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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 127 103
Rank change year-on-year +20 -24 -10
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 915 521 771
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.23% 2.15% 2.12%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.96% 6.28% 6.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 598 347 565
10th Percentile £318 £350 £300
25th Percentile £400 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.62% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £625
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £483 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -5.39% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 14 33
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £16.53 £24.66 £22.30
Median hourly rate £19.34 £26.08 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -25.84% +4.87% +14.77%
75th Percentile £33.75 £42.81 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.01 £43.75 £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 13,147 8,297 11,171
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.98% 34.17% 30.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,317 5,416 7,323
10th Percentile £313 £300 £266
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.19% -2.27% -3.51%
75th Percentile £626 £673 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £510 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 664 340 817
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.59 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £33.91 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.70% -0.26% +51.21%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £84.05 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £31.91 £31.50
% change year-on-year +31.45% +1.29% +40.33%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +20 315 £550 +2.61% 160
North of England +24 216 £469 +5.33% 70
South East +3 200 £463 +2.78% 96
Yorkshire -5 99 £365 -14.12% 32
North West +14 95 £481 -4.47% 28
Midlands -56 53 £460 -16.36% 30
South West -35 50 £495 -10.00% 30
West Midlands -43 47 £465 -15.45% 27
East of England -9 41 £487 +94.90% 23
North East 0 24 £400 +263.64% 10
East Midlands -29 5 £400 -27.27% 3
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 19 (2.08%) Confluence
2 12 (1.31%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.98%) CICS
5 4 (0.44%) Apache
5 4 (0.44%) CloudStack
5 4 (0.44%) nginx
5 4 (0.44%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.44%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.33%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.11%) IIS
Applications
1 14 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (1.20%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.33%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.22%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.22%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.22%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.22%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.11%) Maximo
3 1 (0.11%) Primavera
3 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 177 (19.34%) Azure
2 149 (16.28%) AWS
3 44 (4.81%) GCP
4 30 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
5 24 (2.62%) SaaS
6 23 (2.51%) OCI
7 19 (2.08%) IaaS
8 17 (1.86%) Entra ID
9 16 (1.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 15 (1.64%) GitHub
11 13 (1.42%) PaaS
12 12 (1.31%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 10 (1.09%) OpenShift
13 10 (1.09%) Power Platform
14 9 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (0.87%) Amazon EKS
15 8 (0.87%) Amazon GuardDuty
15 8 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.87%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.77%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 255 (27.87%) Firewall
2 176 (19.23%) WAN
3 156 (17.05%) BGP
4 126 (13.77%) OSPF
5 105 (11.48%) LAN
6 99 (10.82%) Network Security
7 93 (10.16%) VXLAN
8 89 (9.73%) SAN
