DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 June 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 370 395 333
Rank change year-on-year +25 -62 +22
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 292 129 269
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.45% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.65% 0.48% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 83 184
10th Percentile £363 £363 £363
25th Percentile £401 £413 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £586 £538 £613
90th Percentile £675 £600 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +2.78% -5.26% -4.04%
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 45,181 26,628 39,798
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.36% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,497 17,201 25,733
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £404 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,016 1,081 2,844
10th Percentile £15.03 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.80 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.70 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.48% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -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 4 June 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 4 June 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 +20 254 £475 +5.56% 57
UK excluding London +26 194 £463 +2.78% 50
London -47 75 £500 -4.76% 10
North of England -18 70 £430 -3.48% 10
South East -18 62 £417 -16.56% 17
Work from Home -46 51 £500 +11.11% 26
North West 0 42 £447 +3.50% 9
Midlands -35 30 £463 - 6
Yorkshire -34 28 £400 -30.43% 1
West Midlands -39 24 £481 - 3
Scotland -5 13 £500 +3.90% 4
South West -21 12 £688 +32.21% 10
East Midlands - 5 £463 - 3
Wales - 3 £588 -
Northern Ireland +7 2 £675 -
East of England -37 2 £388 -8.82% 5
North East - 1 £501 -

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 4 June 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.

1 167 (57.19%) Oracle
2 151 (51.71%) SQL
3 122 (41.78%) Security Cleared
4 119 (40.75%) Oracle Database
5 114 (39.04%) SQL Server
6 95 (32.53%) Performance Tuning
7 88 (30.14%) SC Cleared
8 80 (27.40%) High Availability
9 69 (23.63%) PostgreSQL
10 58 (19.86%) Microsoft
11 54 (18.49%) Migration
12 51 (17.47%) Azure
12 51 (17.47%) Oracle RMAN
13 48 (16.44%) AWS
13 48 (16.44%) Disaster Recovery
14 42 (14.38%) Database Security
15 40 (13.70%) Linux
16 39 (13.36%) MySQL
17 37 (12.67%) DV Cleared
18 35 (11.99%) DevOps
19 32 (10.96%) Data Guard
19 32 (10.96%) Oracle RAC
20 30 (10.27%) Problem-Solving
21 28 (9.59%) PowerShell
21 28 (9.59%) Unix
22 27 (9.25%) ITIL
22 27 (9.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
23 26 (8.90%) PL/SQL
23 26 (8.90%) Python
24 25 (8.56%) Capacity Planning

