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

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 123 131 102
Rank change year-on-year +8 -29 -6
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 824 514 821
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.06% 2.10% 2.21%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.34% 6.16% 7.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 523 338 588
10th Percentile £318 £337 £300
25th Percentile £403 £413 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £589 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £482 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -6.02% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 14 37
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £17.56 £24.30 £22.08
Median hourly rate £19.60 £24.66 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -20.54% -0.84% +12.61%
75th Percentile £28.88 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.11 £58.63 £41.25
UK median hourly rate £19.85 £24.66 £24.44
% change year-on-year -19.51% +0.92% +12.76%

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 13,005 8,347 11,485
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.48% 34.11% 30.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,251 5,465 7,493
10th Percentile £305 £300 £263
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.04% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 664 325 828
10th Percentile £16.03 £16.49 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.25 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.46 £34.00 £30.06
Median % change year-on-year +33.71% +13.11% +33.60%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.05 £83.76 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £30.00
% change year-on-year +39.88% +8.33% +33.42%

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 27 April 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 27 April 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 27 April 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 -2 292 £550 +4.76% 137
South East +3 185 £463 -5.61% 100
North of England +16 178 £459 +13.33% 46
Yorkshire -12 86 £365 -3.31% 16
North West +5 81 £481 -3.75% 22
South West -31 49 £513 -6.48% 35
Midlands -51 48 £474 -13.82% 33
West Midlands -49 43 £474 -18.63% 28
East of England -19 36 £478 +24.16% 30
North East -8 11 £263 +138.64% 8
East Midlands -39 4 £475 -13.64% 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 17 (2.06%) Confluence
2 12 (1.46%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.09%) CICS
5 4 (0.49%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.49%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.36%) nginx
7 2 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.12%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 18 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
1 18 (2.18%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.82%) MS Visio
3 14 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.33%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.24%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.24%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 6 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.24%) DELMIA
3 2 (0.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 2 (0.24%) Primavera
4 1 (0.12%) Maximo
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle Financials
4 1 (0.12%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 135 (16.38%) Azure
2 117 (14.20%) AWS
3 39 (4.73%) GCP
4 30 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (2.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 15 (1.82%) IaaS
7 14 (1.70%) Entra ID
7 14 (1.70%) SaaS
8 12 (1.46%) GitHub
8 12 (1.46%) Power Platform
9 11 (1.33%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 11 (1.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 11 (1.33%) PaaS
10 10 (1.21%) OpenShift
11 9 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (0.85%) AWS CloudFormation
12 7 (0.85%) AWS KMS
12 7 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.73%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 226 (27.43%) Firewall
2 152 (18.45%) WAN
3 138 (16.75%) BGP
4 107 (12.99%) OSPF
5 97 (11.77%) LAN
6 88 (10.68%) Network Security
7 84 (10.19%) VPN
8 75 (9.10%) Structured Cabling
9 72 (8.74%) VXLAN
10 66 (8.01%) SAN
11 64 (7.77%) DNS
12 63 (7.65%) VLAN
13 48 (5.83%) DHCP
14 45 (5.46%) Ethernet VPN
15 36 (4.37%) Wireless
16 34 (4.13%) Cisco Nexus
17 33 (4.00%) NX-OS
18 31 (3.76%) Cisco ISE
19 30 (3.64%) SD-WAN
20 28 (3.40%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.09%) DataStage
2 7 (0.85%) Power BI
3 5 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.49%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.49%) Power Query
4 4 (0.49%) PowerPivot
4 4 (0.49%) SAP Data Services
4 4 (0.49%) SQL Server
5 3 (0.36%) Big Data
5 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
6 2 (0.24%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.24%) GIS
6 2 (0.24%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.24%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.12%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.12%) DB2
7 1 (0.12%) MS Access
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.12%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 35 (4.25%) JIRA
2 32 (3.88%) Git
3 18 (2.18%) Jenkins
4 17 (2.06%) GitLab
5 9 (1.09%) Maven
6 4 (0.49%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.49%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.49%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.49%) Subversion
7 2 (0.24%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.24%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.12%) AppScan
8 1 (0.12%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.12%) Metasploit
General
1 220 (26.70%) Social Skills
2 116 (14.08%) Finance
3 97 (11.77%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (7.77%) Public Sector
5 51 (6.19%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (5.22%) Banking
7 26 (3.16%) Telecoms
8 23 (2.79%) Legal
8 23 (2.79%) Retail
9 17 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (2.06%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (0.97%) Marketing
12 8 (0.97%) Military
13 7 (0.85%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.85%) Investment Banking
13 7 (0.85%) Law
13 7 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.61%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 148 (17.96%) Network Engineer
2 114 (13.83%) Architect
3 78 (9.47%) Senior
4 68 (8.25%) Data Centre Engineer
4 68 (8.25%) Project Manager
5 44 (5.34%) Data Centre Manager
6 38 (4.61%) Lead
6 38 (4.61%) Network Architect
7 36 (4.37%) Analyst
7 36 (4.37%) IT Engineer
8 35 (4.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 33 (4.00%) Field Engineer
10 32 (3.88%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 31 (3.76%) Field Service Engineer
12 28 (3.40%) Infrastructure Manager
13 27 (3.28%) Cisco Engineer
14 26 (3.16%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 24 (2.91%) Data Centre Project Manager
16 23 (2.79%) Support Engineer
17 22 (2.67%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.76%) 802.1X
2 29 (3.52%) Middleware
3 9 (1.09%) LDAP
4 8 (0.97%) Redfish
5 6 (0.73%) Spring
6 5 (0.61%) Jinja
6 5 (0.61%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.61%) XML
7 4 (0.49%) ADO
7 4 (0.49%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.49%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.49%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.49%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.49%) VML
7 4 (0.49%) YANG
8 3 (0.36%) Kafka
8 3 (0.36%) REST
8 3 (0.36%) RFC 2544
9 2 (0.24%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 46 (5.58%) Hybrid Cloud
2 39 (4.73%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (3.52%) Clustering
4 27 (3.28%) PKI
5 23 (2.79%) Fibre Optics
6 19 (2.31%) Driving Licence
7 17 (2.06%) Onboarding
7 17 (2.06%) Replication
8 16 (1.94%) Cloud Native
8 16 (1.94%) Management Information System
8 16 (1.94%) Public Cloud
8 16 (1.94%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (1.82%) Private Cloud
10 13 (1.58%) CMDB
10 13 (1.58%) Enterprise Storage
11 12 (1.46%) Mainframe
12 11 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.09%) BYOD
13 9 (1.09%) SCADA
13 9 (1.09%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 103 (12.50%) Windows
2 92 (11.17%) Linux
3 35 (4.25%) Windows Server
