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 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 97 58
Rank change year-on-year -18 -39 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 975 668 1,302
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.23% 2.62% 3.51%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.56% 14.23% 20.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 676 501 915
10th Percentile £353 £325 £347
25th Percentile £408 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £505
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +1.49% -3.81%
75th Percentile £614 £650 £638
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £489 £500 £503
% change year-on-year -2.25% -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 6,696 4,693 6,499
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.30% 18.40% 17.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,510 3,250 4,681
10th Percentile £352 £358 £350
25th Percentile £415 £418 £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 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 218 87 139
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.05 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.05 £25.01 £20.76
Median hourly rate £38.25 £34.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -15.00% -29.76%
75th Percentile £69.86 £62.88 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £73.00 £71.70
UK median hourly rate £39.00 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +11.43% -12.50% -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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 -27 487 £525 -8.70% 80
North of England -5 174 £475 +11.76% 76
South East -14 119 £450 - 96
North West -16 93 £478 +9.89% 39
Midlands -19 88 £492 +15.76% 59
Yorkshire +7 80 £450 +12.50% 28
South West -5 51 £481 +1.32% 16
East Midlands +9 43 £525 +60.80% 19
West Midlands -39 43 £478 -9.05% 40
East of England -4 37 £475 -5.00% 11
North East -37 2 £475 +4.11% 12
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 58 (5.95%) SharePoint
2 44 (4.51%) IIS
3 31 (3.18%) Confluence
4 23 (2.36%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.36%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (2.26%) Apache
6 20 (2.05%) Apache Airflow
7 14 (1.44%) Appian
8 13 (1.33%) Camunda
9 12 (1.23%) CMS
9 12 (1.23%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.62%) NetWeaver
10 6 (0.62%) Sitecore CMS
11 5 (0.51%) OpenEdge
11 5 (0.51%) Tuxedo
11 5 (0.51%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.41%) Tomcat
13 3 (0.31%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.31%) nginx
13 3 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 42 (4.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (2.05%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.44%) 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 (1.33%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
4 6 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
5 5 (0.51%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.51%) OpenText MBPM
5 5 (0.51%) Oracle BPM
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%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.21%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 409 (41.95%) Azure
2 223 (22.87%) AWS
3 147 (15.08%) Power Platform
4 103 (10.56%) Azure DevOps
5 87 (8.92%) GitHub
6 72 (7.38%) Azure Data Factory
7 42 (4.31%) GCP
8 38 (3.90%) GitHub Actions
8 38 (3.90%) Serverless
9 37 (3.79%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 35 (3.59%) Power Automate
11 34 (3.49%) Azure Monitor
12 33 (3.38%) Snowflake
13 32 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
14 29 (2.97%) Dynamics 365
15 26 (2.67%) Entra ID
15 26 (2.67%) SaaS
16 24 (2.46%) dbt
17 23 (2.36%) Amazon S3
18 20 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 37 (3.79%) DNS
2 29 (2.97%) DHCP
3 18 (1.85%) Firewall
3 18 (1.85%) SAN
4 13 (1.33%) Internet
5 12 (1.23%) VLAN
6 10 (1.03%) SSH
7 9 (0.92%) TCP/IP
7 9 (0.92%) VPN
8 8 (0.82%) Network Security
9 6 (0.62%) HTTPS
9 6 (0.62%) IPv4
9 6 (0.62%) IPv6
9 6 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (0.51%) SSL
11 4 (0.41%) LAN
12 3 (0.31%) Kerberos
12 3 (0.31%) NAS
12 3 (0.31%) VoIP
12 3 (0.31%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 150 (15.38%) PostgreSQL
2 122 (12.51%) Power BI
3 110 (11.28%) Relational Database
3 110 (11.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 107 (10.97%) Data Warehouse
5 73 (7.49%) Oracle Database
6 63 (6.46%) MySQL
7 56 (5.74%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 50 (5.13%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (4.92%) Data Lake
10 47 (4.82%) MongoDB
11 39 (4.00%) NoSQL
12 32 (3.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 29 (2.97%) RDBMS
14 22 (2.26%) Tableau
15 19 (1.95%) Metadata
16 17 (1.74%) Big Data
16 17 (1.74%) Redis
17 16 (1.64%) Delta Lake
18 15 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 83 (8.51%) Git
2 53 (5.44%) JIRA
3 49 (5.03%) Jenkins
4 30 (3.08%) Visual Studio
5 24 (2.46%) GitLab
6 18 (1.85%) TeamCity
7 17 (1.74%) Team Foundation Server
8 15 (1.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 13 (1.33%) 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
1 277 (28.41%) Social Skills
2 242 (24.82%) Finance
3 161 (16.51%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (12.10%) Banking
5 76 (7.79%) Public Sector
6 41 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (3.49%) Front Office
8 25 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.26%) Investment Banking
10 18 (1.85%) Legal
11 15 (1.54%) 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%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 295 (30.26%) Developer
2 142 (14.56%) Senior
3 119 (12.21%) DBA
4 104 (10.67%) Data Engineer
5 87 (8.92%) C# Developer
6 72 (7.38%) SQL DBA
7 71 (7.28%) .NET Developer
8 70 (7.18%) Lead
9 59 (6.05%) Architect
10 49 (5.03%) SQL Developer
11 44 (4.51%) Analyst
12 42 (4.31%) Senior Developer
13 39 (4.00%) Administrator
