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 9 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 100 57
Rank change year-on-year -17 -43 -5
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 993 697 1,333
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.22% 2.58% 3.58%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.54% 14.11% 20.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 691 522 934
10th Percentile £355 £325 £330
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £504 £506
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% -0.49% -3.57%
75th Percentile £612 £640 £638
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 7 24
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.91 £25.30
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £37.63
Median hourly rate £27.88 £25.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.52% -37.50% -17.95%
75th Percentile £62.00 £51.91 £46.82
90th Percentile £74.40 £82.00 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £33.49 £48.16 £40.00
% change year-on-year -30.46% +20.40% -11.11%

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 6,829 4,941 6,591
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.27% 18.31% 17.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,587 3,421 4,746
10th Percentile £353 £355 £350
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £527
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.28% -4.27%
75th Percentile £602 £650 £675
90th Percentile £709 £775 £815
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 91 137
10th Percentile £14.96 £19.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.88 £24.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £34.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -9.33% -36.00%
75th Percentile £71.13 £62.88 £50.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £70.00 £69.85
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +12.86% -6.67% -35.39%

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 9 July 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 9 July 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 9 July 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 -35 478 £525 -7.89% 132
North of England -4 187 £475 +11.76% 130
South East -9 121 £471 +4.67% 104
North West -4 103 £478 +12.47% 72
Midlands -14 96 £492 +13.76% 61
Yorkshire +11 84 £450 +12.50% 37
South West -8 53 £513 +7.89% 30
West Midlands -41 51 £478 -13.18% 44
East Midlands +12 43 £525 +60.80% 17
East of England -3 38 £475 -5.00% 22
North East -36 1 - - 24
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 59 (5.94%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.63%) IIS
3 32 (3.22%) Confluence
4 23 (2.32%) Apache Spark
5 22 (2.22%) Apache
5 22 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.01%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (1.31%) Camunda
8 12 (1.21%) Appian
8 12 (1.21%) CMS
9 11 (1.11%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.60%) NetWeaver
10 6 (0.60%) Sitecore CMS
11 5 (0.50%) OpenEdge
11 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
11 5 (0.50%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
13 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.30%) nginx
14 2 (0.20%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 44 (4.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.21%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.10%) InDesign
5 1 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 18 (1.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.51%) Remedy ITSM
3 14 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
4 6 (0.60%) OpenText MBPM
4 6 (0.60%) Oracle BPM
5 5 (0.50%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.30%) Aladdin
6 3 (0.30%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.10%) Infor LN
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
8 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 414 (41.69%) Azure
2 227 (22.86%) AWS
3 141 (14.20%) Power Platform
4 105 (10.57%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (8.96%) GitHub
6 64 (6.45%) Azure Data Factory
7 40 (4.03%) GCP
7 40 (4.03%) Serverless
8 37 (3.73%) Azure Monitor
8 37 (3.73%) GitHub Actions
9 34 (3.42%) Power Automate
9 34 (3.42%) Snowflake
10 31 (3.12%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 30 (3.02%) Dynamics 365
11 30 (3.02%) Entra ID
