DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 356 390 319
Rank change year-on-year +34 -71 +35
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 297 136 274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.62% 0.47% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.51% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 84 185
10th Percentile £363 £331 £363
25th Percentile £401 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £538 £613
90th Percentile £650 £582 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £449 £449 £490
% change year-on-year -0.06% -8.42% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 2
10th Percentile - - £32.45
25th Percentile - £61.87 £39.13
Median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year -56.86% +23.78% +48.01%
75th Percentile - £65.62 £65.13
90th Percentile - - £72.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £51.50
% change year-on-year -56.86% +23.78% +186.11%

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 44,544 26,886 39,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,258 17,494 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,057 2,674
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%

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 21 May 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 17 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 21 May 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 +43 261 £463 +2.78% 44
UK excluding London +22 190 £449 -0.06% 43
London -26 86 £500 +2.56% 10
North of England -13 70 £432 -2.92% 11
South East -14 63 £417 -16.56% 20
Work from Home -56 55 £500 +11.11% 18
North West -8 42 £447 +0.45% 6
Midlands -30 31 £463 - 4
Yorkshire -26 28 £400 -30.43% 4
West Midlands -36 25 £481 - 1
Scotland +2 13 £500 +3.90% 4
South West - 7 £606 - 3
East Midlands - 5 £463 - 3
Northern Ireland 0 2 £675 - 1
Wales -8 2 - - 1
East of England -28 2 £388 -8.82%
North East - 1 £501 - 1

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 May 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.

1 159 (53.54%) Oracle
2 149 (50.17%) SQL
3 120 (40.40%) Security Cleared
4 111 (37.37%) Oracle Database
5 100 (33.67%) SQL Server
6 93 (31.31%) Performance Tuning
7 89 (29.97%) SC Cleared
8 75 (25.25%) High Availability
9 71 (23.91%) PostgreSQL
10 53 (17.85%) Azure
11 51 (17.17%) Disaster Recovery
12 50 (16.84%) Migration
13 49 (16.50%) Microsoft
13 49 (16.50%) Oracle RMAN
14 48 (16.16%) AWS
15 44 (14.81%) Database Security
16 39 (13.13%) DevOps
16 39 (13.13%) Linux
17 34 (11.45%) MySQL
18 32 (10.77%) DV Cleared
18 32 (10.77%) Problem-Solving
19 30 (10.10%) Oracle RAC
19 30 (10.10%) Unix
20 29 (9.76%) MongoDB
21 28 (9.43%) Data Guard
21 28 (9.43%) Python
22 27 (9.09%) PL/SQL
23 26 (8.75%) ITIL
23 26 (8.75%) PowerShell
23 26 (8.75%) SQL Server Integration Services

