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 25 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 202 294 339
Rank change year-on-year +92 +45 +26
Contract jobs citing Metadata 663 247 266
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.30% 0.82% 0.61%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.53% 4.42% 3.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 442 174 166
10th Percentile £358 £302 £393
25th Percentile £429 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £575
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -10.22% +4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £464 £525
% change year-on-year +13.21% -11.67% +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 7,769 5,587 7,552
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.27% 18.55% 17.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,172 3,795 5,394
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £514 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.72% -2.10% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 249 96 153
10th Percentile £14.85 £19.42 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £25.57 £20.77
Median hourly rate £39.50 £34.99 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.89% -12.53% -30.43%
75th Percentile £64.00 £63.94 £53.75
90th Percentile £77.00 £77.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £31.64 £33.00
% change year-on-year +18.52% -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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +74 550 £525 +0.24% 124
London +59 315 £523 -12.92% 71
UK excluding London +35 267 £525 +13.21% 81
Work from Home +51 194 £525 -8.70% 52
Midlands -12 67 £569 +431.54% 16
West Midlands -11 65 £571 +433.64% 11
North of England -29 63 £525 +27.27% 10
Scotland +32 51 £513 +7.89% 3
South East -37 51 £513 +7.33% 42
Yorkshire -25 31 £567 +51.13% 3
North West -24 28 £575 +82.54% 7
East of England -6 27 £475 +48.48% 8
South West -37 13 £588 +0.04% 4
North East -31 7 £413 -10.81%
Wales -12 3 £750 +184.67% 1
East Midlands -16 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 (5.58%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.83%) Apache Spark
3 29 (4.37%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (3.02%) Confluence
5 17 (2.56%) Apache
6 16 (2.41%) SAS
7 12 (1.81%) CMS
8 5 (0.75%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.45%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.30%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.30%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.30%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.30%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.15%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.15%) Drupal
11 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.15%) Liferay
11 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.21%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.06%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.06%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.06%) 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%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.66%) 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
Cloud Services
1 195 (29.41%) Azure
2 142 (21.42%) AWS
3 90 (13.57%) Power Platform
4 71 (10.71%) GCP
5 57 (8.60%) Collibra
6 51 (7.69%) Microsoft Purview
7 38 (5.73%) Azure Data Factory
8 37 (5.58%) GitHub
9 36 (5.43%) Amazon S3
10 33 (4.98%) dbt
11 31 (4.68%) Serverless
12 30 (4.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 29 (4.37%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (4.22%) AWS Lambda
15 27 (4.07%) Snowflake
16 19 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
17 16 (2.41%) Microsoft Copilot
18 15 (2.26%) Entra ID
18 15 (2.26%) Power Automate
19 13 (1.96%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.06%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.06%) 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%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (16.74%) Data Warehouse
2 79 (11.92%) Power BI
3 77 (11.61%) Data Lake
4 36 (5.43%) Relational Database
5 33 (4.98%) Data Vault
6 29 (4.37%) Tableau
7 28 (4.22%) NoSQL
8 26 (3.92%) Metadata Repository
9 23 (3.47%) PostgreSQL
9 23 (3.47%) SQL Server
10 21 (3.17%) Delta Lake
11 20 (3.02%) Big Data
11 20 (3.02%) Snowflake Schema
12 17 (2.56%) Amazon Redshift
12 17 (2.56%) Hadoop
13 16 (2.41%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (2.11%) BigQuery
15 13 (1.96%) Db2
15 13 (1.96%) Semantic Layer
16 12 (1.81%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 39 (5.88%) ERwin
2 29 (4.37%) Git
3 20 (3.02%) ER Studio
3 20 (3.02%) JIRA
4 15 (2.26%) Jenkins
4 15 (2.26%) PowerDesigner
5 14 (2.11%) GitLab
6 12 (1.81%) Maven
7 10 (1.51%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.45%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.30%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.30%) git-flow
10 1 (0.15%) Deequ
10 1 (0.15%) Postman
10 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.15%) Subversion
10 1 (0.15%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.15%) VersionOne
