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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 126 102
Rank change year-on-year +27 -24 -17
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,189 657 945
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.20% 2.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.24% 6.39% 7.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 710 421 625
10th Percentile £318 £300 £300
25th Percentile £406 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.00% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £538
% change year-on-year - -11.71% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 22 53
10th Percentile £16.01 - £12.08
25th Percentile £16.53 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £23.00 £25.15 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% +4.79% +12.89%
75th Percentile £35.22 £41.25 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.56 £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 16,432 10,285 13,135
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.51% 34.49% 29.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,072 6,441 8,323
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% -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 845 453 948
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £19.25 £15.39
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.05 £35.65
Median % change year-on-year +37.16% -10.10% +58.55%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.63
90th Percentile £86.15 £81.35 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.29 £35.50
% change year-on-year +40.51% -11.87% +61.36%

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 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 19 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 19 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 +21 976 £500 -3.38% 345
UK excluding London +2 678 £475 - 246
London +12 348 £550 +4.76% 156
Work from Home +28 319 £480 -4.00% 108
North of England +14 241 £474 +5.33% 47
South East +2 208 £463 +2.78% 86
Yorkshire -10 123 £365 -16.57% 20
North West +13 94 £494 -1.94% 20
Scotland +7 60 £466 +6.46% 11
Midlands -50 58 £466 -15.29% 26
West Midlands -47 54 £470 -14.47% 19
South West -15 50 £495 -13.91% 36
East of England -13 38 £492 +31.20% 27
Wales 0 34 £468 +16.88% 15
North East -6 30 £625 +468.18% 7
East Midlands -24 3 £325 -36.97% 7
Northern Ireland - 2 £425 - 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 27 (2.27%) Confluence
2 18 (1.51%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.93%) CICS
3 11 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.34%) Apache
4 4 (0.34%) CloudStack
4 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.25%) nginx
5 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.084%) IIS
6 1 (0.084%) Mendix
Applications
1 15 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.84%) 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
Cloud Services
1 253 (21.28%) Azure
2 212 (17.83%) AWS
3 73 (6.14%) GCP
4 42 (3.53%) GitHub
5 40 (3.36%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (3.28%) IaaS
7 33 (2.78%) SaaS
8 30 (2.52%) OCI
9 25 (2.10%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.60%) PaaS
11 18 (1.51%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
13 15 (1.26%) OneDrive
13 15 (1.26%) OpenShift
14 13 (1.09%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.93%) Nutanix
16 10 (0.84%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 9 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
17 9 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 331 (27.84%) Firewall
2 195 (16.40%) WAN
3 185 (15.56%) BGP
4 143 (12.03%) OSPF
5 123 (10.34%) VXLAN
6 122 (10.26%) VPN
7 117 (9.84%) SAN
8 115 (9.67%) LAN
9 113 (9.50%) Network Security
10 110 (9.25%) DNS
11 98 (8.24%) VLAN
12 93 (7.82%) Structured Cabling
13 87 (7.32%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.15%) Ethernet VPN
15 81 (6.81%) DHCP
16 58 (4.88%) BIG-IP
17 52 (4.37%) Cisco Nexus
18 51 (4.29%) TCP/IP
19 48 (4.04%) Wi-Fi
19 48 (4.04%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (1.35%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.84%) DataStage
3 8 (0.67%) Power BI
4 7 (0.59%) Big Data
5 6 (0.50%) 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 66 (5.55%) JIRA
2 39 (3.28%) GitLab
3 38 (3.20%) Jenkins
4 32 (2.69%) Git
5 6 (0.50%) ScriptRunner
5 6 (0.50%) 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 (0.084%) AppScan
10 1 (0.084%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.084%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.084%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.084%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.084%) Postman
General
1 298 (25.06%) Social Skills
2 160 (13.46%) Finance
3 129 (10.85%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (6.73%) Public Sector
5 65 (5.47%) Documentation Skills
6 45 (3.78%) Banking
7 37 (3.11%) Legal
7 37 (3.11%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.02%) Manufacturing
9 21 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.68%) Retail
11 17 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (0.93%) Law
12 11 (0.93%) Military
13 8 (0.67%) Aerospace
13 8 (0.67%) Financial Institution
13 8 (0.67%) Marketing
13 8 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 206 (17.33%) Network Engineer
2 188 (15.81%) Architect
3 136 (11.44%) Senior
4 96 (8.07%) Data Centre Engineer
5 93 (7.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 68 (5.72%) Project Manager
7 60 (5.05%) Lead
8 56 (4.71%) IT Engineer
9 53 (4.46%) Field Engineer
10 49 (4.12%) Field Service Engineer
10 49 (4.12%) Network Architect
11 45 (3.78%) Solutions Architect
12 38 (3.20%) Analyst
12 38 (3.20%) Technical Architect
