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 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 279 373
Rank change year-on-year +87 +94 +7
Contract jobs citing Metadata 819 303 192
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.51% 0.93% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 9.96% 5.16% 2.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 520 209 123
10th Percentile £400 £350 £401
25th Percentile £456 £456 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year - +3.77% -7.83%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £738
90th Percentile £757 £750 £910
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £470 £488
% change year-on-year +17.02% -3.59% -10.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 4 5
10th Percentile £20.00 - £20.08
25th Percentile £55.00 £13.25 £21.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £22.00 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +206.82% -44.30% -14.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £45.69 £48.18
90th Percentile - £70.78 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £13.50 £48.18
% change year-on-year +400.00% -71.98% +4.74%

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 8,222 5,867 6,839
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.11% 18.08% 17.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,490 3,918 4,724
10th Percentile £358 £338 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -6.19% -1.75%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £701 £738 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £482
% change year-on-year - -1.45% -3.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 92 86
10th Percentile £16.49 £22.85 £17.50
25th Percentile £24.13 £30.55 £20.88
Median hourly rate £39.84 £40.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.01% +14.99% -36.36%
75th Percentile £60.38 £65.00 £61.19
90th Percentile £76.00 £80.00 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £36.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year +8.33% +20.00% -44.95%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 +78 704 £550 - 920
London +50 397 £540 -6.09% 550
UK excluding London +66 330 £550 +17.02% 462
Work from Home +49 232 £525 -10.64% 394
North of England +8 95 £500 -2.44% 106
Midlands +10 77 £610 +103.33% 55
West Midlands +1 70 £626 +485.05% 43
Yorkshire +23 59 £500 -6.98% 36
South East -28 58 £560 +26.20% 105
Scotland +13 45 £540 +13.68% 54
East of England -6 32 £450 -18.18% 43
North West -25 32 £600 +47.24% 62
South West -29 27 £575 - 67
East Midlands -10 7 £494 +18.98% 12
North East -32 7 £463 +2.78% 8
Wales -17 4 £750 +7.14% 10

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 49 (5.98%) SharePoint
2 40 (4.88%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (3.79%) Apache
4 24 (2.93%) CMS
5 22 (2.69%) Confluence
6 21 (2.56%) Apache Spark
7 18 (2.20%) SAS
8 10 (1.22%) Headless CMS
9 9 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
10 6 (0.73%) Palantir Foundry
11 4 (0.49%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.24%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.24%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.24%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.12%) Apache Solr
13 1 (0.12%) Camunda
13 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.12%) Liferay
13 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.85%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.85%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.85%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.85%) Revit
3 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.12%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.12%) Notion
6 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 17 (2.08%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.37%) Maximo
3 3 (0.37%) SAP HR
3 3 (0.37%) Summit
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%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 246 (30.04%) Azure
