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 25 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 131 111
Rank change year-on-year +7 -20 -22
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 1,194 732 808
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.18% 2.22% 2.10%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 6.38% 6.21% 6.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 726 460 503
10th Percentile £318 £295 £364
25th Percentile £413 £400 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £535
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -3.74% -0.47%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £619
90th Percentile £750 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £487 £538
% change year-on-year +2.62% -9.35% +7.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 45 37
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.25 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.90 - £12.08
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% +11.78% -2.17%
75th Percentile £53.81 £31.00 £27.00
90th Percentile £78.88 £42.25 £29.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.88 £25.08 £14.75
% change year-on-year -16.75% +70.00% -35.87%

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 18,712 11,779 11,708
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.10% 35.70% 30.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,201 7,209 7,105
10th Percentile £320 £300 £288
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -3.35% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,223 603 450
10th Percentile £14.01 £15.13 £15.17
25th Percentile £17.97 £18.87 £22.42
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.27 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.12% -41.46% +12.36%
75th Percentile £67.60 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.34 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.53 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +28.42% -47.69% +14.70%

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 25 September 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 25 September 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 25 September 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 +1 1,004 £540 +2.86% 1,964
UK excluding London -16 636 £500 +2.62% 839
London +11 409 £550 - 1,124
Work from Home -8 279 £545 +6.86% 497
North of England +9 224 £500 +4.17% 191
South East -21 171 £550 +22.22% 261
Yorkshire +7 136 £485 +7.78% 43
North West -27 72 £538 -1.38% 95
South West -19 65 £621 +12.82% 64
Midlands -66 58 £474 -5.20% 106
Scotland -19 49 £388 -8.82% 48
West Midlands -53 48 £475 -5.00% 84
East of England -18 40 £483 -19.58% 120
Wales +6 36 £468 +55.83% 31
North East -22 22 £625 - 54
East Midlands -18 10 £413 -21.43% 22
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 26
Channel Islands - 1 £575 - 2

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 32 (2.68%) Confluence
2 19 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.75%) OpenStack
5 6 (0.50%) IIS
6 5 (0.42%) Apache
6 5 (0.42%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.084%) nginx
8 1 (0.084%) SAS
8 1 (0.084%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.84%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.42%) AutoCAD
7 4 (0.34%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.34%) Revit
8 2 (0.17%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 11 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.17%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.17%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.084%) Cloudability
3 1 (0.084%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.084%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 253 (21.19%) Azure
2 211 (17.67%) AWS
3 62 (5.19%) GCP
4 60 (5.03%) GitHub
5 46 (3.85%) IaaS
5 46 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (3.18%) SaaS
7 37 (3.10%) Entra ID
8 29 (2.43%) OCI
9 19 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (1.59%) PaaS
10 16 (1.34%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 15 (1.26%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.26%) OpenShift
12 14 (1.17%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.01%) Nutanix
14 10 (0.84%) AWS Direct Connect
