Metadata Contract Job Trends

Metadata
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Metadata skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 186 280 384
Rank change year-on-year +94 +104 -11
Contract jobs citing Metadata 842 311 189
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 0.95% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 10.33% 5.21% 2.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 542 208 120
10th Percentile £400 £384 £400
25th Percentile £459 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.98%
75th Percentile £661 £638 £695
90th Percentile £756 £741 £841
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +15.79% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 5 4
10th Percentile £19.28 - £24.99
25th Percentile £58.94 £13.25 £33.51
Median hourly rate £67.50 £30.50 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year +121.31% -30.43% -4.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £48.18
90th Percentile £70.15 £78.30 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £13.50 £48.18
% change year-on-year +400.00% -71.98% +4.74%

All Database & BI Skills
UK

Metadata falls under the Databases and Business Intelligence category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring database or business intelligence skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 8,154 5,973 6,804
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.93% 18.32% 17.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,442 4,000 4,616
10th Percentile £353 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £712 £738 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 85 88
10th Percentile £16.63 £21.09 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.87 £29.00 £21.13
Median hourly rate £40.18 £40.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.45% +14.29% -33.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.50 £72.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £35.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.53% +18.30% -42.86%

Metadata
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Metadata relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Metadata job vacancy trend in the UK

Metadata
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Metadata.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Metadata

Metadata
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Metadata over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Metadata in the UK

Metadata
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Metadata.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Metadata

Metadata
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Metadata over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Metadata in the UK

Metadata
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Metadata within the UK over the 6 months to 29 September 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 +74 714 £550 - 602
London +49 405 £550 - 323
UK excluding London +75 339 £550 +15.79% 329
Work from Home +47 232 £550 -7.37% 279
North of England 0 94 £500 -2.44% 69
Midlands +13 77 £610 +48.78% 37
West Midlands +11 70 £626 +108.67% 23
South East -33 59 £575 +22.67% 73
Yorkshire +11 57 £500 -4.76% 23
Scotland +12 54 £509 +7.16% 49
South West -13 33 £575 -2.13% 54
North West -30 31 £625 +39.66% 40
East of England -9 27 £513 -6.82% 28
North East - 9 £463 - 6
East Midlands -16 7 £494 +18.98% 14
Wales -19 3 £750 +7.14% 2

