SQL Server Contract Job Trends in London

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring SQL Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 76 51
Rank change year-on-year -28 -25 -8
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 404 454 728
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.80% 3.24% 4.00%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.74% 15.02% 20.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 324 538
10th Percentile £370 £353 £385
25th Percentile £406 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -5.17% -3.33%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £675
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
England median daily rate £480 £510 £550
% change year-on-year -5.88% -7.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 0
10th Percentile - £64.23 -
25th Percentile £66.00 £70.19 -
Median hourly rate £68.00 £80.25 -
Median % change year-on-year -15.26% - -
75th Percentile £70.00 £90.19 -
90th Percentile - £96.08 -
England median hourly rate £20.75 £64.37 £52.50
% change year-on-year -67.77% +22.61% +25.75%

All Database & BI Skills
London

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 London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 2,941 3,022 3,494
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 20.37% 21.55% 19.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,044 2,070 2,551
10th Percentile £357 £363 £385
25th Percentile £415 £455 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £565 £568
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% -0.44% -5.42%
75th Percentile £650 £695 £688
90th Percentile £750 £825 £788
England median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 26 40
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £20.93
25th Percentile £29.25 £26.21 £26.13
Median hourly rate £43.50 £42.75 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year +1.75% -2.29% +4.01%
75th Percentile £70.00 £59.50 £55.28
90th Percentile £87.50 £79.38 £64.50
England median hourly rate £43.50 £39.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +11.54% -13.33% -18.18%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL Server relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

SQL Server job vacancy trend in London

SQL Server
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in London over the 6 months to 17 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in London

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Contract Job Locations in London

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 London region over the 6 months to 17 January 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
Central London -40 42 £500 -14.53% 29
South London +3 7 £530 -26.90% 3
East London -7 1 £540 +35.00% 1
SQL Server
England

