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

 6 months to
19 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 81 69
Rank change year-on-year -55 -12 -21
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 706 769 1,146
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.03% 2.97% 3.06%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.52% 16.00% 18.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 477 549 840
10th Percentile £350 £336 £325
25th Percentile £406 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.37% -4.65% -2.27%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £700 £730
UK median daily rate £484 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.20% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 29
10th Percentile £12.95 £42.63 £20.71
25th Percentile £20.75 £60.66 £40.00
Median hourly rate £26.44 £63.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -58.52% +58.37% -3.59%
75th Percentile £30.24 £65.46 £56.25
90th Percentile £66.07 £65.62 £62.60
UK median hourly rate £27.44 £60.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year -54.64% +50.31% -7.61%

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 5,637 4,806 6,042
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.24% 18.55% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,902 3,243 4,333
10th Percentile £340 £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 £656
90th Percentile £700 £780 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 82 159
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £15.83
25th Percentile £27.25 £25.06 £21.69
Median hourly rate £54.00 £41.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.71% -3.53% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £65.00 £61.75
90th Percentile £85.40 £73.38 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £54.00 £38.31 £42.50
% change year-on-year +40.97% -9.87% -24.01%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -37 435 £500 -9.09% 108
North of England -50 84 £425 -10.53% 104
South East -53 80 £488 -2.50% 162
North West -22 49 £450 +5.88% 69
Yorkshire -42 33 £393 -21.50% 24
South West -35 28 £550 - 38
Midlands -102 26 £455 -9.00% 63
East of England -10 25 £575 +10.05% 40
West Midlands -83 17 £450 -20.63% 30
East Midlands -41 7 £425 +16.44% 33
North East -12 3 £475 +28.38% 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 (4.39%) SharePoint
2 24 (3.40%) IIS
3 20 (2.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 19 (2.69%) Confluence
5 14 (1.98%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 11 (1.56%) Apache
6 11 (1.56%) WebSphere
7 10 (1.42%) Apache Spark
7 10 (1.42%) Appian
8 9 (1.27%) Apache Airflow
8 9 (1.27%) CMS
9 7 (0.99%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.85%) Sitecore CMS
11 4 (0.57%) SharePoint Server
12 2 (0.28%) JBoss
13 1 (0.14%) ColdFusion
13 1 (0.14%) OpenEdge
13 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.14%) SAS
13 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 41 (5.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.70%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.28%) Windchill
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (1.27%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.99%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.85%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
6 3 (0.42%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.42%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.28%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.28%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.28%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.28%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.14%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.14%) Orchestrade
Cloud Services
1 309 (43.77%) Azure
2 146 (20.68%) AWS
3 130 (18.41%) Power Platform
4 91 (12.89%) Azure DevOps
5 62 (8.78%) Azure Data Factory
6 57 (8.07%) GitHub
7 54 (7.65%) GCP
8 37 (5.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 33 (4.67%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (4.25%) SaaS
11 22 (3.12%) Amazon S3
11 22 (3.12%) GitHub Actions
12 21 (2.97%) Power Automate
12 21 (2.97%) Snowflake
13 19 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
