SQL Server Contracts in England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring SQL Server skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SQL Server over the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 101 59 53
Rank change year-on-year -42 -6 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 670 1,302 1,969
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 2.61% 3.51% 4.16%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.17% 20.03% 24.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 501 915 1,503
10th Percentile £325 £347 £363
25th Percentile £400 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.81% -
75th Percentile £650 £638 £666
90th Percentile £750 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £503 £525
% change year-on-year -0.65% -4.14% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 23 11
10th Percentile £21.02 £25.55 £26.48
25th Percentile £22.02 £38.81 £34.20
Median hourly rate £25.66 £40.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.85% -11.11% -17.43%
75th Percentile £64.71 £47.47 £73.75
90th Percentile £83.13 £62.96 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £40.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +75.00% -11.11% -10.00%

All Database and Business Intelligence Skills
England

SQL Server 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 4,727 6,499 8,158
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 18.43% 17.50% 17.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,276 4,681 5,810
10th Percentile £358 £350 £363
25th Percentile £415 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £800 £775
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 139 152
10th Percentile £19.10 £14.00 £21.24
25th Percentile £24.63 £20.76 £32.30
Median hourly rate £33.94 £40.00 £56.95
Median % change year-on-year -15.15% -29.76% +41.84%
75th Percentile £62.44 £51.75 £75.00
90th Percentile £72.25 £71.70 £82.95
UK median hourly rate £34.99 £40.00 £56.40
% change year-on-year -12.53% -29.08% +40.47%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing SQL Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Daily rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Hourly rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
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 SQL Server within the England region over the 6 months to 1 July 2025. 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 -40 412 £575 +9.52% 1,407
North of England -11 84 £425 -6.08% 587
South East +5 64 £450 -11.11% 699
North West -10 59 £435 -3.33% 382
Midlands -27 45 £425 -4.92% 326
West Midlands -9 27 £525 +2.94% 191
South West -12 26 £475 -11.63% 238
Yorkshire -3 20 £400 -13.51% 165
East Midlands -21 17 £327 -26.63% 128
East of England +15 15 £500 +5.26% 219
North East -1 5 £456 -3.95% 42
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 39 (5.82%) IIS
2 36 (5.37%) Apache
3 21 (3.13%) SharePoint
4 20 (2.99%) Microsoft Exchange
5 17 (2.54%) Confluence
6 14 (2.09%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.04%) Tomcat
7 7 (1.04%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.90%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.90%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.75%) nginx
9 5 (0.75%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 4 (0.60%) BizTalk Server
10 4 (0.60%) CMS
10 4 (0.60%) Drupal
10 4 (0.60%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.60%) SAS
10 4 (0.60%) WordPress
11 3 (0.45%) JBoss
11 3 (0.45%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 66 (9.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.34%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.45%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.15%) SPSS
5 1 (0.15%) Stata
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 29 (4.33%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.04%) Kondor
2 7 (1.04%) Maximo
2 7 (1.04%) OpenText MBPM
2 7 (1.04%) Oracle BPM
3 5 (0.75%) Endur
4 4 (0.60%) Cognos Business Intelligence
4 4 (0.60%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.45%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.45%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.30%) Alphatax
6 2 (0.30%) Fidessa
6 2 (0.30%) Markit EDM
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.15%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.15%) Remedy AR System
