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 7 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 115 66
Rank change year-on-year -20 -49 -9
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 965 687 1,079
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 2.46% 3.36%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.18% 13.55% 18.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 504 766
10th Percentile £354 £313 £328
25th Percentile £413 £397 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.06% -0.95% -6.54%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £713 £746 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -1.66% -0.85% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 4 6
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.83 £26.83
25th Percentile £17.97 £20.95 £35.00
Median hourly rate £47.54 £21.27 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +123.51% -62.19% +7.14%
75th Percentile £56.50 £35.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £60.71 £82.50
UK median hourly rate £24.25 £21.27 £47.50
% change year-on-year +14.01% -55.22% -9.52%

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 6,805 5,069 5,839
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 14.62% 18.14% 18.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,521 3,464 3,974
10th Percentile £350 £335 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -7.27% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £663
90th Percentile £716 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £501 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +0.10% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 74 84
10th Percentile £15.99 £20.83 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.19 £29.00 £22.30
Median hourly rate £41.71 £40.25 £36.25
Median % change year-on-year +3.64% +11.02% -32.24%
75th Percentile £60.94 £64.94 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £80.00 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £41.36 £38.85 £35.00
% change year-on-year +6.46% +10.99% -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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 October 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 -25 482 £500 -9.09% 561
North of England +2 186 £475 +7.95% 171
Midlands +13 108 £463 +25.00% 129
North West +11 107 £500 +11.73% 82
South East -43 95 £475 +31.03% 186
West Midlands 0 75 £460 -1.60% 76
Yorkshire -3 72 £450 +5.88% 70
South West -37 37 £700 +51.35% 49
East Midlands -1 33 £525 +60.80% 52
East of England -36 19 £425 -15.00% 60
North East - 7 £425 - 21
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 69 (7.15%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.77%) Confluence
3 38 (3.94%) IIS
4 24 (2.49%) Apache Airflow
5 23 (2.38%) Microsoft Exchange
6 19 (1.97%) Apache
7 18 (1.87%) Apache Spark
7 18 (1.87%) Camunda
8 10 (1.04%) Oracle Workflow
9 7 (0.73%) CMS
10 5 (0.52%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.52%) Appian
10 5 (0.52%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.52%) Tomcat
10 5 (0.52%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.41%) Traefik
11 4 (0.41%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.31%) nginx
12 3 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.21%) Jupyter
Applications
1 49 (5.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (3.11%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.04%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.31%) Windchill
5 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 31 (3.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 19 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.73%) Aladdin
4 7 (0.73%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.73%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.52%) Dynamics AX
7 4 (0.41%) Elite 3E
8 3 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.31%) Teamcenter
9 2 (0.21%) Infor LN
9 2 (0.21%) Siebel CRM
10 1 (0.10%) FIS Private Capital Suite
10 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
10 1 (0.10%) SAP CRM
10 1 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
10 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
10 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 416 (43.11%) Azure
2 200 (20.73%) AWS
3 158 (16.37%) Power Platform
4 122 (12.64%) Azure DevOps
5 94 (9.74%) GitHub
6 59 (6.11%) Entra ID
7 54 (5.60%) Serverless
8 49 (5.08%) Azure Data Factory
9 43 (4.46%) Power Automate
10 42 (4.35%) Dynamics 365
10 42 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
