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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 81 69
Rank change year-on-year -8 -12 +17
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 107 73 161
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.27% 2.33% 2.95%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.66% 6.97% 9.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 39 116
10th Percentile £303 £154 £280
25th Percentile £360 £325 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £440 £463
Median % change year-on-year +1.14% -4.86% -13.95%
75th Percentile £500 £581 £602
90th Percentile £550 £629 £675
England median daily rate £481 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 7 9
10th Percentile - £22.63 £18.70
25th Percentile - - £24.00
Median hourly rate - £24.18 £25.12
Median % change year-on-year - -3.72% -64.12%
75th Percentile - £24.42 £76.53
90th Percentile - £26.50 -
England median hourly rate £26.50 £24.66 £31.31
% change year-on-year +7.46% -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 1,397 1,048 1,637
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.64% 33.47% 30.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 942 605 990
10th Percentile £204 £250 £205
25th Percentile £363 £388 £314
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £480
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +9.38% -8.57%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £508 £549 £549
% change year-on-year -7.40% -0.08% -4.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 40 118
10th Percentile £12.50 £19.82 £14.00
25th Percentile £15.75 £24.54 £22.86
Median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £48.75
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% -28.21% +21.88%
75th Percentile £63.75 £62.24 £61.78
90th Percentile £87.60 £74.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £31.18 £39.04 £32.50
% change year-on-year -20.13% +20.12% +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 11 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
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 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 +4 57 £375 -25.00% 32
Berkshire +12 51 £360 -20.35% 23
Hampshire -20 24 £500 +12.36% 27
Kent +7 18 £444 -20.22% 5
Buckinghamshire -9 4 £525 -2.78% 3
West Sussex -14 3 £700 +19.15% 7
Surrey -24 3 £505 +219.62% 7
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 6
East Sussex 0 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 4 (3.74%) OpenStack
2 3 (2.80%) GeoServer
2 3 (2.80%) Smallworld
3 2 (1.87%) Confluence
4 1 (0.93%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (6.54%) Microsoft Office
1 7 (6.54%) MS Visio
2 4 (3.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (3.74%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (1.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 10 (9.35%) Azure
2 9 (8.41%) AWS
3 5 (4.67%) IaaS
4 4 (3.74%) OpenShift
5 3 (2.80%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (2.80%) PaaS
5 3 (2.80%) SaaS
6 2 (1.87%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.87%) GitHub
7 1 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.93%) GCP
7 1 (0.93%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 39 (36.45%) Firewall
1 39 (36.45%) WAN
2 38 (35.51%) LAN
3 31 (28.97%) BGP
4 28 (26.17%) OSPF
5 19 (17.76%) Structured Cabling
6 18 (16.82%) IPsec
6 18 (16.82%) VPN
7 12 (11.21%) Wireless
8 10 (9.35%) Network Security
9 9 (8.41%) MPLS
10 8 (7.48%) Cisco Nexus
10 8 (7.48%) TCP/IP
11 7 (6.54%) Ethernet VPN
11 7 (6.54%) SNMP
12 6 (5.61%) TACACS
12 6 (5.61%) WLAN
13 5 (4.67%) IPv6
13 5 (4.67%) VXLAN
14 4 (3.74%) IPv4
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.80%) Geospatial Data
1 3 (2.80%) GIS
1 3 (2.80%) QGIS
1 3 (2.80%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.87%) Bitbucket
1 2 (1.87%) JIRA
1 2 (1.87%) Rational DOORS
1 2 (1.87%) ScriptRunner
2 1 (0.93%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 29 (27.10%) Social Skills
2 21 (19.63%) Documentation Skills
3 11 (10.28%) Manufacturing
3 11 (10.28%) Public Sector
4 9 (8.41%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.48%) Telecoms
6 7 (6.54%) Finance
7 5 (4.67%) Retail
8 2 (1.87%) Legal
9 1 (0.93%) Back Office
9 1 (0.93%) Billing
9 1 (0.93%) Front Office
9 1 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.93%) Military
9 1 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 34 (31.78%) Network Engineer
2 15 (14.02%) Cisco Engineer
2 15 (14.02%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 13 (12.15%) Analyst
3 13 (12.15%) Data Centre Analyst
