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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 114 125 105
Rank change year-on-year +11 -20 -18
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,207 732 837
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 2.24% 2.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.70% 6.34% 7.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 735 460 555
10th Percentile £318 £300 £350
25th Percentile £411 £399 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -
75th Percentile £650 £606 £625
90th Percentile £775 £713 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +0.92% -8.84% +6.71%
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 £20.43 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.79% +25.75% -
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 18,013 11,540 11,771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.58% 35.25% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,894 7,092 7,463
10th Percentile £322 £300 £300
25th Percentile £422 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% -
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 1,067 577 570
10th Percentile £14.76 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.87 £18.39
Median hourly rate £42.00 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% -33.33% +2.66%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £84.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -38.78% +7.91%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 +6 1,017 £525 - 458
UK excluding London -8 647 £495 +0.92% 298
London +17 415 £563 +2.27% 217
Work from Home -8 282 £533 +2.55% 161
North of England +1 227 £489 +8.56% 68
South East -9 183 £525 +6.60% 86
Yorkshire +3 138 £465 +14.81% 20
North West -1 74 £516 -0.87% 24
South West -22 69 £588 +6.82% 56
Midlands -76 53 £465 -9.27% 41
Scotland -4 46 £388 -2.88% 15
West Midlands -54 46 £475 -5.00% 33
Wales +5 43 £468 +55.83% 2
East of England -15 34 £479 -20.21% 34
North East -20 21 £625 +468.18% 24
East Midlands -26 6 £400 -26.61% 8
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 29 (2.40%) Confluence
2 20 (1.66%) SharePoint
3 10 (0.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CICS
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.083%) IIS
6 1 (0.083%) nginx
6 1 (0.083%) SAS
6 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 26 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 13 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.25%) Primavera
3 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
4 1 (0.083%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 257 (21.29%) Azure
2 222 (18.39%) AWS
3 62 (5.14%) GCP
4 47 (3.89%) GitHub
5 40 (3.31%) Microsoft 365
6 35 (2.90%) IaaS
6 35 (2.90%) SaaS
7 30 (2.49%) OCI
8 26 (2.15%) Entra ID
9 18 (1.49%) Power Platform
10 15 (1.24%) OneDrive
11 14 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (1.16%) OpenShift
11 14 (1.16%) PaaS
12 13 (1.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 13 (1.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 8 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (0.66%) Nutanix
14 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (0.50%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 306 (25.35%) Firewall
2 189 (15.66%) WAN
3 183 (15.16%) BGP
4 132 (10.94%) VPN
5 127 (10.52%) VXLAN
6 125 (10.36%) DNS
7 123 (10.19%) OSPF
8 114 (9.44%) SAN
9 109 (9.03%) LAN
10 106 (8.78%) VLAN
11 103 (8.53%) Network Security
12 94 (7.79%) DHCP
13 89 (7.37%) Ethernet VPN
14 87 (7.21%) SD-WAN
15 85 (7.04%) TCP/IP
16 83 (6.88%) Structured Cabling
17 61 (5.05%) Wi-Fi
18 59 (4.89%) Wireless
19 53 (4.39%) Cisco Nexus
20 51 (4.23%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.40%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.24%) 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 (0.41%) 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%) PostgreSQL
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
9 1 (0.083%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 74 (6.13%) JIRA
2 35 (2.90%) 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%) JMeter
6 2 (0.17%) MSI
6 2 (0.17%) Toad
7 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.083%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.083%) Maven
7 1 (0.083%) Postman
7 1 (0.083%) Subversion
General
1 285 (23.61%) Social Skills
2 166 (13.75%) Finance
3 123 (10.19%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (4.81%) Public Sector
5 52 (4.31%) Telecoms
6 51 (4.23%) Banking
7 43 (3.56%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (2.57%) Retail
9 23 (1.91%) Legal
10 20 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 17 (1.41%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Police
15 8 (0.66%) Law
16 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
17 6 (0.50%) Marketing
18 5 (0.41%) Investment Banking
19 3 (0.25%) Billing
19 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 204 (16.90%) Architect
2 195 (16.16%) Network Engineer
3 155 (12.84%) Senior
4 121 (10.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 96 (7.95%) Data Centre Engineer
6 77 (6.38%) Project Manager
7 64 (5.30%) Lead
8 62 (5.14%) Network Architect
9 55 (4.56%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.89%) Field Engineer
11 46 (3.81%) Senior Network Engineer
12 45 (3.73%) Data Centre Manager
13 41 (3.40%) Consultant
13 41 (3.40%) Field Service Engineer
13 41 (3.40%) Technical Architect
14 40 (3.31%) Infrastructure Manager
15 36 (2.98%) Solutions Architect
