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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 107 62
Rank change year-on-year -27 -45 -5
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 963 699 1,104
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 2.52% 3.44%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.00% 13.77% 18.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 673 514 779
10th Percentile £356 £313 £329
25th Percentile £413 £386 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £496 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% -0.90% -5.66%
75th Percentile £600 £626 £625
90th Percentile £723 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £498 £500
% change year-on-year -2.11% -0.40% -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% +7.14%
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% +2.86%

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 6,881 5,077 5,839
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.78% 18.30% 18.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,585 3,482 3,977
10th Percentile £350 £335 £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 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 244 74 81
10th Percentile £15.95 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.96 £29.00 £22.00
Median hourly rate £40.25 £42.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.16% +19.99% -33.33%
75th Percentile £57.81 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.63 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £40.18 £38.96 £35.00
% change year-on-year +3.13% +11.31% -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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -29 476 £500 -9.09% 351
North of England -8 187 £475 +10.47% 171
Midlands +16 110 £463 +20.13% 117
North West 0 107 £500 +14.94% 97
South East -39 92 £475 +35.71% 115
West Midlands 0 75 £460 -10.24% 71
Yorkshire -6 74 £450 +5.88% 59
South West -29 41 £675 +45.95% 27
East Midlands 0 34 £525 +60.80% 46
East of England -36 21 £425 -15.00% 48
North East -36 6 £425 - 18
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 (7.58%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.78%) Confluence
3 40 (4.15%) IIS
4 24 (2.49%) Apache Airflow
5 23 (2.39%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.08%) Apache
7 18 (1.87%) Apache Spark
7 18 (1.87%) Camunda
8 9 (0.93%) Oracle Workflow
9 7 (0.73%) CMS
10 6 (0.62%) Appian
11 5 (0.52%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.52%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.52%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.42%) Traefik
12 4 (0.42%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
13 3 (0.31%) OpenEdge
13 3 (0.31%) Tomcat
14 2 (0.21%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 50 (5.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (3.12%) 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 (3.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 21 (2.18%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.56%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.73%) Aladdin
4 7 (0.73%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.73%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.62%) 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
1 412 (42.78%) Azure
2 198 (20.56%) AWS
3 155 (16.10%) Power Platform
4 117 (12.15%) Azure DevOps
5 90 (9.35%) GitHub
6 57 (5.92%) Entra ID
7 51 (5.30%) Serverless
8 50 (5.19%) Azure Data Factory
9 45 (4.67%) Power Automate
10 43 (4.47%) Dynamics 365
10 43 (4.47%) Microsoft 365
11 39 (4.05%) Snowflake
12 37 (3.84%) Azure Monitor
12 37 (3.84%) GCP
13 32 (3.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 31 (3.22%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (2.49%) GitHub Copilot
16 22 (2.28%) Azure Functions
17 21 (2.18%) dbt
17 21 (2.18%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 46 (4.78%) DNS
2 39 (4.05%) DHCP
3 32 (3.32%) Firewall
4 16 (1.66%) SSL
4 16 (1.66%) VLAN
5 15 (1.56%) SAN
6 14 (1.45%) Internet
7 13 (1.35%) TCP/IP
7 13 (1.35%) VPN
8 12 (1.25%) Network Security
9 9 (0.93%) SSH
9 9 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (0.62%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.62%) 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
12 4 (0.42%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 154 (15.99%) PostgreSQL
2 126 (13.08%) Power BI
3 96 (9.97%) Relational Database
4 95 (9.87%) MySQL
5 92 (9.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 87 (9.03%) Data Warehouse
7 58 (6.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 55 (5.71%) Oracle Database
9 53 (5.50%) Azure SQL Database
10 51 (5.30%) MongoDB
11 32 (3.32%) Data Lake
12 24 (2.49%) Amazon RDS
13 22 (2.28%) NoSQL
14 21 (2.18%) RDBMS
15 20 (2.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 20 (2.08%) Tableau
16 19 (1.97%) Redis
17 16 (1.66%) Metadata
18 13 (1.35%) Amazon Aurora
19 11 (1.14%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 110 (11.42%) Git
2 71 (7.37%) JIRA
3 52 (5.40%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.32%) GitLab
5 23 (2.39%) Visual Studio
6 21 (2.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 18 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
7 18 (1.87%) Team Foundation Server
8 17 (1.77%) Maven
8 17 (1.77%) REST Assured
8 17 (1.77%) Selenium
9 14 (1.45%) Claude Code
9 14 (1.45%) Postman
10 13 (1.35%) Gradle
10 13 (1.35%) SonarQube
11 12 (1.25%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.25%) Cypress.io
11 12 (1.25%) JUnit
11 12 (1.25%) Mockito
12 11 (1.14%) WebDriver
General
1 305 (31.67%) Social Skills
2 254 (26.38%) Finance
3 172 (17.86%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (12.98%) Banking
5 71 (7.37%) Public Sector
6 40 (4.15%) Front Office
7 39 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (3.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.28%) Investment Banking
9 22 (2.28%) Retail
10 13 (1.35%) Legal
