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 2 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 357 305
Rank change year-on-year +116 -52 +27
Contract jobs citing Metadata 412 189 321
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 0.58% 0.74%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.46% 3.17% 4.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 285 127 229
10th Percentile £380 £349 £392
25th Percentile £436 £464 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £688
90th Percentile £688 £790 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £488 £575
% change year-on-year +0.96% -15.22% +10.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 21
10th Percentile £48.60 £21.01 £14.00
25th Percentile £70.13 £22.72 £20.50
Median hourly rate £80.50 £32.47 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +147.96% -29.70% +10.61%
75th Percentile £84.00 £71.88 £49.08
90th Percentile £84.40 £82.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £82.25 £25.43 £46.18
% change year-on-year +223.44% -44.93% -26.11%

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 6,375 5,954 7,218
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.19% 18.13% 16.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,409 3,928 5,091
10th Percentile £327 £344 £350
25th Percentile £409 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £753 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 82 145
10th Percentile £21.53 £18.58 £16.12
25th Percentile £29.00 £22.72 £23.24
Median hourly rate £54.00 £31.55 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +71.18% -33.59% -13.64%
75th Percentile £74.26 £64.67 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £69.38 £77.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.31 £27.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +119.29% -40.45% -7.64%

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 2 January 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 2 January 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 2 January 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 +104 357 £525 +0.96% 269
London +89 221 £538 -2.27% 158
UK excluding London +7 146 £492 +0.96% 190
Work from Home +49 112 £538 +3.61% 205
South East 0 33 £500 -6.98% 94
Midlands -11 33 £480 +28.00% 14
North of England -31 24 £475 -12.84% 27
West Midlands -21 23 £558 +48.67% 12
Scotland +13 21 £465 -32.12% 9
East of England -7 20 £500 +57.23% 32
North West -27 15 £448 -17.89% 7
South West -11 12 £568 +16.41% 18
East Midlands - 10 £425 - 1
Wales +5 9 £700 +239.29% 2
Yorkshire -44 8 £500 +25.00% 12
North East -9 1 £475 -23.91% 8