2 193 (23.57%) AWS
3 112 (13.68%) Power Platform
4 99 (12.09%) GCP
5 76 (9.28%) Microsoft Purview
6 69 (8.42%) Collibra
7 49 (5.98%) Azure Data Factory
8 44 (5.37%) dbt
9 43 (5.25%) Amazon S3
9 43 (5.25%) Snowflake
10 41 (5.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 39 (4.76%) GitHub
12 35 (4.27%) Serverless
13 34 (4.15%) Azure DevOps
14 33 (4.03%) AWS Lambda
15 31 (3.79%) Microsoft 365
16 25 (3.05%) Azure Databricks
17 23 (2.81%) Power Automate
18 22 (2.69%) Entra ID
19 21 (2.56%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.85%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.85%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.61%) Broadband
3 4 (0.49%) HTTP
3 4 (0.49%) Intranet
3 4 (0.49%) SSL
4 3 (0.37%) DNS
4 3 (0.37%) Firewall
5 2 (0.24%) Kerberos
5 2 (0.24%) SAN
6 1 (0.12%) SMS
6 1 (0.12%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (15.26%) Data Warehouse
2 98 (11.97%) Power BI
3 96 (11.72%) Data Lake
4 37 (4.52%) NoSQL
4 37 (4.52%) Relational Database
5 34 (4.15%) BigQuery
6 33 (4.03%) Delta Lake
7 31 (3.79%) PostgreSQL
8 28 (3.42%) Semantic Layer
9 26 (3.17%) Tableau
10 25 (3.05%) Data Vault
11 20 (2.44%) Amazon Redshift
12 18 (2.20%) SQL Server
13 17 (2.08%) Elasticsearch
14 14 (1.71%) Db2
14 14 (1.71%) Parquet
15 13 (1.59%) MongoDB
15 13 (1.59%) Neo4j
16 12 (1.47%) Big Data
16 12 (1.47%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 38 (4.64%) Git
2 31 (3.79%) ERwin
3 26 (3.17%) JIRA
4 24 (2.93%) ER Studio
5 15 (1.83%) Jenkins
5 15 (1.83%) Maven
6 12 (1.47%) GitLab
7 11 (1.34%) PowerDesigner
8 10 (1.22%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.61%) Selenium
10 3 (0.37%) MLflow
11 2 (0.24%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.24%) TestRail
12 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
12 1 (0.12%) Deequ
12 1 (0.12%) git-flow
12 1 (0.12%) Subversion
12 1 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.12%) VersionOne
12 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 244 (29.79%) Social Skills
2 204 (24.91%) Finance
3 156 (19.05%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (12.94%) Public Sector
5 101 (12.33%) Banking
6 38 (4.64%) Influencing Skills
7 37 (4.52%) Investment Banking
8 27 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (3.05%) Publishing
10 23 (2.81%) Retail
11 21 (2.56%) Marketing
12 20 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (2.20%) Legal
14 14 (1.71%) Manufacturing
14 14 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (1.59%) Aerospace
16 12 (1.47%) Front Office
17 10 (1.22%) Law
17 10 (1.22%) Military
18 8 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 217 (26.50%) Architect
2 158 (19.29%) Data Architect
3 134 (16.36%) Data Engineer
4 107 (13.06%) Lead
5 88 (10.74%) Analyst
6 74 (9.04%) Senior
7 49 (5.98%) Data Analyst
8 41 (5.01%) Data Modeller
9 36 (4.40%) Business Analyst
10 35 (4.27%) Developer
11 29 (3.54%) Senior Data Engineer
12 28 (3.42%) Consultant
13 24 (2.93%) Data Manager
14 22 (2.69%) Solutions Architect
15 20 (2.44%) Data Business Analyst
15 20 (2.44%) Lead Data Engineer
15 20 (2.44%) Product Owner
16 19 (2.32%) Enterprise Architect
17 17 (2.08%) DevOps Engineer
18 16 (1.95%) Enterprise Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (7.08%) PySpark
2 44 (5.37%) JSON
3 42 (5.13%) Terraform
4 37 (4.52%) REST
5 32 (3.91%) Kafka
6 18 (2.20%) YAML
7 15 (1.83%) Spring Boot
8 13 (1.59%) XML
9 12 (1.47%) Node.js
10 11 (1.34%) React
11 10 (1.22%) SLSA
11 10 (1.22%) Spring
12 9 (1.10%) .NET
12 9 (1.10%) GraphQL
12 9 (1.10%) Playwright
13 8 (0.98%) OAuth
14 7 (0.85%) Apache NiFi
14 7 (0.85%) OAuth2
15 6 (0.73%) FastAPI
15 6 (0.73%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 76 (9.28%) Cloud Native
2 73 (8.91%) Onboarding
3 64 (7.81%) Data Structures
4 63 (7.69%) Taxonomies
5 57 (6.96%) Management Information System
6 55 (6.72%) Product Ownership
7 43 (5.25%) Legacy Systems
8 42 (5.13%) Reference Data
9 22 (2.69%) Data Fabric
