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

6 months to
3 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 136 97
Rank change year-on-year +11 -39 +3
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 908 604 1,001
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.18% 2.02% 2.25%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.52% 6.06% 7.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 574 373 658
10th Percentile £293 £350 £280
25th Percentile £400 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.69% -3.81% -2.55%
75th Percentile £576 £625 £638
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £490 £503
% change year-on-year -4.19% -2.73% +0.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 25 44
10th Percentile £20.82 £21.64 £17.53
25th Percentile £25.15 - £22.00
Median hourly rate £26.50 £24.18 £24.99
Median % change year-on-year +9.59% -3.25% +11.08%
75th Percentile £72.69 £29.25 £41.25
90th Percentile £74.26 £52.50 £71.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.80 £24.18 £24.00
% change year-on-year +201.05% +0.75% +10.75%

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 13,937 9,968 13,515
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.41% 33.38% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,783 6,129 8,678
10th Percentile £285 £275 £256
25th Percentile £406 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £768 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.26% -0.77% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 655 331 843
10th Percentile £15.40 £18.13 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.85 £22.72 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% +7.76% +34.13%
75th Percentile £65.00 £66.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £31.76 £31.13
% change year-on-year +5.48% +2.04% +41.48%

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 3 March 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 3 March 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 3 March 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 0 746 £478 -8.08% 490
UK excluding London +10 524 £469 -4.19% 350
London -15 261 £525 +0.96% 188
Work from Home +30 260 £475 -11.21% 143
North of England +20 183 £472 -0.63% 68
South East +10 135 £448 -0.56% 132
North West +12 101 £500 - 33
Midlands -17 77 £466 -22.80% 41
Yorkshire -21 67 £365 -8.75% 29
West Midlands -18 63 £474 -21.91% 17
Scotland +29 55 £466 +3.50% 22
South West -31 34 £550 -3.08% 46
East of England -17 30 £478 +13.14% 42
Wales +3 24 £350 -12.50% 8
North East +1 17 £175 - 6
East Midlands -23 14 £158 -65.00% 24
Northern Ireland - 3 £425 - 7

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 28 (3.08%) SharePoint
2 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (1.87%) Confluence
4 8 (0.88%) CICS
5 5 (0.55%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.44%) nginx
6 4 (0.44%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.33%) GeoServer
7 3 (0.33%) HCL Notes
7 3 (0.33%) Smallworld
8 2 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle Coherence
8 2 (0.22%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.11%) Mendix
Applications
1 51 (5.62%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (2.86%) MS Visio
3 22 (2.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.76%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.33%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.44%) Oracle Financials
1 4 (0.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.33%) Primavera
2 3 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.22%) DELMIA
3 2 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.11%) Epicor iScala
4 1 (0.11%) Maximo
4 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 171 (18.83%) Azure
2 127 (13.99%) AWS
3 67 (7.38%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (6.17%) GCP
5 21 (2.31%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 19 (2.09%) SaaS
7 18 (1.98%) IaaS
8 17 (1.87%) Power Platform
9 16 (1.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 16 (1.76%) Entra ID
10 14 (1.54%) PaaS
11 12 (1.32%) AWS Direct Connect
11 12 (1.32%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (1.32%) GitHub
11 12 (1.32%) OpenShift
