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 14 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 96 63
Rank change year-on-year -29 -33 -12
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 825 679 1,226
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.11% 2.78% 3.31%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.33% 14.59% 20.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 574 503 860
10th Percentile £352 £330 £350
25th Percentile £404 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -0.48% -2.33%
75th Percentile £588 £639 £645
90th Percentile £673 £738 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £511 £525
% change year-on-year -7.00% -2.71% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 6 26
10th Percentile £18.62 £25.66 £21.79
25th Percentile £25.92 £34.80 £38.22
Median hourly rate £52.50 £62.12 £40.13
Median % change year-on-year -15.49% +54.82% +5.59%
75th Percentile £69.86 £65.62 £56.84
90th Percentile £74.25 £77.18 £62.98
UK median hourly rate £53.00 £62.12 £40.00
% change year-on-year -14.68% +55.31% -8.18%

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 6,190 4,653 6,109
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.84% 19.08% 16.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,302 3,264 4,383
10th Percentile £350 £358 £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 £675
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 150 94 137
10th Percentile £17.93 £20.96 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.84 £24.25 £20.77
Median hourly rate £51.00 £32.96 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +54.73% -17.60% -30.43%
75th Percentile £74.68 £65.46 £52.50
90th Percentile £83.30 £70.00 £70.25
UK median hourly rate £51.75 £32.96 £40.00
% change year-on-year +57.01% -17.60% -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 14 April 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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -24 457 £500 -9.09% 121
North of England -27 126 £450 +5.88% 92
South East -24 110 £484 -3.20% 119
North West -22 67 £463 +1.37% 52
Yorkshire -17 57 £428 +6.81% 33
Midlands -54 53 £450 -18.18% 55
South West -32 35 £438 -20.45% 49
East of England -9 27 £544 +4.07% 29
West Midlands -65 26 £449 -25.13% 32
East Midlands -18 25 £463 +29.92% 23
North East -21 3 £475 +5.56% 11
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 38 (4.61%) IIS
1 38 (4.61%) SharePoint
2 22 (2.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (2.06%) Confluence
4 13 (1.58%) Apache
4 13 (1.58%) Apache Spark
4 13 (1.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 11 (1.33%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (1.33%) Appian
5 11 (1.33%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.97%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.85%) CMS
8 6 (0.73%) Camunda
8 6 (0.73%) Sitecore CMS
9 4 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.36%) Apache Superset
10 3 (0.36%) OpenEdge
11 2 (0.24%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.12%) ColdFusion
12 1 (0.12%) JBoss
Applications
1 44 (5.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.70%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 12 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.09%) Remedy ITSM
3 8 (0.97%) Advent Geneva
4 7 (0.85%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
5 6 (0.73%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
7 3 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle General Ledger
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 3 (0.36%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.24%) Endur
8 2 (0.24%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.24%) Veritas eDiscovery
9 1 (0.12%) Findur
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle FAH
9 1 (0.12%) SAP R/3
9 1 (0.12%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 354 (42.91%) Azure
2 166 (20.12%) AWS
3 138 (16.73%) Power Platform
4 109 (13.21%) Azure DevOps
5 80 (9.70%) Azure Data Factory
6 62 (7.52%) GitHub
7 45 (5.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 39 (4.73%) GCP
9 36 (4.36%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (3.64%) SaaS
11 28 (3.39%) Power Automate
12 27 (3.27%) Amazon S3
12 27 (3.27%) GitHub Actions
