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 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 129 114 89
Rank change year-on-year -15 -25 +19
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 719 810 1,278
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.18% 2.10% 2.58%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.14% 6.91% 7.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 455 505 875
10th Percentile £293 £363 £350
25th Percentile £389 £456 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £606 £619 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £538 £500
% change year-on-year -9.35% +7.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 40 14
10th Percentile £20.25 £11.75 £17.72
25th Percentile £25.07 £12.08 £17.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £20.80 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.94% -9.59% -61.98%
75th Percentile £34.00 £25.50 £26.17
90th Percentile £43.75 £28.99 £74.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.08 £18.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +39.31% -16.28% -

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 11,715 11,730 16,032
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 35.55% 30.44% 32.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,170 7,174 10,973
10th Percentile £300 £294 £300
25th Percentile £406 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £675 £675
90th Percentile £753 £807 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 585 472 449
10th Percentile £15.13 £14.41 £16.81
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £21.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +12.36% +71.15%
75th Percentile £55.00 £70.00 £66.44
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £57.35 £48.37
% change year-on-year -47.69% +18.58% +122.06%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Data Centre as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Data Centre 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 September 2025.

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 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Centre in the UK

Data Centre
Top 16 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 September 2025. 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 -17 609 £525 -1.87% 827
UK excluding London -7 411 £487 -9.35% 632
London -22 226 £550 +4.76% 336
Work from Home +2 196 £510 -7.27% 272
North of England -8 112 £478 -13.09% 92
South East +1 103 £450 -14.29% 266
Midlands -18 78 £500 -16.67% 109
Yorkshire +1 69 £450 -20.35% 28
West Midlands -12 61 £496 -17.33% 50
South West -15 45 £550 +2.56% 55
North West -7 43 £543 +8.50% 59
Scotland -8 42 £425 -32.00% 38
East of England -1 25 £600 +35.75% 66
East Midlands -5 17 £525 +17.98% 54
Wales +1 14 £300 -7.69% 14
North East -5 1 - - 5

Data Centre
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 32 (4.45%) Confluence
2 21 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.95%) SharePoint
4 12 (1.67%) OpenStack
5 6 (0.83%) Apache
6 5 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.70%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.56%) nginx
7 4 (0.56%) ThingWorx
8 3 (0.42%) CICS
8 3 (0.42%) HCL Notes
8 3 (0.42%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.28%) FileNet
9 2 (0.28%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.14%) IIS
10 1 (0.14%) OpenEdge
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 29 (4.03%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.67%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.39%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.42%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.42%) Revit
7 1 (0.14%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 6 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.42%) Oracle Financials
3 2 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.14%) StreamServe
Cloud Services
1 116 (16.13%) Azure
2 115 (15.99%) AWS
3 40 (5.56%) GCP
4 36 (5.01%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (3.06%) OpenShift
6 19 (2.64%) IaaS
7 18 (2.50%) PaaS
8 17 (2.36%) Entra ID
9 15 (2.09%) Power Platform
