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 3 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
3 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 80 68
Rank change year-on-year -51 -12 -19
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 729 743 1,175
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.05% 2.97% 3.10%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.70% 15.71% 19.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 500 534 846
10th Percentile £350 £350 £325
25th Percentile £406 £411 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £523 £534
Median % change year-on-year -8.04% -2.11% -2.95%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £702 £725
UK median daily rate £480 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -5.88% -2.86% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 6 28
10th Percentile £12.95 £42.63 £20.65
25th Percentile £20.38 £60.66 £39.41
Median hourly rate £26.72 £63.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -58.08% +58.37% -7.61%
75th Percentile £53.19 £65.46 £58.61
90th Percentile £69.72 £65.62 £65.10
UK median hourly rate £28.68 £60.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year -52.60% +50.31% -13.10%

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 5,742 4,730 6,089
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.13% 18.90% 16.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,000 3,250 4,349
10th Percentile £343 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £668 £663
90th Percentile £700 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 85 154
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £15.68
25th Percentile £26.88 £24.75 £21.64
Median hourly rate £50.00 £38.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.20% -10.33% -24.01%
75th Percentile £74.84 £65.00 £61.69
90th Percentile £85.25 £70.00 £77.21
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £32.81 £42.50
% change year-on-year +60.01% -22.80% -22.73%

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 3 March 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 3 March 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 3 March 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 -36 448 £500 -9.09% 129
South East -32 92 £480 -4.00% 186
North of England -47 82 £449 -0.33% 136
North West -34 52 £450 +5.88% 85
Midlands -78 33 £449 -10.30% 63
Yorkshire -51 28 £400 -20.00% 39
South West -33 27 £550 - 63
West Midlands -66 24 £447 -21.16% 30
East of England -10 22 £600 +14.83% 57
East Midlands -41 7 £425 +11.70% 31
North East -11 3 £475 +14.11% 16
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 34 (4.66%) SharePoint
2 26 (3.57%) IIS
3 23 (3.16%) Confluence
3 23 (3.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (1.92%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 11 (1.51%) WebSphere
6 10 (1.37%) Apache Spark
6 10 (1.37%) Appian
7 9 (1.23%) Apache
7 9 (1.23%) Apache Airflow
7 9 (1.23%) CMS
8 7 (0.96%) WebLogic
9 6 (0.82%) Sitecore CMS
10 4 (0.55%) SharePoint Server
11 2 (0.27%) Camunda
11 2 (0.27%) NetWeaver
11 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.14%) BizTalk Server
12 1 (0.14%) GeoServer
Applications
1 37 (5.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.78%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 9 (1.23%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.96%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.82%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
6 4 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.41%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.41%) Loan IQ
7 3 (0.41%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 3 (0.41%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 2 (0.27%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.27%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.27%) Veritas eDiscovery
9 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
9 1 (0.14%) Orchestrade
9 1 (0.14%) RMDS
9 1 (0.14%) SAP R/3
Cloud Services
1 319 (43.76%) Azure
2 156 (21.40%) AWS
3 129 (17.70%) Power Platform
4 94 (12.89%) Azure DevOps
5 64 (8.78%) Azure Data Factory
6 58 (7.96%) GitHub
7 52 (7.13%) GCP
8 38 (5.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 34 (4.66%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (4.12%) SaaS
11 28 (3.84%) Snowflake
12 24 (3.29%) Amazon S3
12 24 (3.29%) GitHub Actions
