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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 111 64
Rank change year-on-year -24 -47 -8
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 957 701 1,121
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.06% 2.51% 3.43%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.93% 13.75% 18.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 671 517 793
10th Percentile £356 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £388 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £505
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -0.99% -5.83%
75th Percentile £603 £638 £625
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 4 6
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.83 £26.83
25th Percentile £17.97 £20.95 £35.00
Median hourly rate £47.54 £21.27 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +123.51% -62.19% +14.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £35.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £60.71 £82.50
UK median hourly rate £24.50 £45.64 £47.50
% change year-on-year -46.31% -3.93% +3.06%

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 6,872 5,097 5,925
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.82% 18.25% 18.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,591 3,504 4,056
10th Percentile £351 £338 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £675
90th Percentile £713 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £530
% change year-on-year - -5.66% -1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 241 73 82
10th Percentile £15.93 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.82 £29.00 £21.44
Median hourly rate £38.50 £43.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.49% +24.29% -36.07%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.75 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £40.18 £40.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +0.45% +14.29% -33.33%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -27 469 £500 -9.09% 417
North of England -1 184 £475 +10.47% 174
Midlands +16 111 £461 +19.81% 130
North West -4 105 £485 +11.49% 95
South East -44 93 £475 +35.71% 157
West Midlands -1 76 £460 -10.24% 75
Yorkshire -8 75 £450 +5.88% 66
South West -21 42 £630 +36.22% 33
East Midlands +1 34 £525 +60.80% 55
East of England -29 22 £413 -17.50% 58
North East -36 4 £425 - 15
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 73 (7.63%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.91%) Confluence
3 38 (3.97%) IIS
4 25 (2.61%) Apache Airflow
5 22 (2.30%) Microsoft Exchange
6 21 (2.19%) Apache
7 18 (1.88%) Apache Spark
7 18 (1.88%) Camunda
8 9 (0.94%) Oracle Workflow
9 7 (0.73%) CMS
10 6 (0.63%) Appian
11 5 (0.52%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.52%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.52%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.42%) OpenEdge
12 4 (0.42%) Traefik
12 4 (0.42%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
13 3 (0.31%) Tomcat
14 2 (0.21%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (5.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.04%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.31%) Windchill
5 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 31 (3.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (2.09%) Remedy ITSM
3 14 (1.46%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.73%) Aladdin
4 7 (0.73%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.73%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.63%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.42%) Elite 3E
7 3 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.21%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.21%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) Endur
9 1 (0.10%) FIS Private Capital Suite
9 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
9 1 (0.10%) SDL Web 8
9 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 409 (42.74%) Azure
2 199 (20.79%) AWS
3 154 (16.09%) Power Platform
4 117 (12.23%) Azure DevOps
5 88 (9.20%) GitHub
6 52 (5.43%) Entra ID
7 51 (5.33%) Serverless
8 49 (5.12%) Azure Data Factory
9 46 (4.81%) Power Automate
10 43 (4.49%) Dynamics 365
11 40 (4.18%) Microsoft 365
12 39 (4.08%) Snowflake
13 37 (3.87%) GCP
14 35 (3.66%) Azure Monitor
15 32 (3.34%) GitHub Actions
