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

 6 months to
14 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 110 60
Rank change year-on-year -18 -50 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 977 680 1,164
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.12% 2.47% 3.55%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.17% 13.71% 19.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 689 494 835
10th Percentile £363 £313 £332
25th Percentile £413 £385 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £507
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -1.32% -3.48%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
90th Percentile £715 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £486 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.75% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 5 5
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.86 £25.94
25th Percentile £18.93 £21.02 £31.25
Median hourly rate £47.54 £21.27 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +123.51% -44.75% -21.97%
75th Percentile £59.06 £77.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £74.20 £84.25 £79.50
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £72.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -34.43% +104.23% -22.98%

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 6,897 4,959 5,979
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.99% 17.99% 18.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,603 3,400 4,159
10th Percentile £358 £334 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.46% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £622 £638 £675
90th Percentile £709 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £531
% change year-on-year - -5.75% -2.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 239 78 79
10th Percentile £15.72 £21.24 £17.50
25th Percentile £24.40 £31.12 £21.25
Median hourly rate £38.50 £42.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.32% +19.99% -36.36%
75th Percentile £61.13 £65.00 £60.78
90th Percentile £75.20 £80.00 £72.20
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £40.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -1.25% +14.29% -36.36%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -27 477 £510 -9.45% 534
North of England 0 193 £475 +10.47% 135
Midlands +11 114 £463 +20.13% 110
North West -3 108 £480 +11.63% 78
South East -31 95 £475 +45.48% 141
Yorkshire +11 82 £450 +5.88% 48
West Midlands -4 70 £460 -10.24% 65
East Midlands +9 43 £525 +60.80% 44
South West -31 43 £560 +17.79% 48
East of England -35 26 £425 -15.00% 43
North East -40 3 - - 11
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 74 (7.57%) SharePoint
2 43 (4.40%) Confluence
3 42 (4.30%) IIS
4 25 (2.56%) Apache Airflow
5 24 (2.46%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.05%) Apache
7 19 (1.94%) Camunda
8 17 (1.74%) Apache Spark
9 9 (0.92%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.61%) Appian
10 6 (0.61%) CMS
11 5 (0.51%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.51%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.51%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.41%) OpenEdge
12 4 (0.41%) Tomcat
12 4 (0.41%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.31%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
14 2 (0.20%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (5.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.02%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Windchill
6 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 30 (3.07%) Dynamics CRM
2 22 (2.25%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.54%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.72%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.72%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.51%) Dynamics AX
7 4 (0.41%) Aladdin
7 4 (0.41%) Elite 3E
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.20%) Endur
8 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) Findur
9 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 418 (42.78%) Azure
2 205 (20.98%) AWS
3 160 (16.38%) Power Platform
4 115 (11.77%) Azure DevOps
5 88 (9.01%) GitHub
6 58 (5.94%) Azure Data Factory
7 53 (5.42%) Entra ID
8 48 (4.91%) Serverless
9 45 (4.61%) Power Automate
10 43 (4.40%) Microsoft 365
11 41 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
