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 31 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 195 296 384
Rank change year-on-year +101 +88 -3
Contract jobs citing Metadata 788 294 195
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.47% 0.89% 0.51%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 9.65% 4.95% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 492 203 122
10th Percentile £400 £329 £400
25th Percentile £456 £451 £466
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -2.78% -6.09%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £750
90th Percentile £750 £749 £913
UK excluding London median daily rate £539 £467 £481
% change year-on-year +15.51% -3.06% -11.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 3 10
10th Percentile £19.28 - £13.50
25th Percentile £50.23 £13.25 £14.95
Median hourly rate £67.49 £13.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +399.89% -50.91% -44.44%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.63 £33.75
90th Percentile £70.15 £72.75 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.49 £13.50 £16.40
% change year-on-year +399.89% -17.68% -69.82%

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 8,165 5,939 6,990
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.19% 18.02% 18.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,436 3,981 4,881
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 94 100
10th Percentile £15.82 £21.22 £14.93
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.02 £19.77
Median hourly rate £38.25 £38.85 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.53% +19.52% -40.91%
75th Percentile £60.75 £64.94 £55.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.63 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £34.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.87% +13.97% -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 31 August 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 31 August 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 31 August 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 +89 679 £550 +4.76% 299
London +69 389 £550 -4.35% 189
UK excluding London +77 311 £539 +15.51% 168
Work from Home +56 224 £525 -10.64% 155
North of England 0 85 £500 - 32
Midlands -2 72 £612 +200.74% 20
West Midlands +1 65 £627 +485.51% 16
South East -39 56 £525 +12.18% 62
Yorkshire +6 52 £500 -15.79% 11
Scotland +13 44 £533 +12.11% 16
East of England +7 32 £450 -18.18% 6
North West -31 29 £575 +41.10% 18
South West -19 27 £563 -6.25% 30
East Midlands -12 7 £494 +18.98% 4
North East -30 7 £463 +2.78% 3
Wales -15 3 £750 +76.47% 1

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 48 (6.09%) SharePoint
2 34 (4.31%) Apache Airflow
3 27 (3.43%) Apache
4 26 (3.30%) Apache Spark
5 25 (3.17%) CMS
6 17 (2.16%) Confluence
7 16 (2.03%) SAS
8 9 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (1.02%) Headless CMS
10 6 (0.76%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.38%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.25%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.25%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.13%) Apache Solr
13 1 (0.13%) JBoss
13 1 (0.13%) Liferay
13 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
13 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (2.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.89%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.89%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.89%) Revit
3 6 (0.76%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.13%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.13%) Notion
7 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 18 (2.28%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.51%) Summit
4 3 (0.38%) Maximo
4 3 (0.38%) SAP HR
5 2 (0.25%) HFM
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.25%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.25%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 2 (0.25%) Workfront
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 236 (29.95%) Azure
