Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Build your career as a Database Administrator
Projects where the critical database is yours: what gets backed up, with which maintenance window and who answers when it fails. Shakers connects you with companies that need the DBA, with scope agreed.
The trade reads in two places: the career-guidance card and the job ad asking for weekly on-call shifts without saying so. Neither tells you how to run a real company's critical database project by project. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
+3,000
Tech projects published on Shakers
+90
Tech, Product and Data specialisms are part of Shakers
6 months
Average length of a project with Shakers
4.7/5
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Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
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Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
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Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
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Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
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Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersWhat a DBA decides on every single project
A database administrator (also DBA) keeps a company's database from failing: they maintain availability, verify backup and disaster recovery, tune performance and control permissions and security. The trade splits by engine: SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL live here, while PostgreSQL and MongoDB have their own specialists. The demand is embedded in skills: PostgreSQL appears in 1,593 live UK tech vacancies and MongoDB in 704, according to Shakers' market analysis (n=39,811, September 2026).
You decide what gets backed up and how often, which index gets touched and in which window, which permission is granted and which withdrawn. You also decide what the database refuses: a deployment without a rollback plan doesn't go in. The engine belongs to the client; the policy that keeps it alive is yours.
SQLSQL ServerOracleMySQLbackupdisaster recoveryhigh availabilitytuningreplicationpermissionsdata securitymonitoringindexesPowerShell
Verified backupTuningHigh availabilityPermissionsMonitoringRecovery
Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
Data and Analytics projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a DBA delivers on a Shakers project
The brief arrives with the engine
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the instances and their criticality, not a list of technologies.
A plan you can audit
You deliver the backup plan with tested restores, active monitoring and the why of every maintenance window.
What happens when the base fails
You set the on-call protocol, what happens when an instance stops answering and who answers for the data while it recovers.
Databases held, not described
Having run engines in production and being able to tell an outage story: what failed, what you did and what changed so it never repeated.
Engine, specialist or umbrella
Recognising when the brief belongs to your engine and when it asks for a specialist: PostgreSQL and MongoDB have their own page, and saying so.
How far your brief goes
You run the engine; you don't rewrite the application or the infrastructure. If the project asks for development, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What does a database administrator actually do?
They maintain availability, verify backup and recovery, tune performance and control permissions and security. The four functions of the trade, without which the database doesn't hold.
Is it hard to work as a database administrator?
The tool is learned; responsibility is not. The critical database allows no trial and error: what the certification measures is backup, performance and security judgement on real deliveries.
Which engines do you administer as a DBA?
The general ones: SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL. PostgreSQL and MongoDB have their own specialists with their page, and your profile is certified on the engine you actually run.
How much does a freelance database administrator earn?
You invoice per project, and scope sets the band: number of instances, criticality and whether there are on-call shifts. You agree the budget before accepting.
Can database administration be done remotely?
Almost all of it: engines run in the cloud or an accessible data centre and on-call happens remotely. Only some physical maintenance asks for presence.
How do I join Shakers as a database administrator?
Create your profile, pass the certification process and join the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which administration projects to work on.
The day to day of the trade
The backup nobody tested, the index that changes performance at 10 a.m. and the on-call shift the day the instance drops. The trade is learned holding real databases: theory helps, a tested restore convinces.
Scarce titles, embedded skills
Few vacancies title database administrator: the trade lives embedded, with SQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB as skills inside backend and platform roles. Whoever administers well finds projects, not job ads.
The umbrella and the specialists
General administration covers SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL. PostgreSQL and MongoDB have their own specialists: every engine has its page, and your brief is bounded by the engine you run.
The bar is calm
Friday's deployment, the on-call shift the day the instance doesn't answer and the backup that restores without drama: the bar is the administrator's calm, not the tool.
Roles that cross a database project
Four roles from the collective cross your path on a database project, from the engine specialist to the one automating the cloud.
PostgreSQL DBA
The specialist of the fastest-growing engine: migrations from Oracle and tuning when your brief is pure PostgreSQL.
MongoDB DBA
When data doesn't fit tables, it's the role administering MongoDB: horizontal scale, sharding and availability.
Backend Developer
Their applications write to your database: when the schema changes, you agree the migration and its window before deployment.
AWS DevOps Engineer
The cloud the engine runs on: automated snapshots, networks and the cost your administration recommends adjusting.
The boundaries between these roles are agreed on each project: the title does not set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want projects where the database is yours?
Pass Shakers' certification and choose which administration projects to join.
