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 21 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 68 50
Rank change year-on-year -35 -18 -7
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 428 469 734
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.73% 3.47% 3.98%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.07% 15.96% 20.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 295 330 540
10th Percentile £369 £363 £375
25th Percentile £407 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -4.35% -2.54%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £675
90th Percentile £700 £726 £750
England median daily rate £480 £515 £538
% change year-on-year -6.71% -4.28% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £66.00 £60.25 -
Median hourly rate £68.00 £60.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +12.40% - -
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £26.72 £63.75 £40.25
% change year-on-year -58.08% +58.37% -3.59%

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 3,042 2,939 3,584
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 19.42% 21.76% 19.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,089 2,034 2,650
10th Percentile £360 £363 £385
25th Percentile £420 £453 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.79% -4.68%
75th Percentile £638 £700 £688
90th Percentile £738 £825 £788
England median daily rate £500 £538 £535
% change year-on-year -6.98% +0.47% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 31 40
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £20.98
25th Percentile £29.41 £26.68 £25.69
Median hourly rate £54.25 £41.50 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year +30.72% -5.14% +0.28%
75th Percentile £73.75 £59.75 £55.28
90th Percentile £90.50 £78.75 £64.78
England median hourly rate £55.00 £41.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +34.15% -3.53% -25.26%

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 21 February 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 21 February 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 -39 44 £525 -8.70% 29
South London -7 7 £530 -26.90% 5
East London -1 2 £585 +46.25% 6
West London -21 2 £550 - 7
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 18 (4.21%) IIS
2 15 (3.50%) Confluence
3 14 (3.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 14 (3.27%) SharePoint
4 11 (2.57%) WebSphere
5 8 (1.87%) Appian
5 8 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (1.64%) Apache
6 7 (1.64%) Apache Spark
6 7 (1.64%) WebLogic
7 6 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.47%) CMS
9 1 (0.23%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.23%) ColdFusion
9 1 (0.23%) JBoss
9 1 (0.23%) OpenEdge
9 1 (0.23%) Oracle Application Server
9 1 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.23%) SAS
9 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 29 (6.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.80%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.23%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.64%) BusinessWorks
1 7 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.70%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 3 (0.70%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 3 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.47%) Loan IQ
3 2 (0.47%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.47%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.47%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.23%) Endur
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle FAH
4 1 (0.23%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.23%) RMDS
4 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.23%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.23%) SAP R/3
4 1 (0.23%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 198 (46.26%) Azure
2 93 (21.73%) AWS
3 86 (20.09%) Power Platform
4 73 (17.06%) Azure DevOps
5 48 (11.21%) GitHub
6 47 (10.98%) Azure Data Factory
7 34 (7.94%) GCP
8 28 (6.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 22 (5.14%) SaaS
10 18 (4.21%) Amazon S3
10 18 (4.21%) GitHub Actions
11 16 (3.74%) Microsoft 365
