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

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 82 69
Rank change year-on-year -53 -13 -21
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 701 767 1,165
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.02% 2.99% 3.08%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.53% 16.01% 19.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 479 545 849
10th Percentile £350 £334 £324
25th Percentile £405 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £515 £538
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% -4.19% -2.27%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £700 £730
UK median daily rate £478 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 30
10th Percentile £12.95 £42.63 £20.77
25th Percentile £20.75 £60.66 £40.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £63.75 £43.22
Median % change year-on-year -58.08% +47.51% +3.51%
75th Percentile £47.00 £65.46 £57.92
90th Percentile £69.83 £65.62 £63.70
UK median hourly rate £27.88 £60.50 £43.22
% change year-on-year -53.92% +40.00% -0.80%

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 5,593 4,792 6,101
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.12% 18.67% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,892 3,240 4,379
10th Percentile £341 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £535
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +0.47% -2.73%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £660
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 106 85 155
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £15.71
25th Percentile £26.69 £25.26 £21.64
Median hourly rate £54.75 £40.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.19% -4.71% -25.26%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £61.63
90th Percentile £86.00 £72.25 £77.11
UK median hourly rate £54.75 £38.11 £42.50
% change year-on-year +43.66% -10.33% -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 23 February 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 23 February 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 23 February 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 -41 425 £500 -9.09% 120
South East -44 87 £480 -4.00% 156
North of England -36 84 £439 -6.45% 101
North West -24 53 £450 +4.35% 70
Yorkshire -46 29 £400 -20.00% 21
Midlands -86 28 £450 -10.00% 52
South West -35 27 £550 - 37
East of England -14 24 £600 +14.83% 34
West Midlands -77 19 £450 -20.63% 24
East Midlands -40 7 £425 +11.70% 28
North East -15 3 £475 +14.11% 14
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 31 (4.42%) SharePoint
2 23 (3.28%) IIS
3 22 (3.14%) Confluence
4 21 (3.00%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (2.00%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 11 (1.57%) WebSphere
7 10 (1.43%) Apache
7 10 (1.43%) Apache Spark
7 10 (1.43%) Appian
8 9 (1.28%) Apache Airflow
8 9 (1.28%) CMS
9 7 (1.00%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.86%) Sitecore CMS
11 4 (0.57%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.29%) JBoss
13 1 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 1 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
13 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.14%) SAS
13 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 39 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.71%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
6 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 9 (1.28%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (1.00%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.86%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
6 3 (0.43%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.43%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.29%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.29%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.29%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.29%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.14%) Orchestrade
8 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 308 (43.94%) Azure
2 148 (21.11%) AWS
3 125 (17.83%) Power Platform
4 92 (13.12%) Azure DevOps
5 61 (8.70%) Azure Data Factory
6 57 (8.13%) GitHub
7 52 (7.42%) GCP
8 36 (5.14%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 33 (4.71%) Microsoft 365
10 28 (3.99%) SaaS
11 23 (3.28%) Amazon S3
11 23 (3.28%) Snowflake
12 22 (3.14%) GitHub Actions
