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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 72 75
Rank change year-on-year -38 +3 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 34 49 76
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 1.20% 2.73% 2.46%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 4.35% 10.34% 7.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 29 54
10th Percentile £375 £517 £264
25th Percentile £470 £538 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £560 £600
Median % change year-on-year -1.79% -6.67% +9.09%
75th Percentile £700 £706 £675
90th Percentile £775 £738 £738
England median daily rate £481 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -7.57% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 8
Median hourly rate - - £40.00
England median hourly rate £26.50 £24.66 £31.31
% change year-on-year +7.46% -21.23% -43.69%

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 781 474 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 27.67% 26.42% 32.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 475 290 606
10th Percentile £225 £200 £291
25th Percentile £388 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -
75th Percentile £600 £650 £630
90th Percentile £738 £707 £700
England median daily rate £513 £540 £548
% change year-on-year -5.09% -1.50% -4.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 24 132
10th Percentile £15.46 £18.91 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £47.50 £15.17
Median hourly rate £52.50 £62.75 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.33% +56.88% +173.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £33.09 £37.00 £31.50
% change year-on-year -10.58% +17.46% +40.00%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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
Gloucestershire -10 10 £550 +0.36% 4
Wiltshire -21 10 £650 +3.67% 2
Bristol -18 7 £463 -20.94% 7
Dorset - 2 £300 -
Somerset -11 1 £610 +16.10% 9
Devon - 1 £750 - 2
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 (2.94%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 8 (23.53%) Azure
2 7 (20.59%) AWS
2 7 (20.59%) npm
3 4 (11.76%) OpenShift
4 2 (5.88%) GCP
4 2 (5.88%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (2.94%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.94%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (23.53%) Firewall
2 7 (20.59%) AMQP
2 7 (20.59%) Network Security
3 2 (5.88%) DWDM
3 2 (5.88%) NGFW
3 2 (5.88%) SAN
3 2 (5.88%) SDH
3 2 (5.88%) WAN
4 1 (2.94%) BGP
4 1 (2.94%) Cisco ASA
4 1 (2.94%) Cisco ISE
4 1 (2.94%) DHCP
4 1 (2.94%) iSCSI
4 1 (2.94%) LAN
4 1 (2.94%) OSPF
4 1 (2.94%) SD-WAN
4 1 (2.94%) tcpdump
4 1 (2.94%) VLAN
4 1 (2.94%) VPN
4 1 (2.94%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (11.76%) RDBMS
1 4 (11.76%) Relational Database
2 3 (8.82%) InfluxDB
3 1 (2.94%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (2.94%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (20.59%) Git
1 7 (20.59%) Maven
2 2 (5.88%) Rational DOORS
3 1 (2.94%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 12 (35.29%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (29.41%) Social Skills
3 5 (14.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (8.82%) Public Sector
5 2 (5.88%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 8 (23.53%) Architect
1 8 (23.53%) Support Engineer
2 7 (20.59%) Applications Engineer
2 7 (20.59%) Applications Support
2 7 (20.59%) Applications Support Engineer
3 4 (11.76%) Technical Architect
4 3 (8.82%) Analyst
4 3 (8.82%) Business Analyst
4 3 (8.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 3 (8.82%) Network Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Field Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Field Service Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Head of Technology
5 2 (5.88%) IT Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Security Engineer
5 2 (5.88%) Site Manager
5 2 (5.88%) Solutions Architect
5 2 (5.88%) Telecoms Architect
6 1 (2.94%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
6 1 (2.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.94%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 2 (5.88%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (5.88%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (2.94%) Driving Licence
2 1 (2.94%) Fibre Optics
2 1 (2.94%) Private Cloud
2 1 (2.94%) Security Posture
2 1 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 9 (26.47%) Linux
2 8 (23.53%) Windows
3 5 (14.71%) Windows Server
4 4 (11.76%) CentOS
4 4 (11.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (8.82%) Unix
6 1 (2.94%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (2.94%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (35.29%) Problem-Solving
2 8 (23.53%) Data Centre Operations
2 8 (23.53%) Infrastructure as Code
3 7 (20.59%) Microservices
3 7 (20.59%) Test Automation
4 6 (17.65%) Decision-Making
4 6 (17.65%) ITIL
4 6 (17.65%) Stakeholder Management
5 5 (14.71%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (14.71%) Service Delivery
5 5 (14.71%) Site Reliability Engineering
5 5 (14.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 4 (11.76%) CI/CD
6 4 (11.76%) Identity Access Management
6 4 (11.76%) Root Cause Analysis
6 4 (11.76%) Security Architecture
6 4 (11.76%) Task Automation
6 4 (11.76%) Technical Leadership
6 4 (11.76%) Zero Trust
7 3 (8.82%) DataOps
Programming Languages
1 7 (20.59%) Java
2 2 (5.88%) PowerShell
3 1 (2.94%) Python
Qualifications
1 17 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 13 (38.24%) DV Cleared
3 6 (17.65%) SC Cleared
4 2 (5.88%) A+ Certification
4 2 (5.88%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (5.88%) CCNA
4 2 (5.88%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (5.88%) MCSE
4 2 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (5.88%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.88%) NIST
1 2 (5.88%) PCI DSS
2 1 (2.94%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (2.94%) GDPR
2 1 (2.94%) GRC
2 1 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.94%) NCSC
System Software
1 6 (17.65%) Active Directory
2 5 (14.71%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (14.71%) VMware NSX
3 4 (11.76%) Docker
4 1 (2.94%) Hyper-V
4 1 (2.94%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (23.53%) Ansible
1 8 (23.53%) Terraform
2 7 (20.59%) Grafana
3 4 (11.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (2.94%) EMC VPLEX
4 1 (2.94%) FortiGate
4 1 (2.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (2.94%) SCCM
Vendors
1 7 (20.59%) Oracle
2 6 (17.65%) VMware
3 5 (14.71%) Cisco
4 3 (8.82%) Dell
4 3 (8.82%) F5
4 3 (8.82%) Palo Alto
5 2 (5.88%) IBM
5 2 (5.88%) Juniper
5 2 (5.88%) Microsoft
5 2 (5.88%) Nokia
6 1 (2.94%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.94%) Citrix
6 1 (2.94%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.94%) NetApp
6 1 (2.94%) Sophos
6 1 (2.94%) Zscaler