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 21 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 212 332 298
Rank change year-on-year +120 -34 +14
Contract jobs citing Metadata 512 202 334
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.25% 0.66% 0.75%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.67% 3.54% 4.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 357 140 232
10th Percentile £358 £305 £375
25th Percentile £413 £430 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% -6.36% -3.51%
75th Percentile £588 £659 £718
90th Percentile £692 £799 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £478 £560
% change year-on-year +4.19% -14.73% +12.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 7 21
10th Percentile £31.05 £22.72 £19.00
25th Percentile £61.50 £24.48 £30.73
Median hourly rate £69.00 £30.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +130.00% -35.04% +31.94%
75th Percentile £82.25 £61.50 -
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £51.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £28.75 £46.18
% change year-on-year +140.77% -37.74% +31.94%

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 6,673 5,704 7,268
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.29% 18.56% 16.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,592 3,829 5,158
10th Percentile £343 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 92 174
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.07 £16.04
25th Percentile £29.06 £24.94 £21.64
Median hourly rate £55.00 £38.31 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +43.58% -9.87% -24.01%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £62.88
90th Percentile £85.63 £70.00 £77.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.25 £30.00 £40.25
% change year-on-year +87.50% -25.47% -28.04%

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 21 February 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 21 February 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 21 February 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 +96 430 £515 -0.96% 144
London +97 254 £525 -12.50% 68
UK excluding London +25 205 £498 +4.19% 113
Work from Home +47 139 £525 +0.48% 72
Midlands -12 50 £548 +41.29% 22
Scotland +31 42 £450 -34.31% 8
West Midlands -20 42 £560 +44.52% 12
South East -7 41 £500 +2.30% 51
North of England -46 40 £475 -9.09% 15
North West -27 22 £469 -13.94% 5
East of England -13 20 £492 +54.67% 5
Yorkshire -49 16 £525 +35.48% 4
South West -12 13 £568 +12.10% 11
Wales -1 8 £700 +196.61% 3
East Midlands - 8 £436 - 10
North East -20 4 £475 -23.91% 6

