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 20 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 185 287 367
Rank change year-on-year +102 +80 +1
Contract jobs citing Metadata 839 304 193
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 0.92% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 10.23% 5.07% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 535 209 124
10th Percentile £400 £373 £400
25th Percentile £458 £463 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £528
Median % change year-on-year - +4.27% -8.26%
75th Percentile £656 £638 £725
90th Percentile £759 £750 £884
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 4 5
10th Percentile £19.28 - £20.08
25th Percentile £58.94 £13.25 £21.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £22.00 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +206.82% -44.30% -14.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £45.69 £48.18
90th Percentile £70.15 £70.78 -
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 8,199 6,001 6,913
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.02% 18.24% 17.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,479 4,012 4,751
10th Percentile £356 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -6.19% -1.84%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £712 £738 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £488
% change year-on-year - -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 89 89
10th Percentile £16.63 £21.24 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.35 £29.07 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.18 £43.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.63% +24.29% -36.36%
75th Percentile £58.44 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.10 £81.50 £71.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £37.48 £30.00
% change year-on-year +4.06% +24.93% -45.45%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +94 715 £550 - 722
London +59 404 £550 -4.35% 426
UK excluding London +68 340 £550 +15.79% 372
Work from Home +41 228 £548 -8.75% 293
North of England +10 95 £500 -4.76% 88
Midlands +4 77 £610 +71.83% 44
West Midlands +6 70 £626 +207.62% 34
Yorkshire +8 59 £500 -5.88% 31
South East -24 58 £575 +24.32% 90
Scotland +14 51 £525 +10.53% 45
South West -10 32 £575 - 50
East of England -5 31 £450 -18.18% 29
North West -28 31 £625 +31.93% 51
North East -35 8 £463 +2.78% 6
East Midlands -17 7 £494 +18.98% 10
Wales -16 4 £750 +7.14% 5

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 (5.48%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.77%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (3.69%) Apache
4 24 (2.86%) CMS
5 23 (2.74%) Confluence
6 21 (2.50%) Apache Spark
7 18 (2.15%) SAS
8 11 (1.31%) Headless CMS
9 9 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.60%) 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 18 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.07%) 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
5 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
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 (0.72%) 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 General Ledger
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) Summit
5 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 253 (30.15%) Azure
2 198 (23.60%) AWS
3 109 (12.99%) Power Platform
4 103 (12.28%) GCP
5 77 (9.18%) Microsoft Purview
6 71 (8.46%) Collibra
7 51 (6.08%) Azure Data Factory
8 45 (5.36%) Snowflake
9 44 (5.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 44 (5.24%) dbt
10 43 (5.13%) Amazon S3
11 42 (5.01%) GitHub
12 35 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
12 35 (4.17%) Serverless
13 33 (3.93%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (3.58%) Microsoft 365
15 26 (3.10%) Azure Databricks
16 23 (2.74%) Entra ID
17 22 (2.62%) Microsoft Copilot
18 21 (2.50%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.83%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.83%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.60%) Broadband
3 4 (0.48%) HTTP
3 4 (0.48%) Intranet
3 4 (0.48%) SSL
4 3 (0.36%) DNS
4 3 (0.36%) Firewall
4 3 (0.36%) Kerberos
5 2 (0.24%) SAN
5 2 (0.24%) SSH
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%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.12%) SMS
6 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.12%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (15.14%) Data Warehouse
2 97 (11.56%) Data Lake
3 95 (11.32%) Power BI
4 36 (4.29%) BigQuery
4 36 (4.29%) NoSQL
4 36 (4.29%) Relational Database
5 33 (3.93%) Delta Lake
6 32 (3.81%) PostgreSQL
7 28 (3.34%) Semantic Layer
8 25 (2.98%) Data Vault
9 22 (2.62%) Tableau
10 19 (2.26%) Amazon Redshift
11 18 (2.15%) SQL Server
12 17 (2.03%) Elasticsearch
13 15 (1.79%) Parquet
14 14 (1.67%) Db2
14 14 (1.67%) Neo4j
15 12 (1.43%) Big Data
15 12 (1.43%) Geospatial Data
15 12 (1.43%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 41 (4.89%) Git
2 32 (3.81%) ERwin
3 28 (3.34%) JIRA
4 24 (2.86%) ER Studio
5 15 (1.79%) Jenkins
6 14 (1.67%) Maven
7 12 (1.43%) GitLab
8 11 (1.31%) PowerDesigner
9 10 (1.19%) SonarQube
10 5 (0.60%) Selenium
11 3 (0.36%) MLflow
12 2 (0.24%) TestRail
13 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
13 1 (0.12%) Deequ
13 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
13 1 (0.12%) git-flow
13 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
13 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 245 (29.20%) Social Skills
2 207 (24.67%) Finance
3 159 (18.95%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (13.35%) Public Sector
5 103 (12.28%) Banking
6 40 (4.77%) Influencing Skills
