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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 106 62
Rank change year-on-year -28 -44 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 966 704 1,108
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.08% 2.52% 3.43%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.05% 13.74% 18.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 676 516 782
10th Percentile £351 £313 £330
25th Percentile £413 £387 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £496 £503
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% -1.39% -6.07%
75th Percentile £600 £629 £625
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £486 £498 £500
% change year-on-year -2.36% -0.40% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 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 £56.50 £35.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £60.71 £82.50
UK median hourly rate £24.25 £45.64 £47.50
% change year-on-year -46.86% -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 6,877 5,123 5,883
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.77% 18.34% 18.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,571 3,509 4,006
10th Percentile £350 £337 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.46% -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 253 76 83
10th Percentile £16.14 £20.89 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.00 £22.20
Median hourly rate £41.71 £42.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.68% +11.99% -28.57%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.38 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £41.36 £38.96 £35.00
% change year-on-year +6.15% +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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 -25 479 £500 -9.09% 416
North of England +2 187 £475 +11.76% 176
Midlands +4 110 £463 +20.13% 128
North West +1 107 £500 +14.94% 99
South East -43 92 £475 +35.71% 126
West Midlands +6 75 £460 -10.24% 74
Yorkshire -4 74 £450 +9.09% 61
South West -25 41 £675 +45.95% 35
East Midlands +2 34 £525 +60.80% 54
East of England -36 21 £425 -15.00% 49
North East -34 6 £425 - 19
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 (7.56%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.76%) Confluence
3 39 (4.04%) IIS
4 24 (2.48%) Apache Airflow
5 22 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.07%) Apache
7 18 (1.86%) Apache Spark
7 18 (1.86%) Camunda
8 9 (0.93%) Oracle Workflow
9 7 (0.72%) CMS
10 6 (0.62%) Appian
11 5 (0.52%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.52%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.52%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.41%) Tomcat
12 4 (0.41%) Traefik
12 4 (0.41%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
13 3 (0.31%) OpenEdge
14 2 (0.21%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 50 (5.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (3.11%) 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 (3.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 21 (2.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.72%) Aladdin
4 7 (0.72%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.72%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.41%) 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%) FIS Private Capital Suite
9 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle Retail
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
9 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 415 (42.96%) Azure
2 200 (20.70%) AWS
3 157 (16.25%) Power Platform
4 119 (12.32%) Azure DevOps
5 90 (9.32%) GitHub
6 57 (5.90%) Entra ID
7 52 (5.38%) Azure Data Factory
8 51 (5.28%) Serverless
9 45 (4.66%) Power Automate
10 43 (4.45%) Dynamics 365
10 43 (4.45%) Microsoft 365
11 39 (4.04%) Snowflake
12 37 (3.83%) Azure Monitor
12 37 (3.83%) GCP
13 34 (3.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 31 (3.21%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (2.48%) GitHub Copilot
16 23 (2.38%) Amazon S3
17 22 (2.28%) Azure Functions
18 21 (2.17%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 45 (4.66%) DNS
2 38 (3.93%) DHCP
3 32 (3.31%) Firewall
4 16 (1.66%) SSL
5 15 (1.55%) SAN
5 15 (1.55%) VLAN
6 14 (1.45%) Internet
7 13 (1.35%) TCP/IP
7 13 (1.35%) VPN
8 12 (1.24%) 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 (0.41%) Reverse Proxy
13 3 (0.31%) IPv4
13 3 (0.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 155 (16.05%) PostgreSQL
2 128 (13.25%) Power BI
3 96 (9.94%) MySQL
3 96 (9.94%) Relational Database
4 92 (9.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 87 (9.01%) Data Warehouse
6 58 (6.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 55 (5.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 55 (5.69%) Oracle Database
8 53 (5.49%) MongoDB
9 32 (3.31%) Data Lake
10 26 (2.69%) Amazon RDS
11 22 (2.28%) NoSQL
12 21 (2.17%) RDBMS
13 20 (2.07%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 20 (2.07%) Tableau
14 19 (1.97%) Redis
15 18 (1.86%) Metadata
16 13 (1.35%) Amazon Aurora
17 11 (1.14%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 111 (11.49%) Git
2 70 (7.25%) JIRA
3 52 (5.38%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.31%) GitLab
5 23 (2.38%) Visual Studio
6 21 (2.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 18 (1.86%) Sonatype Nexus
7 18 (1.86%) Team Foundation Server
8 17 (1.76%) Maven
8 17 (1.76%) REST Assured
8 17 (1.76%) Selenium
9 14 (1.45%) Claude Code
9 14 (1.45%) Postman
10 13 (1.35%) Gradle
10 13 (1.35%) SonarQube
11 12 (1.24%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.24%) Cypress.io
11 12 (1.24%) JUnit
11 12 (1.24%) Mockito
12 11 (1.14%) WebDriver
General
1 303 (31.37%) Social Skills
2 254 (26.29%) Finance
3 171 (17.70%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (12.73%) Banking
5 72 (7.45%) Public Sector
