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 27 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 124 104
Rank change year-on-year +20 -20 -16
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,215 678 951
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.38% 2.24% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.26% 6.46% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 711 440 631
10th Percentile £318 £300 £310
25th Percentile £406 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £676 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £538
% change year-on-year - -11.63% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 24 55
10th Percentile £16.01 £24.31 £12.08
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -16.50% +5.67% +13.43%
75th Percentile £35.22 £40.31 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.85 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £20.00
% change year-on-year -21.57% +23.30% -3.40%

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 16,745 10,494 13,082
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.85% 34.61% 30.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,252 6,549 8,293
10th Percentile £313 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £663
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 858 478 929
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £19.00 £15.39
Median hourly rate £43.10 £31.04 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.86% -14.96% +62.22%
75th Percentile £70.00 £58.46 £62.50
90th Percentile £86.52 £80.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.25 £36.05
% change year-on-year +45.32% -16.08% +60.20%

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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 June 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 +14 1,001 £500 -3.61% 357
UK excluding London +2 688 £475 - 236
London +14 363 £550 +3.29% 183
Work from Home +13 320 £490 -2.05% 124
North of England +14 245 £475 +5.44% 39
South East +5 212 £475 +5.56% 88
Yorkshire +5 130 £365 -16.57% 18
North West -2 91 £500 -4.76% 18
Midlands -54 58 £466 -13.32% 26
Scotland +7 57 £469 +7.20% 10
West Midlands -50 53 £474 -11.81% 17
South West -33 49 £495 -10.00% 29
Wales +6 40 £468 +16.88% 15
East of England -13 38 £500 +66.67% 27
North East -7 30 £625 +468.18% 3
East Midlands -19 4 £363 -29.70% 9
Northern Ireland - 1 £425 - 7
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 (2.14%) Confluence
2 17 (1.40%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.91%) CICS
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.41%) Apache
4 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
4 5 (0.41%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.33%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.25%) nginx
6 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.082%) IIS
7 1 (0.082%) Mendix
Applications
1 15 (1.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.82%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Primavera
1 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.082%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 256 (21.07%) Azure
2 222 (18.27%) AWS
3 76 (6.26%) GCP
4 41 (3.37%) GitHub
4 41 (3.37%) IaaS
5 39 (3.21%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (2.80%) SaaS
7 30 (2.47%) OCI
8 25 (2.06%) Entra ID
9 21 (1.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 20 (1.65%) PaaS
11 16 (1.32%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
12 15 (1.23%) OneDrive
13 13 (1.07%) Power Platform
14 11 (0.91%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 11 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
14 11 (0.91%) Nutanix
15 9 (0.74%) Amazon EKS
16 8 (0.66%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 334 (27.49%) Firewall
2 201 (16.54%) WAN
3 190 (15.64%) BGP
4 145 (11.93%) OSPF
5 129 (10.62%) VPN
6 125 (10.29%) VXLAN
7 122 (10.04%) SAN
8 118 (9.71%) LAN
9 115 (9.47%) Network Security
10 114 (9.38%) DNS
11 99 (8.15%) VLAN
12 94 (7.74%) Structured Cabling
13 90 (7.41%) SD-WAN
14 87 (7.16%) Ethernet VPN
15 80 (6.58%) DHCP
16 61 (5.02%) BIG-IP
17 57 (4.69%) TCP/IP
18 54 (4.44%) Cisco Nexus
19 49 (4.03%) Wi-Fi
20 48 (3.95%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.15%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.82%) DataStage
3 8 (0.66%) Power BI
4 7 (0.58%) Big Data
5 6 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (0.33%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
7 3 (0.25%) GIS
7 3 (0.25%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.16%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.16%) Db2
8 2 (0.16%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.082%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 68 (5.60%) JIRA
2 36 (2.96%) GitLab
2 36 (2.96%) Jenkins
3 29 (2.39%) Git
4 8 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.41%) JMeter
6 4 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.33%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.33%) Maven
6 4 (0.33%) ScriptRunner
6 4 (0.33%) Subversion
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.16%) MSI
9 1 (0.082%) AppScan
9 1 (0.082%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.082%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.082%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.082%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.082%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.082%) Postman
General
1 301 (24.77%) Social Skills
2 164 (13.50%) Finance
3 132 (10.86%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (6.58%) Public Sector
5 61 (5.02%) Documentation Skills
6 49 (4.03%) Banking
7 43 (3.54%) Telecoms
8 38 (3.13%) Legal
9 25 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (1.89%) Retail
11 20 (1.65%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (0.91%) Military
13 11 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.74%) Financial Institution
14 9 (0.74%) Law
15 8 (0.66%) Marketing
16 7 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
17 6 (0.49%) Aerospace
17 6 (0.49%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 201 (16.54%) Architect
2 198 (16.30%) Network Engineer
3 138 (11.36%) Senior
4 102 (8.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 101 (8.31%) Data Centre Engineer
