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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 123 100
Rank change year-on-year +15 -23 -12
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,227 729 906
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.33% 2.23% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.00% 6.46% 7.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 725 463 603
10th Percentile £325 £303 £341
25th Percentile £413 £406 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -5.12% -1.29%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £738 £675 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £490 £540
% change year-on-year -1.53% -9.39% +8.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 29 50
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £12.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £13.75
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +5.67% +14.95%
75th Percentile £35.22 £38.00 £28.25
90th Percentile £78.90 £43.75 £40.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £18.51
% change year-on-year -21.57% +33.23% -10.60%

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 17,530 11,293 12,651
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.24% 34.61% 30.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,731 6,977 8,104
10th Percentile £316 £300 £300
25th Percentile £417 £406 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £631 £644 £665
90th Percentile £749 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 885 539 760
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.29 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.00 £18.87 £15.87
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.53% -21.05% +8.57%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £87.16 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.49 £40.00
% change year-on-year +39.60% -21.28% -11.91%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 +22 1,031 £514 -2.10% 582
UK excluding London -4 676 £482 -1.53% 269
London +13 393 £550 +3.77% 363
Work from Home +11 307 £517 +1.27% 161
North of England +4 243 £480 +3.01% 50
South East 0 213 £505 +1.76% 107
Yorkshire +3 136 £365 -18.89% 15
North West -8 87 £516 -1.81% 22
Midlands -54 58 £465 -13.89% 19
South West -34 54 £495 -10.00% 28
West Midlands -47 53 £470 -8.21% 14
Scotland -14 49 £450 +1.41% 9
Wales +2 38 £468 +24.67% 16
East of England -12 32 £500 +11.11% 36
North East -12 26 £625 +468.18% 13
East Midlands -21 4 £363 -34.09% 5
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 (2.12%) Confluence
2 16 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.90%) CICS
3 11 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.57%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.41%) Apache
5 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.33%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.24%) nginx
7 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.081%) IIS
8 1 (0.081%) Mendix
8 1 (0.081%) SAS
Applications
1 18 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.81%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 4 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.24%) Primavera
2 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.081%) OpenText MBPM
4 1 (0.081%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 269 (21.92%) Azure
2 226 (18.42%) AWS
3 76 (6.19%) GCP
4 42 (3.42%) GitHub
4 42 (3.42%) Microsoft 365
5 41 (3.34%) IaaS
6 33 (2.69%) SaaS
7 30 (2.44%) OCI
8 28 (2.28%) Entra ID
9 19 (1.55%) PaaS
10 18 (1.47%) OpenShift
11 17 (1.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (1.06%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 13 (1.06%) OneDrive
14 12 (0.98%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.90%) Azure Sentinel
16 9 (0.73%) Nutanix
17 8 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
18 6 (0.49%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 332 (27.06%) Firewall
2 198 (16.14%) WAN
3 190 (15.48%) BGP
4 144 (11.74%) OSPF
5 137 (11.17%) VPN
6 129 (10.51%) DNS
7 122 (9.94%) VXLAN
8 121 (9.86%) SAN
9 120 (9.78%) LAN
10 114 (9.29%) Network Security
11 102 (8.31%) VLAN
12 97 (7.91%) DHCP
13 88 (7.17%) Structured Cabling
14 85 (6.93%) Ethernet VPN
14 85 (6.93%) SD-WAN
15 71 (5.79%) TCP/IP
16 60 (4.89%) BIG-IP
17 58 (4.73%) Wireless
18 56 (4.56%) Wi-Fi
19 51 (4.16%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.55%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.81%) DataStage
3 7 (0.57%) Big Data
3 7 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (0.57%) Power BI
4 6 (0.49%) Db2
4 6 (0.49%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.33%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.24%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.16%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 72 (5.87%) JIRA
2 29 (2.36%) GitLab
2 29 (2.36%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.12%) Git
4 7 (0.57%) 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%) Subversion
7 3 (0.24%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.24%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.16%) MSI
8 2 (0.16%) Toad
9 1 (0.081%) AppScan
9 1 (0.081%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.081%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
General
1 307 (25.02%) Social Skills
2 167 (13.61%) Finance
3 125 (10.19%) Analytical Skills
4 78 (6.36%) Public Sector
5 51 (4.16%) Documentation Skills
6 48 (3.91%) Banking
6 48 (3.91%) Telecoms
7 28 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
7 28 (2.28%) Legal
8 27 (2.20%) Retail
9 17 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.39%) Manufacturing
10 12 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (0.81%) Military
12 9 (0.73%) Law
13 8 (0.65%) Police
14 7 (0.57%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.49%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.49%) Marketing
16 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 201 (16.38%) Architect
2 194 (15.81%) Network Engineer
3 150 (12.22%) Senior
4 115 (9.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 109 (8.88%) Data Centre Engineer
