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 14 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
14 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 123 96 57
Rank change year-on-year -27 -39 -7
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 841 650 1,230
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 2.69% 3.36%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.58% 14.17% 19.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 585 471 862
10th Percentile £356 £350 £350
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £511
Median % change year-on-year -7.62% +2.69% -2.62%
75th Percentile £594 £650 £638
90th Percentile £688 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £514 £505
% change year-on-year -7.59% +1.78% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 5 22
10th Percentile £15.93 £25.53 £36.84
25th Percentile £20.75 £26.32 £40.00
Median hourly rate £47.54 £63.75 £40.13
Median % change year-on-year -25.42% +58.87% -7.76%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.62 £50.47
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £63.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year -23.57% +59.36% -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 6,192 4,588 6,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.24% 19.02% 16.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,250 3,197 4,459
10th Percentile £350 £363 £356
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £600 £656 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £788
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -3.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 86 131
10th Percentile £16.07 £21.03 £14.00
25th Percentile £25.92 £23.69 £20.98
Median hourly rate £45.90 £32.43 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +41.54% -19.43% -28.63%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.46 £60.13
90th Percentile £82.25 £73.13 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £34.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +37.80% -13.75% -31.73%

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 14 May 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 14 May 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 14 May 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 -33 459 £500 -13.04% 135
North of England -20 130 £475 +11.76% 82
South East -16 113 £471 -1.77% 104
North West -25 66 £500 +14.29% 47
Yorkshire -7 62 £450 +12.43% 30
Midlands -42 57 £463 -9.76% 68
South West -21 36 £438 -20.45% 27
East Midlands -9 30 £525 +54.41% 43
East of England -10 30 £475 -2.56% 23
West Midlands -60 25 £450 -21.74% 25
North East -20 3 £475 +5.56% 5
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 41 (4.88%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.76%) IIS
3 24 (2.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 19 (2.26%) Confluence
5 16 (1.90%) Apache
5 16 (1.90%) Apache Spark
6 14 (1.66%) Apache Airflow
7 11 (1.31%) Appian
7 11 (1.31%) CMS
8 8 (0.95%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 7 (0.83%) Camunda
10 6 (0.71%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.71%) WebSphere
11 5 (0.59%) OpenEdge
12 4 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.48%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.36%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.36%) WebLogic
14 2 (0.24%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 32 (3.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.55%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 13 (1.55%) Remedy ITSM
2 9 (1.07%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.71%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.36%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.24%) BusinessWorks
7 2 (0.24%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.24%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.12%) Advent Geneva
8 1 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.12%) Endur
8 1 (0.12%) Findur
8 1 (0.12%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.12%) SAP R/3
8 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 369 (43.88%) Azure
2 177 (21.05%) AWS
3 141 (16.77%) Power Platform
4 111 (13.20%) Azure DevOps
5 86 (10.23%) Azure Data Factory
6 73 (8.68%) GitHub
7 52 (6.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 40 (4.76%) GCP
9 34 (4.04%) GitHub Actions
9 34 (4.04%) Microsoft 365
