SQL Server Contracts in England

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring SQL Server skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SQL Server over the 6 months leading up to 7 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 92 60 50
Rank change year-on-year -32 -10 -2
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 664 1,244 2,211
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 2.72% 3.36% 4.43%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.33% 19.88% 24.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 871 1,688
10th Percentile £360 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -
75th Percentile £650 £638 £675
90th Percentile £745 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% +1.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 23 19
10th Percentile £25.53 £36.93 £25.50
25th Percentile £26.32 £40.00 £33.70
Median hourly rate £63.75 £40.25 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.37% -7.47% -12.12%
75th Percentile £65.62 £55.19 £70.00
90th Percentile £79.50 £62.96 £85.50
UK median hourly rate £63.75 £40.13 £45.00
% change year-on-year +58.87% -10.83% -3.58%

All Database and Business Intelligence 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 4,635 6,256 8,916
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 19.01% 16.88% 17.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,254 4,508 6,398
10th Percentile £363 £350 £371
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £663 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £788 £775
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £540
% change year-on-year - -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 130 167
10th Percentile £20.53 £14.00 £21.24
25th Percentile £23.50 £20.98 £32.30
Median hourly rate £32.05 £40.13 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.12% -30.22% +32.56%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.68 £73.11
90th Percentile £71.25 £72.50 £81.00
UK median hourly rate £32.96 £40.00 £59.30
% change year-on-year -17.60% -32.54% +36.70%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing SQL Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Daily rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 7 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in England.

Hourly rate trend for SQL Server in England

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in England over the 6 months to 7 May 2025.

