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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 112 108 55
Rank change year-on-year -4 -53 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,023 671 1,219
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.23% 2.42% 3.66%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.52% 13.44% 19.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 720 494 865
10th Percentile £363 £313 £333
25th Percentile £413 £400 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £712 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 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 £66.31 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £76.35 £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 7,044 4,993 6,109
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.37% 18.04% 18.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,722 3,446 4,362
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £545
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -5.50% -0.91%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £675
90th Percentile £700 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £507 £525
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.52% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 80 92
10th Percentile £15.39 £20.84 £14.33
25th Percentile £23.88 £24.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.38 £34.82 £36.25
Median % change year-on-year +10.23% -3.96% -34.09%
75th Percentile £66.54 £63.75 £58.11
90th Percentile £76.00 £78.71 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.00 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +11.43% - -36.36%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -19 495 £525 -7.89% 409
North of England +11 202 £475 +5.56% 96
South East -9 123 £465 +37.17% 125
North West -5 113 £478 +8.64% 55
Midlands +5 104 £473 +11.29% 79
Yorkshire +13 89 £450 -6.25% 28
West Midlands -14 60 £450 -14.29% 48
South West -22 49 £513 +20.59% 41
East Midlands +10 42 £525 +60.80% 31
East of England -20 25 £450 -10.00% 28
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 69 (6.74%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.59%) IIS
3 41 (4.01%) Confluence
4 23 (2.25%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (1.86%) Apache
5 19 (1.86%) Apache Spark
6 17 (1.66%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (1.27%) Camunda
8 11 (1.08%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.59%) Appian
9 6 (0.59%) CMS
9 6 (0.59%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.49%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.49%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.39%) OpenEdge
11 4 (0.39%) Tomcat
11 4 (0.39%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.29%) Apache Superset
12 3 (0.29%) nginx
13 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 50 (4.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.98%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.098%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.098%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.098%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 26 (2.54%) Remedy ITSM
2 20 (1.96%) Dynamics CRM
3 16 (1.56%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.68%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.68%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.59%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.39%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.39%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Endur
7 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.098%) Findur
8 1 (0.098%) Loan IQ
8 1 (0.098%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.098%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.098%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.098%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 425 (41.54%) Azure
2 221 (21.60%) AWS
3 155 (15.15%) Power Platform
4 110 (10.75%) Azure DevOps
5 91 (8.90%) GitHub
6 63 (6.16%) Azure Data Factory
7 48 (4.69%) Entra ID
8 42 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
8 42 (4.11%) Serverless
9 41 (4.01%) Azure Monitor
10 39 (3.81%) GitHub Actions
10 39 (3.81%) Snowflake
11 38 (3.71%) Power Automate
12 33 (3.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 33 (3.23%) Dynamics 365
13 30 (2.93%) GCP
14 27 (2.64%) SaaS
15 26 (2.54%) dbt
