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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 121 107
Rank change year-on-year +5 -14 -17
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,208 734 853
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.26% 2.24% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.71% 6.36% 7.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 464 565
10th Percentile £318 £300 £350
25th Percentile £413 £399 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -
75th Percentile £650 £602 £625
90th Percentile £775 £707 £702
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +1.12% -9.01% +7.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 39 39
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £17.13 £25.04 £12.08
Median hourly rate £20.43 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.79% +25.75% +1.57%
75th Percentile £38.75 £34.50 £25.83
90th Percentile £82.93 £48.45 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.87 £16.50
% change year-on-year -22.23% +50.71% -6.88%

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 18,016 11,546 11,834
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.64% 35.22% 30.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,919 7,102 7,540
10th Percentile £322 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% -
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 1,041 571 585
10th Percentile £14.88 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £18.27
Median hourly rate £43.50 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +45.00% -33.33% +10.31%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +46.53% -36.84% +11.76%

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 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 21 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 21 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 +7 1,018 £527 +0.38% 438
UK excluding London -3 649 £495 +1.12% 285
London +20 413 £568 +3.18% 185
Work from Home -14 281 £545 +5.42% 138
North of England +3 229 £492 +9.33% 75
South East -13 185 £525 +6.60% 82
Yorkshire 0 140 £413 +1.85% 20
North West -2 74 £525 - 25
South West -28 69 £588 +6.82% 33
Midlands -66 53 £465 -11.43% 48
West Midlands -59 46 £475 -5.00% 33
Scotland -13 45 £400 +0.25% 15
Wales +6 43 £468 +55.83% 2
East of England -10 33 £479 -20.21% 37
North East -17 21 £625 +468.18% 30
East Midlands -26 6 £400 -26.61% 15
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 29 (2.40%) Confluence
2 20 (1.66%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CICS
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 1 (0.083%) IIS
6 1 (0.083%) nginx
6 1 (0.083%) SAS
6 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 26 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
6 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
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 258 (21.36%) Azure
2 222 (18.38%) AWS
3 63 (5.22%) GCP
4 47 (3.89%) GitHub
5 40 (3.31%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (2.98%) IaaS
7 34 (2.81%) SaaS
8 30 (2.48%) OCI
9 26 (2.15%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.49%) Power Platform
11 15 (1.24%) OneDrive
12 14 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
12 14 (1.16%) OpenShift
12 14 (1.16%) PaaS
12 14 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 13 (1.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 8 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (0.66%) Nutanix
15 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
16 6 (0.50%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 310 (25.66%) Firewall
2 189 (15.65%) WAN
3 184 (15.23%) BGP
4 133 (11.01%) VPN
5 128 (10.60%) DNS
5 128 (10.60%) VXLAN
6 125 (10.35%) OSPF
7 115 (9.52%) SAN
8 109 (9.02%) LAN
9 107 (8.86%) VLAN
10 104 (8.61%) Network Security
11 96 (7.95%) DHCP
12 90 (7.45%) Ethernet VPN
13 87 (7.20%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.04%) Structured Cabling
14 85 (7.04%) TCP/IP
15 61 (5.05%) Wi-Fi
16 60 (4.97%) Wireless
17 53 (4.39%) Cisco Nexus
18 52 (4.30%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.40%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.24%) Power BI
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (0.58%) Big Data
4 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.50%) Db2
6 5 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.33%) DataStage
7 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
8 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.083%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 74 (6.13%) JIRA
2 35 (2.90%) GitLab
3 27 (2.24%) Git
3 27 (2.24%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
5 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
6 2 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.17%) Eclipse
6 2 (0.17%) JMeter
6 2 (0.17%) Maven
6 2 (0.17%) MSI
6 2 (0.17%) Subversion
6 2 (0.17%) Toad
7 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 287 (23.76%) Social Skills
2 166 (13.74%) Finance
3 123 (10.18%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (4.80%) Public Sector
5 53 (4.39%) Telecoms
6 51 (4.22%) Banking
7 42 (3.48%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (2.57%) Retail
9 22 (1.82%) Legal
10 20 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 16 (1.32%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Police
15 8 (0.66%) Law
16 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
17 5 (0.41%) Investment Banking
17 5 (0.41%) Marketing
18 4 (0.33%) Billing
19 3 (0.25%) Cyber-Physical System
Job Titles
1 205 (16.97%) Architect
2 196 (16.23%) Network Engineer
3 153 (12.67%) Senior
4 121 (10.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 97 (8.03%) Data Centre Engineer
6 78 (6.46%) Project Manager
7 63 (5.22%) Lead
8 62 (5.13%) Network Architect