14 35 (3.59%) Software Engineer
15 33 (3.38%) Full-Stack Developer
16 31 (3.18%) Azure Engineer
16 31 (3.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 31 (3.18%) Senior Data Engineer
17 30 (3.08%) Oracle DBA
18 28 (2.87%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 249 (25.54%) .NET
2 123 (12.62%) REST
3 104 (10.67%) .NET Framework
4 82 (8.41%) React
5 64 (6.56%) CSS
6 63 (6.46%) RESTful
7 61 (6.26%) AngularJS
8 55 (5.64%) ASP.NET
9 54 (5.54%) HTML
10 51 (5.23%) Kafka
11 48 (4.92%) .NET Core
12 36 (3.69%) Web Services
12 36 (3.69%) XML
13 31 (3.18%) JSON
14 28 (2.87%) OAuth
14 28 (2.87%) SOAP
15 27 (2.77%) Entity Framework
16 25 (2.56%) Spring Boot
17 24 (2.46%) Spring
18 20 (2.05%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.54%) Legacy Systems
2 51 (5.23%) Cloud Native
3 48 (4.92%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.10%) Data Structures
4 40 (4.10%) Replication
5 36 (3.69%) Clustering
6 34 (3.49%) Self-Motivation
7 33 (3.38%) Enterprise Software
8 24 (2.46%) Management Information System
9 21 (2.15%) Low-Code
10 20 (2.05%) Product Ownership
11 17 (1.74%) Derivative
11 17 (1.74%) PKI
12 16 (1.64%) NHS
13 14 (1.44%) Fixed Income
14 13 (1.33%) Algorithms
14 13 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
15 12 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
15 12 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
15 12 (1.23%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 230 (23.59%) Windows
2 129 (13.23%) Windows Server
3 91 (9.33%) Linux
4 60 (6.15%) Unix
5 11 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (1.13%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.03%) AIX
6 10 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.92%) Android
8 8 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.51%) Solaris
10 5 (0.51%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.51%) VMS
11 3 (0.31%) CentOS
12 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 242 (24.82%) DevOps
2 230 (23.59%) CI/CD
3 225 (23.08%) Agile
4 199 (20.41%) Problem-Solving
5 169 (17.33%) ETL
6 155 (15.90%) Migration
7 150 (15.38%) Business Intelligence
8 142 (14.56%) Data Modelling
9 121 (12.41%) Performance Tuning
10 108 (11.08%) AI
11 106 (10.87%) Analytics
11 106 (10.87%) Disaster Recovery
12 90 (9.23%) Data Pipeline
13 87 (8.92%) Microservices
14 83 (8.51%) High Availability
15 82 (8.41%) Data Analysis
16 80 (8.21%) Validation
17 79 (8.10%) Data Integration
18 78 (8.00%) Data Engineering
19 77 (7.90%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 555 (56.92%) SQL
2 258 (26.46%) C#
3 231 (23.69%) Python
4 166 (17.03%) PowerShell
5 163 (16.72%) T-SQL
6 96 (9.85%) JavaScript
7 79 (8.10%) Java
8 65 (6.67%) PL/SQL
9 57 (5.85%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.18%) Bash
11 25 (2.56%) Shell Script
12 23 (2.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 20 (2.05%) Scala
14 19 (1.95%) VB
15 16 (1.64%) Korn
16 13 (1.33%) VBA
17 11 (1.13%) Bicep
18 7 (0.72%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.72%) VB6
19 5 (0.51%) XPath
Qualifications
1 222 (22.77%) Security Cleared
2 168 (17.23%) SC Cleared
3 109 (11.18%) Degree
4 39 (4.00%) DV Cleared
5 35 (3.59%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.74%) Azure Certification
9 10 (1.03%) Master's Degree
10 9 (0.92%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.62%) ISTQB
11 6 (0.62%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (0.51%) CISSP
12 5 (0.51%) OCP
13 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.41%) MCITP
13 4 (0.41%) MCTS
13 4 (0.41%) PhD
14 3 (0.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 3 (0.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (10.26%) QA
2 99 (10.15%) Data Quality
3 27 (2.77%) GDPR
4 26 (2.67%) NIST
5 24 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.64%) SLA
7 15 (1.54%) Accessibility
8 11 (1.13%) WCAG
9 7 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.41%) ISO 9000
11 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.31%) Basel III
11 3 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.31%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.21%) COREP
12 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.21%) GRC
12 2 (0.21%) IFRS
12 2 (0.21%) IFRS 9
12 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 98 (10.05%) Active Directory
2 83 (8.51%) Docker
3 30 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
4 22 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
5 19 (1.95%) Oracle RAC
6 13 (1.33%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.62%) KVM
7 6 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.31%) Dovecot
8 3 (0.31%) GridGain
8 3 (0.31%) Postfix
8 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.31%) XenApp
8 3 (0.31%) XenDesktop
9 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.21%) vSphere
10 1 (0.10%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.10%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.10%) NFS
10 1 (0.10%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 108 (11.08%) Kubernetes
2 70 (7.18%) Terraform
3 32 (3.28%) Ansible
4 20 (2.05%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 19 (1.95%) Oracle RMAN
6 15 (1.54%) SCCM
7 13 (1.33%) HAProxy
8 10 (1.03%) WSUS
9 8 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.72%) Grafana
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
14 3 (0.31%) Foglight
14 3 (0.31%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.31%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.31%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 287 (29.44%) Microsoft
2 264 (27.08%) Oracle
3 69 (7.08%) Databricks
4 53 (5.44%) Citrix
5 47 (4.82%) ServiceNow
6 37 (3.79%) CyberArk
7 35 (3.59%) SAP
7 35 (3.59%) VMware
8 32 (3.28%) Informatica
9 23 (2.36%) BeyondTrust
9 23 (2.36%) Google
9 23 (2.36%) Sybase
10 17 (1.74%) Dynatrace
10 17 (1.74%) IBM
11 14 (1.44%) Remedy
12 13 (1.33%) BMC
12 13 (1.33%) Cisco
13 12 (1.23%) Red Hat
14 11 (1.13%) Alteryx
15 10 (1.03%) OpenAI