SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) Contract Job Trends

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 579 493 563
Rank change year-on-year -86 +70 +150
Contract jobs citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 14 25 39
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.036% 0.080% 0.088%
As % of the Development Applications category 0.25% 0.59% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 16 27
10th Percentile £356 £161 £350
25th Percentile £463 £286 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% +5.56%
75th Percentile £500 £525 £613
90th Percentile £539 £663 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £259 £450
% change year-on-year +83.73% -42.55% +39.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £25.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £25.00 -

All Development Application Skills
UK

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) falls under the Development Applications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring development application skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for development application skills 5,515 4,248 5,382
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.37% 13.57% 12.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,787 2,667 3,755
10th Percentile £350 £331 £363
25th Percentile £408 £410 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -5.83%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £634
90th Percentile £700 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 70 211
10th Percentile £39.00 £26.48 £41.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £48.00 £50.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £75.89
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.38 £88.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% -

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) job vacancy trend in the UK

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) over the 6 months to 28 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) in the UK

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Top 8 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) within the UK over the 6 months to 28 January 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
England -82 14 £475 - 5
UK excluding London -55 8 £475 +83.73% 8
London -39 5 £500 - 1
South East - 4 £363 - 1
East of England -9 3 £475 +8.57% 1
Work from Home -18 3 £363 +116.97% 7
Yorkshire - 1 £525 - 1
North of England - 1 £525 - 2

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (7.14%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 3 (21.43%) Power Platform
2 2 (14.29%) Azure
3 1 (7.14%) Azure Data Factory
3 1 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (85.71%) SQL Server
2 9 (64.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 5 (35.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 4 (28.57%) Oracle Database
4 4 (28.57%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 3 (21.43%) Power BI
6 2 (14.29%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (7.14%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (7.14%) BusinessObjects
7 1 (7.14%) Data Lake
7 1 (7.14%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (7.14%) Metadata
7 1 (7.14%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 3 (21.43%) JIRA
General
1 3 (21.43%) Social Skills
2 2 (14.29%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 4 (28.57%) DBA
1 4 (28.57%) Oracle DBA
1 4 (28.57%) SQL DBA
2 3 (21.43%) Data Integration Specialist
2 3 (21.43%) Data Migration Specialist
2 3 (21.43%) Integration Specialist
2 3 (21.43%) Migration Specialist
2 3 (21.43%) SSIS Specialist
3 2 (14.29%) DV Cleared DBA
3 2 (14.29%) Manual Tester
3 2 (14.29%) Tester
3 2 (14.29%) Web Tester
4 1 (7.14%) Analyst
4 1 (7.14%) Consultant
4 1 (7.14%) Data Warehouse Developer
4 1 (7.14%) Developer
4 1 (7.14%) Solutions Analyst
4 1 (7.14%) SQL Developer
4 1 (7.14%) Team Leader
4 1 (7.14%) Test Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (21.43%) EDI
1 3 (21.43%) JSON
1 3 (21.43%) REST
1 3 (21.43%) SOAP
1 3 (21.43%) XML
1 3 (21.43%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 1 (7.14%) Data Structures
1 1 (7.14%) NHS
1 1 (7.14%) Pricing Data
Operating Systems
1 4 (28.57%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (35.71%) Validation
3 4 (28.57%) Business Intelligence
3 4 (28.57%) Data Integration
3 4 (28.57%) High Availability
3 4 (28.57%) Patch Management
3 4 (28.57%) Performance Monitoring
3 4 (28.57%) Proactive Monitoring
3 4 (28.57%) Security Management
3 4 (28.57%) Statistics
4 3 (21.43%) Agile
4 3 (21.43%) CRM
4 3 (21.43%) Data Extraction
4 3 (21.43%) Data Migration
4 3 (21.43%) E-Commerce
4 3 (21.43%) End-to-End Testing
4 3 (21.43%) Logistics
4 3 (21.43%) Migration
4 3 (21.43%) Regression Testing
4 3 (21.43%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 12 (85.71%) SQL
2 3 (21.43%) Java
2 3 (21.43%) JavaScript
3 1 (7.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
3 1 (7.14%) Python
3 1 (7.14%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 4 (28.57%) DV Cleared
1 4 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 1 (7.14%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (7.14%) Data Quality
1 1 (7.14%) QA
Systems Management
1 4 (28.57%) Microsoft Clustering
2 1 (7.14%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 5 (35.71%) Microsoft
2 4 (28.57%) Oracle
3 2 (14.29%) ServiceNow
4 1 (7.14%) Databricks
4 1 (7.14%) Palantir