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

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 136 105
Rank change year-on-year +21 -31 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 880 521 795
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.17% 2.15% 2.16%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.72% 6.29% 7.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 566 343 575
10th Percentile £318 £350 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.64% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £603 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £480 £517 £525
% change year-on-year -7.16% -1.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 15 34
10th Percentile - £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £22.13
Median hourly rate £19.34 £27.50 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -29.67% +10.57% +14.77%
75th Percentile £28.00 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.06 £56.50 £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 13,102 8,282 11,347
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.34% 34.18% 30.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,308 5,415 7,443
10th Percentile £308 £300 £265
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £548 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.48% -0.36% -4.14%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £501 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.60% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 661 326 822
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.71 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £21.25 £15.17
Median hourly rate £47.50 £35.45 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year +34.01% +10.37% +42.83%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.69 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £84.75 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £31.13
% change year-on-year +38.46% +4.42% +38.43%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 +14 313 £550 +4.76% 200
North of England +32 198 £459 +18.30% 69
South East -1 190 £460 +2.22% 97
Yorkshire +6 95 £365 -2.67% 22
North West +7 86 £479 -4.13% 34
Midlands -56 53 £466 -15.29% 34
South West -43 48 £498 -9.22% 38
West Midlands -43 47 £467 -16.26% 24
East of England -15 38 £478 +32.32% 41
North East +2 19 £400 +263.64% 13
East Midlands -29 5 £400 -27.27% 10
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 (2.27%) Confluence
2 11 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.14%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.02%) CICS
5 4 (0.45%) nginx
5 4 (0.45%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.45%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.34%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 18 (2.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.36%) 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 (0.45%) 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
1 159 (18.07%) Azure
2 134 (15.23%) AWS
3 42 (4.77%) GCP
4 30 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (2.50%) SaaS
6 18 (2.05%) OCI
7 17 (1.93%) Entra ID
7 17 (1.93%) IaaS
7 17 (1.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 15 (1.70%) GitHub
9 13 (1.48%) PaaS
10 12 (1.36%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 12 (1.36%) Power Platform
11 11 (1.25%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 9 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.02%) OpenShift
13 8 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (0.80%) AWS KMS
14 7 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 240 (27.27%) Firewall
2 164 (18.64%) WAN
3 149 (16.93%) BGP
4 118 (13.41%) OSPF
5 97 (11.02%) LAN
6 94 (10.68%) Network Security
7 84 (9.55%) VPN
8 82 (9.32%) VXLAN
9 78 (8.86%) SAN
9 78 (8.86%) Structured Cabling
10 68 (7.73%) DNS
11 67 (7.61%) VLAN
12 56 (6.36%) Ethernet VPN
13 51 (5.80%) DHCP
14 43 (4.89%) SD-WAN
15 36 (4.09%) BIG-IP
16 35 (3.98%) Cisco Nexus
16 35 (3.98%) Wi-Fi
17 32 (3.64%) NX-OS
18 31 (3.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.02%) DataStage
2 7 (0.80%) Power BI
3 6 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.57%) SQL Server
5 4 (0.45%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.45%) Power Query
5 4 (0.45%) PowerPivot
5 4 (0.45%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.34%) Big Data
6 3 (0.34%) GIS
7 2 (0.23%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.11%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.11%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 42 (4.77%) JIRA
2 34 (3.86%) Git
3 26 (2.95%) GitLab
4 19 (2.16%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.80%) Maven
6 5 (0.57%) ScriptRunner
7 4 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.45%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.45%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.45%) 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
1 232 (26.36%) Social Skills
2 125 (14.20%) Finance
3 110 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
4 71 (8.07%) Public Sector
5 52 (5.91%) Documentation Skills
6 42 (4.77%) Banking
7 28 (3.18%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.73%) Retail
9 23 (2.61%) Legal
10 20 (2.27%) Manufacturing
11 18 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (1.02%) Military
15 8 (0.91%) Marketing
16 7 (0.80%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.80%) Law
17 6 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
18 5 (0.57%) Investment Banking
18 5 (0.57%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 152 (17.27%) Network Engineer
2 120 (13.64%) Architect
3 94 (10.68%) Senior
4 70 (7.95%) Data Centre Engineer
5 65 (7.39%) Project Manager
6 50 (5.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 46 (5.23%) Lead
8 44 (5.00%) IT Engineer
9 42 (4.77%) Field Engineer
10 41 (4.66%) Data Centre Manager
11 39 (4.43%) Field Service Engineer
