Database Administrator
Also advertised as: data administrator, data base administrator, data base administrators, data manager, Data Platform Administrator, Database Administrator
Keeps an organisation's databases secure, fast and available.
What the job involves
Database administrators manage the databases that hold an organisation's critical information, from customer records to financial transactions. You tune performance, manage backups and control access, stepping in when queries slow down or something needs restoring. It is a specialist role usually reached via systems administration or development.
Typical responsibilities
- Install, configure and maintain database systems
- Monitor and tune performance
- Manage backups and recovery procedures
- Control access and enforce data security
- Plan capacity and upgrades
Common employers
- Banks
- Retailers
- Public sector bodies
- Managed service providers
- Insurance companies
Pay, hours and working environment
Typical pay
£28,000 – £35,000 a year
With experience
£42,000 – £60,000 a year
Typical hours
37.5 hours, with occasional out-of-hours maintenance
Working environment
Office or remote, working closely with development teams
Remote working
hybrid
Demand for this work
steady
Pay ranges are indicative guidance drawn from advertised UK vacancies and published careers information. They are not an offer, and actual pay varies by employer, location and experience.
Skills and qualifications
Core skills
- SQL
- Database platforms
- Backup and recovery
- Performance tuning
- Security administration
- Scripting
Transferable skills you may already have
- Analytical thinking
- Precision and care with data
- Troubleshooting under pressure
Requirements employers ask for
- SQL
- Database platforms
- Backup and recovery
- Performance tuning
- Security administration
- Scripting
- No formal qualification required; SQL and systems experience expected
- balance database resources
- design database scheme
- manage database
- system backup best practice
- design database backup specifications
- distributed computing
- use scripting programming
- data quality assessment
- resource description framework query language
- data storage
- interpret technical texts
- database development tools
Useful but not essential
- Analytical thinking
- Precision and care with data
- Troubleshooting under pressure
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator
- Oracle Certified Professional
- AWS Certified Database - Specialty
- use automatic programming
- use different communication channels
- PostgreSQL
- Teradata Database
- Microsoft Access
- quality assurance methodologies
- provide technical training
- SPARQL
Helpful qualifications
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator
- Oracle Certified Professional
- AWS Certified Database - Specialty
Ways into this career
A degree is only one route. Where an apprenticeship, work-experience or qualification route exists, it is listed here alongside the academic option.
Apprenticeships and work-based routes
- Data Technician (Level 3)
- Network Engineer (Level 4)
Degree and college routes
- Related subject: Computer science
- Related subject: IT
- Related subject: Maths
Where this career can lead
next
Senior DBA
next
Data Architect
next
Data Platform Manager
The good parts and the hard parts
What people enjoy
- Specialist skills command a premium
- Critical role with strong job security
- Clear path from IT support or development
What people find hard
- Called upon urgently when data problems occur
- Legacy database platforms can be tedious to support
Common questions
- Do you need a degree to become a database administrator?
- No. As well as degree routes, this career can be entered through an apprenticeship or by building experience and qualifications on the job. not_required
- How much does a database administrator earn in the UK?
- Typical advertised pay runs from £28,000 to £35,000 a year, rising towards £60,000 with experience. Figures are indicative guidance rather than an offer.
- What skills transfer into this career?
- Skills that transfer well include Analytical thinking, Precision and care with data, Troubleshooting under pressure.
Related careers
Data Analyst
Turns raw data into dashboards and answers that guide business decisions.
Data Scientist
Uses statistics and modelling to answer business questions from data.
Data Engineer
Builds the pipelines that move and prepare data for analysis.
Machine Learning Engineer
Builds and deploys machine learning models into production systems.
Business Intelligence Analyst
Builds dashboards and reports that help a business make decisions.
Analytics Engineer
Transforms raw data into clean, tested datasets ready for analysis.
Where this information comes from
- National Careers Service
- Institute for Apprenticeships
Last reviewed 15 September 2026.
Read how our career data is built and reviewed, or tell us if something here is wrong.