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 16 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 124 104
Rank change year-on-year +8 -20 -4
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,021 627 705
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.23% 2.26% 2.12%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.63% 6.36% 6.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 642 412 501
10th Percentile £325 £313 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £650 £613 £625
90th Percentile £775 £710 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 30 29
10th Percentile £16.01 £25.14 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.25 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +5.67% -0.16%
75th Percentile £38.75 £39.69 £25.83
90th Percentile £89.75 £67.25 £28.55
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £20.00
% change year-on-year -16.50% +25.75% -

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 15,395 9,856 10,215
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.57% 35.46% 30.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,446 6,213 6,628
10th Percentile £325 £306 £300
25th Percentile £425 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £680
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 911 498 534
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.48 £12.83
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £18.91
Median hourly rate £43.50 £31.18 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +39.51% -34.36% +10.47%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £29.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +47.46% -34.44% +10.86%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 August 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 +11 407 £568 +4.61% 491
North of England 0 227 £492 +9.33% 126
South East -6 200 £525 +6.60% 121
Yorkshire +1 133 £365 -9.88% 32
North West +2 79 £538 +3.37% 43
South West -31 67 £550 - 47
Midlands -55 56 £456 -13.14% 48
West Midlands -52 50 £474 -5.20% 34
East of England -22 29 £479 -20.21% 61
North East -21 21 £625 +468.18% 51
East Midlands -26 5 £400 -26.61% 14
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 26 (2.55%) Confluence
2 18 (1.76%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.69%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.49%) Apache
5 5 (0.49%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.39%) CICS
7 2 (0.20%) nginx
7 2 (0.20%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.098%) IIS
8 1 (0.098%) SAS
8 1 (0.098%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.98%) MS Visio
4 9 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.49%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.20%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 12 (1.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.20%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.20%) Oracle BPM
2 2 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.20%) Primavera
3 1 (0.098%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 222 (21.74%) Azure
2 184 (18.02%) AWS
3 48 (4.70%) GCP
4 41 (4.02%) GitHub
5 37 (3.62%) IaaS
6 34 (3.33%) SaaS
7 31 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
8 29 (2.84%) OCI
9 23 (2.25%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.86%) Power Platform
11 15 (1.47%) PaaS
11 15 (1.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 14 (1.37%) OneDrive
13 12 (1.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 12 (1.18%) OpenShift
14 10 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
16 6 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
17 5 (0.49%) AWS Direct Connect
17 5 (0.49%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 259 (25.37%) Firewall
2 168 (16.45%) BGP
3 167 (16.36%) WAN
4 130 (12.73%) DNS
5 115 (11.26%) OSPF
5 115 (11.26%) VXLAN
6 103 (10.09%) SAN
7 98 (9.60%) DHCP
8 94 (9.21%) LAN
9 90 (8.81%) VLAN
9 90 (8.81%) VPN
10 79 (7.74%) Ethernet VPN
11 78 (7.64%) Network Security
12 76 (7.44%) TCP/IP
13 73 (7.15%) SD-WAN
14 69 (6.76%) Structured Cabling
