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 28 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 129 109
Rank change year-on-year +19 -20 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,032 613 733
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.29% 2.23% 2.13%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.88% 6.41% 6.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 636 403 517
10th Percentile £318 £311 £350
25th Percentile £411 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.24% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £608 £625
90th Percentile £753 £688 £693
UK median daily rate £500 £509 £538
% change year-on-year -1.72% -5.44% +0.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 20 31
10th Percentile £16.01 £25.04 £11.95
25th Percentile £18.07 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £20.43 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -18.79% +5.67% +1.28%
75th Percentile £35.22 £40.94 £27.00
90th Percentile £79.43 £49.38 £31.12
UK median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year -21.07% +5.67% +19.00%

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 15,004 9,564 10,669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.28% 34.86% 31.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,297 6,038 6,938
10th Percentile £318 £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 £675
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £542
% change year-on-year - -3.13% -1.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 822 481 623
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.48 £12.40
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.87 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.71 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +34.39% -27.31% +11.23%
75th Percentile £71.00 £60.00 £66.38
90th Percentile £86.23 £80.00 £74.75
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -25.00% +11.89%

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 +13 392 £550 +2.61% 322
North of England +6 242 £480 +6.56% 62
South East -1 211 £520 +10.64% 103
Yorkshire +2 136 £365 -9.88% 17
North West -4 87 £516 -1.81% 24
Midlands -51 60 £456 -15.65% 13
South West -27 59 £495 -10.00% 30
West Midlands -43 55 £465 -11.43% 9
East of England -15 32 £500 -3.85% 42
North East -18 25 £625 +468.18% 21
East Midlands -22 4 £363 -33.49% 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 25 (2.42%) Confluence
2 15 (1.45%) SharePoint
3 10 (0.97%) CICS
3 10 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.68%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.48%) Apache
5 5 (0.48%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.39%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.29%) nginx
7 3 (0.29%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.097%) IIS
8 1 (0.097%) SAS
Applications
1 16 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.97%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.48%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.19%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 7 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.19%) Primavera
2 2 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.097%) OpenText MBPM
3 1 (0.097%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 226 (21.90%) Azure
2 184 (17.83%) AWS
3 53 (5.14%) GCP
4 38 (3.68%) IaaS
5 36 (3.49%) GitHub
6 34 (3.29%) Microsoft 365
7 33 (3.20%) SaaS
8 29 (2.81%) OCI
9 22 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.74%) PaaS
11 16 (1.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 15 (1.45%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.26%) Power Platform
14 12 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 12 (1.16%) OneDrive
15 11 (1.07%) Azure DevOps
16 8 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
17 5 (0.48%) Amazon EKS
17 5 (0.48%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 276 (26.74%) Firewall
2 177 (17.15%) WAN
3 170 (16.47%) BGP
4 125 (12.11%) OSPF
5 124 (12.02%) DNS
6 108 (10.47%) VXLAN
7 101 (9.79%) SAN
8 100 (9.69%) LAN
9 96 (9.30%) VPN
10 95 (9.21%) VLAN
11 93 (9.01%) DHCP
12 90 (8.72%) Network Security
