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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 78 54
Rank change year-on-year -25 -24 -11
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 411 444 732
As % of all contract jobs in London 2.79% 3.22% 3.93%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 14.03% 14.90% 20.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 310 538
10th Percentile £363 £363 £384
25th Percentile £407 £425 £440
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 £737 £725 £750
England median daily rate £480 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
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 £20.75 £63.75 £40.25
% change year-on-year -67.45% +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 2,930 2,980 3,579
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 19.90% 21.59% 19.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,021 2,020 2,643
10th Percentile £351 £363 £381
25th Percentile £415 £455 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £560 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +1.82% -8.33%
75th Percentile £638 £699 £675
90th Percentile £750 £825 £775
England median daily rate £500 £545 £540
% change year-on-year -8.26% +0.93% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 31 43
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £20.98
25th Percentile £29.25 £28.60 £26.02
Median hourly rate £43.50 £41.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.82% -2.35% -15.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £58.25 £53.94
90th Percentile £89.50 £78.75 £64.35
England median hourly rate £45.75 £38.50 £42.35
% change year-on-year +18.83% -9.08% -27.53%

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 1 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 1 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 -48 39 £513 -12.02% 48
South London +1 7 £530 -26.90% 5
East London -5 2 £585 +46.25% 3
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 17 (4.14%) IIS
2 14 (3.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 13 (3.16%) Confluence
4 12 (2.92%) SharePoint
5 11 (2.68%) WebSphere
6 8 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
7 7 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
7 7 (1.70%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.70%) WebLogic
8 6 (1.46%) Apache
8 6 (1.46%) Appian
9 2 (0.49%) CMS
10 1 (0.24%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.24%) Camunda
10 1 (0.24%) ColdFusion
10 1 (0.24%) JBoss
10 1 (0.24%) Luigi
10 1 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.24%) SAS
10 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 33 (8.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (3.16%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.46%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.49%) Trello
6 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (1.70%) BusinessWorks
1 7 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.73%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 3 (0.73%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.49%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.49%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.49%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.49%) 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
1 187 (45.50%) Azure
2 89 (21.65%) AWS
3 80 (19.46%) Power Platform
4 66 (16.06%) Azure DevOps
5 46 (11.19%) GitHub
6 42 (10.22%) Azure Data Factory
7 30 (7.30%) GCP
8 25 (6.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 21 (5.11%) SaaS
10 17 (4.14%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (3.65%) Amazon S3
12 13 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (3.16%) Snowflake
13 11 (2.68%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (2.68%) IaaS
13 11 (2.68%) Power Automate
14 9 (2.19%) Azure Key Vault
