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 7 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 134 104
Rank change year-on-year +15 -30 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 878 519 814
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.16% 2.13% 2.20%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.68% 6.23% 7.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 563 341 587
10th Percentile £318 £338 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.95% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £480 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -6.80% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 16 35
10th Percentile - £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.54 £22.19
Median hourly rate £19.34 £26.08 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -25.84% +4.87% +14.77%
75th Percentile £28.00 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.06 £54.38 £41.25
UK median hourly rate £19.34 £27.50 £24.00
% change year-on-year -29.67% +14.58% +10.75%

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 13,147 8,326 11,422
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.29% 34.16% 30.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,325 5,444 7,507
10th Percentile £306 £300 £263
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £548 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.52% -0.32% -3.93%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 662 332 822
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.68 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.36 £15.17
Median hourly rate £47.00 £34.50 £31.75
Median % change year-on-year +36.23% +8.66% +41.16%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.57 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.95 £84.45 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £30.14
% change year-on-year +38.46% +7.83% +34.04%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +13 312 £550 +4.76% 207
North of England +33 193 £453 +16.82% 67
South East +6 190 £460 +2.22% 98
Yorkshire +3 93 £365 -2.67% 20
North West +7 84 £478 -4.50% 34
Midlands -60 54 £466 -15.29% 36
South West -34 52 £513 -6.48% 45
West Midlands -46 48 £467 -16.26% 27
East of England -18 38 £478 +32.32% 45
North East +1 18 £400 +263.64% 13
East Midlands -32 5 £400 -27.27% 9
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 (2.28%) Confluence
2 11 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.25%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.03%) CICS
4 4 (0.46%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.46%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.34%) nginx
6 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 18 (2.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (1.48%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.23%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.23%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 4 (0.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.23%) DELMIA
3 2 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.11%) Maximo
4 1 (0.11%) Oracle Financials
4 1 (0.11%) Primavera
4 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 157 (17.88%) Azure
2 132 (15.03%) AWS
3 41 (4.67%) GCP
4 31 (3.53%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (2.51%) SaaS
6 18 (2.05%) Entra ID
7 17 (1.94%) IaaS
7 17 (1.94%) OCI
7 17 (1.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 15 (1.71%) GitHub
9 13 (1.48%) PaaS
10 12 (1.37%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 12 (1.37%) Power Platform
11 11 (1.25%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 10 (1.14%) OpenShift
13 9 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (1.03%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
14 8 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (0.80%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 238 (27.11%) Firewall
2 162 (18.45%) WAN
3 149 (16.97%) BGP
4 118 (13.44%) OSPF
5 97 (11.05%) LAN
6 93 (10.59%) Network Security
7 85 (9.68%) VPN
8 83 (9.45%) VXLAN
9 77 (8.77%) Structured Cabling
10 76 (8.66%) SAN
