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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 119 105
Rank change year-on-year +9 -14 -16
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,198 748 860
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.27% 2.27% 2.19%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.79% 6.52% 7.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 704 474 577
10th Percentile £325 £301 £350
25th Percentile £413 £401 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -5.12% -0.46%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £765 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £480 £538
% change year-on-year +2.47% -10.76% +7.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 31 39
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.91
25th Percentile £17.50 £24.66 £12.08
Median hourly rate £23.00 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% +25.75% -
75th Percentile £42.73 £33.00 £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 17,652 11,464 11,963
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.40% 34.84% 30.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,748 7,077 7,676
10th Percentile £321 £303 £300
25th Percentile £420 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £640 £675
90th Percentile £750 £771 £820
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 962 549 619
10th Percentile £15.72 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.87 £18.12
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £44.74
Median % change year-on-year +49.02% -34.06% +11.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £65.88
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.50 £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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +11 1,011 £525 - 858
UK excluding London -10 655 £492 +2.47% 427
London +15 392 £550 +2.61% 475
Work from Home +4 296 £525 +2.94% 250
North of England +3 225 £486 +8.06% 125
South East -1 208 £525 +6.87% 127
Yorkshire -5 128 £365 -9.88% 29
North West -12 82 £525 - 46
South West -33 62 £498 -9.55% 51
Midlands -55 59 £456 -13.14% 30
West Midlands -53 54 £466 -6.82% 19
Scotland -15 43 £425 -5.56% 15
Wales +4 38 £468 +24.67% 14
East of England -14 30 £483 -7.21% 64
North East -21 21 £625 +468.18% 50
East Midlands -18 4 £363 -33.49% 11
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 6 (0.50%) OpenStack
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 4 (0.33%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.25%) nginx
8 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.083%) IIS
9 1 (0.083%) Mendix
9 1 (0.083%) SAS
Applications
1 20 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.42%) 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 10 (0.83%) 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 (21.45%) Azure
2 228 (19.03%) AWS
3 65 (5.43%) GCP
4 42 (3.51%) GitHub
5 39 (3.26%) IaaS
6 35 (2.92%) Microsoft 365
7 34 (2.84%) SaaS
8 29 (2.42%) OCI
9 25 (2.09%) Entra ID
10 17 (1.42%) PaaS
10 17 (1.42%) Power Platform
11 16 (1.34%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
12 15 (1.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 12 (1.00%) OneDrive
14 11 (0.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 10 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
16 8 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (0.67%) Nutanix
17 6 (0.50%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 326 (27.21%) Firewall
2 191 (15.94%) WAN
3 182 (15.19%) BGP
4 137 (11.44%) OSPF
5 133 (11.10%) DNS
6 131 (10.93%) VPN
7 125 (10.43%) VXLAN
8 119 (9.93%) SAN
9 113 (9.43%) LAN
10 104 (8.68%) Network Security
11 102 (8.51%) VLAN
12 101 (8.43%) DHCP
13 85 (7.10%) Ethernet VPN
13 85 (7.10%) SD-WAN
13 85 (7.10%) Structured Cabling
14 78 (6.51%) TCP/IP
15 60 (5.01%) BIG-IP
16 57 (4.76%) Wireless
17 54 (4.51%) Wi-Fi
18 50 (4.17%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.25%) SQL Server
2 13 (1.09%) Power BI
3 8 (0.67%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 8 (0.67%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 8 (0.67%) 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%) MongoDB
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
8 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 76 (6.34%) JIRA
2 29 (2.42%) GitLab
2 29 (2.42%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.17%) Git
4 8 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (0.50%) 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
1 293 (24.46%) Social Skills
2 156 (13.02%) Finance
3 122 (10.18%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (5.84%) Public Sector
5 49 (4.09%) Banking
6 46 (3.84%) Telecoms
7 44 (3.67%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (2.42%) Retail
9 24 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
9 24 (2.00%) Legal
10 16 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 15 (1.25%) Manufacturing
12 12 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.75%) Law
14 8 (0.67%) Police
15 7 (0.58%) Financial Institution
15 7 (0.58%) Military
16 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.42%) Marketing
17 3 (0.25%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 194 (16.19%) Architect
2 186 (15.53%) Network Engineer
3 148 (12.35%) Senior
4 117 (9.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 104 (8.68%) Data Centre Engineer
