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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 122 105
Rank change year-on-year +7 -17 -19
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,199 753 847
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 2.29% 2.17%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.71% 6.51% 7.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 710 477 571
10th Percentile £325 £302 £350
25th Percentile £413 £400 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -3.26% -
75th Percentile £650 £600 £625
90th Percentile £775 £693 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £487 £538
% change year-on-year +1.59% -9.43% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 36 39
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £17.50 £24.94 £12.08
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +25.75% -
75th Percentile £38.75 £31.00 £25.83
90th Percentile £79.90 £43.75 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £16.50
% change year-on-year -21.57% +49.45% -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 17,871 11,569 11,823
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.49% 35.13% 30.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,838 7,128 7,571
10th Percentile £325 £300 £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 £766 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 995 561 607
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.13 £12.45
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £18.31
Median hourly rate £43.50 £29.33 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +48.31% -34.82% +12.74%
75th Percentile £70.00 £56.00 £67.20
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £45.00
% change year-on-year +50.19% -34.96% +11.59%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 +11 1,012 £525 - 1,309
UK excluding London -14 645 £495 +1.59% 571
London +5 403 £568 +5.58% 823
Work from Home +3 295 £550 +6.23% 378
North of England +1 223 £492 +9.33% 146
South East +3 202 £525 +4.22% 152
Yorkshire -3 128 £365 -9.88% 44
North West -2 80 £525 +0.96% 54
South West -25 65 £513 -6.82% 56
Midlands -63 55 £456 -13.24% 50
West Midlands -46 49 £465 -7.00% 37
Wales +5 41 £468 +38.52% 17
Scotland -12 40 £413 -8.33% 52
East of England -20 29 £479 -20.21% 100
North East -23 21 £625 +468.18% 49
East Midlands -25 5 £400 -26.61% 13
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 30 (2.50%) Confluence
2 18 (1.50%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.42%) Apache
5 5 (0.42%) CICS
5 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.25%) nginx
6 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.083%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) Mendix
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
7 1 (0.083%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.42%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 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
1 258 (21.52%) Azure
2 224 (18.68%) AWS
3 64 (5.34%) GCP
4 44 (3.67%) GitHub
5 40 (3.34%) IaaS
6 35 (2.92%) Microsoft 365
6 35 (2.92%) SaaS
7 29 (2.42%) OCI
8 27 (2.25%) Entra ID
9 20 (1.67%) Power Platform
10 16 (1.33%) OpenShift
11 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.25%) PaaS
11 15 (1.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 13 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.92%) 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
1 310 (25.85%) Firewall
2 182 (15.18%) WAN
3 181 (15.10%) BGP
4 134 (11.18%) DNS
5 131 (10.93%) OSPF
6 129 (10.76%) VXLAN
7 128 (10.68%) VPN
8 118 (9.84%) SAN
9 107 (8.92%) LAN
10 101 (8.42%) DHCP
11 98 (8.17%) Network Security
12 97 (8.09%) VLAN
13 91 (7.59%) Ethernet VPN
14 84 (7.01%) Structured Cabling
15 83 (6.92%) SD-WAN
16 78 (6.51%) TCP/IP
17 60 (5.00%) BIG-IP
18 55 (4.59%) Wireless
19 53 (4.42%) Wi-Fi
20 49 (4.09%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.42%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.33%) 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
5 6 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
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 3 (0.25%) GIS
9 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 76 (6.34%) JIRA
2 31 (2.59%) GitLab
3 27 (2.25%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.00%) Git
5 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 3 (0.25%) JMeter
6 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
6 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.17%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.17%) Maven
7 2 (0.17%) MSI
7 2 (0.17%) Subversion
7 2 (0.17%) Toad
8 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 284 (23.69%) Social Skills
2 158 (13.18%) Finance
3 123 (10.26%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (5.50%) Public Sector
5 51 (4.25%) Banking
6 45 (3.75%) Telecoms
7 43 (3.59%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (2.50%) Retail
9 24 (2.00%) Legal
10 22 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 12 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Law
15 8 (0.67%) Police
16 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 7 (0.58%) Military
17 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
17 5 (0.42%) Marketing
18 4 (0.33%) Billing
Job Titles
1 205 (17.10%) Architect
2 184 (15.35%) Network Engineer
3 148 (12.34%) Senior
4 121 (10.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 101 (8.42%) Data Centre Engineer
6 81 (6.76%) Project Manager
7 61 (5.09%) Network Architect
8 59 (4.92%) Lead
9 51 (4.25%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.92%) Field Engineer
11 44 (3.67%) Infrastructure Manager