13 21 (2.88%) Power Automate
14 20 (2.74%) Amazon EC2
14 20 (2.74%) IaaS
15 18 (2.47%) AWS CloudFormation
15 18 (2.47%) Dynamics 365
16 17 (2.33%) Entra ID
17 16 (2.19%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 26 (3.57%) Firewall
2 23 (3.16%) DNS
3 15 (2.06%) DHCP
3 15 (2.06%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.65%) Internet
5 11 (1.51%) HTTP
5 11 (1.51%) VPN
6 7 (0.96%) LAN
7 6 (0.82%) NetScaler
7 6 (0.82%) SAN
7 6 (0.82%) VLAN
7 6 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (0.55%) FTP
8 4 (0.55%) RS-232
8 4 (0.55%) Skype
8 4 (0.55%) X.400
9 3 (0.41%) SSH
9 3 (0.41%) SSL
9 3 (0.41%) VoIP
9 3 (0.41%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (14.81%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 107 (14.68%) Power BI
3 105 (14.40%) PostgreSQL
4 89 (12.21%) Data Warehouse
5 85 (11.66%) Relational Database
6 65 (8.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 59 (8.09%) Oracle Database
8 56 (7.68%) MySQL
9 52 (7.13%) Azure SQL Database
10 49 (6.72%) Data Lake
11 41 (5.62%) MongoDB
12 40 (5.49%) NoSQL
13 30 (4.12%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 27 (3.70%) DB2
15 26 (3.57%) RDBMS
16 22 (3.02%) Amazon RDS
17 21 (2.88%) Metadata
18 20 (2.74%) Big Data
19 19 (2.61%) Delta Lake
20 16 (2.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 60 (8.23%) Git
2 53 (7.27%) JIRA
3 33 (4.53%) Jenkins
4 24 (3.29%) Visual Studio
5 20 (2.74%) GitLab
6 13 (1.78%) Postman
7 11 (1.51%) Cucumber
7 11 (1.51%) SpecFlow
7 11 (1.51%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.37%) JUnit
9 9 (1.23%) ERwin
9 9 (1.23%) Maven
10 8 (1.10%) MLflow
10 8 (1.10%) Mockito
10 8 (1.10%) Octopus Deploy
10 8 (1.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 8 (1.10%) TeamCity
11 7 (0.96%) Selenium
12 6 (0.82%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.82%) TestRail
General
1 217 (29.77%) Social Skills
2 178 (24.42%) Finance
3 111 (15.23%) Analytical Skills
4 94 (12.89%) Banking
5 59 (8.09%) Public Sector
6 36 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.02%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (1.92%) Front Office
10 13 (1.78%) Financial Institution
10 13 (1.78%) Retail
11 8 (1.10%) Legal
12 7 (0.96%) Local Government
13 6 (0.82%) Law
13 6 (0.82%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.69%) Manufacturing
14 5 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.55%) Advertising
15 4 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 240 (32.92%) Developer
2 111 (15.23%) Senior
3 97 (13.31%) Data Engineer
4 72 (9.88%) C# Developer
5 67 (9.19%) Architect
6 57 (7.82%) DBA
7 54 (7.41%) .NET Developer
8 39 (5.35%) Analyst
8 39 (5.35%) Senior Developer
9 36 (4.94%) SQL DBA
10 35 (4.80%) Lead
11 31 (4.25%) Senior Data Engineer
12 27 (3.70%) Full-Stack Developer
13 25 (3.43%) Software Engineer
14 23 (3.16%) Azure Engineer
15 22 (3.02%) C# .NET Developer
15 22 (3.02%) Data Architect
16 21 (2.88%) SQL Developer
17 19 (2.61%) Consultant
17 19 (2.61%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 202 (27.71%) .NET
2 88 (12.07%) .NET Framework
3 83 (11.39%) REST
4 57 (7.82%) React
5 56 (7.68%) AngularJS
6 50 (6.86%) HTML
7 44 (6.04%) RESTful
8 42 (5.76%) CSS
9 40 (5.49%) .NET Core
10 37 (5.08%) XML
11 36 (4.94%) Kafka
12 34 (4.66%) ASP.NET
13 30 (4.12%) Entity Framework
14 29 (3.98%) Web Services
15 23 (3.16%) WPF
16 22 (3.02%) OAuth
17 21 (2.88%) Spring
18 20 (2.74%) SOAP
19 19 (2.61%) JSON
20 18 (2.47%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 46 (6.31%) Legacy Systems
2 31 (4.25%) Cloud Native
3 27 (3.70%) Replication
4 26 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
5 22 (3.02%) Management Information System
6 19 (2.61%) Data Structures
6 19 (2.61%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.06%) Clustering
8 12 (1.65%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 12 (1.65%) PKI
8 12 (1.65%) Product Ownership
9 11 (1.51%) Low-Code
9 11 (1.51%) Reinsurance
10 10 (1.37%) Credit Risk
10 10 (1.37%) Distributed Systems
10 10 (1.37%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
10 10 (1.37%) NHS
11 9 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
11 9 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 139 (19.07%) Windows
2 79 (10.84%) Linux
3 68 (9.33%) Windows Server
4 29 (3.98%) Unix
5 13 (1.78%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.78%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.10%) AIX
