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

 6 months to
24 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 112 102 55
Rank change year-on-year -10 -47 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,010 698 1,295
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.25% 2.55% 3.70%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.64% 13.94% 20.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 702 520 923
10th Percentile £358 £315 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £515 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.29% +2.95% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £631
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 46 6 12
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £31.80
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £39.19
Median hourly rate £38.51 £23.80 £46.84
Median % change year-on-year +61.84% -49.20% +2.95%
75th Percentile £63.31 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.13 £73.80
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year -32.09% +51.58% +2.62%

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 6,899 5,007 6,317
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.35% 18.30% 18.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,616 3,470 4,547
10th Percentile £355 £350 £350
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £531
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -2.54% -3.45%
75th Percentile £606 £638 £675
90th Percentile £700 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £508 £525
% change year-on-year -1.48% -3.33% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 80 99
10th Percentile £16.70 £18.72 £13.94
25th Percentile £25.25 £23.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £39.50 £34.82 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.46% -9.57% -30.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.06 £56.25
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.62 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £36.25 £37.50
% change year-on-year +15.06% -3.33% -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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -36 479 £525 -4.89% 126
North of England +18 201 £473 +11.18% 81
South East -11 124 £465 +9.41% 104
North West +2 111 £478 +12.47% 38
Midlands -6 101 £475 +9.20% 51
Yorkshire +18 90 £450 -3.49% 32
West Midlands -35 57 £472 -18.00% 29
South West -14 51 £481 +4.05% 26
East Midlands +13 42 £525 +54.41% 22
East of England -4 34 £450 -10.00% 23
North East -39 1 - - 15
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 64 (6.34%) SharePoint
2 46 (4.55%) IIS
3 37 (3.66%) Confluence
4 23 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
5 22 (2.18%) Apache Spark
6 20 (1.98%) Apache
7 18 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (1.29%) Camunda
9 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
10 10 (0.99%) Appian
11 8 (0.79%) CMS
12 6 (0.59%) 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 Superset
15 3 (0.30%) nginx
15 3 (0.30%) Sitecore CMS
16 2 (0.20%) Anypoint
Applications
1 47 (4.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (2.18%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.19%) 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 20 (1.98%) Remedy ITSM
2 18 (1.78%) SAP S/4HANA
3 16 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
4 6 (0.59%) OpenText MBPM
4 6 (0.59%) Oracle BPM
5 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
7 3 (0.30%) Aladdin
7 3 (0.30%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.099%) Endur
9 1 (0.099%) Findur
9 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 415 (41.09%) Azure
2 215 (21.29%) AWS
3 141 (13.96%) Power Platform
4 107 (10.59%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (8.81%) GitHub
6 61 (6.04%) Azure Data Factory
7 43 (4.26%) Entra ID
8 40 (3.96%) Serverless
9 39 (3.86%) Azure Monitor
10 38 (3.76%) Microsoft 365
11 37 (3.66%) GitHub Actions
11 37 (3.66%) Snowflake
12 35 (3.47%) Power Automate
13 32 (3.17%) GCP
14 31 (3.07%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 31 (3.07%) Dynamics 365
15 29 (2.87%) SaaS
16 25 (2.48%) Amazon S3
