SQL Server Contracts in the UK excluding London

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring SQL Server skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SQL Server over the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 127 91 58
Rank change year-on-year -36 -33 -14
Contract jobs citing SQL Server 277 461 838
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.96% 2.18% 3.66%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 12.76% 17.20% 25.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 345 623
10th Percentile £269 £313 £330
25th Percentile £350 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £525 £590 £586
90th Percentile £596 £675 £686
UK median daily rate £500 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -0.99% -3.81% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 23 7
10th Percentile £20.89 £25.55 £24.10
25th Percentile £21.02 £38.81 £26.24
Median hourly rate £23.14 £40.00 £34.80
Median % change year-on-year -42.16% +14.96% -31.81%
75th Percentile £64.38 £47.47 £44.25
90th Percentile £83.13 £62.96 £62.50
UK median hourly rate £48.16 £40.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +20.40% -11.11% -10.00%

All Database and Business Intelligence Skills
UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 2,171 2,681 3,302
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.34% 12.66% 14.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,452 1,850 2,341
10th Percentile £313 £313 £335
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £637 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 108 109
10th Percentile £18.69 £13.63 £21.05
25th Percentile £21.88 £18.03 £26.25
Median hourly rate £31.64 £31.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.44% -42.73% +57.14%
75th Percentile £61.00 £48.18 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.50 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £34.99 £39.25 £56.95
% change year-on-year -10.85% -31.08% +50.66%

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing SQL Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for SQL Server in the UK excluding London

SQL Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for SQL Server in the UK excluding London

SQL Server
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server in the UK excluding London

SQL Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SQL Server in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for SQL Server in the UK excluding London

SQL Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SQL Server in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SQL Server in the UK excluding London

SQL Server
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding 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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 3 July 2025. 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
North of England -15 85 £425 -8.60% 522
South East -7 65 £450 -11.11% 594
North West -12 61 £425 -5.56% 312
Midlands -28 45 £425 -4.49% 270
Scotland +2 35 £475 - 153
West Midlands -7 27 £525 +6.60% 166
South West -13 26 £475 -11.63% 189
Yorkshire -1 19 £400 -15.79% 169
East Midlands -22 17 £327 -24.94% 103
East of England +17 16 £500 +5.26% 160
Northern Ireland - 6 £470 - 39
North East -2 5 £456 -3.95% 42
Wales -1 3 £226 -46.03% 49
SQL Server
UK

