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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 214 301 361
Rank change year-on-year +87 +60 +22
Contract jobs citing Metadata 715 276 222
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.35% 0.84% 0.56%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.78% 4.64% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 462 191 144
10th Percentile £386 £306 £382
25th Percentile £450 £443 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -8.70% -
75th Percentile £670 £638 £800
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 4 9
10th Percentile £30.69 - -
25th Percentile £57.63 £13.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 £19.25 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +232.47% -40.77% -8.77%
75th Percentile £70.00 £42.50 £33.75
90th Percentile - £69.50 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £13.50 £13.50
% change year-on-year +374.07% - -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 8,148 5,949 7,151
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.35% 18.14% 18.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,411 4,031 5,070
10th Percentile £356 £343 £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 £651
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 255 90 103
10th Percentile £16.28 £19.20 £14.40
25th Percentile £24.65 £23.50 £20.38
Median hourly rate £39.50 £36.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.97% -3.33% -31.82%
75th Percentile £60.75 £64.69 £60.78
90th Percentile £76.30 £78.83 £72.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £31.64 £30.00
% change year-on-year +20.89% +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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +74 604 £525 - 213
London +54 348 £525 -9.68% 127
UK excluding London +71 282 £525 +23.53% 118
Work from Home +56 207 £525 -9.68% 94
North of England -12 73 £514 +14.29% 22
Midlands -11 62 £589 +450.47% 23
West Midlands -21 58 £613 +472.43% 18
Scotland +30 48 £525 +10.53% 5
South East -41 48 £525 +23.53% 46
Yorkshire -15 38 £515 -4.25% 9
East of England +4 30 £463 +45.44% 6
North West -35 29 £575 +83.12% 12
South West -22 25 £550 -6.38% 10
North East -37 8 £463 +1.37% 1
East Midlands -11 4 £500 +21.95% 5
Wales -16 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 (5.73%) SharePoint
2 33 (4.62%) Apache Airflow
3 31 (4.34%) Apache Spark
4 26 (3.64%) Apache
5 19 (2.66%) CMS
6 17 (2.38%) Confluence
7 12 (1.68%) SAS
8 4 (0.56%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.42%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.28%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.28%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.28%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.14%) Drupal
11 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.14%) Liferay
11 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 20 (2.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.98%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.98%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.98%) Revit
3 5 (0.70%) 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 13 (1.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.56%) 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%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 210 (29.37%) Azure
2 159 (22.24%) AWS
3 100 (13.99%) Power Platform
4 79 (11.05%) GCP
5 59 (8.25%) Collibra
6 52 (7.27%) Microsoft Purview
7 43 (6.01%) Amazon S3
8 42 (5.87%) Azure Data Factory
9 38 (5.31%) GitHub
10 36 (5.03%) dbt
11 33 (4.62%) Serverless
11 33 (4.62%) Snowflake
12 31 (4.34%) AWS Lambda
13 30 (4.20%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (3.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 27 (3.78%) Microsoft 365
16 18 (2.52%) Microsoft Copilot
16 18 (2.52%) Power Automate
17 17 (2.38%) Amazon EMR
18 16 (2.24%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.98%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.98%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.70%) Intranet
3 4 (0.56%) SSL
4 3 (0.42%) Broadband
4 3 (0.42%) Firewall
4 3 (0.42%) HTTP
5 1 (0.14%) 4G
5 1 (0.14%) 5G
5 1 (0.14%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (16.22%) Data Warehouse
2 86 (12.03%) Power BI
3 81 (11.33%) Data Lake
4 36 (5.03%) Data Vault
5 34 (4.76%) Relational Database
6 30 (4.20%) NoSQL
6 30 (4.20%) Tableau
7 26 (3.64%) Delta Lake
8 21 (2.94%) BigQuery
8 21 (2.94%) Semantic Layer
9 20 (2.80%) PostgreSQL
9 20 (2.80%) Snowflake Schema
10 18 (2.52%) Amazon Redshift
11 17 (2.38%) SQL Server
12 16 (2.24%) Big Data
13 15 (2.10%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (1.96%) Db2
15 12 (1.68%) Hadoop
16 11 (1.54%) Elasticsearch
16 11 (1.54%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 42 (5.87%) ERwin
2 32 (4.48%) Git
3 27 (3.78%) ER Studio
4 19 (2.66%) JIRA
5 18 (2.52%) Jenkins
6 17 (2.38%) PowerDesigner
7 15 (2.10%) Maven
8 14 (1.96%) GitLab
9 10 (1.40%) 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
1 202 (28.25%) Finance
2 191 (26.71%) Social Skills
3 147 (20.56%) Analytical Skills
4 97 (13.57%) Banking
5 70 (9.79%) Public Sector
6 37 (5.17%) Investment Banking
7 36 (5.03%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (2.66%) Legal
9 18 (2.52%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (2.38%) Marketing
