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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 125 103
Rank change year-on-year +18 -22 -7
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,028 611 794
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.30% 2.25% 2.17%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.92% 6.46% 7.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 401 557
10th Percentile £325 £313 £350
25th Percentile £412 £413 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £634 £613 £625
90th Percentile £750 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £538
% change year-on-year -1.96% -5.12% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 20 42
10th Percentile £16.01 £25.00 £12.08
25th Percentile £18.07 - £22.08
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +1.13% +14.77%
75th Percentile £35.22 £40.94 £40.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £49.38 -
UK median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £24.00
% change year-on-year -21.07% +4.79% +15.91%

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 14,847 9,465 11,302
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.17% 34.82% 30.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,228 5,997 7,278
10th Percentile £318 £305 £289
25th Percentile £420 £408 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £656 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 801 468 782
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.28
25th Percentile £21.01 £18.87 £15.62
Median hourly rate £43.96 £33.05 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.01% -17.38% +14.29%
75th Percentile £72.50 £60.56 £63.75
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £30.81 £36.50
% change year-on-year +42.70% -15.60% +15.87%

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 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 16 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 16 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 +14 384 £550 +2.42% 256
North of England +8 244 £477 +2.47% 57
South East +3 213 £500 - 104
Yorkshire -6 135 £365 -18.89% 17
North West -7 89 £506 -3.62% 29
Midlands -63 56 £460 -13.62% 23
South West -21 55 £495 -10.00% 17
West Midlands -51 51 £467 -8.91% 18
East of England -13 35 £513 +13.89% 27
North East -14 26 £625 +468.18% 11
East Midlands -21 4 £363 -33.49% 5
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 22 (2.14%) Confluence
2 16 (1.56%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.97%) CICS
5 7 (0.68%) OpenStack
6 5 (0.49%) Apache
6 5 (0.49%) CloudStack
7 4 (0.39%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.29%) nginx
8 3 (0.29%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.097%) IIS
9 1 (0.097%) SAS
Applications
1 16 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.46%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.97%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.49%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.19%) Primavera
2 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.097%) OpenText MBPM
3 1 (0.097%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 225 (21.89%) Azure
2 187 (18.19%) AWS
3 56 (5.45%) GCP
4 40 (3.89%) IaaS
5 38 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (3.50%) GitHub
7 35 (3.40%) SaaS
8 30 (2.92%) OCI
9 24 (2.33%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.85%) PaaS
10 19 (1.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 15 (1.46%) OpenShift
12 13 (1.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 13 (1.26%) OneDrive
13 12 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (1.07%) Power Platform
15 9 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (0.78%) Amazon GuardDuty
16 8 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
17 7 (0.68%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 277 (26.95%) Firewall
2 180 (17.51%) WAN
3 175 (17.02%) BGP
4 130 (12.65%) OSPF
5 122 (11.87%) DNS
6 108 (10.51%) VXLAN
7 101 (9.82%) LAN
8 100 (9.73%) SAN
