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 20 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 124 102
Rank change year-on-year +19 -22 -13
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,240 739 924
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.25% 2.21%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.09% 6.50% 7.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 471 614
10th Percentile £325 £303 £341
25th Percentile £413 £406 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -5.12% -2.27%
75th Percentile £636 £600 £625
90th Percentile £738 £688 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £490 £539
% change year-on-year -2.76% -9.18% +7.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 29 54
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £12.02
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £14.94
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +5.67% +14.95%
75th Percentile £35.22 £38.00 £28.75
90th Percentile £78.90 £43.75 £40.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £20.00
% change year-on-year -21.57% +23.30% -3.40%

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 17,500 11,368 12,784
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.16% 34.66% 30.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,704 7,035 8,180
10th Percentile £316 £300 £297
25th Percentile £416 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £630 £645 £663
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 889 538 790
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.27 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.87 £15.92
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +46.53% -23.57% +12.14%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.57 £63.75
90th Percentile £87.50 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -25.00% -11.91%

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 20 July 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 20 July 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 20 July 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 +18 1,033 £514 -2.10% 503
UK excluding London -7 684 £476 -2.76% 249
London +10 392 £550 +3.77% 313
Work from Home +11 314 £513 +0.49% 179
North of England +6 244 £484 +3.87% 47
South East -2 213 £500 +0.76% 98
Yorkshire -1 137 £365 -18.89% 11
North West -7 88 £516 -1.81% 26
Scotland -6 56 £450 +1.41% 9
Midlands -45 56 £460 -14.81% 21
South West -32 54 £495 -10.00% 23
West Midlands -55 51 £467 -8.91% 16
Wales +3 39 £468 +24.67% 17
East of England -8 33 £513 +13.89% 28
North East -13 25 £625 +468.18% 10
East Midlands -22 4 £363 -34.09% 5
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 (2.10%) Confluence
2 16 (1.29%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.89%) CICS
3 11 (0.89%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.56%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.40%) Apache
5 5 (0.40%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.32%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.24%) nginx
7 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.081%) IIS
8 1 (0.081%) Mendix
8 1 (0.081%) SAS
Applications
1 19 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.81%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.40%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 4 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.24%) Primavera
2 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.081%) OpenText MBPM
4 1 (0.081%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 270 (21.77%) Azure
2 231 (18.63%) AWS
3 78 (6.29%) GCP
4 42 (3.39%) GitHub
4 42 (3.39%) IaaS
4 42 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
5 33 (2.66%) SaaS
6 30 (2.42%) OCI
7 28 (2.26%) Entra ID
8 19 (1.53%) PaaS
9 18 (1.45%) OpenShift
10 17 (1.37%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (1.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 13 (1.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 13 (1.05%) OneDrive
12 12 (0.97%) Power Platform
13 11 (0.89%) Azure Sentinel
13 11 (0.89%) Nutanix
14 8 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 339 (27.34%) Firewall
2 198 (15.97%) WAN
3 194 (15.65%) BGP
4 148 (11.94%) OSPF
5 136 (10.97%) VPN
6 128 (10.32%) DNS
7 123 (9.92%) VXLAN
