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 3 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 101 58
Rank change year-on-year -15 -43 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 974 679 1,320
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.22% 2.60% 3.53%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.56% 14.14% 20.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 678 508 929
10th Percentile £354 £325 £349
25th Percentile £410 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £617 £650 £638
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £505
% change year-on-year -1.60% -0.99% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 7 23
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.91 £25.55
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £38.81
Median hourly rate £27.88 £25.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.52% -37.50% -11.11%
75th Percentile £62.00 £51.91 £47.47
90th Percentile £74.40 £82.00 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £33.49 £48.16 £40.00
% change year-on-year -30.46% +20.40% -11.11%

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 6,690 4,803 6,558
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.23% 18.41% 17.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,500 3,325 4,727
10th Percentile £352 £357 £350
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £601 £650 £675
90th Percentile £710 £775 £813
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 90 139
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £23.88 £20.62
Median hourly rate £38.25 £33.94 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.70% -15.15% -30.43%
75th Percentile £69.72 £61.25 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £70.75 £71.70
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £34.99 £39.25
% change year-on-year +10.03% -10.85% -31.08%

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 3 July 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 3 July 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 3 July 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 -30 474 £525 -8.70% 131
North of England -6 179 £475 +11.76% 107
South East -11 119 £461 +2.33% 104
North West -11 98 £478 +12.47% 55
Midlands -16 92 £496 +16.71% 63
Yorkshire +9 81 £450 +12.50% 38
South West +1 53 £513 +7.89% 26
West Midlands -42 47 £481 -8.38% 41
East Midlands +11 43 £525 +60.80% 22
East of England 0 38 £475 -5.00% 16
North East -41 1 - - 17
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 59 (6.06%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.72%) IIS
3 31 (3.18%) Confluence
4 23 (2.36%) Apache Spark
5 22 (2.26%) Apache
5 22 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.05%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (1.33%) Appian
7 13 (1.33%) Camunda
8 12 (1.23%) CMS
9 11 (1.13%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.62%) NetWeaver
10 6 (0.62%) Sitecore CMS
11 5 (0.51%) OpenEdge
11 5 (0.51%) Tuxedo
11 5 (0.51%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.41%) Tomcat
13 3 (0.31%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
14 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
Applications
1 43 (4.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.33%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.10%) InDesign
5 1 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 18 (1.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.44%) Remedy ITSM
3 13 (1.33%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
4 6 (0.62%) OpenText MBPM
4 6 (0.62%) Oracle BPM
5 5 (0.51%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.51%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.31%) Aladdin
6 3 (0.31%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.21%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.21%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.21%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.10%) Endur
8 1 (0.10%) Findur
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.10%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 409 (41.99%) Azure
2 227 (23.31%) AWS
3 140 (14.37%) Power Platform
4 103 (10.57%) Azure DevOps
5 85 (8.73%) GitHub
6 66 (6.78%) Azure Data Factory
7 41 (4.21%) GCP
8 39 (4.00%) Serverless
9 38 (3.90%) GitHub Actions
10 36 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
11 34 (3.49%) Power Automate
