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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 125 106
Rank change year-on-year +21 -19 -8
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,019 612 789
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.27% 2.24% 2.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.87% 6.45% 6.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 616 406 552
10th Percentile £318 £313 £350
25th Percentile £405 £413 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.37% -2.23%
75th Percentile £625 £610 £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 62 19 42
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £12.08
25th Percentile £18.07 £25.09 £22.08
Median hourly rate £20.43 £25.15 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -18.79% +1.13% +14.77%
75th Percentile £33.75 £41.88 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.03 £55.00 -
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 14,822 9,485 11,314
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.06% 34.76% 30.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,215 6,041 7,273
10th Percentile £316 £305 £288
25th Percentile £419 £408 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -0.24%
75th Percentile £638 £656 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 794 462 790
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.14 £18.92 £15.62
Median hourly rate £43.96 £33.05 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +33.01% -15.80% +22.66%
75th Percentile £71.87 £61.68 £63.75
90th Percentile £87.82 £80.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £31.50 £36.50
% change year-on-year +39.58% -13.71% +32.25%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 +13 377 £550 +3.77% 307
North of England +7 245 £476 +2.26% 59
South East -1 214 £500 +0.76% 108
Yorkshire -2 136 £365 -18.89% 23
North West -8 87 £500 -4.76% 27
Midlands -53 56 £460 -13.62% 21
South West -25 54 £495 -10.00% 33
West Midlands -62 51 £467 -11.08% 14
East of England -12 35 £513 +13.89% 32
North East -8 28 £625 +468.18% 9
East Midlands -23 4 £363 -32.87% 7
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 (2.16%) Confluence
2 16 (1.57%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.98%) CICS
5 7 (0.69%) 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 (0.098%) IIS
9 1 (0.098%) SAS
Applications
1 17 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.47%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.08%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.49%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.20%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.20%) Primavera
2 2 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.098%) OpenText MBPM
3 1 (0.098%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 219 (21.49%) Azure
2 186 (18.25%) AWS
3 56 (5.50%) GCP
4 39 (3.83%) IaaS
5 37 (3.63%) Microsoft 365
6 35 (3.43%) GitHub
7 34 (3.34%) SaaS
8 30 (2.94%) OCI
9 24 (2.36%) Entra ID
10 20 (1.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 18 (1.77%) PaaS
12 15 (1.47%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.28%) OneDrive
14 12 (1.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 11 (1.08%) Power Platform
16 9 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
16 9 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
17 8 (0.79%) Amazon EKS
17 8 (0.79%) Amazon GuardDuty
17 8 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 272 (26.69%) Firewall
2 179 (17.57%) WAN
3 172 (16.88%) BGP
4 128 (12.56%) OSPF
5 119 (11.68%) DNS
6 107 (10.50%) VXLAN
7 100 (9.81%) LAN
7 100 (9.81%) SAN
8 96 (9.42%) VPN
9 92 (9.03%) Network Security
10 91 (8.93%) VLAN
11 86 (8.44%) DHCP
12 82 (8.05%) Structured Cabling
13 73 (7.16%) SD-WAN
14 72 (7.07%) Ethernet VPN
15 62 (6.08%) TCP/IP
16 58 (5.69%) BIG-IP
17 47 (4.61%) Wireless
18 43 (4.22%) NAS
19 42 (4.12%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (0.98%) SQL Server
2 9 (0.88%) DataStage
3 6 (0.59%) Big Data
3 6 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (0.59%) Power BI
4 4 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.39%) Db2
4 4 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
4 4 (0.39%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle Database
4 4 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
4 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
5 3 (0.29%) GIS
6 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.20%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.098%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.098%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 65 (6.38%) JIRA
2 31 (3.04%) GitLab
3 25 (2.45%) Git
4 24 (2.36%) 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 (0.20%) MSI
9 1 (0.098%) AppScan
9 1 (0.098%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.098%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.098%) Metasploit
General
1 255 (25.02%) Social Skills
2 142 (13.94%) Finance
3 110 (10.79%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (6.77%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.61%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (4.22%) Banking
6 43 (4.22%) Telecoms
7 28 (2.75%) Legal
8 25 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
8 25 (2.45%) Retail
9 17 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.67%) Manufacturing
10 10 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (0.88%) Military
12 7 (0.69%) Law
12 7 (0.69%) Marketing
12 7 (0.69%) Police
13 6 (0.59%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.59%) Investment Banking
14 4 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 152 (14.92%) Network Engineer
2 144 (14.13%) Architect
3 120 (11.78%) Senior
4 107 (10.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 94 (9.22%) Data Centre Engineer
6 67 (6.58%) Project Manager
7 56 (5.50%) Network Architect
8 50 (4.91%) Lead
9 42 (4.12%) IT Engineer
10 40 (3.93%) Field Engineer
11 37 (3.63%) Infrastructure Manager
12 36 (3.53%) Field Service Engineer
13 33 (3.24%) Data Centre Manager
14 30 (2.94%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 28 (2.75%) Support Engineer
16 27 (2.65%) Analyst
17 26 (2.55%) IT Support
17 26 (2.55%) Senior Network Engineer
17 26 (2.55%) Solutions Architect
18 25 (2.45%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.04%) 802.1X
2 29 (2.85%) Middleware
3 10 (0.98%) Redfish
4 8 (0.79%) LDAP
4 8 (0.79%) REST
5 7 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
5 7 (0.69%) NETCONF
5 7 (0.69%) Spring
6 6 (0.59%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.59%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.59%) SAML
6 6 (0.59%) YANG
7 5 (0.49%) Jinja
7 5 (0.49%) Kafka
7 5 (0.49%) 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 70 (6.87%) Hybrid Cloud
2 44 (4.32%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (3.63%) PKI
4 36 (3.53%) Cloud Native
5 31 (3.04%) Clustering
6 30 (2.94%) Private Cloud
7 29 (2.85%) Fibre Optics
8 27 (2.65%) Enterprise Storage
9 25 (2.45%) Onboarding
10 19 (1.86%) Driving Licence
10 19 (1.86%) Replication
11 17 (1.67%) Public Cloud
12 15 (1.47%) Management Information System
13 14 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
13 14 (1.37%) Mainframe
14 13 (1.28%) CMDB
15 11 (1.08%) Operational Technology
15 11 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
16 10 (0.98%) SCADA
17 9 (0.88%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 136 (13.35%) Windows
2 103 (10.11%) Linux
3 38 (3.73%) Windows Server
4 29 (2.85%) Unix
5 24 (2.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 22 (2.16%) AIX
7 17 (1.67%) Solaris
8 10 (0.98%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.98%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.59%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.59%) 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 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.20%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (18.65%) Migration
2 176 (17.27%) Problem-Solving
3 133 (13.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 111 (10.89%) Stakeholder Management
5 101 (9.91%) ITIL
6 95 (9.32%) CI/CD
6 95 (9.32%) Infrastructure as Code
7 88 (8.64%) High Availability
8 81 (7.95%) Continuous Improvement
8 81 (7.95%) Roadmaps
9 78 (7.65%) Agile
10 75 (7.36%) Change Management
11 72 (7.07%) Load Balancing
12 69 (6.77%) Project Delivery
12 69 (6.77%) Zero Trust
13 68 (6.67%) Validation
14 63 (6.18%) Project Management
15 62 (6.08%) DevOps
16 60 (5.89%) Network Design
17 59 (5.79%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 137 (13.44%) Python
2 40 (3.93%) PowerShell
3 26 (2.55%) SQL
4 25 (2.45%) Bash
5 17 (1.67%) Java
6 14 (1.37%) Bicep
7 11 (1.08%) COBOL
7 11 (1.08%) Shell Script
8 9 (0.88%) ActionScript
9 8 (0.79%) Perl
9 8 (0.79%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.49%) JavaScript
10 5 (0.49%) MATLAB
11 4 (0.39%) C#
11 4 (0.39%) Lisp
12 2 (0.20%) C++
12 2 (0.20%) JCL
12 2 (0.20%) Korn
12 2 (0.20%) REXX
12 2 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 272 (26.69%) Security Cleared
2 178 (17.47%) Cisco Certification
3 172 (16.88%) SC Cleared
4 104 (10.21%) CCNP
5 90 (8.83%) DV Cleared
6 71 (6.97%) CCNA
7 62 (6.08%) Degree
8 49 (4.81%) Network+ Certification
9 40 (3.93%) Microsoft Certification
10 34 (3.34%) A+ Certification
10 34 (3.34%) MCSE
11 26 (2.55%) Azure Certification
12 25 (2.45%) CCIE
13 24 (2.36%) AWS Certification
14 22 (2.16%) City & Guilds
14 22 (2.16%) PMP
15 21 (2.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 20 (1.96%) PMI Certification
17 17 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
17 17 (1.67%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.04%) SLA
2 23 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (2.16%) NIST
4 19 (1.86%) PMO
5 18 (1.77%) QA
6 16 (1.57%) GDPR
7 15 (1.47%) NCSC
8 10 (0.98%) GRC
9 9 (0.88%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
11 5 (0.49%) RMADS
12 4 (0.39%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.20%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 2 (0.20%) WCAG
15 1 (0.098%) COBIT
15 1 (0.098%) NEBOSH
15 1 (0.098%) SOC 1
System Software
1 99 (9.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 54 (5.30%) Active Directory
3 35 (3.43%) VMware ESXi
4 31 (3.04%) vSphere
5 30 (2.94%) VMware NSX
6 29 (2.85%) Firmware
7 25 (2.45%) Hyper-V
8 22 (2.16%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.77%) Docker
10 10 (0.98%) NFS
11 8 (0.79%) KVM
12 6 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
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%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.29%) PowerHA
15 3 (0.29%) UAG
Systems Management
1 120 (11.78%) Ansible
2 98 (9.62%) Terraform
3 50 (4.91%) Kubernetes
4 47 (4.61%) FortiGate
5 30 (2.94%) Grafana
6 28 (2.75%) Prometheus
7 26 (2.55%) Microsoft Intune
8 16 (1.57%) vCenter Server
9 11 (1.08%) NetBackup
10 10 (0.98%) Dell DRAC
10 10 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.98%) PowerCLI
11 8 (0.79%) Check_MK
11 8 (0.79%) vMotion
12 7 (0.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 7 (0.69%) SCCM
12 7 (0.69%) Tivoli Storage Manager
13 5 (0.49%) Avamar
13 5 (0.49%) Podman
13 5 (0.49%) VxRail
Vendors
1 251 (24.63%) Cisco
2 145 (14.23%) VMware
3 113 (11.09%) Palo Alto
4 107 (10.50%) Microsoft
5 105 (10.30%) F5
6 82 (8.05%) Juniper
7 65 (6.38%) Arista
7 65 (6.38%) Dell
7 65 (6.38%) Fortinet
8 48 (4.71%) ServiceNow
9 40 (3.93%) SolarWinds
10 35 (3.43%) Aruba
10 35 (3.43%) IBM
11 32 (3.14%) Google
12 31 (3.04%) CheckPoint
13 29 (2.85%) Splunk
14 27 (2.65%) Red Hat
15 24 (2.36%) Oracle
16 22 (2.16%) Extreme Networks
16 22 (2.16%) HP