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 17 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 121 105
Rank change year-on-year +4 -16 -17
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,198 745 845
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.24% 2.25% 2.18%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.68% 6.40% 7.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 720 471 567
10th Percentile £318 £300 £350
25th Percentile £413 £399 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -
75th Percentile £650 £603 £625
90th Percentile £775 £706 £701
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £490 £538
% change year-on-year +1.12% -9.01% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 39 39
10th Percentile £16.00 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £16.76 £25.04 £12.08
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +25.75% -
75th Percentile £38.75 £34.50 £25.83
90th Percentile £83.90 £48.45 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.87 £16.50
% change year-on-year -22.23% +50.71% -6.88%

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 17,941 11,637 11,782
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.53% 35.16% 30.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,870 7,149 7,550
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,016 570 595
10th Percentile £14.86 £15.13 £12.33
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.87 £18.27
Median hourly rate £43.50 £29.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.46% -34.44% +10.86%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.62 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -33.33% +10.86%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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 +6 1,008 £530 +0.95% 449
UK excluding London -10 642 £495 +1.12% 287
London +12 408 £568 +4.61% 211
Work from Home -9 287 £543 +4.48% 138
North of England +2 224 £492 +9.33% 84
South East -10 189 £525 +6.60% 88
Yorkshire +1 133 £365 -9.88% 24
North West 0 76 £525 +0.96% 30
South West -23 68 £575 +4.55% 30
Midlands -55 55 £465 -11.43% 33
West Midlands -54 49 £475 -5.10% 25
Wales +5 44 £468 +38.52% 4
Scotland -8 43 £400 +0.25% 19
East of England -20 29 £479 -20.21% 36
North East -23 21 £625 +468.18% 30
East Midlands -25 5 £400 -26.61% 8
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 28 (2.34%) Confluence
2 19 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.42%) Apache
5 5 (0.42%) CICS
5 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.17%) nginx
6 2 (0.17%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.083%) IIS
7 1 (0.083%) SAS
Applications
1 25 (2.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
6 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 12 (1.00%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.25%) Primavera
3 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.083%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 253 (21.12%) Azure
2 221 (18.45%) AWS
3 64 (5.34%) GCP
4 48 (4.01%) GitHub
5 37 (3.09%) IaaS
6 36 (3.01%) Microsoft 365
7 32 (2.67%) SaaS
8 29 (2.42%) OCI
9 26 (2.17%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.59%) Power Platform
11 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.25%) OpenShift
11 15 (1.25%) PaaS
12 14 (1.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 13 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
14 12 (1.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 9 (0.75%) Nutanix
16 8 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
17 6 (0.50%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 305 (25.46%) Firewall
2 179 (14.94%) WAN
3 177 (14.77%) BGP
4 130 (10.85%) VPN
5 126 (10.52%) DNS
6 125 (10.43%) VXLAN
7 122 (10.18%) OSPF
8 119 (9.93%) SAN
9 105 (8.76%) LAN
10 98 (8.18%) VLAN
11 97 (8.10%) Network Security
12 93 (7.76%) DHCP
13 88 (7.35%) Ethernet VPN
14 85 (7.10%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.10%) Structured Cabling
15 83 (6.93%) TCP/IP
16 57 (4.76%) Wireless
17 56 (4.67%) Wi-Fi
18 51 (4.26%) NX-OS
19 50 (4.17%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.42%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.25%) Power BI
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (0.58%) Big Data
4 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.50%) Db2
6 5 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (0.42%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.33%) DataStage
7 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
8 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.17%) GIS
Development Applications
1 76 (6.34%) JIRA
2 34 (2.84%) GitLab
3 27 (2.25%) Git
4 26 (2.17%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.25%) JMeter
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%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.17%) Maven
7 2 (0.17%) MSI
7 2 (0.17%) Subversion
7 2 (0.17%) Toad
8 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 285 (23.79%) Social Skills
2 159 (13.27%) Finance
3 125 (10.43%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (4.92%) Public Sector
5 51 (4.26%) Telecoms
6 49 (4.09%) Banking
7 43 (3.59%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (2.50%) Retail
9 24 (2.00%) Legal
10 20 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Law
14 9 (0.75%) Police
15 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.42%) Marketing
17 4 (0.33%) Billing
17 4 (0.33%) Investment Banking
18 3 (0.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 204 (17.03%) Architect
2 187 (15.61%) Network Engineer
3 147 (12.27%) Senior
4 121 (10.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 98 (8.18%) Data Centre Engineer
6 78 (6.51%) Project Manager
7 61 (5.09%) Network Architect
8 59 (4.92%) Lead
9 54 (4.51%) IT Engineer
10 49 (4.09%) Field Engineer
11 44 (3.67%) Data Centre Manager
12 43 (3.59%) Field Service Engineer
12 43 (3.59%) Infrastructure Manager
13 42 (3.51%) Technical Architect
14 41 (3.42%) Senior Network Engineer
