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

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 70 65
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +14
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 187 93 162
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.21% 3.10% 2.92%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 10.90% 9.25% 10.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 60 116
10th Percentile £303 £168 £280
25th Percentile £388 £361 £346
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £470 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.66% -6.00% -
75th Percentile £544 £588 £608
90th Percentile £715 £628 £650
England median daily rate £478 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -8.95% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 6
10th Percentile - - £16.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.18 £21.38
Median hourly rate £19.34 £24.42 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.80% +1.75% -65.71%
75th Percentile - £25.81 £27.38
90th Percentile £49.65 £75.59 £48.00
England median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year -21.57% -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 1,715 1,005 1,580
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.43% 33.51% 28.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,140 631 930
10th Percentile £263 £210 £205
25th Percentile £400 £361 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.44%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £661 £688
England median daily rate £513 £547 £550
% change year-on-year -6.31% -0.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 63 152
10th Percentile £16.15 £16.95 £11.72
25th Percentile £27.69 £23.50 £18.35
Median hourly rate £70.00 £47.81 £47.19
Median % change year-on-year +46.43% +1.31% -7.93%
75th Percentile £87.00 £64.13 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £46.23 £33.91 £30.00
% change year-on-year +36.33% +13.03% +33.33%

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 30 April 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 30 April 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 30 April 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 +14 107 £400 -23.81% 26
Berkshire +21 96 £388 -20.51% 20
Hampshire -3 51 £500 -4.76% 18
Kent +7 18 £444 -8.97% 3
Buckinghamshire -30 9 £525 -3.67% 4
Surrey -30 6 £485 +188.69% 6
West Sussex -13 4 £700 +86.67% 8
Oxfordshire - 2 £500 - 2
East Sussex 0 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 2 (1.07%) Confluence
2 1 (0.53%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (5.35%) MS Visio
2 7 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.21%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (2.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.53%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 26 (13.90%) Azure
2 16 (8.56%) AWS
3 5 (2.67%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.14%) IaaS
4 4 (2.14%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (1.60%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (1.60%) PaaS
5 3 (1.60%) SaaS
6 2 (1.07%) GitHub
7 1 (0.53%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (0.53%) GCP
7 1 (0.53%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 75 (40.11%) Firewall
2 72 (38.50%) WAN
3 70 (37.43%) LAN
4 58 (31.02%) BGP
5 52 (27.81%) OSPF
6 30 (16.04%) Ethernet VPN
6 30 (16.04%) VXLAN
7 29 (15.51%) DNS
7 29 (15.51%) VPN
8 28 (14.97%) DHCP
8 28 (14.97%) Structured Cabling
9 24 (12.83%) BIG-IP
10 22 (11.76%) Junos
11 18 (9.63%) Cisco ISE
12 17 (9.09%) IPsec
12 17 (9.09%) SAN
13 13 (6.95%) Cisco Nexus
13 13 (6.95%) TCP/IP
14 12 (6.42%) MPLS
14 12 (6.42%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.07%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.14%) Eclipse
1 4 (2.14%) Maven
1 4 (2.14%) Subversion
2 3 (1.60%) JIRA
3 2 (1.07%) Bitbucket
3 2 (1.07%) ScriptRunner
4 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 51 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 20 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (10.16%) Documentation Skills
4 13 (6.95%) Finance
4 13 (6.95%) Manufacturing
4 13 (6.95%) Public Sector
5 12 (6.42%) Retail
6 7 (3.74%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (3.21%) Legal
8 5 (2.67%) Military
8 5 (2.67%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.60%) Marketing
9 3 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.53%) Back Office
10 1 (0.53%) Billing
10 1 (0.53%) Front Office
10 1 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 48 (25.67%) Network Engineer
