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 10 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 128 112
Rank change year-on-year +6 -16 -22
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,205 717 797
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.21% 2.17% 2.08%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.52% 6.12% 6.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 724 444 503
10th Percentile £318 £300 £363
25th Percentile £407 £404 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.24% -1.87% -1.34%
75th Percentile £650 £613 £619
90th Percentile £745 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £492 £538
% change year-on-year +0.61% -8.47% +7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 42 38
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.32 £25.07 £12.08
Median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £19.38
Median % change year-on-year +19.28% +29.81% -9.88%
75th Percentile £50.94 £34.00 £24.80
90th Percentile £79.13 £43.75 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £25.08 £15.00
% change year-on-year -22.87% +67.17% -20.47%

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 18,469 11,725 11,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.89% 35.54% 30.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,102 7,189 7,187
10th Percentile £320 £300 £300
25th Percentile £424 £406 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £745 £763 £820
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,141 579 500
10th Percentile £14.15 £15.13 £14.06
25th Percentile £18.00 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -36.84% +8.35%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +33.33% -47.69% +25.00%

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 10 September 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 10 September 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 10 September 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 1,011 £525 - 1,377
UK excluding London -17 628 £495 +0.61% 572
London +26 428 £550 - 903
Work from Home -2 282 £525 +0.96% 411
North of England -1 216 £500 +6.33% 119
South East -14 174 £540 +9.64% 160
Yorkshire +1 128 £475 +5.56% 44
North West -22 72 £503 -6.42% 51
South West -23 65 £600 +4.35% 81
Midlands -74 53 £438 -12.50% 56
Scotland -31 52 £375 -11.24% 51
West Midlands -56 42 £474 -5.20% 39
Wales +9 38 £468 +55.83% 19
East of England -16 37 £474 -21.08% 89
North East -25 22 £625 - 25
East Midlands -23 10 £413 -22.54% 17
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 8
Channel Islands - 1 £575 - 2

