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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 133 122
Rank change year-on-year +7 -11 -31
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,201 710 750
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.17% 2.13% 1.99%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.22% 5.92% 6.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 732 451 450
10th Percentile £325 £270 £358
25th Percentile £413 £380 £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 £719 £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 77 41 34
10th Percentile £16.51 £20.25 £11.81
25th Percentile £19.33 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £22.05
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% +14.08% -4.15%
75th Percentile £54.25 £31.00 £24.80
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 19,296 11,999 11,549
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.89% 36.07% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,526 7,366 6,884
10th Percentile £320 £293 £280
25th Percentile £423 £408 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £528
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -2.37% -4.09%
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 1,388 637 400
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.29 £16.84
25th Percentile £17.48 £18.50 £23.30
Median hourly rate £35.00 £27.33 £47.37
Median % change year-on-year +28.06% -42.31% +5.27%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.96 £72.50 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £26.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year +28.26% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 +6 1,024 £550 +10.00% 239
UK excluding London -15 638 £500 +5.26% 160
London +16 423 £550 +4.76% 100
Work from Home -27 282 £548 +7.35% 90
North of England 0 223 £507 +6.74% 43
South East -3 166 £525 +27.27% 56
Yorkshire +14 133 £500 +11.11% 7
Midlands -62 73 £475 +2.15% 22
North West -29 70 £550 +2.80% 30
West Midlands -53 60 £500 +0.81% 16
South West -28 51 £650 +18.18% 26
East of England -3 50 £500 -16.67% 16
Scotland -6 48 £388 -13.89% 3
Wales +9 34 £453 +56.71% 2
North East -16 26 £625 +257.14% 6
East Midlands -13 13 £425 +2.16% 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 39 (3.25%) Confluence
2 18 (1.50%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.75%) OpenStack
5 8 (0.67%) 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
7 1 (0.083%) WebLogic
Applications
1 23 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
1 23 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (0.83%) Revit
4 9 (0.75%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.67%) Navisworks
6 7 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
8 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
1 260 (21.65%) Azure
2 211 (17.57%) AWS
3 70 (5.83%) GCP
4 61 (5.08%) GitHub
5 50 (4.16%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (3.91%) IaaS
7 41 (3.41%) SaaS
8 40 (3.33%) Entra ID
9 33 (2.75%) OCI
10 23 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
11 20 (1.67%) PaaS
12 19 (1.58%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 19 (1.58%) OpenShift
13 18 (1.50%) AWS Direct Connect
14 16 (1.33%) Power Platform
15 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
16 13 (1.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 12 (1.00%) Nutanix
18 8 (0.67%) Azure Monitor
19 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 278 (23.15%) Firewall
2 184 (15.32%) WAN
3 164 (13.66%) BGP
4 127 (10.57%) DNS
5 121 (10.07%) Network Security
6 119 (9.91%) VPN
7 107 (8.91%) LAN
8 103 (8.58%) VLAN
9 97 (8.08%) OSPF
10 96 (7.99%) VXLAN
11 90 (7.49%) TCP/IP
12 88 (7.33%) SAN
12 88 (7.33%) SD-WAN
13 80 (6.66%) DHCP
14 74 (6.16%) Ethernet VPN
15 60 (5.00%) Wireless
16 56 (4.66%) Wi-Fi
17 55 (4.58%) Structured Cabling
18 52 (4.33%) BIG-IP
19 50 (4.16%) 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 84 (6.99%) JIRA
2 40 (3.33%) Jenkins
3 37 (3.08%) GitLab
4 29 (2.41%) 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
1 293 (24.40%) Social Skills
2 183 (15.24%) Finance
3 90 (7.49%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (5.16%) Banking
5 60 (5.00%) Public Sector
6 58 (4.83%) Telecoms
7 49 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.08%) Legal
9 23 (1.92%) Retail
10 21 (1.75%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.67%) 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
1 198 (16.49%) Architect
2 184 (15.32%) Network Engineer
3 145 (12.07%) Senior
4 119 (9.91%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 87 (7.24%) Data Centre Engineer
6 79 (6.58%) Project Manager
7 76 (6.33%) Lead
8 72 (6.00%) Network Architect
9 49 (4.08%) Consultant
10 41 (3.41%) Data Centre Manager
11 39 (3.25%) IT Engineer
12 38 (3.16%) Solutions Architect
13 37 (3.08%) Support Engineer
14 36 (3.00%) Technical Architect
15 35 (2.91%) Senior Network Engineer
16 34 (2.83%) Analyst
16 34 (2.83%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 32 (2.66%) IT Support
18 31 (2.58%) Infrastructure Manager