11 68 (7.74%) DNS
12 66 (7.52%) VLAN
13 56 (6.38%) Ethernet VPN
14 51 (5.81%) DHCP
15 42 (4.78%) SD-WAN
16 36 (4.10%) BIG-IP
17 35 (3.99%) Cisco Nexus
17 35 (3.99%) Wi-Fi
18 32 (3.64%) NX-OS
19 31 (3.53%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.03%) DataStage
2 7 (0.80%) Power BI
3 5 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (0.57%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.46%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.46%) Power Query
4 4 (0.46%) PowerPivot
4 4 (0.46%) SAP Data Services
5 3 (0.34%) Big Data
5 3 (0.34%) InfluxDB
6 2 (0.23%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.23%) GIS
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.23%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.23%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.11%) DB2
7 1 (0.11%) MS Access
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 42 (4.78%) JIRA
2 36 (4.10%) Git
3 26 (2.96%) GitLab
4 19 (2.16%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.03%) Maven
6 5 (0.57%) ScriptRunner
7 4 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.46%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.46%) Subversion
8 3 (0.34%) Zephyr
9 2 (0.23%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.11%) AppScan
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Metasploit
General
1 231 (26.31%) Social Skills
2 123 (14.01%) Finance
3 111 (12.64%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (7.97%) Public Sector
5 51 (5.81%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (4.90%) Banking
7 28 (3.19%) Telecoms
8 23 (2.62%) Legal
8 23 (2.62%) Retail
9 20 (2.28%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
11 13 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (1.03%) Military
14 8 (0.91%) Marketing
15 7 (0.80%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.80%) Law
16 6 (0.68%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
17 5 (0.57%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 152 (17.31%) Network Engineer
2 119 (13.55%) Architect
3 93 (10.59%) Senior
4 70 (7.97%) Data Centre Engineer
5 65 (7.40%) Project Manager
6 51 (5.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 44 (5.01%) IT Engineer
7 44 (5.01%) Lead
8 42 (4.78%) Field Engineer
9 41 (4.67%) Data Centre Manager
10 39 (4.44%) Field Service Engineer
11 38 (4.33%) Network Architect
12 33 (3.76%) Analyst
13 32 (3.64%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 27 (3.08%) Infrastructure Manager
15 26 (2.96%) Cisco Engineer
15 26 (2.96%) Support Engineer
16 25 (2.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 23 (2.62%) Data Centre Project Manager
18 22 (2.51%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.53%) 802.1X
2 29 (3.30%) Middleware
3 9 (1.03%) LDAP
4 8 (0.91%) Redfish
5 6 (0.68%) Spring
6 5 (0.57%) Jinja
6 5 (0.57%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.57%) XML
7 4 (0.46%) ADO
7 4 (0.46%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.46%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.46%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.46%) REST
7 4 (0.46%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.46%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.46%) VML
7 4 (0.46%) YANG
8 3 (0.34%) Kafka
8 3 (0.34%) RFC 2544
9 2 (0.23%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 56 (6.38%) Hybrid Cloud
2 47 (5.35%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (3.30%) Clustering
4 27 (3.08%) PKI
5 24 (2.73%) Fibre Optics
6 21 (2.39%) Cloud Native
7 18 (2.05%) Driving Licence
7 18 (2.05%) Replication
8 17 (1.94%) Management Information System
8 17 (1.94%) Onboarding
8 17 (1.94%) Public Cloud
9 16 (1.82%) Private Cloud
9 16 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.59%) CMDB
10 14 (1.59%) Enterprise Storage
11 12 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (1.25%) Mainframe
13 9 (1.03%) BYOD
13 9 (1.03%) SCADA
13 9 (1.03%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 106 (12.07%) Windows
2 95 (10.82%) Linux
3 35 (3.99%) Windows Server
4 27 (3.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.39%) Unix
