SQL Server Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring SQL Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 125 67
Rank change year-on-year -15 -58 -7
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 964 671 1,050
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.06% 2.38% 3.27%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.13% 13.16% 18.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 666 493 743
10th Percentile £356 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £496 £505
Median % change year-on-year +0.40% -1.88% -6.05%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £713 £732 £725
UK median daily rate £490 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -1.11% -0.90% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 4 6
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.83 £26.83
25th Percentile £17.97 £20.95 £35.00
Median hourly rate £24.25 £21.27 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.01% -62.19% +7.14%
75th Percentile £57.50 £35.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.20 £60.71 £82.50
UK median hourly rate £22.37 £21.27 £47.50
% change year-on-year +5.15% -55.22% -9.52%

All Database & BI 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 6,821 5,100 5,800
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.56% 18.12% 18.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,518 3,505 3,939
10th Percentile £353 £338 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -7.27% -
75th Percentile £625 £633 £663
90th Percentile £717 £750 £813
UK median daily rate £505 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +1.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 271 72 83
10th Percentile £16.70 £20.67 £17.50
25th Percentile £21.17 £29.00 £22.20
Median hourly rate £41.71 £42.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.68% +19.99% -33.33%
75th Percentile £58.13 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £80.00 £71.15
UK median hourly rate £40.18 £39.48 £33.93
% change year-on-year +1.77% +16.36% -33.54%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL Server relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

SQL Server job vacancy trend in England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 15 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 15 October 2026.

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 15 October 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 -20 502 £500 -9.09% 72
North of England 0 183 £475 +7.95% 63
North West +4 104 £485 +8.99% 33
Midlands +9 102 £463 +23.33% 32
South East -55 83 £534 +52.50% 49
West Midlands +6 75 £460 -1.60% 23
Yorkshire -8 71 £450 +5.88% 24
South West -35 36 £715 +50.53% 24
East Midlands +1 27 £525 +54.41% 9
East of England -40 19 £425 -15.00% 14
North East - 8 £425 - 8
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
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 69 (7.16%) SharePoint
2 50 (5.19%) Confluence
3 39 (4.05%) IIS
4 24 (2.49%) Apache Airflow
5 21 (2.18%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.07%) Apache
7 18 (1.87%) Camunda
8 17 (1.76%) Apache Spark
9 9 (0.93%) Oracle Workflow
10 8 (0.83%) CMS
11 6 (0.62%) Traefik
12 5 (0.52%) Apache Solr
12 5 (0.52%) Appian
12 5 (0.52%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.52%) Tomcat
12 5 (0.52%) Tuxedo
13 4 (0.41%) OpenEdge
13 4 (0.41%) Umbraco
14 3 (0.31%) nginx
15 2 (0.21%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (5.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (3.11%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.04%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.31%) Windchill
5 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 34 (3.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 19 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.56%) SAP S/4HANA
4 8 (0.83%) Aladdin
5 7 (0.73%) OpenText MBPM
5 7 (0.73%) Oracle BPM
6 6 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
7 5 (0.52%) Dynamics AX
8 4 (0.41%) Elite 3E
9 3 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
9 3 (0.31%) Siebel CRM
10 2 (0.21%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
11 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
11 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
11 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
11 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
11 1 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
11 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
11 1 (0.10%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 418 (43.36%) Azure
2 204 (21.16%) AWS
3 161 (16.70%) Power Platform
