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 26 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
26 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 93 57
Rank change year-on-year -29 -36 -9
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 874 655 1,240
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.11% 2.75% 3.39%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.90% 14.52% 19.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 609 475 871
10th Percentile £350 £332 £330
25th Percentile £404 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £510
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +2.94% -2.86%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £638
90th Percentile £692 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £513 £505
% change year-on-year -7.32% +1.49% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 5 21
10th Percentile £13.51 £25.53 £36.75
25th Percentile £20.38 £26.32 -
Median hourly rate £47.54 £63.75 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.42% +59.36% -11.11%
75th Percentile £62.44 £65.62 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £66.87 £40.00
% change year-on-year -28.91% +67.18% -18.37%

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 6,289 4,512 6,230
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.15% 18.96% 17.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,308 3,145 4,505
10th Percentile £350 £363 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £788
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 84 135
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.73 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.08 £23.38 £20.77
Median hourly rate £42.50 £31.85 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.46% -20.39% -30.43%
75th Percentile £73.94 £64.78 £56.25
90th Percentile £82.25 £74.38 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.96 £40.00
% change year-on-year +36.53% -17.60% -31.73%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 -34 470 £500 -13.42% 125
North of England -22 135 £475 +11.76% 69
South East -15 117 £471 +0.43% 92
North West -25 68 £500 +14.29% 40
Yorkshire -7 65 £450 +12.43% 23
Midlands -37 64 £475 -4.52% 54
South West -18 40 £438 -14.63% 27
East Midlands -3 37 £525 +54.41% 25
East of England -14 33 £488 -2.50% 16
West Midlands -63 25 £449 -22.00% 29
North East -25 3 £475 +5.56% 7
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 45 (5.15%) IIS
2 44 (5.03%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.75%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (2.52%) Apache
5 20 (2.29%) Apache Spark
6 19 (2.17%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (2.17%) Confluence
7 13 (1.49%) Appian
8 11 (1.26%) CMS
9 9 (1.03%) Camunda
10 8 (0.92%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 8 (0.92%) Oracle Workflow
11 6 (0.69%) Sitecore CMS
12 5 (0.57%) OpenEdge
12 5 (0.57%) Tomcat
12 5 (0.57%) WebSphere
13 4 (0.46%) NetWeaver
13 4 (0.46%) Umbraco
14 3 (0.34%) nginx
14 3 (0.34%) WebLogic
Applications
1 30 (3.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.83%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.37%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.11%) InDesign
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 13 (1.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (1.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (1.26%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.69%) Dynamics AX
5 5 (0.57%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.34%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.23%) BusinessWorks
7 2 (0.23%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.23%) OpenText MBPM
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle BPM
7 2 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.23%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.23%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.11%) Endur
8 1 (0.11%) Findur
8 1 (0.11%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.11%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 381 (43.59%) Azure
2 187 (21.40%) AWS
3 147 (16.82%) Power Platform
4 111 (12.70%) Azure DevOps
5 88 (10.07%) Azure Data Factory
6 78 (8.92%) GitHub
7 50 (5.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 41 (4.69%) GCP
9 35 (4.00%) Microsoft 365
9 35 (4.00%) Power Automate
10 34 (3.89%) GitHub Actions
11 32 (3.66%) Serverless
12 30 (3.43%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.32%) SaaS
14 26 (2.97%) Amazon S3
