DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £470, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 December 2025.

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

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 424 296 339
Rank change year-on-year -128 +43 +59
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 158 279 293
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.78% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.84% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 145 212
10th Percentile £338 £350 £363
25th Percentile £375 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.59% -2.50% +1.01%
75th Percentile £538 £600 £578
90th Percentile £675 £664 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 2
10th Percentile £27.20 - £61.73
25th Percentile £29.00 - £64.78
Median hourly rate £30.00 £22.48 £71.03
Median % change year-on-year +33.45% -68.35% +29.14%
75th Percentile £31.00 - £76.10
90th Percentile £58.90 - £78.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £22.48 £71.03
% change year-on-year +126.87% -68.35% +77.56%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,959 33,240 42,117
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.98% 92.81% 93.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,905 20,226 28,386
10th Percentile £284 £300 £293
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,918 1,167 1,500
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.48 £15.24
25th Percentile £17.91 £20.75 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.47 £73.53 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 3 December 2025.

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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DBA over the 6 months to 3 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for DBA in the UK

DBA
Top 15 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 3 December 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 -112 133 £469 -6.20% 61
UK excluding London -72 75 £450 - 48
London -74 60 £511 +2.25% 20
Work from Home -74 51 £463 +2.78% 37
North of England -45 31 £425 -4.49% 16
North West -36 19 £442 -0.67% 12
Midlands -28 13 £365 -8.75% 8
South West +1 12 £550 +22.22% 6
West Midlands -16 12 £365 -22.83% 7
South East -28 12 £460 -12.48% 12
Yorkshire - 12 £365 - 4
Scotland +2 5 - - 2
Wales -7 1 - -
East Midlands -29 1 - - 1
Channel Islands - 1 - -

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 December 2025, 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 78 (49.37%) Oracle
2 62 (39.24%) SQL
3 58 (36.71%) Oracle Database
4 48 (30.38%) Performance Tuning
5 43 (27.22%) Azure
6 40 (25.32%) SQL Server
7 39 (24.68%) PostgreSQL
8 36 (22.78%) Disaster Recovery
9 35 (22.15%) Security Cleared
10 33 (20.89%) AWS
11 32 (20.25%) Migration
12 30 (18.99%) DevOps
13 28 (17.72%) Data Guard
14 26 (16.46%) Linux
14 26 (16.46%) Oracle RMAN
14 26 (16.46%) SC Cleared
15 24 (15.19%) High Availability
15 24 (15.19%) Python
16 23 (14.56%) Oracle RAC
16 23 (14.56%) Problem-Solving
17 22 (13.92%) MySQL
17 22 (13.92%) NoSQL
18 20 (12.66%) CI/CD
18 20 (12.66%) Database Security
18 20 (12.66%) Serverless
19 19 (12.03%) PL/SQL
20 18 (11.39%) Agile
21 17 (10.76%) Data Modelling
21 17 (10.76%) MongoDB
21 17 (10.76%) Oracle Enterprise Manager

