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

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 344 292
Rank change year-on-year +112 -52 +17
Contract jobs citing Metadata 452 197 345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.17% 0.64% 0.76%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.08% 3.45% 4.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 314 133 239
10th Percentile £363 £319 £392
25th Percentile £416 £458 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.92% -5.45% -3.51%
75th Percentile £588 £651 £694
90th Percentile £688 £799 £790
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £575
% change year-on-year +2.56% -15.22% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 25
10th Percentile £30.44 £21.69 £14.61
25th Percentile £55.10 £22.72 £20.50
Median hourly rate £66.50 £28.75 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +131.30% -37.74% +10.61%
75th Percentile £82.69 £51.13 -
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £63.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £27.50 £43.22
% change year-on-year +150.91% -36.36% -30.86%

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 6,385 5,715 7,335
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.49% 18.51% 16.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,404 3,754 5,221
10th Percentile £335 £356 £350
25th Percentile £412 £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 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.60% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 88 183
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.96 £15.65
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.94 £20.99
Median hourly rate £50.00 £35.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +42.86% -17.65% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.73 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.33 £77.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £29.80 £40.00
% change year-on-year +84.56% -25.50% -28.48%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +78 386 £513 -1.44% 240
London +95 230 £525 -4.55% 133
UK excluding London +15 176 £500 +2.56% 189
Work from Home +35 122 £525 +0.72% 172
Midlands -20 45 £548 +41.29% 20
South East -6 39 £506 +1.25% 83
West Midlands -9 36 £560 +44.52% 12
Scotland +22 31 £458 -33.21% 17
North of England -51 30 £475 -12.84% 21
East of England -8 20 £496 +55.79% 32
North West -30 17 £474 -13.07% 7
South West -16 12 £568 +16.41% 20
Yorkshire -41 12 £525 +35.48% 7
East Midlands - 9 £436 - 8
Wales +6 8 £700 +229.21% 2
North East -14 3 £475 -30.87% 7