13 37 (3.11%) Data Centre Manager
14 36 (3.03%) Infrastructure Manager
15 35 (2.94%) Support Engineer
16 34 (2.86%) Senior Network Engineer
17 33 (2.78%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 32 (2.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (4.29%) Middleware
2 32 (2.69%) 802.1X
3 11 (0.93%) LDAP
4 10 (0.84%) Redfish
4 10 (0.84%) 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%) CSS
8 3 (0.25%) EJB
8 3 (0.25%) HTML
8 3 (0.25%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (5.38%) Hybrid Cloud
2 55 (4.63%) Analytical Mindset
3 39 (3.28%) Management Information System
4 33 (2.78%) Cloud Native
5 31 (2.61%) Clustering
6 30 (2.52%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.44%) Enterprise Storage
7 29 (2.44%) PKI
8 25 (2.10%) Fibre Optics
9 22 (1.85%) Private Cloud
10 21 (1.77%) CMDB
10 21 (1.77%) Driving Licence
11 19 (1.60%) Replication
12 18 (1.51%) Public Cloud
13 17 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
14 16 (1.35%) SCADA
14 16 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (1.18%) NHS
16 13 (1.09%) Operational Technology
17 12 (1.01%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 161 (13.54%) Windows
2 149 (12.53%) Linux
3 39 (3.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 37 (3.11%) Windows Server
5 24 (2.02%) Unix
6 23 (1.93%) AIX
7 18 (1.51%) Solaris
8 11 (0.93%) CentOS
9 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.84%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.76%) Ubuntu
11 8 (0.67%) VMS
12 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
13 5 (0.42%) HPUX
13 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
13 5 (0.42%) SUSE
14 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
15 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
16 2 (0.17%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (17.58%) Migration
2 202 (16.99%) Problem-Solving
3 120 (10.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 117 (9.84%) High Availability
5 116 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
6 115 (9.67%) Stakeholder Management
7 107 (9.00%) ITIL
8 106 (8.92%) CI/CD
9 94 (7.91%) Roadmaps
10 92 (7.74%) Continuous Improvement
11 88 (7.40%) Agile
12 86 (7.23%) DevOps
13 84 (7.06%) Load Balancing
14 82 (6.90%) Validation
15 75 (6.31%) Change Management
16 73 (6.14%) Project Delivery
17 69 (5.80%) Project Management
18 68 (5.72%) Customer Service
19 67 (5.63%) ITSM
20 64 (5.38%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 149 (12.53%) Python
2 44 (3.70%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.20%) SQL
4 27 (2.27%) Bash
5 19 (1.60%) Java
6 16 (1.35%) Bicep
6 16 (1.35%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.01%) COBOL
8 11 (0.93%) MATLAB
9 10 (0.84%) ActionScript
9 10 (0.84%) Perl
10 8 (0.67%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.59%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.34%) C
12 4 (0.34%) C++
12 4 (0.34%) Lisp
13 3 (0.25%) C#
13 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.25%) VBA
14 2 (0.17%) JCL
Qualifications
1 311 (26.16%) Security Cleared
2 234 (19.68%) Cisco Certification
3 230 (19.34%) SC Cleared
4 141 (11.86%) CCNP
5 107 (9.00%) CCNA
6 73 (6.14%) DV Cleared
7 72 (6.06%) Degree
8 64 (5.38%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.54%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.95%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.95%) MCSE
11 30 (2.52%) Azure Certification
12 25 (2.10%) AWS Certification
12 25 (2.10%) City & Guilds
12 25 (2.10%) PMI Certification
12 25 (2.10%) PMP
13 24 (2.02%) CCIE
14 20 (1.68%) BICSI Certification
15 18 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 17 (1.43%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.69%) SLA
2 27 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.19%) NIST
4 25 (2.10%) QA
5 22 (1.85%) PMO
6 19 (1.60%) GDPR
7 13 (1.09%) NCSC
8 10 (0.84%) GRC
9 9 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
9 9 (0.76%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.59%) RMADS
11 6 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
14 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
14 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 103 (8.66%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (5.47%) Active Directory
3 33 (2.78%) VMware ESXi
4 32 (2.69%) vSphere
5 30 (2.52%) Firmware
5 30 (2.52%) VMware NSX
6 27 (2.27%) Hyper-V
7 25 (2.10%) Virtual Machines
8 15 (1.26%) Docker
9 11 (0.93%) KVM
10 7 (0.59%) NFS
11 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.50%) SRDF
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.34%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.34%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
13 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 3 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 137 (11.52%) Ansible
2 108 (9.08%) Terraform
3 56 (4.71%) FortiGate
4 49 (4.12%) Kubernetes
5 35 (2.94%) Grafana
6 30 (2.52%) Prometheus
7 27 (2.27%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.26%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.09%) Check_MK
9 13 (1.09%) 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 (0.84%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
12 8 (0.67%) SCCM
13 7 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
13 7 (0.59%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 306 (25.74%) Cisco
2 156 (13.12%) VMware
3 147 (12.36%) Palo Alto
4 114 (9.59%) Microsoft
5 113 (9.50%) F5
6 91 (7.65%) Dell
7 90 (7.57%) Juniper
8 73 (6.14%) Arista
9 65 (5.47%) Fortinet
10 58 (4.88%) ServiceNow
11 51 (4.29%) Aruba
12 44 (3.70%) Google
13 42 (3.53%) Red Hat
14 41 (3.45%) SolarWinds
15 36 (3.03%) CheckPoint
15 36 (3.03%) IBM
16 28 (2.35%) Splunk
17 27 (2.27%) Oracle
18 24 (2.02%) Citrix
18 24 (2.02%) HP