11 12 (1.25%) Financial Institution
12 10 (1.04%) Back Office
13 8 (0.83%) Billing
13 8 (0.83%) Manufacturing
14 7 (0.73%) Law
14 7 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (0.62%) Local Government
15 6 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
15 6 (0.62%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 310 (32.19%) Developer
2 161 (16.72%) Senior
3 129 (13.40%) DBA
4 79 (8.20%) SQL DBA
5 72 (7.48%) Administrator
6 70 (7.27%) C# Developer
7 69 (7.17%) Data Engineer
8 68 (7.06%) .NET Developer
9 67 (6.96%) Lead
10 54 (5.61%) Full-Stack Developer
10 54 (5.61%) Senior Developer
11 52 (5.40%) Analyst
12 49 (5.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 47 (4.88%) Architect
14 43 (4.47%) SQL Developer
15 33 (3.43%) Software Engineer
16 27 (2.80%) Azure Engineer
16 27 (2.80%) C# .NET Developer
16 27 (2.80%) Oracle DBA
17 26 (2.70%) SC Cleared DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 276 (28.66%) .NET
2 128 (13.29%) REST
3 87 (9.03%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.52%) React
5 69 (7.17%) Terraform
6 67 (6.96%) CSS
7 61 (6.33%) HTML
8 58 (6.02%) ASP.NET
9 57 (5.92%) .NET Core
10 56 (5.82%) AngularJS
10 56 (5.82%) Kafka
11 49 (5.09%) JSON
11 49 (5.09%) RESTful
12 43 (4.47%) Web Services
12 43 (4.47%) XML
13 39 (4.05%) SOAP
14 32 (3.32%) Spring Boot
15 31 (3.22%) OAuth
16 26 (2.70%) Spring
16 26 (2.70%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 60 (6.23%) Onboarding
2 58 (6.02%) Cloud Native
3 54 (5.61%) Enterprise Software
4 48 (4.98%) Data Structures
5 43 (4.47%) Clustering
6 41 (4.26%) Product Ownership
7 40 (4.15%) Self-Motivation
8 39 (4.05%) Replication
9 37 (3.84%) Data Centre
10 35 (3.63%) Management Information System
11 31 (3.22%) Legacy Systems
12 20 (2.08%) PKI
13 18 (1.87%) Distributed Systems
14 15 (1.56%) Virtual Team
15 14 (1.45%) Low-Code
16 13 (1.35%) Derivative
17 12 (1.25%) Algorithms
18 11 (1.14%) Taxonomies
19 10 (1.04%) Equities
19 10 (1.04%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 254 (26.38%) Windows
2 150 (15.58%) Windows Server
3 92 (9.55%) Linux
4 36 (3.74%) Unix
5 17 (1.77%) Solaris
6 12 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.14%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.83%) VMS
9 7 (0.73%) CentOS
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.62%) 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
1 251 (26.06%) DevOps
2 239 (24.82%) Agile
3 232 (24.09%) CI/CD
4 188 (19.52%) Problem-Solving
5 178 (18.48%) Migration
6 139 (14.43%) ETL
7 137 (14.23%) Business Intelligence
8 130 (13.50%) Data Modelling
9 126 (13.08%) Performance Tuning
10 123 (12.77%) AI
11 118 (12.25%) Stakeholder Management
12 107 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
13 100 (10.38%) Disaster Recovery
14 90 (9.35%) Microservices
15 87 (9.03%) Analytics
16 85 (8.83%) Software Engineering
16 85 (8.83%) Test Automation
17 81 (8.41%) Validation
18 76 (7.89%) Mentoring
19 71 (7.37%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 576 (59.81%) SQL
2 278 (28.87%) C#
3 181 (18.80%) Python
4 173 (17.96%) PowerShell
5 161 (16.72%) T-SQL
6 151 (15.68%) JavaScript
7 79 (8.20%) Java
8 62 (6.44%) TypeScript
9 58 (6.02%) PL/SQL
10 34 (3.53%) Bash
11 17 (1.77%) VB
12 15 (1.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 15 (1.56%) VBA
13 11 (1.14%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.83%) PHP
14 8 (0.83%) Scala
15 7 (0.73%) Go
15 7 (0.73%) VB.NET
16 6 (0.62%) Bicep
16 6 (0.62%) XPath
Qualifications
1 236 (24.51%) Security Cleared
2 176 (18.28%) SC Cleared
3 107 (11.11%) Degree
4 57 (5.92%) Microsoft Certification
5 48 (4.98%) DV Cleared
6 33 (3.43%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.80%) Azure Certification
8 26 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.45%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.35%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.25%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (1.14%) OCP
13 9 (0.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (0.93%) Master's Degree
14 8 (0.83%) 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 (9.76%) QA
2 85 (8.83%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.74%) GDPR
4 34 (3.53%) Accessibility
5 26 (2.70%) WCAG
6 22 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (2.08%) NIST
8 16 (1.66%) 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%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.10%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.10%) GMP
System Software
1 127 (13.19%) Active Directory
2 66 (6.85%) Docker
3 39 (4.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.43%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.87%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.04%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.73%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.62%) 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 80 (8.31%) Kubernetes
2 42 (4.36%) Ansible
3 20 (2.08%) SCOM
4 14 (1.45%) Data Guard
4 14 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (1.14%) Microsoft Clustering
5 11 (1.14%) SCCM
6 10 (1.04%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 8 (0.83%) HAProxy
7 8 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (0.83%) WSUS
8 7 (0.73%) Grafana
8 7 (0.73%) Istio
9 6 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
9 6 (0.62%) Oracle RMAN
9 6 (0.62%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.52%) ITRS Geneos
11 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
11 3 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 347 (36.03%) Microsoft
2 254 (26.38%) Oracle
3 74 (7.68%) Databricks
4 63 (6.54%) VMware
5 47 (4.88%) ServiceNow
6 45 (4.67%) CyberArk
7 37 (3.84%) Citrix
8 30 (3.12%) BeyondTrust
9 29 (3.01%) SAP
10 24 (2.49%) IBM
11 21 (2.18%) BMC
11 21 (2.18%) Cisco
11 21 (2.18%) Remedy
12 19 (1.97%) Informatica
13 15 (1.56%) Dynatrace
13 15 (1.56%) Google
13 15 (1.56%) Red Hat
14 14 (1.45%) Splunk
15 12 (1.25%) Alteryx
16 11 (1.14%) SolarWinds