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 12 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
12 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 93 57
Rank change year-on-year -22 -36 -4
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 931 672 1,284
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.18% 2.74% 3.43%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.33% 14.51% 20.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 652 499 908
10th Percentile £351 £319 £336
25th Percentile £404 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £517 £515
Median % change year-on-year -4.84% +0.39% -1.90%
75th Percentile £602 £650 £638
90th Percentile £713 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £508
% change year-on-year -2.50% -1.48% -3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 8 22
10th Percentile £13.51 £21.02 £36.84
25th Percentile £19.25 £24.01 £40.00
Median hourly rate £28.68 £45.03 £40.13
Median % change year-on-year -36.31% +12.23% -2.13%
75th Percentile £62.44 £68.59 £48.11
90th Percentile £74.60 £80.88 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £63.75 £40.13
% change year-on-year -41.17% +58.87% -17.69%

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 6,498 4,631 6,404
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.24% 18.89% 17.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,418 3,206 4,613
10th Percentile £350 £359 £350
25th Percentile £413 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £675
90th Percentile £700 £775 £800
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 90 143
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £23.69 £20.77
Median hourly rate £41.00 £33.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.41% -16.26% -31.73%
75th Percentile £73.75 £65.62 £53.94
90th Percentile £82.25 £77.62 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £34.99 £40.00
% change year-on-year +19.21% -12.53% -31.73%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -23 492 £506 -11.96% 101
North of England -23 145 £475 +11.76% 73
South East -29 120 £450 - 89
Midlands -29 76 £487 +7.81% 43
North West -21 75 £500 +12.68% 47
Yorkshire -7 68 £450 +12.50% 19
South West -10 44 £450 -11.76% 31
East Midlands +4 40 £525 +60.80% 14
East of England +3 36 £475 -5.00% 22
West Midlands -50 34 £475 -13.64% 29
North East -37 3 £475 +5.56% 8
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 50 (5.37%) SharePoint
2 43 (4.62%) IIS
3 23 (2.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 20 (2.15%) Apache
4 20 (2.15%) Apache Spark
4 20 (2.15%) Confluence
5 18 (1.93%) Apache Airflow
6 14 (1.50%) Appian
7 12 (1.29%) CMS
8 11 (1.18%) Camunda
9 9 (0.97%) Oracle Workflow
10 8 (0.86%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 6 (0.64%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.64%) Sitecore CMS
12 5 (0.54%) OpenEdge
12 5 (0.54%) Tomcat
12 5 (0.54%) Tuxedo
12 5 (0.54%) Umbraco
12 5 (0.54%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.32%) nginx
Applications
1 33 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.83%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.29%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.11%) InDesign
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 17 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.50%) Remedy ITSM
3 9 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.64%) Dynamics AX
5 5 (0.54%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.32%) Elite 3E
6 3 (0.32%) OpenText MBPM
6 3 (0.32%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.32%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.32%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.32%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.32%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.21%) BusinessWorks
7 2 (0.21%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.21%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.11%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 396 (42.53%) Azure
2 206 (22.13%) AWS
3 151 (16.22%) Power Platform
4 102 (10.96%) Azure DevOps
5 87 (9.34%) GitHub
6 86 (9.24%) Azure Data Factory
7 47 (5.05%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 42 (4.51%) GCP
9 37 (3.97%) GitHub Actions
10 34 (3.65%) Microsoft 365
10 34 (3.65%) Serverless
11 33 (3.54%) Power Automate
12 31 (3.33%) Snowflake
13 27 (2.90%) SaaS
14 25 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
15 24 (2.58%) Amazon S3
15 24 (2.58%) Azure Monitor
16 20 (2.15%) dbt
16 20 (2.15%) Entra ID
17 19 (2.04%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 36 (3.87%) DNS
2 28 (3.01%) DHCP
3 20 (2.15%) Firewall
4 15 (1.61%) SAN
5 12 (1.29%) Internet
5 12 (1.29%) VLAN
6 10 (1.07%) VPN
7 9 (0.97%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.64%) IPv4
8 6 (0.64%) IPv6
8 6 (0.64%) SSH
8 6 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.54%) Network Security
10 4 (0.43%) LAN
10 4 (0.43%) NetScaler
11 3 (0.32%) FTP
11 3 (0.32%) NAS
11 3 (0.32%) RS-232
11 3 (0.32%) X.400
12 2 (0.21%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 131 (14.07%) PostgreSQL
2 124 (13.32%) Power BI
3 115 (12.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 104 (11.17%) Data Warehouse
5 99 (10.63%) Relational Database
6 68 (7.30%) Oracle Database
7 59 (6.34%) Data Lake
8 56 (6.02%) MySQL
8 56 (6.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 54 (5.80%) Azure SQL Database
10 39 (4.19%) NoSQL
11 38 (4.08%) MongoDB
12 32 (3.44%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 25 (2.69%) RDBMS
14 23 (2.47%) Tableau
15 22 (2.36%) Metadata
16 20 (2.15%) Delta Lake
17 17 (1.83%) Redis
18 16 (1.72%) Big Data
19 15 (1.61%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 76 (8.16%) Git
2 56 (6.02%) JIRA
3 38 (4.08%) Jenkins
4 25 (2.69%) Visual Studio
5 23 (2.47%) GitLab
6 18 (1.93%) Team Foundation Server
6 18 (1.93%) TeamCity
7 13 (1.40%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 12 (1.29%) Cucumber
8 12 (1.29%) Octopus Deploy
9 11 (1.18%) Maven
10 9 (0.97%) Gatling
11 8 (0.86%) MLflow
11 8 (0.86%) MSTest
11 8 (0.86%) Oracle Forms
11 8 (0.86%) Postman
12 7 (0.75%) Artifactory
12 7 (0.75%) Chocolatey
12 7 (0.75%) ERwin
12 7 (0.75%) REST Assured
General
1 262 (28.14%) Social Skills
2 225 (24.17%) Finance
3 144 (15.47%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (12.24%) Banking
5 72 (7.73%) Public Sector
6 35 (3.76%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (3.54%) Front Office
8 22 (2.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 21 (2.26%) Investment Banking
10 18 (1.93%) Legal
11 17 (1.83%) Retail
12 13 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.97%) Advertising
13 9 (0.97%) Financial Institution
14 8 (0.86%) Local Government
15 7 (0.75%) Back Office
15 7 (0.75%) Law
16 6 (0.64%) Publishing
16 6 (0.64%) Telecoms
17 5 (0.54%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 274 (29.43%) Developer
2 148 (15.90%) Senior
3 117 (12.57%) Data Engineer
4 105 (11.28%) DBA
5 83 (8.92%) C# Developer
6 65 (6.98%) SQL DBA
7 64 (6.87%) .NET Developer
8 63 (6.77%) Architect
8 63 (6.77%) Lead
9 46 (4.94%) Senior Developer
10 39 (4.19%) Senior Data Engineer
11 38 (4.08%) Analyst
11 38 (4.08%) SQL Developer
12 35 (3.76%) Full-Stack Developer
12 35 (3.76%) Software Engineer
13 29 (3.11%) Administrator
13 29 (3.11%) Azure Engineer
14 28 (3.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 28 (3.01%) SQL Server DBA
15 27 (2.90%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 234 (25.13%) .NET
2 117 (12.57%) REST
3 96 (10.31%) .NET Framework
4 79 (8.49%) React
5 65 (6.98%) CSS
6 63 (6.77%) RESTful
7 58 (6.23%) AngularJS
7 58 (6.23%) HTML
8 47 (5.05%) ASP.NET
9 43 (4.62%) .NET Core
10 42 (4.51%) Kafka
11 36 (3.87%) XML
12 31 (3.33%) OAuth
12 31 (3.33%) Web Services
13 25 (2.69%) Entity Framework
13 25 (2.69%) SOAP
14 22 (2.36%) JSON
14 22 (2.36%) PySpark
15 21 (2.26%) Spring Boot
16 20 (2.15%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 55 (5.91%) Legacy Systems
2 44 (4.73%) Cloud Native
3 41 (4.40%) Onboarding
4 35 (3.76%) Replication
5 30 (3.22%) Self-Motivation
6 29 (3.11%) Data Structures
7 28 (3.01%) Clustering
8 23 (2.47%) Low-Code
9 22 (2.36%) Management Information System
10 20 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
11 18 (1.93%) NHS
12 16 (1.72%) Product Ownership
13 15 (1.61%) Derivative
14 14 (1.50%) Fixed Income
14 14 (1.50%) PKI
15 13 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
16 12 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
16 12 (1.29%) Reinsurance
17 11 (1.18%) Legacy Code
18 10 (1.07%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 215 (23.09%) Windows
2 123 (13.21%) Windows Server
3 89 (9.56%) Linux
4 56 (6.02%) Unix
5 12 (1.29%) Windows 10
6 11 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.07%) AIX
7 10 (1.07%) Windows Server 2016
8 9 (0.97%) Android
9 8 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.43%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.43%) VMS
11 3 (0.32%) CentOS
12 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.11%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.11%) Solaris
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 230 (24.70%) DevOps
2 228 (24.49%) CI/CD
3 207 (22.23%) Agile
4 182 (19.55%) ETL
5 181 (19.44%) Problem-Solving
6 149 (16.00%) Business Intelligence
6 149 (16.00%) Migration
7 148 (15.90%) Data Modelling
8 113 (12.14%) Performance Tuning
9 109 (11.71%) Analytics
10 105 (11.28%) Disaster Recovery
11 104 (11.17%) AI
12 91 (9.77%) Data Pipeline
13 84 (9.02%) Data Engineering
14 82 (8.81%) High Availability
15 79 (8.49%) Microservices
15 79 (8.49%) Test Automation
16 78 (8.38%) Data Integration
16 78 (8.38%) Validation
17 75 (8.06%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 531 (57.04%) SQL
2 238 (25.56%) Python
3 237 (25.46%) C#
4 151 (16.22%) T-SQL
5 149 (16.00%) PowerShell
6 96 (10.31%) JavaScript
7 87 (9.34%) Java
8 66 (7.09%) PL/SQL
9 52 (5.59%) TypeScript
10 32 (3.44%) Bash
11 25 (2.69%) Shell Script
12 23 (2.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 20 (2.15%) VB
14 18 (1.93%) Scala
15 16 (1.72%) Korn
16 13 (1.40%) Bicep
17 12 (1.29%) VBA
18 7 (0.75%) VB6
19 6 (0.64%) PHP
20 5 (0.54%) C
Qualifications
1 205 (22.02%) Security Cleared
2 156 (16.76%) SC Cleared
3 99 (10.63%) Degree
4 34 (3.65%) DV Cleared
5 30 (3.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
7 22 (2.36%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (1.83%) Azure Certification
9 10 (1.07%) Master's Degree
10 9 (0.97%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.54%) CISSP
11 5 (0.54%) OCP
11 5 (0.54%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.43%) CCA
12 4 (0.43%) Citrix Certification
12 4 (0.43%) MCITP
12 4 (0.43%) MCTS
13 3 (0.32%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 3 (0.32%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (10.96%) Data Quality
2 95 (10.20%) QA
3 24 (2.58%) GDPR
3 24 (2.58%) NIST
4 22 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.61%) SLA
6 10 (1.07%) Accessibility
7 8 (0.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 7 (0.75%) WCAG
9 4 (0.43%) Basel III
10 3 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.32%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.32%) IFRS
10 3 (0.32%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.21%) EMIR
11 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.21%) GRC
11 2 (0.21%) IFRS 17
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 87 (9.34%) Active Directory
2 85 (9.13%) Docker
3 24 (2.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (2.36%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.93%) Oracle RAC
6 12 (1.29%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (0.64%) KVM
9 4 (0.43%) XenApp
9 4 (0.43%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.32%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.32%) GridGain
10 3 (0.32%) Postfix
10 3 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.21%) vSphere
12 1 (0.11%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.11%) NFS
12 1 (0.11%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 107 (11.49%) Kubernetes
2 67 (7.20%) Terraform
3 19 (2.04%) Oracle RMAN
4 18 (1.93%) Ansible
4 18 (1.93%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 17 (1.83%) SCCM
6 13 (1.40%) HAProxy
7 8 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (0.75%) Grafana
8 7 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.75%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.75%) WSUS
9 6 (0.64%) IBM BigFix
10 4 (0.43%) Data Guard
10 4 (0.43%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.32%) Control-M
11 3 (0.32%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.32%) Foglight
12 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 256 (27.50%) Microsoft
2 252 (27.07%) Oracle
3 79 (8.49%) Databricks
4 52 (5.59%) Citrix
5 44 (4.73%) ServiceNow
6 37 (3.97%) VMware
7 34 (3.65%) Informatica
8 33 (3.54%) SAP
9 27 (2.90%) CyberArk
10 24 (2.58%) Google
11 22 (2.36%) Sybase
12 21 (2.26%) BeyondTrust
13 19 (2.04%) IBM
14 15 (1.61%) Dynatrace
15 14 (1.50%) Remedy
16 13 (1.40%) BMC
17 11 (1.18%) Alteryx
17 11 (1.18%) OpenAI
18 10 (1.07%) Cisco
18 10 (1.07%) UiPath
331 SQL Server jobs in England