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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 95 63
Rank change year-on-year -33 -32 -14
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 791 661 1,223
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.08% 2.72% 3.25%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.06% 14.37% 19.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 551 494 864
10th Percentile £358 £347 £325
25th Percentile £408 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.02% -2.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £650
90th Percentile £675 £721 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £501 £525
% change year-on-year -2.65% -4.62% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 6 29
10th Percentile £14.21 £25.66 £22.36
25th Percentile £21.75 £34.80 £40.00
Median hourly rate £29.48 £62.12 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -52.55% +54.34% +5.92%
75th Percentile £69.72 £65.62 £59.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £77.18 £64.40
UK median hourly rate £53.00 £43.93 £40.25
% change year-on-year +20.66% +9.13% -7.61%

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 6,056 4,601 6,161
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.92% 18.95% 16.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,222 3,249 4,421
10th Percentile £350 £356 £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 £663 £665
90th Percentile £700 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 90 146
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.69 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.83 £24.25 £20.78
Median hourly rate £51.00 £32.96 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +54.73% -17.60% -33.33%
75th Percentile £75.00 £64.88 £53.44
90th Percentile £85.05 £70.63 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £51.75 £31.64 £40.00
% change year-on-year +63.56% -20.90% -33.33%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -19 458 £500 -9.09% 115
North of England -23 118 £450 +5.88% 114
South East -34 99 £500 - 129
North West -19 65 £456 - 64
Yorkshire -16 51 £450 +12.50% 44
Midlands -63 42 £450 -10.00% 64
South West -32 32 £438 -20.45% 39
East of England -17 25 £588 +12.44% 45
West Midlands -61 23 £449 -22.00% 36
East Midlands -32 17 £525 +32.74% 28
North East -12 3 £475 +5.56% 13
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 35 (4.42%) IIS
1 35 (4.42%) SharePoint
2 23 (2.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.15%) Confluence
4 13 (1.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 12 (1.52%) Apache
5 12 (1.52%) Apache Spark
6 11 (1.39%) WebSphere
7 10 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (1.26%) Appian
8 9 (1.14%) CMS
9 7 (0.88%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.76%) Sitecore CMS
11 5 (0.63%) Camunda
12 3 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
13 2 (0.25%) Apache Superset
13 2 (0.25%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.25%) OpenEdge
13 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
14 1 (0.13%) GeoServer
Applications
1 42 (5.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.77%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.13%) InDesign
6 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.01%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.88%) BusinessWorks
3 7 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.76%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.51%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.38%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.25%) Endur
7 2 (0.25%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.25%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.13%) Findur
8 1 (0.13%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.13%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 343 (43.36%) Azure
2 170 (21.49%) AWS
3 132 (16.69%) Power Platform
4 101 (12.77%) Azure DevOps
5 77 (9.73%) Azure Data Factory
6 62 (7.84%) GitHub
7 43 (5.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 42 (5.31%) GCP
9 36 (4.55%) Microsoft 365
10 29 (3.67%) SaaS
11 27 (3.41%) Amazon S3
11 27 (3.41%) GitHub Actions
12 26 (3.29%) Snowflake
13 24 (3.03%) Power Automate
14 22 (2.78%) IaaS
14 22 (2.78%) Serverless
