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 21 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 122 102
Rank change year-on-year +15 -20 -16
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,233 731 907
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.34% 2.24% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.05% 6.48% 7.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 727 465 604
10th Percentile £325 £303 £341
25th Percentile £413 £406 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -5.12% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £738 £675 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £540
% change year-on-year -3.01% -9.35% +8.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 30 50
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £12.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £13.75
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +5.67% +14.95%
75th Percentile £35.22 £35.50 £28.25
90th Percentile £78.90 £43.75 £40.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £18.51
% change year-on-year -21.57% +33.23% -10.60%

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 17,495 11,285 12,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.19% 34.63% 30.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,701 6,971 8,109
10th Percentile £318 £300 £300
25th Percentile £417 £406 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £630 £645 £666
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 886 539 761
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.29 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.89 £18.87 £15.92
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +46.53% -22.08% +10.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £87.50 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -25.00% -12.70%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 +23 1,030 £513 -2.38% 530
UK excluding London -4 682 £475 -3.01% 258
London +13 390 £550 +4.76% 330
Work from Home +1 311 £513 +0.49% 177
North of England +9 243 £482 +3.54% 50
South East -1 214 £500 - 99
Yorkshire 0 136 £365 -18.89% 14
North West -7 88 £516 -1.81% 24
Midlands -47 57 £465 -13.89% 18
Scotland -6 54 £450 +1.41% 9
South West -35 54 £495 -10.00% 25
West Midlands -46 52 £470 -8.21% 13
Wales +3 39 £468 +24.67% 17
East of England -15 32 £500 +11.11% 34
North East -19 25 £625 +468.18% 12
East Midlands -21 4 £363 -34.09% 5
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 26 (2.11%) Confluence
2 16 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.89%) CICS
3 11 (0.89%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.57%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.32%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.24%) nginx
7 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.081%) IIS
8 1 (0.081%) Mendix
8 1 (0.081%) SAS
Applications
1 18 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.81%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 4 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.24%) Primavera
2 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.081%) OpenText MBPM
4 1 (0.081%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 269 (21.82%) Azure
2 227 (18.41%) AWS
3 76 (6.16%) GCP
4 42 (3.41%) GitHub
4 42 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
5 41 (3.33%) IaaS
6 33 (2.68%) SaaS
7 30 (2.43%) OCI
8 28 (2.27%) Entra ID
9 19 (1.54%) PaaS
10 18 (1.46%) OpenShift
11 17 (1.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (1.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 13 (1.05%) OneDrive
14 12 (0.97%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.89%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.89%) Nutanix
16 8 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
17 6 (0.49%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 339 (27.49%) Firewall
2 198 (16.06%) WAN
3 194 (15.73%) BGP
4 148 (12.00%) OSPF
5 136 (11.03%) VPN
6 128 (10.38%) DNS
7 123 (9.98%) SAN
7 123 (9.98%) VXLAN
8 120 (9.73%) LAN
9 116 (9.41%) Network Security
10 103 (8.35%) VLAN
11 96 (7.79%) DHCP
12 91 (7.38%) Structured Cabling
13 86 (6.97%) Ethernet VPN
14 84 (6.81%) SD-WAN
15 71 (5.76%) TCP/IP
16 60 (4.87%) BIG-IP
17 59 (4.79%) Wi-Fi
18 58 (4.70%) Wireless
19 56 (4.54%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.54%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.81%) DataStage
3 7 (0.57%) Big Data
3 7 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (0.57%) Power BI
4 6 (0.49%) Db2
4 6 (0.49%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.32%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.32%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.32%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.24%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 72 (5.84%) JIRA
2 29 (2.35%) GitLab
2 29 (2.35%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.11%) Git
4 9 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.41%) JMeter
6 4 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.32%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.32%) Maven
6 4 (0.32%) Subversion
7 3 (0.24%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.24%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.16%) MSI
8 2 (0.16%) Toad
9 1 (0.081%) AppScan
9 1 (0.081%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.081%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
General
1 308 (24.98%) Social Skills
2 167 (13.54%) Finance
3 126 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
4 81 (6.57%) Public Sector
5 53 (4.30%) Documentation Skills
6 48 (3.89%) Banking
6 48 (3.89%) Telecoms
7 28 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
7 28 (2.27%) Legal
8 27 (2.19%) Retail
9 18 (1.46%) Manufacturing
10 17 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (0.81%) Military
13 9 (0.73%) Law
14 8 (0.65%) Police
15 7 (0.57%) Financial Institution
16 6 (0.49%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.49%) Marketing
17 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 199 (16.14%) Architect
2 198 (16.06%) Network Engineer
3 149 (12.08%) Senior
4 115 (9.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 108 (8.76%) Data Centre Engineer
6 81 (6.57%) Project Manager