12 39 (3.99%) Snowflake
13 38 (3.89%) Azure Monitor
14 36 (3.68%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 35 (3.58%) GCP
15 35 (3.58%) GitHub Actions
16 23 (2.35%) dbt
16 23 (2.35%) PowerApps
17 22 (2.25%) SaaS
18 21 (2.15%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 48 (4.91%) DNS
2 42 (4.30%) DHCP
3 34 (3.48%) Firewall
4 19 (1.94%) VLAN
5 17 (1.74%) SAN
6 15 (1.54%) VPN
7 14 (1.43%) Internet
7 14 (1.43%) SSL
7 14 (1.43%) TCP/IP
8 13 (1.33%) Network Security
9 10 (1.02%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (0.92%) SSH
11 6 (0.61%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.61%) IPv4
11 6 (0.61%) IPv6
11 6 (0.61%) Kerberos
11 6 (0.61%) LAN
12 5 (0.51%) VoIP
12 5 (0.51%) WAN
13 3 (0.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 161 (16.48%) PostgreSQL
2 131 (13.41%) Power BI
3 100 (10.24%) Relational Database
4 96 (9.83%) Data Warehouse
5 94 (9.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 87 (8.90%) MySQL
7 57 (5.83%) Azure SQL Database
8 56 (5.73%) Oracle Database
8 56 (5.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 55 (5.63%) MongoDB
10 33 (3.38%) Data Lake
11 24 (2.46%) NoSQL
11 24 (2.46%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 23 (2.35%) Amazon RDS
13 22 (2.25%) Redis
14 21 (2.15%) RDBMS
14 21 (2.15%) Tableau
15 18 (1.84%) Metadata
16 16 (1.64%) Star Schema
17 13 (1.33%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 101 (10.34%) Git
2 64 (6.55%) JIRA
3 59 (6.04%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.28%) GitLab
5 23 (2.35%) Visual Studio
6 22 (2.25%) Maven
7 20 (2.05%) Sonatype Nexus
7 20 (2.05%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 16 (1.64%) Selenium
9 15 (1.54%) REST Assured
9 15 (1.54%) Team Foundation Server
10 12 (1.23%) Gradle
10 12 (1.23%) JUnit
10 12 (1.23%) Postman
10 12 (1.23%) TeamCity
11 11 (1.13%) Artifactory
11 11 (1.13%) Cucumber
11 11 (1.13%) Cypress.io
11 11 (1.13%) Mockito
11 11 (1.13%) SonarQube
General
1 310 (31.73%) Social Skills
2 259 (26.51%) Finance
3 180 (18.42%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (13.10%) Banking
5 71 (7.27%) Public Sector
6 44 (4.50%) Front Office
7 39 (3.99%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 26 (2.66%) Investment Banking
9 20 (2.05%) Retail
10 12 (1.23%) Financial Institution
10 12 (1.23%) Legal
11 9 (0.92%) Back Office
11 9 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (0.82%) Billing
12 8 (0.82%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.51%) Local Government
14 5 (0.51%) Military
14 5 (0.51%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 314 (32.14%) Developer
2 157 (16.07%) Senior
3 128 (13.10%) DBA
4 80 (8.19%) SQL DBA
5 76 (7.78%) .NET Developer
6 73 (7.47%) C# Developer
7 72 (7.37%) Data Engineer
8 70 (7.16%) Administrator
9 69 (7.06%) Lead
10 53 (5.42%) Full-Stack Developer
10 53 (5.42%) Senior Developer
11 50 (5.12%) Analyst
12 49 (5.02%) Architect
13 47 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 45 (4.61%) SQL Developer
15 35 (3.58%) Software Engineer
16 29 (2.97%) Azure Engineer
16 29 (2.97%) Software Developer
17 28 (2.87%) C# .NET Developer
17 28 (2.87%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 275 (28.15%) .NET
2 123 (12.59%) REST
3 87 (8.90%) .NET Framework
4 83 (8.50%) React
5 74 (7.57%) Terraform
6 66 (6.76%) CSS
7 59 (6.04%) ASP.NET
7 59 (6.04%) HTML
8 57 (5.83%) Kafka
9 55 (5.63%) AngularJS
10 53 (5.42%) .NET Core
11 50 (5.12%) RESTful
12 44 (4.50%) JSON
13 38 (3.89%) Web Services
14 35 (3.58%) XML
15 33 (3.38%) Spring Boot
16 29 (2.97%) OAuth
17 28 (2.87%) SOAP
17 28 (2.87%) Spring
18 25 (2.56%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 61 (6.24%) Onboarding
2 60 (6.14%) Cloud Native
3 51 (5.22%) Data Structures
4 46 (4.71%) Enterprise Software
5 43 (4.40%) Clustering
5 43 (4.40%) Replication
6 40 (4.09%) Self-Motivation
7 37 (3.79%) Product Ownership
8 33 (3.38%) Legacy Systems
9 31 (3.17%) Management Information System
10 30 (3.07%) Data Centre
11 19 (1.94%) PKI
12 18 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
13 16 (1.64%) Virtual Team
14 14 (1.43%) Derivative
14 14 (1.43%) Low-Code
15 12 (1.23%) Algorithms
15 12 (1.23%) Fixed Income
16 11 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
16 11 (1.13%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 254 (26.00%) Windows
2 147 (15.05%) Windows Server
3 91 (9.31%) Linux
4 37 (3.79%) Unix