9 86 (9.40%) Structured Cabling
9 86 (9.40%) VPN
10 80 (8.74%) VLAN
11 77 (8.42%) DNS
12 62 (6.78%) Ethernet VPN
13 60 (6.56%) DHCP
14 52 (5.68%) SD-WAN
15 41 (4.48%) BIG-IP
16 38 (4.15%) Wi-Fi
17 37 (4.04%) Cisco Nexus
18 34 (3.72%) NAS
18 34 (3.72%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (0.98%) DataStage
2 6 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (0.66%) SQL Server
3 5 (0.55%) Power BI
4 4 (0.44%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
4 4 (0.44%) SAP Data Services
5 3 (0.33%) Big Data
5 3 (0.33%) GIS
6 2 (0.22%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
6 2 (0.22%) Power Query
6 2 (0.22%) PowerPivot
7 1 (0.11%) DB2
7 1 (0.11%) MS Access
7 1 (0.11%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 42 (4.59%) JIRA
2 35 (3.83%) Git
3 34 (3.72%) GitLab
4 21 (2.30%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.66%) Maven
6 5 (0.55%) ScriptRunner
7 4 (0.44%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.44%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.44%) Subversion
8 3 (0.33%) Zephyr
9 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.11%) AppScan
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Metasploit
General
1 232 (25.36%) Social Skills
2 128 (13.99%) Finance
3 104 (11.37%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (7.54%) Public Sector
5 56 (6.12%) Documentation Skills
6 41 (4.48%) Banking
7 25 (2.73%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.62%) Legal
9 23 (2.51%) Retail
10 22 (2.40%) Manufacturing
11 19 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (0.98%) Military
14 8 (0.87%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.87%) Marketing
14 8 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (0.77%) Law
15 7 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.55%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.55%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 159 (17.38%) Network Engineer
2 126 (13.77%) Architect
3 101 (11.04%) Senior
4 73 (7.98%) Data Centre Engineer
5 66 (7.21%) Project Manager
6 62 (6.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 44 (4.81%) IT Engineer
7 44 (4.81%) Lead
8 43 (4.70%) Network Architect
9 42 (4.59%) Data Centre Manager
9 42 (4.59%) Field Engineer
10 39 (4.26%) Field Service Engineer
11 35 (3.83%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 28 (3.06%) Infrastructure Manager
13 26 (2.84%) Analyst
14 25 (2.73%) Administrator
14 25 (2.73%) Cisco Engineer
14 25 (2.73%) Solutions Architect
15 24 (2.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 24 (2.62%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.50%) 802.1X
1 32 (3.50%) Middleware
2 11 (1.20%) LDAP
3 9 (0.98%) Redfish
4 7 (0.77%) Spring
5 6 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (0.55%) Jinja
6 5 (0.55%) Kafka
6 5 (0.55%) XML
7 4 (0.44%) ADO
7 4 (0.44%) NETCONF
7 4 (0.44%) REST
7 4 (0.44%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.44%) VML
8 3 (0.33%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.33%) OpenConfig
8 3 (0.33%) OpenLayers
8 3 (0.33%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.33%) RFC 2544
8 3 (0.33%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.23%) Hybrid Cloud
2 46 (5.03%) Analytical Mindset
3 28 (3.06%) Clustering
4 27 (2.95%) PKI
5 25 (2.73%) Fibre Optics
6 20 (2.19%) Cloud Native
7 19 (2.08%) Onboarding
8 18 (1.97%) Driving Licence
8 18 (1.97%) Management Information System
9 17 (1.86%) Private Cloud
9 17 (1.86%) Replication
10 16 (1.75%) CMDB
10 16 (1.75%) Enterprise Storage
10 16 (1.75%) Public Cloud
11 15 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (1.20%) Mainframe
13 9 (0.98%) BYOD
13 9 (0.98%) SCADA
13 9 (0.98%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 109 (11.91%) Windows
2 106 (11.58%) Linux
3 32 (3.50%) Windows Server
4 29 (3.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (2.40%) Unix
6 20 (2.19%) AIX
7 16 (1.75%) Solaris
8 12 (1.31%) CentOS
9 8 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.66%) VMS