16 23 (2.25%) PaaS
17 21 (2.05%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 52 (5.08%) DNS
2 41 (4.01%) DHCP
3 32 (3.13%) Firewall
4 21 (2.05%) SAN
4 21 (2.05%) VLAN
5 18 (1.76%) VPN
6 13 (1.27%) Internet
6 13 (1.27%) Network Security
6 13 (1.27%) TCP/IP
6 13 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
7 10 (0.98%) SSL
8 9 (0.88%) SSH
9 7 (0.68%) LAN
10 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.59%) IPv4
10 6 (0.59%) IPv6
11 5 (0.49%) Kerberos
11 5 (0.49%) VoIP
11 5 (0.49%) WAN
12 3 (0.29%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 152 (14.86%) PostgreSQL
2 132 (12.90%) Power BI
3 104 (10.17%) Relational Database
4 99 (9.68%) Data Warehouse
5 94 (9.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 75 (7.33%) MySQL
7 67 (6.55%) Oracle Database
8 59 (5.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 57 (5.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 49 (4.79%) MongoDB
11 38 (3.71%) Data Lake
12 29 (2.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 28 (2.74%) NoSQL
14 22 (2.15%) RDBMS
14 22 (2.15%) Redis
15 21 (2.05%) Amazon RDS
16 20 (1.96%) Tableau
17 16 (1.56%) Metadata
17 16 (1.56%) Star Schema
18 12 (1.17%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 98 (9.58%) Git
2 57 (5.57%) Jenkins
3 54 (5.28%) JIRA
4 30 (2.93%) GitLab
5 27 (2.64%) Visual Studio
6 18 (1.76%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 18 (1.76%) TeamCity
7 16 (1.56%) Maven
7 16 (1.56%) Team Foundation Server
8 14 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
9 13 (1.27%) Octopus Deploy
10 12 (1.17%) Cucumber
10 12 (1.17%) Postman
10 12 (1.17%) Selenium
11 11 (1.08%) Artifactory
12 10 (0.98%) Cypress.io
13 9 (0.88%) Gatling
13 9 (0.88%) JUnit
13 9 (0.88%) REST Assured
13 9 (0.88%) WebDriver
General
1 308 (30.11%) Social Skills
2 258 (25.22%) Finance
3 185 (18.08%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (12.81%) Banking
5 81 (7.92%) Public Sector
6 42 (4.11%) Front Office
7 39 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (2.74%) Investment Banking
9 22 (2.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.76%) Legal
11 16 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.37%) Financial Institution
12 14 (1.37%) Retail
13 9 (0.88%) Advertising
13 9 (0.88%) Manufacturing
14 8 (0.78%) Back Office
15 5 (0.49%) Law
15 5 (0.49%) Local Government
15 5 (0.49%) Military
15 5 (0.49%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 305 (29.81%) Developer
2 164 (16.03%) Senior
3 149 (14.57%) DBA
4 90 (8.80%) SQL DBA
5 84 (8.21%) Data Engineer
6 83 (8.11%) C# Developer
7 82 (8.02%) .NET Developer
8 71 (6.94%) Lead
9 66 (6.45%) Administrator
10 53 (5.18%) Architect
11 49 (4.79%) Senior Developer
11 49 (4.79%) SQL Developer
12 46 (4.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 45 (4.40%) Analyst
14 44 (4.30%) Full-Stack Developer
15 40 (3.91%) Software Engineer
16 39 (3.81%) Oracle DBA
17 36 (3.52%) Azure Engineer
18 33 (3.23%) Consultant
19 32 (3.13%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 270 (26.39%) .NET
2 125 (12.22%) REST
3 101 (9.87%) .NET Framework
4 76 (7.43%) React
5 60 (5.87%) ASP.NET
6 59 (5.77%) AngularJS
7 55 (5.38%) RESTful
8 53 (5.18%) CSS
9 52 (5.08%) Kafka
10 49 (4.79%) .NET Core
11 44 (4.30%) HTML
12 37 (3.62%) Web Services
13 34 (3.32%) JSON
14 33 (3.23%) XML
15 28 (2.74%) Entity Framework
15 28 (2.74%) SOAP
16 25 (2.44%) Spring Boot
17 23 (2.25%) Spring
18 22 (2.15%) PySpark
18 22 (2.15%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 59 (5.77%) Onboarding
2 52 (5.08%) Cloud Native
3 47 (4.59%) Data Structures
4 46 (4.50%) Clustering
5 45 (4.40%) Replication
6 43 (4.20%) Legacy Systems
7 42 (4.11%) Self-Motivation
8 40 (3.91%) Enterprise Software
9 24 (2.35%) Management Information System
10 23 (2.25%) Data Centre
10 23 (2.25%) Product Ownership
11 21 (2.05%) PKI
12 17 (1.66%) Derivative
13 15 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
14 14 (1.37%) Low-Code
15 13 (1.27%) NHS
16 11 (1.08%) Algorithms
16 11 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
16 11 (1.08%) Fixed Income
16 11 (1.08%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 266 (26.00%) Windows
2 149 (14.57%) Windows Server
3 97 (9.48%) Linux
4 48 (4.69%) Unix
5 13 (1.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.78%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.78%) VMS
7 7 (0.68%) Solaris