14 10 (0.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 7 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 291 (24.37%) Firewall
2 183 (15.33%) WAN
3 173 (14.49%) BGP
4 125 (10.47%) DNS
5 124 (10.39%) VPN
6 117 (9.80%) Network Security
7 115 (9.63%) VXLAN
8 109 (9.13%) LAN
9 107 (8.96%) OSPF
10 106 (8.88%) VLAN
11 95 (7.96%) SAN
12 85 (7.12%) DHCP
12 85 (7.12%) Ethernet VPN
12 85 (7.12%) TCP/IP
13 81 (6.78%) SD-WAN
14 64 (5.36%) Wireless
15 62 (5.19%) Structured Cabling
16 59 (4.94%) Wi-Fi
17 54 (4.52%) Cisco Nexus
18 53 (4.44%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (3.35%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.17%) Power BI
3 11 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 10 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 7 (0.59%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.50%) Db2
6 6 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
7 4 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
7 4 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.25%) Big Data
8 3 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.17%) DataStage
9 2 (0.17%) Flink
9 2 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
9 2 (0.17%) Sybase IQ
Development Applications
1 79 (6.62%) JIRA
2 39 (3.27%) GitLab
3 37 (3.10%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.43%) Git
5 7 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.25%) ScriptRunner
6 3 (0.25%) Zephyr
7 2 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.17%) MSI
7 2 (0.17%) Toad
8 1 (0.084%) Claude Code
General
1 282 (23.62%) Social Skills
2 170 (14.24%) Finance
3 99 (8.29%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (5.36%) Banking
5 54 (4.52%) Public Sector
6 53 (4.44%) Telecoms
7 49 (4.10%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.18%) Retail
9 25 (2.09%) Legal
10 18 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
11 17 (1.42%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (0.59%) Police
15 6 (0.50%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.50%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.50%) Law
16 5 (0.42%) Cyber-Physical System
17 4 (0.34%) Marketing
17 4 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 201 (16.83%) Network Engineer
2 200 (16.75%) Architect
3 156 (13.07%) Senior
4 116 (9.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 83 (6.95%) Data Centre Engineer
6 75 (6.28%) Project Manager
7 72 (6.03%) Lead
8 67 (5.61%) Network Architect
9 49 (4.10%) IT Engineer
10 47 (3.94%) Consultant
11 45 (3.77%) Senior Network Engineer
12 42 (3.52%) Data Centre Manager
13 40 (3.35%) Technical Architect
14 35 (2.93%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 35 (2.93%) Solutions Architect
15 34 (2.85%) Support Engineer
16 32 (2.68%) Field Engineer
16 32 (2.68%) Infrastructure Manager
17 30 (2.51%) IT Support
18 29 (2.43%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (9.88%) Terraform
2 38 (3.18%) Middleware
3 31 (2.60%) REST
4 18 (1.51%) YAML
5 16 (1.34%) 802.1X
6 15 (1.26%) JSON
7 12 (1.01%) .NET
8 8 (0.67%) LDAP
9 7 (0.59%) NETCONF
10 6 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (0.50%) SAML
11 5 (0.42%) Kafka
11 5 (0.42%) OpenConfig
11 5 (0.42%) Redfish
11 5 (0.42%) RESTCONF
11 5 (0.42%) YANG
12 4 (0.34%) GeoJSON
12 4 (0.34%) RESTful
13 3 (0.25%) .NET Framework
13 3 (0.25%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 86 (7.20%) Hybrid Cloud
2 47 (3.94%) Public Cloud
3 37 (3.10%) Private Cloud
4 34 (2.85%) Analytical Mindset
5 33 (2.76%) Cloud Native
6 32 (2.68%) Management Information System
7 31 (2.60%) PKI
8 30 (2.51%) Replication
9 29 (2.43%) Enterprise Storage
10 26 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (2.18%) Onboarding
11 25 (2.09%) Clustering
11 25 (2.09%) Operational Technology
12 20 (1.68%) SCADA
13 19 (1.59%) Fibre Optics
14 18 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
15 16 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
16 15 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
16 15 (1.26%) Driving Licence
17 14 (1.17%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 200 (16.75%) Windows
2 136 (11.39%) Linux
3 70 (5.86%) Windows Server
4 34 (2.85%) Unix
5 21 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.34%) AIX
7 13 (1.09%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.84%) Apple iOS