6 18 (2.05%) AIX
7 15 (1.71%) Solaris
8 11 (1.25%) CentOS
9 6 (0.68%) VMS
9 6 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.46%) Android
10 4 (0.46%) HPUX
10 4 (0.46%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.46%) Oracle Linux
10 4 (0.46%) SUSE
11 3 (0.34%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.23%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (18.91%) Problem-Solving
2 155 (17.65%) Migration
3 89 (10.14%) Stakeholder Management
4 80 (9.11%) ITIL
5 79 (9.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 74 (8.43%) High Availability
7 71 (8.09%) Roadmaps
8 67 (7.63%) Infrastructure as Code
9 66 (7.52%) Change Management
9 66 (7.52%) Project Management
10 65 (7.40%) CI/CD
11 63 (7.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 63 (7.18%) Load Balancing
11 63 (7.18%) Project Delivery
12 55 (6.26%) Validation
13 53 (6.04%) Break/Fix
14 51 (5.81%) Customer Service
15 49 (5.58%) Data Centre Operations
16 47 (5.35%) Network Design
16 47 (5.35%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 91 (10.36%) Python
2 35 (3.99%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.73%) SQL
4 23 (2.62%) Java
5 18 (2.05%) Bash
6 14 (1.59%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.25%) COBOL
8 9 (1.03%) MATLAB
9 8 (0.91%) Perl
10 7 (0.80%) Bicep
11 5 (0.57%) VBA
12 4 (0.46%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.46%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.34%) Lisp
14 2 (0.23%) C++
14 2 (0.23%) Korn
15 1 (0.11%) C
15 1 (0.11%) Groovy
15 1 (0.11%) Ruby
15 1 (0.11%) VB
Qualifications
1 272 (30.98%) Security Cleared
2 194 (22.10%) SC Cleared
3 183 (20.84%) Cisco Certification
4 112 (12.76%) CCNP
5 81 (9.23%) CCNA
6 61 (6.95%) DV Cleared
7 60 (6.83%) Degree
8 43 (4.90%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (4.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (4.21%) A+ Certification
10 37 (4.21%) MCSE
11 22 (2.51%) PMP
12 20 (2.28%) CCIE
13 19 (2.16%) AWS Certification
13 19 (2.16%) Azure Certification
13 19 (2.16%) City & Guilds
13 19 (2.16%) PMI Certification
14 16 (1.82%) BICSI Certification
14 16 (1.82%) JNCIS
15 14 (1.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.30%) SLA
2 22 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (2.51%) PMO
3 19 (2.16%) NIST
3 19 (2.16%) QA
4 17 (1.94%) GDPR
5 11 (1.25%) PCI DSS
6 9 (1.03%) NCSC
7 8 (0.91%) GRC
8 6 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.34%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.23%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.11%) RMADS
11 1 (0.11%) SOC 1
System Software
1 76 (8.66%) VMware Infrastructure
2 47 (5.35%) Active Directory
3 33 (3.76%) VMware NSX
4 27 (3.08%) Firmware
5 23 (2.62%) VMware ESXi
6 22 (2.51%) vSphere
7 21 (2.39%) Virtual Machines
8 18 (2.05%) Hyper-V
9 12 (1.37%) Docker
10 10 (1.14%) KVM
11 4 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.46%) VMware Workstation
12 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.34%) NFS
12 3 (0.34%) PowerHA
12 3 (0.34%) SRDF
12 3 (0.34%) UAG
12 3 (0.34%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 2 (0.23%) Ceph
13 2 (0.23%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 96 (10.93%) Ansible
2 79 (9.00%) Terraform
3 48 (5.47%) FortiGate
4 38 (4.33%) Kubernetes
5 28 (3.19%) Grafana
6 21 (2.39%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (1.59%) SCCM
8 10 (1.14%) vCenter Server
9 9 (1.03%) Check_MK
9 9 (1.03%) NetBackup
9 9 (1.03%) Podman
9 9 (1.03%) Red Hat Satellite
10 8 (0.91%) Dell DRAC
11 7 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 7 (0.80%) PowerCLI
12 6 (0.68%) SCOM
13 5 (0.57%) Endace
13 5 (0.57%) Nagios
13 5 (0.57%) vMotion
Vendors
1 240 (27.33%) Cisco
2 117 (13.33%) VMware
3 113 (12.87%) Palo Alto
4 83 (9.45%) Microsoft
5 80 (9.11%) F5
6 75 (8.54%) Juniper
7 72 (8.20%) Dell
8 47 (5.35%) Arista
9 44 (5.01%) Aruba
9 44 (5.01%) CheckPoint
10 39 (4.44%) Fortinet
11 35 (3.99%) SolarWinds
12 30 (3.42%) ServiceNow
13 29 (3.30%) Splunk
14 28 (3.19%) IBM
15 25 (2.85%) Oracle
16 24 (2.73%) Meraki
16 24 (2.73%) Red Hat
17 22 (2.51%) Extreme Networks
17 22 (2.51%) Google