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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 122 108
Rank change year-on-year +6 -14 -18
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,203 734 850
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 2.24% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.68% 6.37% 7.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 726 461 567
10th Percentile £318 £300 £350
25th Percentile £413 £399 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -
75th Percentile £650 £606 £625
90th Percentile £775 £708 £701
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +1.12% -9.01% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 39 39
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £17.13 £25.04 £12.08
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +25.75% +1.57%
75th Percentile £38.75 £34.50 £25.83
90th Percentile £82.93 £48.45 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.87 £16.50
% change year-on-year -22.23% +50.71% -6.88%

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 18,008 11,522 11,812
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.62% 35.11% 30.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,926 7,072 7,545
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,026 569 590
10th Percentile £14.85 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.87 £18.27
Median hourly rate £41.96 £29.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.24% -34.44% +10.86%
75th Percentile £69.50 £57.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +46.53% -36.84% +15.85%

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 19 August 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 19 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the UK

Data Centre
Top 17 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 19 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
England +12 1,015 £529 +0.76% 908
UK excluding London -11 644 £495 +1.12% 445
London +17 413 £569 +4.84% 549
Work from Home -8 281 £543 +4.48% 294
North of England -1 225 £492 +9.33% 99
South East -13 188 £525 +6.87% 127
Yorkshire +2 137 £400 -1.23% 29
North West -13 73 £525 +0.48% 40
South West -25 68 £575 +4.55% 42
Midlands -55 53 £465 -11.43% 53
West Midlands -60 47 £475 -5.10% 37
Scotland -9 45 £400 +0.25% 46
Wales +5 42 £468 +38.52% 7
East of England -25 31 £475 -20.83% 74
North East -19 21 £625 +468.18% 31
East Midlands -24 5 £400 -26.61% 16
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 28 (2.33%) Confluence
2 19 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.42%) Apache
5 5 (0.42%) CICS
5 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.17%) nginx
6 2 (0.17%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.083%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
Applications
1 25 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 12 (1.00%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.25%) Primavera
3 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 257 (21.36%) Azure
2 223 (18.54%) AWS
3 63 (5.24%) GCP
4 48 (3.99%) GitHub
5 39 (3.24%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (2.99%) IaaS
7 33 (2.74%) SaaS
8 29 (2.41%) OCI
9 26 (2.16%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.50%) Power Platform
11 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
12 14 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
12 14 (1.16%) OpenShift
12 14 (1.16%) PaaS
12 14 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 12 (1.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 8 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (0.67%) Nutanix
15 6 (0.50%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 306 (25.44%) Firewall
2 186 (15.46%) WAN
3 180 (14.96%) BGP
4 132 (10.97%) VPN
5 130 (10.81%) DNS
6 126 (10.47%) VXLAN
7 125 (10.39%) OSPF
8 116 (9.64%) SAN
9 109 (9.06%) LAN
10 105 (8.73%) VLAN
11 101 (8.40%) Network Security
12 97 (8.06%) DHCP
13 89 (7.40%) Ethernet VPN
14 85 (7.07%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.07%) Structured Cabling
14 85 (7.07%) TCP/IP
15 59 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
15 59 (4.90%) Wireless
16 53 (4.41%) Cisco Nexus
17 52 (4.32%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.41%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.25%) Power BI
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (0.58%) Big Data
4 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.50%) Db2
6 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (0.42%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.33%) DataStage
7 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
8 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 76 (6.32%) JIRA
2 35 (2.91%) GitLab
3 27 (2.24%) Git
3 27 (2.24%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
5 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
6 2 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.17%) Eclipse
6 2 (0.17%) JMeter
6 2 (0.17%) Maven
6 2 (0.17%) MSI
6 2 (0.17%) Subversion
6 2 (0.17%) Toad
7 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 286 (23.77%) Social Skills
2 161 (13.38%) Finance
3 123 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (4.99%) Public Sector
5 53 (4.41%) Telecoms
6 47 (3.91%) Banking
7 42 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (2.49%) Retail
9 23 (1.91%) Legal
10 20 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Law
14 9 (0.75%) Police
15 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.42%) Marketing
17 4 (0.33%) Billing
18 3 (0.25%) Aerospace
18 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 204 (16.96%) Architect
2 192 (15.96%) Network Engineer
3 153 (12.72%) Senior
4 121 (10.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 97 (8.06%) Data Centre Engineer
6 79 (6.57%) Project Manager
7 61 (5.07%) Lead
7 61 (5.07%) Network Architect
8 53 (4.41%) IT Engineer
9 47 (3.91%) Field Engineer
10 46 (3.82%) Senior Network Engineer
