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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 84 70
Rank change year-on-year -4 -14 -7
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 167 85 119
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.53% 2.35% 2.77%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.25% 7.52% 9.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 60 71
10th Percentile £300 £269 £350
25th Percentile £400 £298 £399
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £406 £500
Median % change year-on-year +29.23% -18.75% -
75th Percentile £625 £588 £592
90th Percentile £691 £640 £624
England median daily rate £538 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +7.50% -5.66% -3.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 0 9
10th Percentile £18.25 - £12.05
25th Percentile £19.34 - -
Median hourly rate £32.50 - £12.08
75th Percentile £33.75 - £18.75
90th Percentile £35.22 - £22.20
England median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year +49.11% +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 2,024 1,130 1,286
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.71% 31.28% 29.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,179 716 736
10th Percentile £273 £204 £250
25th Percentile £400 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -2.00% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £543
% change year-on-year - -3.23% -1.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 246 95 74
10th Percentile £12.84 £14.00 £13.84
25th Percentile £16.27 £16.50 £26.44
Median hourly rate £34.50 £28.00 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +23.21% -50.22% +2.27%
75th Percentile £71.00 £55.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £90.63 £69.96 £75.16
England median hourly rate £33.99 £29.50 £52.75
% change year-on-year +15.20% -44.08% +14.23%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 £435 +11.18% 59
Berkshire -1 72 £400 +13.48% 38
Hampshire -1 47 £600 +50.00% 28
Buckinghamshire -17 18 £600 -5.88% 11
Surrey -4 15 £513 +17.14% 17
West Sussex -24 7 £625 -13.79% 6
Middlesex - 4 - - 1
Oxfordshire -24 3 £500 -16.67% 10
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 5 (2.99%) IIS
3 3 (1.80%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.60%) Confluence
4 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (1.80%) MS Visio
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 36 (21.56%) Azure
2 31 (18.56%) AWS
3 13 (7.78%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (7.19%) GCP
5 10 (5.99%) OneDrive
6 4 (2.40%) AWS Direct Connect
6 4 (2.40%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (1.80%) IaaS
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 28 (16.77%) DNS
2 27 (16.17%) WAN
3 25 (14.97%) LAN
4 23 (13.77%) DHCP
5 22 (13.17%) Firewall
6 21 (12.57%) BGP
7 19 (11.38%) VLAN
7 19 (11.38%) VPN
8 17 (10.18%) TCP/IP
9 16 (9.58%) Network Security
9 16 (9.58%) SD-WAN
10 11 (6.59%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (5.99%) Cisco Nexus
11 10 (5.99%) MPLS
11 10 (5.99%) VXLAN
12 9 (5.39%) OSPF
13 8 (4.79%) Cisco Firepower
13 8 (4.79%) VSAN
14 7 (4.19%) BIG-IP
14 7 (4.19%) Ethernet VPN
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 13 (7.78%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (7.78%) Finance
3 12 (7.19%) Telecoms
4 9 (5.39%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.59%) Manufacturing
5 6 (3.59%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (2.99%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (2.99%) Legal
7 4 (2.40%) Marketing
7 4 (2.40%) Retail
8 2 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.60%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 30 (17.96%) Architect
2 21 (12.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 19 (11.38%) Network Architect
4 16 (9.58%) Network Engineer
5 15 (8.98%) Analyst
6 12 (7.19%) IT Support
7 9 (5.39%) Capacity Manager
8 8 (4.79%) Data Analyst
8 8 (4.79%) Data Centre Analyst
8 8 (4.79%) Data Centre Engineer
8 8 (4.79%) IT Engineer
8 8 (4.79%) Site Manager
