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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 137 103
Rank change year-on-year +9 -34 -8
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 830 515 820
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.09% 2.10% 2.20%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.41% 6.15% 7.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 339 588
10th Percentile £318 £348 £300
25th Percentile £403 £413 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.62% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £595 £606 £627
90th Percentile £725 £675 £704
UK median daily rate £485 £514 £525
% change year-on-year -5.60% -2.14% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 14 36
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £18.07 £24.30 £22.08
Median hourly rate £19.85 £24.66 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -19.51% -0.84% +8.13%
75th Percentile £44.06 £43.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £58.63 £41.25
UK median hourly rate £20.66 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year -16.24% -0.84% +14.77%

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 12,951 8,370 11,548
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.62% 34.06% 30.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,203 5,478 7,558
10th Percentile £304 £300 £263
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £548 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.44% -0.41% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £501 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.53% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 662 320 819
10th Percentile £16.10 £16.64 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.02 £15.13
Median hourly rate £45.46 £35.45 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year +28.26% +25.47% +25.56%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £85.49 £85.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £28.00
% change year-on-year +39.88% +16.07% +24.44%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +11 296 £550 +4.76% 147
South East +3 182 £463 -6.09% 105
North of England +24 180 £459 +13.33% 48
North West +9 84 £488 -2.48% 24
Yorkshire -2 84 £365 -3.31% 16
South West -35 49 £513 -6.48% 37
Midlands -50 49 £474 -13.82% 36
West Midlands -49 43 £474 -21.00% 31
East of England -12 36 £478 +24.16% 33
North East -6 14 £288 +161.36% 8
East Midlands -34 5 £316 -42.50% 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 (2.05%) Confluence
2 15 (1.81%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.08%) CICS
5 4 (0.48%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.48%) 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 21 (2.53%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.93%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.24%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.24%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 6 (0.72%) 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
1 136 (16.39%) Azure
2 120 (14.46%) AWS
3 40 (4.82%) GCP
4 34 (4.10%) Microsoft 365
5 18 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 15 (1.81%) Entra ID
6 15 (1.81%) IaaS
7 14 (1.69%) SaaS
8 12 (1.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 12 (1.45%) GitHub
8 12 (1.45%) Power Platform
9 11 (1.33%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 11 (1.33%) PaaS
10 10 (1.20%) OpenShift
11 9 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
12 7 (0.84%) AWS KMS
12 7 (0.84%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 230 (27.71%) Firewall
2 154 (18.55%) WAN
3 143 (17.23%) BGP
4 107 (12.89%) OSPF
5 98 (11.81%) LAN
6 87 (10.48%) Network Security
7 83 (10.00%) VPN
8 75 (9.04%) Structured Cabling
9 72 (8.67%) VXLAN
10 69 (8.31%) VLAN
11 64 (7.71%) DNS
11 64 (7.71%) SAN
12 49 (5.90%) DHCP
13 44 (5.30%) Ethernet VPN
14 40 (4.82%) Wireless
15 34 (4.10%) Cisco Nexus
16 33 (3.98%) NX-OS
17 32 (3.86%) SD-WAN
18 30 (3.61%) Cisco ISE
19 28 (3.37%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.08%) DataStage
2 7 (0.84%) Power BI
3 5 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.48%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.48%) Power Query
4 4 (0.48%) PowerPivot
4 4 (0.48%) SAP Data Services
4 4 (0.48%) 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%) Elasticsearch
7 1 (0.12%) MS Access
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 34 (4.10%) JIRA
2 32 (3.86%) Git
3 18 (2.17%) Jenkins
4 17 (2.05%) GitLab
5 9 (1.08%) Maven
6 4 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.48%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.48%) 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
1 221 (26.63%) Social Skills
2 119 (14.34%) Finance
3 100 (12.05%) Analytical Skills
4 67 (8.07%) Public Sector
5 51 (6.14%) Documentation Skills
6 43 (5.18%) Banking
7 30 (3.61%) Telecoms
8 25 (3.01%) Legal
9 23 (2.77%) Retail
10 20 (2.41%) Manufacturing
11 16 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (1.33%) Marketing
13 11 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (0.96%) Military
14 8 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (0.84%) Aerospace
15 7 (0.84%) Investment Banking
15 7 (0.84%) Law
16 5 (0.60%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 148 (17.83%) Network Engineer
2 115 (13.86%) Architect
3 78 (9.40%) Senior
4 69 (8.31%) Project Manager
5 67 (8.07%) Data Centre Engineer
6 44 (5.30%) Data Centre Manager
7 39 (4.70%) Network Architect
8 38 (4.58%) Lead
9 36 (4.34%) Analyst
9 36 (4.34%) IT Engineer
10 35 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 33 (3.98%) Field Engineer
