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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 135 123
Rank change year-on-year +7 -12 -31
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,200 711 756
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.17% 2.14% 2.01%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.23% 5.94% 6.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 737 451 454
10th Percentile £325 £270 £359
25th Percentile £413 £375 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £614
90th Percentile £750 £713 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 41 35
10th Percentile £16.34 £20.25 £11.83
25th Percentile £19.33 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% +11.78% -2.17%
75th Percentile £55.13 £31.00 £26.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £40.00 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £25.11 £15.00
% change year-on-year -0.45% +67.42% -34.78%

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 19,249 11,971 11,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.81% 36.05% 30.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,501 7,360 6,875
10th Percentile £320 £293 £280
25th Percentile £425 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £530
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -2.83% -3.64%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £668
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,363 627 402
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.33 £16.30
25th Percentile £17.50 £18.50 £22.70
Median hourly rate £35.80 £27.33 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +30.99% -40.82% +2.62%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.49 £72.50 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.00 £26.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year +28.30% -49.52% +2.46%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +7 1,025 £538 +7.50% 236
UK excluding London -10 643 £500 +5.26% 161
London +18 416 £550 +4.76% 101
Work from Home -22 282 £548 +7.35% 207
North of England -2 224 £500 +6.33% 40
South East -4 167 £525 +29.23% 54
Yorkshire +9 133 £500 +11.11% 7
Midlands -59 73 £475 +0.40% 25
North West -29 71 £550 +2.61% 27
West Midlands -52 60 £500 - 19
South West -25 56 £650 +18.18% 29
East of England -3 50 £500 -16.67% 13
Scotland -4 46 £375 -16.67% 3
Wales +8 34 £453 +56.71% 4
North East -14 26 £625 +257.14% 6
East Midlands -19 13 £425 -2.75% 6
Channel Islands - 1 £575 -
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

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 38 (3.17%) Confluence
2 19 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.75%) OpenStack
5 7 (0.58%) IIS
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.083%) CICS
7 1 (0.083%) nginx
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
7 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 23 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
1 23 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.67%) Revit
5 7 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.58%) Navisworks
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 11 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.083%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.083%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.083%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.083%) Primavera
3 1 (0.083%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 259 (21.58%) Azure
2 210 (17.50%) AWS
3 69 (5.75%) GCP
4 61 (5.08%) GitHub
5 49 (4.08%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (3.92%) IaaS
7 40 (3.33%) Entra ID
7 40 (3.33%) SaaS
8 32 (2.67%) OCI
9 23 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (1.67%) PaaS
11 18 (1.50%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 18 (1.50%) OpenShift
12 17 (1.42%) AWS Direct Connect
13 16 (1.33%) Power Platform
14 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
15 13 (1.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 12 (1.00%) Nutanix
17 8 (0.67%) Azure Monitor
18 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 279 (23.25%) Firewall
2 183 (15.25%) WAN
3 168 (14.00%) BGP
4 128 (10.67%) DNS
5 119 (9.92%) Network Security
5 119 (9.92%) VPN
6 107 (8.92%) VLAN