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 7 May 2025. 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 -36 418 £575 +7.48% 446
North of England -7 78 £431 -6.76% 246
South East +3 68 £500 +5.26% 276
North West +6 57 £463 - 173
Midlands -13 40 £513 +13.89% 173
West Midlands +5 31 £575 +27.78% 92
South West -7 28 £538 -2.27% 85
Yorkshire +2 15 £401 -11.00% 60
East Midlands -12 8 £328 -26.40% 73
East of England +14 7 £501 +5.53% 77
North East -7 6 £450 -5.26% 15
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 33 (4.97%) IIS
2 31 (4.67%) SharePoint
3 29 (4.37%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (4.07%) Apache
5 15 (2.26%) Apache Spark
5 15 (2.26%) Confluence
6 11 (1.66%) Tomcat
7 8 (1.20%) CMS
8 6 (0.90%) BizTalk Server
8 6 (0.90%) Jupyter
8 6 (0.90%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.75%) nginx
10 4 (0.60%) Drupal
10 4 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
10 4 (0.60%) WordPress
11 3 (0.45%) OpenEdge
11 3 (0.45%) SAS
11 3 (0.45%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 59 (8.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.30%) Notepad++
5 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.15%) SPSS
5 1 (0.15%) Stata
5 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 31 (4.67%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.75%) Kondor
2 5 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.60%) Cognos Business Intelligence
3 4 (0.60%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.30%) Actimize
4 2 (0.30%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.30%) Alphatax
4 2 (0.30%) Endur
4 2 (0.30%) Markit EDM
4 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.15%) FastStats
5 1 (0.15%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.15%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle BPM
5 1 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.15%) Remedy AR System
5 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 303 (45.63%) Azure
2 110 (16.57%) Power Platform
3 100 (15.06%) AWS
4 56 (8.43%) Entra ID
5 50 (7.53%) Azure DevOps
6 49 (7.38%) Azure Data Factory
7 48 (7.23%) Microsoft 365
8 35 (5.27%) GitHub
9 34 (5.12%) PowerApps
10 30 (4.52%) Azure Service Bus
11 29 (4.37%) Power Automate
11 29 (4.37%) Serverless
12 28 (4.22%) Dynamics 365
13 25 (3.77%) Azure Logic Apps
13 25 (3.77%) GCP
14 24 (3.61%) Azure Functions
15 22 (3.31%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 19 (2.86%) IaaS
17 18 (2.71%) SaaS
18 17 (2.56%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 39 (5.87%) Firewall
2 30 (4.52%) DNS
3 18 (2.71%) Internet
4 17 (2.56%) Network Security
5 14 (2.11%) Intrusion Detection
6 13 (1.96%) TCP/IP
6 13 (1.96%) VPN
7 10 (1.51%) DHCP
8 8 (1.20%) HTTP
9 7 (1.05%) LAN
9 7 (1.05%) WAN
10 6 (0.90%) Skype
10 6 (0.90%) SSH
11 4 (0.60%) SAN
11 4 (0.60%) VoIP
11 4 (0.60%) Wireless
12 3 (0.45%) iSCSI
12 3 (0.45%) Remote Desktop
12 3 (0.45%) VLAN
12 3 (0.45%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (12.65%) Power BI
2 78 (11.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 75 (11.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 62 (9.34%) PostgreSQL
5 58 (8.73%) Data Warehouse
6 46 (6.93%) Relational Database
7 45 (6.78%) Azure SQL Database
8 44 (6.63%) Oracle Database
9 43 (6.48%) MySQL
10 37 (5.57%) MongoDB
11 36 (5.42%) NoSQL
12 23 (3.46%) Tableau
13 18 (2.71%) Big Data
14 17 (2.56%) Redis
15 15 (2.26%) Data Lake
16 14 (2.11%) SQL Server Analysis Services
17 13 (1.96%) DB2
18 11 (1.66%) Metadata
19 10 (1.51%) Delta Lake
19 10 (1.51%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 46 (6.93%) Git
2 42 (6.33%) JIRA
3 28 (4.22%) Jenkins
4 16 (2.41%) GitLab
5 15 (2.26%) Bitbucket
6 12 (1.81%) Visual Studio
7 10 (1.51%) Octopus Deploy
7 10 (1.51%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 8 (1.20%) SonarQube
8 8 (1.20%) TeamCity
9 7 (1.05%) Selenium
9 7 (1.05%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (0.90%) ERwin
10 6 (0.90%) Postman
10 6 (0.90%) QARun
10 6 (0.90%) RStudio
10 6 (0.90%) WinRunner
11 5 (0.75%) JUnit
11 5 (0.75%) LoadRunner
12 4 (0.60%) Liquibase
General
1 181 (27.26%) Finance
2 180 (27.11%) Social Skills
3 98 (14.76%) Banking
4 62 (9.34%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (5.42%) Public Sector
6 25 (3.77%) Front Office
6 25 (3.77%) Investment Banking
7 17 (2.56%) Legal
8 16 (2.41%) Telecoms
9 15 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
10 12 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (1.66%) Law
12 10 (1.51%) Back Office
13 6 (0.90%) Retail Banking
14 4 (0.60%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.60%) Local Government
14 4 (0.60%) Marketing
14 4 (0.60%) Police
14 4 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 237 (35.69%) Developer
2 78 (11.75%) C# Developer
3 72 (10.84%) Analyst
4 69 (10.39%) Senior
5 57 (8.58%) Architect
6 50 (7.53%) .NET Developer
7 44 (6.63%) Data Engineer
8 42 (6.33%) DBA
9 31 (4.67%) Azure Engineer
9 31 (4.67%) Software Engineer
9 31 (4.67%) SQL DBA
10 25 (3.77%) Data Analyst
10 25 (3.77%) Senior Developer
11 24 (3.61%) C# .NET Developer
12 23 (3.46%) Consultant
13 22 (3.31%) Lead
13 22 (3.31%) Solutions Architect
13 22 (3.31%) SQL Developer
14 21 (3.16%) Full-Stack Developer
15 20 (3.01%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 189 (28.46%) .NET
2 72 (10.84%) .NET Framework
3 59 (8.89%) HTML
4 49 (7.38%) CSS
5 48 (7.23%) REST
