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 10 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 123 102
Rank change year-on-year +20 -21 -15
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,237 728 951
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 2.25% 2.20%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.08% 6.52% 7.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 716 465 634
10th Percentile £318 £306 £319
25th Percentile £406 £406 £426
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £508 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% -5.58% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £625
90th Percentile £738 £683 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £538
% change year-on-year -1.07% -10.76% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 26 55
10th Percentile £16.01 £22.21 £12.08
25th Percentile £16.38 £24.66 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.85 £25.15 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.07% +4.79% +15.91%
75th Percentile £34.85 £36.06 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.71 £43.75 £41.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.34 £24.66 £20.00
% change year-on-year -21.57% +23.30% -3.40%

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 17,474 11,174 13,131
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.20% 34.53% 30.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,704 6,944 8,329
10th Percentile £313 £300 £281
25th Percentile £415 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £626 £650 £663
90th Percentile £745 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 880 518 895
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.48 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.87 £15.41
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.90 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year +42.25% -14.27% +31.07%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.57 £62.00
90th Percentile £87.55 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £31.00 £36.05
% change year-on-year +41.83% -14.01% +2.99%

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 10 July 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 10 July 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 10 July 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 +24 1,021 £500 -4.76% 432
UK excluding London -2 696 £475 -1.07% 254
London +12 377 £550 +4.76% 242
Work from Home +16 321 £500 -1.96% 128
North of England +9 247 £475 +3.77% 49
South East +5 213 £475 -3.55% 99
Yorkshire +3 135 £365 -18.89% 20
North West +1 89 £500 -4.76% 22
Scotland -3 57 £466 +4.96% 7
Midlands -56 56 £460 -15.60% 18
South West -25 54 £495 -10.00% 31
West Midlands -59 51 £467 -15.12% 9
Wales +7 44 £468 +20.65% 20
East of England -22 36 £500 +11.11% 27
North East -10 29 £625 +468.18% 7
East Midlands -23 4 £363 -32.87% 9
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 25 (2.02%) Confluence
2 16 (1.29%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.89%) CICS
3 11 (0.89%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.57%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.40%) Apache
5 5 (0.40%) CloudStack
6 4 (0.32%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.24%) nginx
7 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.081%) IIS
8 1 (0.081%) Mendix
8 1 (0.081%) SAS
Applications
1 18 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (1.21%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.89%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.40%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.24%) Primavera
1 3 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 2 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.081%) OpenText MBPM
3 1 (0.081%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 264 (21.34%) Azure
2 231 (18.67%) AWS
3 78 (6.31%) GCP
4 42 (3.40%) GitHub
5 41 (3.31%) IaaS
5 41 (3.31%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (2.91%) SaaS
7 30 (2.43%) OCI
8 28 (2.26%) Entra ID
9 21 (1.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 20 (1.62%) PaaS
11 18 (1.46%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.21%) OneDrive
13 14 (1.13%) Azure DevOps
14 12 (0.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 12 (0.97%) Power Platform
15 11 (0.89%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.89%) Nutanix