11 34 (3.49%) Snowflake
12 32 (3.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 30 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
14 29 (2.98%) Dynamics 365
15 26 (2.67%) Entra ID
15 26 (2.67%) SaaS
16 25 (2.57%) dbt
17 24 (2.46%) Amazon S3
18 20 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 37 (3.80%) DNS
2 29 (2.98%) DHCP
3 18 (1.85%) SAN
4 17 (1.75%) Firewall
5 14 (1.44%) Internet
6 12 (1.23%) VLAN
7 11 (1.13%) SSH
8 9 (0.92%) TCP/IP
8 9 (0.92%) VPN
9 8 (0.82%) Network Security
10 6 (0.62%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.62%) IPv4
10 6 (0.62%) IPv6
10 6 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
11 5 (0.51%) SSL
12 4 (0.41%) Kerberos
12 4 (0.41%) LAN
13 3 (0.31%) NAS
13 3 (0.31%) RS-232
13 3 (0.31%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 152 (15.61%) PostgreSQL
2 115 (11.81%) Power BI
3 110 (11.29%) Relational Database
4 105 (10.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 102 (10.47%) Data Warehouse
6 75 (7.70%) Oracle Database
7 63 (6.47%) MySQL
8 58 (5.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 47 (4.83%) Azure SQL Database
10 46 (4.72%) MongoDB
11 41 (4.21%) Data Lake
12 37 (3.80%) NoSQL
13 32 (3.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 29 (2.98%) RDBMS
15 21 (2.16%) Tableau
16 18 (1.85%) Metadata
17 17 (1.75%) Big Data
17 17 (1.75%) Redis
18 15 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
18 15 (1.54%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 84 (8.62%) Git
2 50 (5.13%) JIRA
3 49 (5.03%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.98%) Visual Studio
5 24 (2.46%) GitLab
6 18 (1.85%) TeamCity
7 17 (1.75%) Team Foundation Server
8 15 (1.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 13 (1.33%) Maven
10 12 (1.23%) Octopus Deploy
11 11 (1.13%) Cucumber
12 10 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
13 9 (0.92%) Gatling
13 9 (0.92%) Postman
14 8 (0.82%) Artifactory
14 8 (0.82%) MSTest
14 8 (0.82%) Oracle Forms
15 7 (0.72%) Chocolatey
15 7 (0.72%) ERwin
16 6 (0.62%) MLflow
General
1 277 (28.44%) Social Skills
2 242 (24.85%) Finance
3 164 (16.84%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (12.01%) Banking
5 75 (7.70%) Public Sector
6 42 (4.31%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.59%) Front Office
8 25 (2.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 23 (2.36%) Investment Banking
10 18 (1.85%) Legal
11 16 (1.64%) Retail
12 14 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.92%) Advertising
13 9 (0.92%) Financial Institution
14 7 (0.72%) Local Government
15 6 (0.62%) Back Office
15 6 (0.62%) Law
15 6 (0.62%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.51%) Publishing
17 4 (0.41%) Games
Job Titles
1 295 (30.29%) Developer
2 136 (13.96%) Senior
3 123 (12.63%) DBA
4 95 (9.75%) Data Engineer
5 89 (9.14%) C# Developer
6 76 (7.80%) SQL DBA
7 72 (7.39%) .NET Developer
8 70 (7.19%) Lead
9 59 (6.06%) Architect
10 50 (5.13%) SQL Developer
11 44 (4.52%) Analyst
12 42 (4.31%) Senior Developer
13 40 (4.11%) Administrator
14 35 (3.59%) Software Engineer
15 32 (3.29%) Full-Stack Developer
15 32 (3.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 32 (3.29%) Oracle DBA
16 31 (3.18%) Azure Engineer
17 30 (3.08%) Support Engineer
18 29 (2.98%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 249 (25.56%) .NET
2 122 (12.53%) REST
3 105 (10.78%) .NET Framework
4 81 (8.32%) React
5 63 (6.47%) CSS
6 61 (6.26%) AngularJS
6 61 (6.26%) RESTful
7 54 (5.54%) ASP.NET
8 52 (5.34%) HTML
9 49 (5.03%) Kafka
10 46 (4.72%) .NET Core
11 35 (3.59%) Web Services
12 34 (3.49%) XML
13 32 (3.29%) JSON
14 28 (2.87%) SOAP
15 27 (2.77%) Entity Framework
15 27 (2.77%) OAuth
16 26 (2.67%) Spring Boot
17 25 (2.57%) Spring
18 19 (1.95%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.54%) Legacy Systems
2 50 (5.13%) Cloud Native
3 48 (4.93%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.11%) Data Structures
4 40 (4.11%) Replication
5 36 (3.70%) Clustering
6 35 (3.59%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (3.49%) Enterprise Software
8 23 (2.36%) Management Information System
9 20 (2.05%) Low-Code
9 20 (2.05%) Product Ownership
10 17 (1.75%) Derivative
10 17 (1.75%) PKI
11 16 (1.64%) NHS
12 14 (1.44%) Fixed Income
13 13 (1.33%) Algorithms
14 12 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
14 12 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