6 39 (4.04%) Documentation Skills
7 38 (3.93%) Front Office
8 30 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.28%) Retail
10 20 (2.07%) Investment Banking
11 13 (1.35%) Legal
12 12 (1.24%) Financial Institution
13 9 (0.93%) Back Office
14 8 (0.83%) Billing
14 8 (0.83%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.72%) Law
16 6 (0.62%) Local Government
16 6 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.62%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 309 (31.99%) Developer
2 160 (16.56%) Senior
3 130 (13.46%) DBA
4 79 (8.18%) SQL DBA
5 72 (7.45%) Administrator
6 70 (7.25%) C# Developer
7 69 (7.14%) Data Engineer
8 68 (7.04%) .NET Developer
9 67 (6.94%) Lead
10 54 (5.59%) Full-Stack Developer
11 53 (5.49%) Senior Developer
12 52 (5.38%) Analyst
13 48 (4.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 47 (4.87%) Architect
15 43 (4.45%) SQL Developer
16 34 (3.52%) Software Engineer
17 27 (2.80%) Azure Engineer
17 27 (2.80%) C# .NET Developer
17 27 (2.80%) Oracle DBA
18 26 (2.69%) SC Cleared DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 277 (28.67%) .NET
2 131 (13.56%) REST
3 87 (9.01%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.49%) React
5 71 (7.35%) Terraform
6 67 (6.94%) CSS
7 61 (6.31%) HTML
8 58 (6.00%) .NET Core
8 58 (6.00%) ASP.NET
9 56 (5.80%) AngularJS
9 56 (5.80%) Kafka
10 50 (5.18%) JSON
10 50 (5.18%) RESTful
11 43 (4.45%) Web Services
11 43 (4.45%) XML
12 39 (4.04%) SOAP
13 32 (3.31%) OAuth
13 32 (3.31%) Spring Boot
14 26 (2.69%) WinForms
14 26 (2.69%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 59 (6.11%) Cloud Native
1 59 (6.11%) Onboarding
2 54 (5.59%) Enterprise Software
3 48 (4.97%) Data Structures
4 43 (4.45%) Clustering
5 42 (4.35%) Product Ownership
6 41 (4.24%) Replication
7 39 (4.04%) Self-Motivation
8 38 (3.93%) Data Centre
9 35 (3.62%) Management Information System
10 31 (3.21%) Legacy Systems
11 20 (2.07%) PKI
12 18 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
13 14 (1.45%) Low-Code
13 14 (1.45%) Virtual Team
14 13 (1.35%) Derivative
15 12 (1.24%) Algorithms
16 11 (1.14%) Taxonomies
17 10 (1.04%) Fixed Income
17 10 (1.04%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 255 (26.40%) Windows
2 151 (15.63%) Windows Server
3 94 (9.73%) Linux
4 37 (3.83%) Unix
5 17 (1.76%) Solaris
6 13 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.14%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.83%) VMS
9 7 (0.72%) CentOS
9 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.62%) Android
11 4 (0.41%) Windows 10
11 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.21%) AIX
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.10%) SUSE
13 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (26.19%) DevOps
2 241 (24.95%) Agile
3 235 (24.33%) CI/CD
4 187 (19.36%) Problem-Solving
5 179 (18.53%) Migration
6 139 (14.39%) Business Intelligence
6 139 (14.39%) ETL
7 130 (13.46%) Data Modelling
8 128 (13.25%) Performance Tuning
9 124 (12.84%) AI
10 118 (12.22%) Stakeholder Management
11 111 (11.49%) Continuous Improvement
12 104 (10.77%) Disaster Recovery
13 90 (9.32%) Microservices
14 88 (9.11%) Analytics
15 86 (8.90%) Software Engineering
16 85 (8.80%) Test Automation
17 83 (8.59%) Validation
18 75 (7.76%) Mentoring
19 72 (7.45%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 578 (59.83%) SQL
2 279 (28.88%) C#
3 182 (18.84%) Python
4 175 (18.12%) PowerShell
5 162 (16.77%) T-SQL
6 150 (15.53%) JavaScript
7 79 (8.18%) Java
8 62 (6.42%) TypeScript
9 58 (6.00%) PL/SQL
10 34 (3.52%) Bash
11 17 (1.76%) VB
12 15 (1.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 15 (1.55%) VBA
13 11 (1.14%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.83%) Bicep
14 8 (0.83%) PHP
14 8 (0.83%) Scala
15 7 (0.72%) Go
15 7 (0.72%) VB.NET
16 6 (0.62%) XPath
Qualifications
1 238 (24.64%) Security Cleared
2 177 (18.32%) SC Cleared
3 107 (11.08%) Degree
4 57 (5.90%) Microsoft Certification
5 48 (4.97%) DV Cleared
6 33 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.80%) Azure Certification
8 26 (2.69%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.45%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.35%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.24%) 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 (0.41%) PhD
17 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 3 (0.31%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (9.73%) QA
2 86 (8.90%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.73%) GDPR
4 35 (3.62%) Accessibility
5 26 (2.69%) WCAG
6 22 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (2.07%) 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%) HL7
12 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 127 (13.15%) Active Directory
2 66 (6.83%) Docker
3 38 (3.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.42%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.86%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.04%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.62%) vSphere
9 4 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (0.41%) 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 (8.28%) Kubernetes
2 43 (4.45%) Ansible
3 20 (2.07%) 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
8 7 (0.72%) Grafana
8 7 (0.72%) Istio
8 7 (0.72%) WSUS
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%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 350 (36.23%) Microsoft
2 257 (26.60%) Oracle
3 76 (7.87%) Databricks
4 62 (6.42%) VMware
5 47 (4.87%) ServiceNow
6 45 (4.66%) CyberArk
7 36 (3.73%) Citrix
8 30 (3.11%) BeyondTrust
8 30 (3.11%) SAP
9 25 (2.59%) IBM
10 21 (2.17%) BMC
10 21 (2.17%) Cisco
10 21 (2.17%) Remedy
11 20 (2.07%) Informatica
12 15 (1.55%) Dynatrace
12 15 (1.55%) Google
12 15 (1.55%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.45%) Splunk
14 12 (1.24%) Alteryx
15 11 (1.14%) SolarWinds