SQL Server Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring SQL Server skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 36 45
Rank change year-on-year -70 +9 +9
Permanent jobs citing SQL Server 58 181 262
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.30% 5.88% 4.80%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 13.36% 30.83% 27.01%
Number of salaries quoted 34 128 242
10th Percentile £30,500 £36,250 £41,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £39,375 £45,313
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £51,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.62% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £59,063 £64,672 £68,750
90th Percentile £72,500 £75,000 £82,500
South East median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% +2.80%

All Database & Business Intelligence Skills
Thames Valley

SQL Server falls under the Databases and Business Intelligence category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring database or business intelligence skills in the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 434 587 970
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 9.72% 19.06% 17.76%
Number of salaries quoted 222 371 720
10th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £37,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £47,500 £43,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £72,188 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £95,000 £90,000
South East median annual salary £57,500 £59,125 £55,000
% change year-on-year -2.75% +7.50% -

SQL Server
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing SQL Server relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

SQL Server job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

SQL Server
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing SQL Server.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing SQL Server

SQL Server
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing SQL Server in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 25 February 2026.

Salary histogram for SQL Server in the Thames Valley

SQL Server
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SQL Server within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 25 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Buckinghamshire -10 40 £42,500 -27.66% 24
Berkshire -65 14 £52,250 -5.00% 18
Oxfordshire -31 4 £39,500 +5.33% 9
SQL Server
South East

