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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 131 101
Rank change year-on-year +30 -30 -14
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,198 632 931
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.40% 2.15% 2.13%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.40% 6.28% 7.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 720 409 629
10th Percentile £318 £303 £300
25th Percentile £405 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -6.54% -2.73%
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% -11.63% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 20 49
10th Percentile £16.00 - £12.08
25th Percentile £16.01 £24.66 £18.00
Median hourly rate £20.43 £32.75 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.62% +36.44% +11.81%
75th Percentile £35.22 £41.88 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.71 £49.38 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £25.08 £23.25
% change year-on-year -22.87% +7.85% +9.36%

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 16,187 10,071 13,093
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.44% 34.29% 30.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,944 6,340 8,370
10th Percentile £314 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 812 430 937
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.87 £20.09 £15.39
Median hourly rate £41.97 £33.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.18% -5.71% +56.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.68 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year +38.41% -9.26% +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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +25 984 £495 -4.81% 354
UK excluding London +13 684 £474 -0.21% 227
London +12 345 £550 +4.76% 164
Work from Home +33 327 £480 -5.88% 114
North of England +17 242 £474 +11.53% 48
South East +9 213 £463 +2.78% 91
Yorkshire +6 122 £365 -12.05% 20
North West +9 96 £488 -3.20% 22
Midlands -57 59 £466 -15.29% 25
Scotland +2 57 £466 +6.46% 10
West Midlands -46 54 £468 -14.83% 22
South West -14 52 £495 -13.91% 23
East of England -8 38 £492 +31.20% 25
Wales +4 34 £468 +16.88% 6
North East 0 30 £625 +468.18% 6
East Midlands -33 4 £325 -36.97% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £425 - 3
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 24 (2.00%) Confluence
2 17 (1.42%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.92%) CICS
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.33%) Apache
4 4 (0.33%) CloudStack
4 4 (0.33%) nginx
4 4 (0.33%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.33%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.25%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.083%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.083%) IIS
6 1 (0.083%) Mendix
Applications
1 15 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.75%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
6 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
7 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
3 1 (0.083%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 255 (21.29%) Azure
2 215 (17.95%) AWS
3 77 (6.43%) GCP
4 40 (3.34%) Microsoft 365
5 38 (3.17%) GitHub
6 36 (3.01%) IaaS
7 32 (2.67%) SaaS
8 30 (2.50%) OCI
9 25 (2.09%) Entra ID
10 19 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 17 (1.42%) PaaS
12 15 (1.25%) OneDrive
13 14 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
13 14 (1.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 14 (1.17%) OpenShift
14 12 (1.00%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.92%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.92%) Nutanix
16 9 (0.75%) AWS Direct Connect
16 9 (0.75%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 339 (28.30%) Firewall
2 200 (16.69%) WAN
3 186 (15.53%) BGP
4 147 (12.27%) OSPF
5 125 (10.43%) Network Security
5 125 (10.43%) VPN
6 124 (10.35%) VXLAN
7 119 (9.93%) SAN
8 118 (9.85%) LAN
9 105 (8.76%) DNS
10 98 (8.18%) VLAN
11 93 (7.76%) Structured Cabling
12 87 (7.26%) Ethernet VPN
13 85 (7.10%) SD-WAN
14 81 (6.76%) DHCP
