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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 102 59
Rank change year-on-year -15 -43 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 973 670 1,302
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.22% 2.61% 3.51%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.56% 14.18% 20.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 672 501 915
10th Percentile £355 £325 £347
25th Percentile £410 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £505
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +0.99% -3.81%
75th Percentile £614 £650 £638
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £503
% change year-on-year -1.60% -0.65% -4.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 6 23
10th Percentile £13.51 £21.02 £25.55
25th Percentile £19.25 £22.02 £38.81
Median hourly rate £27.88 £25.66 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.65% -35.85% -11.11%
75th Percentile £62.00 £64.71 £47.47
90th Percentile £74.40 £83.13 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £33.49 £70.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -52.16% +75.00% -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 6,681 4,726 6,499
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.24% 18.44% 17.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,498 3,275 4,681
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £415 £415 £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 £800
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 88 139
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £24.63 £20.76
Median hourly rate £38.25 £33.94 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.70% -15.15% -29.76%
75th Percentile £69.72 £62.44 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £72.25 £71.70
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £34.99 £40.00
% change year-on-year +10.03% -12.53% -29.08%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -30 479 £525 -8.70% 125
North of England -3 178 £475 +11.76% 103
South East -19 119 £450 - 98
North West -8 96 £478 +9.89% 56
Midlands -18 88 £492 +15.76% 64
Yorkshire +9 81 £450 +12.50% 34
South West -4 52 £481 +1.32% 23
East Midlands +12 43 £525 +60.80% 23
West Midlands -36 43 £478 -9.05% 41
East of England +2 38 £475 -5.00% 13
North East -35 2 £475 +4.11% 16
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 57 (5.86%) SharePoint
2 44 (4.52%) IIS
3 31 (3.19%) Confluence
4 23 (2.36%) Apache Spark
5 22 (2.26%) Apache
5 22 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
6 20 (2.06%) Apache Airflow
7 14 (1.44%) Appian
8 13 (1.34%) Camunda
9 12 (1.23%) CMS
10 11 (1.13%) Oracle Workflow
11 6 (0.62%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.62%) Sitecore CMS
12 5 (0.51%) OpenEdge
12 5 (0.51%) Tuxedo
12 5 (0.51%) Umbraco
13 4 (0.41%) Tomcat
14 3 (0.31%) Apache Superset
14 3 (0.31%) nginx
15 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
Applications
1 42 (4.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.34%) 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 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
5 5 (0.51%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.51%) OpenText MBPM
5 5 (0.51%) Oracle BPM
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%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.10%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 408 (41.93%) Azure
2 224 (23.02%) AWS
3 144 (14.80%) Power Platform
4 105 (10.79%) Azure DevOps
5 87 (8.94%) GitHub
6 69 (7.09%) Azure Data Factory
7 42 (4.32%) GCP
8 39 (4.01%) GitHub Actions
9 38 (3.91%) Serverless
10 36 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
11 35 (3.60%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 35 (3.60%) Power Automate
12 34 (3.49%) Snowflake
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 23 (2.36%) Amazon S3
18 20 (2.06%) 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 13 (1.34%) Internet
6 12 (1.23%) VLAN
7 10 (1.03%) 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%) VoIP
13 3 (0.31%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 150 (15.42%) PostgreSQL
2 119 (12.23%) Power BI
3 110 (11.31%) Relational Database
4 107 (11.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 105 (10.79%) Data Warehouse
6 73 (7.50%) Oracle Database
7 63 (6.47%) MySQL
8 57 (5.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 48 (4.93%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (4.93%) MongoDB
10 45 (4.62%) Data Lake
11 39 (4.01%) NoSQL
12 32 (3.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 29 (2.98%) RDBMS
14 22 (2.26%) Tableau
15 18 (1.85%) Metadata
16 17 (1.75%) Big Data
16 17 (1.75%) Redis
17 16 (1.64%) Delta Lake
18 15 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 84 (8.63%) Git
2 52 (5.34%) JIRA
3 49 (5.04%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.98%) Visual Studio
5 24 (2.47%) GitLab
6 18 (1.85%) TeamCity
7 17 (1.75%) Team Foundation Server
8 15 (1.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 13 (1.34%) 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
1 276 (28.37%) Social Skills
2 242 (24.87%) Finance
3 163 (16.75%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (12.23%) Banking
5 76 (7.81%) Public Sector
6 40 (4.11%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.60%) 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 (30.32%) Developer
