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

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 307 328
Rank change year-on-year +94 +21 +2
Contract jobs citing Metadata 606 226 279
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.24% 0.78% 0.65%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.23% 4.13% 3.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 406 159 181
10th Percentile £358 £236 £400
25th Percentile £429 £440 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £575
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% -9.13% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £800
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £475 £575
% change year-on-year +10.53% -17.39% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 9 15
10th Percentile £33.48 £13.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £22.50 £16.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +132.73% -15.38% -8.77%
75th Percentile £73.75 £82.25 £42.88
90th Percentile £82.95 £83.30 £46.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £26.47 £20.97
% change year-on-year +141.83% +26.20% -45.00%

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 7,365 5,467 7,261
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.05% 18.96% 16.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,930 3,732 5,208
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -1.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £760 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 231 101 150
10th Percentile £14.00 £19.59 £14.00
25th Percentile £22.63 £23.50 £20.77
Median hourly rate £42.50 £33.88 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.44% -15.30% -33.33%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.62 £56.88
90th Percentile £82.25 £77.50 £72.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £31.64 £35.00
% change year-on-year +24.84% -9.60% -40.26%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +79 512 £525 -3.67% 213
London +67 297 £520 -13.33% 103
UK excluding London +20 244 £525 +10.53% 123
Work from Home +44 167 £525 -8.70% 118
Midlands -16 63 £575 +437.38% 22
West Midlands -16 61 £578 +440.19% 14
North of England -45 52 £525 +2.44% 31
Scotland +32 48 £475 - 2
South East -38 46 £506 +6.02% 35
East of England -14 30 £575 +78.92% 12
North West -21 26 £575 +5.50% 16
Yorkshire -39 24 £611 +62.80% 11
South West -28 10 £563 -4.21% 15
North East -26 5 £419 -9.46% 4
Wales -17 3 £750 +217.80% 6
East Midlands - 2 £474 - 8