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 31 (2.57%) Confluence
2 19 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.25%) CICS
6 3 (0.25%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) nginx
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
7 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 26 (2.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
7 2 (0.17%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.17%) Revit
Business Applications
1 13 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.083%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 249 (20.66%) Azure
2 216 (17.93%) AWS
3 54 (4.48%) GCP
4 51 (4.23%) GitHub
5 44 (3.65%) Microsoft 365
6 40 (3.32%) IaaS
7 37 (3.07%) SaaS
8 31 (2.57%) Entra ID
9 29 (2.41%) OCI
10 18 (1.49%) Power Platform
11 16 (1.33%) PaaS
12 15 (1.24%) OneDrive
13 14 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
13 14 (1.16%) OpenShift
14 13 (1.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 11 (0.91%) Nutanix
16 10 (0.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 8 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
18 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
19 6 (0.50%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 296 (24.56%) Firewall
2 188 (15.60%) WAN
3 179 (14.85%) BGP
4 128 (10.62%) VPN
5 126 (10.46%) DNS
6 119 (9.88%) VXLAN
7 116 (9.63%) OSPF
8 113 (9.38%) Network Security
9 111 (9.21%) LAN
10 110 (9.13%) VLAN
11 103 (8.55%) SAN
12 88 (7.30%) DHCP
13 84 (6.97%) TCP/IP
14 82 (6.80%) Ethernet VPN
14 82 (6.80%) SD-WAN
15 77 (6.39%) Structured Cabling
16 64 (5.31%) Wireless
17 59 (4.90%) Wi-Fi
18 56 (4.65%) Cisco Nexus
19 50 (4.15%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.99%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.24%) Power BI
3 11 (0.91%) 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%) Db2
6 6 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.25%) Big Data
9 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.17%) DataStage
9 2 (0.17%) Flink
9 2 (0.17%) Metadata
10 1 (0.083%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 78 (6.47%) JIRA
2 36 (2.99%) GitLab
3 31 (2.57%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.99%) Git
5 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
6 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.17%) MSI
7 2 (0.17%) Toad
8 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
General
1 292 (24.23%) Social Skills
2 162 (13.44%) Finance
3 105 (8.71%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (4.81%) Banking
5 56 (4.65%) Public Sector
6 51 (4.23%) Telecoms
7 49 (4.07%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (2.32%) Retail
9 24 (1.99%) Legal
10 18 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (1.49%) Manufacturing
11 14 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 13 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.75%) Police
14 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
14 7 (0.58%) Law
15 6 (0.50%) Marketing
16 5 (0.41%) Investment Banking
17 4 (0.33%) Cyber-Physical System
18 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 201 (16.68%) Network Engineer
2 197 (16.35%) Architect
3 163 (13.53%) Senior
4 120 (9.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 88 (7.30%) Data Centre Engineer
6 77 (6.39%) Project Manager
7 65 (5.39%) Network Architect
8 64 (5.31%) Lead
9 51 (4.23%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.90%) Consultant
11 45 (3.73%) Senior Network Engineer
12 41 (3.40%) Data Centre Manager
13 38 (3.15%) Field Engineer
13 38 (3.15%) Technical Architect
14 36 (2.99%) Infrastructure Manager
15 35 (2.90%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 32 (2.66%) Field Service Engineer
16 32 (2.66%) Support Engineer
17 31 (2.57%) Solutions Architect
18 28 (2.32%) Cabling Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (9.21%) Terraform
2 40 (3.32%) Middleware
3 27 (2.24%) REST
4 17 (1.41%) 802.1X
5 13 (1.08%) YAML
6 12 (1.00%) JSON
7 9 (0.75%) .NET
8 8 (0.66%) LDAP
9 7 (0.58%) NETCONF
10 6 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (0.50%) Redfish
10 6 (0.50%) SAML
11 5 (0.41%) Kafka
11 5 (0.41%) OpenConfig
11 5 (0.41%) RESTCONF
11 5 (0.41%) YANG
12 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
12 4 (0.33%) RESTful
13 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
13 3 (0.25%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 77 (6.39%) Hybrid Cloud
2 39 (3.24%) Analytical Mindset
3 36 (2.99%) Private Cloud
4 35 (2.90%) Public Cloud
5 34 (2.82%) PKI
6 33 (2.74%) Cloud Native
7 32 (2.66%) Management Information System
8 30 (2.49%) Fibre Optics
9 29 (2.41%) Replication
10 28 (2.32%) Clustering
10 28 (2.32%) Data Protection Act
10 28 (2.32%) Enterprise Storage
11 27 (2.24%) Onboarding
12 23 (1.91%) Operational Technology
13 18 (1.49%) SCADA
14 17 (1.41%) Driving Licence
15 16 (1.33%) CMDB
15 16 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
16 15 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
17 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 190 (15.77%) Windows
2 134 (11.12%) Linux
3 62 (5.15%) Windows Server
4 32 (2.66%) Unix
5 21 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.41%) AIX
7 13 (1.08%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) VMS
9 8 (0.66%) Windows 10
10 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.41%) HPUX
12 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.41%) SUSE
12 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.33%) CentOS
13 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (20.66%) Migration
2 184 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
3 153 (12.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 153 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 115 (9.54%) Infrastructure as Code
4 115 (9.54%) ITIL
5 108 (8.96%) High Availability
6 98 (8.13%) Agile
7 94 (7.80%) CI/CD
8 91 (7.55%) Project Delivery
9 88 (7.30%) Roadmaps
9 88 (7.30%) Validation
10 81 (6.72%) Disaster Recovery
11 78 (6.47%) Continuous Improvement
12 76 (6.31%) Zero Trust
13 73 (6.06%) Change Management
14 72 (5.98%) Technical Leadership
15 71 (5.89%) ITSM
16 69 (5.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 67 (5.56%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 158 (13.11%) Python
2 65 (5.39%) PowerShell
3 45 (3.73%) SQL
4 31 (2.57%) Bash
5 13 (1.08%) ActionScript
6 10 (0.83%) Bicep
7 9 (0.75%) C#
7 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
8 8 (0.66%) Perl
9 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.41%) Java
10 5 (0.41%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.33%) COBOL
11 4 (0.33%) Go
11 4 (0.33%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 311 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.43%) SC Cleared
3 179 (14.85%) Cisco Certification
4 108 (8.96%) CCNP
5 99 (8.22%) DV Cleared
6 69 (5.73%) CCNA
7 60 (4.98%) Degree
8 41 (3.40%) Network+ Certification
9 39 (3.24%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (3.07%) A+ Certification
11 31 (2.57%) MCSE
12 29 (2.41%) AWS Certification
12 29 (2.41%) CCIE
13 24 (1.99%) Azure Certification
13 24 (1.99%) CISSP
13 24 (1.99%) City & Guilds
14 23 (1.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 22 (1.83%) PMP
16 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
16 20 (1.66%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (2.99%) QA
2 29 (2.41%) SLA
3 26 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 21 (1.74%) NIST
5 16 (1.33%) PMO
6 11 (0.91%) GDPR
6 11 (0.91%) NCSC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
8 8 (0.66%) GRC
9 6 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.50%) RMADS
10 4 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.17%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 149 (12.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 96 (7.97%) Active Directory
3 51 (4.23%) vSphere
4 44 (3.65%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.24%) Hyper-V
5 39 (3.24%) VMware ESXi
6 29 (2.41%) Docker
7 26 (2.16%) Firmware
8 15 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (1.00%) NFS
10 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
10 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
11 5 (0.41%) PowerHA
12 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
12 4 (0.33%) SRDF
12 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.33%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 3 (0.25%) KVM
Systems Management
1 144 (11.95%) Ansible
2 53 (4.40%) Kubernetes
3 33 (2.74%) FortiGate
4 22 (1.83%) Prometheus
5 19 (1.58%) Grafana
5 19 (1.58%) Microsoft Intune
6 18 (1.49%) vCenter Server
7 15 (1.24%) SCCM
7 15 (1.24%) VxRail
8 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (1.00%) PowerCLI
8 12 (1.00%) vMotion
9 11 (0.91%) SCOM
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.83%) NetBackup
11 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
11 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 8 (0.66%) Nagios
13 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
14 5 (0.41%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 300 (24.90%) Cisco
2 203 (16.85%) VMware
3 146 (12.12%) Microsoft
4 128 (10.62%) Palo Alto
5 110 (9.13%) F5
6 71 (5.89%) Dell
7 70 (5.81%) Arista
7 70 (5.81%) Fortinet
8 68 (5.64%) Juniper
9 67 (5.56%) ServiceNow
10 41 (3.40%) Aruba
11 40 (3.32%) CheckPoint
12 35 (2.90%) Red Hat
13 28 (2.32%) Veeam
14 27 (2.24%) Oracle
15 26 (2.16%) Google
16 25 (2.07%) IBM
17 22 (1.83%) SolarWinds
17 22 (1.83%) Zscaler
18 21 (1.74%) NetApp