Azure SQL Database Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Azure SQL Database skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 468 370 304
Rank change year-on-year -98 -66 +35
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 165 133 229
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.49% 0.71%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.36% 2.71% 3.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 100 168
10th Percentile £400 £376 £310
25th Percentile £428 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £491 £545
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -9.86% -6.03%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £650
90th Percentile £680 £676 £701
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% -6.42%

All Database & BI Skills
England

Azure SQL Database falls under the Databases and Business Intelligence category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring database or business intelligence skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 6,983 4,905 5,945
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.22% 17.90% 18.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,675 3,368 4,176
10th Percentile £358 £335 £350
25th Percentile £423 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.98% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £675
90th Percentile £705 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £530
% change year-on-year - -5.66% -2.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 235 80 82
10th Percentile £15.28 £21.18 £16.13
25th Percentile £23.48 £30.55 £20.19
Median hourly rate £38.50 £40.25 £34.47
Median % change year-on-year -4.34% +16.77% -37.34%
75th Percentile £61.75 £65.00 £59.34
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £38.90 £33.22
% change year-on-year +1.54% +17.12% -39.06%

Azure SQL Database
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Azure SQL Database relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Azure SQL Database job vacancy trend in England

Azure SQL Database
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Azure SQL Database.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Azure SQL Database in England over the 6 months to 5 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Azure SQL Database in England

Azure SQL Database
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Azure SQL Database.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Azure SQL Database within the England region over the 6 months to 5 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
London -55 95 £530 -3.64% 104
Midlands -43 30 £540 +20.00% 30
West Midlands -41 18 £500 +2.56% 20
North of England -67 15 £428 -12.31% 41
South East -73 12 £525 +23.53% 60
East Midlands -13 11 £570 +26.67% 10
Yorkshire -39 9 £490 -6.67% 7
South West -32 7 £600 +15.38% 16
North West -66 3 £381 -19.79% 26
North East - 3 £400 - 8
East of England -22 1 £505 - 20
Azure SQL Database
UK

