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 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 255 368 311
Rank change year-on-year +113 -57 +34
Contract jobs citing Metadata 397 193 316
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 0.57% 0.73%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.23% 3.16% 4.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 274 128 225
10th Percentile £389 £336 £389
25th Percentile £437 £463 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £558
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -7.62% -3.04%
75th Percentile £623 £646 £688
90th Percentile £700 £788 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £488 £575
% change year-on-year -0.97% -15.22% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 21
10th Percentile £48.60 £21.01 £14.00
25th Percentile £70.13 £22.72 £20.50
Median hourly rate £80.50 £32.47 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +147.96% -29.70% +10.61%
75th Percentile £84.00 £71.88 £49.08
90th Percentile £84.40 £82.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £82.25 £25.43 £46.18
% change year-on-year +223.44% -44.93% -26.11%

All Database and Business Intelligence 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 6,374 6,113 7,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.18% 18.04% 16.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,395 4,033 5,115
10th Percentile £325 £341 £350
25th Percentile £408 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £765 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -3.94% -1.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 86 141
10th Percentile £20.75 £18.90 £16.12
25th Percentile £29.00 £22.54 £23.24
Median hourly rate £50.00 £31.55 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.50% -33.59% -11.63%
75th Percentile £71.00 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £67.88 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £27.43 £46.18
% change year-on-year +118.78% -40.61% -6.71%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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 +99 345 £525 +3.70% 471
London +98 213 £538 -2.27% 116
UK excluding London +7 140 £483 -0.97% 420
Work from Home +48 111 £550 +6.28% 202
Midlands -13 33 £480 +28.00% 69
South East -17 28 £475 -11.63% 122
North of England -46 25 £475 -12.84% 99
West Midlands -15 23 £558 +48.67% 40
East of England -10 20 £496 +56.01% 63
Scotland +7 19 £465 -32.12% 24
North West -29 15 £448 -17.89% 37
South West -16 12 £568 +16.41% 39
East Midlands - 10 £425 - 24
Wales +3 9 £700 +239.29% 9
Yorkshire -33 9 £525 +16.67% 51
North East -9 1 £475 -23.91% 11

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 31 (7.81%) SharePoint
2 29 (7.30%) Apache Spark
3 17 (4.28%) Confluence
4 16 (4.03%) CMS
5 15 (3.78%) Apache
5 15 (3.78%) SAS
6 8 (2.02%) Apache Airflow
7 7 (1.76%) Microsoft Exchange
7 7 (1.76%) Sitecore CMS
8 6 (1.51%) Drupal
9 4 (1.01%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.76%) GeoServer
10 3 (0.76%) Smallworld
11 2 (0.50%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.50%) Umbraco
12 1 (0.25%) Alfresco
12 1 (0.25%) Documentum
12 1 (0.25%) Headless CMS
12 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 25 (6.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.27%) MS Visio
3 8 (2.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.26%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.50%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.25%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.25%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.25%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (3.53%) SAP S/4HANA
1 14 (3.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (1.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
2 6 (1.51%) SAP FI
2 6 (1.51%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.76%) Actimize