SQL Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 19 (6.86%) Apache
1 19 (6.86%) IIS
2 13 (4.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (4.33%) Confluence
4 6 (2.17%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.17%) Tomcat
4 6 (2.17%) WebSphere
5 4 (1.44%) CMS
5 4 (1.44%) Drupal
5 4 (1.44%) WordPress
6 3 (1.08%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (1.08%) BizTalk Server
6 3 (1.08%) JBoss
6 3 (1.08%) nginx
6 3 (1.08%) OpenEdge
6 3 (1.08%) SAS
7 2 (0.72%) CICS
7 2 (0.72%) GemFire
8 1 (0.36%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.36%) Umbraco
Applications
1 9 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.08%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (2.53%) Kondor
2 6 (2.17%) Maximo
3 5 (1.81%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.36%) Remedy AR System
5 1 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.36%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 124 (44.77%) Azure
2 48 (17.33%) AWS
3 37 (13.36%) Power Platform
4 28 (10.11%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (5.78%) GCP
6 15 (5.42%) Azure Data Factory
6 15 (5.42%) Microsoft 365
6 15 (5.42%) Serverless
7 13 (4.69%) Dynamics 365
7 13 (4.69%) Entra ID
8 11 (3.97%) Azure Logic Apps
9 10 (3.61%) IaaS
10 9 (3.25%) Amazon EC2
10 9 (3.25%) Amazon S3
10 9 (3.25%) Azure Functions
10 9 (3.25%) PowerApps
11 8 (2.89%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (2.89%) Snowflake
12 7 (2.53%) Azure Monitor
12 7 (2.53%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 19 (6.86%) Firewall
2 11 (3.97%) TCP/IP
3 9 (3.25%) HTTP
3 9 (3.25%) Internet
4 6 (2.17%) DNS
4 6 (2.17%) Intrusion Detection
4 6 (2.17%) Network Security
5 4 (1.44%) LAN
6 3 (1.08%) DHCP
6 3 (1.08%) SSL
6 3 (1.08%) WAN
7 2 (0.72%) iSCSI
7 2 (0.72%) VLAN
7 2 (0.72%) VSAN
8 1 (0.36%) FTP
8 1 (0.36%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.36%) RS-232
8 1 (0.36%) Skype
8 1 (0.36%) VPN
8 1 (0.36%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (15.16%) Relational Database
2 29 (10.47%) MySQL
2 29 (10.47%) Power BI
3 28 (10.11%) PostgreSQL
4 27 (9.75%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (9.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 20 (7.22%) Azure SQL Database
6 18 (6.50%) Oracle Database
7 17 (6.14%) DB2
8 15 (5.42%) Amazon RDS
9 13 (4.69%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 12 (4.33%) NoSQL
11 11 (3.97%) Metadata
11 11 (3.97%) MongoDB
12 8 (2.89%) Oracle Exadata
12 8 (2.89%) RDBMS
13 7 (2.53%) Data Lake
14 6 (2.17%) Tableau
15 4 (1.44%) Big Data
16 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 22 (7.94%) Git
2 21 (7.58%) JIRA
3 12 (4.33%) Selenium
4 10 (3.61%) GitLab
4 10 (3.61%) Maven
5 9 (3.25%) Cucumber
6 8 (2.89%) Jenkins
6 8 (2.89%) JUnit
7 7 (2.53%) Bitbucket
7 7 (2.53%) Mockito
7 7 (2.53%) SonarQube
7 7 (2.53%) Sonatype Nexus
7 7 (2.53%) Visual Studio
8 5 (1.81%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 4 (1.44%) Bitbucket Server
9 4 (1.44%) Postman
9 4 (1.44%) Team Foundation Server
10 3 (1.08%) MSI
11 2 (0.72%) ERwin
11 2 (0.72%) WinRunner
General
1 88 (31.77%) Social Skills
2 53 (19.13%) Finance
3 29 (10.47%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (7.94%) Public Sector
5 18 (6.50%) Banking
6 10 (3.61%) Telecoms
7 6 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (1.44%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.44%) Law
9 3 (1.08%) Back Office
9 3 (1.08%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.08%) Legal
9 3 (1.08%) Local Government
9 3 (1.08%) Marketing
9 3 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.72%) Billing
10 2 (0.72%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.72%) Electronics
10 2 (0.72%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 75 (27.08%) Developer
2 32 (11.55%) Analyst
3 22 (7.94%) Data Engineer
3 22 (7.94%) DBA
4 17 (6.14%) Architect
5 15 (5.42%) .NET Developer
5 15 (5.42%) Consultant
6 14 (5.05%) SQL Developer
7 13 (4.69%) Senior
8 12 (4.33%) Support Engineer
9 11 (3.97%) C# Developer
9 11 (3.97%) Java Developer
9 11 (3.97%) SQL DBA
10 9 (3.25%) Administrator
10 9 (3.25%) DevOps Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) Software Engineer
11 8 (2.89%) Azure Engineer
11 8 (2.89%) Business Intelligence Developer
11 8 (2.89%) Data Analyst
11 8 (2.89%) Database Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (20.22%) .NET
2 30 (10.83%) HTML
3 26 (9.39%) CSS
3 26 (9.39%) SOAP
4 22 (7.94%) Web Services
5 21 (7.58%) .NET Framework
6 19 (6.86%) XML
7 15 (5.42%) AngularJS
8 14 (5.05%) React
8 14 (5.05%) Spring Boot
9 13 (4.69%) ASP.NET
10 12 (4.33%) REST
11 10 (3.61%) JSON
12 9 (3.25%) Node.js
12 9 (3.25%) Spring
13 8 (2.89%) Hibernate
13 8 (2.89%) Kafka
13 8 (2.89%) RESTful
14 7 (2.53%) .NET Core
14 7 (2.53%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 21 (7.58%) Replication
2 9 (3.25%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (2.89%) Clustering
