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 20 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 202 319 309
Rank change year-on-year +117 -10 +24
Contract jobs citing Metadata 604 219 292
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.25% 0.75% 0.69%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.32% 3.95% 4.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 411 158 195
10th Percentile £358 £233 £391
25th Percentile £418 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £508 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.46% -11.74% +4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £634 £794
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £473 £575
% change year-on-year +11.11% -17.83% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 8 15
10th Percentile £33.48 £19.73 £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £22.66 £16.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 £26.47 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +141.83% -18.57% -8.77%
75th Percentile £73.75 £43.06 £42.88
90th Percentile £82.95 £82.25 £46.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £26.47 £20.97
% change year-on-year +141.83% +26.20% -45.00%

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 7,262 5,538 7,301
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.08% 18.99% 17.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,898 3,800 5,234
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £420 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% -0.48% -3.67%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £484 £475
% change year-on-year -1.86% +1.89% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 98 148
10th Percentile £15.39 £20.47 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.99 £24.25 £20.98
Median hourly rate £47.27 £34.58 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.72% -13.56% -31.73%
75th Percentile £73.19 £65.90 £61.53
90th Percentile £82.25 £77.86 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.90 £31.64 £40.00
% change year-on-year +45.07% -20.90% -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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 +80 510 £520 - 204
London +89 295 £505 -12.74% 103
UK excluding London +34 238 £525 +11.11% 147
Work from Home +42 166 £525 -3.67% 133
Midlands -15 62 £570 +432.59% 18
West Midlands -4 60 £573 +435.51% 6
North of England -39 52 £500 -2.44% 20
South East -40 47 £500 +4.71% 63
Scotland +28 44 £473 -0.53% 6
East of England -11 29 £663 +106.14% 26
North West -32 27 £523 -4.13% 6
Yorkshire -37 23 £567 +51.13% 11
South West -36 9 £563 +2.32% 19
North East -23 5 £419 -9.46% 3
Wales -14 3 £750 +234.35% 1
East Midlands - 2 £474 - 12

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 35 (5.79%) Apache Spark
1 35 (5.79%) SharePoint
2 24 (3.97%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (3.64%) SAS
4 19 (3.15%) Confluence
5 15 (2.48%) Apache
6 8 (1.32%) CMS
7 4 (0.66%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.50%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.33%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
9 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.17%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.17%) SharePoint 2013
10 1 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.17%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (4.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.82%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.16%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.16%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.16%) Revit
4 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.33%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 13 (2.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.99%) Summit
3 2 (0.33%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.17%) Actimize
4 1 (0.17%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.17%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
4 1 (0.17%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.17%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 179 (29.64%) Azure
2 128 (21.19%) AWS
3 87 (14.40%) Power Platform
4 66 (10.93%) GCP
5 53 (8.77%) Collibra
6 44 (7.28%) Microsoft Purview
7 42 (6.95%) Azure Data Factory
8 35 (5.79%) GitHub
9 33 (5.46%) Amazon S3
10 32 (5.30%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 32 (5.30%) Serverless
11 28 (4.64%) Azure DevOps
12 27 (4.47%) AWS Lambda
12 27 (4.47%) dbt
13 22 (3.64%) Snowflake
14 15 (2.48%) Microsoft 365
15 14 (2.32%) Entra ID
16 12 (1.99%) Amazon EMR
16 12 (1.99%) ShareGate
17 11 (1.82%) ChatGPT
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.16%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.16%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.83%) Intranet
3 4 (0.66%) Firewall
3 4 (0.66%) SSL
4 3 (0.50%) HTTP
5 1 (0.17%) 4G
5 1 (0.17%) 5G
5 1 (0.17%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (19.04%) Data Warehouse
2 78 (12.91%) Power BI
3 77 (12.75%) Data Lake
4 35 (5.79%) Metadata Repository
5 34 (5.63%) Relational Database
6 28 (4.64%) NoSQL
7 27 (4.47%) Data Vault
7 27 (4.47%) SQL Server
7 27 (4.47%) Tableau
8 24 (3.97%) Delta Lake
9 21 (3.48%) Big Data
10 20 (3.31%) PostgreSQL
10 20 (3.31%) Snowflake Schema
11 19 (3.15%) Amazon Redshift
12 16 (2.65%) Amazon Athena
12 16 (2.65%) Oracle Database
13 15 (2.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 14 (2.32%) Hadoop
15 13 (2.15%) MySQL
16 12 (1.99%) DB2
Development Applications
1 34 (5.63%) ERwin
2 29 (4.80%) Git
3 20 (3.31%) JIRA
4 15 (2.48%) Jenkins
4 15 (2.48%) PowerDesigner
5 14 (2.32%) ER Studio
6 12 (1.99%) GitLab
7 9 (1.49%) Maven
8 8 (1.32%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.50%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.33%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.33%) git-flow
10 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.17%) gulp
