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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 73 65
Rank change year-on-year -8 -8 -5
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 174 96 134
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.64% 2.74% 2.83%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 8.98% 8.63% 9.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 69 87
10th Percentile £300 £292 £350
25th Percentile £400 £358 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £493 £540
Median % change year-on-year +7.82% -8.80% +8.00%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £608
90th Percentile £769 £653 £664
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 0 9
10th Percentile £16.01 - £12.05
25th Percentile £18.87 - -
Median hourly rate £20.17 - £12.08
75th Percentile £33.75 - £18.75
90th Percentile £33.90 - £22.20
England median hourly rate £23.00 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year -8.55% +5.67% +2.37%

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 1,938 1,112 1,376
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.44% 31.74% 29.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,199 698 792
10th Percentile £275 £204 £219
25th Percentile £412 £350 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -
75th Percentile £616 £600 £625
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 208 96 133
10th Percentile £13.30 £15.31 £12.05
25th Percentile £17.34 £16.95 £26.25
Median hourly rate £47.50 £33.47 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +41.93% -41.64% +7.33%
75th Percentile £77.50 £62.62 £67.02
90th Percentile £88.00 £72.25 £75.16
England median hourly rate £38.25 £32.05 £51.25
% change year-on-year +19.34% -37.46% +11.85%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +1 104 £425 -2.86% 73
Berkshire +19 84 £388 +12.32% 45
Hampshire -1 59 £600 +4.35% 19
Buckinghamshire -24 19 £605 +11.01% 10
Surrey -22 6 £475 +11.76% 30
West Sussex -25 3 £625 -13.79% 9
Middlesex - 3 - - 1
Oxfordshire -22 1 £500 -16.67% 18
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 (6.90%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.72%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.57%) Confluence
3 1 (0.57%) IIS
3 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.72%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 39 (22.41%) Azure
2 33 (18.97%) AWS
3 13 (7.47%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (5.75%) OneDrive
5 7 (4.02%) GCP
6 5 (2.87%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (2.87%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.72%) IaaS
7 3 (1.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.15%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.15%) OpenShift
8 2 (1.15%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.57%) dbt
9 1 (0.57%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 40 (22.99%) WAN
2 36 (20.69%) Firewall
2 36 (20.69%) LAN
3 31 (17.82%) DNS
4 30 (17.24%) BGP
5 27 (15.52%) DHCP
6 23 (13.22%) VPN
7 20 (11.49%) OSPF
7 20 (11.49%) SD-WAN
7 20 (11.49%) TCP/IP
8 18 (10.34%) VXLAN
9 17 (9.77%) VLAN
10 14 (8.05%) BIG-IP
10 14 (8.05%) Cisco Nexus
10 14 (8.05%) Ethernet VPN
10 14 (8.05%) Network Security
11 13 (7.47%) MPLS
11 13 (7.47%) SAN
12 11 (6.32%) Structured Cabling
13 10 (5.75%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.15%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (1.15%) JIRA
1 2 (1.15%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.57%) Git
General
1 58 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.49%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (8.05%) Finance
4 13 (7.47%) Telecoms
5 8 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.02%) Retail
7 6 (3.45%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (3.45%) Legal
7 6 (3.45%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.87%) Marketing
9 3 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.72%) Public Sector
10 2 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 31 (17.82%) Architect
2 23 (13.22%) Network Architect
3 18 (10.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 18 (10.34%) Network Engineer
4 12 (6.90%) IT Engineer
5 11 (6.32%) IT Support
6 10 (5.75%) Analyst
7 9 (5.17%) Data Centre Engineer
7 9 (5.17%) Field Engineer
7 9 (5.17%) Field Service Engineer
7 9 (5.17%) Senior
8 8 (4.60%) Lead
8 8 (4.60%) Site Manager
9 7 (4.02%) Data Analyst
9 7 (4.02%) Data Centre Analyst
9 7 (4.02%) Data Centre Manager
10 6 (3.45%) Cabling Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) Data Manager
10 6 (3.45%) Infrastructure Architect
10 6 (3.45%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.75%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.45%) Terraform
3 4 (2.30%) NETCONF
4 3 (1.72%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.72%) RESTCONF
4 3 (1.72%) YANG
5 2 (1.15%) REST
6 1 (0.57%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.05%) Hybrid Cloud
2 12 (6.90%) Analytical Mindset
3 10 (5.75%) Fibre Optics
4 8 (4.60%) Private Cloud
5 7 (4.02%) Clustering
5 7 (4.02%) PKI
6 6 (3.45%) Public Cloud
7 4 (2.30%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (2.30%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.72%) Management Information System
8 3 (1.72%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.72%) Social Media
9 2 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (1.15%) Replication
10 1 (0.57%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.57%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.57%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (0.57%) TM Forum
10 1 (0.57%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 32 (18.39%) Windows
2 10 (5.75%) Apple iOS
2 10 (5.75%) Mac OS
3 9 (5.17%) Linux
4 7 (4.02%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (21.26%) Problem-Solving
2 34 (19.54%) ITIL
3 23 (13.22%) Migration
4 21 (12.07%) ITSM
5 20 (11.49%) Customer Service
5 20 (11.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 20 (11.49%) Roadmaps
6 18 (10.34%) Disaster Recovery
7 17 (9.77%) AI
7 17 (9.77%) Load Balancing
7 17 (9.77%) Stakeholder Management
8 16 (9.20%) Change Management
8 16 (9.20%) High Availability
9 15 (8.62%) Agile
9 15 (8.62%) Project Delivery
9 15 (8.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 14 (8.05%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (8.05%) Technical Leadership
10 14 (8.05%) Time Management
11 13 (7.47%) Capacity Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.60%) Python
2 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 75 (43.10%) Security Cleared
2 43 (24.71%) DV Cleared
3 38 (21.84%) Cisco Certification
4 34 (19.54%) SC Cleared
5 21 (12.07%) Degree
6 16 (9.20%) CCNP
7 10 (5.75%) CCNA
8 9 (5.17%) A+ Certification
8 9 (5.17%) CCIE
8 9 (5.17%) MCSE
8 9 (5.17%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (5.17%) Network+ Certification
9 8 (4.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (2.87%) AWS Certification
10 5 (2.87%) BICSI Certification
10 5 (2.87%) CCSE
10 5 (2.87%) CCSM
10 5 (2.87%) City & Guilds
10 5 (2.87%) JNCIE
10 5 (2.87%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.17%) JSP 440
3 8 (4.60%) SLA
4 6 (3.45%) NIST
5 5 (2.87%) NCSC
6 4 (2.30%) QA
6 4 (2.30%) RMADS
7 3 (1.72%) GDPR
8 2 (1.15%) GRC
9 1 (0.57%) ISO 31000
9 1 (0.57%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (0.57%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.57%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 24 (13.79%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (7.47%) VMware ESXi
3 11 (6.32%) VMware NSX
4 10 (5.75%) Active Directory
5 8 (4.60%) vSphere
6 6 (3.45%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.30%) Hyper-V
8 2 (1.15%) UAG
8 2 (1.15%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.57%) ISA Server
9 1 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (8.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.32%) FortiGate
3 10 (5.75%) Ansible
3 10 (5.75%) Jamf Pro
4 6 (3.45%) vCenter Server
5 3 (1.72%) Avamar
6 2 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.15%) CASB
6 2 (1.15%) Endace
6 2 (1.15%) SCCM
6 2 (1.15%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.57%) Grafana
7 1 (0.57%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.57%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.57%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.57%) vRealize
7 1 (0.57%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 45 (25.86%) Cisco
2 36 (20.69%) VMware
3 31 (17.82%) Microsoft
4 22 (12.64%) F5
5 16 (9.20%) Juniper
6 14 (8.05%) Palo Alto
6 14 (8.05%) SolarWinds
7 13 (7.47%) ServiceNow
8 11 (6.32%) Dell
8 11 (6.32%) Fortinet
9 10 (5.75%) CheckPoint
10 8 (4.60%) Splunk
11 7 (4.02%) Extreme Networks
12 5 (2.87%) Meraki
12 5 (2.87%) Veeam
13 4 (2.30%) BT
13 4 (2.30%) Commvault
13 4 (2.30%) Google
13 4 (2.30%) NetApp
13 4 (2.30%) Xerox