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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 411 342 360
Rank change year-on-year -69 +18 +19
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 190 133 184
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.45% 0.56% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.99% 2.93% 2.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 98 137
10th Percentile £403 £406 £408
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £620 £625 £650
90th Percentile £733 £729 £730
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £534
% change year-on-year -4.31% -2.11% -2.95%

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 6,353 4,543 6,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.19% 18.99% 17.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,336 3,155 4,535
10th Percentile £350 £363 £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 £650 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £788
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 90 138
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £22.99 £20.77
Median hourly rate £41.71 £31.85 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.98% -20.39% -31.73%
75th Percentile £73.75 £61.19 £56.88
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.63 £73.25
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £32.96 £40.00
% change year-on-year +30.46% -17.60% -31.73%

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 May 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 May 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 -33 111 £575 -0.22% 37
Midlands -50 23 £550 +33.33% 17
North of England -66 22 £450 -10.00% 34
South East -55 17 £425 -17.07% 36
Yorkshire -45 13 £495 -5.71% 7
West Midlands -60 12 £513 +34.43% 11
East Midlands -18 10 £600 +21.83% 6
South West -29 6 £488 -2.50% 7
North West -39 5 £425 -10.53% 22
North East - 4 £425 - 5
East of England -31 1 £505 -12.25% 17
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 16 (8.42%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.68%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (1.58%) Apache
4 3 (1.58%) CMS
5 2 (1.05%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (1.05%) ArcGIS
5 2 (1.05%) Confluence
6 1 (0.53%) IIS
6 1 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.53%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.53%) Umbraco
Applications
1 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.53%) InDesign
2 1 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.05%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 190 (100.00%) Azure
2 91 (47.89%) Azure Data Factory
3 77 (40.53%) Azure DevOps
4 71 (37.37%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 68 (35.79%) Power Platform
6 44 (23.16%) GitHub
7 33 (17.37%) Serverless
8 25 (13.16%) Azure Functions
9 22 (11.58%) Azure Monitor
10 20 (10.53%) Azure Key Vault
11 18 (9.47%) Azure Storage
12 17 (8.95%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 15 (7.89%) Azure Service Bus
14 14 (7.37%) Entra ID
15 13 (6.84%) AWS
15 13 (6.84%) Azure AKS
16 11 (5.79%) Azure Logic Apps
16 11 (5.79%) GitHub Actions
16 11 (5.79%) PaaS
17 8 (4.21%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 8 (4.21%) Firewall
2 6 (3.16%) Network Security
3 5 (2.63%) DNS
4 2 (1.05%) VPN
5 1 (0.53%) HTTP
5 1 (0.53%) Internet
5 1 (0.53%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (30.53%) Data Lake
2 57 (30.00%) Power BI
3 52 (27.37%) SQL Server
4 50 (26.32%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (10.00%) Delta Lake
6 17 (8.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 16 (8.42%) NoSQL
8 10 (5.26%) Metadata
9 8 (4.21%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (4.21%) Power Query
9 8 (4.21%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 7 (3.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (3.68%) Star Schema
11 6 (3.16%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 6 (3.16%) MySQL
11 6 (3.16%) Relational Database
12 5 (2.63%) Parquet
12 5 (2.63%) Spark SQL
13 4 (2.11%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (2.11%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 45 (23.68%) Git
2 3 (1.58%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.05%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (0.53%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.53%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.53%) git-flow
4 1 (0.53%) GitLab
4 1 (0.53%) JIRA
4 1 (0.53%) JMeter
4 1 (0.53%) MSI
4 1 (0.53%) Postman
4 1 (0.53%) REST Assured
4 1 (0.53%) Selenium
4 1 (0.53%) Team Foundation Server
4 1 (0.53%) webpack
General
1 45 (23.68%) Social Skills
2 37 (19.47%) Finance
3 17 (8.95%) Public Sector
4 16 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (4.21%) Banking
6 7 (3.68%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.58%) Investment Banking
8 3 (1.58%) Military
