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 26 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 68 67
Rank change year-on-year -17 -1 -7
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 174 101 128
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.63% 2.86% 2.83%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.81% 9.11% 9.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 72 80
10th Percentile £300 £281 £350
25th Percentile £400 £313 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £449 £525
Median % change year-on-year +19.73% -14.57% +5.00%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £608
90th Percentile £743 £638 £642
England median daily rate £537 £525 £535
% change year-on-year +2.29% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 0 9
10th Percentile £18.25 - £12.05
25th Percentile £19.34 - -
Median hourly rate £25.00 - £12.08
75th Percentile £33.75 - £18.75
90th Percentile £34.34 - £22.20
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £21.90
% change year-on-year +29.22% +14.84% -5.81%

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 1,974 1,109 1,341
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.82% 31.38% 29.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,189 701 774
10th Percentile £282 £204 £238
25th Percentile £412 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £610 £588 £608
90th Percentile £700 £669 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 92 98
10th Percentile £12.84 £15.13 £13.25
25th Percentile £16.25 £16.95 £27.56
Median hourly rate £38.25 £33.05 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +15.73% -42.37% +4.27%
75th Percentile £71.00 £58.00 £71.47
90th Percentile £93.90 £70.16 £75.16
England median hourly rate £35.82 £30.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +17.44% -46.82% +27.44%

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 26 September 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 26 September 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 26 September 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 -9 97 £449 +10.40% 142
Berkshire +5 75 £400 +17.65% 100
Hampshire -6 51 £600 +33.33% 44
Buckinghamshire -19 20 £610 +11.93% 19
Surrey -7 14 £513 +20.59% 32
West Sussex -24 7 £625 -13.79% 16
Middlesex - 4 - -
Oxfordshire -27 2 £500 -16.67% 23
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 (6.90%) SharePoint
2 5 (2.87%) IIS
3 3 (1.72%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.57%) Confluence
4 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.72%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (0.57%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 41 (23.56%) Azure
2 34 (19.54%) AWS
3 13 (7.47%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (6.32%) GCP
5 10 (5.75%) OneDrive
6 4 (2.30%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.30%) IaaS
7 3 (1.72%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.72%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (1.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.15%) OpenShift
8 2 (1.15%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.57%) dbt
9 1 (0.57%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.57%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (17.82%) WAN
2 30 (17.24%) DNS
3 29 (16.67%) Firewall
3 29 (16.67%) LAN
4 25 (14.37%) DHCP
5 24 (13.79%) BGP
6 21 (12.07%) VPN
7 18 (10.34%) VLAN
8 17 (9.77%) SD-WAN
8 17 (9.77%) TCP/IP
9 15 (8.62%) Network Security
10 14 (8.05%) VXLAN
11 13 (7.47%) Cisco Nexus
11 13 (7.47%) OSPF
12 12 (6.90%) Wi-Fi
13 10 (5.75%) BIG-IP
13 10 (5.75%) Ethernet VPN
13 10 (5.75%) MPLS
14 8 (4.60%) Cisco Firepower
14 8 (4.60%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.15%) Power BI
2 1 (0.57%) EDMS
Development Applications
1 2 (1.15%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.57%) Git
2 1 (0.57%) JIRA
General
1 52 (29.89%) Social Skills
2 16 (9.20%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (8.05%) Finance
4 13 (7.47%) Telecoms
5 8 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (3.45%) Legal
6 6 (3.45%) Retail
7 5 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.30%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.30%) Marketing
9 3 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.15%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 32 (18.39%) Architect
2 21 (12.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 21 (12.07%) Network Architect
3 19 (10.92%) Network Engineer
4 14 (8.05%) Analyst
5 10 (5.75%) IT Support
6 9 (5.17%) Capacity Manager
6 9 (5.17%) Data Centre Engineer