10 18 (2.20%) AI Agents
10 18 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
10 18 (2.20%) Derivative
11 13 (1.59%) Life Science
12 12 (1.47%) Distributed Computing
12 12 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (1.47%) Equity Derivative
13 11 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
14 10 (1.22%) Linux Command Line
14 10 (1.22%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (1.71%) Unix
2 11 (1.34%) Linux
3 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.12%) VMS
3 1 (0.12%) Windows
3 1 (0.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 442 (53.97%) Data Governance
2 388 (47.37%) Data Modelling
3 320 (39.07%) Metadata Management
4 265 (32.36%) Analytics
5 228 (27.84%) Data Architecture
6 227 (27.72%) AI
7 216 (26.37%) Stakeholder Management
8 201 (24.54%) Agile
9 187 (22.83%) Data Pipeline
10 181 (22.10%) Data Engineering
11 173 (21.12%) CI/CD
11 173 (21.12%) ETL
11 173 (21.12%) Migration
12 152 (18.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 145 (17.70%) Data Management
14 144 (17.58%) Roadmaps
15 142 (17.34%) Data Lineage
16 131 (16.00%) Validation
17 130 (15.87%) Business Intelligence
18 128 (15.63%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 293 (35.78%) SQL
2 214 (26.13%) Python
3 66 (8.06%) Java
4 21 (2.56%) PL/SQL
5 14 (1.71%) PowerShell
6 13 (1.59%) C#
6 13 (1.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 13 (1.59%) Groovy
7 12 (1.47%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.47%) Shell Script
8 9 (1.10%) Bash
8 9 (1.10%) C++
9 7 (0.85%) Bicep
9 7 (0.85%) SPARQL
10 6 (0.73%) Scala
10 6 (0.73%) TypeScript
11 5 (0.61%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.49%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.49%) Perl
12 4 (0.49%) R
Qualifications
1 197 (24.05%) Security Cleared
2 148 (18.07%) SC Cleared
3 53 (6.47%) Degree
4 43 (5.25%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.56%) DV Cleared
7 12 (1.47%) Azure Certification
7 12 (1.47%) TOGAF Certification
8 10 (1.22%) AWS Certification
9 8 (0.98%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.85%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 5 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.37%) CISSP
12 3 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.37%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.24%) ACCA
13 2 (0.24%) CIMA
13 2 (0.24%) CISM
13 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 382 (46.64%) Data Quality
2 62 (7.57%) GDPR
3 46 (5.62%) Accessibility
4 44 (5.37%) QA
5 8 (0.98%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 8 (0.98%) WCAG
6 7 (0.85%) NCSC
7 6 (0.73%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.73%) MiFID
8 5 (0.61%) GRC
8 5 (0.61%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 4 (0.49%) NIST
9 4 (0.49%) SNOMED CT
10 3 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS
11 2 (0.24%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.24%) PMO
11 2 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 25 (3.05%) Docker
2 9 (1.10%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 26 (3.17%) Kubernetes
2 12 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (0.98%) Grafana
4 6 (0.73%) Prometheus
5 5 (0.61%) Ansible
6 4 (0.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.49%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.49%) PingFederate
7 3 (0.37%) Control-M
8 2 (0.24%) Kibana
8 2 (0.24%) systemd
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
9 1 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 157 (19.17%) Microsoft
2 135 (16.48%) Databricks
3 61 (7.45%) Informatica
4 51 (6.23%) Oracle
5 38 (4.64%) Google
6 17 (2.08%) SAP
6 17 (2.08%) Sparx
7 16 (1.95%) IBM
8 15 (1.83%) Talend
9 14 (1.71%) Salesforce
9 14 (1.71%) ServiceNow
10 13 (1.59%) Autodesk
11 11 (1.34%) Denodo
11 11 (1.34%) Sybase
11 11 (1.34%) Teradata
12 10 (1.22%) Palantir
12 10 (1.22%) Sonatype
13 9 (1.10%) Foundry
14 8 (0.98%) CA Agile Central
15 7 (0.85%) Signiant