9 98 (9.53%) VPN
10 93 (9.05%) Network Security
10 93 (9.05%) VLAN
11 89 (8.66%) DHCP
12 81 (7.88%) Structured Cabling
13 73 (7.10%) Ethernet VPN
14 72 (7.00%) SD-WAN
15 65 (6.32%) TCP/IP
16 57 (5.54%) BIG-IP
17 48 (4.67%) Wireless
18 44 (4.28%) NAS
19 43 (4.18%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.17%) SQL Server
2 9 (0.88%) DataStage
3 8 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.58%) Big Data
4 6 (0.58%) Oracle Database
4 6 (0.58%) Power BI
5 5 (0.49%) Db2
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
8 2 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.097%) Oracle Exadata
9 1 (0.097%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 66 (6.42%) JIRA
2 30 (2.92%) GitLab
3 25 (2.43%) Git
4 23 (2.24%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.49%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
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%) AppScan
9 1 (0.097%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.097%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.097%) Metasploit
General
1 262 (25.49%) Social Skills
2 147 (14.30%) Finance
3 109 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
4 71 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.57%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (4.18%) Banking
6 43 (4.18%) Telecoms
7 26 (2.53%) Influencing Skills
7 26 (2.53%) Legal
7 26 (2.53%) Retail
8 17 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 17 (1.65%) Manufacturing
9 11 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (0.88%) Military
11 8 (0.78%) Law
12 7 (0.68%) Police
13 6 (0.58%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.58%) Investment Banking
13 6 (0.58%) Marketing
14 4 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 152 (14.79%) Network Engineer
2 144 (14.01%) Architect
3 127 (12.35%) Senior
4 108 (10.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 91 (8.85%) Data Centre Engineer
6 74 (7.20%) Project Manager
7 57 (5.54%) Network Architect
8 51 (4.96%) Lead
9 40 (3.89%) IT Engineer
10 39 (3.79%) Field Engineer
10 39 (3.79%) Infrastructure Manager
11 37 (3.60%) Data Centre Manager
12 35 (3.40%) Field Service Engineer
13 30 (2.92%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 28 (2.72%) Support Engineer
15 27 (2.63%) Analyst
15 27 (2.63%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 27 (2.63%) Senior Network Engineer
16 26 (2.53%) IT Support
17 25 (2.43%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.02%) 802.1X
2 30 (2.92%) Middleware
3 10 (0.97%) Redfish
4 9 (0.88%) LDAP
5 8 (0.78%) REST
6 7 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.68%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.68%) Spring
7 6 (0.58%) OpenConfig
7 6 (0.58%) RESTCONF
7 6 (0.58%) SAML
7 6 (0.58%) YANG
8 5 (0.49%) Jinja
8 5 (0.49%) Kafka
8 5 (0.49%) XML
9 4 (0.39%) .NET
9 4 (0.39%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.39%) RESTful
9 4 (0.39%) Spring Boot
9 4 (0.39%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 71 (6.91%) Hybrid Cloud
2 43 (4.18%) Analytical Mindset
3 40 (3.89%) PKI
4 36 (3.50%) Cloud Native
5 31 (3.02%) Clustering
6 30 (2.92%) Private Cloud
7 29 (2.82%) Fibre Optics
8 27 (2.63%) Enterprise Storage
9 25 (2.43%) Onboarding
10 21 (2.04%) Replication
11 20 (1.95%) Driving Licence
12 17 (1.65%) Public Cloud
13 15 (1.46%) Mainframe
13 15 (1.46%) Management Information System
14 14 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
15 13 (1.26%) CMDB
16 12 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
17 11 (1.07%) Operational Technology
18 10 (0.97%) SCADA
19 9 (0.88%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 138 (13.42%) Windows
2 105 (10.21%) Linux
3 39 (3.79%) Windows Server
4 31 (3.02%) Unix
5 25 (2.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 22 (2.14%) AIX
7 17 (1.65%) Solaris
8 10 (0.97%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.97%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.49%) CentOS
10 5 (0.49%) HPUX
