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 18 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 79 70
Rank change year-on-year +2 -9 +14
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 123 81 159
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.59% 2.58% 2.91%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.57% 7.68% 9.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 44 113
10th Percentile £303 £158 £280
25th Percentile £362 £331 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £445 £463
Median % change year-on-year - -3.78% -13.95%
75th Percentile £500 £567 £608
90th Percentile £550 £626 £675
England median daily rate £478 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -8.56% -0.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 8 9
10th Percentile £44.28 £23.01 £18.70
25th Percentile £48.68 - £24.00
Median hourly rate £57.02 £24.18 £25.12
Median % change year-on-year +135.80% -3.72% -64.12%
75th Percentile £65.01 £24.66 £76.53
90th Percentile £69.20 £26.04 -
England median hourly rate £30.25 £24.66 £31.31
% change year-on-year +22.67% -21.23% -48.25%

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 1,436 1,055 1,647
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.18% 33.59% 30.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 959 611 982
10th Percentile £215 £240 £205
25th Percentile £363 £379 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £480
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +9.38% -8.57%
75th Percentile £588 £620 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £510 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -5.56% -1.82% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 79 38 122
10th Percentile £12.50 £19.53 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.61 £24.30 £22.61
Median hourly rate £26.44 £33.75 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.66% -28.95% +15.15%
75th Percentile £68.75 £62.24 £61.22
90th Percentile £88.00 £72.38 £76.53
England median hourly rate £33.09 £37.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -10.58% +13.85% +44.44%

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 18 February 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 18 February 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 18 February 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 +12 70 £375 -26.83% 39
Berkshire +22 64 £360 -28.00% 30
Hampshire -24 25 £500 +11.11% 25
Kent +7 18 £444 -20.22% 5
Surrey -26 5 £505 +209.82% 7
Buckinghamshire -8 4 £525 -2.78% 3
West Sussex -11 3 £700 +19.15% 8
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 6
East Sussex +4 1 £475 -24.00% 1
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 3 (2.44%) GeoServer
1 3 (2.44%) OpenStack
1 3 (2.44%) Smallworld
2 2 (1.63%) Confluence
3 1 (0.81%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (5.69%) Microsoft Office
1 7 (5.69%) MS Visio
2 4 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (3.25%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (1.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 12 (9.76%) Azure
2 8 (6.50%) AWS
3 4 (3.25%) IaaS
4 3 (2.44%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (2.44%) OpenShift
4 3 (2.44%) PaaS
4 3 (2.44%) SaaS
5 2 (1.63%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.63%) GitHub
6 1 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.81%) GCP
6 1 (0.81%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 48 (39.02%) Firewall
1 48 (39.02%) WAN
2 47 (38.21%) LAN
3 40 (32.52%) BGP
4 37 (30.08%) OSPF
5 19 (15.45%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (14.63%) IPsec
6 18 (14.63%) VPN
7 17 (13.82%) Ethernet VPN
8 15 (12.20%) VXLAN
9 12 (9.76%) DNS
10 11 (8.94%) BIG-IP
10 11 (8.94%) DHCP
10 11 (8.94%) Wireless
11 10 (8.13%) Cisco ISE
11 10 (8.13%) Junos
11 10 (8.13%) Network Security
12 8 (6.50%) Cisco Nexus
12 8 (6.50%) MPLS
12 8 (6.50%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.44%) Geospatial Data
1 3 (2.44%) GIS
1 3 (2.44%) QGIS
1 3 (2.44%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.63%) Bitbucket
1 2 (1.63%) Eclipse
1 2 (1.63%) JIRA
1 2 (1.63%) Maven
1 2 (1.63%) Rational DOORS
1 2 (1.63%) ScriptRunner
1 2 (1.63%) Subversion
2 1 (0.81%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 32 (26.02%) Social Skills
2 20 (16.26%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (9.76%) Public Sector
4 11 (8.94%) Manufacturing
5 8 (6.50%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (5.69%) Finance
6 7 (5.69%) Telecoms
7 5 (4.07%) Military
7 5 (4.07%) Retail
8 3 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.63%) Legal
10 1 (0.81%) Back Office
10 1 (0.81%) Billing
