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 21 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 215 330 291
Rank change year-on-year +115 -39 +17
Contract jobs citing Metadata 554 193 333
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.26% 0.66% 0.75%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.92% 3.48% 4.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 385 141 227
10th Percentile £358 £250 £357
25th Percentile £413 £400 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -13.04% +4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £738
90th Percentile £692 £788 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £506 £465 £565
% change year-on-year +8.87% -17.70% +13.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 7 25
10th Percentile £35.91 £22.63 £13.70
25th Percentile £61.50 £22.72 £20.49
Median hourly rate £69.00 £27.50 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +150.91% -31.68% +15.00%
75th Percentile £82.25 £56.13 £46.18
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £47.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +150.91% -31.68% +11.03%

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 6,993 5,539 7,281
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.95% 18.88% 16.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,813 3,821 5,141
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £756 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £488
% change year-on-year -3.06% +0.51% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 100 173
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.72 £14.36
25th Percentile £28.86 £24.25 £20.77
Median hourly rate £51.00 £31.64 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +61.19% -21.39% -26.82%
75th Percentile £74.84 £64.56 £58.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +66.67% -14.29% -30.07%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 21 March 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 +102 470 £521 +2.06% 210
London +96 277 £513 -16.33% 97
UK excluding London +30 208 £506 +8.87% 155
Work from Home +56 159 £525 +0.48% 58
Midlands -21 51 £560 +54.48% 17
South East -21 48 £513 +7.61% 62
West Midlands -27 45 £569 +56.90% 7
North of England -55 39 £472 -5.60% 21
Scotland +39 38 £436 -17.58% 5
East of England -10 22 £492 +54.78% 28
North West -23 22 £496 -9.04% 6
South West -13 17 £570 +12.59% 20
Yorkshire -43 16 £500 +29.03% 12
East Midlands - 6 £447 - 10
North East -16 4 £475 -23.91% 3
Wales -12 1 £750 +217.80% 4

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 42 (7.58%) Apache Spark
2 32 (5.78%) SharePoint
3 25 (4.51%) SAS
4 21 (3.79%) Confluence
5 19 (3.43%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (3.07%) Apache
7 13 (2.35%) CMS
8 7 (1.26%) Drupal
8 7 (1.26%) Sitecore CMS
9 5 (0.90%) ArcGIS
9 5 (0.90%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.90%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.72%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
12 2 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.18%) Apache Solr
13 1 (0.18%) Apache Synapse
13 1 (0.18%) Headless CMS
13 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
13 1 (0.18%) WordPress
Applications
1 31 (5.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (2.35%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.36%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (3.07%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 12 (2.17%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.08%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (1.08%) SAP FI
3 6 (1.08%) SAP MM
4 5 (0.90%) Summit
5 3 (0.54%) Actimize
5 3 (0.54%) Maximo
6 2 (0.36%) FIS Private Capital Suite
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.18%) Loan IQ
7 1 (0.18%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.18%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 171 (30.87%) Azure
2 123 (22.20%) AWS
3 91 (16.43%) Power Platform
4 66 (11.91%) GCP
5 55 (9.93%) Collibra
6 48 (8.66%) Azure Data Factory
7 45 (8.12%) Microsoft Purview
8 35 (6.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 34 (6.14%) Snowflake
10 28 (5.05%) Serverless
11 26 (4.69%) Amazon S3
12 22 (3.97%) AWS Lambda
12 22 (3.97%) GitHub
13 21 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
14 20 (3.61%) dbt
15 18 (3.25%) Microsoft 365
16 9 (1.62%) Amazon EMR
17 8 (1.44%) Power Automate
18 7 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
18 7 (1.26%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.54%) Intranet
2 2 (0.36%) Firewall
2 2 (0.36%) Hyperconnected
3 1 (0.18%) 4G
3 1 (0.18%) 5G
3 1 (0.18%) HTTP
3 1 (0.18%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (20.94%) Data Warehouse
2 85 (15.34%) Power BI
3 70 (12.64%) Data Lake
4 42 (7.58%) Metadata Repository
5 30 (5.42%) SQL Server
6 29 (5.23%) Big Data
6 29 (5.23%) Tableau
7 26 (4.69%) Data Vault
7 26 (4.69%) Relational Database
8 25 (4.51%) NoSQL
9 24 (4.33%) Snowflake Schema
10 22 (3.97%) PostgreSQL
11 19 (3.43%) Oracle Database
11 19 (3.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 18 (3.25%) Amazon Redshift
12 18 (3.25%) Hadoop
13 17 (3.07%) BigQuery
14 16 (2.89%) Azure SQL Database
15 14 (2.53%) Delta Lake
16 13 (2.35%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 29 (5.23%) ERwin
2 28 (5.05%) Git
3 24 (4.33%) JIRA
4 12 (2.17%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.17%) PowerDesigner
5 10 (1.81%) ER Studio
6 8 (1.44%) GitLab
7 6 (1.08%) Maven
8 5 (0.90%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.54%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.54%) Subversion
10 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.36%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.18%) git-flow
11 1 (0.18%) gulp