10 5 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
10 5 (0.49%) SUSE
10 5 (0.49%) VMS
11 4 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.19%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (19.55%) Migration
2 177 (17.22%) Problem-Solving
3 134 (13.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 114 (11.09%) Stakeholder Management
5 102 (9.92%) ITIL
6 95 (9.24%) Infrastructure as Code
7 94 (9.14%) CI/CD
8 91 (8.85%) High Availability
9 84 (8.17%) Agile
10 81 (7.88%) Roadmaps
11 80 (7.78%) Continuous Improvement
12 78 (7.59%) Change Management
13 72 (7.00%) Load Balancing
14 71 (6.91%) Zero Trust
15 70 (6.81%) Project Delivery
16 68 (6.61%) Validation
17 65 (6.32%) Project Management
18 63 (6.13%) DevOps
19 61 (5.93%) Network Design
20 60 (5.84%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 138 (13.42%) Python
2 40 (3.89%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.72%) SQL
4 25 (2.43%) Bash
5 17 (1.65%) Java
6 13 (1.26%) Bicep
7 11 (1.07%) COBOL
7 11 (1.07%) Shell Script
8 9 (0.88%) ActionScript
9 8 (0.78%) Perl
9 8 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.49%) JavaScript
10 5 (0.49%) MATLAB
11 4 (0.39%) C#
11 4 (0.39%) Lisp
12 2 (0.19%) C++
12 2 (0.19%) JCL
12 2 (0.19%) Korn
12 2 (0.19%) REXX
12 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 274 (26.65%) Security Cleared
2 178 (17.32%) Cisco Certification
3 170 (16.54%) SC Cleared
4 105 (10.21%) CCNP
5 96 (9.34%) DV Cleared
6 70 (6.81%) CCNA
7 61 (5.93%) Degree
8 48 (4.67%) Network+ Certification
9 39 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
10 33 (3.21%) A+ Certification
10 33 (3.21%) MCSE
11 26 (2.53%) Azure Certification
12 25 (2.43%) CCIE
13 24 (2.33%) AWS Certification
14 22 (2.14%) City & Guilds
14 22 (2.14%) PMP
14 22 (2.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 20 (1.95%) PMI Certification
16 17 (1.65%) BICSI Certification
16 17 (1.65%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (2.82%) SLA
2 23 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (2.04%) NIST
4 20 (1.95%) PMO
5 19 (1.85%) QA
6 15 (1.46%) GDPR
6 15 (1.46%) NCSC
7 9 (0.88%) GRC
8 8 (0.78%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.49%) JSP 440
9 5 (0.49%) 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%) COBIT
12 1 (0.097%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.097%) SOC 1
System Software
1 101 (9.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 56 (5.45%) Active Directory
3 36 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
4 32 (3.11%) VMware NSX
4 32 (3.11%) vSphere
5 29 (2.82%) Firmware
6 26 (2.53%) Hyper-V
7 21 (2.04%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (1.85%) Docker
9 11 (1.07%) NFS
10 8 (0.78%) KVM
11 6 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
12 5 (0.49%) SRDF
12 5 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.39%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.29%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.29%) UAG
14 3 (0.29%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 121 (11.77%) Ansible
2 98 (9.53%) Terraform
3 50 (4.86%) Kubernetes
4 47 (4.57%) FortiGate
5 30 (2.92%) Grafana
6 28 (2.72%) Prometheus
7 26 (2.53%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (1.65%) vCenter Server
9 11 (1.07%) NetBackup
10 10 (0.97%) Dell DRAC
10 10 (0.97%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.97%) PowerCLI
11 8 (0.78%) Check_MK
11 8 (0.78%) vMotion
12 7 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 7 (0.68%) SCCM
12 7 (0.68%) Tivoli Storage Manager
13 6 (0.58%) Nagios
13 6 (0.58%) VxRail
14 5 (0.49%) Podman
Vendors
1 251 (24.42%) Cisco
2 147 (14.30%) VMware
3 112 (10.89%) Palo Alto
4 107 (10.41%) Microsoft
5 105 (10.21%) F5
6 83 (8.07%) Juniper
7 66 (6.42%) Fortinet
8 65 (6.32%) Arista
9 62 (6.03%) Dell
10 49 (4.77%) ServiceNow
11 40 (3.89%) SolarWinds
12 35 (3.40%) Aruba
13 34 (3.31%) IBM
14 33 (3.21%) CheckPoint
15 30 (2.92%) Google
15 30 (2.92%) Splunk
16 29 (2.82%) Red Hat
17 26 (2.53%) Oracle
18 22 (2.14%) Extreme Networks
19 20 (1.95%) HP