15 24 (2.75%) Dynamics 365
16 23 (2.63%) Azure Monitor
17 21 (2.40%) PowerApps
18 19 (2.17%) Amazon EC2
18 19 (2.17%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 33 (3.78%) DNS
2 25 (2.86%) DHCP
3 23 (2.63%) Firewall
4 13 (1.49%) Internet
4 13 (1.49%) SAN
4 13 (1.49%) VLAN
5 12 (1.37%) VPN
6 8 (0.92%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.69%) IPv4
7 6 (0.69%) IPv6
7 6 (0.69%) LAN
7 6 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.57%) Network Security
9 4 (0.46%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.46%) SSH
9 4 (0.46%) WAN
10 3 (0.34%) FTP
10 3 (0.34%) NAS
10 3 (0.34%) RS-232
10 3 (0.34%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (14.19%) PostgreSQL
2 121 (13.84%) Power BI
3 113 (12.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 104 (11.90%) Data Warehouse
5 88 (10.07%) Relational Database
6 69 (7.89%) Oracle Database
7 60 (6.86%) Data Lake
8 57 (6.52%) Azure SQL Database
9 53 (6.06%) MySQL
10 52 (5.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 38 (4.35%) MongoDB
11 38 (4.35%) NoSQL
12 34 (3.89%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 23 (2.63%) Metadata
14 22 (2.52%) Tableau
15 20 (2.29%) Delta Lake
15 20 (2.29%) RDBMS
16 16 (1.83%) Big Data
17 15 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
17 15 (1.72%) Redis
Development Applications
1 68 (7.78%) Git
2 55 (6.29%) JIRA
3 39 (4.46%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.75%) Visual Studio
5 22 (2.52%) GitLab
6 18 (2.06%) TeamCity
7 13 (1.49%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.49%) Team Foundation Server
8 11 (1.26%) Octopus Deploy
9 10 (1.14%) Maven
9 10 (1.14%) Postman
9 10 (1.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 9 (1.03%) Gatling
11 8 (0.92%) ERwin
11 8 (0.92%) MLflow
11 8 (0.92%) Selenium
12 7 (0.80%) Chocolatey
12 7 (0.80%) MSTest
12 7 (0.80%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.69%) TestRail
General
1 241 (27.57%) Social Skills
2 204 (23.34%) Finance
3 138 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
4 102 (11.67%) Banking
5 66 (7.55%) Public Sector
6 30 (3.43%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (3.32%) Front Office
8 22 (2.52%) Investment Banking
9 20 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (2.06%) Legal
11 15 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.60%) Retail
13 9 (1.03%) Advertising
13 9 (1.03%) Financial Institution
13 9 (1.03%) Local Government
14 6 (0.69%) Back Office
14 6 (0.69%) Publishing
14 6 (0.69%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.57%) Law
15 5 (0.57%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 254 (29.06%) Developer
2 139 (15.90%) Senior
3 119 (13.62%) Data Engineer
4 95 (10.87%) DBA
5 80 (9.15%) C# Developer
6 65 (7.44%) Architect
7 62 (7.09%) .NET Developer
8 58 (6.64%) SQL DBA
9 56 (6.41%) Lead
10 40 (4.58%) Senior Developer
11 39 (4.46%) Senior Data Engineer
12 34 (3.89%) Full-Stack Developer
13 33 (3.78%) Analyst
14 32 (3.66%) Software Engineer
15 31 (3.55%) Azure Engineer
16 29 (3.32%) SQL Developer
17 26 (2.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 26 (2.97%) Oracle DBA
18 25 (2.86%) Administrator
18 25 (2.86%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (25.06%) .NET
2 106 (12.13%) REST
3 92 (10.53%) .NET Framework
4 76 (8.70%) React
5 61 (6.98%) RESTful
6 60 (6.86%) CSS
7 56 (6.41%) HTML
8 54 (6.18%) AngularJS
9 44 (5.03%) Kafka
10 41 (4.69%) .NET Core
10 41 (4.69%) ASP.NET
11 31 (3.55%) XML
12 29 (3.32%) OAuth
13 24 (2.75%) Entity Framework
14 23 (2.63%) JSON
14 23 (2.63%) PySpark
14 23 (2.63%) Web Services
15 21 (2.40%) SOAP
15 21 (2.40%) YAML
16 19 (2.17%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.29%) Legacy Systems
2 41 (4.69%) Cloud Native
3 35 (4.00%) Replication
4 33 (3.78%) Onboarding
5 29 (3.32%) Data Structures
6 26 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
7 25 (2.86%) Clustering
8 20 (2.29%) Management Information System
9 19 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
10 18 (2.06%) Low-Code
11 17 (1.95%) NHS
12 15 (1.72%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.37%) Derivative
13 12 (1.37%) Distributed Systems
14 11 (1.26%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (1.26%) Legacy Code
15 10 (1.14%) PKI
15 10 (1.14%) Reinsurance
16 8 (0.92%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 192 (21.97%) Windows
2 115 (13.16%) Windows Server
3 84 (9.61%) Linux
4 51 (5.84%) Unix
5 12 (1.37%) Windows 10
6 11 (1.26%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.14%) Windows Server 2016
