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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 83 74
Rank change year-on-year +10 -9 +2
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 156 70 155
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.91% 2.38% 2.76%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 9.66% 7.04% 9.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 100 40 106
10th Percentile £324 £154 £280
25th Percentile £411 £302 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £440 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.98% -7.37% -7.32%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £608
90th Percentile £600 £628 £675
England median daily rate £481 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 9 7
10th Percentile - £23.40 £16.90
25th Percentile £16.01 - £22.25
Median hourly rate £18.23 £24.18 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.61% +0.75% -65.71%
75th Percentile £37.88 £24.66 £72.02
90th Percentile £58.03 £60.14 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year +1.99% -0.84% +12.61%

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 1,615 995 1,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.16% 33.86% 29.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,059 609 964
10th Percentile £250 £215 £205
25th Percentile £400 £372 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% +3.60% -3.01%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £600
90th Percentile £688 £672 £688
England median daily rate £513 £545 £545
% change year-on-year -5.96% - -5.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 57 137
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.95 £11.92
25th Percentile £20.57 £23.50 £18.35
Median hourly rate £67.50 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +107.69% -7.14% -26.32%
75th Percentile £88.00 £62.24 £60.39
90th Percentile - £81.22 £65.00
England median hourly rate £37.50 £33.00 £28.00
% change year-on-year +13.64% +17.86% +17.70%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 93 £419 -22.45% 46
Berkshire +20 84 £388 -29.55% 38
Hampshire -5 36 £500 - 26
Kent +5 18 £444 -8.97% 6
Buckinghamshire -17 7 £494 +28.25% 5
Surrey -28 5 £505 +200.60% 14
West Sussex -11 4 £700 +86.67% 7
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 3
East Sussex +3 1 £475 -24.00% 1
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 3 (1.92%) GeoServer
1 3 (1.92%) Smallworld
2 2 (1.28%) Confluence
3 1 (0.64%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (5.77%) MS Visio
2 7 (4.49%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (2.56%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.64%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 22 (14.10%) Azure
2 11 (7.05%) AWS
3 4 (2.56%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.92%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (1.92%) IaaS
4 3 (1.92%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (1.92%) PaaS
4 3 (1.92%) SaaS
5 2 (1.28%) GitHub
6 1 (0.64%) GCP
6 1 (0.64%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 62 (39.74%) Firewall
1 62 (39.74%) WAN
2 58 (37.18%) LAN
3 50 (32.05%) BGP
4 45 (28.85%) OSPF
5 25 (16.03%) Ethernet VPN
5 25 (16.03%) Structured Cabling
5 25 (16.03%) VPN
6 23 (14.74%) VXLAN
7 22 (14.10%) DNS
8 21 (13.46%) DHCP
9 19 (12.18%) BIG-IP
10 18 (11.54%) IPsec
10 18 (11.54%) Junos
11 15 (9.62%) Cisco ISE
12 13 (8.33%) TCP/IP
13 11 (7.05%) Network Security
14 10 (6.41%) MPLS
14 10 (6.41%) SAN
15 9 (5.77%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.92%) Geospatial Data
1 3 (1.92%) GIS
1 3 (1.92%) QGIS
2 2 (1.28%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.56%) Eclipse
1 4 (2.56%) Maven
1 4 (2.56%) Subversion
2 3 (1.92%) JIRA
3 2 (1.28%) Bitbucket
3 2 (1.28%) Rational DOORS
3 2 (1.28%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.64%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 43 (27.56%) Social Skills
2 17 (10.90%) Documentation Skills
3 15 (9.62%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (8.33%) Manufacturing
5 10 (6.41%) Retail
6 9 (5.77%) Finance
7 5 (3.21%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (3.21%) Military
8 4 (2.56%) Legal
8 4 (2.56%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.92%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.28%) Marketing
11 1 (0.64%) Back Office
11 1 (0.64%) Billing
11 1 (0.64%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 41 (26.28%) Network Engineer
2 16 (10.26%) Senior
3 14 (8.97%) Analyst
