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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 126 107
Rank change year-on-year +16 -19 -12
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,027 623 718
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.27% 2.26% 2.11%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.80% 6.46% 6.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 408 512
10th Percentile £325 £309 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £602 £625
90th Percentile £775 £688 £694
UK median daily rate £500 £503 £538
% change year-on-year -0.60% -6.51% -0.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 22 28
10th Percentile £16.01 £25.05 £11.89
25th Percentile £18.07 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +5.67% +1.28%
75th Percentile £38.75 £39.69 £26.12
90th Percentile £85.65 £43.75 £28.75
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year -16.50% +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 15,106 9,640 10,527
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.33% 35.03% 30.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,321 6,093 6,845
10th Percentile £322 £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 £545
% change year-on-year - -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 860 478 589
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.48 £12.50
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.87 £17.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.38 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.76% -28.04% +9.76%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £41.25
% change year-on-year +49.02% -28.48% +10.00%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +15 398 £550 +4.76% 355
North of England +3 231 £485 +10.86% 94
South East -1 211 £520 +10.64% 114
Yorkshire -4 132 £365 -9.88% 20
North West -14 84 £506 -3.62% 33
South West -30 62 £495 -10.00% 31
Midlands -57 60 £456 -13.24% 25
West Midlands -57 55 £465 -7.00% 15
East of England -14 32 £500 -3.85% 44
North East -24 21 £625 +468.18% 41
East Midlands -22 4 £363 -33.49% 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 26 (2.53%) Confluence
2 15 (1.46%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.88%) CICS
3 9 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.49%) Apache
5 5 (0.49%) 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 18 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.97%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.49%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.19%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 8 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.19%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle BPM
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.19%) Primavera
2 2 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 227 (22.10%) Azure
2 189 (18.40%) AWS
3 53 (5.16%) GCP
4 38 (3.70%) IaaS
5 36 (3.51%) GitHub
6 34 (3.31%) SaaS
7 33 (3.21%) Microsoft 365
8 29 (2.82%) OCI
9 22 (2.14%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.75%) PaaS
11 16 (1.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 14 (1.36%) OpenShift
12 14 (1.36%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 12 (1.17%) OneDrive
14 11 (1.07%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
16 5 (0.49%) Amazon EKS
16 5 (0.49%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 275 (26.78%) Firewall
2 177 (17.23%) WAN
3 168 (16.36%) BGP
4 129 (12.56%) DNS
5 123 (11.98%) OSPF
6 109 (10.61%) VXLAN
7 101 (9.83%) SAN
8 100 (9.74%) LAN
9 97 (9.44%) DHCP
10 95 (9.25%) VPN
11 94 (9.15%) VLAN
12 86 (8.37%) Network Security
13 73 (7.11%) Structured Cabling
13 73 (7.11%) TCP/IP
14 72 (7.01%) Ethernet VPN
14 72 (7.01%) SD-WAN
15 57 (5.55%) BIG-IP
16 52 (5.06%) Wireless
17 44 (4.28%) Wi-Fi
18 43 (4.19%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.95%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.97%) Power BI
3 8 (0.78%) DataStage
4 7 (0.68%) Oracle Database
4 7 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.58%) Big Data
5 6 (0.58%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 6 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 5 (0.49%) Db2
7 4 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.39%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
8 3 (0.29%) GIS
9 2 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.19%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 72 (7.01%) JIRA
2 29 (2.82%) GitLab
3 24 (2.34%) Git
4 22 (2.14%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.49%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.49%) 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
1 257 (25.02%) Social Skills
2 146 (14.22%) Finance
3 104 (10.13%) Analytical Skills
4 67 (6.52%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.58%) Banking
6 43 (4.19%) Telecoms
7 40 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (2.82%) Retail
9 25 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (2.24%) Legal
11 17 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 13 (1.27%) Manufacturing
13 11 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.78%) Law
14 8 (0.78%) Military
14 8 (0.78%) Police
15 6 (0.58%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.58%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.58%) Marketing
16 3 (0.29%) Billing
Job Titles
1 149 (14.51%) Network Engineer
2 142 (13.83%) Architect
3 130 (12.66%) Senior
4 111 (10.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 89 (8.67%) Data Centre Engineer
6 74 (7.21%) Project Manager
7 56 (5.45%) Network Architect
8 51 (4.97%) Lead
9 39 (3.80%) Infrastructure Manager
10 38 (3.70%) IT Engineer
11 37 (3.60%) Data Centre Manager
12 35 (3.41%) Field Engineer
13 32 (3.12%) Field Service Engineer
