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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 126 103
Rank change year-on-year +28 -23 -13
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,132 645 915
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.22% 2.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.34% 6.52% 7.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 708 423 619
10th Percentile £318 £325 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.98% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £685 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £475 £528
% change year-on-year -1.26% -9.95% +5.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 22 45
10th Percentile £16.00 £24.18 £13.35
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £18.27
Median hourly rate £19.34 £27.50 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.67% +14.58% +10.75%
75th Percentile £33.75 £41.25 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.16 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £22.50
% change year-on-year -21.57% +9.60% +5.83%

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 15,414 9,893 12,931
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.95% 33.99% 30.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,564 6,299 8,335
10th Percentile £313 £300 £268
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £743 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.11% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 729 396 900
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.24 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.64 £20.45 £15.17
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.76 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +32.05% +0.83% +41.51%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.85 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.00 £30.39 £30.00
% change year-on-year +51.37% +1.30% +36.36%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +24 920 £485 -7.62% 404
UK excluding London +9 652 £469 -1.26% 256
London +9 313 £550 +4.27% 177
Work from Home +26 298 £480 -6.98% 124
North of England +20 220 £469 +0.75% 62
South East +10 202 £463 +2.78% 95
Yorkshire -3 101 £365 -14.12% 26
North West +18 96 £481 -4.47% 28
Scotland +8 57 £466 +9.59% 15
Midlands -48 53 £460 -16.36% 25
South West -31 50 £495 -10.00% 32
West Midlands -49 47 £465 -15.45% 22
East of England -4 41 £487 +94.90% 24
Wales +5 35 £468 +16.88% 3
North East +1 25 £513 +365.91% 8
East Midlands -27 5 £400 -27.27% 3
Northern Ireland - 3 £425 - 6

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 21 (1.86%) Confluence
2 12 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.06%) SharePoint
3 10 (0.88%) CICS
4 5 (0.44%) nginx
5 4 (0.35%) Apache
5 4 (0.35%) CloudStack
5 4 (0.35%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.35%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.27%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.088%) IIS
8 1 (0.088%) Mendix
Applications
1 16 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.97%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.18%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.18%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.18%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.18%) Primavera
3 1 (0.088%) Maximo
3 1 (0.088%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 226 (19.96%) Azure
2 184 (16.25%) AWS
3 69 (6.10%) GCP
4 35 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
5 25 (2.21%) SaaS
6 24 (2.12%) GitHub
6 24 (2.12%) OCI
7 23 (2.03%) Entra ID
7 23 (2.03%) IaaS
8 17 (1.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 15 (1.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 13 (1.15%) OpenShift
10 13 (1.15%) PaaS
11 11 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (0.97%) Power Platform
12 10 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (0.80%) AWS Direct Connect
13 9 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (0.80%) Nutanix
13 9 (0.80%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 324 (28.62%) Firewall
2 199 (17.58%) WAN
3 177 (15.64%) BGP
4 144 (12.72%) OSPF
5 125 (11.04%) Network Security
6 120 (10.60%) LAN
7 118 (10.42%) VPN
8 113 (9.98%) VXLAN
9 111 (9.81%) SAN
10 92 (8.13%) Structured Cabling
11 89 (7.86%) VLAN
12 85 (7.51%) DNS
13 80 (7.07%) Ethernet VPN
