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 25 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 126 104
Rank change year-on-year +16 -22 -8
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 992 553 797
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.28% 2.20% 2.13%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.96% 6.34% 6.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 610 369 564
10th Percentile £318 £302 £313
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £538
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -3.26% -2.27%
75th Percentile £606 £610 £625
90th Percentile £738 £688 £693
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £535
% change year-on-year - -6.54% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 16 43
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £12.08
25th Percentile £18.16 £24.94 £21.66
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +1.13% +14.77%
75th Percentile £34.49 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.45 £71.88 £41.00
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year -16.50% +5.67% +13.43%

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 14,245 8,718 11,400
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.81% 34.73% 30.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,889 5,602 7,324
10th Percentile £313 £303 £276
25th Percentile £415 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.57%
75th Percentile £638 £663 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £801
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 782 400 852
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.16
25th Percentile £21.14 £20.45 £15.39
Median hourly rate £43.96 £33.89 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.73% -8.42% +64.54%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.24 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.23 £81.35 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £32.05 £36.00
% change year-on-year +32.61% -10.97% +60.11%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +13 357 £550 +2.37% 107
North of England +11 242 £474 +5.33% 37
South East +3 210 £475 +5.56% 78
Yorkshire -4 128 £365 -16.57% 18
North West +7 90 £500 -3.15% 15
Midlands -50 59 £467 -13.15% 27
West Midlands -43 54 £474 -11.81% 19
South West -43 49 £495 -10.00% 27
East of England -10 40 £492 +64.00% 24
North East -6 30 £625 +468.18% 4
East Midlands -23 4 £363 -29.70% 8
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 23 (2.32%) Confluence
2 18 (1.81%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (1.01%) CICS
5 4 (0.40%) Apache
5 4 (0.40%) CloudStack
5 4 (0.40%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.40%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.30%) nginx
6 3 (0.30%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.10%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (1.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.91%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.50%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.30%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.20%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.20%) Primavera
2 2 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 213 (21.47%) Azure
2 184 (18.55%) AWS
3 54 (5.44%) GCP
4 38 (3.83%) IaaS
5 35 (3.53%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (3.43%) GitHub
6 34 (3.43%) SaaS
7 30 (3.02%) OCI
8 21 (2.12%) Entra ID
8 21 (2.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 20 (2.02%) PaaS
10 13 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (1.31%) OneDrive
11 12 (1.21%) OpenShift
11 12 (1.21%) Power Platform
12 11 (1.11%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 9 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (0.81%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 8 (0.81%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 268 (27.02%) Firewall
2 180 (18.15%) WAN
3 170 (17.14%) BGP
4 130 (13.10%) OSPF
5 110 (11.09%) DNS
6 105 (10.58%) LAN
6 105 (10.58%) VXLAN
7 99 (9.98%) SAN
8 92 (9.27%) VPN
9 91 (9.17%) VLAN
10 89 (8.97%) Network Security
11 87 (8.77%) Structured Cabling
12 77 (7.76%) DHCP
13 72 (7.26%) SD-WAN
14 69 (6.96%) Ethernet VPN
15 58 (5.85%) BIG-IP
16 53 (5.34%) TCP/IP
17 43 (4.33%) NX-OS
