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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 270 384
Rank change year-on-year +89 +114 +3
Contract jobs citing Metadata 848 311 192
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 0.94% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 10.30% 5.14% 2.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 545 211 123
10th Percentile £400 £388 £400
25th Percentile £460 £463 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £656 £638 £725
90th Percentile £759 £738 £868
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 5
10th Percentile £19.28 - £20.08
25th Percentile £58.94 £13.25 £21.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £30.50 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +121.31% -22.78% -14.30%
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 8,237 6,053 6,849
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.01% 18.30% 17.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,500 4,058 4,671
10th Percentile £355 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -5.66% -1.85%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £650
90th Percentile £712 £738 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 272 86 90
10th Percentile £16.70 £21.11 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.96 £29.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.18 £42.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.32% +19.99% -33.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £61.19
90th Percentile £74.68 £83.75 £71.73
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.25 £37.48 £30.00
% change year-on-year +7.39% +24.93% -44.95%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +82 721 £550 - 767
London +49 409 £550 -2.22% 427
UK excluding London +78 340 £550 +15.79% 427
Work from Home +54 233 £550 -8.33% 327
North of England +4 94 £500 -4.76% 94
Midlands +10 77 £610 +48.78% 53
West Midlands +10 70 £626 +108.67% 35
South East -32 59 £575 +24.32% 106
Yorkshire +12 58 £500 -5.88% 34
Scotland +14 52 £525 +10.53% 53
South West -13 34 £575 - 63
North West -25 31 £625 +31.93% 51
East of England -15 28 £513 -6.82% 34
North East - 8 £463 - 9
East Midlands -14 7 £494 +18.98% 18
Wales -15 4 £750 +7.14% 3

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 (5.42%) SharePoint
2 41 (4.83%) Apache Airflow
3 33 (3.89%) Apache
4 26 (3.07%) CMS
5 24 (2.83%) Apache Spark
5 24 (2.83%) Confluence
6 18 (2.12%) SAS
7 12 (1.42%) Headless CMS
8 9 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.59%) Palantir Foundry
10 4 (0.47%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.24%) Alfresco
11 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.24%) SharePoint Server
12 1 (0.12%) Camunda
12 1 (0.12%) JBoss
12 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.12%) Liferay
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 16 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.18%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.83%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.83%) Notepad++
3 7 (0.83%) Revit
4 4 (0.47%) 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 (2.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.35%) Maximo
3 3 (0.35%) 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
1 256 (30.19%) Azure
2 194 (22.88%) AWS
3 111 (13.09%) Power Platform
4 104 (12.26%) GCP
5 80 (9.43%) Microsoft Purview
6 71 (8.37%) Collibra
7 53 (6.25%) Azure Data Factory
8 48 (5.66%) Snowflake
9 45 (5.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 41 (4.83%) dbt
11 40 (4.72%) GitHub
12 39 (4.60%) Amazon S3
13 38 (4.48%) Azure DevOps
14 32 (3.77%) Serverless
15 30 (3.54%) AWS Lambda
15 30 (3.54%) Microsoft 365
16 28 (3.30%) Azure Databricks
17 23 (2.71%) Entra ID
18 22 (2.59%) Microsoft Copilot
19 21 (2.48%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.83%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.83%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.59%) Broadband
3 4 (0.47%) HTTP
3 4 (0.47%) Intranet
3 4 (0.47%) SSL
4 3 (0.35%) DNS
4 3 (0.35%) Firewall
4 3 (0.35%) 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
1 123 (14.50%) Data Warehouse
2 100 (11.79%) Data Lake
3 97 (11.44%) Power BI
4 40 (4.72%) BigQuery
5 37 (4.36%) Relational Database
6 36 (4.25%) NoSQL
7 35 (4.13%) Delta Lake
8 33 (3.89%) PostgreSQL
9 27 (3.18%) Semantic Layer
10 25 (2.95%) Data Vault
11 22 (2.59%) Tableau
12 18 (2.12%) Amazon Redshift
12 18 (2.12%) Elasticsearch
13 16 (1.89%) SQL Server
14 15 (1.77%) Neo4j
14 15 (1.77%) Parquet
15 13 (1.53%) Db2
15 13 (1.53%) Metadata Repository
16 12 (1.42%) Big Data
16 12 (1.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 43 (5.07%) Git
2 33 (3.89%) ERwin
3 28 (3.30%) JIRA
4 24 (2.83%) ER Studio
5 12 (1.42%) Jenkins
5 12 (1.42%) Maven
6 11 (1.30%) PowerDesigner
7 10 (1.18%) GitLab
8 8 (0.94%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.59%) Selenium
10 4 (0.47%) 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%) git-flow
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
12 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 247 (29.13%) Social Skills
2 209 (24.65%) Finance
3 159 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (13.44%) Public Sector
5 104 (12.26%) Banking
6 41 (4.83%) Influencing Skills
7 35 (4.13%) Investment Banking
8 25 (2.95%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.95%) Legal
8 25 (2.95%) Publishing
8 25 (2.95%) Retail
9 22 (2.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (2.36%) Marketing
