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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 68 66
Rank change year-on-year -13 -2 -5
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 167 105 131
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.52% 3.02% 2.85%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.58% 9.39% 9.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 76 84
10th Percentile £300 £285 £350
25th Percentile £400 £313 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +22.22% -14.29% +5.00%
75th Percentile £650 £588 £608
90th Percentile £754 £644 £651
England median daily rate £525 £525 £535
% change year-on-year - -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 0 9
10th Percentile £18.25 - £12.05
25th Percentile £19.34 - -
Median hourly rate £25.00 - £12.08
75th Percentile £33.75 - £18.75
90th Percentile £34.34 - £22.20
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £21.90
% change year-on-year +29.22% +14.84% -5.81%

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 1,947 1,118 1,357
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.44% 32.11% 29.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,188 711 780
10th Percentile £292 £204 £237
25th Percentile £413 £353 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £619 £588 £608
90th Percentile £700 £664 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 91 109
10th Percentile £12.84 £15.13 £13.02
25th Percentile £16.29 £16.95 £31.25
Median hourly rate £38.72 £33.05 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +17.16% -42.37% +4.27%
75th Percentile £71.75 £58.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £92.50 £70.16 £75.16
England median hourly rate £37.50 £32.83 £57.35
% change year-on-year +14.22% -42.76% +25.00%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 93 £443 +7.27% 115
Berkshire -1 73 £400 +20.30% 72
Hampshire -9 56 £613 +17.79% 38
Buckinghamshire -20 18 £610 +11.93% 17
Surrey -7 11 £525 +23.53% 30
West Sussex -28 4 £625 -13.79% 15
Middlesex - 4 - -
Oxfordshire -29 2 £500 -16.67% 26
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 (7.19%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.40%) IIS
3 3 (1.80%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.60%) Confluence
4 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.80%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (0.60%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 39 (23.35%) Azure
2 32 (19.16%) AWS
3 13 (7.78%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (6.59%) GCP
5 10 (5.99%) OneDrive
6 4 (2.40%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.40%) IaaS
7 3 (1.80%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (1.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.20%) OpenShift
8 2 (1.20%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.60%) dbt
9 1 (0.60%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.60%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (18.56%) WAN
2 30 (17.96%) Firewall
3 29 (17.37%) LAN
4 28 (16.77%) DNS
5 25 (14.97%) BGP
6 23 (13.77%) DHCP
7 21 (12.57%) VPN
8 17 (10.18%) TCP/IP
8 17 (10.18%) VLAN
9 15 (8.98%) Network Security
9 15 (8.98%) SD-WAN
9 15 (8.98%) VXLAN
10 14 (8.38%) OSPF
11 13 (7.78%) Cisco Nexus
12 11 (6.59%) BIG-IP
12 11 (6.59%) Ethernet VPN
13 10 (5.99%) MPLS
13 10 (5.99%) Wi-Fi
14 8 (4.79%) Cisco Firepower
14 8 (4.79%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.20%) Power BI
2 1 (0.60%) EDMS
Development Applications
1 2 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.60%) Git
2 1 (0.60%) JIRA
General
1 53 (31.74%) Social Skills
2 17 (10.18%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (7.78%) Telecoms
4 12 (7.19%) Finance
5 8 (4.79%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (3.59%) Influencing Skills
6 6 (3.59%) Legal
6 6 (3.59%) Retail
7 5 (2.99%) Marketing
8 4 (2.40%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.20%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 33 (19.76%) Architect
2 22 (13.17%) Network Architect
3 17 (10.18%) Network Engineer
4 16 (9.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 13 (7.78%) Analyst
6 10 (5.99%) IT Engineer
6 10 (5.99%) IT Support
7 9 (5.39%) Capacity Manager
7 9 (5.39%) Data Centre Engineer
8 8 (4.79%) Lead
8 8 (4.79%) Site Manager
9 7 (4.19%) Data Analyst
9 7 (4.19%) Data Centre Analyst