8 120 (9.68%) LAN
8 120 (9.68%) SAN
9 116 (9.35%) Network Security
10 104 (8.39%) VLAN
11 96 (7.74%) DHCP
12 91 (7.34%) Structured Cabling
13 86 (6.94%) Ethernet VPN
14 84 (6.77%) SD-WAN
15 71 (5.73%) TCP/IP
16 60 (4.84%) BIG-IP
17 59 (4.76%) Wi-Fi
18 58 (4.68%) Wireless
19 56 (4.52%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.53%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.81%) DataStage
3 7 (0.56%) Big Data
3 7 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (0.56%) Power BI
4 6 (0.48%) Db2
4 6 (0.48%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.32%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.32%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.32%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.24%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 72 (5.81%) JIRA
2 29 (2.34%) GitLab
2 29 (2.34%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.10%) Git
4 9 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.40%) JMeter
6 4 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.32%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.32%) Maven
6 4 (0.32%) Subversion
7 3 (0.24%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.24%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.16%) MSI
8 2 (0.16%) Toad
9 1 (0.081%) AppScan
9 1 (0.081%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.081%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
General
1 311 (25.08%) Social Skills
2 170 (13.71%) Finance
3 129 (10.40%) Analytical Skills
4 83 (6.69%) Public Sector
5 53 (4.27%) Documentation Skills
6 48 (3.87%) Banking
6 48 (3.87%) Telecoms
7 29 (2.34%) Legal
8 28 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
9 27 (2.18%) Retail
10 18 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.81%) Military
14 9 (0.73%) Financial Institution
14 9 (0.73%) Law
15 8 (0.65%) Police
16 6 (0.48%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.48%) Marketing
17 5 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 200 (16.13%) Network Engineer
2 199 (16.05%) Architect
3 150 (12.10%) Senior
4 115 (9.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 108 (8.71%) Data Centre Engineer
6 81 (6.53%) Project Manager
7 62 (5.00%) Network Architect
8 57 (4.60%) Lead
9 52 (4.19%) IT Engineer
10 50 (4.03%) Field Engineer
11 46 (3.71%) Field Service Engineer
12 45 (3.63%) Infrastructure Manager
13 42 (3.39%) Data Centre Manager
13 42 (3.39%) Technical Architect
14 39 (3.15%) Solutions Architect
15 37 (2.98%) Senior Network Engineer
16 35 (2.82%) Analyst
16 35 (2.82%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.58%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 30 (2.42%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.19%) Middleware
2 32 (2.58%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.81%) Redfish
3 10 (0.81%) REST
4 8 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (0.65%) LDAP
5 7 (0.56%) NETCONF
5 7 (0.56%) Spring
6 6 (0.48%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.48%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.48%) SAML
6 6 (0.48%) YANG
7 5 (0.40%) Jinja
7 5 (0.40%) Kafka
7 5 (0.40%) XML
8 4 (0.32%) .NET
8 4 (0.32%) GeoJSON
8 4 (0.32%) RESTful
8 4 (0.32%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.32%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 77 (6.21%) Hybrid Cloud
2 54 (4.35%) Analytical Mindset
3 43 (3.47%) PKI
4 35 (2.82%) Cloud Native
4 35 (2.82%) Management Information System
5 33 (2.66%) Clustering
6 31 (2.50%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.50%) Private Cloud
7 28 (2.26%) Fibre Optics
7 28 (2.26%) Onboarding
8 24 (1.94%) Replication
9 22 (1.77%) Public Cloud
10 21 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (1.61%) Driving Licence
12 19 (1.53%) CMDB
13 17 (1.37%) Mainframe
14 16 (1.29%) Operational Technology
14 16 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (1.13%) SCADA
16 13 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 164 (13.23%) Windows
2 140 (11.29%) Linux
3 42 (3.39%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.74%) Unix
5 28 (2.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 23 (1.85%) AIX
7 18 (1.45%) Solaris
8 10 (0.81%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.81%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.48%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.48%) VMS