4 12 (11.21%) Data Analyst
5 11 (10.28%) Project Manager
6 10 (9.35%) Data Centre Engineer
6 10 (9.35%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 9 (8.41%) Architect
8 7 (6.54%) Designer
9 6 (5.61%) Data Network Engineer
9 6 (5.61%) Network Architect
9 6 (5.61%) Senior
10 5 (4.67%) Data Centre Manager
10 5 (4.67%) Data Centre Project Manager
10 5 (4.67%) Test Engineer
11 4 (3.74%) IP Designer
11 4 (3.74%) Lead
12 3 (2.80%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.67%) RFC 2544
2 2 (1.87%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.87%) NETCONF
2 2 (1.87%) OpenConfig
2 2 (1.87%) RESTCONF
2 2 (1.87%) YANG
3 1 (0.93%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 12 (11.21%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (9.35%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (5.61%) Driving Licence
3 6 (5.61%) Fibre Optics
4 4 (3.74%) Virtual Team
5 3 (2.80%) Analytical Mindset
5 3 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (2.80%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.87%) Replication
7 1 (0.93%) CCTV
7 1 (0.93%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 1 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.93%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.93%) iSeries
7 1 (0.93%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.93%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.93%) PKI
7 1 (0.93%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 7 (6.54%) Linux
2 5 (4.67%) Windows
3 2 (1.87%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.93%) VMS
4 1 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.93%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (13.08%) Incident Management
1 14 (13.08%) ITIL
1 14 (13.08%) Problem-Solving
2 13 (12.15%) Continuous Improvement
3 12 (11.21%) Change Control
3 12 (11.21%) Customer Requirements
4 11 (10.28%) Agile
5 10 (9.35%) Migration
5 10 (9.35%) Project Management
6 8 (7.48%) PRINCE2
6 8 (7.48%) Project Delivery
7 7 (6.54%) Business Case
7 7 (6.54%) Change Management
7 7 (6.54%) Data Centre Operations
7 7 (6.54%) Service Management
8 6 (5.61%) Budget Management
8 6 (5.61%) Capacity Management
8 6 (5.61%) DevOps
8 6 (5.61%) Network Design
8 6 (5.61%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 9 (8.41%) Python
2 4 (3.74%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.87%) SQL
4 1 (0.93%) Java
Qualifications
1 61 (57.01%) Security Cleared
2 50 (46.73%) SC Cleared
3 35 (32.71%) Cisco Certification
4 29 (27.10%) CCNP
5 18 (16.82%) Degree
6 14 (13.08%) CCNA
7 12 (11.21%) DV Cleared
8 7 (6.54%) CCIE
9 6 (5.61%) JNCIE
10 5 (4.67%) AWS Certification
10 5 (4.67%) JNCIS
11 3 (2.80%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.87%) CCSE
12 2 (1.87%) DBS Check
12 2 (1.87%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.87%) JNCIA
12 2 (1.87%) Master's Degree
12 2 (1.87%) VCAP
12 2 (1.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 1 (0.93%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.74%) PMO
2 3 (2.80%) Data Quality
2 3 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.80%) QA
3 2 (1.87%) SLA
4 1 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.93%) NCSC
4 1 (0.93%) NIST
4 1 (0.93%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.93%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 15 (14.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (11.21%) VMware NSX
3 3 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 3 (2.80%) vSphere
4 2 (1.87%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.87%) vCloud
4 2 (1.87%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.93%) KVM
5 1 (0.93%) NFS
5 1 (0.93%) RHEV
5 1 (0.93%) UAG
5 1 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.93%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (10.28%) Ansible
2 9 (8.41%) Terraform
3 4 (3.74%) Nagios
3 4 (3.74%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (2.80%) Endace
4 3 (2.80%) SCCM
5 2 (1.87%) vRealize
5 2 (1.87%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 1 (0.93%) CASB
6 1 (0.93%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.93%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.93%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 54 (50.47%) Cisco
2 24 (22.43%) Palo Alto
3 20 (18.69%) CheckPoint
3 20 (18.69%) Juniper
4 19 (17.76%) Aruba
4 19 (17.76%) VMware
5 14 (13.08%) F5
6 9 (8.41%) Fortinet
7 8 (7.48%) Microsoft
8 5 (4.67%) SolarWinds
9 4 (3.74%) Mellanox
9 4 (3.74%) NVIDIA
9 4 (3.74%) Zscaler
10 3 (2.80%) ESRI
10 3 (2.80%) Intergraph
11 2 (1.87%) Atlassian
11 2 (1.87%) Citrix
11 2 (1.87%) IBM
11 2 (1.87%) Meraki
11 2 (1.87%) Nokia