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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 63 69
Rank change year-on-year -8 +6 -5
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 206 106 144
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.08% 3.02% 2.92%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 10.27% 9.52% 9.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 75 96
10th Percentile £300 £262 £338
25th Percentile £400 £365 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £493 £540
Median % change year-on-year +6.60% -8.84% +8.05%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £608
90th Percentile £776 £650 £653
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 2 9
10th Percentile £16.16 £40.32 £12.05
25th Percentile £19.33 £63.80 -
Median hourly rate £23.00 £103.57 £12.08
Median % change year-on-year -77.79% +757.35% -
75th Percentile £33.75 £143.95 £18.75
90th Percentile £35.22 £167.81 £22.20
England median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year +2.47% +5.67% +1.28%

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 2,005 1,113 1,442
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.95% 31.75% 29.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,252 684 850
10th Percentile £281 £206 £213
25th Percentile £412 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -
75th Percentile £610 £600 £636
90th Percentile £700 £664 £701
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 198 101 145
10th Percentile £16.18 £15.13 £11.99
25th Percentile £25.19 £16.95 £20.75
Median hourly rate £55.00 £33.05 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +66.41% -42.37% +14.70%
75th Percentile £84.00 £58.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £75.16
England median hourly rate £43.96 £31.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +41.81% -34.74% +17.79%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 +5 134 £463 +2.78% 42
Berkshire +21 113 £400 +1.27% 29
Hampshire -4 62 £600 +11.63% 25
Buckinghamshire -30 20 £605 +11.01% 2
Surrey -24 7 £475 +90.00% 16
West Sussex -29 2 £550 -24.14% 6
Middlesex - 2 - - 1
Oxfordshire -26 1 £500 -16.67% 12
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 12 (5.83%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.46%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.49%) Confluence
3 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (2.43%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.46%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.49%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 45 (21.84%) Azure
2 34 (16.50%) AWS
3 13 (6.31%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (4.85%) OneDrive
5 6 (2.91%) GCP
6 5 (2.43%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (2.43%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (0.97%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (0.97%) IaaS
8 2 (0.97%) OpenShift
8 2 (0.97%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.49%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 56 (27.18%) WAN
2 54 (26.21%) Firewall
3 51 (24.76%) LAN
4 45 (21.84%) DNS
5 44 (21.36%) BGP
6 41 (19.90%) DHCP
7 32 (15.53%) OSPF
7 32 (15.53%) VXLAN
8 29 (14.08%) Ethernet VPN
9 26 (12.62%) BIG-IP
10 24 (11.65%) VPN
11 22 (10.68%) Junos
12 21 (10.19%) TCP/IP
13 19 (9.22%) SD-WAN
14 17 (8.25%) Cisco ISE
15 16 (7.77%) SAN
16 15 (7.28%) MPLS
17 14 (6.80%) Cisco Nexus
17 14 (6.80%) VLAN
18 13 (6.31%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.97%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (1.94%) Eclipse
1 4 (1.94%) Maven
1 4 (1.94%) Subversion
2 2 (0.97%) JIRA
2 2 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.49%) Git
General
1 62 (30.10%) Social Skills
2 23 (11.17%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (7.77%) Finance
4 13 (6.31%) Telecoms
5 10 (4.85%) Retail
6 9 (4.37%) Influencing Skills
6 9 (4.37%) Public Sector
7 7 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.91%) Legal
8 6 (2.91%) Manufacturing
9 5 (2.43%) Marketing
9 5 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.94%) Military
11 2 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 28 (13.59%) Architect
2 25 (12.14%) Network Engineer
3 23 (11.17%) Network Architect
4 18 (8.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 17 (8.25%) Senior
6 14 (6.80%) Firewall Specialist
6 14 (6.80%) IT Engineer
6 14 (6.80%) Network Specialist
