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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 385 359 373
Rank change year-on-year -26 +14 +21
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 204 124 169
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.50% 0.51% 0.45%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.27% 2.68% 2.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 141 90 123
10th Percentile £400 £407 £403
25th Percentile £425 £451 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £634 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £523
% change year-on-year -4.40% +0.10% -0.48%

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 6,242 4,631 6,230
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.45% 18.98% 16.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,317 3,254 4,477
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 £663 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £788
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 173 91 131
10th Percentile £16.70 £19.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.63 £23.50 £20.98
Median hourly rate £47.54 £32.05 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +48.33% -19.88% -27.27%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £56.74
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £32.96 £40.00
% change year-on-year +51.70% -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 2 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 2 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 -12 125 £547 -5.65% 62
South East -55 24 £500 -4.76% 42
North of England -52 20 £463 -5.13% 35
Midlands -57 16 £519 +5.06% 21
Yorkshire -40 11 £500 -4.76% 10
West Midlands -56 8 £500 +21.21% 13
East Midlands -29 7 £533 -7.39% 8
South West -30 6 £488 -2.50% 8
North West -41 6 £463 -2.63% 20
North East - 3 £450 - 5
East of England -35 1 £505 -12.25% 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 26 (12.75%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.43%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.47%) ArcGIS
3 3 (1.47%) CMS
4 2 (0.98%) Apache
4 2 (0.98%) Confluence
4 2 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.49%) IIS
5 1 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.49%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.49%) Umbraco
Applications
1 4 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.49%) InDesign
2 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.47%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 204 (100.00%) Azure
2 101 (49.51%) Azure Data Factory
3 78 (38.24%) Azure DevOps
4 74 (36.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 67 (32.84%) Power Platform
6 45 (22.06%) GitHub
7 34 (16.67%) Serverless
8 27 (13.24%) Azure Functions
9 24 (11.76%) Azure Key Vault
10 21 (10.29%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 20 (9.80%) Azure Monitor
12 19 (9.31%) Azure Storage
13 18 (8.82%) Azure AKS
14 17 (8.33%) Azure Service Bus
15 15 (7.35%) Entra ID
16 12 (5.88%) GitHub Actions
16 12 (5.88%) PaaS
17 11 (5.39%) AWS
17 11 (5.39%) Azure Logic Apps
18 9 (4.41%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.43%) Firewall
2 6 (2.94%) Network Security
3 5 (2.45%) DNS
4 1 (0.49%) HTTP
4 1 (0.49%) Internet
4 1 (0.49%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (30.88%) Data Warehouse
2 58 (28.43%) Data Lake
3 57 (27.94%) SQL Server
4 56 (27.45%) Power BI
5 24 (11.76%) NoSQL
6 21 (10.29%) Delta Lake
7 18 (8.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (5.88%) Metadata
9 8 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (3.92%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 7 (3.43%) Power Query
10 7 (3.43%) Relational Database
10 7 (3.43%) Spark SQL
10 7 (3.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 6 (2.94%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 6 (2.94%) Star Schema
12 5 (2.45%) Big Data
12 5 (2.45%) MySQL
12 5 (2.45%) Parquet
12 5 (2.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 54 (26.47%) Git
2 6 (2.94%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.47%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 2 (0.98%) JMeter
5 1 (0.49%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.49%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.49%) git-flow
5 1 (0.49%) GitLab
5 1 (0.49%) JIRA
5 1 (0.49%) MSI
5 1 (0.49%) Postman
5 1 (0.49%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.49%) Selenium
5 1 (0.49%) webpack
General
1 46 (22.55%) Social Skills
2 43 (21.08%) Finance
3 23 (11.27%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.41%) Banking
6 7 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.47%) Aviation
8 3 (1.47%) Military
9 2 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (0.98%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.49%) Agriculture
10 1 (0.49%) Legal
10 1 (0.49%) Marketing
10 1 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.49%) Publishing