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 6 (2.05%) WebLogic
2 5 (1.71%) Confluence
3 3 (1.03%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.68%) Liferay
5 1 (0.34%) OpenEdge
5 1 (0.34%) Oracle Application Server
5 1 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.34%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (1.03%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 12 (4.11%) Oracle EBS
2 11 (3.77%) Oracle Applications
3 5 (1.71%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (1.03%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (1.03%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.34%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 51 (17.47%) Azure
2 48 (16.44%) AWS
3 8 (2.74%) Azure Cosmos DB
3 8 (2.74%) Azure Data Factory
4 7 (2.40%) Amazon S3
4 7 (2.40%) OCI
5 5 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
5 5 (1.71%) PaaS
5 5 (1.71%) SaaS
5 5 (1.71%) Serverless
6 3 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (1.03%) Azure Storage
6 3 (1.03%) GCP
6 3 (1.03%) GitHub
6 3 (1.03%) Snowflake
7 2 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (0.68%) IaaS
7 2 (0.68%) IBM Cloud
7 2 (0.68%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.34%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.34%) Firewall
1 1 (0.34%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (40.75%) Oracle Database
2 114 (39.04%) SQL Server
3 69 (23.63%) PostgreSQL
4 39 (13.36%) MySQL
5 27 (9.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 24 (8.22%) Amazon RDS
7 23 (7.88%) MongoDB
8 21 (7.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 19 (6.51%) Azure SQL Database
9 19 (6.51%) Oracle Database 12c
10 18 (6.16%) Oracle Database 11g
10 18 (6.16%) Oracle Reports
11 15 (5.14%) Relational Database
12 12 (4.11%) RDBMS
13 10 (3.42%) NoSQL
13 10 (3.42%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 8 (2.74%) Amazon Aurora
15 7 (2.40%) Oracle Exadata
16 6 (2.05%) Big Data
16 6 (2.05%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 11 (3.77%) GitLab
2 10 (3.42%) Git
3 8 (2.74%) Oracle APEX
4 6 (2.05%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.37%) Flyway
5 4 (1.37%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (1.37%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.68%) JIRA
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Developer 2000
7 1 (0.34%) TeamCity
General
1 40 (13.70%) Social Skills
2 31 (10.62%) Public Sector
3 25 (8.56%) Finance
4 20 (6.85%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (3.08%) Banking
6 8 (2.74%) Legal
7 5 (1.71%) Military
8 4 (1.37%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.03%) Publishing
10 2 (0.68%) Aviation
10 2 (0.68%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.34%) Advertising
11 1 (0.34%) Billing
11 1 (0.34%) International Banking
11 1 (0.34%) Local Government
11 1 (0.34%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.34%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.48%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 11 (3.77%) JSON
3 9 (3.08%) XML
4 7 (2.40%) Kafka
5 6 (2.05%) OLE
6 4 (1.37%) AWS CDK
7 3 (1.03%) GeoJSON
7 3 (1.03%) Matplotlib
7 3 (1.03%) Middleware
7 3 (1.03%) Pandas
7 3 (1.03%) Polars
7 3 (1.03%) scikit-learn
8 2 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.68%) Oracle ADF
8 2 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.68%) REST
9 1 (0.34%) .NET Core
9 1 (0.34%) Node.js
9 1 (0.34%) PostGIS
9 1 (0.34%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 26 (8.90%) Replication
2 20 (6.85%) Clustering
3 11 (3.77%) Legacy Systems
4 6 (2.05%) Enterprise Cloud
5 4 (1.37%) Cloud Native
5 4 (1.37%) Legacy Applications
6 3 (1.03%) Onboarding
7 2 (0.68%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.68%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.68%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.68%) NHS
7 2 (0.68%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.34%) Data Centre
8 1 (0.34%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.34%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.34%) Life Science
8 1 (0.34%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.34%) SCADA
8 1 (0.34%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.34%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 40 (13.70%) Linux
2 28 (9.59%) Unix
3 22 (7.53%) Windows
4 15 (5.14%) Windows Server
5 8 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.37%) AIX
6 4 (1.37%) Oracle Linux
7 2 (0.68%) Solaris
8 1 (0.34%) Amazon Linux
8 1 (0.34%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.34%) HPUX
8 1 (0.34%) OpenVMS
8 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (32.53%) Performance Tuning
2 80 (27.40%) High Availability
3 54 (18.49%) Migration
4 48 (16.44%) Disaster Recovery
5 42 (14.38%) Database Security
6 35 (11.99%) DevOps
7 30 (10.27%) Problem-Solving
8 27 (9.25%) ITIL
9 25 (8.56%) Capacity Planning
10 21 (7.19%) Task Automation
11 20 (6.85%) CI/CD
12 19 (6.51%) Data Migration
13 18 (6.16%) Agile
14 16 (5.48%) Database Tuning
14 16 (5.48%) Performance Optimisation
15 14 (4.79%) Data Protection
15 14 (4.79%) Database Migration
16 13 (4.45%) Continuous Improvement
16 13 (4.45%) Data Modelling
16 13 (4.45%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 151 (51.71%) SQL
2 28 (9.59%) PowerShell
3 26 (8.90%) PL/SQL
3 26 (8.90%) Python
4 19 (6.51%) Shell Script
4 19 (6.51%) T-SQL
5 10 (3.42%) Korn
6 6 (2.05%) Bash
7 4 (1.37%) TypeScript
8 3 (1.03%) Bicep
9 2 (0.68%) Java
10 1 (0.34%) C#
10 1 (0.34%) Groovy
10 1 (0.34%) JCL
10 1 (0.34%) Perl
10 1 (0.34%) RPG
10 1 (0.34%) Ruby
10 1 (0.34%) VB
Qualifications
1 122 (41.78%) Security Cleared
2 88 (30.14%) SC Cleared
3 37 (12.67%) DV Cleared
4 14 (4.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (3.42%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (2.74%) OCP
7 6 (2.05%) Degree
8 5 (1.71%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (1.37%) MCITP
9 4 (1.37%) MCTS
10 1 (0.34%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.34%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.77%) GDPR
2 8 (2.74%) Data Quality
2 8 (2.74%) QA
3 6 (2.05%) SLA
4 4 (1.37%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.68%) ISO 9000
6 1 (0.34%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.34%) NIST
6 1 (0.34%) NIST 800
System Software
1 32 (10.96%) Oracle RAC
2 6 (2.05%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.05%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.03%) Oracle Clusterware
4 1 (0.34%) Docker
Systems Management
1 51 (17.47%) Oracle RMAN
2 32 (10.96%) Data Guard
3 18 (6.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 15 (5.14%) Terraform
5 11 (3.77%) Ansible
6 4 (1.37%) Foglight
7 3 (1.03%) Failover Clustering
7 3 (1.03%) Grafana
7 3 (1.03%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.68%) systemd
9 1 (0.34%) EMC NetWorker
9 1 (0.34%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
9 1 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 167 (57.19%) Oracle
2 58 (19.86%) Microsoft
3 8 (2.74%) RedGate
3 8 (2.74%) SolarWinds
4 7 (2.40%) ServiceNow
5 5 (1.71%) Databricks
6 4 (1.37%) Red Hat
6 4 (1.37%) Sybase
7 3 (1.03%) BMC
7 3 (1.03%) Google
7 3 (1.03%) Remedy
8 2 (0.68%) Greenplum
8 2 (0.68%) IBM
8 2 (0.68%) Informatica
8 2 (0.68%) Talend
9 1 (0.34%) Cloudera
9 1 (0.34%) NetApp
9 1 (0.34%) Splunk
9 1 (0.34%) Teradata
9 1 (0.34%) Wonderware