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 21 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 108 58
Rank change year-on-year -14 -50 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,013 681 1,202
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.22% 2.47% 3.61%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.52% 13.64% 19.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 711 502 855
10th Percentile £363 £313 £338
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 6 9
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £29.48
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £36.75
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.80 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +99.79% -51.00% +7.91%
75th Percentile £62.88 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £75.60 £83.13 £84.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £48.03
% change year-on-year -32.09% +45.74% +11.70%

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 6,977 4,993 6,129
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.28% 18.12% 18.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,669 3,438 4,352
10th Percentile £358 £338 £350
25th Percentile £423 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £545
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -5.96% -0.91%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £675
90th Percentile £709 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -0.99% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 82 91
10th Percentile £14.85 £20.87 £14.25
25th Percentile £23.35 £25.34 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £34.58 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.63% -1.21% -36.36%
75th Percentile £61.31 £61.25 £56.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.58 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £38.25 £34.99 £34.47
% change year-on-year +9.32% +1.52% -37.34%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 -24 500 £525 -8.30% 113
North of England -2 191 £475 +9.20% 67
South East -12 118 £475 +44.82% 99
Midlands +1 105 £475 +11.11% 60
North West -2 103 £478 +9.89% 37
Yorkshire +10 88 £450 +5.88% 19
West Midlands -21 61 £473 -12.00% 35
South West -21 49 £513 +20.59% 26
East Midlands +7 43 £525 +60.80% 24
East of England -15 26 £450 -10.00% 25
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 70 (6.91%) SharePoint
2 48 (4.74%) IIS
3 36 (3.55%) Confluence
4 23 (2.27%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (1.88%) Apache
5 19 (1.88%) Apache Airflow
6 18 (1.78%) Apache Spark
7 15 (1.48%) Camunda
8 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.59%) Appian
9 6 (0.59%) CMS
9 6 (0.59%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.49%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.49%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.39%) OpenEdge
11 4 (0.39%) Tomcat
11 4 (0.39%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
12 3 (0.30%) nginx
13 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 52 (5.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.09%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.099%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.099%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.099%) InDesign
6 1 (0.099%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 25 (2.47%) Remedy ITSM
2 20 (1.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 16 (1.58%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.69%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.69%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.59%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.39%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.39%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Endur
7 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.099%) Findur
8 1 (0.099%) Loan IQ
8 1 (0.099%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 421 (41.56%) Azure
2 220 (21.72%) AWS
3 152 (15.00%) Power Platform
4 107 (10.56%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (8.79%) GitHub
6 61 (6.02%) Azure Data Factory
7 48 (4.74%) Entra ID
8 42 (4.15%) Serverless
9 41 (4.05%) Azure Monitor
9 41 (4.05%) Microsoft 365
10 38 (3.75%) GitHub Actions
10 38 (3.75%) Power Automate
11 37 (3.65%) Snowflake
12 33 (3.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 33 (3.26%) Dynamics 365