11 1 (0.17%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.17%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.17%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.17%) VersionOne
11 1 (0.17%) Yeoman
General
1 175 (28.97%) Social Skills
2 167 (27.65%) Finance
3 124 (20.53%) Analytical Skills
4 75 (12.42%) Banking
4 75 (12.42%) Public Sector
5 36 (5.96%) Documentation Skills
6 24 (3.97%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.98%) Legal
8 16 (2.65%) Influencing Skills
9 14 (2.32%) Publishing
10 13 (2.15%) Marketing
11 11 (1.82%) Front Office
12 9 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
12 9 (1.49%) Retail
13 8 (1.32%) Aviation
14 7 (1.16%) Military
15 6 (0.99%) Law
16 5 (0.83%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 4 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 138 (22.85%) Architect
2 100 (16.56%) Data Architect
3 97 (16.06%) Data Engineer
4 83 (13.74%) Analyst
5 54 (8.94%) Data Analyst
6 52 (8.61%) Lead
7 49 (8.11%) Senior
8 41 (6.79%) Developer
9 39 (6.46%) Data Modeller
10 30 (4.97%) Business Analyst
11 23 (3.81%) Consultant
12 20 (3.31%) Data Manager
13 16 (2.65%) Data Business Analyst
13 16 (2.65%) Senior Data Engineer
14 14 (2.32%) DevOps Engineer
15 13 (2.15%) AWS Engineer
15 13 (2.15%) Azure Engineer
16 12 (1.99%) Software Engineer
17 11 (1.82%) Azure Data Engineer
17 11 (1.82%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (7.62%) PySpark
2 30 (4.97%) Kafka
3 24 (3.97%) JSON
3 24 (3.97%) REST
4 17 (2.81%) .NET
5 16 (2.65%) YAML
6 12 (1.99%) React
7 11 (1.82%) OAuth
8 10 (1.66%) Node.js
8 10 (1.66%) SOAP
9 9 (1.49%) Middleware
9 9 (1.49%) XML
10 8 (1.32%) SLSA
11 7 (1.16%) ADO
11 7 (1.16%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.16%) RESTful
12 5 (0.83%) HTML
12 5 (0.83%) Pandas
12 5 (0.83%) Playwright
12 5 (0.83%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (9.11%) Cloud Native
2 43 (7.12%) Onboarding
3 42 (6.95%) Data Structures
4 40 (6.62%) Management Information System
5 37 (6.13%) Reference Data
6 35 (5.79%) Product Ownership
7 32 (5.30%) Taxonomies
8 28 (4.64%) Legacy Systems
9 18 (2.98%) Data Protection Act
9 18 (2.98%) Derivative
10 12 (1.99%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.99%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.66%) Distributed Computing
12 10 (1.66%) Equity Derivative
13 9 (1.49%) Clustering
13 9 (1.49%) Fixed Income
14 8 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
14 8 (1.32%) Market Risk
15 6 (0.99%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.15%) Unix
2 7 (1.16%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (50.33%) Data Governance
2 277 (45.86%) Data Modelling
3 219 (36.26%) Metadata Management
4 205 (33.94%) Analytics
5 163 (26.99%) ETL
6 154 (25.50%) Data Architecture
7 136 (22.52%) AI
8 128 (21.19%) Data Pipeline
9 124 (20.53%) Data Engineering
10 122 (20.20%) CI/CD
11 117 (19.37%) Migration
12 109 (18.05%) Problem-Solving
13 108 (17.88%) Business Intelligence
14 107 (17.72%) Agile
14 107 (17.72%) Data Lineage
15 97 (16.06%) Stakeholder Management
16 95 (15.73%) Decision-Making
16 95 (15.73%) Validation
17 94 (15.56%) DevOps
18 92 (15.23%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 247 (40.89%) SQL
2 159 (26.32%) Python
3 39 (6.46%) Java
4 27 (4.47%) C#
5 26 (4.30%) PL/SQL
6 14 (2.32%) PowerShell
7 13 (2.15%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.99%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.66%) Perl
10 9 (1.49%) Groovy
11 8 (1.32%) T-SQL
12 7 (1.16%) C++
12 7 (1.16%) TypeScript
13 6 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.83%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.83%) Scala
15 4 (0.66%) Bash
15 4 (0.66%) Bicep
15 4 (0.66%) R
16 2 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 138 (22.85%) Security Cleared
2 101 (16.72%) SC Cleared
3 40 (6.62%) Degree
4 22 (3.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.32%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.15%) Master's Degree
7 10 (1.66%) Azure Certification
7 10 (1.66%) TOGAF Certification
8 9 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (1.32%) DV Cleared
10 5 (0.83%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.33%) Analytics IQ
11 2 (0.33%) CISM
11 2 (0.33%) CISSP
11 2 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.33%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.17%) CBAP
12 1 (0.17%) CSPO
12 1 (0.17%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.17%) MySQL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (41.06%) Data Quality
2 58 (9.60%) GDPR
3 33 (5.46%) QA
4 20 (3.31%) Accessibility
5 12 (1.99%) GRC
6 7 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.16%) NIST
7 6 (0.99%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.99%) Solvency II
8 5 (0.83%) MiFID
9 4 (0.66%) IFRS
9 4 (0.66%) ISO 22301
10 3 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.50%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.50%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.33%) CRD IV
11 2 (0.33%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.33%) PMO
System Software
1 15 (2.48%) Docker
2 8 (1.32%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 25 (4.14%) Terraform
2 13 (2.15%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.32%) Grafana
4 6 (0.99%) Prometheus
4 6 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.66%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.66%) PingFederate
7 1 (0.17%) Ansible
7 1 (0.17%) Kibana
Vendors
1 112 (18.54%) Microsoft
2 87 (14.40%) Databricks
3 61 (10.10%) Oracle
4 44 (7.28%) Informatica
5 22 (3.64%) Salesforce
6 20 (3.31%) Google
6 20 (3.31%) Talend
7 16 (2.65%) ServiceNow
8 15 (2.48%) SAP
9 13 (2.15%) Autodesk
9 13 (2.15%) Sparx
10 9 (1.49%) Sybase
11 8 (1.32%) IBM
11 8 (1.32%) Sonatype
12 7 (1.16%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.16%) Teradata
13 6 (0.99%) Adobe
14 5 (0.83%) Denodo
15 4 (0.66%) Hortonworks
15 4 (0.66%) Ping Identity