18 42 (4.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 42 (4.23%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (0.91%) DataStage
1 9 (0.91%) SQL Server
2 7 (0.71%) Power BI
3 6 (0.60%) Big Data
3 6 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
4 4 (0.40%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
4 4 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
5 3 (0.30%) GIS
5 3 (0.30%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.20%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.20%) Db2
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle Database 12c
6 2 (0.20%) Power Query
6 2 (0.20%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 63 (6.35%) JIRA
2 38 (3.83%) GitLab
3 31 (3.13%) Git
3 31 (3.13%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.40%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 4 (0.40%) Eclipse
4 4 (0.40%) Maven
4 4 (0.40%) ScriptRunner
4 4 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (0.40%) Subversion
5 3 (0.30%) Zephyr
6 2 (0.20%) MSI
7 1 (0.10%) AppScan
7 1 (0.10%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.10%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.10%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.10%) Metasploit
General
1 256 (25.81%) Social Skills
2 140 (14.11%) Finance
3 106 (10.69%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (6.96%) Public Sector
5 60 (6.05%) Documentation Skills
6 46 (4.64%) Banking
7 36 (3.63%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.92%) Legal
9 23 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
10 21 (2.12%) Retail
11 20 (2.02%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (1.01%) Military
13 10 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.81%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.81%) Law
14 8 (0.81%) Marketing
15 7 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.60%) Financial Institution
17 5 (0.50%) Police
Job Titles
1 154 (15.52%) Network Engineer
2 134 (13.51%) Architect
3 113 (11.39%) Senior
4 93 (9.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 85 (8.57%) Data Centre Engineer
6 66 (6.65%) Project Manager
7 53 (5.34%) Lead
8 48 (4.84%) Network Architect
9 42 (4.23%) IT Engineer
10 40 (4.03%) Field Engineer
11 36 (3.63%) Field Service Engineer
12 34 (3.43%) Infrastructure Manager
13 32 (3.23%) Data Centre Manager
14 30 (3.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 29 (2.92%) Analyst
16 28 (2.82%) Support Engineer
17 27 (2.72%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 27 (2.72%) Solutions Architect
18 25 (2.52%) Administrator
18 25 (2.52%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (3.43%) Middleware
2 31 (3.13%) 802.1X
3 12 (1.21%) LDAP
4 10 (1.01%) Redfish
5 8 (0.81%) REST
6 7 (0.71%) Spring
7 6 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.50%) Jinja
8 5 (0.50%) Kafka
8 5 (0.50%) XML
9 4 (0.40%) ADO
9 4 (0.40%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.40%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.40%) RESTful
9 4 (0.40%) Spring Boot
9 4 (0.40%) YAML
10 3 (0.30%) ARM Templates
10 3 (0.30%) OpenConfig
10 3 (0.30%) RESTCONF
10 3 (0.30%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 66 (6.65%) Hybrid Cloud
2 43 (4.33%) Analytical Mindset
3 36 (3.63%) Cloud Native
4 31 (3.13%) Clustering
5 30 (3.02%) PKI
6 28 (2.82%) Enterprise Storage
7 27 (2.72%) Onboarding
7 27 (2.72%) Private Cloud
8 26 (2.62%) Fibre Optics
9 21 (2.12%) Management Information System
10 19 (1.92%) Driving Licence
11 18 (1.81%) Replication
12 15 (1.51%) CMDB
12 15 (1.51%) Public Cloud
13 13 (1.31%) Data Protection Act
14 12 (1.21%) Mainframe
15 10 (1.01%) SCADA
15 10 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
16 9 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
16 9 (0.91%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 131 (13.21%) Windows
2 107 (10.79%) Linux
3 35 (3.53%) Windows Server
4 31 (3.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (2.62%) Unix
6 22 (2.22%) AIX
7 17 (1.71%) Solaris
8 11 (1.11%) CentOS
9 10 (1.01%) Apple iOS
9 10 (1.01%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.50%) HPUX
11 5 (0.50%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.50%) SUSE
11 5 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.50%) VMS
