DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 341 406 298
Rank change year-on-year +65 -108 +63
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 355 139 307
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.42% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.73% 0.46% 0.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 97 211
10th Percentile £363 £375 £350
25th Percentile £403 £425 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year - -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £568 £614
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £456 £450
% change year-on-year -1.37% +1.39% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 2
10th Percentile - - £32.45
25th Percentile - £72.50 £39.13
Median hourly rate - £75.00 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year - +45.63% +48.01%
75th Percentile - £77.50 £65.13
90th Percentile - - £72.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £75.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year - +45.63% +95.09%

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 48,690 30,025 37,043
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.66% 91.50% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,369 19,114 23,981
10th Percentile £331 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,338 1,460 2,193
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.69 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.09
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.10 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 +64 303 £450 -10.00% 29
UK excluding London +63 248 £450 -1.37% 29
North of England +15 106 £435 -2.25% 10
London -36 76 £475 -9.52% 8
North West +15 75 £441 -0.90% 7
South East -17 65 £417 -7.28% 9
Work from Home -60 63 £500 +11.11% 9
Yorkshire -18 30 £400 -25.58% 2
Midlands -39 26 £449 - 3
Scotland -6 20 £463 - 1
West Midlands -44 20 £448 - 3
South West -30 19 £750 +22.45% 1
East Midlands -8 5 £463 -
East of England -18 5 £387 -11.66% 2
Wales - 5 £544 -
Northern Ireland +1 2 £675 - 4
North East - 1 £501 - 1

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 201 (56.62%) Oracle
1 201 (56.62%) SQL
2 170 (47.89%) Security Cleared
3 164 (46.20%) SQL Server
4 134 (37.75%) Performance Tuning
5 125 (35.21%) SC Cleared
6 122 (34.37%) Oracle Database
7 98 (27.61%) High Availability
8 94 (26.48%) Microsoft
9 93 (26.20%) PostgreSQL
10 76 (21.41%) Azure
11 75 (21.13%) Disaster Recovery
12 63 (17.75%) AWS
13 59 (16.62%) Migration
14 58 (16.34%) Database Security
14 58 (16.34%) Oracle RMAN
15 55 (15.49%) MySQL
16 50 (14.08%) ITIL
16 50 (14.08%) Linux
17 49 (13.80%) DV Cleared
18 46 (12.96%) Oracle RAC
19 45 (12.68%) Data Guard
20 42 (11.83%) DevOps
21 41 (11.55%) Unix
22 37 (10.42%) Problem-Solving
23 36 (10.14%) PowerShell
24 35 (9.86%) Python
24 35 (9.86%) Windows
25 34 (9.58%) Capacity Planning
26 32 (9.01%) Microsoft Certification