10 33 (3.92%) Power Automate
11 29 (3.45%) Serverless
12 28 (3.33%) SaaS
13 27 (3.21%) Snowflake
14 26 (3.09%) Amazon S3
15 23 (2.73%) Azure Monitor
15 23 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
16 20 (2.38%) PowerApps
17 18 (2.14%) dbt
17 18 (2.14%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 28 (3.33%) DNS
2 23 (2.73%) DHCP
3 21 (2.50%) Firewall
4 13 (1.55%) Internet
4 13 (1.55%) VLAN
5 12 (1.43%) VPN
6 11 (1.31%) SAN
7 9 (1.07%) TCP/IP
8 7 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (0.71%) IPv4
9 6 (0.71%) IPv6
9 6 (0.71%) LAN
10 5 (0.59%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.59%) Network Security
11 4 (0.48%) FTP
11 4 (0.48%) SSH
11 4 (0.48%) WAN
12 3 (0.36%) RS-232
12 3 (0.36%) X.400
13 2 (0.24%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (14.63%) PostgreSQL
2 116 (13.79%) Power BI
3 115 (13.67%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 105 (12.49%) Data Warehouse
5 84 (9.99%) Relational Database
6 64 (7.61%) Oracle Database
7 61 (7.25%) Data Lake
8 55 (6.54%) Azure SQL Database
9 51 (6.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 46 (5.47%) MySQL
11 37 (4.40%) NoSQL
12 36 (4.28%) MongoDB
13 34 (4.04%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 22 (2.62%) Metadata
15 19 (2.26%) Tableau
16 18 (2.14%) Delta Lake
16 18 (2.14%) RDBMS
17 16 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
18 15 (1.78%) Big Data
19 14 (1.66%) Redis
Development Applications
1 64 (7.61%) Git
2 55 (6.54%) JIRA
3 39 (4.64%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.85%) Visual Studio
5 22 (2.62%) GitLab
6 18 (2.14%) TeamCity
7 13 (1.55%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.55%) Team Foundation Server
8 11 (1.31%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 10 (1.19%) Maven
9 10 (1.19%) Postman
10 9 (1.07%) Gatling
10 9 (1.07%) Octopus Deploy
11 8 (0.95%) ERwin
11 8 (0.95%) MLflow
11 8 (0.95%) Selenium
12 7 (0.83%) Chocolatey
12 7 (0.83%) MSTest
13 6 (0.71%) Artifactory
13 6 (0.71%) JUnit
General
1 231 (27.47%) Social Skills
2 194 (23.07%) Finance
3 132 (15.70%) Analytical Skills
4 95 (11.30%) Banking
5 67 (7.97%) Public Sector
6 29 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
7 27 (3.21%) Front Office
8 22 (2.62%) Investment Banking
9 19 (2.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (2.02%) Legal
11 15 (1.78%) Organisational Skills
12 12 (1.43%) Retail
13 9 (1.07%) Advertising
13 9 (1.07%) Financial Institution
13 9 (1.07%) Local Government
14 6 (0.71%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.59%) Manufacturing
16 4 (0.48%) Military
16 4 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
16 4 (0.48%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 245 (29.13%) Developer
2 133 (15.81%) Senior
3 113 (13.44%) Data Engineer
4 89 (10.58%) DBA
5 77 (9.16%) C# Developer
6 64 (7.61%) Architect
7 62 (7.37%) .NET Developer
8 55 (6.54%) SQL DBA
9 50 (5.95%) Lead
10 38 (4.52%) Senior Data Engineer
11 36 (4.28%) Senior Developer
12 34 (4.04%) Software Engineer
13 33 (3.92%) Analyst
13 33 (3.92%) Full-Stack Developer
14 29 (3.45%) SQL Developer
15 28 (3.33%) Azure Engineer
16 25 (2.97%) C# .NET Developer
16 25 (2.97%) Consultant
16 25 (2.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 24 (2.85%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (25.56%) .NET
2 101 (12.01%) REST
3 90 (10.70%) .NET Framework
4 75 (8.92%) React
5 57 (6.78%) AngularJS
6 56 (6.66%) CSS
6 56 (6.66%) RESTful
7 54 (6.42%) HTML
8 42 (4.99%) Kafka
9 40 (4.76%) ASP.NET
10 39 (4.64%) .NET Core
11 29 (3.45%) XML
12 26 (3.09%) OAuth
13 23 (2.73%) Entity Framework
14 22 (2.62%) Web Services
15 20 (2.38%) PySpark
15 20 (2.38%) Spring
15 20 (2.38%) Spring Boot
16 19 (2.26%) JSON
16 19 (2.26%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 54 (6.42%) Legacy Systems
2 39 (4.64%) Cloud Native
3 33 (3.92%) Data Structures
3 33 (3.92%) Onboarding
4 32 (3.80%) Replication
5 25 (2.97%) Clustering
6 21 (2.50%) Management Information System
6 21 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
8 16 (1.90%) Low-Code
8 16 (1.90%) NHS
9 15 (1.78%) Product Ownership
10 13 (1.55%) Legacy Code
11 11 (1.31%) Distributed Systems
11 11 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
12 10 (1.19%) Derivative
12 10 (1.19%) PKI
13 9 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.07%) Fixed Income
