Data Centre Contract Job Trends in the North West

Data Center
England > North West

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies in the North West. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 67 79 67
Rank change year-on-year +12 -12 +1
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 84 44 73
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.35% 2.04% 2.78%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 9.34% 6.47% 9.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 22 57
10th Percentile £362 £444 £405
25th Percentile £469 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £500 £588
Median % change year-on-year +9.00% -14.89% +27.03%
75th Percentile £588 £525 £627
90th Percentile £638 £538 £683
England median daily rate £514 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.14% -2.33% -1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 1
10th Percentile £41.90 - -
25th Percentile £65.75 - -
Median hourly rate £66.50 - £12.53
75th Percentile £74.26 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £23.99 £23.00
% change year-on-year +4.84% +4.30% -64.06%

All Generic Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 899 680 771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.82% 31.57% 29.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 601 367 544
10th Percentile £198 £203 £256
25th Percentile £358 £356 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £486 £513
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -5.17% +2.50%
75th Percentile £566 £569 £594
90th Percentile £638 £675 £672
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 38 37
10th Percentile £16.50 £19.91 £15.24
25th Percentile £21.46 £21.62 £21.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £30.12 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +50.95% -29.14% +37.83%
75th Percentile £59.63 £33.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.06 £63.85 £62.50
England median hourly rate £29.00 £37.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -21.62% -15.60% +25.25%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Data Centre job vacancy trend in the North West

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Data Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre in the North West over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the North West

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Data Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Centre in the North West over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the North West

Data Centre
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 20 December 2025. 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
Manchester -1 33 £500 +0.50% 11
Cumbria - 28 £525 - 5
Merseyside -4 8 £600 +20.00% 1
Cheshire -21 7 £575 +17.95% 2
Lancashire - 5 £550 - 4
Data Centre
England

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 8 (9.52%) SharePoint
2 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 8 (9.52%) MS Visio
2 5 (5.95%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.19%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 8 (9.52%) AWS
2 7 (8.33%) Azure
2 7 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (3.57%) OCI
4 1 (1.19%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (1.19%) GCP
4 1 (1.19%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (33.33%) Firewall
2 21 (25.00%) Cisco ISE
3 17 (20.24%) Wireless
4 14 (16.67%) BGP
4 14 (16.67%) SAN
4 14 (16.67%) WAN
5 13 (15.48%) Wi-Fi
6 12 (14.29%) Cisco Wireless
6 12 (14.29%) NetScaler
7 11 (13.10%) VLAN
8 9 (10.71%) DNS
8 9 (10.71%) NX-OS
9 8 (9.52%) VXLAN
10 7 (8.33%) DHCP
11 6 (7.14%) Network Security
12 5 (5.95%) Software-Defined Networking
12 5 (5.95%) TCP/IP
12 5 (5.95%) VPN
13 3 (3.57%) SNMP
14 2 (2.38%) MPLS
General
1 19 (22.62%) Social Skills
2 16 (19.05%) Public Sector
3 13 (15.48%) Finance
4 10 (11.90%) Banking
5 7 (8.33%) Investment Banking
6 5 (5.95%) Electronics
6 5 (5.95%) Manufacturing
6 5 (5.95%) Marketing
6 5 (5.95%) Telecoms
7 4 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (2.38%) Legal
9 1 (1.19%) Retail
Job Titles
1 34 (40.48%) Network Engineer
2 21 (25.00%) Architect
3 11 (13.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 10 (11.90%) Technical Architect
5 8 (9.52%) Cisco Engineer
5 8 (9.52%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 7 (8.33%) Cisco Wireless Engineer
6 7 (8.33%) RF Engineer
6 7 (8.33%) Wireless Engineer
6 7 (8.33%) Wireless Network Engineer
7 5 (5.95%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
7 5 (5.95%) 2nd Line Support
7 5 (5.95%) Data Centre Manager
7 5 (5.95%) Desktop Support
7 5 (5.95%) IT Support
7 5 (5.95%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
7 5 (5.95%) ServiceNow Architect
8 4 (4.76%) Infrastructure Architect
8 4 (4.76%) Migration Manager
8 4 (4.76%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (14.29%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.19%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 5 (5.95%) Onboarding
1 5 (5.95%) Product Ownership
1 5 (5.95%) Public Cloud
2 3 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
2 3 (3.57%) Replication
3 2 (2.38%) Cloud Native
3 2 (2.38%) Clustering
3 2 (2.38%) Private Cloud
4 1 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (1.19%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.19%) Fibre Optics
4 1 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 9 (10.71%) Windows
2 7 (8.33%) Linux
3 5 (5.95%) Android
3 5 (5.95%) Mac OS
4 3 (3.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (3.57%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (16.67%) Load Balancing
1 14 (16.67%) Migration
2 13 (15.48%) Impact Assessments
2 13 (15.48%) Network Design
3 12 (14.29%) Network Architecture
4 11 (13.10%) ITSM
4 11 (13.10%) Network Management
4 11 (13.10%) Technical Leadership
5 10 (11.90%) User Experience
6 9 (10.71%) Containerisation
7 8 (9.52%) Application Virtualisation
7 8 (9.52%) Customer Service
8 7 (8.33%) Due Diligence
8 7 (8.33%) Technical Architecture
9 6 (7.14%) Cybersecurity
9 6 (7.14%) Platform Engineering
9 6 (7.14%) Problem-Solving
9 6 (7.14%) Programme Management
9 6 (7.14%) Risk Management
10 5 (5.95%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (10.71%) Perl
1 9 (10.71%) PowerShell
1 9 (10.71%) Python
2 8 (9.52%) Bash
2 8 (9.52%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 48 (57.14%) Security Cleared
2 47 (55.95%) SC Cleared
3 17 (20.24%) Cisco Certification
4 16 (19.05%) CCNP
5 8 (9.52%) CCNA
6 4 (4.76%) CCDP
6 4 (4.76%) Degree
7 1 (1.19%) A+ Certification
7 1 (1.19%) MCSE
7 1 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (1.19%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.19%) Data Quality
1 1 (1.19%) QA
System Software
1 11 (13.10%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (7.14%) Active Directory
3 3 (3.57%) Docker
4 2 (2.38%) VMware NSX
4 2 (2.38%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (13.10%) FortiGate
2 3 (3.57%) vCenter Server
3 2 (2.38%) Ansible
3 2 (2.38%) Microsoft Clustering
3 2 (2.38%) PowerCLI
3 2 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (2.38%) Terraform
Vendors
1 40 (47.62%) Cisco
2 19 (22.62%) Palo Alto
3 13 (15.48%) Meraki
3 13 (15.48%) ServiceNow
4 11 (13.10%) VMware
5 9 (10.71%) Dell
6 8 (9.52%) Ekahau
6 8 (9.52%) Microsoft
6 8 (9.52%) Remedy
7 6 (7.14%) Citrix
8 5 (5.95%) Apple
8 5 (5.95%) HP
8 5 (5.95%) SAP
9 3 (3.57%) Capita
9 3 (3.57%) Juniper
9 3 (3.57%) NetApp
9 3 (3.57%) Oracle
9 3 (3.57%) Red Hat
9 3 (3.57%) Veeam
10 2 (2.38%) SolarWinds