Data Centre Contract Job Trends in the South East

Data Center
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 14 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 67 65
Rank change year-on-year +10 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 208 91 161
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.42% 3.01% 2.80%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 11.66% 9.26% 9.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 65 113
10th Percentile £303 £262 £280
25th Percentile £400 £338 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £588 £608
90th Percentile £695 £640 £649
England median daily rate £498 £520 £538
% change year-on-year -4.33% -3.26% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 3 7
10th Percentile £16.01 - £11.77
25th Percentile £19.34 - £12.02
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.66 £12.08
Median % change year-on-year +31.79% +104.14% -82.74%
75th Percentile £33.75 £104.19 £24.00
90th Percentile £36.99 £151.90 £25.80
England median hourly rate £21.00 £31.33 £24.87
% change year-on-year -32.96% +25.95% +14.77%

All Generic Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 1,784 983 1,629
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.33% 32.54% 28.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,162 610 964
10th Percentile £275 £200 £210
25th Percentile £400 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% - -0.10%
75th Percentile £600 £589 £608
90th Percentile £700 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 155 81 172
10th Percentile £18.10 £15.13 £11.79
25th Percentile £27.69 £16.95 £18.35
Median hourly rate £60.00 £41.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.34% -24.07% -0.68%
75th Percentile £85.40 £62.24 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £87.05 £75.16
England median hourly rate £42.30 £33.91 £36.50
% change year-on-year +24.74% -7.10% +62.33%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Data Centre job vacancy trend in the South East

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Data Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre in the South East over the 6 months to 14 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the South East

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Data Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Centre in the South East over the 6 months to 14 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the South East

Data Centre
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 14 June 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
Thames Valley +20 127 £413 -12.47% 37
Berkshire +27 110 £400 - 24
Hampshire +5 60 £500 +2.04% 27
Buckinghamshire -26 15 £525 -1.87% 10
Kent +10 11 £445 +4.71%
Surrey -24 8 £475 +90.00% 8
West Sussex -22 4 £625 -13.79% 2
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 3
Data Centre
England