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 32 (7.08%) Apache Spark
2 29 (6.42%) SharePoint
3 23 (5.09%) SAS
4 20 (4.42%) Confluence
5 16 (3.54%) Apache
6 12 (2.65%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (2.21%) CMS
8 7 (1.55%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (1.33%) Drupal
9 6 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (1.11%) GeoServer
10 5 (1.11%) Smallworld
11 4 (0.88%) ArcGIS
12 3 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 1 (0.22%) Alfresco
13 1 (0.22%) Apache Synapse
13 1 (0.22%) Headless CMS
13 1 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.22%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 26 (5.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.21%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.22%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.22%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
5 1 (0.22%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (3.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 12 (2.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.33%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (1.33%) SAP FI
3 6 (1.33%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.66%) Actimize
4 3 (0.66%) Maximo
5 2 (0.44%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 2 (0.44%) Summit
6 1 (0.22%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.22%) Hyperion Planning
6 1 (0.22%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.22%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 145 (32.08%) Azure
2 102 (22.57%) AWS
3 74 (16.37%) Power Platform
4 53 (11.73%) GCP
5 42 (9.29%) Azure Data Factory
6 41 (9.07%) Collibra
6 41 (9.07%) Microsoft Purview
7 39 (8.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 31 (6.86%) Snowflake
9 20 (4.42%) dbt
10 17 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (3.76%) Serverless
11 15 (3.32%) Amazon S3
12 14 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
13 12 (2.65%) GitHub
14 11 (2.43%) AWS Lambda
15 8 (1.77%) Alation
15 8 (1.77%) Entra ID
15 8 (1.77%) SaaS
16 7 (1.55%) Contentful
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.66%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.44%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.44%) Intranet
3 1 (0.22%) Firewall
3 1 (0.22%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (20.80%) Data Warehouse
2 68 (15.04%) Power BI
3 57 (12.61%) Data Lake
4 36 (7.96%) Metadata Repository
5 26 (5.75%) Big Data
6 25 (5.53%) NoSQL
7 22 (4.87%) Relational Database
7 22 (4.87%) SQL Server
8 20 (4.42%) Snowflake Schema
9 19 (4.20%) Data Vault
9 19 (4.20%) PostgreSQL
9 19 (4.20%) Tableau
10 18 (3.98%) Azure SQL Database
11 17 (3.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 16 (3.54%) Amazon Redshift
13 15 (3.32%) BigQuery
14 14 (3.10%) Oracle Database
15 13 (2.88%) Hadoop
16 12 (2.65%) Delta Lake
17 10 (2.21%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 26 (5.75%) JIRA
2 25 (5.53%) ERwin
3 22 (4.87%) Git
4 11 (2.43%) ER Studio
5 8 (1.77%) PowerDesigner
6 7 (1.55%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.88%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.66%) Maven
9 2 (0.44%) Subversion
9 2 (0.44%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.22%) GitLab
10 1 (0.22%) gulp
10 1 (0.22%) Poetry
10 1 (0.22%) Pylint
10 1 (0.22%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.22%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.22%) Yeoman
General
1 163 (36.06%) Social Skills
2 115 (25.44%) Finance
3 84 (18.58%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (13.94%) Public Sector
5 32 (7.08%) Banking
6 31 (6.86%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (3.76%) Publishing
8 15 (3.32%) Retail
9 13 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
10 11 (2.43%) Legal
11 10 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (1.77%) Military
14 7 (1.55%) Financial Institution
15 6 (1.33%) Aviation
15 6 (1.33%) Marketing
15 6 (1.33%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (1.33%) Retail Banking
16 5 (1.11%) Corporate Banking
16 5 (1.11%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 112 (24.78%) Architect
2 82 (18.14%) Data Architect
3 67 (14.82%) Analyst
4 56 (12.39%) Data Engineer
5 48 (10.62%) Data Analyst
6 37 (8.19%) Lead
7 33 (7.30%) Data Modeller
8 31 (6.86%) Senior
9 30 (6.64%) Developer
10 23 (5.09%) Business Analyst
11 22 (4.87%) Consultant
12 17 (3.76%) Azure Engineer
13 13 (2.88%) Azure Data Engineer
13 13 (2.88%) Data Business Analyst
13 13 (2.88%) Software Engineer
14 10 (2.21%) Data Analytics Engineer
14 10 (2.21%) Senior Data Engineer
15 9 (1.99%) Data Quality Analyst
15 9 (1.99%) Governance Analyst
15 9 (1.99%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (7.74%) PySpark
2 26 (5.75%) Kafka
2 26 (5.75%) REST
3 15 (3.32%) JSON
4 12 (2.65%) XML
5 11 (2.43%) .NET
5 11 (2.43%) SOAP
6 10 (2.21%) React
6 10 (2.21%) YAML
7 6 (1.33%) OAuth
7 6 (1.33%) SAP Basis
7 6 (1.33%) SAP Business Workflow
7 6 (1.33%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (1.33%) VML
8 5 (1.11%) HTML
8 5 (1.11%) Pandas
8 5 (1.11%) RESTful
9 4 (0.88%) Node.js
10 3 (0.66%) NumPy
10 3 (0.66%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.74%) Cloud Native
2 29 (6.42%) Management Information System
3 28 (6.19%) Data Structures
4 23 (5.09%) Taxonomies
5 21 (4.65%) Legacy Systems
5 21 (4.65%) Reference Data
6 19 (4.20%) Onboarding
7 17 (3.76%) Product Ownership
8 11 (2.43%) Distributed Computing
9 8 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (1.77%) Virtual Team
10 6 (1.33%) Data Fabric
11 5 (1.11%) CMDB
11 5 (1.11%) Credit Risk
12 4 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.88%) Genomics
12 4 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.88%) IoT
12 4 (0.88%) Omics
12 4 (0.88%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.55%) Unix
2 4 (0.88%) Linux
3 1 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (51.99%) Data Governance
2 222 (49.12%) Data Modelling
3 218 (48.23%) Metadata Management
4 154 (34.07%) Analytics
5 128 (28.32%) Data Architecture
6 117 (25.88%) ETL
7 111 (24.56%) Business Intelligence
8 88 (19.47%) Agile
9 86 (19.03%) Data Engineering
10 85 (18.81%) Data Lineage
11 82 (18.14%) Problem-Solving
12 79 (17.48%) AI
13 78 (17.26%) Data Pipeline
14 70 (15.49%) Decision-Making
15 69 (15.27%) Validation
16 68 (15.04%) Data Management
16 68 (15.04%) Stakeholder Management
17 67 (14.82%) Migration
18 65 (14.38%) Data Integration
18 65 (14.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 166 (36.73%) SQL
2 113 (25.00%) Python
3 21 (4.65%) PowerShell
4 20 (4.42%) Java
5 19 (4.20%) C#
6 9 (1.99%) JavaScript
6 9 (1.99%) PL/SQL
7 7 (1.55%) R
7 7 (1.55%) T-SQL
8 6 (1.33%) ABAP
8 6 (1.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.33%) Perl
8 6 (1.33%) Scala
9 5 (1.11%) Groovy
9 5 (1.11%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.88%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.88%) C++
11 3 (0.66%) Bicep
11 3 (0.66%) SOQL
11 3 (0.66%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 103 (22.79%) Security Cleared
2 78 (17.26%) SC Cleared
3 33 (7.30%) Degree
4 19 (4.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (2.21%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.77%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.55%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.33%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.88%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.44%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.22%) Analytics IQ
11 1 (0.22%) CISSP
11 1 (0.22%) CSPO
11 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.22%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 1 (0.22%) MySQL Certification
11 1 (0.22%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.22%) PMP
11 1 (0.22%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 200 (44.25%) Data Quality
2 47 (10.40%) GDPR
3 19 (4.20%) QA
4 13 (2.88%) Accessibility
5 8 (1.77%) GRC
6 6 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (1.11%) IFRS
7 5 (1.11%) Solvency II
8 4 (0.88%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.88%) MiFID
9 3 (0.66%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.44%) CRD IV
10 2 (0.44%) FINREP
10 2 (0.44%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.44%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.44%) NIST
11 1 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.22%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.22%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (3.10%) Docker
2 5 (1.11%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.22%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 18 (3.98%) Kubernetes
1 18 (3.98%) Terraform
2 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.66%) SCCM
3 1 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (0.22%) Hadoop YARN
3 1 (0.22%) Oozie
3 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 93 (20.58%) Microsoft
2 72 (15.93%) Databricks
3 43 (9.51%) Oracle
4 37 (8.19%) Informatica
5 23 (5.09%) ServiceNow
6 15 (3.32%) Google
6 15 (3.32%) SAP
6 15 (3.32%) Talend
7 13 (2.88%) Salesforce
7 13 (2.88%) Sparx
8 10 (2.21%) Teradata
9 9 (1.99%) OpenText
10 7 (1.55%) Sitecore
11 6 (1.33%) Optimizely
11 6 (1.33%) Remedy
12 5 (1.11%) Atlassian
12 5 (1.11%) ESRI
12 5 (1.11%) Intergraph
12 5 (1.11%) Palantir
13 4 (0.88%) Adobe