13 20 (2.85%) Power Automate
14 19 (2.71%) Azure Service Bus
14 19 (2.71%) Dynamics 365
15 17 (2.43%) IaaS
16 15 (2.14%) AWS CloudFormation
16 15 (2.14%) Entra ID
16 15 (2.14%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 26 (3.71%) Firewall
2 21 (3.00%) DNS
3 14 (2.00%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.85%) DHCP
5 12 (1.71%) Internet
6 10 (1.43%) HTTP
7 8 (1.14%) VPN
8 7 (1.00%) LAN
9 6 (0.86%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.71%) SAN
10 5 (0.71%) Skype
11 4 (0.57%) FTP
11 4 (0.57%) RS-232
11 4 (0.57%) SSL
11 4 (0.57%) VLAN
11 4 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (0.57%) X.400
12 3 (0.43%) SSH
12 3 (0.43%) VoIP
12 3 (0.43%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (15.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 102 (14.55%) Power BI
3 95 (13.55%) PostgreSQL
4 84 (11.98%) Data Warehouse
5 82 (11.70%) Relational Database
6 64 (9.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 57 (8.13%) Oracle Database
8 51 (7.28%) MySQL
9 48 (6.85%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (6.85%) Data Lake
10 39 (5.56%) MongoDB
11 36 (5.14%) NoSQL
12 29 (4.14%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 27 (3.85%) DB2
14 26 (3.71%) RDBMS
15 22 (3.14%) Amazon RDS
16 20 (2.85%) Big Data
17 19 (2.71%) Delta Lake
18 17 (2.43%) Metadata
19 15 (2.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 59 (8.42%) Git
2 52 (7.42%) JIRA
3 31 (4.42%) Jenkins
4 24 (3.42%) Visual Studio
5 19 (2.71%) GitLab
6 15 (2.14%) Postman
7 11 (1.57%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.43%) Cucumber
8 10 (1.43%) SpecFlow
8 10 (1.43%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 9 (1.28%) Maven
10 8 (1.14%) ERwin
10 8 (1.14%) JUnit
10 8 (1.14%) MLflow
10 8 (1.14%) Octopus Deploy
11 7 (1.00%) Selenium
11 7 (1.00%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.86%) Mockito
12 6 (0.86%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.86%) TestRail
General
1 207 (29.53%) Social Skills
2 172 (24.54%) Finance
3 105 (14.98%) Analytical Skills
4 85 (12.13%) Banking
5 51 (7.28%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (3.00%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.85%) Front Office
9 13 (1.85%) Retail
10 12 (1.71%) Financial Institution
11 9 (1.28%) Legal
12 7 (1.00%) Local Government
13 6 (0.86%) Law
13 6 (0.86%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.71%) Manufacturing
14 5 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.57%) Military
15 4 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 237 (33.81%) Developer
2 102 (14.55%) Senior
3 97 (13.84%) Data Engineer
4 67 (9.56%) C# Developer
5 58 (8.27%) Architect
6 50 (7.13%) .NET Developer
7 49 (6.99%) DBA
8 40 (5.71%) Analyst
9 38 (5.42%) Senior Developer
10 35 (4.99%) Lead
11 33 (4.71%) SQL DBA
12 30 (4.28%) Senior Data Engineer
13 26 (3.71%) Full-Stack Developer
14 24 (3.42%) Software Engineer
15 21 (3.00%) SQL Developer
16 20 (2.85%) Azure Engineer
16 20 (2.85%) C# .NET Developer
17 19 (2.71%) Consultant
17 19 (2.71%) Data Architect
18 18 (2.57%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 198 (28.25%) .NET
2 84 (11.98%) .NET Framework
3 77 (10.98%) REST
4 56 (7.99%) React
5 53 (7.56%) AngularJS
6 49 (6.99%) HTML
7 43 (6.13%) RESTful
8 42 (5.99%) .NET Core
9 40 (5.71%) CSS
10 39 (5.56%) XML
11 34 (4.85%) Kafka
12 32 (4.56%) ASP.NET
13 31 (4.42%) Web Services
14 29 (4.14%) Entity Framework
15 24 (3.42%) SOAP
16 23 (3.28%) WPF
17 22 (3.14%) OAuth
18 19 (2.71%) JSON
18 19 (2.71%) Node.js
18 19 (2.71%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 42 (5.99%) Legacy Systems
2 31 (4.42%) Cloud Native
3 24 (3.42%) Enterprise Software
4 23 (3.28%) Replication
5 22 (3.14%) Management Information System
6 17 (2.43%) Data Structures
6 17 (2.43%) Onboarding
7 13 (1.85%) Clustering
8 12 (1.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 12 (1.71%) PKI
8 12 (1.71%) Product Ownership
8 12 (1.71%) Reinsurance
9 11 (1.57%) Credit Risk
9 11 (1.57%) Derivative
9 11 (1.57%) Linux Command Line
9 11 (1.57%) Low-Code
10 10 (1.43%) Distributed Systems
10 10 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
11 9 (1.28%) Data Protection Act
11 9 (1.28%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 127 (18.12%) Windows
2 80 (11.41%) Linux
3 65 (9.27%) Windows Server
4 26 (3.71%) Unix
5 15 (2.14%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.85%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (1.14%) AIX