4 121 (12.55%) Azure DevOps
5 95 (9.85%) GitHub
6 61 (6.33%) Entra ID
7 54 (5.60%) Serverless
8 48 (4.98%) Azure Data Factory
9 45 (4.67%) Dynamics 365
10 42 (4.36%) Power Automate
11 41 (4.25%) GCP
11 41 (4.25%) Microsoft 365
12 38 (3.94%) Azure Monitor
13 36 (3.73%) Snowflake
14 32 (3.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 32 (3.32%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (2.70%) Azure Functions
16 24 (2.49%) Amazon S3
16 24 (2.49%) PaaS
17 23 (2.39%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 47 (4.88%) DNS
2 36 (3.73%) DHCP
3 34 (3.53%) Firewall
4 18 (1.87%) SSL
5 16 (1.66%) SAN
6 14 (1.45%) TCP/IP
6 14 (1.45%) VLAN
6 14 (1.45%) VPN
7 12 (1.24%) Internet
8 10 (1.04%) Network Security
9 9 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (0.83%) SSH
11 6 (0.62%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.62%) LAN
12 5 (0.52%) Kerberos
12 5 (0.52%) Reverse Proxy
12 5 (0.52%) VoIP
12 5 (0.52%) WAN
13 3 (0.31%) Wireless
14 2 (0.21%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (16.60%) PostgreSQL
2 133 (13.80%) Power BI
3 105 (10.89%) Relational Database
4 100 (10.37%) MySQL
5 91 (9.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 85 (8.82%) Data Warehouse
7 63 (6.54%) Oracle Database
8 58 (6.02%) MongoDB
9 56 (5.81%) Azure SQL Database
10 53 (5.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 31 (3.22%) Data Lake
12 28 (2.90%) Amazon RDS
13 25 (2.59%) NoSQL
14 24 (2.49%) Redis
15 23 (2.39%) Metadata
16 21 (2.18%) RDBMS
17 19 (1.97%) SQL Server Analysis Services
17 19 (1.97%) Tableau
18 15 (1.56%) Amazon Aurora
19 12 (1.24%) Db2
Development Applications
1 116 (12.03%) Git
2 80 (8.30%) JIRA
3 56 (5.81%) Jenkins
4 33 (3.42%) GitLab
5 24 (2.49%) Visual Studio
6 23 (2.39%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 19 (1.97%) Maven
7 19 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
8 18 (1.87%) REST Assured
8 18 (1.87%) Selenium
8 18 (1.87%) Team Foundation Server
9 15 (1.56%) Gradle
10 14 (1.45%) JUnit
10 14 (1.45%) Mockito
10 14 (1.45%) Postman
11 13 (1.35%) Claude Code
11 13 (1.35%) Cypress.io
11 13 (1.35%) SonarQube
12 12 (1.24%) Cucumber
13 11 (1.14%) WebDriver
General
1 308 (31.95%) Social Skills
2 267 (27.70%) Finance
3 175 (18.15%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (13.49%) Banking
5 65 (6.74%) Public Sector
6 39 (4.05%) Front Office
7 36 (3.73%) Documentation Skills
8 34 (3.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 23 (2.39%) Investment Banking
9 23 (2.39%) Retail
10 13 (1.35%) Back Office
10 13 (1.35%) Legal
11 12 (1.24%) Financial Institution
12 10 (1.04%) Manufacturing
13 7 (0.73%) Billing
13 7 (0.73%) Law
13 7 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
14 6 (0.62%) Local Government
14 6 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.62%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 311 (32.26%) Developer
2 158 (16.39%) Senior
3 131 (13.59%) DBA
4 75 (7.78%) SQL DBA
5 73 (7.57%) Administrator
6 68 (7.05%) C# Developer
7 67 (6.95%) .NET Developer
8 63 (6.54%) Data Engineer
8 63 (6.54%) Lead
9 57 (5.91%) Full-Stack Developer
10 56 (5.81%) Senior Developer
11 53 (5.50%) Analyst
12 48 (4.98%) Architect
13 46 (4.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 41 (4.25%) SQL Developer
15 34 (3.53%) Software Engineer
16 28 (2.90%) Applications Support
16 28 (2.90%) C# .NET Developer
16 28 (2.90%) Cloud Engineer
17 27 (2.80%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 283 (29.36%) .NET
2 145 (15.04%) REST
3 85 (8.82%) .NET Framework
3 85 (8.82%) React
4 81 (8.40%) Terraform
5 66 (6.85%) CSS
6 63 (6.54%) .NET Core
7 61 (6.33%) ASP.NET
8 60 (6.22%) AngularJS
8 60 (6.22%) HTML
9 56 (5.81%) Kafka
10 53 (5.50%) JSON
11 52 (5.39%) RESTful
12 47 (4.88%) Web Services
13 44 (4.56%) XML
14 43 (4.46%) SOAP
15 39 (4.05%) Spring Boot
16 36 (3.73%) OAuth
17 33 (3.42%) Spring
18 24 (2.49%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 67 (6.95%) Enterprise Software
2 62 (6.43%) Cloud Native
3 50 (5.19%) Data Structures
3 50 (5.19%) Onboarding
4 47 (4.88%) Product Ownership
5 46 (4.77%) Replication
6 42 (4.36%) Clustering
7 41 (4.25%) Self-Motivation
8 39 (4.05%) Data Centre
9 37 (3.84%) Management Information System
10 31 (3.22%) Legacy Systems
11 21 (2.18%) Distributed Systems
11 21 (2.18%) PKI
12 14 (1.45%) Derivative
13 13 (1.35%) Legacy Applications
13 13 (1.35%) Low-Code
13 13 (1.35%) Virtual Team
14 12 (1.24%) Algorithms
15 11 (1.14%) Taxonomies
16 10 (1.04%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 243 (25.21%) Windows
2 145 (15.04%) Windows Server
3 90 (9.34%) Linux
4 27 (2.80%) Unix
