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

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 104 76 75
Rank change year-on-year -28 -1 +15
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 87 102 145
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.00% 2.72% 2.88%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.60% 8.54% 9.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 61 111
10th Percentile £293 £155 £295
25th Percentile £360 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -7.00% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £550 £565 £619
90th Percentile £638 £600 £675
England median daily rate £518 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.33% -2.33% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 9 6
10th Percentile - £17.42 £22.42
25th Percentile - £19.38 £32.88
Median hourly rate - £24.18 £69.77
Median % change year-on-year - -65.34% -
75th Percentile - - £76.53
90th Percentile - £25.19 -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £23.80 £23.00
% change year-on-year +5.67% +3.48% -64.06%

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 1,319 1,195 1,565
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.32% 31.84% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 877 699 980
10th Percentile £204 £239 £205
25th Percentile £363 £381 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.19% +5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £680 £700 £694
England median daily rate £515 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.37% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 49 94
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.33 £19.12
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.18 £24.57
Median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% -33.96% +60.61%
75th Percentile £68.18 £57.50 £63.29
90th Percentile £80.90 £71.38 £77.85
England median hourly rate £29.00 £37.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -21.62% -15.60% +25.16%

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 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 18 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 +2 54 £425 -7.10% 25
Berkshire 0 46 £406 -0.79% 20
Hampshire -37 16 £500 - 11
Kent +10 7 £443 -20.45% 2
Buckinghamshire +7 6 £750 +38.89% 3
West Sussex -5 5 £713 +21.28% 2
Surrey -11 3 £525 +23.53% 10
Oxfordshire -12 2 £600 +20.00% 2
East Sussex +6 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 6 (6.90%) OpenStack
2 3 (3.45%) GeoServer
2 3 (3.45%) Smallworld
3 2 (2.30%) ThingWorx
4 1 (1.15%) Confluence
4 1 (1.15%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (6.90%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (5.75%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (4.60%) MS Visio
4 2 (2.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (2.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 11 (12.64%) Azure
2 8 (9.20%) AWS
3 7 (8.05%) OpenShift
4 4 (4.60%) Entra ID
4 4 (4.60%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (3.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (2.30%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (2.30%) IaaS
6 2 (2.30%) Nutanix
7 1 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 26 (29.89%) Firewall
2 21 (24.14%) WAN
3 19 (21.84%) LAN
4 16 (18.39%) BGP
5 14 (16.09%) OSPF
6 11 (12.64%) VPN
7 10 (11.49%) MPLS
8 9 (10.34%) SNMP
9 8 (9.20%) TACACS
9 8 (9.20%) Wireless
10 7 (8.05%) IPsec
10 7 (8.05%) SAN
11 6 (6.90%) Structured Cabling
12 5 (5.75%) Network Security
12 5 (5.75%) TCP/IP
13 3 (3.45%) Cisco Nexus
13 3 (3.45%) DNS
14 2 (2.30%) 4G
14 2 (2.30%) NAS
14 2 (2.30%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.60%) SQL Server
2 3 (3.45%) Geospatial Data
2 3 (3.45%) GIS
2 3 (3.45%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 2 (2.30%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (1.15%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.15%) JIRA
General
1 17 (19.54%) Social Skills
2 13 (14.94%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (11.49%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (11.49%) Public Sector
3 10 (11.49%) Telecoms
4 7 (8.05%) Finance
5 4 (4.60%) Front Office
5 4 (4.60%) Manufacturing
5 4 (4.60%) Retail
6 2 (2.30%) Back Office
6 2 (2.30%) Banking
6 2 (2.30%) Legal
7 1 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (18.39%) Network Engineer
2 11 (12.64%) Architect
3 10 (11.49%) Data Centre Manager
4 8 (9.20%) Analyst
4 8 (9.20%) Data Centre Analyst
4 8 (9.20%) Project Manager
5 7 (8.05%) Data Analyst
5 7 (8.05%) Designer
5 7 (8.05%) Test Engineer
