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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 124 111
Rank change year-on-year +2 -13 -22
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,199 726 792
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.19% 2.22% 2.10%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.42% 6.22% 6.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 732 457 494
10th Percentile £318 £294 £364
25th Percentile £413 £399 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £530
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -2.83% -1.85%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £619
90th Percentile £750 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £487 £538
% change year-on-year +2.62% -9.35% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 43 37
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.75 £25.09 £12.08
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% +11.78% -2.17%
75th Percentile £54.25 £33.00 £27.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £43.00 £29.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.88 £25.08 £14.75
% change year-on-year -16.75% +70.00% -35.87%

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 18,677 11,681 11,486
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.05% 35.73% 30.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,192 7,140 7,001
10th Percentile £322 £294 £294
25th Percentile £425 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £538
Median % change year-on-year +1.92% -4.26% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £806
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,219 589 449
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.00 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.99 £18.87 £22.40
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.33 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.86% -41.34% +12.36%
75th Percentile £67.84 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.27 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.53 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +28.42% -47.69% +14.70%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +9 1,006 £527 +0.38% 1,836
UK excluding London -20 635 £500 +2.62% 808
London +23 411 £550 - 1,014
Work from Home -17 283 £540 +5.88% 478
North of England -2 226 £500 +4.38% 180
South East -16 168 £550 +22.22% 258
Yorkshire +1 136 £485 +7.78% 40
North West -22 73 £525 -3.23% 96
South West -19 65 £621 +12.82% 70
Midlands -67 58 £475 -5.10% 104
Scotland -13 49 £388 -8.82% 49
West Midlands -53 47 £488 -2.50% 82
East of England -14 40 £483 -19.58% 105
Wales +7 36 £468 +55.83% 30
North East -16 23 £625 - 45
East Midlands -25 11 £413 -21.43% 22
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 18
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 33 (2.75%) Confluence
2 19 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.75%) OpenStack
5 6 (0.50%) IIS
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.083%) nginx
8 1 (0.083%) SAS
8 1 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 4 (0.33%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.33%) Revit
8 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 11 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.083%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.083%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.083%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 257 (21.43%) Azure
2 216 (18.02%) AWS
3 63 (5.25%) GCP
4 59 (4.92%) GitHub
5 46 (3.84%) IaaS
5 46 (3.84%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (3.17%) SaaS
7 37 (3.09%) Entra ID
8 29 (2.42%) OCI
9 19 (1.58%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (1.58%) PaaS
10 17 (1.42%) OpenShift
11 15 (1.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.25%) Power Platform
12 12 (1.00%) Nutanix
13 10 (0.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 9 (0.75%) AWS Direct Connect
15 7 (0.58%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 292 (24.35%) Firewall
2 185 (15.43%) WAN
3 174 (14.51%) BGP
4 128 (10.68%) DNS
5 126 (10.51%) VPN
6 118 (9.84%) Network Security
7 117 (9.76%) VXLAN
8 109 (9.09%) LAN
9 108 (9.01%) OSPF
10 107 (8.92%) VLAN
11 96 (8.01%) SAN
12 87 (7.26%) DHCP
13 86 (7.17%) Ethernet VPN
13 86 (7.17%) TCP/IP
14 79 (6.59%) SD-WAN
15 63 (5.25%) Wireless
16 62 (5.17%) Structured Cabling
17 59 (4.92%) Wi-Fi
18 54 (4.50%) BIG-IP
18 54 (4.50%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (3.34%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.25%) Power BI
3 11 (0.92%) 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%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.25%) Big Data
8 3 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.17%) DataStage
9 2 (0.17%) Flink
9 2 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
9 2 (0.17%) Sybase IQ
Development Applications
1 81 (6.76%) JIRA
2 38 (3.17%) GitLab
3 37 (3.09%) Jenkins
4 28 (2.34%) 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
1 286 (23.85%) Social Skills
2 170 (14.18%) Finance
3 100 (8.34%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (5.34%) Banking
5 55 (4.59%) Public Sector
6 52 (4.34%) Telecoms
7 49 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.17%) Retail
9 25 (2.09%) Legal
10 19 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
11 17 (1.42%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 14 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (0.58%) Police
14 6 (0.50%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.50%) Investment Banking
15 5 (0.42%) Cyber-Physical System
15 5 (0.42%) Law
15 5 (0.42%) Marketing
16 3 (0.25%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 202 (16.85%) Architect
1 202 (16.85%) Network Engineer
2 158 (13.18%) Senior
3 114 (9.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 87 (7.26%) Data Centre Engineer
5 75 (6.26%) Project Manager
6 70 (5.84%) Lead
7 67 (5.59%) Network Architect
8 49 (4.09%) IT Engineer
9 48 (4.00%) Consultant
10 45 (3.75%) Senior Network Engineer