19 29 (2.41%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 116 (9.66%) 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 (6.91%) Hybrid Cloud
2 48 (4.00%) Public Cloud
3 36 (3.00%) Enterprise Storage
4 33 (2.75%) Cloud Native
5 32 (2.66%) Private Cloud
6 31 (2.58%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.41%) PKI
8 28 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 28 (2.33%) Replication
9 27 (2.25%) Operational Technology
10 25 (2.08%) Data Protection Act
11 24 (2.00%) Clustering
12 23 (1.92%) SCADA
13 22 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
14 20 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
15 19 (1.58%) CMDB
16 16 (1.33%) Driving Licence
17 15 (1.25%) Fibre Optics
18 11 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
18 11 (0.92%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 202 (16.82%) Windows
2 124 (10.32%) Linux
3 79 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 27 (2.25%) Unix
5 16 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (1.08%) macOS
7 12 (1.00%) AIX
8 11 (0.92%) Windows 10
9 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.75%) VMS
11 8 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (0.50%) Solaris
13 5 (0.42%) Ubuntu
13 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
13 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
14 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.25%) zOS
15 2 (0.17%) HPUX
15 2 (0.17%) Oracle Linux
15 2 (0.17%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 265 (22.06%) Migration
2 176 (14.65%) Problem-Solving
3 173 (14.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 172 (14.32%) Stakeholder Management
5 134 (11.16%) Infrastructure as Code
6 115 (9.58%) Agile
7 111 (9.24%) CI/CD
8 110 (9.16%) ITIL
9 105 (8.74%) Project Delivery
10 101 (8.41%) High Availability
11 98 (8.16%) Validation
12 91 (7.58%) Continuous Improvement
13 89 (7.41%) Roadmaps
14 87 (7.24%) Disaster Recovery
15 86 (7.16%) Zero Trust
16 80 (6.66%) Change Management
17 78 (6.49%) Cybersecurity
18 77 (6.41%) DevOps
19 73 (6.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 69 (5.75%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 166 (13.82%) Python
2 76 (6.33%) PowerShell
3 55 (4.58%) SQL
4 35 (2.91%) 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%) Java
11 5 (0.42%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.25%) JCL
14 2 (0.17%) Korn
14 2 (0.17%) Lisp
14 2 (0.17%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 303 (25.23%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.49%) SC Cleared
3 137 (11.41%) Cisco Certification
4 99 (8.24%) DV Cleared
5 87 (7.24%) CCNP
6 60 (5.00%) Degree
7 48 (4.00%) CCNA
8 33 (2.75%) AWS Certification
9 27 (2.25%) CCIE
10 26 (2.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 25 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
11 25 (2.08%) Network+ Certification
12 24 (2.00%) CISSP
13 23 (1.92%) A+ Certification
14 22 (1.83%) Azure Certification
14 22 (1.83%) PMI Certification
15 21 (1.75%) PMP
16 19 (1.58%) VCAP
17 17 (1.42%) MCSE
18 13 (1.08%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.00%) QA
2 28 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 27 (2.25%) SLA
4 24 (2.00%) NIST
5 13 (1.08%) PMO
6 12 (1.00%) GDPR
7 11 (0.92%) GRC
8 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.67%) NCSC
9 8 (0.67%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.50%) ISO 31000
10 6 (0.50%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 4 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
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
1 154 (12.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 99 (8.24%) Active Directory
3 56 (4.66%) vSphere
4 47 (3.91%) VMware NSX
5 44 (3.66%) Hyper-V
6 37 (3.08%) Docker
7 33 (2.75%) VMware ESXi
8 27 (2.25%) Firmware
9 16 (1.33%) 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%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
13 4 (0.33%) PowerHA
14 3 (0.25%) KVM
14 3 (0.25%) SRDF
14 3 (0.25%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 146 (12.16%) Ansible
2 62 (5.16%) Kubernetes
3 31 (2.58%) FortiGate
4 20 (1.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (1.50%) SCCM
6 17 (1.42%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.33%) VxRail
8 15 (1.25%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.17%) Grafana
10 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
10 12 (1.00%) PowerCLI
10 12 (1.00%) SCOM
11 11 (0.92%) vMotion
12 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
13 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 7 (0.58%) Nagios
14 7 (0.58%) WSUS
15 6 (0.50%) CASB
15 6 (0.50%) Cisco Prime
Vendors
1 270 (22.48%) Cisco
2 202 (16.82%) VMware
3 162 (13.49%) Microsoft
4 131 (10.91%) Palo Alto
5 102 (8.49%) F5
6 68 (5.66%) Fortinet
7 66 (5.50%) ServiceNow
8 60 (5.00%) Arista
8 60 (5.00%) Juniper
9 50 (4.16%) Dell
10 44 (3.66%) Aruba
11 37 (3.08%) CheckPoint
11 37 (3.08%) Oracle
12 36 (3.00%) Google
13 32 (2.66%) Veeam
14 31 (2.58%) Red Hat
15 26 (2.16%) Commvault
16 25 (2.08%) Zscaler
17 22 (1.83%) IBM
17 22 (1.83%) NetApp