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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 122 104
Rank change year-on-year +26 -18 -11
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,144 635 916
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.37% 2.20% 2.16%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.40% 6.48% 7.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 715 415 621
10th Percentile £318 £330 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.43% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £723 £683 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £475 £526
% change year-on-year -1.26% -9.74% +5.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 21 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% +11.81%
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 15,451 9,800 12,904
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.98% 34.01% 30.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,580 6,253 8,319
10th Percentile £313 £300 £270
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £745 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.53% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 735 382 900
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.17 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.70 £19.98 £15.17
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.91 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.45% +1.29% +41.51%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £83.13 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £31.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +42.90% +4.97% +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 22 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 22 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 22 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 +28 930 £485 -7.62% 402
UK excluding London +10 658 £469 -1.26% 261
London +16 317 £550 +4.76% 173
Work from Home +32 303 £480 -6.98% 127
North of England +24 222 £472 +1.29% 58
South East +8 205 £463 +2.78% 96
Yorkshire -1 103 £365 -14.12% 24
North West +12 96 £481 -4.47% 26
Scotland +5 58 £469 +7.20% 19
Midlands -58 53 £460 -16.36% 26
South West -24 50 £495 -10.00% 35
West Midlands -47 47 £465 -15.45% 23
East of England -6 41 £487 +62.42% 24
Wales +1 35 £468 +16.88% 3
North East -4 25 £513 +365.91% 8
East Midlands -24 5 £400 -27.27% 3
Northern Ireland - 3 £425 - 7

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 (1.84%) Confluence
2 12 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.05%) SharePoint
3 10 (0.87%) 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 (0.26%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.087%) IIS
8 1 (0.087%) Mendix
Applications
1 16 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.96%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.26%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.26%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.17%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.17%) Primavera
3 1 (0.087%) Maximo
3 1 (0.087%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 228 (19.93%) Azure
2 184 (16.08%) AWS
3 70 (6.12%) GCP
4 36 (3.15%) Microsoft 365
5 26 (2.27%) GitHub
6 25 (2.19%) IaaS
6 25 (2.19%) SaaS
7 24 (2.10%) OCI
8 23 (2.01%) Entra ID
9 17 (1.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 15 (1.31%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 13 (1.14%) OpenShift
11 13 (1.14%) PaaS
12 11 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.96%) Power Platform
13 10 (0.87%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (0.79%) AWS Direct Connect
14 9 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (0.79%) Nutanix
14 9 (0.79%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 328 (28.67%) Firewall
2 201 (17.57%) WAN
3 178 (15.56%) BGP
4 145 (12.67%) OSPF
5 126 (11.01%) Network Security
6 123 (10.75%) LAN
7 121 (10.58%) VPN
8 114 (9.97%) VXLAN
9 111 (9.70%) SAN
10 93 (8.13%) Structured Cabling
11 89 (7.78%) VLAN
12 87 (7.60%) DNS
13 81 (7.08%) Ethernet VPN
14 71 (6.21%) SD-WAN
15 66 (5.77%) DHCP
16 52 (4.55%) Cisco Nexus
17 51 (4.46%) Wi-Fi
18 47 (4.11%) BIG-IP
19 42 (3.67%) NX-OS
20 39 (3.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.14%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.87%) DataStage
3 6 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (0.52%) 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 (0.26%) GIS
7 2 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
7 2 (0.17%) Power Query
7 2 (0.17%) PowerPivot
8 1 (0.087%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.087%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (4.20%) JIRA
2 36 (3.15%) Git
2 36 (3.15%) GitLab
3 31 (2.71%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (0.52%) Maven
5 6 (0.52%) ScriptRunner
6 5 (0.44%) JMeter
7 4 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.35%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.35%) Subversion
8 3 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.26%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.087%) AppScan
9 1 (0.087%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.087%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.087%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.087%) Postman
General
1 279 (24.39%) Social Skills
2 152 (13.29%) Finance
3 133 (11.63%) Analytical Skills
4 83 (7.26%) Public Sector
5 61 (5.33%) Documentation Skills
6 46 (4.02%) Banking
7 31 (2.71%) Legal
8 29 (2.53%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.27%) Manufacturing
10 23 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.92%) Retail
12 12 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (0.87%) Military
14 9 (0.79%) Law
14 9 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (0.70%) Aerospace
15 8 (0.70%) Financial Institution
15 8 (0.70%) Marketing
16 7 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
