Data Centre Contract Job Trends in England

Data Center
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 26 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 133 102
Rank change year-on-year +25 -31 -10
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 945 511 781
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.28% 2.15% 2.14%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.09% 6.27% 6.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 615 338 573
10th Percentile £318 £334 £300
25th Percentile £405 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.84% -0.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £609 £625
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £485 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 13 32
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £17.04 - £23.43
Median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -21.57% -0.84% +14.77%
75th Percentile £33.75 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.95 - £41.25
UK median hourly rate £19.34 £27.50 £24.00
% change year-on-year -29.67% +14.58% +11.81%

All Generic Skills
England

Data Centre falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 13,328 8,154 11,241
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.11% 34.26% 30.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,397 5,329 7,352
10th Percentile £313 £300 £269
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.80% -2.73% -3.51%
75th Percentile £630 £666 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 689 328 827
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.50 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.59 £15.17
Median hourly rate £42.71 £33.91 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.94% -4.48% +60.20%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.42 £82.33 £70.07
UK median hourly rate £40.96 £31.76 £34.00
% change year-on-year +28.97% -6.59% +54.55%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Data Centre job vacancy trend in England

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre in England over the 6 months to 26 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in England

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Centre in England over the 6 months to 26 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in England

Data Centre
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Centre within the England region over the 6 months to 26 May 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +5 326 £550 +4.76% 228
North of England +25 229 £474 +1.83% 58
South East +11 210 £463 +2.78% 81
Yorkshire -6 105 £365 -14.12% 24
North West +22 102 £494 -1.94% 26
Midlands -51 55 £465 -15.45% 26
South West -26 50 £495 -10.00% 28
West Midlands -51 49 £466 -15.29% 22
East of England -17 38 £492 +64.00% 26
North East +3 26 £513 +365.91% 8
East Midlands -29 5 £400 -27.27% 4
Data Centre
UK