7 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 286 (42.69%) Azure
2 112 (16.72%) Power Platform
3 91 (13.58%) AWS
4 57 (8.51%) Azure DevOps
5 52 (7.76%) Azure Data Factory
6 38 (5.67%) Entra ID
7 34 (5.07%) Microsoft 365
8 33 (4.93%) PowerApps
9 31 (4.63%) Dynamics 365
9 31 (4.63%) Power Automate
10 30 (4.48%) Azure Service Bus
11 29 (4.33%) Serverless
12 26 (3.88%) Azure Logic Apps
12 26 (3.88%) GitHub
13 23 (3.43%) Azure Functions
13 23 (3.43%) GCP
14 21 (3.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 20 (2.99%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 20 (2.99%) SaaS
16 15 (2.24%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.33%) Firewall
2 24 (3.58%) DNS
3 17 (2.54%) Internet
4 10 (1.49%) Network Security
5 8 (1.19%) Intrusion Detection
5 8 (1.19%) TCP/IP
6 7 (1.04%) DHCP
6 7 (1.04%) VPN
7 6 (0.90%) HTTP
7 6 (0.90%) LAN
7 6 (0.90%) WAN
8 4 (0.60%) Skype
8 4 (0.60%) SSH
8 4 (0.60%) VLAN
8 4 (0.60%) VoIP
9 3 (0.45%) SSL
10 2 (0.30%) iSCSI
10 2 (0.30%) NAS
10 2 (0.30%) SAN
10 2 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (12.99%) Power BI
2 70 (10.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 65 (9.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 54 (8.06%) Data Warehouse
4 54 (8.06%) Relational Database
5 50 (7.46%) Oracle Database
6 48 (7.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 46 (6.87%) PostgreSQL
8 38 (5.67%) MySQL
9 36 (5.37%) NoSQL
10 33 (4.93%) MongoDB
11 22 (3.28%) DB2
12 18 (2.69%) Big Data
12 18 (2.69%) Tableau
13 16 (2.39%) Amazon RDS
13 16 (2.39%) Metadata
14 14 (2.09%) Data Lake
14 14 (2.09%) Redis
15 11 (1.64%) Hadoop
15 11 (1.64%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 48 (7.16%) JIRA
2 46 (6.87%) Git
3 21 (3.13%) GitLab
4 20 (2.99%) Jenkins
5 15 (2.24%) Bitbucket
6 14 (2.09%) Visual Studio
7 13 (1.94%) Selenium
8 10 (1.49%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 9 (1.34%) Cucumber
9 9 (1.34%) SonarQube
9 9 (1.34%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (1.19%) ERwin
10 8 (1.19%) JUnit
10 8 (1.19%) Maven
10 8 (1.19%) Octopus Deploy
11 7 (1.04%) Mockito
11 7 (1.04%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.90%) SpecFlow
12 6 (0.90%) Team Foundation Server
12 6 (0.90%) WinRunner
General
1 209 (31.19%) Finance
2 182 (27.16%) Social Skills
3 96 (14.33%) Banking
4 76 (11.34%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (5.37%) Public Sector
6 26 (3.88%) Front Office
7 24 (3.58%) Investment Banking
8 16 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.64%) Back Office
10 11 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.64%) Legal
10 11 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.19%) Law
12 7 (1.04%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.75%) Local Government
13 5 (0.75%) Retail
14 4 (0.60%) Marketing
14 4 (0.60%) Retail Banking
15 3 (0.45%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 254 (37.91%) Developer
2 81 (12.09%) Analyst
3 74 (11.04%) C# Developer
4 62 (9.25%) Architect
5 61 (9.10%) Senior
6 48 (7.16%) Data Engineer
7 41 (6.12%) .NET Developer
8 37 (5.52%) DBA
9 31 (4.63%) Senior Developer
10 30 (4.48%) Data Analyst
11 27 (4.03%) SQL Developer
12 25 (3.73%) Azure Engineer
12 25 (3.73%) Consultant
12 25 (3.73%) SQL DBA
13 24 (3.58%) Solutions Architect
14 23 (3.43%) C# .NET Developer
15 21 (3.13%) Full-Stack Developer
16 20 (2.99%) Software Engineer
17 19 (2.84%) Data Architect
18 17 (2.54%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 195 (29.10%) .NET
2 86 (12.84%) .NET Framework
3 68 (10.15%) HTML
4 62 (9.25%) CSS
5 48 (7.16%) AngularJS
5 48 (7.16%) REST
5 48 (7.16%) XML
6 46 (6.87%) React
7 41 (6.12%) ASP.NET
8 38 (5.67%) .NET Core
9 36 (5.37%) Web Services
10 35 (5.22%) RESTful
11 33 (4.93%) JSON
11 33 (4.93%) SOAP
12 32 (4.78%) WCF
13 31 (4.63%) Entity Framework
14 29 (4.33%) ASP.NET Web API
15 26 (3.88%) Kafka
16 24 (3.58%) WPF
17 21 (3.13%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 30 (4.48%) Derivative
2 22 (3.28%) Replication
3 20 (2.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 20 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
4 19 (2.84%) Distributed Systems
5 17 (2.54%) Data Centre
6 16 (2.39%) Data Structures
7 14 (2.09%) Clustering
8 13 (1.94%) Public Cloud
9 11 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (1.49%) Onboarding
11 9 (1.34%) Linux Command Line
11 9 (1.34%) N-Tier
11 9 (1.34%) PKI
