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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 108 55
Rank change year-on-year -7 -53 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,007 682 1,217
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.21% 2.46% 3.65%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.43% 13.62% 19.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 504 859
10th Percentile £358 £313 £331
25th Percentile £413 £400 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £600 £645 £625
90th Percentile £712 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.90% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 6 9
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £29.48
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £36.75
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.80 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +99.79% -51.00% +6.73%
75th Percentile £68.88 £64.71 £62.96
90th Percentile £76.40 £83.13 £84.00
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £48.03
% change year-on-year -32.09% +45.74% +6.73%

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 6,978 5,009 6,124
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.31% 18.10% 18.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,683 3,469 4,359
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -4.63% -1.82%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £675
90th Percentile £700 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 223 80 93
10th Percentile £15.07 £20.55 £14.40
25th Percentile £23.48 £24.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £34.58 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.63% -7.80% -31.82%
75th Percentile £65.61 £62.44 £59.95
90th Percentile £76.00 £77.62 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.00 £35.00 £34.47
% change year-on-year +11.43% +1.55% -34.35%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -31 483 £525 -4.55% 466
North of England +10 204 £474 +5.28% 108
South East -15 121 £450 +18.42% 132
North West -4 113 £478 +8.64% 61
Midlands -2 101 £473 +11.29% 85
Yorkshire +16 91 £450 -6.25% 34
West Midlands -17 58 £450 -14.29% 50
South West -14 49 £513 +13.89% 43
East Midlands +15 41 £525 +60.80% 35
East of England -18 25 £450 -10.00% 30
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 (6.85%) SharePoint
2 48 (4.77%) IIS
3 42 (4.17%) Confluence
4 23 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (1.89%) Apache
5 19 (1.89%) Apache Spark
6 17 (1.69%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (1.29%) Camunda
8 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.60%) Appian
9 6 (0.60%) CMS
9 6 (0.60%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.40%) Apache Solr
11 4 (0.40%) OpenEdge
11 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
11 4 (0.40%) Umbraco
12 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
12 3 (0.30%) nginx
13 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 50 (4.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.99%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.099%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.099%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.099%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 25 (2.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 20 (1.99%) Dynamics CRM
3 16 (1.59%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.70%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
5 6 (0.60%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.40%) Aladdin
6 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Endur
7 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.099%) Findur
8 1 (0.099%) Loan IQ
8 1 (0.099%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 418 (41.51%) Azure
2 215 (21.35%) AWS
3 151 (15.00%) Power Platform
4 108 (10.72%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (8.84%) GitHub
6 62 (6.16%) Azure Data Factory
7 48 (4.77%) Entra ID
8 42 (4.17%) Azure Monitor
9 41 (4.07%) Serverless
10 39 (3.87%) GitHub Actions
10 39 (3.87%) Microsoft 365
11 38 (3.77%) Power Automate
12 37 (3.67%) Snowflake
13 33 (3.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 33 (3.28%) Dynamics 365
