DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 April 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 373 386 305
Rank change year-on-year +13 -81 +81
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 272 150 304
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.59% 0.51% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.64% 0.55% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 211 88 207
10th Percentile £355 £325 £375
25th Percentile £392 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -15.57% +6.60%
75th Percentile £539 £528 £600
90th Percentile £625 £621 £678
UK excluding London median daily rate £434 £450 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 1
Median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.86% +127.66% -25.13%
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £28.00
% change year-on-year -56.86% +127.66% -19.53%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 42,358 27,131 40,661
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.24% 92.61% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,304 17,800 26,582
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.29% -1.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,673 984 2,591
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.55 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.27 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.79 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.20% -12.02% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.90 £75.43 £72.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.69 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +42.28% -14.29% -17.38%

DBA
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'DBA' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

DBA job vacancy trend in the UK

DBA
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for DBA job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for DBA job vacancies in the UK

DBA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DBA over the 6 months to 16 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DBA in the UK

DBA
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for DBA job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for DBA job vacancies in the UK

DBA
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DBA within the UK over the 6 months to 16 April 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 +15 239 £445 -1.11% 37
UK excluding London 0 164 £434 -3.50% 36
London -23 87 £500 +5.26% 2
North of England -20 72 £425 -4.49% 7
Work from Home -48 53 £488 +8.94% 12
North West -9 45 £441 -1.01% 4
South East -40 41 £417 -16.56% 9
Yorkshire -28 28 £400 - 2
Midlands -42 28 £447 +6.43% 16
West Midlands -35 25 £446 - 10
Scotland +7 11 £500 +3.90%
South West -21 8 £606 -19.20% 2
East Midlands -31 3 £463 +10.12% 6
Wales -13 2 - -
Northern Ireland -2 1 £675 -
East of England -38 1 £375 -11.76% 2

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 April 2026, DBA contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring DBA in the job title.

1 138 (50.74%) Oracle
2 137 (50.37%) SQL
3 102 (37.50%) Security Cleared
4 98 (36.03%) SQL Server
5 86 (31.62%) Oracle Database
6 82 (30.15%) SC Cleared
7 81 (29.78%) Performance Tuning
8 75 (27.57%) PostgreSQL
9 63 (23.16%) High Availability
10 53 (19.49%) Azure
11 51 (18.75%) Microsoft
12 47 (17.28%) Disaster Recovery
13 46 (16.91%) AWS
14 45 (16.54%) Migration
15 43 (15.81%) Database Security
16 39 (14.34%) MySQL
16 39 (14.34%) Oracle RMAN
17 35 (12.87%) DevOps
17 35 (12.87%) Problem-Solving
18 32 (11.76%) Linux
19 28 (10.29%) MongoDB
19 28 (10.29%) Oracle RAC
20 25 (9.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
21 24 (8.82%) Unix
22 23 (8.46%) Agile
22 23 (8.46%) Amazon RDS
22 23 (8.46%) Capacity Planning
22 23 (8.46%) Python
23 22 (8.09%) Data Guard
23 22 (8.09%) ITIL