13 29 (2.86%) GCP
14 26 (2.57%) dbt
14 26 (2.57%) SaaS
15 22 (2.17%) PaaS
16 21 (2.07%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 52 (5.13%) DNS
2 41 (4.05%) DHCP
3 31 (3.06%) Firewall
4 20 (1.97%) VLAN
5 19 (1.88%) SAN
6 17 (1.68%) VPN
7 13 (1.28%) Internet
7 13 (1.28%) Network Security
8 12 (1.18%) TCP/IP
8 12 (1.18%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (0.99%) SSL
10 9 (0.89%) SSH
11 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.59%) IPv4
11 6 (0.59%) IPv6
11 6 (0.59%) LAN
12 5 (0.49%) Kerberos
12 5 (0.49%) VoIP
12 5 (0.49%) WAN
13 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (14.71%) PostgreSQL
2 131 (12.93%) Power BI
3 107 (10.56%) Relational Database
4 99 (9.77%) Data Warehouse
5 92 (9.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 70 (6.91%) MySQL
7 62 (6.12%) Oracle Database
8 59 (5.82%) Azure SQL Database
9 57 (5.63%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 51 (5.03%) MongoDB
11 37 (3.65%) Data Lake
12 27 (2.67%) NoSQL
12 27 (2.67%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 26 (2.57%) Redis
14 22 (2.17%) Amazon RDS
15 21 (2.07%) RDBMS
16 20 (1.97%) Tableau
17 19 (1.88%) Metadata
18 16 (1.58%) Star Schema
19 12 (1.18%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 97 (9.58%) Git
2 56 (5.53%) Jenkins
3 53 (5.23%) JIRA
4 29 (2.86%) GitLab
5 27 (2.67%) Visual Studio
6 18 (1.78%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 17 (1.68%) TeamCity
8 16 (1.58%) Maven
9 15 (1.48%) Team Foundation Server
10 14 (1.38%) Selenium
10 14 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
11 13 (1.28%) Octopus Deploy
12 12 (1.18%) Postman
13 11 (1.09%) Artifactory
13 11 (1.09%) Cucumber
14 10 (0.99%) Cypress.io
15 9 (0.89%) Bitbucket
15 9 (0.89%) Gatling
15 9 (0.89%) REST Assured
15 9 (0.89%) WebDriver
General
1 310 (30.60%) Social Skills
2 260 (25.67%) Finance
3 188 (18.56%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (12.83%) Banking
5 79 (7.80%) Public Sector
6 44 (4.34%) Front Office
7 39 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
8 27 (2.67%) Investment Banking
9 19 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.78%) Legal
11 16 (1.58%) Retail
12 15 (1.48%) Financial Institution
12 15 (1.48%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.79%) Back Office
13 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
14 7 (0.69%) Advertising
15 5 (0.49%) Billing
15 5 (0.49%) Law
15 5 (0.49%) Military
15 5 (0.49%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 305 (30.11%) Developer
2 159 (15.70%) Senior
3 139 (13.72%) DBA
4 84 (8.29%) SQL DBA
5 83 (8.19%) .NET Developer
5 83 (8.19%) C# Developer
6 80 (7.90%) Data Engineer
7 68 (6.71%) Lead
8 63 (6.22%) Administrator
9 60 (5.92%) Architect
10 48 (4.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 47 (4.64%) Senior Developer
11 47 (4.64%) SQL Developer
12 45 (4.44%) Analyst
12 45 (4.44%) Full-Stack Developer
13 38 (3.75%) Software Engineer
14 35 (3.46%) Oracle DBA
15 34 (3.36%) Azure Engineer
16 33 (3.26%) C# .NET Developer
16 33 (3.26%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 277 (27.34%) .NET
2 126 (12.44%) REST
3 102 (10.07%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.09%) Terraform
5 73 (7.21%) React
6 62 (6.12%) ASP.NET
7 57 (5.63%) AngularJS
8 54 (5.33%) RESTful
9 52 (5.13%) .NET Core
9 52 (5.13%) CSS
10 51 (5.03%) Kafka
11 41 (4.05%) HTML
12 39 (3.85%) Web Services
13 35 (3.46%) JSON
14 31 (3.06%) XML
15 29 (2.86%) SOAP
16 28 (2.76%) Spring Boot
17 26 (2.57%) Spring
18 25 (2.47%) Entity Framework
19 22 (2.17%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 60 (5.92%) Onboarding
2 57 (5.63%) Cloud Native
3 47 (4.64%) Data Structures
4 45 (4.44%) Clustering
5 44 (4.34%) Replication
6 43 (4.24%) Self-Motivation
7 42 (4.15%) Enterprise Software
8 40 (3.95%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (2.57%) Product Ownership
10 25 (2.47%) Management Information System
11 23 (2.27%) Data Centre
12 22 (2.17%) PKI
13 17 (1.68%) Derivative
14 16 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
15 14 (1.38%) Low-Code
16 13 (1.28%) NHS
17 11 (1.09%) Algorithms
17 11 (1.09%) Fixed Income
17 11 (1.09%) Legacy Code
18 10 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 263 (25.96%) Windows
2 147 (14.51%) Windows Server
3 93 (9.18%) Linux
4 41 (4.05%) Unix