14 69 (6.10%) SD-WAN
15 66 (5.83%) DHCP
16 52 (4.59%) Cisco Nexus
17 50 (4.42%) Wi-Fi
18 45 (3.98%) BIG-IP
19 42 (3.71%) NX-OS
20 38 (3.36%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.15%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.88%) DataStage
3 6 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (0.53%) Power BI
4 5 (0.44%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.35%) Big Data
5 4 (0.35%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.35%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.27%) GIS
7 2 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.18%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.18%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.18%) Oracle Database 12c
7 2 (0.18%) Power Query
7 2 (0.18%) PowerPivot
8 1 (0.088%) InfluxDB
8 1 (0.088%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 46 (4.06%) JIRA
2 36 (3.18%) Git
2 36 (3.18%) GitLab
3 29 (2.56%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (0.53%) Maven
5 6 (0.53%) ScriptRunner
6 5 (0.44%) JMeter
7 4 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.35%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.35%) Subversion
8 3 (0.27%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.27%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.088%) AppScan
9 1 (0.088%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.088%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.088%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.088%) Postman
General
1 273 (24.12%) Social Skills
2 151 (13.34%) Finance
3 131 (11.57%) Analytical Skills
4 82 (7.24%) Public Sector
5 61 (5.39%) Documentation Skills
6 45 (3.98%) Banking
7 31 (2.74%) Legal
8 27 (2.39%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.30%) Manufacturing
10 22 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
10 22 (1.94%) Retail
11 11 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 10 (0.88%) Military
13 9 (0.80%) Law
13 9 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (0.71%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.71%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.71%) Marketing
15 7 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.44%) Portuguese Language
Job Titles
1 202 (17.84%) Network Engineer
2 181 (15.99%) Architect
3 128 (11.31%) Senior
4 84 (7.42%) Data Centre Engineer
5 74 (6.54%) Project Manager
6 71 (6.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 59 (5.21%) IT Engineer
8 56 (4.95%) Field Engineer
9 55 (4.86%) Lead
10 53 (4.68%) Field Service Engineer
10 53 (4.68%) Network Architect
11 47 (4.15%) Data Centre Manager
12 43 (3.80%) Solutions Architect
13 38 (3.36%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 35 (3.09%) Analyst
14 35 (3.09%) Senior Network Engineer
15 34 (3.00%) Infrastructure Manager
15 34 (3.00%) Technical Architect
16 32 (2.83%) Administrator
17 30 (2.65%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.24%) Middleware
2 34 (3.00%) 802.1X
3 13 (1.15%) LDAP
4 9 (0.80%) Redfish
5 8 (0.71%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.62%) Spring
7 5 (0.44%) Jinja
7 5 (0.44%) Kafka
7 5 (0.44%) REST
7 5 (0.44%) XML
8 4 (0.35%) ADO
8 4 (0.35%) NETCONF
8 4 (0.35%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.27%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.27%) OpenConfig
9 3 (0.27%) OpenLayers
9 3 (0.27%) RESTCONF
9 3 (0.27%) RFC 2544
9 3 (0.27%) YANG
9 3 (0.27%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 60 (5.30%) Analytical Mindset
2 59 (5.21%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (2.92%) Management Information System
4 28 (2.47%) Clustering
4 28 (2.47%) PKI
5 25 (2.21%) Fibre Optics
6 24 (2.12%) Cloud Native
7 21 (1.86%) CMDB
7 21 (1.86%) Onboarding
8 20 (1.77%) Enterprise Storage
8 20 (1.77%) Public Cloud
9 19 (1.68%) Driving Licence
9 19 (1.68%) SCADA
9 19 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
10 18 (1.59%) Private Cloud
10 18 (1.59%) Replication
11 14 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.24%) NHS
12 13 (1.15%) Operational Technology
13 12 (1.06%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 149 (13.16%) Linux
2 142 (12.54%) Windows
3 39 (3.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (3.36%) Windows Server
5 23 (2.03%) Unix
6 21 (1.86%) AIX
7 17 (1.50%) Solaris
8 12 (1.06%) CentOS