16 9 (0.73%) Amazon EKS
17 8 (0.65%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 342 (27.65%) Firewall
2 200 (16.17%) WAN
3 192 (15.52%) BGP
4 147 (11.88%) OSPF
5 133 (10.75%) VPN
6 125 (10.11%) VXLAN
7 123 (9.94%) DNS
8 122 (9.86%) SAN
9 119 (9.62%) LAN
10 116 (9.38%) Network Security
11 98 (7.92%) VLAN
12 92 (7.44%) Structured Cabling
13 89 (7.19%) DHCP
14 88 (7.11%) SD-WAN
15 87 (7.03%) Ethernet VPN
16 64 (5.17%) TCP/IP
17 61 (4.93%) BIG-IP
18 55 (4.45%) Cisco Nexus
19 54 (4.37%) Wireless
20 53 (4.28%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.21%) SQL Server
2 10 (0.81%) DataStage
3 7 (0.57%) Big Data
3 7 (0.57%) Power BI
4 6 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.32%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.32%) Db2
5 4 (0.32%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.32%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.32%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.32%) SAP Data Services
6 3 (0.24%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.16%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 69 (5.58%) JIRA
2 33 (2.67%) GitLab
2 33 (2.67%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.10%) Git
4 9 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.40%) JMeter
6 4 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.32%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.32%) Maven
6 4 (0.32%) Subversion
7 3 (0.24%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.24%) Zephyr
8 2 (0.16%) MSI
9 1 (0.081%) AppScan
9 1 (0.081%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.081%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.081%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.081%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.081%) Postman
General
1 303 (24.49%) Social Skills
2 166 (13.42%) Finance
3 134 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
4 81 (6.55%) Public Sector
5 54 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
6 47 (3.80%) Banking
6 47 (3.80%) Telecoms
7 35 (2.83%) Legal
8 27 (2.18%) Influencing Skills
9 26 (2.10%) Retail
10 19 (1.54%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.81%) Military
14 9 (0.73%) Financial Institution
15 8 (0.65%) Law
16 7 (0.57%) Marketing
17 6 (0.49%) Investment Banking
17 6 (0.49%) Police
17 6 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 207 (16.73%) Architect
2 201 (16.25%) Network Engineer
3 143 (11.56%) Senior
4 111 (8.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 108 (8.73%) Data Centre Engineer
6 74 (5.98%) Project Manager
7 62 (5.01%) Network Architect
8 60 (4.85%) Lead
9 56 (4.53%) IT Engineer
10 53 (4.28%) Field Engineer
11 49 (3.96%) Field Service Engineer
12 43 (3.48%) Infrastructure Manager
12 43 (3.48%) Solutions Architect
12 43 (3.48%) Technical Architect
13 38 (3.07%) Data Centre Manager
13 38 (3.07%) Senior Network Engineer
14 36 (2.91%) Analyst
15 35 (2.83%) Support Engineer
16 32 (2.59%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 29 (2.34%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.37%) Middleware
2 32 (2.59%) 802.1X
3 10 (0.81%) Redfish
3 10 (0.81%) REST
4 9 (0.73%) LDAP
5 8 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.57%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.57%) Spring
7 6 (0.49%) OpenConfig
7 6 (0.49%) RESTCONF
7 6 (0.49%) SAML
7 6 (0.49%) YANG
8 5 (0.40%) Jinja
8 5 (0.40%) Kafka
8 5 (0.40%) XML
9 4 (0.32%) .NET
9 4 (0.32%) GeoJSON
9 4 (0.32%) RESTful
9 4 (0.32%) Spring Boot
9 4 (0.32%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 78 (6.31%) Hybrid Cloud
2 57 (4.61%) Analytical Mindset
3 37 (2.99%) Cloud Native
3 37 (2.99%) PKI
4 36 (2.91%) Management Information System
5 32 (2.59%) Private Cloud
6 31 (2.51%) Clustering
6 31 (2.51%) Enterprise Storage
6 31 (2.51%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.34%) Fibre Optics
8 21 (1.70%) CMDB
8 21 (1.70%) Public Cloud
9 20 (1.62%) Driving Licence
9 20 (1.62%) Replication
10 19 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
11 16 (1.29%) Operational Technology
11 16 (1.29%) SCADA
12 15 (1.21%) Mainframe
13 14 (1.13%) NHS
13 14 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 166 (13.42%) Windows
2 141 (11.40%) Linux
3 44 (3.56%) Windows Server
4 31 (2.51%) Unix
5 30 (2.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 23 (1.86%) AIX
7 18 (1.46%) Solaris
