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

 6 months to
9 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 113 60
Rank change year-on-year -12 -53 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 998 680 1,157
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.15% 2.46% 3.55%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.19% 13.73% 19.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 700 494 827
10th Percentile £363 £313 £328
25th Percentile £413 £386 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £640 £625
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 5 6
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.86 £26.83
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £32.63
Median hourly rate £47.54 £21.27 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +123.51% -50.53% -12.85%
75th Percentile £63.75 £77.50 £51.12
90th Percentile £76.00 £84.25 £75.95
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £72.50 £38.50
% change year-on-year -34.43% +88.31% -16.47%

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 7,033 4,954 5,942
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.18% 17.95% 18.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,700 3,400 4,140
10th Percentile £358 £332 £350
25th Percentile £423 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £506 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.20% -8.00% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £675
90th Percentile £706 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £526
% change year-on-year - -4.90% -2.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 238 80 79
10th Percentile £15.61 £21.25 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.35 £31.45 £21.25
Median hourly rate £38.38 £42.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.62% +19.99% -36.36%
75th Percentile £61.31 £65.00 £60.78
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £72.20
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £39.48 £33.93
% change year-on-year +0.05% +16.36% -36.58%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -31 482 £523 -5.00% 443
North of England +10 201 £475 +10.47% 107
North West +6 113 £481 +11.86% 61
Midlands +3 110 £473 +17.52% 94
South East -35 102 £475 +45.48% 121
Yorkshire +15 86 £450 +5.88% 36
West Midlands -9 66 £460 -10.24% 57
South West -23 50 £525 +23.53% 49
East Midlands +9 43 £525 +60.80% 36
East of England -26 26 £425 -15.00% 34
North East -48 2 - - 11
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 (6.91%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.61%) IIS
3 43 (4.31%) Confluence
4 25 (2.51%) Apache Airflow
5 23 (2.30%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.00%) Apache
6 20 (2.00%) Camunda
7 18 (1.80%) Apache Spark
8 9 (0.90%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.60%) Appian
9 6 (0.60%) CMS
10 5 (0.50%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.50%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.40%) OpenEdge
11 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
11 4 (0.40%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
12 3 (0.30%) nginx
13 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 55 (5.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (0.90%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.20%) Windchill
6 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 27 (2.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 23 (2.30%) Remedy ITSM
3 17 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.70%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle BPM
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.40%) Aladdin
5 4 (0.40%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.20%) Endur
6 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
6 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
6 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.10%) Findur
7 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.10%) SAP Business One
7 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
7 1 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
7 1 (0.10%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 423 (42.38%) Azure
2 215 (21.54%) AWS
3 161 (16.13%) Power Platform
4 113 (11.32%) Azure DevOps
5 86 (8.62%) GitHub
6 60 (6.01%) Azure Data Factory
7 52 (5.21%) Entra ID
8 49 (4.91%) Serverless
9 42 (4.21%) Power Automate
