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 22 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 80 41
Rank change year-on-year -26 -39 +3
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 470 419 815
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.69% 3.30% 4.59%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.33% 14.74% 21.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 335 300 560
10th Percentile £363 £381 £363
25th Percentile £413 £442 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £540
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +1.85% -6.09%
75th Percentile £628 £688 £650
90th Percentile £737 £763 £750
England median daily rate £475 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -9.09% -0.48% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 0
10th Percentile - £29.71 -
25th Percentile £66.00 £34.80 -
Median hourly rate £68.00 £43.41 -
Median % change year-on-year +56.65% - -
75th Percentile £70.00 £52.14 -
90th Percentile - £57.31 -
England median hourly rate £52.50 £62.12 £40.00
% change year-on-year -15.49% +55.31% -4.19%

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 3,280 2,842 3,747
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.77% 22.35% 21.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,251 2,002 2,755
10th Percentile £363 £375 £375
25th Percentile £425 £450 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £563
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -2.22% -2.17%
75th Percentile £630 £713 £700
90th Percentile £749 £838 £825
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 32 36
10th Percentile £23.93 £22.27 £20.98
25th Percentile £32.32 £28.03 £25.59
Median hourly rate £48.25 £39.31 £49.25
Median % change year-on-year +22.76% -20.19% -1.50%
75th Percentile £65.31 £59.25 £54.34
90th Percentile £85.50 £76.50 £64.14
England median hourly rate £50.50 £32.96 £40.00
% change year-on-year +53.22% -17.60% -33.33%

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 22 April 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 22 April 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 -47 50 £555 -5.13% 40
South London -12 7 £530 -26.90%
West London -30 3 £463 -29.06% 12
East London -8 2 £630 +57.50% 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 32 (6.81%) SharePoint
2 22 (4.68%) IIS
3 13 (2.77%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (2.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 11 (2.34%) WebSphere
6 9 (1.91%) Apache
6 9 (1.91%) Appian
7 8 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
7 8 (1.70%) Confluence
8 7 (1.49%) Apache Spark
8 7 (1.49%) WebLogic
9 5 (1.06%) Camunda
10 1 (0.21%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.21%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.21%) ColdFusion
10 1 (0.21%) GeoServer
10 1 (0.21%) JBoss
10 1 (0.21%) OpenEdge
10 1 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.21%) Tomcat
Applications
1 27 (5.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.55%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 8 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.49%) BusinessWorks
3 6 (1.28%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.85%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.64%) Oracle General Ledger
5 3 (0.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.64%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.43%) Loan IQ
6 2 (0.43%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.43%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.43%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 1 (0.21%) Endur
7 1 (0.21%) Findur
7 1 (0.21%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.21%) SAP R/3
7 1 (0.21%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 227 (48.30%) Azure
2 93 (19.79%) AWS
3 90 (19.15%) Power Platform
4 80 (17.02%) Azure DevOps
5 63 (13.40%) Azure Data Factory
6 44 (9.36%) GitHub
7 40 (8.51%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 26 (5.53%) GCP
9 25 (5.32%) Microsoft 365
10 23 (4.89%) Amazon S3
11 22 (4.68%) Power Automate
