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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 129 111
Rank change year-on-year +10 -18 -21
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,193 718 793
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.21% 2.21% 2.09%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.54% 6.23% 6.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 726 447 512
10th Percentile £318 £300 £363
25th Percentile £411 £395 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% -2.33% -0.46%
75th Percentile £650 £611 £619
90th Percentile £750 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +2.15% -8.93% +5.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 40 38
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £17.50 £25.04 £12.08
Median hourly rate £25.00 £25.15 £19.38
Median % change year-on-year -0.60% +29.81% -3.13%
75th Percentile £43.88 £32.00 £25.62
90th Percentile £80.00 £43.75 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.87 £15.00
% change year-on-year -22.23% +65.78% -15.35%

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 18,242 11,531 11,511
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.81% 35.45% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,027 7,069 7,183
10th Percentile £320 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £823
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,094 568 518
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.13 £13.80
25th Percentile £18.53 £18.87 £20.74
Median hourly rate £38.72 £30.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.07% -36.84% +10.14%
75th Percentile £67.88 £57.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.33 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -45.45% +22.22%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +1 997 £525 - 1,498
UK excluding London -15 621 £500 +2.15% 615
London +15 420 £550 - 992
Work from Home -2 278 £525 +1.60% 441
North of England -9 213 £500 +9.23% 122
South East -13 175 £539 +9.34% 175
Yorkshire -3 127 £475 +14.46% 40
North West -27 71 £503 -5.98% 51
South West -17 66 £600 +4.35% 87
Midlands -71 51 £450 -10.00% 54
Scotland -24 49 £388 -7.74% 59
West Midlands -63 41 £474 -5.20% 37
Wales +4 39 £468 +38.52% 18
East of England -13 35 £479 -20.21% 101
North East -19 21 £625 - 31
East Midlands -24 9 £400 -25.93% 17
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 10
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 29 (2.43%) Confluence
2 19 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.59%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.42%) Apache
5 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.25%) CICS
6 3 (0.25%) IIS
7 1 (0.084%) nginx
7 1 (0.084%) SAS
7 1 (0.084%) Tomcat
Applications
1 25 (2.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 13 (1.09%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.084%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.084%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 250 (20.96%) Azure
2 219 (18.36%) AWS
3 57 (4.78%) GCP
4 51 (4.27%) GitHub
5 43 (3.60%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (3.27%) IaaS
7 37 (3.10%) SaaS
8 29 (2.43%) Entra ID
8 29 (2.43%) OCI
9 18 (1.51%) Power Platform
10 15 (1.26%) OneDrive
10 15 (1.26%) PaaS
11 14 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (1.17%) OpenShift
12 13 (1.09%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 11 (0.92%) Nutanix
14 9 (0.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 8 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
17 6 (0.50%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 295 (24.73%) Firewall
2 188 (15.76%) WAN
3 176 (14.75%) BGP
4 127 (10.65%) VPN
5 126 (10.56%) DNS
6 120 (10.06%) VXLAN
7 114 (9.56%) OSPF
8 113 (9.47%) Network Security
9 111 (9.30%) LAN
10 109 (9.14%) VLAN
11 104 (8.72%) SAN
12 89 (7.46%) DHCP
13 83 (6.96%) SD-WAN
14 82 (6.87%) Ethernet VPN
14 82 (6.87%) TCP/IP
15 77 (6.45%) Structured Cabling
16 62 (5.20%) Wireless
17 59 (4.95%) Wi-Fi
18 54 (4.53%) Cisco Nexus
19 51 (4.27%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.85%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.26%) Power BI
3 11 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 7 (0.59%) Big Data
5 7 (0.59%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.50%) Db2
7 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
8 4 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.17%) DataStage
10 1 (0.084%) EDMS
10 1 (0.084%) Oracle Exadata
10 1 (0.084%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 75 (6.29%) JIRA
2 36 (3.02%) GitLab
3 31 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.01%) Git
5 7 (0.59%) 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 (0.084%) Claude Code
General
1 291 (24.39%) Social Skills
2 159 (13.33%) Finance
3 111 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (4.78%) Banking
5 55 (4.61%) Public Sector
6 54 (4.53%) Telecoms
7 48 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (2.35%) Retail
9 25 (2.10%) Legal
10 18 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (1.51%) Manufacturing
11 14 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.75%) Police
14 7 (0.59%) Financial Institution
14 7 (0.59%) Law
15 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
15 5 (0.42%) Marketing
16 4 (0.34%) Cyber-Physical System
17 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 202 (16.93%) Architect
2 199 (16.68%) Network Engineer
3 160 (13.41%) Senior
4 117 (9.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 87 (7.29%) Data Centre Engineer
6 77 (6.45%) Project Manager
7 66 (5.53%) Network Architect
8 63 (5.28%) Lead
9 53 (4.44%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.94%) Consultant
11 45 (3.77%) Senior Network Engineer
12 42 (3.52%) Data Centre Manager
13 41 (3.44%) Field Engineer