10 41 (4.11%) Azure Monitor
11 40 (4.01%) Microsoft 365
11 40 (4.01%) Snowflake
12 38 (3.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 37 (3.71%) Dynamics 365
14 35 (3.51%) GitHub Actions
15 34 (3.41%) GCP
16 26 (2.61%) dbt
17 24 (2.40%) PowerApps
18 23 (2.30%) SaaS
19 20 (2.00%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 47 (4.71%) DNS
2 40 (4.01%) DHCP
3 32 (3.21%) Firewall
4 18 (1.80%) VLAN
5 17 (1.70%) SAN
6 15 (1.50%) VPN
7 14 (1.40%) Internet
7 14 (1.40%) SSL
8 13 (1.30%) Network Security
8 13 (1.30%) TCP/IP
9 10 (1.00%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (0.90%) SSH
11 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.60%) IPv4
11 6 (0.60%) IPv6
11 6 (0.60%) Kerberos
11 6 (0.60%) LAN
12 5 (0.50%) VoIP
12 5 (0.50%) WAN
13 3 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (16.03%) PostgreSQL
2 134 (13.43%) Power BI
3 102 (10.22%) Relational Database
4 100 (10.02%) Data Warehouse
5 95 (9.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 86 (8.62%) MySQL
7 58 (5.81%) Azure SQL Database
8 57 (5.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 56 (5.61%) Oracle Database
10 54 (5.41%) MongoDB
11 35 (3.51%) Data Lake
12 25 (2.51%) NoSQL
13 24 (2.40%) Amazon RDS
13 24 (2.40%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 22 (2.20%) Redis
15 21 (2.10%) RDBMS
15 21 (2.10%) Tableau
16 18 (1.80%) Metadata
17 17 (1.70%) Star Schema
18 13 (1.30%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 103 (10.32%) Git
2 63 (6.31%) JIRA
3 61 (6.11%) Jenkins
4 33 (3.31%) GitLab
5 23 (2.30%) Visual Studio
6 22 (2.20%) Maven
7 20 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
7 20 (2.00%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 15 (1.50%) REST Assured
8 15 (1.50%) Team Foundation Server
9 14 (1.40%) Selenium
10 12 (1.20%) Gradle
10 12 (1.20%) JUnit
10 12 (1.20%) TeamCity
11 11 (1.10%) Artifactory
11 11 (1.10%) Mockito
11 11 (1.10%) Postman
11 11 (1.10%) SonarQube
12 10 (1.00%) Cucumber
12 10 (1.00%) Cypress.io
General
1 316 (31.66%) Social Skills
2 262 (26.25%) Finance
3 188 (18.84%) Analytical Skills
4 129 (12.93%) Banking
5 72 (7.21%) Public Sector
6 44 (4.41%) Front Office
7 40 (4.01%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.61%) Investment Banking
9 22 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (2.00%) Legal
10 20 (2.00%) Retail
11 13 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
12 12 (1.20%) Financial Institution
13 9 (0.90%) Back Office
14 8 (0.80%) Billing
14 8 (0.80%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.50%) Advertising
16 5 (0.50%) Law
16 5 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 313 (31.36%) Developer
2 159 (15.93%) Senior
3 131 (13.13%) DBA
4 81 (8.12%) SQL DBA
5 80 (8.02%) Data Engineer
6 79 (7.92%) .NET Developer
7 74 (7.41%) C# Developer
8 72 (7.21%) Lead
9 69 (6.91%) Administrator
10 56 (5.61%) Full-Stack Developer
11 52 (5.21%) Senior Developer
12 51 (5.11%) Architect
13 49 (4.91%) Analyst
14 47 (4.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 46 (4.61%) SQL Developer
16 35 (3.51%) Software Engineer
17 32 (3.21%) Azure Engineer
18 29 (2.91%) C# .NET Developer
18 29 (2.91%) Software Developer
19 28 (2.81%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 281 (28.16%) .NET
2 126 (12.63%) REST
3 95 (9.52%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.22%) React
5 74 (7.41%) Terraform
6 67 (6.71%) CSS
7 60 (6.01%) HTML
8 59 (5.91%) ASP.NET
8 59 (5.91%) Kafka
9 58 (5.81%) AngularJS
10 54 (5.41%) .NET Core
11 50 (5.01%) RESTful
12 43 (4.31%) JSON
13 38 (3.81%) XML
14 37 (3.71%) Web Services
15 33 (3.31%) Spring Boot
16 30 (3.01%) OAuth
17 28 (2.81%) SOAP
17 28 (2.81%) Spring
18 25 (2.51%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 61 (6.11%) Cloud Native
1 61 (6.11%) Onboarding
2 54 (5.41%) Data Structures
3 46 (4.61%) Enterprise Software
4 45 (4.51%) Replication
5 43 (4.31%) Clustering
6 39 (3.91%) Self-Motivation
7 38 (3.81%) Legacy Systems
8 36 (3.61%) Product Ownership
9 28 (2.81%) Data Centre
9 28 (2.81%) Management Information System
10 20 (2.00%) PKI
11 18 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.40%) Derivative
12 14 (1.40%) Low-Code
13 13 (1.30%) Virtual Team
14 12 (1.20%) Algorithms
14 12 (1.20%) Fixed Income
15 11 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
15 11 (1.10%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 257 (25.75%) Windows
