Data Centre Contract Job Trends

Data Center
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 130 103
Rank change year-on-year +29 -27 -18
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,183 644 936
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.17% 2.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.24% 6.30% 7.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 708 414 622
10th Percentile £318 £300 £300
25th Percentile £406 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.10% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £474 £466 £538
% change year-on-year +1.83% -13.48% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 22 52
10th Percentile £16.00 - £12.08
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £21.00 £26.57 £23.90
Median % change year-on-year -20.96% +11.17% +12.42%
75th Percentile £35.22 £41.25 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.60 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £25.08 £22.50
% change year-on-year -22.87% +11.44% +7.23%

All Generic Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 16,333 10,217 13,028
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.46% 34.42% 29.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,008 6,407 8,268
10th Percentile £314 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £631 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 838 448 941
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.33 £15.25
Median hourly rate £42.40 £33.03 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.39% -6.97% +57.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £86.08 £81.58 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £32.05 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.16% -8.43% +59.09%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Data Centre job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the UK

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Centre over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the UK

Data Centre
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 17 June 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
England +21 974 £500 -3.85% 527
UK excluding London +7 674 £474 +1.83% 420
London +18 344 £550 +4.27% 194
Work from Home +26 315 £480 -4.00% 243
North of England +17 242 £474 +11.53% 79
South East +5 207 £463 +2.78% 122
Yorkshire 0 122 £365 -14.12% 32
North West +11 96 £488 -3.20% 35
Scotland +4 58 £466 +6.46% 33
Midlands -51 57 £465 -15.45% 53
West Midlands -42 53 £467 -15.12% 34
South West -20 50 £495 -13.91% 43
East of England -12 38 £492 +31.20% 55
Wales +3 33 £468 +16.88% 29
North East -3 30 £625 +468.18% 12
East Midlands -27 3 £325 -36.97% 19
Northern Ireland - 2 £425 - 14
Channel Islands - 1 £575 -