12 11 (1.21%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 11 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.10%) Nutanix
14 9 (0.99%) Amazon S3
15 8 (0.88%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 270 (29.74%) Firewall
2 160 (17.62%) WAN
3 123 (13.55%) BGP
4 100 (11.01%) LAN
5 93 (10.24%) Network Security
6 89 (9.80%) OSPF
7 88 (9.69%) VPN
8 81 (8.92%) Wireless
9 68 (7.49%) DNS
10 58 (6.39%) VLAN
11 56 (6.17%) SAN
11 56 (6.17%) Structured Cabling
12 55 (6.06%) VXLAN
13 52 (5.73%) DHCP
14 47 (5.18%) Wi-Fi
15 43 (4.74%) Cisco ISE
16 42 (4.63%) SD-WAN
17 38 (4.19%) Ethernet VPN
18 37 (4.07%) Cisco Nexus
19 33 (3.63%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.65%) Power BI
2 11 (1.21%) Relational Database
3 8 (0.88%) DataStage
3 8 (0.88%) SQL Server
4 5 (0.55%) GIS
4 5 (0.55%) RDBMS
5 4 (0.44%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.44%) Power Query
5 4 (0.44%) PowerPivot
6 3 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
6 3 (0.33%) InfluxDB
6 3 (0.33%) QGIS
6 3 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
7 2 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.11%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 30 (3.30%) Git
2 26 (2.86%) JIRA
3 20 (2.20%) Jenkins
4 16 (1.76%) GitLab
5 10 (1.10%) Maven
6 7 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.55%) JMeter
8 4 (0.44%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 3 (0.33%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.33%) ScriptRunner
9 3 (0.33%) Subversion
10 2 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
11 1 (0.11%) AppScan
11 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.11%) LoadRunner
11 1 (0.11%) Metasploit
11 1 (0.11%) Postman
General
1 229 (25.22%) Social Skills
2 153 (16.85%) Finance
3 101 (11.12%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (10.57%) Public Sector
5 57 (6.28%) Documentation Skills
6 52 (5.73%) Telecoms
7 44 (4.85%) Banking
8 43 (4.74%) Manufacturing
9 30 (3.30%) Marketing
10 24 (2.64%) Electronics
11 23 (2.53%) Legal
12 21 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
13 20 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 20 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
14 12 (1.32%) Investment Banking
14 12 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (1.32%) Retail
15 9 (0.99%) Military
16 7 (0.77%) Law
17 6 (0.66%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 161 (17.73%) Network Engineer
2 140 (15.42%) Architect
3 78 (8.59%) Project Manager
4 73 (8.04%) Senior
5 65 (7.16%) Analyst
6 50 (5.51%) Data Centre Engineer
7 46 (5.07%) Network Architect
8 45 (4.96%) Solutions Architect
9 41 (4.52%) Lead
10 39 (4.30%) Data Centre Manager
11 37 (4.07%) IT Support
12 36 (3.96%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 33 (3.63%) Infrastructure Manager
14 31 (3.41%) Consultant
15 28 (3.08%) Support Engineer
16 27 (2.97%) Cisco Engineer
16 27 (2.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 26 (2.86%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 25 (2.75%) Cisco Network Engineer
18 25 (2.75%) Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.41%) 802.1X
2 27 (2.97%) Middleware
3 9 (0.99%) LDAP
4 6 (0.66%) RFC 2544
4 6 (0.66%) Spring
5 4 (0.44%) ADO
5 4 (0.44%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.44%) Spring Boot
5 4 (0.44%) VML
6 3 (0.33%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.33%) OpenConfig
6 3 (0.33%) REST
6 3 (0.33%) RESTCONF
6 3 (0.33%) XML
6 3 (0.33%) YANG
6 3 (0.33%) Yocto
7 2 (0.22%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.22%) Jinja
7 2 (0.22%) Kafka
7 2 (0.22%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 45 (4.96%) Hybrid Cloud
2 25 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
3 23 (2.53%) PKI
3 23 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
4 20 (2.20%) Clustering
4 20 (2.20%) Driving Licence
4 20 (2.20%) Public Cloud
5 19 (2.09%) Cloud Native
5 19 (2.09%) Onboarding
6 18 (1.98%) Management Information System
7 17 (1.87%) Replication
8 16 (1.76%) CMDB
9 14 (1.54%) NHS
10 13 (1.43%) Fibre Optics
11 12 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
11 12 (1.32%) Enterprise Storage
11 12 (1.32%) Mainframe
11 12 (1.32%) SCADA
12 10 (1.10%) Private Cloud