6 82 (6.68%) Project Manager
7 63 (5.13%) Network Architect
8 59 (4.81%) Lead
9 52 (4.24%) IT Engineer
10 49 (3.99%) Field Engineer
11 46 (3.75%) Field Service Engineer
12 45 (3.67%) Infrastructure Manager
13 43 (3.50%) Technical Architect
14 42 (3.42%) Data Centre Manager
15 39 (3.18%) Solutions Architect
16 37 (3.02%) Senior Network Engineer
17 35 (2.85%) Support Engineer
18 32 (2.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 31 (2.53%) Analyst
19 31 (2.53%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.24%) Middleware
2 32 (2.61%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.81%) Redfish
3 10 (0.81%) REST
4 8 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (0.65%) LDAP
5 7 (0.57%) NETCONF
5 7 (0.57%) Spring
6 6 (0.49%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.49%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.49%) SAML
6 6 (0.49%) YANG
7 5 (0.41%) Jinja
7 5 (0.41%) Kafka
7 5 (0.41%) XML
8 4 (0.33%) .NET
8 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
8 4 (0.33%) RESTful
8 4 (0.33%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.33%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 76 (6.19%) Hybrid Cloud
2 54 (4.40%) Analytical Mindset
3 43 (3.50%) PKI
4 37 (3.02%) Clustering
5 35 (2.85%) Cloud Native
5 35 (2.85%) Management Information System
6 31 (2.53%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.53%) Private Cloud
7 28 (2.28%) Fibre Optics
7 28 (2.28%) Onboarding
8 25 (2.04%) Replication
9 22 (1.79%) Public Cloud
10 21 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
11 19 (1.55%) Driving Licence
12 17 (1.39%) CMDB
12 17 (1.39%) Mainframe
13 16 (1.30%) Operational Technology
14 14 (1.14%) SCADA
14 14 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (1.06%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 161 (13.12%) Windows
2 137 (11.17%) Linux
3 43 (3.50%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.02%) Unix
5 26 (2.12%) AIX
5 26 (2.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.47%) Solaris
7 10 (0.81%) Apple iOS
7 10 (0.81%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.49%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.49%) VMS
10 5 (0.41%) HPUX
10 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
10 5 (0.41%) SUSE
11 4 (0.33%) CentOS
11 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (19.40%) Migration
2 205 (16.71%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (11.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 134 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (9.37%) High Availability
6 114 (9.29%) ITIL
7 109 (8.88%) Infrastructure as Code
8 103 (8.39%) CI/CD
9 101 (8.23%) Roadmaps
10 94 (7.66%) Agile
11 87 (7.09%) Continuous Improvement
12 86 (7.01%) Load Balancing
13 82 (6.68%) Project Delivery
14 81 (6.60%) Change Management
15 80 (6.52%) Validation
16 76 (6.19%) DevOps
16 76 (6.19%) Zero Trust
17 70 (5.70%) Project Management
18 66 (5.38%) Network Design
19 65 (5.30%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 158 (12.88%) Python
2 46 (3.75%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.10%) SQL
4 28 (2.28%) Bash
5 19 (1.55%) Java
6 14 (1.14%) Bicep
7 13 (1.06%) Perl
8 12 (0.98%) COBOL
8 12 (0.98%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.81%) ActionScript
10 8 (0.65%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.49%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.33%) C#
12 4 (0.33%) Lisp
12 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.24%) JCL
13 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.16%) C++
14 2 (0.16%) Korn
14 2 (0.16%) REXX
Qualifications
1 315 (25.67%) Security Cleared
2 218 (17.77%) Cisco Certification
3 206 (16.79%) SC Cleared
4 125 (10.19%) CCNP
5 102 (8.31%) DV Cleared
6 89 (7.25%) CCNA
7 65 (5.30%) Degree
8 61 (4.97%) Network+ Certification
9 51 (4.16%) Microsoft Certification
10 44 (3.59%) A+ Certification
10 44 (3.59%) MCSE
11 29 (2.36%) Azure Certification
11 29 (2.36%) CCIE
12 26 (2.12%) City & Guilds
13 24 (1.96%) AWS Certification
14 23 (1.87%) PMP
14 23 (1.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 22 (1.79%) PMI Certification
16 21 (1.71%) CISSP
17 20 (1.63%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.44%) SLA
2 29 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (2.36%) QA
3 26 (2.12%) NIST
4 20 (1.63%) PMO
5 18 (1.47%) GDPR
6 17 (1.39%) NCSC
7 9 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
7 9 (0.73%) GRC
8 8 (0.65%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.57%) RMADS
10 6 (0.49%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.16%) WCAG
14 1 (0.081%) COBIT
System Software
1 111 (9.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 69 (5.62%) Active Directory
3 41 (3.34%) vSphere
4 37 (3.02%) VMware ESXi
4 37 (3.02%) VMware NSX
5 32 (2.61%) Firmware
6 31 (2.53%) Hyper-V
7 23 (1.87%) Docker
8 21 (1.71%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.90%) NFS
10 8 (0.65%) KVM
11 6 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.49%) PowerHA
11 6 (0.49%) SRDF
12 5 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.24%) EMC RecoverPoint
Systems Management
1 135 (11.00%) Ansible
2 108 (8.80%) Terraform
3 55 (4.48%) Kubernetes
4 50 (4.07%) FortiGate
5 30 (2.44%) Grafana
6 28 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
7 27 (2.20%) Prometheus
8 17 (1.39%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.06%) NetBackup
10 10 (0.81%) Dell DRAC
10 10 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.81%) PowerCLI
10 10 (0.81%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 9 (0.73%) vMotion
12 8 (0.65%) SCCM
12 8 (0.65%) VxRail
13 7 (0.57%) Check_MK
13 7 (0.57%) EMC NetWorker
14 6 (0.49%) Avamar
14 6 (0.49%) Nagios
Vendors
1 293 (23.88%) Cisco
2 164 (13.37%) VMware
3 134 (10.92%) Palo Alto
4 125 (10.19%) Microsoft
5 122 (9.94%) F5
6 89 (7.25%) Juniper
7 82 (6.68%) Dell
8 76 (6.19%) Fortinet
9 73 (5.95%) Arista
10 57 (4.65%) ServiceNow
11 45 (3.67%) Google
12 42 (3.42%) IBM
12 42 (3.42%) SolarWinds
13 38 (3.10%) Aruba
14 36 (2.93%) CheckPoint
15 33 (2.69%) Red Hat
16 31 (2.53%) Splunk
17 27 (2.20%) Oracle
18 22 (1.79%) Citrix
18 22 (1.79%) HP