SQL Server Contracts in England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring SQL Server skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SQL Server over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 61 50
Rank change year-on-year -36 -11 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 659 1,238 2,250
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 2.71% 3.33% 4.46%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.25% 19.87% 24.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 484 856 1,710
10th Percentile £358 £350 £363
25th Percentile £420 £411 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% -1.43% -
75th Percentile £650 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £509 £525
% change year-on-year +0.74% -3.10% +2.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 23 19
10th Percentile £25.53 £36.93 £25.50
25th Percentile £26.32 £40.00 £33.70
Median hourly rate £63.75 £40.25 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.37% -7.47% -10.31%
75th Percentile £65.62 £55.19 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.50 £62.96 £85.50
UK median hourly rate £63.75 £40.13 £45.00
% change year-on-year +58.87% -10.83% -3.58%

All Database and Business Intelligence 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 4,625 6,230 9,074
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 18.99% 16.75% 17.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,253 4,477 6,506
10th Percentile £360 £352 £375
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
75th Percentile £659 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £788 £775
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £540
% change year-on-year - -2.78% -1.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 130 166
10th Percentile £19.25 £14.00 £21.24
25th Percentile £23.50 £20.98 £33.05
Median hourly rate £32.05 £40.13 £58.05
Median % change year-on-year -20.12% -30.87% +35.25%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.61 £70.19
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £79.19
UK median hourly rate £32.96 £40.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -17.60% -33.33% +41.18%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing SQL Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Daily rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Hourly rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

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 1 May 2025. 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 -43 409 £575 +6.98% 449
North of England -5 78 £425 -10.53% 235
South East +20 75 £500 +8.11% 299
North West +8 58 £475 +2.70% 156
Midlands -15 35 £538 +13.16% 199
South West +6 29 £525 -4.55% 105
West Midlands -4 26 £582 +25.89% 104
Yorkshire -8 14 £400 -11.06% 61
East Midlands -8 8 £331 -31.43% 81
East of England +13 7 £501 +5.53% 84
North East -4 6 £450 -5.26% 19
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 33 (5.01%) IIS
2 32 (4.86%) SharePoint
3 31 (4.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (4.10%) Apache
5 15 (2.28%) Apache Spark
5 15 (2.28%) Confluence
6 11 (1.67%) Tomcat
7 8 (1.21%) CMS
8 6 (0.91%) BizTalk Server
8 6 (0.91%) Jupyter
8 6 (0.91%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.76%) nginx
10 4 (0.61%) Drupal
10 4 (0.61%) WordPress
11 3 (0.46%) OpenEdge
11 3 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.46%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.30%) SAS
Applications
1 55 (8.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.61%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.30%) Notepad++
5 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.15%) SPSS
5 1 (0.15%) Stata
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 30 (4.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.76%) Kondor
3 4 (0.61%) Cognos Business Intelligence
3 4 (0.61%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.30%) Actimize
4 2 (0.30%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.30%) Alphatax
4 2 (0.30%) Endur
4 2 (0.30%) Markit EDM
4 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.15%) FastStats
5 1 (0.15%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.15%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.15%) Remedy AR System
5 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 301 (45.68%) Azure
2 109 (16.54%) Power Platform
3 99 (15.02%) AWS
4 59 (8.95%) Entra ID
5 51 (7.74%) Microsoft 365
