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 19 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 299 334
Rank change year-on-year +99 +35 +15
Contract jobs citing Metadata 655 249 276
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.30% 0.83% 0.63%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.53% 4.48% 3.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 173 173
10th Percentile £358 £301 £400
25th Percentile £429 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £632 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £469 £550
% change year-on-year +11.94% -14.73% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 8 16
10th Percentile £33.48 £13.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £20.19 £20.11
Median hourly rate £64.00 £28.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +122.61% -11.54% -7.14%
75th Percentile £73.75 £82.25 £46.18
90th Percentile £82.95 £83.83 £47.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +132.73% -31.68% +11.03%

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 7,682 5,556 7,548
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.20% 18.63% 17.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,122 3,791 5,386
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 247 99 157
10th Percentile £14.85 £19.52 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £26.00 £20.98
Median hourly rate £41.71 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.17% -12.50% -31.73%
75th Percentile £69.72 £66.00 £54.13
90th Percentile £78.58 £78.96 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.38 £31.85 £34.47
% change year-on-year +20.51% -7.60% -39.48%

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 19 June 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 19 June 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 19 June 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 +76 546 £525 -3.67% 141
London +61 317 £520 -13.33% 82
UK excluding London +31 259 £525 +11.94% 94
Work from Home +56 190 £525 -8.70% 60
Midlands -10 66 £570 +432.59% 16
West Midlands -14 64 £573 +435.51% 11
North of England -34 57 £525 +9.09% 16
Scotland +31 50 £500 +5.26% 2
South East -41 48 £500 +4.71% 45
East of England -9 30 £525 +64.11% 8
North West -27 27 £575 +9.52% 12
Yorkshire -35 26 £567 +51.13% 3
South West -16 13 £588 +0.04% 7
North East -31 7 £413 -10.81% 1
Wales -16 3 £750 +184.67% 2
East Midlands -16 2 £474 +15.49% 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 37 (5.65%) SharePoint
2 33 (5.04%) Apache Spark
3 29 (4.43%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (3.05%) Confluence
5 17 (2.60%) Apache
6 16 (2.44%) SAS
7 12 (1.83%) CMS
8 5 (0.76%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.46%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.31%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.31%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.31%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.15%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.15%) Drupal
11 1 (0.15%) Liferay
11 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (3.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.22%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.07%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.07%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.07%) Revit
4 4 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.31%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.68%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.92%) Summit
3 5 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.31%) Maximo
4 2 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.15%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.15%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.15%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 191 (29.16%) Azure
2 139 (21.22%) AWS
3 90 (13.74%) Power Platform
4 69 (10.53%) GCP
5 56 (8.55%) Collibra
6 48 (7.33%) Microsoft Purview
7 39 (5.95%) Azure Data Factory
7 39 (5.95%) GitHub
8 36 (5.50%) Amazon S3
9 33 (5.04%) dbt
10 32 (4.89%) Serverless
11 30 (4.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 29 (4.43%) AWS Lambda
13 28 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
14 27 (4.12%) Snowflake
15 19 (2.90%) Microsoft 365
16 15 (2.29%) Entra ID
16 15 (2.29%) Microsoft Copilot
17 14 (2.14%) Power Automate
18 13 (1.98%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.07%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.07%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.76%) Intranet
3 4 (0.61%) Firewall
3 4 (0.61%) SSL
4 3 (0.46%) HTTP
5 1 (0.15%) 4G
5 1 (0.15%) 5G
5 1 (0.15%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (16.95%) Data Warehouse
2 80 (12.21%) Power BI
3 77 (11.76%) Data Lake
4 35 (5.34%) Relational Database
5 33 (5.04%) Data Vault
6 29 (4.43%) NoSQL
6 29 (4.43%) Tableau
7 28 (4.27%) Metadata Repository
8 25 (3.82%) SQL Server
9 23 (3.51%) PostgreSQL
10 21 (3.21%) Big Data
10 21 (3.21%) Delta Lake
11 20 (3.05%) Snowflake Schema
12 19 (2.90%) Amazon Redshift
13 17 (2.60%) Hadoop
14 15 (2.29%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (1.98%) Db2
15 13 (1.98%) Oracle Database
16 12 (1.83%) MySQL
16 12 (1.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 39 (5.95%) ERwin
2 28 (4.27%) Git
3 20 (3.05%) ER Studio
3 20 (3.05%) JIRA
4 15 (2.29%) Jenkins
4 15 (2.29%) PowerDesigner
5 14 (2.14%) GitLab
6 11 (1.68%) Maven
7 10 (1.53%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.31%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.31%) git-flow
10 1 (0.15%) Postman
10 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.15%) Selenium
10 1 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.15%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.15%) VersionOne
General
1 194 (29.62%) Finance