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 33 (5.45%) Apache Spark
2 32 (5.28%) SharePoint
3 24 (3.96%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (3.14%) Confluence
5 17 (2.81%) SAS
6 16 (2.64%) Apache
7 9 (1.49%) CMS
8 4 (0.66%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.33%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
9 2 (0.33%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.17%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.17%) Apache Synapse
10 1 (0.17%) Drupal
10 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.17%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.17%) WordPress
Applications
1 23 (3.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.49%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.16%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.16%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.16%) Revit
4 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.33%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (1.65%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.99%) Summit
3 2 (0.33%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.17%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 172 (28.38%) Azure
2 122 (20.13%) AWS
3 84 (13.86%) Power Platform
4 63 (10.40%) GCP
5 53 (8.75%) Collibra
6 43 (7.10%) Microsoft Purview
7 37 (6.11%) Azure Data Factory
7 37 (6.11%) GitHub
8 32 (5.28%) Amazon S3
9 30 (4.95%) Serverless
10 29 (4.79%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 28 (4.62%) dbt
12 27 (4.46%) Azure DevOps
13 26 (4.29%) AWS Lambda
14 24 (3.96%) Snowflake
15 15 (2.48%) Microsoft 365
16 13 (2.15%) ChatGPT
16 13 (2.15%) Entra ID
17 12 (1.98%) Amazon EMR
17 12 (1.98%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.16%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.16%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.83%) Intranet
3 4 (0.66%) Firewall
3 4 (0.66%) SSL
4 3 (0.50%) HTTP
5 1 (0.17%) 4G
5 1 (0.17%) 5G
5 1 (0.17%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (17.82%) Data Warehouse
2 76 (12.54%) Data Lake
3 74 (12.21%) Power BI
4 34 (5.61%) Relational Database
5 32 (5.28%) Data Vault
5 32 (5.28%) Metadata Repository
6 28 (4.62%) NoSQL
7 27 (4.46%) Tableau
8 26 (4.29%) SQL Server
9 22 (3.63%) Delta Lake
10 21 (3.47%) Snowflake Schema
11 20 (3.30%) Big Data
12 19 (3.14%) PostgreSQL
13 18 (2.97%) Amazon Redshift
14 16 (2.64%) Hadoop
14 16 (2.64%) Oracle Database
15 15 (2.48%) Amazon Athena
16 13 (2.15%) DB2
17 12 (1.98%) MongoDB
17 12 (1.98%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 36 (5.94%) ERwin
2 25 (4.13%) Git
3 20 (3.30%) JIRA
4 16 (2.64%) ER Studio
5 15 (2.48%) PowerDesigner
6 13 (2.15%) Jenkins
7 12 (1.98%) GitLab
8 9 (1.49%) Maven
9 8 (1.32%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.50%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.33%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.33%) git-flow
11 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 1 (0.17%) ScriptRunner
12 1 (0.17%) Selenium
12 1 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.17%) Subversion
12 1 (0.17%) Team Foundation Server
12 1 (0.17%) Terragrunt
12 1 (0.17%) VersionOne
General
1 173 (28.55%) Social Skills
2 172 (28.38%) Finance
3 117 (19.31%) Analytical Skills
4 85 (14.03%) Banking
5 70 (11.55%) Public Sector
6 39 (6.44%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (5.45%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.97%) Legal
9 15 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (2.15%) Publishing
11 12 (1.98%) Front Office
11 12 (1.98%) Marketing
12 11 (1.82%) Aviation
12 11 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
12 11 (1.82%) Retail
13 7 (1.16%) Law
14 6 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 5 (0.83%) Military
16 4 (0.66%) Financial Institution
17 3 (0.50%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 141 (23.27%) Architect
2 100 (16.50%) Data Architect
3 91 (15.02%) Data Engineer
4 76 (12.54%) Analyst
5 57 (9.41%) Lead
6 51 (8.42%) Data Analyst
7 48 (7.92%) Senior
8 44 (7.26%) Data Modeller
8 44 (7.26%) Developer
9 31 (5.12%) Business Analyst
10 24 (3.96%) Consultant
11 19 (3.14%) Data Manager
12 18 (2.97%) Data Business Analyst
13 14 (2.31%) DevOps Engineer
13 14 (2.31%) Software Engineer
14 13 (2.15%) Senior Data Engineer
15 12 (1.98%) AWS Engineer
15 12 (1.98%) Designer
15 12 (1.98%) Governance Analyst
16 10 (1.65%) Enterprise Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (6.93%) PySpark
2 27 (4.46%) Kafka
3 24 (3.96%) JSON
4 22 (3.63%) REST
5 18 (2.97%) .NET
6 14 (2.31%) YAML
7 11 (1.82%) OAuth
7 11 (1.82%) React
8 10 (1.65%) Node.js
9 9 (1.49%) Middleware
9 9 (1.49%) SOAP
9 9 (1.49%) XML
10 8 (1.32%) SLSA
11 7 (1.16%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.16%) RESTful
12 6 (0.99%) ADO
13 5 (0.83%) CSS
13 5 (0.83%) Pandas
13 5 (0.83%) Playwright
13 5 (0.83%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (10.07%) Cloud Native
2 45 (7.43%) Onboarding
3 43 (7.10%) Management Information System
4 38 (6.27%) Data Structures
5 37 (6.11%) Reference Data
6 35 (5.78%) Taxonomies
7 33 (5.45%) Product Ownership
8 28 (4.62%) Legacy Systems
9 20 (3.30%) Derivative
10 18 (2.97%) Data Protection Act
11 12 (1.98%) Credit Risk
11 12 (1.98%) Equity Derivative
11 12 (1.98%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.65%) Distributed Computing
12 10 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
13 9 (1.49%) Fixed Income
14 8 (1.32%) Clustering
14 8 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
14 8 (1.32%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.14%) Unix
2 7 (1.16%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (50.17%) Data Governance
2 278 (45.87%) Data Modelling
3 214 (35.31%) Metadata Management
4 208 (34.32%) Analytics
5 152 (25.08%) Data Architecture
6 150 (24.75%) ETL
7 144 (23.76%) AI
8 125 (20.63%) Data Pipeline
9 122 (20.13%) CI/CD
10 121 (19.97%) Data Engineering
11 114 (18.81%) Migration
12 112 (18.48%) Agile
13 108 (17.82%) Data Lineage
14 103 (17.00%) Business Intelligence
14 103 (17.00%) Stakeholder Management
15 102 (16.83%) Problem-Solving
16 97 (16.01%) Data Management
17 94 (15.51%) Decision-Making
18 93 (15.35%) DevOps
19 83 (13.70%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 242 (39.93%) SQL
2 157 (25.91%) Python
3 44 (7.26%) Java
4 28 (4.62%) C#
5 26 (4.29%) PL/SQL
6 14 (2.31%) PowerShell
7 13 (2.15%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.65%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.65%) Perl
9 9 (1.49%) C++
10 8 (1.32%) Groovy
11 7 (1.16%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.99%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.83%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.66%) Bash
14 4 (0.66%) Bicep
15 3 (0.50%) Scala
16 2 (0.33%) R
16 2 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 133 (21.95%) Security Cleared
2 100 (16.50%) SC Cleared
3 39 (6.44%) Degree
4 22 (3.63%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.15%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.49%) Azure Certification
7 9 (1.49%) TOGAF Certification
8 8 (1.32%) DV Cleared
8 8 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.66%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.33%) Analytics IQ
10 2 (0.33%) CISM
10 2 (0.33%) CISSP
10 2 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (0.33%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.33%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.17%) CBAP
11 1 (0.17%) CSPO
11 1 (0.17%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (40.26%) Data Quality
2 61 (10.07%) GDPR
3 32 (5.28%) QA
4 20 (3.30%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.82%) GRC
6 7 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.16%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.99%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.99%) NIST
8 4 (0.66%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.66%) ISO 22301
8 4 (0.66%) MiFID
9 3 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.50%) ISO 31000
10 2 (0.33%) IFRS
10 2 (0.33%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 12 (1.98%) Docker
2 8 (1.32%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 24 (3.96%) Terraform
2 11 (1.82%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.32%) Grafana
4 6 (0.99%) Prometheus
4 6 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.66%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.66%) PingFederate
6 1 (0.17%) Ansible
6 1 (0.17%) Kibana
Vendors
1 112 (18.48%) Microsoft
2 85 (14.03%) Databricks
3 61 (10.07%) Oracle
4 37 (6.11%) Informatica
5 21 (3.47%) Salesforce
6 19 (3.14%) Google
7 17 (2.81%) Talend
8 15 (2.48%) SAP
9 14 (2.31%) ServiceNow
10 13 (2.15%) Autodesk
11 12 (1.98%) IBM
12 11 (1.82%) Sybase
13 10 (1.65%) Sparx
14 8 (1.32%) Sonatype
15 7 (1.16%) OpenAI
16 5 (0.83%) Adobe
16 5 (0.83%) Denodo
17 4 (0.66%) Foundry
17 4 (0.66%) Ping Identity
17 4 (0.66%) Teradata