Metadata
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 46 (5.46%) SharePoint
2 41 (4.87%) Apache Airflow
3 33 (3.92%) Apache
4 26 (3.09%) CMS
5 24 (2.85%) Apache Spark
6 22 (2.61%) Confluence
7 18 (2.14%) SAS
8 12 (1.43%) Headless CMS
9 9 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.59%) Palantir Foundry
11 4 (0.48%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.24%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.24%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.12%) Camunda
13 1 (0.12%) JBoss
13 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.12%) Liferay
13 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 15 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.31%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.83%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.83%) Notepad++
3 7 (0.83%) Revit
4 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.12%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.12%) Notion
6 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 19 (2.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.36%) Maximo
3 3 (0.36%) SAP HR
4 2 (0.24%) HFM
4 2 (0.24%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.24%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.24%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 2 (0.24%) Workfront
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.12%) Summit
5 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 249 (29.57%) Azure
2 188 (22.33%) AWS
3 110 (13.06%) Power Platform
4 101 (12.00%) GCP
5 81 (9.62%) Microsoft Purview
6 69 (8.19%) Collibra
7 53 (6.29%) Azure Data Factory
8 48 (5.70%) Snowflake
9 45 (5.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 41 (4.87%) dbt
11 39 (4.63%) Amazon S3
11 39 (4.63%) GitHub
12 38 (4.51%) Azure DevOps
13 32 (3.80%) Serverless
14 30 (3.56%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (3.56%) Microsoft 365
15 28 (3.33%) Azure Databricks
16 21 (2.49%) Entra ID
16 21 (2.49%) Microsoft Copilot
16 21 (2.49%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.83%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.83%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.59%) Broadband
3 4 (0.48%) HTTP
3 4 (0.48%) Intranet
3 4 (0.48%) Kerberos
4 3 (0.36%) DNS
4 3 (0.36%) Firewall
4 3 (0.36%) SSH
5 2 (0.24%) SAN
6 1 (0.12%) BGP
6 1 (0.12%) LAN
6 1 (0.12%) MPLS
6 1 (0.12%) Network Security
6 1 (0.12%) OSPF
6 1 (0.12%) SMS
6 1 (0.12%) SSL
6 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.12%) VLAN
6 1 (0.12%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (14.73%) Data Warehouse
2 100 (11.88%) Data Lake
3 97 (11.52%) Power BI
4 40 (4.75%) BigQuery
5 37 (4.39%) Relational Database
6 36 (4.28%) NoSQL
7 33 (3.92%) Delta Lake
7 33 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
8 26 (3.09%) Semantic Layer
9 25 (2.97%) Data Vault
10 21 (2.49%) Tableau
11 18 (2.14%) Amazon Redshift
11 18 (2.14%) Elasticsearch
12 16 (1.90%) SQL Server
13 15 (1.78%) Neo4j
14 14 (1.66%) Parquet
15 13 (1.54%) Db2
15 13 (1.54%) Metadata Repository
16 12 (1.43%) Big Data
16 12 (1.43%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 43 (5.11%) Git
2 33 (3.92%) ERwin
3 26 (3.09%) JIRA
4 24 (2.85%) ER Studio
5 12 (1.43%) Jenkins
5 12 (1.43%) Maven
6 11 (1.31%) PowerDesigner
7 10 (1.19%) GitLab
8 8 (0.95%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.59%) Selenium
10 4 (0.48%) MLflow
11 2 (0.24%) TestRail
12 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.12%) Deequ
12 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
12 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 245 (29.10%) Social Skills
2 204 (24.23%) Finance
3 155 (18.41%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (13.42%) Public Sector
5 104 (12.35%) Banking
6 40 (4.75%) Influencing Skills
7 36 (4.28%) Investment Banking
8 25 (2.97%) Legal
8 25 (2.97%) Publishing
9 24 (2.85%) Documentation Skills
9 24 (2.85%) Retail
10 23 (2.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 20 (2.38%) Marketing
12 15 (1.78%) Aerospace
12 15 (1.78%) Manufacturing
13 14 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
14 12 (1.43%) Military
15 11 (1.31%) Front Office
16 9 (1.07%) Law
17 8 (0.95%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 236 (28.03%) Architect
2 170 (20.19%) Data Architect
3 131 (15.56%) Data Engineer
4 109 (12.95%) Lead
5 92 (10.93%) Analyst
6 87 (10.33%) Senior
7 49 (5.82%) Data Analyst
8 44 (5.23%) Data Modeller
9 43 (5.11%) Business Analyst
10 34 (4.04%) Developer
11 31 (3.68%) Senior Data Engineer
12 26 (3.09%) Consultant
13 25 (2.97%) Data Business Analyst
14 23 (2.73%) Enterprise Architect
14 23 (2.73%) Lead Data Engineer
14 23 (2.73%) Solutions Architect
15 21 (2.49%) Data Manager
16 19 (2.26%) Enterprise Data Architect
