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 26 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 198 304 373
Rank change year-on-year +106 +69 +5
Contract jobs citing Metadata 769 274 206
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.43% 0.84% 0.53%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 9.42% 4.64% 2.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 477 191 128
10th Percentile £400 £315 £400
25th Percentile £456 £463 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £665 £638 £775
90th Percentile £750 £750 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £468 £488
% change year-on-year +12.18% -4.00% -11.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 3 10
10th Percentile £19.28 - £13.50
25th Percentile £50.23 £13.25 £14.95
Median hourly rate £67.49 £13.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +399.89% -50.91% -44.44%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.63 £33.75
90th Percentile £70.15 £72.75 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.49 £13.50 £16.40
% change year-on-year +399.89% -17.68% -69.82%

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 8,160 5,905 7,028
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.21% 18.05% 18.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,437 3,967 4,921
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.09%
75th Percentile £606 £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 251 94 100
10th Percentile £15.75 £21.02 £14.93
25th Percentile £22.91 £29.00 £19.90
Median hourly rate £38.25 £36.75 £33.22
Median % change year-on-year +4.08% +10.64% -39.61%
75th Percentile £60.75 £63.31 £54.06
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.74 £69.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £32.58 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.40% +8.60% -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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 August 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 +97 665 £540 +2.86% 175
London +66 385 £540 -8.09% 95
UK excluding London +77 301 £525 +12.18% 106
Work from Home +50 219 £525 -9.68% 85
North of England -6 79 £500 +5.26% 21
Midlands -4 71 £600 +460.75% 18
West Midlands -13 64 £650 +507.48% 14
South East -43 54 £525 +12.18% 30
Yorkshire +9 48 £500 -6.98% 11
Scotland +17 42 £533 +12.11% 12
East of England +1 33 £463 -11.90% 3
South West -22 27 £550 -8.33% 21
North West -34 26 £575 +41.10% 9
East Midlands -12 7 £494 +20.43% 4
North East -35 7 £463 +2.78% 1
Wales -13 3 £750 +76.47% 3

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 44 (5.72%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.16%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (3.25%) Apache
3 25 (3.25%) Apache Spark
4 22 (2.86%) CMS
5 17 (2.21%) Confluence
6 14 (1.82%) SAS
7 7 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
8 6 (0.78%) Palantir Foundry
9 5 (0.65%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.26%) Alfresco
11 2 (0.26%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.26%) SharePoint Server
12 1 (0.13%) Apache Solr
12 1 (0.13%) JBoss
12 1 (0.13%) Liferay
12 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.91%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.91%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.91%) Revit
3 6 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.26%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.13%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.13%) Notion
7 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 19 (2.47%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.52%) Summit
4 3 (0.39%) Maximo
4 3 (0.39%) SAP HR
5 2 (0.26%) HFM
5 2 (0.26%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.26%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.26%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 2 (0.26%) Workfront
6 1 (0.13%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 230 (29.91%) Azure
