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 14 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 133 100
Rank change year-on-year +13 -33 -3
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 955 622 987
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.21% 2.11% 2.22%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.66% 6.26% 7.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 594 407 646
10th Percentile £301 £342 £280
25th Percentile £406 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.16% -1.52% -4.24%
75th Percentile £587 £613 £638
90th Percentile £688 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £475 £514
% change year-on-year -1.05% -7.54% +2.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 20 44
10th Percentile £19.49 £23.98 £17.53
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.18 £22.00
Median hourly rate £25.77 £24.66 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year +4.50% -0.84% +12.61%
75th Percentile £73.38 £32.25 £40.31
90th Percentile £75.31 £43.63 £63.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £24.18 £24.44
% change year-on-year +207.11% -1.04% +12.76%

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 14,347 9,936 13,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.24% 33.67% 30.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,016 6,259 8,638
10th Percentile £290 £281 £255
25th Percentile £408 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.26% -0.77% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 676 353 868
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.95 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.63
Median hourly rate £35.75 £32.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +16.07% +24.53%
75th Percentile £67.31 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £84.00 £83.20 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.72 £31.76 £26.00
% change year-on-year +25.06% +22.15% +18.18%

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 14 March 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 14 March 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 14 March 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 +8 787 £482 -8.26% 465
UK excluding London +17 547 £470 -1.05% 339
London -19 283 £530 +0.95% 179
Work from Home +24 262 £475 -11.55% 159
North of England +27 192 £470 +10.47% 64
South East +15 153 £455 +3.41% 127
North West +24 103 £500 - 33
Yorkshire -9 74 £365 -5.93% 24
Midlands -23 71 £472 -23.38% 39
West Midlands -36 59 £474 -24.16% 17
Scotland +27 54 £475 +5.56% 26
South West -45 32 £550 -0.90% 37
East of England -19 31 £478 +13.14% 49
Wales 0 28 £350 -12.50% 11
North East -1 17 £175 +59.09% 7
East Midlands -23 12 £158 -65.00% 22
Northern Ireland - 3 £425 - 3

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 25 (2.62%) SharePoint
2 20 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (1.78%) Confluence
4 8 (0.84%) CICS
5 4 (0.42%) nginx
5 4 (0.42%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.42%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.31%) GeoServer
6 3 (0.31%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.21%) HCL Notes
7 2 (0.21%) Oracle Coherence
7 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.10%) Mendix
Applications
1 48 (5.03%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (2.51%) MS Visio
3 19 (1.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.68%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.31%) Primavera
2 3 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.21%) DELMIA
3 2 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.10%) Epicor iScala
4 1 (0.10%) Maximo
4 1 (0.10%) Oracle Financials
4 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 183 (19.16%) Azure
2 137 (14.35%) AWS
3 67 (7.02%) Microsoft 365
4 66 (6.91%) GCP
5 23 (2.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 19 (1.99%) SaaS
7 18 (1.88%) Entra ID
8 17 (1.78%) IaaS
9 16 (1.68%) Power Platform
10 15 (1.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 14 (1.47%) PaaS
12 13 (1.36%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (1.36%) GitHub
13 11 (1.15%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 11 (1.15%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (1.15%) AWS Direct Connect