7 8 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (0.71%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (0.57%) Android
9 4 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.29%) VMS
11 2 (0.29%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (23.25%) CI/CD
2 162 (23.11%) Agile
3 155 (22.11%) Problem-Solving
4 153 (21.83%) DevOps
5 144 (20.54%) ETL
6 134 (19.12%) Business Intelligence
7 118 (16.83%) Data Modelling
8 108 (15.41%) Migration
9 77 (10.98%) Analytics
10 68 (9.70%) Data Engineering
10 68 (9.70%) Microservices
11 65 (9.27%) Data Pipeline
12 64 (9.13%) Performance Tuning
13 62 (8.84%) Test Automation
14 58 (8.27%) Data Analysis
15 57 (8.13%) Containerisation
15 57 (8.13%) Data Governance
15 57 (8.13%) Disaster Recovery
16 52 (7.42%) Full-Stack Development
16 52 (7.42%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 407 (58.06%) SQL
2 178 (25.39%) C#
3 164 (23.40%) Python
4 94 (13.41%) T-SQL
5 72 (10.27%) PowerShell
6 69 (9.84%) JavaScript
7 61 (8.70%) Java
8 56 (7.99%) PL/SQL
9 37 (5.28%) TypeScript
10 36 (5.14%) Bash
11 21 (3.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (2.43%) VB
13 14 (2.00%) Bicep
13 14 (2.00%) PHP
13 14 (2.00%) VBA
14 9 (1.28%) Shell Script
15 7 (1.00%) Korn
15 7 (1.00%) XPath
16 5 (0.71%) X++
17 4 (0.57%) R
Qualifications
1 112 (15.98%) Security Cleared
2 80 (11.41%) SC Cleared
3 76 (10.84%) Degree
4 23 (3.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (3.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 20 (2.85%) Azure Certification
7 19 (2.71%) DV Cleared
8 14 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.28%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.86%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.71%) CCA
11 5 (0.71%) Citrix Certification
11 5 (0.71%) OCP
11 5 (0.71%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
13 3 (0.43%) CCNP
13 3 (0.43%) CISSP
13 3 (0.43%) HNC
13 3 (0.43%) HND
13 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (10.98%) QA
2 75 (10.70%) Data Quality
3 17 (2.43%) GDPR
4 10 (1.43%) SLA
5 7 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.00%) NIST
6 5 (0.71%) Accessibility
6 5 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.57%) WCAG
8 3 (0.43%) IFRS
8 3 (0.43%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.29%) Basel III
9 2 (0.29%) EMIR
9 2 (0.29%) GAAP
9 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.29%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.29%) MiFID
9 2 (0.29%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.29%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.14%) NCSC
System Software
1 83 (11.84%) Docker
2 50 (7.13%) Active Directory
3 22 (3.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.57%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.71%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (1.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (1.00%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.86%) KVM
8 6 (0.86%) Oracle RAC
9 5 (0.71%) XenApp
9 5 (0.71%) XenDesktop
10 4 (0.57%) zsh
11 3 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.29%) GridGain
12 2 (0.29%) NDS
12 2 (0.29%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 2 (0.29%) vSphere
13 1 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 70 (9.99%) Kubernetes
2 42 (5.99%) Terraform
3 17 (2.43%) Ansible
4 15 (2.14%) Grafana
5 13 (1.85%) SCCM
5 13 (1.85%) vCenter Server
6 10 (1.43%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.43%) Puppet
7 9 (1.28%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (1.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (1.00%) TIBCO Hawk
9 6 (0.86%) IBM BigFix
10 5 (0.71%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.71%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 5 (0.71%) Progress Chef
10 5 (0.71%) SCVMM
10 5 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (0.57%) WSUS
12 3 (0.43%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 215 (30.67%) Microsoft
2 209 (29.81%) Oracle
3 57 (8.13%) Databricks
4 45 (6.42%) Citrix
5 37 (5.28%) VMware
6 27 (3.85%) Informatica
7 26 (3.71%) ServiceNow
8 21 (3.00%) Google
9 20 (2.85%) IBM
10 18 (2.57%) SAP
11 13 (1.85%) UiPath
12 12 (1.71%) CyberArk
12 12 (1.71%) SolarWinds
13 10 (1.43%) Cisco
13 10 (1.43%) Salesforce
14 9 (1.28%) Advent
14 9 (1.28%) OpenAI
14 9 (1.28%) Sybase
15 8 (1.14%) Automation Anywhere
15 8 (1.14%) Sitecore