General
1 197 (29.71%) Finance
2 182 (27.45%) Social Skills
3 120 (18.10%) Analytical Skills
4 98 (14.78%) Banking
5 76 (11.46%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.73%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.58%) Investment Banking
8 21 (3.17%) Legal
9 17 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (2.56%) Retail
10 15 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
11 14 (2.11%) Marketing
12 13 (1.96%) Publishing
13 12 (1.81%) Front Office
14 11 (1.66%) Aviation
15 9 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (1.21%) Law
17 6 (0.90%) Manufacturing
18 5 (0.75%) Automotive
18 5 (0.75%) Military
Job Titles
1 161 (24.28%) Architect
2 112 (16.89%) Data Architect
3 96 (14.48%) Data Engineer
4 81 (12.22%) Analyst
5 69 (10.41%) Lead
6 58 (8.75%) Senior
7 52 (7.84%) Data Analyst
8 48 (7.24%) Data Modeller
9 42 (6.33%) Developer
10 32 (4.83%) Business Analyst
11 27 (4.07%) Consultant
12 19 (2.87%) Data Business Analyst
12 19 (2.87%) Data Manager
13 16 (2.41%) DevOps Engineer
13 16 (2.41%) Solutions Architect
14 14 (2.11%) Senior Data Engineer
15 12 (1.81%) AWS Engineer
15 12 (1.81%) Lead Data Engineer
16 11 (1.66%) Governance Analyst
16 11 (1.66%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.49%) PySpark
2 32 (4.83%) JSON
3 27 (4.07%) Kafka
4 22 (3.32%) REST
5 17 (2.56%) .NET
6 16 (2.41%) YAML
7 14 (2.11%) React
8 12 (1.81%) Node.js
8 12 (1.81%) XML
9 11 (1.66%) OAuth
10 10 (1.51%) SLSA
11 9 (1.36%) Middleware
11 9 (1.36%) SOAP
11 9 (1.36%) Spring Boot
12 8 (1.21%) RESTful
13 7 (1.06%) OAuth2
13 7 (1.06%) SPFx
14 6 (0.90%) ADO
14 6 (0.90%) CSS
14 6 (0.90%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 65 (9.80%) Cloud Native
2 55 (8.30%) Onboarding
3 45 (6.79%) Data Structures
3 45 (6.79%) Taxonomies
4 42 (6.33%) Management Information System
5 34 (5.13%) Product Ownership
6 32 (4.83%) Reference Data
7 30 (4.52%) Legacy Systems
8 20 (3.02%) Derivative
9 15 (2.26%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.81%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.81%) Equity Derivative
11 11 (1.66%) Distributed Systems
12 10 (1.51%) Clustering
12 10 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.51%) Virtual Team
13 9 (1.36%) AI Agents
13 9 (1.36%) Fixed Income
14 8 (1.21%) Distributed Computing
14 8 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.87%) Unix
2 8 (1.21%) Linux
3 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 332 (50.08%) Data Governance
2 300 (45.25%) Data Modelling
3 224 (33.79%) Metadata Management
4 220 (33.18%) Analytics
5 166 (25.04%) AI
5 166 (25.04%) Data Architecture
6 150 (22.62%) ETL
7 142 (21.42%) Data Engineering
8 130 (19.61%) Data Pipeline
9 127 (19.16%) CI/CD
9 127 (19.16%) Migration
10 124 (18.70%) Agile
11 111 (16.74%) Data Lineage
11 111 (16.74%) Stakeholder Management
12 109 (16.44%) Business Intelligence
13 106 (15.99%) Decision-Making
14 104 (15.69%) Data Management
15 101 (15.23%) DevOps
15 101 (15.23%) Problem-Solving
16 100 (15.08%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 246 (37.10%) SQL
2 166 (25.04%) Python
3 47 (7.09%) Java
4 22 (3.32%) C#
4 22 (3.32%) PL/SQL
5 14 (2.11%) Shell Script
6 13 (1.96%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.81%) PowerShell
8 10 (1.51%) Groovy
8 10 (1.51%) TypeScript
9 9 (1.36%) C++
10 5 (0.75%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.75%) Bash
10 5 (0.75%) Bicep
10 5 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (0.75%) Perl
10 5 (0.75%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.60%) Scala
11 4 (0.60%) SPARQL
12 3 (0.45%) R
Qualifications
1 144 (21.72%) Security Cleared
2 109 (16.44%) SC Cleared
3 43 (6.49%) Degree
4 30 (4.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (2.41%) Master's Degree
7 12 (1.81%) Azure Certification
8 10 (1.51%) DV Cleared
8 10 (1.51%) TOGAF Certification
9 7 (1.06%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.90%) 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%) CBAP
13 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 259 (39.06%) Data Quality
2 64 (9.65%) GDPR
3 37 (5.58%) QA
4 26 (3.92%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.51%) GRC
6 7 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.06%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.90%) ISO 19650
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 (1.81%) Docker
2 10 (1.51%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 28 (4.22%) Terraform
2 13 (1.96%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.36%) Grafana
4 7 (1.06%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.06%) 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
1 126 (19.00%) Microsoft
2 100 (15.08%) Databricks
3 61 (9.20%) Oracle
4 40 (6.03%) Informatica
5 22 (3.32%) Salesforce
6 21 (3.17%) Google
7 18 (2.71%) Talend
8 14 (2.11%) IBM
9 13 (1.96%) Autodesk
10 11 (1.66%) ServiceNow
10 11 (1.66%) Sparx
10 11 (1.66%) Sybase
11 10 (1.51%) SAP
11 10 (1.51%) Sonatype
12 8 (1.21%) OpenAI
13 6 (0.90%) Adobe
13 6 (0.90%) Foundry
14 5 (0.75%) Denodo
14 5 (0.75%) Palantir
15 4 (0.60%) Hortonworks