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 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 84 74
Rank change year-on-year -13 -10 +12
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 94 94 149
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.11% 2.56% 2.96%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.07% 7.99% 9.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 57 114
10th Percentile £293 £154 £280
25th Percentile £363 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £500 £506
Median % change year-on-year -9.50% -1.23% -3.57%
75th Percentile £538 £565 £625
90th Percentile £600 £600 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -0.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 6 6
10th Percentile - £22.24 £22.42
25th Percentile - - £32.88
Median hourly rate - £24.18 £69.77
Median % change year-on-year - -65.34% -0.34%
75th Percentile - - £76.53
90th Percentile - £26.72 -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £24.18 £23.00
% change year-on-year +4.01% +5.13% -64.62%

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 1,329 1,176 1,558
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.89% 32.07% 31.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 886 691 974
10th Percentile £204 £243 £205
25th Percentile £363 £387 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £515 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.85% +3.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £681 £688 £688
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 44 93
10th Percentile £12.50 £20.07 £19.60
25th Percentile £15.94 £25.93 £30.00
Median hourly rate £23.50 £35.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.86% -33.33% +40.00%
75th Percentile £62.88 £57.81 £63.29
90th Percentile £84.50 £69.98 £77.31
England median hourly rate £29.00 £37.00 £42.92
% change year-on-year -21.62% -13.78% +22.42%

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 December 2025.