9 10 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
10 9 (0.80%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.62%) VMS
12 4 (0.35%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.35%) HPUX
12 4 (0.35%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.35%) Oracle Linux
12 4 (0.35%) SUSE
13 3 (0.27%) Embedded Linux
13 3 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.18%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (18.02%) Problem-Solving
2 191 (16.87%) Migration
3 107 (9.45%) High Availability
4 103 (9.10%) Infrastructure as Code
5 99 (8.75%) ITIL
6 98 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
7 94 (8.30%) Roadmaps
8 90 (7.95%) Continuous Improvement
9 88 (7.77%) CI/CD
9 88 (7.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 81 (7.16%) Load Balancing
11 77 (6.80%) Validation
12 72 (6.36%) Change Management
12 72 (6.36%) Project Management
13 70 (6.18%) Project Delivery
14 69 (6.10%) DevOps
15 66 (5.83%) Customer Service
16 65 (5.74%) Agile
17 64 (5.65%) Break/Fix
17 64 (5.65%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 127 (11.22%) Python
2 41 (3.62%) PowerShell
3 37 (3.27%) SQL
4 26 (2.30%) Bash
5 22 (1.94%) Java
6 16 (1.41%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.06%) COBOL
8 11 (0.97%) MATLAB
9 10 (0.88%) Perl
10 9 (0.80%) Bicep
11 8 (0.71%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.44%) C
12 5 (0.44%) C++
12 5 (0.44%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.27%) VBA
14 2 (0.18%) Groovy
14 2 (0.18%) Korn
14 2 (0.18%) Lisp
15 1 (0.088%) R
15 1 (0.088%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 312 (27.56%) Security Cleared
2 238 (21.02%) Cisco Certification
3 237 (20.94%) SC Cleared
4 145 (12.81%) CCNP
5 111 (9.81%) CCNA
6 67 (5.92%) Degree
7 65 (5.74%) Network+ Certification
8 63 (5.57%) DV Cleared
9 54 (4.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 51 (4.51%) A+ Certification
10 51 (4.51%) MCSE
11 25 (2.21%) CCIE
12 24 (2.12%) Azure Certification
13 23 (2.03%) City & Guilds
14 22 (1.94%) PMI Certification
14 22 (1.94%) PMP
15 20 (1.77%) BICSI Certification
16 19 (1.68%) AWS Certification
17 16 (1.41%) JNCIS
17 16 (1.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.83%) SLA
2 23 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 23 (2.03%) NIST
3 22 (1.94%) PMO
3 22 (1.94%) QA
4 18 (1.59%) GDPR
5 11 (0.97%) NCSC
6 9 (0.80%) Disclosure Scotland
7 8 (0.71%) GRC
7 8 (0.71%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.35%) RMADS
10 3 (0.27%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.18%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.088%) COBIT
12 1 (0.088%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.088%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 98 (8.66%) VMware Infrastructure
2 61 (5.39%) Active Directory
3 40 (3.53%) VMware NSX
4 32 (2.83%) Firmware
4 32 (2.83%) vSphere
5 25 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (2.21%) VMware ESXi
6 23 (2.03%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.24%) Docker
8 12 (1.06%) KVM
9 6 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.44%) NFS
11 4 (0.35%) Ceph
11 4 (0.35%) SRDF
11 4 (0.35%) VMware Workstation
12 3 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.27%) PowerHA
12 3 (0.27%) UAG
12 3 (0.27%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 3 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 131 (11.57%) Ansible
2 99 (8.75%) Terraform
3 59 (5.21%) FortiGate
4 44 (3.89%) Kubernetes
5 34 (3.00%) Grafana
6 27 (2.39%) Prometheus
7 18 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (1.24%) Check_MK
9 12 (1.06%) NetBackup
9 12 (1.06%) SCCM
10 11 (0.97%) Podman
10 11 (0.97%) Red Hat Satellite
10 11 (0.97%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.80%) Dell DRAC
11 9 (0.80%) PowerCLI
12 8 (0.71%) vMotion
13 7 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 6 (0.53%) EMC NetWorker
14 6 (0.53%) Tivoli Storage Manager
15 5 (0.44%) Nagios
Vendors
1 308 (27.21%) Cisco
2 152 (13.43%) Palo Alto
3 150 (13.25%) VMware
4 103 (9.10%) F5
4 103 (9.10%) Microsoft
5 95 (8.39%) Dell
6 88 (7.77%) Juniper
7 65 (5.74%) Arista
8 58 (5.12%) Aruba
9 56 (4.95%) Fortinet
10 49 (4.33%) CheckPoint
11 48 (4.24%) ServiceNow
12 41 (3.62%) SolarWinds
13 39 (3.45%) Google
14 37 (3.27%) Red Hat
15 34 (3.00%) IBM
16 30 (2.65%) Splunk
17 28 (2.47%) Oracle
18 27 (2.39%) Meraki
19 26 (2.30%) NVIDIA