8 9 (1.03%) AIX
9 8 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (0.92%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.69%) Android
11 4 (0.46%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.34%) CentOS
13 2 (0.23%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.23%) VMS
13 2 (0.23%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.11%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.11%) Solaris
14 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (24.83%) DevOps
2 214 (24.49%) CI/CD
3 185 (21.17%) Agile
3 185 (21.17%) ETL
4 175 (20.02%) Problem-Solving
5 152 (17.39%) Business Intelligence
6 148 (16.93%) Data Modelling
7 133 (15.22%) Migration
8 107 (12.24%) Analytics
9 102 (11.67%) Disaster Recovery
10 99 (11.33%) Performance Tuning
11 96 (10.98%) AI
12 91 (10.41%) Data Pipeline
13 85 (9.73%) Data Engineering
14 79 (9.04%) Test Automation
15 75 (8.58%) Data Integration
16 74 (8.47%) Microservices
17 73 (8.35%) Data Analysis
18 70 (8.01%) High Availability
18 70 (8.01%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 505 (57.78%) SQL
2 231 (26.43%) Python
3 221 (25.29%) C#
4 138 (15.79%) T-SQL
5 134 (15.33%) PowerShell
6 93 (10.64%) JavaScript
7 83 (9.50%) Java
8 68 (7.78%) PL/SQL
9 49 (5.61%) TypeScript
10 35 (4.00%) Bash
11 24 (2.75%) Shell Script
12 23 (2.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (2.06%) Scala
14 17 (1.95%) VB
15 16 (1.83%) Bicep
15 16 (1.83%) Korn
16 13 (1.49%) VBA
17 8 (0.92%) PHP
18 5 (0.57%) Rust
19 3 (0.34%) Go
Qualifications
1 193 (22.08%) Security Cleared
2 148 (16.93%) SC Cleared
3 94 (10.76%) Degree
4 30 (3.43%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.20%) DV Cleared
6 25 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (2.17%) Azure Certification
9 9 (1.03%) DBS Check
9 9 (1.03%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.57%) CISSP
10 5 (0.57%) OCP
10 5 (0.57%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (0.46%) CCA
11 4 (0.46%) Citrix Certification
11 4 (0.46%) MCITP
11 4 (0.46%) MCTS
12 3 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
12 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.23%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (11.78%) Data Quality
2 90 (10.30%) QA
3 23 (2.63%) GDPR
4 20 (2.29%) NIST
5 18 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (1.72%) SLA
7 10 (1.14%) Accessibility
8 8 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (0.69%) WCAG
10 4 (0.46%) Basel III
11 3 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.34%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.34%) IFRS
11 3 (0.34%) IFRS 9
12 2 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.23%) EMIR
12 2 (0.23%) GAAP
12 2 (0.23%) GRC
12 2 (0.23%) IFRS 17
12 2 (0.23%) MiFID
System Software
1 88 (10.07%) Docker
2 83 (9.50%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (1.95%) Oracle RAC
4 17 (1.95%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (1.60%) Hyper-V
6 11 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.69%) KVM
8 4 (0.46%) XenApp
8 4 (0.46%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.34%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.34%) GridGain
9 3 (0.34%) Postfix
10 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.23%) vSphere
11 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.11%) NFS
11 1 (0.11%) RACF
Systems Management
1 105 (12.01%) Kubernetes
2 68 (7.78%) Terraform
3 18 (2.06%) Ansible
3 18 (2.06%) Oracle RMAN
4 17 (1.95%) SCCM
5 15 (1.72%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 13 (1.49%) HAProxy
7 9 (1.03%) Grafana
8 8 (0.92%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (0.92%) WSUS
9 7 (0.80%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.69%) IBM BigFix
11 5 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.46%) SCVMM
13 3 (0.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.34%) Control-M
13 3 (0.34%) Data Guard
13 3 (0.34%) Foglight
13 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Clustering
14 2 (0.23%) TIBCO Hawk
Vendors
1 243 (27.80%) Microsoft
2 239 (27.35%) Oracle
3 80 (9.15%) Databricks
4 53 (6.06%) Citrix
5 37 (4.23%) ServiceNow
6 35 (4.00%) VMware
7 31 (3.55%) Informatica
8 27 (3.09%) SAP
9 23 (2.63%) CyberArk
10 21 (2.40%) Google
11 18 (2.06%) Sybase
12 17 (1.95%) BeyondTrust
12 17 (1.95%) IBM
13 14 (1.60%) Dynatrace
14 13 (1.49%) Remedy
15 12 (1.37%) BMC
16 11 (1.26%) Alteryx
16 11 (1.26%) OpenAI
17 9 (1.03%) Tenable
17 9 (1.03%) UiPath
365 SQL Server jobs in England