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 7 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
7 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 80 65
Rank change year-on-year -54 -15 -19
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 658 796 1,178
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.08% 2.91% 3.27%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.23% 15.89% 19.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 563 861
10th Percentile £350 £313 £350
25th Percentile £405 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £505 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.06% -8.18% -
75th Percentile £600 £623 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £731
UK median daily rate £486 £500 £530
% change year-on-year -2.75% -5.66% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 6 17
10th Percentile £46.97 £61.06 £19.93
25th Percentile £50.15 £61.87 £46.00
Median hourly rate £58.36 £64.37 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.34% +22.61% +45.83%
75th Percentile £65.65 £65.62 £62.50
90th Percentile £68.26 £82.81 £63.56
UK median hourly rate £58.36 £63.75 £52.50
% change year-on-year -8.45% +21.42% +38.16%

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 5,381 5,011 5,924
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.00% 18.32% 16.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,760 3,330 4,239
10th Percentile £325 £350 £355
25th Percentile £412 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - -
75th Percentile £613 £663 £660
90th Percentile £713 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 70 127
10th Percentile £20.66 £19.78 £18.98
25th Percentile £29.56 £24.25 £25.22
Median hourly rate £54.70 £42.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +30.24% -9.05% -16.04%
75th Percentile £71.00 £64.93 £64.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £74.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £52.00 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +48.57% -24.21% -16.04%

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 7 January 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 7 January 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 7 January 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 -31 404 £516 -6.14% 95
North of England -23 81 £450 -6.49% 99
South East -37 80 £478 -3.58% 122
Yorkshire -25 42 £425 -23.53% 42
North West -23 37 £450 +9.09% 47
South West -26 24 £550 - 29
Midlands -94 21 £411 -13.42% 50
East of England -23 20 £500 +25.00% 35
West Midlands -66 16 £414 -27.03% 22
East Midlands -52 4 £373 -2.74% 28
North East -11 2 £475 +28.38% 11
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 30 (4.56%) SharePoint
2 24 (3.65%) IIS
3 21 (3.19%) Confluence
4 16 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (2.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 15 (2.28%) WebSphere
6 11 (1.67%) WebLogic
7 7 (1.06%) Apache
7 7 (1.06%) Apache Spark
8 5 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.61%) SharePoint Server
9 4 (0.61%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.46%) Appian
10 3 (0.46%) CMS
11 2 (0.30%) CICS
11 2 (0.30%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.30%) JBoss
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.30%) WildFly
12 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 45 (6.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.22%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.30%) Trello
6 2 (0.30%) Windchill
7 1 (0.15%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 9 (1.37%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (1.06%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.91%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.61%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.46%) Fidessa
6 3 (0.46%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.46%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.46%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.46%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.46%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.30%) Endur
7 2 (0.30%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.30%) Maximo
7 2 (0.30%) Oracle FAH
7 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.30%) thinkFolio
7 2 (0.30%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 280 (42.55%) Azure
2 125 (19.00%) AWS
3 117 (17.78%) Power Platform
4 74 (11.25%) Azure DevOps
5 52 (7.90%) GitHub
6 48 (7.29%) Azure Data Factory
6 48 (7.29%) GCP