15 55 (5.39%) BIG-IP
16 50 (4.90%) Wireless
17 47 (4.60%) NX-OS
18 46 (4.51%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.25%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.47%) Power BI
3 10 (0.98%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 10 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (0.98%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (0.69%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.59%) Big Data
6 5 (0.49%) Db2
6 5 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
8 3 (0.29%) DataStage
9 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.20%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.20%) GIS
Development Applications
1 71 (6.95%) JIRA
2 34 (3.33%) GitLab
3 25 (2.45%) Git
4 20 (1.96%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.29%) ScriptRunner
6 3 (0.29%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.20%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.20%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.20%) Maven
7 2 (0.20%) MSI
7 2 (0.20%) Subversion
7 2 (0.20%) Toad
8 1 (0.098%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.098%) Claude Code
General
1 249 (24.39%) Social Skills
2 149 (14.59%) Finance
3 106 (10.38%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (5.29%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.60%) Banking
6 42 (4.11%) Telecoms
7 36 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (2.94%) Retail
9 22 (2.15%) Legal
10 20 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 14 (1.37%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.88%) Police
15 8 (0.78%) Law
16 7 (0.69%) Financial Institution
17 5 (0.49%) Marketing
17 5 (0.49%) Military
18 4 (0.39%) Billing
18 4 (0.39%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 155 (15.18%) Architect
2 152 (14.89%) Network Engineer
3 130 (12.73%) Senior
4 113 (11.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 77 (7.54%) Data Centre Engineer
6 74 (7.25%) Project Manager
7 56 (5.48%) Network Architect
8 54 (5.29%) Lead
9 40 (3.92%) Infrastructure Manager
10 39 (3.82%) Data Centre Manager
11 37 (3.62%) IT Engineer
12 35 (3.43%) Senior Network Engineer
13 34 (3.33%) Field Engineer
14 31 (3.04%) Consultant
14 31 (3.04%) Field Service Engineer
15 30 (2.94%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 29 (2.84%) Solutions Architect
17 26 (2.55%) Data Manager
17 26 (2.55%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 25 (2.45%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (2.74%) 802.1X
2 26 (2.55%) Middleware
3 17 (1.67%) REST
4 11 (1.08%) YAML
5 10 (0.98%) JSON
5 10 (0.98%) Redfish
6 8 (0.78%) Elastic Stack
6 8 (0.78%) LDAP
6 8 (0.78%) NETCONF
7 7 (0.69%) OpenConfig
7 7 (0.69%) YANG
8 6 (0.59%) RESTCONF
8 6 (0.59%) SAML
9 5 (0.49%) .NET
9 5 (0.49%) Jinja
10 4 (0.39%) GeoJSON
10 4 (0.39%) Kafka
10 4 (0.39%) RESTful
11 3 (0.29%) .NET Framework
11 3 (0.29%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 70 (6.86%) Hybrid Cloud
2 50 (4.90%) PKI
3 44 (4.31%) Clustering
4 40 (3.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 33 (3.23%) Cloud Native
5 33 (3.23%) Private Cloud
6 31 (3.04%) Enterprise Storage
7 27 (2.64%) Fibre Optics
8 26 (2.55%) Onboarding
9 24 (2.35%) Replication
10 23 (2.25%) Public Cloud
11 21 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
12 16 (1.57%) CMDB
13 15 (1.47%) Management Information System
14 14 (1.37%) Driving Licence
14 14 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
15 12 (1.18%) Operational Technology
16 11 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
16 11 (1.08%) Virtual Team
17 9 (0.88%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 156 (15.28%) Windows
2 97 (9.50%) Linux
3 42 (4.11%) Windows Server
4 33 (3.23%) Unix
5 20 (1.96%) AIX
6 19 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.98%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.98%) Mac OS
7 10 (0.98%) Solaris
8 6 (0.59%) Ubuntu
8 6 (0.59%) VMS
9 5 (0.49%) HPUX
9 5 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
9 5 (0.49%) SUSE
9 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.39%) CentOS