13 9 (1.07%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 183 (21.76%) Windows
2 108 (12.84%) Windows Server
3 82 (9.75%) Linux
4 50 (5.95%) Unix
5 12 (1.43%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (0.95%) AIX
7 8 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.48%) Android
11 2 (0.24%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.24%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.12%) VMS
12 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (24.85%) DevOps
2 204 (24.26%) CI/CD
3 179 (21.28%) Agile
4 178 (21.17%) ETL
5 174 (20.69%) Problem-Solving
6 155 (18.43%) Business Intelligence
7 144 (17.12%) Data Modelling
8 128 (15.22%) Migration
9 106 (12.60%) Analytics
10 96 (11.41%) Disaster Recovery
11 95 (11.30%) Performance Tuning
12 90 (10.70%) Data Pipeline
13 84 (9.99%) AI
14 81 (9.63%) Test Automation
15 80 (9.51%) Data Engineering
16 73 (8.68%) Data Integration
17 72 (8.56%) Microservices
18 66 (7.85%) High Availability
19 64 (7.61%) Data Analysis
19 64 (7.61%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 494 (58.74%) SQL
2 217 (25.80%) Python
3 215 (25.56%) C#
4 141 (16.77%) T-SQL
5 126 (14.98%) PowerShell
6 87 (10.34%) JavaScript
7 80 (9.51%) Java
8 67 (7.97%) PL/SQL
9 49 (5.83%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.69%) Bash
11 24 (2.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 23 (2.73%) Shell Script
13 18 (2.14%) Scala
14 17 (2.02%) VB
15 16 (1.90%) Korn
16 15 (1.78%) Bicep
17 13 (1.55%) VBA
18 12 (1.43%) PHP
19 5 (0.59%) Rust
20 4 (0.48%) R
Qualifications
1 184 (21.88%) Security Cleared
2 142 (16.88%) SC Cleared
3 83 (9.87%) Degree
4 27 (3.21%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (2.97%) DV Cleared
6 24 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (2.26%) Azure Certification
9 8 (0.95%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.71%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.59%) CISSP
11 5 (0.59%) OCP
11 5 (0.59%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.48%) CCA
12 4 (0.48%) Citrix Certification
12 4 (0.48%) MCITP
12 4 (0.48%) MCTS
13 3 (0.36%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.24%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (12.25%) Data Quality
2 90 (10.70%) QA
3 23 (2.73%) GDPR
4 20 (2.38%) NIST
5 18 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (1.66%) SLA
7 8 (0.95%) Accessibility
7 8 (0.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.59%) WCAG
9 3 (0.36%) Basel III
9 3 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.36%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.36%) IFRS
9 3 (0.36%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.24%) EMIR
10 2 (0.24%) GAAP
10 2 (0.24%) GRC
10 2 (0.24%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.24%) MiFID
System Software
1 91 (10.82%) Docker
2 75 (8.92%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.90%) Oracle RAC
4 16 (1.90%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.78%) Hyper-V
6 11 (1.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.71%) KVM
8 4 (0.48%) XenApp
8 4 (0.48%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.36%) GridGain
10 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.12%) NFS
11 1 (0.12%) RACF
11 1 (0.12%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.12%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 105 (12.49%) Kubernetes
2 62 (7.37%) Terraform
3 16 (1.90%) Oracle RMAN
3 16 (1.90%) SCCM
4 14 (1.66%) Ansible
4 14 (1.66%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 10 (1.19%) HAProxy
6 9 (1.07%) Grafana
6 9 (1.07%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.95%) WSUS
8 7 (0.83%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.71%) IBM BigFix
10 5 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.48%) SCVMM
12 3 (0.36%) Control-M
12 3 (0.36%) Foglight
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Clustering
12 3 (0.36%) Progress Chef
12 3 (0.36%) Puppet
13 2 (0.24%) TIBCO Hawk
Vendors
1 238 (28.30%) Microsoft
2 229 (27.23%) Oracle
3 78 (9.27%) Databricks
4 53 (6.30%) Citrix
5 38 (4.52%) ServiceNow
6 36 (4.28%) VMware
7 29 (3.45%) Informatica
8 26 (3.09%) SAP
9 23 (2.73%) CyberArk
10 20 (2.38%) Google
11 17 (2.02%) BeyondTrust
12 16 (1.90%) Sybase
13 15 (1.78%) IBM
14 14 (1.66%) Dynatrace
15 13 (1.55%) Remedy
16 12 (1.43%) BMC
17 11 (1.31%) OpenAI
18 9 (1.07%) Alteryx
18 9 (1.07%) Tenable
18 9 (1.07%) UiPath
419 SQL Server jobs in England