15 57 (4.76%) BIG-IP
16 52 (4.34%) Cisco Nexus
17 50 (4.17%) Wi-Fi
18 48 (4.01%) TCP/IP
19 47 (3.92%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (1.42%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.83%) DataStage
3 7 (0.58%) Power BI
4 6 (0.50%) Big Data
4 6 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.33%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
6 3 (0.25%) GIS
7 2 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.17%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
7 2 (0.17%) Power Query
7 2 (0.17%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 61 (5.09%) JIRA
2 39 (3.26%) GitLab
3 37 (3.09%) Jenkins
4 31 (2.59%) Git
5 7 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.50%) ScriptRunner
7 5 (0.42%) JMeter
7 5 (0.42%) Maven
8 4 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 4 (0.33%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.33%) Subversion
9 3 (0.25%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.083%) AppScan
10 1 (0.083%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.083%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.083%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.083%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.083%) MSI
10 1 (0.083%) Postman
General
1 295 (24.62%) Social Skills
2 160 (13.36%) Finance
3 132 (11.02%) Analytical Skills
4 81 (6.76%) Public Sector
5 62 (5.18%) Documentation Skills
6 46 (3.84%) Banking
7 36 (3.01%) Legal
8 34 (2.84%) Telecoms
9 25 (2.09%) Manufacturing
10 21 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (1.59%) Retail
12 15 (1.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (1.00%) Law
14 10 (0.83%) Military
15 9 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
16 8 (0.67%) Aerospace
16 8 (0.67%) Financial Institution
16 8 (0.67%) Marketing
17 5 (0.42%) Investment Banking
17 5 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 207 (17.28%) Network Engineer
2 192 (16.03%) Architect
3 134 (11.19%) Senior
4 97 (8.10%) Data Centre Engineer
5 90 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 70 (5.84%) Project Manager
7 63 (5.26%) Lead
8 59 (4.92%) IT Engineer
9 55 (4.59%) Field Engineer
10 54 (4.51%) Network Architect
11 52 (4.34%) Field Service Engineer
12 46 (3.84%) Solutions Architect
13 41 (3.42%) Analyst
14 40 (3.34%) Data Centre Manager
15 37 (3.09%) Technical Architect
16 36 (3.01%) Infrastructure Manager
17 34 (2.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 34 (2.84%) Support Engineer
18 33 (2.75%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 33 (2.75%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.17%) Middleware
2 31 (2.59%) 802.1X
3 11 (0.92%) LDAP
4 10 (0.83%) Redfish
5 9 (0.75%) REST
6 7 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.58%) Spring
7 5 (0.42%) Jinja
7 5 (0.42%) Kafka
7 5 (0.42%) XML
8 4 (0.33%) ADO
8 4 (0.33%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.33%) YAML
9 3 (0.25%) .NET
9 3 (0.25%) CSS
9 3 (0.25%) EJB
9 3 (0.25%) HTML
9 3 (0.25%) Java EE
9 3 (0.25%) JSON
9 3 (0.25%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (5.34%) Hybrid Cloud
2 58 (4.84%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (3.09%) Management Information System
4 33 (2.75%) Cloud Native
5 30 (2.50%) Clustering
6 29 (2.42%) PKI
7 28 (2.34%) Enterprise Storage
7 28 (2.34%) Onboarding
8 24 (2.00%) Fibre Optics
9 22 (1.84%) Private Cloud
10 21 (1.75%) CMDB
10 21 (1.75%) Driving Licence
11 19 (1.59%) Public Cloud
11 19 (1.59%) Replication
12 18 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
13 17 (1.42%) SCADA
14 16 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
15 14 (1.17%) NHS
15 14 (1.17%) Operational Technology
16 12 (1.00%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 160 (13.36%) Windows
2 152 (12.69%) Linux
3 40 (3.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 38 (3.17%) Windows Server
5 24 (2.00%) Unix
6 23 (1.92%) AIX
7 18 (1.50%) Solaris
8 11 (0.92%) CentOS
9 10 (0.83%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.83%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.75%) Ubuntu
10 9 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (0.67%) VMS