2 189 (23.98%) AWS
3 111 (14.09%) Power Platform
4 89 (11.29%) GCP
5 66 (8.38%) Microsoft Purview
6 62 (7.87%) Collibra
7 50 (6.35%) Azure Data Factory
8 42 (5.33%) GitHub
9 41 (5.20%) Amazon S3
10 38 (4.82%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 38 (4.82%) dbt
10 38 (4.82%) Snowflake
11 33 (4.19%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (4.19%) Serverless
12 31 (3.93%) AWS Lambda
12 31 (3.93%) Microsoft 365
13 25 (3.17%) Azure Databricks
14 23 (2.92%) Power Automate
15 22 (2.79%) Entra ID
16 21 (2.66%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.89%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.89%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.63%) Broadband
3 4 (0.51%) HTTP
3 4 (0.51%) Intranet
3 4 (0.51%) SSL
4 3 (0.38%) Firewall
5 1 (0.13%) DNS
5 1 (0.13%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.13%) SAN
5 1 (0.13%) SMS
5 1 (0.13%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (15.10%) Data Warehouse
2 98 (12.44%) Power BI
3 90 (11.42%) Data Lake
4 39 (4.95%) Relational Database
5 36 (4.57%) NoSQL
6 34 (4.31%) Delta Lake
7 31 (3.93%) Tableau
8 26 (3.30%) Data Vault
9 24 (3.05%) PostgreSQL
9 24 (3.05%) Semantic Layer
10 21 (2.66%) BigQuery
11 19 (2.41%) Amazon Redshift
12 16 (2.03%) Elasticsearch
13 15 (1.90%) SQL Server
14 14 (1.78%) Db2
15 13 (1.65%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (1.65%) MongoDB
16 12 (1.52%) Parquet
16 12 (1.52%) Snowflake Schema
17 11 (1.40%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 37 (4.70%) Git
2 34 (4.31%) ERwin
3 25 (3.17%) ER Studio
4 21 (2.66%) JIRA
5 18 (2.28%) Jenkins
6 16 (2.03%) Maven
7 13 (1.65%) PowerDesigner
8 12 (1.52%) GitLab
9 11 (1.40%) SonarQube
10 6 (0.76%) Selenium
11 3 (0.38%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.38%) MLflow
12 2 (0.25%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.25%) git-flow
12 2 (0.25%) TestRail
13 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 1 (0.13%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.13%) VersionOne
13 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 231 (29.31%) Social Skills
2 204 (25.89%) Finance
3 158 (20.05%) Analytical Skills
4 97 (12.31%) Public Sector
5 96 (12.18%) Banking
6 38 (4.82%) Investment Banking
7 33 (4.19%) Influencing Skills
8 24 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (2.92%) Publishing
9 23 (2.92%) Retail
10 20 (2.54%) Marketing
11 18 (2.28%) Legal
12 17 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 14 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (1.65%) Manufacturing
15 12 (1.52%) Front Office
16 10 (1.27%) Law
16 10 (1.27%) Military
17 8 (1.02%) Aviation
17 8 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 200 (25.38%) Architect
2 142 (18.02%) Data Architect
3 122 (15.48%) Data Engineer
4 106 (13.45%) Lead
5 93 (11.80%) Analyst
6 70 (8.88%) Senior
7 54 (6.85%) Data Analyst
8 43 (5.46%) Data Modeller
9 35 (4.44%) Business Analyst
9 35 (4.44%) Developer
10 25 (3.17%) Senior Data Engineer
11 24 (3.05%) Consultant
12 22 (2.79%) Data Manager
13 20 (2.54%) Data Business Analyst
13 20 (2.54%) Lead Data Engineer
13 20 (2.54%) Product Owner
13 20 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
14 18 (2.28%) DevOps Engineer
15 16 (2.03%) Enterprise Architect
16 15 (1.90%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (7.23%) PySpark
2 43 (5.46%) JSON
3 41 (5.20%) Terraform
4 36 (4.57%) Kafka
5 33 (4.19%) REST
6 20 (2.54%) YAML
7 15 (1.90%) Spring Boot
8 12 (1.52%) Node.js
8 12 (1.52%) XML
9 11 (1.40%) React
9 11 (1.40%) SLSA
10 10 (1.27%) Spring
11 9 (1.14%) .NET
11 9 (1.14%) Playwright
12 8 (1.02%) GraphQL
12 8 (1.02%) Middleware
13 7 (0.89%) RESTful
14 6 (0.76%) FastAPI
14 6 (0.76%) OAuth
14 6 (0.76%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.39%) Cloud Native
2 64 (8.12%) Data Structures
3 62 (7.87%) Onboarding
4 56 (7.11%) Taxonomies
5 54 (6.85%) Management Information System
6 52 (6.60%) Product Ownership
7 47 (5.96%) Legacy Systems
8 42 (5.33%) Reference Data
9 19 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (2.41%) Derivative