15 21 (2.65%) Dynamics 365
16 19 (2.40%) Amazon EC2
17 17 (2.15%) Azure Monitor
17 17 (2.15%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (3.16%) DNS
2 21 (2.65%) Firewall
3 18 (2.28%) DHCP
4 12 (1.52%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.52%) VPN
5 11 (1.39%) Internet
6 10 (1.26%) SAN
6 10 (1.26%) VLAN
7 7 (0.88%) LAN
7 7 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.76%) HTTP
8 6 (0.76%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.51%) FTP
9 4 (0.51%) RS-232
9 4 (0.51%) X.400
10 3 (0.38%) IPv4
10 3 (0.38%) IPv6
10 3 (0.38%) SSH
10 3 (0.38%) VoIP
10 3 (0.38%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (14.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 110 (13.91%) Power BI
3 108 (13.65%) PostgreSQL
4 95 (12.01%) Data Warehouse
5 90 (11.38%) Relational Database
6 62 (7.84%) Oracle Database
7 61 (7.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 58 (7.33%) Azure SQL Database
9 53 (6.70%) MySQL
10 51 (6.45%) Data Lake
11 36 (4.55%) NoSQL
12 34 (4.30%) MongoDB
13 33 (4.17%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 25 (3.16%) DB2
15 24 (3.03%) Metadata
16 21 (2.65%) RDBMS
17 20 (2.53%) Amazon RDS
18 17 (2.15%) Big Data
18 17 (2.15%) Delta Lake
18 17 (2.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 69 (8.72%) Git
2 50 (6.32%) JIRA
3 38 (4.80%) Jenkins
4 26 (3.29%) Visual Studio
5 21 (2.65%) GitLab
6 15 (1.90%) TeamCity
7 11 (1.39%) Cucumber
7 11 (1.39%) Maven
7 11 (1.39%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.26%) Postman
9 9 (1.14%) ERwin
9 9 (1.14%) Octopus Deploy
10 8 (1.01%) JUnit
10 8 (1.01%) MLflow
10 8 (1.01%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 7 (0.88%) Chocolatey
11 7 (0.88%) Selenium
12 6 (0.76%) Mockito
12 6 (0.76%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.76%) TestRail
General
1 231 (29.20%) Social Skills
2 190 (24.02%) Finance
3 131 (16.56%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (12.64%) Banking
5 61 (7.71%) Public Sector
6 32 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.16%) Investment Banking
8 24 (3.03%) Front Office
9 22 (2.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (2.15%) Legal
11 13 (1.64%) Financial Institution
11 13 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (1.64%) Retail
12 9 (1.14%) Advertising
13 8 (1.01%) Local Government
14 6 (0.76%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.63%) Law
16 4 (0.51%) Back Office
16 4 (0.51%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 248 (31.35%) Developer
2 112 (14.16%) Senior
3 99 (12.52%) Data Engineer
4 82 (10.37%) DBA
5 74 (9.36%) C# Developer
6 69 (8.72%) Architect
7 60 (7.59%) .NET Developer
8 46 (5.82%) SQL DBA
9 40 (5.06%) Lead
10 36 (4.55%) Analyst
11 34 (4.30%) Senior Developer
12 30 (3.79%) Full-Stack Developer
13 29 (3.67%) Azure Engineer
13 29 (3.67%) Senior Data Engineer
14 28 (3.54%) Software Engineer
15 26 (3.29%) SQL Developer
16 25 (3.16%) Administrator
17 22 (2.78%) Data Architect
18 21 (2.65%) Oracle DBA
19 20 (2.53%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (27.69%) .NET
2 90 (11.38%) .NET Framework
3 89 (11.25%) REST
4 67 (8.47%) React
5 57 (7.21%) AngularJS
6 54 (6.83%) RESTful
7 49 (6.19%) HTML
8 45 (5.69%) CSS
9 39 (4.93%) ASP.NET
9 39 (4.93%) XML
10 38 (4.80%) .NET Core
11 36 (4.55%) Kafka
12 28 (3.54%) Web Services
13 23 (2.91%) Entity Framework
14 22 (2.78%) Spring
15 20 (2.53%) JSON
15 20 (2.53%) Node.js
15 20 (2.53%) Spring Boot
15 20 (2.53%) WPF
15 20 (2.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (6.70%) Legacy Systems
2 35 (4.42%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.05%) Replication
4 28 (3.54%) Data Structures
5 24 (3.03%) Onboarding
6 23 (2.91%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (2.28%) Management Information System
8 17 (2.15%) Clustering
9 15 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (1.52%) Legacy Code
10 12 (1.52%) NHS
10 12 (1.52%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.26%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
11 10 (1.26%) Low-Code
11 10 (1.26%) Virtual Team
12 9 (1.14%) Credit Risk
12 9 (1.14%) Derivative
12 9 (1.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 9 (1.14%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 153 (19.34%) Windows
