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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 118 104
Rank change year-on-year +7 -14 -15
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,202 753 857
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 2.29% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.75% 6.55% 7.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 706 477 574
10th Percentile £325 £300 £350
25th Percentile £413 £400 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.64% -5.12% -0.46%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £769 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £481 £538
% change year-on-year +2.23% -10.55% +7.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 32 39
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.91
25th Percentile £17.64 £24.66 £12.08
Median hourly rate £25.39 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.93% +25.75% -
75th Percentile £42.73 £32.75 £25.83
90th Percentile £79.85 £43.75 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £16.50
% change year-on-year -21.57% +49.45% -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 17,810 11,488 11,917
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.41% 34.91% 30.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,830 7,091 7,640
10th Percentile £321 £303 £300
25th Percentile £423 £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 £768 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 975 553 622
10th Percentile £15.44 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.50 £18.87 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £44.39
Median % change year-on-year +49.02% -33.54% +10.98%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £66.19
90th Percentile £85.00 £77.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -33.33% +1.12%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 +12 1,011 £525 - 841
UK excluding London -15 655 £492 +2.23% 410
London +10 395 £550 +2.61% 471
Work from Home -5 298 £525 +2.94% 227
North of England -1 224 £488 +11.43% 121
South East -1 208 £525 +5.79% 111
Yorkshire -5 128 £365 -9.88% 30
North West -15 81 £525 - 48
South West -35 62 £498 -9.55% 49
Midlands -59 57 £456 -13.14% 31
West Midlands -53 52 £466 -6.82% 19
Scotland -5 43 £425 -5.56% 18
Wales +8 41 £468 +24.67% 13
East of England -16 30 £483 -7.21% 67
North East -21 21 £625 +468.18% 43
East Midlands -17 4 £363 -33.49% 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 30 (2.50%) Confluence
2 15 (1.25%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
4 8 (0.67%) CICS
5 7 (0.58%) OpenStack
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.25%) nginx
7 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.25%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.083%) IIS
8 1 (0.083%) Mendix
8 1 (0.083%) SAS
Applications
1 20 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
9 1 (0.083%) Adobe Illustrator
Business Applications
1 11 (0.92%) 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%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 257 (21.38%) Azure
2 228 (18.97%) AWS
3 65 (5.41%) GCP
4 42 (3.49%) GitHub
5 39 (3.24%) IaaS
6 35 (2.91%) Microsoft 365
7 34 (2.83%) SaaS
8 29 (2.41%) OCI
9 25 (2.08%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.50%) Power Platform
11 17 (1.41%) PaaS
12 16 (1.33%) OpenShift
13 15 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
14 14 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 12 (1.00%) OneDrive
16 11 (0.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 10 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
18 8 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
18 8 (0.67%) Nutanix
19 6 (0.50%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 325 (27.04%) Firewall
2 189 (15.72%) WAN
3 181 (15.06%) BGP
4 135 (11.23%) OSPF
5 133 (11.06%) DNS
6 130 (10.82%) VPN
7 126 (10.48%) VXLAN
8 119 (9.90%) SAN
9 111 (9.23%) LAN
10 103 (8.57%) Network Security
11 101 (8.40%) DHCP
11 101 (8.40%) VLAN
12 85 (7.07%) Ethernet VPN
12 85 (7.07%) SD-WAN