10 10 (1.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 10 (1.39%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 10 (1.39%) SaaS
11 6 (0.83%) Cloud Computing
11 6 (0.83%) GitHub
11 6 (0.83%) OneDrive
12 5 (0.70%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.70%) Nutanix
12 5 (0.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 4 (0.56%) Azure Monitor
13 4 (0.56%) Azure Stack
Communications & Networking
1 183 (25.45%) Firewall
2 124 (17.25%) WAN
3 71 (9.87%) BGP
4 67 (9.32%) VPN
5 65 (9.04%) Wireless
6 60 (8.34%) LAN
7 56 (7.79%) Cisco Nexus
8 54 (7.51%) OSPF
9 53 (7.37%) DNS
9 53 (7.37%) Network Security
10 48 (6.68%) SD-WAN
11 36 (5.01%) Wi-Fi
12 35 (4.87%) Ethernet VPN
12 35 (4.87%) MPLS
13 33 (4.59%) SAN
14 31 (4.31%) VXLAN
15 28 (3.89%) TCP/IP
16 27 (3.76%) DHCP
17 21 (2.92%) VLAN
18 20 (2.78%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.36%) Relational Database
2 15 (2.09%) Oracle Database
3 12 (1.67%) Big Data
3 12 (1.67%) Power BI
4 11 (1.53%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (1.39%) RDBMS
6 9 (1.25%) Oracle Reports
6 9 (1.25%) SQL Server
7 6 (0.83%) GIS
7 6 (0.83%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (0.70%) Apache Hive
8 5 (0.70%) Hadoop
8 5 (0.70%) HBase
9 3 (0.42%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.42%) Data Vault
9 3 (0.42%) DataStage
9 3 (0.42%) Metadata
9 3 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 31 (4.31%) JIRA
2 18 (2.50%) Sonatype Nexus
3 15 (2.09%) Git
4 14 (1.95%) GitLab
5 13 (1.81%) Jenkins
6 9 (1.25%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.97%) Maven
8 4 (0.56%) Gradle
8 4 (0.56%) Selenium
8 4 (0.56%) TeamCity
9 3 (0.42%) ER Studio
9 3 (0.42%) ERwin
10 2 (0.28%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.14%) Fiddler
11 1 (0.14%) Postman
General
1 163 (22.67%) Social Skills
2 135 (18.78%) Finance
3 65 (9.04%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (8.76%) Banking
4 63 (8.76%) Public Sector
5 49 (6.82%) Telecoms
6 17 (2.36%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 13 (1.81%) Legal
8 12 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
8 12 (1.67%) Retail
9 9 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.25%) Manufacturing
10 7 (0.97%) Front Office
10 7 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (0.83%) Law
12 5 (0.70%) German Language
12 5 (0.70%) Publishing
13 4 (0.56%) Billing
13 4 (0.56%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 122 (16.97%) Architect
2 117 (16.27%) Network Engineer
3 70 (9.74%) Analyst
4 46 (6.40%) Senior
5 43 (5.98%) Project Manager
6 33 (4.59%) Consultant
7 31 (4.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 31 (4.31%) Network Architect
8 29 (4.03%) Data Centre Engineer
8 29 (4.03%) Infrastructure Manager
9 28 (3.89%) Infrastructure Architect
10 26 (3.62%) Security Engineer
10 26 (3.62%) Support Engineer
11 24 (3.34%) Data Centre Manager
12 22 (3.06%) Lead
12 22 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
13 21 (2.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 20 (2.78%) Cisco Engineer
15 19 (2.64%) Business Analyst
15 19 (2.64%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.89%) RFC 2544
2 20 (2.78%) Middleware
3 14 (1.95%) 802.1X
4 5 (0.70%) Spark Streaming
5 4 (0.56%) Jinja
6 2 (0.28%) eBPF
6 2 (0.28%) EJB
6 2 (0.28%) Java SE
6 2 (0.28%) JSON
6 2 (0.28%) LDAP
6 2 (0.28%) ModSecurity
6 2 (0.28%) OpenLayers
6 2 (0.28%) OpenTelemetry
6 2 (0.28%) REST
6 2 (0.28%) Spring
7 1 (0.14%) .NET
7 1 (0.14%) ADO
7 1 (0.14%) JSP
7 1 (0.14%) Web Services
7 1 (0.14%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (4.17%) Cloud Native
2 29 (4.03%) Hybrid Cloud
3 23 (3.20%) Fibre Optics
3 23 (3.20%) PKI
4 22 (3.06%) Replication
5 20 (2.78%) CMDB
5 20 (2.78%) Private Cloud
6 19 (2.64%) SCADA
7 18 (2.50%) Driving Licence
7 18 (2.50%) Public Cloud
8 17 (2.36%) Clustering
9 16 (2.23%) Mainframe
9 16 (2.23%) Onboarding
10 14 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
11 11 (1.53%) Management Information System
12 10 (1.39%) Enterprise Storage
12 10 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
12 10 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
13 8 (1.11%) Linux Command Line
13 8 (1.11%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 97 (13.49%) Windows
