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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 112 102 56
Rank change year-on-year -10 -46 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,007 703 1,320
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.25% 2.59% 3.61%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.70% 14.11% 20.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 698 521 930
10th Percentile £357 £315 £327
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £508 £505
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% +0.50% -3.81%
75th Percentile £600 £641 £638
90th Percentile £712 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 7 21
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.91 £36.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 -
Median hourly rate £29.48 £25.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.92% -37.50% -12.09%
75th Percentile £62.88 £51.91 £48.75
90th Percentile £74.80 £82.00 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £42.52 £48.16 £40.00
% change year-on-year -11.71% +20.40% -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 6,852 4,981 6,490
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.31% 18.32% 17.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,590 3,445 4,671
10th Percentile £354 £350 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £600 £643 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 223 89 127
10th Percentile £16.00 £19.15 £14.00
25th Percentile £24.65 £25.00 £19.25
Median hourly rate £39.50 £34.50 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.49% -10.39% -33.04%
75th Percentile £72.25 £63.75 £51.00
90th Percentile £79.66 £77.50 £69.15
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +17.14% -6.67% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -32 477 £525 -4.55% 86
North of England +9 197 £473 +11.18% 74
South East -13 123 £471 +4.67% 96
North West -11 108 £478 +12.47% 40
Midlands -14 99 £478 +10.40% 55
Yorkshire +16 89 £450 +12.43% 24
West Midlands -31 55 £473 -14.00% 30
South West -2 52 £481 +1.32% 19
East Midlands +12 42 £525 +60.80% 25
East of England -3 37 £475 -5.00% 15
North East -42 1 - - 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 60 (5.96%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.67%) IIS
3 34 (3.38%) Confluence
4 20 (1.99%) Apache
4 20 (1.99%) Apache Spark
5 19 (1.89%) Apache Airflow
5 19 (1.89%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (1.39%) Camunda
7 12 (1.19%) Appian
8 11 (1.09%) CMS
8 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.60%) NetWeaver
9 6 (0.60%) Sitecore CMS
10 5 (0.50%) OpenEdge
10 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
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%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 46 (4.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.39%) 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 18 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.59%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
4 6 (0.60%) OpenText MBPM
4 6 (0.60%) Oracle BPM
5 5 (0.50%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.30%) Aladdin
6 3 (0.30%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.20%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.099%) Oracle General Ledger
8 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.099%) SAP MDG
8 1 (0.099%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 415 (41.21%) Azure
2 224 (22.24%) AWS
3 138 (13.70%) Power Platform
4 107 (10.63%) Azure DevOps
5 92 (9.14%) GitHub
6 63 (6.26%) Azure Data Factory
7 40 (3.97%) Serverless
8 38 (3.77%) Azure Monitor
9 37 (3.67%) GitHub Actions
9 37 (3.67%) Snowflake
10 36 (3.57%) GCP
11 35 (3.48%) Entra ID
11 35 (3.48%) Power Automate
12 31 (3.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 31 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
12 31 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
13 29 (2.88%) SaaS
14 25 (2.48%) dbt
15 24 (2.38%) Amazon S3
16 23 (2.28%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 39 (3.87%) DNS
2 31 (3.08%) DHCP
