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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 189 281 380
Rank change year-on-year +92 +99 -13
Contract jobs citing Metadata 844 306 185
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 0.93% 0.49%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 10.41% 5.14% 2.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 538 203 118
10th Percentile £400 £400 £391
25th Percentile £459 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £656 £638 £688
90th Percentile £752 £738 £808
UK excluding London median daily rate £548 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +15.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 5 4
10th Percentile £22.16 - £24.99
25th Percentile £55.94 £13.25 £33.51
Median hourly rate £67.49 £30.50 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year +121.26% -30.43% -4.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £48.18
90th Percentile - £78.30 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.49 £13.50 £48.18
% change year-on-year +399.89% -71.98% +24.42%

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 8,104 5,956 6,755
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.83% 18.15% 17.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,392 3,978 4,565
10th Percentile £352 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £484
% change year-on-year - -1.76% -3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 85 91
10th Percentile £16.70 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.87 £29.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.71 £38.85 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.38% +10.99% -33.33%
75th Percentile £58.44 £64.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £33.88 £30.00
% change year-on-year +23.11% +12.93% -42.86%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 +82 713 £550 - 762
London +49 403 £550 - 420
UK excluding London +77 343 £548 +15.26% 402
Work from Home +41 233 £550 -8.33% 336
North of England +3 93 £500 -2.44% 102
Midlands +10 72 £619 +49.16% 40
West Midlands +6 66 £627 +49.70% 25
South East -22 59 £575 +22.67% 100
Scotland +18 58 £484 +1.89% 53
Yorkshire +12 56 £500 -4.76% 30
South West -1 40 £588 +2.17% 48
North West -26 32 £695 +55.31% 57
East of England -5 28 £463 -15.91% 41
North East - 8 £463 - 15
East Midlands -8 6 £488 +17.47% 15
Wales -21 2 £750 +7.14% 6

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 43 (5.09%) SharePoint
2 41 (4.86%) Apache Airflow
3 38 (4.50%) Apache
4 28 (3.32%) Apache Spark
5 26 (3.08%) CMS
6 21 (2.49%) Confluence
7 17 (2.01%) SAS
8 12 (1.42%) Headless CMS
9 11 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.59%) Palantir Foundry
11 4 (0.47%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.24%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.12%) Camunda
13 1 (0.12%) JBoss
13 1 (0.12%) Liferay
13 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 18 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.30%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.71%) Navisworks
3 6 (0.71%) Revit
4 5 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.24%) Notepad++
6 1 (0.12%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.12%) Notion
6 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 18 (2.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.36%) Maximo
3 3 (0.36%) SAP HR
4 2 (0.24%) HFM
4 2 (0.24%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.24%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.24%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 2 (0.24%) Workfront
5 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
5 1 (0.12%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.12%) Summit
5 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 251 (29.74%) Azure
2 189 (22.39%) AWS
3 118 (13.98%) Power Platform
4 102 (12.09%) GCP
5 82 (9.72%) Microsoft Purview
