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 11 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 69 68
Rank change year-on-year +3 -1 +8
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 172 88 152
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.05% 2.95% 2.70%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 10.16% 8.64% 9.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 57 111
10th Percentile £303 £168 £280
25th Percentile £413 £373 £341
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -1.23%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £608
90th Percentile £715 £631 £656
England median daily rate £488 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -7.14% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 6
10th Percentile - £23.40 £16.00
25th Percentile £16.01 - £21.38
Median hourly rate £19.34 £24.18 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.02% +0.75% -65.71%
75th Percentile £25.52 £24.66 £56.63
90th Percentile £52.44 £60.14 £72.02
England median hourly rate £21.46 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year -12.98% -0.84% +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 1,693 1,018 1,631
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.98% 34.10% 28.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,130 637 936
10th Percentile £256 £207 £205
25th Percentile £400 £372 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -2.91%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £608
90th Percentile £700 £663 £688
England median daily rate £513 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -6.48% -0.36% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 62 157
10th Percentile £15.72 £16.95 £11.79
25th Percentile £22.05 £23.67 £18.95
Median hourly rate £68.75 £40.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +71.22% -5.52% -11.61%
75th Percentile £87.50 £63.37 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £84.79 £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.46 £35.00 £27.75
% change year-on-year +29.89% +26.13% +23.33%

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 11 April 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 11 April 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 11 April 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 97 £450 -17.43% 41
Berkshire +16 86 £375 -31.82% 32
Hampshire -8 46 £500 -9.09% 21
Kent +7 18 £444 -8.97% 2
Buckinghamshire -23 9 £525 -2.78% 6
Surrey -23 6 £485 +188.69% 16
West Sussex -14 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 (1.16%) Confluence
2 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (5.23%) MS Visio
2 7 (4.07%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.49%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (2.33%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 24 (13.95%) Azure
2 15 (8.72%) AWS
3 4 (2.33%) Entra ID
3 4 (2.33%) IaaS
4 3 (1.74%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (1.74%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (1.74%) PaaS
4 3 (1.74%) SaaS
5 2 (1.16%) GitHub
6 1 (0.58%) GCP
6 1 (0.58%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 71 (41.28%) Firewall
2 69 (40.12%) WAN
3 66 (38.37%) LAN
4 54 (31.40%) BGP
5 49 (28.49%) OSPF
6 29 (16.86%) VPN
7 28 (16.28%) Ethernet VPN
8 27 (15.70%) Structured Cabling
8 27 (15.70%) VXLAN
9 25 (14.53%) DHCP
9 25 (14.53%) DNS
10 22 (12.79%) BIG-IP
11 20 (11.63%) Junos
12 17 (9.88%) IPsec
13 16 (9.30%) Cisco ISE
14 15 (8.72%) SAN
15 13 (7.56%) TCP/IP
16 11 (6.40%) Cisco Nexus
17 10 (5.81%) MPLS
17 10 (5.81%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.16%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.33%) Eclipse
1 4 (2.33%) Maven
1 4 (2.33%) Subversion
2 3 (1.74%) JIRA
3 2 (1.16%) Bitbucket
3 2 (1.16%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 46 (26.74%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.47%) Documentation Skills
3 17 (9.88%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (7.56%) Manufacturing
4 13 (7.56%) Public Sector
5 12 (6.98%) Retail
6 10 (5.81%) Finance
7 6 (3.49%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (2.91%) Legal
8 5 (2.91%) Military
9 3 (1.74%) Marketing
9 3 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.16%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.58%) Back Office
11 1 (0.58%) Billing
11 1 (0.58%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 44 (25.58%) Network Engineer
2 19 (11.05%) Senior
3 16 (9.30%) Architect
4 15 (8.72%) Project Manager
