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 11 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 401 341 322
Rank change year-on-year -60 -19 +63
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 228 189 305
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 0.64% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.58% 0.69% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 98 207
10th Percentile £350 £354 £363
25th Percentile £381 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £459 £533
Median % change year-on-year -1.91% -13.93% +8.22%
75th Percentile £525 £538 £600
90th Percentile £593 £661 £667
UK excluding London median daily rate £429 £450 £503
% change year-on-year -4.67% -10.45% +5.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 1
Median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.86% -20.32% +100.00%
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £63.75 £80.00
% change year-on-year -56.86% -20.32% +204.76%

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 39,127 27,402 41,559
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 92.96% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,467 17,684 27,246
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,427 859 2,507
10th Percentile £14.93 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.40 £32.69
Median % change year-on-year +4.79% +2.17% -22.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.16 £76.44 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.95 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +7.52% -0.60% -18.26%

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 11 March 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 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 11 March 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 -47 199 £447 -3.92% 57
UK excluding London -39 134 £429 -4.67% 44
London -35 77 £500 - 15
North of England -35 55 £402 -9.66% 18
Work from Home -54 54 £500 +12.36% 23
North West -26 32 £425 -4.49% 13
South East -45 31 £420 -16.00% 11
West Midlands -34 26 £441 -6.77% 4
Midlands -50 26 £441 +7.56% 5
Yorkshire -44 24 £365 - 5
Scotland +17 11 £500 +8.11% 2
South West -14 7 £606 -19.20% 2
Wales -4 2 - - 2
Northern Ireland -3 1 £675 -
East of England -27 1 £375 -11.76% 5

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 March 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.