15 36 (3.01%) Consultant
15 36 (3.01%) Solutions Architect
16 35 (2.92%) Support Engineer
17 32 (2.67%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 31 (2.59%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (4.09%) Middleware
2 21 (1.75%) 802.1X
3 20 (1.67%) REST
4 12 (1.00%) JSON
4 12 (1.00%) YAML
5 10 (0.83%) Redfish
6 9 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (0.67%) LDAP
7 8 (0.67%) NETCONF
8 7 (0.58%) OpenConfig
8 7 (0.58%) YANG
9 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
9 6 (0.50%) SAML
10 5 (0.42%) .NET
10 5 (0.42%) Jinja
11 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
11 4 (0.33%) Kafka
11 4 (0.33%) RESTful
12 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
12 3 (0.25%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
2 52 (4.34%) Analytical Mindset
3 42 (3.51%) PKI
4 36 (3.01%) Clustering
5 35 (2.92%) Management Information System
6 34 (2.84%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.84%) Private Cloud
7 33 (2.75%) Enterprise Storage
8 30 (2.50%) Fibre Optics
9 29 (2.42%) Onboarding
10 27 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
10 27 (2.25%) Public Cloud
11 26 (2.17%) Replication
12 18 (1.50%) Driving Licence
13 17 (1.42%) CMDB
13 17 (1.42%) Operational Technology
14 15 (1.25%) SCADA
14 15 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
16 13 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 177 (14.77%) Windows
2 130 (10.85%) Linux
3 49 (4.09%) Windows Server
4 35 (2.92%) Unix
5 21 (1.75%) AIX
6 19 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.92%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.67%) VMS
10 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.42%) HPUX
11 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.42%) SUSE
12 4 (0.33%) CentOS
12 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.25%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (20.45%) Migration
2 200 (16.69%) Problem-Solving
3 149 (12.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 139 (11.60%) Stakeholder Management
5 116 (9.68%) Infrastructure as Code
6 112 (9.35%) ITIL
7 105 (8.76%) High Availability
8 100 (8.35%) Agile
9 97 (8.10%) CI/CD
10 93 (7.76%) Roadmaps
11 88 (7.35%) Project Delivery
11 88 (7.35%) Validation
12 83 (6.93%) Continuous Improvement
13 80 (6.68%) Change Management
14 72 (6.01%) Technical Leadership
15 71 (5.93%) Load Balancing
15 71 (5.93%) Zero Trust
16 69 (5.76%) DevOps
16 69 (5.76%) Disaster Recovery
17 67 (5.59%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 160 (13.36%) Python
2 57 (4.76%) PowerShell
3 40 (3.34%) SQL
4 30 (2.50%) Bash
5 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
5 10 (0.83%) Bicep
6 9 (0.75%) Java
6 9 (0.75%) Perl
7 8 (0.67%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.67%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.50%) COBOL
9 5 (0.42%) C#
9 5 (0.42%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
11 3 (0.25%) JCL
11 3 (0.25%) Korn
11 3 (0.25%) Lisp
11 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.17%) Go
12 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 300 (25.04%) Security Cleared
2 200 (16.69%) SC Cleared
3 194 (16.19%) Cisco Certification
4 108 (9.02%) CCNP
5 96 (8.01%) DV Cleared
6 81 (6.76%) CCNA
7 64 (5.34%) Degree
8 56 (4.67%) Network+ Certification
9 48 (4.01%) Microsoft Certification
10 44 (3.67%) A+ Certification
11 42 (3.51%) MCSE
12 30 (2.50%) CCIE
13 28 (2.34%) Azure Certification
14 27 (2.25%) AWS Certification
15 26 (2.17%) City & Guilds
16 23 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 22 (1.84%) PMI Certification
17 22 (1.84%) PMP
18 21 (1.75%) CISSP
19 20 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.09%) QA
2 28 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (2.34%) SLA
3 23 (1.92%) NIST
4 18 (1.50%) PMO
5 15 (1.25%) GDPR
6 13 (1.09%) NCSC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
8 7 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.50%) GRC
9 6 (0.50%) RMADS
10 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.25%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.17%) WCAG
13 1 (0.083%) PSD2
System Software
1 132 (11.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 82 (6.84%) Active Directory
3 47 (3.92%) vSphere
4 44 (3.67%) VMware NSX
5 37 (3.09%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (2.84%) Hyper-V
7 31 (2.59%) Docker
7 31 (2.59%) Firmware
8 14 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.92%) NFS
10 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
11 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
11 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
12 5 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
13 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.33%) SRDF
13 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
13 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
14 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 143 (11.94%) Ansible
2 108 (9.02%) Terraform
3 58 (4.84%) Kubernetes
4 40 (3.34%) FortiGate
5 26 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
6 25 (2.09%) Grafana
6 25 (2.09%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.34%) vCenter Server
7 16 (1.34%) VxRail
8 12 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
8 12 (1.00%) NetBackup
9 11 (0.92%) Dell DRAC
9 11 (0.92%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.83%) SCCM
10 10 (0.83%) vMotion
11 8 (0.67%) PowerCLI
12 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
12 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
13 6 (0.50%) SCOM
Vendors
1 274 (22.87%) Cisco
2 188 (15.69%) VMware
3 134 (11.19%) Microsoft
4 121 (10.10%) Palo Alto
5 107 (8.93%) F5
6 77 (6.43%) Dell
7 74 (6.18%) Juniper
8 69 (5.76%) Fortinet
9 66 (5.51%) Arista
10 62 (5.18%) ServiceNow
11 36 (3.01%) Google
12 35 (2.92%) Aruba
13 34 (2.84%) IBM
14 33 (2.75%) CheckPoint
14 33 (2.75%) Red Hat
15 29 (2.42%) SolarWinds
16 24 (2.00%) Oracle
17 22 (1.84%) Veeam
18 21 (1.75%) Splunk
18 21 (1.75%) Zscaler