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 11 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 70 45
Rank change year-on-year -33 -25 -1
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 456 449 770
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.82% 3.47% 4.21%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.74% 15.66% 21.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 317 327 549
10th Percentile £363 £363 £375
25th Percentile £413 £426 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £558
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -1.35% -5.51%
75th Percentile £601 £666 £675
90th Percentile £700 £738 £750
England median daily rate £488 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -6.70% -0.48% -4.55%
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 £27.44 £63.75 £40.25
% change year-on-year -56.95% +58.37% -7.47%

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 3,093 2,867 3,658
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 19.16% 22.15% 19.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,125 2,036 2,707
10th Percentile £361 £375 £381
25th Percentile £425 £455 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £565 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% +2.73% -4.35%
75th Percentile £638 £700 £688
90th Percentile £749 £834 £788
England median daily rate £500 £537 £525
% change year-on-year -6.89% +2.29% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 30 41
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £20.98
25th Percentile £25.23 £28.60 £26.24
Median hourly rate £48.25 £41.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.68% -8.89% -14.29%
75th Percentile £65.31 £58.00 £53.25
90th Percentile £89.25 £77.63 £64.53
England median hourly rate £49.36 £35.00 £40.50
% change year-on-year +41.03% -13.58% -32.50%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 -48 48 £555 -5.13% 38
South London -9 7 £530 -26.90%
West London -15 3 £463 - 10
East London -6 1 £630 +57.50% 5
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 21 (4.61%) SharePoint
2 19 (4.17%) IIS
3 14 (3.07%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 13 (2.85%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (2.41%) Confluence
5 11 (2.41%) WebSphere
6 8 (1.75%) Appian
7 7 (1.54%) Apache
7 7 (1.54%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.54%) WebLogic
8 6 (1.32%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.66%) Camunda
10 2 (0.44%) CMS
11 1 (0.22%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.22%) ColdFusion
11 1 (0.22%) JBoss
11 1 (0.22%) OpenEdge
11 1 (0.22%) Oracle Application Server
11 1 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 27 (5.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.63%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (1.54%) BusinessWorks
1 7 (1.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.88%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.66%) Loan IQ
3 3 (0.66%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 3 (0.66%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.44%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.44%) Oracle General Ledger
4 2 (0.44%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.44%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.44%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 1 (0.22%) Endur
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle BPM
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle FAH
5 1 (0.22%) Orchestrade
5 1 (0.22%) RMDS
5 1 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.22%) SAP R/3
5 1 (0.22%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 219 (48.03%) Azure
2 103 (22.59%) AWS
3 85 (18.64%) Power Platform
4 77 (16.89%) Azure DevOps
5 53 (11.62%) Azure Data Factory
6 48 (10.53%) GitHub
7 33 (7.24%) GCP
8 30 (6.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 23 (5.04%) SaaS
10 21 (4.61%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (4.39%) Amazon S3
12 19 (4.17%) Microsoft 365
13 18 (3.95%) Amazon EC2
13 18 (3.95%) Snowflake
14 15 (3.29%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
14 15 (3.29%) IaaS
