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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 66 44
Rank change year-on-year -28 -22 +44
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 69 47 120
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 1.88% 2.43% 4.33%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.20% 7.54% 14.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 36 92
10th Percentile £161 £444 -
25th Percentile £452 £522 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year +6.82% +2.33% -6.52%
75th Percentile £723 £708 £675
90th Percentile £775 £738 -
England median daily rate £527 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +0.38% -2.33% -0.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 4
10th Percentile £33.88 - -
25th Percentile £64.27 - £11.75
Median hourly rate £98.82 - £13.50
75th Percentile - - £15.25
90th Percentile £99.41 - -
England median hourly rate £23.00 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year -8.55% +5.67% +9.43%

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 958 623 813
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 26.17% 32.26% 29.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 535 379 509
10th Percentile £316 £225 £310
25th Percentile £413 £375 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £640 £640 £650
90th Percentile £750 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 54 119
10th Percentile £14.00 £6.00 £13.69
25th Percentile £17.85 £15.48 £44.38
Median hourly rate £32.50 £18.87 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.23% -73.04% -
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.06 £72.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.59 £75.00
England median hourly rate £42.40 £32.71 £48.00
% change year-on-year +29.62% -31.85% +9.50%

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 21 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Centre in the South West over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the South West

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 21 August 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
Somerset -17 19 £700 +27.27% 2
Devon - 17 £495 - 2
Bristol -16 15 £398 -30.78% 8
Wiltshire -22 7 £610 +6.13% 10
Gloucestershire -12 6 £375 -31.82% 3
Dorset - 4 £547 -
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 2 (2.90%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 15 (21.74%) AWS
2 13 (18.84%) Azure
3 4 (5.80%) GitHub
4 3 (4.35%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (2.90%) Azure Key Vault
5 2 (2.90%) Azure Logic Apps
5 2 (2.90%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (1.45%) GCP
6 1 (1.45%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (1.45%) Google Ads
6 1 (1.45%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 19 (27.54%) Firewall
2 17 (24.64%) DHCP
2 17 (24.64%) DNS
3 15 (21.74%) TCP/IP
4 14 (20.29%) VSAN
5 13 (18.84%) SAN
6 12 (17.39%) BGP
6 12 (17.39%) VLAN
6 12 (17.39%) VXLAN
7 11 (15.94%) Cisco Nexus
7 11 (15.94%) OSPF
8 10 (14.49%) NX-OS
9 2 (2.90%) LAN
9 2 (2.90%) Structured Cabling
10 1 (1.45%) Ethernet VPN
10 1 (1.45%) Modbus
10 1 (1.45%) VPN
10 1 (1.45%) WAN
10 1 (1.45%) Wireless
10 1 (1.45%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.80%) Geospatial Data
2 2 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (1.45%) MS Access
3 1 (1.45%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (5.80%) Git
2 2 (2.90%) GitLab
2 2 (2.90%) JIRA
2 2 (2.90%) MSI
General
1 14 (20.29%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (15.94%) Social Skills
3 6 (8.70%) Public Sector
4 5 (7.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (5.80%) Finance
6 1 (1.45%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 14 (20.29%) IT Engineer
2 13 (18.84%) Field Engineer
2 13 (18.84%) Field Service Engineer
3 10 (14.49%) Platform Engineer
4 8 (11.59%) Architect
4 8 (11.59%) Field Support Engineer
4 8 (11.59%) IT Support
4 8 (11.59%) IT Support Engineer
