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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 74 49
Rank change year-on-year -33 -25 -6
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 420 446 733
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.82% 3.27% 3.97%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.26% 15.10% 20.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 291 314 540
10th Percentile £363 £363 £375
25th Percentile £407 £425 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £736 £725 £750
England median daily rate £480 £500 £538
% change year-on-year -4.00% -6.98% -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 £23.50 £63.75 £40.25
% change year-on-year -63.13% +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 2,946 2,953 3,562
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 19.81% 21.68% 19.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,028 2,014 2,633
10th Percentile £352 £363 £381
25th Percentile £415 £455 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £559 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.04% +1.59% -8.33%
75th Percentile £638 £699 £678
90th Percentile £750 £825 £775
England median daily rate £500 £540 £538
% change year-on-year -7.41% +0.47% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 31 42
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £20.98
25th Percentile £29.72 £28.60 £25.90
Median hourly rate £45.00 £41.50 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year +8.43% -5.14% -2.78%
75th Percentile £75.94 £58.25 £54.03
90th Percentile £89.75 £78.75 £64.43
England median hourly rate £45.75 £39.00 £42.35
% change year-on-year +17.31% -7.90% -25.53%

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 4 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 4 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 -40 40 £513 -11.64% 30
South London -5 7 £530 -26.90% 6
East London -5 2 £585 +46.25% 2
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 (4.29%) IIS
2 14 (3.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 13 (3.10%) Confluence
3 13 (3.10%) SharePoint
4 11 (2.62%) WebSphere
5 8 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (1.67%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (1.67%) Apache Spark
6 7 (1.67%) Appian
6 7 (1.67%) WebLogic
7 6 (1.43%) Apache
8 2 (0.48%) CMS
9 1 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.24%) Camunda
9 1 (0.24%) ColdFusion
9 1 (0.24%) JBoss
9 1 (0.24%) Luigi
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.24%) SAS
9 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 34 (8.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (3.10%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.48%) Trello
6 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (1.67%) BusinessWorks
1 7 (1.67%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.71%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 3 (0.71%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.48%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.48%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.48%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.24%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.24%) Endur
4 1 (0.24%) Fidessa
4 1 (0.24%) Loan IQ
4 1 (0.24%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.24%) Orchestrade
4 1 (0.24%) RMDS
4 1 (0.24%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.24%) SAP R/3
4 1 (0.24%) thinkFolio
4 1 (0.24%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
Cloud Services
1 191 (45.48%) Azure
2 89 (21.19%) AWS
3 81 (19.29%) Power Platform
4 67 (15.95%) Azure DevOps
5 46 (10.95%) GitHub
6 43 (10.24%) Azure Data Factory
7 30 (7.14%) GCP
8 25 (5.95%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 22 (5.24%) SaaS
10 17 (4.05%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (3.57%) Amazon S3
12 14 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
13 13 (3.10%) Snowflake
14 12 (2.86%) IaaS
14 12 (2.86%) Power Automate