13 77 (7.46%) Structured Cabling
14 73 (7.07%) Ethernet VPN
15 72 (6.98%) SD-WAN
16 68 (6.59%) TCP/IP
17 57 (5.52%) BIG-IP
18 52 (5.04%) Wireless
19 44 (4.26%) NAS
19 44 (4.26%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (1.74%) SQL Server
2 9 (0.87%) DataStage
2 9 (0.87%) Power BI
3 7 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.58%) Big Data
4 6 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 5 (0.48%) Db2
5 5 (0.48%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 5 (0.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 5 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (0.39%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
6 4 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
7 3 (0.29%) GIS
8 2 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 71 (6.88%) JIRA
2 29 (2.81%) GitLab
3 24 (2.33%) Git
4 22 (2.13%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.39%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.39%) Maven
6 4 (0.39%) Subversion
7 3 (0.29%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.29%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.19%) MSI
8 2 (0.19%) Toad
9 1 (0.097%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.097%) Claude Code
General
1 260 (25.19%) Social Skills
2 150 (14.53%) Finance
3 102 (9.88%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (6.40%) Public Sector
5 45 (4.36%) Banking
6 43 (4.17%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (4.17%) Telecoms
7 27 (2.62%) Retail
8 26 (2.52%) Influencing Skills
9 23 (2.23%) Legal
10 17 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 16 (1.55%) Manufacturing
12 11 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.78%) Law
13 8 (0.78%) Military
13 8 (0.78%) Police
14 7 (0.68%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.58%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.48%) Marketing
17 3 (0.29%) Billing
Job Titles
1 153 (14.83%) Network Engineer
2 144 (13.95%) Architect
3 130 (12.60%) Senior
4 109 (10.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 91 (8.82%) Data Centre Engineer
6 74 (7.17%) Project Manager
7 57 (5.52%) Network Architect
8 51 (4.94%) Lead
9 39 (3.78%) Infrastructure Manager
10 38 (3.68%) Data Centre Manager
10 38 (3.68%) IT Engineer
11 35 (3.39%) Field Engineer
12 32 (3.10%) Field Service Engineer
13 30 (2.91%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 29 (2.81%) Senior Network Engineer
15 28 (2.71%) Consultant
15 28 (2.71%) IT Support
15 28 (2.71%) Solutions Architect
15 28 (2.71%) Support Engineer
16 27 (2.62%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.00%) 802.1X
1 31 (3.00%) Middleware
2 10 (0.97%) Redfish
3 9 (0.87%) REST
4 8 (0.78%) LDAP
5 7 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
5 7 (0.68%) NETCONF
5 7 (0.68%) Spring
6 6 (0.58%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.58%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.58%) SAML
6 6 (0.58%) YANG
7 5 (0.48%) Jinja
7 5 (0.48%) Kafka
7 5 (0.48%) XML
8 4 (0.39%) .NET
8 4 (0.39%) GeoJSON
8 4 (0.39%) RESTful
8 4 (0.39%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.39%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (6.59%) Hybrid Cloud
2 45 (4.36%) PKI
3 42 (4.07%) Clustering
4 40 (3.88%) Analytical Mindset
5 34 (3.29%) Cloud Native
6 28 (2.71%) Fibre Optics
6 28 (2.71%) Private Cloud
7 27 (2.62%) Enterprise Storage
8 24 (2.33%) Onboarding
9 23 (2.23%) Replication
10 18 (1.74%) Driving Licence
10 18 (1.74%) Public Cloud
11 15 (1.45%) Mainframe
11 15 (1.45%) Management Information System
12 14 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
13 13 (1.26%) CMDB
13 13 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
14 11 (1.07%) Virtual Team
15 10 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
15 10 (0.97%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 144 (13.95%) Windows
2 106 (10.27%) Linux
3 38 (3.68%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.59%) Unix
5 26 (2.52%) AIX
6 25 (2.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 17 (1.65%) Solaris
8 10 (0.97%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.97%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.48%) HPUX