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 20 (2.12%) Confluence
2 13 (1.38%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.95%) CICS
5 4 (0.42%) Apache
5 4 (0.42%) CloudStack
5 4 (0.42%) nginx
5 4 (0.42%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.42%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.32%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.11%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (1.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 11 (1.16%) Microsoft Project
2 11 (1.16%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.32%) Adobe Illustrator
3 3 (0.32%) AutoCAD
3 3 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.21%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.21%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.11%) Maximo
3 1 (0.11%) Primavera
3 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 182 (19.26%) Azure
2 154 (16.30%) AWS
3 46 (4.87%) GCP
4 32 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
5 27 (2.86%) SaaS
6 26 (2.75%) OCI
7 24 (2.54%) IaaS
8 19 (2.01%) GitHub
9 18 (1.90%) Entra ID
10 17 (1.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 13 (1.38%) PaaS
12 12 (1.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 10 (1.06%) Power Platform
14 9 (0.95%) OpenShift
15 8 (0.85%) Amazon EKS
15 8 (0.85%) Amazon GuardDuty
15 8 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (0.85%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 264 (27.94%) Firewall
2 181 (19.15%) WAN
3 162 (17.14%) BGP
4 131 (13.86%) OSPF
5 107 (11.32%) LAN
6 100 (10.58%) VXLAN
7 98 (10.37%) Network Security
8 92 (9.74%) SAN
9 90 (9.52%) Structured Cabling
10 86 (9.10%) VLAN
10 86 (9.10%) VPN
11 85 (8.99%) DNS
12 67 (7.09%) Ethernet VPN
13 66 (6.98%) DHCP
14 56 (5.93%) SD-WAN
15 47 (4.97%) BIG-IP
16 38 (4.02%) NX-OS
17 37 (3.92%) Cisco Nexus
17 37 (3.92%) NAS
17 37 (3.92%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (0.95%) DataStage
2 6 (0.63%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (0.53%) Power BI
3 5 (0.53%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.42%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
4 4 (0.42%) SAP Data Services
5 3 (0.32%) Big Data
5 3 (0.32%) GIS
6 2 (0.21%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
6 2 (0.21%) Power Query
6 2 (0.21%) PowerPivot
7 1 (0.11%) DB2
7 1 (0.11%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.11%) MS Access
7 1 (0.11%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 46 (4.87%) JIRA
2 37 (3.92%) GitLab
3 35 (3.70%) Git
4 24 (2.54%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.63%) Maven
6 5 (0.53%) ScriptRunner
7 4 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.42%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.42%) Subversion
8 3 (0.32%) Zephyr
9 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.11%) AppScan
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Metasploit
General
1 240 (25.40%) Social Skills
2 133 (14.07%) Finance
3 104 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
4 71 (7.51%) Public Sector
5 58 (6.14%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (4.55%) Banking
7 28 (2.96%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.54%) Legal
9 23 (2.43%) Manufacturing
10 22 (2.33%) Retail
11 20 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (0.95%) Military
14 8 (0.85%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.85%) Marketing
14 8 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (0.74%) Law
15 7 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.53%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.53%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 160 (16.93%) Network Engineer
2 129 (13.65%) Architect
3 107 (11.32%) Senior
4 77 (8.15%) Data Centre Engineer
5 70 (7.41%) Project Manager
6 67 (7.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 47 (4.97%) Lead
8 44 (4.66%) Network Architect
9 43 (4.55%) IT Engineer
10 42 (4.44%) Field Engineer
11 41 (4.34%) Data Centre Manager
12 39 (4.13%) Field Service Engineer
13 36 (3.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 31 (3.28%) Infrastructure Manager
15 26 (2.75%) Analyst
15 26 (2.75%) Cisco Engineer
15 26 (2.75%) Solutions Architect
16 25 (2.65%) Administrator
16 25 (2.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 25 (2.65%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (3.60%) 802.1X
2 33 (3.49%) Middleware
3 11 (1.16%) LDAP
4 9 (0.95%) Redfish
5 7 (0.74%) Spring
6 6 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
7 5 (0.53%) Jinja
7 5 (0.53%) Kafka
7 5 (0.53%) REST
7 5 (0.53%) XML
8 4 (0.42%) ADO
8 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.32%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.32%) EJB
9 3 (0.32%) Java EE
9 3 (0.32%) JSON
9 3 (0.32%) OpenLayers
9 3 (0.32%) RFC 2544
9 3 (0.32%) VML
9 3 (0.32%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.03%) Hybrid Cloud
2 45 (4.76%) Analytical Mindset
3 28 (2.96%) Clustering
4 27 (2.86%) PKI