5 14 (1.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.99%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.79%) VMS
8 7 (0.69%) Solaris
8 7 (0.69%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.59%) Android
9 6 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.49%) CentOS
11 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.20%) AIX
12 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (25.37%) DevOps
2 238 (23.49%) CI/CD
3 227 (22.41%) Agile
4 196 (19.35%) Problem-Solving
5 190 (18.76%) Migration
6 156 (15.40%) ETL
7 146 (14.41%) Business Intelligence
8 136 (13.43%) Data Modelling
9 134 (13.23%) Performance Tuning
10 123 (12.14%) Disaster Recovery
11 119 (11.75%) AI
12 98 (9.67%) Analytics
13 94 (9.28%) Stakeholder Management
14 92 (9.08%) High Availability
15 88 (8.69%) Continuous Improvement
16 85 (8.39%) Microservices
17 84 (8.29%) Software Engineering
17 84 (8.29%) Test Automation
18 81 (8.00%) Data Pipeline
19 80 (7.90%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 575 (56.76%) SQL
2 275 (27.15%) C#
3 197 (19.45%) Python
4 179 (17.67%) PowerShell
5 156 (15.40%) T-SQL
6 114 (11.25%) JavaScript
7 82 (8.09%) Java
8 65 (6.42%) PL/SQL
9 50 (4.94%) TypeScript
10 33 (3.26%) Bash
11 21 (2.07%) Shell Script
12 19 (1.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 16 (1.58%) Scala
13 16 (1.58%) VB
14 14 (1.38%) VBA
15 12 (1.18%) Korn
16 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
17 7 (0.69%) Bicep
18 6 (0.59%) XPath
19 5 (0.49%) VB6
Qualifications
1 262 (25.86%) Security Cleared
2 198 (19.55%) SC Cleared
3 96 (9.48%) Degree
4 49 (4.84%) DV Cleared
5 40 (3.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
8 20 (1.97%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.18%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.18%) ISTQB
10 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.89%) Oracle Certification
11 8 (0.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 8 (0.79%) OCP
12 7 (0.69%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.49%) CISSP
13 5 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (0.39%) MCITP
14 4 (0.39%) MCTS
14 4 (0.39%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.67%) Data Quality
2 97 (9.58%) QA
3 28 (2.76%) GDPR
4 24 (2.37%) Accessibility
5 21 (2.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (2.07%) NIST
6 18 (1.78%) SLA
7 16 (1.58%) WCAG
8 6 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.49%) ISO 9000
10 3 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.20%) Basel III
11 2 (0.20%) COREP
11 2 (0.20%) FINREP
11 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.20%) GRC
11 2 (0.20%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.099%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 133 (13.13%) Active Directory
2 76 (7.50%) Docker
3 40 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
5 25 (2.47%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.59%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.59%) vSphere
8 4 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.30%) GridGain
9 3 (0.30%) Postfix
10 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.099%) NFS
10 1 (0.099%) RACF
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 100 (9.87%) Kubernetes
2 44 (4.34%) Ansible
3 18 (1.78%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 17 (1.68%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (1.38%) Data Guard
5 14 (1.38%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (1.38%) SCCM
6 13 (1.28%) HAProxy
6 13 (1.28%) SCOM
7 11 (1.09%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (0.99%) WSUS
9 9 (0.89%) Grafana
9 9 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
11 5 (0.49%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (0.49%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.30%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 3 (0.30%) Istio
13 2 (0.20%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 340 (33.56%) Microsoft
2 268 (26.46%) Oracle
3 66 (6.52%) Databricks
4 65 (6.42%) VMware
5 50 (4.94%) ServiceNow
6 47 (4.64%) CyberArk
7 42 (4.15%) Citrix
8 36 (3.55%) SAP
9 29 (2.86%) BeyondTrust
10 25 (2.47%) BMC
10 25 (2.47%) Remedy
11 22 (2.17%) Informatica
12 21 (2.07%) Cisco
13 20 (1.97%) Dynatrace
14 19 (1.88%) Sybase
15 16 (1.58%) Red Hat
16 15 (1.48%) Google
16 15 (1.48%) IBM
17 13 (1.28%) Alteryx
18 11 (1.09%) AppDynamics