12 5 (0.42%) HPUX
12 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.42%) SUSE
13 4 (0.33%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
15 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (17.45%) Problem-Solving
2 199 (16.61%) Migration
3 117 (9.77%) High Availability
3 117 (9.77%) Infrastructure as Code
4 116 (9.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 111 (9.27%) Stakeholder Management
6 109 (9.10%) ITIL
7 103 (8.60%) CI/CD
8 96 (8.01%) Roadmaps
9 92 (7.68%) Continuous Improvement
10 85 (7.10%) Load Balancing
11 84 (7.01%) Agile
11 84 (7.01%) DevOps
12 80 (6.68%) Validation
13 75 (6.26%) Change Management
14 73 (6.09%) Project Delivery
14 73 (6.09%) Project Management
15 72 (6.01%) Customer Service
16 66 (5.51%) ITSM
17 64 (5.34%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 145 (12.10%) Python
2 44 (3.67%) PowerShell
3 37 (3.09%) SQL
4 27 (2.25%) Bash
5 21 (1.75%) Java
6 16 (1.34%) Shell Script
7 13 (1.09%) Bicep
8 12 (1.00%) COBOL
9 11 (0.92%) MATLAB
10 10 (0.83%) Perl
11 9 (0.75%) ActionScript
12 8 (0.67%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.50%) JavaScript
14 4 (0.33%) C
14 4 (0.33%) C++
14 4 (0.33%) Lisp
15 3 (0.25%) VBA
16 2 (0.17%) C#
16 2 (0.17%) JCL
16 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 324 (27.05%) Security Cleared
2 242 (20.20%) SC Cleared
3 239 (19.95%) Cisco Certification
4 145 (12.10%) CCNP
5 108 (9.02%) CCNA
6 73 (6.09%) Degree
6 73 (6.09%) DV Cleared
7 67 (5.59%) Network+ Certification
8 56 (4.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 50 (4.17%) A+ Certification
9 50 (4.17%) MCSE
10 30 (2.50%) Azure Certification
11 25 (2.09%) AWS Certification
11 25 (2.09%) CCIE
11 25 (2.09%) City & Guilds
12 24 (2.00%) PMP
13 23 (1.92%) PMI Certification
14 20 (1.67%) BICSI Certification
15 18 (1.50%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 17 (1.42%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (2.67%) SLA
2 27 (2.25%) NIST
3 25 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 23 (1.92%) QA
5 22 (1.84%) PMO
6 19 (1.59%) GDPR
7 12 (1.00%) NCSC
8 10 (0.83%) GRC
8 10 (0.83%) PCI DSS
9 9 (0.75%) Disclosure Scotland
10 7 (0.58%) RMADS
11 6 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.33%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.25%) NIST 800
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
15 1 (0.083%) NEBOSH
15 1 (0.083%) WCAG
System Software
1 103 (8.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (5.43%) Active Directory
3 32 (2.67%) vSphere
4 31 (2.59%) Firmware
4 31 (2.59%) VMware ESXi
4 31 (2.59%) VMware NSX
5 26 (2.17%) Hyper-V
5 26 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (1.17%) Docker
7 11 (0.92%) KVM
8 7 (0.58%) NFS
9 6 (0.50%) SRDF
9 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
11 4 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
12 3 (0.25%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.25%) Terminal Services
12 3 (0.25%) UAG
12 3 (0.25%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 3 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 142 (11.85%) Ansible
2 111 (9.27%) Terraform
3 58 (4.84%) FortiGate
4 48 (4.01%) Kubernetes
5 35 (2.92%) Grafana
6 29 (2.42%) Prometheus
7 26 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (1.17%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.09%) Check_MK
9 13 (1.09%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.92%) Podman
10 11 (0.92%) PowerCLI
10 11 (0.92%) Red Hat Satellite
11 10 (0.83%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.83%) SCCM
11 10 (0.83%) vMotion
12 7 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 7 (0.58%) EMC NetWorker
12 7 (0.58%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 313 (26.13%) Cisco
2 155 (12.94%) VMware
3 152 (12.69%) Palo Alto
4 114 (9.52%) F5
5 113 (9.43%) Microsoft
6 95 (7.93%) Dell
7 90 (7.51%) Juniper
8 72 (6.01%) Arista
9 63 (5.26%) Fortinet
10 56 (4.67%) Aruba
10 56 (4.67%) ServiceNow
11 42 (3.51%) CheckPoint
11 42 (3.51%) Google
11 42 (3.51%) Red Hat
12 41 (3.42%) SolarWinds
13 35 (2.92%) IBM
14 29 (2.42%) Oracle
15 28 (2.34%) Splunk
16 25 (2.09%) NVIDIA
17 23 (1.92%) Atlassian