8 10 (0.81%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.81%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.49%) CentOS
10 6 (0.49%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.49%) VMS
11 5 (0.40%) HPUX
11 5 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.40%) SUSE
12 4 (0.32%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
14 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.16%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (18.35%) Migration
2 211 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
3 140 (11.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 127 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management
5 121 (9.78%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.22%) ITIL
7 111 (8.97%) CI/CD
7 111 (8.97%) High Availability
8 103 (8.33%) Roadmaps
9 92 (7.44%) Agile
10 89 (7.19%) Continuous Improvement
11 85 (6.87%) Load Balancing
12 83 (6.71%) Validation
13 80 (6.47%) DevOps
14 79 (6.39%) Change Management
14 79 (6.39%) Project Delivery
15 76 (6.14%) Zero Trust
16 69 (5.58%) Project Management
17 68 (5.50%) ITSM
18 67 (5.42%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 158 (12.77%) Python
2 46 (3.72%) PowerShell
3 35 (2.83%) SQL
4 29 (2.34%) Bash
5 19 (1.54%) Java
6 16 (1.29%) Bicep
7 13 (1.05%) Shell Script
8 12 (0.97%) COBOL
9 10 (0.81%) ActionScript
9 10 (0.81%) Perl
10 8 (0.65%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.57%) JavaScript
12 6 (0.49%) MATLAB
13 4 (0.32%) C#
13 4 (0.32%) Lisp
14 3 (0.24%) JCL
14 3 (0.24%) Korn
14 3 (0.24%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.16%) C++
15 2 (0.16%) REXX
Qualifications
1 316 (25.55%) Security Cleared
2 228 (18.43%) Cisco Certification
3 214 (17.30%) SC Cleared
4 132 (10.67%) CCNP
5 93 (7.52%) CCNA
6 91 (7.36%) DV Cleared
7 68 (5.50%) Degree
8 64 (5.17%) Network+ Certification
9 54 (4.37%) Microsoft Certification
10 47 (3.80%) A+ Certification
10 47 (3.80%) MCSE
11 31 (2.51%) CCIE
12 29 (2.34%) Azure Certification
13 26 (2.10%) City & Guilds
14 25 (2.02%) AWS Certification
15 23 (1.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 22 (1.78%) PMI Certification
16 22 (1.78%) PMP
17 21 (1.70%) CISSP
18 20 (1.62%) BICSI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (2.67%) SLA
2 27 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (2.10%) NIST
3 26 (2.10%) QA
4 20 (1.62%) PMO
5 19 (1.54%) GDPR
6 17 (1.37%) NCSC
7 10 (0.81%) Disclosure Scotland
7 10 (0.81%) GRC
8 9 (0.73%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.57%) RMADS
10 6 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.32%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.16%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 109 (8.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 69 (5.58%) Active Directory
3 39 (3.15%) VMware NSX
4 38 (3.07%) vSphere
5 35 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
6 30 (2.43%) Firmware
7 28 (2.26%) Hyper-V
8 22 (1.78%) Virtual Machines
9 21 (1.70%) Docker
10 10 (0.81%) NFS
11 8 (0.65%) KVM
12 7 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
13 6 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
13 6 (0.49%) SRDF
14 4 (0.32%) BitLocker
14 4 (0.32%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.24%) PowerHA
15 3 (0.24%) UAG
15 3 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 142 (11.48%) Ansible
2 114 (9.22%) Terraform
3 55 (4.45%) Kubernetes
4 52 (4.20%) FortiGate
5 34 (2.75%) Grafana
6 29 (2.34%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (1.21%) vCenter Server
9 13 (1.05%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.89%) PowerCLI
10 11 (0.89%) vMotion
11 10 (0.81%) Dell DRAC
11 10 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.81%) SCCM
12 9 (0.73%) Check_MK
13 7 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.57%) EMC NetWorker
13 7 (0.57%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 6 (0.49%) Podman
14 6 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 301 (24.33%) Cisco
2 165 (13.34%) VMware
3 139 (11.24%) Palo Alto
4 128 (10.35%) Microsoft
5 122 (9.86%) F5
6 97 (7.84%) Juniper
7 87 (7.03%) Dell
8 76 (6.14%) Arista
9 75 (6.06%) Fortinet
10 60 (4.85%) ServiceNow
11 49 (3.96%) Google
12 43 (3.48%) SolarWinds
13 42 (3.40%) Aruba
14 36 (2.91%) IBM
15 34 (2.75%) CheckPoint
16 33 (2.67%) Red Hat
17 31 (2.51%) Splunk
18 26 (2.10%) Oracle
19 25 (2.02%) Citrix
19 25 (2.02%) HP