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 29 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 372 309
Rank change year-on-year -79 -63 +28
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 173 137 228
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.38% 0.49% 0.69%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.47% 2.75% 3.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 102 170
10th Percentile £403 £376 £310
25th Percentile £431 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £491 £543
Median % change year-on-year +6.87% -9.45% -6.91%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £650
90th Percentile £710 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% -5.75%

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 6,991 4,984 6,075
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.23% 17.96% 18.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,668 3,433 4,288
10th Percentile £360 £335 £350
25th Percentile £423 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.86% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £675
90th Percentile £709 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 80 90
10th Percentile £14.85 £21.02 £14.19
25th Percentile £23.75 £29.05 £19.87
Median hourly rate £38.50 £38.23 £33.22
Median % change year-on-year +0.71% +15.10% -39.61%
75th Percentile £62.00 £65.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £75.20 £78.88 £69.93
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £38.85 £32.50
% change year-on-year -0.89% +19.52% -40.91%

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 29 August 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 29 August 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 -47 100 £545 -1.00% 98
Midlands -36 30 £540 +20.00% 27
West Midlands -32 18 £500 +2.56% 19
North of England -65 18 £425 -12.82% 43
South East -72 12 £525 +23.53% 55
East Midlands -9 11 £570 +26.67% 8
Yorkshire -37 10 £490 -6.67% 9
South West -34 7 £600 +15.38% 12
North West -64 5 £405 -14.74% 27
North East - 3 £400 - 7
East of England -23 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 10 (5.78%) SharePoint
2 5 (2.89%) Confluence
3 4 (2.31%) Apache
3 4 (2.31%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.73%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (1.16%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.58%) IIS
6 1 (0.58%) Tomcat
Applications
1 5 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.58%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.58%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 173 (100.00%) Azure
2 70 (40.46%) Azure DevOps
3 58 (33.53%) Azure Data Factory
4 57 (32.95%) Power Platform
5 50 (28.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 36 (20.81%) GitHub
7 30 (17.34%) Entra ID
7 30 (17.34%) Serverless
8 28 (16.18%) Azure Key Vault
9 24 (13.87%) Azure Monitor
10 22 (12.72%) Azure Functions
11 20 (11.56%) PaaS
12 17 (9.83%) Azure Storage
13 15 (8.67%) Azure AKS
13 15 (8.67%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 14 (8.09%) IaaS
15 13 (7.51%) Azure App Service
15 13 (7.51%) Azure Logic Apps
16 12 (6.94%) Azure Service Bus
16 12 (6.94%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 10 (5.78%) Firewall
2 7 (4.05%) DNS
3 6 (3.47%) Network Security
4 4 (2.31%) WAN
5 3 (1.73%) VPN
6 1 (0.58%) Internet
6 1 (0.58%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (32.37%) SQL Server
2 48 (27.75%) Data Lake
3 47 (27.17%) Power BI
4 35 (20.23%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (11.56%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (9.25%) NoSQL
6 16 (9.25%) Star Schema
7 13 (7.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 11 (6.36%) Delta Lake
9 8 (4.62%) Power Query
9 8 (4.62%) Relational Database
9 8 (4.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (4.05%) Metadata
11 6 (3.47%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 6 (3.47%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 6 (3.47%) MySQL
11 6 (3.47%) Oracle Database
12 5 (2.89%) Parquet
12 5 (2.89%) Semantic Layer
12 5 (2.89%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 24 (13.87%) Git
2 6 (3.47%) Visual Studio
3 4 (2.31%) JetBrains Rider
4 3 (1.73%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (1.16%) GitLab
5 2 (1.16%) Jasmine
5 2 (1.16%) JUnit
5 2 (1.16%) Karma Test Runner
6 1 (0.58%) ERwin
6 1 (0.58%) JIRA
6 1 (0.58%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.58%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.58%) Toad
General
1 41 (23.70%) Social Skills
2 40 (23.12%) Finance
3 19 (10.98%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.09%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.36%) Banking
6 7 (4.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (3.47%) Investment Banking
8 5 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.31%) Retail
10 3 (1.73%) Local Government
11 2 (1.16%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.58%) Agriculture