2 180 (23.41%) AWS
3 108 (14.04%) Power Platform
4 87 (11.31%) GCP
5 65 (8.45%) Microsoft Purview
6 63 (8.19%) Collibra
7 49 (6.37%) Azure Data Factory
8 42 (5.46%) GitHub
9 39 (5.07%) Amazon S3
10 38 (4.94%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 38 (4.94%) Snowflake
11 36 (4.68%) dbt
12 32 (4.16%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (3.90%) Serverless
14 28 (3.64%) AWS Lambda
14 28 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
15 21 (2.73%) Power Automate
16 20 (2.60%) Microsoft Copilot
17 19 (2.47%) Entra ID
17 19 (2.47%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.91%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.91%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.65%) Broadband
3 4 (0.52%) HTTP
3 4 (0.52%) Intranet
3 4 (0.52%) SSL
4 3 (0.39%) Firewall
5 1 (0.13%) DNS
5 1 (0.13%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.13%) SAN
5 1 (0.13%) SMS
5 1 (0.13%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (15.08%) Data Warehouse
2 96 (12.48%) Power BI
3 89 (11.57%) Data Lake
4 39 (5.07%) Relational Database
5 36 (4.68%) NoSQL
6 33 (4.29%) Delta Lake
7 32 (4.16%) Tableau
8 27 (3.51%) Data Vault
9 24 (3.12%) PostgreSQL
10 22 (2.86%) Semantic Layer
11 20 (2.60%) BigQuery
12 19 (2.47%) Amazon Redshift
13 17 (2.21%) SQL Server
14 16 (2.08%) Elasticsearch
15 14 (1.82%) Db2
15 14 (1.82%) MongoDB
16 13 (1.69%) Snowflake Schema
17 12 (1.56%) Amazon Athena
17 12 (1.56%) Parquet
18 11 (1.43%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (4.81%) ERwin
2 35 (4.55%) Git
3 26 (3.38%) ER Studio
4 21 (2.73%) JIRA
5 18 (2.34%) Jenkins
6 16 (2.08%) Maven
7 14 (1.82%) PowerDesigner
8 12 (1.56%) GitLab
9 11 (1.43%) SonarQube
10 5 (0.65%) Selenium
11 3 (0.39%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.39%) MLflow
12 2 (0.26%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.26%) git-flow
12 2 (0.26%) TestRail
13 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 1 (0.13%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.13%) VersionOne
13 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 222 (28.87%) Social Skills
2 203 (26.40%) Finance
3 159 (20.68%) Analytical Skills
4 92 (11.96%) Banking
5 90 (11.70%) Public Sector
6 38 (4.94%) Investment Banking
7 29 (3.77%) Influencing Skills
8 25 (3.25%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (2.99%) Retail
10 20 (2.60%) Publishing
11 19 (2.47%) Legal
11 19 (2.47%) Marketing
12 16 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 14 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
14 12 (1.56%) Front Office
14 12 (1.56%) Manufacturing
15 10 (1.30%) Law
15 10 (1.30%) Military
16 8 (1.04%) Aviation
16 8 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 186 (24.19%) Architect
2 133 (17.30%) Data Architect
3 118 (15.34%) Data Engineer
4 104 (13.52%) Lead
5 92 (11.96%) Analyst
6 71 (9.23%) Senior
7 53 (6.89%) Data Analyst
8 44 (5.72%) Data Modeller
9 36 (4.68%) Business Analyst
10 35 (4.55%) Developer
11 25 (3.25%) Consultant
12 24 (3.12%) Senior Data Engineer
13 22 (2.86%) Data Manager
14 21 (2.73%) Data Business Analyst
15 20 (2.60%) Product Owner
16 19 (2.47%) Lead Data Engineer
17 18 (2.34%) DevOps Engineer
18 16 (2.08%) Solutions Architect
19 15 (1.95%) Designer
19 15 (1.95%) Governance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (7.02%) PySpark
2 44 (5.72%) JSON
3 38 (4.94%) Terraform
4 36 (4.68%) Kafka
5 34 (4.42%) REST
6 20 (2.60%) YAML
7 15 (1.95%) Spring Boot
8 12 (1.56%) Node.js
8 12 (1.56%) XML
9 11 (1.43%) SLSA
10 10 (1.30%) React
10 10 (1.30%) Spring
11 9 (1.17%) .NET
12 8 (1.04%) GraphQL
12 8 (1.04%) Middleware
12 8 (1.04%) Playwright
13 7 (0.91%) RESTful
14 6 (0.78%) FastAPI
14 6 (0.78%) OAuth
14 6 (0.78%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 73 (9.49%) Cloud Native
2 65 (8.45%) Data Structures
3 64 (8.32%) Onboarding
4 54 (7.02%) Taxonomies
5 51 (6.63%) Product Ownership
6 50 (6.50%) Management Information System
7 46 (5.98%) Legacy Systems