14 18 (2.55%) Azure Service Bus
15 17 (2.41%) IaaS
16 16 (2.27%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 16 (2.27%) Serverless
17 15 (2.12%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 28 (3.97%) Firewall
2 21 (2.97%) DNS
3 15 (2.12%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.84%) DHCP
5 12 (1.70%) Internet
6 10 (1.42%) HTTP
7 8 (1.13%) VPN
8 7 (0.99%) LAN
9 6 (0.85%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.71%) Skype
10 5 (0.71%) VLAN
10 5 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (0.57%) RS-232
11 4 (0.57%) SAN
11 4 (0.57%) SSL
11 4 (0.57%) VoIP
11 4 (0.57%) X.400
12 3 (0.42%) FTP
12 3 (0.42%) SSH
12 3 (0.42%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (15.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 107 (15.16%) Power BI
3 93 (13.17%) PostgreSQL
4 86 (12.18%) Data Warehouse
5 83 (11.76%) Relational Database
6 67 (9.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 53 (7.51%) Oracle Database
8 49 (6.94%) Data Lake
9 47 (6.66%) Azure SQL Database
10 46 (6.52%) MySQL
11 38 (5.38%) MongoDB
12 35 (4.96%) NoSQL
13 29 (4.11%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 27 (3.82%) DB2
15 25 (3.54%) RDBMS
16 20 (2.83%) Amazon RDS
16 20 (2.83%) Big Data
16 20 (2.83%) Delta Lake
17 18 (2.55%) Tableau
18 17 (2.41%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 60 (8.50%) Git
2 50 (7.08%) JIRA
3 30 (4.25%) Jenkins
4 24 (3.40%) Visual Studio
5 18 (2.55%) GitLab
6 15 (2.12%) Postman
7 11 (1.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 11 (1.56%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.42%) Cucumber
8 10 (1.42%) SpecFlow
9 9 (1.27%) Maven
10 8 (1.13%) ERwin
10 8 (1.13%) JUnit
10 8 (1.13%) MLflow
10 8 (1.13%) Octopus Deploy
11 7 (0.99%) Selenium
11 7 (0.99%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.85%) Mockito
12 6 (0.85%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.85%) TestRail
General
1 207 (29.32%) Social Skills
2 177 (25.07%) Finance
3 106 (15.01%) Analytical Skills
4 92 (13.03%) Banking
5 49 (6.94%) Public Sector
6 39 (5.52%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.40%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.84%) Front Office
9 13 (1.84%) Retail
10 12 (1.70%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.13%) Legal
12 7 (0.99%) Local Government
13 6 (0.85%) Law
13 6 (0.85%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.85%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.57%) Military
15 4 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 242 (34.28%) Developer
2 103 (14.59%) Senior
3 99 (14.02%) Data Engineer
4 67 (9.49%) C# Developer
5 59 (8.36%) Architect
6 49 (6.94%) .NET Developer
7 44 (6.23%) Analyst
8 41 (5.81%) DBA
9 38 (5.38%) Senior Developer
10 33 (4.67%) Lead
11 31 (4.39%) Senior Data Engineer
12 28 (3.97%) SQL DBA
13 26 (3.68%) Full-Stack Developer
14 25 (3.54%) Software Engineer
15 24 (3.40%) SQL Developer
16 22 (3.12%) Consultant
17 20 (2.83%) Azure Engineer
17 20 (2.83%) C# .NET Developer
18 19 (2.69%) Data Architect
19 18 (2.55%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 198 (28.05%) .NET
2 84 (11.90%) .NET Framework
3 80 (11.33%) REST
4 54 (7.65%) React
5 52 (7.37%) HTML
6 51 (7.22%) AngularJS
7 43 (6.09%) CSS
8 42 (5.95%) .NET Core
8 42 (5.95%) RESTful
9 39 (5.52%) XML
10 33 (4.67%) ASP.NET
10 33 (4.67%) Web Services
11 32 (4.53%) Kafka
12 28 (3.97%) SOAP
13 27 (3.82%) Entity Framework
14 23 (3.26%) WPF
15 22 (3.12%) OAuth
16 20 (2.83%) JSON
16 20 (2.83%) Middleware
17 19 (2.69%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 41 (5.81%) Legacy Systems
2 30 (4.25%) Cloud Native
3 24 (3.40%) Enterprise Software
4 22 (3.12%) Replication
5 20 (2.83%) Management Information System
5 20 (2.83%) Onboarding
6 16 (2.27%) Data Structures
7 15 (2.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 13 (1.84%) Clustering
8 13 (1.84%) Derivative
8 13 (1.84%) Product Ownership
9 12 (1.70%) Credit Risk
9 12 (1.70%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (1.70%) PKI
9 12 (1.70%) Reinsurance
10 11 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.56%) Low-Code
11 10 (1.42%) Greenfield Project
12 9 (1.27%) NHS
13 8 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 125 (17.71%) Windows
2 83 (11.76%) Linux
