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

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 343 378
Rank change year-on-year -37 +35 -10
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 208 129 172
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.55% 0.53% 0.46%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.48% 2.79% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 149 94 126
10th Percentile £409 £400 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £452
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £650
90th Percentile £708 £746 £713
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £513
% change year-on-year - +2.44% -6.82%
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 5,983 4,631 6,167
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.95% 19.07% 16.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,152 3,250 4,415
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £666
90th Percentile £700 £775 £763
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 90 155
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.69 £14.00
25th Percentile £28.50 £24.25 £20.77
Median hourly rate £50.00 £33.81 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +47.91% -16.01% -28.63%
75th Percentile £75.00 £64.67 £53.94
90th Percentile £85.15 £70.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £50.50 £31.64 £40.13
% change year-on-year +59.61% -21.15% -28.86%

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 25 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 25 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 -19 128 £525 -12.50% 64
South East -40 25 £488 -10.55% 53
North of England -60 17 £500 +5.26% 50
Midlands -60 13 £525 +27.27% 26
Yorkshire -51 10 £500 +8.11% 14
West Midlands -49 7 £506 +24.62% 16
South West -20 6 £538 +7.50% 16
North West -37 6 £463 -2.63% 28
East Midlands -29 5 £533 -7.39% 10
North East - 1 £475 - 9
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 (15.38%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.37%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.92%) ArcGIS
4 3 (1.44%) CMS
5 2 (0.96%) Confluence
5 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.48%) Apache
6 1 (0.48%) IIS
6 1 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.48%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.48%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (2.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.48%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 3 (1.44%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 208 (100.00%) Azure
2 106 (50.96%) Azure Data Factory
3 77 (37.02%) Azure DevOps
4 71 (34.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 65 (31.25%) Power Platform
6 48 (23.08%) GitHub
7 36 (17.31%) Serverless
8 30 (14.42%) Azure Functions
9 26 (12.50%) Azure Key Vault
10 21 (10.10%) Azure Monitor
11 20 (9.62%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 20 (9.62%) Azure Service Bus
12 19 (9.13%) Azure Storage
12 19 (9.13%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (8.65%) Azure AKS
14 17 (8.17%) Entra ID
15 13 (6.25%) Azure Logic Apps
15 13 (6.25%) PaaS
16 11 (5.29%) AWS
17 10 (4.81%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.37%) Firewall
2 6 (2.88%) Network Security
3 5 (2.40%) DNS
3 5 (2.40%) HTTP
4 1 (0.48%) Internet
4 1 (0.48%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (30.77%) Data Warehouse
2 57 (27.40%) Power BI
2 57 (27.40%) SQL Server
3 54 (25.96%) Data Lake
4 30 (14.42%) NoSQL
5 21 (10.10%) Delta Lake
6 17 (8.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 13 (6.25%) Metadata
8 9 (4.33%) Power Query
9 8 (3.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (3.37%) Relational Database
10 7 (3.37%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 7 (3.37%) Tableau
11 6 (2.88%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 6 (2.88%) Parquet
11 6 (2.88%) Spark SQL
12 5 (2.40%) MySQL
12 5 (2.40%) PostgreSQL
12 5 (2.40%) Star Schema
13 4 (1.92%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 56 (26.92%) Git
2 8 (3.85%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.96%) JMeter
4 1 (0.48%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.48%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.48%) git-flow
4 1 (0.48%) GitLab
4 1 (0.48%) JIRA
4 1 (0.48%) MSI
4 1 (0.48%) Postman
4 1 (0.48%) REST Assured
4 1 (0.48%) Selenium
4 1 (0.48%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (0.48%) webpack
General
1 44 (21.15%) Social Skills
2 39 (18.75%) Finance
3 28 (13.46%) Public Sector
4 14 (6.73%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (4.81%) Banking
6 6 (2.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.44%) Aviation
8 2 (0.96%) Billing
8 2 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (0.96%) Military
9 1 (0.48%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.48%) Legal
