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Data Scientist Pay UK 2026/27

Data scientist salaries have remained resilient, especially for roles that combine modelling with production engineering skills. London and financial services continue to pay clear premiums over national averages.

Calculate your take-home →See salary breakdown

At a Glance

  • Junior Data Scientist£2,393 / mo
    of £35,000 gross a year
  • Mid-level Data Scientist£3,538 / mo
    of £55,000 gross a year
  • Senior / Principal Data Scientist£4,505 / mo
    of £75,000 gross a year
Take-homeTaxNI

UK data science pay held up well through the 2023-24 tech downturn, particularly for practitioners who can deploy models into production rather than only build prototypes.

Harnham's 2024 UK Salary Guide reported median pay of £53,000 nationally and £68,000 in London, with further uplift for NLP/LLM capability, cloud MLOps skills, and financial services exposure.

The title itself spans analyst-adjacent posts through to ML engineering, and compensation tracks the technical depth of the role.

Data Scientist Salary Breakdown UK 2026/27

The table below shows typical data scientist salaries across experience levels and regions, alongside estimated take-home pay after income tax and National Insurance. Click any gross salary figure to open it in the calculator.

LevelNational GrossNational Take-HomeMonthly (National)London GrossLondon Take-Home
Junior Data Scientist£35,000£28,721£2,393£48,000£38,081
Mid-level Data Scientist£55,000£42,458£3,538£72,000£52,318
Senior / Principal Data Scientist£75,000£54,058£4,505£95,000£65,658

How Data Scientist Pay Works in the UK

Python is baseline; SQL, cloud platforms (AWS SageMaker, Azure ML), and ML frameworks (scikit-learn, PyTorch) drive salary above median

Financial services employers pay 20–40% more than the tech sector average for equivalent data science experience

Senior and principal data scientists with PhD credentials earn £75,000–£100,000+ at major banks and tech companies

Government and public sector data scientists earn less (£40,000–£65,000) but benefit from job security and Civil Service pension

Contract data scientists command £450–£700 per day; specialist ML engineers can reach £700–£900 per day

Harnham 2024: median London data scientist salary is £68,000; median outside London is £53,000

Income Tax and National Insurance in 2026/27

Like all UK workers, data scientists salaries are subject to income tax and National Insurance (NI) contributions. In the 2026/27 tax year:

Income Tax Bands
Up to £12,5700% (Personal Allowance)
£12,571 – £50,27020% (Basic Rate)
£50,271 – £125,14040% (Higher Rate)
Above £125,14045% (Additional Rate)
Employee National Insurance
Up to £12,5700%
£12,570 – £50,2708%
Above £50,2702%
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Use the calculator above to see your exact take-home pay after all deductions, including pension contributions and student loan repayments if applicable.

Related Pay Guides

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Take-home calculator

Your take-home pay

Enter your salary and we'll break down income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and your final take-home for 2026/27.

Your pay

per year
per year

Bonuses, commission, overtime, capital gains, investments and similar.

Your take-home pay

£3,405a month

£40,863 a year · £786 a week

Out of £4,583 gross a month

  • Take-home pay£3,40574.3%
  • Your pension+ £138 from your employer£2295.0%
  • Income tax£69415.1%
  • National Insurance£2555.6%
HMRC 2026/27 rates, updated 6 April 2026

If you invested £1,155 each month into an ISA after covering your expenses, you could make £690,813 over 25 years: +£344,246 on top of what you put in, thanks to compounding returns.

See how
Pension, region, student loan, State Pension age
%
%

Try changing your contributions to see how it affects everything.

Where you pay tax
State Pension age

68 applies if you were born after 5 April 1978.

Explore your finances

Model your expenses, project your wealth, and find your path to financial independence, using the pay figures above.

Your monthly spending

Essentials

£per month
Housing, bills, council tax, food.

Everything else

£per month
Things you choose to pay for.

Your plan

The earliest you can retire with your workplace pension is usually 55 (rising to 57 from 6 April 2028). You won't get your state pension until your mid or late 60s, depending on your current age. Tip: try playing around with your target retirement age to see how things change.
£
The total balance of all your existing pension pots.
£
The total balance of any existing ISA Savings accounts (GIAs are not currently supported)

Financial independence

%
% of today
%
Financial independence means having enough saved that your outgoings are covered for the rest of your life.

Where your £4,583 a month goes

  • Essentials£1,750
  • Everything else£500
  • Tax and NI£949
  • Pension£229
  • Left to invest in your ISA£1,155

Projected wealth

Estimated income over 50 years, in today's money, with a 5% annual return and 0.35% yearly platform and fund fees.

Projected pension

Your pension pot over 31 years at three growth rates, after 0.35% fees, in today's money.

Calculations
  • FI Target = Annual outgoings (£21,600) * Years needed for 4.00% SWR (25.00) = £540,000
  • Invested annual pension = £4,400
  • Invested annual surplus = £13,863
  • Inflation of 2.5% / year
  • Assumes New State Pension, payments increasing with inflation (2.5% / year)
  • Assumes student loans last 30 years max
  • Assumes a flex-drawdown pension for illustration purposes
  • Assumes you draw down pension up to the higher rate bracket (£50,270), then draw down your S&S ISA
  • Pension lump sums are not included

Take-home pay by salary

See the full 2026/27 breakdown for common salaries.