2 181 (27.63%) Social Skills
3 121 (18.47%) Analytical Skills
4 95 (14.50%) Banking
5 74 (11.30%) Public Sector
6 40 (6.11%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.65%) Investment Banking
8 20 (3.05%) Legal
9 17 (2.60%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (2.60%) Publishing
10 16 (2.44%) Retail
11 15 (2.29%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (2.14%) Marketing
13 12 (1.83%) Front Office
14 11 (1.68%) Aviation
15 9 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (1.22%) Law
17 5 (0.76%) Automotive
17 5 (0.76%) Manufacturing
17 5 (0.76%) Military
Job Titles
1 154 (23.51%) Architect
2 106 (16.18%) Data Architect
3 99 (15.11%) Data Engineer
4 77 (11.76%) Analyst
5 67 (10.23%) Lead
6 57 (8.70%) Senior
7 49 (7.48%) Data Analyst
8 48 (7.33%) Data Modeller
9 44 (6.72%) Developer
10 30 (4.58%) Business Analyst
11 28 (4.27%) Consultant
12 19 (2.90%) Data Manager
13 17 (2.60%) Data Business Analyst
14 16 (2.44%) DevOps Engineer
15 15 (2.29%) Senior Data Engineer
16 14 (2.14%) Solutions Architect
17 12 (1.83%) AWS Engineer
17 12 (1.83%) Enterprise Architect
17 12 (1.83%) Lead Data Engineer
17 12 (1.83%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (6.72%) PySpark
2 32 (4.89%) JSON
3 27 (4.12%) Kafka
4 23 (3.51%) REST
5 18 (2.75%) .NET
6 16 (2.44%) YAML
7 14 (2.14%) React
8 12 (1.83%) Node.js
8 12 (1.83%) XML
9 11 (1.68%) OAuth
10 10 (1.53%) SLSA
11 9 (1.37%) Middleware
12 8 (1.22%) RESTful
12 8 (1.22%) SOAP
13 7 (1.07%) OAuth2
13 7 (1.07%) SPFx
14 6 (0.92%) ADO
14 6 (0.92%) CSS
14 6 (0.92%) Spring Boot
15 5 (0.76%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 65 (9.92%) Cloud Native
2 53 (8.09%) Onboarding
3 48 (7.33%) Management Information System
4 47 (7.18%) Data Structures
5 43 (6.56%) Taxonomies
6 35 (5.34%) Legacy Systems
6 35 (5.34%) Reference Data
7 34 (5.19%) Product Ownership
8 20 (3.05%) Derivative
9 17 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.83%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.83%) Equity Derivative
11 11 (1.68%) Distributed Systems
11 11 (1.68%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.37%) AI Agents
13 9 (1.37%) Fixed Income
14 8 (1.22%) Clustering
14 8 (1.22%) Distributed Computing
14 8 (1.22%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.90%) Unix
2 7 (1.07%) Linux
3 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 325 (49.62%) Data Governance
2 303 (46.26%) Data Modelling
3 221 (33.74%) Metadata Management
4 220 (33.59%) Analytics
5 163 (24.89%) Data Architecture
6 162 (24.73%) AI
7 155 (23.66%) ETL
8 137 (20.92%) Data Engineering
9 132 (20.15%) Data Pipeline
10 126 (19.24%) CI/CD
11 124 (18.93%) Migration
12 120 (18.32%) Agile
13 112 (17.10%) Stakeholder Management
14 110 (16.79%) Business Intelligence
15 109 (16.64%) Data Lineage
16 107 (16.34%) Decision-Making
17 101 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
18 100 (15.27%) Data Management
19 98 (14.96%) DevOps
19 98 (14.96%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 251 (38.32%) SQL
2 168 (25.65%) Python
3 49 (7.48%) Java
4 28 (4.27%) C#
5 23 (3.51%) PL/SQL
6 17 (2.60%) PowerShell
7 14 (2.14%) Shell Script
8 13 (1.98%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.53%) Groovy
9 10 (1.53%) Perl
9 10 (1.53%) TypeScript
10 9 (1.37%) C++
11 5 (0.76%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.76%) Bash
11 5 (0.76%) Bicep
11 5 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (0.76%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.61%) Scala
13 3 (0.46%) R
13 3 (0.46%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 141 (21.53%) Security Cleared
2 107 (16.34%) SC Cleared
3 42 (6.41%) Degree
4 28 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (2.29%) Master's Degree
7 11 (1.68%) Azure Certification
8 10 (1.53%) DV Cleared
9 9 (1.37%) TOGAF Certification
10 8 (1.22%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.92%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.31%) Analytics IQ
12 2 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.31%) CISM
12 2 (0.31%) CISSP
12 2 (0.31%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.31%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.31%) PMI Certification
13 1 (0.15%) AWS Certified Developer
13 1 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 258 (39.39%) Data Quality
2 62 (9.47%) GDPR
3 35 (5.34%) QA
4 26 (3.97%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.53%) GRC
6 7 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.07%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.92%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.92%) NIST
8 5 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 5 (0.76%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.61%) ISO 22301
9 4 (0.61%) MiFID
10 3 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.46%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.31%) IFRS
11 2 (0.31%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.31%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (1.98%) Docker
2 10 (1.53%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 27 (4.12%) Terraform
2 13 (1.98%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.22%) Grafana
4 6 (0.92%) Prometheus
4 6 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.61%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.61%) PingFederate
6 1 (0.15%) Ansible
6 1 (0.15%) Kibana
Vendors
1 122 (18.63%) Microsoft
2 95 (14.50%) Databricks
3 62 (9.47%) Oracle
4 39 (5.95%) Informatica
5 22 (3.36%) Salesforce
6 21 (3.21%) Google
7 18 (2.75%) Talend
8 14 (2.14%) IBM
8 14 (2.14%) SAP
9 13 (1.98%) Autodesk
9 13 (1.98%) ServiceNow
10 11 (1.68%) Sparx
10 11 (1.68%) Sybase
11 10 (1.53%) Sonatype
12 8 (1.22%) OpenAI
13 6 (0.92%) Adobe
14 5 (0.76%) Denodo
14 5 (0.76%) Foundry
14 5 (0.76%) Palantir
15 4 (0.61%) Hortonworks