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 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 344 298
Rank change year-on-year +131 -46 +7
Contract jobs citing Metadata 528 187 341
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.24% 0.64% 0.76%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.71% 3.33% 4.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 366 136 232
10th Percentile £358 £287 £361
25th Percentile £415 £430 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £520 £558
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% -6.73% +1.36%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £731
90th Percentile £688 £799 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £506 £473 £550
% change year-on-year +7.14% -14.09% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 7 25
10th Percentile £38.47 £22.63 £13.70
25th Percentile £63.38 £22.72 £20.49
Median hourly rate £69.22 £27.50 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +151.71% -31.68% +15.00%
75th Percentile £82.69 £56.13 £46.18
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £47.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +151.71% -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 6,844 5,612 7,293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.03% 19.07% 16.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,706 3,866 5,144
10th Percentile £350 £351 £341
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £499 £488
% change year-on-year -4.71% +2.26% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 141 96 177
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.59 £14.36
25th Percentile £27.88 £24.06 £20.77
Median hourly rate £50.00 £30.00 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -25.93% -29.57%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.56 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £69.38 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.82% -31.25% -29.08%

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 12 March 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 12 March 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 12 March 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 +112 452 £525 +0.48% 167
London +103 263 £525 -16.00% 95
UK excluding London +19 201 £506 +7.14% 113
Work from Home +49 146 £525 -1.41% 71
Midlands -17 52 £560 +51.86% 10
South East -16 46 £513 +7.89% 55
West Midlands -24 46 £569 +54.24% 6
North of England -49 39 £469 -10.24% 18
Scotland +31 35 £436 -36.35% 4
North West -30 22 £466 -14.54% 8
East of England -16 20 £492 +54.78% 7
South West -9 16 £569 +12.35% 17
Yorkshire -51 16 £525 +35.48% 9
East Midlands - 6 £447 - 4
North East -14 4 £475 -23.91% 1
Wales -12 1 £750 +217.80% 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 40 (7.58%) Apache Spark
2 31 (5.87%) SharePoint
3 25 (4.73%) SAS
4 19 (3.60%) Confluence
5 17 (3.22%) Apache Airflow
6 16 (3.03%) Apache
7 10 (1.89%) CMS
8 7 (1.33%) Drupal
8 7 (1.33%) Sitecore CMS
9 5 (0.95%) ArcGIS
9 5 (0.95%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.95%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.57%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.19%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.19%) Headless CMS
12 1 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 29 (5.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (2.46%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (0.38%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 16 (3.03%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 12 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.14%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (1.14%) SAP FI
3 6 (1.14%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.57%) Actimize
4 3 (0.57%) Maximo
4 3 (0.57%) Summit
5 2 (0.38%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.19%) Hyperion Planning
6 1 (0.19%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 163 (30.87%) Azure
2 119 (22.54%) AWS
3 87 (16.48%) Power Platform
4 65 (12.31%) GCP
5 51 (9.66%) Collibra
6 46 (8.71%) Azure Data Factory
7 41 (7.77%) Microsoft Purview
8 35 (6.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 34 (6.44%) Snowflake
10 26 (4.92%) Serverless
11 24 (4.55%) Amazon S3
12 22 (4.17%) dbt
13 20 (3.79%) AWS Lambda
14 19 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
15 16 (3.03%) GitHub
15 16 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
16 7 (1.33%) Amazon EMR
16 7 (1.33%) Contentful
16 7 (1.33%) Entra ID
16 7 (1.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.57%) Intranet
2 2 (0.38%) Firewall
2 2 (0.38%) Hyperconnected
3 1 (0.19%) 4G
3 1 (0.19%) 5G
3 1 (0.19%) HTTP
3 1 (0.19%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (21.21%) Data Warehouse
2 81 (15.34%) Power BI
3 67 (12.69%) Data Lake
4 41 (7.77%) Metadata Repository
5 29 (5.49%) Big Data
5 29 (5.49%) SQL Server
6 27 (5.11%) Data Vault
7 26 (4.92%) Snowflake Schema
7 26 (4.92%) Tableau
8 24 (4.55%) NoSQL
9 23 (4.36%) Relational Database
10 22 (4.17%) PostgreSQL
11 19 (3.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 18 (3.41%) Hadoop
13 17 (3.22%) Amazon Redshift
13 17 (3.22%) BigQuery
13 17 (3.22%) Oracle Database
14 16 (3.03%) Azure SQL Database
15 12 (2.27%) Amazon Athena
15 12 (2.27%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 28 (5.30%) ERwin
2 24 (4.55%) Git
3 21 (3.98%) JIRA
4 12 (2.27%) PowerDesigner
5 11 (2.08%) Jenkins
6 10 (1.89%) ER Studio
7 5 (0.95%) Maven
7 5 (0.95%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.76%) GitLab
9 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.38%) Subversion
9 2 (0.38%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.19%) git-flow
10 1 (0.19%) gulp
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.19%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.19%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 175 (33.14%) Social Skills
