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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 207 294 351
Rank change year-on-year +87 +57 +39
Contract jobs citing Metadata 721 278 229
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.36% 0.85% 0.57%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.84% 4.67% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 468 194 148
10th Percentile £379 £308 £379
25th Percentile £455 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £588
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -12.77% +2.17%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £806
90th Percentile £750 £750 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +23.53% -10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 5 9
10th Percentile £43.55 - -
25th Percentile £60.25 £13.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £67.50 £25.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +170.00% -23.08% -8.77%
75th Percentile £70.00 £30.00 £33.75
90th Percentile - £64.50 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £19.25 £13.50
% change year-on-year +250.65% +42.59% -66.25%

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 8,153 5,954 7,216
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.42% 18.18% 17.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,407 4,032 5,135
10th Percentile £355 £350 £350
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £507 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.28% -3.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 258 92 106
10th Percentile £16.70 £19.28 £14.63
25th Percentile £25.10 £23.50 £20.19
Median hourly rate £41.36 £36.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.08% -3.33% -31.82%
75th Percentile £61.31 £64.06 £59.34
90th Percentile £76.15 £78.58 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £31.64 £30.00
% change year-on-year +23.26% +5.47% -41.46%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +81 608 £525 - 196
London +53 347 £525 -10.64% 115
UK excluding London +57 288 £525 +23.53% 106
Work from Home +47 210 £525 -8.70% 97
Midlands -1 71 £575 +437.38% 18
North of England -17 71 £515 +24.76% 18
West Midlands -3 67 £578 +440.19% 13
Scotland +25 48 £525 +10.53% 3
South East -49 47 £525 +12.18% 44
Yorkshire -8 35 £525 +15.07% 6
East of England +3 30 £463 +45.44% 5
North West -28 30 £575 +83.12% 10
South West -16 25 £550 -6.38% 11
North East -35 8 £463 +1.37% 2
East Midlands -11 4 £500 +21.95% 5
Wales -15 3 £750 +191.91% 2

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 41 (5.69%) SharePoint
2 33 (4.58%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (4.30%) Apache Spark
4 27 (3.74%) Apache
5 18 (2.50%) CMS
5 18 (2.50%) SAS
6 17 (2.36%) Confluence
7 4 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.42%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.28%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.28%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.28%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.14%) Drupal
10 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.14%) Liferay
10 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 20 (2.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.97%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.97%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.97%) Revit
3 6 (0.83%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) Notion
Business Applications
1 12 (1.66%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.55%) Summit
4 3 (0.42%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.42%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.28%) HFM
5 2 (0.28%) Maximo
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.28%) Workfront
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 209 (28.99%) Azure
2 157 (21.78%) AWS
3 99 (13.73%) Power Platform
4 79 (10.96%) GCP
5 60 (8.32%) Collibra
6 53 (7.35%) Microsoft Purview
7 44 (6.10%) Amazon S3
7 44 (6.10%) Azure Data Factory
8 36 (4.99%) GitHub
9 35 (4.85%) dbt
10 34 (4.72%) Serverless
11 33 (4.58%) Snowflake
12 31 (4.30%) AWS Lambda
13 30 (4.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 28 (3.88%) Azure DevOps
15 26 (3.61%) Microsoft 365
16 19 (2.64%) Power Automate
17 17 (2.36%) Amazon EMR
17 17 (2.36%) Microsoft Copilot
17 17 (2.36%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.97%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.97%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.69%) Intranet
3 4 (0.55%) SSL
4 3 (0.42%) Firewall
4 3 (0.42%) HTTP
5 2 (0.28%) Broadband
6 1 (0.14%) 4G
6 1 (0.14%) 5G
6 1 (0.14%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (17.06%) Data Warehouse
2 85 (11.79%) Power BI
3 83 (11.51%) Data Lake
4 35 (4.85%) Data Vault
5 34 (4.72%) Relational Database
6 30 (4.16%) NoSQL
7 29 (4.02%) Tableau
8 28 (3.88%) Delta Lake
9 22 (3.05%) PostgreSQL
10 21 (2.91%) BigQuery
10 21 (2.91%) Semantic Layer
11 20 (2.77%) Snowflake Schema
11 20 (2.77%) SQL Server
12 18 (2.50%) Amazon Redshift
12 18 (2.50%) Big Data
13 17 (2.36%) Metadata Repository
14 15 (2.08%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (1.94%) Db2
16 13 (1.80%) Hadoop
16 13 (1.80%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 43 (5.96%) ERwin
2 31 (4.30%) Git
3 26 (3.61%) ER Studio
4 19 (2.64%) JIRA
5 17 (2.36%) Jenkins
6 16 (2.22%) PowerDesigner
7 15 (2.08%) Maven
8 14 (1.94%) GitLab
9 10 (1.39%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.42%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.28%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.28%) git-flow
11 2 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
11 2 (0.28%) Selenium
11 2 (0.28%) TestRail
12 1 (0.14%) Deequ
12 1 (0.14%) MLflow