5 14 (1.43%) Solaris
6 13 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (1.23%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.82%) VMS
9 7 (0.72%) CentOS
9 7 (0.72%) Windows 10
9 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.61%) Android
11 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.20%) AIX
12 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (26.41%) DevOps
2 237 (24.26%) CI/CD
3 235 (24.05%) Agile
4 198 (20.27%) Problem-Solving
5 177 (18.12%) Migration
6 150 (15.35%) ETL
7 145 (14.84%) Business Intelligence
8 140 (14.33%) Data Modelling
9 129 (13.20%) Performance Tuning
10 125 (12.79%) AI
11 112 (11.46%) Stakeholder Management
12 104 (10.64%) Disaster Recovery
13 96 (9.83%) Continuous Improvement
14 93 (9.52%) Analytics
15 92 (9.42%) Microservices
16 86 (8.80%) Software Engineering
16 86 (8.80%) Test Automation
17 79 (8.09%) Validation
18 75 (7.68%) Data Pipeline
19 73 (7.47%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 572 (58.55%) SQL
2 273 (27.94%) C#
3 189 (19.34%) Python
4 172 (17.60%) PowerShell
5 156 (15.97%) T-SQL
6 140 (14.33%) JavaScript
7 89 (9.11%) Java
8 61 (6.24%) PL/SQL
9 55 (5.63%) TypeScript
10 30 (3.07%) Bash
11 19 (1.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (1.74%) VB
13 15 (1.54%) VBA
14 12 (1.23%) Scala
14 12 (1.23%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.72%) VB.NET
16 6 (0.61%) Bicep
16 6 (0.61%) PHP
16 6 (0.61%) XPath
17 5 (0.51%) VB6
Qualifications
1 247 (25.28%) Security Cleared
2 185 (18.94%) SC Cleared
3 107 (10.95%) Degree
4 52 (5.32%) Microsoft Certification
5 51 (5.22%) DV Cleared
6 32 (3.28%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.76%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (2.56%) Azure Certification
9 13 (1.33%) ISTQB
10 12 (1.23%) AWS Certification
10 12 (1.23%) Oracle Certification
11 11 (1.13%) OCP
12 9 (0.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (0.82%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 8 (0.82%) Master's Degree
14 5 (0.51%) CISSP
14 5 (0.51%) DBS Check
15 4 (0.41%) PhD
16 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 3 (0.31%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (9.62%) QA
2 93 (9.52%) Data Quality
3 34 (3.48%) GDPR
4 31 (3.17%) Accessibility
5 23 (2.35%) WCAG
6 22 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (2.05%) NIST
8 17 (1.74%) SLA
9 5 (0.51%) ISO 9000
10 4 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.31%) Basel III
11 3 (0.31%) GRC
12 2 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.20%) COREP
12 2 (0.20%) FINREP
12 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.20%) Software Quality Assurance
13 1 (0.10%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 127 (13.00%) Active Directory
2 74 (7.57%) Docker
3 42 (4.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.38%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (1.74%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.02%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.61%) vSphere
9 4 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.31%) GridGain
10 3 (0.31%) Postfix
11 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.10%) NFS
11 1 (0.10%) RACF
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 92 (9.42%) Kubernetes
2 44 (4.50%) Ansible
3 20 (2.05%) SCOM
4 14 (1.43%) Data Guard
4 14 (1.43%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (1.33%) HAProxy
6 12 (1.23%) SCCM
7 11 (1.13%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (1.02%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (1.02%) WSUS
9 7 (0.72%) Grafana
10 6 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (0.61%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.51%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (0.51%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 3 (0.31%) Istio
12 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 354 (36.23%) Microsoft
2 250 (25.59%) Oracle
3 73 (7.47%) Databricks
4 65 (6.65%) VMware
5 51 (5.22%) ServiceNow
6 45 (4.61%) CyberArk
7 39 (3.99%) Citrix
8 33 (3.38%) SAP
9 30 (3.07%) BeyondTrust
10 22 (2.25%) BMC
10 22 (2.25%) IBM
10 22 (2.25%) Remedy
11 21 (2.15%) Cisco
11 21 (2.15%) Informatica
12 17 (1.74%) Google
13 16 (1.64%) Dynatrace
13 16 (1.64%) Sybase
14 15 (1.54%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.33%) Alteryx
15 13 (1.33%) Splunk
974 SQL Server jobs in England