12 1 (0.58%) Games
12 1 (0.58%) Marketing
12 1 (0.58%) Military
12 1 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 46 (26.59%) Data Engineer
2 44 (25.43%) Developer
3 39 (22.54%) Architect
4 26 (15.03%) Azure Engineer
5 25 (14.45%) Senior
6 17 (9.83%) Data Architect
6 17 (9.83%) Full-Stack Developer
7 12 (6.94%) Azure Data Engineer
7 12 (6.94%) Solutions Architect
8 11 (6.36%) Azure Architect
8 11 (6.36%) Technical Architect
9 10 (5.78%) Azure Developer
9 10 (5.78%) DBA
9 10 (5.78%) Senior Developer
10 9 (5.20%) .NET Developer
10 9 (5.20%) Business Intelligence Developer
10 9 (5.20%) Informatica Engineer
10 9 (5.20%) Senior Data Engineer
11 8 (4.62%) Power BI Developer
11 8 (4.62%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (19.08%) .NET
1 33 (19.08%) Terraform
2 25 (14.45%) REST
3 13 (7.51%) .NET Core
3 13 (7.51%) React
4 12 (6.94%) OAuth
5 11 (6.36%) .NET Framework
5 11 (6.36%) RESTful
6 9 (5.20%) ARM Templates
6 9 (5.20%) CSS
6 9 (5.20%) Entity Framework
6 9 (5.20%) HTML
6 9 (5.20%) JSON
6 9 (5.20%) PySpark
7 8 (4.62%) AngularJS
8 7 (4.05%) Kafka
8 7 (4.05%) OpenID
9 6 (3.47%) OAuth2
9 6 (3.47%) SAML
10 5 (2.89%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 28 (16.18%) Cloud Native
2 7 (4.05%) Product Ownership
2 7 (4.05%) Replication
3 6 (3.47%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (2.89%) IoT
4 5 (2.89%) Legacy Systems
4 5 (2.89%) SCADA
5 4 (2.31%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.31%) Data Structures
6 3 (1.73%) Clustering
6 3 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.16%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Cloud
7 2 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.16%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.16%) NHS
7 2 (1.16%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.16%) Reinsurance
7 2 (1.16%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 8 (4.62%) Linux
2 4 (2.31%) Ubuntu
3 3 (1.73%) VMS
3 3 (1.73%) Windows
4 2 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (0.58%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (52.60%) DevOps
2 75 (43.35%) CI/CD
3 61 (35.26%) Data Modelling
4 60 (34.68%) Analytics
5 55 (31.79%) ETL
6 45 (26.01%) Business Intelligence
7 41 (23.70%) Data Pipeline
8 39 (22.54%) Data Engineering
9 35 (20.23%) AI
10 33 (19.08%) Agile
11 32 (18.50%) Infrastructure as Code
11 32 (18.50%) Migration
12 31 (17.92%) Performance Tuning
13 27 (15.61%) RBAC
14 26 (15.03%) Data Governance
15 21 (12.14%) Data Architecture
15 21 (12.14%) Validation
16 19 (10.98%) Full-Stack Development
16 19 (10.98%) Stakeholder Management
17 18 (10.40%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 172 (99.42%) SQL
2 41 (23.70%) Python
3 23 (13.29%) C#
4 21 (12.14%) PowerShell
5 18 (10.40%) Bicep
6 16 (9.25%) TypeScript
7 15 (8.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 15 (8.67%) T-SQL
8 5 (2.89%) JavaScript
9 4 (2.31%) Bash
10 3 (1.73%) Scala
11 2 (1.16%) Java
12 1 (0.58%) C
12 1 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.58%) X++
Qualifications
1 37 (21.39%) Security Cleared
2 31 (17.92%) SC Cleared
3 14 (8.09%) Azure Certification
4 8 (4.62%) Degree
5 5 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.16%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.58%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.58%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.58%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (13.87%) Data Quality
2 15 (8.67%) QA
3 12 (6.94%) GDPR
4 10 (5.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (2.31%) NCSC
6 3 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (1.73%) NIST
7 1 (0.58%) IFRS
7 1 (0.58%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.58%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.58%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.58%) SOC 2
System Software
1 20 (11.56%) Active Directory
2 11 (6.36%) Docker
2 11 (6.36%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (5.20%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (5.20%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.16%) Control-M
2 2 (1.16%) Failover Clustering
2 2 (1.16%) Puppet
3 1 (0.58%) Ansible
3 1 (0.58%) SCOM
3 1 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.58%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 111 (64.16%) Microsoft
2 39 (22.54%) Databricks
3 18 (10.40%) Informatica
4 15 (8.67%) Oracle
5 5 (2.89%) SAP
6 2 (1.16%) Foundry
6 2 (1.16%) Google
6 2 (1.16%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.16%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.16%) Talend
7 1 (0.58%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.58%) IBM
7 1 (0.58%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.58%) NetApp
7 1 (0.58%) Okta
7 1 (0.58%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.58%) RedGate
7 1 (0.58%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7 1 (0.58%) SolarWinds