10 5 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
10 5 (0.48%) SUSE
10 5 (0.48%) VMS
10 5 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.39%) CentOS
11 4 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
11 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.19%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 212 (20.54%) Migration
2 173 (16.76%) Problem-Solving
3 133 (12.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 121 (11.72%) Stakeholder Management
5 105 (10.17%) ITIL
6 97 (9.40%) High Availability
7 91 (8.82%) CI/CD
8 90 (8.72%) Infrastructure as Code
9 89 (8.62%) Agile
10 81 (7.85%) Change Management
11 80 (7.75%) Continuous Improvement
11 80 (7.75%) Roadmaps
12 75 (7.27%) Project Delivery
13 73 (7.07%) Load Balancing
14 68 (6.59%) Zero Trust
15 66 (6.40%) Project Management
16 65 (6.30%) Validation
17 62 (6.01%) DevOps
18 61 (5.91%) ITSM
19 60 (5.81%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 145 (14.05%) Python
2 50 (4.84%) PowerShell
3 35 (3.39%) SQL
4 28 (2.71%) Bash
5 17 (1.65%) Java
6 12 (1.16%) Bicep
6 12 (1.16%) Perl
7 11 (1.07%) COBOL
7 11 (1.07%) Shell Script
8 9 (0.87%) ActionScript
9 8 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.48%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.39%) C#
11 4 (0.39%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.29%) Lisp
13 2 (0.19%) C++
13 2 (0.19%) JCL
13 2 (0.19%) Korn
13 2 (0.19%) REXX
13 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 279 (27.03%) Security Cleared
2 174 (16.86%) SC Cleared
3 170 (16.47%) Cisco Certification
4 100 (9.69%) CCNP
5 96 (9.30%) DV Cleared
6 66 (6.40%) CCNA
7 61 (5.91%) Degree
8 45 (4.36%) Network+ Certification
9 36 (3.49%) Microsoft Certification
10 30 (2.91%) A+ Certification
10 30 (2.91%) MCSE
11 25 (2.42%) Azure Certification
12 24 (2.33%) AWS Certification
12 24 (2.33%) CCIE
13 22 (2.13%) City & Guilds
13 22 (2.13%) PMP
13 22 (2.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 20 (1.94%) PMI Certification
15 17 (1.65%) BICSI Certification
16 16 (1.55%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.91%) SLA
2 24 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (2.23%) QA
4 20 (1.94%) NIST
5 19 (1.84%) PMO
6 14 (1.36%) GDPR
6 14 (1.36%) NCSC
7 8 (0.78%) GRC
8 7 (0.68%) JSP 440
8 7 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.39%) RMADS
10 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.19%) WCAG
12 1 (0.097%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.097%) SOC 1
System Software
1 107 (10.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 59 (5.72%) Active Directory
3 36 (3.49%) VMware ESXi
4 34 (3.29%) VMware NSX
4 34 (3.29%) vSphere
5 33 (3.20%) Firmware
6 29 (2.81%) Hyper-V
7 21 (2.03%) Docker
8 20 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (1.07%) NFS
10 8 (0.78%) KVM
11 7 (0.68%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.48%) SRDF
13 5 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
14 4 (0.39%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.29%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.29%) UAG
Systems Management
1 122 (11.82%) Ansible
2 97 (9.40%) Terraform
3 52 (5.04%) Kubernetes
4 47 (4.55%) FortiGate
5 27 (2.62%) Grafana
6 25 (2.42%) Prometheus
7 24 (2.33%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (1.65%) vCenter Server
9 11 (1.07%) NetBackup
9 11 (1.07%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 10 (0.97%) Dell DRAC
10 10 (0.97%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.97%) PowerCLI
10 10 (0.97%) VxRail
11 8 (0.78%) vMotion
12 7 (0.68%) Check_MK
12 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
12 7 (0.68%) SCCM
13 6 (0.58%) Nagios
14 5 (0.48%) SCOM
Vendors
1 249 (24.13%) Cisco
2 153 (14.83%) VMware
3 114 (11.05%) Palo Alto
4 106 (10.27%) F5
5 104 (10.08%) Microsoft
6 84 (8.14%) Juniper
7 65 (6.30%) Fortinet
8 64 (6.20%) Arista
9 58 (5.62%) Dell
10 48 (4.65%) ServiceNow
11 41 (3.97%) IBM
12 40 (3.88%) SolarWinds
13 34 (3.29%) Aruba
14 32 (3.10%) CheckPoint
15 28 (2.71%) Red Hat
15 28 (2.71%) Splunk
16 26 (2.52%) Google
17 25 (2.42%) Oracle
18 22 (2.13%) Extreme Networks
19 20 (1.94%) HP