2 84 (11.68%) Linux
3 28 (3.89%) Windows Server
4 26 (3.62%) Unix
5 20 (2.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (2.09%) Android
7 13 (1.81%) CentOS
7 13 (1.81%) Mac OS
8 10 (1.39%) Solaris
8 10 (1.39%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.83%) HPUX
10 5 (0.70%) Windows 10
11 4 (0.56%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.28%) AIX
12 2 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.28%) zOS
13 1 (0.14%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (21.00%) Migration
2 83 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
3 65 (9.04%) Agile
3 65 (9.04%) Disaster Recovery
4 63 (8.76%) DevOps
5 57 (7.93%) Service Management
6 56 (7.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 55 (7.65%) Change Management
8 50 (6.95%) Project Management
9 49 (6.82%) Stakeholder Management
10 47 (6.54%) High Availability
11 45 (6.26%) Risk Management
12 43 (5.98%) Customer Service
13 42 (5.84%) ITIL
14 41 (5.70%) Infrastructure as Code
14 41 (5.70%) Roadmaps
15 40 (5.56%) CI/CD
16 39 (5.42%) Network Design
17 37 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 35 (4.87%) Data Centre Operations
Programming Languages
1 72 (10.01%) Python
2 36 (5.01%) PowerShell
3 29 (4.03%) SQL
4 17 (2.36%) Java
5 12 (1.67%) Shell Script
6 11 (1.53%) Bash
7 9 (1.25%) Go
8 5 (0.70%) C
9 4 (0.56%) Bicep
10 3 (0.42%) C#
10 3 (0.42%) Ruby
11 2 (0.28%) AWK
11 2 (0.28%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.28%) JCL
11 2 (0.28%) Korn
11 2 (0.28%) Perl
11 2 (0.28%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.28%) PromQL
11 2 (0.28%) sed
12 1 (0.14%) C++
Qualifications
1 224 (31.15%) Security Cleared
2 170 (23.64%) SC Cleared
3 87 (12.10%) Cisco Certification
4 61 (8.48%) DV Cleared
5 53 (7.37%) Degree
6 44 (6.12%) CCNP
7 30 (4.17%) CCIE
8 21 (2.92%) CCNA
9 14 (1.95%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.39%) CISSP
11 10 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.39%) JNCIE
11 10 (1.39%) PMP
12 9 (1.25%) PMI Certification
13 7 (0.97%) CISA
13 7 (0.97%) Microsoft Certification
14 6 (0.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 5 (0.70%) CISM
15 5 (0.70%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (2.92%) SLA
2 18 (2.50%) PCI DSS
3 16 (2.23%) NIST
4 14 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 13 (1.81%) QA
6 11 (1.53%) PMO
7 6 (0.83%) Data Quality
7 6 (0.83%) GDPR
8 4 (0.56%) JSP 440
8 4 (0.56%) RMADS
9 3 (0.42%) GRC
9 3 (0.42%) NCSC
10 2 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.14%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 75 (10.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 60 (8.34%) Active Directory
3 30 (4.17%) Docker
4 29 (4.03%) Hyper-V
5 23 (3.20%) VMware NSX
6 19 (2.64%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (2.23%) vSphere
8 11 (1.53%) Microsoft App-V
9 10 (1.39%) Virtual Machines
10 9 (1.25%) BitLocker
10 9 (1.25%) Terminal Services
11 7 (0.97%) Firmware
12 5 (0.70%) HDFS
13 4 (0.56%) KVM
14 3 (0.42%) GPFS
14 3 (0.42%) NFS
14 3 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
15 2 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.14%) Lustre
16 1 (0.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 77 (10.71%) Ansible
2 47 (6.54%) Terraform
3 34 (4.73%) Kubernetes
4 19 (2.64%) Puppet
4 19 (2.64%) vCenter Server
5 16 (2.23%) FortiGate
6 14 (1.95%) SCCM
7 11 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (1.25%) Nagios
8 9 (1.25%) Oracle RMAN
8 9 (1.25%) vMotion
9 8 (1.11%) Grafana
10 7 (0.97%) Control-M
11 6 (0.83%) VxRail
12 5 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.70%) Hadoop YARN
12 5 (0.70%) SCOM
12 5 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
13 4 (0.56%) OpenView
13 4 (0.56%) OPNET
Vendors
1 186 (25.87%) Cisco
2 103 (14.33%) Microsoft
3 95 (13.21%) VMware
4 56 (7.79%) F5
5 46 (6.40%) Palo Alto
6 43 (5.98%) ServiceNow
7 42 (5.84%) Juniper
8 36 (5.01%) HP
9 35 (4.87%) Fortinet
10 33 (4.59%) Oracle
11 30 (4.17%) Dell
12 28 (3.89%) SolarWinds
13 25 (3.48%) Arista
14 22 (3.06%) Google
15 20 (2.78%) Citrix
16 19 (2.64%) CheckPoint
17 18 (2.50%) IBM
17 18 (2.50%) Meraki
18 15 (2.09%) SAP
19 14 (1.95%) NetApp