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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 114 104 55
Rank change year-on-year -10 -49 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,014 700 1,215
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.23% 2.52% 3.66%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.53% 13.86% 19.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 715 519 860
10th Percentile £358 £313 £330
25th Percentile £413 £400 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £712 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 6 9
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £29.48
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £36.75
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.80 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +99.79% -51.00% +6.73%
75th Percentile £68.88 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £76.40 £83.13 £84.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £48.03
% change year-on-year -32.09% +45.74% +6.73%

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 6,979 5,051 6,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.32% 18.15% 18.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,672 3,507 4,358
10th Percentile £358 £343 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -4.63% -1.82%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £675
90th Percentile £703 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -3.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 79 93
10th Percentile £15.28 £18.69 £14.40
25th Percentile £23.75 £23.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £34.65 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -7.60% -31.82%
75th Percentile £67.47 £62.88 £59.95
90th Percentile £76.80 £77.74 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £34.47
% change year-on-year +12.86% +1.55% -37.34%

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 10 August 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 10 August 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 10 August 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 -33 488 £525 -7.89% 238
North of England +14 204 £450 - 89
South East -21 122 £450 +16.88% 113
North West -2 113 £475 +7.95% 52
Midlands +1 101 £473 +11.29% 65
Yorkshire +18 91 £450 -6.25% 28
West Midlands -21 58 £450 -14.29% 40
South West -16 49 £513 +13.89% 29
East Midlands +15 41 £525 +60.80% 25
East of England -16 26 £475 -5.00% 23
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 68 (6.71%) SharePoint
2 48 (4.73%) IIS
3 42 (4.14%) Confluence
4 23 (2.27%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (1.87%) Apache
5 19 (1.87%) Apache Spark
6 17 (1.68%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (1.28%) Camunda
8 11 (1.08%) Oracle Workflow
9 7 (0.69%) CMS
10 6 (0.59%) Appian
10 6 (0.59%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.49%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.39%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.39%) OpenEdge
12 4 (0.39%) Tomcat
12 4 (0.39%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.30%) nginx
14 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 50 (4.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.99%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.099%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.099%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.099%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 25 (2.47%) Remedy ITSM
2 20 (1.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 16 (1.58%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.69%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.69%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
6 5 (0.49%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.39%) Aladdin
7 4 (0.39%) Elite 3E
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.20%) Endur
8 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.099%) Findur
9 1 (0.099%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 420 (41.42%) Azure
2 215 (21.20%) AWS
3 153 (15.09%) Power Platform
4 110 (10.85%) Azure DevOps
5 90 (8.88%) GitHub
6 64 (6.31%) Azure Data Factory
7 48 (4.73%) Entra ID
8 42 (4.14%) Azure Monitor
8 42 (4.14%) Serverless
9 40 (3.94%) GitHub Actions
10 39 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
11 38 (3.75%) Power Automate
12 37 (3.65%) Snowflake