12 15 (3.50%) Snowflake
13 14 (3.27%) Power Automate
14 12 (2.80%) IaaS
15 11 (2.57%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (2.57%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (2.57%) Dynamics 365
16 10 (2.34%) Azure Key Vault
17 9 (2.10%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.57%) Internet
2 8 (1.87%) Firewall
3 6 (1.40%) DNS
3 6 (1.40%) NetScaler
4 5 (1.17%) DHCP
5 4 (0.93%) FTP
5 4 (0.93%) VPN
6 3 (0.70%) HTTP
6 3 (0.70%) SAN
6 3 (0.70%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.70%) VLAN
6 3 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.47%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (0.47%) VSAN
8 1 (0.23%) BGP
8 1 (0.23%) Ethernet VPN
8 1 (0.23%) Network Security
8 1 (0.23%) VXLAN
8 1 (0.23%) WebEx
8 1 (0.23%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (17.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 69 (16.12%) Power BI
3 65 (15.19%) PostgreSQL
4 51 (11.92%) Data Warehouse
4 51 (11.92%) Relational Database
5 35 (8.18%) Data Lake
5 35 (8.18%) Oracle Database
6 33 (7.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 26 (6.07%) MongoDB
8 24 (5.61%) Azure SQL Database
8 24 (5.61%) NoSQL
9 19 (4.44%) Delta Lake
10 18 (4.21%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 16 (3.74%) Big Data
12 13 (3.04%) Amazon RDS
12 13 (3.04%) RDBMS
13 12 (2.80%) BigQuery
13 12 (2.80%) Redis
14 11 (2.57%) DB2
14 11 (2.57%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 39 (9.11%) Git
2 35 (8.18%) JIRA
3 21 (4.91%) Jenkins
4 18 (4.21%) Visual Studio
5 10 (2.34%) SpecFlow
6 9 (2.10%) GitLab
7 8 (1.87%) ERwin
7 8 (1.87%) JUnit
7 8 (1.87%) Maven
7 8 (1.87%) MLflow
8 7 (1.64%) Octopus Deploy
8 7 (1.64%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (1.40%) Mockito
9 6 (1.40%) TeamCity
10 5 (1.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 4 (0.93%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.70%) Chocolatey
12 3 (0.70%) Eclipse
12 3 (0.70%) Gradle
12 3 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 149 (34.81%) Finance
2 122 (28.50%) Social Skills
3 79 (18.46%) Banking
4 52 (12.15%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (4.91%) Investment Banking
6 20 (4.67%) Public Sector
7 17 (3.97%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (2.80%) Financial Institution
8 12 (2.80%) Front Office
8 12 (2.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (2.10%) Retail
10 6 (1.40%) Local Government
11 4 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.93%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.70%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.70%) Law
12 3 (0.70%) Legal
12 3 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.47%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 169 (39.49%) Developer
2 83 (19.39%) Data Engineer
3 76 (17.76%) Senior
4 65 (15.19%) C# Developer
5 40 (9.35%) .NET Developer
6 29 (6.78%) Senior Developer
7 27 (6.31%) Senior Data Engineer
8 25 (5.84%) Architect
9 22 (5.14%) Lead
10 21 (4.91%) Analyst
11 20 (4.67%) C# .NET Developer
12 17 (3.97%) DBA
13 16 (3.74%) Full-Stack Developer
13 16 (3.74%) SQL DBA
14 15 (3.50%) Azure Engineer
14 15 (3.50%) SQL Developer
15 14 (3.27%) Angular Developer
16 13 (3.04%) Java Developer
16 13 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
17 11 (2.57%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (29.44%) .NET
2 67 (15.65%) .NET Framework
3 46 (10.75%) REST
4 33 (7.71%) HTML
4 33 (7.71%) RESTful
5 32 (7.48%) AngularJS
6 31 (7.24%) React
7 29 (6.78%) .NET Core
7 29 (6.78%) Kafka
7 29 (6.78%) XML
8 26 (6.07%) Web Services
9 22 (5.14%) CSS
10 20 (4.67%) WPF
11 18 (4.21%) OAuth
11 18 (4.21%) SOAP
11 18 (4.21%) WinForms
12 17 (3.97%) Spring
13 16 (3.74%) ASP.NET
13 16 (3.74%) Entity Framework
14 15 (3.50%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 36 (8.41%) Legacy Systems
2 23 (5.37%) Cloud Native
3 16 (3.74%) Enterprise Software
4 13 (3.04%) Onboarding
5 12 (2.80%) Credit Risk
5 12 (2.80%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 12 (2.80%) Reinsurance
6 11 (2.57%) Data Structures
6 11 (2.57%) Derivative
6 11 (2.57%) Management Information System
7 10 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