8 45 (5.85%) Reference Data
9 19 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (2.47%) Derivative
10 16 (2.08%) AI Agents
11 14 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.69%) Life Science
13 12 (1.56%) Equity Derivative
14 11 (1.43%) Data Fabric
14 11 (1.43%) Distributed Computing
15 10 (1.30%) Digital Media
16 9 (1.17%) Clustering
16 9 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
16 9 (1.17%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.47%) Unix
2 13 (1.69%) Linux
3 1 (0.13%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.13%) VMS
3 1 (0.13%) Windows
3 1 (0.13%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (52.28%) Data Governance
2 359 (46.68%) Data Modelling
3 288 (37.45%) Metadata Management
4 255 (33.16%) Analytics
5 208 (27.05%) AI
6 199 (25.88%) Data Architecture
7 183 (23.80%) Stakeholder Management
8 176 (22.89%) Agile
8 176 (22.89%) Data Pipeline
9 166 (21.59%) ETL
10 165 (21.46%) CI/CD
11 164 (21.33%) Data Engineering
12 161 (20.94%) Migration
13 131 (17.04%) Data Lineage
14 130 (16.91%) Business Intelligence
14 130 (16.91%) Validation
15 129 (16.78%) Data Management
16 124 (16.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 122 (15.86%) Decision-Making
17 122 (15.86%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 289 (37.58%) SQL
2 201 (26.14%) Python
3 63 (8.19%) Java
4 23 (2.99%) PL/SQL
5 15 (1.95%) Shell Script
6 14 (1.82%) C#
6 14 (1.82%) Groovy
6 14 (1.82%) PowerShell
7 13 (1.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 12 (1.56%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.17%) Bash
9 9 (1.17%) C++
10 7 (0.91%) Bicep
10 7 (0.91%) SPARQL
11 6 (0.78%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.78%) TypeScript
12 5 (0.65%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.65%) Scala
13 4 (0.52%) Cypher
13 4 (0.52%) Perl
Qualifications
1 166 (21.59%) Security Cleared
2 122 (15.86%) SC Cleared
3 45 (5.85%) Degree
4 33 (4.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (2.34%) DV Cleared
7 13 (1.69%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.17%) Master's Degree
8 9 (1.17%) TOGAF Certification
9 7 (0.91%) AWS Certification
9 7 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.39%) CISSP
10 3 (0.39%) CompTIA Security+
10 3 (0.39%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.26%) ACCA
11 2 (0.26%) CBAP
11 2 (0.26%) CIMA
11 2 (0.26%) CISM
11 2 (0.26%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 341 (44.34%) Data Quality
2 70 (9.10%) GDPR
3 44 (5.72%) QA
4 43 (5.59%) Accessibility
5 8 (1.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 6 (0.78%) GRC
6 6 (0.78%) ISO 19650
6 6 (0.78%) MiFID
7 5 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.65%) NIST
7 5 (0.65%) Solvency II
8 4 (0.52%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.52%) NCSC
8 4 (0.52%) WCAG
9 3 (0.39%) IFRS
9 3 (0.39%) IFRS 9
9 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.26%) ISO 31000
10 2 (0.26%) PMO
System Software
1 22 (2.86%) Docker
2 10 (1.30%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.13%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 23 (2.99%) Kubernetes
2 8 (1.04%) Grafana
3 7 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (0.65%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.52%) Ansible
5 4 (0.52%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.52%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.26%) Control-M
6 2 (0.26%) Kibana
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.13%) Istio
7 1 (0.13%) systemd
Vendors
1 144 (18.73%) Microsoft
2 125 (16.25%) Databricks
3 56 (7.28%) Oracle
4 53 (6.89%) Informatica
5 28 (3.64%) Google
6 19 (2.47%) Sparx
7 16 (2.08%) IBM
7 16 (2.08%) Salesforce
7 16 (2.08%) SAP
8 13 (1.69%) Autodesk
8 13 (1.69%) Talend
9 11 (1.43%) Sonatype
9 11 (1.43%) Sybase
10 10 (1.30%) Denodo
10 10 (1.30%) Palantir
10 10 (1.30%) ServiceNow
11 9 (1.17%) Foundry
11 9 (1.17%) Teradata
12 8 (1.04%) Adobe
12 8 (1.04%) CA Agile Central