11 1 (0.18%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.18%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.18%) VersionOne
11 1 (0.18%) Yeoman
General
1 184 (33.21%) Social Skills
2 150 (27.08%) Finance
3 115 (20.76%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (13.18%) Public Sector
5 59 (10.65%) Banking
6 39 (7.04%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (2.89%) Publishing
8 15 (2.71%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
9 13 (2.35%) Legal
10 12 (2.17%) Aviation
11 11 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (1.99%) Retail
12 10 (1.81%) Marketing
13 8 (1.44%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (1.26%) Military
15 6 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.90%) Corporate Banking
16 5 (0.90%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 143 (25.81%) Architect
2 108 (19.49%) Data Architect
3 81 (14.62%) Analyst
4 78 (14.08%) Data Engineer
5 56 (10.11%) Data Analyst
6 42 (7.58%) Senior
7 41 (7.40%) Data Modeller
7 41 (7.40%) Lead
8 38 (6.86%) Developer
9 27 (4.87%) Business Analyst
10 25 (4.51%) Consultant
11 16 (2.89%) Azure Engineer
12 14 (2.53%) Data Business Analyst
12 14 (2.53%) Software Engineer
13 13 (2.35%) AWS Engineer
13 13 (2.35%) Governance Analyst
14 12 (2.17%) Azure Data Engineer
14 12 (2.17%) Principal Engineer
15 11 (1.99%) Senior Data Engineer
16 10 (1.81%) Data Analytics Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (7.94%) PySpark
2 32 (5.78%) Kafka
2 32 (5.78%) REST
3 19 (3.43%) JSON
4 15 (2.71%) .NET
5 14 (2.53%) XML
6 13 (2.35%) YAML
7 12 (2.17%) React
7 12 (2.17%) SOAP
8 8 (1.44%) OAuth
9 7 (1.26%) RESTful
10 6 (1.08%) HTML
10 6 (1.08%) Node.js
10 6 (1.08%) Pandas
10 6 (1.08%) SAP Basis
10 6 (1.08%) SAP Business Workflow
10 6 (1.08%) SAP Fiori
10 6 (1.08%) VML
11 5 (0.90%) SLSA
12 3 (0.54%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 52 (9.39%) Cloud Native
2 44 (7.94%) Data Structures
3 39 (7.04%) Taxonomies
4 34 (6.14%) Management Information System
5 32 (5.78%) Reference Data
6 27 (4.87%) Onboarding
7 23 (4.15%) Legacy Systems
8 22 (3.97%) Product Ownership
9 13 (2.35%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (2.17%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.99%) Credit Risk
12 8 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
13 7 (1.26%) Data Fabric
13 7 (1.26%) Derivative
13 7 (1.26%) Distributed Computing
13 7 (1.26%) Market Risk
14 5 (0.90%) CMDB
14 5 (0.90%) Fixed Income
14 5 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
14 5 (0.90%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.53%) Unix
2 8 (1.44%) Linux
3 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 282 (50.90%) Data Governance
2 274 (49.46%) Data Modelling
3 229 (41.34%) Metadata Management
4 203 (36.64%) Analytics
5 162 (29.24%) Data Architecture
6 151 (27.26%) ETL
7 129 (23.29%) Business Intelligence
8 117 (21.12%) Data Engineering
9 104 (18.77%) Agile
9 104 (18.77%) Data Pipeline
10 103 (18.59%) Validation
11 99 (17.87%) Data Lineage
12 98 (17.69%) Problem-Solving
13 93 (16.79%) AI
14 91 (16.43%) Migration
15 84 (15.16%) CI/CD
15 84 (15.16%) Data Integration
16 83 (14.98%) Data Management
17 75 (13.54%) Decision-Making
18 74 (13.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 225 (40.61%) SQL
2 142 (25.63%) Python
3 25 (4.51%) C#
4 20 (3.61%) Java
4 20 (3.61%) PowerShell
5 13 (2.35%) PL/SQL
6 12 (2.17%) JavaScript
7 8 (1.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 8 (1.44%) Shell Script
8 7 (1.26%) Groovy
8 7 (1.26%) T-SQL
9 6 (1.08%) ABAP
9 6 (1.08%) Perl
9 6 (1.08%) R
10 5 (0.90%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.90%) Scala
10 5 (0.90%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.54%) SOQL
12 2 (0.36%) Bicep
12 2 (0.36%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 133 (24.01%) Security Cleared
2 100 (18.05%) SC Cleared
3 34 (6.14%) Degree
4 25 (4.51%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.53%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.81%) Azure Certification
6 10 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.44%) DV Cleared
7 8 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (0.90%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.72%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (0.36%) Analytics IQ
11 1 (0.18%) CISSP
11 1 (0.18%) CSPO
11 1 (0.18%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 1 (0.18%) MySQL Certification
11 1 (0.18%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 235 (42.42%) Data Quality
2 55 (9.93%) GDPR
3 27 (4.87%) QA
4 19 (3.43%) Accessibility
5 12 (2.17%) GRC
6 11 (1.99%) Solvency II
7 7 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (1.08%) IFRS
8 6 (1.08%) NIST
9 4 (0.72%) ISO 22301
9 4 (0.72%) MiFID
10 3 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.54%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.36%) CRD IV
11 2 (0.36%) FINREP
11 2 (0.36%) IFRS 17
11 2 (0.36%) ISO 19650
11 2 (0.36%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.36%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (2.17%) Docker
2 5 (0.90%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 20 (3.61%) Terraform
2 15 (2.71%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.72%) Grafana
3 4 (0.72%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (0.18%) Ansible
4 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.18%) SCCM
4 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 102 (18.41%) Microsoft
2 80 (14.44%) Databricks
3 57 (10.29%) Oracle
4 44 (7.94%) Informatica
5 23 (4.15%) ServiceNow
6 20 (3.61%) Talend
7 18 (3.25%) Google
7 18 (3.25%) Salesforce
7 18 (3.25%) SAP
8 16 (2.89%) Sparx
9 11 (1.99%) Teradata
10 8 (1.44%) OpenText
11 7 (1.26%) Remedy
11 7 (1.26%) Sitecore
12 6 (1.08%) Atlassian
12 6 (1.08%) ESRI
12 6 (1.08%) Optimizely
12 6 (1.08%) Palantir
13 5 (0.90%) IBM
13 5 (0.90%) Intergraph