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

 6 months to
29 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 114 104 55
Rank change year-on-year -10 -49 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,006 690 1,254
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.24% 2.51% 3.68%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.62% 13.77% 20.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 703 515 893
10th Percentile £363 £313 £332
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £513 £505
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% +1.49% -3.81%
75th Percentile £600 £647 £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 48 6 10
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £30.37
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £37.56
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.80 £48.03
Median % change year-on-year +99.79% -50.46% +5.56%
75th Percentile £65.17 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £76.15 £83.13 £82.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -32.09% +47.37% +5.56%

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 6,883 5,011 6,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.35% 18.22% 18.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,604 3,470 4,436
10th Percentile £356 £344 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -4.19% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £675
90th Percentile £701 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -0.99% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 78 93
10th Percentile £16.07 £18.67 £13.80
25th Percentile £25.25 £23.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £39.50 £34.58 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.24% -10.19% -30.00%
75th Percentile £63.31 £63.75 £59.95
90th Percentile £76.95 £77.86 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +12.86% -6.67% -31.82%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -29 481 £525 -4.55% 126
North of England +13 198 £460 +3.37% 97
South East -13 125 £468 +12.77% 96
North West -6 107 £477 +12.12% 51
Midlands -9 100 £473 +10.64% 53
Yorkshire +18 90 £450 -8.86% 33
West Midlands -32 56 £450 -14.29% 32
South West -9 50 £450 - 23
East Midlands +10 42 £525 +54.41% 21
East of England -8 31 £475 -5.00% 19
North East -50 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 67 (6.66%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.67%) IIS
3 40 (3.98%) Confluence
4 23 (2.29%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (2.19%) Apache Spark
6 20 (1.99%) Apache
7 18 (1.79%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (1.29%) Camunda
9 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
10 9 (0.89%) Appian
11 8 (0.80%) CMS
12 6 (0.60%) NetWeaver
13 5 (0.50%) OpenEdge
13 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
14 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
14 4 (0.40%) Umbraco
15 3 (0.30%) Apache Solr
15 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
15 3 (0.30%) nginx
15 3 (0.30%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 48 (4.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.09%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.099%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.099%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.099%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 23 (2.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 17 (1.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.70%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.70%) Oracle BPM
4 6 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
5 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.40%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.099%) Endur
8 1 (0.099%) Findur
8 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 417 (41.45%) Azure
2 214 (21.27%) AWS
3 147 (14.61%) Power Platform
4 109 (10.83%) Azure DevOps
5 90 (8.95%) GitHub
6 63 (6.26%) Azure Data Factory
7 46 (4.57%) Entra ID
8 42 (4.17%) Serverless
9 39 (3.88%) Azure Monitor
9 39 (3.88%) Microsoft 365
10 38 (3.78%) GitHub Actions
10 38 (3.78%) Snowflake
11 37 (3.68%) Power Automate
12 33 (3.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 33 (3.28%) GCP
13 32 (3.18%) Dynamics 365
14 26 (2.58%) dbt
14 26 (2.58%) SaaS