12 1 (0.14%) Postman
12 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 205 (28.43%) Finance
2 193 (26.77%) Social Skills
3 143 (19.83%) Analytical Skills
4 95 (13.18%) Banking
5 74 (10.26%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.27%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.13%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.50%) Influencing Skills
8 18 (2.50%) Retail
9 17 (2.36%) Legal
9 17 (2.36%) Marketing
10 16 (2.22%) Publishing
11 15 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.66%) Aviation
12 12 (1.66%) Front Office
13 11 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (0.97%) Manufacturing
14 7 (0.97%) Military
14 7 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.69%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 183 (25.38%) Architect
2 134 (18.59%) Data Architect
3 105 (14.56%) Data Engineer
4 87 (12.07%) Analyst
5 84 (11.65%) Lead
6 61 (8.46%) Senior
7 54 (7.49%) Data Analyst
8 52 (7.21%) Data Modeller
9 45 (6.24%) Developer
10 34 (4.72%) Business Analyst
11 25 (3.47%) Consultant
12 21 (2.91%) Data Business Analyst
13 20 (2.77%) Data Manager
14 19 (2.64%) Product Owner
15 17 (2.36%) DevOps Engineer
16 16 (2.22%) Lead Data Engineer
16 16 (2.22%) Senior Data Engineer
16 16 (2.22%) Solutions Architect
17 15 (2.08%) Enterprise Architect
18 13 (1.80%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (6.52%) PySpark
2 38 (5.27%) JSON
3 33 (4.58%) Kafka
4 25 (3.47%) REST
5 16 (2.22%) YAML
6 13 (1.80%) Spring Boot
7 12 (1.66%) Node.js
7 12 (1.66%) XML
8 11 (1.53%) .NET
9 10 (1.39%) OAuth
9 10 (1.39%) SLSA
10 9 (1.25%) React
11 8 (1.11%) GraphQL
11 8 (1.11%) Middleware
11 8 (1.11%) OAuth2
11 8 (1.11%) Spring
12 7 (0.97%) SPFx
13 6 (0.83%) ADO
13 6 (0.83%) CSS
13 6 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 67 (9.29%) Cloud Native
2 61 (8.46%) Data Structures
3 58 (8.04%) Onboarding
4 54 (7.49%) Taxonomies
5 48 (6.66%) Product Ownership
6 44 (6.10%) Management Information System
6 44 (6.10%) Reference Data
7 39 (5.41%) Legacy Systems
8 19 (2.64%) Derivative
9 18 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
10 13 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
11 12 (1.66%) AI Agents
11 12 (1.66%) Distributed Computing
11 12 (1.66%) Equity Derivative
12 11 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
13 10 (1.39%) Life Science
14 9 (1.25%) Clustering
14 9 (1.25%) Data Fabric
14 9 (1.25%) Digital Media
14 9 (1.25%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 18 (2.50%) Unix
2 12 (1.66%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 354 (49.10%) Data Governance
2 348 (48.27%) Data Modelling
3 247 (34.26%) Metadata Management
4 236 (32.73%) Analytics
5 185 (25.66%) Data Architecture
6 172 (23.86%) AI
7 162 (22.47%) Data Pipeline
8 161 (22.33%) ETL
9 155 (21.50%) Data Engineering
10 150 (20.80%) Agile
11 136 (18.86%) CI/CD
12 134 (18.59%) Migration
13 128 (17.75%) Stakeholder Management
14 121 (16.78%) Business Intelligence
15 114 (15.81%) Data Lineage
16 113 (15.67%) Validation
17 111 (15.40%) Data Management
18 106 (14.70%) Decision-Making
19 105 (14.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 104 (14.42%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 277 (38.42%) SQL
2 183 (25.38%) Python
3 56 (7.77%) Java
4 24 (3.33%) PL/SQL
5 15 (2.08%) C#
5 15 (2.08%) Shell Script
6 13 (1.80%) Groovy
6 13 (1.80%) PowerShell
7 11 (1.53%) JavaScript
8 9 (1.25%) Bash
8 9 (1.25%) C++
8 9 (1.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (1.11%) TypeScript
10 7 (0.97%) SPARQL
11 6 (0.83%) Bicep
11 6 (0.83%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.69%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.69%) Scala
13 4 (0.55%) Cypher
13 4 (0.55%) Perl
Qualifications
1 163 (22.61%) Security Cleared
2 125 (17.34%) SC Cleared
3 44 (6.10%) Degree
4 32 (4.44%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (2.77%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (1.80%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.66%) Azure Certification
9 11 (1.53%) TOGAF Certification
10 7 (0.97%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.28%) ACCA
13 2 (0.28%) CBAP
13 2 (0.28%) CIMA
13 2 (0.28%) CISM
13 2 (0.28%) CISSP
13 2 (0.28%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.28%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 282 (39.11%) Data Quality
2 63 (8.74%) GDPR
3 39 (5.41%) Accessibility
4 38 (5.27%) QA
5 7 (0.97%) GRC
5 7 (0.97%) Solvency II
6 6 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 6 (0.83%) ISO 19650
6 6 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.83%) NIST
7 4 (0.55%) ISO 22301
7 4 (0.55%) MiFID
7 4 (0.55%) WCAG
8 3 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.42%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.42%) ISO 31000
8 3 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.42%) NCSC
9 2 (0.28%) IFRS
9 2 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (1.94%) Docker
2 9 (1.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 29 (4.02%) Terraform
2 18 (2.50%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.39%) Grafana
4 7 (0.97%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.55%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.55%) PingFederate
7 2 (0.28%) Ansible
7 2 (0.28%) Kibana
8 1 (0.14%) Apache Ranger
Vendors
1 126 (17.48%) Microsoft
2 117 (16.23%) Databricks
3 58 (8.04%) Oracle
4 52 (7.21%) Informatica
5 21 (2.91%) Google
6 19 (2.64%) Salesforce
7 17 (2.36%) Talend
8 15 (2.08%) IBM
8 15 (2.08%) SAP
9 13 (1.80%) Autodesk
10 12 (1.66%) Sparx
11 11 (1.53%) Sybase
12 10 (1.39%) Sonatype
13 9 (1.25%) Adobe
14 8 (1.11%) CA Agile Central
14 8 (1.11%) Denodo
14 8 (1.11%) Palantir
15 7 (0.97%) Aspera
15 7 (0.97%) ServiceNow
15 7 (0.97%) Signiant