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 18 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 129 104
Rank change year-on-year +26 -25 -18
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,184 651 947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.19% 2.16%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.23% 6.34% 7.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 709 419 628
10th Percentile £318 £300 £300
25th Percentile £405 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.20% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £474 £475 £538
% change year-on-year -0.21% -11.67% +7.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 21 53
10th Percentile £16.00 - £12.08
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.50% +4.79% +12.89%
75th Percentile £35.22 £41.25 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.60 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £25.08 £22.50
% change year-on-year -22.87% +11.44% +7.23%

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 16,367 10,268 13,118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.47% 34.50% 29.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,026 6,438 8,323
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £631 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 845 450 944
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £19.97 £15.24
Median hourly rate £42.71 £32.95 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.63% -7.20% +57.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.80 £81.43 £72.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.91 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.78% -8.84% +59.09%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 +25 971 £495 -4.35% 339
UK excluding London +5 675 £474 -0.21% 254
London +28 345 £550 +4.27% 140
Work from Home +28 318 £480 -4.00% 95
North of England +12 241 £474 +5.33% 46
South East +4 206 £463 +2.78% 90
Yorkshire -9 123 £365 -16.57% 19
North West +13 94 £494 -1.94% 20
Scotland +6 60 £466 +6.46% 10
Midlands -48 57 £465 -15.45% 30
West Midlands -39 53 £467 -15.12% 22
South West -17 50 £495 -13.91% 31
East of England -12 38 £492 +31.20% 30
Wales +2 34 £468 +16.88% 15
North East -7 30 £625 +468.18% 7
East Midlands -29 3 £325 -36.97% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 £425 - 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 27 (2.28%) Confluence
2 18 (1.52%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.93%) CICS
3 11 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.34%) Apache
4 4 (0.34%) CloudStack
4 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.25%) nginx
5 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.084%) IIS
6 1 (0.084%) Mendix
Applications
1 15 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
5 9 (0.76%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.25%) Primavera
1 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.17%) DELMIA
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 252 (21.28%) Azure
2 209 (17.65%) AWS
3 73 (6.17%) GCP
4 42 (3.55%) GitHub
5 40 (3.38%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (3.29%) IaaS
7 33 (2.79%) SaaS
8 30 (2.53%) OCI
9 25 (2.11%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.60%) PaaS
11 18 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 16 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
13 15 (1.27%) OneDrive
13 15 (1.27%) OpenShift
14 13 (1.10%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.93%) Nutanix
16 10 (0.84%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 9 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
17 9 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 328 (27.70%) Firewall
2 195 (16.47%) WAN
3 184 (15.54%) BGP
4 143 (12.08%) OSPF
5 123 (10.39%) VXLAN
6 121 (10.22%) VPN
7 116 (9.80%) SAN
8 115 (9.71%) LAN
9 113 (9.54%) Network Security
10 110 (9.29%) DNS
11 98 (8.28%) VLAN
12 93 (7.85%) Structured Cabling
13 87 (7.35%) SD-WAN
14 85 (7.18%) Ethernet VPN
15 81 (6.84%) DHCP
16 58 (4.90%) BIG-IP
17 52 (4.39%) Cisco Nexus
18 50 (4.22%) TCP/IP
19 48 (4.05%) Wi-Fi
19 48 (4.05%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (1.35%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.84%) DataStage
3 8 (0.68%) Power BI
4 7 (0.59%) Big Data
5 6 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.34%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (0.34%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.34%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.34%) SAP Data Services
7 3 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.25%) GIS
8 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.17%) Power Query
8 2 (0.17%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 65 (5.49%) JIRA
2 39 (3.29%) GitLab
3 38 (3.21%) Jenkins
4 32 (2.70%) Git
5 6 (0.51%) ScriptRunner
5 6 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.42%) JMeter
7 4 (0.34%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.34%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.34%) Maven
7 4 (0.34%) Subversion
8 3 (0.25%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
9 2 (0.17%) MSI
10 1 (0.084%) AppScan
10 1 (0.084%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.084%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.084%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.084%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.084%) Postman
General
1 296 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 160 (13.51%) Finance
3 129 (10.90%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (6.76%) Public Sector
5 65 (5.49%) Documentation Skills
6 45 (3.80%) Banking
7 38 (3.21%) Telecoms
8 36 (3.04%) Legal
9 24 (2.03%) Manufacturing
10 21 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.69%) Retail
12 17 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (0.93%) Law
13 11 (0.93%) Military
14 8 (0.68%) Aerospace
14 8 (0.68%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.68%) Marketing
14 8 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.42%) Police
Job Titles
1 205 (17.31%) Network Engineer
2 186 (15.71%) Architect
3 135 (11.40%) Senior
4 95 (8.02%) Data Centre Engineer
5 92 (7.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 68 (5.74%) Project Manager
7 61 (5.15%) Lead
8 56 (4.73%) IT Engineer