15 24 (2.39%) Amazon S3
16 22 (2.19%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 47 (4.67%) DNS
2 38 (3.78%) DHCP
3 29 (2.88%) Firewall
4 20 (1.99%) SAN
5 18 (1.79%) VLAN
6 15 (1.49%) VPN
7 14 (1.39%) Internet
8 13 (1.29%) Network Security
9 12 (1.19%) SSH
9 12 (1.19%) TCP/IP
9 12 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
10 9 (0.89%) SSL
11 7 (0.70%) LAN
12 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
12 6 (0.60%) IPv4
12 6 (0.60%) IPv6
12 6 (0.60%) WAN
13 4 (0.40%) Kerberos
13 4 (0.40%) VoIP
14 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (14.71%) PostgreSQL
2 123 (12.23%) Power BI
3 104 (10.34%) Relational Database
4 102 (10.14%) Data Warehouse
5 101 (10.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 74 (7.36%) Oracle Database
7 65 (6.46%) MySQL
8 60 (5.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 54 (5.37%) Azure SQL Database
10 44 (4.37%) MongoDB
11 41 (4.08%) Data Lake
12 33 (3.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 29 (2.88%) NoSQL
14 24 (2.39%) RDBMS
15 20 (1.99%) Tableau
16 16 (1.59%) Metadata
16 16 (1.59%) Redis
17 15 (1.49%) Big Data
18 14 (1.39%) Db2
18 14 (1.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 92 (9.15%) Git
2 55 (5.47%) Jenkins
3 51 (5.07%) JIRA
4 28 (2.78%) GitLab
5 25 (2.49%) Visual Studio
6 20 (1.99%) TeamCity
7 18 (1.79%) Team Foundation Server
8 16 (1.59%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 15 (1.49%) Maven
10 13 (1.29%) Cucumber
10 13 (1.29%) Octopus Deploy
10 13 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 12 (1.19%) Postman
12 11 (1.09%) Selenium
13 10 (0.99%) Artifactory
14 9 (0.89%) Chocolatey
14 9 (0.89%) Gatling
15 8 (0.80%) Cypress.io
15 8 (0.80%) MSTest
15 8 (0.80%) WebDriver
General
1 293 (29.13%) Social Skills
2 253 (25.15%) Finance
3 184 (18.29%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (12.33%) Banking
5 79 (7.85%) Public Sector
6 46 (4.57%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (3.68%) Front Office
8 23 (2.29%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 16 (1.59%) Legal
11 15 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
12 13 (1.29%) Financial Institution
13 12 (1.19%) Retail
14 9 (0.89%) Advertising
15 8 (0.80%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.60%) Back Office
16 6 (0.60%) Local Government
16 6 (0.60%) Telecoms
17 5 (0.50%) Law
17 5 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 295 (29.32%) Developer
2 153 (15.21%) Senior
3 144 (14.31%) DBA
4 91 (9.05%) SQL DBA
5 86 (8.55%) C# Developer
6 85 (8.45%) Data Engineer
7 75 (7.46%) .NET Developer
8 70 (6.96%) Lead
9 58 (5.77%) Administrator
10 53 (5.27%) Architect
11 50 (4.97%) SQL Developer
12 46 (4.57%) Senior Developer
13 43 (4.27%) Analyst
13 43 (4.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 42 (4.17%) Oracle DBA
15 39 (3.88%) Software Engineer
16 37 (3.68%) Full-Stack Developer
17 34 (3.38%) Azure Engineer
18 33 (3.28%) Consultant
19 32 (3.18%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 252 (25.05%) .NET
2 126 (12.52%) REST
3 102 (10.14%) .NET Framework
4 79 (7.85%) React
5 57 (5.67%) ASP.NET
5 57 (5.67%) CSS
5 57 (5.67%) RESTful
6 55 (5.47%) AngularJS
7 52 (5.17%) Kafka
8 48 (4.77%) HTML
9 47 (4.67%) .NET Core
10 37 (3.68%) JSON
10 37 (3.68%) Web Services
11 36 (3.58%) XML
12 30 (2.98%) SOAP
13 28 (2.78%) Entity Framework
14 24 (2.39%) OAuth
14 24 (2.39%) Spring Boot
15 21 (2.09%) Spring
16 20 (1.99%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 58 (5.77%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.07%) Cloud Native
3 49 (4.87%) Data Structures
4 46 (4.57%) Clustering
4 46 (4.57%) Legacy Systems
5 43 (4.27%) Replication
6 40 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
7 37 (3.68%) Enterprise Software
8 27 (2.68%) Management Information System
9 21 (2.09%) PKI
9 21 (2.09%) Product Ownership
10 20 (1.99%) Data Centre
11 17 (1.69%) Low-Code
12 16 (1.59%) Derivative
13 14 (1.39%) Distributed Systems
13 14 (1.39%) NHS
14 13 (1.29%) Algorithms
14 13 (1.29%) Fixed Income
15 11 (1.09%) Legacy Code
16 10 (0.99%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 261 (25.94%) Windows
2 150 (14.91%) Windows Server
3 99 (9.84%) Linux
4 56 (5.57%) Unix
5 13 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.80%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.80%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (0.70%) AIX
