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

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 108 77 68
Rank change year-on-year -31 -9 +21
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 74 107 159
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.75% 2.70% 3.07%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 5.72% 8.57% 9.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 60 117
10th Percentile £277 £169 £322
25th Percentile £303 £370 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.60% -4.76% +1.94%
75th Percentile £588 £584 £613
90th Percentile £638 £608 £675
England median daily rate £514 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.14% -2.78% +0.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 14 6
10th Percentile - - £22.42
25th Percentile - £12.08 £32.88
Median hourly rate - £19.38 £69.77
Median % change year-on-year - -72.23% -
75th Percentile - £24.18 £76.53
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £22.70 £23.00
% change year-on-year +10.82% -1.33% -63.49%

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 1,293 1,248 1,640
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.58% 31.51% 31.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 839 706 1,024
10th Percentile £204 £241 £205
25th Percentile £363 £375 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.92% +2.00% -2.68%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £613
90th Percentile £688 £697 £698
England median daily rate £514 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.55% - -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 98 69 97
10th Percentile £12.50 £13.25 £19.28
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.18 £24.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% -34.58% +55.07%
75th Percentile £62.88 £65.00 £63.29
90th Percentile £82.50 £75.00 £77.70
England median hourly rate £27.50 £40.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -31.25% -10.11% +27.14%