11 9 (1.34%) Product Ownership
12 8 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
12 8 (1.19%) Reference Data
13 7 (1.04%) Mobile App
14 6 (0.90%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 135 (20.15%) Windows
2 87 (12.99%) Linux
3 61 (9.10%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.73%) Unix
5 17 (2.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.04%) Android
6 7 (1.04%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.90%) VMS
8 5 (0.75%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.75%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (0.60%) CentOS
9 4 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.45%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.15%) AIX
12 1 (0.15%) Solaris
12 1 (0.15%) SUSE
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (24.63%) Agile
2 156 (23.28%) Problem-Solving
3 152 (22.69%) DevOps
4 101 (15.07%) Business Intelligence
4 101 (15.07%) CI/CD
5 97 (14.48%) Migration
6 94 (14.03%) ETL
7 71 (10.60%) Test Automation
8 64 (9.55%) Data Analysis
9 63 (9.40%) Data Modelling
10 60 (8.96%) Performance Tuning
11 54 (8.06%) Disaster Recovery
11 54 (8.06%) Microservices
12 53 (7.91%) Data Migration
13 52 (7.76%) Analytics
13 52 (7.76%) Software Engineering
14 49 (7.31%) Scrum
15 48 (7.16%) High Availability
16 43 (6.42%) Unit Testing
17 41 (6.12%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 371 (55.37%) SQL
2 227 (33.88%) C#
3 141 (21.04%) Python
4 101 (15.07%) JavaScript
5 75 (11.19%) PowerShell
6 67 (10.00%) Java
7 60 (8.96%) T-SQL
8 39 (5.82%) PL/SQL
9 38 (5.67%) TypeScript
10 32 (4.78%) VBA
11 30 (4.48%) VB
12 24 (3.58%) Bash
13 15 (2.24%) Scala
14 8 (1.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (1.19%) Perl
14 8 (1.19%) PHP
15 7 (1.04%) Bicep
15 7 (1.04%) R
15 7 (1.04%) Shell Script
15 7 (1.04%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 79 (11.79%) Security Cleared
2 70 (10.45%) Degree
3 60 (8.96%) SC Cleared
4 25 (3.73%) Azure Certification
5 24 (3.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (1.94%) DV Cleared
8 5 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.60%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.60%) MCPD
9 4 (0.60%) MCSD
10 3 (0.45%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.45%) MCSE
10 3 (0.45%) PMP
10 3 (0.45%) SAP Certification
10 3 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (0.30%) ISEB
11 2 (0.30%) OCP
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.30%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (9.85%) QA
2 41 (6.12%) Data Quality
3 25 (3.73%) GDPR
4 13 (1.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 12 (1.79%) MiFID
6 7 (1.04%) Basel III
7 6 (0.90%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.75%) EMIR
8 5 (0.75%) HIPAA
8 5 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.75%) SLA
9 3 (0.45%) GAAP
10 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.30%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.30%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.30%) WCAG
11 1 (0.15%) IFRS
System Software
1 52 (7.76%) Active Directory
2 32 (4.78%) Docker
3 30 (4.48%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
5 12 (1.79%) vSphere
6 6 (0.90%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.45%) KVM
9 3 (0.45%) vCloud
9 3 (0.45%) VMware Workstation
10 2 (0.30%) GPFS
10 2 (0.30%) NFS
10 2 (0.30%) zsh
11 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 44 (6.57%) Kubernetes
2 36 (5.37%) Terraform
3 18 (2.69%) Ansible
4 11 (1.64%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (1.04%) Kibana
5 7 (1.04%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 6 (0.90%) Grafana
6 6 (0.90%) Oracle RMAN
6 6 (0.90%) Progress Chef
6 6 (0.90%) SCOM
7 5 (0.75%) WMI
8 4 (0.60%) SCCM
8 4 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.45%) Control-M
9 3 (0.45%) Data Guard
9 3 (0.45%) NetBackup
9 3 (0.45%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.30%) SCVMM
10 2 (0.30%) WSUS
Vendors
1 222 (33.13%) Microsoft
2 190 (28.36%) Oracle
3 40 (5.97%) VMware
4 36 (5.37%) Databricks
5 32 (4.78%) IBM
6 21 (3.13%) ServiceNow
7 18 (2.69%) Cisco
7 18 (2.69%) Citrix
7 18 (2.69%) Sybase
8 16 (2.39%) SAP
9 13 (1.94%) Google
10 11 (1.64%) Informatica
11 9 (1.34%) Cognos
11 9 (1.34%) CyberArk
11 9 (1.34%) Talend
11 9 (1.34%) UiPath
12 8 (1.19%) Red Hat
12 8 (1.19%) TIBCO
13 7 (1.04%) Salesforce
14 6 (0.90%) OpenText