2 19 (10.16%) Senior
3 16 (8.56%) Architect
4 15 (8.02%) Project Manager
5 14 (7.49%) Cisco Engineer
5 14 (7.49%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 14 (7.49%) Firewall Specialist
5 14 (7.49%) Network Specialist
6 12 (6.42%) Network Architect
7 11 (5.88%) Analyst
7 11 (5.88%) Data Centre Analyst
7 11 (5.88%) Data Centre Engineer
7 11 (5.88%) Data Centre Manager
7 11 (5.88%) IT Engineer
7 11 (5.88%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 10 (5.35%) Data Analyst
8 10 (5.35%) Field Engineer
8 10 (5.35%) Field Service Engineer
8 10 (5.35%) Lead
8 10 (5.35%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (13.37%) 802.1X
2 4 (2.14%) NETCONF
2 4 (2.14%) OpenConfig
2 4 (2.14%) RESTCONF
2 4 (2.14%) XML
2 4 (2.14%) YANG
3 1 (0.53%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 22 (11.76%) Clustering
1 22 (11.76%) PKI
2 16 (8.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (8.02%) Analytical Mindset
4 11 (5.88%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (4.28%) Driving Licence
5 8 (4.28%) Fibre Optics
6 4 (2.14%) Replication
7 3 (1.60%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.07%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.07%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.07%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.07%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.07%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.53%) CCTV
9 1 (0.53%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.53%) NHS
9 1 (0.53%) PMI
9 1 (0.53%) Smartphone
9 1 (0.53%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 36 (19.25%) Windows
2 15 (8.02%) Linux
3 8 (4.28%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.53%) VMS
4 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (17.11%) High Availability
2 32 (17.11%) ITIL
3 26 (13.90%) Load Balancing
3 26 (13.90%) Migration
4 24 (12.83%) Identity Access Management
5 22 (11.76%) Observability
5 22 (11.76%) Roadmaps
6 19 (10.16%) Continuous Improvement
7 16 (8.56%) Project Delivery
8 14 (7.49%) Change Management
8 14 (7.49%) Project Management
9 13 (6.95%) Break/Fix
9 13 (6.95%) Budget Management
9 13 (6.95%) Change Control
9 13 (6.95%) Disaster Recovery
10 12 (6.42%) Agile
10 12 (6.42%) ITSM
10 12 (6.42%) Service Management
10 12 (6.42%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.67%) Java
1 5 (2.67%) Python
1 5 (2.67%) SQL
2 2 (1.07%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 104 (55.61%) Security Cleared
2 70 (37.43%) Cisco Certification
3 64 (34.22%) SC Cleared
4 35 (18.72%) CCNP
5 32 (17.11%) DV Cleared
6 23 (12.30%) CCNA
6 23 (12.30%) Degree
7 14 (7.49%) JNCIS
8 11 (5.88%) JNCIA
8 11 (5.88%) JNCIP
8 11 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (5.35%) A+ Certification
9 10 (5.35%) MCSE
9 10 (5.35%) Network+ Certification
10 7 (3.74%) CCIE
11 6 (3.21%) PMP
12 5 (2.67%) BICSI Certification
12 5 (2.67%) City & Guilds
12 5 (2.67%) JNCIE
13 4 (2.14%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.21%) NIST
2 6 (3.21%) SLA
3 5 (2.67%) GDPR
4 3 (1.60%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.60%) NCSC
5 2 (1.07%) NIST 800
5 2 (1.07%) PMO
System Software
1 20 (10.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (6.42%) Active Directory
3 9 (4.81%) VMware ESXi
3 9 (4.81%) VMware NSX
4 5 (2.67%) vSphere
5 4 (2.14%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.60%) UAG
6 3 (1.60%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.07%) vCloud
8 1 (0.53%) KVM
8 1 (0.53%) RHEV
8 1 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.53%) Xen
Systems Management
1 25 (13.37%) FortiGate
2 10 (5.35%) Ansible
3 6 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.21%) Terraform
4 5 (2.67%) Endace
4 5 (2.67%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (2.14%) Nagios
6 3 (1.60%) SCCM
6 3 (1.60%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.07%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.53%) Avamar
8 1 (0.53%) CASB
8 1 (0.53%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.53%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 81 (43.32%) Cisco
2 41 (21.93%) Juniper
3 35 (18.72%) F5
4 28 (14.97%) Palo Alto
4 28 (14.97%) SolarWinds
4 28 (14.97%) VMware
5 22 (11.76%) CheckPoint
5 22 (11.76%) Extreme Networks
5 22 (11.76%) Splunk
6 19 (10.16%) Aruba
7 15 (8.02%) Microsoft
8 11 (5.88%) Dell
8 11 (5.88%) Fortinet
9 6 (3.21%) Atlassian
10 5 (2.67%) Zscaler
11 4 (2.14%) Mellanox
11 4 (2.14%) Meraki
11 4 (2.14%) NVIDIA
11 4 (2.14%) ServiceNow
11 4 (2.14%) Zerto