SQL Server
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 9 (15.52%) IIS
2 5 (8.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.72%) Apache
3 1 (1.72%) CMS
3 1 (1.72%) SAS
Applications
1 3 (5.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (1.72%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (1.72%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 24 (41.38%) Azure
2 9 (15.52%) AWS
2 9 (15.52%) GCP
3 7 (12.07%) Azure DevOps
4 6 (10.34%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (5.17%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (3.45%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.72%) dbt
7 1 (1.72%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 6 (10.34%) Firewall
2 5 (8.62%) VPN
3 4 (6.90%) DHCP
3 4 (6.90%) DNS
4 3 (5.17%) Remote Desktop
5 2 (3.45%) iSCSI
5 2 (3.45%) SAN
5 2 (3.45%) TCP/IP
5 2 (3.45%) VLAN
5 2 (3.45%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (1.72%) Network Security
6 1 (1.72%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (12.07%) PostgreSQL
1 7 (12.07%) Relational Database
2 5 (8.62%) MySQL
2 5 (8.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 4 (6.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 3 (5.17%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (5.17%) Metadata
5 2 (3.45%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (3.45%) Oracle Database
5 2 (3.45%) Power BI
6 1 (1.72%) Base SAS
6 1 (1.72%) Looker
6 1 (1.72%) MongoDB
6 1 (1.72%) RDBMS
6 1 (1.72%) SAS Data Integration Studio
6 1 (1.72%) Semantic Layer
6 1 (1.72%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (3.45%) Git
1 2 (3.45%) GitLab
2 1 (1.72%) JIRA
2 1 (1.72%) Postman
2 1 (1.72%) SpecFlow
2 1 (1.72%) TeamCity
General
1 25 (43.10%) Social Skills
2 9 (15.52%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (6.90%) Finance
4 2 (3.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 2 (3.45%) Manufacturing
4 2 (3.45%) Organisational Skills
4 2 (3.45%) Retail
5 1 (1.72%) Banking
5 1 (1.72%) Games
5 1 (1.72%) Humanities
Job Titles
1 21 (36.21%) Software Engineer
2 20 (34.48%) Senior
3 15 (25.86%) Developer
3 15 (25.86%) Senior Software Engineer
4 9 (15.52%) Data Engineer
5 8 (13.79%) Full-Stack Developer
5 8 (13.79%) IT Engineer
6 7 (12.07%) IT Support
6 7 (12.07%) IT Support Engineer
6 7 (12.07%) Support Engineer
7 6 (10.34%) Full-Stack Engineer
7 6 (10.34%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
7 6 (10.34%) Senior Full-Stack Engineer
7 6 (10.34%) Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer
8 5 (8.62%) .NET Developer
8 5 (8.62%) Integration Developer
8 5 (8.62%) Lead
8 5 (8.62%) Software Support Engineer
9 4 (6.90%) Data Integration Developer
9 4 (6.90%) Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (56.90%) .NET
2 11 (18.97%) .NET Framework
2 11 (18.97%) ASP.NET
3 8 (13.79%) REST
4 7 (12.07%) Entity Framework
5 5 (8.62%) ASP.NET Core
5 5 (8.62%) ASP.NET MVC
5 5 (8.62%) WinForms
6 4 (6.90%) gRPC
6 4 (6.90%) htmx
6 4 (6.90%) JSON
6 4 (6.90%) Kendo UI
6 4 (6.90%) Middleware
6 4 (6.90%) Razor View Engine
6 4 (6.90%) React
6 4 (6.90%) Sass
6 4 (6.90%) SignalR
6 4 (6.90%) XML
7 3 (5.17%) Vue
8 2 (3.45%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.62%) Cloud Native
2 3 (5.17%) Distributed Systems
2 3 (5.17%) Enterprise Software
2 3 (5.17%) N-Tier
2 3 (5.17%) Onboarding
2 3 (5.17%) Virtual Team
3 2 (3.45%) Clustering
3 2 (3.45%) Data Centre
3 2 (3.45%) Life Science
3 2 (3.45%) Management Information System
3 2 (3.45%) Renewable Energy
3 2 (3.45%) Replication
4 1 (1.72%) Linux Command Line
4 1 (1.72%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 13 (22.41%) Windows
2 5 (8.62%) Linux
2 5 (8.62%) Windows Server
3 2 (3.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (3.45%) Windows Server 2012
3 2 (3.45%) Windows Server 2016
3 2 (3.45%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (1.72%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (43.10%) Software Engineering
2 20 (34.48%) Agile
3 17 (29.31%) DevOps
4 15 (25.86%) Full-Stack Development
5 13 (22.41%) Problem-Solving
6 11 (18.97%) Scrum
7 9 (15.52%) Computer Science
8 8 (13.79%) CI/CD
8 8 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 8 (13.79%) Data Management
8 8 (13.79%) MVC
9 7 (12.07%) Data Integration
10 6 (10.34%) AI
10 6 (10.34%) Data Pipeline
11 5 (8.62%) CAD
11 5 (8.62%) Collaborative Culture
11 5 (8.62%) Data Governance
11 5 (8.62%) ETL
11 5 (8.62%) ITIL
11 5 (8.62%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 21 (36.21%) SQL
2 20 (34.48%) C#
3 9 (15.52%) T-SQL
4 6 (10.34%) Python
5 5 (8.62%) TypeScript
6 4 (6.90%) PowerShell
7 3 (5.17%) C
7 3 (5.17%) R
8 2 (3.45%) Bash
8 2 (3.45%) Java
9 1 (1.72%) JavaScript
9 1 (1.72%) Korn
9 1 (1.72%) PROC SQL
9 1 (1.72%) SAS Macro
9 1 (1.72%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 15 (25.86%) Degree
2 8 (13.79%) Microsoft Certification
3 6 (10.34%) Computer Science Degree
4 4 (6.90%) Security Cleared
5 3 (5.17%) MCSA
5 3 (5.17%) MCSE
5 3 (5.17%) SC Cleared
6 2 (3.45%) CISSP
6 2 (3.45%) DBS Check
6 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 2 (3.45%) OCP
6 2 (3.45%) Oracle Certification
7 1 (1.72%) CCNA
7 1 (1.72%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.72%) DV Cleared
7 1 (1.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (1.72%) RHCE
7 1 (1.72%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (12.07%) Data Quality
2 4 (6.90%) Accessibility
2 4 (6.90%) QA
3 3 (5.17%) GDPR
4 2 (3.45%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (12.07%) Active Directory
2 6 (10.34%) Docker
3 5 (8.62%) Hyper-V
4 2 (3.45%) Citrix Hypervisor
5 1 (1.72%) Samba
Systems Management
1 2 (3.45%) Failover Clustering
1 2 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (1.72%) Terraform
Vendors
1 29 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 8 (13.79%) Google
2 8 (13.79%) Oracle
3 5 (8.62%) Sage
3 5 (8.62%) Xamarin
3 5 (8.62%) Zoho
4 4 (6.90%) Telerik
5 3 (5.17%) Cisco
5 3 (5.17%) Dell
5 3 (5.17%) VMware
6 2 (3.45%) Databricks
6 2 (3.45%) Red Hat
6 2 (3.45%) ServiceNow
7 1 (1.72%) D-Link
7 1 (1.72%) Draytek
7 1 (1.72%) Informatica
7 1 (1.72%) Salesforce
7 1 (1.72%) SonicWALL
7 1 (1.72%) Veeam
7 1 (1.72%) WatchGuard