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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 408 344 339
Rank change year-on-year -64 -5 +26
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 186 136 206
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.55% 0.55%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.83% 2.91% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 101 156
10th Percentile £400 £405 £400
25th Percentile £425 £444 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £523 £541
Median % change year-on-year +3.25% -3.37% -1.59%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £734 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £525
% change year-on-year +0.96% -0.95% -4.55%

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 6,562 4,667 6,489
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.22% 18.76% 17.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,446 3,251 4,673
10th Percentile £350 £359 £350
25th Percentile £413 £419 £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 £800
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 87 145
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.05 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.05 £25.01 £20.77
Median hourly rate £39.50 £34.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.49% -13.75% -31.73%
75th Percentile £73.56 £65.25 £53.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £77.98 £72.10
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +19.17% -12.50% -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 19 June 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 19 June 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 -40 102 £575 -0.22% 57
Midlands -48 24 £550 +27.91% 18
North of England -59 21 £413 -19.51% 39
South East -70 17 £425 -15.00% 40
Yorkshire -49 13 £495 -5.71% 8
West Midlands -58 13 £525 +40.00% 14
South West -18 12 £550 +10.00% 8
East Midlands -10 10 £600 +33.33% 4
North West -40 5 £409 -13.95% 25
North East - 3 £400 - 6
East of England -30 1 £505 -12.25% 18
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 9 (4.84%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.23%) Apache Spark
3 5 (2.69%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (1.61%) Apache
5 2 (1.08%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (1.08%) ArcGIS
5 2 (1.08%) CMS
5 2 (1.08%) Confluence
6 1 (0.54%) IIS
6 1 (0.54%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.54%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.54%) Umbraco
Applications
1 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.54%) InDesign
2 1 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.08%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.54%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 186 (100.00%) Azure
2 81 (43.55%) Azure Data Factory
3 75 (40.32%) Azure DevOps
4 67 (36.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
4 67 (36.02%) Power Platform
5 46 (24.73%) GitHub
6 34 (18.28%) Serverless
7 27 (14.52%) Azure Functions
7 27 (14.52%) Azure Key Vault
8 26 (13.98%) Azure Monitor
9 22 (11.83%) Azure Storage
10 19 (10.22%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 18 (9.68%) Entra ID
12 14 (7.53%) AWS
12 14 (7.53%) Azure AKS
13 13 (6.99%) Azure Service Bus
14 11 (5.91%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (5.38%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 10 (5.38%) Azure Logic Apps
15 10 (5.38%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (5.38%) DNS
2 8 (4.30%) Firewall
3 7 (3.76%) Network Security
4 4 (2.15%) WAN
5 3 (1.61%) VPN
6 1 (0.54%) HTTP
6 1 (0.54%) Internet
6 1 (0.54%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (32.80%) Data Lake
2 56 (30.11%) Power BI
3 53 (28.49%) SQL Server
4 42 (22.58%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (9.68%) Delta Lake
6 17 (9.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 10 (5.38%) NoSQL
8 9 (4.84%) Metadata
8 9 (4.84%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (4.30%) Power Query
9 8 (4.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (3.76%) Relational Database
10 7 (3.76%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 7 (3.76%) Star Schema
11 5 (2.69%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 5 (2.69%) Parquet
12 4 (2.15%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (2.15%) Metadata Repository
12 4 (2.15%) Oracle Database
12 4 (2.15%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 37 (19.89%) Git
2 2 (1.08%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
2 2 (1.08%) Visual Studio
3 1 (0.54%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.54%) Cypress.io
3 1 (0.54%) git-flow
3 1 (0.54%) GitLab
3 1 (0.54%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.54%) JetBrains Rider
3 1 (0.54%) JIRA
3 1 (0.54%) JMeter
3 1 (0.54%) MSI
3 1 (0.54%) Postman
3 1 (0.54%) REST Assured
3 1 (0.54%) Selenium
3 1 (0.54%) Team Foundation Server
3 1 (0.54%) webpack
General
1 41 (22.04%) Social Skills
2 38 (20.43%) Finance
3 18 (9.68%) Public Sector
4 16 (8.60%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.84%) Banking