4 27 (3.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 21 (2.55%) Unix
6 18 (2.18%) AIX
7 15 (1.82%) Solaris
8 11 (1.33%) CentOS
9 7 (0.85%) VMS
10 5 (0.61%) Android
10 5 (0.61%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.49%) HPUX
11 4 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
11 4 (0.49%) SUSE
12 3 (0.36%) Windows 10
13 2 (0.24%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (17.72%) Problem-Solving
2 144 (17.48%) Migration
3 86 (10.44%) Stakeholder Management
4 76 (9.22%) ITIL
5 72 (8.74%) Continuous Improvement
6 64 (7.77%) Roadmaps
7 63 (7.65%) Change Management
7 63 (7.65%) Project Management
8 62 (7.52%) High Availability
9 57 (6.92%) Project Delivery
10 52 (6.31%) Infrastructure as Code
11 51 (6.19%) CI/CD
12 50 (6.07%) Load Balancing
13 48 (5.83%) Technical Leadership
13 48 (5.83%) Validation
14 46 (5.58%) Break/Fix
14 46 (5.58%) Data Centre Operations
15 45 (5.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 44 (5.34%) Customer Service
16 44 (5.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 72 (8.74%) Python
2 33 (4.00%) PowerShell
3 22 (2.67%) Java
4 21 (2.55%) SQL
5 16 (1.94%) Bash
6 14 (1.70%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.33%) COBOL
8 9 (1.09%) MATLAB
9 8 (0.97%) Perl
10 6 (0.73%) Bicep
11 5 (0.61%) VBA
12 4 (0.49%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.49%) Lisp
13 3 (0.36%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.24%) C++
14 2 (0.24%) Korn
15 1 (0.12%) C
15 1 (0.12%) Go
15 1 (0.12%) SystemVerilog
15 1 (0.12%) VB
Qualifications
1 262 (31.80%) Security Cleared
2 185 (22.45%) SC Cleared
3 175 (21.24%) Cisco Certification
4 113 (13.71%) CCNP
5 75 (9.10%) CCNA
6 62 (7.52%) DV Cleared
7 57 (6.92%) Degree
8 35 (4.25%) Network+ Certification
9 30 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
10 29 (3.52%) A+ Certification
10 29 (3.52%) MCSE
11 23 (2.79%) PMP
12 22 (2.67%) CCIE
13 20 (2.43%) PMI Certification
14 18 (2.18%) City & Guilds
15 16 (1.94%) AWS Certification
15 16 (1.94%) Azure Certification
15 16 (1.94%) JNCIS
16 15 (1.82%) BICSI Certification
17 14 (1.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (3.28%) SLA
2 22 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (2.67%) PMO
3 19 (2.31%) NIST
4 17 (2.06%) GDPR
5 16 (1.94%) QA
6 11 (1.33%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.09%) NCSC
8 8 (0.97%) GRC
9 5 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.36%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.24%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) COBIT
12 1 (0.12%) NEBOSH
12 1 (0.12%) RMADS
12 1 (0.12%) SOC 1
System Software
1 69 (8.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 45 (5.46%) Active Directory
3 32 (3.88%) VMware NSX
4 23 (2.79%) Firmware
5 21 (2.55%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (2.18%) VMware ESXi
7 17 (2.06%) Hyper-V
8 16 (1.94%) vSphere
9 10 (1.21%) Docker
9 10 (1.21%) KVM
10 3 (0.36%) PowerHA
10 3 (0.36%) SRDF
10 3 (0.36%) UAG
10 3 (0.36%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 2 (0.24%) Ceph
11 2 (0.24%) Lustre
11 2 (0.24%) NFS
11 2 (0.24%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.24%) vCloud
11 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 79 (9.59%) Ansible
2 67 (8.13%) Terraform
3 46 (5.58%) FortiGate
4 37 (4.49%) Kubernetes
5 27 (3.28%) Grafana
6 20 (2.43%) Prometheus
7 13 (1.58%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (1.46%) SCCM
9 9 (1.09%) Check_MK
9 9 (1.09%) NetBackup
9 9 (1.09%) Podman
9 9 (1.09%) Red Hat Satellite
9 9 (1.09%) vCenter Server
10 8 (0.97%) Dell DRAC
11 7 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.73%) SCOM
13 5 (0.61%) Endace
13 5 (0.61%) Nagios
13 5 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
14 4 (0.49%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 238 (28.88%) Cisco
2 106 (12.86%) VMware
3 95 (11.53%) Palo Alto
4 79 (9.59%) Microsoft
5 73 (8.86%) Juniper
6 67 (8.13%) F5
7 64 (7.77%) Dell
8 41 (4.98%) CheckPoint
9 36 (4.37%) Aruba
10 34 (4.13%) Arista
10 34 (4.13%) Fortinet
10 34 (4.13%) SolarWinds
11 33 (4.00%) ServiceNow
12 29 (3.52%) Splunk
13 27 (3.28%) IBM
14 24 (2.91%) Red Hat
15 23 (2.79%) Meraki
15 23 (2.79%) Oracle
16 22 (2.67%) Extreme Networks
17 21 (2.55%) Google