11 39 (4.43%) Network Architect
12 33 (3.75%) Analyst
12 33 (3.75%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 27 (3.07%) Infrastructure Manager
14 25 (2.84%) Cisco Engineer
15 24 (2.73%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 24 (2.73%) Support Engineer
16 23 (2.61%) Data Centre Project Manager
17 22 (2.50%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.52%) 802.1X
2 29 (3.30%) Middleware
3 9 (1.02%) LDAP
4 8 (0.91%) Redfish
5 7 (0.80%) Spring
6 5 (0.57%) Jinja
6 5 (0.57%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.57%) XML
7 4 (0.45%) ADO
7 4 (0.45%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.45%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.45%) REST
7 4 (0.45%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.45%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.45%) VML
7 4 (0.45%) YANG
8 3 (0.34%) EJB
8 3 (0.34%) Java EE
8 3 (0.34%) Kafka
8 3 (0.34%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.25%) Hybrid Cloud
2 47 (5.34%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (3.30%) Clustering
4 27 (3.07%) PKI
5 24 (2.73%) Fibre Optics
6 22 (2.50%) Cloud Native
7 19 (2.16%) Replication
8 18 (2.05%) Driving Licence
9 17 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 17 (1.93%) Onboarding
9 17 (1.93%) Public Cloud
10 16 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.70%) Private Cloud
12 14 (1.59%) CMDB
12 14 (1.59%) Enterprise Storage
13 12 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
14 11 (1.25%) Mainframe
15 9 (1.02%) BYOD
15 9 (1.02%) SCADA
15 9 (1.02%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 106 (12.05%) Windows
2 95 (10.80%) Linux
3 35 (3.98%) Windows Server
4 27 (3.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.39%) Unix
6 19 (2.16%) AIX
7 16 (1.82%) Solaris
8 10 (1.14%) CentOS
9 7 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.68%) VMS
11 4 (0.45%) Android
11 4 (0.45%) HPUX
11 4 (0.45%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.45%) Oracle Linux
11 4 (0.45%) SUSE
12 3 (0.34%) Windows 10
12 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.23%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
2 156 (17.73%) Migration
3 88 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
4 81 (9.20%) ITIL
5 78 (8.86%) Continuous Improvement
6 74 (8.41%) High Availability
7 72 (8.18%) Roadmaps
8 67 (7.61%) Infrastructure as Code
8 67 (7.61%) Project Management
9 66 (7.50%) Change Management
10 64 (7.27%) CI/CD
10 64 (7.27%) Load Balancing
11 63 (7.16%) Project Delivery
12 62 (7.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 55 (6.25%) Validation
14 53 (6.02%) Break/Fix
15 51 (5.80%) Customer Service
16 48 (5.45%) Data Centre Operations
16 48 (5.45%) Network Design
16 48 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 93 (10.57%) Python
2 35 (3.98%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.84%) SQL
4 22 (2.50%) Java
5 19 (2.16%) Bash
6 14 (1.59%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.25%) COBOL
8 9 (1.02%) MATLAB
9 8 (0.91%) Perl
10 7 (0.80%) Bicep
11 5 (0.57%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.57%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.57%) VBA
12 2 (0.23%) C++
12 2 (0.23%) Korn
12 2 (0.23%) Lisp
13 1 (0.11%) Groovy
13 1 (0.11%) JCL
13 1 (0.11%) REXX
13 1 (0.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 272 (30.91%) Security Cleared
2 196 (22.27%) SC Cleared
3 184 (20.91%) Cisco Certification
4 113 (12.84%) CCNP
5 82 (9.32%) CCNA
6 60 (6.82%) Degree
7 58 (6.59%) DV Cleared
8 44 (5.00%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (4.55%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (4.20%) A+ Certification
10 37 (4.20%) MCSE
11 22 (2.50%) PMP
12 20 (2.27%) 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 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (2.50%) PMO
3 19 (2.16%) NIST
4 18 (2.05%) QA
5 17 (1.93%) GDPR
6 11 (1.25%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.02%) NCSC
8 8 (0.91%) GRC
9 6 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.34%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.23%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.11%) COBIT
12 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.11%) RMADS
12 1 (0.11%) SOC 1
System Software
1 76 (8.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 46 (5.23%) Active Directory
3 32 (3.64%) VMware NSX
4 29 (3.30%) Firmware
5 23 (2.61%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (2.39%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (2.39%) vSphere
7 18 (2.05%) Hyper-V
8 11 (1.25%) Docker
9 10 (1.14%) KVM
10 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.45%) VMware Workstation
11 3 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
11 3 (0.34%) NFS
11 3 (0.34%) PowerHA
11 3 (0.34%) SRDF
11 3 (0.34%) UAG
11 3 (0.34%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 2 (0.23%) Ceph
12 2 (0.23%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 94 (10.68%) Ansible
2 75 (8.52%) Terraform
3 47 (5.34%) FortiGate
4 37 (4.20%) Kubernetes
5 27 (3.07%) Grafana
6 22 (2.50%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.59%) SCCM
8 13 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
9 10 (1.14%) vCenter Server
10 9 (1.02%) Check_MK
10 9 (1.02%) NetBackup
10 9 (1.02%) Podman
10 9 (1.02%) Red Hat Satellite
11 8 (0.91%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 7 (0.80%) PowerCLI
13 6 (0.68%) SCOM
14 5 (0.57%) Endace
14 5 (0.57%) Nagios
14 5 (0.57%) vMotion
Vendors
1 242 (27.50%) Cisco
2 117 (13.30%) VMware
3 115 (13.07%) Palo Alto
4 82 (9.32%) Microsoft
5 80 (9.09%) F5
6 75 (8.52%) Juniper
7 72 (8.18%) Dell
8 47 (5.34%) Arista
9 44 (5.00%) Aruba
9 44 (5.00%) CheckPoint
10 41 (4.66%) Fortinet
11 35 (3.98%) SolarWinds
12 31 (3.52%) ServiceNow
13 30 (3.41%) IBM
14 29 (3.30%) Splunk
15 25 (2.84%) Red Hat
16 24 (2.73%) Meraki
16 24 (2.73%) Oracle
17 22 (2.50%) Extreme Networks
17 22 (2.50%) Google