3 65 (9.21%) Windows Server
4 22 (3.12%) Unix
5 15 (2.12%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.84%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (1.13%) AIX
7 8 (1.13%) 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 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.28%) VMS
11 2 (0.28%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (23.37%) CI/CD
2 159 (22.52%) Agile
3 156 (22.10%) Problem-Solving
4 152 (21.53%) DevOps
5 142 (20.11%) ETL
6 139 (19.69%) Business Intelligence
7 116 (16.43%) Data Modelling
8 108 (15.30%) Migration
9 77 (10.91%) Analytics
10 67 (9.49%) Data Engineering
10 67 (9.49%) Microservices
11 63 (8.92%) Data Pipeline
11 63 (8.92%) Performance Tuning
12 62 (8.78%) Test Automation
13 60 (8.50%) Data Analysis
14 59 (8.36%) Containerisation
15 57 (8.07%) Disaster Recovery
16 56 (7.93%) Data Governance
17 53 (7.51%) Data Migration
18 52 (7.37%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 412 (58.36%) SQL
2 179 (25.35%) C#
3 165 (23.37%) Python
4 95 (13.46%) T-SQL
5 73 (10.34%) JavaScript
6 72 (10.20%) PowerShell
7 66 (9.35%) Java
8 59 (8.36%) PL/SQL
9 37 (5.24%) Bash
10 36 (5.10%) TypeScript
11 24 (3.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (2.41%) VB
13 14 (1.98%) Bicep
13 14 (1.98%) PHP
13 14 (1.98%) VBA
14 7 (0.99%) XPath
15 5 (0.71%) R
15 5 (0.71%) Scala
15 5 (0.71%) Shell Script
15 5 (0.71%) X++
Qualifications
1 103 (14.59%) Security Cleared
2 75 (10.62%) Degree
3 71 (10.06%) SC Cleared
4 24 (3.40%) Computer Science Degree
5 20 (2.83%) Azure Certification
5 20 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (2.69%) DV Cleared
7 14 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (1.27%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.85%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.71%) CCA
10 5 (0.71%) Citrix Certification
11 4 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.42%) CCNP
12 3 (0.42%) HNC
12 3 (0.42%) HND
12 3 (0.42%) MCSE
12 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.42%) OCP
12 3 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (10.76%) Data Quality
1 76 (10.76%) QA
2 16 (2.27%) GDPR
3 10 (1.42%) SLA
4 7 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (0.85%) NIST
6 5 (0.71%) Accessibility
6 5 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.57%) MiFID
7 4 (0.57%) WCAG
8 3 (0.42%) EMIR
8 3 (0.42%) IFRS
8 3 (0.42%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.28%) Basel III
9 2 (0.28%) GAAP
9 2 (0.28%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.28%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.28%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.14%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 85 (12.04%) Docker
2 51 (7.22%) Active Directory
3 26 (3.68%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.55%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (0.99%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.99%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.85%) KVM
7 6 (0.85%) zsh
8 5 (0.71%) XenApp
8 5 (0.71%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.42%) vSphere
10 2 (0.28%) GridGain
10 2 (0.28%) NDS
10 2 (0.28%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 67 (9.49%) Kubernetes
2 40 (5.67%) Terraform
3 18 (2.55%) Ansible
4 14 (1.98%) Grafana
4 14 (1.98%) SCCM
5 13 (1.84%) vCenter Server
6 10 (1.42%) Puppet
7 9 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 9 (1.27%) Oracle RMAN
8 8 (1.13%) NetBackup
9 7 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (0.99%) TIBCO Hawk
10 6 (0.85%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.71%) Progress Chef
11 5 (0.71%) SCVMM
12 4 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (0.57%) WSUS
13 3 (0.42%) Control-M
13 3 (0.42%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 215 (30.45%) Microsoft
2 212 (30.03%) Oracle
3 58 (8.22%) Databricks
4 45 (6.37%) Citrix
5 41 (5.81%) VMware
6 27 (3.82%) Informatica
7 25 (3.54%) ServiceNow
8 24 (3.40%) Google
9 22 (3.12%) IBM
10 20 (2.83%) SAP
11 15 (2.12%) CyberArk
12 13 (1.84%) UiPath
13 12 (1.70%) Salesforce
13 12 (1.70%) SolarWinds
14 10 (1.42%) Cisco
14 10 (1.42%) Veritas
15 9 (1.27%) Advent
15 9 (1.27%) OpenAI
15 9 (1.27%) Sybase
16 8 (1.13%) Automation Anywhere
460 SQL Server jobs in England