16 31 (3.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 22 (2.30%) Amazon S3
17 22 (2.30%) Azure Functions
17 22 (2.30%) GitHub Copilot
17 22 (2.30%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 44 (4.60%) DNS
2 39 (4.08%) DHCP
3 32 (3.34%) Firewall
4 16 (1.67%) VLAN
5 15 (1.57%) SAN
6 14 (1.46%) Internet
6 14 (1.46%) SSL
7 13 (1.36%) TCP/IP
7 13 (1.36%) VPN
8 12 (1.25%) Network Security
9 9 (0.94%) SSH
9 9 (0.94%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (0.63%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.63%) LAN
11 5 (0.52%) Kerberos
11 5 (0.52%) VoIP
11 5 (0.52%) WAN
12 4 (0.42%) IPv4
12 4 (0.42%) IPv6
13 3 (0.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 152 (15.88%) PostgreSQL
2 125 (13.06%) Power BI
3 93 (9.72%) MySQL
3 93 (9.72%) Relational Database
4 91 (9.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 87 (9.09%) Data Warehouse
6 56 (5.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 55 (5.75%) Oracle Database
8 51 (5.33%) Azure SQL Database
8 51 (5.33%) MongoDB
9 32 (3.34%) Data Lake
10 24 (2.51%) Amazon RDS
11 22 (2.30%) NoSQL
12 21 (2.19%) RDBMS
13 19 (1.99%) Redis
13 19 (1.99%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 19 (1.99%) Tableau
14 16 (1.67%) Metadata
15 13 (1.36%) Amazon Aurora
16 11 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 109 (11.39%) Git
2 72 (7.52%) JIRA
3 52 (5.43%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.34%) GitLab
5 23 (2.40%) Visual Studio
6 21 (2.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 18 (1.88%) Sonatype Nexus
8 17 (1.78%) Maven
8 17 (1.78%) REST Assured
8 17 (1.78%) Selenium
8 17 (1.78%) Team Foundation Server
9 14 (1.46%) Postman
10 13 (1.36%) Gradle
10 13 (1.36%) SonarQube
11 12 (1.25%) Claude Code
11 12 (1.25%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.25%) Cypress.io
11 12 (1.25%) JUnit
11 12 (1.25%) Mockito
12 11 (1.15%) WebDriver
General
1 301 (31.45%) Social Skills
2 250 (26.12%) Finance
3 174 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (12.75%) Banking
5 74 (7.73%) Public Sector
6 40 (4.18%) Front Office
7 39 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (3.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.30%) Investment Banking
10 21 (2.19%) Retail
11 13 (1.36%) Legal
12 11 (1.15%) Financial Institution
13 10 (1.04%) Back Office
14 8 (0.84%) Billing
14 8 (0.84%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.73%) Law
15 7 (0.73%) Local Government
15 7 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.63%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 312 (32.60%) Developer
2 163 (17.03%) Senior
3 127 (13.27%) DBA
4 78 (8.15%) SQL DBA
5 71 (7.42%) Administrator
5 71 (7.42%) Data Engineer
6 69 (7.21%) .NET Developer
6 69 (7.21%) C# Developer
7 67 (7.00%) Lead
8 56 (5.85%) Senior Developer
9 54 (5.64%) Full-Stack Developer
10 52 (5.43%) Analyst
11 48 (5.02%) Architect
12 46 (4.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 45 (4.70%) SQL Developer
14 33 (3.45%) Software Engineer
15 27 (2.82%) C# .NET Developer
15 27 (2.82%) Oracle DBA
16 26 (2.72%) SC Cleared DBA
17 25 (2.61%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 274 (28.63%) .NET
2 127 (13.27%) REST
3 88 (9.20%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.57%) React
5 69 (7.21%) Terraform
6 66 (6.90%) CSS
7 60 (6.27%) ASP.NET
7 60 (6.27%) HTML
8 58 (6.06%) .NET Core
9 55 (5.75%) AngularJS
9 55 (5.75%) Kafka
10 48 (5.02%) JSON
10 48 (5.02%) RESTful
11 42 (4.39%) Web Services
11 42 (4.39%) XML
12 38 (3.97%) SOAP
13 32 (3.34%) Spring Boot
14 29 (3.03%) OAuth
15 26 (2.72%) Spring
16 25 (2.61%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 60 (6.27%) Onboarding
2 58 (6.06%) Cloud Native
3 52 (5.43%) Enterprise Software
4 49 (5.12%) Data Structures
5 42 (4.39%) Clustering
6 40 (4.18%) Product Ownership
6 40 (4.18%) Self-Motivation
7 38 (3.97%) Replication
8 35 (3.66%) Management Information System
9 33 (3.45%) Data Centre
10 31 (3.24%) Legacy Systems
11 18 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
11 18 (1.88%) PKI
12 15 (1.57%) Virtual Team
13 14 (1.46%) Low-Code
14 13 (1.36%) Derivative
15 12 (1.25%) Algorithms
16 11 (1.15%) NHS
16 11 (1.15%) Taxonomies
17 10 (1.04%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 247 (25.81%) Windows
2 144 (15.05%) Windows Server
3 90 (9.40%) Linux
4 36 (3.76%) Unix
5 16 (1.67%) Solaris