6 70 (8.29%) Collibra
7 56 (6.64%) Azure Data Factory
8 52 (6.16%) Snowflake
9 45 (5.33%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 44 (5.21%) Amazon S3
11 41 (4.86%) Azure DevOps
11 41 (4.86%) dbt
12 40 (4.74%) GitHub
13 33 (3.91%) Serverless
14 29 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
15 28 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
15 28 (3.32%) Azure Databricks
16 23 (2.73%) Entra ID
17 21 (2.49%) Microsoft Copilot
17 21 (2.49%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.59%) Broadband
2 4 (0.47%) HTTP
2 4 (0.47%) Intranet
2 4 (0.47%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.36%) DNS
3 3 (0.36%) Firewall
3 3 (0.36%) SSH
4 2 (0.24%) PuTTY
4 2 (0.24%) SAN
4 2 (0.24%) WinSCP
5 1 (0.12%) BGP
5 1 (0.12%) LAN
5 1 (0.12%) MPLS
5 1 (0.12%) Network Security
5 1 (0.12%) OSPF
5 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.12%) VLAN
5 1 (0.12%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (13.74%) Data Warehouse
2 105 (12.44%) Power BI
3 100 (11.85%) Data Lake
4 40 (4.74%) BigQuery
5 35 (4.15%) Relational Database
6 33 (3.91%) Delta Lake
6 33 (3.91%) NoSQL
7 32 (3.79%) PostgreSQL
8 28 (3.32%) Semantic Layer
9 25 (2.96%) Data Vault
10 24 (2.84%) Tableau
11 19 (2.25%) SQL Server
12 18 (2.13%) Elasticsearch
12 18 (2.13%) Parquet
13 17 (2.01%) Amazon Redshift
14 16 (1.90%) Big Data
15 15 (1.78%) Neo4j
16 14 (1.66%) Azure SQL Database
17 12 (1.42%) Geospatial Data
17 12 (1.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 46 (5.45%) Git
2 31 (3.67%) ERwin
3 27 (3.20%) JIRA
4 23 (2.73%) ER Studio
5 12 (1.42%) GitLab
6 11 (1.30%) Jenkins
6 11 (1.30%) Maven
6 11 (1.30%) PowerDesigner
7 7 (0.83%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.59%) Selenium
9 4 (0.47%) MLflow
10 2 (0.24%) TestRail
11 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.12%) Deequ
11 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 253 (29.98%) Social Skills
2 202 (23.93%) Finance
3 166 (19.67%) Analytical Skills
4 115 (13.63%) Public Sector
5 103 (12.20%) Banking
6 42 (4.98%) Influencing Skills
7 35 (4.15%) Investment Banking
8 25 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.96%) Publishing
9 23 (2.73%) Legal
10 22 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (2.61%) Retail
11 19 (2.25%) Marketing
12 17 (2.01%) Aerospace
13 15 (1.78%) Manufacturing
14 14 (1.66%) Military
14 14 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
15 10 (1.18%) Front Office
16 9 (1.07%) Law
16 9 (1.07%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 239 (28.32%) Architect
2 172 (20.38%) Data Architect
3 133 (15.76%) Data Engineer
4 116 (13.74%) Lead
5 95 (11.26%) Analyst
6 92 (10.90%) Senior
7 49 (5.81%) Data Analyst
8 43 (5.09%) Business Analyst
8 43 (5.09%) Data Modeller
9 36 (4.27%) Developer
10 35 (4.15%) Senior Data Engineer
11 26 (3.08%) Consultant
11 26 (3.08%) Solutions Architect
12 24 (2.84%) Data Business Analyst
12 24 (2.84%) Enterprise Architect
12 24 (2.84%) Lead Data Engineer
13 20 (2.37%) Enterprise Data Architect
14 19 (2.25%) Data Manager
15 18 (2.13%) Product Owner
16 16 (1.90%) Information Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (6.52%) PySpark
2 51 (6.04%) REST
3 50 (5.92%) Terraform
4 45 (5.33%) JSON
5 30 (3.55%) Kafka
6 24 (2.84%) YAML
7 16 (1.90%) FastAPI
8 14 (1.66%) Spring Boot
9 13 (1.54%) pydantic
10 12 (1.42%) Apache NiFi
11 11 (1.30%) React
11 11 (1.30%) XML
12 9 (1.07%) .NET
12 9 (1.07%) Spring
13 8 (0.95%) GraphQL
13 8 (0.95%) JDBC
13 8 (0.95%) Node.js
13 8 (0.95%) RESTful
14 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Graph
14 7 (0.83%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 80 (9.48%) Taxonomies
2 79 (9.36%) Cloud Native
3 72 (8.53%) Onboarding
4 71 (8.41%) Data Structures
5 64 (7.58%) Management Information System
6 57 (6.75%) Product Ownership
7 50 (5.92%) Legacy Systems
8 41 (4.86%) Reference Data
9 23 (2.73%) Data Fabric
