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 25 August 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 344 419 295
Rank change year-on-year +75 -124 +59
Contract jobs requiring a DBA 360 132 298
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.40% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.73% 0.44% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 89 190
10th Percentile £363 £371 £350
25th Percentile £404 £425 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £463 £488
Median % change year-on-year +8.11% -5.13% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £604
90th Percentile £675 £671 £652
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +4.17% - -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 49,605 29,863 36,126
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.22% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,859 22,977
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 £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 3,539 1,568 1,933
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.21 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -1.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -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 25 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 25 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 +71 309 £483 +4.43% 28
UK excluding London +57 237 £469 +4.17% 25
North of England +21 105 £450 +0.56% 7
London -25 92 £525 +5.26% 7
North West +23 77 £463 +3.93% 7
Work from Home -55 63 £488 +8.33% 10
South East -21 59 £417 -7.28% 8
Yorkshire -15 27 £440 -12.10%
Scotland -1 21 £414 -10.59% 1
Midlands -47 21 £450 - 6
South West -34 19 £750 +22.45%
West Midlands -35 15 £449 - 4
East Midlands -14 5 £463 - 2
East of England -19 5 £387 -18.63% 2
Wales - 5 £544 -
Northern Ireland +3 2 £675 - 1
North East - 1 £501 -

DBA Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 209 (58.06%) SQL
2 192 (53.33%) Oracle
3 183 (50.83%) Security Cleared
4 160 (44.44%) SQL Server
5 139 (38.61%) SC Cleared
6 136 (37.78%) Performance Tuning
7 115 (31.94%) Oracle Database
8 105 (29.17%) High Availability
9 101 (28.06%) PostgreSQL
10 90 (25.00%) Microsoft
11 84 (23.33%) Disaster Recovery
12 74 (20.56%) Azure
13 73 (20.28%) AWS
14 65 (18.06%) Migration
15 55 (15.28%) MySQL
15 55 (15.28%) Oracle RMAN
16 51 (14.17%) Linux
17 50 (13.89%) DV Cleared
18 49 (13.61%) Database Security
19 47 (13.06%) Data Guard
19 47 (13.06%) ITIL
20 46 (12.78%) Oracle RAC
21 45 (12.50%) DevOps
22 37 (10.28%) Unix
22 37 (10.28%) Windows
23 36 (10.00%) PowerShell
24 35 (9.72%) Python
25 33 (9.17%) Database Tuning
26 32 (8.89%) CI/CD
26 32 (8.89%) Stakeholder Management

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 (3.06%) Confluence
2 6 (1.67%) WebLogic
3 3 (0.83%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.56%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.28%) Mendix
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.28%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 11 (3.06%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (2.78%) Oracle Applications
2 10 (2.78%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (1.67%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (1.67%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.83%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.28%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 74 (20.56%) Azure
2 73 (20.28%) AWS
3 15 (4.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 13 (3.61%) AWS KMS
4 13 (3.61%) Power Platform
4 13 (3.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 10 (2.78%) AWS CloudFormation
5 10 (2.78%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (2.78%) GCP
6 9 (2.50%) Azure Monitor
7 7 (1.94%) Azure Data Factory
8 6 (1.67%) OCI
9 5 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
9 5 (1.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 5 (1.39%) SaaS
9 5 (1.39%) Serverless
10 4 (1.11%) Amazon S3
10 4 (1.11%) Snowflake
11 3 (0.83%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (0.83%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.22%) SSL
2 4 (1.11%) Firewall
3 1 (0.28%) HTTP
3 1 (0.28%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.28%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (44.44%) SQL Server
2 115 (31.94%) Oracle Database
3 101 (28.06%) PostgreSQL
4 55 (15.28%) MySQL
5 28 (7.78%) Amazon RDS
6 27 (7.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 25 (6.94%) MongoDB
8 24 (6.67%) Amazon Aurora
9 23 (6.39%) Oracle Database 11g
10 22 (6.11%) Oracle Database 12c
11 21 (5.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 18 (5.00%) Relational Database
13 15 (4.17%) RDBMS
14 14 (3.89%) Azure SQL Database
14 14 (3.89%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 13 (3.61%) Power BI
16 10 (2.78%) Oracle Reports
17 9 (2.50%) NoSQL
18 8 (2.22%) Oracle Database 10g
18 8 (2.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 12 (3.33%) Git
2 10 (2.78%) JIRA
3 9 (2.50%) GitLab
4 7 (1.94%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.11%) Flyway
5 4 (1.11%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (1.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 3 (0.83%) Toad
7 2 (0.56%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.28%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle Developer 2000
General
1 74 (20.56%) Social Skills
2 45 (12.50%) Finance
3 37 (10.28%) Public Sector