8 6 (0.60%) Android
8 6 (0.60%) VMS
9 5 (0.50%) Solaris
9 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.30%) CentOS
10 3 (0.30%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.099%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 251 (24.95%) DevOps
2 226 (22.47%) Agile
3 220 (21.87%) CI/CD
4 208 (20.68%) Problem-Solving
5 180 (17.89%) Migration
6 156 (15.51%) ETL
7 146 (14.51%) Business Intelligence
8 136 (13.52%) Performance Tuning
9 133 (13.22%) Data Modelling
10 117 (11.63%) Disaster Recovery
11 114 (11.33%) AI
12 100 (9.94%) Analytics
13 94 (9.34%) Data Pipeline
14 89 (8.85%) High Availability
15 86 (8.55%) Microservices
16 84 (8.35%) Continuous Improvement
17 80 (7.95%) Test Automation
18 77 (7.65%) Software Engineering
19 76 (7.55%) Data Analysis
20 74 (7.36%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 564 (56.06%) SQL
2 261 (25.94%) C#
3 206 (20.48%) Python
4 185 (18.39%) PowerShell
5 164 (16.30%) T-SQL
6 115 (11.43%) JavaScript
7 77 (7.65%) Java
8 64 (6.36%) PL/SQL
9 52 (5.17%) TypeScript
10 36 (3.58%) Bash
11 25 (2.49%) Shell Script
12 23 (2.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (1.79%) Scala
13 18 (1.79%) VB
14 17 (1.69%) Korn
15 15 (1.49%) VBA
16 11 (1.09%) Bicep
17 8 (0.80%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.60%) VB6
18 6 (0.60%) XPath
Qualifications
1 249 (24.75%) Security Cleared
2 189 (18.79%) SC Cleared
3 102 (10.14%) Degree
4 42 (4.17%) DV Cleared
5 39 (3.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.69%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.19%) Oracle Certification
10 11 (1.09%) ISTQB
10 11 (1.09%) OCP
11 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
12 8 (0.80%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.50%) CISSP
14 4 (0.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 4 (0.40%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (0.40%) MCITP
14 4 (0.40%) MCTS
14 4 (0.40%) PhD
15 3 (0.30%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (9.64%) QA
2 91 (9.05%) Data Quality
3 28 (2.78%) GDPR
4 27 (2.68%) NIST
5 25 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 23 (2.29%) Accessibility
7 21 (2.09%) SLA
8 15 (1.49%) WCAG
9 6 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.50%) ISO 9000
11 4 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.30%) 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 (0.099%) IFRS
System Software
1 123 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 75 (7.46%) Docker
3 31 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (2.98%) Oracle RAC
4 30 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (1.09%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.40%) KVM
8 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
8 3 (0.30%) GridGain
8 3 (0.30%) Postfix
8 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.20%) vSphere
10 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.099%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.099%) NFS
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) XenApp
10 1 (0.099%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 101 (10.04%) Kubernetes
2 72 (7.16%) Terraform
3 38 (3.78%) Ansible
4 23 (2.29%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.09%) Oracle RMAN
6 16 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (1.49%) Data Guard
7 15 (1.49%) SCCM
8 13 (1.29%) HAProxy
9 11 (1.09%) SCOM
10 10 (0.99%) WSUS
11 9 (0.89%) Grafana
12 7 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
12 7 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
12 7 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
13 5 (0.50%) vCenter Server
14 4 (0.40%) IBM BigFix
14 4 (0.40%) ITRS Geneos
14 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
15 3 (0.30%) Foglight
Vendors
1 316 (31.41%) Microsoft
2 280 (27.83%) Oracle
3 57 (5.67%) Databricks
3 57 (5.67%) VMware
4 51 (5.07%) ServiceNow
5 48 (4.77%) Citrix
5 48 (4.77%) CyberArk
6 37 (3.68%) SAP
7 31 (3.08%) BeyondTrust
8 23 (2.29%) Remedy
9 22 (2.19%) BMC
9 22 (2.19%) Sybase
10 21 (2.09%) Informatica
11 20 (1.99%) Cisco
11 20 (1.99%) Dynatrace
12 17 (1.69%) IBM
12 17 (1.69%) Red Hat
13 15 (1.49%) Google
14 13 (1.29%) Alteryx
15 11 (1.09%) AppDynamics
381 SQL Server jobs in England