SQL Server
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 16 (3.96%) IIS
2 14 (3.47%) Confluence
2 14 (3.47%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 13 (3.22%) SharePoint
3 13 (3.22%) WebSphere
4 9 (2.23%) WebLogic
5 8 (1.98%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (1.73%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (1.73%) Apache Spark
7 6 (1.49%) Apache
8 4 (0.99%) Appian
9 2 (0.50%) CMS
9 2 (0.50%) HCL Notes
9 2 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.50%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.50%) WildFly
10 1 (0.25%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.25%) JBoss
10 1 (0.25%) MQSeries
10 1 (0.25%) SAS
Applications
1 32 (7.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.72%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.50%) Trello
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (1.73%) BusinessWorks
1 7 (1.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 3 (0.74%) Oracle General Ledger
3 3 (0.74%) Oracle Payables
3 3 (0.74%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (0.74%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.50%) Endur
4 2 (0.50%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.50%) Loan IQ
4 2 (0.50%) Oracle FAH
4 2 (0.50%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 1 (0.25%) ION Anvil
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle Internet Expenses
5 1 (0.25%) Orchestrade
5 1 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
5 1 (0.25%) SAP R/3
Cloud Services
1 183 (45.30%) Azure
2 90 (22.28%) AWS
3 88 (21.78%) Power Platform
4 60 (14.85%) Azure DevOps
5 42 (10.40%) GitHub
6 40 (9.90%) Azure Data Factory
7 30 (7.43%) GCP
8 26 (6.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 19 (4.70%) SaaS
10 18 (4.46%) GitHub Actions
11 16 (3.96%) Snowflake
12 14 (3.47%) Amazon S3
12 14 (3.47%) Microsoft 365
13 12 (2.97%) IaaS
14 11 (2.72%) AWS CloudFormation
15 10 (2.48%) Power Automate
16 9 (2.23%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 9 (2.23%) Azure Key Vault
16 9 (2.23%) Azure Service Bus
17 8 (1.98%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.23%) Internet
2 7 (1.73%) Firewall
2 7 (1.73%) NetScaler
3 4 (0.99%) DNS
4 3 (0.74%) HTTP
4 3 (0.74%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.50%) DHCP
5 2 (0.50%) FTP
5 2 (0.50%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.50%) VSAN
6 1 (0.25%) BGP
6 1 (0.25%) DMZ
6 1 (0.25%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (0.25%) Network Security
6 1 (0.25%) SSL
6 1 (0.25%) VPN
6 1 (0.25%) VXLAN
6 1 (0.25%) WebEx
6 1 (0.25%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (18.56%) Power BI
2 67 (16.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 62 (15.35%) PostgreSQL
4 52 (12.87%) Relational Database
5 46 (11.39%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (8.17%) Data Lake
7 31 (7.67%) MongoDB
8 29 (7.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 28 (6.93%) NoSQL
10 27 (6.68%) Oracle Database
11 24 (5.94%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (4.95%) Delta Lake
13 17 (4.21%) Big Data
14 15 (3.71%) MySQL
14 15 (3.71%) RDBMS
15 14 (3.47%) SQL Server Analysis Services
16 13 (3.22%) Amazon RDS
16 13 (3.22%) DB2
16 13 (3.22%) Redis
17 12 (2.97%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 37 (9.16%) Git
2 31 (7.67%) JIRA
3 22 (5.45%) Jenkins
4 16 (3.96%) Visual Studio
5 12 (2.97%) SpecFlow
6 9 (2.23%) GitLab
6 9 (2.23%) TeamCity
7 8 (1.98%) JUnit
7 8 (1.98%) Maven
7 8 (1.98%) Octopus Deploy
8 7 (1.73%) ERwin
9 5 (1.24%) Mockito
10 4 (0.99%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.99%) MLflow
10 4 (0.99%) Selenium
11 3 (0.74%) Gradle
11 3 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
11 3 (0.74%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 3 (0.74%) webpack
11 3 (0.74%) Zephyr
General
1 154 (38.12%) Finance
2 124 (30.69%) Social Skills
3 80 (19.80%) Banking
4 44 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (5.69%) Investment Banking
6 18 (4.46%) Public Sector
7 17 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (3.96%) Financial Institution
8 16 (3.96%) Front Office
9 10 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.98%) Retail
11 5 (1.24%) Local Government
12 4 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.74%) Back Office
13 3 (0.74%) General Ledger
13 3 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.74%) Law
13 3 (0.74%) Legal
13 3 (0.74%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 164 (40.59%) Developer
2 74 (18.32%) Data Engineer
3 71 (17.57%) Senior
4 63 (15.59%) C# Developer
5 41 (10.15%) .NET Developer
6 31 (7.67%) Senior Developer
7 28 (6.93%) Analyst
8 27 (6.68%) Senior Data Engineer
9 23 (5.69%) Architect
10 22 (5.45%) C# .NET Developer
11 18 (4.46%) Angular Developer
11 18 (4.46%) Lead
12 15 (3.71%) Full-Stack Developer
13 14 (3.47%) DBA
14 13 (3.22%) Java Developer
15 12 (2.97%) Azure Engineer
15 12 (2.97%) Business Analyst
15 12 (2.97%) SQL DBA
16 11 (2.72%) Consultant
16 11 (2.72%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 121 (29.95%) .NET
