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 5 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 198 319 302
Rank change year-on-year +121 -17 +38
Contract jobs citing Metadata 609 210 305
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.28% 0.72% 0.71%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.38% 3.78% 4.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 156 205
10th Percentile £353 £231 £391
25th Percentile £415 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £511 £575
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% -11.09% +4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £775
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £470 £575
% change year-on-year +9.04% -18.26% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 15
10th Percentile £33.48 £22.63 £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £22.72 £16.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +132.73% -15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £73.75 £56.13 £42.88
90th Percentile £82.95 £82.25 £46.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £20.97
% change year-on-year +132.73% +31.14% -42.15%

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 7,269 5,556 7,284
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.29% 18.97% 16.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,928 3,836 5,196
10th Percentile £350 £357 £350
25th Percentile £413 £420 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
75th Percentile £600 £644 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £771
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £475
% change year-on-year -2.56% +2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 103 143
10th Percentile £16.73 £19.84 £14.00
25th Percentile £27.88 £23.88 £20.98
Median hourly rate £50.00 £32.81 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +52.39% -17.98% -31.73%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.31 £58.88
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +62.40% -25.00% -27.27%

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 5 May 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 5 May 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 5 May 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 +94 513 £511 -1.35% 177
London +92 291 £500 -12.28% 74
UK excluding London +32 243 £513 +9.04% 123
Work from Home +51 163 £525 - 60
Midlands -18 64 £540 +404.44% 25
West Midlands -12 58 £569 +431.54% 12
North of England -32 53 £488 -7.14% 29
South East -31 47 £500 +4.71% 30
Scotland +29 44 £473 -10.68% 6
East of England -27 29 £663 +107.09% 17
North West -24 28 £511 -6.19% 9
Yorkshire -27 23 £563 +50.00% 16
South West -35 11 £563 +2.32% 17
East Midlands - 6 £447 - 13
North East -19 5 £419 -22.94% 4
Wales -15 3 £750 +234.35% 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 37 (6.08%) Apache Spark
2 36 (5.91%) SharePoint
3 23 (3.78%) Apache Airflow
4 22 (3.61%) SAS
5 20 (3.28%) Confluence
6 16 (2.63%) Apache
7 9 (1.48%) CMS
8 4 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 4 (0.66%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.49%) Drupal
9 3 (0.49%) Sitecore CMS
10 2 (0.33%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.33%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.16%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.16%) SharePoint 2013
11 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 29 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.81%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.15%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.15%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.15%) Revit
4 4 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.33%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 14 (2.30%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 7 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.99%) Summit
4 2 (0.33%) Actimize
4 2 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.16%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.16%) Maximo
5 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.16%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 187 (30.71%) Azure
2 134 (22.00%) AWS
3 97 (15.93%) Power Platform
4 76 (12.48%) GCP
5 58 (9.52%) Collibra
6 49 (8.05%) Azure Data Factory
7 46 (7.55%) Microsoft Purview
8 36 (5.91%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 35 (5.75%) GitHub
10 34 (5.58%) Amazon S3
10 34 (5.58%) Serverless
11 28 (4.60%) AWS Lambda
11 28 (4.60%) Azure DevOps
12 27 (4.43%) dbt
13 24 (3.94%) Snowflake
14 18 (2.96%) Microsoft 365
15 12 (1.97%) Amazon EMR
16 11 (1.81%) Power Automate
17 10 (1.64%) ChatGPT
18 9 (1.48%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.15%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.15%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.82%) Intranet
3 4 (0.66%) Firewall
3 4 (0.66%) HTTP
3 4 (0.66%) SSL
4 2 (0.33%) Hyperconnected
5 1 (0.16%) 4G
5 1 (0.16%) 5G
5 1 (0.16%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (20.03%) Data Warehouse
2 88 (14.45%) Power BI
3 77 (12.64%) Data Lake
4 35 (5.75%) Relational Database
5 34 (5.58%) Metadata Repository
6 30 (4.93%) Tableau
7 28 (4.60%) NoSQL
7 28 (4.60%) SQL Server
8 25 (4.11%) Data Vault
9 24 (3.94%) Big Data
9 24 (3.94%) Delta Lake
10 21 (3.45%) Amazon Redshift
10 21 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
10 21 (3.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 19 (3.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 16 (2.63%) Amazon Athena
13 15 (2.46%) Hadoop
13 15 (2.46%) Oracle Database
14 14 (2.30%) Azure SQL Database
14 14 (2.30%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 31 (5.09%) ERwin
1 31 (5.09%) Git
2 20 (3.28%) JIRA
3 16 (2.63%) Jenkins
4 13 (2.13%) PowerDesigner
5 12 (1.97%) ER Studio
5 12 (1.97%) GitLab
6 9 (1.48%) Maven
7 8 (1.31%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.33%) git-flow