12 85 (7.07%) Structured Cabling
13 78 (6.49%) TCP/IP
14 60 (4.99%) BIG-IP
15 57 (4.74%) Wireless
16 54 (4.49%) Wi-Fi
17 50 (4.16%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.33%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.16%) Power BI
3 9 (0.75%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 9 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 9 (0.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (0.58%) Big Data
4 7 (0.58%) DataStage
4 7 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.50%) Db2
5 6 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
6 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
7 3 (0.25%) GIS
7 3 (0.25%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 76 (6.32%) JIRA
2 28 (2.33%) GitLab
2 28 (2.33%) Jenkins
3 25 (2.08%) Git
4 8 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.33%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.33%) JMeter
6 4 (0.33%) Maven
6 4 (0.33%) Subversion
7 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.17%) MSI
8 2 (0.17%) Toad
9 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 291 (24.21%) Social Skills
2 156 (12.98%) Finance
3 123 (10.23%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (5.74%) Public Sector
5 49 (4.08%) Banking
6 46 (3.83%) Telecoms
7 43 (3.58%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (2.41%) Retail
9 25 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
10 24 (2.00%) Legal
11 16 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 15 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 12 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.75%) Law
15 8 (0.67%) Police
16 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 7 (0.58%) Military
17 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
17 5 (0.42%) Marketing
18 3 (0.25%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 197 (16.39%) Architect
2 184 (15.31%) Network Engineer
3 148 (12.31%) Senior
4 118 (9.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 105 (8.74%) Data Centre Engineer
6 80 (6.66%) Project Manager
7 62 (5.16%) Network Architect
8 59 (4.91%) Lead
9 52 (4.33%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.91%) Field Engineer
11 44 (3.66%) Field Service Engineer
11 44 (3.66%) Technical Architect
12 43 (3.58%) Data Centre Manager
12 43 (3.58%) Infrastructure Manager
13 39 (3.24%) Solutions Architect
14 38 (3.16%) Senior Network Engineer
15 35 (2.91%) Support Engineer
16 32 (2.66%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 31 (2.58%) Consultant
18 30 (2.50%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.33%) Middleware
2 32 (2.66%) 802.1X
3 13 (1.08%) REST
4 10 (0.83%) Redfish
5 8 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
5 8 (0.67%) LDAP
5 8 (0.67%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.58%) OpenConfig
6 7 (0.58%) YANG
7 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
7 6 (0.50%) SAML
7 6 (0.50%) Spring
8 5 (0.42%) .NET
8 5 (0.42%) Jinja
8 5 (0.42%) XML
8 5 (0.42%) YAML
9 4 (0.33%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.33%) RESTful
10 3 (0.25%) Kafka
10 3 (0.25%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.16%) Hybrid Cloud
2 52 (4.33%) Analytical Mindset
3 49 (4.08%) PKI
4 45 (3.74%) Clustering
5 37 (3.08%) Management Information System
6 35 (2.91%) Cloud Native
7 32 (2.66%) Enterprise Storage
8 28 (2.33%) Private Cloud
9 27 (2.25%) Onboarding
10 26 (2.16%) Fibre Optics
11 24 (2.00%) Replication
12 22 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
13 21 (1.75%) Public Cloud
14 17 (1.41%) Driving Licence
15 16 (1.33%) Operational Technology
16 15 (1.25%) CMDB
16 15 (1.25%) SCADA
17 14 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
17 14 (1.16%) Mainframe
17 14 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 170 (14.14%) Windows
2 130 (10.82%) Linux
3 48 (3.99%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.08%) Unix
5 25 (2.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (2.00%) AIX
7 15 (1.25%) Solaris
8 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.50%) VMS
