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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 125 116
Rank change year-on-year 0 -9 -30
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,192 724 777
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.17% 2.19% 2.04%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.31% 6.08% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 732 455 473
10th Percentile £318 £290 £363
25th Percentile £413 £381 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -2.33%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £614
90th Percentile £750 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 41 35
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.83
25th Percentile £18.90 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% +11.78% -2.17%
75th Percentile £52.50 £31.00 £26.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £40.00 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £25.08 £15.00
% change year-on-year -16.25% +67.17% -34.78%

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 18,893 11,906 11,626
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.41% 35.95% 30.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,282 7,295 6,998
10th Percentile £322 £300 £275
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £535
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -2.71% -2.82%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £672
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,283 609 426
10th Percentile £14.01 £14.78 £15.28
25th Percentile £17.85 £18.87 £22.50
Median hourly rate £36.00 £28.13 £49.75
Median % change year-on-year +28.00% -43.47% +10.56%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.05 £72.50 £75.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £29.27 £57.35
% change year-on-year +28.12% -48.96% +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 2 October 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 2 October 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 2 October 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 +8 1,012 £534 +2.60% 2,226
UK excluding London -16 644 £500 +5.26% 994
London +18 407 £550 +2.09% 1,269
Work from Home -17 274 £545 +7.92% 595
North of England -4 225 £500 +5.26% 227
South East -9 173 £525 +25.37% 311
Yorkshire +8 134 £500 +11.11% 53
North West -24 72 £525 -2.33% 107
Midlands -69 64 £475 -4.23% 118
South West -17 63 £645 +17.27% 90
West Midlands -50 54 £500 - 89
Scotland -20 46 £375 -11.76% 59
East of England -5 45 £500 -16.67% 131
Wales +6 35 £468 +55.83% 44
North East -19 25 £625 +257.14% 68
East Midlands -23 10 £413 -14.29% 29
Channel Islands - 1 £575 - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 23

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 34 (2.85%) Confluence
2 19 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.76%) OpenStack
5 7 (0.59%) IIS
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.084%) nginx
8 1 (0.084%) SAS
8 1 (0.084%) Tomcat
Applications
1 23 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (1.76%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (0.84%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.34%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.34%) Revit
7 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 (0.084%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.084%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.084%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 253 (21.22%) Azure
2 209 (17.53%) AWS
3 63 (5.29%) GCP
4 60 (5.03%) GitHub
5 47 (3.94%) IaaS
6 46 (3.86%) Microsoft 365
7 39 (3.27%) Entra ID
8 37 (3.10%) SaaS
9 29 (2.43%) OCI
10 20 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (1.68%) PaaS
11 16 (1.34%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 15 (1.26%) OneDrive
12 15 (1.26%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.01%) Nutanix
14 11 (0.92%) AWS Direct Connect
15 10 (0.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 8 (0.67%) Azure Monitor
17 7 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 284 (23.83%) Firewall
2 182 (15.27%) WAN
3 164 (13.76%) BGP
4 126 (10.57%) DNS
5 121 (10.15%) VPN
6 118 (9.90%) Network Security
7 111 (9.31%) LAN
8 110 (9.23%) VXLAN
9 101 (8.47%) VLAN
10 99 (8.31%) OSPF
11 92 (7.72%) SAN
12 85 (7.13%) DHCP
12 85 (7.13%) TCP/IP
13 82 (6.88%) SD-WAN
14 80 (6.71%) Ethernet VPN
15 62 (5.20%) Wireless
16 61 (5.12%) Structured Cabling
17 60 (5.03%) Wi-Fi
18 53 (4.45%) BIG-IP
19 52 (4.36%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (3.78%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.26%) Power BI
3 11 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 7 (0.59%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.42%) Db2
7 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
8 4 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.25%) Big Data
9 3 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
10 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.17%) DataStage
10 2 (0.17%) Flink
10 2 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
10 2 (0.17%) Sybase IQ
Development Applications
1 78 (6.54%) JIRA
2 37 (3.10%) GitLab
3 36 (3.02%) Jenkins
4 27 (2.27%) Git
5 7 (0.59%) 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 (0.084%) Claude Code
General
1 288 (24.16%) Social Skills
2 170 (14.26%) Finance
3 94 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (5.12%) Banking
5 55 (4.61%) Public Sector
5 55 (4.61%) Telecoms
6 46 (3.86%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (2.10%) Legal
7 25 (2.10%) Retail
8 18 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (1.43%) Manufacturing
10 16 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (0.59%) Police
13 6 (0.50%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.50%) Investment Banking
14 5 (0.42%) Cyber-Physical System
14 5 (0.42%) Law
15 4 (0.34%) Marketing
15 4 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 198 (16.61%) Architect
2 194 (16.28%) Network Engineer
3 146 (12.25%) Senior
4 120 (10.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 84 (7.05%) Data Centre Engineer
6 77 (6.46%) Project Manager
7 75 (6.29%) Lead
8 70 (5.87%) Network Architect
9 47 (3.94%) Consultant