11 5 (0.55%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.44%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.44%) HPUX
12 4 (0.44%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.44%) Oracle Linux
12 4 (0.44%) SUSE
13 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.22%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (18.14%) Problem-Solving
2 157 (17.16%) Migration
3 87 (9.51%) Stakeholder Management
4 86 (9.40%) ITIL
5 85 (9.29%) High Availability
6 82 (8.96%) Continuous Improvement
7 77 (8.42%) Roadmaps
8 76 (8.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 73 (7.98%) Infrastructure as Code
10 69 (7.54%) CI/CD
11 68 (7.43%) Change Management
12 67 (7.32%) Load Balancing
13 66 (7.21%) Project Management
14 65 (7.10%) Project Delivery
15 62 (6.78%) Validation
16 54 (5.90%) Data Centre Operations
17 52 (5.68%) Customer Service
17 52 (5.68%) Runbook
18 51 (5.57%) Network Design
18 51 (5.57%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 102 (11.15%) Python
2 33 (3.61%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.73%) SQL
4 21 (2.30%) Bash
4 21 (2.30%) Java
5 16 (1.75%) Shell Script
6 11 (1.20%) COBOL
6 11 (1.20%) MATLAB
7 8 (0.87%) Perl
8 7 (0.77%) Bicep
8 7 (0.77%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.55%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.33%) VBA
11 2 (0.22%) C++
11 2 (0.22%) Korn
11 2 (0.22%) Lisp
12 1 (0.11%) Groovy
12 1 (0.11%) JCL
12 1 (0.11%) Ruby
12 1 (0.11%) Scala
Qualifications
1 271 (29.62%) Security Cleared
2 199 (21.75%) SC Cleared
3 195 (21.31%) Cisco Certification
4 125 (13.66%) CCNP
5 88 (9.62%) CCNA
6 62 (6.78%) Degree
7 57 (6.23%) DV Cleared
8 49 (5.36%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (4.37%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (4.04%) A+ Certification
10 37 (4.04%) MCSE
11 21 (2.30%) Azure Certification
11 21 (2.30%) CCIE
11 21 (2.30%) PMP
12 20 (2.19%) City & Guilds
13 19 (2.08%) AWS Certification
13 19 (2.08%) PMI Certification
14 17 (1.86%) BICSI Certification
15 16 (1.75%) JNCIS
16 14 (1.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.50%) SLA
2 20 (2.19%) NIST
3 19 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (2.08%) PMO
4 17 (1.86%) QA
5 14 (1.53%) GDPR
6 9 (0.98%) NCSC
7 8 (0.87%) GRC
7 8 (0.87%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.22%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.22%) RMADS
10 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.11%) NEBOSH
11 1 (0.11%) SOC 1
System Software
1 80 (8.74%) VMware Infrastructure
2 46 (5.03%) Active Directory
3 31 (3.39%) Firmware
4 26 (2.84%) VMware NSX
5 25 (2.73%) vSphere
6 24 (2.62%) VMware ESXi
7 23 (2.51%) Virtual Machines
8 19 (2.08%) Hyper-V
9 12 (1.31%) KVM
10 11 (1.20%) Docker
11 5 (0.55%) NFS
12 4 (0.44%) Ceph
12 4 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.44%) VMware Workstation
13 3 (0.33%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.33%) PowerHA
13 3 (0.33%) SRDF
13 3 (0.33%) UAG
13 3 (0.33%) Veritas Cluster Server
14 2 (0.22%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 107 (11.69%) Ansible
2 81 (8.85%) Terraform
3 47 (5.14%) FortiGate
4 41 (4.48%) Kubernetes
5 28 (3.06%) Grafana
6 24 (2.62%) Prometheus
7 17 (1.86%) Microsoft Intune
8 13 (1.42%) Check_MK
9 12 (1.31%) SCCM
10 11 (1.20%) Podman
10 11 (1.20%) Red Hat Satellite
11 10 (1.09%) NetBackup
11 10 (1.09%) vCenter Server
12 9 (0.98%) Dell DRAC
13 7 (0.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.77%) PowerCLI
14 6 (0.66%) Tivoli Storage Manager
15 5 (0.55%) Endace
15 5 (0.55%) Nagios
15 5 (0.55%) vMotion
Vendors
1 254 (27.76%) Cisco
2 124 (13.55%) Palo Alto
2 124 (13.55%) VMware
3 87 (9.51%) F5
4 84 (9.18%) Microsoft
5 74 (8.09%) Juniper
6 69 (7.54%) Dell
7 53 (5.79%) Arista
8 50 (5.46%) Aruba
9 48 (5.25%) CheckPoint
10 46 (5.03%) Fortinet
11 41 (4.48%) ServiceNow
12 40 (4.37%) SolarWinds
13 32 (3.50%) IBM
14 28 (3.06%) Splunk
15 27 (2.95%) Red Hat
16 26 (2.84%) Meraki
17 25 (2.73%) Oracle
18 23 (2.51%) Google
19 22 (2.40%) Atlassian