15 11 (2.62%) AWS CloudFormation
16 10 (2.38%) PaaS
17 9 (2.14%) Azure Key Vault
17 9 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
18 8 (1.90%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.62%) Internet
2 7 (1.67%) Firewall
3 5 (1.19%) DNS
3 5 (1.19%) NetScaler
4 3 (0.71%) DHCP
4 3 (0.71%) HTTP
4 3 (0.71%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.48%) FTP
5 2 (0.48%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.48%) VPN
5 2 (0.48%) VSAN
6 1 (0.24%) BGP
6 1 (0.24%) DMZ
6 1 (0.24%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (0.24%) SAN
6 1 (0.24%) SSL
6 1 (0.24%) VLAN
6 1 (0.24%) VXLAN
6 1 (0.24%) WebEx
6 1 (0.24%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (16.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 68 (16.19%) Power BI
3 64 (15.24%) PostgreSQL
4 51 (12.14%) Relational Database
5 46 (10.95%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (7.86%) Data Lake
6 33 (7.86%) Oracle Database
7 29 (6.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 27 (6.43%) MongoDB
9 26 (6.19%) NoSQL
10 24 (5.71%) Azure SQL Database
11 20 (4.76%) Delta Lake
12 16 (3.81%) Big Data
13 13 (3.10%) Amazon RDS
13 13 (3.10%) RDBMS
13 13 (3.10%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 12 (2.86%) MySQL
14 12 (2.86%) Redis
14 12 (2.86%) Tableau
15 11 (2.62%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 39 (9.29%) Git
2 33 (7.86%) JIRA
3 22 (5.24%) Jenkins
4 18 (4.29%) Visual Studio
5 12 (2.86%) SpecFlow
6 9 (2.14%) ERwin
6 9 (2.14%) GitLab
7 8 (1.90%) Maven
8 7 (1.67%) JUnit
8 7 (1.67%) MLflow
8 7 (1.67%) Octopus Deploy
8 7 (1.67%) TeamCity
9 5 (1.19%) Mockito
9 5 (1.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 5 (1.19%) Team Foundation Server
10 3 (0.71%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.71%) Eclipse
10 3 (0.71%) Selenium
10 3 (0.71%) Zephyr
General
1 154 (36.67%) Finance
2 127 (30.24%) Social Skills
3 83 (19.76%) Banking
4 47 (11.19%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (5.71%) Investment Banking
6 19 (4.52%) Public Sector
7 18 (4.29%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (3.57%) Front Office
9 14 (3.33%) Financial Institution
10 13 (3.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (2.14%) Retail
12 5 (1.19%) Local Government
12 5 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.71%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.71%) Law
14 3 (0.71%) Legal
14 3 (0.71%) Telecoms
15 2 (0.48%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 176 (41.90%) Developer
2 78 (18.57%) Data Engineer
3 75 (17.86%) Senior
4 69 (16.43%) C# Developer
5 43 (10.24%) .NET Developer
6 33 (7.86%) Senior Developer
7 27 (6.43%) Senior Data Engineer
8 26 (6.19%) Analyst
9 25 (5.95%) Architect
10 22 (5.24%) C# .NET Developer
11 20 (4.76%) Lead
12 17 (4.05%) Angular Developer
12 17 (4.05%) Full-Stack Developer
13 15 (3.57%) SQL Developer
14 14 (3.33%) DBA
15 13 (3.10%) Azure Engineer
15 13 (3.10%) Java Developer
15 13 (3.10%) SQL DBA
16 11 (2.62%) Software Engineer
16 11 (2.62%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 131 (31.19%) .NET
2 68 (16.19%) .NET Framework
3 41 (9.76%) REST
4 34 (8.10%) RESTful
5 33 (7.86%) Kafka
6 32 (7.62%) AngularJS
7 31 (7.38%) .NET Core
8 28 (6.67%) HTML
8 28 (6.67%) React
9 27 (6.43%) XML
10 26 (6.19%) Web Services
11 21 (5.00%) WPF
12 19 (4.52%) Entity Framework
12 19 (4.52%) SOAP
13 18 (4.29%) WinForms
14 17 (4.05%) CSS
15 16 (3.81%) ASP.NET
15 16 (3.81%) OAuth
16 15 (3.57%) NHibernate
16 15 (3.57%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 31 (7.38%) Legacy Systems
2 24 (5.71%) Cloud Native
3 16 (3.81%) Enterprise Software
4 15 (3.57%) Derivative
4 15 (3.57%) Onboarding
5 13 (3.10%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (3.10%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 13 (3.10%) Management Information System
6 12 (2.86%) Credit Risk
7 11 (2.62%) Reinsurance
8 9 (2.14%) Greenfield Project
9 8 (1.90%) Data Structures
9 8 (1.90%) Fixed Income
9 8 (1.90%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.67%) Product Ownership