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 10 (2.82%) Confluence
2 6 (1.69%) WebLogic
3 3 (0.85%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.56%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.28%) Mendix
5 1 (0.28%) OpenEdge
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Application Server
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.28%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 10 (2.82%) Oracle Applications
1 10 (2.82%) Oracle EBS
2 8 (2.25%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (1.69%) Teamcenter
4 5 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.85%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.28%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 76 (21.41%) Azure
2 63 (17.75%) AWS
3 10 (2.82%) GCP
3 10 (2.82%) Power Platform
4 9 (2.54%) Azure DevOps
5 8 (2.25%) Azure Data Factory
5 8 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
6 7 (1.97%) OCI
7 5 (1.41%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 5 (1.41%) SaaS
7 5 (1.41%) Serverless
8 4 (1.13%) Snowflake
9 3 (0.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (0.85%) Amazon EC2
9 3 (0.85%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (0.85%) GitHub
9 3 (0.85%) PaaS
10 2 (0.56%) Amazon S3
10 2 (0.56%) Azure AKS
10 2 (0.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.97%) SSL
2 2 (0.56%) Firewall
3 1 (0.28%) HTTP
3 1 (0.28%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.28%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 164 (46.20%) SQL Server
2 122 (34.37%) Oracle Database
3 93 (26.20%) PostgreSQL
4 55 (15.49%) MySQL
5 32 (9.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 24 (6.76%) Oracle Database 11g
6 24 (6.76%) Oracle Database 12c
7 22 (6.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 19 (5.35%) Amazon RDS
8 19 (5.35%) MongoDB
9 18 (5.07%) Relational Database
10 16 (4.51%) Azure SQL Database
11 15 (4.23%) RDBMS
12 13 (3.66%) Oracle Reports
13 11 (3.10%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 10 (2.82%) Amazon Aurora
14 10 (2.82%) Oracle Database 10g
14 10 (2.82%) Power BI
15 9 (2.54%) NoSQL
16 7 (1.97%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 11 (3.10%) Git
2 10 (2.82%) GitLab
3 8 (2.25%) JIRA
4 6 (1.69%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.41%) Flyway
6 4 (1.13%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 3 (0.85%) Toad
8 2 (0.56%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.28%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.28%) Oracle Developer 2000
General
1 65 (18.31%) Social Skills
2 43 (12.11%) Finance
3 30 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (7.89%) Public Sector
5 14 (3.94%) Banking
6 8 (2.25%) Legal
7 5 (1.41%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.13%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.85%) Police
9 3 (0.85%) Publishing
10 2 (0.56%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.56%) Military
10 2 (0.56%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.28%) Advertising
11 1 (0.28%) Billing
11 1 (0.28%) International Banking
11 1 (0.28%) Local Government
11 1 (0.28%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.28%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (5.07%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 12 (3.38%) JSON
3 10 (2.82%) XML
4 7 (1.97%) Kafka
5 6 (1.69%) OLE
6 4 (1.13%) AWS CDK
7 3 (0.85%) GeoJSON
7 3 (0.85%) Matplotlib
7 3 (0.85%) Middleware
7 3 (0.85%) Oracle Streams
7 3 (0.85%) Pandas
7 3 (0.85%) Polars
7 3 (0.85%) scikit-learn
8 2 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.56%) REST
9 1 (0.28%) Node.js
9 1 (0.28%) PostGIS
9 1 (0.28%) Spring
9 1 (0.28%) Spring Boot
9 1 (0.28%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 49 (13.80%) Replication
2 32 (9.01%) Clustering
3 10 (2.82%) Data Centre
3 10 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (1.69%) Data Structures
4 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Cloud
5 4 (1.13%) Mainframe
5 4 (1.13%) Onboarding
6 3 (0.85%) Cloud Native
6 3 (0.85%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.56%) NHS
7 2 (0.56%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.28%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.28%) Life Science
8 1 (0.28%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.28%) SCADA
8 1 (0.28%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 50 (14.08%) Linux
2 41 (11.55%) Unix
3 35 (9.86%) Windows
4 22 (6.20%) Windows Server
5 8 (2.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (2.25%) Solaris
6 4 (1.13%) AIX
6 4 (1.13%) Oracle Linux
7 3 (0.85%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (0.56%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.28%) HPUX
9 1 (0.28%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.28%) VMS
9 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (37.75%) Performance Tuning
2 98 (27.61%) High Availability
3 75 (21.13%) Disaster Recovery
4 59 (16.62%) Migration
5 58 (16.34%) Database Security
6 50 (14.08%) ITIL
7 42 (11.83%) DevOps
8 37 (10.42%) Problem-Solving
9 34 (9.58%) Capacity Planning
10 29 (8.17%) Database Tuning
11 24 (6.76%) Performance Optimisation
12 22 (6.20%) CI/CD
12 22 (6.20%) Root Cause Analysis
13 21 (5.92%) Data Modelling
13 21 (5.92%) Task Automation
14 19 (5.35%) Agile
14 19 (5.35%) Continuous Improvement
14 19 (5.35%) Stakeholder Management
15 17 (4.79%) Database Migration
16 16 (4.51%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 201 (56.62%) SQL
2 36 (10.14%) PowerShell
3 35 (9.86%) Python
4 30 (8.45%) T-SQL
5 24 (6.76%) PL/SQL
6 16 (4.51%) Shell Script
7 11 (3.10%) Korn
8 9 (2.54%) Bash
9 4 (1.13%) Java
9 4 (1.13%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.85%) Perl
11 2 (0.56%) Bicep
11 2 (0.56%) Groovy
12 1 (0.28%) C#
12 1 (0.28%) Cypher
12 1 (0.28%) JCL
12 1 (0.28%) RPG
12 1 (0.28%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 170 (47.89%) Security Cleared
2 125 (35.21%) SC Cleared
3 49 (13.80%) DV Cleared
4 32 (9.01%) Microsoft Certification
5 19 (5.35%) Oracle Certification
6 14 (3.94%) Degree
7 13 (3.66%) OCP
8 9 (2.54%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (1.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.13%) MCITP
10 4 (1.13%) MCTS
11 3 (0.85%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.38%) QA
2 10 (2.82%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.25%) GDPR
3 8 (2.25%) SLA
4 5 (1.41%) ISO 9000
5 3 (0.85%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.28%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.28%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.28%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.28%) NIST
6 1 (0.28%) NIST 800
System Software
1 46 (12.96%) Oracle RAC
2 11 (3.10%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.25%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.85%) Docker
6 1 (0.28%) ACF2
6 1 (0.28%) RACF
Systems Management
1 58 (16.34%) Oracle RMAN
2 45 (12.68%) Data Guard
3 22 (6.20%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 16 (4.51%) Terraform
5 15 (4.23%) Ansible
6 10 (2.82%) SCOM
7 6 (1.69%) Microsoft Clustering
8 5 (1.41%) Prometheus
9 4 (1.13%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
9 4 (1.13%) Failover Clustering
9 4 (1.13%) Grafana
10 3 (0.85%) Foglight
10 3 (0.85%) Nagios
11 2 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.28%) EMC NetWorker
12 1 (0.28%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 201 (56.62%) Oracle
2 94 (26.48%) Microsoft
3 14 (3.94%) ServiceNow
4 10 (2.82%) Remedy
4 10 (2.82%) SolarWinds
5 9 (2.54%) RedGate
6 8 (2.25%) BMC
7 7 (1.97%) Sybase
8 6 (1.69%) VMware
9 5 (1.41%) Commvault
10 4 (1.13%) Databricks
10 4 (1.13%) Google
10 4 (1.13%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.85%) Dynatrace
11 3 (0.85%) Greenplum
11 3 (0.85%) Informatica
11 3 (0.85%) Talend
12 2 (0.56%) IBM
13 1 (0.28%) NetApp
13 1 (0.28%) Wonderware