12 20 (4.26%) SaaS
13 18 (3.83%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (3.83%) Serverless
14 17 (3.62%) Amazon EC2
14 17 (3.62%) Dynamics 365
15 16 (3.40%) IaaS
16 14 (2.98%) AWS CloudFormation
17 13 (2.77%) PaaS
17 13 (2.77%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.55%) DNS
1 12 (2.55%) Internet
2 11 (2.34%) Firewall
3 8 (1.70%) VPN
4 7 (1.49%) DHCP
4 7 (1.49%) SAN
5 6 (1.28%) NetScaler
5 6 (1.28%) VLAN
5 6 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (0.85%) FTP
7 3 (0.64%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.21%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.21%) Multicast
8 1 (0.21%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.21%) Software-Defined Networking
8 1 (0.21%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (14.26%) Power BI
1 67 (14.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 63 (13.40%) PostgreSQL
3 56 (11.91%) Data Warehouse
4 53 (11.28%) Relational Database
5 43 (9.15%) Oracle Database
6 40 (8.51%) Data Lake
7 33 (7.02%) Azure SQL Database
8 28 (5.96%) MongoDB
9 25 (5.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 24 (5.11%) NoSQL
11 20 (4.26%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 17 (3.62%) Delta Lake
13 16 (3.40%) Metadata
14 12 (2.55%) BigQuery
14 12 (2.55%) Redis
15 11 (2.34%) Amazon RDS
15 11 (2.34%) DB2
16 9 (1.91%) MySQL
16 9 (1.91%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 43 (9.15%) Git
2 29 (6.17%) JIRA
3 17 (3.62%) Jenkins
3 17 (3.62%) Visual Studio
4 14 (2.98%) TeamCity
5 9 (1.91%) ERwin
6 8 (1.70%) MLflow
7 7 (1.49%) Chocolatey
7 7 (1.49%) Octopus Deploy
7 7 (1.49%) Team Foundation Server
8 6 (1.28%) GitLab
9 5 (1.06%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.06%) JUnit
9 5 (1.06%) Mockito
9 5 (1.06%) MSTest
10 4 (0.85%) Maven
10 4 (0.85%) NUnit
10 4 (0.85%) SpecFlow
10 4 (0.85%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 3 (0.64%) Bitbucket
General
1 164 (34.89%) Finance
2 133 (28.30%) Social Skills
3 88 (18.72%) Banking
4 68 (14.47%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (5.32%) Public Sector
6 23 (4.89%) Front Office
7 21 (4.47%) Investment Banking
8 15 (3.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (2.55%) Financial Institution
11 10 (2.13%) Retail
12 7 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.85%) General Ledger
13 4 (0.85%) Local Government
13 4 (0.85%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.64%) Legal
15 2 (0.43%) Back Office
15 2 (0.43%) Corporate Banking
15 2 (0.43%) Law
15 2 (0.43%) Military
Job Titles
1 165 (35.11%) Developer
2 84 (17.87%) Senior
3 82 (17.45%) Data Engineer
4 70 (14.89%) C# Developer
5 38 (8.09%) .NET Developer
6 36 (7.66%) Architect
7 31 (6.60%) DBA
8 29 (6.17%) Senior Data Engineer
9 24 (5.11%) Senior Developer
9 24 (5.11%) SQL DBA
10 22 (4.68%) Azure Engineer
11 19 (4.04%) Lead
12 18 (3.83%) C# .NET Developer
13 17 (3.62%) Analyst
14 16 (3.40%) Software Engineer
14 16 (3.40%) Solutions Architect
15 14 (2.98%) Full-Stack Developer
15 14 (2.98%) Integration Engineer
16 13 (2.77%) SQL Developer
17 12 (2.55%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 136 (28.94%) .NET
2 65 (13.83%) .NET Framework
3 53 (11.28%) REST
4 39 (8.30%) React
5 36 (7.66%) HTML
6 35 (7.45%) RESTful
7 33 (7.02%) AngularJS
7 33 (7.02%) CSS
8 28 (5.96%) .NET Core
8 28 (5.96%) XML
9 26 (5.53%) Kafka
10 23 (4.89%) OAuth
10 23 (4.89%) Web Services
11 21 (4.47%) ASP.NET
12 19 (4.04%) WinForms
12 19 (4.04%) WPF
13 16 (3.40%) SOAP
14 14 (2.98%) Spring
14 14 (2.98%) Spring Boot
15 12 (2.55%) ASP.NET Web API
Miscellaneous
1 40 (8.51%) Legacy Systems
2 27 (5.74%) Cloud Native
3 16 (3.40%) Data Structures
3 16 (3.40%) Replication
3 16 (3.40%) Self-Motivation
4 13 (2.77%) Enterprise Software
4 13 (2.77%) Onboarding
5 12 (2.55%) Low-Code
6 9 (1.91%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 9 (1.91%) Greenfield Project
6 9 (1.91%) Reinsurance
7 8 (1.70%) Credit Risk
7 8 (1.70%) Derivative
7 8 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (1.49%) Clustering
8 7 (1.49%) Cyber Threat
8 7 (1.49%) Fixed Income