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 32 (7.77%) SharePoint
2 30 (7.28%) Apache Spark
3 17 (4.13%) Confluence
4 15 (3.64%) CMS
4 15 (3.64%) SAS
5 14 (3.40%) Apache
6 8 (1.94%) Apache Airflow
7 7 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
7 7 (1.70%) Sitecore CMS
8 6 (1.46%) Drupal
9 5 (1.21%) GeoServer
9 5 (1.21%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.97%) ArcGIS
11 3 (0.73%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.24%) Alfresco
13 1 (0.24%) Documentum
13 1 (0.24%) Headless CMS
13 1 (0.24%) SharePoint 2013
13 1 (0.24%) Umbraco
Applications
1 26 (6.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.18%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.21%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.49%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.24%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.24%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.24%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (3.40%) SAP S/4HANA
1 14 (3.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (1.46%) OpenText VIM for SAP
2 6 (1.46%) SAP FI
2 6 (1.46%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.73%) Actimize
3 3 (0.73%) Maximo
4 2 (0.49%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 2 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.24%) Hyperion Planning
5 1 (0.24%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) Primavera
5 1 (0.24%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 130 (31.55%) Azure
2 94 (22.82%) AWS
3 74 (17.96%) Power Platform
4 47 (11.41%) GCP
5 40 (9.71%) Collibra
6 37 (8.98%) Azure Data Factory
7 36 (8.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 35 (8.50%) Microsoft Purview
9 28 (6.80%) Snowflake
10 21 (5.10%) Microsoft 365
11 18 (4.37%) Serverless
12 16 (3.88%) Amazon S3
13 15 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
14 13 (3.16%) dbt
15 12 (2.91%) GitHub
16 10 (2.43%) PowerApps
17 7 (1.70%) Contentful
17 7 (1.70%) Entra ID
17 7 (1.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.73%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.49%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.49%) Intranet
3 1 (0.24%) Firewall
3 1 (0.24%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (17.96%) Data Warehouse
2 62 (15.05%) Power BI
3 49 (11.89%) Data Lake
4 26 (6.31%) Metadata Repository
5 22 (5.34%) NoSQL
6 21 (5.10%) Big Data
7 20 (4.85%) Relational Database
8 19 (4.61%) SQL Server
9 18 (4.37%) Data Vault
10 17 (4.13%) Snowflake Schema
11 16 (3.88%) Azure SQL Database
11 16 (3.88%) PostgreSQL
11 16 (3.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 15 (3.64%) Tableau
13 14 (3.40%) Amazon Redshift
14 13 (3.16%) BigQuery
15 12 (2.91%) Spark SQL
16 11 (2.67%) Delta Lake
17 10 (2.43%) Star Schema
18 9 (2.18%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 23 (5.58%) JIRA
2 22 (5.34%) ERwin
3 21 (5.10%) Git
4 11 (2.67%) PowerDesigner
5 10 (2.43%) ER Studio
6 3 (0.73%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.49%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.49%) Subversion
7 2 (0.49%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.24%) GitLab
8 1 (0.24%) gulp
8 1 (0.24%) Poetry
8 1 (0.24%) Postman
8 1 (0.24%) Pylint
8 1 (0.24%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.24%) Yeoman
General
1 159 (38.59%) Social Skills
2 104 (25.24%) Finance
3 82 (19.90%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (13.83%) Public Sector
5 34 (8.25%) Banking
6 30 (7.28%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (4.37%) Publishing
8 12 (2.91%) Retail
9 11 (2.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (2.67%) Legal
10 8 (1.94%) Military
11 7 (1.70%) Financial Institution
11 7 (1.70%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.46%) Aviation
12 6 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.46%) Retail Banking
13 5 (1.21%) Law
13 5 (1.21%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 90 (21.84%) Architect
2 68 (16.50%) Analyst
3 64 (15.53%) Data Architect
4 47 (11.41%) Data Analyst
4 47 (11.41%) Data Engineer
5 31 (7.52%) Data Modeller
6 30 (7.28%) Lead
7 28 (6.80%) Developer
8 24 (5.83%) Consultant
9 22 (5.34%) Senior
10 20 (4.85%) Business Analyst
11 15 (3.64%) Azure Engineer
12 13 (3.16%) Governance Analyst
13 11 (2.67%) Azure Data Engineer
14 10 (2.43%) Data Business Analyst
14 10 (2.43%) Software Engineer
15 9 (2.18%) Data Quality Analyst
15 9 (2.18%) Quality Analyst
15 9 (2.18%) SAP Consultant
16 8 (1.94%) Data Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (8.74%) PySpark
2 25 (6.07%) Kafka
3 21 (5.10%) REST
4 12 (2.91%) JSON
5 10 (2.43%) XML
6 9 (2.18%) React
7 6 (1.46%) .NET
7 6 (1.46%) OAuth
7 6 (1.46%) RESTful
7 6 (1.46%) SAP Basis
7 6 (1.46%) SAP Business Workflow
7 6 (1.46%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (1.46%) SOAP
7 6 (1.46%) VML
8 5 (1.21%) HTML
8 5 (1.21%) Pandas
8 5 (1.21%) YAML
9 4 (0.97%) LDAP
9 4 (0.97%) Node.js
9 4 (0.97%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.28%) Data Structures
2 25 (6.07%) Cloud Native
3 23 (5.58%) Management Information System
3 23 (5.58%) Taxonomies
4 21 (5.10%) Reference Data
5 20 (4.85%) Legacy Systems
6 15 (3.64%) Onboarding
7 14 (3.40%) Product Ownership
8 11 (2.67%) Distributed Computing
9 8 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
10 7 (1.70%) Data Fabric
10 7 (1.70%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (0.97%) Genomics
12 4 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (0.97%) Omics
12 4 (0.97%) Replication
13 3 (0.73%) NHS
13 3 (0.73%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 5 (1.21%) Unix
2 4 (0.97%) Linux
3 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 213 (51.70%) Data Governance
2 206 (50.00%) Data Modelling
3 201 (48.79%) Metadata Management
4 140 (33.98%) Analytics
5 108 (26.21%) Data Architecture
6 101 (24.51%) ETL
7 97 (23.54%) Business Intelligence
8 81 (19.66%) Data Lineage
9 80 (19.42%) Agile
10 77 (18.69%) Problem-Solving
11 75 (18.20%) Data Pipeline
12 72 (17.48%) Data Engineering
12 72 (17.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 64 (15.53%) Validation
14 61 (14.81%) Data Management
15 59 (14.32%) Stakeholder Management
16 58 (14.08%) Migration
17 57 (13.83%) AI
18 54 (13.11%) Data Integration
19 50 (12.14%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 144 (34.95%) SQL
2 102 (24.76%) Python
3 23 (5.58%) Java
4 22 (5.34%) PowerShell
5 13 (3.16%) C#
6 8 (1.94%) JavaScript
6 8 (1.94%) T-SQL
7 7 (1.70%) Scala
8 6 (1.46%) ABAP
8 6 (1.46%) Perl
8 6 (1.46%) PL/SQL
8 6 (1.46%) R
9 5 (1.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (0.97%) C++
10 4 (0.97%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.73%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.73%) Bicep
11 3 (0.73%) SOQL
11 3 (0.73%) SOSL
11 3 (0.73%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 91 (22.09%) Security Cleared
2 65 (15.78%) SC Cleared
3 24 (5.83%) Degree
4 14 (3.40%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (1.70%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (1.46%) Azure Certification
7 6 (1.46%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.97%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.97%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.49%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (0.49%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.24%) CSPO
10 1 (0.24%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.24%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.24%) MySQL Certification
10 1 (0.24%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.24%) PMP
10 1 (0.24%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 179 (43.45%) Data Quality
2 46 (11.17%) GDPR
3 17 (4.13%) QA
4 15 (3.64%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (1.46%) IFRS
7 5 (1.21%) Solvency II
8 4 (0.97%) MiFID
9 3 (0.73%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.73%) GRC
9 3 (0.73%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.49%) CRD IV
10 2 (0.49%) FINREP
10 2 (0.49%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.49%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.49%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.49%) NIST
11 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.24%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 11 (2.67%) Docker
2 5 (1.21%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.73%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 16 (3.88%) Kubernetes
1 16 (3.88%) Terraform
2 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.73%) Hadoop YARN
3 3 (0.73%) Oozie
3 3 (0.73%) SCCM
4 1 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 85 (20.63%) Microsoft
2 60 (14.56%) Databricks
3 33 (8.01%) Informatica
3 33 (8.01%) Oracle
4 19 (4.61%) SAP
4 19 (4.61%) ServiceNow
5 14 (3.40%) Sparx
6 10 (2.43%) OpenText
7 9 (2.18%) Google
7 9 (2.18%) Salesforce
7 9 (2.18%) Talend
8 8 (1.94%) Teradata
9 7 (1.70%) Sitecore
10 6 (1.46%) ESRI
10 6 (1.46%) IBM
10 6 (1.46%) Optimizely
11 5 (1.21%) Alteryx
11 5 (1.21%) Intergraph
11 5 (1.21%) Palantir
12 4 (0.97%) Atlassian