12 43 (3.59%) Field Service Engineer
13 42 (3.50%) Data Centre Manager
13 42 (3.50%) Technical Architect
14 40 (3.34%) Senior Network Engineer
14 40 (3.34%) Solutions Architect
15 35 (2.92%) Consultant
16 33 (2.75%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.67%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 31 (2.59%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (4.09%) Middleware
2 31 (2.59%) 802.1X
3 16 (1.33%) REST
4 10 (0.83%) Redfish
5 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
6 8 (0.67%) JSON
6 8 (0.67%) LDAP
6 8 (0.67%) NETCONF
6 8 (0.67%) YAML
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
10 4 (0.33%) Spring
11 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.17%) Hybrid Cloud
2 52 (4.34%) Analytical Mindset
3 50 (4.17%) PKI
4 46 (3.84%) Clustering
5 35 (2.92%) Management Information System
6 34 (2.84%) Cloud Native
7 32 (2.67%) Enterprise Storage
7 32 (2.67%) Private Cloud
8 27 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
8 27 (2.25%) Onboarding
9 26 (2.17%) Fibre Optics
9 26 (2.17%) Replication
10 24 (2.00%) Public Cloud
11 17 (1.42%) CMDB
11 17 (1.42%) Operational Technology
12 16 (1.33%) Driving Licence
13 15 (1.25%) SCADA
14 14 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
14 14 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 178 (14.85%) Windows
2 126 (10.51%) Linux
3 49 (4.09%) Windows Server
4 35 (2.92%) Unix
5 22 (1.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 21 (1.75%) AIX
7 12 (1.00%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.58%) VMS
9 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.42%) HPUX
11 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.42%) SUSE
11 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 247 (20.60%) Migration
2 202 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
3 150 (12.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 135 (11.26%) Stakeholder Management
5 114 (9.51%) High Availability
6 113 (9.42%) ITIL
7 108 (9.01%) Infrastructure as Code
8 100 (8.34%) Agile
9 97 (8.09%) CI/CD
10 94 (7.84%) Roadmaps
11 87 (7.26%) Project Delivery
12 85 (7.09%) Continuous Improvement
13 84 (7.01%) Validation
14 80 (6.67%) Change Management
14 80 (6.67%) Load Balancing
15 71 (5.92%) DevOps
15 71 (5.92%) Technical Leadership
15 71 (5.92%) Zero Trust
16 69 (5.75%) ITSM
17 68 (5.67%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 155 (12.93%) Python
2 55 (4.59%) PowerShell
3 42 (3.50%) SQL
4 28 (2.34%) Bash
5 11 (0.92%) Java
6 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
6 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 10 (0.83%) Perl
7 9 (0.75%) PL/SQL
7 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.50%) COBOL
8 6 (0.50%) JavaScript
9 5 (0.42%) C#
10 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
11 3 (0.25%) JCL
11 3 (0.25%) Korn
11 3 (0.25%) Lisp
11 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.17%) REXX
12 2 (0.17%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 308 (25.69%) Security Cleared
2 202 (16.85%) Cisco Certification
3 199 (16.60%) SC Cleared
4 109 (9.09%) CCNP
5 103 (8.59%) DV Cleared
6 81 (6.76%) CCNA
7 63 (5.25%) Degree
8 57 (4.75%) Network+ Certification
9 48 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
10 42 (3.50%) MCSE
11 41 (3.42%) A+ Certification
12 30 (2.50%) CCIE
13 29 (2.42%) Azure Certification
14 26 (2.17%) AWS Certification
14 26 (2.17%) City & Guilds
15 23 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 22 (1.83%) PMI Certification
16 22 (1.83%) PMP
17 21 (1.75%) CISSP
18 20 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.09%) QA
2 33 (2.75%) SLA
3 30 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (2.00%) NIST
5 18 (1.50%) PMO
6 15 (1.25%) GDPR
7 13 (1.08%) NCSC
8 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 7 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.50%) GRC
10 6 (0.50%) RMADS
11 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.33%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
12 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 126 (10.51%) VMware Infrastructure
2 77 (6.42%) Active Directory
3 44 (3.67%) vSphere
4 42 (3.50%) VMware NSX
5 35 (2.92%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (2.84%) Hyper-V
7 30 (2.50%) Docker
7 30 (2.50%) Firmware
8 14 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.92%) NFS
10 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
11 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
12 5 (0.42%) SRDF
12 5 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.25%) KVM
14 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 137 (11.43%) Ansible
2 106 (8.84%) Terraform
3 58 (4.84%) Kubernetes
4 50 (4.17%) FortiGate
5 26 (2.17%) Grafana
5 26 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
6 25 (2.09%) Prometheus
7 15 (1.25%) vCenter Server
7 15 (1.25%) VxRail
8 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (1.00%) NetBackup
9 11 (0.92%) Dell DRAC
9 11 (0.92%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.83%) SCCM
11 9 (0.75%) vMotion
12 8 (0.67%) PowerCLI
13 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
13 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
14 6 (0.50%) SCOM
Vendors
1 277 (23.10%) Cisco
2 181 (15.10%) VMware
3 126 (10.51%) Microsoft
4 121 (10.09%) Palo Alto
5 117 (9.76%) F5
6 83 (6.92%) Juniper
7 79 (6.59%) Dell
8 69 (5.75%) Fortinet
9 67 (5.59%) Arista
10 58 (4.84%) ServiceNow
11 39 (3.25%) SolarWinds
12 38 (3.17%) IBM
13 36 (3.00%) Google
14 35 (2.92%) Aruba
15 32 (2.67%) CheckPoint
15 32 (2.67%) Red Hat
16 31 (2.59%) Splunk
17 26 (2.17%) Oracle
18 22 (1.83%) Extreme Networks
19 21 (1.75%) Zscaler