7 10 (2.34%) Greenfield Project
8 9 (2.10%) Low-Code
8 9 (2.10%) Replication
9 7 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.40%) Fixed Income
10 6 (1.40%) Market Risk
10 6 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.17%) Client/Server
12 4 (0.93%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 69 (16.12%) Windows
2 39 (9.11%) Linux
3 25 (5.84%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.87%) Unix
5 7 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (1.40%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.17%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (27.80%) CI/CD
2 107 (25.00%) DevOps
3 101 (23.60%) Agile
4 96 (22.43%) ETL
5 93 (21.73%) Business Intelligence
6 87 (20.33%) Problem-Solving
7 85 (19.86%) Data Modelling
8 74 (17.29%) Migration
9 58 (13.55%) Analytics
10 57 (13.32%) Data Engineering
11 49 (11.45%) Data Analysis
11 49 (11.45%) Microservices
12 48 (11.21%) Data Pipeline
13 43 (10.05%) Test Automation
14 42 (9.81%) Containerisation
14 42 (9.81%) Data Migration
15 38 (8.88%) AI
16 36 (8.41%) Change Management
17 33 (7.71%) Full-Stack Development
17 33 (7.71%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 263 (61.45%) SQL
2 131 (30.61%) C#
3 115 (26.87%) Python
4 69 (16.12%) T-SQL
5 50 (11.68%) PL/SQL
6 47 (10.98%) Java
7 42 (9.81%) JavaScript
8 25 (5.84%) PowerShell
9 24 (5.61%) TypeScript
10 14 (3.27%) Bash
10 14 (3.27%) VB
10 14 (3.27%) VBA
11 13 (3.04%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 9 (2.10%) Bicep
13 7 (1.64%) XPath
14 3 (0.70%) COBOL
14 3 (0.70%) R
14 3 (0.70%) Scala
14 3 (0.70%) Shell Script
15 2 (0.47%) C++
Qualifications
1 45 (10.51%) Degree
2 44 (10.28%) Security Cleared
3 31 (7.24%) SC Cleared
4 17 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 9 (2.10%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.87%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.40%) Master's Degree
9 5 (1.17%) CCA
9 5 (1.17%) Citrix Certification
10 3 (0.70%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.47%) CCNP
11 2 (0.47%) CISSP
11 2 (0.47%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.47%) PMP
12 1 (0.23%) CCIE
12 1 (0.23%) CCNA
12 1 (0.23%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (14.95%) Data Quality
2 55 (12.85%) QA
3 8 (1.87%) GDPR
4 6 (1.40%) SLA
5 3 (0.70%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.70%) IFRS
5 3 (0.70%) IFRS 17
5 3 (0.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.47%) Basel III
6 2 (0.47%) EMIR
6 2 (0.47%) GAAP
6 2 (0.47%) IFRS 9
6 2 (0.47%) MiFID
6 2 (0.47%) Solvency II
7 1 (0.23%) NCSC
7 1 (0.23%) NIST
7 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 61 (14.25%) Docker
2 14 (3.27%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.17%) Hyper-V
3 5 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (1.17%) XenApp
3 5 (1.17%) XenDesktop
4 4 (0.93%) zsh
5 2 (0.47%) GridGain
5 2 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.47%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.47%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 58 (13.55%) Kubernetes
2 29 (6.78%) Terraform
3 12 (2.80%) Ansible
4 11 (2.57%) Grafana
5 9 (2.10%) SCCM
6 8 (1.87%) Puppet
7 7 (1.64%) TIBCO Hawk
8 5 (1.17%) SCVMM
9 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.93%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.70%) Control-M
10 3 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.70%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.23%) Ambari
11 1 (0.23%) BladeLogic
11 1 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.23%) Oracle Identity Management
11 1 (0.23%) VxRail
11 1 (0.23%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 146 (34.11%) Oracle
2 109 (25.47%) Microsoft
3 48 (11.21%) Databricks
4 38 (8.88%) Citrix
5 21 (4.91%) Informatica
6 16 (3.74%) SAP
7 14 (3.27%) VMware
8 13 (3.04%) IBM
8 13 (3.04%) UiPath
9 10 (2.34%) Google
10 9 (2.10%) ServiceNow
11 8 (1.87%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (1.87%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.64%) BEA
12 7 (1.64%) Sybase
12 7 (1.64%) TIBCO
13 6 (1.40%) Dynatrace
13 6 (1.40%) PagerDuty
14 5 (1.17%) Splunk
15 4 (0.93%) Talend