2 149 (14.93%) Windows Server
3 91 (9.12%) Linux
4 36 (3.61%) Unix
5 13 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.10%) Solaris
6 11 (1.10%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.80%) VMS
8 7 (0.70%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.60%) Android
9 6 (0.60%) CentOS
9 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.20%) AIX
12 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 261 (26.15%) DevOps
2 242 (24.25%) CI/CD
3 236 (23.65%) Agile
4 198 (19.84%) Problem-Solving
5 189 (18.94%) Migration
6 158 (15.83%) ETL
7 147 (14.73%) Business Intelligence
8 143 (14.33%) Data Modelling
9 128 (12.83%) Performance Tuning
10 119 (11.92%) AI
11 109 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
12 106 (10.62%) Disaster Recovery
13 95 (9.52%) Analytics
14 94 (9.42%) Continuous Improvement
15 93 (9.32%) Microservices
16 85 (8.52%) Software Engineering
17 82 (8.22%) Test Automation
17 82 (8.22%) Validation
18 80 (8.02%) Data Pipeline
19 78 (7.82%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 582 (58.32%) SQL
2 272 (27.25%) C#
3 197 (19.74%) Python
4 175 (17.54%) PowerShell
5 159 (15.93%) T-SQL
6 137 (13.73%) JavaScript
7 91 (9.12%) Java
8 61 (6.11%) PL/SQL
9 54 (5.41%) TypeScript
10 32 (3.21%) Bash
11 19 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (1.70%) VB
13 15 (1.50%) VBA
14 13 (1.30%) Scala
14 13 (1.30%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.70%) VB.NET
16 6 (0.60%) Bicep
16 6 (0.60%) XPath
17 5 (0.50%) Korn
17 5 (0.50%) VB6
Qualifications
1 253 (25.35%) Security Cleared
2 191 (19.14%) SC Cleared
3 106 (10.62%) Degree
4 51 (5.11%) DV Cleared
5 48 (4.81%) Microsoft Certification
6 32 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (2.40%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.20%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.20%) ISTQB
10 10 (1.00%) DBS Check
10 10 (1.00%) Oracle Certification
11 9 (0.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (0.90%) OCP
12 8 (0.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 8 (0.80%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.50%) CISSP
14 4 (0.40%) PhD
15 3 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 3 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.82%) Data Quality
2 92 (9.22%) QA
3 31 (3.11%) GDPR
4 27 (2.71%) Accessibility
5 22 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 20 (2.00%) NIST
6 20 (2.00%) WCAG
7 18 (1.80%) SLA
8 5 (0.50%) ISO 9000
9 4 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.30%) Basel III
10 3 (0.30%) GRC
11 2 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.20%) COREP
11 2 (0.20%) FINREP
11 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.10%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.10%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 126 (12.63%) Active Directory
2 75 (7.52%) Docker
3 41 (4.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.80%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.90%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.60%) vSphere
9 4 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.30%) GridGain
10 3 (0.30%) Postfix
11 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.10%) NFS
11 1 (0.10%) RACF
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 92 (9.22%) Kubernetes
2 44 (4.41%) Ansible
3 20 (2.00%) SCOM
4 14 (1.40%) Data Guard
4 14 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (1.30%) HAProxy
6 12 (1.20%) SCCM
7 11 (1.10%) Microsoft Clustering
7 11 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 10 (1.00%) WSUS
9 8 (0.80%) Grafana
10 7 (0.70%) Oracle RMAN
11 6 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.50%) ITRS Geneos
12 5 (0.50%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.30%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 3 (0.30%) Istio
13 3 (0.30%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 356 (35.67%) Microsoft
2 252 (25.25%) Oracle
3 77 (7.72%) Databricks
4 64 (6.41%) VMware
5 54 (5.41%) ServiceNow
6 45 (4.51%) CyberArk
7 39 (3.91%) Citrix
8 35 (3.51%) SAP
9 30 (3.01%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.30%) BMC
10 23 (2.30%) Informatica
10 23 (2.30%) Remedy
11 22 (2.20%) IBM
12 21 (2.10%) Cisco
13 17 (1.70%) Google
14 16 (1.60%) Dynatrace
14 16 (1.60%) Sybase
15 15 (1.50%) Red Hat
16 13 (1.30%) Alteryx
16 13 (1.30%) Splunk
810 SQL Server jobs in England