11 40 (4.15%) GCP
12 38 (3.94%) Azure Monitor
12 38 (3.94%) Snowflake
13 34 (3.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 31 (3.21%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (2.59%) Azure Functions
16 24 (2.49%) GitHub Copilot
17 23 (2.38%) Amazon S3
17 23 (2.38%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 46 (4.77%) DNS
2 38 (3.94%) DHCP
3 33 (3.42%) Firewall
4 16 (1.66%) SAN
4 16 (1.66%) SSL
5 15 (1.55%) VLAN
6 13 (1.35%) Internet
6 13 (1.35%) TCP/IP
6 13 (1.35%) VPN
7 12 (1.24%) Network Security
8 9 (0.93%) SSH
8 9 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (0.62%) HTTPS
9 6 (0.62%) LAN
10 5 (0.52%) Kerberos
10 5 (0.52%) VoIP
10 5 (0.52%) WAN
11 3 (0.31%) IPv4
11 3 (0.31%) IPv6
11 3 (0.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (16.58%) PostgreSQL
2 129 (13.37%) Power BI
3 100 (10.36%) MySQL
4 99 (10.26%) Relational Database
5 92 (9.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 85 (8.81%) Data Warehouse
7 61 (6.32%) Oracle Database
8 59 (6.11%) Azure SQL Database
8 59 (6.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 56 (5.80%) MongoDB
10 32 (3.32%) Data Lake
11 29 (3.01%) Amazon RDS
12 24 (2.49%) NoSQL
13 22 (2.28%) Redis
14 20 (2.07%) Metadata
14 20 (2.07%) RDBMS
14 20 (2.07%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 19 (1.97%) Tableau
16 15 (1.55%) Amazon Aurora
17 12 (1.24%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 115 (11.92%) Git
2 72 (7.46%) JIRA
3 53 (5.49%) Jenkins
4 32 (3.32%) GitLab
5 25 (2.59%) Visual Studio
6 21 (2.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 18 (1.87%) Maven
7 18 (1.87%) REST Assured
7 18 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
7 18 (1.87%) Team Foundation Server
8 17 (1.76%) Selenium
9 14 (1.45%) Claude Code
9 14 (1.45%) Gradle
9 14 (1.45%) Postman
10 13 (1.35%) JUnit
10 13 (1.35%) Mockito
10 13 (1.35%) SonarQube
11 12 (1.24%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.24%) Cypress.io
12 11 (1.14%) WebDriver
General
1 308 (31.92%) Social Skills
2 257 (26.63%) Finance
3 173 (17.93%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (13.06%) Banking
5 73 (7.56%) Public Sector
6 40 (4.15%) Documentation Skills
7 38 (3.94%) Front Office
8 31 (3.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 23 (2.38%) Retail
10 21 (2.18%) Investment Banking
11 13 (1.35%) Legal
12 12 (1.24%) Financial Institution
13 11 (1.14%) Back Office
14 9 (0.93%) Manufacturing
15 8 (0.83%) Billing
16 7 (0.73%) Law
17 6 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
17 6 (0.62%) Publishing
18 5 (0.52%) Military
18 5 (0.52%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 306 (31.71%) Developer
2 158 (16.37%) Senior
3 134 (13.89%) DBA
4 79 (8.19%) SQL DBA
5 72 (7.46%) Administrator
6 69 (7.15%) C# Developer
7 68 (7.05%) .NET Developer
8 65 (6.74%) Data Engineer
9 64 (6.63%) Lead
10 54 (5.60%) Full-Stack Developer
11 53 (5.49%) Senior Developer
12 52 (5.39%) Analyst
13 49 (5.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 46 (4.77%) Architect
15 42 (4.35%) SQL Developer
16 35 (3.63%) Software Engineer
17 28 (2.90%) Azure Engineer
17 28 (2.90%) Cloud Engineer
18 27 (2.80%) C# .NET Developer
18 27 (2.80%) SC Cleared DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 280 (29.02%) .NET
2 134 (13.89%) REST
3 86 (8.91%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.50%) React
5 79 (8.19%) Terraform
6 67 (6.94%) CSS
7 61 (6.32%) ASP.NET
7 61 (6.32%) HTML
8 58 (6.01%) .NET Core
8 58 (6.01%) AngularJS
9 56 (5.80%) Kafka
10 52 (5.39%) RESTful
11 51 (5.28%) JSON
12 44 (4.56%) Web Services
13 43 (4.46%) XML
14 38 (3.94%) SOAP
15 37 (3.83%) Spring Boot
16 33 (3.42%) OAuth
17 31 (3.21%) Spring
18 25 (2.59%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 60 (6.22%) Cloud Native
2 59 (6.11%) Onboarding
3 57 (5.91%) Enterprise Software
4 48 (4.97%) Data Structures
5 45 (4.66%) Replication
6 42 (4.35%) Clustering
6 42 (4.35%) Product Ownership
7 40 (4.15%) Self-Motivation
8 38 (3.94%) Data Centre
9 37 (3.83%) Management Information System
10 30 (3.11%) Legacy Systems
11 20 (2.07%) Distributed Systems
12 19 (1.97%) PKI
13 14 (1.45%) Derivative
13 14 (1.45%) Low-Code
13 14 (1.45%) Virtual Team
14 13 (1.35%) Algorithms
15 11 (1.14%) Legacy Applications
15 11 (1.14%) Taxonomies
16 10 (1.04%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 254 (26.32%) Windows
2 152 (15.75%) Windows Server
3 96 (9.95%) Linux
4 36 (3.73%) Unix
5 17 (1.76%) Solaris
6 14 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.14%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.83%) VMS