3 8 (2.89%) Derivative
3 8 (2.89%) Onboarding
4 7 (2.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 6 (2.17%) PKI
6 5 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.81%) Management Information System
6 5 (1.81%) N-Tier
6 5 (1.81%) Product Ownership
6 5 (1.81%) Security Posture
7 4 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (1.44%) Legacy Code
7 4 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.08%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.08%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.08%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.08%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.08%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 67 (24.19%) Windows
2 51 (18.41%) Linux
3 30 (10.83%) Windows Server
4 19 (6.86%) Unix
5 14 (5.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (2.17%) AIX
7 5 (1.81%) Solaris
8 4 (1.44%) Windows 10
9 3 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.72%) Android
10 2 (0.72%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.72%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.72%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.36%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.36%) CentOS
11 1 (0.36%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.36%) SUSE
11 1 (0.36%) VMS
11 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (32.13%) Problem-Solving
2 81 (29.24%) DevOps
3 68 (24.55%) Agile
4 61 (22.02%) CI/CD
5 48 (17.33%) Migration
6 45 (16.25%) ETL
7 42 (15.16%) Business Intelligence
8 36 (13.00%) Performance Tuning
9 32 (11.55%) High Availability
10 29 (10.47%) Analytics
10 29 (10.47%) Test Automation
11 28 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
11 28 (10.11%) Data Migration
12 26 (9.39%) Disaster Recovery
13 23 (8.30%) ITIL
14 21 (7.58%) Scrum
15 20 (7.22%) Data Modelling
16 18 (6.50%) Microservices
16 18 (6.50%) Software Engineering
17 17 (6.14%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 158 (57.04%) SQL
2 49 (17.69%) Python
3 45 (16.25%) C#
4 39 (14.08%) JavaScript
5 35 (12.64%) PowerShell
6 31 (11.19%) Java
7 17 (6.14%) T-SQL
8 11 (3.97%) PL/SQL
9 8 (2.89%) Bash
9 8 (2.89%) Perl
10 7 (2.53%) PHP
10 7 (2.53%) VB
10 7 (2.53%) VB.NET
11 6 (2.17%) TypeScript
12 4 (1.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 3 (1.08%) Bicep
14 2 (0.72%) COBOL
14 2 (0.72%) Go
14 2 (0.72%) JCL
14 2 (0.72%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 38 (13.72%) Security Cleared
2 26 (9.39%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.86%) Degree
4 14 (5.05%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (4.69%) Azure Certification
6 7 (2.53%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.08%) MCSE
8 3 (1.08%) PMP
9 2 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.72%) OCP
9 2 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
9 2 (0.72%) Tableau Certification
10 1 (0.36%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.36%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
10 1 (0.36%) CTC Cleared
10 1 (0.36%) ISEB
10 1 (0.36%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.36%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (6.86%) QA
2 12 (4.33%) Data Quality
3 11 (3.97%) GDPR
4 7 (2.53%) Basel III
4 7 (2.53%) MiFID
5 4 (1.44%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (1.08%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.36%) HL7
8 1 (0.36%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.36%) SLA
System Software
1 28 (10.11%) Active Directory
2 14 (5.05%) Docker
3 12 (4.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.89%) vSphere
5 7 (2.53%) Oracle RAC
6 6 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (1.81%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.36%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.36%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 18 (6.50%) Kubernetes
2 14 (5.05%) Terraform
3 9 (3.25%) Ansible
3 9 (3.25%) Data Guard
4 8 (2.89%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 7 (2.53%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (2.17%) Progress Chef
7 4 (1.44%) Failover Clustering
7 4 (1.44%) Grafana
7 4 (1.44%) Microsoft Clustering
7 4 (1.44%) Oracle Flashback
7 4 (1.44%) Oracle RMAN
7 4 (1.44%) SCOM
8 3 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (1.08%) Kibana
8 3 (1.08%) WMI
9 2 (0.72%) Podman
9 2 (0.72%) Puppet
9 2 (0.72%) RSA Archer
9 2 (0.72%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 121 (43.68%) Microsoft
2 84 (30.32%) Oracle
3 20 (7.22%) IBM
4 17 (6.14%) VMware
5 10 (3.61%) Red Hat
5 10 (3.61%) Sybase
6 9 (3.25%) Databricks
7 7 (2.53%) Dynatrace
7 7 (2.53%) Veracode
8 6 (2.17%) Cisco
8 6 (2.17%) Google
8 6 (2.17%) SAP
8 6 (2.17%) Teradata
9 5 (1.81%) Dell
10 4 (1.44%) Cognos
10 4 (1.44%) CyberArk
10 4 (1.44%) Salesforce
10 4 (1.44%) ServiceNow
10 4 (1.44%) Splunk
10 4 (1.44%) Zend