9 54 (4.47%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.89%) Field Engineer
11 46 (3.81%) Senior Network Engineer
12 44 (3.64%) Data Centre Manager
13 42 (3.48%) Technical Architect
14 41 (3.39%) Field Service Engineer
14 41 (3.39%) Infrastructure Manager
15 39 (3.23%) Consultant
16 37 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
17 33 (2.73%) Support Engineer
18 32 (2.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 30 (2.48%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (8.94%) Terraform
2 48 (3.97%) Middleware
3 21 (1.74%) REST
4 19 (1.57%) 802.1X
5 12 (0.99%) JSON
5 12 (0.99%) YAML
6 10 (0.83%) Redfish
7 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.66%) LDAP
8 8 (0.66%) NETCONF
9 7 (0.58%) OpenConfig
9 7 (0.58%) YANG
10 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
10 6 (0.50%) SAML
11 5 (0.41%) .NET
11 5 (0.41%) Jinja
12 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
12 4 (0.33%) Kafka
12 4 (0.33%) RESTful
13 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 75 (6.21%) Hybrid Cloud
2 49 (4.06%) Analytical Mindset
3 42 (3.48%) PKI
4 35 (2.90%) Clustering
5 34 (2.81%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.81%) Private Cloud
6 33 (2.73%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.73%) Enterprise Storage
7 30 (2.48%) Fibre Optics
8 29 (2.40%) Onboarding
9 27 (2.24%) Public Cloud
10 26 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.15%) Replication
11 19 (1.57%) Driving Licence
12 18 (1.49%) Operational Technology
13 16 (1.32%) CMDB
13 16 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
14 15 (1.24%) SCADA
15 14 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
16 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 182 (15.07%) Windows
2 132 (10.93%) Linux
3 52 (4.30%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.81%) Unix
5 22 (1.82%) AIX
6 19 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.91%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.66%) VMS
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.41%) HPUX
11 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.41%) SUSE
11 5 (0.41%) Windows 10
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (20.61%) Migration
2 195 (16.14%) Problem-Solving
3 148 (12.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 142 (11.75%) Stakeholder Management
5 118 (9.77%) Infrastructure as Code
6 110 (9.11%) ITIL
7 104 (8.61%) High Availability
8 98 (8.11%) Agile
9 96 (7.95%) CI/CD
10 95 (7.86%) Roadmaps
11 91 (7.53%) Validation
12 90 (7.45%) Project Delivery
13 81 (6.71%) Continuous Improvement
14 77 (6.37%) Change Management
15 74 (6.13%) Zero Trust
16 71 (5.88%) Disaster Recovery
16 71 (5.88%) Load Balancing
16 71 (5.88%) Technical Leadership
17 69 (5.71%) DevOps
18 66 (5.46%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 163 (13.49%) Python
2 58 (4.80%) PowerShell
3 39 (3.23%) SQL
4 32 (2.65%) Bash
5 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
5 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 9 (0.75%) Perl
7 8 (0.66%) Java
7 8 (0.66%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.50%) COBOL
10 5 (0.41%) C#
11 4 (0.33%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.25%) Go
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Korn
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 305 (25.25%) Security Cleared
2 205 (16.97%) SC Cleared
3 200 (16.56%) Cisco Certification
4 117 (9.69%) CCNP
5 96 (7.95%) DV Cleared
6 82 (6.79%) CCNA
7 63 (5.22%) Degree
8 54 (4.47%) Network+ Certification
9 46 (3.81%) Microsoft Certification
10 43 (3.56%) A+ Certification
11 40 (3.31%) MCSE
12 31 (2.57%) CCIE
13 28 (2.32%) AWS Certification
14 27 (2.24%) Azure Certification
15 26 (2.15%) City & Guilds
16 22 (1.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 21 (1.74%) CISSP
18 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
18 20 (1.66%) PMP
19 19 (1.57%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.15%) QA
2 29 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.15%) SLA
4 23 (1.90%) NIST
5 16 (1.32%) PMO
6 15 (1.24%) GDPR
7 12 (0.99%) NCSC
8 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 7 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
10 6 (0.50%) GRC
10 6 (0.50%) RMADS
11 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.25%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
14 1 (0.083%) Actionable Recommendations
14 1 (0.083%) SOC 1
System Software
1 132 (10.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 84 (6.95%) Active Directory
3 46 (3.81%) vSphere
4 43 (3.56%) VMware NSX
5 36 (2.98%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (2.73%) Hyper-V
7 32 (2.65%) Firmware
8 31 (2.57%) Docker
9 14 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.91%) 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%) SRDF
14 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 146 (12.09%) Ansible
2 57 (4.72%) Kubernetes
3 39 (3.23%) FortiGate
4 26 (2.15%) Prometheus
5 25 (2.07%) Grafana
5 25 (2.07%) Microsoft Intune
6 16 (1.32%) vCenter Server
6 16 (1.32%) VxRail
7 12 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
7 12 (0.99%) NetBackup
7 12 (0.99%) SCCM
8 11 (0.91%) Dell DRAC
8 11 (0.91%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 11 (0.91%) vMotion
9 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
10 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
10 7 (0.58%) Nagios
10 7 (0.58%) PowerCLI
11 6 (0.50%) Avamar
Vendors
1 290 (24.01%) Cisco
2 189 (15.65%) VMware
3 141 (11.67%) Microsoft
4 124 (10.26%) Palo Alto
5 105 (8.69%) F5
6 75 (6.21%) Dell
7 74 (6.13%) Juniper
8 70 (5.79%) Arista
8 70 (5.79%) Fortinet
9 60 (4.97%) ServiceNow
10 41 (3.39%) Aruba
11 36 (2.98%) CheckPoint
12 34 (2.81%) Google
13 33 (2.73%) Red Hat
14 32 (2.65%) IBM
15 28 (2.32%) SolarWinds
16 24 (1.99%) Oracle
17 23 (1.90%) Veeam
18 21 (1.74%) NetApp
18 21 (1.74%) Zscaler