8 10 (0.84%) Solaris
8 10 (0.84%) VMS
9 8 (0.67%) Windows 10
10 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.42%) HPUX
12 5 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.42%) SUSE
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.34%) CentOS
13 4 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (21.69%) Migration
2 185 (15.49%) Problem-Solving
3 163 (13.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 153 (12.81%) Stakeholder Management
5 131 (10.97%) Infrastructure as Code
6 114 (9.55%) ITIL
7 108 (9.05%) CI/CD
8 104 (8.71%) Agile
9 97 (8.12%) High Availability
10 95 (7.96%) Project Delivery
10 95 (7.96%) Roadmaps
10 95 (7.96%) Validation
11 88 (7.37%) Continuous Improvement
12 86 (7.20%) Disaster Recovery
13 82 (6.87%) Zero Trust
14 77 (6.45%) Cybersecurity
15 76 (6.37%) Technical Leadership
16 73 (6.11%) Change Management
16 73 (6.11%) DevOps
17 70 (5.86%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 166 (13.90%) Python
2 71 (5.95%) PowerShell
3 49 (4.10%) SQL
4 33 (2.76%) Bash
5 17 (1.42%) ActionScript
6 12 (1.01%) C#
7 11 (0.92%) Bicep
8 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.67%) Perl
9 8 (0.67%) T-SQL
10 7 (0.59%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.34%) Go
11 4 (0.34%) JavaScript
11 4 (0.34%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.25%) Java
12 3 (0.25%) JCL
12 3 (0.25%) Lisp
12 3 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.17%) COBOL
13 2 (0.17%) REXX
Qualifications
1 306 (25.63%) Security Cleared
2 206 (17.25%) SC Cleared
3 166 (13.90%) Cisco Certification
4 101 (8.46%) DV Cleared
5 100 (8.38%) CCNP
6 62 (5.19%) CCNA
7 61 (5.11%) Degree
8 37 (3.10%) Network+ Certification
9 35 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
10 33 (2.76%) A+ Certification
10 33 (2.76%) AWS Certification
11 29 (2.43%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 28 (2.35%) CCIE
13 27 (2.26%) CISSP
13 27 (2.26%) MCSE
14 26 (2.18%) Azure Certification
15 22 (1.84%) PMI Certification
15 22 (1.84%) PMP
16 19 (1.59%) VCAP
17 18 (1.51%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.02%) QA
2 29 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.35%) SLA
4 27 (2.26%) NIST
5 15 (1.26%) PMO
6 13 (1.09%) GDPR
6 13 (1.09%) GRC
7 9 (0.75%) JSP 440
7 9 (0.75%) NCSC
8 7 (0.59%) PCI DSS
9 6 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
10 5 (0.42%) ISO 31000
10 5 (0.42%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 5 (0.42%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.34%) RMADS
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.17%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 154 (12.90%) VMware Infrastructure
2 98 (8.21%) Active Directory
3 54 (4.52%) vSphere
4 53 (4.44%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.27%) Hyper-V
6 38 (3.18%) VMware ESXi
7 35 (2.93%) Docker
8 25 (2.09%) Firmware
9 14 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
10 12 (1.01%) NFS
11 7 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
14 4 (0.34%) ISA Server
14 4 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.34%) PowerHA
14 4 (0.34%) SRDF
14 4 (0.34%) Veritas Cluster Server
15 3 (0.25%) BitLocker
15 3 (0.25%) KVM
Systems Management
1 154 (12.90%) Ansible
2 57 (4.77%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.93%) FortiGate
4 21 (1.76%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (1.59%) vCenter Server
6 18 (1.51%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.34%) VxRail
8 15 (1.26%) Grafana
9 14 (1.17%) SCCM
10 12 (1.01%) Microsoft Clustering
10 12 (1.01%) PowerCLI
11 11 (0.92%) NetBackup
11 11 (0.92%) SCOM
11 11 (0.92%) vMotion
12 10 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.75%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 8 (0.67%) Dell DRAC
14 8 (0.67%) Nagios
15 7 (0.59%) Check_MK
16 5 (0.42%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 293 (24.54%) Cisco
2 207 (17.34%) VMware
3 152 (12.73%) Microsoft
4 129 (10.80%) Palo Alto
5 112 (9.38%) F5
6 72 (6.03%) ServiceNow
7 69 (5.78%) Fortinet
8 65 (5.44%) Arista
9 62 (5.19%) Dell
10 61 (5.11%) Juniper
11 43 (3.60%) Aruba
12 37 (3.10%) CheckPoint
13 35 (2.93%) Red Hat
14 32 (2.68%) Google
14 32 (2.68%) Oracle
15 30 (2.51%) Veeam
16 25 (2.09%) Zscaler
17 23 (1.93%) IBM
18 22 (1.84%) Commvault
18 22 (1.84%) NetApp