10 4 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (21.16%) Migration
2 177 (17.34%) Problem-Solving
3 138 (13.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 129 (12.63%) Stakeholder Management
5 107 (10.48%) ITIL
6 101 (9.89%) Infrastructure as Code
7 95 (9.30%) High Availability
8 94 (9.21%) Agile
9 87 (8.52%) CI/CD
10 79 (7.74%) Roadmaps
11 77 (7.54%) Continuous Improvement
12 76 (7.44%) Change Management
12 76 (7.44%) Project Delivery
13 74 (7.25%) Validation
14 69 (6.76%) Load Balancing
15 66 (6.46%) ITSM
16 64 (6.27%) Zero Trust
17 63 (6.17%) Disaster Recovery
17 63 (6.17%) Project Management
18 62 (6.07%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 146 (14.30%) Python
2 54 (5.29%) PowerShell
3 36 (3.53%) SQL
4 30 (2.94%) Bash
5 10 (0.98%) Bicep
6 9 (0.88%) ActionScript
7 8 (0.78%) Java
7 8 (0.78%) Perl
7 8 (0.78%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.78%) Shell Script
8 5 (0.49%) C#
8 5 (0.49%) COBOL
9 4 (0.39%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.39%) MATLAB
10 3 (0.29%) Lisp
11 2 (0.20%) Go
11 2 (0.20%) JCL
11 2 (0.20%) Korn
11 2 (0.20%) REXX
11 2 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 270 (26.44%) Security Cleared
2 166 (16.26%) SC Cleared
3 162 (15.87%) Cisco Certification
4 97 (9.50%) DV Cleared
5 90 (8.81%) CCNP
6 59 (5.78%) CCNA
7 58 (5.68%) Degree
8 43 (4.21%) Network+ Certification
9 34 (3.33%) Microsoft Certification
10 29 (2.84%) A+ Certification
10 29 (2.84%) MCSE
11 26 (2.55%) AWS Certification
11 26 (2.55%) CCIE
12 25 (2.45%) Azure Certification
13 22 (2.15%) City & Guilds
13 22 (2.15%) PMP
13 22 (2.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 20 (1.96%) PMI Certification
15 17 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
15 17 (1.67%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.74%) QA
2 27 (2.64%) SLA
3 24 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (1.76%) NIST
5 17 (1.67%) PMO
6 12 (1.18%) GDPR
7 11 (1.08%) NCSC
8 9 (0.88%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.59%) GRC
10 4 (0.39%) NIST 800
10 4 (0.39%) RMADS
11 3 (0.29%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.29%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.20%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.20%) WCAG
13 1 (0.098%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.098%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.098%) SOC 1
System Software
1 120 (11.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 67 (6.56%) Active Directory
3 41 (4.02%) VMware NSX
3 41 (4.02%) vSphere
4 36 (3.53%) VMware ESXi
5 31 (3.04%) Firmware
6 28 (2.74%) Docker
7 26 (2.55%) Hyper-V
8 13 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (1.08%) NFS
10 7 (0.69%) PowerHA
11 6 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.39%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.39%) SRDF
12 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
13 3 (0.29%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.29%) KVM
13 3 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 133 (13.03%) Ansible
2 99 (9.70%) Terraform
3 57 (5.58%) Kubernetes
4 45 (4.41%) FortiGate
5 25 (2.45%) Grafana
5 25 (2.45%) Prometheus
6 24 (2.35%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.57%) vCenter Server
7 16 (1.57%) VxRail
8 12 (1.18%) Microsoft Clustering
9 11 (1.08%) Dell DRAC
9 11 (1.08%) NetBackup
9 11 (1.08%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 10 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.98%) vMotion
11 9 (0.88%) SCCM
12 8 (0.78%) PowerCLI
13 7 (0.69%) Check_MK
14 6 (0.59%) Nagios
14 6 (0.59%) SCOM
Vendors
1 244 (23.90%) Cisco
2 167 (16.36%) VMware
3 112 (10.97%) Microsoft
4 103 (10.09%) Palo Alto
5 102 (9.99%) F5
6 80 (7.84%) Juniper
7 63 (6.17%) Arista
8 62 (6.07%) Fortinet
9 57 (5.58%) Dell
10 55 (5.39%) ServiceNow
11 37 (3.62%) SolarWinds
12 32 (3.13%) IBM
13 31 (3.04%) Aruba
14 30 (2.94%) CheckPoint
15 28 (2.74%) Red Hat
15 28 (2.74%) Splunk
16 25 (2.45%) Google
17 23 (2.25%) Oracle
18 20 (1.96%) Extreme Networks
19 19 (1.86%) Zscaler