Data science has become one of the most sought-after disciplines in European tech. Demand continues to outpace supply in most major markets, which has pushed salaries higher — particularly for those with ML engineering or applied AI experience.
These figures are gross annual base salary estimates for mid-level data scientists (4–6 years of experience) in 2026.
London
London offers the highest data science salaries in Europe. Mid-level data scientists typically earn £75,000–£100,000, with ML engineers and those working with large-scale production systems earning towards the higher end. Senior data scientists at finance, tech, and growth-stage startups regularly exceed £110,000 in base salary.
The concentration of fintech companies, data-intensive retailers, and the London offices of major US tech firms creates strong demand. The role has also bifurcated: classical data scientists working on analytics and modelling earn towards £75k–£90k, while ML engineers working on production systems command £90k–£120k+.
See the full Data Scientist salary guide for London
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a strong market for data scientists, driven by Booking.com, Adyen, and a growing number of data-intensive scale-ups. Mid-level data scientists typically earn €68,000–€90,000. The 30% tax ruling remains attractive for international hires and effectively increases take-home pay significantly for the first five years.
See the full Data Scientist salary guide for Amsterdam
Berlin
Berlin has a growing data science market, particularly in e-commerce, health tech, and fintech. Mid-level salaries are typically €60,000–€80,000. The startup-heavy landscape means salary variation is higher than in London or Amsterdam — well-funded series B+ companies often match or exceed the ranges above, while earlier-stage companies typically pay less.
See the full Data Scientist salary guide for Berlin
Dublin
Dublin's tech cluster drives healthy demand for data scientists. Mid-level salaries typically fall between €65,000 and €85,000. US tech companies with Irish headquarters tend to align compensation more closely with their global bands than local Irish companies do, which creates meaningful variation within the market.
What's driving salary growth in data science?
Three factors: (1) the AI/ML investment cycle has increased demand for applied machine learning skills specifically; (2) many companies have underinvested in data infrastructure and are now scrambling to catch up; (3) the skill set genuinely takes years to develop, which keeps supply constrained.
Specialisations that command premiums: MLOps / ML engineering, NLP and LLM fine-tuning, causal inference, and experimentation design (A/B testing at scale).
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