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 3 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 3 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 +11 51 £419 -16.25% 38
Berkshire +4 42 £398 -13.11% 29
Hampshire -28 13 £400 -22.33% 18
Buckinghamshire +9 7 £638 +18.06% 6
West Sussex -9 4 £725 +23.40% 5
Kent +1 3 £450 -19.10% 9
Oxfordshire -11 2 £600 +20.00% 4
Surrey -12 2 £555 +11.00% 9
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 (8.11%) OpenStack
2 3 (4.05%) GeoServer
2 3 (4.05%) Smallworld
3 2 (2.70%) ThingWorx
4 1 (1.35%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (6.76%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (5.41%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (2.70%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 10 (13.51%) Azure
2 8 (10.81%) AWS
3 7 (9.46%) OpenShift
4 6 (8.11%) Entra ID
5 3 (4.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 3 (4.05%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (2.70%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (2.70%) IaaS
7 1 (1.35%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.35%) Nutanix
7 1 (1.35%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 21 (28.38%) Firewall
2 13 (17.57%) WAN
3 11 (14.86%) BGP
3 11 (14.86%) LAN
4 9 (12.16%) MPLS
4 9 (12.16%) OSPF
4 9 (12.16%) SNMP
5 8 (10.81%) SAN
5 8 (10.81%) TACACS
5 8 (10.81%) Wireless
6 6 (8.11%) VPN
7 4 (5.41%) IPsec
7 4 (5.41%) NAS
8 3 (4.05%) Cisco Nexus
8 3 (4.05%) Structured Cabling
8 3 (4.05%) TCP/IP
9 2 (2.70%) ADSL
9 2 (2.70%) DNS
9 2 (2.70%) DWDM
9 2 (2.70%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.05%) Geospatial Data
1 3 (4.05%) GIS
1 3 (4.05%) QGIS
1 3 (4.05%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (2.70%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (1.35%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.35%) JIRA
General
1 13 (17.57%) Social Skills
2 11 (14.86%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (13.51%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (13.51%) Telecoms
4 9 (12.16%) Public Sector
5 6 (8.11%) Finance
6 4 (5.41%) Retail
7 3 (4.05%) Front Office
8 2 (2.70%) Banking
8 2 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (2.70%) Legal
8 2 (2.70%) Manufacturing
9 1 (1.35%) Back Office
9 1 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 15 (20.27%) Network Engineer
2 10 (13.51%) Test Engineer
3 9 (12.16%) Architect
4 8 (10.81%) Data Centre Manager
5 6 (8.11%) Designer
5 6 (8.11%) IP Designer
5 6 (8.11%) Lead
6 5 (6.76%) Project Manager
7 4 (5.41%) Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Data Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Data Centre Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Data Centre Project Manager
7 4 (5.41%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (4.05%) Cisco Engineer
8 3 (4.05%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 3 (4.05%) Data Centre Technician
8 3 (4.05%) Data Technician
8 3 (4.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 2 (2.70%) Migration Architect
9 2 (2.70%) Telecoms Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (13.51%) RFC 2544
2 3 (4.05%) Middleware
3 2 (2.70%) NETCONF
3 2 (2.70%) OpenConfig
3 2 (2.70%) RESTCONF
3 2 (2.70%) YANG
4 1 (1.35%) 802.1X
4 1 (1.35%) React
4 1 (1.35%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.22%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (13.51%) Fibre Optics
3 4 (5.41%) Analytical Mindset
3 4 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (4.05%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (4.05%) Driving Licence
4 3 (4.05%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (4.05%) Virtual Team
5 2 (2.70%) Industrial Internet of Things
5 2 (2.70%) IoT
5 2 (2.70%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.70%) Operational Technology
5 2 (2.70%) Private Cloud
5 2 (2.70%) SCADA
6 1 (1.35%) CCTV
6 1 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.35%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.35%) PKI
6 1 (1.35%) Replication
6 1 (1.35%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 7 (9.46%) Windows
2 4 (5.41%) Linux
3 3 (4.05%) Unix
3 3 (4.05%) Windows Server
4 2 (2.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (2.70%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (2.70%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (16.22%) Service Management
2 11 (14.86%) Migration
3 10 (13.51%) Case Management
3 10 (13.51%) Disaster Recovery
3 10 (13.51%) Incident Management
3 10 (13.51%) Test Scripting
4 9 (12.16%) Agile
4 9 (12.16%) Defect Management
4 9 (12.16%) Problem-Solving
5 8 (10.81%) Continuous Improvement
5 8 (10.81%) ITIL
5 8 (10.81%) Validation
6 7 (9.46%) Business Case
6 7 (9.46%) Change Control
6 7 (9.46%) Infrastructure Transformation
6 7 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 6 (8.11%) Capacity Management
7 6 (8.11%) Change Management
7 6 (8.11%) Network Virtualisation
7 6 (8.11%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 11 (14.86%) Python
2 9 (12.16%) PowerShell
3 3 (4.05%) SQL
4 2 (2.70%) Java
5 1 (1.35%) Bash
5 1 (1.35%) C#
5 1 (1.35%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 22 (29.73%) Security Cleared
2 17 (22.97%) SC Cleared
3 15 (20.27%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (13.51%) Degree
5 8 (10.81%) CCIE
5 8 (10.81%) JNCIE
6 6 (8.11%) AWS Certification
6 6 (8.11%) CCNA
7 5 (6.76%) CCNP
8 3 (4.05%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (4.05%) Master's Degree
8 3 (4.05%) Server+ Certification
8 3 (4.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 2 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (2.70%) VCAP
10 1 (1.35%) A+ Certification
10 1 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (1.35%) JNCIA
10 1 (1.35%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.05%) Data Quality
1 3 (4.05%) PMO
1 3 (4.05%) QA
2 2 (2.70%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (2.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 2 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.35%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.35%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 15 (20.27%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (16.22%) VMware NSX
3 7 (9.46%) Active Directory
4 4 (5.41%) vSphere
5 2 (2.70%) Hyper-V
6 1 (1.35%) Firmware
6 1 (1.35%) NFS
6 1 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 9 (12.16%) Ansible
2 6 (8.11%) Terraform
3 5 (6.76%) SCCM
4 4 (5.41%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (5.41%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.70%) vRealize
5 2 (2.70%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 1 (1.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (1.35%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (1.35%) FortiGate
6 1 (1.35%) Kubernetes
6 1 (1.35%) vCenter Server
6 1 (1.35%) VxRail
Vendors
1 31 (41.89%) Cisco
2 18 (24.32%) VMware
3 13 (17.57%) F5
3 13 (17.57%) Juniper
4 10 (13.51%) Microsoft
5 8 (10.81%) Fortinet
5 8 (10.81%) Palo Alto
6 4 (5.41%) CheckPoint
7 3 (4.05%) Aruba
7 3 (4.05%) ESRI
7 3 (4.05%) Intergraph
7 3 (4.05%) NetApp
7 3 (4.05%) Zscaler
8 2 (2.70%) Citrix
8 2 (2.70%) Dell
8 2 (2.70%) IBM
8 2 (2.70%) Nokia
8 2 (2.70%) Sophos
8 2 (2.70%) Tanium
9 1 (1.35%) EMC