Data & AI Jobs in the UK: Who's Hiring Right Now (Oct 2026)

188 Data & AI jobs sit open in the United Kingdom today, and before you burn the week on applications you should know which employers are actually behind them. The counts come from the JobRise live jobs feed on 14 October 2026. Open listings, not a market survey. Treat them as a dated snapshot.

The full set lives in the UK data jobs hub, where 188 roles are live and 156 went up in the last 30 days. 87 of those landed in the last 7 days alone. That is churn. Check the feed daily, not weekly.

Who is hiring#

Ten employers hold the largest share of open listings in this slice, and Anthropic (13) and Intercom (13) lead by a distance before Ellison Institute of Technology (7) and Spotify (7). Zopa (5), Qureight Ltd (4), interactive investor (4), VANRATH (4), Cohere (4) and INSIGHT INTERNATIONAL Limited (3) round out the top of the list.

Some of these names are recruiters or staffing firms rather than end employers, so read the listing carefully before you apply. VANRATH and INSIGHT INTERNATIONAL Limited both show multiple openings, which usually means they are placing for a client. Ask who the client is. Ask early.

Roles being filled#

The titles on the board cover the whole data stack. A sample of what is open right now:

• "Data Scientist - GenAI - Consultant" at Infosys Consulting - Europe
• "Senior Director, Analytics & Business Intelligence" at Nuvei
• "Interim Lead AI Engineer" at Ki
• "Senior Data Engineer" at Zoopla
• "Data Engineering Manager" at Zoopla
• "Data Analyst" at Test Triangle
• "Graduate Machine Learning Researcher" at Longshot Systems Ltd
• "Data Centre Design Engineer" at Fuse Energy

Zoopla is hiring twice in data engineering, which tells you they are building out a team rather than backfilling one seat, and Ki wants an interim lead so expect a fixed-term conversation about scope and handover. Fuse Energy wants a data centre design engineer. That is infrastructure, not modelling. The "AI jobs" label hides real variety here.

Where the jobs are#

London dominates with 85 open listings. Oxford has 7, Dublin 7, Leeds 5, Belfast 5. Outside London the numbers thin out fast, so if you are based in Leeds or Belfast you are competing in a much smaller pool, which can work in your favour.

Dublin turning up in a UK slice is worth a look if you are open to relocation or already hold the right to work there, because the role may be less crowded than the London equivalents. Check the location wording on each listing. Never assume remote is on the table.

What the job-type mix says#

Full-time roles account for 185 of the 188 listings. Only 3 are contract. This market is hiring for permanence, not short-term project cover, and that shapes how you should talk about your own timeline in the interview.

The employer mix is a genuine spread: big tech names like Anthropic, Spotify and Cohere sit next to fintech scale-ups such as Zopa and interactive investor, specialist firms like Qureight Ltd and Fuse Energy, consultancies like Infosys Consulting, and research settings such as Ellison Institute of Technology. Want sector breadth on your CV. Want pure big tech. Then you are looking at a handful of employers, not the whole board.

Entry-level openings are thin. Only 1 of 188 listings carries an intern, graduate, junior or trainee style title, and it is "Graduate Machine Learning Researcher" at Longshot Systems Ltd. Graduates should widen the search to adjacent titles like Data Analyst rather than waiting for a scheme to appear.

What the pay data shows#

Only 71 of the 188 listings show a salary. The rest keep pay quiet until the interview stage, which is common practice in the UK. Where pay is posted, the spread is wide:

• "Data Analyst" at Likewize: £42K-42K
• "Data Analyst" at INSIGHT INTERNATIONAL Limited: £75K-75K
• "Senior Data Analyst - R2R" at Just Eat Takeaway.com: £44K-44K
• "Data Analyst" at Anson Mccade: £111K-111K
• "Data Analyst/Technical BA/Data Governance" at Hays: £42K-42K
• "Information and Data Analyst" at Platinum Recruitment: £38K-38K

The same job title is priced from £38K to £111K depending on the employer and the contract arrangement, so anchoring on one number will mislead you badly when you compare two offers side by side. Ask about the total package. Check the current official sources for tax and pension treatment before you sign anything.

How to apply this week#

Apply direct wherever the listing allows it, because a careers page application that reaches the hiring team beats a CV dropped into a general pool, and when a recruiter holds the role treat them as a route in rather than the final word.

Mirror the listing's own keywords in your CV. If the ad says "GenAI", "data governance" or "R2R", use those exact words in your summary and skills line. Screening tools match on phrasing. Run the document through a free ATS checker before you send it.

For wider context on the UK market, the JobRise Hiring Report: the UK shows 2,742 open listings across all categories, with 2,245 posted in the last 30 days. Data & AI is a slice of that. Not the whole picture.

A 7-step plan#

• Pull the current list from the data jobs hub and save every role matching your top two job titles.
• Split your list into direct employers and recruiter-held roles, then apply direct first.
• Rewrite your CV summary using the exact keywords from the top five listings you want.
• Run each tailored CV through the free ATS checker before you hit send.
• Note which listings show pay and which do not, then prepare one salary question for the silent ones.
• Set a daily 20-minute block to check the feed, since 87 roles went live in the last 7 days.
• Track applications in a simple sheet: company, title, date applied, contact name, next step.

FAQ#

How current are these numbers?

They are a snapshot taken on 14 October 2026 from the JobRise live jobs feed, counting open listings in the Data & AI slice for the United Kingdom. Listings change daily, so re-check the feed before you plan around any single figure.

Do I need to be in London to get hired?

No, but London holds 85 of the 188 open listings, so the volume is there. Oxford, Dublin, Leeds and Belfast each carry a handful of roles, and remote wording varies by listing.

Should I apply through a recruiter or direct?

Apply direct when the listing gives you a careers page or named contact. Recruiters like VANRATH and INSIGHT INTERNATIONAL Limited can still be useful routes into roles that never appear on an employer site.

Are there any graduate roles?

Only 1 of the 188 listings looks entry-level, "Graduate Machine Learning Researcher" at Longshot Systems Ltd. Widen to Data Analyst and similar titles if you are early in your career.

Why do so few listings show salary?

Only 71 of 188 postings include pay in this snapshot, which is typical for UK data roles where bands are set after screening. Ask about the range early, and check current official guidance before comparing offers.