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 8 (2.69%) WebLogic
2 5 (1.68%) Confluence
3 4 (1.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 3 (1.01%) Oracle Workflow
5 2 (0.67%) Liferay
6 1 (0.34%) OpenEdge
6 1 (0.34%) Oracle Application Server
6 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 14 (4.71%) Oracle EBS
2 11 (3.70%) Oracle Applications
3 8 (2.69%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (1.01%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (1.01%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.67%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 53 (17.85%) Azure
2 48 (16.16%) AWS
3 15 (5.05%) Azure Cosmos DB
4 12 (4.04%) Serverless
5 8 (2.69%) Azure Data Factory
6 7 (2.36%) Amazon S3
6 7 (2.36%) OCI
7 6 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (2.02%) PaaS
8 5 (1.68%) Amazon EC2
8 5 (1.68%) GCP
8 5 (1.68%) SaaS
8 5 (1.68%) Snowflake
9 4 (1.35%) Azure AKS
9 4 (1.35%) Azure Functions
9 4 (1.35%) Azure Logic Apps
9 4 (1.35%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (1.01%) Azure Storage
10 3 (1.01%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.34%) Firewall
1 1 (0.34%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (37.37%) Oracle Database
2 100 (33.67%) SQL Server
3 71 (23.91%) PostgreSQL
4 34 (11.45%) MySQL
5 29 (9.76%) MongoDB
6 26 (8.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 25 (8.42%) Amazon RDS
8 22 (7.41%) Oracle Reports
9 18 (6.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 17 (5.72%) Oracle Database 11g
10 17 (5.72%) Oracle Database 12c
10 17 (5.72%) Relational Database
11 16 (5.39%) Azure SQL Database
11 16 (5.39%) NoSQL
12 14 (4.71%) RDBMS
13 9 (3.03%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 8 (2.69%) Amazon Aurora
15 6 (2.02%) Big Data
15 6 (2.02%) DynamoDB
15 6 (2.02%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 12 (4.04%) Git
2 9 (3.03%) GitLab
3 7 (2.36%) Oracle APEX
4 6 (2.02%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.35%) Flyway
5 4 (1.35%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (1.35%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.67%) JIRA
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Developer 2000
7 1 (0.34%) TeamCity
General
1 34 (11.45%) Public Sector
1 34 (11.45%) Social Skills
2 27 (9.09%) Finance
3 20 (6.73%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (4.38%) Banking
5 9 (3.03%) Legal
6 4 (1.35%) Investment Banking
6 4 (1.35%) Military
7 3 (1.01%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.01%) Publishing
8 2 (0.67%) Aviation
8 2 (0.67%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.34%) Advertising
9 1 (0.34%) Billing
9 1 (0.34%) Local Government
9 1 (0.34%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.34%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.39%) JSON
2 14 (4.71%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 14 (4.71%) XML
3 10 (3.37%) Kafka
4 6 (2.02%) OLE
5 4 (1.35%) .NET
5 4 (1.35%) AWS CDK
5 4 (1.35%) Node.js
6 3 (1.01%) .NET Core
6 3 (1.01%) ASP.NET
6 3 (1.01%) GeoJSON
6 3 (1.01%) Matplotlib
6 3 (1.01%) Middleware
6 3 (1.01%) Pandas
6 3 (1.01%) Polars
6 3 (1.01%) scikit-learn
7 2 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.67%) Oracle ADF
7 2 (0.67%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.67%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 26 (8.75%) Replication
2 18 (6.06%) Clustering
3 11 (3.70%) Legacy Systems
4 8 (2.69%) Cloud Native
4 8 (2.69%) Data Structures
5 6 (2.02%) Enterprise Cloud
6 4 (1.35%) Distributed Systems
6 4 (1.35%) Legacy Applications
6 4 (1.35%) Onboarding
7 2 (0.67%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.67%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.67%) NHS
8 1 (0.34%) Data Centre
8 1 (0.34%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.34%) Life Science
8 1 (0.34%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.34%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.34%) SCADA
8 1 (0.34%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 39 (13.13%) Linux
2 30 (10.10%) Unix
3 18 (6.06%) Windows
4 11 (3.70%) Windows Server
5 7 (2.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.01%) Oracle Linux
7 1 (0.34%) AIX
7 1 (0.34%) Amazon Linux
7 1 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.34%) HPUX
7 1 (0.34%) OpenVMS
7 1 (0.34%) Solaris
7 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (31.31%) Performance Tuning
2 75 (25.25%) High Availability
3 51 (17.17%) Disaster Recovery
4 50 (16.84%) Migration
5 44 (14.81%) Database Security
6 39 (13.13%) DevOps
7 32 (10.77%) Problem-Solving
8 26 (8.75%) ITIL
9 25 (8.42%) Capacity Planning
10 23 (7.74%) Agile
10 23 (7.74%) Task Automation
11 19 (6.40%) CI/CD
12 18 (6.06%) Data Modelling
12 18 (6.06%) Database Tuning
13 17 (5.72%) Data Protection
14 16 (5.39%) Data Migration
14 16 (5.39%) Performance Optimisation
15 15 (5.05%) Mentoring
16 14 (4.71%) Statistics
17 13 (4.38%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 149 (50.17%) SQL
2 28 (9.43%) Python
3 27 (9.09%) PL/SQL
4 26 (8.75%) PowerShell
5 18 (6.06%) Shell Script
6 17 (5.72%) T-SQL
7 10 (3.37%) Korn
8 6 (2.02%) Bash
9 4 (1.35%) C#
9 4 (1.35%) TypeScript
10 3 (1.01%) Bicep
10 3 (1.01%) Perl
11 2 (0.67%) Java
12 1 (0.34%) Groovy
12 1 (0.34%) JCL
12 1 (0.34%) RPG
12 1 (0.34%) Ruby
12 1 (0.34%) VB
Qualifications
1 120 (40.40%) Security Cleared
2 89 (29.97%) SC Cleared
3 32 (10.77%) DV Cleared
4 11 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (3.37%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (2.69%) OCP
7 5 (1.68%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.68%) Degree
8 4 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (1.35%) MCITP
8 4 (1.35%) MCTS
9 1 (0.34%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.34%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (3.03%) GDPR
2 8 (2.69%) Data Quality
2 8 (2.69%) QA
3 7 (2.36%) SLA
4 4 (1.35%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.34%) ISO 22301
5 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.34%) NIST
5 1 (0.34%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.34%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 30 (10.10%) Oracle RAC
2 6 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.02%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.01%) Oracle Clusterware
4 1 (0.34%) Docker
Systems Management
1 49 (16.50%) Oracle RMAN
2 28 (9.43%) Data Guard
3 18 (6.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 13 (4.38%) Terraform
5 12 (4.04%) Ansible
6 5 (1.68%) Foglight
7 3 (1.01%) Grafana
7 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Clustering
7 3 (1.01%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.67%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
8 2 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.67%) systemd
9 1 (0.34%) EMC NetWorker
9 1 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 159 (53.54%) Oracle
2 49 (16.50%) Microsoft
3 8 (2.69%) RedGate
3 8 (2.69%) SolarWinds
4 7 (2.36%) ServiceNow
5 5 (1.68%) Databricks
6 4 (1.35%) Google
6 4 (1.35%) Greenplum
6 4 (1.35%) Informatica
6 4 (1.35%) Red Hat
6 4 (1.35%) Sybase
6 4 (1.35%) Talend
7 3 (1.01%) BMC
7 3 (1.01%) Remedy
8 1 (0.34%) Commvault
8 1 (0.34%) EMC
8 1 (0.34%) IBM
8 1 (0.34%) NetCracker
8 1 (0.34%) Teradata
8 1 (0.34%) Wonderware