11 5 (0.40%) HPUX
11 5 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.40%) SUSE
12 4 (0.32%) CentOS
12 4 (0.32%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (19.44%) Migration
2 209 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (11.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 133 (10.73%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (9.27%) High Availability
5 115 (9.27%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.19%) ITIL
7 107 (8.63%) CI/CD
8 102 (8.23%) Roadmaps
9 100 (8.06%) Agile
10 89 (7.18%) Continuous Improvement
11 86 (6.94%) Load Balancing
12 83 (6.69%) Validation
13 82 (6.61%) Change Management
14 81 (6.53%) Project Delivery
15 79 (6.37%) DevOps
16 76 (6.13%) Zero Trust
17 69 (5.56%) Project Management
18 67 (5.40%) ITSM
19 66 (5.32%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 161 (12.98%) Python
2 49 (3.95%) PowerShell
3 40 (3.23%) SQL
4 31 (2.50%) Bash
5 19 (1.53%) Java
6 15 (1.21%) Bicep
7 12 (0.97%) COBOL
7 12 (0.97%) Shell Script
8 11 (0.89%) Perl
9 10 (0.81%) ActionScript
10 8 (0.65%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.48%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.32%) C#
12 4 (0.32%) Lisp
12 4 (0.32%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.24%) JCL
13 3 (0.24%) Korn
13 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.16%) C++
14 2 (0.16%) REXX
Qualifications
1 320 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 223 (17.98%) Cisco Certification
3 212 (17.10%) SC Cleared
4 130 (10.48%) CCNP
5 102 (8.23%) DV Cleared
6 90 (7.26%) CCNA
7 66 (5.32%) Degree
8 61 (4.92%) Network+ Certification
9 51 (4.11%) Microsoft Certification
10 44 (3.55%) A+ Certification
10 44 (3.55%) MCSE
11 30 (2.42%) CCIE
12 29 (2.34%) Azure Certification
13 26 (2.10%) City & Guilds
14 24 (1.94%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 23 (1.85%) PMP
16 22 (1.77%) PMI Certification
17 21 (1.69%) CISSP
18 20 (1.61%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.42%) SLA
2 29 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.26%) QA
4 26 (2.10%) NIST
5 21 (1.69%) PMO
6 18 (1.45%) GDPR
7 17 (1.37%) NCSC
8 10 (0.81%) Disclosure Scotland
9 9 (0.73%) GRC
10 8 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.56%) RMADS
12 6 (0.48%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
15 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
15 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
15 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.16%) WCAG
16 1 (0.081%) SEPA
System Software
1 114 (9.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 68 (5.48%) Active Directory
3 43 (3.47%) vSphere
4 41 (3.31%) VMware NSX
5 37 (2.98%) VMware ESXi
6 30 (2.42%) Hyper-V
7 29 (2.34%) Firmware
8 23 (1.85%) Docker
9 22 (1.77%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.89%) NFS
11 8 (0.65%) KVM
12 6 (0.48%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.48%) SRDF
13 5 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
14 4 (0.32%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.32%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.24%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 140 (11.29%) Ansible
2 110 (8.87%) Terraform
3 56 (4.52%) Kubernetes
4 51 (4.11%) FortiGate
5 32 (2.58%) Grafana
6 28 (2.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 27 (2.18%) Prometheus
8 17 (1.37%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.05%) NetBackup
10 12 (0.97%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.89%) vMotion
12 10 (0.81%) Dell DRAC
12 10 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
13 8 (0.65%) SCCM
13 8 (0.65%) VxRail
14 7 (0.56%) Check_MK
14 7 (0.56%) EMC NetWorker
14 7 (0.56%) Tivoli Storage Manager
15 6 (0.48%) Avamar
15 6 (0.48%) Nagios
Vendors
1 302 (24.35%) Cisco
2 168 (13.55%) VMware
3 139 (11.21%) Palo Alto
4 126 (10.16%) Microsoft
5 123 (9.92%) F5
6 92 (7.42%) Juniper
7 82 (6.61%) Dell
8 76 (6.13%) Arista
8 76 (6.13%) Fortinet
9 59 (4.76%) ServiceNow
10 47 (3.79%) Google
11 41 (3.31%) SolarWinds
12 39 (3.15%) Aruba
13 38 (3.06%) IBM
14 37 (2.98%) CheckPoint
15 33 (2.66%) Red Hat
16 32 (2.58%) Splunk
17 27 (2.18%) Oracle
18 25 (2.02%) Citrix
19 22 (1.77%) HP