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

 6 months to
2 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 93 61
Rank change year-on-year -35 -32 -11
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 796 666 1,218
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.08% 2.75% 3.24%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.98% 14.47% 19.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 495 858
10th Percentile £358 £347 £325
25th Percentile £408 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.28% -1.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £650
90th Percentile £675 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £485 £509 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% -3.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 6 27
10th Percentile £14.21 £25.66 £21.98
25th Percentile £21.75 £34.80 £38.81
Median hourly rate £29.48 £62.12 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -52.55% +54.34% +5.92%
75th Percentile £69.72 £65.62 £58.74
90th Percentile £76.00 £77.18 £65.80
UK median hourly rate £53.00 £60.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year -12.40% +50.31% -7.61%

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 6,131 4,603 6,148
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.03% 18.98% 16.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,272 3,240 4,407
10th Percentile £350 £356 £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 £669
90th Percentile £700 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 89 141
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.53 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.86 £24.25 £20.82
Median hourly rate £50.50 £32.81 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.92% -17.98% -31.91%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £51.91
90th Percentile £84.00 £71.25 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £31.64 £40.00
% change year-on-year +61.19% -20.90% -33.33%

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 2 April 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 2 April 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 2 April 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 -23 456 £500 -9.09% 115
North of England -27 120 £450 +7.27% 114
South East -36 99 £500 - 129
North West -21 66 £456 +5.80% 64
Yorkshire -17 52 £439 +9.69% 44
Midlands -56 45 £450 -10.00% 64
South West -30 33 £438 -20.45% 39
East of England -13 26 £588 +12.44% 45
West Midlands -67 23 £449 -22.00% 36
East Midlands -24 19 £463 +25.00% 28
North East -16 3 £475 +5.56% 13
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 35 (4.40%) IIS
1 35 (4.40%) SharePoint
2 23 (2.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.14%) Confluence
4 13 (1.63%) Apache
4 13 (1.63%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 12 (1.51%) Apache Spark
6 11 (1.38%) Appian
6 11 (1.38%) WebSphere
7 10 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
8 8 (1.01%) CMS
8 8 (1.01%) WebLogic
9 6 (0.75%) Camunda
9 6 (0.75%) Sitecore CMS
10 3 (0.38%) Apache Superset
10 3 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.25%) NetWeaver
11 2 (0.25%) OpenEdge
11 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.13%) ColdFusion
Applications
1 43 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.13%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 12 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.13%) Remedy ITSM
3 8 (1.01%) Advent Geneva
3 8 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.88%) BusinessWorks
5 6 (0.75%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle General Ledger
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 3 (0.38%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
8 2 (0.25%) Endur
8 2 (0.25%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.25%) Veritas eDiscovery
9 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.13%) Elite 3E
9 1 (0.13%) Orchestrade
9 1 (0.13%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 346 (43.47%) Azure
2 166 (20.85%) AWS
3 133 (16.71%) Power Platform
4 102 (12.81%) Azure DevOps
5 78 (9.80%) Azure Data Factory
6 63 (7.91%) GitHub
7 42 (5.28%) GCP
8 41 (5.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 36 (4.52%) Microsoft 365
10 29 (3.64%) SaaS
11 28 (3.52%) GitHub Actions
12 26 (3.27%) Amazon S3
13 24 (3.02%) Power Automate
