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

 6 months to
27 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 114 57
Rank change year-on-year -10 -57 -3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,001 678 1,198
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.19% 2.46% 3.61%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.39% 13.70% 19.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 704 500 854
10th Percentile £363 £313 £338
25th Percentile £413 £397 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% - -6.54%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 6 7
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.89 £27.71
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £34.00
Median hourly rate £50.02 £23.80 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +110.21% -49.91% +3.26%
75th Percentile £63.31 £64.71 £57.43
90th Percentile £75.80 £83.13 £77.78
UK median hourly rate £47.54 £70.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -32.09% +62.79% -4.44%

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 6,957 4,948 6,116
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.22% 17.93% 18.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,644 3,415 4,320
10th Percentile £359 £338 £350
25th Percentile £423 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £545
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -5.96% -0.91%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £675
90th Percentile £708 £750 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 81 91
10th Percentile £14.85 £20.85 £14.25
25th Percentile £23.35 £29.00 £19.92
Median hourly rate £38.25 £35.00 £33.93
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% +3.15% -38.31%
75th Percentile £61.88 £63.75 £54.38
90th Percentile £75.50 £78.70 £69.75
UK median hourly rate £38.25 £37.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +2.00% +15.38% -40.91%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -18 485 £525 -4.55% 440
North of England +5 194 £475 +6.15% 115
South East -16 112 £475 +44.82% 135
Midlands 0 109 £474 +10.88% 91
North West -4 105 £478 +6.82% 69
Yorkshire +4 89 £450 +5.88% 33
West Midlands -14 65 £467 -13.21% 48
South West -15 49 £519 +22.06% 47
East Midlands +10 43 £525 +60.80% 42
East of England -23 26 £425 -15.00% 37
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 68 (6.79%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.70%) IIS
3 39 (3.90%) Confluence
4 23 (2.30%) Microsoft Exchange
5 19 (1.90%) Apache
5 19 (1.90%) Apache Airflow
5 19 (1.90%) Camunda
6 18 (1.80%) Apache Spark
7 11 (1.10%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.60%) Appian
8 6 (0.60%) CMS
9 5 (0.50%) Apache Solr
9 5 (0.50%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
10 4 (0.40%) OpenEdge
10 4 (0.40%) Tomcat
10 4 (0.40%) Umbraco
11 3 (0.30%) Apache Superset
11 3 (0.30%) nginx
12 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 52 (5.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.80%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.10%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.100%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.100%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.100%) InDesign
6 1 (0.100%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 23 (2.30%) Remedy ITSM
2 22 (2.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 16 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.70%) OpenText MBPM
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle BPM
5 6 (0.60%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.50%) Dynamics AX
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 (0.100%) Findur
9 1 (0.100%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.100%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.100%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.100%) SAP CRM
9 1 (0.100%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 414 (41.36%) Azure
2 213 (21.28%) AWS
3 150 (14.99%) Power Platform
4 109 (10.89%) Azure DevOps
5 92 (9.19%) GitHub
6 60 (5.99%) Azure Data Factory
7 49 (4.90%) Entra ID
8 45 (4.50%) Serverless
9 41 (4.10%) Azure Monitor
10 40 (4.00%) GitHub Actions
10 40 (4.00%) Microsoft 365
11 39 (3.90%) Power Automate
12 34 (3.40%) Dynamics 365
13 33 (3.30%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 33 (3.30%) Snowflake
14 29 (2.90%) GCP
15 25 (2.50%) SaaS
16 24 (2.40%) dbt
17 21 (2.10%) PowerApps
18 19 (1.90%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 47 (4.70%) DNS
2 40 (4.00%) DHCP
3 31 (3.10%) Firewall
4 18 (1.80%) SAN
4 18 (1.80%) VLAN
5 14 (1.40%) VPN
6 13 (1.30%) Internet
6 13 (1.30%) Network Security
7 12 (1.20%) TCP/IP
8 10 (1.00%) SSL
8 10 (1.00%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (0.90%) SSH
10 6 (0.60%) HTTPS
10 6 (0.60%) IPv4
10 6 (0.60%) IPv6
10 6 (0.60%) LAN
11 5 (0.50%) Kerberos
11 5 (0.50%) VoIP
11 5 (0.50%) WAN
12 3 (0.30%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (14.79%) PostgreSQL
2 127 (12.69%) Power BI
3 106 (10.59%) Relational Database
4 95 (9.49%) Data Warehouse
5 89 (8.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 70 (6.99%) MySQL
7 60 (5.99%) Oracle Database
8 56 (5.59%) Azure SQL Database
8 56 (5.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 52 (5.19%) MongoDB
10 35 (3.50%) Data Lake
11 28 (2.80%) NoSQL
12 26 (2.60%) Redis
13 25 (2.50%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 22 (2.20%) Amazon RDS
14 22 (2.20%) RDBMS
15 20 (2.00%) Tableau
16 16 (1.60%) Metadata
16 16 (1.60%) Star Schema
17 12 (1.20%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 97 (9.69%) Git
2 62 (6.19%) Jenkins
3 54 (5.39%) JIRA
4 33 (3.30%) GitLab
5 27 (2.70%) Visual Studio
6 20 (2.00%) Maven
7 19 (1.90%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 18 (1.80%) Sonatype Nexus
9 16 (1.60%) TeamCity
10 15 (1.50%) Team Foundation Server
11 14 (1.40%) Selenium
12 13 (1.30%) Octopus Deploy
12 13 (1.30%) REST Assured
13 12 (1.20%) JUnit
13 12 (1.20%) Postman
14 11 (1.10%) Artifactory
14 11 (1.10%) Mockito
15 10 (1.00%) Cucumber
15 10 (1.00%) Cypress.io
15 10 (1.00%) Gradle
General
1 309 (30.87%) Social Skills
2 260 (25.97%) Finance
3 186 (18.58%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (12.49%) Banking
5 74 (7.39%) Public Sector
6 45 (4.50%) Front Office
7 39 (3.90%) Documentation Skills
8 27 (2.70%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.80%) Legal
11 17 (1.70%) Retail
12 15 (1.50%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.40%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.80%) Back Office
14 8 (0.80%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.60%) Advertising
16 5 (0.50%) Billing
16 5 (0.50%) Law
16 5 (0.50%) Military
16 5 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 310 (30.97%) Developer
2 157 (15.68%) Senior
3 140 (13.99%) DBA
4 84 (8.39%) SQL DBA
5 81 (8.09%) .NET Developer
6 80 (7.99%) C# Developer
7 78 (7.79%) Data Engineer
8 69 (6.89%) Lead
9 66 (6.59%) Administrator
10 52 (5.19%) Architect
11 50 (5.00%) Senior Developer
12 49 (4.90%) Full-Stack Developer
12 49 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 46 (4.60%) Analyst
13 46 (4.60%) SQL Developer
14 39 (3.90%) Software Engineer
15 34 (3.40%) Oracle DBA
16 32 (3.20%) Azure Engineer
16 32 (3.20%) C# .NET Developer
16 32 (3.20%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 278 (27.77%) .NET
2 126 (12.59%) REST
3 101 (10.09%) .NET Framework
4 81 (8.09%) React
5 77 (7.69%) Terraform
6 61 (6.09%) ASP.NET
7 60 (5.99%) CSS
8 59 (5.89%) AngularJS
9 57 (5.69%) Kafka
10 54 (5.39%) RESTful
11 53 (5.29%) .NET Core
12 49 (4.90%) HTML
13 38 (3.80%) JSON
13 38 (3.80%) Web Services
14 34 (3.40%) Spring Boot
15 33 (3.30%) XML
16 29 (2.90%) SOAP
16 29 (2.90%) Spring
17 25 (2.50%) Entity Framework
17 25 (2.50%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 60 (5.99%) Onboarding
2 58 (5.79%) Cloud Native
3 51 (5.09%) Data Structures
4 44 (4.40%) Enterprise Software
5 42 (4.20%) Clustering
5 42 (4.20%) Self-Motivation
6 39 (3.90%) Replication
7 36 (3.60%) Legacy Systems
8 29 (2.90%) Product Ownership
9 26 (2.60%) Management Information System
10 23 (2.30%) Data Centre
11 20 (2.00%) PKI
12 17 (1.70%) Derivative
13 16 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
14 14 (1.40%) Low-Code
15 13 (1.30%) NHS
16 11 (1.10%) Algorithms
16 11 (1.10%) Fixed Income
16 11 (1.10%) Legacy Code
16 11 (1.10%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 255 (25.47%) Windows
2 146 (14.59%) Windows Server
3 90 (8.99%) Linux
4 41 (4.10%) Unix
5 13 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.10%) Ubuntu
7 8 (0.80%) VMS
8 7 (0.70%) Solaris
8 7 (0.70%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.60%) Android
9 6 (0.60%) CentOS
9 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
10 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.20%) AIX
12 1 (0.100%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.100%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.100%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 261 (26.07%) DevOps
2 246 (24.58%) CI/CD
3 233 (23.28%) Agile
4 198 (19.78%) Problem-Solving
5 183 (18.28%) Migration
6 151 (15.08%) ETL
7 141 (14.09%) Business Intelligence
8 135 (13.49%) Data Modelling
9 129 (12.89%) Performance Tuning
10 117 (11.69%) AI
10 117 (11.69%) Disaster Recovery
11 98 (9.79%) Stakeholder Management
12 93 (9.29%) Analytics
13 91 (9.09%) Microservices
14 90 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
15 88 (8.79%) High Availability
16 87 (8.69%) Test Automation
17 86 (8.59%) Software Engineering
18 81 (8.09%) Validation
19 79 (7.89%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 571 (57.04%) SQL
2 272 (27.17%) C#
3 195 (19.48%) Python
4 174 (17.38%) PowerShell
5 154 (15.38%) T-SQL
6 124 (12.39%) JavaScript
7 91 (9.09%) Java
8 62 (6.19%) PL/SQL
9 54 (5.39%) TypeScript
10 32 (3.20%) Bash
11 19 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 19 (1.90%) Shell Script
12 16 (1.60%) VB
13 14 (1.40%) Scala
13 14 (1.40%) VBA
14 11 (1.10%) Korn
15 8 (0.80%) VB.NET
16 7 (0.70%) Bicep
17 6 (0.60%) XPath
18 5 (0.50%) VB6
Qualifications
1 255 (25.47%) Security Cleared
2 194 (19.38%) SC Cleared
3 101 (10.09%) Degree
4 49 (4.90%) DV Cleared
5 43 (4.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 31 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
8 20 (2.00%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.20%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.20%) ISTQB
10 10 (1.00%) Oracle Certification
11 9 (0.90%) DBS Check
11 9 (0.90%) OCP
12 8 (0.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 7 (0.70%) Master's Degree
14 5 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 4 (0.40%) CISSP
15 4 (0.40%) MCITP
15 4 (0.40%) MCTS
15 4 (0.40%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (9.29%) Data Quality
2 92 (9.19%) QA
3 28 (2.80%) GDPR
4 26 (2.60%) Accessibility
5 21 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 20 (2.00%) NIST
7 18 (1.80%) WCAG
8 16 (1.60%) SLA
9 6 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.50%) ISO 9000
11 4 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.30%) Basel III
13 2 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
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 (0.100%) ISO 20022
14 1 (0.100%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 127 (12.69%) Active Directory
2 77 (7.69%) Docker
3 39 (3.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (3.00%) Virtual Machines
5 24 (2.40%) Oracle RAC
6 8 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.70%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.60%) vSphere
9 4 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.30%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.30%) GridGain
10 3 (0.30%) Postfix
11 1 (0.100%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.100%) NFS
11 1 (0.100%) RACF
11 1 (0.100%) SRDF
11 1 (0.100%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 100 (9.99%) Kubernetes
2 45 (4.50%) Ansible
3 17 (1.70%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 15 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (1.40%) Data Guard
5 14 (1.40%) SCOM
6 13 (1.30%) HAProxy
6 13 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
7 12 (1.20%) SCCM
8 11 (1.10%) Microsoft Clustering
9 10 (1.00%) WSUS
10 8 (0.80%) Grafana
11 7 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
13 5 (0.50%) ITRS Geneos
13 5 (0.50%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.30%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
14 3 (0.30%) Istio
15 2 (0.20%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 343 (34.27%) Microsoft
2 256 (25.57%) Oracle
3 68 (6.79%) Databricks
4 63 (6.29%) VMware
5 49 (4.90%) ServiceNow
6 44 (4.40%) CyberArk
7 41 (4.10%) Citrix
8 36 (3.60%) SAP
9 29 (2.90%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.30%) BMC
10 23 (2.30%) Remedy
11 21 (2.10%) Cisco
11 21 (2.10%) Informatica
12 20 (2.00%) IBM
13 17 (1.70%) Dynatrace
14 16 (1.60%) Sybase
15 15 (1.50%) Google
15 15 (1.50%) Red Hat
16 13 (1.30%) Alteryx
17 11 (1.10%) Splunk
821 SQL Server jobs in England