6 50 (7.59%) Azure Data Factory
7 46 (6.98%) Azure DevOps
8 36 (5.46%) GitHub
9 35 (5.31%) PowerApps
10 29 (4.40%) Power Automate
11 28 (4.25%) Dynamics 365
12 27 (4.10%) Serverless
13 26 (3.95%) Azure Service Bus
14 24 (3.64%) GCP
15 22 (3.34%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 22 (3.34%) Azure Functions
16 20 (3.03%) Azure Logic Apps
17 19 (2.88%) IaaS
18 17 (2.58%) Azure AKS
18 17 (2.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 40 (6.07%) Firewall
2 28 (4.25%) DNS
3 18 (2.73%) Internet
4 17 (2.58%) Network Security
5 14 (2.12%) Intrusion Detection
6 13 (1.97%) TCP/IP
6 13 (1.97%) VPN
7 10 (1.52%) DHCP
8 7 (1.06%) HTTP
8 7 (1.06%) LAN
8 7 (1.06%) WAN
9 6 (0.91%) Skype
9 6 (0.91%) SSH
10 4 (0.61%) SAN
10 4 (0.61%) VoIP
10 4 (0.61%) Wireless
11 3 (0.46%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (0.46%) VLAN
11 3 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.46%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (12.75%) Power BI
2 82 (12.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 74 (11.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 65 (9.86%) PostgreSQL
5 58 (8.80%) Data Warehouse
6 47 (7.13%) Azure SQL Database
7 44 (6.68%) Oracle Database
8 43 (6.53%) MySQL
8 43 (6.53%) Relational Database
9 37 (5.61%) MongoDB
10 36 (5.46%) NoSQL
11 22 (3.34%) Big Data
11 22 (3.34%) Tableau
12 20 (3.03%) Data Lake
13 17 (2.58%) Redis
14 15 (2.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 14 (2.12%) DB2
16 10 (1.52%) BusinessObjects
16 10 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
16 10 (1.52%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 48 (7.28%) Git
2 43 (6.53%) JIRA
3 29 (4.40%) Jenkins
4 16 (2.43%) GitLab
5 15 (2.28%) Bitbucket
6 11 (1.67%) Visual Studio
7 10 (1.52%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 9 (1.37%) Octopus Deploy
8 9 (1.37%) TeamCity
9 8 (1.21%) SonarQube
10 7 (1.06%) Selenium
10 7 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.91%) ERwin
11 6 (0.91%) Postman
11 6 (0.91%) QARun
11 6 (0.91%) RStudio
11 6 (0.91%) WinRunner
12 5 (0.76%) JUnit
12 5 (0.76%) LoadRunner
13 4 (0.61%) JMeter
General
1 177 (26.86%) Finance
2 174 (26.40%) Social Skills
3 98 (14.87%) Banking
4 59 (8.95%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (5.46%) Public Sector
6 24 (3.64%) Front Office
6 24 (3.64%) Investment Banking
7 21 (3.19%) Legal
8 16 (2.43%) Telecoms
9 14 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (1.52%) Back Office
10 10 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.52%) Law
11 6 (0.91%) Retail Banking
12 5 (0.76%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.61%) Local Government
13 4 (0.61%) Marketing
13 4 (0.61%) Police
14 3 (0.46%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 228 (34.60%) Developer
2 73 (11.08%) C# Developer
3 72 (10.93%) Analyst
4 68 (10.32%) Senior
5 53 (8.04%) Architect
6 47 (7.13%) .NET Developer
7 46 (6.98%) Data Engineer
7 46 (6.98%) DBA
8 35 (5.31%) SQL DBA
9 31 (4.70%) Azure Engineer
9 31 (4.70%) Software Engineer
10 25 (3.79%) Data Analyst
11 24 (3.64%) Senior Developer
12 23 (3.49%) C# .NET Developer
12 23 (3.49%) Consultant
13 22 (3.34%) Lead
13 22 (3.34%) SQL Developer
14 21 (3.19%) Full-Stack Developer
15 20 (3.03%) Support Engineer
16 19 (2.88%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 180 (27.31%) .NET
2 71 (10.77%) .NET Framework
3 58 (8.80%) HTML
4 48 (7.28%) CSS
4 48 (7.28%) REST
5 46 (6.98%) ASP.NET
6 44 (6.68%) React
7 42 (6.37%) AngularJS
8 39 (5.92%) RESTful
9 35 (5.31%) .NET Core
9 35 (5.31%) Web Services
10 33 (5.01%) XML
11 32 (4.86%) JSON
11 32 (4.86%) SOAP
11 32 (4.86%) WCF
12 28 (4.25%) ASP.NET Web API
12 28 (4.25%) Kafka
12 28 (4.25%) OAuth
13 22 (3.34%) WPF
14 19 (2.88%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 32 (4.86%) Derivative
2 26 (3.95%) Replication
3 19 (2.88%) Distributed Systems
3 19 (2.88%) Legacy Systems
4 17 (2.58%) Clustering
4 17 (2.58%) Public Cloud
5 16 (2.43%) Data Centre
5 16 (2.43%) Data Structures
5 16 (2.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 12 (1.82%) Product Ownership
7 11 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.52%) Reference Data
9 8 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
9 8 (1.21%) Management Information System
9 8 (1.21%) Onboarding
9 8 (1.21%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 7 (1.06%) NHS
10 7 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (0.91%) N-Tier
