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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 205 304 346
Rank change year-on-year +99 +42 +24
Contract jobs citing Metadata 670 249 259
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.30% 0.81% 0.60%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.54% 4.41% 3.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 440 176 162
10th Percentile £358 £266 £376
25th Percentile £430 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -10.87% +4.55%
75th Percentile £643 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £463 £525
% change year-on-year +13.51% -11.90% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 16
10th Percentile £31.05 £13.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £35.91 £15.56 £20.11
Median hourly rate £60.50 £26.25 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +130.48% -19.23% -7.14%
75th Percentile £64.00 £29.69 £46.18
90th Percentile £69.35 £58.75 £47.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.50 £25.00 £40.25
% change year-on-year +142.00% -37.89% +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 7,845 5,647 7,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.26% 18.36% 17.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,192 3,828 5,379
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £650
90th Percentile £700 £751 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 100 150
10th Percentile £15.21 £19.56 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £25.57 £20.82
Median hourly rate £38.50 £34.99 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.03% -12.53% -29.08%
75th Percentile £63.75 £63.94 £53.29
90th Percentile £76.80 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.31 £31.64 £33.00
% change year-on-year +17.92% -4.12% -40.00%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +85 555 £525 +0.48% 167
London +59 320 £520 -13.33% 97
UK excluding London +49 268 £525 +13.51% 108
Work from Home +45 194 £525 -8.70% 70
Midlands -10 67 £569 +431.54% 19
West Midlands -5 65 £571 +433.64% 14
North of England -29 64 £525 +27.27% 17
Scotland +38 52 £525 +10.53% 6
South East -39 50 £513 +7.33% 45
Yorkshire -20 32 £567 +51.13% 4
North West -24 28 £575 +82.54% 13
East of England -3 26 £475 +49.16% 8
South West -22 14 £588 +0.04% 7
North East -28 7 £413 -10.81%
Wales -14 3 £750 +184.67% 5
East Midlands -11 2 £474 +15.49% 5

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 37 (5.52%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.78%) Apache Spark
3 31 (4.63%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (2.99%) Confluence
5 18 (2.69%) Apache
6 16 (2.39%) SAS
7 13 (1.94%) CMS
8 4 (0.60%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.45%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.30%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.30%) Headless CMS
11 1 (0.15%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.15%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.15%) Drupal
11 1 (0.15%) GeoServer
11 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.15%) Liferay
11 1 (0.15%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.19%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.04%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.04%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.04%) Revit
4 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.30%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.64%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.90%) Summit
3 3 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.30%) Maximo
4 2 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.15%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.15%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.15%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.15%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 192 (28.66%) Azure
2 144 (21.49%) AWS
3 89 (13.28%) Power Platform
4 70 (10.45%) GCP
5 59 (8.81%) Collibra
6 52 (7.76%) Microsoft Purview
7 37 (5.52%) Amazon S3
7 37 (5.52%) GitHub
8 35 (5.22%) Azure Data Factory
8 35 (5.22%) dbt
9 31 (4.63%) Serverless
10 29 (4.33%) Azure DevOps
10 29 (4.33%) Snowflake
11 28 (4.18%) AWS Lambda
11 28 (4.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 19 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
13 16 (2.39%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (2.24%) Entra ID
14 15 (2.24%) Power Automate
15 13 (1.94%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.04%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.04%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.75%) Intranet
3 4 (0.60%) SSL
4 3 (0.45%) Firewall
4 3 (0.45%) HTTP
5 1 (0.15%) 4G
5 1 (0.15%) 5G
5 1 (0.15%) Broadband
5 1 (0.15%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (16.87%) Data Warehouse
2 78 (11.64%) Power BI
3 73 (10.90%) Data Lake
4 36 (5.37%) Relational Database
5 33 (4.93%) Data Vault
6 30 (4.48%) Tableau
7 27 (4.03%) NoSQL
8 24 (3.58%) Metadata Repository
9 22 (3.28%) Delta Lake
9 22 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
9 22 (3.28%) SQL Server
10 20 (2.99%) Big Data
10 20 (2.99%) Snowflake Schema
11 17 (2.54%) Amazon Redshift
11 17 (2.54%) Hadoop
12 16 (2.39%) Amazon Athena
13 15 (2.24%) BigQuery
14 14 (2.09%) Semantic Layer
15 13 (1.94%) Db2
16 12 (1.79%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 39 (5.82%) ERwin
2 32 (4.78%) Git
3 21 (3.13%) JIRA
4 20 (2.99%) ER Studio
5 16 (2.39%) Jenkins
6 15 (2.24%) PowerDesigner
7 14 (2.09%) GitLab
8 13 (1.94%) Maven
9 10 (1.49%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.45%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.30%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.30%) git-flow
11 2 (0.30%) Selenium
12 1 (0.15%) Postman
12 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
12 1 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 1 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.15%) Terragrunt