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 2 (1.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
1 2 (1.27%) Oracle Workflow
1 2 (1.27%) WebLogic
2 1 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (0.63%) OpenEdge
2 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.90%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (1.27%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (1.27%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.63%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 43 (27.22%) Azure
2 33 (20.89%) AWS
3 20 (12.66%) Serverless
4 11 (6.96%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 10 (6.33%) Azure Monitor
6 9 (5.70%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (5.06%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 8 (5.06%) Azure Functions
7 8 (5.06%) Azure Logic Apps
8 6 (3.80%) AWS Lambda
8 6 (3.80%) Azure AKS
8 6 (3.80%) SaaS
9 5 (3.16%) OCI
10 4 (2.53%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (1.90%) Power Platform
11 3 (1.90%) Snowflake
12 2 (1.27%) Amazon S3
12 2 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
12 2 (1.27%) Azure Event Grid
12 2 (1.27%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.90%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (36.71%) Oracle Database
2 40 (25.32%) SQL Server
3 39 (24.68%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (13.92%) MySQL
4 22 (13.92%) NoSQL
5 17 (10.76%) MongoDB
6 16 (10.13%) Relational Database
7 14 (8.86%) Oracle Exadata
8 13 (8.23%) RDBMS
9 11 (6.96%) Amazon RDS
10 9 (5.70%) Azure SQL Database
11 8 (5.06%) Oracle Database 12c
11 8 (5.06%) Oracle Reports
12 6 (3.80%) DB2
12 6 (3.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (3.16%) Amazon Aurora
13 5 (3.16%) DynamoDB
14 4 (2.53%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 3 (1.90%) Power BI
15 3 (1.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 8 (5.06%) Git
2 4 (2.53%) Oracle APEX
3 2 (1.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (1.27%) Toad
4 1 (0.63%) JIRA
General
1 28 (17.72%) Finance
2 20 (12.66%) Social Skills
3 17 (10.76%) Banking
4 14 (8.86%) Public Sector
5 8 (5.06%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.80%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.53%) Local Government
8 3 (1.90%) Electronics
8 3 (1.90%) Investment Banking
8 3 (1.90%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.90%) Marketing
9 2 (1.27%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.63%) Automotive
10 1 (0.63%) Back Office
10 1 (0.63%) Law
10 1 (0.63%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (8.23%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 10 (6.33%) Node.js
3 8 (5.06%) JSON
3 8 (5.06%) XML
4 6 (3.80%) .NET
5 5 (3.16%) .NET Core
5 5 (3.16%) ASP.NET
5 5 (3.16%) Kafka
6 3 (1.90%) PostGIS
7 2 (1.27%) ARM Templates
7 2 (1.27%) FastAPI
7 2 (1.27%) pgvector
Miscellaneous
1 18 (11.39%) Replication
2 13 (8.23%) Cloud Native
2 13 (8.23%) Clustering
3 10 (6.33%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (6.33%) Enterprise Cloud
4 6 (3.80%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (3.16%) Data Structures
5 5 (3.16%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (2.53%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.27%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.27%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.27%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.63%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.63%) Mainframe
8 1 (0.63%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (16.46%) Linux
2 13 (8.23%) Unix
3 11 (6.96%) Windows
4 5 (3.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.90%) Solaris
6 2 (1.27%) AIX
6 2 (1.27%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (1.27%) VMS
6 2 (1.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (30.38%) Performance Tuning
2 36 (22.78%) Disaster Recovery
3 32 (20.25%) Migration
4 30 (18.99%) DevOps
5 24 (15.19%) High Availability
6 23 (14.56%) Problem-Solving
7 20 (12.66%) CI/CD
7 20 (12.66%) Database Security
8 18 (11.39%) Agile
9 17 (10.76%) Data Modelling
10 14 (8.86%) Task Automation
11 13 (8.23%) Performance Monitoring
12 11 (6.96%) Capacity Planning
12 11 (6.96%) Continuous Improvement
13 10 (6.33%) Data Protection
13 10 (6.33%) Database Migration
13 10 (6.33%) Line Management
13 10 (6.33%) Mentoring
13 10 (6.33%) Stakeholder Management
14 9 (5.70%) Proactive Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 62 (39.24%) SQL
2 24 (15.19%) Python
3 19 (12.03%) PL/SQL
4 14 (8.86%) Shell Script
5 10 (6.33%) Bash
6 8 (5.06%) PowerShell
6 8 (5.06%) T-SQL
7 6 (3.80%) C#
8 4 (2.53%) Java
9 3 (1.90%) Perl
10 2 (1.27%) AWK
10 2 (1.27%) Bicep
10 2 (1.27%) sed
11 1 (0.63%) C
11 1 (0.63%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.63%) PHP
11 1 (0.63%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 35 (22.15%) Security Cleared
2 26 (16.46%) SC Cleared
3 8 (5.06%) DV Cleared
4 5 (3.16%) OCP
4 5 (3.16%) Oracle Certification
5 4 (2.53%) AWS Certification
5 4 (2.53%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.27%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.27%) Degree
6 2 (1.27%) OCA
7 1 (0.63%) BC Cleared
7 1 (0.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.63%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.80%) SLA
2 4 (2.53%) GDPR
2 4 (2.53%) PCI DSS
2 4 (2.53%) QA
3 2 (1.27%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.63%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.63%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 23 (14.56%) Oracle RAC
2 5 (3.16%) NFS
3 2 (1.27%) GPFS
4 1 (0.63%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 28 (17.72%) Data Guard
2 26 (16.46%) Oracle RMAN
3 17 (10.76%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 6 (3.80%) Terraform
5 4 (2.53%) Ansible
6 2 (1.27%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (1.27%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
6 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Clustering
6 2 (1.27%) yum
7 1 (0.63%) Foglight
7 1 (0.63%) Oracle ZFS
Vendors
1 78 (49.37%) Oracle
2 14 (8.86%) Microsoft
3 6 (3.80%) Red Hat
4 4 (2.53%) ServiceNow
5 3 (1.90%) SAP
6 2 (1.27%) Delphix
6 2 (1.27%) IBM
6 2 (1.27%) Sybase
7 1 (0.63%) BMC
7 1 (0.63%) EMC
7 1 (0.63%) NEC
7 1 (0.63%) SolarWinds