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 10 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 373 338 379
Rank change year-on-year -35 +41 -1
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 194 135 171
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.54% 0.55% 0.45%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.34% 2.85% 2.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 145 100 125
10th Percentile £408 £406 £421
25th Percentile £458 £487 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £560 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +6.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £663
90th Percentile £700 £739 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £548 £518
% change year-on-year -4.11% +5.72% -5.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £60.50 -
UK median hourly rate - £60.50 -

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 5,809 4,736 6,167
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.05% 19.13% 16.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,039 3,304 4,410
10th Percentile £344 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £663
90th Percentile £700 £775 £751
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 87 161
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.21 £14.36
25th Percentile £26.69 £24.25 £20.82
Median hourly rate £49.36 £35.00 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.03% -13.58% -32.50%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.86 £60.00
90th Percentile £85.03 £70.00 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £30.00 £40.50
% change year-on-year +66.67% -25.93% -29.57%

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 10 March 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 10 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
London -6 117 £550 -8.33% 56
South East -32 28 £475 -13.24% 51
North of England -55 14 £475 +2.70% 49
Midlands -62 10 £525 +27.27% 30
South West -27 6 £538 +7.50% 12
North West -34 6 £463 - 26
Yorkshire -52 6 £500 +8.11% 16
West Midlands -58 6 £513 +26.15% 16
East Midlands -30 3 £525 -8.70% 14
North East - 2 £425 - 8
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 32 (16.49%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.61%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.06%) ArcGIS
4 3 (1.55%) CMS
5 2 (1.03%) Confluence
5 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.52%) Apache
6 1 (0.52%) IIS
6 1 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.52%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.52%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 3 (1.55%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.52%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 194 (100.00%) Azure
2 105 (54.12%) Azure Data Factory
3 70 (36.08%) Azure DevOps
4 61 (31.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 59 (30.41%) Power Platform
6 41 (21.13%) GitHub
7 32 (16.49%) Serverless
8 27 (13.92%) Azure Functions
9 24 (12.37%) Azure Key Vault
10 22 (11.34%) Azure Monitor
11 21 (10.82%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 21 (10.82%) Azure Service Bus
12 19 (9.79%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (9.28%) Azure AKS
13 18 (9.28%) Entra ID
14 17 (8.76%) Azure Storage
15 14 (7.22%) PaaS
16 12 (6.19%) AWS
17 11 (5.67%) Azure Logic Apps
18 9 (4.64%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (3.09%) Network Security
2 5 (2.58%) DNS
2 5 (2.58%) Firewall
2 5 (2.58%) HTTP
3 1 (0.52%) Internet
3 1 (0.52%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (32.47%) Data Warehouse
2 54 (27.84%) Power BI
3 51 (26.29%) SQL Server
4 46 (23.71%) Data Lake
5 31 (15.98%) NoSQL
6 20 (10.31%) Delta Lake
7 17 (8.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 13 (6.70%) Metadata
9 9 (4.64%) Power Query
10 8 (4.12%) Relational Database
10 8 (4.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 7 (3.61%) Tableau
12 6 (3.09%) MySQL
12 6 (3.09%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 5 (2.58%) Parquet
13 5 (2.58%) Spark SQL
14 4 (2.06%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (2.06%) Big Data
14 4 (2.06%) Metadata Repository
14 4 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 56 (28.87%) Git
2 8 (4.12%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.03%) JMeter
4 1 (0.52%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.52%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.52%) git-flow
4 1 (0.52%) GitLab
4 1 (0.52%) JIRA
4 1 (0.52%) MSI
4 1 (0.52%) Postman
4 1 (0.52%) REST Assured
4 1 (0.52%) Selenium
4 1 (0.52%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (0.52%) Visual Studio Code
4 1 (0.52%) webpack
General
1 48 (24.74%) Social Skills
2 35 (18.04%) Finance
3 28 (14.43%) Public Sector