DBA Skill Set
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 5 (1.84%) WebLogic
2 3 (1.10%) Confluence
2 3 (1.10%) Oracle Workflow
3 2 (0.74%) Liferay
3 2 (0.74%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 1 (0.37%) OpenEdge
4 1 (0.37%) Oracle Application Server
4 1 (0.37%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.37%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (3.31%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (2.21%) Oracle EBS R12
3 5 (1.84%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.74%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.74%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.37%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 53 (19.49%) Azure
2 46 (16.91%) AWS
3 15 (5.51%) Azure Cosmos DB
4 14 (5.15%) Serverless
5 7 (2.57%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (2.21%) Amazon S3
6 6 (2.21%) Azure Data Factory
6 6 (2.21%) OCI
6 6 (2.21%) PaaS
6 6 (2.21%) Snowflake
7 5 (1.84%) GCP
7 5 (1.84%) SaaS
8 4 (1.47%) Azure AKS
8 4 (1.47%) Azure Functions
8 4 (1.47%) Azure Logic Apps
8 4 (1.47%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
9 3 (1.10%) Azure Storage
9 3 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (1.10%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.37%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (36.03%) SQL Server
2 86 (31.62%) Oracle Database
3 75 (27.57%) PostgreSQL
4 39 (14.34%) MySQL
5 28 (10.29%) MongoDB
6 25 (9.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 23 (8.46%) Amazon RDS
8 20 (7.35%) Oracle Reports
9 19 (6.99%) Relational Database
10 18 (6.62%) NoSQL
11 17 (6.25%) Azure SQL Database
12 16 (5.88%) RDBMS
12 16 (5.88%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 14 (5.15%) Oracle Database 12c
14 8 (2.94%) Oracle Database 11g
14 8 (2.94%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 7 (2.57%) Amazon Aurora
16 6 (2.21%) Big Data
16 6 (2.21%) DynamoDB
17 5 (1.84%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 8 (2.94%) Git
2 6 (2.21%) GitLab
2 6 (2.21%) Oracle APEX
3 4 (1.47%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.47%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 3 (1.10%) Flyway
5 1 (0.37%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.37%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.37%) Toad
General
1 37 (13.60%) Social Skills
2 33 (12.13%) Public Sector
3 28 (10.29%) Finance
4 20 (7.35%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (4.78%) Banking
6 6 (2.21%) Legal
7 4 (1.47%) Investment Banking
7 4 (1.47%) Military
8 3 (1.10%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.10%) Publishing
8 3 (1.10%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.74%) Aviation
9 2 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.74%) Local Government
10 1 (0.37%) Advertising
10 1 (0.37%) Back Office
10 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.37%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (6.25%) JSON
2 15 (5.51%) XML
3 14 (5.15%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 9 (3.31%) Kafka
5 6 (2.21%) OLE
6 4 (1.47%) .NET
6 4 (1.47%) Node.js
7 3 (1.10%) .NET Core
7 3 (1.10%) ASP.NET
7 3 (1.10%) AWS CDK
7 3 (1.10%) GeoJSON
7 3 (1.10%) Matplotlib
7 3 (1.10%) Pandas
7 3 (1.10%) Polars
7 3 (1.10%) scikit-learn
8 2 (0.74%) Oracle ADF
8 2 (0.74%) PostGIS
9 1 (0.37%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.37%) Oracle Fusion
9 1 (0.37%) pgvector
Miscellaneous
1 24 (8.82%) Replication
2 16 (5.88%) Clustering
3 10 (3.68%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (3.31%) Enterprise Cloud
5 8 (2.94%) Cloud Native
5 8 (2.94%) Data Structures
6 4 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
6 4 (1.47%) Legacy Applications
6 4 (1.47%) Onboarding
7 2 (0.74%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.74%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.74%) NHS
8 1 (0.37%) Data Centre
8 1 (0.37%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.37%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.37%) Life Science
8 1 (0.37%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.37%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.37%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.37%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 32 (11.76%) Linux
2 24 (8.82%) Unix
3 14 (5.15%) Windows
4 9 (3.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 9 (3.31%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.84%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.37%) AIX
6 1 (0.37%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.37%) OpenVMS
6 1 (0.37%) Solaris
6 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (29.78%) Performance Tuning
2 63 (23.16%) High Availability
3 47 (17.28%) Disaster Recovery
4 45 (16.54%) Migration
5 43 (15.81%) Database Security
6 35 (12.87%) DevOps
6 35 (12.87%) Problem-Solving
7 23 (8.46%) Agile
7 23 (8.46%) Capacity Planning
8 22 (8.09%) ITIL
9 21 (7.72%) Task Automation
10 16 (5.88%) Data Migration
10 16 (5.88%) Data Modelling
10 16 (5.88%) Database Tuning
11 15 (5.51%) Data Protection
12 14 (5.15%) Mentoring
12 14 (5.15%) Performance Optimisation
12 14 (5.15%) Statistics
13 13 (4.78%) CI/CD
14 12 (4.41%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 137 (50.37%) SQL
2 23 (8.46%) Python
3 22 (8.09%) PL/SQL
4 21 (7.72%) PowerShell
5 18 (6.62%) Shell Script
6 15 (5.51%) T-SQL
7 10 (3.68%) Korn
8 5 (1.84%) Bash
9 4 (1.47%) C#
10 3 (1.10%) Bicep
10 3 (1.10%) Perl
10 3 (1.10%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.37%) JCL
11 1 (0.37%) PHP
11 1 (0.37%) RPG
11 1 (0.37%) Ruby
11 1 (0.37%) VB
Qualifications
1 102 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 82 (30.15%) SC Cleared
3 16 (5.88%) DV Cleared
4 14 (5.15%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (3.31%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (2.94%) OCP
7 5 (1.84%) Degree
8 4 (1.47%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (1.47%) MCITP
8 4 (1.47%) MCTS
9 1 (0.37%) BC Cleared
9 1 (0.37%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.37%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.68%) SLA
2 9 (3.31%) GDPR
3 8 (2.94%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.94%) QA
4 4 (1.47%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.37%) ISO 22301
5 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.37%) NIST
5 1 (0.37%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.37%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 28 (10.29%) Oracle RAC
2 6 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.84%) Active Directory
4 3 (1.10%) Oracle Clusterware
Systems Management
1 39 (14.34%) Oracle RMAN
2 22 (8.09%) Data Guard
3 20 (7.35%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 11 (4.04%) Ansible
5 8 (2.94%) Terraform
6 5 (1.84%) Foglight
7 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.74%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.74%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
8 2 (0.74%) Grafana
8 2 (0.74%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.74%) systemd
9 1 (0.37%) SCCM
Vendors
1 138 (50.74%) Oracle
2 51 (18.75%) Microsoft
3 8 (2.94%) ServiceNow
4 6 (2.21%) Red Hat
4 6 (2.21%) RedGate
4 6 (2.21%) SolarWinds
5 4 (1.47%) Databricks
5 4 (1.47%) Google
5 4 (1.47%) Greenplum
5 4 (1.47%) Informatica
5 4 (1.47%) Sybase
5 4 (1.47%) Talend
6 2 (0.74%) BMC
6 2 (0.74%) Remedy
7 1 (0.37%) Commvault
7 1 (0.37%) EMC
7 1 (0.37%) NEC
7 1 (0.37%) NetApp
7 1 (0.37%) Teradata
7 1 (0.37%) Wonderware