17 5 (0.44%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 204 (17.83%) Network Engineer
2 183 (16.00%) Architect
3 128 (11.19%) Senior
4 85 (7.43%) Data Centre Engineer
5 74 (6.47%) Project Manager
6 72 (6.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 59 (5.16%) IT Engineer
8 56 (4.90%) Field Engineer
8 56 (4.90%) Lead
9 53 (4.63%) Field Service Engineer
9 53 (4.63%) Network Architect
10 47 (4.11%) Data Centre Manager
11 43 (3.76%) Solutions Architect
12 38 (3.32%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 36 (3.15%) Analyst
14 35 (3.06%) Infrastructure Manager
14 35 (3.06%) Senior Network Engineer
15 34 (2.97%) Technical Architect
16 32 (2.80%) Administrator
17 31 (2.71%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.20%) Middleware
2 34 (2.97%) 802.1X
3 13 (1.14%) LDAP
4 9 (0.79%) Redfish
5 8 (0.70%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.61%) 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 (0.26%) OpenConfig
9 3 (0.26%) OpenLayers
9 3 (0.26%) RESTCONF
9 3 (0.26%) RFC 2544
9 3 (0.26%) YAML
9 3 (0.26%) YANG
9 3 (0.26%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 60 (5.24%) Analytical Mindset
1 60 (5.24%) Hybrid Cloud
2 33 (2.88%) Management Information System
3 28 (2.45%) Clustering
3 28 (2.45%) PKI
4 25 (2.19%) Fibre Optics
5 24 (2.10%) Cloud Native
6 21 (1.84%) CMDB
6 21 (1.84%) Onboarding
7 20 (1.75%) Enterprise Storage
7 20 (1.75%) Private Cloud
7 20 (1.75%) Public Cloud
8 19 (1.66%) Driving Licence
8 19 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
9 18 (1.57%) Replication
9 18 (1.57%) SCADA
10 15 (1.31%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.22%) NHS
12 12 (1.05%) Mainframe
12 12 (1.05%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 150 (13.11%) Linux
2 143 (12.50%) Windows
3 39 (3.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (3.32%) Windows Server
5 23 (2.01%) Unix
6 21 (1.84%) AIX
7 17 (1.49%) Solaris
8 12 (1.05%) CentOS
9 10 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
10 9 (0.79%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.61%) 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 (0.26%) Embedded Linux
13 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (18.01%) Problem-Solving
2 193 (16.87%) Migration
3 108 (9.44%) High Availability
4 103 (9.00%) Infrastructure as Code
5 101 (8.83%) Stakeholder Management
6 100 (8.74%) ITIL
7 95 (8.30%) Roadmaps
8 92 (8.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 91 (7.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 90 (7.87%) CI/CD
11 82 (7.17%) Load Balancing
12 78 (6.82%) Validation
13 72 (6.29%) Change Management
13 72 (6.29%) Project Delivery
14 71 (6.21%) DevOps
14 71 (6.21%) Project Management
15 69 (6.03%) Agile
16 66 (5.77%) Customer Service
17 64 (5.59%) Break/Fix
17 64 (5.59%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 129 (11.28%) Python
2 42 (3.67%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.32%) SQL
4 26 (2.27%) Bash
5 22 (1.92%) Java
6 16 (1.40%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.05%) COBOL
8 11 (0.96%) MATLAB
9 10 (0.87%) Perl
10 9 (0.79%) Bicep
11 8 (0.70%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.44%) C
12 5 (0.44%) C++
12 5 (0.44%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.26%) ActionScript
13 3 (0.26%) VBA
14 2 (0.17%) Groovy
14 2 (0.17%) Korn
14 2 (0.17%) Lisp
15 1 (0.087%) Scala
Qualifications
1 317 (27.71%) Security Cleared
2 239 (20.89%) Cisco Certification
2 239 (20.89%) SC Cleared
3 145 (12.67%) CCNP
4 110 (9.62%) CCNA
5 68 (5.94%) Degree
6 67 (5.86%) DV Cleared
7 65 (5.68%) Network+ Certification
8 54 (4.72%) Microsoft Certification
9 51 (4.46%) A+ Certification
9 51 (4.46%) MCSE
10 25 (2.19%) CCIE
11 24 (2.10%) Azure Certification
12 23 (2.01%) City & Guilds
13 21 (1.84%) PMI Certification
13 21 (1.84%) PMP
14 20 (1.75%) BICSI Certification
15 19 (1.66%) AWS Certification
16 16 (1.40%) JNCIS
16 16 (1.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.80%) SLA
2 24 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 24 (2.10%) NIST
3 23 (2.01%) PMO
4 22 (1.92%) QA
5 18 (1.57%) GDPR
6 11 (0.96%) NCSC
7 9 (0.79%) Disclosure Scotland
8 8 (0.70%) GRC
8 8 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.44%) RMADS
11 4 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.087%) COBIT
14 1 (0.087%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 97 (8.48%) VMware Infrastructure
2 62 (5.42%) Active Directory
3 39 (3.41%) VMware NSX
4 32 (2.80%) Firmware
4 32 (2.80%) vSphere
5 25 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (2.19%) VMware ESXi
6 23 (2.01%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.22%) Docker
8 12 (1.05%) KVM
9 6 (0.52%) 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 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.26%) PowerHA
12 3 (0.26%) UAG
12 3 (0.26%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 3 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 131 (11.45%) Ansible
2 100 (8.74%) Terraform
3 59 (5.16%) FortiGate
4 44 (3.85%) Kubernetes
5 34 (2.97%) Grafana
6 27 (2.36%) Prometheus
7 19 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (1.22%) Check_MK
9 12 (1.05%) NetBackup
9 12 (1.05%) SCCM
10 11 (0.96%) Podman
10 11 (0.96%) Red Hat Satellite
10 11 (0.96%) vCenter Server
11 9 (0.79%) Dell DRAC
11 9 (0.79%) PowerCLI
12 8 (0.70%) vMotion
13 7 (0.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 6 (0.52%) EMC NetWorker
14 6 (0.52%) Tivoli Storage Manager
15 5 (0.44%) Nagios
Vendors
1 309 (27.01%) Cisco
2 152 (13.29%) Palo Alto
3 149 (13.02%) VMware
4 106 (9.27%) F5
5 104 (9.09%) Microsoft
6 94 (8.22%) Dell
7 87 (7.60%) Juniper
8 65 (5.68%) Arista
9 57 (4.98%) Aruba
10 55 (4.81%) Fortinet
11 49 (4.28%) CheckPoint
12 48 (4.20%) ServiceNow
13 41 (3.58%) SolarWinds
14 39 (3.41%) Google
15 37 (3.23%) Red Hat
16 34 (2.97%) IBM
17 30 (2.62%) Splunk
18 28 (2.45%) Oracle
19 26 (2.27%) Meraki
19 26 (2.27%) NVIDIA