13 24 (2.91%) Snowflake
14 23 (2.79%) Dynamics 365
15 22 (2.67%) IaaS
15 22 (2.67%) Serverless
16 20 (2.42%) Amazon EC2
17 19 (2.30%) Azure Monitor
18 18 (2.18%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (3.27%) DNS
2 21 (2.55%) DHCP
3 20 (2.42%) Firewall
4 13 (1.58%) Internet
5 12 (1.45%) VLAN
5 12 (1.45%) VPN
6 11 (1.33%) TCP/IP
7 10 (1.21%) SAN
8 7 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (0.73%) HTTP
9 6 (0.73%) LAN
9 6 (0.73%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.61%) IPv4
10 5 (0.61%) IPv6
11 4 (0.48%) FTP
11 4 (0.48%) Network Security
11 4 (0.48%) SSH
12 3 (0.36%) RS-232
12 3 (0.36%) WAN
12 3 (0.36%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (14.06%) PostgreSQL
2 113 (13.70%) Power BI
3 111 (13.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 95 (11.52%) Data Warehouse
5 87 (10.55%) Relational Database
6 66 (8.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 63 (7.64%) Oracle Database
8 59 (7.15%) Azure SQL Database
9 52 (6.30%) Data Lake
9 52 (6.30%) MySQL
10 35 (4.24%) NoSQL
11 34 (4.12%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 32 (3.88%) MongoDB
13 25 (3.03%) DB2
14 22 (2.67%) Metadata
15 20 (2.42%) Amazon RDS
16 18 (2.18%) Delta Lake
17 17 (2.06%) RDBMS
17 17 (2.06%) Tableau
18 13 (1.58%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 70 (8.48%) Git
2 51 (6.18%) JIRA
3 37 (4.48%) Jenkins
4 25 (3.03%) Visual Studio
5 21 (2.55%) GitLab
6 15 (1.82%) TeamCity
7 11 (1.33%) Cucumber
7 11 (1.33%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.21%) Maven
8 10 (1.21%) Postman
9 9 (1.09%) ERwin
9 9 (1.09%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 8 (0.97%) MLflow
10 8 (0.97%) Octopus Deploy
11 7 (0.85%) Chocolatey
11 7 (0.85%) JUnit
11 7 (0.85%) Selenium
12 6 (0.73%) Mockito
12 6 (0.73%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.73%) TestRail
General
1 230 (27.88%) Social Skills
2 187 (22.67%) Finance
3 133 (16.12%) Analytical Skills
4 95 (11.52%) Banking
5 72 (8.73%) Public Sector
6 34 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (2.91%) Front Office
7 24 (2.91%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (1.94%) Legal
10 14 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (1.58%) Retail
12 12 (1.45%) Financial Institution
13 9 (1.09%) Advertising
14 8 (0.97%) Local Government
15 6 (0.73%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.61%) Law
17 4 (0.48%) Back Office
17 4 (0.48%) General Ledger
17 4 (0.48%) Military
Job Titles
1 260 (31.52%) Developer
2 124 (15.03%) Senior
3 106 (12.85%) Data Engineer
4 89 (10.79%) DBA
5 77 (9.33%) C# Developer
6 70 (8.48%) Architect
7 63 (7.64%) .NET Developer
8 51 (6.18%) SQL DBA
9 41 (4.97%) Lead
10 36 (4.36%) Analyst
10 36 (4.36%) Senior Developer
11 33 (4.00%) Senior Data Engineer
12 30 (3.64%) Azure Engineer
13 29 (3.52%) Full-Stack Developer
13 29 (3.52%) Software Engineer
13 29 (3.52%) SQL Developer
14 27 (3.27%) Administrator
15 22 (2.67%) C# .NET Developer
15 22 (2.67%) Oracle DBA
16 20 (2.42%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 228 (27.64%) .NET
2 93 (11.27%) .NET Framework
2 93 (11.27%) REST
3 69 (8.36%) React
4 57 (6.91%) AngularJS
5 54 (6.55%) RESTful
6 51 (6.18%) HTML
7 48 (5.82%) CSS
8 40 (4.85%) ASP.NET
9 39 (4.73%) .NET Core
10 37 (4.48%) XML
11 36 (4.36%) Kafka
12 29 (3.52%) Web Services
13 23 (2.79%) Entity Framework
14 22 (2.67%) WPF
15 21 (2.55%) Spring
16 20 (2.42%) JSON
16 20 (2.42%) Node.js
16 20 (2.42%) SOAP
16 20 (2.42%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.91%) Legacy Systems
2 36 (4.36%) Cloud Native
3 34 (4.12%) Onboarding
4 32 (3.88%) Data Structures
4 32 (3.88%) Replication
5 23 (2.79%) Enterprise Software
6 21 (2.55%) Management Information System
7 19 (2.30%) Clustering
8 17 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
9 16 (1.94%) NHS
10 13 (1.58%) Product Ownership
11 12 (1.45%) Legacy Code
11 12 (1.45%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.21%) Low-Code
13 9 (1.09%) Credit Risk
13 9 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
13 9 (1.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 9 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
13 9 (1.09%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 166 (20.12%) Windows
2 91 (11.03%) Windows Server