6 8 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (0.55%) Android
8 4 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.41%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.27%) VMS
10 2 (0.27%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.14%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (23.59%) Agile
2 171 (23.46%) CI/CD
3 162 (22.22%) DevOps
4 161 (22.09%) Problem-Solving
5 153 (20.99%) ETL
6 143 (19.62%) Business Intelligence
7 126 (17.28%) Data Modelling
8 114 (15.64%) Migration
9 86 (11.80%) Analytics
10 78 (10.70%) Performance Tuning
11 70 (9.60%) Data Engineering
11 70 (9.60%) Microservices
12 69 (9.47%) Disaster Recovery
13 68 (9.33%) Data Pipeline
14 64 (8.78%) Data Governance
14 64 (8.78%) Test Automation
15 61 (8.37%) Data Analysis
16 59 (8.09%) Containerisation
17 54 (7.41%) AI
18 53 (7.27%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 427 (58.57%) SQL
2 185 (25.38%) C#
3 169 (23.18%) Python
4 100 (13.72%) T-SQL
5 80 (10.97%) PowerShell
6 68 (9.33%) JavaScript
7 63 (8.64%) Java
8 60 (8.23%) PL/SQL
9 41 (5.62%) TypeScript
10 36 (4.94%) Bash
11 23 (3.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (2.33%) VB
13 15 (2.06%) Bicep
14 14 (1.92%) Shell Script
15 13 (1.78%) PHP
15 13 (1.78%) VBA
16 11 (1.51%) Korn
17 7 (0.96%) XPath
18 6 (0.82%) Scala
19 4 (0.55%) R
Qualifications
1 128 (17.56%) Security Cleared
2 92 (12.62%) SC Cleared
3 78 (10.70%) Degree
4 26 (3.57%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (3.29%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.88%) Azure Certification
7 19 (2.61%) DV Cleared
8 15 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.23%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.96%) OCP
10 7 (0.96%) Oracle Certification
11 6 (0.82%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.69%) CCA
12 5 (0.69%) Citrix Certification
13 4 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
13 4 (0.55%) CISSP
14 3 (0.41%) CCNP
14 3 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
14 3 (0.41%) MCSE
14 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (11.39%) QA
2 80 (10.97%) Data Quality
3 19 (2.61%) GDPR
4 12 (1.65%) SLA
5 8 (1.10%) NIST
6 7 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.69%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.55%) IFRS
8 4 (0.55%) WCAG
9 3 (0.41%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.41%) IFRS 17
9 3 (0.41%) IFRS 9
9 3 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.27%) Basel III
10 2 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.27%) EMIR
10 2 (0.27%) GAAP
10 2 (0.27%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.27%) Solvency II
System Software
1 85 (11.66%) Docker
2 56 (7.68%) Active Directory
3 22 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (2.33%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.37%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.37%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.82%) KVM
7 6 (0.82%) VMware NSX
8 5 (0.69%) XenApp
8 5 (0.69%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.41%) zsh
10 2 (0.27%) GridGain
10 2 (0.27%) NDS
10 2 (0.27%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 2 (0.27%) vSphere
11 1 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 76 (10.43%) Kubernetes
2 47 (6.45%) Terraform
3 16 (2.19%) Ansible
3 16 (2.19%) Grafana
4 14 (1.92%) SCCM
5 13 (1.78%) Oracle RMAN
6 12 (1.65%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (1.37%) Puppet
8 9 (1.23%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 7 (0.96%) TIBCO Hawk
10 6 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.82%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.69%) SCVMM
12 4 (0.55%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.55%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.55%) WSUS
13 3 (0.41%) Control-M
13 3 (0.41%) SCOM
Vendors
1 227 (31.14%) Oracle
2 220 (30.18%) Microsoft
3 57 (7.82%) Databricks
4 47 (6.45%) Citrix
5 36 (4.94%) VMware
6 29 (3.98%) Informatica
7 28 (3.84%) ServiceNow
8 21 (2.88%) Google
9 20 (2.74%) IBM
10 16 (2.19%) SAP
11 13 (1.78%) CyberArk
11 13 (1.78%) UiPath
12 11 (1.51%) Sybase
13 10 (1.37%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.37%) SolarWinds
14 9 (1.23%) Advent
14 9 (1.23%) Cisco
14 9 (1.23%) OpenAI
14 9 (1.23%) Salesforce
15 8 (1.10%) Automation Anywhere
592 SQL Server jobs in England