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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 205 313 354
Rank change year-on-year +108 +41 +26
Contract jobs citing Metadata 702 258 246
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.33% 0.79% 0.57%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.63% 4.37% 3.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 465 180 153
10th Percentile £359 £298 £376
25th Percentile £447 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £600
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% -12.92% +9.09%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £465 £488
% change year-on-year +12.90% -4.62% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 14
10th Percentile £31.05 £13.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £35.91 £15.56 £23.75
Median hourly rate £60.50 £26.25 £36.38
Median % change year-on-year +130.48% -27.84% +3.93%
75th Percentile £64.00 £29.69 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.35 £58.75 £47.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.50 £25.00 £43.22
% change year-on-year +142.00% -42.15% +19.21%

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 8,131 5,907 7,601
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.37% 18.20% 17.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,384 4,010 5,415
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 103 141
10th Percentile £15.99 £19.82 £14.00
25th Percentile £24.00 £25.38 £20.00
Median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.86% -9.09% -33.67%
75th Percentile £64.00 £63.75 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.10 £76.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £31.64 £32.75
% change year-on-year +20.89% -3.39% -40.45%

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 11 July 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 11 July 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 11 July 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 +86 583 £525 - 160
London +70 335 £524 -12.71% 87
UK excluding London +48 282 £525 +12.90% 100
Work from Home +44 198 £525 -8.70% 73
Midlands -7 71 £569 +431.54% 13
North of England -23 68 £523 +14.52% 10
West Midlands -17 67 £573 +435.51% 10
Scotland +39 55 £525 +10.53% 8
South East -35 52 £513 +7.33% 45
Yorkshire -18 34 £544 +19.18% 5
North West -35 29 £575 +82.54% 5
East of England -7 26 £475 +49.16% 12
South West -24 16 £563 -4.21% 10
North East -27 8 £463 -
East Midlands -17 4 £500 +21.95% 3
Wales -15 3 £750 +191.91% 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 37 (5.27%) SharePoint
2 33 (4.70%) Apache Spark
3 32 (4.56%) Apache Airflow
4 21 (2.99%) Apache
5 20 (2.85%) Confluence
6 16 (2.28%) SAS
7 14 (1.99%) CMS
8 3 (0.43%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.43%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.28%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.28%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Synapse
10 1 (0.14%) Drupal
10 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.14%) Liferay
10 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.14%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.00%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.00%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.00%) Revit
4 4 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.85%) Summit
3 3 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.28%) HFM
4 2 (0.28%) Maximo
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.28%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.14%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.14%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 201 (28.63%) Azure
2 152 (21.65%) AWS
3 96 (13.68%) Power Platform
4 72 (10.26%) GCP
5 62 (8.83%) Collibra
6 52 (7.41%) Microsoft Purview
7 41 (5.84%) Amazon S3
8 40 (5.70%) Azure Data Factory
9 38 (5.41%) GitHub
10 36 (5.13%) dbt
11 32 (4.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 32 (4.56%) Serverless
12 30 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (4.13%) AWS Lambda
13 29 (4.13%) Snowflake
14 22 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
15 16 (2.28%) Microsoft Copilot
16 15 (2.14%) Amazon EMR
16 15 (2.14%) Entra ID
16 15 (2.14%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.00%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.00%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.71%) Intranet
3 4 (0.57%) SSL
4 3 (0.43%) Firewall
4 3 (0.43%) HTTP
5 1 (0.14%) 4G
5 1 (0.14%) 5G
5 1 (0.14%) Broadband
5 1 (0.14%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (17.38%) Data Warehouse
2 85 (12.11%) Power BI
3 76 (10.83%) Data Lake
4 36 (5.13%) Relational Database
5 34 (4.84%) Data Vault
6 31 (4.42%) Tableau
7 27 (3.85%) NoSQL
8 24 (3.42%) Delta Lake
9 23 (3.28%) Metadata Repository
9 23 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
10 22 (3.13%) SQL Server
11 21 (2.99%) Snowflake Schema
12 20 (2.85%) Big Data
13 18 (2.56%) Amazon Redshift
13 18 (2.56%) Semantic Layer
14 17 (2.42%) Amazon Athena
14 17 (2.42%) Hadoop
15 16 (2.28%) BigQuery
16 13 (1.85%) Db2
17 12 (1.71%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 39 (5.56%) ERwin
2 35 (4.99%) Git
3 21 (2.99%) JIRA
4 20 (2.85%) ER Studio
5 16 (2.28%) Jenkins
6 15 (2.14%) Maven
6 15 (2.14%) PowerDesigner
7 14 (1.99%) GitLab
8 10 (1.42%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.43%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.28%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.28%) git-flow
10 2 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.28%) Selenium
11 1 (0.14%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.14%) Subversion