14 9 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
14 9 (2.19%) PaaS
15 8 (1.95%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.43%) Internet
2 6 (1.46%) Firewall
3 5 (1.22%) NetScaler
4 4 (0.97%) DNS
5 3 (0.73%) HTTP
5 3 (0.73%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.49%) DHCP
6 2 (0.49%) FTP
6 2 (0.49%) Software-Defined Networking
6 2 (0.49%) VSAN
7 1 (0.24%) BGP
7 1 (0.24%) DMZ
7 1 (0.24%) Ethernet VPN
7 1 (0.24%) Network Security
7 1 (0.24%) SSL
7 1 (0.24%) VPN
7 1 (0.24%) VXLAN
7 1 (0.24%) WebEx
7 1 (0.24%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (17.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 68 (16.55%) Power BI
3 63 (15.33%) PostgreSQL
4 50 (12.17%) Relational Database
5 45 (10.95%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (8.03%) Data Lake
7 32 (7.79%) Oracle Database
8 29 (7.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 26 (6.33%) MongoDB
10 25 (6.08%) NoSQL
11 24 (5.84%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (4.87%) Delta Lake
13 16 (3.89%) Big Data
14 13 (3.16%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (3.16%) RDBMS
14 13 (3.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 12 (2.92%) MySQL
15 12 (2.92%) Tableau
16 11 (2.68%) DB2
16 11 (2.68%) Redis
Development Applications
1 38 (9.25%) Git
2 33 (8.03%) JIRA
3 22 (5.35%) Jenkins
4 17 (4.14%) Visual Studio
5 12 (2.92%) SpecFlow
6 9 (2.19%) ERwin
6 9 (2.19%) GitLab
7 8 (1.95%) Maven
8 7 (1.70%) JUnit
8 7 (1.70%) Octopus Deploy
8 7 (1.70%) TeamCity
9 6 (1.46%) MLflow
10 5 (1.22%) Mockito
10 5 (1.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 5 (1.22%) Team Foundation Server
11 3 (0.73%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.73%) Cucumber
11 3 (0.73%) Eclipse
11 3 (0.73%) Selenium
11 3 (0.73%) Zephyr
General
1 153 (37.23%) Finance
2 124 (30.17%) Social Skills
3 79 (19.22%) Banking
4 45 (10.95%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (5.35%) Investment Banking
6 19 (4.62%) Public Sector
7 18 (4.38%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (3.41%) Financial Institution
8 14 (3.41%) Front Office
9 13 (3.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (2.19%) Retail
11 5 (1.22%) Local Government
11 5 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.73%) General Ledger
13 3 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.73%) Law
13 3 (0.73%) Legal
13 3 (0.73%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.49%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 173 (42.09%) Developer
2 77 (18.73%) Data Engineer
3 73 (17.76%) Senior
4 68 (16.55%) C# Developer
5 42 (10.22%) .NET Developer
6 32 (7.79%) Senior Developer
7 27 (6.57%) Senior Data Engineer
8 26 (6.33%) Analyst
9 25 (6.08%) Architect
10 22 (5.35%) C# .NET Developer
11 20 (4.87%) Lead
12 17 (4.14%) Angular Developer
12 17 (4.14%) Full-Stack Developer
13 15 (3.65%) SQL Developer
14 14 (3.41%) DBA
15 13 (3.16%) SQL DBA
16 12 (2.92%) Azure Engineer
16 12 (2.92%) Java Developer
17 11 (2.68%) Business Analyst
17 11 (2.68%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (31.14%) .NET
2 67 (16.30%) .NET Framework
3 40 (9.73%) REST
4 33 (8.03%) Kafka
5 32 (7.79%) RESTful
6 31 (7.54%) AngularJS
7 30 (7.30%) .NET Core
8 27 (6.57%) HTML
8 27 (6.57%) React
8 27 (6.57%) XML
9 25 (6.08%) Web Services
10 20 (4.87%) WPF
11 19 (4.62%) Entity Framework
11 19 (4.62%) SOAP
12 17 (4.14%) CSS
12 17 (4.14%) WinForms
13 16 (3.89%) ASP.NET
14 15 (3.65%) Middleware
14 15 (3.65%) NHibernate
15 14 (3.41%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.30%) Legacy Systems
2 22 (5.35%) Cloud Native
3 16 (3.89%) Enterprise Software
4 15 (3.65%) Derivative
4 15 (3.65%) Onboarding
5 13 (3.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 13 (3.16%) Management Information System
6 12 (2.92%) Credit Risk
6 12 (2.92%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.68%) Reinsurance
8 9 (2.19%) Greenfield Project