6 12 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.15%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.84%) VMS
9 7 (0.73%) CentOS
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.63%) Android
11 5 (0.52%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.21%) AIX
13 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (26.44%) DevOps
2 240 (25.08%) Agile
3 233 (24.35%) CI/CD
4 188 (19.64%) Problem-Solving
5 174 (18.18%) Migration
6 136 (14.21%) Business Intelligence
6 136 (14.21%) ETL
7 132 (13.79%) Data Modelling
8 126 (13.17%) Performance Tuning
9 123 (12.85%) AI
10 114 (11.91%) Stakeholder Management
11 105 (10.97%) Continuous Improvement
12 98 (10.24%) Disaster Recovery
13 88 (9.20%) Microservices
14 87 (9.09%) Test Automation
15 85 (8.88%) Analytics
16 83 (8.67%) Software Engineering
17 76 (7.94%) Mentoring
17 76 (7.94%) Validation
18 72 (7.52%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 568 (59.35%) SQL
2 275 (28.74%) C#
3 178 (18.60%) Python
4 167 (17.45%) PowerShell
5 157 (16.41%) T-SQL
6 149 (15.57%) JavaScript
7 79 (8.25%) Java
8 60 (6.27%) TypeScript
9 57 (5.96%) PL/SQL
10 33 (3.45%) Bash
11 17 (1.78%) VB
12 16 (1.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 15 (1.57%) VBA
14 10 (1.04%) Shell Script
15 8 (0.84%) PHP
15 8 (0.84%) Scala
16 7 (0.73%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.63%) Bicep
17 6 (0.63%) Go
17 6 (0.63%) XPath
Qualifications
1 241 (25.18%) Security Cleared
2 181 (18.91%) SC Cleared
3 106 (11.08%) Degree
4 56 (5.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 50 (5.22%) DV Cleared
6 32 (3.34%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.82%) Azure Certification
8 26 (2.72%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.46%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.36%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.25%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (1.15%) OCP
13 9 (0.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (0.94%) Master's Degree
14 8 (0.84%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 5 (0.52%) CISSP
15 5 (0.52%) DBS Check
16 4 (0.42%) PhD
17 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 3 (0.31%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (9.82%) QA
2 86 (8.99%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.76%) GDPR
4 34 (3.55%) Accessibility
5 26 (2.72%) WCAG
6 22 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (2.09%) NIST
8 16 (1.67%) SLA
9 5 (0.52%) ISO 9000
10 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.31%) Basel III
11 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.21%) COREP
11 2 (0.21%) FINREP
11 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.21%) GRC
11 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.10%) GMP
System Software
1 123 (12.85%) Active Directory
2 67 (7.00%) Docker
3 39 (4.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.45%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.88%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.04%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.73%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.63%) vSphere
9 4 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.31%) Postfix
11 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.10%) HDFS
11 1 (0.10%) RACF
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 81 (8.46%) Kubernetes
2 42 (4.39%) Ansible
3 20 (2.09%) SCOM
4 14 (1.46%) Data Guard
5 13 (1.36%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (1.15%) Microsoft Clustering
6 11 (1.15%) SCCM
7 10 (1.04%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 8 (0.84%) HAProxy
8 8 (0.84%) WSUS
9 7 (0.73%) Grafana
9 7 (0.73%) Istio
10 6 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (0.63%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (0.63%) Prometheus
10 6 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.52%) ITRS Geneos
12 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
12 3 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 342 (35.74%) Microsoft
2 251 (26.23%) Oracle
3 73 (7.63%) Databricks
4 63 (6.58%) VMware
5 48 (5.02%) ServiceNow
6 45 (4.70%) CyberArk
7 37 (3.87%) Citrix
8 30 (3.13%) BeyondTrust
9 28 (2.93%) SAP
10 24 (2.51%) IBM
11 21 (2.19%) Cisco
12 20 (2.09%) BMC
12 20 (2.09%) Remedy
13 19 (1.99%) Informatica
14 17 (1.78%) Google
15 15 (1.57%) Dynatrace
15 15 (1.57%) Red Hat
16 14 (1.46%) Splunk
17 13 (1.36%) Alteryx
18 11 (1.15%) Sybase