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 27 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 77 74
Rank change year-on-year +5 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 159 79 151
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.93% 2.69% 2.69%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 9.68% 7.79% 9.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 50 104
10th Percentile £315 £167 £280
25th Percentile £413 £328 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -7.32%
75th Percentile £544 £588 £608
90th Percentile £600 £628 £668
England median daily rate £488 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -7.14% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 9 7
10th Percentile - £23.40 £16.90
25th Percentile £16.01 - £22.25
Median hourly rate £18.23 £24.18 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.61% +0.75% -65.71%
75th Percentile £37.88 £24.66 £72.02
90th Percentile £58.03 £60.14 £76.53
England median hourly rate £22.27 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year -9.71% -0.84% +12.61%

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 1,643 1,014 1,653
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.30% 34.48% 29.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,090 631 940
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £372 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.60% -2.77%
75th Percentile £600 £616 £608
90th Percentile £695 £663 £688
England median daily rate £513 £543 £550
% change year-on-year -5.53% -1.36% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 59 144
10th Percentile £15.23 £16.95 £11.79
25th Percentile £20.79 £23.50 £18.46
Median hourly rate £68.75 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.54% -18.75% -15.79%
75th Percentile £88.00 £63.00 £61.30
90th Percentile - £79.79 £65.00
England median hourly rate £42.71 £34.50 £28.00
% change year-on-year +23.78% +23.21% +20.95%

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 27 March 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 27 March 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 27 March 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 90 £445 -17.59% 41
Berkshire +21 81 £375 -31.82% 32
Hampshire -4 41 £500 -13.04% 21
Kent +5 18 £444 -8.97% 2
Buckinghamshire -22 7 £494 -6.40% 6
Surrey -28 5 £505 +200.60% 16
West Sussex -12 4 £700 +86.67% 7
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 3
East Sussex -1 1 £475 -24.00%
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 2 (1.26%) Confluence
2 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (5.66%) MS Visio
2 7 (4.40%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.77%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 20 (12.58%) Azure
2 12 (7.55%) AWS
3 4 (2.52%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.89%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (1.89%) IaaS
4 3 (1.89%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (1.89%) PaaS
4 3 (1.89%) SaaS
5 2 (1.26%) GitHub
6 1 (0.63%) GCP
6 1 (0.63%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 64 (40.25%) Firewall
2 63 (39.62%) WAN
3 60 (37.74%) LAN
4 51 (32.08%) BGP
5 46 (28.93%) OSPF
6 26 (16.35%) Ethernet VPN
7 25 (15.72%) Structured Cabling
7 25 (15.72%) VPN
8 24 (15.09%) VXLAN
9 22 (13.84%) DHCP
9 22 (13.84%) DNS
10 20 (12.58%) BIG-IP
11 19 (11.95%) Junos
12 17 (10.69%) IPsec
13 15 (9.43%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (8.18%) TCP/IP
15 12 (7.55%) SAN
16 10 (6.29%) MPLS
16 10 (6.29%) Network Security
17 9 (5.66%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.26%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.52%) Eclipse
1 4 (2.52%) Maven
1 4 (2.52%) Subversion
2 3 (1.89%) JIRA
3 2 (1.26%) Bitbucket
3 2 (1.26%) Rational DOORS
3 2 (1.26%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 44 (27.67%) Social Skills
2 18 (11.32%) Documentation Skills
3 14 (8.81%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (8.81%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.18%) Manufacturing
5 10 (6.29%) Retail
6 9 (5.66%) Finance
7 6 (3.77%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (3.14%) Legal
8 5 (3.14%) Military
9 3 (1.89%) Marketing
9 3 (1.89%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.63%) Back Office
10 1 (0.63%) Billing
10 1 (0.63%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 41 (25.79%) Network Engineer
2 17 (10.69%) Senior
3 16 (10.06%) Architect