11 6 (1.43%) Hedge funds
11 6 (1.43%) Linux Command Line
11 6 (1.43%) Market Risk
12 5 (1.19%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 67 (15.95%) Windows
2 42 (10.00%) Linux
3 27 (6.43%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.67%) Unix
5 6 (1.43%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (28.57%) CI/CD
2 100 (23.81%) DevOps
3 99 (23.57%) Agile
4 93 (22.14%) ETL
5 86 (20.48%) Business Intelligence
6 82 (19.52%) Problem-Solving
7 80 (19.05%) Data Modelling
8 70 (16.67%) Migration
9 58 (13.81%) Analytics
10 52 (12.38%) Microservices
11 50 (11.90%) Data Engineering
12 49 (11.67%) Data Analysis
13 44 (10.48%) Test Automation
14 43 (10.24%) Data Pipeline
15 42 (10.00%) Data Migration
16 39 (9.29%) Containerisation
17 37 (8.81%) Scrum
18 36 (8.57%) Full-Stack Development
19 35 (8.33%) Change Management
20 33 (7.86%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 258 (61.43%) SQL
2 135 (32.14%) C#
3 110 (26.19%) Python
4 60 (14.29%) T-SQL
5 49 (11.67%) PL/SQL
6 46 (10.95%) Java
7 37 (8.81%) JavaScript
8 25 (5.95%) PowerShell
9 19 (4.52%) TypeScript
10 17 (4.05%) Bash
11 15 (3.57%) VB
12 14 (3.33%) VBA
13 11 (2.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (1.67%) XPath
15 6 (1.43%) Bicep
16 3 (0.71%) COBOL
16 3 (0.71%) R
16 3 (0.71%) Scala
16 3 (0.71%) Shell Script
17 2 (0.48%) C++
Qualifications
1 52 (12.38%) Degree
2 44 (10.48%) Security Cleared
3 31 (7.38%) SC Cleared
4 22 (5.24%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (1.90%) Azure Certification
6 8 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.90%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.67%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.95%) CCA
8 4 (0.95%) Citrix Certification
9 3 (0.71%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.71%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.71%) PMP
10 2 (0.48%) CCNP
10 2 (0.48%) CISSP
10 2 (0.48%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.24%) CCIE
11 1 (0.24%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (15.71%) Data Quality
2 48 (11.43%) QA
3 8 (1.90%) GDPR
4 6 (1.43%) SLA
5 4 (0.95%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.71%) IFRS
6 3 (0.71%) IFRS 17
6 3 (0.71%) MiFID
7 2 (0.48%) Basel III
7 2 (0.48%) EMIR
7 2 (0.48%) GAAP
7 2 (0.48%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.48%) Solvency II
8 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.24%) NCSC
8 1 (0.24%) NIST
8 1 (0.24%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.24%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (14.29%) Docker
2 14 (3.33%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.43%) zsh
4 4 (0.95%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.95%) XenApp
4 4 (0.95%) XenDesktop
5 2 (0.48%) GridGain
5 2 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.48%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.48%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 52 (12.38%) Kubernetes
2 28 (6.67%) Terraform
3 12 (2.86%) Ansible
4 10 (2.38%) Grafana
5 9 (2.14%) Puppet
6 7 (1.67%) SCCM
6 7 (1.67%) TIBCO Hawk
7 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.95%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.95%) SCVMM
8 3 (0.71%) Control-M
8 3 (0.71%) Microsoft Clustering
8 3 (0.71%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.24%) BladeLogic
9 1 (0.24%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Management
9 1 (0.24%) SCOM
9 1 (0.24%) VxRail
9 1 (0.24%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 144 (34.29%) Oracle
2 100 (23.81%) Microsoft
3 49 (11.67%) Databricks
4 34 (8.10%) Citrix
5 22 (5.24%) Informatica
6 15 (3.57%) SAP
7 13 (3.10%) IBM
8 12 (2.86%) UiPath
9 11 (2.62%) VMware
10 10 (2.38%) Google
11 9 (2.14%) ServiceNow
12 7 (1.67%) Automation Anywhere
12 7 (1.67%) BEA
12 7 (1.67%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.67%) TIBCO
13 6 (1.43%) PagerDuty
14 5 (1.19%) Atlassian
14 5 (1.19%) ION Trading
14 5 (1.19%) Salesforce
14 5 (1.19%) Sybase