10 43 (3.61%) Data Centre Manager
11 42 (3.52%) IT Engineer
12 40 (3.36%) Senior Network Engineer
13 39 (3.27%) Technical Architect
14 34 (2.85%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 33 (2.77%) Solutions Architect
15 33 (2.77%) Support Engineer
16 32 (2.68%) Infrastructure Manager
17 30 (2.52%) Analyst
18 28 (2.35%) Field Engineer
18 28 (2.35%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (9.90%) Terraform
2 32 (2.68%) Middleware
2 32 (2.68%) REST
3 18 (1.51%) YAML
4 16 (1.34%) 802.1X
5 15 (1.26%) .NET
5 15 (1.26%) JSON
6 7 (0.59%) NETCONF
7 6 (0.50%) LDAP
7 6 (0.50%) SAML
8 5 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.42%) OpenConfig
8 5 (0.42%) Redfish
8 5 (0.42%) RESTCONF
8 5 (0.42%) YANG
9 4 (0.34%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.34%) Kafka
9 4 (0.34%) RESTful
10 3 (0.25%) RFC 2544
10 3 (0.25%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 83 (6.96%) Hybrid Cloud
2 48 (4.03%) Public Cloud
3 36 (3.02%) Private Cloud
4 34 (2.85%) Cloud Native
5 33 (2.77%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.60%) Management Information System
7 30 (2.52%) PKI
8 29 (2.43%) Replication
9 28 (2.35%) Analytical Mindset
10 26 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.18%) Onboarding
11 25 (2.10%) Operational Technology
12 24 (2.01%) Clustering
13 20 (1.68%) Fibre Optics
13 20 (1.68%) SCADA
14 19 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
15 17 (1.43%) CMDB
16 16 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
17 15 (1.26%) Driving Licence
18 12 (1.01%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 203 (17.03%) Windows
2 135 (11.33%) Linux
3 75 (6.29%) Windows Server
4 33 (2.77%) Unix
5 19 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.34%) AIX
7 13 (1.09%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.84%) Solaris
9 9 (0.76%) VMS
10 8 (0.67%) Windows 10
11 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.42%) HPUX
12 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.42%) SUSE
12 5 (0.42%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (21.73%) Migration
2 179 (15.02%) Problem-Solving
3 169 (14.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 158 (13.26%) Stakeholder Management
5 132 (11.07%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.56%) ITIL
7 108 (9.06%) CI/CD
8 105 (8.81%) Agile
9 97 (8.14%) High Availability
10 96 (8.05%) Project Delivery
11 95 (7.97%) Validation
12 93 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
13 92 (7.72%) Roadmaps
14 89 (7.47%) Disaster Recovery
15 83 (6.96%) Zero Trust
16 80 (6.71%) Change Management
17 77 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
18 74 (6.21%) Technical Leadership
19 73 (6.12%) DevOps
20 68 (5.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 160 (13.42%) Python
2 74 (6.21%) PowerShell
3 55 (4.61%) SQL
4 33 (2.77%) Bash
5 18 (1.51%) ActionScript
6 15 (1.26%) C#
7 11 (0.92%) Bicep
7 11 (0.92%) T-SQL
8 8 (0.67%) Perl
9 7 (0.59%) PL/SQL
9 7 (0.59%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.34%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.25%) Go
11 3 (0.25%) Java
11 3 (0.25%) JCL
11 3 (0.25%) Lisp
11 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.17%) COBOL
12 2 (0.17%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 308 (25.84%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.62%) SC Cleared
3 154 (12.92%) Cisco Certification
4 102 (8.56%) DV Cleared
5 94 (7.89%) CCNP
6 62 (5.20%) Degree
7 55 (4.61%) CCNA
8 33 (2.77%) AWS Certification
9 31 (2.60%) Microsoft Certification
9 31 (2.60%) Network+ Certification
10 29 (2.43%) A+ Certification
10 29 (2.43%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 28 (2.35%) CCIE
11 28 (2.35%) CISSP
12 26 (2.18%) Azure Certification
13 23 (1.93%) MCSE
14 22 (1.85%) PMI Certification
15 21 (1.76%) PMP
16 19 (1.59%) VCAP
17 18 (1.51%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (2.85%) QA
2 29 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.35%) NIST
4 26 (2.18%) SLA
5 14 (1.17%) GRC
6 13 (1.09%) GDPR
6 13 (1.09%) PMO
7 9 (0.76%) JSP 440
7 9 (0.76%) NCSC
8 8 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.50%) ISO 31000
9 6 (0.50%) ISO 9001
9 6 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 5 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
10 5 (0.42%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.34%) 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
1 156 (13.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 99 (8.31%) Active Directory
3 54 (4.53%) vSphere
4 52 (4.36%) VMware NSX
5 41 (3.44%) Hyper-V
6 37 (3.10%) VMware ESXi
7 35 (2.94%) Docker
8 26 (2.18%) Firmware
9 14 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.92%) NFS
11 8 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
12 7 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.42%) ISA Server
13 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
14 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.34%) PowerHA
14 4 (0.34%) SRDF
15 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 3 (0.25%) KVM
15 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 146 (12.25%) Ansible
2 57 (4.78%) Kubernetes
3 33 (2.77%) FortiGate
4 20 (1.68%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (1.59%) vCenter Server
6 18 (1.51%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.34%) VxRail
8 15 (1.26%) Grafana
9 14 (1.17%) SCCM
10 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Clustering
10 12 (1.01%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.92%) SCOM
11 11 (0.92%) vMotion
12 10 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.84%) NetBackup
13 9 (0.76%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 8 (0.67%) Dell DRAC
14 8 (0.67%) Nagios
15 6 (0.50%) CASB
16 5 (0.42%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 286 (23.99%) Cisco
2 207 (17.37%) VMware
3 158 (13.26%) Microsoft
4 131 (10.99%) Palo Alto
5 111 (9.31%) F5
6 68 (5.70%) ServiceNow
7 66 (5.54%) Fortinet
8 62 (5.20%) Arista
9 59 (4.95%) Juniper
10 57 (4.78%) Dell
11 43 (3.61%) Aruba
12 38 (3.19%) CheckPoint
13 35 (2.94%) Oracle
14 34 (2.85%) Veeam
15 33 (2.77%) Red Hat
16 32 (2.68%) Google
17 26 (2.18%) Commvault
18 25 (2.10%) Zscaler
19 24 (2.01%) IBM
20 23 (1.93%) NetApp