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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 102 57
Rank change year-on-year -6 -45 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 1,010 704 1,322
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.24% 2.59% 3.66%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.64% 14.06% 20.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 699 522 937
10th Percentile £357 £321 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £509 £505
Median % change year-on-year -3.69% +0.74% -3.81%
75th Percentile £600 £640 £638
90th Percentile £712 £749 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 7 20
10th Percentile £13.51 £20.91 £36.20
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.02 £40.00
Median hourly rate £29.48 £25.00 £40.13
Median % change year-on-year +17.92% -37.69% -11.81%
75th Percentile £62.88 £51.91 £49.54
90th Percentile £74.80 £82.00 £64.17
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 6,897 5,006 6,462
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.33% 18.39% 17.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,618 3,463 4,648
10th Percentile £354 £350 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £675
90th Percentile £701 £763 £825
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 224 88 120
10th Percentile £16.00 £19.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £25.25 £24.63 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.36 £34.58 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.61% -13.56% -29.76%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.94 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.50 £69.93
UK median hourly rate £42.75 £36.25 £38.50
% change year-on-year +17.93% -5.84% -30.00%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -29 481 £525 -4.55% 88
North of England +8 197 £475 +11.76% 68
South East -9 122 £471 +4.67% 87
North West -12 108 £478 +12.47% 34
Midlands -12 100 £475 +11.11% 50
Yorkshire +24 89 £450 +12.36% 25
West Midlands -34 56 £473 -14.00% 27
South West -11 52 £481 +4.05% 16
East Midlands +10 42 £525 +54.41% 23
East of England -1 37 £475 -5.00% 14
North East -37 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 (5.94%) SharePoint
2 47 (4.65%) IIS
3 36 (3.56%) Confluence
4 20 (1.98%) Apache
4 20 (1.98%) Apache Spark
5 19 (1.88%) Apache Airflow
5 19 (1.88%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (1.39%) Camunda
7 11 (1.09%) Appian
7 11 (1.09%) CMS
7 11 (1.09%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.59%) NetWeaver
8 6 (0.59%) Sitecore CMS
9 5 (0.50%) OpenEdge
9 5 (0.50%) Tuxedo
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%) Anypoint
Applications
1 46 (4.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.88%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.29%) 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 (1.78%) Remedy ITSM
1 18 (1.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
3 6 (0.59%) OpenText MBPM
3 6 (0.59%) Oracle BPM
4 5 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.40%) Elite 3E
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%) Endur
8 1 (0.099%) Findur
8 1 (0.099%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.099%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.099%) SDL Web 8
Cloud Services
1 413 (40.89%) Azure
2 222 (21.98%) AWS
3 136 (13.47%) Power Platform
4 106 (10.50%) Azure DevOps
5 92 (9.11%) GitHub
6 62 (6.14%) Azure Data Factory
7 40 (3.96%) Serverless
8 38 (3.76%) Azure Monitor
9 37 (3.66%) GitHub Actions
9 37 (3.66%) Snowflake
10 36 (3.56%) Entra ID
10 36 (3.56%) Power Automate
11 35 (3.47%) GCP
12 32 (3.17%) Dynamics 365
13 31 (3.07%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 31 (3.07%) Microsoft 365
14 29 (2.87%) SaaS
15 25 (2.48%) dbt
16 24 (2.38%) Amazon S3
17 23 (2.28%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 40 (3.96%) DNS
2 31 (3.07%) DHCP
3 21 (2.08%) Firewall
4 19 (1.88%) SAN
5 15 (1.49%) VLAN
6 14 (1.39%) Internet
7 12 (1.19%) VPN
8 11 (1.09%) SSH
9 9 (0.89%) Network Security
9 9 (0.89%) TCP/IP
10 7 (0.69%) SSL
10 7 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (0.59%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.59%) IPv4
11 6 (0.59%) IPv6
12 4 (0.40%) Kerberos
13 3 (0.30%) LAN
13 3 (0.30%) NAS
13 3 (0.30%) VoIP
14 2 (0.20%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 154 (15.25%) PostgreSQL
2 112 (11.09%) Power BI
3 108 (10.69%) Relational Database
3 108 (10.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 103 (10.20%) Data Warehouse
5 77 (7.62%) Oracle Database
6 63 (6.24%) MySQL
7 61 (6.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 51 (5.05%) Azure SQL Database
9 42 (4.16%) MongoDB
10 39 (3.86%) Data Lake
11 33 (3.27%) NoSQL
11 33 (3.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 25 (2.48%) RDBMS
13 22 (2.18%) Tableau
14 16 (1.58%) Metadata
14 16 (1.58%) Redis
15 15 (1.49%) Big Data
16 14 (1.39%) Amazon RDS
16 14 (1.39%) Db2
Development Applications
1 91 (9.01%) Git
2 55 (5.45%) Jenkins
3 51 (5.05%) JIRA
4 31 (3.07%) Visual Studio
5 26 (2.57%) GitLab
6 21 (2.08%) Team Foundation Server
7 18 (1.78%) TeamCity
8 17 (1.68%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 15 (1.49%) Maven
10 13 (1.29%) Cucumber
10 13 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 12 (1.19%) Postman
12 11 (1.09%) Octopus Deploy
13 10 (0.99%) Selenium
14 9 (0.89%) Artifactory
14 9 (0.89%) Gatling
15 8 (0.79%) Chocolatey
15 8 (0.79%) JUnit
15 8 (0.79%) MSTest
15 8 (0.79%) Oracle Forms
General
1 293 (29.01%) Social Skills
2 251 (24.85%) Finance
3 182 (18.02%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (12.08%) Banking
5 80 (7.92%) Public Sector
6 45 (4.46%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (3.56%) Front Office
8 25 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 24 (2.38%) Investment Banking
10 16 (1.58%) Legal
11 14 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
12 12 (1.19%) Financial Institution
12 12 (1.19%) Retail
13 9 (0.89%) Advertising
14 8 (0.79%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.59%) Back Office
15 6 (0.59%) Local Government
16 5 (0.50%) Law
16 5 (0.50%) Publishing
17 4 (0.40%) Games
Job Titles
1 307 (30.40%) Developer
2 144 (14.26%) Senior
3 141 (13.96%) DBA
4 89 (8.81%) C# Developer
4 89 (8.81%) SQL DBA
5 87 (8.61%) Data Engineer
6 77 (7.62%) .NET Developer
7 71 (7.03%) Lead
8 59 (5.84%) Architect
9 54 (5.35%) SQL Developer
10 53 (5.25%) Administrator
11 44 (4.36%) Analyst
11 44 (4.36%) Senior Developer
12 41 (4.06%) Oracle DBA
13 39 (3.86%) Software Engineer
14 37 (3.66%) Full-Stack Developer
15 36 (3.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 32 (3.17%) Azure Engineer
17 31 (3.07%) C# .NET Developer
18 30 (2.97%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 260 (25.74%) .NET
2 133 (13.17%) REST
3 108 (10.69%) .NET Framework
4 88 (8.71%) React
5 63 (6.24%) AngularJS
5 63 (6.24%) CSS
6 61 (6.04%) RESTful
7 59 (5.84%) ASP.NET
8 53 (5.25%) HTML
9 51 (5.05%) .NET Core
10 48 (4.75%) Kafka
11 39 (3.86%) Web Services
12 38 (3.76%) JSON
12 38 (3.76%) XML
13 31 (3.07%) SOAP
14 29 (2.87%) Entity Framework
15 26 (2.57%) OAuth
15 26 (2.57%) Spring Boot
16 24 (2.38%) Spring
17 22 (2.18%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 53 (5.25%) Legacy Systems
1 53 (5.25%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.05%) Cloud Native
3 45 (4.46%) Data Structures
3 45 (4.46%) Replication
4 41 (4.06%) Clustering
5 39 (3.86%) Enterprise Software
5 39 (3.86%) Self-Motivation
6 25 (2.48%) Management Information System
7 21 (2.08%) Product Ownership
8 19 (1.88%) Low-Code
8 19 (1.88%) PKI
9 16 (1.58%) Derivative
9 16 (1.58%) NHS
10 15 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
11 14 (1.39%) Data Centre
11 14 (1.39%) Fixed Income
12 13 (1.29%) Algorithms
13 12 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
14 11 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 243 (24.06%) Windows
2 141 (13.96%) Windows Server
3 96 (9.50%) Linux
4 57 (5.64%) 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 (0.69%) Android
9 7 (0.69%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.59%) VMS
10 6 (0.59%) 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
1 250 (24.75%) DevOps
2 230 (22.77%) Agile
3 227 (22.48%) CI/CD
4 213 (21.09%) Problem-Solving
5 170 (16.83%) Migration
6 156 (15.45%) ETL
7 142 (14.06%) Business Intelligence
8 139 (13.76%) Performance Tuning
9 132 (13.07%) Data Modelling
10 117 (11.58%) Disaster Recovery
11 115 (11.39%) AI
12 94 (9.31%) Analytics
13 91 (9.01%) Microservices
14 89 (8.81%) High Availability
15 87 (8.61%) Data Pipeline
16 78 (7.72%) Data Analysis
17 77 (7.62%) Continuous Improvement
17 77 (7.62%) Test Automation
17 77 (7.62%) Validation
18 76 (7.52%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 577 (57.13%) SQL
2 267 (26.44%) C#
3 214 (21.19%) Python
4 178 (17.62%) PowerShell
5 169 (16.73%) T-SQL
6 109 (10.79%) JavaScript
7 81 (8.02%) Java
8 66 (6.53%) PL/SQL
9 60 (5.94%) TypeScript
10 35 (3.47%) Bash
11 25 (2.48%) Shell Script
12 22 (2.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 19 (1.88%) Scala
13 19 (1.88%) VB
14 17 (1.68%) Korn
15 15 (1.49%) VBA
16 11 (1.09%) Bicep
17 8 (0.79%) VB.NET
18 7 (0.69%) VB6
19 6 (0.59%) XPath
Qualifications
1 242 (23.96%) Security Cleared
2 182 (18.02%) SC Cleared
3 104 (10.30%) Degree
4 44 (4.36%) DV Cleared
5 36 (3.56%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.68%) Azure Certification
9 10 (0.99%) ISTQB
9 10 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
10 9 (0.89%) DBS Check
10 9 (0.89%) Master's Degree
10 9 (0.89%) OCP
11 6 (0.59%) 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 (9.60%) QA
2 89 (8.81%) Data Quality
3 28 (2.77%) GDPR
4 26 (2.57%) NIST
5 24 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (2.18%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.78%) SLA
8 14 (1.39%) WCAG
9 6 (0.59%) 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%) IFRS
System Software
1 108 (10.69%) Active Directory
2 76 (7.52%) Docker
3 31 (3.07%) Virtual Machines
4 30 (2.97%) Oracle RAC
5 25 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
6 12 (1.19%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.59%) KVM
7 6 (0.59%) 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%) NFS
10 1 (0.099%) SRDF
10 1 (0.099%) XenApp
10 1 (0.099%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 100 (9.90%) Kubernetes
2 70 (6.93%) Terraform
3 35 (3.47%) Ansible
4 23 (2.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 21 (2.08%) 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 9 (0.89%) Grafana
11 8 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
12 7 (0.69%) SCOM
12 7 (0.69%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
13 6 (0.59%) IBM BigFix
14 4 (0.40%) ITRS Geneos
14 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
14 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
15 3 (0.30%) Foglight
Vendors
1 308 (30.50%) Microsoft
2 285 (28.22%) Oracle
3 53 (5.25%) Databricks
4 52 (5.15%) Citrix
5 49 (4.85%) ServiceNow
6 44 (4.36%) VMware
7 43 (4.26%) CyberArk
8 37 (3.66%) SAP
9 27 (2.67%) BeyondTrust
10 23 (2.28%) Sybase
11 22 (2.18%) Informatica
12 19 (1.88%) Dynatrace
12 19 (1.88%) IBM
13 18 (1.78%) Google
13 18 (1.78%) Remedy
14 17 (1.68%) BMC
15 16 (1.58%) Red Hat
16 15 (1.49%) Cisco
17 13 (1.29%) Alteryx
18 10 (0.99%) AppDynamics