7 13 (6.31%) IT Support
8 11 (5.34%) Field Engineer
8 11 (5.34%) Field Service Engineer
9 10 (4.85%) Analyst
9 10 (4.85%) Senior Network Engineer
10 9 (4.37%) Data Centre Engineer
10 9 (4.37%) Data Centre Manager
10 9 (4.37%) Lead
11 8 (3.88%) Data Analyst
11 8 (3.88%) Data Centre Analyst
11 8 (3.88%) Developer
11 8 (3.88%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.14%) 802.1X
2 5 (2.43%) NETCONF
2 5 (2.43%) OpenConfig
2 5 (2.43%) YANG
3 4 (1.94%) RESTCONF
3 4 (1.94%) XML
4 1 (0.49%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 22 (10.68%) Clustering
1 22 (10.68%) PKI
2 16 (7.77%) Analytical Mindset
2 16 (7.77%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (4.85%) Fibre Optics
4 8 (3.88%) Private Cloud
5 5 (2.43%) Driving Licence
5 5 (2.43%) Public Cloud
6 4 (1.94%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.46%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.46%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.46%) Replication
7 3 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.97%) Management Information System
8 2 (0.97%) Social Media
9 1 (0.49%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.49%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.49%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.49%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 48 (23.30%) Windows
2 11 (5.34%) Linux
3 10 (4.85%) Apple iOS
3 10 (4.85%) Mac OS
4 8 (3.88%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (26.21%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (21.36%) ITIL
3 29 (14.08%) High Availability
3 29 (14.08%) Load Balancing
3 29 (14.08%) Migration
4 27 (13.11%) ITSM
4 27 (13.11%) Roadmaps
5 24 (11.65%) Identity Access Management
6 23 (11.17%) Observability
7 22 (10.68%) Customer Service
8 20 (9.71%) Change Management
8 20 (9.71%) Disaster Recovery
8 20 (9.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 18 (8.74%) Project Delivery
9 18 (8.74%) Stakeholder Management
10 17 (8.25%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (7.77%) AI
12 15 (7.28%) Agile
12 15 (7.28%) Time Management
13 14 (6.80%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 7 (3.40%) Python
2 4 (1.94%) Java
2 4 (1.94%) SQL
3 2 (0.97%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 97 (47.09%) Security Cleared
2 52 (25.24%) Cisco Certification
3 51 (24.76%) DV Cleared
4 43 (20.87%) SC Cleared
5 23 (11.17%) Degree
6 15 (7.28%) CCNP
7 11 (5.34%) A+ Certification
7 11 (5.34%) CCNA
7 11 (5.34%) MCSE
7 11 (5.34%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (5.34%) Network+ Certification
8 10 (4.85%) CCIE
8 10 (4.85%) JNCIP
9 9 (4.37%) JNCIA
9 9 (4.37%) JNCIS
10 7 (3.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (2.91%) JNCIE
12 5 (2.43%) BICSI Certification
12 5 (2.43%) CCSE
12 5 (2.43%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (4.85%) SLA
3 9 (4.37%) JSP 440
4 6 (2.91%) NCSC
4 6 (2.91%) NIST
5 5 (2.43%) GDPR
6 4 (1.94%) QA
6 4 (1.94%) RMADS
7 2 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.49%) GRC
8 1 (0.49%) NIST 800
System Software
1 23 (11.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (6.31%) VMware ESXi
3 11 (5.34%) Active Directory
4 9 (4.37%) VMware NSX
5 8 (3.88%) vSphere
6 6 (2.91%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (1.94%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.97%) UAG
9 1 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.49%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (12.62%) FortiGate
2 17 (8.25%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.85%) Ansible
3 10 (4.85%) Jamf Pro
4 6 (2.91%) Terraform
5 5 (2.43%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.46%) Avamar
7 2 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.97%) Endace
7 2 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.49%) CASB
8 1 (0.49%) Grafana
8 1 (0.49%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.49%) PowerCLI
8 1 (0.49%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.49%) SCCM
Vendors
1 59 (28.64%) Cisco
2 35 (16.99%) F5
2 35 (16.99%) VMware
3 31 (15.05%) Juniper
3 31 (15.05%) Microsoft
4 29 (14.08%) SolarWinds
5 22 (10.68%) Extreme Networks
5 22 (10.68%) Splunk
6 15 (7.28%) Palo Alto
7 14 (6.80%) ServiceNow
8 12 (5.83%) Dell
9 11 (5.34%) Fortinet
10 10 (4.85%) CheckPoint
11 5 (2.43%) Meraki
11 5 (2.43%) Veeam
12 4 (1.94%) Atlassian
12 4 (1.94%) Commvault
12 4 (1.94%) NetApp
12 4 (1.94%) Xerox
12 4 (1.94%) Zerto