7 105 (8.75%) LAN
8 101 (8.42%) VXLAN
9 100 (8.33%) OSPF
10 90 (7.50%) TCP/IP
11 88 (7.33%) SD-WAN
12 87 (7.25%) SAN
13 82 (6.83%) DHCP
14 74 (6.17%) Ethernet VPN
15 61 (5.08%) Wireless
16 56 (4.67%) Wi-Fi
17 55 (4.58%) Structured Cabling
18 52 (4.33%) BIG-IP
19 51 (4.25%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (3.83%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.33%) Power BI
3 11 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.42%) Db2
7 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
8 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.25%) Big Data
9 3 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
10 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.17%) Flink
10 2 (0.17%) Metadata
10 2 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
10 2 (0.17%) Sybase IQ
Development Applications
1 83 (6.92%) JIRA
2 40 (3.33%) Jenkins
3 37 (3.08%) GitLab
4 29 (2.42%) Git
5 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.33%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.25%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.17%) MSI
8 2 (0.17%) Toad
9 1 (0.083%) Appium
9 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.083%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.083%) Postman
9 1 (0.083%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.083%) Selenium
9 1 (0.083%) SpecFlow
General
1 291 (24.25%) Social Skills
2 182 (15.17%) Finance
3 91 (7.58%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (5.25%) Banking
5 59 (4.92%) Public Sector
6 58 (4.83%) Telecoms
7 48 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.08%) Legal
9 23 (1.92%) Retail
10 20 (1.67%) Manufacturing
11 19 (1.58%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (0.67%) Police
15 6 (0.50%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.50%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.42%) Cyber-Physical System
16 5 (0.42%) Law
16 5 (0.42%) Presentation Skills
17 4 (0.33%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 194 (16.17%) Architect
2 186 (15.50%) Network Engineer
3 145 (12.08%) Senior
4 120 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 86 (7.17%) Data Centre Engineer
6 79 (6.58%) Project Manager
7 74 (6.17%) Lead
8 72 (6.00%) Network Architect
9 50 (4.17%) Consultant
10 41 (3.42%) Data Centre Manager
11 37 (3.08%) IT Engineer
12 36 (3.00%) Technical Architect
13 35 (2.92%) Senior Network Engineer
13 35 (2.92%) Solutions Architect
14 34 (2.83%) Analyst
14 34 (2.83%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 34 (2.83%) Support Engineer
15 31 (2.58%) Infrastructure Manager
16 29 (2.42%) IT Support
16 29 (2.42%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (9.75%) Terraform
2 33 (2.75%) REST
3 28 (2.33%) Middleware
4 18 (1.50%) YAML
5 16 (1.33%) .NET
6 15 (1.25%) JSON
7 12 (1.00%) 802.1X
8 6 (0.50%) LDAP
8 6 (0.50%) NETCONF
8 6 (0.50%) OpenAPI
8 6 (0.50%) SAML
8 6 (0.50%) Swagger
9 5 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (0.42%) OpenConfig
9 5 (0.42%) RESTCONF
9 5 (0.42%) YANG
10 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
10 4 (0.33%) Kafka
10 4 (0.33%) Redfish
10 4 (0.33%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 83 (6.92%) Hybrid Cloud
2 48 (4.00%) Public Cloud
3 36 (3.00%) Enterprise Storage
4 33 (2.75%) Cloud Native
5 32 (2.67%) Private Cloud
6 31 (2.58%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.42%) PKI
8 28 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 28 (2.33%) Replication
9 26 (2.17%) Operational Technology
10 25 (2.08%) Data Protection Act
11 24 (2.00%) Clustering
12 23 (1.92%) SCADA
13 21 (1.75%) Self-Motivation
14 20 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
15 19 (1.58%) CMDB
16 15 (1.25%) Driving Licence
16 15 (1.25%) Fibre Optics
17 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
18 11 (0.92%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 201 (16.75%) Windows
2 125 (10.42%) Linux
3 79 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 28 (2.33%) Unix
5 17 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (1.08%) macOS
7 12 (1.00%) AIX
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Windows 10
9 9 (0.75%) VMS
10 8 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.50%) Solaris