3 3 (0.76%) Maximo
4 2 (0.50%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 2 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.25%) Hyperion Planning
5 1 (0.25%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Primavera
5 1 (0.25%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 123 (30.98%) Azure
2 90 (22.67%) AWS
3 73 (18.39%) Power Platform
4 46 (11.59%) GCP
5 40 (10.08%) Collibra
6 34 (8.56%) Microsoft Purview
7 33 (8.31%) Azure Data Factory
8 32 (8.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 28 (7.05%) Snowflake
10 21 (5.29%) Microsoft 365
11 16 (4.03%) Amazon S3
11 16 (4.03%) Serverless
12 14 (3.53%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (3.27%) dbt
14 11 (2.77%) AWS Lambda
14 11 (2.77%) GitHub
15 10 (2.52%) PowerApps
16 7 (1.76%) Contentful
16 7 (1.76%) Entra ID
16 7 (1.76%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.76%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.50%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.50%) Intranet
3 1 (0.25%) Firewall
3 1 (0.25%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (18.39%) Data Warehouse
2 61 (15.37%) Power BI
3 44 (11.08%) Data Lake
4 23 (5.79%) Metadata Repository
5 22 (5.54%) NoSQL
6 21 (5.29%) Big Data
7 20 (5.04%) Relational Database
8 18 (4.53%) Data Vault
9 17 (4.28%) Snowflake Schema
9 17 (4.28%) SQL Server
10 16 (4.03%) Tableau
11 15 (3.78%) PostgreSQL
12 14 (3.53%) Amazon Redshift
12 14 (3.53%) Azure SQL Database
12 14 (3.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 13 (3.27%) BigQuery
14 12 (3.02%) Spark SQL
15 11 (2.77%) Delta Lake
16 10 (2.52%) Star Schema
17 9 (2.27%) DataStage
Development Applications
1 23 (5.79%) JIRA
2 22 (5.54%) ERwin
2 22 (5.54%) Git
3 11 (2.77%) PowerDesigner
4 10 (2.52%) ER Studio
5 3 (0.76%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.50%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.50%) Subversion
6 2 (0.50%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.25%) GitLab
7 1 (0.25%) gulp
7 1 (0.25%) Poetry
7 1 (0.25%) Postman
7 1 (0.25%) Pylint
7 1 (0.25%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.25%) Yeoman
General
1 162 (40.81%) Social Skills
2 104 (26.20%) Finance
3 80 (20.15%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (12.59%) Public Sector
5 35 (8.82%) Banking
6 30 (7.56%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (4.53%) Publishing
8 14 (3.53%) Retail
9 10 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (2.02%) Investment Banking
10 8 (2.02%) Legal
11 7 (1.76%) Financial Institution
11 7 (1.76%) Military
11 7 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.51%) Aviation
12 6 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.51%) Retail Banking
13 5 (1.26%) Corporate Banking
13 5 (1.26%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 85 (21.41%) Architect
2 66 (16.62%) Analyst
3 63 (15.87%) Data Architect
4 45 (11.34%) Data Analyst
5 43 (10.83%) Data Engineer
6 31 (7.81%) Data Modeller
7 29 (7.30%) Lead
8 27 (6.80%) Developer
9 24 (6.05%) Consultant
10 20 (5.04%) Senior
11 18 (4.53%) Business Analyst
12 15 (3.78%) Azure Engineer
13 13 (3.27%) Governance Analyst
14 11 (2.77%) Azure Data Engineer
15 10 (2.52%) Data Manager
16 9 (2.27%) Data Quality Analyst
16 9 (2.27%) Quality Analyst
16 9 (2.27%) SAP Consultant
16 9 (2.27%) Software Engineer
17 8 (2.02%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (9.07%) PySpark
2 25 (6.30%) Kafka
3 21 (5.29%) REST
4 12 (3.02%) JSON
5 10 (2.52%) XML
6 6 (1.51%) SAP Basis
6 6 (1.51%) SAP Business Workflow
6 6 (1.51%) SAP Fiori
6 6 (1.51%) SOAP
6 6 (1.51%) VML
7 5 (1.26%) HTML
7 5 (1.26%) Pandas
7 5 (1.26%) React
7 5 (1.26%) YAML
8 4 (1.01%) .NET
8 4 (1.01%) LDAP
8 4 (1.01%) OAuth
8 4 (1.01%) RESTful
8 4 (1.01%) SAML
8 4 (1.01%) SpaCy
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.56%) Data Structures
2 24 (6.05%) Cloud Native
3 22 (5.54%) Taxonomies