14 38 (3.19%) Technical Architect
15 36 (3.02%) Infrastructure Manager
16 35 (2.93%) Field Service Engineer
16 35 (2.93%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 35 (2.93%) Solutions Architect
17 31 (2.60%) Support Engineer
18 28 (2.35%) Cabling Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (9.05%) Terraform
2 44 (3.69%) Middleware
3 25 (2.10%) REST
4 17 (1.42%) 802.1X
5 13 (1.09%) YAML
6 12 (1.01%) JSON
7 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.67%) .NET
8 8 (0.67%) LDAP
9 7 (0.59%) NETCONF
10 6 (0.50%) Redfish
10 6 (0.50%) SAML
11 5 (0.42%) OpenConfig
11 5 (0.42%) RESTCONF
11 5 (0.42%) YANG
12 4 (0.34%) GeoJSON
12 4 (0.34%) Kafka
12 4 (0.34%) RESTful
13 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
13 3 (0.25%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 76 (6.37%) Hybrid Cloud
2 42 (3.52%) Analytical Mindset
3 36 (3.02%) Private Cloud
4 35 (2.93%) PKI
4 35 (2.93%) Public Cloud
5 33 (2.77%) Cloud Native
6 32 (2.68%) Management Information System
7 30 (2.51%) Fibre Optics
8 29 (2.43%) Clustering
9 28 (2.35%) Enterprise Storage
9 28 (2.35%) Onboarding
9 28 (2.35%) Replication
10 27 (2.26%) Data Protection Act
11 23 (1.93%) Operational Technology
12 18 (1.51%) SCADA
13 17 (1.42%) Driving Licence
14 16 (1.34%) CMDB
14 16 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
15 15 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
16 13 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 185 (15.51%) Windows
2 133 (11.15%) Linux
3 58 (4.86%) Windows Server
4 32 (2.68%) Unix
5 21 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.42%) AIX
7 13 (1.09%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.84%) Solaris
8 10 (0.84%) VMS
9 7 (0.59%) Windows 10
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.42%) HPUX
11 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.42%) SUSE
11 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.34%) CentOS
12 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (20.79%) Migration
2 186 (15.59%) Problem-Solving
3 150 (12.57%) Stakeholder Management
4 149 (12.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 113 (9.47%) Infrastructure as Code
5 113 (9.47%) ITIL
6 107 (8.97%) High Availability
7 98 (8.21%) CI/CD
8 95 (7.96%) Agile
9 89 (7.46%) Roadmaps
10 87 (7.29%) Project Delivery
10 87 (7.29%) Validation
11 80 (6.71%) Continuous Improvement
12 78 (6.54%) Disaster Recovery
13 76 (6.37%) Technical Leadership
13 76 (6.37%) Zero Trust
14 71 (5.95%) Change Management
15 69 (5.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 68 (5.70%) Load Balancing
17 67 (5.62%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 158 (13.24%) Python
2 62 (5.20%) PowerShell
3 41 (3.44%) SQL
4 31 (2.60%) Bash
5 13 (1.09%) ActionScript
6 10 (0.84%) Bicep
7 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
8 8 (0.67%) C#
8 8 (0.67%) Perl
9 7 (0.59%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.42%) Java
11 4 (0.34%) COBOL
11 4 (0.34%) Go
11 4 (0.34%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.34%) MATLAB
11 4 (0.34%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 309 (25.90%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.60%) SC Cleared
3 182 (15.26%) Cisco Certification
4 108 (9.05%) CCNP
5 98 (8.21%) DV Cleared
6 72 (6.04%) CCNA
7 63 (5.28%) Degree
8 44 (3.69%) Network+ Certification
9 42 (3.52%) Microsoft Certification
10 39 (3.27%) A+ Certification
11 34 (2.85%) MCSE
12 31 (2.60%) AWS Certification
13 28 (2.35%) CCIE
14 26 (2.18%) Azure Certification
15 24 (2.01%) CISSP
15 24 (2.01%) City & Guilds
16 23 (1.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 22 (1.84%) PMP
18 20 (1.68%) BICSI Certification
18 20 (1.68%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.02%) QA
2 30 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.35%) SLA
4 25 (2.10%) NIST
5 16 (1.34%) PMO
6 14 (1.17%) GDPR
7 11 (0.92%) NCSC
8 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 8 (0.67%) GRC
10 6 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.50%) RMADS
11 4 (0.34%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) ISO 31000
13 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 143 (11.99%) VMware Infrastructure
2 92 (7.71%) Active Directory
3 49 (4.11%) vSphere
4 44 (3.69%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.27%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (3.10%) Hyper-V
7 32 (2.68%) Docker
8 25 (2.10%) Firmware
9 15 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
10 12 (1.01%) NFS
11 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
12 5 (0.42%) PowerHA
13 4 (0.34%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
13 4 (0.34%) SRDF
13 4 (0.34%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.34%) Veritas Cluster Server
14 3 (0.25%) KVM
Systems Management
1 144 (12.07%) Ansible
2 56 (4.69%) Kubernetes
3 34 (2.85%) FortiGate
4 25 (2.10%) Prometheus
5 22 (1.84%) Grafana
6 19 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
7 18 (1.51%) vCenter Server
8 15 (1.26%) SCCM
8 15 (1.26%) VxRail
9 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Clustering
9 12 (1.01%) vMotion
10 10 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.84%) NetBackup
10 10 (0.84%) PowerCLI
10 10 (0.84%) SCOM
11 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
11 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 8 (0.67%) Nagios
13 7 (0.59%) Check_MK
14 5 (0.42%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 296 (24.81%) Cisco
2 198 (16.60%) VMware
3 143 (11.99%) Microsoft
4 128 (10.73%) Palo Alto
5 110 (9.22%) F5
6 74 (6.20%) Dell
7 71 (5.95%) Fortinet
8 69 (5.78%) Arista
8 69 (5.78%) Juniper
9 64 (5.36%) ServiceNow
10 42 (3.52%) Aruba
11 40 (3.35%) CheckPoint
12 35 (2.93%) Red Hat
13 30 (2.51%) Google
14 27 (2.26%) Veeam
15 26 (2.18%) Oracle
16 25 (2.10%) IBM
17 23 (1.93%) Zscaler
18 22 (1.84%) SolarWinds
19 20 (1.68%) NetApp