14 30 (2.92%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 29 (2.82%) Senior Network Engineer
16 28 (2.73%) Consultant
16 28 (2.73%) Support Engineer
17 27 (2.63%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 27 (2.63%) Solutions Architect
18 26 (2.53%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.02%) 802.1X
2 30 (2.92%) Middleware
3 10 (0.97%) Redfish
4 9 (0.88%) REST
5 8 (0.78%) LDAP
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%) .NET
8 5 (0.49%) Jinja
8 5 (0.49%) Kafka
8 5 (0.49%) XML
9 4 (0.39%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.39%) RESTful
9 4 (0.39%) Spring Boot
9 4 (0.39%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (6.62%) Hybrid Cloud
2 49 (4.77%) PKI
3 42 (4.09%) Clustering
4 40 (3.89%) Analytical Mindset
5 34 (3.31%) Cloud Native
6 28 (2.73%) Enterprise Storage
6 28 (2.73%) Fibre Optics
7 27 (2.63%) Private Cloud
8 24 (2.34%) Onboarding
9 22 (2.14%) Replication
10 18 (1.75%) Public Cloud
11 17 (1.66%) Driving Licence
12 15 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
12 15 (1.46%) Management Information System
13 14 (1.36%) Mainframe
13 14 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (1.27%) CMDB
15 11 (1.07%) Virtual Team
16 10 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
16 10 (0.97%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 149 (14.51%) Windows
2 107 (10.42%) Linux
3 41 (3.99%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.60%) Unix
5 25 (2.43%) AIX
5 25 (2.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.56%) Solaris
7 10 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.97%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.49%) HPUX
9 5 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
9 5 (0.49%) SUSE
9 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
9 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.39%) CentOS
10 4 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (0.39%) VMS
11 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.19%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (20.55%) Migration
2 176 (17.14%) Problem-Solving
3 136 (13.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 120 (11.68%) Stakeholder Management
5 104 (10.13%) ITIL
6 95 (9.25%) Infrastructure as Code
7 94 (9.15%) CI/CD
7 94 (9.15%) High Availability
8 91 (8.86%) Agile
9 81 (7.89%) Change Management
9 81 (7.89%) Continuous Improvement
10 79 (7.69%) Roadmaps
11 74 (7.21%) Project Delivery
12 73 (7.11%) Load Balancing
13 67 (6.52%) Zero Trust
14 66 (6.43%) Project Management
15 65 (6.33%) Validation
16 62 (6.04%) DevOps
17 61 (5.94%) ITSM
18 60 (5.84%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 146 (14.22%) Python
2 51 (4.97%) PowerShell
3 37 (3.60%) SQL
4 30 (2.92%) Bash
5 17 (1.66%) Java
6 12 (1.17%) Bicep
6 12 (1.17%) Perl
7 11 (1.07%) Shell Script
8 10 (0.97%) COBOL
9 9 (0.88%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.88%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.49%) C#
10 5 (0.49%) JavaScript
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%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 281 (27.36%) Security Cleared
2 175 (17.04%) SC Cleared
3 169 (16.46%) Cisco Certification
4 100 (9.74%) DV Cleared
5 99 (9.64%) CCNP
6 65 (6.33%) CCNA
7 60 (5.84%) Degree
8 45 (4.38%) Network+ Certification
9 36 (3.51%) Microsoft Certification
10 30 (2.92%) A+ Certification
10 30 (2.92%) MCSE
11 26 (2.53%) AWS Certification
12 25 (2.43%) Azure Certification
13 24 (2.34%) CCIE
14 23 (2.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 22 (2.14%) City & Guilds
15 22 (2.14%) PMP
16 20 (1.95%) PMI Certification
17 17 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
18 16 (1.56%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.92%) SLA
2 24 (2.34%) QA
3 23 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (1.75%) NIST
4 18 (1.75%) PMO
5 14 (1.36%) NCSC
6 12 (1.17%) GDPR
7 8 (0.78%) JSP 440
8 6 (0.58%) GRC
9 5 (0.49%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.39%) RMADS
11 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.19%) WCAG
13 1 (0.097%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.097%) SOC 1
System Software
1 110 (10.71%) VMware Infrastructure
2 64 (6.23%) Active Directory
3 38 (3.70%) VMware NSX
4 37 (3.60%) vSphere
5 35 (3.41%) VMware ESXi
6 31 (3.02%) Firmware
7 29 (2.82%) Hyper-V
8 24 (2.34%) Docker
9 17 (1.66%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (1.07%) NFS
11 7 (0.68%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
13 5 (0.49%) KVM
13 5 (0.49%) SRDF
13 5 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
14 4 (0.39%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.39%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.29%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 127 (12.37%) Ansible
2 103 (10.03%) Terraform
3 56 (5.45%) Kubernetes
4 47 (4.58%) FortiGate
5 27 (2.63%) Grafana
6 25 (2.43%) Prometheus
7 24 (2.34%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (1.66%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.36%) VxRail
10 11 (1.07%) Dell DRAC
10 11 (1.07%) NetBackup
10 11 (1.07%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 10 (0.97%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.88%) PowerCLI
12 9 (0.88%) vMotion
13 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.68%) Check_MK
14 7 (0.68%) SCCM
15 6 (0.58%) Nagios
16 5 (0.49%) SCOM
Vendors
1 246 (23.95%) Cisco
2 156 (15.19%) VMware
3 110 (10.71%) Palo Alto
4 106 (10.32%) F5
5 104 (10.13%) Microsoft
6 85 (8.28%) Juniper
7 64 (6.23%) Arista
7 64 (6.23%) Fortinet
8 57 (5.55%) Dell
9 48 (4.67%) ServiceNow
10 40 (3.89%) IBM
10 40 (3.89%) SolarWinds
11 33 (3.21%) Aruba
12 31 (3.02%) CheckPoint
13 29 (2.82%) Splunk
14 28 (2.73%) Red Hat
15 26 (2.53%) Oracle
16 25 (2.43%) Google
17 22 (2.14%) Extreme Networks
18 21 (2.04%) HP