14 10 (1.05%) OpenShift
15 9 (0.94%) Amazon S3
15 9 (0.94%) Nutanix
16 8 (0.84%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 286 (29.95%) Firewall
2 171 (17.91%) WAN
3 135 (14.14%) BGP
4 106 (11.10%) LAN
5 97 (10.16%) OSPF
5 97 (10.16%) VPN
6 95 (9.95%) Network Security
7 76 (7.96%) Wireless
8 71 (7.43%) DNS
9 68 (7.12%) VXLAN
10 65 (6.81%) SAN
11 62 (6.49%) Structured Cabling
12 58 (6.07%) DHCP
12 58 (6.07%) VLAN
13 51 (5.34%) SD-WAN
14 48 (5.03%) Wi-Fi
15 45 (4.71%) Cisco ISE
15 45 (4.71%) Ethernet VPN
16 38 (3.98%) Cisco Nexus
17 35 (3.66%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.26%) Power BI
2 9 (0.94%) Relational Database
3 8 (0.84%) DataStage
4 7 (0.73%) SQL Server
5 5 (0.52%) GIS
5 5 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.42%) Big Data
6 4 (0.42%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.42%) Power Query
6 4 (0.42%) PowerPivot
7 3 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
7 3 (0.31%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.31%) QGIS
7 3 (0.31%) RDBMS
7 3 (0.31%) SAP Data Services
8 2 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.10%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.10%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 32 (3.35%) Git
2 29 (3.04%) JIRA
3 19 (1.99%) Jenkins
4 16 (1.68%) GitLab
5 10 (1.05%) Maven
6 7 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.52%) JMeter
8 4 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 4 (0.42%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.42%) Subversion
9 3 (0.31%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.31%) ScriptRunner
10 2 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
11 1 (0.10%) AppScan
11 1 (0.10%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.10%) LoadRunner
11 1 (0.10%) Metasploit
11 1 (0.10%) Postman
General
1 242 (25.34%) Social Skills
2 159 (16.65%) Finance
3 113 (11.83%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (10.47%) Public Sector
5 57 (5.97%) Documentation Skills
6 56 (5.86%) Telecoms
7 46 (4.82%) Banking
8 44 (4.61%) Manufacturing
9 31 (3.25%) Marketing
10 27 (2.83%) Legal
11 24 (2.51%) Electronics
12 22 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
13 19 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 17 (1.78%) Retail
16 12 (1.26%) Investment Banking
16 12 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.94%) Military
18 8 (0.84%) Law
19 6 (0.63%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 164 (17.17%) Network Engineer
2 157 (16.44%) Architect
3 83 (8.69%) Project Manager
4 78 (8.17%) Senior
5 58 (6.07%) Data Centre Engineer
6 57 (5.97%) Analyst
7 52 (5.45%) Solutions Architect
8 46 (4.82%) Network Architect
9 45 (4.71%) Data Centre Manager
10 43 (4.50%) Lead
11 37 (3.87%) IT Support
12 36 (3.77%) Infrastructure Manager
12 36 (3.77%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 35 (3.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 30 (3.14%) Consultant
15 29 (3.04%) Cisco Engineer
15 29 (3.04%) Support Engineer
16 27 (2.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 27 (2.83%) Field Engineer
16 27 (2.83%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.35%) 802.1X
2 31 (3.25%) Middleware
3 9 (0.94%) LDAP
4 6 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
4 6 (0.63%) Spring
5 5 (0.52%) RFC 2544
6 4 (0.42%) ADO
6 4 (0.42%) ARM Templates
6 4 (0.42%) Jinja
6 4 (0.42%) NETCONF
6 4 (0.42%) OpenConfig
6 4 (0.42%) Redfish
6 4 (0.42%) RESTCONF
6 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
6 4 (0.42%) VML
6 4 (0.42%) XML
6 4 (0.42%) YANG
7 3 (0.31%) REST
7 3 (0.31%) Yocto
8 2 (0.21%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 42 (4.40%) Hybrid Cloud
2 31 (3.25%) Analytical Mindset
3 26 (2.72%) PKI
4 25 (2.62%) Clustering
5 22 (2.30%) Driving Licence
5 22 (2.30%) Onboarding
6 20 (2.09%) Cloud Native
6 20 (2.09%) Public Cloud
6 20 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 18 (1.88%) Management Information System
8 17 (1.78%) Replication
9 14 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (1.47%) NHS
10 12 (1.26%) CMDB
10 12 (1.26%) Enterprise Storage
10 12 (1.26%) Fibre Optics
10 12 (1.26%) Mainframe
10 12 (1.26%) SCADA
11 10 (1.05%) Private Cloud
12 8 (0.84%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 127 (13.30%) Windows