8 7 (1.49%) Management Information System
8 7 (1.49%) Market Risk
9 5 (1.06%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 90 (19.15%) Windows
2 35 (7.45%) Linux
3 33 (7.02%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.91%) Unix
5 7 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
6 5 (1.06%) Windows 10
6 5 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.21%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (28.51%) DevOps
2 129 (27.45%) CI/CD
3 104 (22.13%) Agile
4 102 (21.70%) ETL
5 97 (20.64%) Business Intelligence
6 93 (19.79%) Data Modelling
7 92 (19.57%) Problem-Solving
8 69 (14.68%) Analytics
9 68 (14.47%) Migration
10 63 (13.40%) Disaster Recovery
11 61 (12.98%) Data Analysis
11 61 (12.98%) Data Engineering
12 59 (12.55%) AI
13 58 (12.34%) Data Pipeline
14 54 (11.49%) Performance Tuning
15 52 (11.06%) Test Automation
16 43 (9.15%) Change Management
17 42 (8.94%) Data Integration
18 37 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
19 36 (7.66%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 307 (65.32%) SQL
2 151 (32.13%) C#
3 122 (25.96%) Python
4 88 (18.72%) T-SQL
5 61 (12.98%) PL/SQL
6 49 (10.43%) JavaScript
7 42 (8.94%) Java
8 32 (6.81%) PowerShell
9 28 (5.96%) TypeScript
10 15 (3.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 14 (2.98%) VB
12 13 (2.77%) VBA
13 9 (1.91%) Bash
13 9 (1.91%) Bicep
14 7 (1.49%) XPath
15 5 (1.06%) Scala
15 5 (1.06%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.85%) R
17 2 (0.43%) C
18 1 (0.21%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 62 (13.19%) Security Cleared
2 48 (10.21%) SC Cleared
3 47 (10.00%) Degree
4 21 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (3.62%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.55%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.28%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.06%) CCA
9 5 (1.06%) Citrix Certification
9 5 (1.06%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.85%) MCITP
10 4 (0.85%) MCTS
11 2 (0.43%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.43%) CISSP
11 2 (0.43%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.43%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.43%) PMP
11 2 (0.43%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (13.83%) Data Quality
2 62 (13.19%) QA
3 11 (2.34%) GDPR
4 10 (2.13%) SLA
5 4 (0.85%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.85%) IFRS
6 3 (0.64%) IFRS 17
6 3 (0.64%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.43%) Basel III
7 2 (0.43%) EMIR
7 2 (0.43%) GAAP
7 2 (0.43%) MiFID
7 2 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.43%) WCAG
8 1 (0.21%) Solvency II
System Software
1 57 (12.13%) Docker
2 20 (4.26%) Active Directory
3 7 (1.49%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.06%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.06%) XenApp
4 5 (1.06%) XenDesktop
5 3 (0.64%) GridGain
5 3 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.21%) NFS
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.21%) RACF
6 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.21%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 63 (13.40%) Kubernetes
2 39 (8.30%) Terraform
3 12 (2.55%) SCCM
4 10 (2.13%) Ansible
5 8 (1.70%) Grafana
6 7 (1.49%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (1.49%) TIBCO Hawk
7 6 (1.28%) Puppet
8 5 (1.06%) SCVMM
9 3 (0.64%) Control-M
9 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (0.64%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.21%) Packer
10 1 (0.21%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 162 (34.47%) Oracle
2 124 (26.38%) Microsoft
3 53 (11.28%) Databricks
4 44 (9.36%) Citrix
5 24 (5.11%) Informatica
6 15 (3.19%) VMware
7 14 (2.98%) IBM
7 14 (2.98%) SAP
8 11 (2.34%) UiPath
9 10 (2.13%) Dynatrace
9 10 (2.13%) ServiceNow
10 9 (1.91%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.91%) Sybase
11 8 (1.70%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (1.70%) TIBCO
12 7 (1.49%) AppDynamics
12 7 (1.49%) BEA
12 7 (1.49%) Google
12 7 (1.49%) Tenable
13 6 (1.28%) PagerDuty