1 117 (51.32%) Oracle
2 106 (46.49%) SQL
3 86 (37.72%) Security Cleared
4 77 (33.77%) SQL Server
5 74 (32.46%) Oracle Database
6 70 (30.70%) Performance Tuning
7 64 (28.07%) SC Cleared
8 60 (26.32%) PostgreSQL
9 48 (21.05%) High Availability
10 45 (19.74%) AWS
11 43 (18.86%) Azure
11 43 (18.86%) Disaster Recovery
12 42 (18.42%) Microsoft
13 38 (16.67%) MySQL
14 37 (16.23%) Database Security
15 34 (14.91%) Problem-Solving
16 33 (14.47%) Migration
17 32 (14.04%) DevOps
17 32 (14.04%) Oracle RMAN
18 25 (10.96%) Agile
18 25 (10.96%) Linux
18 25 (10.96%) Oracle RAC
19 24 (10.53%) MongoDB
20 23 (10.09%) Amazon RDS
21 22 (9.65%) Python
21 22 (9.65%) Unix
22 21 (9.21%) Capacity Planning
22 21 (9.21%) NoSQL
22 21 (9.21%) PL/SQL
23 20 (8.77%) 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 4 (1.75%) WebLogic
2 3 (1.32%) Oracle Workflow
3 2 (0.88%) Confluence
3 2 (0.88%) Liferay
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 1 (0.44%) OpenEdge
4 1 (0.44%) Oracle Application Server
4 1 (0.44%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (3.07%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (2.19%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle Applications
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle ERP
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.44%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 45 (19.74%) AWS
2 43 (18.86%) Azure
3 18 (7.89%) Serverless
4 14 (6.14%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 8 (3.51%) SaaS
6 6 (2.63%) Amazon S3
7 5 (2.19%) AWS Lambda
7 5 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (2.19%) OCI
7 5 (2.19%) Snowflake
8 4 (1.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 4 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
8 4 (1.75%) Azure AKS
8 4 (1.75%) Azure Functions
8 4 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
8 4 (1.75%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (1.75%) GCP
9 3 (1.32%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (1.32%) PaaS
9 3 (1.32%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.44%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (33.77%) SQL Server
2 74 (32.46%) Oracle Database
3 60 (26.32%) PostgreSQL
4 38 (16.67%) MySQL
5 24 (10.53%) MongoDB
6 23 (10.09%) Amazon RDS
7 21 (9.21%) NoSQL
8 19 (8.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (7.89%) Oracle Reports
10 16 (7.02%) Relational Database
11 14 (6.14%) RDBMS
12 11 (4.82%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (4.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 10 (4.39%) Oracle Database 12c
14 9 (3.95%) Amazon Aurora
14 9 (3.95%) DynamoDB
15 6 (2.63%) SQL Server Analysis Services
16 4 (1.75%) Oracle BI EE
16 4 (1.75%) Snowflake Schema
16 4 (1.75%) SQLPlus
Development Applications
1 7 (3.07%) Git
2 6 (2.63%) Oracle APEX
3 5 (2.19%) GitLab
4 4 (1.75%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 3 (1.32%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.88%) Flyway
7 1 (0.44%) JIRA
7 1 (0.44%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.44%) Toad
General
1 34 (14.91%) Public Sector
2 32 (14.04%) Social Skills
3 23 (10.09%) Finance
4 15 (6.58%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (4.39%) Banking
6 5 (2.19%) Legal
6 5 (2.19%) Telecoms
7 4 (1.75%) Military
8 2 (0.88%) Aviation
8 2 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.88%) Local Government
8 2 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.44%) Advertising
9 1 (0.44%) Back Office
9 1 (0.44%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.44%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.44%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.44%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.58%) JSON
1 15 (6.58%) XML
2 13 (5.70%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 9 (3.95%) Kafka
4 7 (3.07%) Node.js
5 4 (1.75%) .NET
6 3 (1.32%) .NET Core
6 3 (1.32%) ASP.NET
7 2 (0.88%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.88%) OLE
7 2 (0.88%) Oracle ADF
8 1 (0.44%) Elastic Stack
8 1 (0.44%) Oracle Fusion
8 1 (0.44%) PostGIS
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.89%) Replication
2 14 (6.14%) Enterprise Cloud
3 13 (5.70%) Clustering
4 12 (5.26%) Legacy Systems
5 10 (4.39%) Cloud Native
6 8 (3.51%) Data Structures
7 7 (3.07%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.75%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (1.32%) Onboarding
10 2 (0.88%) Driving Licence
10 2 (0.88%) Mainframe
10 2 (0.88%) NHS
10 2 (0.88%) Public Cloud
11 1 (0.44%) Data Centre
11 1 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.44%) Life Science
11 1 (0.44%) Operational Technology
11 1 (0.44%) Product Ownership
11 1 (0.44%) SCADA
11 1 (0.44%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 25 (10.96%) Linux
2 22 (9.65%) Unix
3 12 (5.26%) Windows
4 8 (3.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (3.51%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.75%) Oracle Linux
6 3 (1.32%) Solaris
7 1 (0.44%) AIX
7 1 (0.44%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (30.70%) Performance Tuning
2 48 (21.05%) High Availability
3 43 (18.86%) Disaster Recovery
4 37 (16.23%) Database Security
5 34 (14.91%) Problem-Solving
6 33 (14.47%) Migration
7 32 (14.04%) DevOps
8 25 (10.96%) Agile
9 21 (9.21%) Capacity Planning
10 19 (8.33%) Task Automation
11 16 (7.02%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (6.58%) ITIL
12 15 (6.58%) Mentoring
13 14 (6.14%) Data Migration
13 14 (6.14%) Performance Optimisation
14 13 (5.70%) CI/CD
14 13 (5.70%) Data Modelling
14 13 (5.70%) Data Protection
15 11 (4.82%) Performance Monitoring
15 11 (4.82%) Statistics
Programming Languages
1 106 (46.49%) SQL
2 22 (9.65%) Python
3 21 (9.21%) PL/SQL
4 20 (8.77%) Shell Script
5 19 (8.33%) PowerShell
6 10 (4.39%) T-SQL
7 9 (3.95%) Korn
8 4 (1.75%) Bash
8 4 (1.75%) C#
9 3 (1.32%) Bicep
9 3 (1.32%) Java
9 3 (1.32%) Perl
10 2 (0.88%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.44%) JCL
11 1 (0.44%) PHP
11 1 (0.44%) Ruby
11 1 (0.44%) VB
Qualifications
1 86 (37.72%) Security Cleared
2 64 (28.07%) SC Cleared
3 14 (6.14%) Microsoft Certification
4 13 (5.70%) DV Cleared
5 9 (3.95%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (3.51%) OCP
7 4 (1.75%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.75%) Degree
7 4 (1.75%) MCITP
7 4 (1.75%) MCTS
8 3 (1.32%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.44%) BC Cleared
9 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.82%) SLA
2 8 (3.51%) GDPR
3 4 (1.75%) Disclosure Scotland
3 4 (1.75%) QA
4 2 (0.88%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.44%) NIST
5 1 (0.44%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.44%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 25 (10.96%) Oracle RAC
2 6 (2.63%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.32%) Oracle Clusterware
5 2 (0.88%) NFS
Systems Management
1 32 (14.04%) Oracle RMAN
2 20 (8.77%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
3 18 (7.89%) Data Guard
4 9 (3.95%) Ansible
5 8 (3.51%) Terraform
6 4 (1.75%) Foglight
7 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.88%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.88%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
8 2 (0.88%) systemd
9 1 (0.44%) Grafana
9 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.44%) SCCM
Vendors
1 117 (51.32%) Oracle
2 42 (18.42%) Microsoft
3 7 (3.07%) ServiceNow
4 6 (2.63%) Red Hat
4 6 (2.63%) RedGate
4 6 (2.63%) SolarWinds
5 4 (1.75%) Greenplum
5 4 (1.75%) Informatica
5 4 (1.75%) Talend
6 3 (1.32%) Databricks
6 3 (1.32%) Google
7 1 (0.44%) Cloudera
7 1 (0.44%) Commvault
7 1 (0.44%) EMC
7 1 (0.44%) IBM
7 1 (0.44%) NEC
7 1 (0.44%) Splunk
7 1 (0.44%) Sybase
7 1 (0.44%) Teradata
7 1 (0.44%) Wonderware