11 45 (3.74%) Data Centre Manager
12 43 (3.57%) Infrastructure Manager
13 42 (3.49%) Technical Architect
14 41 (3.41%) Field Service Engineer
15 37 (3.08%) Consultant
16 36 (2.99%) Solutions Architect
17 33 (2.74%) Support Engineer
18 32 (2.66%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 29 (2.41%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (3.99%) Middleware
2 21 (1.75%) 802.1X
2 21 (1.75%) REST
3 12 (1.00%) JSON
3 12 (1.00%) YAML
4 10 (0.83%) Redfish
5 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
6 8 (0.67%) LDAP
6 8 (0.67%) NETCONF
7 7 (0.58%) OpenConfig
7 7 (0.58%) YANG
8 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
8 6 (0.50%) SAML
9 5 (0.42%) .NET
9 5 (0.42%) Jinja
10 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
10 4 (0.33%) Kafka
10 4 (0.33%) RESTful
11 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
11 3 (0.25%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 75 (6.23%) Hybrid Cloud
2 49 (4.07%) Analytical Mindset
3 43 (3.57%) PKI
4 36 (2.99%) Clustering
5 34 (2.83%) Cloud Native
5 34 (2.83%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.83%) Private Cloud
6 33 (2.74%) Enterprise Storage
7 30 (2.49%) Fibre Optics
8 29 (2.41%) Onboarding
9 27 (2.24%) Public Cloud
9 27 (2.24%) Replication
10 26 (2.16%) Data Protection Act
11 19 (1.58%) Driving Licence
12 17 (1.41%) CMDB
12 17 (1.41%) Operational Technology
13 15 (1.25%) SCADA
13 15 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
15 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 181 (15.05%) Windows
2 133 (11.06%) Linux
3 52 (4.32%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.83%) Unix
5 22 (1.83%) AIX
6 20 (1.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (1.00%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.67%) VMS
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.42%) HPUX
11 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.42%) SUSE
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (0.33%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (20.62%) Migration
2 197 (16.38%) Problem-Solving
3 148 (12.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 140 (11.64%) Stakeholder Management
5 117 (9.73%) Infrastructure as Code
6 111 (9.23%) ITIL
7 104 (8.65%) High Availability
8 99 (8.23%) Agile
9 98 (8.15%) CI/CD
10 93 (7.73%) Roadmaps
11 88 (7.32%) Project Delivery
11 88 (7.32%) Validation
12 82 (6.82%) Continuous Improvement
13 79 (6.57%) Change Management
14 72 (5.99%) Technical Leadership
15 71 (5.90%) Zero Trust
16 70 (5.82%) Load Balancing
17 69 (5.74%) DevOps
17 69 (5.74%) Disaster Recovery
18 67 (5.57%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 161 (13.38%) Python
2 58 (4.82%) PowerShell
3 40 (3.33%) SQL
4 32 (2.66%) Bash
5 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
5 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 9 (0.75%) Java
6 9 (0.75%) Perl
7 8 (0.67%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.67%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.50%) COBOL
9 5 (0.42%) C#
9 5 (0.42%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
11 3 (0.25%) Go
11 3 (0.25%) JCL
11 3 (0.25%) Korn
11 3 (0.25%) Lisp
11 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.17%) C++
Qualifications
1 303 (25.19%) Security Cleared
2 203 (16.87%) SC Cleared
3 195 (16.21%) Cisco Certification
4 111 (9.23%) CCNP
5 97 (8.06%) DV Cleared
6 80 (6.65%) CCNA
7 63 (5.24%) Degree
8 54 (4.49%) Network+ Certification
9 46 (3.82%) Microsoft Certification
10 43 (3.57%) A+ Certification
11 40 (3.33%) MCSE
12 30 (2.49%) CCIE
13 28 (2.33%) AWS Certification
14 27 (2.24%) Azure Certification
15 26 (2.16%) City & Guilds
16 22 (1.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 21 (1.75%) CISSP
17 21 (1.75%) PMI Certification
17 21 (1.75%) PMP
18 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.08%) QA
2 28 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (2.33%) SLA
3 23 (1.91%) NIST
4 17 (1.41%) PMO
5 15 (1.25%) GDPR
6 13 (1.08%) NCSC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
8 7 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.50%) GRC
9 6 (0.50%) RMADS
10 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.25%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.17%) WCAG
13 1 (0.083%) PSD2
13 1 (0.083%) SOC 1
System Software
1 132 (10.97%) VMware Infrastructure
2 83 (6.90%) Active Directory
3 47 (3.91%) vSphere
4 44 (3.66%) VMware NSX
5 37 (3.08%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (2.74%) Hyper-V
7 32 (2.66%) Docker
7 32 (2.66%) Firmware
8 14 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.91%) NFS
10 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
11 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
12 5 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) SRDF
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 144 (11.97%) Ansible
2 110 (9.14%) Terraform
3 59 (4.90%) Kubernetes
4 40 (3.33%) FortiGate
5 26 (2.16%) Prometheus
6 25 (2.08%) Grafana
6 25 (2.08%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.33%) vCenter Server
7 16 (1.33%) VxRail
8 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (1.00%) NetBackup
9 11 (0.91%) Dell DRAC
9 11 (0.91%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 11 (0.91%) vMotion
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.83%) SCCM
11 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
11 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
11 7 (0.58%) Nagios
11 7 (0.58%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 282 (23.44%) Cisco
2 190 (15.79%) VMware
3 138 (11.47%) Microsoft
4 120 (9.98%) Palo Alto
5 106 (8.81%) F5
6 76 (6.32%) Dell
7 74 (6.15%) Juniper
8 68 (5.65%) Arista
8 68 (5.65%) Fortinet
9 63 (5.24%) ServiceNow
10 38 (3.16%) Aruba
11 36 (2.99%) CheckPoint
12 35 (2.91%) Google
13 34 (2.83%) IBM
13 34 (2.83%) Red Hat
14 29 (2.41%) SolarWinds
15 24 (2.00%) Oracle
16 23 (1.91%) Veeam
17 21 (1.75%) Splunk
17 21 (1.75%) Zscaler