2 85 (10.75%) Windows Server
3 73 (9.23%) Linux
4 35 (4.42%) Unix
5 11 (1.39%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.26%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (1.01%) AIX
7 8 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.38%) Android
9 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
10 2 (0.25%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.25%) VMS
10 2 (0.25%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (24.27%) CI/CD
1 192 (24.27%) DevOps
2 174 (22.00%) ETL
3 170 (21.49%) Problem-Solving
4 163 (20.61%) Agile
5 149 (18.84%) Business Intelligence
6 137 (17.32%) Data Modelling
7 124 (15.68%) Migration
8 96 (12.14%) Analytics
9 87 (11.00%) Performance Tuning
10 86 (10.87%) Disaster Recovery
11 81 (10.24%) Data Pipeline
12 79 (9.99%) Data Engineering
13 73 (9.23%) AI
14 72 (9.10%) Test Automation
15 71 (8.98%) Data Analysis
16 66 (8.34%) Data Integration
16 66 (8.34%) Microservices
17 60 (7.59%) High Availability
18 59 (7.46%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 467 (59.04%) SQL
2 199 (25.16%) C#
3 178 (22.50%) Python
4 113 (14.29%) T-SQL
5 92 (11.63%) PowerShell
6 70 (8.85%) Java
7 69 (8.72%) JavaScript
8 60 (7.59%) PL/SQL
9 49 (6.19%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.92%) Bash
11 24 (3.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 21 (2.65%) Shell Script
13 16 (2.02%) VB
14 15 (1.90%) Bicep
14 15 (1.90%) Korn
15 12 (1.52%) Scala
15 12 (1.52%) VBA
16 11 (1.39%) PHP
17 7 (0.88%) XPath
18 4 (0.51%) R
Qualifications
1 160 (20.23%) Security Cleared
2 122 (15.42%) SC Cleared
3 78 (9.86%) Degree
4 30 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (2.40%) Azure Certification
6 19 (2.40%) DV Cleared
7 15 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.01%) Master's Degree
9 5 (0.63%) CCA
9 5 (0.63%) Citrix Certification
9 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
9 5 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.63%) OCP
9 5 (0.63%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (0.51%) MCITP
10 4 (0.51%) MCTS
10 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.38%) HNC
11 3 (0.38%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (11.63%) Data Quality
2 87 (11.00%) QA
3 20 (2.53%) GDPR
4 15 (1.90%) SLA
5 7 (0.88%) NIST
6 6 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.63%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.51%) IFRS
9 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 17
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 9
9 3 (0.38%) WCAG
10 2 (0.25%) Basel III
10 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.25%) EMIR
10 2 (0.25%) GAAP
10 2 (0.25%) GRC
10 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.25%) MiFID
System Software
1 88 (11.13%) Docker
2 57 (7.21%) Active Directory
3 18 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (1.90%) Hyper-V
5 14 (1.77%) Oracle RAC
6 11 (1.39%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.76%) KVM
9 5 (0.63%) XenApp
9 5 (0.63%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.38%) GridGain
11 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.25%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.13%) NFS
Systems Management
1 88 (11.13%) Kubernetes
2 57 (7.21%) Terraform
3 17 (2.15%) Ansible
4 15 (1.90%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (1.77%) Grafana
5 14 (1.77%) SCCM
6 13 (1.64%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (1.14%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.01%) Puppet
10 7 (0.88%) TIBCO Hawk
11 6 (0.76%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.63%) HAProxy
12 5 (0.63%) SCVMM
12 5 (0.63%) WSUS
13 3 (0.38%) Control-M
13 3 (0.38%) Foglight
13 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
13 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 244 (30.85%) Microsoft
2 227 (28.70%) Oracle
3 64 (8.09%) Databricks
4 52 (6.57%) Citrix
5 36 (4.55%) ServiceNow
6 33 (4.17%) Informatica
7 32 (4.05%) VMware
8 22 (2.78%) SAP
9 20 (2.53%) Google
9 20 (2.53%) IBM
10 13 (1.64%) Sybase
11 12 (1.52%) UiPath
12 11 (1.39%) CyberArk
12 11 (1.39%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.26%) OpenAI
14 9 (1.14%) Tenable
15 8 (1.01%) Advent
15 8 (1.01%) Automation Anywhere
15 8 (1.01%) PagerDuty
15 8 (1.01%) Sitecore