4 8 (11.59%) Support Engineer
5 7 (10.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 7 (10.14%) Principal Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) Network Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) Senior
7 3 (4.35%) Cabling Engineer
7 3 (4.35%) Developer
7 3 (4.35%) Infrastructure Manager
7 3 (4.35%) Infrastructure Specialist
7 3 (4.35%) Network Architect
7 3 (4.35%) Network Infrastructure Manager
7 3 (4.35%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (28.99%) Terraform
2 4 (5.80%) GeoJSON
2 4 (5.80%) REST
2 4 (5.80%) RESTful
3 2 (2.90%) .NET
3 2 (2.90%) .NET Core
3 2 (2.90%) .NET Framework
3 2 (2.90%) ATL
3 2 (2.90%) COM
3 2 (2.90%) CSS
3 2 (2.90%) CSS3
3 2 (2.90%) HTML
3 2 (2.90%) HTML5
3 2 (2.90%) MFC
3 2 (2.90%) OpenAPI
3 2 (2.90%) Swagger
3 2 (2.90%) WPF
4 1 (1.45%) Jinja
4 1 (1.45%) JSON
4 1 (1.45%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 14 (20.29%) PKI
2 13 (18.84%) Analytical Mindset
3 5 (7.25%) Public Cloud
4 4 (5.80%) Cloud Native
5 3 (4.35%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (2.90%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.90%) Product Ownership
7 1 (1.45%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.45%) Fibre Optics
7 1 (1.45%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.45%) PMI
7 1 (1.45%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 23 (33.33%) Windows
2 17 (24.64%) Linux
3 4 (5.80%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (36.23%) Problem-Solving
2 24 (34.78%) Infrastructure as Code
3 21 (30.43%) Mentoring
4 20 (28.99%) Technical Leadership
5 18 (26.09%) DevSecOps
6 14 (20.29%) Converged Infrastructure
6 14 (20.29%) Network Virtualisation
6 14 (20.29%) Platform Engineering
6 14 (20.29%) SIEM
6 14 (20.29%) Systems Engineering
7 13 (18.84%) Break/Fix
7 13 (18.84%) CI/CD
7 13 (18.84%) Continuous Improvement
7 13 (18.84%) Customer Requirements
7 13 (18.84%) Customer Service
8 10 (14.49%) Cybersecurity
9 8 (11.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (11.59%) IT Strategy
9 8 (11.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 8 (11.59%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 21 (30.43%) Python
2 18 (26.09%) PowerShell
3 15 (21.74%) Bash
4 4 (5.80%) Bicep
5 3 (4.35%) SQL
6 2 (2.90%) C#
6 2 (2.90%) JavaScript
6 2 (2.90%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.45%) C
7 1 (1.45%) VB
7 1 (1.45%) VBA
Qualifications
1 28 (40.58%) Security Cleared
2 17 (24.64%) DV Cleared
3 16 (23.19%) Cisco Certification
4 15 (21.74%) SC Cleared
5 14 (20.29%) CCNA
6 13 (18.84%) A+ Certification
6 13 (18.84%) MCSE
6 13 (18.84%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (18.84%) Network+ Certification
7 12 (17.39%) VCAP
8 7 (10.14%) AWS Certification
9 2 (2.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (1.45%) APMP
10 1 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 1 (1.45%) BICSI Certification
10 1 (1.45%) CCIE
10 1 (1.45%) Degree
10 1 (1.45%) MAPM
10 1 (1.45%) PMI Certification
10 1 (1.45%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.80%) NCSC
2 3 (4.35%) SLA
3 2 (2.90%) Accessibility
3 2 (2.90%) QA
3 2 (2.90%) WCAG
4 1 (1.45%) PMO
System Software
1 20 (28.99%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (26.09%) Active Directory
3 16 (23.19%) VMware NSX
4 14 (20.29%) vSphere
5 11 (15.94%) Docker
6 10 (14.49%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 18 (26.09%) Kubernetes
2 17 (24.64%) Ansible
3 14 (20.29%) VxRail
4 1 (1.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (1.45%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.45%) Nagios
Vendors
1 20 (28.99%) VMware
2 16 (23.19%) Cisco
3 13 (18.84%) Dell
4 11 (15.94%) F5
5 6 (8.70%) Microsoft
6 4 (5.80%) CyberArk
7 3 (4.35%) NetApp
7 3 (4.35%) Thales
8 2 (2.90%) Infoblox
9 1 (1.45%) FireEye
9 1 (1.45%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.45%) Juniper
9 1 (1.45%) NetScout
9 1 (1.45%) Oracle
9 1 (1.45%) Palo Alto
9 1 (1.45%) Red Hat
9 1 (1.45%) ServiceNow