4 14 (8.81%) Cisco Engineer
4 14 (8.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 14 (8.81%) Project Manager
5 11 (6.92%) Analyst
5 11 (6.92%) Data Centre Analyst
5 11 (6.92%) Firewall Specialist
5 11 (6.92%) Network Specialist
6 10 (6.29%) Data Analyst
6 10 (6.29%) Data Centre Engineer
6 10 (6.29%) Data Centre Manager
6 10 (6.29%) Network Architect
6 10 (6.29%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 9 (5.66%) Senior Network Engineer
8 8 (5.03%) Applications Developer
8 8 (5.03%) Developer
9 7 (4.40%) Data Manager
9 7 (4.40%) Strategy Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (12.58%) 802.1X
2 4 (2.52%) NETCONF
2 4 (2.52%) OpenConfig
2 4 (2.52%) RESTCONF
2 4 (2.52%) XML
2 4 (2.52%) YANG
3 1 (0.63%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 20 (12.58%) PKI
2 19 (11.95%) Clustering
3 11 (6.92%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (6.29%) Analytical Mindset
4 10 (6.29%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (5.03%) Driving Licence
6 5 (3.14%) Fibre Optics
6 5 (3.14%) Replication
7 3 (1.89%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.26%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.63%) CCTV
9 1 (0.63%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (0.63%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 1 (0.63%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.63%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.63%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.63%) NHS
9 1 (0.63%) PMI
9 1 (0.63%) Smartphone
9 1 (0.63%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 29 (18.24%) Windows
2 13 (8.18%) Linux
3 5 (3.14%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.63%) VMS
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (25.16%) Problem-Solving
2 33 (20.75%) ITIL
3 29 (18.24%) High Availability
4 22 (13.84%) Load Balancing
5 21 (13.21%) Identity Access Management
6 19 (11.95%) Observability
6 19 (11.95%) Roadmaps
7 18 (11.32%) Migration
8 15 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (8.81%) Project Delivery
9 14 (8.81%) Project Management
10 13 (8.18%) Change Management
11 12 (7.55%) Budget Management
11 12 (7.55%) Customer Requirements
11 12 (7.55%) ITSM
11 12 (7.55%) Service Management
12 11 (6.92%) Change Control
13 10 (6.29%) Agile
13 10 (6.29%) Availability Management
13 10 (6.29%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (3.14%) Java
1 5 (3.14%) Python
1 5 (3.14%) SQL
2 2 (1.26%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 95 (59.75%) Security Cleared
2 61 (38.36%) SC Cleared
3 56 (35.22%) Cisco Certification
4 30 (18.87%) CCNP
5 28 (17.61%) DV Cleared
6 19 (11.95%) Degree
7 18 (11.32%) CCNA
8 14 (8.81%) JNCIS
9 11 (6.92%) JNCIA
10 10 (6.29%) JNCIP
11 6 (3.77%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (3.14%) A+ Certification
12 5 (3.14%) CCIE
12 5 (3.14%) MCSE
12 5 (3.14%) Network+ Certification
12 5 (3.14%) PMP
13 4 (2.52%) CCSE
13 4 (2.52%) JNCIE
14 2 (1.26%) BICSI Certification
14 2 (1.26%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.77%) SLA
3 4 (2.52%) GDPR
3 4 (2.52%) NIST
4 3 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.26%) NCSC
5 2 (1.26%) PMO
6 1 (0.63%) NIST 800
System Software
1 16 (10.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (5.03%) Active Directory
3 7 (4.40%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (3.77%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.52%) Hyper-V
5 4 (2.52%) vSphere
6 2 (1.26%) vCloud
7 1 (0.63%) KVM
7 1 (0.63%) NFS
7 1 (0.63%) RHEV
7 1 (0.63%) UAG
7 1 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.63%) Xen
Systems Management
1 20 (12.58%) FortiGate
2 9 (5.66%) Ansible
3 5 (3.14%) Endace
3 5 (3.14%) Terraform
4 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (2.52%) Nagios
4 4 (2.52%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.89%) SCCM
6 1 (0.63%) CASB
6 1 (0.63%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.63%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.63%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 69 (43.40%) Cisco
2 38 (23.90%) Juniper
3 31 (19.50%) F5
4 27 (16.98%) Palo Alto
5 24 (15.09%) SolarWinds
6 21 (13.21%) CheckPoint
7 20 (12.58%) VMware
8 19 (11.95%) Aruba
8 19 (11.95%) Extreme Networks
8 19 (11.95%) Splunk
9 10 (6.29%) Microsoft
10 9 (5.66%) Fortinet
11 6 (3.77%) Atlassian
12 5 (3.14%) Dell
13 4 (2.52%) Mellanox
13 4 (2.52%) NVIDIA
13 4 (2.52%) ServiceNow
13 4 (2.52%) Zerto
13 4 (2.52%) Zscaler
14 3 (1.89%) Rackspace