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 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 81 68
Rank change year-on-year -58 -13 -20
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 708 769 1,156
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.03% 2.96% 3.06%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.53% 15.99% 18.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 548 846
10th Percentile £350 £336 £325
25th Percentile £406 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £515 £538
Median % change year-on-year -6.32% -4.28% -2.27%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £700 £730
UK median daily rate £480 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 29
10th Percentile £12.95 £42.63 £20.71
25th Percentile £20.75 £60.66 £40.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £63.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -58.08% +58.37% -3.59%
75th Percentile £47.00 £65.46 £56.25
90th Percentile £69.83 £65.62 £62.60
UK median hourly rate £27.88 £60.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year -53.92% +50.31% -7.61%

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 5,650 4,809 6,086
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.22% 18.53% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,920 3,243 4,366
10th Percentile £342 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £535
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +0.47% -2.73%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £657
90th Percentile £700 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 83 159
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £15.83
25th Percentile £27.25 £25.13 £21.69
Median hourly rate £55.00 £40.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.80% -4.71% -25.26%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £61.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £73.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £38.11 £42.50
% change year-on-year +44.32% -10.33% -24.01%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 20 February 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 -37 437 £500 -9.09% 156
South East -48 84 £484 -3.20% 205
North of England -46 82 £428 -10.00% 130
North West -20 50 £450 +5.88% 86
Yorkshire -52 30 £393 -21.50% 31
South West -33 27 £550 - 49
Midlands -86 26 £455 -9.00% 65
East of England -11 24 £600 +14.83% 61
West Midlands -71 17 £450 -20.63% 30
East Midlands -40 7 £425 +11.70% 35
North East -13 3 £475 +28.38% 17
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 30 (4.24%) SharePoint
2 24 (3.39%) IIS
3 20 (2.82%) Confluence
3 20 (2.82%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (1.98%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 11 (1.55%) Apache
5 11 (1.55%) Apache Spark
5 11 (1.55%) WebSphere
6 10 (1.41%) Appian
7 9 (1.27%) Apache Airflow
7 9 (1.27%) CMS
8 7 (0.99%) WebLogic
9 6 (0.85%) Sitecore CMS
10 4 (0.56%) SharePoint Server
11 2 (0.28%) JBoss
12 1 (0.14%) ColdFusion
12 1 (0.14%) OpenEdge
12 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.14%) SAS
12 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 41 (5.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.69%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
6 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 9 (1.27%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.99%) BusinessWorks
4 6 (0.85%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
6 3 (0.42%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.42%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
7 2 (0.28%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
7 2 (0.28%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.28%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.14%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.14%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.14%) Orchestrade
8 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 309 (43.64%) Azure
2 146 (20.62%) AWS
3 129 (18.22%) Power Platform
4 91 (12.85%) Azure DevOps
5 62 (8.76%) Azure Data Factory
6 57 (8.05%) GitHub
7 53 (7.49%) GCP
8 37 (5.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 33 (4.66%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (4.24%) SaaS
11 22 (3.11%) Amazon S3
11 22 (3.11%) GitHub Actions
11 22 (3.11%) Snowflake
12 20 (2.82%) Power Automate
13 19 (2.68%) Dynamics 365
14 18 (2.54%) Azure Service Bus
15 17 (2.40%) IaaS
16 16 (2.26%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 16 (2.26%) Serverless
17 15 (2.12%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 25 (3.53%) Firewall
2 20 (2.82%) DNS
3 15 (2.12%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.84%) DHCP
5 12 (1.69%) Internet
6 10 (1.41%) HTTP
7 8 (1.13%) VPN
8 7 (0.99%) LAN
9 6 (0.85%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.71%) Skype
10 5 (0.71%) VLAN
10 5 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (0.56%) FTP
11 4 (0.56%) RS-232
11 4 (0.56%) SAN
11 4 (0.56%) SSL
11 4 (0.56%) VoIP
11 4 (0.56%) X.400
12 3 (0.42%) SSH
12 3 (0.42%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (15.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 106 (14.97%) Power BI
3 94 (13.28%) PostgreSQL
4 87 (12.29%) Data Warehouse
5 83 (11.72%) Relational Database
6 67 (9.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 56 (7.91%) Oracle Database
8 49 (6.92%) Data Lake
9 47 (6.64%) Azure SQL Database
9 47 (6.64%) MySQL
10 38 (5.37%) MongoDB
11 35 (4.94%) NoSQL
12 29 (4.10%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 27 (3.81%) DB2
14 25 (3.53%) RDBMS
15 21 (2.97%) Amazon RDS
15 21 (2.97%) Big Data
16 20 (2.82%) Delta Lake
17 18 (2.54%) Tableau
18 17 (2.40%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 60 (8.47%) Git
2 51 (7.20%) JIRA
3 30 (4.24%) Jenkins
4 24 (3.39%) Visual Studio
5 18 (2.54%) GitLab
6 15 (2.12%) Postman
7 11 (1.55%) Team Foundation Server
8 10 (1.41%) Cucumber
8 10 (1.41%) SpecFlow
8 10 (1.41%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 9 (1.27%) Maven
10 8 (1.13%) ERwin
10 8 (1.13%) JUnit
10 8 (1.13%) MLflow
10 8 (1.13%) Octopus Deploy
11 7 (0.99%) Selenium
11 7 (0.99%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.85%) Mockito
12 6 (0.85%) REST Assured
12 6 (0.85%) TestRail
General
1 208 (29.38%) Social Skills
2 176 (24.86%) Finance
3 107 (15.11%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (12.71%) Banking
5 51 (7.20%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.37%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.39%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.84%) Front Office
9 13 (1.84%) Retail
10 12 (1.69%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.13%) Legal
12 7 (0.99%) Local Government
13 6 (0.85%) Law
13 6 (0.85%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.85%) Telecoms
14 5 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.56%) Military
15 4 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 242 (34.18%) Developer
2 103 (14.55%) Senior
3 100 (14.12%) Data Engineer
4 67 (9.46%) C# Developer
5 58 (8.19%) Architect
6 49 (6.92%) .NET Developer
7 45 (6.36%) DBA
8 44 (6.21%) Analyst
9 38 (5.37%) Senior Developer
10 35 (4.94%) Lead
11 31 (4.38%) Senior Data Engineer
11 31 (4.38%) SQL DBA
12 26 (3.67%) Full-Stack Developer
13 25 (3.53%) Software Engineer
14 24 (3.39%) SQL Developer
15 22 (3.11%) Consultant
16 20 (2.82%) Azure Engineer
16 20 (2.82%) C# .NET Developer
17 19 (2.68%) Data Architect
18 18 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 198 (27.97%) .NET
2 84 (11.86%) .NET Framework
3 79 (11.16%) REST
4 54 (7.63%) React
5 52 (7.34%) HTML
6 51 (7.20%) AngularJS
7 43 (6.07%) CSS
8 42 (5.93%) .NET Core
8 42 (5.93%) RESTful
9 39 (5.51%) XML
10 33 (4.66%) ASP.NET
10 33 (4.66%) Kafka
10 33 (4.66%) Web Services
11 27 (3.81%) Entity Framework
11 27 (3.81%) SOAP
12 23 (3.25%) WPF
13 22 (3.11%) OAuth
14 20 (2.82%) Middleware
15 19 (2.68%) JSON
15 19 (2.68%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 42 (5.93%) Legacy Systems
2 30 (4.24%) Cloud Native
3 24 (3.39%) Enterprise Software
4 22 (3.11%) Replication
5 20 (2.82%) Management Information System
5 20 (2.82%) Onboarding
6 16 (2.26%) Data Structures
7 15 (2.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 13 (1.84%) Clustering
8 13 (1.84%) Derivative
8 13 (1.84%) Product Ownership
9 12 (1.69%) Credit Risk
9 12 (1.69%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (1.69%) PKI
9 12 (1.69%) Reinsurance
10 11 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
10 11 (1.55%) Low-Code
11 10 (1.41%) Greenfield Project
12 9 (1.27%) NHS
13 8 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 126 (17.80%) Windows
2 80 (11.30%) Linux
3 65 (9.18%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.53%) Unix
5 15 (2.12%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.84%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (1.13%) AIX
7 8 (1.13%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (0.71%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (0.56%) Android
10 3 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.28%) VMS
11 2 (0.28%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (23.45%) CI/CD
2 161 (22.74%) Agile
3 157 (22.18%) Problem-Solving
4 152 (21.47%) DevOps
5 142 (20.06%) ETL
6 138 (19.49%) Business Intelligence
7 117 (16.53%) Data Modelling
8 107 (15.11%) Migration
9 78 (11.02%) Analytics
10 68 (9.60%) Data Engineering
11 67 (9.46%) Microservices
12 64 (9.04%) Data Pipeline
13 63 (8.90%) Performance Tuning
14 62 (8.76%) Test Automation
15 60 (8.47%) Data Analysis
16 57 (8.05%) Data Governance
17 56 (7.91%) Containerisation
18 55 (7.77%) Disaster Recovery
19 52 (7.34%) Data Migration
19 52 (7.34%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 416 (58.76%) SQL
2 179 (25.28%) C#
3 164 (23.16%) Python
4 96 (13.56%) T-SQL
5 72 (10.17%) JavaScript
6 69 (9.75%) PowerShell
7 65 (9.18%) Java
8 59 (8.33%) PL/SQL
9 36 (5.08%) TypeScript
10 35 (4.94%) Bash
11 24 (3.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 17 (2.40%) VB
13 14 (1.98%) Bicep
13 14 (1.98%) PHP
13 14 (1.98%) VBA
14 7 (0.99%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.99%) XPath
15 5 (0.71%) Korn
15 5 (0.71%) R
15 5 (0.71%) X++
Qualifications
1 107 (15.11%) Security Cleared
2 75 (10.59%) Degree
2 75 (10.59%) SC Cleared
3 24 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
4 20 (2.82%) Azure Certification
4 20 (2.82%) Microsoft Certification
5 19 (2.68%) DV Cleared
6 14 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (1.27%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.85%) AWS Certification
9 5 (0.71%) CCA
9 5 (0.71%) Citrix Certification
10 4 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.42%) CCNP
11 3 (0.42%) HNC
11 3 (0.42%) HND
11 3 (0.42%) MCSE
11 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.42%) OCP
11 3 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (10.88%) Data Quality
2 76 (10.73%) QA
3 16 (2.26%) GDPR
4 10 (1.41%) SLA
5 7 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.85%) NIST
7 5 (0.71%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 4 (0.56%) MiFID
8 4 (0.56%) WCAG
9 3 (0.42%) EMIR
9 3 (0.42%) IFRS
9 3 (0.42%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.28%) Basel III
10 2 (0.28%) GAAP
10 2 (0.28%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.28%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.28%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.14%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 82 (11.58%) Docker
2 50 (7.06%) Active Directory
3 23 (3.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (2.54%) Hyper-V
5 12 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.99%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.85%) KVM
8 6 (0.85%) zsh
9 5 (0.71%) Oracle RAC
9 5 (0.71%) XenApp
9 5 (0.71%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.42%) vSphere
11 2 (0.28%) GridGain
11 2 (0.28%) NDS
11 2 (0.28%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 68 (9.60%) Kubernetes
2 40 (5.65%) Terraform
3 18 (2.54%) Ansible
4 14 (1.98%) Grafana
4 14 (1.98%) SCCM
5 13 (1.84%) vCenter Server
6 10 (1.41%) Puppet
7 9 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 9 (1.27%) Oracle RMAN
8 7 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.99%) TIBCO Hawk
9 6 (0.85%) IBM BigFix
10 5 (0.71%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.71%) Progress Chef
10 5 (0.71%) SCVMM
10 5 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (0.56%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 4 (0.56%) WSUS
12 3 (0.42%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 216 (30.51%) Microsoft
2 211 (29.80%) Oracle
3 58 (8.19%) Databricks
4 47 (6.64%) Citrix
5 38 (5.37%) VMware
6 27 (3.81%) Informatica
7 25 (3.53%) ServiceNow
8 22 (3.11%) IBM
9 21 (2.97%) Google
10 20 (2.82%) SAP
11 13 (1.84%) UiPath
12 12 (1.69%) Salesforce
12 12 (1.69%) SolarWinds
13 11 (1.55%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.41%) Cisco
15 9 (1.27%) Advent
15 9 (1.27%) OpenAI
15 9 (1.27%) Sybase
16 8 (1.13%) Automation Anywhere
16 8 (1.13%) Sitecore