3 14 (8.97%) Architect
3 14 (8.97%) Cisco Engineer
3 14 (8.97%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 14 (8.97%) Data Centre Analyst
3 14 (8.97%) Project Manager
4 13 (8.33%) Data Analyst
5 10 (6.41%) Data Centre Engineer
5 10 (6.41%) Firewall Specialist
5 10 (6.41%) Network Specialist
5 10 (6.41%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 9 (5.77%) Network Architect
6 9 (5.77%) Senior Network Engineer
7 8 (5.13%) Applications Developer
7 8 (5.13%) Developer
8 7 (4.49%) Data Centre Manager
9 6 (3.85%) Data Network Engineer
9 6 (3.85%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (12.82%) 802.1X
2 4 (2.56%) NETCONF
2 4 (2.56%) OpenConfig
2 4 (2.56%) RESTCONF
2 4 (2.56%) XML
2 4 (2.56%) YANG
3 1 (0.64%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 19 (12.18%) PKI
2 18 (11.54%) Clustering
3 10 (6.41%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (6.41%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (5.77%) Analytical Mindset
5 8 (5.13%) Driving Licence
6 5 (3.21%) Fibre Optics
7 4 (2.56%) Replication
8 3 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.92%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.28%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.64%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.64%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.64%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.64%) Management Information System
10 1 (0.64%) NHS
10 1 (0.64%) PMI
10 1 (0.64%) Smartphone
10 1 (0.64%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 28 (17.95%) Windows
2 13 (8.33%) Linux
3 5 (3.21%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.64%) VMS
4 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 33 (21.15%) ITIL
3 27 (17.31%) High Availability
4 21 (13.46%) Load Balancing
5 20 (12.82%) Identity Access Management
5 20 (12.82%) Migration
6 18 (11.54%) Observability
7 15 (9.62%) Continuous Improvement
7 15 (9.62%) Roadmaps
8 14 (8.97%) Change Control
8 14 (8.97%) Change Management
8 14 (8.97%) Project Delivery
8 14 (8.97%) Project Management
9 13 (8.33%) Agile
9 13 (8.33%) Incident Management
10 12 (7.69%) Budget Management
10 12 (7.69%) Customer Requirements
10 12 (7.69%) ITSM
10 12 (7.69%) Service Management
11 10 (6.41%) Availability Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (3.21%) Java
1 5 (3.21%) Python
1 5 (3.21%) SQL
2 2 (1.28%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 95 (60.90%) Security Cleared
2 62 (39.74%) SC Cleared
3 54 (34.62%) Cisco Certification
4 30 (19.23%) CCNP
5 27 (17.31%) DV Cleared
6 21 (13.46%) Degree
7 17 (10.90%) CCNA
8 14 (8.97%) JNCIS
9 11 (7.05%) JNCIA
10 10 (6.41%) JNCIP
11 5 (3.21%) CCIE
11 5 (3.21%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (3.21%) PMP
12 4 (2.56%) A+ Certification
12 4 (2.56%) CCSE
12 4 (2.56%) JNCIE
12 4 (2.56%) MCSE
12 4 (2.56%) Network+ Certification
13 2 (1.28%) BICSI Certification
13 2 (1.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.85%) SLA
3 4 (2.56%) GDPR
3 4 (2.56%) NIST
4 3 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.92%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.28%) NCSC
5 2 (1.28%) PMO
6 1 (0.64%) NIST 800
System Software
1 15 (9.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (5.13%) Active Directory
3 6 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
3 6 (3.85%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.56%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.92%) vSphere
6 2 (1.28%) vCloud
7 1 (0.64%) KVM
7 1 (0.64%) NFS
7 1 (0.64%) RHEV
7 1 (0.64%) UAG
7 1 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.64%) Xen
Systems Management
1 19 (12.18%) FortiGate
2 9 (5.77%) Ansible
3 5 (3.21%) Terraform
4 4 (2.56%) Endace
4 4 (2.56%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (2.56%) Nagios
4 4 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.92%) SCCM
6 1 (0.64%) CASB
6 1 (0.64%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.64%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.64%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 68 (43.59%) Cisco
2 37 (23.72%) Juniper
3 31 (19.87%) F5
4 27 (17.31%) Palo Alto
5 23 (14.74%) SolarWinds
6 22 (14.10%) CheckPoint
7 19 (12.18%) Aruba
7 19 (12.18%) VMware
8 18 (11.54%) Extreme Networks
8 18 (11.54%) Splunk
9 10 (6.41%) Microsoft
10 9 (5.77%) Fortinet
11 6 (3.85%) Atlassian
12 4 (2.56%) Dell
12 4 (2.56%) Mellanox
12 4 (2.56%) NVIDIA
12 4 (2.56%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.56%) Zscaler
13 3 (1.92%) ESRI
13 3 (1.92%) Zerto