14 12 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
14 12 (1.23%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 230 (23.61%) Windows
2 131 (13.45%) Windows Server
3 90 (9.24%) Linux
4 60 (6.16%) Unix
5 11 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.03%) AIX
6 10 (1.03%) Windows 10
7 9 (0.92%) Android
7 9 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
8 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.62%) VMS
10 5 (0.51%) Solaris
10 5 (0.51%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.31%) CentOS
12 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 243 (24.95%) DevOps
2 229 (23.51%) CI/CD
3 224 (23.00%) Agile
4 202 (20.74%) Problem-Solving
5 160 (16.43%) ETL
6 158 (16.22%) Migration
7 143 (14.68%) Business Intelligence
8 134 (13.76%) Data Modelling
9 123 (12.63%) Performance Tuning
10 109 (11.19%) AI
11 106 (10.88%) Disaster Recovery
12 100 (10.27%) Analytics
13 88 (9.03%) Data Pipeline
14 87 (8.93%) Microservices
15 84 (8.62%) Data Analysis
16 83 (8.52%) High Availability
17 80 (8.21%) Validation
18 77 (7.91%) Data Integration
19 76 (7.80%) Test Automation
20 74 (7.60%) Data Engineering
Programming Languages
1 556 (57.08%) SQL
2 259 (26.59%) C#
3 229 (23.51%) Python
4 166 (17.04%) PowerShell
5 165 (16.94%) T-SQL
6 96 (9.86%) JavaScript
7 79 (8.11%) Java
8 65 (6.67%) PL/SQL
9 57 (5.85%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.18%) Bash
11 25 (2.57%) Shell Script
12 24 (2.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 20 (2.05%) Scala
14 19 (1.95%) VB
15 17 (1.75%) Korn
16 14 (1.44%) VBA
17 12 (1.23%) Bicep
18 7 (0.72%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.72%) VB6
19 5 (0.51%) C
Qualifications
1 221 (22.69%) Security Cleared
2 167 (17.15%) SC Cleared
3 105 (10.78%) Degree
4 40 (4.11%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.75%) Azure Certification
9 9 (0.92%) DBS Check
9 9 (0.92%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.62%) CISSP
10 6 (0.62%) ISTQB
10 6 (0.62%) Oracle Certification
11 5 (0.51%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.51%) OCP
12 4 (0.41%) MCITP
12 4 (0.41%) MCTS
12 4 (0.41%) PhD
13 3 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (10.37%) QA
2 94 (9.65%) Data Quality
3 26 (2.67%) GDPR
3 26 (2.67%) NIST
4 24 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.64%) SLA
6 14 (1.44%) Accessibility
7 10 (1.03%) WCAG
8 6 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (0.51%) ISO 9000
10 4 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.31%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.21%) Basel III
12 2 (0.21%) COREP
12 2 (0.21%) FINREP
12 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.21%) GRC
12 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.10%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 98 (10.06%) Active Directory
2 82 (8.42%) Docker
3 30 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
4 22 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
5 20 (2.05%) Oracle RAC
6 12 (1.23%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.62%) KVM
8 5 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.31%) GridGain
9 3 (0.31%) Postfix
9 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.21%) vSphere
10 2 (0.21%) XenApp
10 2 (0.21%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.10%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 107 (10.99%) Kubernetes
2 73 (7.49%) Terraform
3 33 (3.39%) Ansible
4 21 (2.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 19 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
6 14 (1.44%) SCCM
7 13 (1.33%) HAProxy
8 10 (1.03%) WSUS
9 8 (0.82%) Grafana
9 8 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.72%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.62%) IBM BigFix
12 5 (0.51%) Data Guard
12 5 (0.51%) SCOM
13 4 (0.41%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.31%) Foglight
14 3 (0.31%) ITRS Geneos
Vendors
1 283 (29.06%) Microsoft
2 266 (27.31%) Oracle
3 66 (6.78%) Databricks
4 53 (5.44%) Citrix
5 46 (4.72%) ServiceNow
6 38 (3.90%) CyberArk
7 35 (3.59%) VMware
8 34 (3.49%) SAP
9 30 (3.08%) Informatica
10 23 (2.36%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.36%) Sybase
11 22 (2.26%) Google
12 17 (1.75%) Dynatrace
13 16 (1.64%) IBM
14 14 (1.44%) Remedy
15 13 (1.33%) BMC
15 13 (1.33%) Cisco
16 12 (1.23%) Red Hat
17 10 (1.03%) Alteryx
18 9 (0.92%) AppDynamics