Azure SQL Database
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 12 (7.27%) SharePoint
2 5 (3.03%) Confluence
3 4 (2.42%) Apache
3 4 (2.42%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.82%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.82%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.61%) IIS
5 1 (0.61%) Tomcat
Applications
1 5 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.61%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.61%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 165 (100.00%) Azure
2 68 (41.21%) Azure DevOps
3 57 (34.55%) Azure Data Factory
4 54 (32.73%) Power Platform
5 49 (29.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 35 (21.21%) GitHub
7 29 (17.58%) Serverless
8 28 (16.97%) Azure Key Vault
8 28 (16.97%) Entra ID
9 23 (13.94%) Azure Monitor
10 21 (12.73%) Azure Functions
11 19 (11.52%) PaaS
12 16 (9.70%) Azure Databricks
12 16 (9.70%) Azure Storage
13 15 (9.09%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 13 (7.88%) Azure AKS
14 13 (7.88%) Azure App Service
14 13 (7.88%) IaaS
15 12 (7.27%) Azure Logic Apps
16 11 (6.67%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.45%) Firewall
2 6 (3.64%) DNS
3 4 (2.42%) WAN
4 3 (1.82%) Network Security
4 3 (1.82%) VPN
5 1 (0.61%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (34.55%) SQL Server
2 48 (29.09%) Data Lake
3 47 (28.48%) Power BI
4 36 (21.82%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (12.12%) PostgreSQL
6 18 (10.91%) Star Schema
7 17 (10.30%) NoSQL
8 13 (7.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (6.06%) Delta Lake
10 9 (5.45%) Power Query
11 8 (4.85%) Relational Database
11 8 (4.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 7 (4.24%) Metadata
13 6 (3.64%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
13 6 (3.64%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 6 (3.64%) MySQL
13 6 (3.64%) Oracle Database
14 5 (3.03%) Parquet
14 5 (3.03%) Semantic Layer
14 5 (3.03%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 25 (15.15%) Git
2 6 (3.64%) Visual Studio
3 4 (2.42%) JetBrains Rider
4 3 (1.82%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (1.21%) GitLab
5 2 (1.21%) Jasmine
5 2 (1.21%) JUnit
5 2 (1.21%) Karma Test Runner
6 1 (0.61%) ERwin
6 1 (0.61%) JIRA
6 1 (0.61%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.61%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.61%) Toad
General
1 39 (23.64%) Social Skills
2 38 (23.03%) Finance
3 19 (11.52%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (7.88%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.06%) Banking
6 7 (4.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (3.64%) Investment Banking
7 6 (3.64%) Retail
8 5 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.82%) Local Government
10 2 (1.21%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.61%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.61%) Agriculture
11 1 (0.61%) Games
11 1 (0.61%) Marketing
11 1 (0.61%) Military
11 1 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.61%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 46 (27.88%) Data Engineer
2 43 (26.06%) Developer
3 34 (20.61%) Architect
4 26 (15.76%) Senior
5 25 (15.15%) Azure Engineer
6 17 (10.30%) Full-Stack Developer
7 16 (9.70%) Data Architect
8 12 (7.27%) Solutions Architect
9 11 (6.67%) Azure Data Engineer
10 10 (6.06%) Azure Architect
10 10 (6.06%) Azure Developer
10 10 (6.06%) Business Intelligence Developer
10 10 (6.06%) Senior Data Engineer
10 10 (6.06%) Senior Developer
11 9 (5.45%) DBA
11 9 (5.45%) Informatica Engineer
11 9 (5.45%) Power BI Developer
12 8 (4.85%) SQL DBA
12 8 (4.85%) Technical Architect
13 7 (4.24%) .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (18.79%) Terraform
2 30 (18.18%) .NET
3 23 (13.94%) REST
4 13 (7.88%) .NET Core
4 13 (7.88%) React
5 12 (7.27%) OAuth
6 11 (6.67%) .NET Framework
6 11 (6.67%) PySpark
7 10 (6.06%) RESTful
8 9 (5.45%) CSS
8 9 (5.45%) Entity Framework
8 9 (5.45%) HTML
8 9 (5.45%) JSON
9 8 (4.85%) AngularJS
9 8 (4.85%) ARM Templates
10 7 (4.24%) Kafka
10 7 (4.24%) OpenID
11 6 (3.64%) OAuth2
11 6 (3.64%) SAML
12 4 (2.42%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.15%) Cloud Native
2 7 (4.24%) Product Ownership
2 7 (4.24%) Replication
3 5 (3.03%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (3.03%) IoT
3 5 (3.03%) SCADA
4 4 (2.42%) Data Structures
4 4 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (1.82%) Clustering
5 3 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.21%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.21%) Data Fabric
6 2 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.21%) Enterprise Cloud
6 2 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.21%) Low-Code
6 2 (1.21%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.21%) NHS
6 2 (1.21%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 8 (4.85%) Linux
2 4 (2.42%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.82%) VMS
3 3 (1.82%) Windows
4 2 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.61%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.61%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (53.33%) DevOps
2 72 (43.64%) CI/CD
3 61 (36.97%) Data Modelling
4 57 (34.55%) Analytics
5 54 (32.73%) ETL
6 46 (27.88%) Business Intelligence
7 39 (23.64%) Data Engineering
7 39 (23.64%) Data Pipeline
8 34 (20.61%) AI
9 33 (20.00%) Agile
10 31 (18.79%) Migration
11 28 (16.97%) Infrastructure as Code
11 28 (16.97%) Performance Tuning
12 26 (15.76%) Data Governance
12 26 (15.76%) RBAC
13 21 (12.73%) Data Architecture
13 21 (12.73%) Validation
14 19 (11.52%) Full-Stack Development
14 19 (11.52%) Stakeholder Management
15 17 (10.30%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 164 (99.39%) SQL
2 41 (24.85%) Python
3 21 (12.73%) C#
4 18 (10.91%) PowerShell
5 17 (10.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 17 (10.30%) T-SQL
6 16 (9.70%) Bicep
6 16 (9.70%) TypeScript
7 5 (3.03%) JavaScript
8 4 (2.42%) Scala
9 3 (1.82%) Bash
10 2 (1.21%) Java
11 1 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 36 (21.82%) Security Cleared
2 30 (18.18%) SC Cleared
3 10 (6.06%) Azure Certification
4 8 (4.85%) Degree
5 5 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.21%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.61%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.61%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.61%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (15.76%) Data Quality
2 15 (9.09%) QA
3 12 (7.27%) GDPR
4 10 (6.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.82%) NIST
6 2 (1.21%) NCSC
7 1 (0.61%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.61%) IFRS
7 1 (0.61%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.61%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.61%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (10.30%) Active Directory
2 10 (6.06%) Docker
2 10 (6.06%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (5.45%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 8 (4.85%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.21%) Control-M
2 2 (1.21%) Failover Clustering
2 2 (1.21%) Puppet
3 1 (0.61%) Ansible
3 1 (0.61%) SCOM
3 1 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.61%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 104 (63.03%) Microsoft
2 40 (24.24%) Databricks
3 18 (10.91%) Informatica
4 15 (9.09%) Oracle
5 5 (3.03%) SAP
6 2 (1.21%) Foundry
6 2 (1.21%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.21%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.21%) Talend
7 1 (0.61%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.61%) Google
7 1 (0.61%) IBM
7 1 (0.61%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.61%) NetApp
7 1 (0.61%) Okta
7 1 (0.61%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.61%) RedGate
7 1 (0.61%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7 1 (0.61%) SolarWinds