9 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.33%) Subversion
10 1 (0.16%) Deequ
10 1 (0.16%) gulp
10 1 (0.16%) Postman
10 1 (0.16%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.16%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.16%) VersionOne
General
1 193 (31.69%) Social Skills
2 163 (26.77%) Finance
3 126 (20.69%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (12.48%) Public Sector
5 72 (11.82%) Banking
6 38 (6.24%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (3.45%) Investment Banking
8 19 (3.12%) Legal
9 16 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.46%) Publishing
11 13 (2.13%) Marketing
12 10 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (1.48%) Front Office
13 9 (1.48%) Retail
14 8 (1.31%) Aviation
15 7 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 7 (1.15%) Military
16 6 (0.99%) Financial Institution
16 6 (0.99%) Law
17 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 137 (22.50%) Architect
2 101 (16.58%) Data Architect
3 96 (15.76%) Data Engineer
4 86 (14.12%) Analyst
5 57 (9.36%) Data Analyst
6 51 (8.37%) Lead
6 51 (8.37%) Senior
7 41 (6.73%) Developer
8 37 (6.08%) Data Modeller
9 34 (5.58%) Business Analyst
10 21 (3.45%) Consultant
11 18 (2.96%) Data Business Analyst
12 17 (2.79%) Data Manager
13 15 (2.46%) Senior Data Engineer
14 14 (2.30%) DevOps Engineer
15 13 (2.13%) AWS Engineer
15 13 (2.13%) Azure Engineer
16 12 (1.97%) Governance Analyst
16 12 (1.97%) Software Engineer
17 11 (1.81%) Enterprise Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (7.55%) PySpark
2 35 (5.75%) Kafka
3 27 (4.43%) JSON
3 27 (4.43%) REST
4 18 (2.96%) YAML
5 17 (2.79%) .NET
6 12 (1.97%) OAuth
6 12 (1.97%) React
6 12 (1.97%) SOAP
6 12 (1.97%) XML
7 10 (1.64%) Node.js
8 9 (1.48%) Middleware
9 8 (1.31%) SLSA
10 7 (1.15%) ADO
10 7 (1.15%) OAuth2
10 7 (1.15%) RESTful
11 6 (0.99%) HTML
12 5 (0.82%) CSS
12 5 (0.82%) Pandas
12 5 (0.82%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 59 (9.69%) Cloud Native
2 45 (7.39%) Data Structures
2 45 (7.39%) Management Information System
3 41 (6.73%) Onboarding
4 35 (5.75%) Taxonomies
5 33 (5.42%) Product Ownership
5 33 (5.42%) Reference Data
6 25 (4.11%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (2.79%) Data Protection Act
7 17 (2.79%) Derivative
8 12 (1.97%) Credit Risk
8 12 (1.97%) Virtual Team
9 11 (1.81%) Distributed Computing
9 11 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (1.48%) Clustering
10 9 (1.48%) Equity Derivative
11 8 (1.31%) Fixed Income
11 8 (1.31%) Linux Command Line
11 8 (1.31%) Market Risk
12 6 (0.99%) Data Fabric
Operating Systems
1 20 (3.28%) Unix
2 9 (1.48%) Linux
3 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (50.90%) Data Governance
2 278 (45.65%) Data Modelling
3 230 (37.77%) Metadata Management
4 210 (34.48%) Analytics
5 174 (28.57%) ETL
6 158 (25.94%) Data Architecture
7 137 (22.50%) AI
8 131 (21.51%) Data Pipeline
9 126 (20.69%) Data Engineering
10 121 (19.87%) Business Intelligence
10 121 (19.87%) CI/CD
11 118 (19.38%) Problem-Solving
12 112 (18.39%) Migration
13 109 (17.90%) Agile
14 108 (17.73%) Data Lineage
15 103 (16.91%) Validation
16 101 (16.58%) Stakeholder Management
17 95 (15.60%) Decision-Making
18 93 (15.27%) Data Management
18 93 (15.27%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 253 (41.54%) SQL
2 162 (26.60%) Python
3 37 (6.08%) Java
4 28 (4.60%) C#
5 25 (4.11%) PL/SQL
6 18 (2.96%) PowerShell
7 14 (2.30%) JavaScript
7 14 (2.30%) Shell Script
8 9 (1.48%) Groovy
8 9 (1.48%) Perl
8 9 (1.48%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.31%) C++
10 7 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 7 (1.15%) R
10 7 (1.15%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.99%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.99%) Scala
12 4 (0.66%) Bicep
13 3 (0.49%) Bash
14 2 (0.33%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 141 (23.15%) Security Cleared
2 101 (16.58%) SC Cleared
3 42 (6.90%) Degree
4 23 (3.78%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.13%) Master's Degree
7 10 (1.64%) Azure Certification
7 10 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (1.64%) TOGAF Certification
8 8 (1.31%) DV Cleared
9 5 (0.82%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.49%) CISSP
11 2 (0.33%) Analytics IQ
11 2 (0.33%) CISM
11 2 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.33%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.16%) CBAP
12 1 (0.16%) CSPO
12 1 (0.16%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.16%) MySQL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 256 (42.04%) Data Quality
2 62 (10.18%) GDPR
3 33 (5.42%) QA
4 19 (3.12%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.81%) GRC
6 8 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.31%) NIST
6 8 (1.31%) Solvency II
7 7 (1.15%) ISO 19650
8 5 (0.82%) IFRS
8 5 (0.82%) MiFID
9 4 (0.66%) ISO 22301
10 3 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.49%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.49%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.33%) IFRS 17
11 2 (0.33%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 15 (2.46%) Docker
2 8 (1.31%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.78%) Terraform
2 15 (2.46%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.15%) Grafana
4 6 (0.99%) Prometheus
5 5 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.66%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.66%) PingFederate
7 1 (0.16%) Ansible
7 1 (0.16%) Kibana
Vendors
1 116 (19.05%) Microsoft
2 88 (14.45%) Databricks
3 59 (9.69%) Oracle
4 54 (8.87%) Informatica
5 26 (4.27%) Salesforce
6 24 (3.94%) Talend
7 20 (3.28%) Google
8 18 (2.96%) SAP
8 18 (2.96%) ServiceNow
9 14 (2.30%) Autodesk
9 14 (2.30%) Sparx
10 8 (1.31%) IBM
10 8 (1.31%) Sonatype
10 8 (1.31%) Sybase
11 7 (1.15%) Adobe
11 7 (1.15%) OpenAI
11 7 (1.15%) Teradata
12 5 (0.82%) Denodo
12 5 (0.82%) Sitecore
13 4 (0.66%) Hortonworks