3 21 (2.09%) Firewall
4 19 (1.89%) SAN
5 14 (1.39%) Internet
5 14 (1.39%) VLAN
6 11 (1.09%) SSH
6 11 (1.09%) VPN
7 9 (0.89%) Network Security
8 8 (0.79%) TCP/IP
9 7 (0.70%) SSL
9 7 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.60%) IPv4
10 6 (0.60%) IPv6
11 4 (0.40%) Kerberos
12 3 (0.30%) LAN
12 3 (0.30%) NAS
12 3 (0.30%) VoIP
13 2 (0.20%) Fibre Channel
Database & Business Intelligence
1 155 (15.39%) PostgreSQL
2 114 (11.32%) Power BI
3 109 (10.82%) Relational Database
4 106 (10.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 104 (10.33%) Data Warehouse
6 77 (7.65%) Oracle Database
7 65 (6.45%) MySQL
8 59 (5.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 52 (5.16%) Azure SQL Database
10 42 (4.17%) MongoDB
11 39 (3.87%) Data Lake
12 33 (3.28%) NoSQL
13 31 (3.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 26 (2.58%) RDBMS
15 23 (2.28%) Tableau
16 17 (1.69%) Metadata
17 16 (1.59%) Redis
18 15 (1.49%) Big Data
19 14 (1.39%) Amazon RDS
19 14 (1.39%) Db2
Development Applications
1 90 (8.94%) Git
2 54 (5.36%) Jenkins
3 50 (4.97%) JIRA
4 31 (3.08%) Visual Studio
5 26 (2.58%) GitLab
6 21 (2.09%) Team Foundation Server
7 18 (1.79%) TeamCity
8 17 (1.69%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 15 (1.49%) Maven
10 13 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 12 (1.19%) Cucumber
12 11 (1.09%) Octopus Deploy
12 11 (1.09%) Postman
13 9 (0.89%) Gatling
13 9 (0.89%) Selenium
14 8 (0.79%) Artifactory
14 8 (0.79%) Chocolatey
14 8 (0.79%) JUnit
14 8 (0.79%) MSTest
14 8 (0.79%) Oracle Forms
General
1 292 (29.00%) Social Skills
2 248 (24.63%) Finance
3 181 (17.97%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (12.02%) Banking
5 79 (7.85%) Public Sector
6 45 (4.47%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.48%) Front Office
8 24 (2.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 23 (2.28%) Investment Banking
10 17 (1.69%) Legal
11 14 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
12 13 (1.29%) Retail
13 12 (1.19%) Financial Institution
14 9 (0.89%) Advertising
15 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.60%) Back Office
16 6 (0.60%) Law
16 6 (0.60%) Local Government
17 5 (0.50%) Publishing
18 4 (0.40%) Games
Job Titles
1 305 (30.29%) Developer
2 141 (14.00%) Senior
3 139 (13.80%) DBA
4 90 (8.94%) Data Engineer
5 87 (8.64%) SQL DBA
6 86 (8.54%) C# Developer
7 76 (7.55%) .NET Developer
8 72 (7.15%) Lead
9 59 (5.86%) Architect
10 54 (5.36%) SQL Developer
11 52 (5.16%) Administrator
12 43 (4.27%) Analyst
13 42 (4.17%) Senior Developer
14 41 (4.07%) Oracle DBA
15 39 (3.87%) Software Engineer
16 36 (3.57%) Full-Stack Developer
16 36 (3.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 32 (3.18%) Azure Engineer
18 29 (2.88%) C# .NET Developer
18 29 (2.88%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 258 (25.62%) .NET
2 133 (13.21%) REST
3 107 (10.63%) .NET Framework
4 87 (8.64%) React
5 62 (6.16%) AngularJS
5 62 (6.16%) CSS
6 60 (5.96%) RESTful
7 57 (5.66%) ASP.NET
8 52 (5.16%) HTML
9 50 (4.97%) .NET Core
10 48 (4.77%) Kafka
11 38 (3.77%) JSON
11 38 (3.77%) Web Services
11 38 (3.77%) XML
12 31 (3.08%) SOAP
13 29 (2.88%) Entity Framework
14 26 (2.58%) OAuth
14 26 (2.58%) Spring Boot
15 24 (2.38%) Spring
16 20 (1.99%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 53 (5.26%) Legacy Systems
2 52 (5.16%) Onboarding
3 51 (5.06%) Cloud Native
4 45 (4.47%) Data Structures
4 45 (4.47%) Replication
5 39 (3.87%) Clustering
5 39 (3.87%) Self-Motivation
6 38 (3.77%) Enterprise Software
7 25 (2.48%) Management Information System
8 20 (1.99%) Product Ownership
9 19 (1.89%) Low-Code
9 19 (1.89%) PKI
10 16 (1.59%) Derivative
10 16 (1.59%) NHS
11 15 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
12 14 (1.39%) Fixed Income
13 13 (1.29%) Algorithms
14 12 (1.19%) Data Centre
14 12 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
15 11 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 239 (23.73%) Windows
2 139 (13.80%) Windows Server
3 95 (9.43%) Linux
4 57 (5.66%) Unix
5 13 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.99%) AIX
7 9 (0.89%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