11 15 (1.77%) Aerospace
11 15 (1.77%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.42%) Military
14 11 (1.30%) Front Office
15 10 (1.18%) Law
16 8 (0.94%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 238 (28.07%) Architect
2 172 (20.28%) Data Architect
3 131 (15.45%) Data Engineer
4 109 (12.85%) Lead
5 91 (10.73%) Analyst
6 86 (10.14%) Senior
7 49 (5.78%) Data Analyst
8 44 (5.19%) Data Modeller
9 41 (4.83%) Business Analyst
10 33 (3.89%) Developer
11 31 (3.66%) Senior Data Engineer
12 27 (3.18%) Consultant
13 24 (2.83%) Data Business Analyst
13 24 (2.83%) Solutions Architect
14 23 (2.71%) Enterprise Architect
14 23 (2.71%) Lead Data Engineer
15 22 (2.59%) Data Manager
16 20 (2.36%) Product Owner
17 19 (2.24%) Enterprise Data Architect
18 16 (1.89%) Information Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (6.60%) PySpark
2 45 (5.31%) Terraform
3 44 (5.19%) JSON
4 41 (4.83%) REST
5 31 (3.66%) Kafka
6 22 (2.59%) YAML
7 15 (1.77%) Spring Boot
8 12 (1.42%) FastAPI
9 11 (1.30%) React
9 11 (1.30%) XML
10 10 (1.18%) Spring
11 9 (1.06%) .NET
11 9 (1.06%) GraphQL
11 9 (1.06%) Node.js
11 9 (1.06%) OAuth
11 9 (1.06%) pydantic
12 8 (0.94%) OAuth2
12 8 (0.94%) Playwright
12 8 (0.94%) RESTful
12 8 (0.94%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 82 (9.67%) Cloud Native
2 78 (9.20%) Taxonomies
3 76 (8.96%) Onboarding
4 69 (8.14%) Data Structures
5 61 (7.19%) Management Information System
6 59 (6.96%) Product Ownership
7 46 (5.42%) Legacy Systems
8 41 (4.83%) Reference Data
9 23 (2.71%) Data Fabric
10 18 (2.12%) AI Agents
11 17 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
12 15 (1.77%) Derivative
13 13 (1.53%) Distributed Computing
13 13 (1.53%) Life Science
14 12 (1.42%) Clustering
14 12 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
15 11 (1.30%) CMDB
15 11 (1.30%) Equity Derivative
16 10 (1.18%) Distributed Systems
16 10 (1.18%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.42%) Linux
1 12 (1.42%) 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
1 464 (54.72%) Data Governance
2 407 (48.00%) Data Modelling
3 328 (38.68%) Metadata Management
4 275 (32.43%) Analytics
5 253 (29.83%) Data Architecture
6 243 (28.66%) AI
7 232 (27.36%) Stakeholder Management
8 211 (24.88%) Agile
9 186 (21.93%) Data Pipeline
10 183 (21.58%) Data Engineering
11 182 (21.46%) Migration
12 179 (21.11%) CI/CD
13 168 (19.81%) ETL
13 168 (19.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 157 (18.51%) Roadmaps
15 151 (17.81%) Data Lineage
15 151 (17.81%) Data Management
16 135 (15.92%) Validation
17 131 (15.45%) Decision-Making
18 130 (15.33%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 291 (34.32%) SQL
2 218 (25.71%) Python
3 61 (7.19%) Java
4 19 (2.24%) PL/SQL
5 16 (1.89%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 12 (1.42%) C#
7 12 (1.42%) Groovy
7 12 (1.42%) Shell Script
8 11 (1.30%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.18%) Bash
10 8 (0.94%) C++
11 7 (0.83%) Bicep
11 7 (0.83%) SPARQL
12 6 (0.71%) Scala
12 6 (0.71%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.47%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.47%) Cypher
13 4 (0.47%) Perl
13 4 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 204 (24.06%) Security Cleared
2 159 (18.75%) SC Cleared
3 53 (6.25%) Degree
4 45 (5.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (2.83%) DV Cleared
6 23 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.42%) Azure Certification
7 12 (1.42%) TOGAF Certification
8 9 (1.06%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.83%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.83%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 5 (0.59%) CISSP
11 4 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.47%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.35%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.24%) ACCA
13 2 (0.24%) CIMA
13 2 (0.24%) CISM
13 2 (0.24%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 405 (47.76%) Data Quality
2 67 (7.90%) GDPR
3 45 (5.31%) Accessibility
4 41 (4.83%) QA
5 8 (0.94%) WCAG
6 7 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 7 (0.83%) NCSC
7 6 (0.71%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.71%) MiFID
8 4 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.47%) GRC
8 4 (0.47%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.47%) NIST
8 4 (0.47%) SNOMED CT
9 3 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.24%) IFRS
10 2 (0.24%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.24%) SLA
10 2 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 24 (2.83%) Docker
2 10 (1.18%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 25 (2.95%) Kubernetes
2 12 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (1.06%) Grafana
4 6 (0.71%) Ansible
4 6 (0.71%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.47%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.47%) PingFederate
6 3 (0.35%) Control-M
7 2 (0.24%) Kibana
7 2 (0.24%) systemd
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
8 1 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 162 (19.10%) Microsoft
2 147 (17.33%) Databricks
3 57 (6.72%) Informatica
4 45 (5.31%) Google
5 42 (4.95%) Oracle
6 19 (2.24%) Sparx
7 18 (2.12%) SAP
8 16 (1.89%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.77%) IBM
10 13 (1.53%) Autodesk
10 13 (1.53%) Salesforce
11 12 (1.42%) Talend
12 11 (1.30%) Denodo
13 10 (1.18%) Sybase
13 10 (1.18%) Teradata
14 9 (1.06%) Palantir
15 8 (0.94%) Foundry
15 8 (0.94%) Sonatype
16 7 (0.83%) Aspera
16 7 (0.83%) Signiant