7 36 (4.29%) Investment Banking
8 26 (3.10%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (3.10%) Publishing
9 23 (2.74%) Legal
9 23 (2.74%) Retail
10 22 (2.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 21 (2.50%) Marketing
12 16 (1.91%) Manufacturing
13 15 (1.79%) Aerospace
13 15 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
14 12 (1.43%) Front Office
14 12 (1.43%) Military
15 10 (1.19%) Law
16 8 (0.95%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 226 (26.94%) Architect
2 163 (19.43%) Data Architect
3 133 (15.85%) Data Engineer
4 109 (12.99%) Lead
5 87 (10.37%) Analyst
6 82 (9.77%) Senior
7 48 (5.72%) Data Analyst
8 44 (5.24%) Data Modeller
9 37 (4.41%) Business Analyst
9 37 (4.41%) Developer
10 30 (3.58%) Senior Data Engineer
11 27 (3.22%) Consultant
12 23 (2.74%) Data Manager
12 23 (2.74%) Enterprise Architect
12 23 (2.74%) Solutions Architect
13 22 (2.62%) Data Business Analyst
14 21 (2.50%) Lead Data Engineer
15 20 (2.38%) Product Owner
16 19 (2.26%) Enterprise Data Architect
17 16 (1.91%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (7.03%) PySpark
2 46 (5.48%) JSON
3 44 (5.24%) Terraform
4 41 (4.89%) REST
5 32 (3.81%) Kafka
6 22 (2.62%) YAML
7 15 (1.79%) Spring Boot
8 12 (1.43%) Node.js
9 11 (1.31%) React
9 11 (1.31%) XML
10 10 (1.19%) FastAPI
10 10 (1.19%) SLSA
10 10 (1.19%) Spring
11 9 (1.07%) .NET
11 9 (1.07%) GraphQL
11 9 (1.07%) OAuth
12 8 (0.95%) JDBC
12 8 (0.95%) OAuth2
12 8 (0.95%) Playwright
13 7 (0.83%) Apache NiFi
Miscellaneous
1 78 (9.30%) Cloud Native
2 74 (8.82%) Onboarding
3 71 (8.46%) Taxonomies
4 69 (8.22%) Data Structures
5 61 (7.27%) Management Information System
6 57 (6.79%) Product Ownership
7 44 (5.24%) Legacy Systems
8 42 (5.01%) Reference Data
9 23 (2.74%) Data Fabric
10 18 (2.15%) AI Agents
10 18 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
11 16 (1.91%) Derivative
12 13 (1.55%) Distributed Computing
12 13 (1.55%) Life Science
13 12 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.43%) Equity Derivative
14 11 (1.31%) CMDB
14 11 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
15 10 (1.19%) Clustering
15 10 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.43%) Linux
1 12 (1.43%) Unix
2 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 2 (0.24%) Windows
2 2 (0.24%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 456 (54.35%) Data Governance
2 400 (47.68%) Data Modelling
3 325 (38.74%) Metadata Management
4 271 (32.30%) Analytics
5 239 (28.49%) Data Architecture
6 237 (28.25%) AI
7 230 (27.41%) Stakeholder Management
8 210 (25.03%) Agile
9 190 (22.65%) Data Pipeline
10 181 (21.57%) Data Engineering
11 178 (21.22%) CI/CD
11 178 (21.22%) Migration
12 173 (20.62%) ETL
13 161 (19.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 153 (18.24%) Roadmaps
15 147 (17.52%) Data Lineage
16 146 (17.40%) Data Management
17 133 (15.85%) Validation
18 131 (15.61%) DevOps
19 129 (15.38%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 292 (34.80%) SQL
2 222 (26.46%) Python
3 65 (7.75%) Java
4 20 (2.38%) PL/SQL
5 16 (1.91%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 13 (1.55%) Groovy
7 12 (1.43%) C#
7 12 (1.43%) Shell Script
8 11 (1.31%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.19%) Bash
10 9 (1.07%) C++
11 7 (0.83%) Bicep
11 7 (0.83%) SPARQL
12 6 (0.72%) Scala
12 6 (0.72%) TypeScript
13 5 (0.60%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.48%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.48%) Cypher
14 4 (0.48%) Perl
Qualifications
1 206 (24.55%) Security Cleared
2 157 (18.71%) SC Cleared
3 56 (6.67%) Degree
4 43 (5.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (2.86%) DV Cleared
6 12 (1.43%) Azure Certification
6 12 (1.43%) TOGAF Certification
7 10 (1.19%) AWS Certification
8 8 (0.95%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.83%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 5 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (0.60%) CISSP
11 4 (0.48%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.36%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.24%) ACCA
13 2 (0.24%) CBAP
13 2 (0.24%) CISM
13 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 398 (47.44%) Data Quality
2 66 (7.87%) GDPR
3 45 (5.36%) Accessibility
4 41 (4.89%) QA
5 8 (0.95%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 8 (0.95%) WCAG
6 7 (0.83%) NCSC
7 6 (0.72%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.72%) MiFID
8 5 (0.60%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.48%) GRC
9 4 (0.48%) NIST
9 4 (0.48%) SNOMED CT
10 3 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.24%) SLA
11 2 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 25 (2.98%) Docker
2 10 (1.19%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 27 (3.22%) Kubernetes
2 12 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (1.19%) Grafana
4 7 (0.83%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.72%) Ansible
6 4 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.48%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.48%) PingFederate
7 3 (0.36%) Control-M
8 2 (0.24%) Kibana
8 2 (0.24%) systemd
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 162 (19.31%) Microsoft
2 144 (17.16%) Databricks
3 62 (7.39%) Informatica
4 46 (5.48%) Oracle
5 41 (4.89%) Google
6 19 (2.26%) Sparx
7 17 (2.03%) SAP
8 16 (1.91%) IBM
8 16 (1.91%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.67%) Talend
10 13 (1.55%) Autodesk
10 13 (1.55%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.31%) Denodo
11 11 (1.31%) Sybase
11 11 (1.31%) Teradata
12 10 (1.19%) Sonatype
13 9 (1.07%) Palantir
14 8 (0.95%) Foundry
15 7 (0.83%) Aspera
15 7 (0.83%) Signiant