2 57 (14.11%) .NET Framework
3 35 (8.66%) Kafka
3 35 (8.66%) REST
4 31 (7.67%) RESTful
5 29 (7.18%) AngularJS
5 29 (7.18%) HTML
6 27 (6.68%) XML
7 24 (5.94%) React
8 22 (5.45%) .NET Core
8 22 (5.45%) Web Services
9 20 (4.95%) Entity Framework
10 19 (4.70%) WPF
11 18 (4.46%) CSS
12 17 (4.21%) SOAP
13 16 (3.96%) NHibernate
13 16 (3.96%) WinForms
14 15 (3.71%) Middleware
15 14 (3.47%) ASP.NET
15 14 (3.47%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 24 (5.94%) Legacy Systems
2 18 (4.46%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.21%) Derivative
3 17 (4.21%) Enterprise Software
4 15 (3.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 15 (3.71%) Onboarding
5 14 (3.47%) Credit Risk
5 14 (3.47%) Management Information System
6 11 (2.72%) Reinsurance
7 10 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
7 10 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (2.23%) Data Structures
9 8 (1.98%) Market Risk
10 7 (1.73%) Fixed Income
10 7 (1.73%) Hedge funds
10 7 (1.73%) Linux Command Line
10 7 (1.73%) Low-Code
11 6 (1.49%) Product Ownership
12 5 (1.24%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 63 (15.59%) Windows
2 39 (9.65%) Linux
3 27 (6.68%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.98%) Unix
5 6 (1.49%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (0.99%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.25%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (27.97%) CI/CD
2 101 (25.00%) Agile
3 94 (23.27%) DevOps
4 92 (22.77%) ETL
5 86 (21.29%) Business Intelligence
6 79 (19.55%) Problem-Solving
7 75 (18.56%) Data Modelling
8 62 (15.35%) Migration
9 60 (14.85%) Analytics
10 54 (13.37%) Microservices
11 47 (11.63%) Data Engineering
12 44 (10.89%) Data Analysis
13 40 (9.90%) Test Automation
14 39 (9.65%) Data Migration
14 39 (9.65%) Data Pipeline
15 36 (8.91%) Containerisation
15 36 (8.91%) Scrum
16 34 (8.42%) Full-Stack Development
17 32 (7.92%) Decision-Making
18 31 (7.67%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 245 (60.64%) SQL
2 125 (30.94%) C#
3 99 (24.50%) Python
4 55 (13.61%) T-SQL
5 46 (11.39%) PL/SQL
6 44 (10.89%) Java
7 37 (9.16%) JavaScript
8 24 (5.94%) PowerShell
9 19 (4.70%) Bash
10 14 (3.47%) VB
10 14 (3.47%) VBA
11 11 (2.72%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 9 (2.23%) TypeScript
13 7 (1.73%) XPath
14 6 (1.49%) Bicep
15 3 (0.74%) COBOL
15 3 (0.74%) R
15 3 (0.74%) Shell Script
16 2 (0.50%) C++
16 2 (0.50%) Scala
Qualifications
1 49 (12.13%) Degree
2 43 (10.64%) Security Cleared
3 32 (7.92%) SC Cleared
4 23 (5.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (2.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (1.98%) Master's Degree
7 7 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.49%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.24%) DV Cleared
10 4 (0.99%) CCA
10 4 (0.99%) Citrix Certification
11 3 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.74%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.74%) PMP
12 2 (0.50%) CCNP
12 2 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.50%) MCITP
13 1 (0.25%) AWS Certification
13 1 (0.25%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (16.09%) Data Quality
2 45 (11.14%) QA
3 8 (1.98%) GDPR
4 6 (1.49%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.24%) MiFID
5 5 (1.24%) SLA
6 4 (0.99%) EMIR
6 4 (0.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.74%) IFRS
7 3 (0.74%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.50%) Basel III
8 2 (0.50%) GAAP
8 2 (0.50%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.50%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.25%) NCSC
9 1 (0.25%) NIST
9 1 (0.25%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 55 (13.61%) Docker
2 14 (3.47%) Active Directory
3 7 (1.73%) zsh
4 4 (0.99%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.99%) XenApp
4 4 (0.99%) XenDesktop
5 2 (0.50%) GridGain
5 2 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.50%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 48 (11.88%) Kubernetes
2 27 (6.68%) Terraform
3 12 (2.97%) Ansible
4 11 (2.72%) Grafana
5 9 (2.23%) Puppet
6 7 (1.73%) TIBCO Hawk
7 6 (1.49%) SCCM
8 4 (0.99%) Control-M
8 4 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.99%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.99%) SCVMM
9 3 (0.74%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.50%) SCOM
10 2 (0.50%) ZABBIX
11 1 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.25%) BladeLogic
11 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Clustering
11 1 (0.25%) Oracle Identity Management
11 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.25%) VxRail
Vendors
1 140 (34.65%) Oracle
2 92 (22.77%) Microsoft
3 48 (11.88%) Databricks
4 31 (7.67%) Citrix
5 20 (4.95%) Informatica
6 14 (3.47%) SAP
7 12 (2.97%) IBM
8 9 (2.23%) ServiceNow
8 9 (2.23%) UiPath
9 8 (1.98%) Google
9 8 (1.98%) VMware
10 7 (1.73%) BEA
10 7 (1.73%) TIBCO
11 6 (1.49%) Atlassian
11 6 (1.49%) PagerDuty
11 6 (1.49%) Splunk
12 5 (1.24%) Salesforce
13 4 (0.99%) HP
13 4 (0.99%) Solace
13 4 (0.99%) Sybase