10 5 (0.42%) HPUX
10 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
10 5 (0.42%) SUSE
10 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
10 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.33%) CentOS
11 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.17%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (20.72%) Migration
2 205 (17.05%) Problem-Solving
3 147 (12.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 137 (11.40%) Stakeholder Management
5 114 (9.48%) High Availability
6 112 (9.32%) ITIL
7 108 (8.99%) Infrastructure as Code
8 102 (8.49%) CI/CD
9 100 (8.32%) Agile
10 95 (7.90%) Roadmaps
11 88 (7.32%) Continuous Improvement
12 85 (7.07%) Change Management
12 85 (7.07%) Project Delivery
13 83 (6.91%) Load Balancing
14 80 (6.66%) Validation
15 74 (6.16%) Zero Trust
16 73 (6.07%) DevOps
17 72 (5.99%) Technical Leadership
18 69 (5.74%) Project Management
19 68 (5.66%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 159 (13.23%) Python
2 56 (4.66%) PowerShell
3 45 (3.74%) SQL
4 31 (2.58%) Bash
5 18 (1.50%) Java
6 13 (1.08%) Bicep
6 13 (1.08%) Perl
7 11 (0.92%) Shell Script
8 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.75%) COBOL
9 9 (0.75%) PL/SQL
10 6 (0.50%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.42%) C#
12 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.25%) JCL
13 3 (0.25%) Korn
13 3 (0.25%) Lisp
13 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.17%) REXX
14 2 (0.17%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 322 (26.79%) Security Cleared
2 209 (17.39%) Cisco Certification
2 209 (17.39%) SC Cleared
3 116 (9.65%) CCNP
4 106 (8.82%) DV Cleared
5 87 (7.24%) CCNA
6 65 (5.41%) Degree
7 59 (4.91%) Network+ Certification
8 49 (4.08%) Microsoft Certification
9 42 (3.49%) A+ Certification
9 42 (3.49%) MCSE
10 28 (2.33%) Azure Certification
10 28 (2.33%) CCIE
11 27 (2.25%) AWS Certification
12 26 (2.16%) City & Guilds
13 22 (1.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 21 (1.75%) PMI Certification
14 21 (1.75%) PMP
15 20 (1.66%) BICSI Certification
15 20 (1.66%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.00%) QA
2 32 (2.66%) SLA
3 29 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 23 (1.91%) NIST
5 18 (1.50%) PMO
6 15 (1.25%) NCSC
7 14 (1.16%) GDPR
8 9 (0.75%) Disclosure Scotland
9 8 (0.67%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.50%) GRC
10 6 (0.50%) RMADS
11 4 (0.33%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
14 1 (0.083%) NEBOSH
14 1 (0.083%) SEPA
System Software
1 121 (10.07%) VMware Infrastructure
2 76 (6.32%) Active Directory
3 42 (3.49%) vSphere
4 40 (3.33%) VMware NSX
5 35 (2.91%) Hyper-V
6 34 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
7 31 (2.58%) Firmware
8 27 (2.25%) Docker
9 17 (1.41%) Virtual Machines
10 11 (0.92%) NFS
11 7 (0.58%) PowerHA
12 6 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
12 6 (0.50%) SRDF
13 5 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.33%) KVM
14 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 136 (11.31%) Ansible
2 110 (9.15%) Terraform
3 57 (4.74%) Kubernetes
4 50 (4.16%) FortiGate
5 27 (2.25%) Grafana
6 26 (2.16%) Microsoft Intune
7 25 (2.08%) Prometheus
8 15 (1.25%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.16%) VxRail
10 13 (1.08%) NetBackup
11 11 (0.92%) Dell DRAC
11 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Clustering
11 11 (0.92%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.75%) vMotion
14 8 (0.67%) PowerCLI
14 8 (0.67%) SCCM
15 7 (0.58%) Check_MK
15 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
16 6 (0.50%) Nagios
Vendors
1 280 (23.29%) Cisco
2 175 (14.56%) VMware
3 129 (10.73%) Palo Alto
4 122 (10.15%) Microsoft
5 121 (10.07%) F5
6 85 (7.07%) Juniper
7 76 (6.32%) Dell
8 73 (6.07%) Fortinet
9 70 (5.82%) Arista
10 55 (4.58%) ServiceNow
11 41 (3.41%) IBM
12 40 (3.33%) SolarWinds
13 37 (3.08%) Aruba
13 37 (3.08%) Google
14 35 (2.91%) CheckPoint
15 33 (2.75%) Red Hat
16 32 (2.66%) Splunk
17 27 (2.25%) Oracle
18 23 (1.91%) HP
19 22 (1.83%) Extreme Networks