16 25 (2.48%) dbt
17 24 (2.38%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 46 (4.55%) DNS
2 37 (3.66%) DHCP
3 28 (2.77%) Firewall
4 20 (1.98%) SAN
5 18 (1.78%) VLAN
6 15 (1.49%) VPN
7 14 (1.39%) Internet
8 12 (1.19%) Network Security
9 11 (1.09%) SSH
9 11 (1.09%) TCP/IP
9 11 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
10 8 (0.79%) SSL
11 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.59%) IPv4
11 6 (0.59%) IPv6
11 6 (0.59%) LAN
12 5 (0.50%) WAN
13 4 (0.40%) Kerberos
13 4 (0.40%) VoIP
14 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (14.75%) PostgreSQL
2 117 (11.58%) Power BI
3 108 (10.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 104 (10.30%) Relational Database
5 103 (10.20%) Data Warehouse
6 77 (7.62%) Oracle Database
7 63 (6.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 62 (6.14%) MySQL
9 52 (5.15%) Azure SQL Database
10 42 (4.16%) MongoDB
11 41 (4.06%) Data Lake
12 34 (3.37%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 30 (2.97%) NoSQL
14 24 (2.38%) RDBMS
15 22 (2.18%) Tableau
16 16 (1.58%) Metadata
16 16 (1.58%) Redis
17 15 (1.49%) Big Data
17 15 (1.49%) Db2
18 14 (1.39%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 90 (8.91%) Git
2 55 (5.45%) Jenkins
3 52 (5.15%) JIRA
4 29 (2.87%) Visual Studio
5 26 (2.57%) GitLab
6 20 (1.98%) Team Foundation Server
7 18 (1.78%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 18 (1.78%) TeamCity
8 15 (1.49%) Maven
9 13 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
10 12 (1.19%) Cucumber
11 11 (1.09%) Octopus Deploy
11 11 (1.09%) Postman
12 10 (0.99%) Selenium
13 9 (0.89%) Artifactory
13 9 (0.89%) Chocolatey
13 9 (0.89%) Gatling
14 8 (0.79%) JUnit
14 8 (0.79%) MSTest
15 7 (0.69%) Oracle Forms
General
1 288 (28.51%) Social Skills
2 249 (24.65%) Finance
3 184 (18.22%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (12.18%) Banking
5 80 (7.92%) Public Sector
6 47 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (3.56%) Front Office
8 23 (2.28%) Investment Banking
9 22 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 16 (1.58%) Legal
11 15 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
12 13 (1.29%) Financial Institution
13 10 (0.99%) Retail
14 9 (0.89%) Advertising
15 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.59%) Back Office
16 6 (0.59%) Local Government
17 5 (0.50%) Law
17 5 (0.50%) Publishing
17 5 (0.50%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 301 (29.80%) Developer
2 150 (14.85%) Senior
3 143 (14.16%) DBA
4 91 (9.01%) SQL DBA
5 87 (8.61%) C# Developer
6 86 (8.51%) Data Engineer
7 76 (7.52%) .NET Developer
8 70 (6.93%) Lead
9 56 (5.54%) Architect
10 54 (5.35%) Administrator
11 53 (5.25%) SQL Developer
12 45 (4.46%) Senior Developer
13 43 (4.26%) Analyst
14 42 (4.16%) Oracle DBA
15 41 (4.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 39 (3.86%) Software Engineer
17 35 (3.47%) Full-Stack Developer
18 34 (3.37%) Azure Engineer
19 31 (3.07%) C# .NET Developer
20 30 (2.97%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 253 (25.05%) .NET
2 128 (12.67%) REST
3 103 (10.20%) .NET Framework
4 83 (8.22%) React
5 60 (5.94%) CSS
6 59 (5.84%) RESTful
7 57 (5.64%) AngularJS
8 56 (5.54%) ASP.NET
9 50 (4.95%) HTML
10 49 (4.85%) Kafka
11 48 (4.75%) .NET Core
12 39 (3.86%) Web Services
13 38 (3.76%) XML
14 37 (3.66%) JSON
15 31 (3.07%) SOAP
16 28 (2.77%) Entity Framework
17 25 (2.48%) Spring Boot
18 24 (2.38%) OAuth
19 23 (2.28%) Spring
20 20 (1.98%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 55 (5.45%) Onboarding
2 50 (4.95%) Legacy Systems
3 49 (4.85%) Cloud Native
4 46 (4.55%) Data Structures
4 46 (4.55%) Replication
5 44 (4.36%) Clustering
6 39 (3.86%) Self-Motivation
7 36 (3.56%) Enterprise Software
8 25 (2.48%) Management Information System
9 22 (2.18%) Product Ownership
10 20 (1.98%) PKI
11 18 (1.78%) Low-Code
12 16 (1.58%) Derivative
12 16 (1.58%) NHS
13 15 (1.49%) Data Centre
14 13 (1.29%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (1.29%) Fixed Income
15 12 (1.19%) Algorithms
15 12 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
16 10 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 252 (24.95%) Windows
