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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 62 67
Rank change year-on-year +10 +5 +5
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 202 95 152
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.39% 3.19% 2.78%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 11.75% 9.64% 9.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 64 109
10th Percentile £303 £230 £280
25th Percentile £400 £370 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £588 £608
90th Percentile £645 £643 £650
England median daily rate £485 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -7.62% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 7 4
10th Percentile £16.01 - £15.25
25th Percentile - £24.18 £20.88
Median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.57% +2.75% -65.71%
75th Percentile £33.75 £26.96 £25.13
90th Percentile £42.29 £91.04 £27.15
England median hourly rate £19.34 £26.08 £24.87
% change year-on-year -25.84% +4.87% +14.77%

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 1,719 985 1,530
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 28.89% 33.11% 28.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,142 622 931
10th Percentile £268 £200 £205
25th Percentile £400 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.91%
75th Percentile £600 £598 £608
90th Percentile £688 £656 £688
England median daily rate £515 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -4.19% -2.27% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 66 148
10th Percentile £18.10 £15.75 £11.71
25th Percentile £27.88 £21.29 £17.64
Median hourly rate £67.50 £46.40 £47.19
Median % change year-on-year +45.47% -1.66% -5.63%
75th Percentile £85.40 £62.24 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £33.91 £34.11
% change year-on-year +32.70% -0.57% +51.68%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +17 117 £400 -18.78% 35
Berkshire +28 102 £400 -7.25% 30
Hampshire 0 54 £500 - 23
Kent +9 18 £444 +4.41%
Buckinghamshire -29 13 £525 -3.67% 3
Surrey -28 9 £475 +182.74% 11
West Sussex -16 3 £700 +3.70% 1
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 2
East Sussex +1 1 £475 -
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 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.99%) Confluence
3 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 9 (4.46%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.98%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.50%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 37 (18.32%) Azure
2 23 (11.39%) AWS
3 10 (4.95%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (3.47%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.48%) Azure Sentinel
5 5 (2.48%) IaaS
6 4 (1.98%) OneDrive
7 3 (1.49%) PaaS
7 3 (1.49%) SaaS
8 2 (0.99%) GitHub
9 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.50%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (0.50%) GCP
9 1 (0.50%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.50%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 82 (40.59%) Firewall
2 76 (37.62%) WAN
3 75 (37.13%) LAN
4 58 (28.71%) BGP
5 53 (26.24%) OSPF
6 36 (17.82%) DNS
7 35 (17.33%) DHCP
8 31 (15.35%) VPN
8 31 (15.35%) VXLAN
9 30 (14.85%) Ethernet VPN
10 28 (13.86%) Structured Cabling
11 24 (11.88%) BIG-IP
12 22 (10.89%) Junos
13 18 (8.91%) Cisco ISE
13 18 (8.91%) SAN
14 17 (8.42%) IPsec
14 17 (8.42%) TCP/IP
15 16 (7.92%) Cisco Nexus
16 15 (7.43%) SD-WAN
17 14 (6.93%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.99%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.50%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (1.98%) Eclipse
1 4 (1.98%) Maven
1 4 (1.98%) Subversion
2 3 (1.49%) JIRA
3 2 (0.99%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.99%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 56 (27.72%) Social Skills
2 21 (10.40%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (9.41%) Documentation Skills
4 16 (7.92%) Finance
4 16 (7.92%) Manufacturing
5 12 (5.94%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.94%) Retail
6 7 (3.47%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (2.97%) Legal
8 5 (2.48%) Military
8 5 (2.48%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.49%) Marketing
11 2 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.50%) Back Office
12 1 (0.50%) Billing
12 1 (0.50%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 53 (26.24%) Network Engineer
2 20 (9.90%) Senior
3 16 (7.92%) Architect
4 15 (7.43%) Project Manager
5 14 (6.93%) Cisco Engineer
5 14 (6.93%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 14 (6.93%) Firewall Specialist
5 14 (6.93%) Network Specialist
