DBA Contract Job Trends
Database Administrator
UK
The median Database Administrator daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 November 2026.
The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 3 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 383 | 421 | 301 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +38 | -120 | +72 |
| Contract DBA jobs | 334 | 138 | 274 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 0.61% | 0.40% | 0.75% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.66% | 0.44% | 0.81% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 231 | 86 | 154 |
| 10th Percentile | £363 | £356 | £350 |
| 25th Percentile | £418 | £403 | £413 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £475 | £481 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +10.53% | -1.30% | +1.32% |
| 75th Percentile | £575 | £564 | £624 |
| 90th Percentile | £638 | £675 | £650 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £483 | £450 | £450 |
| % change year-on-year | +7.33% | - | -5.26% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 10th Percentile | £37.65 | £27.20 | - |
| 25th Percentile | £39.00 | £29.00 | - |
| Median hourly rate | £42.50 | £30.00 | - |
| Median % change year-on-year | +41.67% | - | - |
| 75th Percentile | £43.75 | £31.00 | - |
| 90th Percentile | - | £58.90 | - |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £38.50 | £51.00 | - |
| % change year-on-year | -24.51% | - | - |
All Contract IT Job Roles
UK
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.
| 6 months to 3 Nov 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title | 50,397 | 31,191 | 33,735 |
| % of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title | 91.65% | 90.97% | 92.90% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 29,618 | 19,753 | 20,336 |
| 10th Percentile | £326 | £278 | £300 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £402 | £413 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £500 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -4.76% | - |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £619 | £638 |
| 90th Percentile | £738 | £725 | £738 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £475 | £490 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -3.06% | -2.00% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 4,293 | 1,761 | 1,275 |
| 10th Percentile | £14.22 | £14.00 | £15.08 |
| 25th Percentile | £18.50 | £17.69 | £20.19 |
| Median hourly rate | £40.00 | £25.15 | £37.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +59.05% | -32.93% | -16.67% |
| 75th Percentile | £68.00 | £51.25 | £65.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £80.44 | £69.99 | £73.75 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £40.00 | £25.15 | £36.17 |
| % change year-on-year | +59.05% | -30.46% | -18.73% |
DBA Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract DBA job postings relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.
DBA Daily Rate Trend
Contractor daily rate distribution trend for DBA job vacancies in the UK.
DBA Daily Rate Histogram
Daily rate distribution for DBA jobs over the 6 months to 3 November 2026.
DBA Hourly Rate Trend
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 DBA jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 3 November 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | +25 | 263 | £525 | +6.71% | 52 |
| UK excluding London | +50 | 207 | £483 | +7.33% | 41 |
| North of England | +2 | 87 | £480 | +6.67% | 4 |
| London | -42 | 86 | £525 | - | 22 |
| North West | +23 | 69 | £479 | +6.44% | 2 |
| Work from Home | -46 | 67 | £450 | -5.26% | 31 |
| Scotland | +3 | 35 | £400 | - | 4 |
| South East | -39 | 35 | £550 | +10.00% | 21 |
| South West | -23 | 20 | £750 | +22.45% | 5 |
| Yorkshire | -29 | 16 | £454 | +24.38% | |
| Midlands | -49 | 15 | £447 | +22.53% | 6 |
| West Midlands | -46 | 10 | £447 | +22.47% | 3 |
| East of England | -17 | 8 | £425 | -10.53% | |
| East Midlands | -6 | 5 | £800 | - | 3 |
| Wales | -8 | 4 | £544 | - | 1 |
| North East | - | 3 | £625 | - | 2 |
| Northern Ireland | - | 3 | £675 | - |
DBA Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 3 November 2026, DBA contract job ads cited 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 DBA job ads.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SQL | 60.8% | 203 |
| 2 | Security Cleared | 57.8% | 193 |
| 3 | Oracle | 53.0% | 177 |
| 4 | SQL Server | 49.7% | 166 |
| 5 | Performance Tuning | 45.5% | 152 |
| 6 | SC Cleared | 42.8% | 143 |
| 7 | PostgreSQL | 32.3% | 108 |
| 8 | Microsoft | 31.7% | 106 |
| 9 | Oracle Database | 30.5% | 102 |
| 10 | Disaster Recovery | 29.9% | 100 |
| 11 | High Availability | 29.3% | 98 |
| 12 | AWS | 26.0% | 87 |
| 13 | Azure | 23.4% | 78 |
| 14 | MySQL | 21.3% | 71 |
| 15 | Database Security | 16.8% | 56 |
| 15 | Linux | 16.8% | 56 |
| 15 | Migration | 16.8% | 56 |
| 18 | PowerShell | 16.2% | 54 |
| 19 | Data Guard | 14.7% | 49 |
| 20 | DevOps | 14.1% | 47 |
| 21 | DV Cleared | 13.8% | 46 |
| 22 | Oracle RMAN | 13.2% | 44 |
| 23 | CI/CD | 12.6% | 42 |
| 23 | Oracle RAC | 12.6% | 42 |
| 25 | ITIL | 12.3% | 41 |
| 25 | Windows | 12.3% | 41 |
| 27 | Microsoft Certification | 12.0% | 40 |
| 27 | Root Cause Analysis | 12.0% | 40 |
| 27 | Terraform | 12.0% | 40 |
| 30 | Amazon RDS | 11.7% | 39 |
DBA Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Administrator | 40.4% | 135 |
| 2 | SQL DBA | 35.9% | 120 |
| 3 | Oracle DBA | 32.9% | 110 |
| 4 | Senior DBA | 11.7% | 39 |
| 5 | SC Cleared DBA | 11.4% | 38 |
| 6 | SQL Server DBA | 9.6% | 32 |
| 7 | PostgreSQL DBA | 7.2% | 24 |
| 8 | DV Cleared DBA | 4.8% | 16 |
| 9 | Senior Oracle DBA | 3.9% | 13 |
| 10 | AWS Administrator | 3.6% | 12 |
| 11 | Oracle Specialist | 2.1% | 7 |
| 12 | MySQL DBA | 1.8% | 6 |
| 12 | Production DBA | 1.8% | 6 |
| 12 | Sybase DBA | 1.8% | 6 |
| 15 | Oracle Applications DBA | 1.5% | 5 |
| 15 | Support Specialist | 1.5% | 5 |
| 17 | Data Modeller | 1.2% | 4 |
| 17 | Data Warehouse Developer | 1.2% | 4 |
| 17 | DevOps Engineer | 1.2% | 4 |
| 17 | Senior SQL DBA | 1.2% | 4 |