12 1 (0.15%) VersionOne
General
1 201 (30.00%) Finance
2 185 (27.61%) Social Skills
3 123 (18.36%) Analytical Skills
4 97 (14.48%) Banking
5 74 (11.04%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.67%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.52%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.99%) Legal
9 18 (2.69%) Retail
10 16 (2.39%) Influencing Skills
10 16 (2.39%) Marketing
11 15 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.79%) Front Office
12 12 (1.79%) Publishing
13 11 (1.64%) Aviation
14 10 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.90%) Law
15 6 (0.90%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.75%) Automotive
17 4 (0.60%) Military
Job Titles
1 167 (24.93%) Architect
2 119 (17.76%) Data Architect
3 94 (14.03%) Data Engineer
4 82 (12.24%) Analyst
5 74 (11.04%) Lead
6 56 (8.36%) Senior
7 53 (7.91%) Data Analyst
8 48 (7.16%) Data Modeller
9 42 (6.27%) Developer
10 32 (4.78%) Business Analyst
11 28 (4.18%) Consultant
12 19 (2.84%) Data Business Analyst
12 19 (2.84%) Data Manager
13 17 (2.54%) DevOps Engineer
14 16 (2.39%) Solutions Architect
15 13 (1.94%) Governance Analyst
15 13 (1.94%) Lead Data Engineer
15 13 (1.94%) Product Owner
15 13 (1.94%) Senior Data Engineer
16 12 (1.79%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (6.27%) PySpark
2 34 (5.07%) JSON
3 29 (4.33%) Kafka
4 23 (3.43%) REST
5 17 (2.54%) YAML
6 16 (2.39%) .NET
7 12 (1.79%) Node.js
7 12 (1.79%) React
7 12 (1.79%) XML
8 10 (1.49%) OAuth
8 10 (1.49%) SLSA
8 10 (1.49%) Spring Boot
9 9 (1.34%) SOAP
10 8 (1.19%) Middleware
11 7 (1.04%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.04%) RESTful
11 7 (1.04%) SPFx
12 6 (0.90%) CSS
12 6 (0.90%) GraphQL
12 6 (0.90%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 65 (9.70%) Cloud Native
2 57 (8.51%) Onboarding
3 49 (7.31%) Taxonomies
4 45 (6.72%) Data Structures
4 45 (6.72%) Management Information System
5 36 (5.37%) Product Ownership
6 32 (4.78%) Reference Data
7 30 (4.48%) Legacy Systems
8 20 (2.99%) Derivative
9 15 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.79%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.79%) Equity Derivative
11 11 (1.64%) AI Agents
11 11 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
11 11 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.49%) Clustering
13 9 (1.34%) Distributed Computing
13 9 (1.34%) Fixed Income
13 9 (1.34%) Linux Command Line
13 9 (1.34%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.84%) Unix
2 8 (1.19%) Linux
3 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 337 (50.30%) Data Governance
2 302 (45.07%) Data Modelling
3 223 (33.28%) Analytics
4 222 (33.13%) Metadata Management
5 169 (25.22%) Data Architecture
6 168 (25.07%) AI
7 149 (22.24%) ETL
8 143 (21.34%) Data Engineering
9 133 (19.85%) Data Pipeline
10 130 (19.40%) CI/CD
11 129 (19.25%) Agile
11 129 (19.25%) Migration
12 114 (17.01%) Stakeholder Management
13 111 (16.57%) Data Lineage
14 110 (16.42%) Business Intelligence
14 110 (16.42%) Decision-Making
15 106 (15.82%) Data Management
16 104 (15.52%) Validation
17 102 (15.22%) Problem-Solving
18 101 (15.07%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 246 (36.72%) SQL
2 165 (24.63%) Python
3 47 (7.01%) Java
4 22 (3.28%) PL/SQL
5 20 (2.99%) C#
6 15 (2.24%) Shell Script
7 13 (1.94%) JavaScript
8 12 (1.79%) PowerShell
9 10 (1.49%) Groovy
10 9 (1.34%) C++
10 9 (1.34%) TypeScript
11 7 (1.04%) Bash
12 6 (0.90%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.90%) SPARQL
13 5 (0.75%) Bicep
13 5 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 5 (0.75%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.60%) Perl
14 4 (0.60%) Scala
14 4 (0.60%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 145 (21.64%) Security Cleared
2 110 (16.42%) SC Cleared
3 44 (6.57%) Degree
4 29 (4.33%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (2.39%) Master's Degree
7 12 (1.79%) Azure Certification
8 11 (1.64%) DV Cleared
8 11 (1.64%) TOGAF Certification
9 7 (1.04%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.75%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.30%) Analytics IQ
12 2 (0.30%) CISM
12 2 (0.30%) CISSP
12 2 (0.30%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.30%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.30%) PMI Certification
13 1 (0.15%) AWS Certified Developer
13 1 (0.15%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 258 (38.51%) Data Quality
2 65 (9.70%) GDPR
3 37 (5.52%) QA
4 31 (4.63%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.49%) GRC
6 7 (1.04%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.90%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (0.90%) NIST
8 5 (0.75%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 4 (0.60%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.60%) ISO 22301
9 4 (0.60%) MiFID
10 3 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.45%) ISO 31000
10 3 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.30%) IFRS
11 2 (0.30%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.30%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (1.79%) Docker
2 10 (1.49%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 29 (4.33%) Terraform
2 13 (1.94%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.34%) Grafana
4 7 (1.04%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.60%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.60%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.30%) Ansible
7 1 (0.15%) Kibana
Vendors
1 123 (18.36%) Microsoft
2 100 (14.93%) Databricks
3 61 (9.10%) Oracle
4 41 (6.12%) Informatica
5 23 (3.43%) Salesforce
6 22 (3.28%) Google
7 18 (2.69%) Talend
8 14 (2.09%) IBM
9 13 (1.94%) Autodesk
10 11 (1.64%) Sparx
10 11 (1.64%) Sybase
11 10 (1.49%) SAP
11 10 (1.49%) ServiceNow
11 10 (1.49%) Sonatype
12 8 (1.19%) Adobe
13 7 (1.04%) OpenAI
14 6 (0.90%) Foundry
15 5 (0.75%) Denodo
15 5 (0.75%) Palantir
16 4 (0.60%) Ping Identity