Salary Insights

Data Scientist Salary in the UK (2026 Breakdown)

22 Feb 20265 min read

Data science remains one of the highest-paying tech careers in the UK. Here is a comprehensive salary breakdown for 2026.

National Overview

The average data scientist salary in the UK is approximately £52,000, with a wide range depending on experience and specialisation.

Junior (0–2 years): £35,000 – £45,000

Mid-level (2–5 years): £48,000 – £65,000

Senior (5+ years): £65,000 – £90,000+

Lead / Principal: £85,000 – £120,000+

London: £45,000 – £95,000+

Manchester: £38,000 – £65,000

Bristol: £40,000 – £60,000

Edinburgh: £42,000 – £68,000

Financial Services & FinTech

Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare

Technology & SaaS

Consulting

Specialise in NLP, computer vision, or MLOps

Build a public portfolio (GitHub, Kaggle)

Contribute to open-source projects

Target companies with mature data infrastructure

Explore structured programmes designed for real career outcomes.