7 34 (5.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 30 (4.56%) Microsoft 365
8 30 (4.56%) SaaS
9 24 (3.65%) GitHub Actions
10 21 (3.19%) Snowflake
11 19 (2.89%) Amazon S3
11 19 (2.89%) IaaS
11 19 (2.89%) Serverless
12 17 (2.58%) Azure Service Bus
12 17 (2.58%) Dynamics 365
12 17 (2.58%) Power Automate
13 15 (2.28%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 15 (2.28%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 29 (4.41%) Firewall
2 21 (3.19%) DNS
3 17 (2.58%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.82%) Internet
5 11 (1.67%) DHCP
6 10 (1.52%) HTTP
7 8 (1.22%) LAN
8 6 (0.91%) NetScaler
8 6 (0.91%) VPN
9 5 (0.76%) NAS
9 5 (0.76%) Skype
10 4 (0.61%) SAN
10 4 (0.61%) SSL
10 4 (0.61%) VoIP
11 3 (0.46%) WAN
12 2 (0.30%) FTP
12 2 (0.30%) SMTP
12 2 (0.30%) VLAN
12 2 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
12 2 (0.30%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (15.20%) Power BI
2 89 (13.53%) PostgreSQL
3 82 (12.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 80 (12.16%) Relational Database
5 67 (10.18%) Data Warehouse
6 65 (9.88%) Oracle Database
7 54 (8.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 49 (7.45%) Azure SQL Database
9 45 (6.84%) MySQL
10 44 (6.69%) MongoDB
11 38 (5.78%) Data Lake
12 34 (5.17%) NoSQL
13 25 (3.80%) DB2
14 23 (3.50%) Amazon RDS
15 19 (2.89%) Big Data
15 19 (2.89%) RDBMS
16 18 (2.74%) SQL Server Analysis Services
17 17 (2.58%) Tableau
18 16 (2.43%) Redis
19 14 (2.13%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 65 (9.88%) Git
2 43 (6.53%) JIRA
3 34 (5.17%) Jenkins
4 19 (2.89%) GitLab
5 18 (2.74%) Visual Studio
6 14 (2.13%) Postman
7 12 (1.82%) Selenium
7 12 (1.82%) SpecFlow
7 12 (1.82%) TeamCity
8 11 (1.67%) Cucumber
8 11 (1.67%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 10 (1.52%) Maven
10 9 (1.37%) Bitbucket
10 9 (1.37%) Octopus Deploy
11 8 (1.22%) JUnit
12 6 (0.91%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.91%) TestRail
12 6 (0.91%) webpack
13 5 (0.76%) Eclipse
13 5 (0.76%) Mockito
General
1 220 (33.43%) Social Skills
2 179 (27.20%) Finance
3 89 (13.53%) Banking
4 88 (13.37%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (5.78%) Public Sector
6 34 (5.17%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.80%) Investment Banking
8 20 (3.04%) Front Office
9 16 (2.43%) Financial Institution
10 12 (1.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.52%) Retail
13 7 (1.06%) Local Government
14 6 (0.91%) Legal
14 6 (0.91%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.76%) Back Office
15 5 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.76%) Law
16 4 (0.61%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 233 (35.41%) Developer
2 87 (13.22%) Senior
3 76 (11.55%) Data Engineer
4 64 (9.73%) C# Developer
5 48 (7.29%) .NET Developer
5 48 (7.29%) Architect
6 45 (6.84%) Analyst
7 37 (5.62%) Senior Developer
8 32 (4.86%) DBA
9 28 (4.26%) Consultant
9 28 (4.26%) Lead
10 26 (3.95%) Senior Data Engineer
11 24 (3.65%) Full-Stack Developer
12 21 (3.19%) Software Engineer
13 20 (3.04%) C# .NET Developer
14 19 (2.89%) Angular Developer
14 19 (2.89%) SQL DBA
14 19 (2.89%) SQL Developer
15 17 (2.58%) Azure Engineer
16 16 (2.43%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 183 (27.81%) .NET
2 69 (10.49%) .NET Framework
3 57 (8.66%) REST
4 49 (7.45%) HTML
5 43 (6.53%) AngularJS
6 41 (6.23%) React
6 41 (6.23%) XML
7 38 (5.78%) CSS
7 38 (5.78%) RESTful
8 36 (5.47%) Kafka
9 35 (5.32%) .NET Core
10 28 (4.26%) Web Services
11 27 (4.10%) Entity Framework
11 27 (4.10%) SOAP
12 25 (3.80%) ASP.NET
13 23 (3.50%) Middleware
14 22 (3.34%) WPF
15 19 (2.89%) JSON
16 17 (2.58%) Playwright
17 16 (2.43%) NHibernate
Miscellaneous
1 34 (5.17%) Legacy Systems
2 28 (4.26%) Cloud Native
3 19 (2.89%) Management Information System
4 18 (2.74%) Derivative
4 18 (2.74%) Enterprise Software
5 16 (2.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 16 (2.43%) Onboarding
6 15 (2.28%) Data Protection Act
6 15 (2.28%) Product Ownership
7 14 (2.13%) Credit Risk
8 12 (1.82%) Data Structures
8 12 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
8 12 (1.82%) NHS
9 11 (1.67%) PKI
9 11 (1.67%) Replication
10 10 (1.52%) Hedge funds
11 9 (1.37%) Reinsurance
11 9 (1.37%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.22%) Data Centre
12 8 (1.22%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 113 (17.17%) Windows
2 84 (12.77%) Linux
3 59 (8.97%) Windows Server
4 12 (1.82%) Windows 10
4 12 (1.82%) Windows Server 2016
5 10 (1.52%) Unix