6 46 (6.93%) ASP.NET
7 45 (6.78%) React
8 42 (6.33%) AngularJS
8 42 (6.33%) RESTful
9 38 (5.72%) Web Services
10 36 (5.42%) .NET Core
11 33 (4.97%) XML
12 32 (4.82%) JSON
12 32 (4.82%) SOAP
12 32 (4.82%) WCF
13 29 (4.37%) ASP.NET Web API
14 28 (4.22%) Kafka
14 28 (4.22%) OAuth
15 23 (3.46%) WPF
16 19 (2.86%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 34 (5.12%) Derivative
2 25 (3.77%) Replication
3 20 (3.01%) Distributed Systems
4 19 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
5 17 (2.56%) Clustering
5 17 (2.56%) Public Cloud
6 16 (2.41%) Data Centre
6 16 (2.41%) Data Structures
6 16 (2.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 11 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.51%) Reference Data
9 9 (1.36%) Management Information System
9 9 (1.36%) Product Ownership
10 8 (1.20%) Linux Command Line
10 8 (1.20%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 7 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (1.05%) NHS
11 7 (1.05%) Onboarding
11 7 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 143 (21.54%) Windows
2 90 (13.55%) Linux
3 73 (10.99%) Windows Server
4 29 (4.37%) Unix
5 20 (3.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (1.51%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (1.36%) Windows 10
8 8 (1.20%) Android
8 8 (1.20%) VMS
9 7 (1.05%) CentOS
10 6 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.60%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.45%) Solaris
13 2 (0.30%) AIX
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.30%) Rocky
13 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.30%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.15%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (24.10%) Agile
2 156 (23.49%) Problem-Solving
3 138 (20.78%) DevOps
4 102 (15.36%) CI/CD
5 98 (14.76%) Migration
6 87 (13.10%) Business Intelligence
7 70 (10.54%) ETL
8 67 (10.09%) Software Engineering
9 62 (9.34%) Test Automation
10 58 (8.73%) Data Modelling
11 57 (8.58%) Performance Tuning
12 56 (8.43%) Disaster Recovery
13 50 (7.53%) Data Analysis
14 49 (7.38%) Data Migration
15 48 (7.23%) Scrum
16 47 (7.08%) Analytics
16 47 (7.08%) ITIL
17 45 (6.78%) CRM
17 45 (6.78%) Microservices
18 43 (6.48%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 339 (51.05%) SQL
2 212 (31.93%) C#
3 142 (21.39%) Python
4 89 (13.40%) JavaScript
5 81 (12.20%) PowerShell
6 55 (8.28%) Java
7 54 (8.13%) T-SQL
8 38 (5.72%) TypeScript
9 33 (4.97%) PL/SQL
10 25 (3.77%) VB
11 24 (3.61%) Bash
12 22 (3.31%) VBA
13 16 (2.41%) Scala
14 14 (2.11%) Perl
15 10 (1.51%) PHP
15 10 (1.51%) R
16 7 (1.05%) Shell Script
17 6 (0.90%) Bicep
18 3 (0.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 3 (0.45%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 97 (14.61%) Security Cleared
2 76 (11.45%) Degree
3 64 (9.64%) SC Cleared
4 31 (4.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 29 (4.37%) Azure Certification
6 24 (3.61%) DV Cleared
7 17 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (0.90%) AWS Certification
9 5 (0.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (0.60%) MCPD
10 4 (0.60%) MCSD
11 3 (0.45%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.45%) MCSE
11 3 (0.45%) SAP Certification
12 2 (0.30%) OCP
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
12 2 (0.30%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 2 (0.30%) Tableau Certification
12 2 (0.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (8.13%) QA
2 31 (4.67%) GDPR
3 29 (4.37%) Data Quality
4 15 (2.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 11 (1.66%) MiFID
6 9 (1.36%) SLA
7 7 (1.05%) Accessibility
7 7 (1.05%) Government Security Classifications
8 6 (0.90%) EMIR
9 5 (0.75%) Basel III
9 5 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 4 (0.60%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 2 (0.30%) WCAG
13 1 (0.15%) HL7
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 20022
13 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.15%) SEPA
System Software
1 72 (10.84%) Active Directory
2 48 (7.23%) Docker
3 30 (4.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (2.86%) vSphere
5 11 (1.66%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.90%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.45%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 3 (0.45%) KVM
8 3 (0.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 3 (0.45%) vCloud
8 3 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.45%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 58 (8.73%) Kubernetes
2 47 (7.08%) Terraform
3 21 (3.16%) Ansible
4 16 (2.41%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (1.66%) SCCM
6 8 (1.20%) SCOM
7 7 (1.05%) Kibana
8 6 (0.90%) Grafana
9 5 (0.75%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.45%) Puppet
11 3 (0.45%) Rundeck
11 3 (0.45%) SCSM
11 3 (0.45%) WMI
11 3 (0.45%) ZABBIX
12 2 (0.30%) EMC NetWorker
12 2 (0.30%) Foglight
12 2 (0.30%) OPNET
12 2 (0.30%) WSUS
Vendors
1 224 (33.73%) Microsoft
2 179 (26.96%) Oracle
3 41 (6.17%) VMware
4 39 (5.87%) Databricks
5 24 (3.61%) Sybase
6 20 (3.01%) ServiceNow
7 17 (2.56%) Cisco
8 16 (2.41%) IBM
8 16 (2.41%) SAP
9 15 (2.26%) Citrix
10 14 (2.11%) Google
11 10 (1.51%) Red Hat
12 9 (1.36%) Informatica
12 9 (1.36%) Splunk
12 9 (1.36%) UiPath
13 8 (1.20%) CyberArk
13 8 (1.20%) Salesforce
14 7 (1.05%) AppDynamics
14 7 (1.05%) TIBCO
15 6 (0.90%) Bloomberg