3 82 (9.94%) Linux
4 46 (5.58%) Unix
5 12 (1.45%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (0.97%) AIX
8 7 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.36%) Android
11 2 (0.24%) OpenVMS
11 2 (0.24%) VMS
11 2 (0.24%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 199 (24.12%) DevOps
2 197 (23.88%) CI/CD
3 175 (21.21%) ETL
4 174 (21.09%) Problem-Solving
5 171 (20.73%) Agile
6 152 (18.42%) Business Intelligence
7 140 (16.97%) Data Modelling
8 122 (14.79%) Migration
9 101 (12.24%) Analytics
10 93 (11.27%) Disaster Recovery
11 85 (10.30%) Performance Tuning
12 82 (9.94%) Data Pipeline
13 79 (9.58%) Data Engineering
14 74 (8.97%) AI
14 74 (8.97%) Test Automation
15 72 (8.73%) Data Analysis
16 68 (8.24%) Data Integration
17 67 (8.12%) Microservices
18 63 (7.64%) High Availability
19 60 (7.27%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 480 (58.18%) SQL
2 208 (25.21%) C#
3 194 (23.52%) Python
4 125 (15.15%) T-SQL
5 105 (12.73%) PowerShell
6 75 (9.09%) JavaScript
7 71 (8.61%) Java
8 64 (7.76%) PL/SQL
9 50 (6.06%) TypeScript
10 32 (3.88%) Bash
11 24 (2.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 22 (2.67%) Shell Script
13 18 (2.18%) VB
14 16 (1.94%) Korn
15 15 (1.82%) Bicep
15 15 (1.82%) VBA
16 12 (1.45%) Scala
17 11 (1.33%) PHP
18 7 (0.85%) XPath
19 5 (0.61%) Rust
Qualifications
1 178 (21.58%) Security Cleared
2 135 (16.36%) SC Cleared
3 85 (10.30%) Degree
4 29 (3.52%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (2.79%) DV Cleared
7 19 (2.30%) Azure Certification
8 18 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (0.97%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.61%) CCA
10 5 (0.61%) Citrix Certification
10 5 (0.61%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.61%) OCP
10 5 (0.61%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (0.48%) CISSP
11 4 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (0.48%) MCITP
11 4 (0.48%) MCTS
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.24%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (11.15%) Data Quality
2 88 (10.67%) QA
3 21 (2.55%) GDPR
4 16 (1.94%) NIST
5 15 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.82%) SLA
6 6 (0.73%) Accessibility
6 6 (0.73%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.48%) IFRS
7 4 (0.48%) WCAG
8 3 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.36%) IFRS 17
8 3 (0.36%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.24%) Basel III
9 2 (0.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.24%) EMIR
9 2 (0.24%) GAAP
9 2 (0.24%) GRC
9 2 (0.24%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.24%) MiFID
System Software
1 85 (10.30%) Docker
2 62 (7.52%) Active Directory
3 19 (2.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.94%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.94%) Oracle RAC
5 11 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.73%) KVM
8 5 (0.61%) XenApp
8 5 (0.61%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.36%) GridGain
10 2 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.12%) NFS
11 1 (0.12%) RACF
11 1 (0.12%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 86 (10.42%) Kubernetes
2 57 (6.91%) Terraform
3 17 (2.06%) Ansible
4 16 (1.94%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (1.70%) Grafana
5 14 (1.70%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 14 (1.70%) SCCM
6 10 (1.21%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.97%) Puppet
7 8 (0.97%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.85%) TIBCO Hawk
9 6 (0.73%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (0.73%) WSUS
10 5 (0.61%) HAProxy
10 5 (0.61%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.36%) Control-M
11 3 (0.36%) Foglight
11 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.36%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 254 (30.79%) Microsoft
2 236 (28.61%) Oracle
3 70 (8.48%) Databricks
4 55 (6.67%) Citrix
5 39 (4.73%) ServiceNow
6 32 (3.88%) VMware
7 29 (3.52%) Informatica
8 21 (2.55%) CyberArk
8 21 (2.55%) SAP
9 20 (2.42%) Google
9 20 (2.42%) IBM
10 14 (1.70%) BeyondTrust
10 14 (1.70%) Sybase
11 11 (1.33%) Dynatrace
11 11 (1.33%) UiPath
12 10 (1.21%) OpenAI
13 9 (1.09%) Remedy
13 9 (1.09%) Tenable
14 8 (0.97%) BMC
14 8 (0.97%) TIBCO