11 30 (3.02%) Microsoft 365
12 27 (2.72%) SaaS
13 25 (2.52%) dbt
14 24 (2.42%) Amazon S3
15 20 (2.01%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 38 (3.83%) DNS
2 30 (3.02%) DHCP
3 19 (1.91%) Firewall
4 18 (1.81%) SAN
5 14 (1.41%) Internet
6 13 (1.31%) VLAN
7 11 (1.11%) SSH
8 10 (1.01%) VPN
9 9 (0.91%) Network Security
9 9 (0.91%) TCP/IP
10 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.60%) IPv4
10 6 (0.60%) IPv6
10 6 (0.60%) SSL
10 6 (0.60%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (0.40%) Kerberos
11 4 (0.40%) LAN
12 3 (0.30%) NAS
12 3 (0.30%) VoIP
12 3 (0.30%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 155 (15.61%) PostgreSQL
2 116 (11.68%) Power BI
3 111 (11.18%) Relational Database
4 105 (10.57%) Data Warehouse
4 105 (10.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 75 (7.55%) Oracle Database
6 64 (6.45%) MySQL
7 58 (5.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 50 (5.04%) Azure SQL Database
9 46 (4.63%) MongoDB
10 39 (3.93%) Data Lake
11 37 (3.73%) NoSQL
12 32 (3.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 29 (2.92%) RDBMS
14 23 (2.32%) Tableau
15 18 (1.81%) Metadata
16 17 (1.71%) Big Data
16 17 (1.71%) Redis
17 15 (1.51%) Amazon RDS
18 13 (1.31%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 87 (8.76%) Git
2 51 (5.14%) Jenkins
2 51 (5.14%) JIRA
3 29 (2.92%) Visual Studio
4 24 (2.42%) GitLab
5 18 (1.81%) Team Foundation Server
5 18 (1.81%) TeamCity
6 14 (1.41%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 13 (1.31%) Maven
8 12 (1.21%) Cucumber
8 12 (1.21%) Octopus Deploy
8 12 (1.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 10 (1.01%) Postman
10 9 (0.91%) Gatling
11 8 (0.81%) Artifactory
11 8 (0.81%) MSTest
11 8 (0.81%) Oracle Forms
12 7 (0.70%) Chocolatey
12 7 (0.70%) Selenium
13 6 (0.60%) Claude Code
General
1 284 (28.60%) Social Skills
2 248 (24.97%) Finance
3 169 (17.02%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (12.08%) Banking
5 79 (7.96%) Public Sector
6 43 (4.33%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.52%) Front Office
8 25 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 24 (2.42%) Investment Banking
10 18 (1.81%) Legal
11 15 (1.51%) Retail
12 14 (1.41%) Organisational Skills
13 11 (1.11%) Financial Institution
14 9 (0.91%) Advertising
15 7 (0.70%) Local Government
15 7 (0.70%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.60%) Back Office
16 6 (0.60%) Law
17 5 (0.50%) Publishing
18 4 (0.40%) Games
Job Titles
1 301 (30.31%) Developer
2 140 (14.10%) Senior
3 131 (13.19%) DBA
4 94 (9.47%) Data Engineer
5 89 (8.96%) C# Developer
6 82 (8.26%) SQL DBA
7 75 (7.55%) .NET Developer
8 71 (7.15%) Lead
9 59 (5.94%) Architect
10 51 (5.14%) SQL Developer
11 45 (4.53%) Administrator
11 45 (4.53%) Analyst
12 43 (4.33%) Senior Developer
13 37 (3.73%) Oracle DBA
14 35 (3.52%) Software Engineer
15 33 (3.32%) Full-Stack Developer
15 33 (3.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 32 (3.22%) Azure Engineer
17 30 (3.02%) C# .NET Developer
18 29 (2.92%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 254 (25.58%) .NET
2 127 (12.79%) REST
3 106 (10.67%) .NET Framework
4 83 (8.36%) React
5 63 (6.34%) CSS
6 62 (6.24%) AngularJS
7 61 (6.14%) RESTful
8 56 (5.64%) ASP.NET
9 52 (5.24%) HTML
10 50 (5.04%) .NET Core
11 49 (4.93%) Kafka
12 37 (3.73%) Web Services
13 35 (3.52%) XML
14 34 (3.42%) JSON
15 29 (2.92%) SOAP
16 28 (2.82%) Entity Framework
17 27 (2.72%) Spring Boot
18 26 (2.62%) OAuth
18 26 (2.62%) Spring
19 19 (1.91%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.44%) Legacy Systems
2 51 (5.14%) Cloud Native
2 51 (5.14%) Onboarding
3 44 (4.43%) Data Structures
4 40 (4.03%) Replication
5 37 (3.73%) Clustering
5 37 (3.73%) Enterprise Software
5 37 (3.73%) Self-Motivation
6 25 (2.52%) Management Information System
7 21 (2.11%) Product Ownership
8 19 (1.91%) Low-Code
9 18 (1.81%) PKI
10 17 (1.71%) Derivative
11 16 (1.61%) NHS
12 14 (1.41%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.41%) Fixed Income
13 13 (1.31%) Algorithms
14 12 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
14 12 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
14 12 (1.21%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 233 (23.46%) Windows
2 134 (13.49%) Windows Server
3 92 (9.26%) Linux
4 60 (6.04%) Unix
5 11 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.01%) AIX