4 12 (6.19%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (5.67%) Banking
6 5 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.55%) Aviation
8 2 (1.03%) Billing
8 2 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.03%) Military
9 1 (0.52%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.52%) Legal
9 1 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.52%) Publishing
9 1 (0.52%) Retail
9 1 (0.52%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.52%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 71 (36.60%) Data Engineer
2 42 (21.65%) Azure Engineer
3 35 (18.04%) Developer
4 34 (17.53%) Architect
5 30 (15.46%) Azure Data Engineer
6 23 (11.86%) Senior
7 16 (8.25%) Azure Architect
7 16 (8.25%) Azure Developer
8 15 (7.73%) Technical Architect
9 14 (7.22%) Senior Data Engineer
10 13 (6.70%) .NET Developer
11 11 (5.67%) Lead
12 9 (4.64%) Data Architect
12 9 (4.64%) DBA
12 9 (4.64%) Platform Engineer
13 8 (4.12%) SQL DBA
14 7 (3.61%) Full-Stack Developer
15 5 (2.58%) Azure Software Engineer
15 5 (2.58%) Microsoft Engineer
15 5 (2.58%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (26.80%) PySpark
2 40 (20.62%) .NET
3 15 (7.73%) REST
4 13 (6.70%) JSON
4 13 (6.70%) Kafka
5 11 (5.67%) .NET Core
5 11 (5.67%) ARM Templates
6 9 (4.64%) AngularJS
6 9 (4.64%) YAML
7 8 (4.12%) React
8 6 (3.09%) .NET Framework
8 6 (3.09%) Node.js
9 5 (2.58%) Next.js
9 5 (2.58%) SignalR
10 4 (2.06%) Entity Framework
10 4 (2.06%) Express.js
10 4 (2.06%) Pandas
10 4 (2.06%) PyTorch
10 4 (2.06%) TensorFlow
10 4 (2.06%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.28%) Cloud Native
2 7 (3.61%) Replication
3 5 (2.58%) Clustering
3 5 (2.58%) Data Structures
4 4 (2.06%) AI Agents
4 4 (2.06%) Distributed Computing
4 4 (2.06%) Distributed Systems
4 4 (2.06%) IoT
5 3 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.03%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.03%) SCADA
6 2 (1.03%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.03%) Wiki
7 1 (0.52%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.52%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.52%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.52%) Smart Meter
Operating Systems
1 4 (2.06%) Windows
2 1 (0.52%) Linux
2 1 (0.52%) VMS
2 1 (0.52%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (46.91%) CI/CD
2 90 (46.39%) Data Modelling
3 83 (42.78%) DevOps
4 74 (38.14%) Data Pipeline
5 69 (35.57%) ETL
6 68 (35.05%) Analytics
7 61 (31.44%) Data Governance
8 55 (28.35%) Business Intelligence
9 53 (27.32%) Data Engineering
10 44 (22.68%) Agile
11 43 (22.16%) Data Integration
12 40 (20.62%) Data Architecture
13 38 (19.59%) Infrastructure as Code
14 32 (16.49%) Integration Patterns
15 29 (14.95%) Data Science
16 28 (14.43%) High Availability
16 28 (14.43%) RBAC
17 26 (13.40%) Migration
18 25 (12.89%) Problem-Solving
19 20 (10.31%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 194 (100.00%) SQL
2 84 (43.30%) Python
3 37 (19.07%) Scala
4 30 (15.46%) C#
5 20 (10.31%) Bicep
6 19 (9.79%) PowerShell
7 15 (7.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 14 (7.22%) JavaScript
8 14 (7.22%) T-SQL
9 10 (5.15%) TypeScript
10 8 (4.12%) Java
11 4 (2.06%) Bash
12 2 (1.03%) PL/SQL
12 2 (1.03%) R
13 1 (0.52%) ANSI SQL
13 1 (0.52%) C
13 1 (0.52%) C++
13 1 (0.52%) Korn
13 1 (0.52%) VBA
13 1 (0.52%) X++
Qualifications
1 70 (36.08%) Security Cleared
2 53 (27.32%) SC Cleared
3 25 (12.89%) Azure Certification
4 10 (5.15%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (2.58%) Degree
6 4 (2.06%) CTC Cleared
7 3 (1.55%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.03%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.03%) OCP
8 2 (1.03%) Oracle Certification
9 1 (0.52%) BC Cleared
9 1 (0.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.52%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.52%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (31.44%) Data Quality
2 13 (6.70%) GDPR
3 10 (5.15%) QA
4 5 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (2.06%) Accessibility
6 3 (1.55%) HIPAA
7 2 (1.03%) NCSC
8 1 (0.52%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.52%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.52%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (9.28%) Active Directory
2 16 (8.25%) Docker
3 7 (3.61%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (3.09%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 43 (22.16%) Terraform
2 17 (8.76%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.52%) Ansible
3 1 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 84 (43.30%) Microsoft
2 80 (41.24%) Databricks
3 10 (5.15%) Oracle
4 7 (3.61%) ServiceNow
5 5 (2.58%) OpenAI
6 4 (2.06%) SAP
7 3 (1.55%) ForgeRock
8 2 (1.03%) Google
8 2 (1.03%) Informatica
8 2 (1.03%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.52%) Adobe
9 1 (0.52%) Alteryx