12 4 (0.40%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.20%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 178 (17.94%) Migration
2 166 (16.73%) Problem-Solving
3 119 (12.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 113 (11.39%) Stakeholder Management
5 102 (10.28%) ITIL
6 93 (9.38%) Infrastructure as Code
7 92 (9.27%) CI/CD
7 92 (9.27%) High Availability
8 84 (8.47%) Continuous Improvement
9 79 (7.96%) Roadmaps
10 77 (7.76%) Agile
11 75 (7.56%) Change Management
12 72 (7.26%) Load Balancing
13 69 (6.96%) Validation
14 68 (6.85%) Project Delivery
15 67 (6.75%) DevOps
16 66 (6.65%) Project Management
16 66 (6.65%) Zero Trust
17 61 (6.15%) ITSM
18 59 (5.95%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 131 (13.21%) Python
2 39 (3.93%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.82%) SQL
4 22 (2.22%) Bash
5 17 (1.71%) Java
6 16 (1.61%) Shell Script
7 14 (1.41%) Bicep
8 11 (1.11%) COBOL
8 11 (1.11%) MATLAB
9 9 (0.91%) ActionScript
10 8 (0.81%) Perl
11 7 (0.71%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.60%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.40%) Lisp
14 3 (0.30%) C#
14 3 (0.30%) VBA
15 2 (0.20%) C++
15 2 (0.20%) JCL
15 2 (0.20%) REXX
15 2 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 280 (28.23%) Security Cleared
2 194 (19.56%) SC Cleared
3 185 (18.65%) Cisco Certification
4 113 (11.39%) CCNP
5 80 (8.06%) CCNA
6 76 (7.66%) DV Cleared
7 70 (7.06%) Degree
8 49 (4.94%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (4.03%) Microsoft Certification
10 34 (3.43%) A+ Certification
10 34 (3.43%) MCSE
11 27 (2.72%) Azure Certification
12 26 (2.62%) PMP
13 24 (2.42%) AWS Certification
13 24 (2.42%) PMI Certification
14 22 (2.22%) CCIE
15 21 (2.12%) City & Guilds
16 19 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 17 (1.71%) BICSI Certification
18 15 (1.51%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.33%) SLA
2 23 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (2.22%) NIST
4 20 (2.02%) PMO
5 18 (1.81%) QA
6 16 (1.61%) GDPR
7 15 (1.51%) NCSC
8 10 (1.01%) GRC
9 9 (0.91%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
11 5 (0.50%) RMADS
12 4 (0.40%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.30%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.20%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.20%) Data Quality
14 2 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 2 (0.20%) WCAG
15 1 (0.10%) COBIT
15 1 (0.10%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 96 (9.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 54 (5.44%) Active Directory
3 35 (3.53%) VMware ESXi
4 29 (2.92%) Firmware
5 26 (2.62%) VMware NSX
5 26 (2.62%) vSphere
6 24 (2.42%) Hyper-V
7 22 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
8 14 (1.41%) Docker
9 11 (1.11%) KVM
10 8 (0.81%) NFS
11 6 (0.60%) Microsoft App-V
12 5 (0.50%) SRDF
13 4 (0.40%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.40%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.40%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.30%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.30%) UAG
14 3 (0.30%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 122 (12.30%) Ansible
2 98 (9.88%) Terraform
3 48 (4.84%) FortiGate
4 46 (4.64%) Kubernetes
5 29 (2.92%) Grafana
6 27 (2.72%) Prometheus
7 26 (2.62%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.51%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.31%) Check_MK
10 11 (1.11%) NetBackup
10 11 (1.11%) Podman
10 11 (1.11%) Red Hat Satellite
11 10 (1.01%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (1.01%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.91%) PowerCLI
12 9 (0.91%) SCCM
13 8 (0.81%) vMotion
14 7 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.71%) Tivoli Storage Manager
15 5 (0.50%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 252 (25.40%) Cisco
2 146 (14.72%) VMware
3 120 (12.10%) Palo Alto
4 99 (9.98%) F5
4 99 (9.98%) Microsoft
5 79 (7.96%) Juniper
6 65 (6.55%) Dell
7 63 (6.35%) Arista
8 60 (6.05%) Fortinet
9 49 (4.94%) ServiceNow
10 44 (4.44%) Aruba
11 42 (4.23%) SolarWinds
12 35 (3.53%) CheckPoint
12 35 (3.53%) IBM
13 33 (3.33%) Red Hat
14 30 (3.02%) Google
15 29 (2.92%) Splunk
16 25 (2.52%) Oracle
17 22 (2.22%) Extreme Networks
17 22 (2.22%) HP
267 Data Centre jobs in England