13 34 (3.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 33 (3.25%) Dynamics 365
15 30 (2.96%) GCP
16 26 (2.56%) dbt
17 25 (2.47%) SaaS
18 22 (2.17%) Amazon S3
19 21 (2.07%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 49 (4.83%) DNS
2 39 (3.85%) DHCP
3 30 (2.96%) Firewall
4 19 (1.87%) SAN
5 18 (1.78%) VLAN
6 15 (1.48%) VPN
7 14 (1.38%) Internet
8 13 (1.28%) Network Security
9 12 (1.18%) TCP/IP
10 11 (1.08%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (0.99%) SSH
11 10 (0.99%) SSL
12 7 (0.69%) LAN
13 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
13 6 (0.59%) IPv4
13 6 (0.59%) IPv6
14 5 (0.49%) Kerberos
14 5 (0.49%) VoIP
14 5 (0.49%) WAN
15 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (14.40%) PostgreSQL
2 130 (12.82%) Power BI
3 102 (10.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 100 (9.86%) Data Warehouse
4 100 (9.86%) Relational Database
5 72 (7.10%) Oracle Database
6 69 (6.80%) MySQL
7 62 (6.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 57 (5.62%) Azure SQL Database
9 47 (4.64%) MongoDB
10 38 (3.75%) Data Lake
11 32 (3.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 29 (2.86%) NoSQL
13 22 (2.17%) RDBMS
14 21 (2.07%) Redis
15 20 (1.97%) Tableau
16 19 (1.87%) Amazon RDS
17 16 (1.58%) Star Schema
18 14 (1.38%) Metadata
19 12 (1.18%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 91 (8.97%) Git
2 54 (5.33%) Jenkins
2 54 (5.33%) JIRA
3 28 (2.76%) GitLab
4 24 (2.37%) Visual Studio
5 18 (1.78%) TeamCity
6 17 (1.68%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 16 (1.58%) Team Foundation Server
8 15 (1.48%) Maven
9 14 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
10 13 (1.28%) Octopus Deploy
10 13 (1.28%) Postman
11 12 (1.18%) Cucumber
12 11 (1.08%) Selenium
13 10 (0.99%) Artifactory
14 9 (0.89%) Cypress.io
14 9 (0.89%) Gatling
14 9 (0.89%) WebDriver
15 8 (0.79%) Chocolatey
15 8 (0.79%) JUnit
General
1 298 (29.39%) Social Skills
2 256 (25.25%) Finance
3 185 (18.24%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (12.62%) Banking
5 82 (8.09%) Public Sector
6 42 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
7 40 (3.94%) Front Office
8 26 (2.56%) Investment Banking
9 20 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 16 (1.58%) Legal
10 16 (1.58%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 14 (1.38%) Retail
12 9 (0.89%) Advertising
13 8 (0.79%) Back Office
13 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.59%) Local Government
15 5 (0.49%) Law
15 5 (0.49%) Publishing
15 5 (0.49%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 297 (29.29%) Developer
2 159 (15.68%) Senior
3 152 (14.99%) DBA
4 93 (9.17%) SQL DBA
5 88 (8.68%) Data Engineer
6 85 (8.38%) C# Developer
7 79 (7.79%) .NET Developer
8 72 (7.10%) Lead
9 64 (6.31%) Administrator
10 51 (5.03%) Architect
11 49 (4.83%) SQL Developer
12 47 (4.64%) Senior Developer
13 46 (4.54%) Analyst
14 45 (4.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 43 (4.24%) Oracle DBA
16 39 (3.85%) Full-Stack Developer
16 39 (3.85%) Software Engineer
17 35 (3.45%) Azure Engineer
18 33 (3.25%) Consultant
19 32 (3.16%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (25.74%) .NET
2 122 (12.03%) REST
3 102 (10.06%) .NET Framework
4 76 (7.50%) React
5 60 (5.92%) ASP.NET
6 55 (5.42%) AngularJS
7 54 (5.33%) RESTful
8 52 (5.13%) CSS
8 52 (5.13%) Kafka
9 46 (4.54%) .NET Core
10 42 (4.14%) HTML
11 36 (3.55%) JSON
12 35 (3.45%) Web Services
13 34 (3.35%) XML
14 29 (2.86%) SOAP
15 28 (2.76%) Entity Framework
16 23 (2.27%) WinForms
17 22 (2.17%) Spring Boot
18 21 (2.07%) PySpark
18 21 (2.07%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 58 (5.72%) Onboarding
2 50 (4.93%) Cloud Native
3 48 (4.73%) Clustering
3 48 (4.73%) Data Structures
4 47 (4.64%) Replication
5 43 (4.24%) Legacy Systems
6 41 (4.04%) Self-Motivation
7 38 (3.75%) Enterprise Software
8 24 (2.37%) Management Information System
9 22 (2.17%) Data Centre
9 22 (2.17%) Product Ownership
10 21 (2.07%) PKI
11 17 (1.68%) Derivative
12 14 (1.38%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.38%) Low-Code
13 13 (1.28%) NHS
14 12 (1.18%) Algorithms
15 11 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
15 11 (1.08%) Fixed Income
15 11 (1.08%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 261 (25.74%) Windows
2 148 (14.60%) Windows Server
3 95 (9.37%) Linux
4 51 (5.03%) Unix
5 13 (1.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.79%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.79%) VMS