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 26 (2.20%) Confluence
2 18 (1.52%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Exchange
4 11 (0.93%) CICS
5 4 (0.34%) Apache
5 4 (0.34%) CloudStack
5 4 (0.34%) nginx
5 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.085%) IIS
7 1 (0.085%) Mendix
Applications
1 15 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
5 9 (0.76%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Primavera
1 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.17%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.085%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 253 (21.39%) Azure
2 211 (17.84%) AWS
3 74 (6.26%) GCP
4 41 (3.47%) GitHub
5 39 (3.30%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (3.21%) IaaS
7 33 (2.79%) SaaS
8 30 (2.54%) OCI
9 25 (2.11%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.61%) PaaS
11 18 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
13 15 (1.27%) OneDrive
13 15 (1.27%) OpenShift
14 13 (1.10%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
16 10 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 10 (0.85%) Nutanix
17 9 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
17 9 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 330 (27.90%) Firewall
2 198 (16.74%) WAN
3 184 (15.55%) BGP
4 143 (12.09%) OSPF
5 123 (10.40%) VXLAN
6 122 (10.31%) VPN
7 118 (9.97%) LAN
8 117 (9.89%) Network Security
9 116 (9.81%) SAN
10 109 (9.21%) DNS
11 98 (8.28%) VLAN
12 93 (7.86%) Structured Cabling
13 87 (7.35%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.19%) Ethernet VPN
15 82 (6.93%) DHCP
16 57 (4.82%) BIG-IP
17 52 (4.40%) Cisco Nexus
18 49 (4.14%) TCP/IP
19 48 (4.06%) Wi-Fi
19 48 (4.06%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (1.35%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.85%) DataStage
3 8 (0.68%) Power BI
4 7 (0.59%) Big Data
5 6 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (0.34%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.34%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.34%) SAP Data Services
7 3 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.25%) GIS
8 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.17%) Power Query
8 2 (0.17%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 63 (5.33%) JIRA
2 39 (3.30%) GitLab
3 37 (3.13%) Jenkins
4 32 (2.70%) Git
5 6 (0.51%) ScriptRunner
5 6 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.42%) JMeter
7 4 (0.34%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.34%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.34%) Maven
7 4 (0.34%) Subversion
8 3 (0.25%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
9 2 (0.17%) MSI
10 1 (0.085%) AppScan
10 1 (0.085%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.085%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.085%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.085%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.085%) Postman
General
1 296 (25.02%) Social Skills
2 159 (13.44%) Finance
3 130 (10.99%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (6.76%) Public Sector
5 64 (5.41%) Documentation Skills
6 45 (3.80%) Banking
7 37 (3.13%) Telecoms
8 36 (3.04%) Legal
9 24 (2.03%) Manufacturing
10 21 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.69%) Retail
12 17 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (0.93%) Law
13 11 (0.93%) Military
14 8 (0.68%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.68%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.68%) Marketing
14 8 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
15 6 (0.51%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.42%) Police
Job Titles
1 206 (17.41%) Network Engineer
2 185 (15.64%) Architect
3 136 (11.50%) Senior
4 95 (8.03%) Data Centre Engineer
5 91 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 68 (5.75%) Project Manager
7 62 (5.24%) Lead
8 56 (4.73%) IT Engineer
9 52 (4.40%) Field Engineer
10 49 (4.14%) Field Service Engineer
10 49 (4.14%) Network Architect
11 44 (3.72%) Solutions Architect
12 38 (3.21%) Analyst
13 36 (3.04%) Data Centre Manager
14 35 (2.96%) Infrastructure Manager
14 35 (2.96%) Support Engineer
14 35 (2.96%) Technical Architect
15 34 (2.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 34 (2.87%) Senior Network Engineer
16 33 (2.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (4.14%) Middleware
2 32 (2.70%) 802.1X
3 11 (0.93%) LDAP
4 10 (0.85%) Redfish
4 10 (0.85%) REST
5 7 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
5 7 (0.59%) Spring
6 5 (0.42%) Jinja
6 5 (0.42%) Kafka
6 5 (0.42%) XML
7 4 (0.34%) .NET
7 4 (0.34%) ADO
7 4 (0.34%) GeoJSON
7 4 (0.34%) RESTful
7 4 (0.34%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.34%) YAML
8 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.25%) CSS
8 3 (0.25%) EJB
8 3 (0.25%) Java EE
Miscellaneous
1 64 (5.41%) Hybrid Cloud
2 55 (4.65%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (3.13%) Management Information System
4 32 (2.70%) Cloud Native