5 14 (8.14%) Cisco Engineer
5 14 (8.14%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 12 (6.98%) Firewall Specialist
6 12 (6.98%) Network Architect
6 12 (6.98%) Network Specialist
7 11 (6.40%) Analyst
7 11 (6.40%) Data Centre Analyst
7 11 (6.40%) Data Centre Engineer
7 11 (6.40%) Data Centre Manager
8 10 (5.81%) Data Analyst
8 10 (5.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 10 (5.81%) Senior Network Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) IT Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Lead
10 8 (4.65%) Applications Developer
10 8 (4.65%) Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (13.37%) 802.1X
2 4 (2.33%) NETCONF
2 4 (2.33%) OpenConfig
2 4 (2.33%) RESTCONF
2 4 (2.33%) XML
2 4 (2.33%) YANG
3 1 (0.58%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 21 (12.21%) PKI
2 20 (11.63%) Clustering
3 16 (9.30%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (7.56%) Analytical Mindset
5 10 (5.81%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (4.65%) Driving Licence
7 7 (4.07%) Fibre Optics
8 5 (2.91%) Replication
9 3 (1.74%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (1.16%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 2 (1.16%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.16%) Public Cloud
10 2 (1.16%) Virtual Team
11 1 (0.58%) Cyber Defence
11 1 (0.58%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 1 (0.58%) Greenfield Project
11 1 (0.58%) Management Information System
11 1 (0.58%) NHS
11 1 (0.58%) PMI
11 1 (0.58%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 32 (18.60%) Windows
2 14 (8.14%) Linux
3 6 (3.49%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.58%) VMS
4 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (18.02%) ITIL
3 30 (17.44%) High Availability
4 23 (13.37%) Load Balancing
5 22 (12.79%) Identity Access Management
6 21 (12.21%) Migration
6 21 (12.21%) Roadmaps
7 20 (11.63%) Observability
8 17 (9.88%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (8.72%) Project Delivery
10 14 (8.14%) Change Management
10 14 (8.14%) Project Management
11 13 (7.56%) Budget Management
12 12 (6.98%) Change Control
12 12 (6.98%) Disaster Recovery
12 12 (6.98%) ITSM
12 12 (6.98%) Service Management
13 11 (6.40%) Agile
13 11 (6.40%) Break/Fix
14 10 (5.81%) Customer Requirements
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.91%) Java
1 5 (2.91%) Python
1 5 (2.91%) SQL
2 2 (1.16%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 100 (58.14%) Security Cleared
2 64 (37.21%) Cisco Certification
3 63 (36.63%) SC Cleared
4 34 (19.77%) CCNP
5 31 (18.02%) DV Cleared
6 22 (12.79%) Degree
7 21 (12.21%) CCNA
8 14 (8.14%) JNCIS
9 11 (6.40%) JNCIA
10 10 (5.81%) JNCIP
11 9 (5.23%) Microsoft Certification
12 8 (4.65%) A+ Certification
12 8 (4.65%) MCSE
12 8 (4.65%) Network+ Certification
13 6 (3.49%) PMP
14 5 (2.91%) CCIE
15 4 (2.33%) BICSI Certification
15 4 (2.33%) CCSE
15 4 (2.33%) City & Guilds
15 4 (2.33%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.49%) SLA
3 5 (2.91%) GDPR
3 5 (2.91%) NIST
4 3 (1.74%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.16%) NCSC
5 2 (1.16%) PMO
6 1 (0.58%) NIST 800
System Software
1 19 (11.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.81%) Active Directory
3 8 (4.65%) VMware ESXi
3 8 (4.65%) VMware NSX
4 5 (2.91%) vSphere
5 4 (2.33%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.74%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.16%) UAG
7 2 (1.16%) vCloud
8 1 (0.58%) KVM
8 1 (0.58%) NFS
8 1 (0.58%) RHEV
8 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.58%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (12.79%) FortiGate
2 9 (5.23%) Ansible
3 5 (2.91%) Endace
3 5 (2.91%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (2.91%) Single Sign-On
3 5 (2.91%) Terraform
4 4 (2.33%) Nagios
5 3 (1.74%) SCCM
6 2 (1.16%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.58%) CASB
7 1 (0.58%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.58%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 72 (41.86%) Cisco
2 37 (21.51%) Juniper
3 32 (18.60%) F5
4 27 (15.70%) Palo Alto
5 26 (15.12%) SolarWinds
5 26 (15.12%) VMware
6 22 (12.79%) CheckPoint
7 20 (11.63%) Extreme Networks
7 20 (11.63%) Splunk
8 19 (11.05%) Aruba
9 14 (8.14%) Microsoft
10 10 (5.81%) Fortinet
11 9 (5.23%) Dell
12 6 (3.49%) Atlassian
13 5 (2.91%) Zscaler
14 4 (2.33%) Mellanox
14 4 (2.33%) Meraki
14 4 (2.33%) NVIDIA
14 4 (2.33%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.33%) Zerto