10 1 (0.49%) Retail
10 1 (0.49%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.49%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 83 (40.69%) Data Engineer
2 40 (19.61%) Architect
3 35 (17.16%) Azure Engineer
4 31 (15.20%) Senior
5 26 (12.75%) Developer
6 25 (12.25%) Azure Data Engineer
7 20 (9.80%) Senior Data Engineer
8 19 (9.31%) Azure Architect
9 15 (7.35%) Technical Architect
10 14 (6.86%) Data Architect
11 12 (5.88%) DBA
12 10 (4.90%) .NET Developer
12 10 (4.90%) Azure Developer
12 10 (4.90%) SQL DBA
13 9 (4.41%) Full-Stack Developer
13 9 (4.41%) Informatica Engineer
13 9 (4.41%) Platform Engineer
14 8 (3.92%) Azure Data Architect
15 7 (3.43%) Lead
16 6 (2.94%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (21.08%) PySpark
2 40 (19.61%) .NET
3 20 (9.80%) REST
4 13 (6.37%) Kafka
5 12 (5.88%) ARM Templates
6 11 (5.39%) .NET Core
6 11 (5.39%) React
7 10 (4.90%) JSON
8 8 (3.92%) YAML
9 7 (3.43%) .NET Framework
9 7 (3.43%) AngularJS
9 7 (3.43%) OAuth
10 6 (2.94%) XML
11 4 (1.96%) Entity Framework
11 4 (1.96%) Next.js
11 4 (1.96%) OAuth2
11 4 (1.96%) Pandas
11 4 (1.96%) PyTorch
11 4 (1.96%) TensorFlow
12 3 (1.47%) Blazor
Miscellaneous
1 18 (8.82%) Cloud Native
2 9 (4.41%) Replication
3 5 (2.45%) Data Structures
3 5 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
3 5 (2.45%) IoT
4 4 (1.96%) Distributed Computing
4 4 (1.96%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.47%) AI Agents
5 3 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (1.47%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.47%) SCADA
5 3 (1.47%) Security Posture
6 2 (0.98%) Clustering
6 2 (0.98%) Data Fabric
6 2 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (0.98%) Low-Code
6 2 (0.98%) Wiki
7 1 (0.49%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.96%) Windows
2 3 (1.47%) Linux
3 1 (0.49%) Data ONTAP
3 1 (0.49%) Ubuntu
3 1 (0.49%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (47.06%) Data Modelling
2 95 (46.57%) DevOps
3 87 (42.65%) CI/CD
4 85 (41.67%) ETL
5 82 (40.20%) Data Pipeline
6 73 (35.78%) Analytics
7 64 (31.37%) Data Engineering
8 57 (27.94%) Business Intelligence
9 55 (26.96%) Data Governance
10 44 (21.57%) Data Architecture
11 42 (20.59%) Infrastructure as Code
12 40 (19.61%) Data Integration
13 37 (18.14%) Agile
14 31 (15.20%) AI
14 31 (15.20%) Data Science
15 29 (14.22%) High Availability
15 29 (14.22%) Integration Patterns
15 29 (14.22%) Performance Tuning
16 26 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
17 25 (12.25%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 204 (100.00%) SQL
2 86 (42.16%) Python
3 31 (15.20%) Scala
4 28 (13.73%) C#
5 20 (9.80%) Bicep
5 20 (9.80%) PowerShell
6 15 (7.35%) T-SQL
7 13 (6.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 13 (6.37%) JavaScript
8 9 (4.41%) TypeScript
9 8 (3.92%) Java
10 4 (1.96%) Bash
11 2 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.98%) R
12 1 (0.49%) ANSI SQL
12 1 (0.49%) C
12 1 (0.49%) C++
12 1 (0.49%) Korn
12 1 (0.49%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.49%) X++
Qualifications
1 69 (33.82%) Security Cleared
2 54 (26.47%) SC Cleared
3 23 (11.27%) Azure Certification
4 9 (4.41%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.94%) Degree
6 4 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.49%) BC Cleared
7 1 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.49%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.49%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.49%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.49%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (31.37%) Data Quality
2 18 (8.82%) QA
3 12 (5.88%) GDPR
4 6 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.96%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.98%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.98%) NCSC
7 1 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.49%) IFRS
7 1 (0.49%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.49%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.49%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.49%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.49%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (7.84%) Docker
2 15 (7.35%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.43%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (2.94%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 47 (23.04%) Terraform
2 14 (6.86%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.98%) Ansible
4 1 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 103 (50.49%) Microsoft
2 72 (35.29%) Databricks
3 13 (6.37%) Informatica
4 11 (5.39%) Oracle
5 9 (4.41%) ServiceNow
6 4 (1.96%) OpenAI
7 3 (1.47%) ForgeRock
7 3 (1.47%) Google
7 3 (1.47%) SAP
8 2 (0.98%) Palo Alto
9 1 (0.49%) Adobe
9 1 (0.49%) Alteryx
9 1 (0.49%) NetApp
9 1 (0.49%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.49%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud