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 28 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
28 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 93 62
Rank change year-on-year -38 -31 -12
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 794 663 1,217
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.09% 2.73% 3.23%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.10% 14.35% 19.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 550 495 861
10th Percentile £358 £347 £325
25th Percentile £407 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £650
90th Percentile £675 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 6 29
10th Percentile £13.58 £25.66 £22.36
25th Percentile £21.25 £34.80 £40.00
Median hourly rate £28.68 £62.12 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -53.83% +54.34% +5.92%
75th Percentile £68.02 £65.62 £59.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £77.18 £64.40
UK median hourly rate £53.00 £43.93 £40.25
% change year-on-year +20.66% +9.13% -7.47%

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 6,062 4,620 6,158
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.97% 19.05% 16.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,211 3,259 4,418
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £663 £669
90th Percentile £700 £775 £770
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 92 148
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.99 £14.00
25th Percentile £28.79 £24.25 £20.77
Median hourly rate £49.36 £33.81 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.01% -15.49% -33.33%
75th Percentile £75.00 £64.79 £53.84
90th Percentile £85.03 £70.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £32.23 £40.00
% change year-on-year +58.26% -19.44% -33.33%

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 28 March 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 28 March 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 28 March 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 -20 462 £500 -9.09% 115
North of England -23 117 £450 +5.88% 114
South East -36 99 £500 - 129
North West -25 64 £456 - 64
Yorkshire -17 51 £428 +6.88% 44
Midlands -75 41 £450 -10.00% 64
South West -30 32 £438 -20.45% 39
East of England -12 25 £588 +12.44% 45
West Midlands -63 23 £449 -22.00% 36
East Midlands -29 16 £525 +32.74% 28
North East -10 3 £475 +5.56% 13
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 35 (4.41%) SharePoint
2 34 (4.28%) IIS
3 23 (2.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 17 (2.14%) Confluence
5 13 (1.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 12 (1.51%) Apache
6 12 (1.51%) Apache Spark
7 11 (1.39%) WebSphere
8 10 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
8 10 (1.26%) Appian
9 9 (1.13%) CMS
10 7 (0.88%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.76%) Sitecore CMS
12 5 (0.63%) Camunda
13 3 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
14 2 (0.25%) Apache Superset
14 2 (0.25%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.25%) OpenEdge
14 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
15 1 (0.13%) Anypoint
Applications
1 42 (5.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.13%) InDesign
6 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.01%) Advent Geneva
2 8 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.88%) BusinessWorks
3 7 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.76%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.50%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.38%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.25%) Endur
7 2 (0.25%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.25%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.13%) Findur
8 1 (0.13%) SAP Business One
8 1 (0.13%) SAP R/3
Cloud Services
1 346 (43.58%) Azure
2 171 (21.54%) AWS
3 131 (16.50%) Power Platform
4 102 (12.85%) Azure DevOps
5 77 (9.70%) Azure Data Factory
6 64 (8.06%) GitHub
7 43 (5.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 42 (5.29%) GCP
9 37 (4.66%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (3.78%) SaaS
11 29 (3.65%) Amazon S3
12 28 (3.53%) GitHub Actions
13 26 (3.27%) Snowflake
14 23 (2.90%) Power Automate
15 22 (2.77%) IaaS
15 22 (2.77%) Serverless
16 21 (2.64%) Dynamics 365
17 19 (2.39%) Amazon EC2
18 17 (2.14%) Entra ID
18 17 (2.14%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (3.02%) DNS
2 22 (2.77%) Firewall
3 17 (2.14%) DHCP
4 12 (1.51%) Internet
4 12 (1.51%) TCP/IP
4 12 (1.51%) VPN
5 10 (1.26%) SAN
6 9 (1.13%) VLAN
7 7 (0.88%) HTTP
7 7 (0.88%) LAN
7 7 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.76%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.50%) FTP
9 4 (0.50%) RS-232
9 4 (0.50%) X.400
10 3 (0.38%) SSH
10 3 (0.38%) VoIP
10 3 (0.38%) WAN
11 2 (0.25%) IPv4
11 2 (0.25%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (14.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 109 (13.73%) Power BI
3 108 (13.60%) PostgreSQL
4 94 (11.84%) Data Warehouse
5 90 (11.34%) Relational Database
6 62 (7.81%) Oracle Database
7 61 (7.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 58 (7.30%) Azure SQL Database
9 53 (6.68%) MySQL
10 51 (6.42%) Data Lake
11 36 (4.53%) NoSQL
12 34 (4.28%) MongoDB
13 33 (4.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 25 (3.15%) DB2
15 24 (3.02%) Metadata
16 21 (2.64%) RDBMS
17 20 (2.52%) Amazon RDS
18 17 (2.14%) Big Data
18 17 (2.14%) Delta Lake
19 16 (2.02%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 68 (8.56%) Git
2 49 (6.17%) JIRA
3 39 (4.91%) Jenkins
4 26 (3.27%) Visual Studio
5 22 (2.77%) GitLab
6 14 (1.76%) TeamCity
7 12 (1.51%) Maven
8 11 (1.39%) Cucumber
8 11 (1.39%) Team Foundation Server
9 10 (1.26%) Octopus Deploy
9 10 (1.26%) Postman
10 9 (1.13%) ERwin
11 8 (1.01%) JUnit
11 8 (1.01%) MLflow
11 8 (1.01%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 7 (0.88%) Chocolatey
12 7 (0.88%) Selenium
12 7 (0.88%) SpecFlow
13 6 (0.76%) Mockito
13 6 (0.76%) REST Assured
General
1 230 (28.97%) Social Skills
2 192 (24.18%) Finance
3 129 (16.25%) Analytical Skills
4 99 (12.47%) Banking
5 62 (7.81%) Public Sector
6 33 (4.16%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (2.90%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.77%) Front Office
8 22 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (2.14%) Legal
10 13 (1.64%) Financial Institution
10 13 (1.64%) Retail
11 12 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.13%) Advertising
13 8 (1.01%) Local Government
14 6 (0.76%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.63%) Law
16 4 (0.50%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.50%) Military
16 4 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 249 (31.36%) Developer
2 113 (14.23%) Senior
3 99 (12.47%) Data Engineer
4 82 (10.33%) DBA
5 76 (9.57%) C# Developer
6 70 (8.82%) Architect
7 62 (7.81%) .NET Developer
8 46 (5.79%) SQL DBA
9 40 (5.04%) Lead
10 37 (4.66%) Analyst
11 35 (4.41%) Senior Developer
12 32 (4.03%) Full-Stack Developer
13 29 (3.65%) Azure Engineer
13 29 (3.65%) Senior Data Engineer
14 28 (3.53%) Software Engineer
15 26 (3.27%) SQL Developer
16 25 (3.15%) Administrator
17 22 (2.77%) C# .NET Developer
17 22 (2.77%) Data Architect
18 21 (2.64%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 222 (27.96%) .NET
2 94 (11.84%) .NET Framework
3 90 (11.34%) REST
4 66 (8.31%) React
5 59 (7.43%) AngularJS
6 54 (6.80%) RESTful
7 49 (6.17%) HTML
8 45 (5.67%) CSS
9 40 (5.04%) .NET Core
10 39 (4.91%) ASP.NET
10 39 (4.91%) XML
11 36 (4.53%) Kafka
12 28 (3.53%) Web Services
13 25 (3.15%) Entity Framework
14 22 (2.77%) Spring
15 21 (2.64%) WPF
16 20 (2.52%) JSON
16 20 (2.52%) OAuth
16 20 (2.52%) Spring Boot
16 20 (2.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 54 (6.80%) Legacy Systems
2 36 (4.53%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.03%) Replication
4 27 (3.40%) Data Structures
5 24 (3.02%) Enterprise Software
6 23 (2.90%) Onboarding
7 19 (2.39%) Management Information System
8 17 (2.14%) Clustering
9 14 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.51%) Legacy Code
10 12 (1.51%) NHS
10 12 (1.51%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
11 10 (1.26%) Low-Code
12 9 (1.13%) Credit Risk
12 9 (1.13%) Derivative
12 9 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 9 (1.13%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 153 (19.27%) Windows
2 86 (10.83%) Windows Server
3 74 (9.32%) Linux
4 35 (4.41%) Unix
5 10 (1.26%) Windows 10
5 10 (1.26%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.01%) AIX
6 8 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (0.38%) Android
8 3 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (0.25%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.25%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.25%) VMS
9 2 (0.25%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (24.43%) CI/CD
2 192 (24.18%) DevOps
3 173 (21.79%) ETL
4 170 (21.41%) Problem-Solving
5 166 (20.91%) Agile
6 148 (18.64%) Business Intelligence
7 136 (17.13%) Data Modelling
8 126 (15.87%) Migration
9 96 (12.09%) Analytics
10 87 (10.96%) Performance Tuning
11 86 (10.83%) Disaster Recovery
12 80 (10.08%) Data Pipeline
13 79 (9.95%) Data Engineering
14 72 (9.07%) AI
14 72 (9.07%) Test Automation
15 71 (8.94%) Data Analysis
16 70 (8.82%) Microservices
17 65 (8.19%) Data Integration
18 60 (7.56%) High Availability
19 59 (7.43%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 465 (58.56%) SQL
2 202 (25.44%) C#
3 178 (22.42%) Python
4 114 (14.36%) T-SQL
5 92 (11.59%) PowerShell
6 71 (8.94%) Java
7 68 (8.56%) JavaScript
8 61 (7.68%) PL/SQL
9 48 (6.05%) TypeScript
10 31 (3.90%) Bash
11 23 (2.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 21 (2.64%) Shell Script
13 16 (2.02%) VB
14 15 (1.89%) Bicep
14 15 (1.89%) Korn
15 12 (1.51%) Scala
15 12 (1.51%) VBA
16 11 (1.39%) PHP
17 7 (0.88%) XPath
18 4 (0.50%) Delphi
Qualifications
1 161 (20.28%) Security Cleared
2 121 (15.24%) SC Cleared
3 79 (9.95%) Degree
4 30 (3.78%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.53%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.52%) Azure Certification
6 20 (2.52%) DV Cleared
7 15 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.01%) Master's Degree
9 5 (0.63%) CCA
9 5 (0.63%) Citrix Certification
9 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
9 5 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.63%) OCP
9 5 (0.63%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.50%) CISSP
10 4 (0.50%) MCITP
10 4 (0.50%) MCTS
10 4 (0.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (11.46%) Data Quality
2 87 (10.96%) QA
3 20 (2.52%) GDPR
4 15 (1.89%) SLA
5 8 (1.01%) NIST
6 6 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.63%) Accessibility
7 5 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.50%) IFRS
8 4 (0.50%) WCAG
9 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 17
9 3 (0.38%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.25%) Basel III
10 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.25%) EMIR
10 2 (0.25%) GAAP
10 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.25%) MiFID
10 2 (0.25%) NIST 800
System Software
1 89 (11.21%) Docker
2 59 (7.43%) Active Directory
3 18 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (1.89%) Hyper-V
5 14 (1.76%) Oracle RAC
6 11 (1.39%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.76%) KVM
9 5 (0.63%) XenApp
9 5 (0.63%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.38%) GridGain
10 3 (0.38%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
12 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.13%) NFS
Systems Management
1 89 (11.21%) Kubernetes
2 58 (7.30%) Terraform
3 18 (2.27%) Ansible
4 15 (1.89%) Grafana
4 15 (1.89%) Oracle RMAN
5 14 (1.76%) SCCM
6 13 (1.64%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (1.13%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.01%) Puppet
10 7 (0.88%) TIBCO Hawk
11 6 (0.76%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.63%) HAProxy
12 5 (0.63%) SCVMM
13 4 (0.50%) WSUS
14 3 (0.38%) Control-M
14 3 (0.38%) Foglight
14 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
14 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 245 (30.86%) Microsoft
2 229 (28.84%) Oracle
3 64 (8.06%) Databricks
4 51 (6.42%) Citrix
5 35 (4.41%) ServiceNow
6 33 (4.16%) Informatica
7 32 (4.03%) VMware
8 22 (2.77%) SAP
9 20 (2.52%) Google
9 20 (2.52%) IBM
10 14 (1.76%) Sybase
11 12 (1.51%) UiPath
12 11 (1.39%) CyberArk
12 11 (1.39%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.26%) OpenAI
14 9 (1.13%) Tenable
15 8 (1.01%) Advent
15 8 (1.01%) Automation Anywhere
15 8 (1.01%) PagerDuty
15 8 (1.01%) Sitecore
479 SQL Server jobs in England