10 17 (2.38%) Retail
11 16 (2.24%) Publishing
12 13 (1.82%) Aviation
12 13 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.68%) Front Office
14 11 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 8 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
16 7 (0.98%) Manufacturing
16 7 (0.98%) Military
17 6 (0.84%) Law
Job Titles
1 167 (23.36%) Architect
2 120 (16.78%) Data Architect
3 108 (15.10%) Data Engineer
4 89 (12.45%) Analyst
5 86 (12.03%) Lead
6 61 (8.53%) Senior
7 54 (7.55%) Data Analyst
8 53 (7.41%) Data Modeller
9 41 (5.73%) Developer
10 33 (4.62%) Business Analyst
11 26 (3.64%) Consultant
12 20 (2.80%) Data Business Analyst
12 20 (2.80%) Data Manager
13 19 (2.66%) Product Owner
14 17 (2.38%) DevOps Engineer
14 17 (2.38%) Senior Data Engineer
15 16 (2.24%) Lead Data Engineer
16 15 (2.10%) Solutions Architect
17 14 (1.96%) Governance Analyst
18 13 (1.82%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (6.71%) PySpark
2 38 (5.31%) JSON
3 32 (4.48%) Kafka
4 23 (3.22%) REST
5 16 (2.24%) YAML
6 13 (1.82%) Spring Boot
7 12 (1.68%) Node.js
7 12 (1.68%) XML
8 10 (1.40%) .NET
8 10 (1.40%) OAuth
8 10 (1.40%) SLSA
9 9 (1.26%) React
10 8 (1.12%) GraphQL
10 8 (1.12%) Middleware
10 8 (1.12%) OAuth2
10 8 (1.12%) Spring
11 7 (0.98%) SPFx
12 6 (0.84%) ADO
12 6 (0.84%) CSS
12 6 (0.84%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (9.51%) Cloud Native
2 63 (8.81%) Data Structures
3 58 (8.11%) Onboarding
4 54 (7.55%) Taxonomies
5 51 (7.13%) Product Ownership
6 43 (6.01%) Management Information System
6 43 (6.01%) Reference Data
7 40 (5.59%) Legacy Systems
8 19 (2.66%) Derivative
9 16 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
10 13 (1.82%) AI Agents
11 12 (1.68%) Distributed Systems
11 12 (1.68%) Equity Derivative
11 12 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (1.54%) Life Science
13 10 (1.40%) Digital Media
13 10 (1.40%) Distributed Computing
14 9 (1.26%) Clustering
14 9 (1.26%) Data Fabric
14 9 (1.26%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.66%) Unix
2 12 (1.68%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 357 (49.93%) Data Governance
2 341 (47.69%) Data Modelling
3 247 (34.55%) Metadata Management
4 235 (32.87%) Analytics
5 175 (24.48%) Data Architecture
6 172 (24.06%) AI
7 164 (22.94%) Data Pipeline
8 158 (22.10%) ETL
9 153 (21.40%) Agile
9 153 (21.40%) Data Engineering
10 140 (19.58%) CI/CD
11 135 (18.88%) Migration
12 132 (18.46%) Stakeholder Management
13 120 (16.78%) Data Lineage
14 118 (16.50%) Validation
15 117 (16.36%) Business Intelligence
16 114 (15.94%) Data Management
17 109 (15.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 106 (14.83%) Continuous Improvement
18 106 (14.83%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 276 (38.60%) SQL
2 186 (26.01%) Python
3 56 (7.83%) Java
4 23 (3.22%) PL/SQL
5 15 (2.10%) Shell Script
6 14 (1.96%) C#
7 13 (1.82%) Groovy
7 13 (1.82%) PowerShell
8 11 (1.54%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.26%) Bash
9 9 (1.26%) C++
10 8 (1.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (1.12%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.98%) SPARQL
12 6 (0.84%) Bicep
12 6 (0.84%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.70%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.70%) Scala
14 4 (0.56%) Cypher
14 4 (0.56%) Perl
Qualifications
1 153 (21.40%) Security Cleared
2 116 (16.22%) SC Cleared
3 42 (5.87%) Degree
4 32 (4.48%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.38%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.54%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.54%) Master's Degree
7 11 (1.54%) TOGAF Certification
8 7 (0.98%) AWS Certification
9 5 (0.70%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.28%) ACCA
11 2 (0.28%) CBAP
11 2 (0.28%) CIMA
11 2 (0.28%) CISM
11 2 (0.28%) CISSP
11 2 (0.28%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.28%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 285 (39.86%) Data Quality
2 62 (8.67%) GDPR
3 41 (5.73%) Accessibility
4 37 (5.17%) QA
5 7 (0.98%) Solvency II
6 6 (0.84%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 6 (0.84%) GRC
6 6 (0.84%) ISO 19650
6 6 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.84%) NIST
7 5 (0.70%) WCAG
8 4 (0.56%) ISO 22301
8 4 (0.56%) MiFID
9 3 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.42%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.42%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.42%) NCSC
10 2 (0.28%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 16 (2.24%) Docker
2 9 (1.26%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 30 (4.20%) Terraform
2 20 (2.80%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.40%) Grafana
4 7 (0.98%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.56%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.56%) PingFederate
7 2 (0.28%) Ansible
7 2 (0.28%) Kibana
8 1 (0.14%) Apache Ranger
8 1 (0.14%) Control-M
Vendors
1 123 (17.20%) Microsoft
2 110 (15.38%) Databricks
3 53 (7.41%) Oracle
4 51 (7.13%) Informatica
5 22 (3.08%) Google
6 19 (2.66%) Salesforce
7 16 (2.24%) IBM
8 15 (2.10%) SAP
8 15 (2.10%) Talend
9 13 (1.82%) Autodesk
9 13 (1.82%) Sparx
10 11 (1.54%) Sybase
11 10 (1.40%) Sonatype
12 8 (1.12%) Adobe
12 8 (1.12%) CA Agile Central
12 8 (1.12%) Denodo
12 8 (1.12%) Palantir
13 7 (0.98%) Aspera
13 7 (0.98%) Foundry
13 7 (0.98%) Signiant