4 27 (7.50%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (4.44%) Banking
6 6 (1.67%) Legal
7 5 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.11%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.83%) Police
9 3 (0.83%) Publishing
10 2 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.56%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.56%) Military
11 1 (0.28%) Billing
11 1 (0.28%) International Banking
11 1 (0.28%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (7.78%) Terraform
2 16 (4.44%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 12 (3.33%) JSON
4 10 (2.78%) XML
5 7 (1.94%) Kafka
6 6 (1.67%) OLE
7 3 (0.83%) AWS CDK
7 3 (0.83%) GeoJSON
7 3 (0.83%) Matplotlib
7 3 (0.83%) Middleware
7 3 (0.83%) Oracle Streams
7 3 (0.83%) Pandas
7 3 (0.83%) Polars
7 3 (0.83%) 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%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 54 (15.00%) Replication
2 30 (8.33%) Clustering
3 13 (3.61%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.22%) Data Structures
5 5 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (1.39%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.11%) Cloud Native
6 4 (1.11%) NHS
7 2 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.56%) Enterprise Cloud
7 2 (0.56%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (0.56%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.56%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.28%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.28%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.28%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.28%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.28%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.28%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.28%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 51 (14.17%) Linux
2 37 (10.28%) Unix
2 37 (10.28%) Windows
3 22 (6.11%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.50%) Solaris
5 8 (2.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.11%) AIX
6 4 (1.11%) Amazon Linux
6 4 (1.11%) Oracle Linux
7 3 (0.83%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.28%) HPUX
8 1 (0.28%) OpenVMS
8 1 (0.28%) VMS
8 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (37.78%) Performance Tuning
2 105 (29.17%) High Availability
3 84 (23.33%) Disaster Recovery
4 65 (18.06%) Migration
5 49 (13.61%) Database Security
6 47 (13.06%) ITIL
7 45 (12.50%) DevOps
8 33 (9.17%) Database Tuning
9 32 (8.89%) CI/CD
9 32 (8.89%) Stakeholder Management
10 31 (8.61%) Data Modelling
10 31 (8.61%) Root Cause Analysis
11 30 (8.33%) Problem-Solving
12 28 (7.78%) Performance Optimisation
13 25 (6.94%) Capacity Planning
14 22 (6.11%) Infrastructure as Code
15 20 (5.56%) Change Management
15 20 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
15 20 (5.56%) Database Migration
15 20 (5.56%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 209 (58.06%) SQL
2 36 (10.00%) PowerShell
3 35 (9.72%) Python
4 26 (7.22%) PL/SQL
4 26 (7.22%) T-SQL
5 13 (3.61%) Shell Script
6 8 (2.22%) Korn
7 7 (1.94%) Bash
8 6 (1.67%) Java
9 5 (1.39%) Perl
10 4 (1.11%) Groovy
11 3 (0.83%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.56%) Bicep
13 1 (0.28%) C#
13 1 (0.28%) Cypher
13 1 (0.28%) RPG
13 1 (0.28%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 183 (50.83%) Security Cleared
2 139 (38.61%) SC Cleared
3 50 (13.89%) DV Cleared
4 30 (8.33%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (4.17%) Degree
6 14 (3.89%) Oracle Certification
7 13 (3.61%) AWS Certification
8 12 (3.33%) Azure Certification
9 11 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
10 9 (2.50%) OCP
11 8 (2.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 6 (1.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 5 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (1.11%) MCITP
14 4 (1.11%) MCTS
15 1 (0.28%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.17%) Data Quality
1 15 (4.17%) QA
2 7 (1.94%) GDPR
2 7 (1.94%) SLA
3 5 (1.39%) ISO 9000
4 1 (0.28%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.28%) ISO 20022
4 1 (0.28%) ISO 22301
4 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 46 (12.78%) Oracle RAC
2 13 (3.61%) Active Directory
3 9 (2.50%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.39%) Docker
5 2 (0.56%) ACF2
5 2 (0.56%) RACF
Systems Management
1 55 (15.28%) Oracle RMAN
2 47 (13.06%) Data Guard
3 19 (5.28%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 15 (4.17%) Ansible
5 11 (3.06%) SCOM
6 9 (2.50%) Microsoft Clustering
7 7 (1.94%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.67%) Grafana
9 4 (1.11%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
9 4 (1.11%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.83%) Nagios
11 2 (0.56%) Foglight
11 2 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.28%) EMC NetWorker
12 1 (0.28%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 192 (53.33%) Oracle
2 90 (25.00%) Microsoft
3 16 (4.44%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.61%) Remedy
5 11 (3.06%) BMC
6 9 (2.50%) VMware
7 7 (1.94%) Sybase
8 6 (1.67%) SolarWinds
9 5 (1.39%) RedGate
10 4 (1.11%) Commvault
10 4 (1.11%) Google
10 4 (1.11%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.83%) Databricks
11 3 (0.83%) Dynatrace
11 3 (0.83%) Greenplum
11 3 (0.83%) IBM
11 3 (0.83%) Informatica
11 3 (0.83%) Talend
12 2 (0.56%) Cerner
13 1 (0.28%) Adobe