5 17 (1.76%) Solaris
6 14 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.14%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.83%) VMS
9 7 (0.73%) CentOS
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.62%) Android
10 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.21%) AIX
12 2 (0.21%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.10%) SUSE
13 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 263 (27.28%) DevOps
2 255 (26.45%) Agile
3 250 (25.93%) CI/CD
4 188 (19.50%) Problem-Solving
5 183 (18.98%) Migration
6 143 (14.83%) Business Intelligence
7 135 (14.00%) Performance Tuning
8 131 (13.59%) ETL
9 130 (13.49%) Data Modelling
10 128 (13.28%) AI
11 122 (12.66%) Stakeholder Management
12 120 (12.45%) Continuous Improvement
13 110 (11.41%) Disaster Recovery
14 95 (9.85%) Microservices
14 95 (9.85%) Test Automation
15 90 (9.34%) Analytics
16 86 (8.92%) Software Engineering
16 86 (8.92%) Validation
17 76 (7.88%) SDLC
18 75 (7.78%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 588 (61.00%) SQL
2 280 (29.05%) C#
3 165 (17.12%) PowerShell
4 162 (16.80%) Python
5 156 (16.18%) T-SQL
6 149 (15.46%) JavaScript
7 86 (8.92%) Java
8 67 (6.95%) TypeScript
9 54 (5.60%) PL/SQL
10 34 (3.53%) Bash
11 15 (1.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 15 (1.56%) VB
12 13 (1.35%) VBA
13 12 (1.24%) Shell Script
14 10 (1.04%) Bicep
15 8 (0.83%) PHP
15 8 (0.83%) Scala
16 7 (0.73%) Go
16 7 (0.73%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.62%) XPath
Qualifications
1 236 (24.48%) Security Cleared
2 172 (17.84%) SC Cleared
3 102 (10.58%) Degree
4 58 (6.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 53 (5.50%) DV Cleared
6 33 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (3.32%) Azure Certification
8 24 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
9 17 (1.76%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.35%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.24%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (1.14%) OCP
13 9 (0.93%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 9 (0.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (0.93%) Master's Degree
14 5 (0.52%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.52%) TOGAF Certification
15 4 (0.41%) CISSP
15 4 (0.41%) PhD
16 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (10.17%) QA
2 84 (8.71%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.73%) Accessibility
4 35 (3.63%) GDPR
5 25 (2.59%) WCAG
6 16 (1.66%) SLA
7 12 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 11 (1.14%) NIST
9 5 (0.52%) ISO 9000
10 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.31%) Basel III
10 3 (0.31%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.21%) COREP
11 2 (0.21%) FINREP
11 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.21%) ITGC
11 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.10%) HL7
System Software
1 121 (12.55%) Active Directory
2 75 (7.78%) Docker
3 37 (3.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 34 (3.53%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.66%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.93%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.73%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.62%) vSphere
9 4 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.31%) Postfix
11 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.10%) HDFS
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.10%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 85 (8.82%) Kubernetes
2 46 (4.77%) Ansible
3 20 (2.07%) SCOM
4 15 (1.56%) Data Guard
5 14 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (1.35%) Grafana
7 11 (1.14%) Microsoft Clustering
7 11 (1.14%) SCCM
8 10 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
9 9 (0.93%) Istio
9 9 (0.93%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 8 (0.83%) HAProxy
11 7 (0.73%) Prometheus
12 6 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.62%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.52%) Oracle RMAN
13 5 (0.52%) WSUS
14 3 (0.31%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
14 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 356 (36.93%) Microsoft
2 264 (27.39%) Oracle
3 70 (7.26%) Databricks
4 65 (6.74%) VMware
5 46 (4.77%) ServiceNow
6 36 (3.73%) CyberArk
7 35 (3.63%) SAP
8 32 (3.32%) Citrix
9 27 (2.80%) IBM
10 21 (2.18%) Cisco
11 20 (2.07%) BeyondTrust
11 20 (2.07%) Informatica
12 19 (1.97%) BMC
12 19 (1.97%) Remedy
13 18 (1.87%) Dynatrace
14 17 (1.76%) Google
15 16 (1.66%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.66%) Splunk
16 12 (1.24%) Commvault
16 12 (1.24%) Sybase