7 62 (5.03%) Network Architect
8 59 (4.79%) Lead
9 52 (4.22%) IT Engineer
10 49 (3.97%) Field Engineer
11 46 (3.73%) Field Service Engineer
12 45 (3.65%) Infrastructure Manager
13 42 (3.41%) Data Centre Manager
13 42 (3.41%) Technical Architect
14 39 (3.16%) Solutions Architect
15 37 (3.00%) Senior Network Engineer
16 35 (2.84%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.60%) Analyst
17 32 (2.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 31 (2.51%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.22%) Middleware
2 32 (2.60%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.81%) Redfish
3 10 (0.81%) REST
4 8 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (0.65%) LDAP
5 7 (0.57%) NETCONF
5 7 (0.57%) Spring
6 6 (0.49%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.49%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.49%) SAML
6 6 (0.49%) YANG
7 5 (0.41%) Jinja
7 5 (0.41%) Kafka
7 5 (0.41%) XML
8 4 (0.32%) .NET
8 4 (0.32%) GeoJSON
8 4 (0.32%) RESTful
8 4 (0.32%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.32%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 77 (6.24%) Hybrid Cloud
2 54 (4.38%) Analytical Mindset
3 43 (3.49%) PKI
4 36 (2.92%) Clustering
5 35 (2.84%) Cloud Native
5 35 (2.84%) Management Information System
6 31 (2.51%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.51%) Private Cloud
7 28 (2.27%) Fibre Optics
7 28 (2.27%) Onboarding
8 24 (1.95%) Replication
9 22 (1.78%) Public Cloud
10 21 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (1.62%) Driving Licence
12 17 (1.38%) CMDB
12 17 (1.38%) Mainframe
13 16 (1.30%) Operational Technology
14 14 (1.14%) SCADA
14 14 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 163 (13.22%) Windows
2 139 (11.27%) Linux
3 42 (3.41%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.00%) Unix
5 28 (2.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 26 (2.11%) AIX
7 18 (1.46%) Solaris
8 10 (0.81%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.81%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.49%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.49%) VMS
11 5 (0.41%) HPUX
11 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.41%) SUSE
12 4 (0.32%) CentOS
12 4 (0.32%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (19.55%) Migration
2 206 (16.71%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (11.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 133 (10.79%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (9.33%) ITIL
6 114 (9.25%) High Availability
7 113 (9.16%) Infrastructure as Code
8 105 (8.52%) CI/CD
9 102 (8.27%) Roadmaps
10 99 (8.03%) Agile
11 88 (7.14%) Continuous Improvement
12 86 (6.97%) Load Balancing
13 82 (6.65%) Change Management
14 81 (6.57%) Project Delivery
15 80 (6.49%) Validation
16 78 (6.33%) DevOps
17 76 (6.16%) Zero Trust
18 69 (5.60%) Project Management
19 66 (5.35%) Network Design
20 65 (5.27%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 163 (13.22%) Python
2 48 (3.89%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.08%) SQL
4 30 (2.43%) Bash
5 19 (1.54%) Java
6 14 (1.14%) Bicep
6 14 (1.14%) Perl
7 12 (0.97%) COBOL
7 12 (0.97%) Shell Script
8 10 (0.81%) ActionScript
9 8 (0.65%) PL/SQL
10 6 (0.49%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.32%) C#
11 4 (0.32%) Lisp
11 4 (0.32%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.24%) JCL
12 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.16%) C++
13 2 (0.16%) Korn
13 2 (0.16%) REXX
Qualifications
1 316 (25.63%) Security Cleared
2 223 (18.09%) Cisco Certification
3 208 (16.87%) SC Cleared
4 130 (10.54%) CCNP
5 101 (8.19%) DV Cleared
6 90 (7.30%) CCNA
7 66 (5.35%) Degree
8 61 (4.95%) Network+ Certification
9 51 (4.14%) Microsoft Certification
10 44 (3.57%) A+ Certification
10 44 (3.57%) MCSE
11 30 (2.43%) CCIE
12 29 (2.35%) Azure Certification
13 26 (2.11%) City & Guilds
14 24 (1.95%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 23 (1.87%) PMP
16 22 (1.78%) PMI Certification
17 21 (1.70%) CISSP
18 20 (1.62%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.43%) SLA
2 29 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.27%) QA
4 26 (2.11%) NIST
5 20 (1.62%) PMO
6 18 (1.46%) GDPR
7 17 (1.38%) NCSC
8 10 (0.81%) Disclosure Scotland
9 9 (0.73%) GRC
10 8 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.57%) RMADS
12 6 (0.49%) JSP 440
13 5 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
15 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
15 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
15 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.16%) WCAG
16 1 (0.081%) COBIT
System Software
1 114 (9.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 68 (5.52%) Active Directory
3 43 (3.49%) vSphere
4 41 (3.33%) VMware NSX
5 37 (3.00%) VMware ESXi
6 32 (2.60%) Firmware
7 30 (2.43%) Hyper-V
8 23 (1.87%) Docker
9 21 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.89%) NFS
11 8 (0.65%) KVM
12 6 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.49%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.49%) SRDF
13 5 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
14 4 (0.32%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.32%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 140 (11.35%) Ansible
2 108 (8.76%) Terraform
3 55 (4.46%) Kubernetes
4 51 (4.14%) FortiGate
5 32 (2.60%) Grafana
6 28 (2.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 27 (2.19%) Prometheus
8 17 (1.38%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.05%) NetBackup
10 12 (0.97%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.89%) vMotion
12 10 (0.81%) Dell DRAC
12 10 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.81%) Tivoli Storage Manager
13 8 (0.65%) SCCM
13 8 (0.65%) VxRail
14 7 (0.57%) Check_MK
14 7 (0.57%) EMC NetWorker
15 6 (0.49%) Avamar
15 6 (0.49%) Nagios
Vendors
1 301 (24.41%) Cisco
2 168 (13.63%) VMware
3 138 (11.19%) Palo Alto
4 124 (10.06%) Microsoft
5 123 (9.98%) F5
6 92 (7.46%) Juniper
7 82 (6.65%) Dell
8 76 (6.16%) Arista
8 76 (6.16%) Fortinet
9 57 (4.62%) ServiceNow
10 45 (3.65%) Google
11 41 (3.33%) IBM
11 41 (3.33%) SolarWinds
12 39 (3.16%) Aruba
13 37 (3.00%) CheckPoint
14 33 (2.68%) Red Hat
15 31 (2.51%) Splunk
16 27 (2.19%) Oracle
17 22 (1.78%) Citrix
17 22 (1.78%) HP