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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 121 101
Rank change year-on-year +20 -20 -13
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,227 714 961
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.36% 2.24% 2.22%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.15% 6.49% 7.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 711 457 638
10th Percentile £318 £302 £313
25th Percentile £406 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% -6.05% -2.27%
75th Percentile £617 £600 £625
90th Percentile £738 £680 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £538
% change year-on-year - -11.63% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 25 54
10th Percentile £16.01 £21.82 £12.08
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £23.90
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +5.23% +15.43%
75th Percentile £33.75 £38.75 £40.00
90th Percentile £72.45 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £19.38
% change year-on-year -21.57% +27.28% -6.42%

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 17,156 10,998 13,116
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.95% 34.56% 30.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,487 6,840 8,322
10th Percentile £313 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £626 £650 £663
90th Percentile £747 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 869 507 906
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.50 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.60 £18.87 £15.39
Median hourly rate £43.50 £30.81 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +41.21% -14.48% +38.55%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £62.00
90th Percentile £87.16 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £36.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -16.67% +29.96%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +16 1,014 £500 -4.76% 478
UK excluding London +2 691 £475 - 312
London +3 374 £550 +3.77% 241
Work from Home +14 318 £500 -1.96% 164
North of England +14 247 £475 +2.04% 56
South East +6 216 £488 +8.33% 107
Yorkshire 0 132 £365 -18.89% 24
North West +5 91 £500 -4.76% 23
Midlands -56 56 £460 -14.81% 29
Scotland -6 55 £463 +4.23% 17
West Midlands -51 51 £467 -13.15% 17
South West -31 49 £495 -10.00% 38
Wales +7 44 £468 +20.65% 25
East of England -17 35 £513 +36.67% 38
North East -10 30 £625 +468.18% 9
East Midlands -24 4 £363 -32.87% 12
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 25 (2.04%) Confluence
2 16 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.90%) CICS
3 11 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.41%) Apache
4 5 (0.41%) CloudStack
4 5 (0.41%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.33%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.24%) nginx
6 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.081%) IIS
7 1 (0.081%) Mendix
7 1 (0.081%) SAS
Applications
1 16 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.81%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.41%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Primavera
1 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.081%) OpenText MBPM
3 1 (0.081%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 257 (20.95%) Azure
2 226 (18.42%) AWS
3 77 (6.28%) GCP
4 43 (3.50%) IaaS
5 41 (3.34%) GitHub
6 40 (3.26%) Microsoft 365
7 37 (3.02%) SaaS
8 30 (2.44%) OCI
9 26 (2.12%) Entra ID
10 22 (1.79%) PaaS
11 21 (1.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.30%) OpenShift
13 15 (1.22%) OneDrive
14 13 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
15 12 (0.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 12 (0.98%) Power Platform
16 11 (0.90%) Azure Sentinel
16 11 (0.90%) Nutanix
17 9 (0.73%) Amazon EKS
18 8 (0.65%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 339 (27.63%) Firewall
2 198 (16.14%) WAN
3 191 (15.57%) BGP
4 146 (11.90%) OSPF
5 134 (10.92%) VPN
6 127 (10.35%) VXLAN
7 122 (9.94%) SAN
8 118 (9.62%) DNS
8 118 (9.62%) LAN
9 116 (9.45%) Network Security
10 100 (8.15%) VLAN
11 92 (7.50%) Structured Cabling
12 89 (7.25%) Ethernet VPN
13 88 (7.17%) SD-WAN
14 84 (6.85%) DHCP
15 61 (4.97%) BIG-IP
16 59 (4.81%) TCP/IP
17 57 (4.65%) Cisco Nexus
18 54 (4.40%) Wireless
19 51 (4.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.22%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.81%) DataStage
3 7 (0.57%) Big Data
3 7 (0.57%) Power BI
4 6 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.33%) Db2
5 4 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.33%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.24%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.16%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 69 (5.62%) JIRA
2 33 (2.69%) GitLab
2 33 (2.69%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.12%) Git
4 9 (0.73%) 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
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
1 303 (24.69%) Social Skills
2 165 (13.45%) Finance
3 131 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
4 81 (6.60%) Public Sector
5 54 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
6 48 (3.91%) Banking
7 45 (3.67%) Telecoms
8 35 (2.85%) Legal
9 27 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
10 26 (2.12%) Retail
11 18 (1.47%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (0.81%) Military
15 9 (0.73%) Financial Institution
16 8 (0.65%) Law
16 8 (0.65%) Marketing
17 6 (0.49%) Investment Banking
17 6 (0.49%) Police
17 6 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 204 (16.63%) Architect
2 203 (16.54%) Network Engineer
3 145 (11.82%) Senior
4 106 (8.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 105 (8.56%) Data Centre Engineer
6 73 (5.95%) Project Manager
7 61 (4.97%) Lead
7 61 (4.97%) Network Architect
8 56 (4.56%) IT Engineer
9 53 (4.32%) Field Engineer
10 49 (3.99%) Field Service Engineer
11 43 (3.50%) Infrastructure Manager