7 7 (0.69%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.59%) AIX
8 6 (0.59%) Android
8 6 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.49%) Solaris
10 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
10 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.30%) CentOS
12 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.099%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (25.15%) DevOps
2 228 (22.49%) CI/CD
3 224 (22.09%) Agile
4 202 (19.92%) Problem-Solving
5 186 (18.34%) Migration
6 158 (15.58%) ETL
7 149 (14.69%) Business Intelligence
8 141 (13.91%) Performance Tuning
9 136 (13.41%) Data Modelling
10 123 (12.13%) Disaster Recovery
11 113 (11.14%) AI
12 99 (9.76%) Analytics
13 97 (9.57%) High Availability
14 89 (8.78%) Data Pipeline
15 82 (8.09%) Microservices
15 82 (8.09%) Stakeholder Management
16 81 (7.99%) Continuous Improvement
17 80 (7.89%) Test Automation
18 77 (7.59%) Data Analysis
18 77 (7.59%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 572 (56.41%) SQL
2 266 (26.23%) C#
3 199 (19.63%) Python
4 185 (18.24%) PowerShell
5 166 (16.37%) T-SQL
6 111 (10.95%) JavaScript
7 73 (7.20%) Java
8 64 (6.31%) PL/SQL
9 50 (4.93%) TypeScript
10 37 (3.65%) Bash
11 26 (2.56%) Shell Script
12 24 (2.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (1.78%) Korn
14 17 (1.68%) Scala
14 17 (1.68%) VB
15 15 (1.48%) VBA
16 10 (0.99%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.59%) XPath
19 5 (0.49%) VB6
Qualifications
1 259 (25.54%) Security Cleared
2 198 (19.53%) SC Cleared
3 98 (9.66%) Degree
4 42 (4.14%) DV Cleared
4 42 (4.14%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
7 19 (1.87%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.18%) ISTQB
8 12 (1.18%) Oracle Certification
9 11 (1.08%) OCP
10 9 (0.89%) AWS Certification
10 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (0.59%) CISSP
11 6 (0.59%) Master's Degree
12 5 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 4 (0.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.39%) MCITP
13 4 (0.39%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (9.57%) QA
2 92 (9.07%) Data Quality
3 29 (2.86%) GDPR
4 24 (2.37%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.37%) NIST
5 22 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 20 (1.97%) SLA
7 16 (1.58%) WCAG
8 6 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (0.49%) ISO 9000
10 4 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.30%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.20%) Basel III
12 2 (0.20%) COREP
12 2 (0.20%) FINREP
12 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.20%) GRC
12 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.099%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 126 (12.43%) Active Directory
2 73 (7.20%) Docker
3 36 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.25%) Virtual Machines
5 30 (2.96%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.89%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.30%) GridGain
9 3 (0.30%) KVM
9 3 (0.30%) Postfix
9 3 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.30%) vSphere
10 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.099%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.099%) NFS
10 1 (0.099%) RACF
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 100 (9.86%) Kubernetes
2 80 (7.89%) Terraform
3 40 (3.94%) Ansible
4 23 (2.27%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.07%) Oracle RMAN
6 15 (1.48%) Data Guard
6 15 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (1.28%) HAProxy
7 13 (1.28%) SCCM
7 13 (1.28%) SCOM
8 10 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (0.99%) WSUS
9 9 (0.89%) Grafana
10 7 (0.69%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.39%) ITRS Geneos
11 4 (0.39%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.39%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.30%) Foglight
12 3 (0.30%) IBM BigFix
Vendors
1 328 (32.35%) Microsoft
2 272 (26.82%) Oracle
3 63 (6.21%) Databricks
4 60 (5.92%) VMware
5 51 (5.03%) ServiceNow
6 47 (4.64%) Citrix
6 47 (4.64%) CyberArk
7 36 (3.55%) SAP
8 29 (2.86%) BeyondTrust
9 25 (2.47%) Remedy
10 24 (2.37%) BMC
11 20 (1.97%) Cisco
12 19 (1.87%) Informatica
12 19 (1.87%) Sybase
13 18 (1.78%) Dynatrace
14 17 (1.68%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.58%) IBM
16 14 (1.38%) Google
17 13 (1.28%) Alteryx
18 10 (0.99%) AppDynamics