6 71 (5.84%) Project Manager
7 64 (5.27%) Lead
8 59 (4.86%) Network Architect
9 56 (4.61%) IT Engineer
10 53 (4.36%) Field Engineer
11 49 (4.03%) Field Service Engineer
12 46 (3.79%) Solutions Architect
13 41 (3.37%) Technical Architect
14 40 (3.29%) Infrastructure Manager
15 38 (3.13%) Data Centre Manager
16 37 (3.05%) Analyst
17 35 (2.88%) Support Engineer
18 34 (2.80%) Senior Network Engineer
19 32 (2.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
20 30 (2.47%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.36%) Middleware
2 32 (2.63%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.82%) LDAP
3 10 (0.82%) Redfish
3 10 (0.82%) REST
4 8 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
5 7 (0.58%) Spring
6 5 (0.41%) Jinja
6 5 (0.41%) Kafka
6 5 (0.41%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.41%) XML
7 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
7 4 (0.33%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.33%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.33%) RESTful
7 4 (0.33%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.33%) YAML
7 4 (0.33%) YANG
8 3 (0.25%) EJB
8 3 (0.25%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 75 (6.17%) Hybrid Cloud
2 56 (4.61%) Analytical Mindset
3 38 (3.13%) Management Information System
4 37 (3.05%) Cloud Native
5 32 (2.63%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.55%) Clustering
7 30 (2.47%) Onboarding
7 30 (2.47%) PKI
8 29 (2.39%) Private Cloud
9 27 (2.22%) Fibre Optics
10 21 (1.73%) CMDB
11 20 (1.65%) Driving Licence
11 20 (1.65%) Public Cloud
11 20 (1.65%) Replication
12 18 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
13 16 (1.32%) SCADA
14 14 (1.15%) NHS
14 14 (1.15%) Operational Technology
15 13 (1.07%) Mainframe
16 12 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 163 (13.42%) Windows
2 146 (12.02%) Linux
3 42 (3.46%) Windows Server
4 35 (2.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 29 (2.39%) Unix
6 23 (1.89%) AIX
7 18 (1.48%) Solaris
8 10 (0.82%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.82%) Mac OS
9 9 (0.74%) CentOS
10 8 (0.66%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
12 6 (0.49%) VMS
13 5 (0.41%) HPUX
13 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
13 5 (0.41%) SUSE
14 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
15 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
16 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 213 (17.53%) Migration
2 205 (16.87%) Problem-Solving
3 131 (10.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 126 (10.37%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (9.47%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.38%) High Availability
7 113 (9.30%) ITIL
8 106 (8.72%) CI/CD
9 98 (8.07%) Roadmaps
10 92 (7.57%) Continuous Improvement
11 89 (7.33%) Agile
12 85 (7.00%) Load Balancing
12 85 (7.00%) Validation
13 83 (6.83%) DevOps
14 78 (6.42%) Change Management
14 78 (6.42%) Project Delivery
15 72 (5.93%) Zero Trust
16 70 (5.76%) Project Management
17 68 (5.60%) Customer Service
17 68 (5.60%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 153 (12.59%) Python
2 41 (3.37%) PowerShell
3 36 (2.96%) SQL
4 26 (2.14%) Bash
5 19 (1.56%) Java
6 16 (1.32%) Bicep
6 16 (1.32%) Shell Script
7 12 (0.99%) COBOL
8 10 (0.82%) ActionScript
8 10 (0.82%) Perl
9 9 (0.74%) MATLAB
10 7 (0.58%) JavaScript
10 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.33%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) C
12 3 (0.25%) C#
12 3 (0.25%) C++
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Korn
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 317 (26.09%) Security Cleared
2 231 (19.01%) Cisco Certification
3 224 (18.44%) SC Cleared
4 137 (11.28%) CCNP
5 100 (8.23%) CCNA
6 84 (6.91%) DV Cleared
7 71 (5.84%) Degree
8 64 (5.27%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.44%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.87%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.87%) MCSE
11 30 (2.47%) Azure Certification
12 28 (2.30%) CCIE
13 26 (2.14%) City & Guilds
14 25 (2.06%) AWS Certification
15 24 (1.98%) PMI Certification
15 24 (1.98%) PMP
16 22 (1.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 20 (1.65%) BICSI Certification
18 18 (1.48%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (2.72%) SLA
2 27 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.14%) NIST
3 26 (2.14%) QA
4 22 (1.81%) PMO
5 19 (1.56%) GDPR
6 17 (1.40%) NCSC
7 10 (0.82%) GRC
8 9 (0.74%) Disclosure Scotland
8 9 (0.74%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.58%) RMADS
10 6 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.33%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.16%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 109 (8.97%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (5.35%) Active Directory
3 36 (2.96%) VMware ESXi
4 35 (2.88%) VMware NSX
4 35 (2.88%) vSphere
5 30 (2.47%) Firmware
6 26 (2.14%) Hyper-V
7 23 (1.89%) Virtual Machines
8 16 (1.32%) Docker
9 10 (0.82%) KVM
10 8 (0.66%) NFS
11 7 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.49%) SRDF
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.25%) UAG
14 3 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 138 (11.36%) Ansible
2 110 (9.05%) Terraform
3 55 (4.53%) FortiGate
4 50 (4.12%) Kubernetes
5 35 (2.88%) Grafana
6 30 (2.47%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.30%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.23%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.07%) NetBackup
10 12 (0.99%) Check_MK
11 11 (0.91%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.91%) vMotion
12 10 (0.82%) Dell DRAC
12 10 (0.82%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.74%) Podman
13 9 (0.74%) Red Hat Satellite
13 9 (0.74%) SCCM
14 7 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
14 7 (0.58%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 302 (24.86%) Cisco
2 165 (13.58%) VMware
3 142 (11.69%) Palo Alto
4 122 (10.04%) Microsoft
5 116 (9.55%) F5
6 95 (7.82%) Juniper
7 89 (7.33%) Dell
8 74 (6.09%) Arista
9 71 (5.84%) Fortinet
10 60 (4.94%) ServiceNow
11 47 (3.87%) Google
12 46 (3.79%) Aruba
13 43 (3.54%) SolarWinds
14 38 (3.13%) Red Hat
15 36 (2.96%) IBM
16 34 (2.80%) CheckPoint
17 30 (2.47%) Splunk
18 26 (2.14%) Oracle
19 25 (2.06%) Citrix
19 25 (2.06%) HP