11 6 (0.91%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 144 (21.85%) Windows
2 90 (13.66%) Linux
3 74 (11.23%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.40%) Unix
5 20 (3.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.52%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (1.37%) Windows 10
8 8 (1.21%) Android
8 8 (1.21%) VMS
9 7 (1.06%) CentOS
10 6 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.61%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.46%) Solaris
12 3 (0.46%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.30%) AIX
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.30%) Rocky
13 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.15%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (24.43%) Agile
2 142 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
3 133 (20.18%) DevOps
4 97 (14.72%) CI/CD
5 96 (14.57%) Migration
6 90 (13.66%) Business Intelligence
7 71 (10.77%) Software Engineering
8 64 (9.71%) ETL
9 63 (9.56%) Test Automation
10 57 (8.65%) Data Modelling
11 56 (8.50%) Disaster Recovery
11 56 (8.50%) Performance Tuning
12 50 (7.59%) Data Analysis
13 49 (7.44%) ITIL
14 47 (7.13%) Scrum
15 46 (6.98%) Data Migration
16 44 (6.68%) High Availability
16 44 (6.68%) Microservices
17 43 (6.53%) Analytics
17 43 (6.53%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 344 (52.20%) SQL
2 204 (30.96%) C#
3 141 (21.40%) Python
4 88 (13.35%) JavaScript
5 83 (12.59%) PowerShell
6 55 (8.35%) Java
7 52 (7.89%) T-SQL
8 39 (5.92%) TypeScript
9 32 (4.86%) PL/SQL
10 24 (3.64%) Bash
10 24 (3.64%) VB
11 21 (3.19%) VBA
12 16 (2.43%) Scala
13 14 (2.12%) Perl
14 10 (1.52%) PHP
14 10 (1.52%) R
15 7 (1.06%) Shell Script
16 5 (0.76%) Bicep
17 3 (0.46%) C++
17 3 (0.46%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 101 (15.33%) Security Cleared
2 75 (11.38%) Degree
3 68 (10.32%) SC Cleared
4 34 (5.16%) Microsoft Certification
5 29 (4.40%) Azure Certification
6 26 (3.95%) DV Cleared
7 14 (2.12%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (0.91%) AWS Certification
9 5 (0.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (0.61%) MCPD
10 4 (0.61%) MCSD
11 3 (0.46%) MCSE
12 2 (0.30%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.30%) MCSA
12 2 (0.30%) OCP
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
12 2 (0.30%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 2 (0.30%) VCAP
12 2 (0.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (7.89%) QA
2 31 (4.70%) GDPR
3 28 (4.25%) Data Quality
4 15 (2.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 11 (1.67%) MiFID
6 8 (1.21%) SLA
7 7 (1.06%) Accessibility
7 7 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
8 6 (0.91%) EMIR
9 5 (0.76%) Basel III
9 5 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.61%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.46%) WCAG
12 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.15%) HL7
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.15%) SEPA
System Software
1 77 (11.68%) Active Directory
2 48 (7.28%) Docker
3 30 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (2.88%) vSphere
5 8 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.91%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.46%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 3 (0.46%) KVM
8 3 (0.46%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 3 (0.46%) vCloud
8 3 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.46%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.46%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 58 (8.80%) Kubernetes
2 47 (7.13%) Terraform
3 21 (3.19%) Ansible
4 15 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (1.67%) SCCM
6 8 (1.21%) SCOM
7 7 (1.06%) Kibana
8 6 (0.91%) Grafana
9 5 (0.76%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.46%) Puppet
11 3 (0.46%) Rundeck
11 3 (0.46%) SCSM
11 3 (0.46%) WMI
11 3 (0.46%) ZABBIX
12 2 (0.30%) EMC NetWorker
12 2 (0.30%) Tivoli
12 2 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 2 (0.30%) WSUS
Vendors
1 230 (34.90%) Microsoft
2 173 (26.25%) Oracle
3 44 (6.68%) Databricks
4 41 (6.22%) VMware
5 24 (3.64%) Sybase
6 20 (3.03%) ServiceNow
7 16 (2.43%) Cisco
7 16 (2.43%) IBM
8 15 (2.28%) Citrix
8 15 (2.28%) Google
9 13 (1.97%) SAP
10 10 (1.52%) Red Hat
11 9 (1.37%) Informatica
11 9 (1.37%) Splunk
11 9 (1.37%) UiPath
12 7 (1.06%) AppDynamics
12 7 (1.06%) CyberArk
12 7 (1.06%) Salesforce
12 7 (1.06%) TIBCO
13 6 (0.91%) Bloomberg