7 7 (0.68%) 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 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
9 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.29%) CentOS
11 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.098%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.098%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (25.22%) DevOps
2 234 (22.87%) CI/CD
3 230 (22.48%) Agile
4 198 (19.35%) Problem-Solving
5 194 (18.96%) Migration
6 157 (15.35%) ETL
7 149 (14.57%) Business Intelligence
8 140 (13.69%) Performance Tuning
9 137 (13.39%) Data Modelling
10 124 (12.12%) Disaster Recovery
11 115 (11.24%) AI
12 101 (9.87%) Analytics
13 98 (9.58%) High Availability
14 88 (8.60%) Stakeholder Management
15 87 (8.50%) Data Pipeline
16 86 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
17 85 (8.31%) Microservices
18 81 (7.92%) Software Engineering
19 79 (7.72%) Test Automation
20 78 (7.62%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 576 (56.30%) SQL
2 270 (26.39%) C#
3 198 (19.35%) Python
4 183 (17.89%) PowerShell
5 160 (15.64%) T-SQL
6 116 (11.34%) JavaScript
7 77 (7.53%) Java
8 64 (6.26%) PL/SQL
9 50 (4.89%) TypeScript
10 39 (3.81%) Bash
11 24 (2.35%) Shell Script
12 21 (2.05%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 17 (1.66%) Scala
14 16 (1.56%) Korn
14 16 (1.56%) VB
15 14 (1.37%) VBA
16 8 (0.78%) VB.NET
17 7 (0.68%) Bicep
18 6 (0.59%) XPath
19 5 (0.49%) VB6
Qualifications
1 264 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 203 (19.84%) SC Cleared
3 98 (9.58%) Degree
4 45 (4.40%) DV Cleared
5 44 (4.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
8 20 (1.96%) Azure Certification
9 13 (1.27%) ISTQB
10 12 (1.17%) AWS Certification
10 12 (1.17%) Oracle Certification
11 11 (1.08%) OCP
12 9 (0.88%) DBS Check
13 8 (0.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.59%) CISSP
14 6 (0.59%) Master's Degree
15 5 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 4 (0.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 4 (0.39%) MCITP
16 4 (0.39%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (9.38%) Data Quality
2 95 (9.29%) QA
3 28 (2.74%) GDPR
4 24 (2.35%) Accessibility
5 23 (2.25%) NIST
6 21 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (1.96%) SLA
8 16 (1.56%) WCAG
9 6 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.49%) ISO 9000
11 4 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.29%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.20%) Basel III
13 2 (0.20%) COREP
13 2 (0.20%) FINREP
13 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.20%) GRC
13 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
14 1 (0.098%) IFRS
System Software
1 130 (12.71%) Active Directory
2 73 (7.14%) Docker
3 38 (3.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.23%) Virtual Machines
5 28 (2.74%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.88%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.29%) Dovecot
8 3 (0.29%) GridGain
8 3 (0.29%) KVM
8 3 (0.29%) Postfix
8 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.29%) vSphere
9 1 (0.098%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.098%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.098%) NFS
9 1 (0.098%) RACF
9 1 (0.098%) SRDF
9 1 (0.098%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 100 (9.78%) Kubernetes
2 83 (8.11%) Terraform
3 41 (4.01%) Ansible
4 21 (2.05%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 19 (1.86%) Oracle RMAN
6 17 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (1.47%) Data Guard
7 15 (1.47%) SCCM
8 13 (1.27%) HAProxy
8 13 (1.27%) SCOM
9 11 (1.08%) Microsoft Clustering
10 10 (0.98%) Grafana
10 10 (0.98%) WSUS
11 7 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
11 7 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.49%) ITRS Geneos
13 4 (0.39%) Prometheus
13 4 (0.39%) vCenter Server
14 3 (0.29%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
14 3 (0.29%) IBM BigFix
Vendors
1 337 (32.94%) Microsoft
2 271 (26.49%) Oracle
3 67 (6.55%) Databricks
4 64 (6.26%) VMware
5 52 (5.08%) ServiceNow
6 47 (4.59%) CyberArk
7 46 (4.50%) Citrix
8 36 (3.52%) SAP
9 29 (2.83%) BeyondTrust
10 26 (2.54%) Remedy
11 25 (2.44%) BMC
12 20 (1.96%) Cisco
12 20 (1.96%) Dynatrace
12 20 (1.96%) Informatica
13 19 (1.86%) Sybase
14 17 (1.66%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.56%) IBM
16 13 (1.27%) Alteryx
16 13 (1.27%) Google
17 11 (1.08%) AppDynamics