10 16 (2.03%) AI Agents
11 15 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
12 14 (1.78%) Data Fabric
13 13 (1.65%) Life Science
14 12 (1.52%) Equity Derivative
15 11 (1.40%) Distributed Computing
15 11 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
16 10 (1.27%) Digital Media
17 9 (1.14%) Clustering
17 9 (1.14%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.41%) Unix
2 13 (1.65%) Linux
3 1 (0.13%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.13%) VMS
3 1 (0.13%) Windows
3 1 (0.13%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 412 (52.28%) Data Governance
2 368 (46.70%) Data Modelling
3 299 (37.94%) Metadata Management
4 261 (33.12%) Analytics
5 215 (27.28%) AI
6 211 (26.78%) Data Architecture
7 195 (24.75%) Stakeholder Management
8 179 (22.72%) Agile
9 178 (22.59%) Data Pipeline
10 167 (21.19%) CI/CD
10 167 (21.19%) ETL
11 166 (21.07%) Data Engineering
12 165 (20.94%) Migration
13 136 (17.26%) Data Management
13 136 (17.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 132 (16.75%) Business Intelligence
15 131 (16.62%) Data Lineage
16 129 (16.37%) Validation
17 128 (16.24%) Roadmaps
18 124 (15.74%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 288 (36.55%) SQL
2 204 (25.89%) Python
3 63 (7.99%) Java
4 22 (2.79%) PL/SQL
5 15 (1.90%) Shell Script
6 14 (1.78%) C#
6 14 (1.78%) Groovy
6 14 (1.78%) PowerShell
7 13 (1.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 13 (1.65%) JavaScript
8 9 (1.14%) Bash
8 9 (1.14%) C++
9 7 (0.89%) Bicep
9 7 (0.89%) SPARQL
10 6 (0.76%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.63%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.63%) Scala
11 5 (0.63%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.51%) Cypher
12 4 (0.51%) Perl
Qualifications
1 179 (22.72%) Security Cleared
2 136 (17.26%) SC Cleared
3 49 (6.22%) Degree
4 38 (4.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (2.28%) DV Cleared
7 14 (1.78%) Azure Certification
8 10 (1.27%) TOGAF Certification
9 9 (1.14%) Master's Degree
10 8 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
11 7 (0.89%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.38%) CISSP
12 3 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.38%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.38%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 2 (0.25%) ACCA
13 2 (0.25%) CIMA
13 2 (0.25%) CISM
13 2 (0.25%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 350 (44.42%) Data Quality
2 71 (9.01%) GDPR
3 45 (5.71%) Accessibility
4 44 (5.58%) QA
5 8 (1.02%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 7 (0.89%) WCAG
7 6 (0.76%) GRC
7 6 (0.76%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.76%) MiFID
8 5 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.63%) NIST
8 5 (0.63%) Solvency II
9 4 (0.51%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.51%) NCSC
9 4 (0.51%) SNOMED CT
10 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.25%) IFRS
11 2 (0.25%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 22 (2.79%) Docker
2 11 (1.40%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.13%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 23 (2.92%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.27%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (1.02%) Grafana
4 5 (0.63%) Ansible
4 5 (0.63%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.51%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.51%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.25%) Control-M
6 2 (0.25%) Kibana
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.13%) Istio
7 1 (0.13%) systemd
Vendors
1 148 (18.78%) Microsoft
2 127 (16.12%) Databricks
3 56 (7.11%) Oracle
4 54 (6.85%) Informatica
5 29 (3.68%) Google
6 18 (2.28%) Sparx
7 17 (2.16%) SAP
8 16 (2.03%) IBM
8 16 (2.03%) Salesforce
9 13 (1.65%) Autodesk
9 13 (1.65%) Talend
10 12 (1.52%) ServiceNow
11 11 (1.40%) Sonatype
11 11 (1.40%) Sybase
11 11 (1.40%) Teradata
12 10 (1.27%) Denodo
12 10 (1.27%) Palantir
13 9 (1.14%) Foundry
14 8 (1.02%) Adobe
14 8 (1.02%) CA Agile Central