DBA Contract Job Trends

Database Administrator
UK

The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £485, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 341 419 298
Rank change year-on-year +78 -121 +77
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 364 134 294
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.41% 0.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 0.45% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 273 91 191
10th Percentile £363 £373 £350
25th Percentile £403 £425 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £463 £488
Median % change year-on-year +4.86% -5.13% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £544 £608
90th Percentile £675 £670 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +2.78% - -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 5 2
10th Percentile - £27.20 £32.45
25th Percentile - £29.00 £39.13
Median hourly rate - £30.00 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year - -41.75% +17.99%
75th Percentile - £31.00 £65.13
90th Percentile - £58.90 £72.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £51.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year - -0.97% +48.01%

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 49,489 29,958 36,053
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.24% 92.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,934 23,125
10th Percentile £325 £280 £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 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,498 1,546 1,979
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% +17.07%

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 20 August 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 20 August 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 +59 314 £478 +4.77% 37
UK excluding London +50 242 £463 +2.78% 29
North of England +26 105 £450 +0.61% 3
London -27 92 £525 +5.26% 15
North West +26 77 £463 +3.93% 2
Work from Home -55 65 £488 +8.33% 12
South East -11 60 £417 -7.28% 9
Yorkshire -17 27 £425 -15.00% 1
Midlands -35 26 £449 - 10
Scotland -3 20 £425 -8.11% 2
West Midlands -39 20 £448 - 7
South West -30 19 £750 +22.45% 1
East Midlands -13 5 £463 - 3
East of England -17 5 £387 -18.63% 3
Wales - 5 £544 -
Northern Ireland +7 2 £675 - 1
North East - 1 £501 -

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 August 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.

1 212 (58.24%) SQL
2 197 (54.12%) Oracle
3 187 (51.37%) Security Cleared
4 166 (45.60%) SQL Server
5 143 (39.29%) SC Cleared
6 140 (38.46%) Performance Tuning
7 114 (31.32%) Oracle Database
8 105 (28.85%) PostgreSQL
9 104 (28.57%) High Availability
10 95 (26.10%) Microsoft
11 83 (22.80%) Disaster Recovery
12 74 (20.33%) Azure
13 73 (20.05%) AWS
14 66 (18.13%) Migration
15 61 (16.76%) MySQL
16 55 (15.11%) Database Security
17 54 (14.84%) Oracle RMAN
18 49 (13.46%) DV Cleared
18 49 (13.46%) Linux
19 47 (12.91%) ITIL
20 46 (12.64%) Data Guard
21 45 (12.36%) DevOps
21 45 (12.36%) Oracle RAC
22 37 (10.16%) Windows
23 36 (9.89%) PowerShell
23 36 (9.89%) Unix
24 35 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
24 35 (9.62%) Python
25 34 (9.34%) Microsoft Certification
26 32 (8.79%) Data Modelling