2 137 (14.08%) Senior
3 120 (12.33%) DBA
4 100 (10.28%) Data Engineer
5 87 (8.94%) C# Developer
6 73 (7.50%) SQL DBA
7 71 (7.30%) .NET Developer
8 69 (7.09%) Lead
9 60 (6.17%) Architect
10 49 (5.04%) SQL Developer
11 44 (4.52%) Analyst
12 42 (4.32%) Senior Developer
13 39 (4.01%) Administrator
14 35 (3.60%) Software Engineer
15 33 (3.39%) Full-Stack Developer
16 31 (3.19%) Azure Engineer
16 31 (3.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 30 (3.08%) Oracle DBA
18 29 (2.98%) Support Engineer
19 28 (2.88%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 249 (25.59%) .NET
2 124 (12.74%) REST
3 104 (10.69%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.43%) React
5 64 (6.58%) CSS
6 63 (6.47%) RESTful
7 62 (6.37%) AngularJS
8 55 (5.65%) ASP.NET
9 54 (5.55%) HTML
10 51 (5.24%) Kafka
11 48 (4.93%) .NET Core
12 36 (3.70%) Web Services
13 35 (3.60%) XML
14 32 (3.29%) JSON
15 29 (2.98%) OAuth
16 28 (2.88%) SOAP
17 27 (2.77%) Entity Framework
18 26 (2.67%) Spring Boot
19 25 (2.57%) Spring
20 20 (2.06%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.55%) Legacy Systems
2 51 (5.24%) Cloud Native
3 48 (4.93%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.11%) Data Structures
4 40 (4.11%) Replication
5 36 (3.70%) Clustering
6 34 (3.49%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (3.49%) Self-Motivation
7 23 (2.36%) Management Information System
8 21 (2.16%) Low-Code
9 20 (2.06%) 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 (1.34%) Algorithms
13 13 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
14 12 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
14 12 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
14 12 (1.23%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 227 (23.33%) Windows
2 129 (13.26%) Windows Server
3 90 (9.25%) Linux
4 60 (6.17%) 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 5 (0.51%) Solaris
9 5 (0.51%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.51%) VMS
10 3 (0.31%) CentOS
11 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.21%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 245 (25.18%) DevOps
2 231 (23.74%) CI/CD
3 225 (23.12%) Agile
4 200 (20.55%) Problem-Solving
5 166 (17.06%) ETL
6 157 (16.14%) Migration
7 146 (15.01%) Business Intelligence
8 139 (14.29%) Data Modelling
9 121 (12.44%) Performance Tuning
10 108 (11.10%) AI
11 105 (10.79%) Disaster Recovery
12 103 (10.59%) Analytics
13 89 (9.15%) Data Pipeline
14 88 (9.04%) Microservices
15 83 (8.53%) High Availability
16 81 (8.32%) Data Analysis
17 80 (8.22%) Validation
18 77 (7.91%) Data Engineering
18 77 (7.91%) Data Integration
18 77 (7.91%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 555 (57.04%) SQL
2 259 (26.62%) C#
3 231 (23.74%) Python
4 166 (17.06%) PowerShell
5 164 (16.86%) T-SQL
6 96 (9.87%) JavaScript
7 80 (8.22%) Java
8 64 (6.58%) PL/SQL
9 57 (5.86%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.19%) Bash
11 25 (2.57%) Shell Script
12 24 (2.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 20 (2.06%) Scala
14 19 (1.95%) VB
15 16 (1.64%) Korn
16 13 (1.34%) VBA
17 12 (1.23%) Bicep
18 7 (0.72%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.72%) VB6
19 5 (0.51%) XPath
Qualifications
1 220 (22.61%) Security Cleared
2 166 (17.06%) SC Cleared
3 106 (10.89%) Degree
4 39 (4.01%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.49%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.85%) 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%) OCP
12 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.41%) MCITP
12 4 (0.41%) MCTS
12 4 (0.41%) PhD
13 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (10.28%) QA
2 98 (10.07%) Data Quality
3 26 (2.67%) GDPR
3 26 (2.67%) NIST
4 24 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.64%) SLA
6 15 (1.54%) Accessibility
7 11 (1.13%) WCAG
8 6 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.41%) ISO 9000
10 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.31%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.21%) Basel III
11 2 (0.21%) COREP
11 2 (0.21%) FINREP
11 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.21%) GRC
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.10%) EMIR
System Software
1 98 (10.07%) Active Directory
2 84 (8.63%) Docker
3 30 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
4 22 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (1.95%) 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%) NFS
11 1 (0.10%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 109 (11.20%) Kubernetes
2 72 (7.40%) Terraform
3 33 (3.39%) Ansible
4 20 (2.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 19 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
6 14 (1.44%) SCCM
7 13 (1.34%) 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%) SCOM
13 4 (0.41%) Data Guard
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
1 285 (29.29%) Microsoft
2 261 (26.82%) Oracle
3 69 (7.09%) Databricks
4 51 (5.24%) Citrix
5 46 (4.73%) ServiceNow
6 37 (3.80%) CyberArk
7 35 (3.60%) VMware
8 34 (3.49%) SAP
9 31 (3.19%) Informatica
10 23 (2.36%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.36%) Google
10 23 (2.36%) Sybase
11 17 (1.75%) Dynatrace
11 17 (1.75%) IBM
12 14 (1.44%) Remedy
13 13 (1.34%) BMC
13 13 (1.34%) Cisco
14 12 (1.23%) Red Hat
15 11 (1.13%) Alteryx
16 10 (1.03%) OpenAI