11 43 (3.50%) Technical Architect
12 42 (3.42%) Solutions Architect
13 38 (3.10%) Senior Network Engineer
14 37 (3.02%) Data Centre Manager
15 36 (2.93%) Analyst
16 35 (2.85%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 28 (2.28%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.40%) Middleware
2 32 (2.61%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.81%) Redfish
3 10 (0.81%) REST
4 9 (0.73%) LDAP
5 8 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.57%) Spring
7 5 (0.41%) Jinja
7 5 (0.41%) Kafka
7 5 (0.41%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.41%) SAML
7 5 (0.41%) XML
8 4 (0.33%) .NET
8 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
8 4 (0.33%) OpenConfig
8 4 (0.33%) RESTCONF
8 4 (0.33%) RESTful
8 4 (0.33%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.33%) YAML
8 4 (0.33%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 75 (6.11%) Hybrid Cloud
2 55 (4.48%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (3.02%) Cloud Native
4 36 (2.93%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.77%) PKI
6 31 (2.53%) Clustering
6 31 (2.53%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.53%) Onboarding
7 30 (2.44%) Private Cloud
8 29 (2.36%) Fibre Optics
9 21 (1.71%) CMDB
10 20 (1.63%) Driving Licence
10 20 (1.63%) Replication
11 19 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
11 19 (1.55%) Public Cloud
12 16 (1.30%) SCADA
13 15 (1.22%) Mainframe
13 15 (1.22%) Operational Technology
14 14 (1.14%) NHS
14 14 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 159 (12.96%) Windows
2 136 (11.08%) Linux
3 43 (3.50%) Windows Server
4 31 (2.53%) Unix
5 30 (2.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 23 (1.87%) AIX
7 18 (1.47%) Solaris
8 10 (0.81%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.81%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.49%) CentOS
10 6 (0.49%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.49%) VMS
11 5 (0.41%) HPUX
11 5 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.41%) SUSE
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 221 (18.01%) Migration
2 208 (16.95%) Problem-Solving
3 135 (11.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 126 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management
5 115 (9.37%) Infrastructure as Code
5 115 (9.37%) ITIL
6 110 (8.96%) High Availability
7 106 (8.64%) CI/CD
8 100 (8.15%) Roadmaps
9 90 (7.33%) Agile
10 89 (7.25%) Continuous Improvement
11 85 (6.93%) Load Balancing
12 83 (6.76%) Validation
13 80 (6.52%) DevOps
14 79 (6.44%) Change Management
15 78 (6.36%) Project Delivery
16 73 (5.95%) Zero Trust
17 69 (5.62%) Project Management
18 68 (5.54%) Customer Service
18 68 (5.54%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 152 (12.39%) Python
2 40 (3.26%) PowerShell
3 35 (2.85%) SQL
4 25 (2.04%) Bash
5 19 (1.55%) Java
6 16 (1.30%) Bicep
7 13 (1.06%) Shell Script
8 12 (0.98%) COBOL
9 10 (0.81%) ActionScript
9 10 (0.81%) Perl
10 8 (0.65%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.57%) JavaScript
12 6 (0.49%) MATLAB
13 4 (0.33%) C#
13 4 (0.33%) Lisp
14 3 (0.24%) JCL
14 3 (0.24%) Korn
14 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.16%) C++
15 2 (0.16%) REXX
Qualifications
1 315 (25.67%) Security Cleared
2 228 (18.58%) Cisco Certification
3 217 (17.69%) SC Cleared
4 134 (10.92%) CCNP
5 96 (7.82%) CCNA
6 90 (7.33%) DV Cleared
7 68 (5.54%) Degree
8 64 (5.22%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.40%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.83%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.83%) MCSE
11 29 (2.36%) Azure Certification
12 28 (2.28%) CCIE
13 26 (2.12%) City & Guilds
14 24 (1.96%) AWS Certification
15 22 (1.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 21 (1.71%) PMI Certification
16 21 (1.71%) PMP
17 20 (1.63%) BICSI Certification
18 19 (1.55%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.61%) SLA
2 27 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.12%) NIST
3 26 (2.12%) QA
4 21 (1.71%) PMO
5 19 (1.55%) GDPR
6 17 (1.39%) NCSC
7 10 (0.81%) GRC
8 9 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
8 9 (0.73%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.57%) RMADS
10 6 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.33%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.16%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 107 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 64 (5.22%) Active Directory
3 37 (3.02%) VMware NSX
4 35 (2.85%) VMware ESXi
4 35 (2.85%) vSphere
5 30 (2.44%) Firmware
6 24 (1.96%) Hyper-V
7 22 (1.79%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (1.39%) Docker
9 10 (0.81%) NFS
10 8 (0.65%) KVM
11 7 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.49%) SRDF
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.24%) PowerHA
14 3 (0.24%) UAG
14 3 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 135 (11.00%) Ansible
2 109 (8.88%) Terraform
3 52 (4.24%) FortiGate
4 51 (4.16%) Kubernetes
5 34 (2.77%) Grafana
6 29 (2.36%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.22%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.06%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.90%) PowerCLI
10 11 (0.90%) vMotion
11 10 (0.81%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.81%) SCCM
12 9 (0.73%) Check_MK
13 7 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.57%) EMC NetWorker
13 7 (0.57%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 6 (0.49%) Podman
14 6 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 303 (24.69%) Cisco
2 162 (13.20%) VMware
3 138 (11.25%) Palo Alto
4 122 (9.94%) Microsoft
5 119 (9.70%) F5
6 97 (7.91%) Juniper
7 87 (7.09%) Dell
8 76 (6.19%) Arista
9 72 (5.87%) Fortinet
10 60 (4.89%) ServiceNow
11 48 (3.91%) Google
12 44 (3.59%) SolarWinds
13 42 (3.42%) Aruba
14 36 (2.93%) IBM
15 33 (2.69%) CheckPoint
15 33 (2.69%) Red Hat
16 30 (2.44%) Splunk
17 26 (2.12%) Oracle
18 25 (2.04%) Citrix
18 25 (2.04%) HP