9 1 (0.48%) Marketing
9 1 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.48%) Publishing
9 1 (0.48%) Retail
9 1 (0.48%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.48%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 81 (38.94%) Data Engineer
2 41 (19.71%) Azure Engineer
3 35 (16.83%) Architect
4 33 (15.87%) Developer
5 29 (13.94%) Azure Data Engineer
6 26 (12.50%) Senior
7 17 (8.17%) Senior Data Engineer
8 16 (7.69%) Azure Architect
9 15 (7.21%) Technical Architect
10 14 (6.73%) Azure Developer
11 13 (6.25%) .NET Developer
12 12 (5.77%) DBA
13 10 (4.81%) Data Architect
13 10 (4.81%) SQL DBA
14 9 (4.33%) Platform Engineer
15 8 (3.85%) Full-Stack Developer
15 8 (3.85%) Lead
16 7 (3.37%) Informatica Engineer
17 5 (2.40%) Software Engineer
17 5 (2.40%) SQL Server DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (24.04%) PySpark
2 41 (19.71%) .NET
3 19 (9.13%) REST
4 15 (7.21%) JSON
5 14 (6.73%) Kafka
6 12 (5.77%) .NET Core
6 12 (5.77%) ARM Templates
7 10 (4.81%) AngularJS
8 9 (4.33%) React
8 9 (4.33%) YAML
9 7 (3.37%) .NET Framework
10 6 (2.88%) Node.js
11 5 (2.40%) Next.js
11 5 (2.40%) OAuth
11 5 (2.40%) SignalR
11 5 (2.40%) XML
12 4 (1.92%) Express.js
12 4 (1.92%) Pandas
12 4 (1.92%) PyTorch
12 4 (1.92%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 18 (8.65%) Cloud Native
2 9 (4.33%) Replication
3 5 (2.40%) Data Structures
3 5 (2.40%) IoT
4 4 (1.92%) Distributed Computing
4 4 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
4 4 (1.92%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.44%) AI Agents
5 3 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.44%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.44%) SCADA
5 3 (1.44%) Security Posture
6 2 (0.96%) Clustering
6 2 (0.96%) Data Fabric
6 2 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (0.96%) Low-Code
6 2 (0.96%) Wiki
7 1 (0.48%) Distributed Applications
7 1 (0.48%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.48%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.40%) Windows
2 2 (0.96%) Linux
3 1 (0.48%) Data ONTAP
3 1 (0.48%) VMS
3 1 (0.48%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (45.19%) CI/CD
1 94 (45.19%) Data Modelling
1 94 (45.19%) DevOps
2 84 (40.38%) Data Pipeline
3 78 (37.50%) ETL
4 71 (34.13%) Analytics
5 62 (29.81%) Data Engineering
6 61 (29.33%) Data Governance
7 58 (27.88%) Business Intelligence
8 45 (21.63%) Data Architecture
9 44 (21.15%) Data Integration
10 43 (20.67%) Infrastructure as Code
11 42 (20.19%) Agile
12 35 (16.83%) Integration Patterns
13 31 (14.90%) RBAC
14 29 (13.94%) Data Science
15 28 (13.46%) High Availability
16 26 (12.50%) Migration
17 24 (11.54%) AI
17 24 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 208 (100.00%) SQL
2 83 (39.90%) Python
3 37 (17.79%) Scala
4 29 (13.94%) C#
5 20 (9.62%) Bicep
5 20 (9.62%) PowerShell
6 16 (7.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 15 (7.21%) JavaScript
8 13 (6.25%) T-SQL
9 9 (4.33%) TypeScript
10 8 (3.85%) Java
11 3 (1.44%) Bash
12 2 (0.96%) R
13 1 (0.48%) ANSI SQL
13 1 (0.48%) C
13 1 (0.48%) C++
13 1 (0.48%) Korn
13 1 (0.48%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.48%) VBA
13 1 (0.48%) X++
Qualifications
1 78 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 60 (28.85%) SC Cleared
3 23 (11.06%) Azure Certification
4 8 (3.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (2.40%) Degree
6 4 (1.92%) CTC Cleared
7 3 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.48%) BC Cleared
8 1 (0.48%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.48%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.48%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (31.73%) Data Quality
2 14 (6.73%) QA
3 12 (5.77%) GDPR
4 5 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.92%) Accessibility
6 3 (1.44%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.96%) NCSC
8 1 (0.48%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.48%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.48%) SLA
8 1 (0.48%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (8.17%) Active Directory
1 17 (8.17%) Docker
2 7 (3.37%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.88%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 47 (22.60%) Terraform
2 17 (8.17%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.96%) Ansible
4 1 (0.48%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 98 (47.12%) Microsoft
2 79 (37.98%) Databricks
3 10 (4.81%) Informatica
3 10 (4.81%) Oracle
4 8 (3.85%) ServiceNow
5 4 (1.92%) OpenAI
6 3 (1.44%) ForgeRock
6 3 (1.44%) Google
6 3 (1.44%) SAP
7 2 (0.96%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.48%) Adobe
8 1 (0.48%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.48%) NetApp
8 1 (0.48%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.48%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud