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 30 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 125 109
Rank change year-on-year +5 -16 -21
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,207 738 814
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.24% 2.24% 2.11%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.63% 6.33% 6.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 731 466 532
10th Percentile £318 £300 £351
25th Percentile £413 £399 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -0.11%
75th Percentile £650 £606 £624
90th Percentile £750 £719 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +1.02% -8.84% +4.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 39 38
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £17.50 £25.04 £12.08
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £19.38
Median % change year-on-year -16.50% +29.81% -3.13%
75th Percentile £40.13 £31.00 £25.83
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 18,193 11,653 11,682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.70% 35.37% 30.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,986 7,178 7,359
10th Percentile £324 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £519 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.20% -5.68% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,080 574 546
10th Percentile £14.67 £15.13 £12.98
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.87 £19.09
Median hourly rate £39.00 £29.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.20% -34.44% +3.75%
75th Percentile £68.75 £56.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year +46.53% -42.86% +16.67%

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 30 August 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 30 August 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 30 August 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 1,015 £525 - 743
UK excluding London -17 635 £495 +1.02% 374
London +16 421 £550 - 448
Work from Home 0 282 £533 +1.43% 200
North of England -7 216 £492 +9.33% 81
South East -6 183 £540 +9.64% 115
Yorkshire -3 131 £465 +12.05% 31
North West -26 70 £503 -5.98% 27
South West -22 68 £588 +6.82% 60
Midlands -68 52 £425 -15.00% 37
Scotland -13 47 £388 -5.95% 21
West Midlands -58 43 £456 -8.80% 30
Wales +4 40 £468 +55.83% 14
East of England -14 37 £479 -20.21% 51
North East -18 21 £625 +468.18% 23
East Midlands -19 8 £400 -25.93% 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 30 (2.49%) Confluence
2 19 (1.57%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.25%) CICS
7 1 (0.083%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) nginx
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
7 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (0.75%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 13 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.25%) Primavera
3 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
4 1 (0.083%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 254 (21.04%) Azure
2 225 (18.64%) AWS
3 58 (4.81%) GCP
4 48 (3.98%) GitHub
5 39 (3.23%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (2.98%) SaaS
7 35 (2.90%) IaaS
8 30 (2.49%) OCI
9 29 (2.40%) Entra ID
10 17 (1.41%) Power Platform
11 15 (1.24%) OneDrive
12 14 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
12 14 (1.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 14 (1.16%) OpenShift
12 14 (1.16%) PaaS
13 12 (0.99%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 11 (0.91%) Nutanix
15 8 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (0.58%) AWS Direct Connect
16 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 302 (25.02%) Firewall
2 191 (15.82%) WAN
3 185 (15.33%) BGP
4 134 (11.10%) VPN
5 126 (10.44%) VXLAN
6 124 (10.27%) DNS
7 122 (10.11%) OSPF
8 112 (9.28%) SAN
9 111 (9.20%) Network Security
10 109 (9.03%) VLAN
11 108 (8.95%) LAN
12 91 (7.54%) DHCP
13 87 (7.21%) Ethernet VPN
13 87 (7.21%) SD-WAN
14 84 (6.96%) TCP/IP
15 79 (6.55%) Structured Cabling
16 60 (4.97%) Wi-Fi
17 58 (4.81%) Wireless
18 54 (4.47%) Cisco Nexus
19 50 (4.14%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (2.57%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.16%) 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%) Big Data
5 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.50%) Db2
7 5 (0.41%) 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
8 4 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.17%) DataStage
10 1 (0.083%) Flink
10 1 (0.083%) GIS
10 1 (0.083%) Oracle Exadata
10 1 (0.083%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 75 (6.21%) JIRA
2 36 (2.98%) GitLab
3 28 (2.32%) Jenkins
4 27 (2.24%) Git
5 8 (0.66%) 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
8 1 (0.083%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.083%) Maven
8 1 (0.083%) Subversion
General
1 287 (23.78%) Social Skills
2 163 (13.50%) Finance
3 119 (9.86%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (4.89%) Public Sector
5 54 (4.47%) Telecoms
6 51 (4.23%) Banking
7 46 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (2.57%) Retail
9 23 (1.91%) Legal
10 18 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (1.49%) Manufacturing
11 15 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 10 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.75%) Police
14 8 (0.66%) Law
15 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 6 (0.50%) Marketing
17 5 (0.41%) Investment Banking
18 4 (0.33%) Cyber-Physical System
19 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 202 (16.74%) Architect
2 195 (16.16%) Network Engineer
3 160 (13.26%) Senior
4 123 (10.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 95 (7.87%) Data Centre Engineer
6 77 (6.38%) Project Manager
7 64 (5.30%) Network Architect
8 63 (5.22%) Lead
9 54 (4.47%) IT Engineer
10 45 (3.73%) Senior Network Engineer
11 44 (3.65%) Consultant