9 8 (1.95%) Data Structures
10 7 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.70%) Fixed Income
10 7 (1.70%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.70%) Product Ownership
11 6 (1.46%) Hedge funds
11 6 (1.46%) Linux Command Line
11 6 (1.46%) Market Risk
12 5 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 64 (15.57%) Windows
2 41 (9.98%) Linux
3 27 (6.57%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.70%) Unix
5 6 (1.46%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.46%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (28.47%) CI/CD
2 98 (23.84%) Agile
2 98 (23.84%) DevOps
3 91 (22.14%) ETL
4 86 (20.92%) Business Intelligence
5 79 (19.22%) Problem-Solving
6 78 (18.98%) Data Modelling
7 69 (16.79%) Migration
8 58 (14.11%) Analytics
9 51 (12.41%) Microservices
10 49 (11.92%) Data Engineering
11 48 (11.68%) Data Analysis
12 42 (10.22%) Data Migration
12 42 (10.22%) Data Pipeline
13 41 (9.98%) Test Automation
14 38 (9.25%) Containerisation
15 37 (9.00%) Scrum
16 36 (8.76%) Full-Stack Development
17 34 (8.27%) Change Management
18 32 (7.79%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 253 (61.56%) SQL
2 133 (32.36%) C#
3 107 (26.03%) Python
4 59 (14.36%) T-SQL
5 48 (11.68%) PL/SQL
6 44 (10.71%) Java
7 36 (8.76%) JavaScript
8 25 (6.08%) PowerShell
9 18 (4.38%) TypeScript
10 17 (4.14%) Bash
11 14 (3.41%) VB
12 13 (3.16%) VBA
13 11 (2.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (1.70%) XPath
15 6 (1.46%) Bicep
16 3 (0.73%) COBOL
16 3 (0.73%) R
16 3 (0.73%) Scala
16 3 (0.73%) Shell Script
17 2 (0.49%) C++
Qualifications
1 52 (12.65%) Degree
2 44 (10.71%) Security Cleared
3 31 (7.54%) SC Cleared
4 22 (5.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (1.95%) Azure Certification
6 8 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.95%) DV Cleared
7 7 (1.70%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.97%) CCA
8 4 (0.97%) Citrix Certification
9 3 (0.73%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.73%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.73%) PMP
10 2 (0.49%) CCNP
10 2 (0.49%) CISSP
10 2 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.24%) CCIE
11 1 (0.24%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (15.82%) Data Quality
2 47 (11.44%) QA
3 8 (1.95%) GDPR
4 5 (1.22%) SLA
5 4 (0.97%) Accessibility
5 4 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.73%) IFRS
6 3 (0.73%) IFRS 17
6 3 (0.73%) MiFID
7 2 (0.49%) Basel III
7 2 (0.49%) EMIR
7 2 (0.49%) GAAP
7 2 (0.49%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.49%) 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 58 (14.11%) Docker
2 13 (3.16%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.46%) zsh
4 4 (0.97%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.97%) XenApp
4 4 (0.97%) XenDesktop
5 2 (0.49%) GridGain
5 2 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.49%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 49 (11.92%) Kubernetes
2 27 (6.57%) Terraform
3 12 (2.92%) Ansible
4 10 (2.43%) Grafana
5 9 (2.19%) Puppet
6 7 (1.70%) TIBCO Hawk
7 6 (1.46%) SCCM
8 4 (0.97%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.97%) SCVMM
9 3 (0.73%) Control-M
9 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.73%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 1 (0.24%) Ambari
10 1 (0.24%) BladeLogic
10 1 (0.24%) Oracle Identity Management
10 1 (0.24%) SCOM
10 1 (0.24%) VxRail
10 1 (0.24%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 141 (34.31%) Oracle
2 99 (24.09%) Microsoft
3 49 (11.92%) Databricks
4 33 (8.03%) Citrix
5 22 (5.35%) Informatica
6 15 (3.65%) SAP
7 13 (3.16%) IBM
8 11 (2.68%) UiPath
9 10 (2.43%) Google
9 10 (2.43%) VMware
10 9 (2.19%) ServiceNow
11 7 (1.70%) BEA
11 7 (1.70%) TIBCO
12 6 (1.46%) Automation Anywhere
12 6 (1.46%) OpenAI
12 6 (1.46%) PagerDuty
13 5 (1.22%) Atlassian
13 5 (1.22%) Salesforce
13 5 (1.22%) Splunk
13 5 (1.22%) Sybase