2 147 (14.55%) Windows Server
3 98 (9.70%) Linux
4 57 (5.64%) Unix
5 13 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.89%) AIX
7 8 (0.79%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.79%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (0.59%) Android
8 6 (0.59%) 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
11 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.099%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (24.55%) DevOps
2 225 (22.28%) Agile
3 218 (21.58%) CI/CD
4 211 (20.89%) Problem-Solving
5 177 (17.52%) Migration
6 158 (15.64%) ETL
7 145 (14.36%) Business Intelligence
8 139 (13.76%) Performance Tuning
9 132 (13.07%) Data Modelling
10 119 (11.78%) Disaster Recovery
11 112 (11.09%) AI
12 95 (9.41%) Analytics
13 91 (9.01%) Data Pipeline
13 91 (9.01%) High Availability
14 86 (8.51%) Microservices
15 80 (7.92%) Continuous Improvement
16 78 (7.72%) Data Analysis
16 78 (7.72%) Test Automation
17 76 (7.52%) Software Engineering
17 76 (7.52%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 576 (57.03%) SQL
2 259 (25.64%) C#
3 207 (20.50%) Python
4 182 (18.02%) PowerShell
5 168 (16.63%) T-SQL
6 109 (10.79%) JavaScript
7 78 (7.72%) Java
8 65 (6.44%) PL/SQL
9 55 (5.45%) TypeScript
10 36 (3.56%) Bash
11 26 (2.57%) Shell Script
12 22 (2.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (1.78%) Scala
13 18 (1.78%) VB
14 16 (1.58%) Korn
15 15 (1.49%) VBA
16 11 (1.09%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.59%) VB6
18 6 (0.59%) XPath
Qualifications
1 247 (24.46%) Security Cleared
2 185 (18.32%) SC Cleared
3 104 (10.30%) Degree
4 45 (4.46%) DV Cleared
5 36 (3.56%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.78%) Azure Certification
9 10 (0.99%) ISTQB
9 10 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
10 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.89%) Master's Degree
10 9 (0.89%) OCP
11 5 (0.50%) CISSP
12 4 (0.40%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.40%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 4 (0.40%) MCITP
12 4 (0.40%) MCTS
12 4 (0.40%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (9.50%) QA
2 90 (8.91%) Data Quality
3 28 (2.77%) GDPR
4 26 (2.57%) NIST
5 24 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (2.18%) Accessibility
7 20 (1.98%) SLA
8 14 (1.39%) WCAG
9 6 (0.59%) 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
1 118 (11.68%) Active Directory
2 73 (7.23%) Docker
3 32 (3.17%) Virtual Machines
4 30 (2.97%) Oracle RAC
5 27 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
6 13 (1.29%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.59%) KVM
9 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.30%) GridGain
9 3 (0.30%) Postfix
9 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.20%) vSphere
11 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.099%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.099%) SRDF
11 1 (0.099%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.099%) XenApp
11 1 (0.099%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 98 (9.70%) Kubernetes
2 70 (6.93%) Terraform
3 36 (3.56%) Ansible
4 23 (2.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.08%) Oracle RMAN
6 15 (1.49%) Data Guard
6 15 (1.49%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (1.49%) SCCM
7 13 (1.29%) HAProxy
8 10 (0.99%) WSUS
9 9 (0.89%) Grafana
9 9 (0.89%) SCOM
10 7 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.69%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.59%) IBM BigFix
12 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Clustering
13 4 (0.40%) ITRS Geneos
13 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.30%) Foglight
Vendors
1 313 (30.99%) Microsoft
2 283 (28.02%) Oracle
3 54 (5.35%) Databricks
4 51 (5.05%) ServiceNow
4 51 (5.05%) VMware
5 50 (4.95%) Citrix
6 44 (4.36%) CyberArk
7 38 (3.76%) SAP
8 28 (2.77%) BeyondTrust
9 23 (2.28%) Sybase
10 22 (2.18%) Informatica
11 20 (1.98%) Dynatrace
11 20 (1.98%) Remedy
12 19 (1.88%) BMC
12 19 (1.88%) Cisco
13 18 (1.78%) IBM
14 17 (1.68%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.58%) Google
16 12 (1.19%) Alteryx
17 11 (1.09%) AppDynamics
377 SQL Server jobs in England