9 7 (0.70%) Android
9 7 (0.70%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.60%) VMS
10 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.50%) Solaris
11 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.30%) CentOS
13 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.20%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (24.63%) DevOps
2 231 (22.94%) Agile
3 227 (22.54%) CI/CD
4 214 (21.25%) Problem-Solving
5 168 (16.68%) Migration
6 160 (15.89%) ETL
7 144 (14.30%) Business Intelligence
8 139 (13.80%) Performance Tuning
9 135 (13.41%) Data Modelling
10 115 (11.42%) Disaster Recovery
11 113 (11.22%) AI
12 94 (9.33%) Analytics
13 90 (8.94%) Microservices
14 89 (8.84%) Data Pipeline
15 87 (8.64%) High Availability
16 78 (7.75%) Data Analysis
17 77 (7.65%) Data Integration
17 77 (7.65%) Test Automation
17 77 (7.65%) Validation
18 75 (7.45%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 577 (57.30%) SQL
2 264 (26.22%) C#
3 216 (21.45%) Python
4 174 (17.28%) PowerShell
5 169 (16.78%) T-SQL
6 106 (10.53%) JavaScript
7 80 (7.94%) Java
8 66 (6.55%) PL/SQL
9 59 (5.86%) TypeScript
10 33 (3.28%) Bash
11 25 (2.48%) Shell Script
12 22 (2.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 19 (1.89%) Scala
13 19 (1.89%) VB
14 17 (1.69%) Korn
15 15 (1.49%) VBA
16 11 (1.09%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.70%) VB6
19 6 (0.60%) XPath
Qualifications
1 240 (23.83%) Security Cleared
2 180 (17.87%) SC Cleared
3 105 (10.43%) Degree
4 44 (4.37%) DV Cleared
5 35 (3.48%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 20 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.79%) Azure Certification
9 10 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
10 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.89%) ISTQB
10 9 (0.89%) Master's Degree
10 9 (0.89%) OCP
11 6 (0.60%) CISSP
12 5 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 4 (0.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.40%) MCITP
13 4 (0.40%) MCTS
13 4 (0.40%) PhD
14 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (9.63%) QA
2 92 (9.14%) Data Quality
3 27 (2.68%) GDPR
4 26 (2.58%) NIST
5 24 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (2.09%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.79%) SLA
8 13 (1.29%) 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%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 105 (10.43%) Active Directory
2 75 (7.45%) Docker
3 31 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
4 30 (2.98%) Oracle RAC
5 23 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
6 12 (1.19%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.60%) KVM
7 6 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
8 3 (0.30%) GridGain
8 3 (0.30%) Postfix
8 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.20%) vSphere
10 1 (0.099%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.099%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.099%) XenApp
10 1 (0.099%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 100 (9.93%) Kubernetes
2 70 (6.95%) Terraform
3 35 (3.48%) Ansible
4 23 (2.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.09%) Oracle RMAN
6 15 (1.49%) Data Guard
7 14 (1.39%) SCCM
8 13 (1.29%) HAProxy
9 10 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
9 10 (0.99%) WSUS
10 8 (0.79%) Grafana
10 8 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.70%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.60%) IBM BigFix
13 5 (0.50%) SCOM
14 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
15 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (0.30%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
15 3 (0.30%) Foglight
Vendors
1 304 (30.19%) Microsoft
2 288 (28.60%) Oracle
3 55 (5.46%) Databricks
4 52 (5.16%) Citrix
5 48 (4.77%) ServiceNow
6 42 (4.17%) CyberArk
7 41 (4.07%) VMware
8 37 (3.67%) SAP
9 26 (2.58%) BeyondTrust
10 24 (2.38%) Informatica
11 23 (2.28%) Sybase
12 19 (1.89%) Google
13 18 (1.79%) Dynatrace
13 18 (1.79%) IBM
14 16 (1.59%) Red Hat
14 16 (1.59%) Remedy
15 15 (1.49%) BMC
15 15 (1.49%) Cisco
16 13 (1.29%) Alteryx
17 10 (0.99%) AppDynamics