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 29 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 318 313
Rank change year-on-year +119 -5 +23
Contract jobs citing Metadata 607 218 299
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.29% 0.75% 0.69%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.37% 3.94% 4.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 159 200
10th Percentile £352 £234 £399
25th Percentile £413 £440 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -9.57% +4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £775
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £512 £470 £575
% change year-on-year +8.83% -18.26% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 7 16
10th Percentile £35.91 £22.63 £13.50
25th Percentile £58.94 £22.72 £17.75
Median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +132.73% -15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £75.88 £56.13 £43.09
90th Percentile £83.13 £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 7,256 5,534 7,246
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.41% 18.97% 16.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,942 3,821 5,147
10th Percentile £350 £356 £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 £595 £640 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £483
% change year-on-year -3.06% +1.45% -3.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 105 144
10th Percentile £16.71 £20.09 £14.00
25th Percentile £28.35 £24.25 £20.98
Median hourly rate £50.00 £33.11 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +51.01% -17.23% -33.33%
75th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £58.55
90th Percentile £82.25 £74.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +62.40% -25.00% -31.09%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 29 April 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 +102 512 £500 -4.08% 112
London +77 290 £500 -16.67% 55
UK excluding London +35 240 £512 +8.83% 80
Work from Home +50 166 £525 -4.11% 43
Midlands -12 64 £540 +404.44% 14
West Midlands -15 57 £570 +432.59% 5
North of England -46 53 £488 -7.14% 16
South East -34 45 £500 +4.71% 27
Scotland +40 43 £470 -11.15% 4
East of England -19 29 £575 +79.74% 10
North West -22 28 £511 -6.19% 3
Yorkshire -40 23 £563 +50.00% 11
South West -29 11 £550 +4.76% 8
East Midlands - 7 £447 - 9
North East -16 5 £419 -22.94% 2
Wales -15 3 £750 +234.35% 2

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 (6.10%) Apache Spark
2 36 (5.93%) SharePoint
3 23 (3.79%) Apache Airflow
4 22 (3.62%) SAS
5 21 (3.46%) Confluence
6 16 (2.64%) Apache
7 9 (1.48%) CMS
8 4 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 4 (0.66%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.66%) Drupal
8 4 (0.66%) Sitecore CMS
9 2 (0.33%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
9 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.16%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.16%) Apache Synapse
10 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 29 (4.78%) 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 17 (2.80%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 8 (1.32%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.99%) Summit
4 3 (0.49%) Maximo
5 2 (0.33%) Actimize
5 2 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.16%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.16%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.16%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 182 (29.98%) Azure
2 130 (21.42%) AWS
3 96 (15.82%) Power Platform
4 75 (12.36%) GCP
5 57 (9.39%) Collibra
6 48 (7.91%) Azure Data Factory
7 45 (7.41%) Microsoft Purview
8 34 (5.60%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 34 (5.60%) GitHub
9 32 (5.27%) Amazon S3
9 32 (5.27%) Serverless
10 26 (4.28%) AWS Lambda
10 26 (4.28%) Azure DevOps
11 25 (4.12%) dbt
12 23 (3.79%) Snowflake
13 18 (2.97%) Microsoft 365
14 12 (1.98%) Amazon EMR
15 11 (1.81%) Power Automate
16 10 (1.65%) ChatGPT
17 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
1 121 (19.93%) Data Warehouse
2 87 (14.33%) Power BI
3 75 (12.36%) Data Lake
4 34 (5.60%) Metadata Repository
4 34 (5.60%) Relational Database
5 29 (4.78%) Tableau
6 28 (4.61%) SQL Server
7 27 (4.45%) NoSQL
8 25 (4.12%) Big Data
8 25 (4.12%) Data Vault
9 22 (3.62%) Snowflake Schema
10 21 (3.46%) Delta Lake
10 21 (3.46%) PostgreSQL
11 19 (3.13%) Amazon Redshift
11 19 (3.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 16 (2.64%) Hadoop
13 15 (2.47%) Oracle Database
14 14 (2.31%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (2.31%) BigQuery
15 13 (2.14%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 30 (4.94%) Git
2 29 (4.78%) ERwin
3 21 (3.46%) JIRA
4 16 (2.64%) Jenkins
5 12 (1.98%) GitLab
6 11 (1.81%) PowerDesigner
7 10 (1.65%) ER Studio
8 9 (1.48%) Maven
9 8 (1.32%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.33%) git-flow
11 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.33%) Subversion
12 1 (0.16%) Deequ
12 1 (0.16%) gulp
12 1 (0.16%) Postman
12 1 (0.16%) ScriptRunner
12 1 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.16%) Terragrunt