2 119 (12.46%) Linux
3 46 (4.82%) Windows Server
4 34 (3.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (3.35%) Android
5 32 (3.35%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.68%) Unix
7 13 (1.36%) AIX
8 10 (1.05%) CentOS
8 10 (1.05%) Solaris
9 7 (0.73%) VMS
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.52%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
11 3 (0.31%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.10%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (16.86%) Migration
2 157 (16.44%) Problem-Solving
3 113 (11.83%) Stakeholder Management
4 85 (8.90%) ITIL
5 76 (7.96%) Roadmaps
6 75 (7.85%) Project Management
7 73 (7.64%) High Availability
8 72 (7.54%) Continuous Improvement
9 69 (7.23%) Agile
10 67 (7.02%) Infrastructure as Code
11 65 (6.81%) CI/CD
11 65 (6.81%) Load Balancing
11 65 (6.81%) Project Delivery
12 62 (6.49%) Change Management
13 53 (5.55%) DevOps
14 50 (5.24%) Data Centre Operations
14 50 (5.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 47 (4.92%) Cybersecurity
15 47 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 47 (4.92%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 88 (9.21%) Python
2 54 (5.65%) PowerShell
3 33 (3.46%) SQL
4 29 (3.04%) Bash
5 23 (2.41%) Java
6 18 (1.88%) Perl
7 12 (1.26%) Shell Script
8 9 (0.94%) COBOL
8 9 (0.94%) Lisp
9 8 (0.84%) Bicep
10 7 (0.73%) MATLAB
11 5 (0.52%) VBA
12 4 (0.42%) C
12 4 (0.42%) C++
12 4 (0.42%) JavaScript
13 3 (0.31%) Korn
13 3 (0.31%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.10%) Groovy
14 1 (0.10%) JCL
14 1 (0.10%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 317 (33.19%) Security Cleared
2 244 (25.55%) SC Cleared
3 176 (18.43%) Cisco Certification
4 125 (13.09%) CCNP
5 73 (7.64%) Degree
6 70 (7.33%) CCNA
7 64 (6.70%) DV Cleared
8 29 (3.04%) Network+ Certification
9 28 (2.93%) CCIE
10 24 (2.51%) Microsoft Certification
11 23 (2.41%) A+ Certification
11 23 (2.41%) MCSE
11 23 (2.41%) PMI Certification
11 23 (2.41%) PMP
12 20 (2.09%) AWS Certification
13 16 (1.68%) Azure Certification
14 15 (1.57%) JNCIS
15 14 (1.47%) JNCIP
16 12 (1.26%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 11 (1.15%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 27 (2.83%) PMO
3 26 (2.72%) NIST
4 24 (2.51%) SLA
5 22 (2.30%) GDPR
6 17 (1.78%) PCI DSS
7 15 (1.57%) QA
8 11 (1.15%) NCSC
9 7 (0.73%) Data Quality
10 5 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.42%) GRC
12 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.31%) RMADS
13 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.21%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
14 1 (0.10%) COBIT
14 1 (0.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 81 (8.48%) VMware Infrastructure
2 67 (7.02%) Active Directory
3 47 (4.92%) VMware NSX
4 25 (2.62%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (2.20%) Firmware
6 20 (2.09%) vSphere
7 19 (1.99%) Docker
8 18 (1.88%) Hyper-V
9 12 (1.26%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (1.05%) KVM
11 3 (0.31%) PowerHA
11 3 (0.31%) SRDF
12 2 (0.21%) Ceph
12 2 (0.21%) Lustre
12 2 (0.21%) Microsoft App-V
12 2 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.21%) vCloud
12 2 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
12 2 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 88 (9.21%) Ansible
2 76 (7.96%) Terraform
3 56 (5.86%) FortiGate
4 40 (4.19%) Kubernetes
5 33 (3.46%) Grafana
6 22 (2.30%) Prometheus
7 20 (2.09%) SCCM
8 16 (1.68%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.84%) Check_MK
9 8 (0.84%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.73%) CASB
10 7 (0.73%) Podman
10 7 (0.73%) Red Hat Satellite
10 7 (0.73%) SCOM
11 6 (0.63%) PowerCLI
11 6 (0.63%) SCOrch
11 6 (0.63%) vMotion
12 4 (0.42%) Endace
12 4 (0.42%) Nagios
12 4 (0.42%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 294 (30.79%) Cisco
2 119 (12.46%) Palo Alto
3 117 (12.25%) VMware
4 99 (10.37%) Microsoft
5 92 (9.63%) Dell
6 83 (8.69%) Juniper
7 70 (7.33%) F5
8 47 (4.92%) ServiceNow
9 45 (4.71%) Aruba
9 45 (4.71%) HP
10 44 (4.61%) CheckPoint
11 38 (3.98%) Meraki
12 36 (3.77%) Fortinet
13 35 (3.66%) Arista
14 34 (3.56%) SolarWinds
15 32 (3.35%) Apple
15 32 (3.35%) Google
16 30 (3.14%) SAP
17 29 (3.04%) Citrix
18 28 (2.93%) Oracle