13 8 (0.88%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 122 (13.44%) Windows
2 113 (12.44%) Linux
3 41 (4.52%) Windows Server
4 35 (3.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (3.52%) Android
5 32 (3.52%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.98%) Unix
7 12 (1.32%) AIX
8 11 (1.21%) CentOS
9 10 (1.10%) Solaris
10 7 (0.77%) VMS
10 7 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.55%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.33%) Embedded Linux
12 3 (0.33%) Windows 10
13 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (17.95%) Migration
2 146 (16.08%) Problem-Solving
3 103 (11.34%) Stakeholder Management
4 82 (9.03%) ITIL
5 71 (7.82%) Project Management
6 70 (7.71%) Agile
7 65 (7.16%) High Availability
8 64 (7.05%) Infrastructure as Code
9 63 (6.94%) Roadmaps
10 62 (6.83%) Continuous Improvement
10 62 (6.83%) Project Delivery
11 61 (6.72%) CI/CD
12 58 (6.39%) Load Balancing
13 55 (6.06%) Change Management
14 53 (5.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 50 (5.51%) DevOps
16 46 (5.07%) Change Control
16 46 (5.07%) Data Centre Operations
16 46 (5.07%) ITSM
17 43 (4.74%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 79 (8.70%) Python
2 55 (6.06%) PowerShell
3 35 (3.85%) SQL
4 29 (3.19%) Bash
5 22 (2.42%) Java
6 18 (1.98%) Perl
7 12 (1.32%) Shell Script
8 9 (0.99%) Lisp
9 8 (0.88%) COBOL
10 7 (0.77%) Bicep
10 7 (0.77%) MATLAB
11 5 (0.55%) VBA
12 4 (0.44%) C
12 4 (0.44%) C++
12 4 (0.44%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.33%) Korn
13 3 (0.33%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.11%) Groovy
14 1 (0.11%) JCL
14 1 (0.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 297 (32.71%) Security Cleared
2 232 (25.55%) SC Cleared
3 166 (18.28%) Cisco Certification
4 124 (13.66%) CCNP
5 66 (7.27%) CCNA
5 66 (7.27%) Degree
6 58 (6.39%) DV Cleared
7 25 (2.75%) CCIE
8 24 (2.64%) Network+ Certification
8 24 (2.64%) PMI Certification
9 23 (2.53%) PMP
10 20 (2.20%) AWS Certification
11 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (1.98%) A+ Certification
12 18 (1.98%) MCSE
13 16 (1.76%) JNCIS
14 13 (1.43%) Azure Certification
14 13 (1.43%) JNCIP
15 12 (1.32%) CISSP
16 11 (1.21%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.08%) PMO
2 21 (2.31%) NIST
3 20 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (2.20%) SLA
4 19 (2.09%) PCI DSS
5 15 (1.65%) QA
6 14 (1.54%) GDPR
7 9 (0.99%) NCSC
8 7 (0.77%) Data Quality
9 5 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.44%) GRC
11 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.22%) ISO 22301
12 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.11%) COBIT
13 1 (0.11%) RMADS
13 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 77 (8.48%) VMware Infrastructure
2 59 (6.50%) Active Directory
3 46 (5.07%) VMware NSX
4 24 (2.64%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.09%) Firmware
5 19 (2.09%) vSphere
6 17 (1.87%) Hyper-V
7 16 (1.76%) Docker
8 10 (1.10%) KVM
8 10 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.33%) SRDF
10 2 (0.22%) Ceph
10 2 (0.22%) Lustre
10 2 (0.22%) PowerHA
10 2 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.22%) vCloud
10 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.11%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.11%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 85 (9.36%) Ansible
2 76 (8.37%) Terraform
3 55 (6.06%) FortiGate
4 29 (3.19%) Kubernetes
5 25 (2.75%) Grafana
6 21 (2.31%) SCCM
7 13 (1.43%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (1.43%) Prometheus
8 8 (0.88%) Check_MK
9 7 (0.77%) CASB
9 7 (0.77%) Podman
9 7 (0.77%) Red Hat Satellite
9 7 (0.77%) SCOM
9 7 (0.77%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.66%) PowerCLI
10 6 (0.66%) SCOrch
11 5 (0.55%) vMotion
12 4 (0.44%) Nagios
12 4 (0.44%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 287 (31.61%) Cisco
2 118 (13.00%) Palo Alto
3 114 (12.56%) VMware
4 94 (10.35%) Microsoft
5 83 (9.14%) Dell
6 80 (8.81%) Juniper
7 66 (7.27%) F5
8 51 (5.62%) ServiceNow
9 45 (4.96%) HP
10 44 (4.85%) Aruba
10 44 (4.85%) CheckPoint
11 38 (4.19%) Meraki
12 35 (3.85%) Fortinet
13 32 (3.52%) Apple
14 31 (3.41%) Oracle
14 31 (3.41%) SolarWinds
15 28 (3.08%) SAP
16 27 (2.97%) Arista
17 26 (2.86%) Citrix
17 26 (2.86%) Google