6 6 (6.90%) Data Centre Project Manager
6 6 (6.90%) IP Designer
7 4 (4.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (4.60%) Lead
7 4 (4.60%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (3.45%) Cisco Engineer
8 3 (3.45%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 3 (3.45%) Data Centre Technician
8 3 (3.45%) Data Technician
8 3 (3.45%) Infrastructure Architect
8 3 (3.45%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (8.05%) RFC 2544
2 3 (3.45%) Middleware
3 2 (2.30%) NETCONF
3 2 (2.30%) OpenConfig
3 2 (2.30%) RESTCONF
3 2 (2.30%) YANG
4 1 (1.15%) 802.1X
4 1 (1.15%) React
Miscellaneous
1 13 (14.94%) Hybrid Cloud
2 7 (8.05%) Fibre Optics
3 5 (5.75%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (4.60%) Analytical Mindset
4 4 (4.60%) Virtual Team
5 3 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (3.45%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (2.30%) Driving Licence
6 2 (2.30%) Industrial Internet of Things
6 2 (2.30%) IoT
6 2 (2.30%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (2.30%) Management Information System
6 2 (2.30%) Operational Technology
6 2 (2.30%) SCADA
7 1 (1.15%) CCTV
7 1 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.15%) FlexPod
7 1 (1.15%) Private Cloud
7 1 (1.15%) Replication
7 1 (1.15%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 7 (8.05%) Windows
2 5 (5.75%) Linux
3 4 (4.60%) Windows Server
4 3 (3.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (3.45%) Unix
4 3 (3.45%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.45%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (14.94%) Incident Management
1 13 (14.94%) ITIL
2 12 (13.79%) Migration
3 11 (12.64%) Change Control
3 11 (12.64%) Continuous Improvement
4 10 (11.49%) Capacity Management
4 10 (11.49%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (11.49%) Service Management
5 8 (9.20%) Agile
6 7 (8.05%) Business Case
6 7 (8.05%) Case Management
6 7 (8.05%) Change Management
6 7 (8.05%) Disaster Recovery
6 7 (8.05%) Infrastructure Transformation
6 7 (8.05%) PRINCE2
6 7 (8.05%) Project Management
6 7 (8.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 7 (8.05%) Test Scripting
6 7 (8.05%) Validation
7 6 (6.90%) Defect Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (12.64%) Python
2 9 (10.34%) PowerShell
3 3 (3.45%) Java
3 3 (3.45%) SQL
4 1 (1.15%) Bash
4 1 (1.15%) C#
4 1 (1.15%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 31 (35.63%) Security Cleared
2 25 (28.74%) SC Cleared
3 21 (24.14%) Cisco Certification
4 12 (13.79%) CCNP
5 11 (12.64%) Degree
6 8 (9.20%) CCIE
6 8 (9.20%) JNCIE
7 7 (8.05%) CCNA
8 6 (6.90%) AWS Certification
9 3 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (3.45%) Server+ Certification
9 3 (3.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (2.30%) DV Cleared
10 2 (2.30%) JNCIA
10 2 (2.30%) JNCIS
10 2 (2.30%) Master's Degree
10 2 (2.30%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (2.30%) VCAP
11 1 (1.15%) Azure Certification
11 1 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (4.60%) PMO
2 3 (3.45%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (3.45%) Data Quality
2 3 (3.45%) QA
3 2 (2.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (2.30%) SLA
4 1 (1.15%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 16 (18.39%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (13.79%) VMware NSX
3 6 (6.90%) Active Directory
4 4 (4.60%) vSphere
5 2 (2.30%) Hyper-V
5 2 (2.30%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (1.15%) Firmware
6 1 (1.15%) KVM
6 1 (1.15%) NFS
6 1 (1.15%) RHEV
6 1 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (1.15%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (12.64%) Ansible
2 8 (9.20%) Terraform
3 5 (5.75%) SCCM
4 4 (4.60%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (3.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (2.30%) Nagios
6 2 (2.30%) vRealize
6 2 (2.30%) vRealize Orchestrator
7 1 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (1.15%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (1.15%) Endace
7 1 (1.15%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.15%) Proxmox
7 1 (1.15%) vCenter Server
7 1 (1.15%) VxRail
Vendors
1 33 (37.93%) Cisco
2 19 (21.84%) VMware
3 16 (18.39%) Juniper
4 14 (16.09%) F5
5 12 (13.79%) Palo Alto
6 11 (12.64%) Microsoft
7 9 (10.34%) Fortinet
8 8 (9.20%) CheckPoint
9 7 (8.05%) Aruba
10 3 (3.45%) Citrix
10 3 (3.45%) ESRI
10 3 (3.45%) Intergraph
10 3 (3.45%) Zscaler
11 2 (2.30%) IBM
11 2 (2.30%) Mellanox
11 2 (2.30%) NetApp
11 2 (2.30%) Nokia
11 2 (2.30%) NVIDIA
11 2 (2.30%) Sophos
11 2 (2.30%) Tanium