11 1 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 208 (29.63%) Finance
2 195 (27.78%) Social Skills
3 134 (19.09%) Analytical Skills
4 98 (13.96%) Banking
5 77 (10.97%) Public Sector
6 39 (5.56%) Documentation Skills
7 38 (5.41%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.85%) Legal
8 20 (2.85%) Retail
9 16 (2.28%) Marketing
10 15 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.14%) Presentation Skills
11 14 (1.99%) Publishing
12 12 (1.71%) Aviation
12 12 (1.71%) Front Office
12 12 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 7 (1.00%) Manufacturing
13 7 (1.00%) Military
14 5 (0.71%) Automotive
14 5 (0.71%) Law
Job Titles
1 172 (24.50%) Architect
2 124 (17.66%) Data Architect
3 103 (14.67%) Data Engineer
4 84 (11.97%) Analyst
5 82 (11.68%) Lead
6 62 (8.83%) Senior
7 53 (7.55%) Data Analyst
8 51 (7.26%) Data Modeller
9 47 (6.70%) Developer
10 33 (4.70%) Business Analyst
11 27 (3.85%) Consultant
12 19 (2.71%) Data Manager
13 18 (2.56%) Data Business Analyst
14 17 (2.42%) DevOps Engineer
14 17 (2.42%) Senior Data Engineer
15 16 (2.28%) Lead Data Engineer
15 16 (2.28%) Product Owner
15 16 (2.28%) Solutions Architect
16 14 (1.99%) Enterprise Architect
17 13 (1.85%) Governance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (6.55%) PySpark
2 35 (4.99%) JSON
3 30 (4.27%) Kafka
4 24 (3.42%) REST
5 17 (2.42%) YAML
6 15 (2.14%) .NET
7 13 (1.85%) XML
8 12 (1.71%) Spring Boot
9 11 (1.57%) Node.js
10 10 (1.42%) OAuth
10 10 (1.42%) React
10 10 (1.42%) SLSA
11 9 (1.28%) SOAP
12 8 (1.14%) Middleware
12 8 (1.14%) OAuth2
13 7 (1.00%) GraphQL
13 7 (1.00%) SPFx
14 6 (0.85%) CSS
14 6 (0.85%) RESTful
14 6 (0.85%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 70 (9.97%) Cloud Native
2 58 (8.26%) Onboarding
3 50 (7.12%) Data Structures
3 50 (7.12%) Taxonomies
4 42 (5.98%) Management Information System
5 39 (5.56%) Product Ownership
6 34 (4.84%) Legacy Systems
7 32 (4.56%) Reference Data
8 20 (2.85%) Derivative
9 16 (2.28%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.71%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.71%) Distributed Systems
10 12 (1.71%) Equity Derivative
11 11 (1.57%) AI Agents
11 11 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.42%) Clustering
12 10 (1.42%) Distributed Computing
13 9 (1.28%) Fixed Income
13 9 (1.28%) Linux Command Line
13 9 (1.28%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.71%) Unix
2 10 (1.42%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (50.28%) Data Governance
2 327 (46.58%) Data Modelling
3 235 (33.48%) Analytics
3 235 (33.48%) Metadata Management
4 175 (24.93%) Data Architecture
5 170 (24.22%) AI
6 158 (22.51%) ETL
7 149 (21.23%) Data Engineering
7 149 (21.23%) Data Pipeline
8 141 (20.09%) Agile
9 139 (19.80%) CI/CD
10 138 (19.66%) Migration
11 121 (17.24%) Business Intelligence
12 120 (17.09%) Stakeholder Management
13 114 (16.24%) Data Lineage
14 111 (15.81%) Decision-Making
15 110 (15.67%) Validation
16 108 (15.38%) Data Management
17 105 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
18 102 (14.53%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 262 (37.32%) SQL
2 179 (25.50%) Python
3 52 (7.41%) Java
4 25 (3.56%) PL/SQL
5 20 (2.85%) C#
6 15 (2.14%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.71%) Groovy
7 12 (1.71%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.71%) PowerShell
8 9 (1.28%) C++
9 8 (1.14%) TypeScript
10 7 (1.00%) Apex Code
10 7 (1.00%) Bash
10 7 (1.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 6 (0.85%) Bicep
11 6 (0.85%) SPARQL
11 6 (0.85%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.71%) Scala
13 4 (0.57%) Perl
13 4 (0.57%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 152 (21.65%) Security Cleared
2 114 (16.24%) SC Cleared
3 47 (6.70%) Degree
4 31 (4.42%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (2.28%) Master's Degree
7 15 (2.14%) DV Cleared
8 13 (1.85%) Azure Certification
9 11 (1.57%) TOGAF Certification
10 8 (1.14%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.28%) ACCA
13 2 (0.28%) Analytics IQ
13 2 (0.28%) CBAP
13 2 (0.28%) CIMA
13 2 (0.28%) CISM
13 2 (0.28%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.28%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 273 (38.89%) Data Quality
2 67 (9.54%) GDPR
3 39 (5.56%) QA
4 33 (4.70%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.42%) GRC
6 7 (1.00%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.85%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 6 (0.85%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (0.85%) NIST
8 4 (0.57%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.57%) ISO 22301
8 4 (0.57%) MiFID
9 3 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.43%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.28%) IFRS
10 2 (0.28%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.28%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (1.85%) Docker
2 10 (1.42%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 30 (4.27%) Terraform
2 14 (1.99%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.28%) Grafana
4 7 (1.00%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.57%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.57%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.28%) Ansible
7 1 (0.14%) Kibana
Vendors
1 127 (18.09%) Microsoft
2 110 (15.67%) Databricks
3 65 (9.26%) Oracle
4 43 (6.13%) Informatica
5 24 (3.42%) Salesforce
6 23 (3.28%) Google
7 19 (2.71%) Talend
8 14 (1.99%) IBM
9 13 (1.85%) Autodesk
10 12 (1.71%) SAP
11 11 (1.57%) Sparx
11 11 (1.57%) Sybase
12 10 (1.42%) Sonatype
13 9 (1.28%) ServiceNow
14 8 (1.14%) Adobe
15 6 (0.85%) CA Agile Central
15 6 (0.85%) Foundry
15 6 (0.85%) OpenAI
16 5 (0.71%) Denodo
16 5 (0.71%) Signiant