11 44 (3.65%) Field Engineer
12 42 (3.48%) Data Centre Manager
13 39 (3.23%) Technical Architect
14 38 (3.15%) Field Service Engineer
15 37 (3.07%) Infrastructure Manager
16 36 (2.98%) Solutions Architect
17 35 (2.90%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 32 (2.65%) Support Engineer
19 29 (2.40%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (9.11%) Terraform
2 45 (3.73%) Middleware
3 25 (2.07%) REST
4 18 (1.49%) 802.1X
5 13 (1.08%) YAML
6 12 (0.99%) JSON
7 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.66%) LDAP
8 8 (0.66%) NETCONF
8 8 (0.66%) Redfish
9 6 (0.50%) .NET
9 6 (0.50%) OpenConfig
9 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
9 6 (0.50%) SAML
9 6 (0.50%) YANG
10 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
10 4 (0.33%) Kafka
10 4 (0.33%) RESTful
11 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
11 3 (0.25%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 76 (6.30%) Hybrid Cloud
2 46 (3.81%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (3.07%) PKI
4 36 (2.98%) Private Cloud
5 34 (2.82%) Cloud Native
5 34 (2.82%) Enterprise Storage
6 33 (2.73%) Clustering
7 31 (2.57%) Management Information System
8 30 (2.49%) Fibre Optics
8 30 (2.49%) Public Cloud
9 28 (2.32%) Onboarding
9 28 (2.32%) Replication
10 26 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
11 21 (1.74%) Operational Technology
12 18 (1.49%) Driving Licence
13 16 (1.33%) CMDB
13 16 (1.33%) SCADA
13 16 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
14 15 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
15 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 186 (15.41%) Windows
2 132 (10.94%) Linux
3 56 (4.64%) Windows Server
4 33 (2.73%) Unix
5 21 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 20 (1.66%) AIX
7 11 (0.91%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Solaris
9 9 (0.75%) VMS
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.50%) Windows 10
10 6 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.41%) HPUX
11 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.41%) SUSE
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 256 (21.21%) Migration
2 191 (15.82%) Problem-Solving
3 152 (12.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 148 (12.26%) Stakeholder Management
5 116 (9.61%) Infrastructure as Code
6 115 (9.53%) ITIL
7 107 (8.86%) High Availability
8 98 (8.12%) Agile
8 98 (8.12%) CI/CD
8 98 (8.12%) Roadmaps
9 93 (7.71%) Validation
10 89 (7.37%) Project Delivery
11 81 (6.71%) Change Management
12 80 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 78 (6.46%) Disaster Recovery
14 77 (6.38%) Zero Trust
15 76 (6.30%) Technical Leadership
16 71 (5.88%) Load Balancing
17 69 (5.72%) DevOps
18 67 (5.55%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 166 (13.75%) Python
2 63 (5.22%) PowerShell
3 40 (3.31%) SQL
4 32 (2.65%) Bash
5 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
5 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 9 (0.75%) Perl
6 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
7 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
8 6 (0.50%) C#
8 6 (0.50%) Java
9 4 (0.33%) COBOL
9 4 (0.33%) Go
9 4 (0.33%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
10 3 (0.25%) JCL
10 3 (0.25%) Lisp
10 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.17%) C++
11 2 (0.17%) Korn
Qualifications
1 310 (25.68%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.40%) SC Cleared
3 188 (15.58%) Cisco Certification
4 110 (9.11%) CCNP
5 98 (8.12%) DV Cleared
6 74 (6.13%) CCNA
7 65 (5.39%) Degree
8 47 (3.89%) Network+ Certification
9 45 (3.73%) Microsoft Certification
10 41 (3.40%) A+ Certification
11 37 (3.07%) MCSE
12 31 (2.57%) AWS Certification
12 31 (2.57%) CCIE
13 27 (2.24%) Azure Certification
14 26 (2.15%) City & Guilds
15 23 (1.91%) PMP
15 23 (1.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 22 (1.82%) CISSP
16 22 (1.82%) PMI Certification
17 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.07%) QA
2 30 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.32%) SLA
4 23 (1.91%) NIST
5 15 (1.24%) GDPR
6 14 (1.16%) PMO
7 11 (0.91%) NCSC
8 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.50%) GRC
9 6 (0.50%) RMADS
10 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.17%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 145 (12.01%) VMware Infrastructure
2 89 (7.37%) Active Directory
3 49 (4.06%) vSphere
4 44 (3.65%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.23%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (3.07%) Hyper-V
7 32 (2.65%) Docker
8 31 (2.57%) Firmware
9 15 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
10 12 (0.99%) NFS
11 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.33%) SRDF
14 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.33%) Veritas Cluster Server
15 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
Systems Management
1 151 (12.51%) Ansible
2 60 (4.97%) Kubernetes
3 36 (2.98%) FortiGate
4 27 (2.24%) Prometheus
5 25 (2.07%) Grafana
6 22 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
7 18 (1.49%) vCenter Server
8 15 (1.24%) SCCM
8 15 (1.24%) VxRail
9 13 (1.08%) NetBackup
10 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
10 12 (0.99%) vMotion
11 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.83%) PowerCLI
11 10 (0.83%) SCOM
11 10 (0.83%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
13 8 (0.66%) EMC NetWorker
13 8 (0.66%) Nagios
14 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
Vendors
1 295 (24.44%) Cisco
2 200 (16.57%) VMware
3 139 (11.52%) Microsoft
4 127 (10.52%) Palo Alto
5 106 (8.78%) F5
6 75 (6.21%) Dell
7 73 (6.05%) Juniper
8 72 (5.97%) Arista
9 71 (5.88%) Fortinet
10 61 (5.05%) ServiceNow
11 41 (3.40%) Aruba
12 38 (3.15%) CheckPoint
13 35 (2.90%) Red Hat
14 30 (2.49%) Google
15 28 (2.32%) IBM
16 25 (2.07%) SolarWinds
16 25 (2.07%) Veeam
17 24 (1.99%) Oracle
18 23 (1.91%) NetApp
19 22 (1.82%) Zscaler