Azure SQL Database Contracts

Microsoft Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Azure SQL Database skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Azure SQL Database over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 384 409 382
Rank change year-on-year +25 -27 +10
Contract jobs citing Azure SQL Database 135 193 366
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.46% 0.44% 0.61%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.44% 2.64% 3.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 141 235
10th Percentile £410 £375 £422
25th Percentile £454 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.29% -0.48% -0.94%
75th Percentile £628 £650 £638
90th Percentile £731 £738 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £478 £563
% change year-on-year +4.71% -15.19% +15.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 6
10th Percentile - - £43.13
25th Percentile £60.25 - £54.94
Median hourly rate £60.50 - £66.00
75th Percentile £60.75 - £69.19
90th Percentile - - £70.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £35.00
% change year-on-year - - +6.06%

All Database and Business Intelligence Skills
UK

Azure SQL Database 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 5,544 7,303 10,767
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.96% 16.75% 18.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,832 5,193 7,664
10th Percentile £356 £350 £375
25th Percentile £420 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.78% -1.78%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £660
90th Percentile £763 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +1.88% -4.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 105 144 183
10th Percentile £20.09 £14.00 £21.24
25th Percentile £24.25 £20.98 £35.00
Median hourly rate £33.11 £40.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.23% -33.33% +41.18%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.55 £70.88
90th Percentile £74.75 £72.50 £79.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £40.00 £58.05
% change year-on-year -25.00% -31.09% +65.84%

Azure SQL Database
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Azure SQL Database as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Azure SQL Database in the UK

Azure SQL Database
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Azure SQL Database.

Daily rate trend for Azure SQL Database in the UK

Azure SQL Database
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Azure SQL Database over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Azure SQL Database in the UK

Azure SQL Database
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Azure SQL Database.

Hourly rate trend for Azure SQL Database in the UK

Azure SQL Database
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Azure SQL Database within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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
England +22 124 £525 - 178
London -3 71 £580 +0.87% 66
UK excluding London +51 53 £500 +4.71% 120
Work from Home +18 49 £593 +15.61% 140
South East +49 23 £533 +3.90% 17
North of England +29 11 £475 - 47
North West +12 9 £475 +5.56% 21
Scotland +9 7 £463 -2.63% 9
South West +42 5 £500 +13.84% 13
East of England +35 4 £576 +4.64% 16
Midlands +18 4 £494 +0.25% 19
West Midlands +14 3 £413 -21.05% 14
Yorkshire +15 2 £463 -9.76% 22
East Midlands +6 1 £575 +24.32% 5