9 7 (4.19%) Field Engineer
9 7 (4.19%) Field Service Engineer
9 7 (4.19%) Senior
10 6 (3.59%) Cabling Engineer
10 6 (3.59%) Infrastructure Architect
10 6 (3.59%) Security Architect
10 6 (3.59%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.79%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.19%) Terraform
3 4 (2.40%) NETCONF
4 3 (1.80%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.80%) RESTCONF
4 3 (1.80%) YANG
5 2 (1.20%) REST
6 1 (0.60%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.38%) Hybrid Cloud
2 9 (5.39%) Analytical Mindset
2 9 (5.39%) Public Cloud
3 8 (4.79%) Private Cloud
4 6 (3.59%) Fibre Optics
5 5 (2.99%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.99%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.40%) Clustering
6 4 (2.40%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 4 (2.40%) Embedded Systems
6 4 (2.40%) Mobile Payment
6 4 (2.40%) Onboarding
6 4 (2.40%) PKI
6 4 (2.40%) Smartcard
6 4 (2.40%) Social Media
7 3 (1.80%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.20%) Replication
8 2 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 30 (17.96%) Windows
2 11 (6.59%) Linux
3 10 (5.99%) Apple iOS
3 10 (5.99%) Mac OS
3 10 (5.99%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (17.37%) ITIL
2 28 (16.77%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (13.77%) ITSM
4 19 (11.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 19 (11.38%) Migration
5 17 (10.18%) AI
5 17 (10.18%) Customer Service
5 17 (10.18%) Disaster Recovery
5 17 (10.18%) Roadmaps
5 17 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 16 (9.58%) Capacity Management
6 16 (9.58%) Data Protection
7 15 (8.98%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (7.78%) Computer Science
8 13 (7.78%) Technical Leadership
8 13 (7.78%) Time Management
8 13 (7.78%) TOGAF
9 12 (7.19%) Agile
9 12 (7.19%) Load Balancing
9 12 (7.19%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.39%) Python
2 3 (1.80%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 70 (41.92%) Security Cleared
2 44 (26.35%) DV Cleared
3 34 (20.36%) Cisco Certification
4 31 (18.56%) SC Cleared
5 23 (13.77%) Degree
6 14 (8.38%) CCNP
7 9 (5.39%) CCIE
7 9 (5.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 8 (4.79%) CCNA
9 7 (4.19%) A+ Certification
9 7 (4.19%) MCSE
9 7 (4.19%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (4.19%) Network+ Certification
10 5 (2.99%) AWS Certification
10 5 (2.99%) CISSP
10 5 (2.99%) JNCIE
11 4 (2.40%) CLAS
11 4 (2.40%) CREST Certified
11 4 (2.40%) IISP
11 4 (2.40%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.39%) JSP 440
3 7 (4.19%) NIST
4 6 (3.59%) SLA
5 5 (2.99%) GDPR
5 5 (2.99%) GRC
5 5 (2.99%) NCSC
5 5 (2.99%) QA
6 4 (2.40%) ISO 31000
6 4 (2.40%) ISO 9001
6 4 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 4 (2.40%) PCI DSS
6 4 (2.40%) RMADS
7 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
System Software
1 21 (12.57%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.19%) VMware NSX
3 10 (5.99%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (4.79%) Active Directory
4 8 (4.79%) vSphere
5 6 (3.59%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (2.40%) ISA Server
7 3 (1.80%) Hyper-V
8 2 (1.20%) UAG
8 2 (1.20%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.60%) Firmware
9 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (8.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.59%) Ansible
3 10 (5.99%) Jamf Pro
4 8 (4.79%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.59%) vCenter Server
6 5 (2.99%) CASB
7 3 (1.80%) Avamar
7 3 (1.80%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (1.20%) Grafana
8 2 (1.20%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.20%) vRealize
8 2 (1.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 1 (0.60%) Endace
9 1 (0.60%) Kubernetes
9 1 (0.60%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.60%) SCCM
Vendors
1 43 (25.75%) Cisco
2 34 (20.36%) Microsoft
3 33 (19.76%) VMware
4 22 (13.17%) F5
5 13 (7.78%) Palo Alto
6 12 (7.19%) Juniper
6 12 (7.19%) ServiceNow
7 11 (6.59%) SolarWinds
8 9 (5.39%) Dell
8 9 (5.39%) Fortinet
9 8 (4.79%) CheckPoint
9 8 (4.79%) Splunk
10 7 (4.19%) Google
11 6 (3.59%) Veeam
12 5 (2.99%) Commvault
12 5 (2.99%) Meraki
13 4 (2.40%) Centrify
13 4 (2.40%) CrowdStrike
13 4 (2.40%) Extreme Networks
13 4 (2.40%) Xerox