10 1 (0.81%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 39 (31.71%) Network Engineer
2 15 (12.20%) Cisco Engineer
2 15 (12.20%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 14 (11.38%) Analyst
3 14 (11.38%) Data Centre Analyst
4 13 (10.57%) Data Analyst
4 13 (10.57%) Project Manager
5 11 (8.94%) Senior
6 10 (8.13%) Architect
6 10 (8.13%) Data Centre Engineer
6 10 (8.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 7 (5.69%) Network Architect
8 6 (4.88%) Data Network Engineer
8 6 (4.88%) Designer
9 5 (4.07%) Data Centre Manager
9 5 (4.07%) Data Centre Project Manager
9 5 (4.07%) Firewall Specialist
9 5 (4.07%) Lead
9 5 (4.07%) Network Specialist
9 5 (4.07%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (9.76%) 802.1X
2 4 (3.25%) RFC 2544
3 2 (1.63%) NETCONF
3 2 (1.63%) OpenConfig
3 2 (1.63%) RESTCONF
3 2 (1.63%) XML
3 2 (1.63%) YANG
4 1 (0.81%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 11 (8.94%) Hybrid Cloud
1 11 (8.94%) PKI
2 10 (8.13%) Clustering
2 10 (8.13%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (4.88%) Driving Licence
4 5 (4.07%) Fibre Optics
5 4 (3.25%) Virtual Team
6 3 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (2.44%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.63%) Replication
8 1 (0.81%) CCTV
8 1 (0.81%) Cyber Defence
8 1 (0.81%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 1 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.81%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.81%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.81%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 15 (12.20%) Windows
2 9 (7.32%) Linux
3 2 (1.63%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.81%) VMS
4 1 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (17.07%) Problem-Solving
2 20 (16.26%) ITIL
3 16 (13.01%) High Availability
4 15 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
5 14 (11.38%) Change Control
5 14 (11.38%) Incident Management
6 12 (9.76%) Customer Requirements
6 12 (9.76%) Migration
6 12 (9.76%) Project Management
7 11 (8.94%) Load Balancing
7 11 (8.94%) Service Management
8 10 (8.13%) Agile
8 10 (8.13%) Identity Access Management
8 10 (8.13%) Observability
9 8 (6.50%) Budget Management
9 8 (6.50%) ITSM
9 8 (6.50%) PRINCE2
9 8 (6.50%) Project Delivery
10 7 (5.69%) Change Management
10 7 (5.69%) Data Centre Operations
Programming Languages
1 7 (5.69%) Python
2 4 (3.25%) SQL
3 3 (2.44%) Java
3 3 (2.44%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 76 (61.79%) Security Cleared
2 55 (44.72%) SC Cleared
3 42 (34.15%) Cisco Certification
4 29 (23.58%) CCNP
5 21 (17.07%) DV Cleared
6 18 (14.63%) Degree
7 14 (11.38%) CCNA
8 10 (8.13%) JNCIS
9 7 (5.69%) JNCIA
10 6 (4.88%) CCIE
10 6 (4.88%) JNCIP
11 5 (4.07%) JNCIE
12 4 (3.25%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.63%) CCSE
13 2 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (1.63%) DBS Check
13 2 (1.63%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (1.63%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
14 1 (0.81%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.25%) PMO
2 4 (3.25%) SLA
3 3 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (2.44%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.44%) QA
4 1 (0.81%) NCSC
4 1 (0.81%) NIST
4 1 (0.81%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.81%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 13 (10.57%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (8.13%) VMware NSX
3 3 (2.44%) Active Directory
4 2 (1.63%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.63%) vCloud
4 2 (1.63%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.63%) vSphere
5 1 (0.81%) KVM
5 1 (0.81%) NFS
5 1 (0.81%) RHEV
5 1 (0.81%) UAG
5 1 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.81%) Xen
Systems Management
1 10 (8.13%) Ansible
1 10 (8.13%) FortiGate
2 8 (6.50%) Terraform
3 4 (3.25%) Nagios
3 4 (3.25%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (2.44%) Endace
4 3 (2.44%) SCCM
5 1 (0.81%) CASB
5 1 (0.81%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.81%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.81%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.81%) vRealize
5 1 (0.81%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 62 (50.41%) Cisco
2 29 (23.58%) Juniper
3 24 (19.51%) Palo Alto
4 23 (18.70%) F5
5 20 (16.26%) CheckPoint
6 19 (15.45%) Aruba
7 17 (13.82%) VMware
8 15 (12.20%) SolarWinds
9 10 (8.13%) Extreme Networks
9 10 (8.13%) Splunk
10 8 (6.50%) Fortinet
10 8 (6.50%) Microsoft
11 4 (3.25%) Atlassian
11 4 (3.25%) Mellanox
11 4 (3.25%) NVIDIA
11 4 (3.25%) Zscaler
12 3 (2.44%) ESRI
12 3 (2.44%) Intergraph
12 3 (2.44%) ServiceNow
13 2 (1.63%) Citrix