4 20 (5.04%) Management Information System
4 20 (5.04%) Reference Data
5 19 (4.79%) Legacy Systems
6 15 (3.78%) Onboarding
7 14 (3.53%) Product Ownership
8 11 (2.77%) Distributed Computing
9 8 (2.02%) Analytical Mindset
10 7 (1.76%) Data Fabric
10 7 (1.76%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.26%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.01%) Genomics
12 4 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (1.01%) NHS
12 4 (1.01%) Omics
12 4 (1.01%) Replication
13 3 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 5 (1.26%) Unix
2 4 (1.01%) Linux
3 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (53.15%) Data Governance
2 201 (50.63%) Data Modelling
3 198 (49.87%) Metadata Management
4 139 (35.01%) Analytics
5 103 (25.94%) Data Architecture
6 97 (24.43%) ETL
7 96 (24.18%) Business Intelligence
8 84 (21.16%) Data Lineage
9 76 (19.14%) Problem-Solving
10 75 (18.89%) Agile
11 72 (18.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 71 (17.88%) Data Pipeline
13 70 (17.63%) Data Engineering
14 64 (16.12%) Validation
15 57 (14.36%) Data Management
16 56 (14.11%) Stakeholder Management
17 55 (13.85%) Migration
18 53 (13.35%) AI
18 53 (13.35%) Data Integration
19 47 (11.84%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 138 (34.76%) SQL
2 96 (24.18%) Python
3 22 (5.54%) Java
4 21 (5.29%) PowerShell
5 10 (2.52%) C#
6 8 (2.02%) T-SQL
7 7 (1.76%) Scala
8 6 (1.51%) ABAP
8 6 (1.51%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.51%) PL/SQL
8 6 (1.51%) R
9 5 (1.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (1.26%) Perl
10 4 (1.01%) C++
10 4 (1.01%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.76%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.76%) Bicep
11 3 (0.76%) SOQL
11 3 (0.76%) SOSL
12 2 (0.50%) Korn
Qualifications
1 83 (20.91%) Security Cleared
2 57 (14.36%) SC Cleared
3 25 (6.30%) Degree
4 12 (3.02%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (1.76%) Azure Certification
6 7 (1.76%) Master's Degree
7 6 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (1.26%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.01%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.50%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.50%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.50%) PMP
10 2 (0.50%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.25%) CSPO
11 1 (0.25%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.25%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 1 (0.25%) MCP
11 1 (0.25%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 169 (42.57%) Data Quality
2 45 (11.34%) GDPR
3 17 (4.28%) QA
4 15 (3.78%) Accessibility
5 6 (1.51%) IFRS
5 6 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.26%) MiFID
6 5 (1.26%) Solvency II
7 4 (1.01%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (0.76%) GRC
9 2 (0.50%) Basel III
9 2 (0.50%) CRD IV
9 2 (0.50%) FINREP
9 2 (0.50%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.50%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.50%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.50%) NIST
10 1 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 10 (2.52%) Docker
2 5 (1.26%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.76%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 16 (4.03%) Kubernetes
1 16 (4.03%) Terraform
2 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.76%) Hadoop YARN
3 3 (0.76%) Oozie
3 3 (0.76%) SCCM
4 1 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 81 (20.40%) Microsoft
2 60 (15.11%) Databricks
3 35 (8.82%) Oracle
4 34 (8.56%) Informatica
5 19 (4.79%) SAP
6 17 (4.28%) ServiceNow
7 14 (3.53%) Sparx
8 11 (2.77%) Google
9 10 (2.52%) Talend
10 9 (2.27%) OpenText
10 9 (2.27%) Salesforce
11 8 (2.02%) Teradata
12 7 (1.76%) Sitecore
13 6 (1.51%) IBM
13 6 (1.51%) Optimizely
14 5 (1.26%) Adobe
14 5 (1.26%) Alteryx
14 5 (1.26%) Palantir
15 4 (1.01%) Atlassian
15 4 (1.01%) Cognos