6 13 (6.44%) Data Centre Engineer
6 13 (6.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 13 (6.44%) IT Engineer
7 12 (5.94%) Data Centre Manager
7 12 (5.94%) Network Architect
7 12 (5.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 11 (5.45%) Field Engineer
8 11 (5.45%) Field Service Engineer
9 10 (4.95%) Analyst
9 10 (4.95%) Data Centre Analyst
9 10 (4.95%) Senior Network Engineer
10 9 (4.46%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.38%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.98%) XML
3 3 (1.49%) NETCONF
3 3 (1.49%) OpenConfig
3 3 (1.49%) RESTCONF
3 3 (1.49%) YANG
4 1 (0.50%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 22 (10.89%) Clustering
1 22 (10.89%) PKI
2 15 (7.43%) Analytical Mindset
3 13 (6.44%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (4.95%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (3.96%) Fibre Optics
6 7 (3.47%) Driving Licence
7 4 (1.98%) Replication
8 3 (1.49%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.99%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (0.99%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (0.99%) Management Information System
9 2 (0.99%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.99%) Public Cloud
9 2 (0.99%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.50%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.50%) iSeries
10 1 (0.50%) Smartphone
10 1 (0.50%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 44 (21.78%) Windows
2 17 (8.42%) Linux
3 10 (4.95%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.98%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.98%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.50%) VMS
5 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (25.74%) Problem-Solving
2 38 (18.81%) ITIL
3 33 (16.34%) High Availability
4 29 (14.36%) Load Balancing
5 28 (13.86%) Migration
6 24 (11.88%) Identity Access Management
7 23 (11.39%) Roadmaps
8 22 (10.89%) Observability
9 17 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
9 17 (8.42%) Project Delivery
10 16 (7.92%) Change Management
10 16 (7.92%) Customer Service
10 16 (7.92%) ITSM
11 15 (7.43%) Change Control
11 15 (7.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 14 (6.93%) Break/Fix
12 14 (6.93%) Project Management
13 13 (6.44%) Budget Management
13 13 (6.44%) Disaster Recovery
13 13 (6.44%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.48%) Java
1 5 (2.48%) SQL
2 4 (1.98%) Python
3 3 (1.49%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 105 (51.98%) Security Cleared
2 73 (36.14%) Cisco Certification
3 65 (32.18%) SC Cleared
4 38 (18.81%) CCNP
5 33 (16.34%) DV Cleared
6 28 (13.86%) Degree
7 24 (11.88%) CCNA
8 14 (6.93%) JNCIS
9 12 (5.94%) Microsoft Certification
10 11 (5.45%) A+ Certification
10 11 (5.45%) JNCIA
10 11 (5.45%) JNCIP
10 11 (5.45%) MCSE
10 11 (5.45%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (3.47%) CCIE
12 6 (2.97%) CCSE
12 6 (2.97%) PMP
13 5 (2.48%) BICSI Certification
13 5 (2.48%) City & Guilds
14 4 (1.98%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (3.96%) SLA
3 7 (3.47%) NIST
4 5 (2.48%) GDPR
5 3 (1.49%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.49%) NCSC
6 2 (0.99%) NIST 800
6 2 (0.99%) PMO
7 1 (0.50%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.50%) RMADS
System Software
1 27 (13.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (6.93%) Active Directory
3 11 (5.45%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (3.96%) vSphere
5 7 (3.47%) VMware NSX
6 6 (2.97%) Hyper-V
6 6 (2.97%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.49%) UAG
8 2 (0.99%) vCloud
9 1 (0.50%) KVM
9 1 (0.50%) RHEV
9 1 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.50%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (12.87%) FortiGate
2 12 (5.94%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.95%) Ansible
4 8 (3.96%) Terraform
5 5 (2.48%) Endace
6 4 (1.98%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (1.98%) Nagios
6 4 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.49%) SCCM
7 3 (1.49%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.99%) Avamar
8 2 (0.99%) CASB
9 1 (0.50%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.50%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 89 (44.06%) Cisco
2 41 (20.30%) Juniper
3 36 (17.82%) F5
4 35 (17.33%) VMware
5 31 (15.35%) SolarWinds
6 29 (14.36%) Palo Alto
7 27 (13.37%) CheckPoint
8 23 (11.39%) Microsoft
9 22 (10.89%) Extreme Networks
9 22 (10.89%) Splunk
10 20 (9.90%) Aruba
11 12 (5.94%) Dell
11 12 (5.94%) Fortinet
12 8 (3.96%) ServiceNow
13 7 (3.47%) Meraki
14 6 (2.97%) Atlassian
15 5 (2.48%) NetApp
16 4 (1.98%) BT
16 4 (1.98%) Commvault
16 4 (1.98%) Veeam