14 15 (3.29%) Power Automate
15 12 (2.63%) Serverless
16 11 (2.41%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.41%) DNS
1 11 (2.41%) Internet
2 10 (2.19%) Firewall
3 7 (1.54%) DHCP
3 7 (1.54%) VPN
4 6 (1.32%) NetScaler
4 6 (1.32%) SAN
5 5 (1.10%) VLAN
5 5 (1.10%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (0.88%) FTP
6 4 (0.88%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.66%) HTTP
8 2 (0.44%) Software-Defined Networking
8 2 (0.44%) VSAN
9 1 (0.22%) BGP
9 1 (0.22%) DMZ
9 1 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
9 1 (0.22%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.22%) SSL
9 1 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (16.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 68 (14.91%) PostgreSQL
2 68 (14.91%) Power BI
3 56 (12.28%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (12.06%) Relational Database
5 40 (8.77%) Oracle Database
6 37 (8.11%) Data Lake
7 28 (6.14%) Azure SQL Database
8 27 (5.92%) MongoDB
8 27 (5.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 25 (5.48%) NoSQL
10 18 (3.95%) Delta Lake
11 17 (3.73%) Big Data
11 17 (3.73%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 14 (3.07%) Redis
13 13 (2.85%) Metadata
13 13 (2.85%) RDBMS
14 12 (2.63%) Amazon RDS
14 12 (2.63%) BigQuery
15 11 (2.41%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 39 (8.55%) Git
2 31 (6.80%) JIRA
3 20 (4.39%) Jenkins
4 18 (3.95%) Visual Studio
5 11 (2.41%) TeamCity
6 9 (1.97%) ERwin
6 9 (1.97%) JUnit
6 9 (1.97%) Octopus Deploy
7 8 (1.75%) GitLab
7 8 (1.75%) MLflow
7 8 (1.75%) SpecFlow
8 7 (1.54%) Mockito
8 7 (1.54%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (1.32%) Chocolatey
10 5 (1.10%) Cucumber
10 5 (1.10%) Maven
10 5 (1.10%) MSTest
10 5 (1.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 3 (0.66%) Mocha
11 3 (0.66%) NUnit
General
1 157 (34.43%) Finance
2 126 (27.63%) Social Skills
3 88 (19.30%) Banking
4 58 (12.72%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (5.70%) Public Sector
6 21 (4.61%) Investment Banking
7 16 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (3.51%) Front Office
8 14 (3.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (2.63%) Financial Institution
10 9 (1.97%) Retail
11 6 (1.32%) Local Government
12 4 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.88%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.66%) General Ledger
13 3 (0.66%) Law
13 3 (0.66%) Legal
13 3 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.44%) Corporate Banking
14 2 (0.44%) Japanese Language
Job Titles
1 171 (37.50%) Developer
2 79 (17.32%) Data Engineer
3 78 (17.11%) Senior
4 72 (15.79%) C# Developer
5 42 (9.21%) .NET Developer
6 33 (7.24%) Architect
7 27 (5.92%) DBA
8 26 (5.70%) Senior Data Engineer
8 26 (5.70%) Senior Developer
9 23 (5.04%) SQL DBA
10 22 (4.82%) Azure Engineer
11 21 (4.61%) C# .NET Developer
12 20 (4.39%) Lead
13 19 (4.17%) Analyst
14 14 (3.07%) Full-Stack Developer
14 14 (3.07%) Solutions Architect
14 14 (3.07%) SQL Developer
15 13 (2.85%) Software Engineer
16 12 (2.63%) Java Developer
17 11 (2.41%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 132 (28.95%) .NET
2 67 (14.69%) .NET Framework
3 46 (10.09%) REST
4 36 (7.89%) AngularJS
5 35 (7.68%) RESTful
6 33 (7.24%) HTML
6 33 (7.24%) React
7 29 (6.36%) Kafka
8 28 (6.14%) .NET Core
8 28 (6.14%) XML
9 25 (5.48%) Web Services
10 23 (5.04%) CSS
11 20 (4.39%) WPF
12 18 (3.95%) ASP.NET
12 18 (3.95%) OAuth
12 18 (3.95%) WinForms
13 17 (3.73%) Spring
14 15 (3.29%) Spring Boot
15 14 (3.07%) SOAP
16 13 (2.85%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 39 (8.55%) Legacy Systems
2 24 (5.26%) Cloud Native
3 15 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.07%) Data Structures
4 14 (3.07%) Replication
5 13 (2.85%) Onboarding
6 11 (2.41%) Reinsurance
6 11 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
7 10 (2.19%) Credit Risk
7 10 (2.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 10 (2.19%) Greenfield Project
7 10 (2.19%) Management Information System
8 9 (1.97%) Derivative
8 9 (1.97%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (1.97%) Low-Code