11 42 (3.50%) Data Centre Manager
12 39 (3.25%) Technical Architect
13 34 (2.84%) Infrastructure Manager
13 34 (2.84%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 34 (2.84%) Solutions Architect
14 33 (2.75%) Support Engineer
15 32 (2.67%) Field Engineer
16 29 (2.42%) Administrator
16 29 (2.42%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (9.84%) Terraform
2 38 (3.17%) Middleware
3 30 (2.50%) REST
4 17 (1.42%) 802.1X
4 17 (1.42%) YAML
5 14 (1.17%) JSON
6 12 (1.00%) .NET
7 8 (0.67%) LDAP
8 7 (0.58%) NETCONF
9 6 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (0.50%) Redfish
9 6 (0.50%) SAML
10 5 (0.42%) Kafka
10 5 (0.42%) OpenConfig
10 5 (0.42%) RESTCONF
10 5 (0.42%) YANG
11 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
11 4 (0.33%) RESTful
12 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
12 3 (0.25%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 85 (7.09%) Hybrid Cloud
2 46 (3.84%) Public Cloud
3 38 (3.17%) Private Cloud
4 34 (2.84%) Analytical Mindset
5 33 (2.75%) Cloud Native
6 32 (2.67%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.67%) PKI
7 30 (2.50%) Replication
8 29 (2.42%) Enterprise Storage
9 27 (2.25%) Onboarding
10 26 (2.17%) Clustering
10 26 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
11 25 (2.09%) Operational Technology
12 20 (1.67%) SCADA
13 19 (1.58%) Fibre Optics
14 18 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
15 16 (1.33%) Driving Licence
15 16 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
16 15 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
17 14 (1.17%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 200 (16.68%) Windows
2 136 (11.34%) Linux
3 70 (5.84%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.84%) Unix
5 21 (1.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.33%) 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 (0.67%) Windows 10
10 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.42%) HPUX
12 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.42%) SUSE
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.33%) CentOS
13 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (21.43%) Migration
2 182 (15.18%) Problem-Solving
3 160 (13.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 151 (12.59%) Stakeholder Management
5 129 (10.76%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.51%) ITIL
7 107 (8.92%) CI/CD
8 104 (8.67%) Agile
9 98 (8.17%) High Availability
10 94 (7.84%) Roadmaps
11 92 (7.67%) Project Delivery
11 92 (7.67%) Validation
12 86 (7.17%) Continuous Improvement
12 86 (7.17%) Disaster Recovery
13 81 (6.76%) Zero Trust
14 75 (6.26%) Technical Leadership
15 73 (6.09%) Change Management
15 73 (6.09%) Cybersecurity
15 73 (6.09%) DevOps
16 70 (5.84%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 166 (13.84%) Python
2 71 (5.92%) PowerShell
3 49 (4.09%) SQL
4 33 (2.75%) Bash
5 17 (1.42%) ActionScript
6 12 (1.00%) C#
7 11 (0.92%) Bicep
8 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.67%) Perl
9 8 (0.67%) T-SQL
10 7 (0.58%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.33%) Go
11 4 (0.33%) Java
11 4 (0.33%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.25%) COBOL
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 306 (25.52%) Security Cleared
2 205 (17.10%) SC Cleared
3 171 (14.26%) Cisco Certification
4 103 (8.59%) CCNP
5 100 (8.34%) DV Cleared
6 64 (5.34%) CCNA
7 63 (5.25%) Degree
8 37 (3.09%) Network+ Certification
9 35 (2.92%) Microsoft Certification
10 33 (2.75%) A+ Certification
10 33 (2.75%) AWS Certification
11 28 (2.34%) CCIE
12 27 (2.25%) CISSP
12 27 (2.25%) MCSE
12 27 (2.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 26 (2.17%) Azure Certification
14 22 (1.83%) PMI Certification
14 22 (1.83%) PMP
15 18 (1.50%) City & Guilds
16 17 (1.42%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.00%) QA
2 29 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 27 (2.25%) SLA
4 25 (2.09%) NIST
5 16 (1.33%) PMO
6 13 (1.08%) GDPR
6 13 (1.08%) GRC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
7 9 (0.75%) NCSC
8 7 (0.58%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
10 5 (0.42%) ISO 31000
10 5 (0.42%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.33%) RMADS
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.17%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 148 (12.34%) VMware Infrastructure
2 98 (8.17%) Active Directory
3 52 (4.34%) vSphere
4 49 (4.09%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.25%) Hyper-V
6 36 (3.00%) VMware ESXi
7 33 (2.75%) Docker
8 26 (2.17%) Firmware
9 14 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
10 12 (1.00%) NFS
11 7 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
14 4 (0.33%) ISA Server
14 4 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.33%) PowerHA
14 4 (0.33%) SRDF
14 4 (0.33%) Veritas Cluster Server
15 3 (0.25%) BitLocker
15 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
Systems Management
1 154 (12.84%) Ansible
2 56 (4.67%) Kubernetes
3 36 (3.00%) FortiGate
4 21 (1.75%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (1.58%) Prometheus
6 17 (1.42%) vCenter Server
7 16 (1.33%) Grafana
8 15 (1.25%) VxRail
9 14 (1.17%) SCCM
10 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
10 12 (1.00%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.92%) NetBackup
11 11 (0.92%) SCOM
11 11 (0.92%) vMotion
12 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.75%) Dell DRAC
13 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 8 (0.67%) Nagios
15 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
16 5 (0.42%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 298 (24.85%) Cisco
2 201 (16.76%) VMware
3 153 (12.76%) Microsoft
4 129 (10.76%) Palo Alto
5 113 (9.42%) F5
6 71 (5.92%) ServiceNow
7 68 (5.67%) Arista
7 68 (5.67%) Fortinet
8 65 (5.42%) Dell
9 64 (5.34%) Juniper
10 42 (3.50%) Aruba
11 37 (3.09%) CheckPoint
12 36 (3.00%) Red Hat
13 32 (2.67%) Google
13 32 (2.67%) Oracle
14 30 (2.50%) Veeam
15 25 (2.09%) Zscaler
16 23 (1.92%) IBM
17 22 (1.83%) Commvault
17 22 (1.83%) NetApp