7 9 (0.91%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.81%) Android
8 8 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.60%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.60%) VMS
9 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.50%) Solaris
10 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.30%) CentOS
12 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.20%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (24.77%) DevOps
2 228 (22.96%) Agile
2 228 (22.96%) CI/CD
3 209 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
4 160 (16.11%) ETL
5 159 (16.01%) Migration
6 144 (14.50%) Business Intelligence
7 135 (13.60%) Data Modelling
8 131 (13.19%) Performance Tuning
9 110 (11.08%) AI
10 107 (10.78%) Disaster Recovery
11 99 (9.97%) Analytics
12 90 (9.06%) Microservices
13 89 (8.96%) Data Pipeline
14 85 (8.56%) High Availability
15 84 (8.46%) Data Analysis
16 78 (7.85%) Validation
17 77 (7.75%) Data Integration
18 76 (7.65%) Test Automation
19 73 (7.35%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 568 (57.20%) SQL
2 263 (26.49%) C#
3 226 (22.76%) Python
4 169 (17.02%) PowerShell
5 167 (16.82%) T-SQL
6 100 (10.07%) JavaScript
7 80 (8.06%) Java
8 65 (6.55%) PL/SQL
9 59 (5.94%) TypeScript
10 33 (3.32%) Bash
11 25 (2.52%) Shell Script
12 23 (2.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 20 (2.01%) Scala
14 19 (1.91%) VB
15 17 (1.71%) Korn
16 14 (1.41%) VBA
17 11 (1.11%) Bicep
18 7 (0.70%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.70%) VB6
19 5 (0.50%) XPath
Qualifications
1 231 (23.26%) Security Cleared
2 175 (17.62%) SC Cleared
3 105 (10.57%) Degree
4 41 (4.13%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.42%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (2.62%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
8 16 (1.61%) Azure Certification
9 9 (0.91%) DBS Check
9 9 (0.91%) Master's Degree
10 8 (0.81%) Oracle Certification
11 7 (0.70%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.70%) OCP
12 6 (0.60%) CISSP
13 5 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.40%) MCITP
14 4 (0.40%) MCTS
14 4 (0.40%) PhD
15 3 (0.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (10.17%) QA
2 94 (9.47%) Data Quality
3 27 (2.72%) GDPR
4 26 (2.62%) NIST
5 24 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.61%) SLA
7 15 (1.51%) Accessibility
8 11 (1.11%) WCAG
9 6 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.50%) ISO 9000
11 4 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.30%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.20%) Basel III
13 2 (0.20%) COREP
13 2 (0.20%) FINREP
13 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.20%) GRC
13 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
14 1 (0.10%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 102 (10.27%) Active Directory
2 81 (8.16%) Docker
3 30 (3.02%) Virtual Machines
4 25 (2.52%) Oracle RAC
5 23 (2.32%) VMware Infrastructure
6 12 (1.21%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.60%) KVM
7 6 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
8 3 (0.30%) GridGain
8 3 (0.30%) Postfix
8 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.20%) vSphere
10 1 (0.10%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.10%) NFS
10 1 (0.10%) RACF
10 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.10%) XenApp
10 1 (0.10%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 106 (10.67%) Kubernetes
2 72 (7.25%) Terraform
3 35 (3.52%) Ansible
4 21 (2.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 19 (1.91%) Oracle RMAN
6 13 (1.31%) HAProxy
6 13 (1.31%) SCCM
7 10 (1.01%) Data Guard
7 10 (1.01%) WSUS
8 9 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.81%) Grafana
9 8 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.70%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.60%) IBM BigFix
12 5 (0.50%) SCOM
13 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.30%) Foglight
14 3 (0.30%) ITRS Geneos
Vendors
1 296 (29.81%) Microsoft
2 280 (28.20%) Oracle
3 63 (6.34%) Databricks
4 52 (5.24%) Citrix
5 46 (4.63%) ServiceNow
6 40 (4.03%) CyberArk
7 38 (3.83%) VMware
8 35 (3.52%) SAP
9 30 (3.02%) Informatica
10 25 (2.52%) BeyondTrust
11 23 (2.32%) Sybase
12 21 (2.11%) Google
13 17 (1.71%) Dynatrace
14 16 (1.61%) IBM
15 15 (1.51%) Remedy
16 14 (1.41%) BMC
16 14 (1.41%) Cisco
17 13 (1.31%) Red Hat
18 11 (1.11%) Alteryx
19 9 (0.91%) AppDynamics