12 1 (0.16%) VersionOne
General
1 198 (32.62%) Social Skills
2 165 (27.18%) Finance
3 122 (20.10%) Analytical Skills
4 78 (12.85%) Public Sector
5 71 (11.70%) Banking
6 39 (6.43%) Documentation Skills
7 19 (3.13%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.97%) Legal
9 16 (2.64%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.47%) Publishing
11 13 (2.14%) Marketing
12 10 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.65%) Retail
13 9 (1.48%) Aviation
13 9 (1.48%) Front Office
14 7 (1.15%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (1.15%) Military
15 6 (0.99%) Law
16 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 138 (22.73%) Architect
2 101 (16.64%) Data Architect
3 93 (15.32%) Data Engineer
4 84 (13.84%) Analyst
5 55 (9.06%) Data Analyst
6 51 (8.40%) Senior
7 50 (8.24%) Lead
8 42 (6.92%) Developer
9 36 (5.93%) Data Modeller
10 33 (5.44%) Business Analyst
11 23 (3.79%) Consultant
12 17 (2.80%) Data Business Analyst
13 16 (2.64%) Data Manager
14 14 (2.31%) AWS Engineer
14 14 (2.31%) Azure Engineer
14 14 (2.31%) DevOps Engineer
14 14 (2.31%) Senior Data Engineer
14 14 (2.31%) Software Engineer
15 12 (1.98%) Governance Analyst
16 11 (1.81%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (7.41%) PySpark
2 34 (5.60%) Kafka
3 29 (4.78%) JSON
3 29 (4.78%) REST
4 18 (2.97%) YAML
5 17 (2.80%) .NET
6 14 (2.31%) XML
7 12 (1.98%) OAuth
7 12 (1.98%) React
7 12 (1.98%) SOAP
8 10 (1.65%) Node.js
9 9 (1.48%) Middleware
10 8 (1.32%) SLSA
11 7 (1.15%) ADO
11 7 (1.15%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.15%) RESTful
12 6 (0.99%) HTML
13 5 (0.82%) CSS
13 5 (0.82%) Playwright
13 5 (0.82%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 58 (9.56%) Cloud Native
2 47 (7.74%) Data Structures
3 45 (7.41%) Management Information System
4 40 (6.59%) Onboarding
5 34 (5.60%) Taxonomies
6 32 (5.27%) Reference Data
7 31 (5.11%) Product Ownership
8 26 (4.28%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (2.80%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (2.47%) Derivative
11 12 (1.98%) Credit Risk
11 12 (1.98%) Virtual Team
12 11 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.48%) Clustering
13 9 (1.48%) Distributed Computing
13 9 (1.48%) Equity Derivative
14 8 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
14 8 (1.32%) Market Risk
15 6 (0.99%) Data Fabric
15 6 (0.99%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 21 (3.46%) Unix
2 10 (1.65%) Linux
3 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 303 (49.92%) Data Governance
2 276 (45.47%) Data Modelling
3 227 (37.40%) Metadata Management
4 209 (34.43%) Analytics
5 172 (28.34%) ETL
6 159 (26.19%) Data Architecture
7 132 (21.75%) AI
8 128 (21.09%) Data Pipeline
9 125 (20.59%) Data Engineering
10 122 (20.10%) Business Intelligence
11 120 (19.77%) CI/CD
12 117 (19.28%) Problem-Solving
13 112 (18.45%) Migration
14 110 (18.12%) Agile
15 107 (17.63%) Data Lineage
15 107 (17.63%) Validation
16 99 (16.31%) Stakeholder Management
17 94 (15.49%) Data Management
18 92 (15.16%) DevOps
19 90 (14.83%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 246 (40.53%) SQL
2 160 (26.36%) Python
3 37 (6.10%) Java
4 28 (4.61%) C#
5 24 (3.95%) PL/SQL
6 19 (3.13%) PowerShell
7 15 (2.47%) Shell Script
8 14 (2.31%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.48%) Groovy
9 9 (1.48%) Perl
9 9 (1.48%) T-SQL
10 8 (1.32%) C++
11 7 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (1.15%) R
11 7 (1.15%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.99%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.99%) Scala
13 4 (0.66%) Bicep
14 2 (0.33%) Bash
14 2 (0.33%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 143 (23.56%) Security Cleared
2 101 (16.64%) SC Cleared
3 42 (6.92%) Degree
4 26 (4.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.14%) Master's Degree
7 10 (1.65%) Azure Certification
7 10 (1.65%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (1.65%) TOGAF Certification
8 7 (1.15%) 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
1 253 (41.68%) Data Quality
2 60 (9.88%) GDPR
3 32 (5.27%) QA
4 18 (2.97%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.81%) GRC
6 10 (1.65%) Solvency II
7 7 (1.15%) ISO 19650
7 7 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (1.15%) NIST
8 5 (0.82%) IFRS
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
10 3 (0.49%) MiFID
11 2 (0.33%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.33%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.33%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (2.14%) Docker
2 8 (1.32%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 24 (3.95%) Terraform
2 15 (2.47%) 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
1 113 (18.62%) Microsoft
2 86 (14.17%) Databricks
3 59 (9.72%) Oracle
4 54 (8.90%) Informatica
5 26 (4.28%) Salesforce
6 24 (3.95%) Talend
7 20 (3.29%) Google
8 19 (3.13%) SAP
8 19 (3.13%) ServiceNow
9 17 (2.80%) Sparx
10 14 (2.31%) Autodesk
11 10 (1.65%) IBM
12 8 (1.32%) Sonatype
12 8 (1.32%) Sybase
13 7 (1.15%) Adobe
13 7 (1.15%) OpenAI
13 7 (1.15%) Teradata
14 6 (0.99%) Sitecore
15 5 (0.82%) Denodo
16 4 (0.66%) Ping Identity