Azure SQL Database
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 12 (8.89%) Apache Spark
2 9 (6.67%) BizTalk Server
3 8 (5.93%) Apache
4 6 (4.44%) Jupyter
4 6 (4.44%) SharePoint
5 2 (1.48%) Confluence
5 2 (1.48%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.74%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 3 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.74%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (1.48%) Markit EDM
2 1 (0.74%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.74%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 135 (100.00%) Azure
2 51 (37.78%) Azure Data Factory
3 44 (32.59%) Azure DevOps
4 36 (26.67%) Power Platform
5 23 (17.04%) Serverless
6 20 (14.81%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 20 (14.81%) PaaS
7 18 (13.33%) Azure Storage
7 18 (13.33%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 17 (12.59%) IaaS
9 16 (11.85%) Entra ID
10 15 (11.11%) Azure AKS
10 15 (11.11%) Azure Logic Apps
11 14 (10.37%) Azure Functions
12 13 (9.63%) AWS
12 13 (9.63%) Azure Monitor
12 13 (9.63%) Power Automate
13 12 (8.89%) PowerApps
14 11 (8.15%) Cloud Computing
14 11 (8.15%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (4.44%) SSH
2 1 (0.74%) DNS
2 1 (0.74%) Firewall
2 1 (0.74%) Network Security
2 1 (0.74%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (39.26%) SQL Server
2 32 (23.70%) Power BI
3 26 (19.26%) Data Lake
4 23 (17.04%) Data Warehouse
5 12 (8.89%) Delta Lake
5 12 (8.89%) MongoDB
5 12 (8.89%) Relational Database
6 11 (8.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 9 (6.67%) Apache Hive
7 9 (6.67%) Big Data
8 7 (5.19%) Metadata
8 7 (5.19%) NoSQL
9 6 (4.44%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (4.44%) RDBMS
10 5 (3.70%) Power Query
10 5 (3.70%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 4 (2.96%) Parquet
11 4 (2.96%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (2.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (2.22%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 15 (11.11%) Git
2 10 (7.41%) JIRA
3 6 (4.44%) RStudio
4 4 (2.96%) ERwin
5 2 (1.48%) Postman
5 2 (1.48%) SpecFlow
5 2 (1.48%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.74%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.74%) JBehave
6 1 (0.74%) JUnit
6 1 (0.74%) Selenium
6 1 (0.74%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 27 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 22 (16.30%) Finance
3 20 (14.81%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (12.59%) Public Sector
5 6 (4.44%) Marketing
6 5 (3.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (2.22%) Banking
8 3 (2.22%) Electronics
8 3 (2.22%) Front Office
8 3 (2.22%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.22%) Retail
8 3 (2.22%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.48%) Local Government
9 2 (1.48%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.74%) Advertising
10 1 (0.74%) Billing
10 1 (0.74%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.74%) Military
10 1 (0.74%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 38 (28.15%) Data Engineer
2 25 (18.52%) Senior
3 24 (17.78%) Azure Engineer
3 24 (17.78%) Developer
4 23 (17.04%) Architect
5 15 (11.11%) Azure Architect
6 12 (8.89%) DevOps Engineer
7 11 (8.15%) Azure Data Engineer
7 11 (8.15%) Data Architect
8 10 (7.41%) Analyst
9 9 (6.67%) .NET Developer
9 9 (6.67%) Azure DevOps Engineer
9 9 (6.67%) Senior Data Engineer
10 7 (5.19%) Azure Developer
10 7 (5.19%) DBA
11 6 (4.44%) Senior Developer
11 6 (4.44%) SQL DBA
12 5 (3.70%) Senior .NET Developer
12 5 (3.70%) Senior Architect
12 5 (3.70%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (18.52%) .NET
2 21 (15.56%) PySpark
3 19 (14.07%) .NET Core
4 16 (11.85%) JSON
5 12 (8.89%) ARM Templates
6 10 (7.41%) RESTful
6 10 (7.41%) YAML
7 8 (5.93%) ADO
7 8 (5.93%) Blazor
7 8 (5.93%) pydantic
8 7 (5.19%) AngularJS
9 5 (3.70%) ASP.NET
9 5 (3.70%) CSS
9 5 (3.70%) HTML
9 5 (3.70%) OAuth
10 4 (2.96%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (2.96%) Entity Framework
10 4 (2.96%) Kafka
10 4 (2.96%) REST
11 3 (2.22%) ASP.NET MVC
Miscellaneous
1 14 (10.37%) Linux Command Line
2 11 (8.15%) Cloud Native
3 8 (5.93%) Data Structures
3 8 (5.93%) Legacy Systems
4 7 (5.19%) Product Ownership
4 7 (5.19%) Reference Data
5 5 (3.70%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.96%) Clustering
6 4 (2.96%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.96%) TWAP
6 4 (2.96%) VWAP
7 3 (2.22%) Algorithms
7 3 (2.22%) Low-Code
7 3 (2.22%) Reinsurance
7 3 (2.22%) Replication
8 2 (1.48%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.48%) IoT
8 2 (1.48%) NHS
8 2 (1.48%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 1 (0.74%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 14 (10.37%) Windows
2 11 (8.15%) Linux
3 5 (3.70%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.48%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.74%) Unix
5 1 (0.74%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (40.00%) DevOps
2 43 (31.85%) CI/CD
3 39 (28.89%) Analytics
4 38 (28.15%) Agile
5 33 (24.44%) ETL
5 33 (24.44%) Problem-Solving
6 31 (22.96%) Business Intelligence
6 31 (22.96%) Data Modelling
7 25 (18.52%) Data Pipeline
8 21 (15.56%) Migration
9 17 (12.59%) Data Integration
10 16 (11.85%) Data Engineering
11 14 (10.37%) Microservices
12 13 (9.63%) Data Governance
12 13 (9.63%) Full-Stack Development
12 13 (9.63%) High Availability
12 13 (9.63%) Infrastructure as Code
13 12 (8.89%) Data Ingestion
13 12 (8.89%) Data Security
13 12 (8.89%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 129 (95.56%) SQL
2 45 (33.33%) Python
3 24 (17.78%) C#
4 20 (14.81%) PowerShell
5 17 (12.59%) Bicep
6 15 (11.11%) T-SQL
7 14 (10.37%) Bash
7 14 (10.37%) JavaScript
8 10 (7.41%) Java
9 9 (6.67%) PL/SQL
10 8 (5.93%) Scala
11 6 (4.44%) C++
11 6 (4.44%) Go
12 4 (2.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (1.48%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (1.48%) Ruby
14 1 (0.74%) Perl
14 1 (0.74%) R
14 1 (0.74%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 23 (17.04%) Security Cleared
2 15 (11.11%) SC Cleared
3 11 (8.15%) Degree
4 7 (5.19%) Azure Certification
5 6 (4.44%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.74%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.74%) CITP
6 1 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.74%) MCDBA
6 1 (0.74%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (11.85%) GDPR
2 13 (9.63%) Data Quality
3 5 (3.70%) QA
4 4 (2.96%) SOC 2
5 3 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.48%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.74%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.74%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.74%) GxP
7 1 (0.74%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.74%) WCAG
System Software
1 13 (9.63%) Virtual Machines
2 11 (8.15%) Active Directory
3 6 (4.44%) Docker
4 1 (0.74%) Apache Flume
4 1 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.74%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 22 (16.30%) Terraform
2 20 (14.81%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.70%) Prometheus
4 4 (2.96%) Grafana
5 3 (2.22%) Ansible
6 2 (1.48%) Progress Chef
6 2 (1.48%) Puppet
7 1 (0.74%) Perfmon
7 1 (0.74%) SCOM
7 1 (0.74%) VxRail
Vendors
1 55 (40.74%) Microsoft
2 48 (35.56%) Databricks
3 9 (6.67%) Oracle
4 6 (4.44%) MuleSoft
5 5 (3.70%) Google
6 4 (2.96%) SAP
7 2 (1.48%) IBM
7 2 (1.48%) Informatica
7 2 (1.48%) VMware
8 1 (0.74%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.74%) CheckPoint
8 1 (0.74%) Mercator
8 1 (0.74%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.74%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.74%) Splunk
8 1 (0.74%) StreamSets
8 1 (0.74%) Talend
8 1 (0.74%) TikTok
8 1 (0.74%) TOWER Software
8 1 (0.74%) Veeam