6 9 (5.17%) IT Engineer
7 8 (4.60%) Lead
7 8 (4.60%) Site Manager
8 7 (4.02%) Data Analyst
8 7 (4.02%) Data Centre Analyst
8 7 (4.02%) Senior
9 6 (3.45%) Cabling Engineer
9 6 (3.45%) Field Engineer
9 6 (3.45%) Field Service Engineer
9 6 (3.45%) Infrastructure Architect
9 6 (3.45%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.45%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.02%) 802.1X
1 7 (4.02%) Terraform
2 4 (2.30%) NETCONF
3 3 (1.72%) OpenConfig
3 3 (1.72%) RESTCONF
3 3 (1.72%) YANG
4 2 (1.15%) REST
5 1 (0.57%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.62%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (5.75%) Public Cloud
3 8 (4.60%) Analytical Mindset
3 8 (4.60%) Private Cloud
4 6 (3.45%) Fibre Optics
4 6 (3.45%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.87%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.87%) Embedded Systems
5 5 (2.87%) Mobile Payment
5 5 (2.87%) Smartcard
6 4 (2.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 4 (2.30%) Onboarding
6 4 (2.30%) Social Media
7 3 (1.72%) Clustering
7 3 (1.72%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.72%) PKI
8 2 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.15%) Replication
8 2 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.57%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 31 (17.82%) Windows
2 13 (7.47%) Linux
3 10 (5.75%) Apple iOS
3 10 (5.75%) Mac OS
3 10 (5.75%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (17.24%) ITIL
2 27 (15.52%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (13.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 24 (13.79%) ITSM
4 21 (12.07%) Migration
5 19 (10.92%) Disaster Recovery
6 18 (10.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 17 (9.77%) AI
7 17 (9.77%) Capacity Management
7 17 (9.77%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (9.77%) Data Protection
8 16 (9.20%) Customer Service
8 16 (9.20%) Project Delivery
8 16 (9.20%) Roadmaps
9 15 (8.62%) Business Continuity
9 15 (8.62%) Cybersecurity
10 14 (8.05%) Computer Science
10 14 (8.05%) TOGAF
11 13 (7.47%) Change Management
11 13 (7.47%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.17%) Python
2 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 72 (41.38%) Security Cleared
2 44 (25.29%) DV Cleared
3 35 (20.11%) SC Cleared
4 32 (18.39%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (13.79%) Degree
6 14 (8.05%) CCNP
7 11 (6.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 9 (5.17%) CCIE
9 7 (4.02%) CCNA
10 6 (3.45%) A+ Certification
10 6 (3.45%) CISSP
10 6 (3.45%) MCSE
10 6 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (3.45%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (3.45%) VCAP
11 5 (2.87%) AWS Certification
11 5 (2.87%) CISA
11 5 (2.87%) CISM
11 5 (2.87%) IISP
11 5 (2.87%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (9.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (5.75%) NIST
3 9 (5.17%) JSP 440
4 6 (3.45%) GDPR
4 6 (3.45%) GRC
4 6 (3.45%) QA
4 6 (3.45%) SLA
5 5 (2.87%) ISO 31000
5 5 (2.87%) ISO 9001
5 5 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
5 5 (2.87%) NCSC
5 5 (2.87%) PCI DSS
6 4 (2.30%) RMADS
7 1 (0.57%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.57%) NIST 800
System Software
1 27 (15.52%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (8.05%) VMware NSX
3 12 (6.90%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (5.75%) Active Directory
5 9 (5.17%) vSphere
6 7 (4.02%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (2.87%) Hyper-V
8 4 (2.30%) ISA Server
8 4 (2.30%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (1.15%) UAG
10 1 (0.57%) Firmware
10 1 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (8.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.32%) Ansible
3 10 (5.75%) Jamf Pro
4 8 (4.60%) vCenter Server
5 7 (4.02%) FortiGate
6 5 (2.87%) CASB
7 3 (1.72%) Avamar
7 3 (1.72%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (1.15%) Grafana
8 2 (1.15%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.15%) vRealize
8 2 (1.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 1 (0.57%) Kubernetes
9 1 (0.57%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.57%) SCCM
Vendors
1 42 (24.14%) Cisco
2 39 (22.41%) VMware
3 38 (21.84%) Microsoft
4 21 (12.07%) F5
5 13 (7.47%) Palo Alto
6 12 (6.90%) ServiceNow
7 11 (6.32%) SolarWinds
8 10 (5.75%) Juniper
9 9 (5.17%) CheckPoint
9 9 (5.17%) Dell
9 9 (5.17%) Fortinet
10 8 (4.60%) Veeam
11 7 (4.02%) Commvault
11 7 (4.02%) Google
11 7 (4.02%) Meraki
11 7 (4.02%) Splunk
12 5 (2.87%) BT
12 5 (2.87%) NetApp
12 5 (2.87%) Xerox
13 4 (2.30%) Tripwire