 |
| Staff/Principal |
£110,000-£180,000 |
| FAANG ML Engineer |
£90,000-£250,000+ |
Data Engineer
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£35,000-£48,000 |
| Mid-level |
£48,000-£70,000 |
| Senior |
£70,000-£100,000 |
| Lead/Principal |
£95,000-£140,000 |
MLOps/AI Engineer
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£40,000-£55,000 |
| Mid-level |
£55,000-£80,000 |
| Senior |
£80,000-£120,000 |
| Lead |
£110,000-£160,000 |
Business Intelligence Analyst
| Level |
Salary |
| Junior |
£28,000-£38,000 |
| Mid-level |
£38,000-£52,000 |
| Senior |
£50,000-£70,000 |
| Manager |
£65,000-£90,000 |
Specialist and Niche Roles
By Specialism
| Specialism |
Salary Range |
| NLP/Natural Language Processing |
£60,000-£130,000 |
| Computer Vision |
£60,000-£130,000 |
| Reinforcement Learning |
£70,000-£150,000 |
| Quantitative Research (Finance) |
£80,000-£500,000+ |
| AI Research Scientist |
£70,000-£200,000 |
| Deep Learning Engineer |
£65,000-£140,000 |
| Recommendation Systems |
£60,000-£120,000 |
By Industry
| Industry |
Senior DS Salary |
| Tech (FAANG) |
£100,000-£180,000 |
| Finance/Banking |
£90,000-£150,000 |
| Fintech |
£80,000-£130,000 |
| Hedge Funds |
£120,000-£400,000+ |
| Pharmaceuticals |
£70,000-£100,000 |
| Retail/E-commerce |
£65,000-£100,000 |
| Gaming |
£60,000-£100,000 |
| Healthcare |
£55,000-£85,000 |
| Government/Public sector |
£50,000-£70,000 |
Contractor/Freelance Rates
| Level |
Daily Rate |
Annual Equivalent |
| Junior |
£300-£450 |
£68,000-£100,000 |
| Mid-level |
£450-£600 |
£100,000-£135,000 |
| Senior |
£550-£750 |
£125,000-£170,000 |
| Lead/Expert |
£700-£1,000 |
£160,000-£225,000 |
| Specialist (NLP, CV, etc.) |
£650-£900 |
£145,000-£200,000 |
Contractors typically work through limited companies (outside IR35) or via umbrella companies (inside IR35).
Regional Pay Comparison
| Region |
Mid-Level DS |
| Central London |
£65,000-£90,000 |
| Greater London |
£55,000-£80,000 |
| Cambridge |
£55,000-£80,000 |
| Oxford |
£50,000-£75,000 |
| Manchester |
£45,000-£65,000 |
| Edinburgh |
£45,000-£65,000 |
| Bristol |
£45,000-£65,000 |
| Leeds |
£42,000-£60,000 |
| Birmingham |
£42,000-£60,000 |
| Remote (UK company) |
£50,000-£75,000 |
Skills and Salary Impact
Programming Languages
| Skill |
Salary Premium |
| Python |
Standard requirement |
| R |
+£0-£5,000 |
| Scala |
+£5,000-£15,000 |
| SQL |
Standard requirement |
| Spark/PySpark |
+£5,000-£10,000 |
| Skill |
Salary Premium |
| AWS/Azure/GCP |
+£5,000-£15,000 |
| TensorFlow/PyTorch |
+£5,000-£15,000 |
| MLOps (MLflow, Kubeflow) |
+£5,000-£15,000 |
| Databricks |
+£5,000-£10,000 |
| Airflow |
+£3,000-£8,000 |
Domains
| Domain |
Premium/Impact |
| Finance/Quant |
+20-50% |
| AI/ML Research |
+10-30% |
| Healthcare/Pharma |
Base to +10% |
| Marketing/Adtech |
Base to +10% |
How to Become a Data Scientist
Common Entry Routes
| Route |
Typical Background |
| MSc Data Science |
1 year, £10,000-£25,000 |
| MSc Computer Science/Stats |
1 year, £10,000-£25,000 |
| PhD (quantitative field) |
3-4 years, funded |
| Bootcamp + experience |
3-6 months, £5,000-£15,000 |
| Self-taught + projects |
Variable |
| Career transition (analyst) |
On-the-job learning |
Typical Requirements
| Role Level |
Education |
Experience |
| Junior |
BSc/MSc in quantitative field |
0-2 years |
| Mid-level |
MSc preferred |
2-5 years |
| Senior |
MSc/PhD helpful |
5+ years |
| Lead/Principal |
Often PhD |
8+ years |
Benefits and Compensation
Typical Benefits Package
| Benefit |
Typical |
| Base salary |
Varies by level |
| Bonus |
10-30% of base |
| Stock/RSUs |
Tech companies: significant |
| Pension |
5-10% employer contribution |
| Annual leave |
25-30 days |
| Remote/hybrid work |
Very common |
| Learning budget |
£1,000-£5,000 |
| Home office allowance |
£500-£1,500 |
Career Progression
| Stage |
Years |
Role |
Salary |
| Entry |
0-2 |
Junior Data Scientist |
£35,000-£50,000 |
| Building skills |
2-4 |
Data Scientist |
£50,000-£70,000 |
| Independence |
4-6 |
Senior Data Scientist |
£70,000-£90,000 |
| Leadership |
6-10 |
Lead/Staff DS |
£90,000-£130,000 |
| Expert |
10+ |
Principal DS |
£120,000-£180,000 |
| Management |
8+ |
Head of Data Science |
£130,000-£200,000+ |
Summary
| Role |
Salary Range |
| Junior Data Scientist |
£35,000-£55,000 |
| Mid-level Data Scientist |
£50,000-£80,000 |
| Senior Data Scientist |
£75,000-£110,000 |
| Lead/Principal |
£100,000-£160,000+ |
| Head of Data Science |
£130,000-£220,000 |
| Data Analyst |
£28,000-£65,000 |
| ML Engineer |
£45,000-£180,000 |
| Contractor (daily) |
£400-£900+ |
| FAANG (total comp) |
£100,000-£400,000 |