9 2 (1.05%) Aviation
9 2 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.53%) Agriculture
10 1 (0.53%) Legal
10 1 (0.53%) Local Government
10 1 (0.53%) Marketing
10 1 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.53%) Publishing
10 1 (0.53%) Retail
10 1 (0.53%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 78 (41.05%) Data Engineer
2 33 (17.37%) Architect
3 30 (15.79%) Senior
4 28 (14.74%) Azure Engineer
5 26 (13.68%) Developer
6 19 (10.00%) Senior Data Engineer
7 18 (9.47%) Azure Data Engineer
8 17 (8.95%) Azure Architect
9 13 (6.84%) Data Architect
10 11 (5.79%) DBA
11 10 (5.26%) Azure Developer
12 9 (4.74%) .NET Developer
12 9 (4.74%) Informatica Engineer
12 9 (4.74%) SQL DBA
13 8 (4.21%) Platform Engineer
14 7 (3.68%) Azure Data Architect
14 7 (3.68%) Full-Stack Developer
14 7 (3.68%) Senior Developer
14 7 (3.68%) Technical Architect
15 6 (3.16%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (18.42%) PySpark
2 31 (16.32%) .NET
3 22 (11.58%) REST
4 11 (5.79%) ARM Templates
5 10 (5.26%) JSON
6 9 (4.74%) .NET Core
6 9 (4.74%) Kafka
7 8 (4.21%) React
8 7 (3.68%) OAuth
9 5 (2.63%) .NET Framework
9 5 (2.63%) XML
9 5 (2.63%) YAML
10 4 (2.11%) AngularJS
10 4 (2.11%) CSS
10 4 (2.11%) Entity Framework
10 4 (2.11%) HTML
10 4 (2.11%) OAuth2
10 4 (2.11%) Pandas
10 4 (2.11%) SOAP
11 3 (1.58%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 19 (10.00%) Cloud Native
2 9 (4.74%) Replication
3 5 (2.63%) IoT
4 4 (2.11%) Data Structures
4 4 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (2.11%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.58%) Distributed Computing
5 3 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (1.58%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.58%) SCADA
5 3 (1.58%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.05%) Clustering
6 2 (1.05%) Data Fabric
6 2 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.05%) Low-Code
6 2 (1.05%) Wiki
7 1 (0.53%) Legacy Code
7 1 (0.53%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 4 (2.11%) Linux
1 4 (2.11%) Windows
2 2 (1.05%) Ubuntu
2 2 (1.05%) VMS
3 1 (0.53%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (47.37%) DevOps
2 88 (46.32%) Data Modelling
3 84 (44.21%) ETL
4 81 (42.63%) CI/CD
5 70 (36.84%) Data Pipeline
6 67 (35.26%) Analytics
7 59 (31.05%) Data Engineering
8 55 (28.95%) Business Intelligence
9 42 (22.11%) Data Governance
10 36 (18.95%) Infrastructure as Code
11 35 (18.42%) Data Architecture
12 33 (17.37%) Agile
13 29 (15.26%) AI
13 29 (15.26%) Performance Tuning
14 28 (14.74%) High Availability
15 26 (13.68%) Data Integration
16 25 (13.16%) Migration
17 23 (12.11%) Data Science
17 23 (12.11%) RBAC
18 21 (11.05%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 190 (100.00%) SQL
2 69 (36.32%) Python
3 25 (13.16%) C#
4 22 (11.58%) Scala
5 20 (10.53%) PowerShell
6 19 (10.00%) Bicep
7 15 (7.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 15 (7.89%) T-SQL
8 9 (4.74%) JavaScript
9 6 (3.16%) TypeScript
10 4 (2.11%) Bash
10 4 (2.11%) Java
11 2 (1.05%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.53%) C
12 1 (0.53%) C++
12 1 (0.53%) Korn
12 1 (0.53%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.53%) X++
Qualifications
1 51 (26.84%) Security Cleared
2 40 (21.05%) SC Cleared
3 20 (10.53%) Azure Certification
4 9 (4.74%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (2.11%) Degree
6 3 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.53%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.53%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.53%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (28.95%) Data Quality
2 16 (8.42%) QA
3 12 (6.32%) GDPR
4 8 (4.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.58%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.05%) NCSC
6 2 (1.05%) NIST
7 1 (0.53%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.53%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.53%) IFRS
7 1 (0.53%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.53%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.53%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.53%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (5.79%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.74%) Docker
3 7 (3.68%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.05%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 41 (21.58%) Terraform
2 8 (4.21%) Kubernetes
3 2 (1.05%) Ansible
4 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 98 (51.58%) Microsoft
2 62 (32.63%) Databricks
3 14 (7.37%) Informatica
4 11 (5.79%) Oracle
5 9 (4.74%) ServiceNow
6 3 (1.58%) Google
6 3 (1.58%) SAP
7 2 (1.05%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.53%) Adobe
8 1 (0.53%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.53%) IBM
8 1 (0.53%) NetApp
8 1 (0.53%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.53%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud