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 7 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 223 332 300
Rank change year-on-year +109 -32 +12
Contract jobs citing Metadata 522 202 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 0.66% 0.75%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.57% 3.48% 4.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 365 144 230
10th Percentile £358 £304 £362
25th Percentile £415 £430 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £523 £554
Median % change year-on-year -0.77% -5.64% +0.68%
75th Percentile £590 £685 £728
90th Percentile £695 £796 £826
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £478 £560
% change year-on-year +4.71% -14.73% +12.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 22
10th Percentile £38.47 £22.65 £15.87
25th Percentile £63.38 £22.72 £23.19
Median hourly rate £69.22 £28.75 £44.28
Median % change year-on-year +140.77% -35.07% +26.51%
75th Percentile £82.69 £51.13 £46.18
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £48.79
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £27.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +151.71% -40.45% +29.63%

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 6,896 5,806 7,313
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.15% 18.94% 16.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,749 3,959 5,160
10th Percentile £344 £351 £340
25th Percentile £413 £425 £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 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 96 174
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.59 £15.68
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.25 £20.98
Median hourly rate £52.50 £30.11 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.39% -29.16% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.56 £62.50
90th Percentile £84.80 £69.38 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.82% -31.25% -29.37%

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 7 March 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 7 March 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 7 March 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 +103 445 £525 +0.24% 224
London +96 258 £525 -13.37% 132
UK excluding London +25 202 £500 +4.71% 154
Work from Home +35 143 £525 +0.24% 128
Midlands -21 52 £560 +51.86% 16
West Midlands -17 46 £569 +54.24% 7
South East -7 44 £513 +4.86% 72
North of England -52 39 £469 -10.24% 18
Scotland +33 37 £449 -34.53% 7
North West -31 21 £463 -15.14% 6
East of England -13 20 £492 +54.78% 17
Yorkshire -47 17 £525 +35.48% 9
South West -14 16 £539 +6.37% 24
East Midlands - 6 £447 - 9
Wales -4 4 £700 +196.61% 5
North East -12 4 £475 -23.91% 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 38 (7.28%) Apache Spark
2 31 (5.94%) SharePoint
3 25 (4.79%) SAS
4 17 (3.26%) Confluence
5 15 (2.87%) Apache
5 15 (2.87%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (1.92%) CMS
7 7 (1.34%) Drupal
7 7 (1.34%) Sitecore CMS
8 6 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.96%) ArcGIS
9 5 (0.96%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.96%) Smallworld
10 3 (0.57%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.19%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.19%) Headless CMS
11 1 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 28 (5.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.30%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.19%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 16 (3.07%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 12 (2.30%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.15%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (1.15%) SAP FI
3 6 (1.15%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.57%) Actimize
4 3 (0.57%) Maximo
5 2 (0.38%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 2 (0.38%) Summit
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.19%) Hyperion Planning
6 1 (0.19%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 169 (32.38%) Azure
2 115 (22.03%) AWS
3 85 (16.28%) Power Platform
4 63 (12.07%) GCP
5 52 (9.96%) Collibra
6 45 (8.62%) Azure Data Factory
6 45 (8.62%) Microsoft Purview
7 38 (7.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 35 (6.70%) Snowflake
9 25 (4.79%) Serverless
10 22 (4.21%) Amazon S3
11 20 (3.83%) dbt
12 19 (3.64%) AWS Lambda
12 19 (3.64%) Azure DevOps
13 18 (3.45%) Microsoft 365
14 15 (2.87%) GitHub
15 9 (1.72%) Entra ID
15 9 (1.72%) SaaS
16 8 (1.53%) ShareGate
17 7 (1.34%) Contentful
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.57%) Intranet
1 3 (0.57%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.38%) Firewall
2 2 (0.38%) Hyperconnected
3 1 (0.19%) 4G
3 1 (0.19%) 5G
3 1 (0.19%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (21.26%) Data Warehouse
2 78 (14.94%) Power BI
3 69 (13.22%) Data Lake
4 41 (7.85%) Metadata Repository
5 29 (5.56%) SQL Server
6 28 (5.36%) Big Data
7 27 (5.17%) Data Vault
8 26 (4.98%) Snowflake Schema
9 24 (4.60%) PostgreSQL
10 22 (4.21%) NoSQL
11 21 (4.02%) Tableau
12 20 (3.83%) Relational Database
13 19 (3.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 17 (3.26%) BigQuery
14 17 (3.26%) Hadoop
15 16 (3.07%) Amazon Redshift
15 16 (3.07%) Azure SQL Database
16 15 (2.87%) Oracle Database
17 13 (2.49%) Star Schema
18 12 (2.30%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 28 (5.36%) ERwin
2 24 (4.60%) Git
3 21 (4.02%) JIRA
4 12 (2.30%) PowerDesigner
5 11 (2.11%) ER Studio
6 10 (1.92%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.96%) Maven
7 5 (0.96%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.57%) GitLab
9 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.38%) Subversion
9 2 (0.38%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.19%) git-flow
10 1 (0.19%) gulp
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
10 1 (0.19%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.19%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 172 (32.95%) Social Skills
2 138 (26.44%) Finance
3 100 (19.16%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (13.03%) Public Sector
5 51 (9.77%) Banking
6 40 (7.66%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (3.45%) Publishing
8 14 (2.68%) Retail
9 13 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
9 13 (2.49%) Legal
10 11 (2.11%) Aviation
11 10 (1.92%) Investment Banking
11 10 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.53%) Marketing
13 7 (1.34%) Financial Institution
13 7 (1.34%) Military
14 6 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (1.15%) Retail Banking
15 5 (0.96%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 138 (26.44%) Architect
2 104 (19.92%) Data Architect
3 72 (13.79%) Data Engineer
4 69 (13.22%) Analyst
5 49 (9.39%) Data Analyst
6 41 (7.85%) Lead
7 40 (7.66%) Senior
8 38 (7.28%) Data Modeller
9 37 (7.09%) Developer
10 25 (4.79%) Consultant
11 23 (4.41%) Business Analyst
12 18 (3.45%) Azure Engineer
13 15 (2.87%) Software Engineer
14 14 (2.68%) Azure Data Engineer
15 13 (2.49%) Data Business Analyst
16 12 (2.30%) Principal Engineer
17 11 (2.11%) AWS Engineer
17 11 (2.11%) Data Analytics Engineer
17 11 (2.11%) Governance Analyst
17 11 (2.11%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (7.85%) PySpark
2 30 (5.75%) Kafka
3 29 (5.56%) REST
4 18 (3.45%) JSON
5 15 (2.87%) .NET
6 13 (2.49%) React
7 12 (2.30%) YAML
8 11 (2.11%) SOAP
8 11 (2.11%) XML
9 10 (1.92%) OAuth
10 7 (1.34%) RESTful
11 6 (1.15%) Node.js
11 6 (1.15%) SAP Basis
11 6 (1.15%) SAP Business Workflow
11 6 (1.15%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (1.15%) VML
12 5 (0.96%) HTML
12 5 (0.96%) Pandas
12 5 (0.96%) SLSA
13 3 (0.57%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 47 (9.00%) Cloud Native
2 41 (7.85%) Data Structures
3 32 (6.13%) Management Information System
4 31 (5.94%) Reference Data
4 31 (5.94%) Taxonomies
5 25 (4.79%) Onboarding
6 21 (4.02%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.83%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (2.30%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (2.11%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.34%) Credit Risk
10 7 (1.34%) Data Fabric
10 7 (1.34%) Distributed Computing
11 5 (0.96%) CMDB
11 5 (0.96%) Distributed Systems
11 5 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
11 5 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (0.77%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.77%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.34%) Unix
2 5 (0.96%) Linux
3 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 269 (51.53%) Data Governance
2 260 (49.81%) Data Modelling
3 215 (41.19%) Metadata Management
4 191 (36.59%) Analytics
5 154 (29.50%) Data Architecture
6 142 (27.20%) ETL
7 122 (23.37%) Business Intelligence
8 104 (19.92%) Data Engineering
9 99 (18.97%) Agile
10 94 (18.01%) Validation
11 92 (17.62%) Data Pipeline
12 91 (17.43%) Data Lineage
13 90 (17.24%) AI
14 89 (17.05%) Problem-Solving
15 80 (15.33%) Migration
16 77 (14.75%) Data Integration
16 77 (14.75%) Data Management
17 74 (14.18%) Decision-Making
18 72 (13.79%) CI/CD
19 71 (13.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 202 (38.70%) SQL
2 134 (25.67%) Python
3 24 (4.60%) C#
4 23 (4.41%) PowerShell
5 19 (3.64%) Java
6 11 (2.11%) PL/SQL
7 10 (1.92%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 8 (1.53%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.34%) Groovy
9 7 (1.34%) R
10 6 (1.15%) ABAP
10 6 (1.15%) Perl
11 5 (0.96%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.96%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.96%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.77%) Scala
13 3 (0.57%) SOQL
14 2 (0.38%) Bicep
14 2 (0.38%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 123 (23.56%) Security Cleared
2 92 (17.62%) SC Cleared
3 33 (6.32%) Degree
4 23 (4.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (2.30%) Master's Degree
6 9 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.53%) Azure Certification
7 8 (1.53%) DV Cleared
7 8 (1.53%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (0.96%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.77%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.19%) Analytics IQ
10 1 (0.19%) CISSP
10 1 (0.19%) CSPO
10 1 (0.19%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.19%) MySQL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (42.53%) Data Quality
2 52 (9.96%) GDPR
3 23 (4.41%) QA
4 19 (3.64%) Accessibility
5 10 (1.92%) GRC
6 8 (1.53%) Solvency II
7 7 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (1.15%) IFRS
9 4 (0.77%) MiFID
9 4 (0.77%) NIST
10 2 (0.38%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.38%) CRD IV
10 2 (0.38%) FINREP
10 2 (0.38%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.38%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.38%) IFRS 9
10 2 (0.38%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.38%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.38%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (2.30%) Docker
2 7 (1.34%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 19 (3.64%) Terraform
2 18 (3.45%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.77%) Grafana
3 4 (0.77%) Prometheus
4 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.57%) SCCM
5 1 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.19%) Ansible
5 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 105 (20.11%) Microsoft
2 78 (14.94%) Databricks
3 47 (9.00%) Oracle
4 41 (7.85%) Informatica
5 23 (4.41%) ServiceNow
6 18 (3.45%) SAP
6 18 (3.45%) Talend
7 16 (3.07%) Google
7 16 (3.07%) Salesforce
8 15 (2.87%) Sparx
9 11 (2.11%) Teradata
10 8 (1.53%) OpenText
11 7 (1.34%) Remedy
11 7 (1.34%) Sitecore
12 6 (1.15%) ESRI
12 6 (1.15%) Optimizely
13 5 (0.96%) Atlassian
13 5 (0.96%) Intergraph
13 5 (0.96%) Palantir
13 5 (0.96%) Sonatype