6 80 (6.68%) Project Manager
7 61 (5.09%) Network Architect
8 58 (4.84%) Lead
9 52 (4.34%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.92%) Field Engineer
11 44 (3.67%) Field Service Engineer
12 43 (3.59%) Data Centre Manager
12 43 (3.59%) Infrastructure Manager
12 43 (3.59%) Technical Architect
13 38 (3.17%) Senior Network Engineer
13 38 (3.17%) Solutions Architect
14 35 (2.92%) Support Engineer
15 32 (2.67%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 31 (2.59%) Consultant
17 30 (2.50%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (4.26%) Middleware
2 32 (2.67%) 802.1X
3 12 (1.00%) REST
4 10 (0.83%) Redfish
5 8 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
5 8 (0.67%) LDAP
6 7 (0.58%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.58%) Spring
7 6 (0.50%) OpenConfig
7 6 (0.50%) RESTCONF
7 6 (0.50%) SAML
7 6 (0.50%) YANG
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
9 4 (0.33%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.25%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
2 52 (4.34%) Analytical Mindset
3 49 (4.09%) PKI
4 44 (3.67%) Clustering
5 36 (3.01%) Management Information System
6 35 (2.92%) Cloud Native
7 32 (2.67%) Enterprise Storage
8 28 (2.34%) Fibre Optics
8 28 (2.34%) Private Cloud
9 27 (2.25%) Onboarding
10 24 (2.00%) Replication
11 22 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
12 21 (1.75%) Public Cloud
13 17 (1.42%) Driving Licence
14 16 (1.34%) Operational Technology
15 15 (1.25%) CMDB
16 14 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
16 14 (1.17%) Mainframe
16 14 (1.17%) SCADA
16 14 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 169 (14.11%) Windows
2 133 (11.10%) Linux
3 47 (3.92%) Windows Server
4 37 (3.09%) Unix
5 27 (2.25%) 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
10 5 (0.42%) HPUX
10 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
10 5 (0.42%) SUSE
10 5 (0.42%) VMS
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
1 245 (20.45%) Migration
2 206 (17.20%) Problem-Solving
3 146 (12.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 135 (11.27%) Stakeholder Management
5 114 (9.52%) High Availability
6 112 (9.35%) ITIL
7 108 (9.02%) Infrastructure as Code
8 104 (8.68%) CI/CD
9 98 (8.18%) Agile
10 95 (7.93%) Roadmaps
11 89 (7.43%) Continuous Improvement
12 85 (7.10%) Change Management
13 84 (7.01%) Project Delivery
14 83 (6.93%) Load Balancing
15 80 (6.68%) Validation
16 74 (6.18%) DevOps
16 74 (6.18%) Zero Trust
17 71 (5.93%) Technical Leadership
18 69 (5.76%) Project Management
19 68 (5.68%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 158 (13.19%) Python
2 55 (4.59%) PowerShell
3 45 (3.76%) SQL
4 31 (2.59%) Bash
5 19 (1.59%) Java
6 14 (1.17%) Perl
7 13 (1.09%) Bicep
8 12 (1.00%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.83%) ActionScript
10 9 (0.75%) COBOL
10 9 (0.75%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.50%) JavaScript
12 5 (0.42%) C#
13 4 (0.33%) MATLAB
14 3 (0.25%) JCL
14 3 (0.25%) Korn
14 3 (0.25%) Lisp
14 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.17%) REXX
15 2 (0.17%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 323 (26.96%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.53%) Cisco Certification
2 210 (17.53%) SC Cleared
3 118 (9.85%) CCNP
4 106 (8.85%) DV Cleared
5 88 (7.35%) CCNA
6 65 (5.43%) Degree
7 59 (4.92%) Network+ Certification
8 49 (4.09%) Microsoft Certification
9 42 (3.51%) A+ Certification
9 42 (3.51%) MCSE
10 28 (2.34%) Azure Certification
11 27 (2.25%) AWS Certification
11 27 (2.25%) CCIE
12 26 (2.17%) City & Guilds
13 22 (1.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 21 (1.75%) PMI Certification
14 21 (1.75%) PMP
15 20 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
15 20 (1.67%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (2.92%) QA
2 32 (2.67%) SLA
3 29 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 23 (1.92%) NIST
5 18 (1.50%) PMO
6 16 (1.34%) NCSC
7 14 (1.17%) 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
1 119 (9.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 75 (6.26%) Active Directory
3 42 (3.51%) vSphere
4 41 (3.42%) VMware NSX
5 35 (2.92%) Hyper-V
6 34 (2.84%) VMware ESXi
7 31 (2.59%) Firmware
8 27 (2.25%) Docker
9 17 (1.42%) 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
14 4 (0.33%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.33%) KVM
14 4 (0.33%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 136 (11.35%) Ansible
2 111 (9.27%) Terraform
3 58 (4.84%) Kubernetes
4 50 (4.17%) FortiGate
5 27 (2.25%) Grafana
6 26 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 25 (2.09%) Prometheus
8 15 (1.25%) vCenter Server
9 14 (1.17%) VxRail
10 13 (1.09%) NetBackup
11 11 (0.92%) Dell DRAC
11 11 (0.92%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
12 10 (0.83%) Microsoft Clustering
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
1 281 (23.46%) Cisco
2 173 (14.44%) VMware
3 129 (10.77%) Palo Alto
4 122 (10.18%) Microsoft
5 121 (10.10%) F5
6 85 (7.10%) Juniper
7 76 (6.34%) Dell
8 73 (6.09%) Fortinet
9 70 (5.84%) Arista
10 55 (4.59%) ServiceNow
11 41 (3.42%) IBM
12 40 (3.34%) SolarWinds
13 37 (3.09%) Aruba
13 37 (3.09%) Google
14 35 (2.92%) CheckPoint
15 34 (2.84%) Red Hat
16 32 (2.67%) Splunk
17 28 (2.34%) Oracle
18 23 (1.92%) HP
19 22 (1.84%) Extreme Networks