14 23 (2.89%) Snowflake
15 22 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
15 22 (2.76%) IaaS
16 21 (2.64%) Serverless
17 19 (2.39%) Amazon EC2
18 17 (2.14%) Azure Monitor
18 17 (2.14%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (3.14%) DNS
2 20 (2.51%) Firewall
3 18 (2.26%) DHCP
4 12 (1.51%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.51%) VPN
5 11 (1.38%) Internet
6 10 (1.26%) SAN
6 10 (1.26%) VLAN
7 7 (0.88%) LAN
7 7 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.75%) HTTP
8 6 (0.75%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.50%) FTP
9 4 (0.50%) RS-232
9 4 (0.50%) X.400
10 3 (0.38%) IPv4
10 3 (0.38%) IPv6
10 3 (0.38%) SSH
10 3 (0.38%) WAN
11 2 (0.25%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (13.94%) Power BI
2 110 (13.82%) PostgreSQL
2 110 (13.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 93 (11.68%) Data Warehouse
4 87 (10.93%) Relational Database
5 62 (7.79%) Oracle Database
5 62 (7.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 58 (7.29%) Azure SQL Database
7 52 (6.53%) MySQL
8 51 (6.41%) Data Lake
9 36 (4.52%) NoSQL
10 34 (4.27%) MongoDB
10 34 (4.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 26 (3.27%) DB2
12 23 (2.89%) Metadata
13 20 (2.51%) Amazon RDS
14 17 (2.14%) Delta Lake
14 17 (2.14%) RDBMS
14 17 (2.14%) Tableau
15 15 (1.88%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 69 (8.67%) Git
2 50 (6.28%) JIRA
3 38 (4.77%) Jenkins
4 25 (3.14%) Visual Studio
5 21 (2.64%) GitLab
6 15 (1.88%) TeamCity
7 11 (1.38%) Cucumber
7 11 (1.38%) Maven
7 11 (1.38%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.26%) Postman
9 9 (1.13%) ERwin
9 9 (1.13%) Octopus Deploy
9 9 (1.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 8 (1.01%) JUnit
10 8 (1.01%) MLflow
11 7 (0.88%) Chocolatey
11 7 (0.88%) Selenium
12 6 (0.75%) Mockito
12 6 (0.75%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.75%) TestRail
General
1 230 (28.89%) Social Skills
2 190 (23.87%) Finance
3 132 (16.58%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (12.69%) Banking
5 64 (8.04%) Public Sector
6 31 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (3.27%) Investment Banking
8 24 (3.02%) Front Office
9 22 (2.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (2.14%) Legal
11 13 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (1.63%) Retail
12 12 (1.51%) Financial Institution
13 9 (1.13%) Advertising
14 7 (0.88%) Local Government
15 6 (0.75%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.63%) Law
17 4 (0.50%) Back Office
17 4 (0.50%) General Ledger
17 4 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 252 (31.66%) Developer
2 115 (14.45%) Senior
3 100 (12.56%) Data Engineer
4 83 (10.43%) DBA
5 74 (9.30%) C# Developer
6 70 (8.79%) Architect
7 61 (7.66%) .NET Developer
8 47 (5.90%) SQL DBA
9 40 (5.03%) Lead
10 36 (4.52%) Analyst
10 36 (4.52%) Senior Developer
11 30 (3.77%) Full-Stack Developer
12 29 (3.64%) Senior Data Engineer
13 28 (3.52%) Azure Engineer
13 28 (3.52%) Software Engineer
14 27 (3.39%) SQL Developer
15 25 (3.14%) Administrator
16 21 (2.64%) Data Architect
16 21 (2.64%) Oracle DBA
17 20 (2.51%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 222 (27.89%) .NET
2 91 (11.43%) REST
3 90 (11.31%) .NET Framework
4 68 (8.54%) React
5 58 (7.29%) AngularJS
6 54 (6.78%) RESTful
7 49 (6.16%) HTML
8 45 (5.65%) CSS
9 39 (4.90%) .NET Core
9 39 (4.90%) ASP.NET
9 39 (4.90%) XML
10 36 (4.52%) Kafka
11 28 (3.52%) Web Services
12 23 (2.89%) Entity Framework
13 22 (2.76%) Spring
14 20 (2.51%) JSON
14 20 (2.51%) Node.js
14 20 (2.51%) SOAP
14 20 (2.51%) Spring Boot
14 20 (2.51%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 54 (6.78%) Legacy Systems
2 37 (4.65%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.02%) Replication
4 30 (3.77%) Data Structures
5 24 (3.02%) Onboarding
6 23 (2.89%) Enterprise Software
7 19 (2.39%) Clustering
8 18 (2.26%) Management Information System
9 15 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.76%) NHS
11 13 (1.63%) Product Ownership
12 12 (1.51%) Legacy Code
13 10 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.26%) Low-Code
13 10 (1.26%) Virtual Team
14 9 (1.13%) Credit Risk
14 9 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
14 9 (1.13%) Derivative
14 9 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
14 9 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 155 (19.47%) Windows