9 53 (4.48%) Field Engineer
10 49 (4.14%) Field Service Engineer
11 48 (4.05%) Network Architect
12 45 (3.80%) Solutions Architect
13 38 (3.21%) Analyst
14 37 (3.13%) Technical Architect
15 36 (3.04%) Data Centre Manager
16 35 (2.96%) Infrastructure Manager
16 35 (2.96%) Support Engineer
17 34 (2.87%) Senior Network Engineer
18 33 (2.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 32 (2.70%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.22%) Middleware
2 32 (2.70%) 802.1X
3 11 (0.93%) LDAP
4 10 (0.84%) Redfish
4 10 (0.84%) REST
5 7 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
5 7 (0.59%) Spring
6 5 (0.42%) Jinja
6 5 (0.42%) Kafka
6 5 (0.42%) XML
7 4 (0.34%) .NET
7 4 (0.34%) ADO
7 4 (0.34%) GeoJSON
7 4 (0.34%) RESTful
7 4 (0.34%) Spring Boot
7 4 (0.34%) YAML
8 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.25%) HTML
8 3 (0.25%) Java EE
8 3 (0.25%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (5.32%) Hybrid Cloud
2 55 (4.65%) Analytical Mindset
3 38 (3.21%) Management Information System
4 33 (2.79%) Cloud Native
5 31 (2.62%) Clustering
6 30 (2.53%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.45%) PKI
8 28 (2.36%) Enterprise Storage
9 25 (2.11%) Fibre Optics
10 22 (1.86%) Private Cloud
11 21 (1.77%) CMDB
11 21 (1.77%) Driving Licence
12 19 (1.60%) Replication
13 18 (1.52%) Public Cloud
14 17 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
15 16 (1.35%) SCADA
15 16 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
16 14 (1.18%) NHS
17 13 (1.10%) Operational Technology
18 12 (1.01%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 161 (13.60%) Windows
2 149 (12.58%) Linux
3 39 (3.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 37 (3.13%) Windows Server
5 24 (2.03%) Unix
6 23 (1.94%) AIX
7 18 (1.52%) Solaris
8 11 (0.93%) CentOS
9 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.84%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.76%) Ubuntu
11 8 (0.68%) VMS
12 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
13 5 (0.42%) HPUX
13 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
13 5 (0.42%) SUSE
14 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
15 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
16 2 (0.17%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (17.48%) Migration
2 202 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
3 119 (10.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 117 (9.88%) High Availability
5 116 (9.80%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.63%) Stakeholder Management
7 107 (9.04%) ITIL
8 106 (8.95%) CI/CD
9 94 (7.94%) Roadmaps
10 92 (7.77%) Continuous Improvement
11 88 (7.43%) Agile
12 86 (7.26%) DevOps
13 84 (7.09%) Load Balancing
14 81 (6.84%) Validation
15 74 (6.25%) Change Management
16 73 (6.17%) Project Delivery
17 69 (5.83%) Project Management
18 68 (5.74%) Customer Service
19 67 (5.66%) ITSM
20 64 (5.41%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 148 (12.50%) Python
2 44 (3.72%) PowerShell
3 38 (3.21%) SQL
4 27 (2.28%) Bash
5 19 (1.60%) Java
6 16 (1.35%) Bicep
6 16 (1.35%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.01%) COBOL
8 11 (0.93%) MATLAB
9 10 (0.84%) ActionScript
9 10 (0.84%) Perl
10 8 (0.68%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.59%) JavaScript
12 4 (0.34%) C
12 4 (0.34%) C++
12 4 (0.34%) Lisp
13 3 (0.25%) C#
13 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.25%) VBA
14 2 (0.17%) Korn
Qualifications
1 309 (26.10%) Security Cleared
2 233 (19.68%) Cisco Certification
3 228 (19.26%) SC Cleared
4 140 (11.82%) CCNP
5 107 (9.04%) CCNA
6 73 (6.17%) DV Cleared
7 71 (6.00%) Degree
8 64 (5.41%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.97%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.97%) MCSE
11 30 (2.53%) Azure Certification
12 25 (2.11%) AWS Certification
12 25 (2.11%) City & Guilds
12 25 (2.11%) PMP
13 24 (2.03%) CCIE
13 24 (2.03%) PMI Certification
14 20 (1.69%) BICSI Certification
15 18 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 17 (1.44%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.70%) SLA
2 27 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (2.11%) NIST
4 23 (1.94%) QA
5 22 (1.86%) PMO
6 19 (1.60%) GDPR
7 13 (1.10%) NCSC
8 10 (0.84%) GRC
9 9 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
9 9 (0.76%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.59%) RMADS
11 6 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
14 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
14 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 102 (8.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (5.49%) Active Directory
3 32 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
3 32 (2.70%) vSphere
4 30 (2.53%) Firmware
4 30 (2.53%) VMware NSX
5 27 (2.28%) Hyper-V
6 25 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (1.27%) Docker
8 11 (0.93%) KVM
9 7 (0.59%) NFS
10 6 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
10 6 (0.51%) SRDF
10 6 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.34%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.34%) Terminal Services
11 4 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
12 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.25%) UAG
12 3 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 137 (11.57%) Ansible
2 108 (9.12%) Terraform
3 56 (4.73%) FortiGate
4 49 (4.14%) Kubernetes
5 35 (2.96%) Grafana
6 30 (2.53%) Prometheus
7 27 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.27%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.10%) Check_MK
9 13 (1.10%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.93%) Podman
10 11 (0.93%) PowerCLI
10 11 (0.93%) Red Hat Satellite
10 11 (0.93%) vMotion
11 10 (0.84%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
12 8 (0.68%) SCCM
13 7 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
13 7 (0.59%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 306 (25.84%) Cisco
2 155 (13.09%) VMware
3 147 (12.42%) Palo Alto
4 114 (9.63%) F5
4 114 (9.63%) Microsoft
5 91 (7.69%) Dell
6 89 (7.52%) Juniper
7 73 (6.17%) Arista
8 63 (5.32%) Fortinet
9 58 (4.90%) ServiceNow
10 51 (4.31%) Aruba
11 44 (3.72%) Google
12 42 (3.55%) Red Hat
13 41 (3.46%) SolarWinds
14 36 (3.04%) CheckPoint
14 36 (3.04%) IBM
15 28 (2.36%) Splunk
16 27 (2.28%) Oracle
17 24 (2.03%) Citrix
17 24 (2.03%) HP