6 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.61%) VMS
9 3 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.30%) Solaris
11 1 (0.15%) AIX
11 1 (0.15%) Android
11 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.15%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.15%) MVS
11 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (24.47%) Agile
2 144 (21.88%) DevOps
2 144 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
3 143 (21.73%) CI/CD
4 117 (17.78%) Business Intelligence
5 116 (17.63%) ETL
6 98 (14.89%) Migration
7 91 (13.83%) Data Modelling
8 68 (10.33%) Analytics
9 66 (10.03%) Microservices
10 60 (9.12%) Test Automation
11 54 (8.21%) Full-Stack Development
12 53 (8.05%) Performance Tuning
12 53 (8.05%) Software Engineering
13 49 (7.45%) Containerisation
14 48 (7.29%) Data Analysis
14 48 (7.29%) Data Governance
15 47 (7.14%) Data Migration
16 46 (6.99%) Data Engineering
17 44 (6.69%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 370 (56.23%) SQL
2 162 (24.62%) C#
3 137 (20.82%) Python
4 77 (11.70%) T-SQL
5 72 (10.94%) JavaScript
6 69 (10.49%) Java
7 55 (8.36%) PL/SQL
8 48 (7.29%) PowerShell
9 33 (5.02%) Bash
10 19 (2.89%) TypeScript
11 17 (2.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 17 (2.58%) VB
12 16 (2.43%) VBA
13 14 (2.13%) PHP
13 14 (2.13%) Shell Script
14 11 (1.67%) Bicep
15 7 (1.06%) XPath
16 5 (0.76%) COBOL
16 5 (0.76%) X++
17 4 (0.61%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 86 (13.07%) Security Cleared
2 76 (11.55%) Degree
3 61 (9.27%) SC Cleared
4 29 (4.41%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (3.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (2.28%) Azure Certification
7 14 (2.13%) DV Cleared
8 12 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (1.52%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.76%) HNC
10 5 (0.76%) HND
10 5 (0.76%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.76%) MCP
10 5 (0.76%) MCSE
11 4 (0.61%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.46%) CCA
12 3 (0.46%) Citrix Certification
12 3 (0.46%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.46%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (9.42%) Data Quality
2 60 (9.12%) QA
3 15 (2.28%) GDPR
4 13 (1.98%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.37%) SLA
6 6 (0.91%) MiFID
6 6 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.61%) EMIR
8 4 (0.61%) WCAG
9 3 (0.46%) IFRS
9 3 (0.46%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.30%) Basel III
10 2 (0.30%) GAAP
10 2 (0.30%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.30%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.15%) HL7
11 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 75 (11.40%) Docker
2 50 (7.60%) Active Directory
3 27 (4.10%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (1.98%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.82%) Oracle RAC
6 8 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (1.22%) zsh
7 7 (1.06%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.61%) vSphere
10 3 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.46%) XenApp
10 3 (0.46%) XenDesktop
11 2 (0.30%) GridGain
11 2 (0.30%) NDS
11 2 (0.30%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.15%) KVM
12 1 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.15%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.15%) Xen
Systems Management
1 57 (8.66%) Kubernetes
2 39 (5.93%) Terraform
3 26 (3.95%) Ansible
4 16 (2.43%) Grafana
5 14 (2.13%) Puppet
6 11 (1.67%) Data Guard
6 11 (1.67%) SCCM
7 10 (1.52%) yum
8 9 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (1.37%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.22%) NetBackup
10 7 (1.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 7 (1.06%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (1.06%) TIBCO Hawk
11 5 (0.76%) Control-M
11 5 (0.76%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.76%) SCOM
11 5 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.61%) WSUS
12 4 (0.61%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 211 (32.07%) Oracle
2 206 (31.31%) Microsoft
3 44 (6.69%) Databricks
4 41 (6.23%) Citrix
5 39 (5.93%) VMware
6 21 (3.19%) Google
6 21 (3.19%) ServiceNow
7 19 (2.89%) SAP
8 18 (2.74%) IBM
9 16 (2.43%) Informatica
10 13 (1.98%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.67%) Cisco
11 11 (1.67%) CyberArk
12 10 (1.52%) Veritas
13 9 (1.37%) Advent
14 8 (1.22%) Atlassian
14 8 (1.22%) PagerDuty
14 8 (1.22%) UiPath
15 7 (1.06%) BEA
15 7 (1.06%) TIBCO
400 SQL Server jobs in England