2 142 (26.89%) Finance
3 106 (20.08%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (13.26%) Public Sector
5 55 (10.42%) Banking
6 38 (7.20%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (3.03%) Publishing
8 13 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
8 13 (2.46%) Legal
9 12 (2.27%) Aviation
9 12 (2.27%) Investment Banking
9 12 (2.27%) Retail
10 11 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.52%) Marketing
12 7 (1.33%) Financial Institution
12 7 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.33%) Military
13 6 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (1.14%) Retail Banking
14 5 (0.95%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 140 (26.52%) Architect
2 106 (20.08%) Data Architect
3 75 (14.20%) Analyst
4 71 (13.45%) Data Engineer
5 52 (9.85%) Data Analyst
6 40 (7.58%) Lead
6 40 (7.58%) Senior
7 39 (7.39%) Data Modeller
8 36 (6.82%) Developer
9 25 (4.73%) Business Analyst
9 25 (4.73%) Consultant
10 16 (3.03%) Azure Engineer
11 14 (2.65%) Data Business Analyst
11 14 (2.65%) Software Engineer
12 12 (2.27%) Azure Data Engineer
12 12 (2.27%) Governance Analyst
12 12 (2.27%) Principal Engineer
13 11 (2.08%) AWS Engineer
13 11 (2.08%) Data Analytics Engineer
13 11 (2.08%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (7.20%) PySpark
2 31 (5.87%) Kafka
3 30 (5.68%) REST
4 18 (3.41%) JSON
5 15 (2.84%) .NET
6 12 (2.27%) React
6 12 (2.27%) SOAP
6 12 (2.27%) XML
6 12 (2.27%) YAML
7 8 (1.52%) OAuth
8 6 (1.14%) Node.js
8 6 (1.14%) Pandas
8 6 (1.14%) RESTful
8 6 (1.14%) SAP Basis
8 6 (1.14%) SAP Business Workflow
8 6 (1.14%) SAP Fiori
8 6 (1.14%) VML
9 5 (0.95%) SLSA
10 4 (0.76%) HTML
11 3 (0.57%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 49 (9.28%) Cloud Native
2 43 (8.14%) Data Structures
3 34 (6.44%) Taxonomies
4 32 (6.06%) Management Information System
5 31 (5.87%) Reference Data
6 25 (4.73%) Onboarding
7 22 (4.17%) Product Ownership
8 21 (3.98%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (2.08%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.70%) Credit Risk
12 7 (1.33%) Data Fabric
12 7 (1.33%) Distributed Computing
12 7 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (0.95%) CMDB
13 5 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
13 5 (0.95%) IoT
13 5 (0.95%) Market Risk
14 4 (0.76%) Derivative
14 4 (0.76%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.89%) Unix
2 6 (1.14%) Linux
3 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (51.14%) Data Governance
2 263 (49.81%) Data Modelling
3 211 (39.96%) Metadata Management
4 194 (36.74%) Analytics
5 156 (29.55%) Data Architecture
6 141 (26.70%) ETL
7 123 (23.30%) Business Intelligence
8 108 (20.45%) Data Engineering
9 100 (18.94%) Agile
10 96 (18.18%) Validation
11 94 (17.80%) Data Pipeline
12 93 (17.61%) Data Lineage
13 91 (17.23%) AI
13 91 (17.23%) Problem-Solving
14 83 (15.72%) Migration
15 79 (14.96%) Data Integration
16 77 (14.58%) Data Management
17 72 (13.64%) CI/CD
17 72 (13.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 71 (13.45%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 211 (39.96%) SQL
2 134 (25.38%) Python
3 24 (4.55%) C#
4 21 (3.98%) PowerShell
5 18 (3.41%) Java
6 12 (2.27%) PL/SQL
7 10 (1.89%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (1.33%) Groovy
9 7 (1.33%) R
10 6 (1.14%) ABAP
10 6 (1.14%) Perl
10 6 (1.14%) Shell Script
10 6 (1.14%) T-SQL
11 5 (0.95%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.95%) Scala
11 5 (0.95%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.57%) SOQL
13 2 (0.38%) Bicep
13 2 (0.38%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 126 (23.86%) Security Cleared
2 94 (17.80%) SC Cleared
3 33 (6.25%) Degree
4 24 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.46%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.52%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.52%) DV Cleared
7 8 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (0.95%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.76%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.19%) Analytics IQ
10 1 (0.19%) CISSP
10 1 (0.19%) CSPO
10 1 (0.19%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.19%) MySQL Certification
10 1 (0.19%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 227 (42.99%) Data Quality
2 54 (10.23%) GDPR
3 23 (4.36%) QA
4 19 (3.60%) Accessibility
5 11 (2.08%) GRC
6 10 (1.89%) Solvency II
7 6 (1.14%) IFRS
7 6 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.95%) NIST
9 4 (0.76%) MiFID
10 3 (0.57%) ISO 22301
11 2 (0.38%) CRD IV
11 2 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.38%) FINREP
11 2 (0.38%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.38%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.38%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.38%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.38%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 11 (2.08%) Docker
2 5 (0.95%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 19 (3.60%) Terraform
2 16 (3.03%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.76%) Grafana
3 4 (0.76%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (0.19%) Ansible
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.19%) SCCM
4 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 101 (19.13%) Microsoft
2 75 (14.20%) Databricks
3 50 (9.47%) Oracle
4 41 (7.77%) Informatica
5 23 (4.36%) ServiceNow
6 19 (3.60%) Talend
7 18 (3.41%) SAP
8 17 (3.22%) Google
9 16 (3.03%) Salesforce
10 15 (2.84%) Sparx
11 11 (2.08%) Teradata
12 8 (1.52%) OpenText
13 7 (1.33%) Remedy
13 7 (1.33%) Sitecore
14 6 (1.14%) ESRI
14 6 (1.14%) Optimizely
15 5 (0.95%) Atlassian
15 5 (0.95%) Intergraph
15 5 (0.95%) Palantir
15 5 (0.95%) Sonatype