9 7 (0.73%) CentOS
9 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.62%) Android
10 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.41%) Windows 10
12 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.21%) AIX
13 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.10%) SUSE
14 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (26.74%) DevOps
2 245 (25.39%) CI/CD
3 244 (25.28%) Agile
4 192 (19.90%) Problem-Solving
5 184 (19.07%) Migration
6 141 (14.61%) Business Intelligence
7 136 (14.09%) Performance Tuning
8 133 (13.78%) ETL
9 129 (13.37%) Data Modelling
10 128 (13.26%) AI
11 121 (12.54%) Stakeholder Management
12 116 (12.02%) Continuous Improvement
13 108 (11.19%) Disaster Recovery
14 93 (9.64%) Microservices
15 90 (9.33%) Test Automation
16 88 (9.12%) Analytics
16 88 (9.12%) Software Engineering
17 85 (8.81%) Validation
18 74 (7.67%) Mentoring
19 72 (7.46%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 585 (60.62%) SQL
2 280 (29.02%) C#
3 176 (18.24%) Python
4 174 (18.03%) PowerShell
5 161 (16.68%) T-SQL
6 148 (15.34%) JavaScript
7 82 (8.50%) Java
8 62 (6.42%) TypeScript
9 57 (5.91%) PL/SQL
10 35 (3.63%) Bash
11 16 (1.66%) VB
12 15 (1.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 14 (1.45%) VBA
14 12 (1.24%) Shell Script
15 10 (1.04%) Bicep
16 8 (0.83%) PHP
16 8 (0.83%) Scala
17 7 (0.73%) Go
17 7 (0.73%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.62%) XPath
Qualifications
1 243 (25.18%) Security Cleared
2 177 (18.34%) SC Cleared
3 107 (11.09%) Degree
4 57 (5.91%) Microsoft Certification
5 53 (5.49%) DV Cleared
6 33 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 30 (3.11%) Azure Certification
8 25 (2.59%) BPSS Clearance
9 15 (1.55%) AWS Certification
10 13 (1.35%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.24%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (1.14%) OCP
13 9 (0.93%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 9 (0.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 9 (0.93%) Master's Degree
14 5 (0.52%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.52%) TOGAF Certification
15 4 (0.41%) CISSP
15 4 (0.41%) PhD
16 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (9.84%) QA
2 85 (8.81%) Data Quality
3 35 (3.63%) Accessibility
3 35 (3.63%) GDPR
4 25 (2.59%) WCAG
5 21 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 20 (2.07%) NIST
7 16 (1.66%) SLA
8 5 (0.52%) ISO 9000
9 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.31%) Basel III
9 3 (0.31%) Software Quality Assurance
10 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.21%) COREP
10 2 (0.21%) FINREP
10 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.10%) HL7
11 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 128 (13.26%) Active Directory
2 69 (7.15%) Docker
3 39 (4.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.42%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (1.76%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.04%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.73%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.62%) vSphere
9 5 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.41%) Virtual Servers
11 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.31%) Postfix
12 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.10%) HDFS
12 1 (0.10%) SRDF
12 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 82 (8.50%) Kubernetes
2 45 (4.66%) Ansible
3 20 (2.07%) SCOM
4 15 (1.55%) Data Guard
5 14 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (1.14%) Microsoft Clustering
6 11 (1.14%) SCCM
7 9 (0.93%) Grafana
7 9 (0.93%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 8 (0.83%) HAProxy
8 8 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.73%) Istio
9 7 (0.73%) WSUS
10 6 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (0.62%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.52%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (0.52%) Oracle RMAN
12 3 (0.31%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 3 (0.31%) PowerCLI
12 3 (0.31%) Puppet
Vendors
1 354 (36.68%) Microsoft
2 262 (27.15%) Oracle
3 74 (7.67%) Databricks
4 64 (6.63%) VMware
5 45 (4.66%) CyberArk
5 45 (4.66%) ServiceNow
6 35 (3.63%) Citrix
7 33 (3.42%) SAP
8 29 (3.01%) BeyondTrust
9 27 (2.80%) IBM
10 21 (2.18%) Cisco
11 20 (2.07%) Informatica
12 19 (1.97%) BMC
12 19 (1.97%) Remedy
13 17 (1.76%) Dynatrace
13 17 (1.76%) Google
14 16 (1.66%) Red Hat
15 14 (1.45%) Splunk
16 11 (1.14%) Alteryx
16 11 (1.14%) SolarWinds