5 25 (2.65%) Fibre Optics
6 22 (2.33%) Cloud Native
7 20 (2.12%) Driving Licence
7 20 (2.12%) Onboarding
7 20 (2.12%) Private Cloud
8 19 (2.01%) Management Information System
9 17 (1.80%) Replication
10 16 (1.69%) CMDB
10 16 (1.69%) Enterprise Storage
10 16 (1.69%) Public Cloud
11 15 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.16%) Mainframe
14 9 (0.95%) BYOD
14 9 (0.95%) SCADA
14 9 (0.95%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 109 (11.53%) Windows
2 108 (11.43%) Linux
3 31 (3.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 30 (3.17%) Windows Server
5 22 (2.33%) Unix
6 20 (2.12%) AIX
7 16 (1.69%) Solaris
8 12 (1.27%) CentOS
9 8 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.53%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.53%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.53%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.53%) VMS
11 4 (0.42%) HPUX
11 4 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
11 4 (0.42%) SUSE
12 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (17.57%) Problem-Solving
2 158 (16.72%) Migration
3 94 (9.95%) Stakeholder Management
4 87 (9.21%) ITIL
5 86 (9.10%) High Availability
6 85 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 83 (8.78%) Continuous Improvement
8 78 (8.25%) Infrastructure as Code
8 78 (8.25%) Roadmaps
9 76 (8.04%) CI/CD
10 71 (7.51%) Load Balancing
11 69 (7.30%) Change Management
12 68 (7.20%) Project Delivery
13 66 (6.98%) Project Management
14 61 (6.46%) Agile
14 61 (6.46%) Validation
15 55 (5.82%) DevOps
16 54 (5.71%) Data Centre Operations
16 54 (5.71%) Network Design
17 53 (5.61%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 109 (11.53%) Python
2 34 (3.60%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.65%) SQL
4 22 (2.33%) Bash
5 21 (2.22%) Java
6 16 (1.69%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.16%) COBOL
7 11 (1.16%) MATLAB
8 8 (0.85%) Perl
9 7 (0.74%) Bicep
9 7 (0.74%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.53%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.32%) ActionScript
11 3 (0.32%) Lisp
11 3 (0.32%) VBA
12 2 (0.21%) C++
12 2 (0.21%) Korn
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) Groovy
13 1 (0.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 288 (30.48%) Security Cleared
2 209 (22.12%) SC Cleared
3 196 (20.74%) Cisco Certification
4 126 (13.33%) CCNP
5 91 (9.63%) CCNA
6 67 (7.09%) DV Cleared
7 65 (6.88%) Degree
8 52 (5.50%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (3.92%) A+ Certification
10 37 (3.92%) MCSE
11 21 (2.22%) Azure Certification
11 21 (2.22%) PMP
12 20 (2.12%) CCIE
12 20 (2.12%) City & Guilds
13 19 (2.01%) AWS Certification
13 19 (2.01%) PMI Certification
14 17 (1.80%) BICSI Certification
15 16 (1.69%) JNCIS
16 15 (1.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.39%) SLA
2 22 (2.33%) NIST
3 20 (2.12%) PMO
4 19 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.59%) GDPR
6 14 (1.48%) QA
7 9 (0.95%) NCSC
7 9 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.85%) GRC
9 6 (0.63%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.32%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.32%) RMADS
11 2 (0.21%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.21%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.11%) COBIT
12 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.11%) SOC 1
System Software
1 82 (8.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 47 (4.97%) Active Directory
3 31 (3.28%) Firmware
4 26 (2.75%) vSphere
5 25 (2.65%) VMware NSX
6 24 (2.54%) VMware ESXi
7 22 (2.33%) Virtual Machines
8 20 (2.12%) Hyper-V
9 12 (1.27%) KVM
10 11 (1.16%) Docker
11 5 (0.53%) NFS
12 4 (0.42%) Ceph
12 4 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.42%) VMware Workstation
13 3 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.32%) PowerHA
13 3 (0.32%) SRDF
13 3 (0.32%) UAG
13 3 (0.32%) Veritas Cluster Server
14 2 (0.21%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 111 (11.75%) Ansible
2 86 (9.10%) Terraform
3 47 (4.97%) FortiGate
4 42 (4.44%) Kubernetes
5 29 (3.07%) Grafana
6 25 (2.65%) Prometheus
7 19 (2.01%) Microsoft Intune
8 13 (1.38%) Check_MK
9 11 (1.16%) Podman
9 11 (1.16%) Red Hat Satellite
10 10 (1.06%) NetBackup
10 10 (1.06%) SCCM
10 10 (1.06%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.95%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 7 (0.74%) PowerCLI
13 6 (0.63%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 5 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
14 5 (0.53%) Nagios
14 5 (0.53%) vMotion
Vendors
1 257 (27.20%) Cisco
2 127 (13.44%) VMware
3 126 (13.33%) Palo Alto
4 93 (9.84%) F5
5 84 (8.89%) Microsoft
6 73 (7.72%) Juniper
7 67 (7.09%) Dell
8 57 (6.03%) Arista
9 54 (5.71%) Aruba
10 48 (5.08%) CheckPoint
11 46 (4.87%) Fortinet
12 43 (4.55%) ServiceNow
13 40 (4.23%) SolarWinds
14 32 (3.39%) IBM
15 28 (2.96%) Red Hat
15 28 (2.96%) Splunk
16 25 (2.65%) Oracle
17 24 (2.54%) Google
18 23 (2.43%) Meraki
19 22 (2.33%) Extreme Networks