16 19 (2.26%) Product Owner
17 16 (1.90%) Information Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (6.65%) PySpark
2 45 (5.34%) Terraform
3 43 (5.11%) JSON
4 41 (4.87%) REST
5 30 (3.56%) Kafka
6 22 (2.61%) YAML
7 15 (1.78%) Spring Boot
8 14 (1.66%) FastAPI
9 11 (1.31%) pydantic
9 11 (1.31%) React
9 11 (1.31%) XML
10 10 (1.19%) Spring
11 9 (1.07%) .NET
11 9 (1.07%) GraphQL
11 9 (1.07%) Node.js
12 8 (0.95%) JDBC
12 8 (0.95%) RESTful
12 8 (0.95%) SLSA
13 7 (0.83%) Hibernate
13 7 (0.83%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 79 (9.38%) Cloud Native
1 79 (9.38%) Taxonomies
2 74 (8.79%) Onboarding
3 71 (8.43%) Data Structures
4 62 (7.36%) Management Information System
5 58 (6.89%) Product Ownership
6 47 (5.58%) Legacy Systems
7 40 (4.75%) Reference Data
8 23 (2.73%) Data Fabric
9 18 (2.14%) AI Agents
10 17 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
11 15 (1.78%) Derivative
12 13 (1.54%) Life Science
13 12 (1.43%) Distributed Computing
13 12 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (1.31%) CMDB
14 11 (1.31%) Equity Derivative
15 10 (1.19%) Distributed Systems
15 10 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
15 10 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 13 (1.54%) Linux
2 12 (1.43%) Unix
3 3 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (0.36%) Windows
3 3 (0.36%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 462 (54.87%) Data Governance
2 405 (48.10%) Data Modelling
3 326 (38.72%) Metadata Management
4 273 (32.42%) Analytics
5 252 (29.93%) Data Architecture
6 242 (28.74%) AI
7 230 (27.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 209 (24.82%) Agile
9 183 (21.73%) Data Pipeline
10 180 (21.38%) Data Engineering
10 180 (21.38%) Migration
11 175 (20.78%) CI/CD
12 166 (19.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 164 (19.48%) ETL
14 156 (18.53%) Roadmaps
15 152 (18.05%) Data Lineage
16 150 (17.81%) Data Management
17 133 (15.80%) Validation
18 129 (15.32%) Decision-Making
19 128 (15.20%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 288 (34.20%) SQL
2 219 (26.01%) Python
3 58 (6.89%) Java
4 19 (2.26%) PL/SQL
5 17 (2.02%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 12 (1.43%) C#
7 12 (1.43%) Groovy
7 12 (1.43%) Shell Script
8 11 (1.31%) Bash
8 11 (1.31%) JavaScript
9 8 (0.95%) C++
10 7 (0.83%) Bicep
10 7 (0.83%) SPARQL
11 6 (0.71%) Scala
11 6 (0.71%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.48%) Cypher
12 4 (0.48%) Perl
12 4 (0.48%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.36%) Gremlin
Qualifications
1 203 (24.11%) Security Cleared
2 158 (18.76%) SC Cleared
3 53 (6.29%) Degree
4 45 (5.34%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (2.85%) DV Cleared
6 23 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.43%) Azure Certification
7 12 (1.43%) TOGAF Certification
8 9 (1.07%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.83%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.83%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 4 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.48%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.36%) CISSP
12 2 (0.24%) ACCA
12 2 (0.24%) CBAP
12 2 (0.24%) CIMA
12 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.24%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 403 (47.86%) Data Quality
2 63 (7.48%) GDPR
3 45 (5.34%) Accessibility
4 41 (4.87%) QA
5 8 (0.95%) WCAG
6 7 (0.83%) NCSC
7 6 (0.71%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 6 (0.71%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.71%) MiFID
8 5 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (0.59%) NIST
9 4 (0.48%) GRC
9 4 (0.48%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.48%) SNOMED CT
10 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.24%) SLA
11 2 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 24 (2.85%) Docker
2 8 (0.95%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 25 (2.97%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (0.95%) Grafana
4 6 (0.71%) Ansible
4 6 (0.71%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.36%) Control-M
6 2 (0.24%) Kibana
6 2 (0.24%) systemd
7 1 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.12%) CA Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.12%) Istio
7 1 (0.12%) PingFederate
Vendors
1 160 (19.00%) Microsoft
2 145 (17.22%) Databricks
3 56 (6.65%) Informatica
4 45 (5.34%) Google
5 42 (4.99%) Oracle
6 19 (2.26%) Sparx
7 17 (2.02%) SAP
8 15 (1.78%) IBM
9 14 (1.66%) ServiceNow
10 13 (1.54%) Autodesk
11 11 (1.31%) Denodo
11 11 (1.31%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.31%) Talend
12 10 (1.19%) Sybase
12 10 (1.19%) Teradata
13 9 (1.07%) Palantir
14 8 (0.95%) Sonatype
15 7 (0.83%) Aspera
15 7 (0.83%) CA Agile Central
15 7 (0.83%) Signiant