5 31 (2.62%) Clustering
6 29 (2.45%) Onboarding
6 29 (2.45%) PKI
7 28 (2.37%) Enterprise Storage
8 25 (2.11%) Fibre Optics
9 22 (1.86%) Private Cloud
10 21 (1.78%) CMDB
11 20 (1.69%) Driving Licence
12 19 (1.61%) Replication
13 18 (1.52%) Public Cloud
14 16 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
14 16 (1.35%) SCADA
14 16 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (1.18%) NHS
15 14 (1.18%) Operational Technology
16 12 (1.01%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 161 (13.61%) Windows
2 151 (12.76%) Linux
3 39 (3.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (3.21%) Windows Server
5 24 (2.03%) Unix
6 23 (1.94%) AIX
7 18 (1.52%) Solaris
8 11 (0.93%) CentOS
9 10 (0.85%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.85%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.76%) Ubuntu
11 8 (0.68%) VMS
11 8 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
12 5 (0.42%) HPUX
12 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.42%) SUSE
13 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
15 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (17.41%) Migration
2 203 (17.16%) Problem-Solving
3 118 (9.97%) High Availability
3 118 (9.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 116 (9.81%) Infrastructure as Code
5 115 (9.72%) Stakeholder Management
6 107 (9.04%) ITIL
7 105 (8.88%) CI/CD
8 94 (7.95%) Roadmaps
9 91 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
10 87 (7.35%) Agile
11 85 (7.19%) DevOps
12 84 (7.10%) Load Balancing
13 80 (6.76%) Validation
14 74 (6.26%) Change Management
15 73 (6.17%) Project Delivery
16 69 (5.83%) Project Management
17 68 (5.75%) Customer Service
18 67 (5.66%) ITSM
19 63 (5.33%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 147 (12.43%) Python
2 45 (3.80%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.21%) SQL
4 27 (2.28%) Bash
5 20 (1.69%) Java
6 16 (1.35%) Bicep
6 16 (1.35%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.01%) COBOL
8 11 (0.93%) MATLAB
9 10 (0.85%) Perl
10 9 (0.76%) ActionScript
11 8 (0.68%) PL/SQL
12 7 (0.59%) JavaScript
13 4 (0.34%) C
13 4 (0.34%) C++
13 4 (0.34%) Lisp
14 3 (0.25%) C#
14 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.25%) VBA
15 2 (0.17%) Korn
Qualifications
1 313 (26.46%) Security Cleared
2 236 (19.95%) Cisco Certification
3 232 (19.61%) SC Cleared
4 143 (12.09%) CCNP
5 107 (9.04%) CCNA
6 74 (6.26%) DV Cleared
7 72 (6.09%) Degree
8 64 (5.41%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.97%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.97%) MCSE
11 31 (2.62%) Azure Certification
12 27 (2.28%) AWS Certification
13 25 (2.11%) City & Guilds
13 25 (2.11%) PMP
14 24 (2.03%) CCIE
14 24 (2.03%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.69%) BICSI Certification
16 18 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 17 (1.44%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.70%) SLA
2 27 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 27 (2.28%) NIST
3 23 (1.94%) QA
4 22 (1.86%) PMO
5 19 (1.61%) GDPR
6 13 (1.10%) NCSC
7 10 (0.85%) GRC
8 9 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
8 9 (0.76%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.59%) RMADS
10 6 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 102 (8.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (5.49%) Active Directory
3 32 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
3 32 (2.70%) vSphere
4 30 (2.54%) Firmware
4 30 (2.54%) VMware NSX
5 27 (2.28%) Hyper-V
6 25 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (1.27%) Docker
8 11 (0.93%) KVM
9 7 (0.59%) NFS
10 6 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
10 6 (0.51%) SRDF
10 6 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.34%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.34%) Terminal Services
11 4 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
12 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 3 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 138 (11.67%) Ansible
2 109 (9.21%) Terraform
3 56 (4.73%) FortiGate
4 49 (4.14%) Kubernetes
5 35 (2.96%) Grafana
6 30 (2.54%) Prometheus
7 26 (2.20%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.27%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.10%) Check_MK
9 13 (1.10%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.93%) Podman
10 11 (0.93%) PowerCLI
10 11 (0.93%) Red Hat Satellite
10 11 (0.93%) vMotion
11 10 (0.85%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.76%) SCCM
13 7 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
13 7 (0.59%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 308 (26.04%) Cisco
2 154 (13.02%) VMware
3 150 (12.68%) Palo Alto
4 115 (9.72%) Microsoft
5 113 (9.55%) F5
6 91 (7.69%) Dell
6 91 (7.69%) Juniper
7 73 (6.17%) Arista
8 65 (5.49%) Fortinet
9 57 (4.82%) ServiceNow
10 52 (4.40%) Aruba
11 44 (3.72%) Google
12 42 (3.55%) Red Hat
13 41 (3.47%) SolarWinds
14 37 (3.13%) CheckPoint
15 36 (3.04%) IBM
16 28 (2.37%) Splunk
17 27 (2.28%) Oracle
18 24 (2.03%) HP
18 24 (2.03%) NVIDIA