16 34 (2.82%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 31 (2.57%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (9.03%) Terraform
2 48 (3.98%) Middleware
3 21 (1.74%) REST
4 18 (1.49%) 802.1X
5 12 (0.99%) JSON
5 12 (0.99%) YAML
6 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
6 9 (0.75%) Redfish
7 8 (0.66%) LDAP
7 8 (0.66%) NETCONF
8 7 (0.58%) OpenConfig
8 7 (0.58%) YANG
9 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
9 6 (0.50%) SAML
10 5 (0.41%) .NET
10 5 (0.41%) Jinja
11 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
11 4 (0.33%) Kafka
11 4 (0.33%) RESTful
12 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 76 (6.30%) Hybrid Cloud
2 49 (4.06%) Analytical Mindset
3 41 (3.40%) PKI
4 35 (2.90%) Private Cloud
5 34 (2.82%) Clustering
6 33 (2.73%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.73%) Enterprise Storage
6 33 (2.73%) Management Information System
7 30 (2.49%) Fibre Optics
8 29 (2.40%) Onboarding
9 28 (2.32%) Public Cloud
10 26 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.15%) Replication
11 19 (1.57%) Operational Technology
12 18 (1.49%) Driving Licence
13 16 (1.33%) CMDB
13 16 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
14 15 (1.24%) SCADA
15 14 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
16 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 180 (14.91%) Windows
2 131 (10.85%) Linux
3 51 (4.23%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.82%) Unix
5 21 (1.74%) AIX
6 19 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.91%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 9 (0.75%) VMS
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.50%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.41%) HPUX
11 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.41%) SUSE
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 252 (20.88%) Migration
2 195 (16.16%) Problem-Solving
3 148 (12.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 140 (11.60%) Stakeholder Management
5 118 (9.78%) Infrastructure as Code
6 111 (9.20%) ITIL
7 103 (8.53%) High Availability
8 99 (8.20%) Agile
9 98 (8.12%) Roadmaps
10 97 (8.04%) CI/CD
11 90 (7.46%) Project Delivery
12 89 (7.37%) Validation
13 83 (6.88%) Continuous Improvement
14 77 (6.38%) Change Management
15 75 (6.21%) Zero Trust
16 72 (5.97%) Disaster Recovery
17 71 (5.88%) DevOps
17 71 (5.88%) Technical Leadership
18 70 (5.80%) Load Balancing
19 66 (5.47%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 162 (13.42%) Python
2 57 (4.72%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.15%) SQL
4 31 (2.57%) Bash
5 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
5 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 9 (0.75%) Perl
7 8 (0.66%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.58%) Java
8 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.50%) COBOL
10 5 (0.41%) C#
11 4 (0.33%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.25%) Go
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Korn
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 301 (24.94%) Security Cleared
2 204 (16.90%) SC Cleared
3 197 (16.32%) Cisco Certification
4 115 (9.53%) CCNP
5 93 (7.71%) DV Cleared
6 81 (6.71%) CCNA
7 63 (5.22%) Degree
8 53 (4.39%) Network+ Certification
9 46 (3.81%) Microsoft Certification
10 44 (3.65%) A+ Certification
11 40 (3.31%) MCSE
12 31 (2.57%) CCIE
13 28 (2.32%) AWS Certification
14 27 (2.24%) Azure Certification
15 26 (2.15%) City & Guilds
16 22 (1.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 21 (1.74%) CISSP
17 21 (1.74%) PMP
18 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
18 20 (1.66%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.15%) QA
2 29 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.15%) SLA
4 23 (1.91%) NIST
5 16 (1.33%) PMO
6 15 (1.24%) GDPR
7 12 (0.99%) 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
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.25%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
14 1 (0.083%) PSD2
14 1 (0.083%) SOC 1
System Software
1 132 (10.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 84 (6.96%) Active Directory
3 46 (3.81%) vSphere
4 43 (3.56%) VMware NSX
5 36 (2.98%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (2.73%) Hyper-V
7 31 (2.57%) Docker
8 30 (2.49%) Firmware
9 14 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.91%) NFS
11 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.33%) SRDF
14 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
15 3 (0.25%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 146 (12.10%) Ansible
2 59 (4.89%) Kubernetes
3 38 (3.15%) FortiGate
4 26 (2.15%) Prometheus
5 25 (2.07%) Grafana
6 24 (1.99%) Microsoft Intune
7 16 (1.33%) vCenter Server
7 16 (1.33%) VxRail
8 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (0.99%) NetBackup
8 12 (0.99%) SCCM
9 11 (0.91%) vMotion
10 10 (0.83%) Dell DRAC
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.83%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
11 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
11 7 (0.58%) Nagios
11 7 (0.58%) PowerCLI
12 6 (0.50%) Avamar
Vendors
1 288 (23.86%) Cisco
2 188 (15.58%) VMware
3 142 (11.76%) Microsoft
4 124 (10.27%) Palo Alto
5 104 (8.62%) F5
6 76 (6.30%) Dell
7 72 (5.97%) Juniper
8 70 (5.80%) Arista
8 70 (5.80%) Fortinet
9 60 (4.97%) ServiceNow
10 41 (3.40%) Aruba
11 36 (2.98%) CheckPoint
12 33 (2.73%) Google
12 33 (2.73%) Red Hat
13 31 (2.57%) IBM
14 27 (2.24%) SolarWinds
15 24 (1.99%) Veeam
16 23 (1.91%) Oracle
17 21 (1.74%) NetApp
17 21 (1.74%) Zscaler