12 5 (0.42%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.25%) HPUX
13 3 (0.25%) Oracle Linux
13 3 (0.25%) SUSE
13 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.25%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 264 (22.00%) Migration
2 177 (14.75%) Problem-Solving
3 174 (14.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 171 (14.25%) Stakeholder Management
5 133 (11.08%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.50%) Agile
7 111 (9.25%) CI/CD
7 111 (9.25%) ITIL
8 104 (8.67%) Project Delivery
9 99 (8.25%) High Availability
10 98 (8.17%) Validation
11 95 (7.92%) Continuous Improvement
12 89 (7.42%) Disaster Recovery
13 88 (7.33%) Roadmaps
14 84 (7.00%) Zero Trust
15 81 (6.75%) Change Management
16 78 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
17 77 (6.42%) DevOps
18 72 (6.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 69 (5.75%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 166 (13.83%) Python
2 76 (6.33%) PowerShell
3 55 (4.58%) SQL
4 35 (2.92%) Bash
5 19 (1.58%) ActionScript
6 17 (1.42%) C#
7 12 (1.00%) T-SQL
8 10 (0.83%) Bicep
9 8 (0.67%) Perl
10 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.58%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.42%) Go
11 5 (0.42%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.33%) Java
12 4 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.25%) JCL
13 3 (0.25%) Lisp
14 2 (0.17%) Korn
14 2 (0.17%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 304 (25.33%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.50%) SC Cleared
3 138 (11.50%) Cisco Certification
4 100 (8.33%) DV Cleared
5 89 (7.42%) CCNP
6 60 (5.00%) Degree
7 47 (3.92%) CCNA
8 33 (2.75%) AWS Certification
9 28 (2.33%) CCIE
10 26 (2.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 25 (2.08%) CISSP
12 24 (2.00%) Microsoft Certification
12 24 (2.00%) Network+ Certification
13 22 (1.83%) A+ Certification
13 22 (1.83%) Azure Certification
13 22 (1.83%) PMI Certification
14 21 (1.75%) PMP
15 19 (1.58%) VCAP
16 16 (1.33%) MCSE
17 13 (1.08%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (2.92%) QA
2 28 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 27 (2.25%) SLA
4 25 (2.08%) NIST
5 13 (1.08%) PMO
6 12 (1.00%) GDPR
6 12 (1.00%) GRC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
7 9 (0.75%) NCSC
8 8 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.50%) ISO 31000
9 6 (0.50%) ISO 9001
9 6 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 5 (0.42%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.33%) RMADS
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.17%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 155 (12.92%) VMware Infrastructure
2 100 (8.33%) Active Directory
3 56 (4.67%) vSphere
4 48 (4.00%) VMware NSX
5 41 (3.42%) Hyper-V
6 37 (3.08%) Docker
7 34 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
8 26 (2.17%) Firmware
9 15 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.92%) NFS
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
12 5 (0.42%) ISA Server
12 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
12 5 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
13 4 (0.33%) PowerHA
14 3 (0.25%) BitLocker
14 3 (0.25%) KVM
14 3 (0.25%) SRDF
14 3 (0.25%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 146 (12.17%) Ansible
2 61 (5.08%) Kubernetes
3 32 (2.67%) FortiGate
4 20 (1.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (1.42%) Prometheus
5 17 (1.42%) SCCM
6 16 (1.33%) vCenter Server
6 16 (1.33%) VxRail
7 14 (1.17%) Grafana
8 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (1.00%) PowerCLI
9 11 (0.92%) SCOM
9 11 (0.92%) vMotion
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
11 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 7 (0.58%) Nagios
13 6 (0.50%) CASB
13 6 (0.50%) Cisco Prime
13 6 (0.50%) WSUS
Vendors
1 277 (23.08%) Cisco
2 204 (17.00%) VMware
3 161 (13.42%) Microsoft
4 132 (11.00%) Palo Alto
5 108 (9.00%) F5
6 67 (5.58%) Fortinet
6 67 (5.58%) ServiceNow
7 60 (5.00%) Arista
8 59 (4.92%) Juniper
9 49 (4.08%) Dell
10 45 (3.75%) Aruba
11 37 (3.08%) CheckPoint
12 36 (3.00%) Google
12 36 (3.00%) Oracle
13 32 (2.67%) Red Hat
13 32 (2.67%) Veeam
14 26 (2.17%) Commvault
15 25 (2.08%) Zscaler
16 22 (1.83%) IBM
16 22 (1.83%) NetApp