9 8 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.54%) Market Risk
11 6 (1.32%) Clustering
11 6 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
12 5 (1.10%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 86 (18.86%) Windows
2 36 (7.89%) Linux
3 33 (7.24%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.54%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (1.10%) Unix
5 5 (1.10%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (27.41%) CI/CD
2 119 (26.10%) DevOps
3 106 (23.25%) ETL
4 101 (22.15%) Agile
5 96 (21.05%) Business Intelligence
6 92 (20.18%) Problem-Solving
7 90 (19.74%) Data Modelling
8 79 (17.32%) Migration
9 64 (14.04%) Analytics
10 60 (13.16%) Data Engineering
11 54 (11.84%) Data Pipeline
12 53 (11.62%) Data Analysis
13 50 (10.96%) Disaster Recovery
13 50 (10.96%) Performance Tuning
14 46 (10.09%) Test Automation
15 45 (9.87%) AI
15 45 (9.87%) Microservices
16 42 (9.21%) Containerisation
17 40 (8.77%) Data Migration
18 37 (8.11%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 288 (63.16%) SQL
2 140 (30.70%) C#
3 121 (26.54%) Python
4 74 (16.23%) T-SQL
5 52 (11.40%) PL/SQL
6 43 (9.43%) Java
7 38 (8.33%) JavaScript
8 31 (6.80%) PowerShell
9 27 (5.92%) TypeScript
10 14 (3.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 14 (3.07%) VB
11 13 (2.85%) VBA
12 12 (2.63%) Bash
13 9 (1.97%) Bicep
14 7 (1.54%) XPath
15 5 (1.10%) Scala
16 3 (0.66%) R
17 2 (0.44%) C
17 2 (0.44%) C++
17 2 (0.44%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 63 (13.82%) Security Cleared
2 47 (10.31%) SC Cleared
3 44 (9.65%) Degree
4 19 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.63%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.75%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.10%) CCA
8 5 (1.10%) Citrix Certification
8 5 (1.10%) Master's Degree
9 4 (0.88%) MCITP
9 4 (0.88%) MCTS
10 3 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.44%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.44%) CCNP
11 2 (0.44%) CISSP
11 2 (0.44%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.44%) PMP
12 1 (0.22%) CCSM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (14.04%) Data Quality
2 60 (13.16%) QA
3 9 (1.97%) SLA
4 8 (1.75%) GDPR
5 4 (0.88%) IFRS
6 3 (0.66%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.66%) IFRS 17
6 3 (0.66%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.44%) Basel III
7 2 (0.44%) EMIR
7 2 (0.44%) GAAP
7 2 (0.44%) MiFID
7 2 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.22%) NCSC
8 1 (0.22%) NIST
8 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.22%) Solvency II
8 1 (0.22%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (13.60%) Docker
2 23 (5.04%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.10%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.10%) XenApp
4 5 (1.10%) XenDesktop
5 3 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.44%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.44%) zsh
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 65 (14.25%) Kubernetes
2 36 (7.89%) Terraform
3 12 (2.63%) Ansible
4 11 (2.41%) SCCM
5 10 (2.19%) Grafana
6 8 (1.75%) Puppet
7 7 (1.54%) TIBCO Hawk
8 6 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (1.10%) SCVMM
10 4 (0.88%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.66%) Control-M
11 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Clustering
12 2 (0.44%) Prometheus
13 1 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 1 (0.22%) Ambari
13 1 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
13 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Management
13 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
13 1 (0.22%) VxRail
Vendors
1 153 (33.55%) Oracle
2 115 (25.22%) Microsoft
3 49 (10.75%) Databricks
4 41 (8.99%) Citrix
5 24 (5.26%) Informatica
6 16 (3.51%) VMware
7 14 (3.07%) IBM
7 14 (3.07%) SAP
8 13 (2.85%) UiPath
9 10 (2.19%) Google
10 9 (1.97%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.97%) ServiceNow
11 8 (1.75%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (1.75%) Dynatrace
12 7 (1.54%) BEA
12 7 (1.54%) TIBCO
13 6 (1.32%) AppDynamics
13 6 (1.32%) PagerDuty
13 6 (1.32%) Sybase
13 6 (1.32%) Tenable