10 19 (2.25%) AI Agents
11 17 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
12 14 (1.66%) Derivative
12 14 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.54%) Life Science
14 12 (1.42%) CMDB
15 11 (1.30%) Distributed Computing
15 11 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
16 10 (1.18%) Autonomous Agent
16 10 (1.18%) Equity Derivative
17 9 (1.07%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.42%) Linux
2 6 (0.71%) Unix
3 3 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (0.36%) Windows
3 3 (0.36%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 469 (55.57%) Data Governance
2 415 (49.17%) Data Modelling
3 337 (39.93%) Metadata Management
4 280 (33.18%) Analytics
5 252 (29.86%) Data Architecture
6 246 (29.15%) AI
7 229 (27.13%) Stakeholder Management
8 213 (25.24%) Agile
9 189 (22.39%) Data Engineering
10 188 (22.27%) Data Pipeline
11 180 (21.33%) CI/CD
12 172 (20.38%) Migration
13 170 (20.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 161 (19.08%) Data Lineage
15 159 (18.84%) ETL
16 157 (18.60%) Roadmaps
17 155 (18.36%) Data Management
18 145 (17.18%) Validation
19 137 (16.23%) Business Intelligence
20 128 (15.17%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 290 (34.36%) SQL
2 231 (27.37%) Python
3 54 (6.40%) Java
4 19 (2.25%) PowerShell
5 13 (1.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 13 (1.54%) PL/SQL
6 12 (1.42%) C#
7 11 (1.30%) Bash
7 11 (1.30%) Groovy
7 11 (1.30%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.18%) Bicep
9 7 (0.83%) C++
9 7 (0.83%) SPARQL
10 6 (0.71%) Scala
10 6 (0.71%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.71%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.47%) Cypher
11 4 (0.47%) Perl
11 4 (0.47%) R
11 4 (0.47%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 211 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 159 (18.84%) SC Cleared
3 55 (6.52%) Degree
4 44 (5.21%) BPSS Clearance
5 30 (3.55%) DV Cleared
6 22 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (1.54%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.42%) TOGAF Certification
9 9 (1.07%) AWS Certification
10 7 (0.83%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.83%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 4 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.36%) CISSP
12 3 (0.36%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.24%) ACCA
13 2 (0.24%) CBAP
13 2 (0.24%) CIMA
13 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.24%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 413 (48.93%) Data Quality
2 61 (7.23%) GDPR
3 46 (5.45%) Accessibility
4 44 (5.21%) QA
5 8 (0.95%) WCAG
6 7 (0.83%) NCSC
7 6 (0.71%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 6 (0.71%) MiFID
8 5 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (0.59%) NIST
9 4 (0.47%) GRC
9 4 (0.47%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.47%) ISO 19650
9 4 (0.47%) SNOMED CT
10 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.24%) SLA
11 2 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 24 (2.84%) Docker
2 7 (0.83%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 30 (3.55%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.18%) Ansible
2 10 (1.18%) Grafana
3 8 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.71%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.36%) Control-M
6 2 (0.24%) Kibana
6 2 (0.24%) systemd
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 163 (19.31%) Microsoft
2 147 (17.42%) Databricks
3 48 (5.69%) Informatica
4 46 (5.45%) Google
5 35 (4.15%) Oracle
6 18 (2.13%) Sparx
7 15 (1.78%) SAP
8 14 (1.66%) ServiceNow
9 12 (1.42%) IBM
10 10 (1.18%) Autodesk
10 10 (1.18%) Denodo
10 10 (1.18%) Teradata
11 9 (1.07%) Palantir
11 9 (1.07%) Sybase
12 8 (0.95%) Foundry
12 8 (0.95%) Salesforce
12 8 (0.95%) Talend
13 7 (0.83%) CA Agile Central
13 7 (0.83%) Signiant
13 7 (0.83%) Sonatype