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 12 (5.77%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.44%) Confluence
3 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (2.88%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.48%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 44 (21.15%) Azure
2 32 (15.38%) AWS
3 14 (6.73%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (4.81%) OneDrive
5 6 (2.88%) Azure Sentinel
5 6 (2.88%) Entra ID
6 5 (2.40%) IaaS
7 4 (1.92%) GCP
8 3 (1.44%) PaaS
8 3 (1.44%) SaaS
9 2 (0.96%) GitHub
9 2 (0.96%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.48%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.48%) dbt
10 1 (0.48%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 71 (34.13%) Firewall
2 67 (32.21%) LAN
2 67 (32.21%) WAN
3 51 (24.52%) BGP
4 47 (22.60%) OSPF
5 42 (20.19%) DNS
6 41 (19.71%) DHCP
7 30 (14.42%) Ethernet VPN
7 30 (14.42%) VPN
7 30 (14.42%) VXLAN
8 24 (11.54%) BIG-IP
9 22 (10.58%) Junos
9 22 (10.58%) Structured Cabling
10 19 (9.13%) TCP/IP
11 18 (8.65%) Cisco ISE
12 17 (8.17%) Cisco Nexus
12 17 (8.17%) SAN
12 17 (8.17%) SD-WAN
13 12 (5.77%) Network Security
14 11 (5.29%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.96%) Power BI
2 1 (0.48%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (1.92%) Eclipse
1 4 (1.92%) JIRA
1 4 (1.92%) Maven
1 4 (1.92%) Subversion
2 2 (0.96%) Bitbucket
2 2 (0.96%) ScriptRunner
3 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 62 (29.81%) Social Skills
2 21 (10.10%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (7.21%) Finance
5 13 (6.25%) Manufacturing
6 11 (5.29%) Public Sector
6 11 (5.29%) Retail
7 9 (4.33%) Telecoms
8 6 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (2.88%) Legal
9 5 (2.40%) Military
10 3 (1.44%) Marketing
10 3 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.48%) Back Office
12 1 (0.48%) Billing
12 1 (0.48%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 47 (22.60%) Network Engineer
2 19 (9.13%) Senior
3 17 (8.17%) Data Centre Engineer
4 16 (7.69%) Architect
5 15 (7.21%) Analyst
6 14 (6.73%) Firewall Specialist
6 14 (6.73%) IT Engineer
6 14 (6.73%) Network Specialist
7 13 (6.25%) Data Analyst
7 13 (6.25%) Data Centre Analyst
7 13 (6.25%) IT Support
8 12 (5.77%) Cisco Engineer
8 12 (5.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 12 (5.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (5.77%) Project Manager
9 11 (5.29%) Field Engineer
9 11 (5.29%) Field Service Engineer
10 10 (4.81%) Network Architect
10 10 (4.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 10 (4.81%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.02%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.92%) XML
3 2 (0.96%) NETCONF
3 2 (0.96%) OpenConfig
3 2 (0.96%) RESTCONF
3 2 (0.96%) YANG
4 1 (0.48%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 22 (10.58%) Clustering
1 22 (10.58%) PKI
2 14 (6.73%) Analytical Mindset
3 11 (5.29%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (3.85%) Driving Licence
4 8 (3.85%) Fibre Optics
4 8 (3.85%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (1.92%) Replication
6 3 (1.44%) Linux Command Line
6 3 (1.44%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.44%) Public Cloud
7 2 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.96%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (0.96%) Management Information System
7 2 (0.96%) Private Cloud
8 1 (0.48%) iSeries
8 1 (0.48%) NHS
8 1 (0.48%) PMI
8 1 (0.48%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 51 (24.52%) Windows
2 18 (8.65%) Linux
3 10 (4.81%) Apple iOS
3 10 (4.81%) Mac OS
4 9 (4.33%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.48%) VMS
5 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (26.92%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (21.63%) ITIL
3 32 (15.38%) High Availability
4 30 (14.42%) Load Balancing
4 30 (14.42%) Migration
5 25 (12.02%) ITSM
6 24 (11.54%) Identity Access Management
7 23 (11.06%) Roadmaps
8 22 (10.58%) Customer Service
8 22 (10.58%) Observability
9 19 (9.13%) Project Delivery
10 18 (8.65%) Change Management
10 18 (8.65%) Disaster Recovery
11 16 (7.69%) Agile
11 16 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (7.21%) Stakeholder Management
13 14 (6.73%) Break/Fix
13 14 (6.73%) Data Protection
13 14 (6.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 14 (6.73%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.40%) Java
2 4 (1.92%) SQL
3 3 (1.44%) Python
4 2 (0.96%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 103 (49.52%) Security Cleared
2 64 (30.77%) Cisco Certification
2 64 (30.77%) SC Cleared
3 38 (18.27%) DV Cleared
4 30 (14.42%) CCNP
5 28 (13.46%) Degree
6 19 (9.13%) CCNA
7 12 (5.77%) JNCIS
7 12 (5.77%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (5.29%) A+ Certification
8 11 (5.29%) JNCIP
8 11 (5.29%) MCSE
8 11 (5.29%) Network+ Certification
9 10 (4.81%) JNCIA
10 6 (2.88%) CCIE
10 6 (2.88%) CCSE
10 6 (2.88%) PMP
11 5 (2.40%) AWS Certification
11 5 (2.40%) BICSI Certification
11 5 (2.40%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (3.37%) NIST
2 7 (3.37%) SLA
3 5 (2.40%) GDPR
4 4 (1.92%) JSP 440
4 4 (1.92%) RMADS
5 3 (1.44%) NCSC
6 2 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.96%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.48%) GRC
System Software
1 26 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (6.25%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.25%) VMware ESXi
3 8 (3.85%) vSphere
4 7 (3.37%) VMware NSX
5 6 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (2.40%) Hyper-V
7 3 (1.44%) UAG
8 2 (0.96%) vCloud
9 1 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (12.50%) FortiGate
2 17 (8.17%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.81%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (4.33%) Ansible
5 8 (3.85%) Terraform
6 4 (1.92%) Endace
6 4 (1.92%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.96%) Avamar
7 2 (0.96%) CASB
7 2 (0.96%) Nagios
7 2 (0.96%) SCCM
7 2 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 81 (38.94%) Cisco
2 36 (17.31%) Juniper
3 35 (16.83%) VMware
4 33 (15.87%) F5
5 29 (13.94%) SolarWinds
6 28 (13.46%) Microsoft
7 22 (10.58%) CheckPoint
7 22 (10.58%) Extreme Networks
7 22 (10.58%) Palo Alto
7 22 (10.58%) Splunk
8 14 (6.73%) ServiceNow
9 13 (6.25%) Aruba
10 12 (5.77%) Dell
11 11 (5.29%) Fortinet
12 7 (3.37%) Meraki
13 6 (2.88%) Atlassian
14 4 (1.92%) BT
14 4 (1.92%) Commvault
14 4 (1.92%) NetApp
14 4 (1.92%) Veeam