6 8 (4.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (3.76%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.15%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.61%) Military
10 2 (1.08%) Aviation
10 2 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.08%) Local Government
11 1 (0.54%) Agriculture
11 1 (0.54%) Legal
11 1 (0.54%) Marketing
11 1 (0.54%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Publishing
11 1 (0.54%) Retail
11 1 (0.54%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 69 (37.10%) Data Engineer
2 37 (19.89%) Architect
3 31 (16.67%) Developer
4 30 (16.13%) Senior
5 24 (12.90%) Azure Engineer
6 18 (9.68%) Senior Data Engineer
7 16 (8.60%) Azure Architect
8 13 (6.99%) Data Architect
9 11 (5.91%) Azure Data Engineer
10 10 (5.38%) Azure Developer
10 10 (5.38%) DBA
10 10 (5.38%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (4.84%) .NET Developer
11 9 (4.84%) Informatica Engineer
11 9 (4.84%) Platform Engineer
12 8 (4.30%) Full-Stack Developer
12 8 (4.30%) SQL DBA
13 7 (3.76%) Azure Data Architect
13 7 (3.76%) Lead
13 7 (3.76%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (15.59%) .NET
2 25 (13.44%) PySpark
3 22 (11.83%) REST
4 9 (4.84%) JSON
4 9 (4.84%) React
5 8 (4.30%) ARM Templates
5 8 (4.30%) OAuth
6 6 (3.23%) .NET Framework
7 5 (2.69%) .NET Core
7 5 (2.69%) AngularJS
7 5 (2.69%) CSS
7 5 (2.69%) Entity Framework
7 5 (2.69%) HTML
7 5 (2.69%) Kafka
7 5 (2.69%) OAuth2
7 5 (2.69%) RESTful
7 5 (2.69%) XML
7 5 (2.69%) YAML
8 4 (2.15%) Pandas
8 4 (2.15%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 22 (11.83%) Cloud Native
2 10 (5.38%) Replication
3 6 (3.23%) Product Ownership
4 5 (2.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (2.69%) IoT
5 4 (2.15%) Clustering
5 4 (2.15%) Data Structures
6 3 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.61%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.61%) SCADA
6 3 (1.61%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.08%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.08%) Data Fabric
7 2 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.08%) Distributed Computing
7 2 (1.08%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.08%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.08%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.69%) Linux
1 5 (2.69%) Windows
2 3 (1.61%) VMS
3 2 (1.08%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.54%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (47.31%) DevOps
2 82 (44.09%) ETL
3 80 (43.01%) CI/CD
4 76 (40.86%) Data Modelling
5 65 (34.95%) Analytics
6 58 (31.18%) Data Pipeline
7 53 (28.49%) Business Intelligence
8 47 (25.27%) Data Engineering
9 34 (18.28%) Data Governance
9 34 (18.28%) Infrastructure as Code
10 31 (16.67%) Agile
11 28 (15.05%) AI
12 27 (14.52%) Performance Tuning
13 26 (13.98%) Data Architecture
13 26 (13.98%) High Availability
14 24 (12.90%) Migration
15 23 (12.37%) Data Science
15 23 (12.37%) RBAC
16 22 (11.83%) Disaster Recovery
16 22 (11.83%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 186 (100.00%) SQL
2 61 (32.80%) Python
3 26 (13.98%) C#
4 24 (12.90%) PowerShell
5 19 (10.22%) T-SQL
6 16 (8.60%) Bicep
7 15 (8.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 14 (7.53%) Scala
9 10 (5.38%) JavaScript
10 8 (4.30%) TypeScript
11 5 (2.69%) Bash
12 3 (1.61%) Java
13 2 (1.08%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.54%) C
14 1 (0.54%) C++
14 1 (0.54%) Korn
14 1 (0.54%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.54%) X++
Qualifications
1 44 (23.66%) Security Cleared
2 33 (17.74%) SC Cleared
3 17 (9.14%) Azure Certification
4 9 (4.84%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (2.15%) Degree
6 3 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.54%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.54%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.54%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (23.66%) Data Quality
2 15 (8.06%) GDPR
2 15 (8.06%) QA
3 9 (4.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.15%) NCSC
5 3 (1.61%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.61%) NIST
6 1 (0.54%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.54%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.54%) IFRS
6 1 (0.54%) IFRS 17
6 1 (0.54%) IFRS 9
6 1 (0.54%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.54%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (5.91%) Active Directory
1 11 (5.91%) Virtual Machines
2 8 (4.30%) Docker
3 6 (3.23%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 39 (20.97%) Terraform
2 8 (4.30%) Kubernetes
3 3 (1.61%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (1.08%) Ansible
5 1 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 105 (56.45%) Microsoft
2 52 (27.96%) Databricks
3 14 (7.53%) Informatica
4 10 (5.38%) Oracle
5 9 (4.84%) ServiceNow
6 3 (1.61%) Google
6 3 (1.61%) SAP
7 2 (1.08%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.54%) Adobe
8 1 (0.54%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.54%) IBM
8 1 (0.54%) NetApp
8 1 (0.54%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.54%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.54%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud