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 3 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
3 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 98 60
Rank change year-on-year -24 -38 -10
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 854 656 1,243
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.11% 2.69% 3.35%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.68% 14.18% 19.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 600 480 867
10th Percentile £356 £358 £350
25th Percentile £404 £419 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £510
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +2.94% -2.86%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £638
90th Percentile £676 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £513 £505
% change year-on-year -7.32% +1.49% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 5 23
10th Percentile £18.25 £25.53 £36.93
25th Percentile £23.49 £26.32 £40.00
Median hourly rate £48.13 £63.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -24.50% +58.37% -7.47%
75th Percentile £69.86 £65.62 £55.19
90th Percentile £74.60 £79.50 £62.96
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £63.75 £40.13
% change year-on-year -17.64% +58.87% -10.83%

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 6,241 4,626 6,225
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 15.42% 18.98% 16.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,317 3,254 4,482
10th Percentile £350 £362 £353
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 £675
90th Percentile £700 £777 £788
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 173 90 131
10th Percentile £16.70 £19.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.63 £23.50 £20.98
Median hourly rate £47.54 £32.05 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +48.33% -20.37% -26.82%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £58.62
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.63 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £32.81 £40.00
% change year-on-year +52.39% -17.98% -30.43%

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 3 May 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 3 May 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 3 May 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 -26 474 £500 -13.04% 134
North of England -16 135 £464 +6.00% 81
South East -20 112 £473 -5.40% 105
North West -25 70 £500 +5.26% 50
Yorkshire -3 63 £450 +12.36% 24
Midlands -53 55 £455 -9.00% 51
South West -19 35 £438 -16.67% 26
East Midlands -15 27 £525 +36.36% 31
East of England -17 27 £500 -0.25% 15
West Midlands -61 26 £449 -22.00% 20
North East -22 3 £475 +5.56% 7
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 40 (4.68%) IIS
2 37 (4.33%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.81%) Microsoft Exchange
4 19 (2.22%) Confluence
5 15 (1.76%) Apache Spark
6 14 (1.64%) Apache
7 12 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
8 11 (1.29%) Appian
9 10 (1.17%) CMS
9 10 (1.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 8 (0.94%) WebSphere
11 7 (0.82%) Camunda
12 6 (0.70%) Sitecore CMS
13 5 (0.59%) WebLogic
14 4 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
15 3 (0.35%) Apache Superset
15 3 (0.35%) OpenEdge
15 3 (0.35%) Umbraco
16 2 (0.23%) Tomcat
17 1 (0.12%) ColdFusion
Applications
1 34 (3.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.64%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.12%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 12 (1.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.70%) Advent Geneva
5 5 (0.59%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.47%) BusinessWorks
6 4 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
7 3 (0.35%) Oracle General Ledger
7 3 (0.35%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 3 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 3 (0.35%) SystmOne
8 2 (0.23%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.23%) Veritas eDiscovery
9 1 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.12%) Endur
9 1 (0.12%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.12%) SAP R/3
9 1 (0.12%) SDL Web 8
9 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 371 (43.44%) Azure
2 177 (20.73%) AWS
3 139 (16.28%) Power Platform
4 112 (13.11%) Azure DevOps
5 86 (10.07%) Azure Data Factory
6 71 (8.31%) GitHub
7 52 (6.09%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 40 (4.68%) GCP
9 33 (3.86%) GitHub Actions
9 33 (3.86%) Microsoft 365
10 32 (3.75%) Power Automate
11 30 (3.51%) Amazon S3
12 27 (3.16%) SaaS
12 27 (3.16%) Serverless
13 26 (3.04%) Snowflake
14 24 (2.81%) Azure Monitor
15 23 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
16 22 (2.58%) IaaS
17 20 (2.34%) Amazon EC2
17 20 (2.34%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 26 (3.04%) DNS
2 21 (2.46%) DHCP
2 21 (2.46%) Firewall
3 14 (1.64%) Internet
4 13 (1.52%) VLAN
5 12 (1.41%) VPN
6 11 (1.29%) SAN
7 9 (1.05%) TCP/IP
8 7 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (0.70%) IPv4
9 6 (0.70%) IPv6
9 6 (0.70%) LAN
9 6 (0.70%) NetScaler
10 5 (0.59%) Network Security
11 4 (0.47%) FTP
11 4 (0.47%) SSH
11 4 (0.47%) WAN
12 3 (0.35%) RS-232
12 3 (0.35%) X.400
13 2 (0.23%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (14.64%) PostgreSQL
2 114 (13.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 113 (13.23%) Power BI
4 104 (12.18%) Data Warehouse
5 90 (10.54%) Relational Database
6 65 (7.61%) Oracle Database
7 60 (7.03%) Data Lake
8 59 (6.91%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 57 (6.67%) Azure SQL Database
10 49 (5.74%) MySQL
11 37 (4.33%) NoSQL
12 36 (4.22%) MongoDB
13 34 (3.98%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 22 (2.58%) Metadata
15 21 (2.46%) Amazon RDS
16 20 (2.34%) DB2
17 19 (2.22%) Tableau
18 18 (2.11%) Delta Lake
18 18 (2.11%) RDBMS
19 15 (1.76%) Redis
Development Applications
1 71 (8.31%) Git
2 56 (6.56%) JIRA
3 39 (4.57%) Jenkins
4 25 (2.93%) Visual Studio
5 21 (2.46%) GitLab
6 19 (2.22%) TeamCity
7 13 (1.52%) Team Foundation Server
8 11 (1.29%) Cucumber
8 11 (1.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 10 (1.17%) Maven
9 10 (1.17%) Octopus Deploy
9 10 (1.17%) Postman
10 9 (1.05%) Gatling
11 8 (0.94%) ERwin
11 8 (0.94%) MLflow
11 8 (0.94%) Selenium
12 7 (0.82%) Chocolatey
13 6 (0.70%) JUnit
13 6 (0.70%) REST Assured
13 6 (0.70%) TestRail
General
1 239 (27.99%) Social Skills
2 198 (23.19%) Finance
3 132 (15.46%) Analytical Skills
4 93 (10.89%) Banking
5 68 (7.96%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (3.04%) Front Office
8 24 (2.81%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (1.99%) Legal
11 14 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
12 13 (1.52%) Retail
13 12 (1.41%) Financial Institution
14 9 (1.05%) Advertising
15 7 (0.82%) Local Government
16 6 (0.70%) Telecoms
17 4 (0.47%) Law
17 4 (0.47%) Manufacturing
17 4 (0.47%) Military
17 4 (0.47%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 263 (30.80%) Developer
2 131 (15.34%) Senior
3 113 (13.23%) Data Engineer
4 91 (10.66%) DBA
5 81 (9.48%) C# Developer
6 68 (7.96%) .NET Developer
7 67 (7.85%) Architect
8 56 (6.56%) SQL DBA
9 45 (5.27%) Lead
10 37 (4.33%) Senior Data Engineer
10 37 (4.33%) Senior Developer
11 32 (3.75%) Full-Stack Developer
12 31 (3.63%) Software Engineer
13 30 (3.51%) Azure Engineer
13 30 (3.51%) SQL Developer
14 29 (3.40%) Analyst
15 25 (2.93%) Administrator
15 25 (2.93%) C# .NET Developer
16 24 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 22 (2.58%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 233 (27.28%) .NET
2 98 (11.48%) .NET Framework
3 97 (11.36%) REST
4 73 (8.55%) React
5 58 (6.79%) RESTful
6 54 (6.32%) AngularJS
7 51 (5.97%) CSS
8 50 (5.85%) HTML
9 41 (4.80%) ASP.NET
9 41 (4.80%) Kafka
10 40 (4.68%) .NET Core
11 33 (3.86%) XML
12 25 (2.93%) OAuth
12 25 (2.93%) Web Services
13 23 (2.69%) Entity Framework
14 20 (2.34%) SOAP
14 20 (2.34%) Spring
14 20 (2.34%) WinForms
14 20 (2.34%) WPF
15 19 (2.22%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.67%) Legacy Systems
2 42 (4.92%) Cloud Native
3 33 (3.86%) Data Structures
3 33 (3.86%) Onboarding
4 32 (3.75%) Replication
5 24 (2.81%) Clustering
6 22 (2.58%) Enterprise Software
6 22 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
7 21 (2.46%) Management Information System
8 16 (1.87%) NHS
9 15 (1.76%) Low-Code
9 15 (1.76%) Product Ownership
10 13 (1.52%) Legacy Code
11 11 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
11 11 (1.29%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.17%) Derivative
12 10 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
13 9 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.05%) PKI
13 9 (1.05%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 182 (21.31%) Windows
2 101 (11.83%) Windows Server
3 84 (9.84%) Linux
4 49 (5.74%) Unix
5 13 (1.52%) Windows 10
6 11 (1.29%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (0.94%) AIX
9 6 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.35%) Android
12 2 (0.23%) OpenVMS
12 2 (0.23%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.12%) VMS
13 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (25.06%) DevOps
2 211 (24.71%) CI/CD
3 186 (21.78%) Agile
4 180 (21.08%) Problem-Solving
5 179 (20.96%) ETL
6 154 (18.03%) Business Intelligence
7 144 (16.86%) Data Modelling
8 128 (14.99%) Migration
9 106 (12.41%) Analytics
10 98 (11.48%) Disaster Recovery
11 93 (10.89%) Performance Tuning
12 88 (10.30%) Data Pipeline
13 84 (9.84%) AI
14 82 (9.60%) Data Engineering
15 79 (9.25%) Test Automation
16 73 (8.55%) Data Integration
17 70 (8.20%) Microservices
18 67 (7.85%) Data Analysis
19 66 (7.73%) High Availability
20 64 (7.49%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 508 (59.48%) SQL
2 224 (26.23%) C#
3 218 (25.53%) Python
4 139 (16.28%) T-SQL
5 118 (13.82%) PowerShell
6 81 (9.48%) JavaScript
7 78 (9.13%) Java
8 69 (8.08%) PL/SQL
9 48 (5.62%) TypeScript
10 34 (3.98%) Bash
11 24 (2.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 23 (2.69%) Shell Script
13 18 (2.11%) Scala
13 18 (2.11%) VB
14 16 (1.87%) Korn
15 15 (1.76%) Bicep
16 14 (1.64%) VBA
17 12 (1.41%) PHP
18 5 (0.59%) Rust
18 5 (0.59%) XPath
Qualifications
1 182 (21.31%) Security Cleared
2 142 (16.63%) SC Cleared
3 88 (10.30%) Degree
4 28 (3.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (2.81%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (2.22%) Azure Certification
9 8 (0.94%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.70%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.59%) CCA
11 5 (0.59%) CISSP
11 5 (0.59%) Citrix Certification
11 5 (0.59%) OCP
11 5 (0.59%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.47%) MCITP
12 4 (0.47%) MCTS
13 3 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.23%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (11.71%) Data Quality
2 92 (10.77%) QA
3 23 (2.69%) GDPR
4 20 (2.34%) NIST
5 18 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (1.64%) SLA
7 8 (0.94%) Accessibility
7 8 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 4 (0.47%) WCAG
9 3 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.35%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.35%) IFRS
9 3 (0.35%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.23%) Basel III
10 2 (0.23%) EMIR
10 2 (0.23%) GAAP
10 2 (0.23%) GRC
10 2 (0.23%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.23%) MiFID
System Software
1 95 (11.12%) Docker
2 68 (7.96%) Active Directory
3 21 (2.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (1.87%) Hyper-V
4 16 (1.87%) Oracle RAC
5 15 (1.76%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (1.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.70%) KVM
8 5 (0.59%) XenApp
8 5 (0.59%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.35%) GridGain
10 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.12%) NFS
10 1 (0.12%) RACF
10 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.12%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 104 (12.18%) Kubernetes
2 67 (7.85%) Terraform
3 18 (2.11%) Ansible
4 16 (1.87%) Oracle RMAN
4 16 (1.87%) SCCM
5 14 (1.64%) Grafana
5 14 (1.64%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 10 (1.17%) HAProxy
7 9 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (0.94%) Puppet
8 8 (0.94%) WSUS
9 7 (0.82%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.70%) IBM BigFix
11 5 (0.59%) SCVMM
11 5 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.47%) TIBCO Hawk
13 3 (0.35%) Control-M
13 3 (0.35%) Foglight
13 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Clustering
13 3 (0.35%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 250 (29.27%) Microsoft
2 232 (27.17%) Oracle
3 76 (8.90%) Databricks
4 57 (6.67%) Citrix
5 37 (4.33%) ServiceNow
6 34 (3.98%) VMware
7 29 (3.40%) Informatica
8 25 (2.93%) SAP
9 23 (2.69%) CyberArk
10 19 (2.22%) Google
11 17 (1.99%) BeyondTrust
11 17 (1.99%) IBM
12 14 (1.64%) Sybase
13 13 (1.52%) Dynatrace
14 12 (1.41%) Remedy
15 11 (1.29%) BMC
15 11 (1.29%) OpenAI
15 11 (1.29%) UiPath
16 9 (1.05%) Tenable
17 8 (0.94%) Automation Anywhere
386 SQL Server jobs in England