Data Centre Contract Job Trends in the South West

Data Center
England > South West

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies in the South West. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 25 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 57 50
Rank change year-on-year -42 -7 +8
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 49 51 117
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 1.52% 2.98% 3.66%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.01% 10.34% 11.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 31 84
10th Percentile £211 £485 £333
25th Percentile £442 £519 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £548 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.48% -4.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £675
90th Percentile £725 £713 £714
England median daily rate £481 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 9
10th Percentile - - £34.35
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - - £40.00
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £19.60 £24.66 £24.87
% change year-on-year -20.54% -0.84% +10.53%

All Generic Skills
South West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 815 493 1,064
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 25.22% 28.78% 33.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 326 660
10th Percentile £248 £290 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £533 £545
Median % change year-on-year -4.08% -2.20% -0.91%
75th Percentile £613 £613 £600
90th Percentile £738 £676 £688
England median daily rate £510 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -7.27% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 33 157
10th Percentile £17.03 £18.51 £13.41
25th Percentile £22.69 £18.87 £15.17
Median hourly rate £62.50 £50.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% +11.11% +359.18%
75th Percentile £67.25 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.64 £75.00 £72.50
England median hourly rate £45.46 £34.25 £28.50
% change year-on-year +32.73% +20.18% +26.67%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Data Centre job vacancy trend in the South West

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Data Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre in the South West over the 6 months to 25 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the South West

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Data Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 25 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
Devon - 13 £495 - 7
Wiltshire -22 10 £621 +7.91% 11
Gloucestershire -9 9 £538 -1.83% 3
Bristol -29 9 £123 -81.15% 15
Dorset - 6 £449 - 1
Somerset -19 1 £610 +17.78% 5
Data Centre
England

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 5 (10.20%) Azure
1 5 (10.20%) npm
2 3 (6.12%) AWS
3 2 (4.08%) GCP
3 2 (4.08%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (4.08%) OpenShift
4 1 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (2.04%) Azure Sentinel
4 1 (2.04%) Entra ID
4 1 (2.04%) GitHub
4 1 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
4 1 (2.04%) Google Ads
4 1 (2.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (24.49%) Firewall
2 11 (22.45%) SAN
3 10 (20.41%) BGP
3 10 (20.41%) Cisco Nexus
3 10 (20.41%) OSPF
3 10 (20.41%) VLAN
4 9 (18.37%) VXLAN
5 7 (14.29%) Network Security
5 7 (14.29%) NX-OS
6 5 (10.20%) AMQP
7 3 (6.12%) DHCP
7 3 (6.12%) WAN
8 2 (4.08%) DNS
8 2 (4.08%) LAN
8 2 (4.08%) NGFW
8 2 (4.08%) VPN
9 1 (2.04%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (2.04%) SD-WAN
9 1 (2.04%) Structured Cabling
9 1 (2.04%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.12%) InfluxDB
2 2 (4.08%) RDBMS
2 2 (4.08%) Relational Database
2 2 (4.08%) SQL Server
3 1 (2.04%) MS Access
3 1 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (12.24%) Git
2 5 (10.20%) Maven
3 1 (2.04%) GitLab
3 1 (2.04%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 18 (36.73%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (22.45%) Social Skills
3 5 (10.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (6.12%) Public Sector
5 1 (2.04%) Finance
5 1 (2.04%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 11 (22.45%) Field Engineer
1 11 (22.45%) Field Service Engineer
1 11 (22.45%) IT Engineer
1 11 (22.45%) Support Engineer
2 10 (20.41%) Architect
3 6 (12.24%) Field Support Engineer
3 6 (12.24%) IT Support
3 6 (12.24%) IT Support Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Applications Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Applications Support
4 5 (10.20%) Applications Support Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Network Engineer
4 5 (10.20%) Technical Architect
5 4 (8.16%) Network Architect
6 2 (4.08%) Network Specialist
6 2 (4.08%) Senior
7 1 (2.04%) DV Cleared Project Manager
7 1 (2.04%) Lead
7 1 (2.04%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.04%) ARM Templates
1 1 (2.04%) Jinja
1 1 (2.04%) NETCONF
1 1 (2.04%) ODBC
1 1 (2.04%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 11 (22.45%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (4.08%) Hybrid Cloud
2 2 (4.08%) Private Cloud
3 1 (2.04%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.04%) Driving Licence
3 1 (2.04%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (2.04%) Legacy Applications
3 1 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.04%) PMI
3 1 (2.04%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 9 (18.37%) Linux
2 7 (14.29%) Windows
3 6 (12.24%) Windows Server
4 2 (4.08%) CentOS
4 2 (4.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (2.04%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (2.04%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (46.94%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (22.45%) Break/Fix
2 11 (22.45%) Customer Service
3 10 (20.41%) Continuous Improvement
4 8 (16.33%) Infrastructure as Code
5 6 (12.24%) Data Centre Operations
5 6 (12.24%) Mentoring
5 6 (12.24%) Technical Leadership
5 6 (12.24%) Test Automation
6 5 (10.20%) Commercial Awareness
6 5 (10.20%) Identity Access Management
6 5 (10.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 5 (10.20%) Microservices
6 5 (10.20%) Security Architecture
6 5 (10.20%) Zero Trust
7 4 (8.16%) Architectural Patterns
7 4 (8.16%) Network Design
7 4 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (8.16%) Stakeholder Management
8 3 (6.12%) DataOps
Programming Languages
1 5 (10.20%) Java
2 4 (8.16%) Python
3 2 (4.08%) PowerShell
4 1 (2.04%) C
4 1 (2.04%) SQL
4 1 (2.04%) VB
4 1 (2.04%) VBA
Qualifications
1 18 (36.73%) Security Cleared
2 14 (28.57%) Cisco Certification
3 12 (24.49%) CCNA
3 12 (24.49%) DV Cleared
4 11 (22.45%) A+ Certification
4 11 (22.45%) MCSE
4 11 (22.45%) Microsoft Certification
4 11 (22.45%) Network+ Certification
5 8 (16.33%) SC Cleared
6 2 (4.08%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.04%) APMP
7 1 (2.04%) CCIE
7 1 (2.04%) Degree
7 1 (2.04%) MAPM
7 1 (2.04%) PMI Certification
7 1 (2.04%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.08%) NIST
1 2 (4.08%) PCI DSS
1 2 (4.08%) QA
2 1 (2.04%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (2.04%) GDPR
2 1 (2.04%) GRC
2 1 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.04%) NCSC
2 1 (2.04%) PMO
System Software
1 7 (14.29%) Active Directory
1 7 (14.29%) VMware Infrastructure
1 7 (14.29%) VMware NSX
2 2 (4.08%) Docker
3 1 (2.04%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.04%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (14.29%) Ansible
1 7 (14.29%) Terraform
2 5 (10.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 5 (10.20%) Grafana
3 2 (4.08%) FortiGate
3 2 (4.08%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.04%) EMC VPLEX
4 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (2.04%) Nagios
4 1 (2.04%) SCCM
Vendors
1 15 (30.61%) Cisco
2 12 (24.49%) Dell
3 10 (20.41%) F5
4 8 (16.33%) VMware
5 6 (12.24%) Oracle
6 3 (6.12%) Microsoft
7 2 (4.08%) Fortinet
7 2 (4.08%) Infoblox
7 2 (4.08%) Palo Alto
8 1 (2.04%) CheckPoint
8 1 (2.04%) Citrix
8 1 (2.04%) FireEye
8 1 (2.04%) NetApp
8 1 (2.04%) NetScout
8 1 (2.04%) Sophos