Data Centre Contracts 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 16 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 96 79
Rank change year-on-year -1 -17 +10
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 36 31 72
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 1.63% 1.29% 2.44%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 5.03% 4.88% 8.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 11 51
10th Percentile £269 £463 £313
25th Percentile £390 £489 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - +17.65%
75th Percentile £581 £538 £550
90th Percentile £630 £575 £656
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 2
10th Percentile £33.95 - £17.80
25th Percentile £45.88 - £25.71
Median hourly rate £66.50 - £39.02
75th Percentile £67.25 - £52.45
90th Percentile - - £60.43
England median hourly rate £25.15 £23.80 £23.84
% change year-on-year +5.67% -0.16% -39.65%

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 716 635 890
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.44% 26.41% 30.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 475 396 586
10th Percentile £302 £313 £257
25th Percentile £375 £425 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +1.01%
75th Percentile £580 £600 £592
90th Percentile £650 £727 £653
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 30 39
10th Percentile £22.50 £11.25 £16.20
25th Percentile £26.88 £17.15 £16.85
Median hourly rate £40.59 £31.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.89% -16.67% +89.87%
75th Percentile £67.25 £57.50 £48.09
90th Percentile £78.75 £93.45 £67.60
England median hourly rate £30.25 £47.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -36.32% +11.76% +60.38%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Data Centre as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Data Centre in the North West

Data Centre
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Data Centre in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Data Centre in the North West

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 16 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the North West

Data Centre
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Data Centre in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for Data Centre in the North West

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 +7 17 £529 +5.75% 34
Cumbria - 8 £523 - 6
Cheshire -32 5 £210 -59.52% 5
Merseyside -5 4 £550 - 6
Lancashire - 1 £350 - 31
Data Centre
England

Data Centre
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.78%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (16.67%) Azure
2 3 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (2.78%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (2.78%) Entra ID
3 1 (2.78%) GCP
3 1 (2.78%) OneDrive
3 1 (2.78%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (27.78%) WAN
2 9 (25.00%) Firewall
2 9 (25.00%) Wi-Fi
3 7 (19.44%) Cisco ISE
3 7 (19.44%) NetScaler
4 4 (11.11%) BGP
4 4 (11.11%) Multicast
4 4 (11.11%) SAN
5 3 (8.33%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (5.56%) DNS
6 2 (5.56%) LAN
6 2 (5.56%) TCP/IP
6 2 (5.56%) VLAN
6 2 (5.56%) VSAN
7 1 (2.78%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (2.78%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (2.78%) Cisco Nexus
7 1 (2.78%) iSCSI
7 1 (2.78%) Network Security
7 1 (2.78%) Software-Defined Networking
General
1 8 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 6 (16.67%) Public Sector
3 5 (13.89%) Finance
4 2 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.56%) Banking
5 1 (2.78%) Automotive
5 1 (2.78%) Legal
Job Titles
1 13 (36.11%) Network Engineer
2 6 (16.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 5 (13.89%) Architect
4 4 (11.11%) Consultant
4 4 (11.11%) Test Manager
5 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure Architect
5 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 3 (8.33%) VMware Consultant
6 2 (5.56%) Desktop Engineer
6 2 (5.56%) Migration Manager
6 2 (5.56%) Server Engineer
6 2 (5.56%) Storage Engineer
6 2 (5.56%) Technical Architect
7 1 (2.78%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 1 (2.78%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
7 1 (2.78%) Azure Architect
7 1 (2.78%) Banking Infrastructure Architect
7 1 (2.78%) LAN Engineer
7 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Technical Architect
7 1 (2.78%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (19.44%) 802.1X
2 1 (2.78%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.89%) Replication
2 4 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (5.56%) Cloud Native
3 2 (5.56%) Clustering
3 2 (5.56%) Private Cloud
4 1 (2.78%) Mainframe
4 1 (2.78%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 9 (25.00%) Windows
2 3 (8.33%) Android
2 3 (8.33%) Apple iOS
2 3 (8.33%) Linux
3 2 (5.56%) HPUX
3 2 (5.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (5.56%) Solaris
3 2 (5.56%) Unix
4 1 (2.78%) Windows Server
4 1 (2.78%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (2.78%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (2.78%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (25.00%) Impact Assessments
2 8 (22.22%) Load Balancing
2 8 (22.22%) Network Architecture
2 8 (22.22%) Network Design
2 8 (22.22%) Network Management
3 6 (16.67%) Migration
4 5 (13.89%) Risk Management
5 4 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
5 4 (11.11%) Test Planning
5 4 (11.11%) Test Strategy
6 3 (8.33%) Edge Computing
6 3 (8.33%) High Availability
6 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure as Code
6 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 3 (8.33%) Minimum Viable Product
6 3 (8.33%) Mobile Device Management
6 3 (8.33%) Security Hardening
6 3 (8.33%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (8.33%) Validation
6 3 (8.33%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 4 (11.11%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.78%) Perl
2 1 (2.78%) Python
Qualifications
1 13 (36.11%) SC Cleared
1 13 (36.11%) Security Cleared
2 1 (2.78%) CCDP
2 1 (2.78%) CCNP
2 1 (2.78%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (2.78%) Degree
2 1 (2.78%) MCSE
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (2.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (11.11%) QA
System Software
1 7 (19.44%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (13.89%) Active Directory
3 2 (5.56%) VMware NSX
3 2 (5.56%) vSphere
4 1 (2.78%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (2.78%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 4 (11.11%) vCenter Server
2 3 (8.33%) Jamf Pro
2 3 (8.33%) SCCM
2 3 (8.33%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (5.56%) Ansible
3 2 (5.56%) Microsoft Clustering
3 2 (5.56%) PowerCLI
3 2 (5.56%) Terraform
4 1 (2.78%) WSUS
Vendors
1 14 (38.89%) Cisco
2 10 (27.78%) Palo Alto
3 8 (22.22%) Meraki
4 7 (19.44%) Microsoft
4 7 (19.44%) VMware
5 3 (8.33%) Arista
5 3 (8.33%) Dell
5 3 (8.33%) NetApp
5 3 (8.33%) Remedy
5 3 (8.33%) ServiceNow
5 3 (8.33%) Veeam
6 2 (5.56%) F5
6 2 (5.56%) IBM
6 2 (5.56%) SolarWinds
6 2 (5.56%) Sun
7 1 (2.78%) CheckPoint
7 1 (2.78%) Citrix
7 1 (2.78%) Unisys