14 30 (2.98%) GCP
15 26 (2.58%) dbt
16 25 (2.48%) SaaS
17 21 (2.09%) Amazon S3
17 21 (2.09%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 49 (4.87%) DNS
2 39 (3.87%) DHCP
3 30 (2.98%) Firewall
4 19 (1.89%) SAN
5 18 (1.79%) VLAN
6 15 (1.49%) VPN
7 14 (1.39%) Internet
8 13 (1.29%) Network Security
9 12 (1.19%) TCP/IP
10 11 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (0.99%) SSL
12 9 (0.89%) SSH
13 7 (0.70%) LAN
14 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
14 6 (0.60%) IPv4
14 6 (0.60%) IPv6
15 5 (0.50%) Kerberos
15 5 (0.50%) VoIP
15 5 (0.50%) WAN
16 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (14.70%) PostgreSQL
2 128 (12.71%) Power BI
3 101 (10.03%) Relational Database
4 100 (9.93%) Data Warehouse
5 96 (9.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 73 (7.25%) MySQL
7 71 (7.05%) Oracle Database
8 60 (5.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 54 (5.36%) Azure SQL Database
10 48 (4.77%) MongoDB
11 37 (3.67%) Data Lake
12 31 (3.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 28 (2.78%) NoSQL
14 22 (2.18%) RDBMS
14 22 (2.18%) Redis
15 20 (1.99%) Tableau
16 19 (1.89%) Amazon RDS
17 16 (1.59%) Star Schema
18 15 (1.49%) Metadata
19 12 (1.19%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 92 (9.14%) Git
2 55 (5.46%) Jenkins
3 52 (5.16%) JIRA
4 30 (2.98%) GitLab
5 26 (2.58%) Visual Studio
6 18 (1.79%) TeamCity
7 17 (1.69%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 16 (1.59%) Maven
8 16 (1.59%) Team Foundation Server
9 14 (1.39%) Postman
9 14 (1.39%) Sonatype Nexus
10 13 (1.29%) Octopus Deploy
11 12 (1.19%) Cucumber
11 12 (1.19%) Selenium
12 10 (0.99%) Artifactory
12 10 (0.99%) Cypress.io
13 9 (0.89%) Gatling
13 9 (0.89%) REST Assured
13 9 (0.89%) WebDriver
14 8 (0.79%) Chocolatey
General
1 302 (29.99%) Social Skills
2 254 (25.22%) Finance
3 183 (18.17%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (12.61%) Banking
5 81 (8.04%) Public Sector
6 40 (3.97%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (3.97%) Front Office
7 26 (2.58%) Investment Banking
8 20 (1.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (1.59%) Legal
9 16 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
10 14 (1.39%) Financial Institution
10 14 (1.39%) Retail
11 9 (0.89%) Advertising
11 9 (0.89%) Manufacturing
12 7 (0.70%) Back Office
13 5 (0.50%) Law
13 5 (0.50%) Local Government
13 5 (0.50%) Military
13 5 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 298 (29.59%) Developer
2 159 (15.79%) Senior
3 149 (14.80%) DBA
4 89 (8.84%) SQL DBA
5 86 (8.54%) Data Engineer
6 84 (8.34%) C# Developer
7 79 (7.85%) .NET Developer
8 71 (7.05%) Lead
9 64 (6.36%) Administrator
10 49 (4.87%) Architect
10 49 (4.87%) SQL Developer
11 48 (4.77%) Senior Developer
12 45 (4.47%) Analyst
12 45 (4.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 42 (4.17%) Oracle DBA
14 40 (3.97%) Full-Stack Developer
15 38 (3.77%) Software Engineer
16 35 (3.48%) Azure Engineer
17 33 (3.28%) Consultant
18 32 (3.18%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 260 (25.82%) .NET
2 122 (12.12%) REST
3 101 (10.03%) .NET Framework
4 75 (7.45%) React
5 59 (5.86%) ASP.NET
6 55 (5.46%) RESTful
7 54 (5.36%) AngularJS
8 52 (5.16%) Kafka
9 50 (4.97%) CSS
10 46 (4.57%) .NET Core
11 41 (4.07%) HTML
12 36 (3.57%) JSON
12 36 (3.57%) Web Services
13 35 (3.48%) XML
14 29 (2.88%) SOAP
15 28 (2.78%) Entity Framework
16 23 (2.28%) Spring Boot
16 23 (2.28%) WinForms
17 21 (2.09%) OAuth
17 21 (2.09%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 58 (5.76%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.06%) Cloud Native
3 47 (4.67%) Data Structures
4 44 (4.37%) Clustering
4 44 (4.37%) Replication
5 43 (4.27%) Legacy Systems
6 41 (4.07%) Self-Motivation
7 39 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
8 23 (2.28%) Management Information System
8 23 (2.28%) Product Ownership
9 22 (2.18%) Data Centre
10 21 (2.09%) PKI
11 17 (1.69%) Derivative
12 14 (1.39%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.39%) Low-Code
13 13 (1.29%) NHS
14 11 (1.09%) Algorithms
14 11 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