2 85 (10.68%) Windows Server
3 74 (9.30%) Linux
4 36 (4.52%) Unix
5 11 (1.38%) Windows 10
5 11 (1.38%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.01%) AIX
6 8 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (0.75%) Windows Server 2012
8 5 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.38%) Android
9 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.25%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.25%) VMS
10 2 (0.25%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 195 (24.50%) CI/CD
2 192 (24.12%) DevOps
3 172 (21.61%) ETL
4 169 (21.23%) Problem-Solving
5 167 (20.98%) Agile
6 149 (18.72%) Business Intelligence
7 139 (17.46%) Data Modelling
8 122 (15.33%) Migration
9 97 (12.19%) Analytics
10 88 (11.06%) Performance Tuning
11 86 (10.80%) Disaster Recovery
12 80 (10.05%) Data Pipeline
13 77 (9.67%) Data Engineering
14 73 (9.17%) AI
14 73 (9.17%) Test Automation
15 71 (8.92%) Data Analysis
16 67 (8.42%) Data Integration
16 67 (8.42%) Microservices
17 59 (7.41%) High Availability
18 58 (7.29%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 469 (58.92%) SQL
2 202 (25.38%) C#
3 175 (21.98%) Python
4 116 (14.57%) T-SQL
5 95 (11.93%) PowerShell
6 72 (9.05%) Java
6 72 (9.05%) JavaScript
7 60 (7.54%) PL/SQL
8 50 (6.28%) TypeScript
9 31 (3.89%) Bash
10 24 (3.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 21 (2.64%) Shell Script
12 16 (2.01%) VB
13 15 (1.88%) Bicep
13 15 (1.88%) Korn
14 12 (1.51%) Scala
14 12 (1.51%) VBA
15 11 (1.38%) PHP
16 7 (0.88%) XPath
17 4 (0.50%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 162 (20.35%) Security Cleared
2 123 (15.45%) SC Cleared
3 79 (9.92%) Degree
4 30 (3.77%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.51%) DV Cleared
7 19 (2.39%) Azure Certification
8 16 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.01%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.63%) CCA
10 5 (0.63%) Citrix Certification
10 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.63%) OCP
10 5 (0.63%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (0.50%) CISSP
11 4 (0.50%) MCITP
11 4 (0.50%) MCTS
11 4 (0.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.38%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (11.43%) Data Quality
2 87 (10.93%) QA
3 20 (2.51%) GDPR
4 15 (1.88%) SLA
5 7 (0.88%) NIST
6 6 (0.75%) Accessibility
6 6 (0.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.50%) IFRS
8 4 (0.50%) WCAG
9 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 17
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.25%) Basel III
10 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.25%) EMIR
10 2 (0.25%) GAAP
10 2 (0.25%) GRC
10 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.25%) MiFID
System Software
1 86 (10.80%) Docker
2 57 (7.16%) Active Directory
3 18 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (1.88%) Hyper-V
5 14 (1.76%) Oracle RAC
6 11 (1.38%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (1.38%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.75%) KVM
8 5 (0.63%) XenApp
8 5 (0.63%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.38%) GridGain
10 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.25%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.13%) NFS
11 1 (0.13%) RACF
Systems Management
1 86 (10.80%) Kubernetes
2 57 (7.16%) Terraform
3 17 (2.14%) Ansible
4 15 (1.88%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (1.76%) Grafana
5 14 (1.76%) SCCM
6 13 (1.63%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (1.13%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.01%) Puppet
10 7 (0.88%) TIBCO Hawk
11 6 (0.75%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.63%) HAProxy
12 5 (0.63%) SCVMM
12 5 (0.63%) WSUS
13 3 (0.38%) Control-M
13 3 (0.38%) Foglight
13 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
13 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 250 (31.41%) Microsoft
2 228 (28.64%) Oracle
3 67 (8.42%) Databricks
4 52 (6.53%) Citrix
5 39 (4.90%) ServiceNow
6 32 (4.02%) Informatica
6 32 (4.02%) VMware
7 22 (2.76%) SAP
8 21 (2.64%) Google
9 20 (2.51%) IBM
10 14 (1.76%) Sybase
11 12 (1.51%) CyberArk
11 12 (1.51%) UiPath
12 11 (1.38%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.26%) OpenAI
14 9 (1.13%) Remedy
14 9 (1.13%) Tenable
15 8 (1.01%) BMC
15 8 (1.01%) PagerDuty
15 8 (1.01%) TIBCO
479 SQL Server jobs in England