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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 106 56
Rank change year-on-year -11 -50 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,007 692 1,218
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.21% 2.50% 3.66%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.44% 13.81% 19.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 710 512 860
10th Percentile £358 £313 £330
25th Percentile £413 £400 £407
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 £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -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 6,976 5,010 6,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.30% 18.13% 18.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,674 3,474 4,360
10th Percentile £358 £341 £350
25th Percentile £419 £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 225 78 93
10th Percentile £15.28 £20.15 £14.40
25th Percentile £23.75 £23.75 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £34.82 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.58% -7.16% -31.82%
75th Percentile £67.47 £63.31 £59.95
90th Percentile £76.30 £77.86 £71.50
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £34.47
% change year-on-year +12.86% +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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -32 485 £525 -4.89% 214
North of England +7 202 £466 +3.61% 82
South East -19 121 £450 +16.88% 109
North West +4 111 £478 +8.64% 48
Midlands -5 101 £473 +11.29% 69
Yorkshire +15 91 £450 -6.25% 25
West Midlands -26 58 £450 -14.29% 43
South West -10 49 £513 +13.89% 27
East Midlands +13 41 £525 +60.80% 26
East of England -19 26 £475 -5.00% 21
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 7 (0.70%) CMS
10 6 (0.60%) Appian
10 6 (0.60%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
12 4 (0.40%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.40%) OpenEdge
12 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
12 4 (0.40%) Umbraco
13 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
13 3 (0.30%) nginx
14 2 (0.20%) Sitecore CMS
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
6 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.40%) Aladdin
7 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 2 (0.20%) Endur
8 2 (0.20%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.20%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.099%) Findur
9 1 (0.099%) Loan IQ
9 1 (0.099%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 418 (41.51%) Azure
2 215 (21.35%) AWS
3 152 (15.09%) Power Platform
4 109 (10.82%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (8.84%) GitHub
6 63 (6.26%) Azure Data Factory
7 47 (4.67%) 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 34 (3.38%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 33 (3.28%) Dynamics 365
15 31 (3.08%) GCP
16 26 (2.58%) dbt
17 25 (2.48%) SaaS
18 22 (2.18%) Amazon S3
19 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
1 146 (14.50%) PostgreSQL
2 129 (12.81%) Power BI
3 101 (10.03%) Data Warehouse
4 100 (9.93%) Relational Database
5 98 (9.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 72 (7.15%) Oracle Database
7 69 (6.85%) MySQL
8 61 (6.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 55 (5.46%) Azure SQL Database
10 47 (4.67%) MongoDB
11 38 (3.77%) Data Lake
12 32 (3.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 29 (2.88%) NoSQL
14 22 (2.18%) RDBMS
15 21 (2.09%) Redis
16 20 (1.99%) Tableau
17 18 (1.79%) Amazon RDS
18 16 (1.59%) Star Schema
19 15 (1.49%) Metadata
20 12 (1.19%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 92 (9.14%) Git
2 55 (5.46%) Jenkins
3 53 (5.26%) JIRA
4 30 (2.98%) GitLab
5 25 (2.48%) 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
1 299 (29.69%) Social Skills
2 255 (25.32%) Finance
3 185 (18.37%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (12.61%) Banking
5 80 (7.94%) 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
12 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
13 7 (0.70%) Back Office
14 6 (0.60%) Local Government
15 5 (0.50%) Law
15 5 (0.50%) Military
15 5 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 297 (29.49%) Developer
2 158 (15.69%) Senior
3 148 (14.70%) DBA
4 89 (8.84%) SQL DBA
5 88 (8.74%) Data Engineer
6 85 (8.44%) C# Developer
7 78 (7.75%) .NET Developer
8 71 (7.05%) Lead
9 62 (6.16%) Administrator
10 51 (5.06%) Architect
11 49 (4.87%) SQL Developer
12 47 (4.67%) Senior Developer
13 45 (4.47%) Analyst
13 45 (4.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 43 (4.27%) Oracle DBA
15 39 (3.87%) Full-Stack Developer
16 38 (3.77%) Software Engineer
17 35 (3.48%) Azure Engineer
18 33 (3.28%) Consultant
19 32 (3.18%) C# .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 260 (25.82%) .NET
2 122 (12.12%) REST
3 102 (10.13%) .NET Framework
4 76 (7.55%) React
5 60 (5.96%) ASP.NET
6 55 (5.46%) AngularJS
6 55 (5.46%) RESTful
7 52 (5.16%) CSS
7 52 (5.16%) Kafka
8 46 (4.57%) .NET Core
9 43 (4.27%) HTML
10 37 (3.67%) JSON
11 35 (3.48%) Web Services
11 35 (3.48%) XML
12 29 (2.88%) SOAP
13 28 (2.78%) Entity Framework
14 23 (2.28%) Spring Boot
14 23 (2.28%) WinForms
15 21 (2.09%) OAuth
15 21 (2.09%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 57 (5.66%) Onboarding
2 50 (4.97%) Cloud Native
3 47 (4.67%) Data Structures
4 44 (4.37%) Clustering
5 43 (4.27%) Legacy Systems
5 43 (4.27%) Replication
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
1 260 (25.82%) Windows
2 147 (14.60%) Windows Server
3 94 (9.33%) Linux
4 50 (4.97%) Unix
5 13 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.79%) Ubuntu
6 8 (0.79%) VMS
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 5 (0.50%) Solaris
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.30%) CentOS
12 2 (0.20%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.099%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.099%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (25.32%) DevOps
2 228 (22.64%) CI/CD
3 225 (22.34%) Agile
4 202 (20.06%) Problem-Solving
5 188 (18.67%) Migration
6 159 (15.79%) ETL
7 148 (14.70%) Business Intelligence
8 137 (13.60%) Performance Tuning
9 136 (13.51%) Data Modelling
10 120 (11.92%) Disaster Recovery
11 113 (11.22%) AI
12 99 (9.83%) Analytics
13 94 (9.33%) High Availability
14 89 (8.84%) Data Pipeline
15 83 (8.24%) Microservices
16 82 (8.14%) Stakeholder Management
17 81 (8.04%) Continuous Improvement
18 79 (7.85%) Test Automation
19 77 (7.65%) Software Engineering
20 76 (7.55%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 569 (56.50%) SQL
2 265 (26.32%) C#
3 199 (19.76%) Python
4 181 (17.97%) PowerShell
5 165 (16.39%) T-SQL
6 112 (11.12%) JavaScript
7 74 (7.35%) Java
8 64 (6.36%) PL/SQL
9 50 (4.97%) TypeScript
10 37 (3.67%) Bash
11 26 (2.58%) Shell Script
12 24 (2.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 18 (1.79%) Korn
14 17 (1.69%) Scala
14 17 (1.69%) VB
15 15 (1.49%) VBA
16 10 (0.99%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.60%) XPath
19 5 (0.50%) VB6
Qualifications
1 257 (25.52%) Security Cleared
2 196 (19.46%) SC Cleared
3 97 (9.63%) Degree
4 43 (4.27%) DV Cleared
5 42 (4.17%) Microsoft Certification
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%) OCP
12 10 (0.99%) AWS Certification
13 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
14 6 (0.60%) 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
1 125 (12.41%) Active Directory
2 73 (7.25%) Docker
3 36 (3.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 33 (3.28%) Virtual Machines
5 30 (2.98%) 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 79 (7.85%) Terraform
3 40 (3.97%) Ansible
4 23 (2.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.09%) 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
1 328 (32.57%) Microsoft
2 272 (27.01%) Oracle
3 63 (6.26%) Databricks
4 60 (5.96%) VMware
5 51 (5.06%) ServiceNow
6 47 (4.67%) Citrix
7 46 (4.57%) CyberArk
8 36 (3.57%) SAP
9 28 (2.78%) BeyondTrust
10 25 (2.48%) Remedy
11 24 (2.38%) BMC
12 20 (1.99%) Cisco
12 20 (1.99%) Informatica
13 19 (1.89%) Sybase
14 18 (1.79%) Dynatrace
15 17 (1.69%) Red Hat
16 16 (1.59%) IBM
17 14 (1.39%) Google
18 13 (1.29%) Alteryx
19 10 (0.99%) AppDynamics