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
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 December 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
Thames Valley +6 56 £425 -15.00% 105
Berkshire +9 47 £400 -11.50% 71
Hampshire -27 19 £500 - 37
Kent +8 10 £441 -20.67% 21
Buckinghamshire +9 6 £750 +38.89% 17
West Sussex -8 5 £713 +21.28% 12
Oxfordshire -10 3 £600 +20.00% 17
Surrey -25 2 £505 +18.82% 25
East Sussex +7 1 £475 -24.00% 8
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 6 (6.38%) OpenStack
2 3 (3.19%) GeoServer
2 3 (3.19%) Smallworld
3 2 (2.13%) ThingWorx
4 1 (1.06%) Confluence
4 1 (1.06%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (7.45%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (5.32%) MS Visio
3 4 (4.26%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 11 (11.70%) Azure
2 8 (8.51%) AWS
3 7 (7.45%) OpenShift
4 4 (4.26%) Entra ID
4 4 (4.26%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (3.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (2.13%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (2.13%) IaaS
6 2 (2.13%) Nutanix
7 1 (1.06%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.06%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (32.98%) Firewall
2 25 (26.60%) WAN
3 24 (25.53%) LAN
4 19 (20.21%) BGP
5 17 (18.09%) OSPF
6 13 (13.83%) VPN
7 10 (10.64%) IPsec
7 10 (10.64%) MPLS
8 9 (9.57%) Structured Cabling
8 9 (9.57%) Wireless
9 8 (8.51%) SNMP
9 8 (8.51%) TACACS
10 7 (7.45%) SAN
11 6 (6.38%) Network Security
11 6 (6.38%) TCP/IP
12 4 (4.26%) Cisco Nexus
13 3 (3.19%) DNS
13 3 (3.19%) IPv4
13 3 (3.19%) IPv6
13 3 (3.19%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.26%) SQL Server
2 3 (3.19%) Geospatial Data
2 3 (3.19%) GIS
2 3 (3.19%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 2 (2.13%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (1.06%) Bitbucket
2 1 (1.06%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.06%) JIRA
2 1 (1.06%) ScriptRunner
General
1 22 (23.40%) Social Skills
2 16 (17.02%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (10.64%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (10.64%) Public Sector
4 9 (9.57%) Telecoms
5 7 (7.45%) Finance
6 6 (6.38%) Manufacturing
7 5 (5.32%) Retail
8 4 (4.26%) Front Office
9 2 (2.13%) Back Office
9 2 (2.13%) Banking
9 2 (2.13%) Legal
10 1 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (21.28%) Network Engineer
2 12 (12.77%) Architect
3 9 (9.57%) Data Centre Manager
4 8 (8.51%) Analyst
4 8 (8.51%) Data Centre Analyst
4 8 (8.51%) Designer
5 7 (7.45%) Data Analyst
5 7 (7.45%) Project Manager
5 7 (7.45%) Test Engineer
6 6 (6.38%) Cisco Engineer
6 6 (6.38%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 6 (6.38%) IP Designer
7 5 (5.32%) Data Centre Project Manager
7 5 (5.32%) Senior
8 4 (4.26%) Data Centre Engineer
8 4 (4.26%) Data Centre Technician
8 4 (4.26%) Data Technician
8 4 (4.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (4.26%) Lead
8 4 (4.26%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (7.45%) RFC 2544
2 3 (3.19%) Middleware
3 2 (2.13%) NETCONF
3 2 (2.13%) OpenConfig
3 2 (2.13%) RESTCONF
3 2 (2.13%) YANG
4 1 (1.06%) 802.1X
4 1 (1.06%) React
Miscellaneous
1 13 (13.83%) Hybrid Cloud
2 7 (7.45%) Fibre Optics
2 7 (7.45%) Self-Motivation
3 4 (4.26%) Analytical Mindset
3 4 (4.26%) Virtual Team
4 3 (3.19%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (3.19%) Driving Licence
4 3 (3.19%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (2.13%) Industrial Internet of Things
5 2 (2.13%) IoT
5 2 (2.13%) Linux Command Line
5 2 (2.13%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.13%) Operational Technology
5 2 (2.13%) SCADA
6 1 (1.06%) CCTV
6 1 (1.06%) FlexPod
6 1 (1.06%) PKI
6 1 (1.06%) Replication
6 1 (1.06%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 7 (7.45%) Windows
2 5 (5.32%) Linux
3 4 (4.26%) Windows Server
4 3 (3.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (3.19%) Unix
4 3 (3.19%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (14.89%) Incident Management
1 14 (14.89%) ITIL
2 12 (12.77%) Continuous Improvement
2 12 (12.77%) Migration
3 11 (11.70%) Change Control
3 11 (11.70%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (10.64%) Service Management
5 9 (9.57%) Agile
5 9 (9.57%) Capacity Management
6 8 (8.51%) Customer Requirements
7 7 (7.45%) Business Case
7 7 (7.45%) Case Management
7 7 (7.45%) Change Management
7 7 (7.45%) DevOps
7 7 (7.45%) Disaster Recovery
7 7 (7.45%) Infrastructure Transformation
7 7 (7.45%) PRINCE2
7 7 (7.45%) Project Management
7 7 (7.45%) Test Scripting
7 7 (7.45%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 11 (11.70%) Python
2 9 (9.57%) PowerShell
3 3 (3.19%) Java
3 3 (3.19%) SQL
4 1 (1.06%) Bash
4 1 (1.06%) C#
4 1 (1.06%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 37 (39.36%) Security Cleared
2 29 (30.85%) SC Cleared
3 25 (26.60%) Cisco Certification
4 16 (17.02%) CCNP
5 12 (12.77%) Degree
6 9 (9.57%) CCNA
7 8 (8.51%) CCIE
7 8 (8.51%) JNCIE
8 6 (6.38%) AWS Certification
9 4 (4.26%) DV Cleared
10 3 (3.19%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (3.19%) JNCIS
10 3 (3.19%) Server+ Certification
10 3 (3.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (2.13%) JNCIA
11 2 (2.13%) Master's Degree
11 2 (2.13%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (2.13%) VCAP
12 1 (1.06%) APMP
12 1 (1.06%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (4.26%) PMO
2 3 (3.19%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (3.19%) Data Quality
2 3 (3.19%) QA
3 2 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (2.13%) SLA
4 1 (1.06%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.06%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 16 (17.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (12.77%) VMware NSX
3 6 (6.38%) Active Directory
4 4 (4.26%) vSphere
5 2 (2.13%) Hyper-V
5 2 (2.13%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (1.06%) Firmware
6 1 (1.06%) KVM
6 1 (1.06%) NFS
6 1 (1.06%) RHEV
6 1 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (1.06%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (11.70%) Ansible
2 8 (8.51%) Terraform
3 5 (5.32%) SCCM
4 4 (4.26%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (3.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (3.19%) Nagios
6 2 (2.13%) Endace
6 2 (2.13%) vRealize
6 2 (2.13%) vRealize Orchestrator
7 1 (1.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (1.06%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (1.06%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.06%) Proxmox
7 1 (1.06%) vCenter Server
7 1 (1.06%) VxRail
Vendors
1 39 (41.49%) Cisco
2 19 (20.21%) VMware
3 18 (19.15%) Juniper
4 15 (15.96%) F5
4 15 (15.96%) Palo Alto
5 12 (12.77%) Microsoft
6 11 (11.70%) CheckPoint
7 10 (10.64%) Aruba
8 9 (9.57%) Fortinet
9 3 (3.19%) Citrix
9 3 (3.19%) ESRI
9 3 (3.19%) Intergraph
9 3 (3.19%) SolarWinds
9 3 (3.19%) Zscaler
10 2 (2.13%) IBM
10 2 (2.13%) Mellanox
10 2 (2.13%) NetApp
10 2 (2.13%) Nokia
10 2 (2.13%) NVIDIA
10 2 (2.13%) Tanium