14 11 (1.09%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.09%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 261 (25.92%) Windows
2 148 (14.70%) Windows Server
3 95 (9.43%) Linux
4 49 (4.87%) Unix
5 13 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.79%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.79%) VMS
7 7 (0.70%) Solaris
7 7 (0.70%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.60%) AIX
8 6 (0.60%) Android
8 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
9 4 (0.40%) 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
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (25.12%) DevOps
2 228 (22.64%) CI/CD
3 225 (22.34%) Agile
4 199 (19.76%) Problem-Solving
5 188 (18.67%) Migration
6 158 (15.69%) ETL
7 147 (14.60%) Business Intelligence
8 137 (13.60%) Data Modelling
8 137 (13.60%) Performance Tuning
9 121 (12.02%) Disaster Recovery
10 112 (11.12%) AI
11 99 (9.83%) Analytics
12 95 (9.43%) High Availability
13 88 (8.74%) Data Pipeline
14 82 (8.14%) Microservices
14 82 (8.14%) Stakeholder Management
15 81 (8.04%) Continuous Improvement
16 78 (7.75%) Test Automation
17 77 (7.65%) Software Engineering
18 76 (7.55%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 569 (56.50%) SQL
2 264 (26.22%) C#
3 196 (19.46%) Python
4 181 (17.97%) PowerShell
5 163 (16.19%) T-SQL
6 112 (11.12%) JavaScript
7 74 (7.35%) Java
8 64 (6.36%) PL/SQL
9 49 (4.87%) TypeScript
10 38 (3.77%) Bash
11 25 (2.48%) Shell Script
12 24 (2.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 17 (1.69%) Korn
13 17 (1.69%) Scala
13 17 (1.69%) VB
14 15 (1.49%) VBA
15 9 (0.89%) Bicep
16 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.60%) XPath
18 5 (0.50%) VB6
Qualifications
1 259 (25.72%) Security Cleared
2 198 (19.66%) SC Cleared
3 97 (9.63%) Degree
4 44 (4.37%) Microsoft Certification
5 43 (4.27%) DV Cleared
6 26 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 21 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.89%) Azure Certification
9 13 (1.29%) ISTQB
10 12 (1.19%) Oracle Certification
11 11 (1.09%) AWS Certification
11 11 (1.09%) OCP
12 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.60%) CISSP
14 6 (0.60%) Master's Degree
15 5 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 4 (0.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 4 (0.40%) MCITP
16 4 (0.40%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (9.63%) QA
2 93 (9.24%) Data Quality
3 28 (2.78%) GDPR
4 24 (2.38%) Accessibility
5 23 (2.28%) NIST
6 21 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (1.99%) SLA
8 16 (1.59%) WCAG
9 6 (0.60%) 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%) NIST 800
System Software
1 126 (12.51%) Active Directory
2 73 (7.25%) Docker
3 36 (3.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.28%) Virtual Machines
5 29 (2.88%) Oracle RAC
6 9 (0.89%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.30%) GridGain
9 3 (0.30%) KVM
9 3 (0.30%) Postfix
9 3 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.30%) vSphere
10 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.099%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.099%) NFS
10 1 (0.099%) RACF
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 100 (9.93%) Kubernetes
2 80 (7.94%) Terraform
3 40 (3.97%) Ansible
4 22 (2.18%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 20 (1.99%) Oracle RMAN
6 15 (1.49%) Data Guard
6 15 (1.49%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (1.29%) HAProxy
7 13 (1.29%) SCCM
7 13 (1.29%) SCOM
8 10 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (0.99%) WSUS
9 9 (0.89%) Grafana
10 7 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.40%) ITRS Geneos
11 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.40%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.30%) Foglight
12 3 (0.30%) IBM BigFix
Vendors
1 330 (32.77%) Microsoft
2 273 (27.11%) Oracle
3 63 (6.26%) Databricks
4 61 (6.06%) VMware
5 51 (5.06%) ServiceNow
6 47 (4.67%) Citrix
6 47 (4.67%) CyberArk
7 36 (3.57%) SAP
8 29 (2.88%) BeyondTrust
9 25 (2.48%) Remedy
10 24 (2.38%) BMC
11 20 (1.99%) Cisco
11 20 (1.99%) Informatica
12 19 (1.89%) Sybase
13 18 (1.79%) Dynatrace
14 17 (1.69%) Red Hat
15 16 (1.59%) IBM
16 13 (1.29%) Alteryx
16 13 (1.29%) Google
17 10 (0.99%) AppDynamics