12 32 (3.86%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 31 (3.73%) Field Service Engineer
14 28 (3.37%) Infrastructure Manager
15 27 (3.25%) Cisco Engineer
16 26 (3.13%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 24 (2.89%) Data Centre Project Manager
17 24 (2.89%) Support Engineer
18 22 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.61%) 802.1X
2 28 (3.37%) Middleware
3 9 (1.08%) LDAP
4 7 (0.84%) Redfish
5 6 (0.72%) Spring
6 5 (0.60%) Jinja
6 5 (0.60%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.60%) XML
7 4 (0.48%) ADO
7 4 (0.48%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.48%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.48%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.48%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.48%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.48%) VML
7 4 (0.48%) YANG
8 3 (0.36%) Kafka
8 3 (0.36%) REST
8 3 (0.36%) RFC 2544
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 46 (5.54%) Hybrid Cloud
2 39 (4.70%) Analytical Mindset
3 28 (3.37%) Clustering
4 27 (3.25%) PKI
5 22 (2.65%) Fibre Optics
6 19 (2.29%) Driving Licence
7 18 (2.17%) Onboarding
8 17 (2.05%) Replication
9 16 (1.93%) Cloud Native
9 16 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 16 (1.93%) Public Cloud
9 16 (1.93%) Self-Motivation
10 15 (1.81%) Private Cloud
11 13 (1.57%) CMDB
12 12 (1.45%) Enterprise Storage
12 12 (1.45%) Mainframe
13 10 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
14 9 (1.08%) BYOD
14 9 (1.08%) SCADA
14 9 (1.08%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 105 (12.65%) Windows
2 93 (11.20%) Linux
3 36 (4.34%) Windows Server
4 30 (3.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (2.41%) Unix
6 18 (2.17%) AIX
7 15 (1.81%) Solaris
8 11 (1.33%) CentOS
9 8 (0.96%) Android
9 8 (0.96%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.84%) VMS
11 5 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.48%) HPUX
12 4 (0.48%) Oracle Linux
12 4 (0.48%) SUSE
13 3 (0.36%) Windows 10
14 2 (0.24%) Data ONTAP
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (17.95%) Problem-Solving
2 143 (17.23%) Migration
3 85 (10.24%) Stakeholder Management
4 77 (9.28%) ITIL
5 76 (9.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 66 (7.95%) Roadmaps
7 65 (7.83%) High Availability
8 64 (7.71%) Change Management
9 63 (7.59%) Project Management
10 56 (6.75%) Project Delivery
11 52 (6.27%) Infrastructure as Code
12 51 (6.14%) CI/CD
13 50 (6.02%) Load Balancing
14 48 (5.78%) Technical Leadership
15 47 (5.66%) Validation
16 46 (5.54%) Break/Fix
17 45 (5.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 45 (5.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 44 (5.30%) Customer Service
18 44 (5.30%) Data Centre Operations
Programming Languages
1 76 (9.16%) Python
2 38 (4.58%) PowerShell
3 22 (2.65%) Java
4 21 (2.53%) Bash
5 20 (2.41%) SQL
6 13 (1.57%) Perl
6 13 (1.57%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.33%) COBOL
8 9 (1.08%) MATLAB
9 6 (0.72%) Bicep
10 5 (0.60%) VBA
11 4 (0.48%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.48%) Lisp
12 3 (0.36%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.24%) C++
13 2 (0.24%) Korn
14 1 (0.12%) C
14 1 (0.12%) Ruby
14 1 (0.12%) Scala
14 1 (0.12%) VB
Qualifications
1 268 (32.29%) Security Cleared
2 192 (23.13%) SC Cleared
3 176 (21.20%) Cisco Certification
4 115 (13.86%) CCNP
5 77 (9.28%) CCNA
6 62 (7.47%) Degree
6 62 (7.47%) DV Cleared
7 35 (4.22%) Network+ Certification
8 30 (3.61%) Microsoft Certification
9 29 (3.49%) A+ Certification
9 29 (3.49%) MCSE
10 23 (2.77%) PMP
11 22 (2.65%) CCIE
12 20 (2.41%) PMI Certification
13 16 (1.93%) AWS Certification
13 16 (1.93%) Azure Certification
13 16 (1.93%) City & Guilds
13 16 (1.93%) JNCIS
14 14 (1.69%) BICSI Certification
14 14 (1.69%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (3.25%) SLA
2 23 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 23 (2.77%) PMO
3 20 (2.41%) NIST
4 18 (2.17%) GDPR
5 16 (1.93%) QA
6 12 (1.45%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.08%) NCSC
8 8 (0.96%) GRC
9 5 (0.60%) 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 72 (8.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 49 (5.90%) Active Directory
3 33 (3.98%) VMware NSX
4 22 (2.65%) Firmware
5 21 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (2.17%) VMware ESXi
7 17 (2.05%) Hyper-V
8 16 (1.93%) vSphere
9 10 (1.20%) Docker
9 10 (1.20%) KVM
10 3 (0.36%) NFS
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%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.24%) vCloud
11 2 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 80 (9.64%) Ansible
2 68 (8.19%) Terraform
3 47 (5.66%) FortiGate
4 37 (4.46%) Kubernetes
5 27 (3.25%) Grafana
6 20 (2.41%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (1.69%) SCCM
8 9 (1.08%) Check_MK
8 9 (1.08%) NetBackup
8 9 (1.08%) Podman
8 9 (1.08%) Red Hat Satellite
8 9 (1.08%) vCenter Server
9 7 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (0.84%) Dell DRAC
10 6 (0.72%) SCOM
11 5 (0.60%) Endace
11 5 (0.60%) Nagios
11 5 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.48%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 244 (29.40%) Cisco
2 108 (13.01%) VMware
3 97 (11.69%) Palo Alto
4 83 (10.00%) Microsoft
5 71 (8.55%) Juniper
6 68 (8.19%) Dell
7 67 (8.07%) F5
8 41 (4.94%) CheckPoint
9 36 (4.34%) Aruba
10 35 (4.22%) Arista
10 35 (4.22%) Fortinet
10 35 (4.22%) ServiceNow
11 34 (4.10%) SolarWinds
12 28 (3.37%) Splunk
13 27 (3.25%) IBM
13 27 (3.25%) Red Hat
14 24 (2.89%) Meraki
15 23 (2.77%) HP
15 23 (2.77%) Oracle
16 21 (2.53%) Citrix