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 11 (3.02%) Confluence
2 6 (1.65%) WebLogic
3 3 (0.82%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.55%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.55%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.27%) Mendix
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.55%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.27%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 11 (3.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (2.75%) Oracle Applications
2 10 (2.75%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (1.65%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (1.65%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.82%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.27%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 74 (20.33%) Azure
2 73 (20.05%) AWS
3 14 (3.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 13 (3.57%) Power Platform
5 12 (3.30%) AWS KMS
5 12 (3.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 10 (2.75%) AWS CloudFormation
6 10 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.75%) GCP
7 9 (2.47%) Azure Monitor
8 7 (1.92%) Azure Data Factory
9 6 (1.65%) OCI
10 5 (1.37%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 5 (1.37%) SaaS
10 5 (1.37%) Serverless
11 4 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
11 4 (1.10%) Snowflake
12 3 (0.82%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.82%) GitHub
12 3 (0.82%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.20%) SSL
2 3 (0.82%) Firewall
3 1 (0.27%) HTTP
3 1 (0.27%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.27%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 166 (45.60%) SQL Server
2 114 (31.32%) Oracle Database
3 105 (28.85%) PostgreSQL
4 61 (16.76%) MySQL
5 29 (7.97%) Amazon RDS
6 28 (7.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 25 (6.87%) MongoDB
8 22 (6.04%) Amazon Aurora
8 22 (6.04%) Oracle Database 11g
8 22 (6.04%) Oracle Database 12c
8 22 (6.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 18 (4.95%) Relational Database
10 15 (4.12%) Azure SQL Database
10 15 (4.12%) RDBMS
11 14 (3.85%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 13 (3.57%) Power BI
13 11 (3.02%) Oracle Reports
14 9 (2.47%) NoSQL
15 8 (2.20%) Oracle Database 10g
15 8 (2.20%) Redis
Development Applications
1 12 (3.30%) Git
2 10 (2.75%) GitLab
3 9 (2.47%) JIRA
4 7 (1.92%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.37%) Flyway
6 4 (1.10%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 3 (0.82%) Toad
8 2 (0.55%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.27%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.27%) Oracle Developer 2000
General
1 76 (20.88%) Social Skills
2 44 (12.09%) Finance
3 35 (9.62%) Public Sector
4 27 (7.42%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (4.12%) Banking
6 7 (1.92%) Legal
7 5 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.10%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.82%) Police
9 3 (0.82%) Publishing
10 2 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.55%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.55%) Military
11 1 (0.27%) Advertising
11 1 (0.27%) Billing
11 1 (0.27%) International Banking
11 1 (0.27%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (7.42%) Terraform
2 16 (4.40%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 12 (3.30%) JSON
4 10 (2.75%) XML
5 7 (1.92%) Kafka
6 6 (1.65%) OLE
7 4 (1.10%) AWS CDK
8 3 (0.82%) GeoJSON
8 3 (0.82%) Matplotlib
8 3 (0.82%) Middleware
8 3 (0.82%) Oracle Streams
8 3 (0.82%) Pandas
8 3 (0.82%) Polars
8 3 (0.82%) scikit-learn
9 2 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (0.55%) REST
10 1 (0.27%) .NET
10 1 (0.27%) Node.js
10 1 (0.27%) Spring
10 1 (0.27%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (14.56%) Replication
2 31 (8.52%) Clustering
3 13 (3.57%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.20%) Data Structures
5 6 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.37%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.10%) Cloud Native
7 4 (1.10%) NHS
8 3 (0.82%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.55%) Enterprise Cloud
9 2 (0.55%) Legacy Applications
9 2 (0.55%) Public Cloud
10 1 (0.27%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.27%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.27%) Enterprise Storage
10 1 (0.27%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.27%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.27%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.27%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 49 (13.46%) Linux
2 37 (10.16%) Windows
3 36 (9.89%) Unix
4 22 (6.04%) Windows Server
5 9 (2.47%) Solaris
6 8 (2.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (1.10%) AIX
7 4 (1.10%) Oracle Linux
8 3 (0.82%) Amazon Linux
8 3 (0.82%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.27%) HPUX
9 1 (0.27%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.27%) VMS
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (38.46%) Performance Tuning
2 104 (28.57%) High Availability
3 83 (22.80%) Disaster Recovery
4 66 (18.13%) Migration
5 55 (15.11%) Database Security
6 47 (12.91%) ITIL
7 45 (12.36%) DevOps
8 35 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (8.79%) Data Modelling
9 32 (8.79%) Database Tuning
10 31 (8.52%) Capacity Planning
10 31 (8.52%) CI/CD
10 31 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
11 30 (8.24%) Root Cause Analysis
12 27 (7.42%) Performance Optimisation
13 21 (5.77%) Database Migration
13 21 (5.77%) Infrastructure as Code
13 21 (5.77%) Task Automation
14 20 (5.49%) Agile
15 19 (5.22%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 212 (58.24%) SQL
2 36 (9.89%) PowerShell
3 35 (9.62%) Python
4 27 (7.42%) T-SQL
5 26 (7.14%) PL/SQL
6 13 (3.57%) Shell Script
7 8 (2.20%) Bash
7 8 (2.20%) Korn
8 5 (1.37%) Java
9 4 (1.10%) Perl
9 4 (1.10%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.82%) Groovy
11 2 (0.55%) Bicep
12 1 (0.27%) C#
12 1 (0.27%) Cypher
12 1 (0.27%) RPG
12 1 (0.27%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 187 (51.37%) Security Cleared
2 143 (39.29%) SC Cleared
3 49 (13.46%) DV Cleared
4 34 (9.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (4.95%) Oracle Certification
6 16 (4.40%) Degree
7 13 (3.57%) OCP
8 12 (3.30%) AWS Certification
9 11 (3.02%) Azure Certification
9 11 (3.02%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (2.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (1.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 4 (1.10%) MCITP
12 4 (1.10%) MCTS
13 1 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.12%) Data Quality
2 14 (3.85%) QA
3 7 (1.92%) GDPR
4 6 (1.65%) SLA
5 5 (1.37%) ISO 9000
6 1 (0.27%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.27%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.27%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 45 (12.36%) Oracle RAC
2 12 (3.30%) Active Directory
3 9 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.10%) Docker
5 1 (0.27%) ACF2
5 1 (0.27%) RACF
Systems Management
1 54 (14.84%) Oracle RMAN
2 46 (12.64%) Data Guard
3 19 (5.22%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 15 (4.12%) Ansible
5 11 (3.02%) SCOM
6 9 (2.47%) Microsoft Clustering
7 6 (1.65%) Prometheus
8 5 (1.37%) Grafana
9 4 (1.10%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
9 4 (1.10%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.82%) Foglight
10 3 (0.82%) Nagios
11 2 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.27%) EMC NetWorker
12 1 (0.27%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 197 (54.12%) Oracle
2 95 (26.10%) Microsoft
3 16 (4.40%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.57%) Remedy
5 11 (3.02%) BMC
6 9 (2.47%) VMware
7 7 (1.92%) Sybase
8 6 (1.65%) SolarWinds
9 5 (1.37%) RedGate
10 4 (1.10%) Commvault
10 4 (1.10%) Databricks
10 4 (1.10%) Google
10 4 (1.10%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.82%) Dynatrace
11 3 (0.82%) Greenplum
11 3 (0.82%) Informatica
11 3 (0.82%) Talend
12 2 (0.55%) Cerner
12 2 (0.55%) IBM
13 1 (0.27%) Adobe