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 (7.23%) Apache Spark
2 30 (5.86%) SharePoint
3 24 (4.69%) SAS
4 23 (4.49%) Confluence
5 17 (3.32%) Apache
6 16 (3.13%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (1.95%) CMS
8 7 (1.37%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (1.17%) Drupal
9 6 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.98%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.98%) GeoServer
10 5 (0.98%) Smallworld
11 3 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.20%) Alfresco
12 1 (0.20%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.20%) Documentum
12 1 (0.20%) Headless CMS
12 1 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 28 (5.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.15%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.20%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.20%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.20%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (2.73%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 12 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.17%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (1.17%) SAP FI
3 6 (1.17%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.59%) Actimize
4 3 (0.59%) Maximo
5 2 (0.39%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 2 (0.39%) Summit
6 1 (0.20%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.20%) Hyperion Planning
6 1 (0.20%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.20%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.20%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 169 (33.01%) Azure
2 118 (23.05%) AWS
3 79 (15.43%) Power Platform
4 61 (11.91%) GCP
5 46 (8.98%) Collibra
6 45 (8.79%) Azure Data Factory
7 44 (8.59%) Microsoft Purview
8 39 (7.62%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 32 (6.25%) Snowflake
10 23 (4.49%) Serverless
11 22 (4.30%) dbt
12 20 (3.91%) Amazon S3
13 19 (3.71%) Azure DevOps
14 17 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
15 15 (2.93%) GitHub
15 15 (2.93%) Microsoft 365
16 9 (1.76%) Entra ID
17 8 (1.56%) Amazon EMR
17 8 (1.56%) SaaS
17 8 (1.56%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.59%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.39%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.39%) Intranet
3 1 (0.20%) 4G
3 1 (0.20%) 5G
3 1 (0.20%) Firewall
3 1 (0.20%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (21.68%) Data Warehouse
2 71 (13.87%) Power BI
3 65 (12.70%) Data Lake
4 39 (7.62%) Metadata Repository
5 32 (6.25%) Big Data
6 28 (5.47%) NoSQL
7 26 (5.08%) Data Vault
8 25 (4.88%) SQL Server
9 24 (4.69%) Snowflake Schema
10 23 (4.49%) PostgreSQL
11 22 (4.30%) Relational Database
12 20 (3.91%) Tableau
13 18 (3.52%) Hadoop
13 18 (3.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 17 (3.32%) Azure SQL Database
15 15 (2.93%) Amazon Redshift
15 15 (2.93%) BigQuery
15 15 (2.93%) Oracle Database
16 12 (2.34%) Delta Lake
16 12 (2.34%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 32 (6.25%) ERwin
2 27 (5.27%) JIRA
3 26 (5.08%) Git
4 12 (2.34%) ER Studio
5 11 (2.15%) PowerDesigner
6 9 (1.76%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.98%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.78%) Maven
9 3 (0.59%) GitLab
10 2 (0.39%) Subversion
10 2 (0.39%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.20%) gulp
11 1 (0.20%) Poetry
11 1 (0.20%) Pylint
11 1 (0.20%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.20%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.20%) Yeoman
General
1 183 (35.74%) Social Skills
2 130 (25.39%) Finance
3 98 (19.14%) Analytical Skills
4 67 (13.09%) Public Sector
5 46 (8.98%) Banking
6 39 (7.62%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (3.52%) Publishing
8 15 (2.93%) Retail
9 12 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (2.34%) Legal
10 11 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
11 10 (1.95%) Aviation
12 9 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.76%) Investment Banking
12 9 (1.76%) Military
13 7 (1.37%) Financial Institution
13 7 (1.37%) Marketing
14 6 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (1.17%) Retail Banking
15 5 (0.98%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 133 (25.98%) Architect
2 99 (19.34%) Data Architect
3 70 (13.67%) Analyst
4 67 (13.09%) Data Engineer
5 51 (9.96%) Data Analyst
6 43 (8.40%) Data Modeller
7 40 (7.81%) Lead
8 38 (7.42%) Senior
9 37 (7.23%) Developer
10 22 (4.30%) Business Analyst
10 22 (4.30%) Consultant
11 17 (3.32%) Azure Engineer
12 13 (2.54%) Azure Data Engineer
12 13 (2.54%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.34%) Data Business Analyst
14 11 (2.15%) Scrum Master
14 11 (2.15%) Senior Data Engineer
15 10 (1.95%) AWS Engineer
15 10 (1.95%) Data Analytics Engineer
15 10 (1.95%) Data Quality Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (7.62%) PySpark
2 29 (5.66%) Kafka
3 27 (5.27%) REST
4 16 (3.13%) JSON
5 14 (2.73%) .NET
6 12 (2.34%) XML
7 11 (2.15%) React
7 11 (2.15%) SOAP
7 11 (2.15%) YAML
8 9 (1.76%) OAuth
9 6 (1.17%) RESTful
9 6 (1.17%) SAP Basis
9 6 (1.17%) SAP Business Workflow
9 6 (1.17%) SAP Fiori
9 6 (1.17%) VML
10 5 (0.98%) Node.js
10 5 (0.98%) Pandas
11 4 (0.78%) HTML
11 4 (0.78%) SLSA
12 3 (0.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (8.40%) Cloud Native
2 36 (7.03%) Data Structures
3 32 (6.25%) Management Information System
4 29 (5.66%) Reference Data
4 29 (5.66%) Taxonomies
5 21 (4.10%) Onboarding
5 21 (4.10%) Product Ownership
6 20 (3.91%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.15%) Virtual Team
8 10 (1.95%) Distributed Computing
9 9 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.17%) Data Fabric
11 5 (0.98%) CMDB
11 5 (0.98%) Credit Risk
11 5 (0.98%) Distributed Systems
12 4 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.78%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (0.78%) IoT
12 4 (0.78%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.37%) Unix
2 5 (0.98%) Linux
3 1 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 266 (51.95%) Data Governance
2 259 (50.59%) Data Modelling
3 236 (46.09%) Metadata Management
4 175 (34.18%) Analytics
5 149 (29.10%) Data Architecture
6 136 (26.56%) ETL
7 115 (22.46%) Business Intelligence
8 99 (19.34%) Agile
8 99 (19.34%) Data Engineering
8 99 (19.34%) Data Lineage
9 96 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
10 88 (17.19%) AI
11 87 (16.99%) Data Pipeline
12 84 (16.41%) Validation
13 79 (15.43%) Data Management
14 76 (14.84%) Data Integration
14 76 (14.84%) Migration
15 75 (14.65%) Stakeholder Management
16 73 (14.26%) Decision-Making
17 71 (13.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 188 (36.72%) SQL
2 127 (24.80%) Python
3 23 (4.49%) PowerShell
4 22 (4.30%) C#
5 20 (3.91%) Java
6 10 (1.95%) PL/SQL
7 9 (1.76%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.56%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.37%) R
10 6 (1.17%) ABAP
10 6 (1.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 6 (1.17%) Groovy
10 6 (1.17%) Perl
11 5 (0.98%) Scala
11 5 (0.98%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.78%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.78%) C++
12 4 (0.78%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.59%) Bicep
13 3 (0.59%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 119 (23.24%) Security Cleared
2 90 (17.58%) SC Cleared
3 37 (7.23%) Degree
4 23 (4.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.54%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.56%) Azure Certification
8 7 (1.37%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (0.98%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.78%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.20%) Analytics IQ
11 1 (0.20%) CISSP
11 1 (0.20%) CSPO
11 1 (0.20%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.20%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 1 (0.20%) MySQL Certification
11 1 (0.20%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.20%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 223 (43.55%) Data Quality
2 49 (9.57%) GDPR
3 21 (4.10%) QA
4 16 (3.13%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.95%) GRC
6 8 (1.56%) Solvency II
7 7 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.98%) IFRS
9 4 (0.78%) MiFID
9 4 (0.78%) NIST
10 3 (0.59%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.59%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.39%) CRD IV
11 2 (0.39%) FINREP
11 2 (0.39%) IFRS 17
11 2 (0.39%) ISO 19650
11 2 (0.39%) ISO 22301
11 2 (0.39%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.39%) NIST 800
12 1 (0.20%) SLA
System Software
1 13 (2.54%) Docker
2 5 (0.98%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.20%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 20 (3.91%) Kubernetes
1 20 (3.91%) Terraform
2 4 (0.78%) Prometheus
3 3 (0.59%) Grafana
3 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.59%) SCCM
4 1 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (0.20%) Ansible
4 1 (0.20%) Hadoop YARN
4 1 (0.20%) Oozie
4 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 102 (19.92%) Microsoft
2 82 (16.02%) Databricks
3 45 (8.79%) Oracle
4 42 (8.20%) Informatica
5 23 (4.49%) ServiceNow
6 18 (3.52%) SAP
6 18 (3.52%) Talend
7 16 (3.13%) Google
8 15 (2.93%) Salesforce
9 13 (2.54%) Sparx
10 10 (1.95%) Teradata
11 9 (1.76%) OpenText
12 7 (1.37%) Remedy
12 7 (1.37%) Sitecore
13 6 (1.17%) Optimizely
14 5 (0.98%) Atlassian
14 5 (0.98%) ESRI
14 5 (0.98%) Intergraph
14 5 (0.98%) Palantir
15 4 (0.78%) IBM