9 7 (4.19%) Infrastructure Architect
10 6 (3.59%) Security Architect
11 5 (2.99%) Administrator
11 5 (2.99%) IT Support Engineer
11 5 (2.99%) Security Analyst
11 5 (2.99%) Security Engineer
11 5 (2.99%) Support Engineer
11 5 (2.99%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.79%) Terraform
2 4 (2.40%) 802.1X
2 4 (2.40%) NETCONF
3 3 (1.80%) OpenConfig
3 3 (1.80%) RESTCONF
3 3 (1.80%) YANG
4 2 (1.20%) REST
5 1 (0.60%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.39%) Hybrid Cloud
2 8 (4.79%) Public Cloud
3 6 (3.59%) Management Information System
3 6 (3.59%) Private Cloud
4 5 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (2.99%) Cloud Native
4 5 (2.99%) Embedded Systems
4 5 (2.99%) Mobile Payment
4 5 (2.99%) Smartcard
5 4 (2.40%) Fibre Optics
5 4 (2.40%) Onboarding
5 4 (2.40%) Social Media
6 3 (1.80%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.20%) Renewable Energy
8 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 30 (17.96%) Windows
2 13 (7.78%) Linux
3 11 (6.59%) Windows Server
4 10 (5.99%) Apple iOS
4 10 (5.99%) macOS
5 2 (1.20%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (17.96%) ITIL
2 25 (14.97%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (14.37%) ITSM
4 23 (13.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 19 (11.38%) Migration
6 17 (10.18%) AI
6 17 (10.18%) Data Protection
6 17 (10.18%) Project Delivery
6 17 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 16 (9.58%) Capacity Management
8 15 (8.98%) Continuous Improvement
8 15 (8.98%) Customer Service
8 15 (8.98%) Disaster Recovery
9 14 (8.38%) Stakeholder Management
10 13 (7.78%) Business Continuity
10 13 (7.78%) Change Management
10 13 (7.78%) Computer Science
10 13 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
10 13 (7.78%) Service Management
10 13 (7.78%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.39%) Python
2 3 (1.80%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 67 (40.12%) Security Cleared
2 41 (24.55%) DV Cleared
3 34 (20.36%) SC Cleared
4 23 (13.77%) Cisco Certification
5 21 (12.57%) Degree
6 10 (5.99%) CCNP
7 9 (5.39%) CCIE
7 9 (5.39%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 6 (3.59%) CISSP
8 6 (3.59%) VCAP
9 5 (2.99%) AWS Certification
9 5 (2.99%) CISA
9 5 (2.99%) CISM
9 5 (2.99%) IISP
9 5 (2.99%) JNCIE
10 4 (2.40%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (2.40%) CCNA
10 4 (2.40%) CCSP
10 4 (2.40%) CLAS
10 4 (2.40%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.39%) JSP 440
2 9 (5.39%) NIST
3 7 (4.19%) QA
4 6 (3.59%) GRC
4 6 (3.59%) SLA
5 5 (2.99%) GDPR
5 5 (2.99%) ISO 31000
5 5 (2.99%) ISO 9001
5 5 (2.99%) ISO/IEC 27005
5 5 (2.99%) NCSC
5 5 (2.99%) PCI DSS
6 4 (2.40%) RMADS
7 1 (0.60%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
System Software
1 24 (14.37%) 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 7 (4.19%) Hyper-V
6 6 (3.59%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.40%) ISA Server
8 3 (1.80%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.60%) Firmware
10 1 (0.60%) UAG
Systems Management
1 13 (7.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (7.19%) Ansible
3 10 (5.99%) Jamf Pro
4 7 (4.19%) vCenter Server
5 5 (2.99%) CASB
6 4 (2.40%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.80%) Avamar
7 3 (1.80%) Grafana
7 3 (1.80%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.80%) SCCM
8 2 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.20%) vRealize
8 2 (1.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
8 2 (1.20%) WSUS
9 1 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.60%) Kubernetes
9 1 (0.60%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 38 (22.75%) Microsoft
2 36 (21.56%) Cisco
3 33 (19.76%) VMware
4 17 (10.18%) F5
5 12 (7.19%) Palo Alto
5 12 (7.19%) ServiceNow
6 9 (5.39%) CheckPoint
6 9 (5.39%) SolarWinds
7 8 (4.79%) Fortinet
7 8 (4.79%) Juniper
7 8 (4.79%) Veeam
8 7 (4.19%) Commvault
8 7 (4.19%) Google
9 6 (3.59%) Meraki
10 5 (2.99%) BT
10 5 (2.99%) Dell
10 5 (2.99%) NetApp
10 5 (2.99%) Splunk
10 5 (2.99%) Xerox
11 4 (2.40%) Qualys