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 14 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 199 303 340
Rank change year-on-year +104 +37 +36
Contract jobs citing Metadata 738 270 216
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.38% 0.82% 0.55%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 9.03% 4.54% 3.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 468 187 139
10th Percentile £386 £314 £397
25th Percentile £456 £459 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £666 £638 £781
90th Percentile £761 £750 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +16.67% -5.26% -12.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 4 10
10th Percentile £25.76 - £13.50
25th Percentile £57.63 £13.25 £14.95
Median hourly rate £67.50 £19.25 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +250.65% -30.00% -36.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £42.50 £33.75
90th Percentile £70.30 £69.50 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £13.50 £16.40
% change year-on-year +400.00% -17.68% -64.35%

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 8,172 5,949 7,043
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.31% 18.07% 18.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,449 4,002 4,969
10th Percentile £358 £344 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -3.67%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £653
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 253 93 101
10th Percentile £15.95 £21.02 £15.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £27.11 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -36.36%
75th Percentile £61.50 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £76.00 £78.74 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £31.85 £30.00
% change year-on-year +20.11% +6.15% -39.74%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 +87 631 £525 - 287
London +61 358 £525 -9.68% 172
UK excluding London +73 293 £525 +16.67% 151
Work from Home +57 216 £525 -8.70% 139
North of England -3 74 £507 +12.67% 28
Midlands 0 70 £600 +460.75% 22
West Midlands -6 65 £613 +472.43% 17
South East -41 53 £525 +12.18% 56
Yorkshire +2 42 £514 -4.37% 10
Scotland +27 41 £525 +10.53% 14
East of England +5 32 £463 -11.90% 9
South West -25 27 £550 -8.33% 17
North West -25 27 £575 +83.12% 16
North East -38 7 £463 +1.37% 2
East Midlands -19 5 £500 +21.95% 5
Wales -14 3 £750 +76.47% 4

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 39 (5.28%) SharePoint
2 31 (4.20%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (3.52%) Apache
3 26 (3.52%) Apache Spark
4 20 (2.71%) CMS
5 18 (2.44%) Confluence
6 14 (1.90%) SAS
7 4 (0.54%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.41%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.27%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.27%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.27%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.14%) Drupal
10 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.14%) Liferay
10 1 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
10 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 24 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.95%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.95%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.95%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.95%) Revit
3 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.27%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.27%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.14%) Gliffy
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) Notion
5 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 18 (2.44%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.54%) Summit
4 3 (0.41%) Maximo
4 3 (0.41%) SAP HR
5 2 (0.27%) HFM
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.27%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.27%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 2 (0.27%) Workfront
6 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 219 (29.67%) Azure
2 173 (23.44%) AWS
3 101 (13.69%) Power Platform
4 86 (11.65%) GCP
5 58 (7.86%) Microsoft Purview
6 55 (7.45%) Collibra
7 47 (6.37%) Azure Data Factory
8 42 (5.69%) Amazon S3
9 41 (5.56%) GitHub
10 37 (5.01%) Snowflake
11 36 (4.88%) dbt
12 33 (4.47%) Serverless
13 31 (4.20%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (4.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 29 (3.93%) Azure DevOps
15 26 (3.52%) Microsoft 365
16 19 (2.57%) Microsoft Copilot
17 17 (2.30%) Power Automate
18 15 (2.03%) GitHub Actions
18 15 (2.03%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.95%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.95%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.68%) Intranet
3 4 (0.54%) Broadband
3 4 (0.54%) HTTP
3 4 (0.54%) SSL
4 3 (0.41%) Firewall
5 1 (0.14%) 4G
5 1 (0.14%) 5G
5 1 (0.14%) DNS
5 1 (0.14%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.14%) SAN
5 1 (0.14%) SMS
5 1 (0.14%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (15.99%) Data Warehouse
2 88 (11.92%) Power BI
3 83 (11.25%) Data Lake
4 37 (5.01%) Relational Database
5 34 (4.61%) NoSQL
6 33 (4.47%) Data Vault
7 29 (3.93%) Delta Lake
8 28 (3.79%) Tableau
9 22 (2.98%) BigQuery
10 21 (2.85%) PostgreSQL
10 21 (2.85%) Semantic Layer
11 18 (2.44%) Amazon Redshift
11 18 (2.44%) Snowflake Schema
12 16 (2.17%) SQL Server
13 15 (2.03%) Elasticsearch
14 14 (1.90%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (1.90%) Db2
15 13 (1.76%) MongoDB
16 12 (1.63%) Big Data
16 12 (1.63%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 40 (5.42%) ERwin
2 33 (4.47%) Git
3 26 (3.52%) ER Studio
4 21 (2.85%) JIRA
5 19 (2.57%) Jenkins
6 16 (2.17%) Maven
7 15 (2.03%) PowerDesigner
8 13 (1.76%) GitLab
9 11 (1.49%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.54%) Selenium
11 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
12 2 (0.27%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.27%) git-flow
12 2 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
12 2 (0.27%) TestRail
13 1 (0.14%) MLflow
13 1 (0.14%) Postman
13 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.14%) VersionOne
13 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 208 (28.18%) Social Skills
2 199 (26.96%) Finance
3 161 (21.82%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (12.33%) Banking
5 76 (10.30%) Public Sector
6 36 (4.88%) Investment Banking
7 30 (4.07%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (3.12%) Influencing Skills
9 19 (2.57%) Publishing
10 18 (2.44%) Legal
11 17 (2.30%) Marketing
11 17 (2.30%) Retail
12 13 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 13 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.63%) Front Office
14 11 (1.49%) Aviation
14 11 (1.49%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.95%) Law
15 7 (0.95%) Military
16 6 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 174 (23.58%) Architect
2 125 (16.94%) Data Architect
3 119 (16.12%) Data Engineer
4 93 (12.60%) Lead
5 89 (12.06%) Analyst
6 71 (9.62%) Senior
7 53 (7.18%) Data Analyst
8 47 (6.37%) Data Modeller
9 36 (4.88%) Developer
10 34 (4.61%) Business Analyst
11 26 (3.52%) Consultant
12 21 (2.85%) Data Business Analyst
12 21 (2.85%) Data Manager
12 21 (2.85%) Senior Data Engineer
13 19 (2.57%) Product Owner
14 18 (2.44%) DevOps Engineer
14 18 (2.44%) Lead Data Engineer
15 15 (2.03%) Solutions Architect
16 14 (1.90%) Governance Analyst
17 13 (1.76%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (6.50%) PySpark
2 41 (5.56%) JSON
3 36 (4.88%) Kafka
4 31 (4.20%) REST
5 18 (2.44%) YAML
6 14 (1.90%) Node.js
6 14 (1.90%) Spring Boot
7 12 (1.63%) XML
8 11 (1.49%) React
8 11 (1.49%) SLSA
9 9 (1.22%) .NET
9 9 (1.22%) Spring
10 8 (1.08%) GraphQL
10 8 (1.08%) Middleware
10 8 (1.08%) OAuth
11 7 (0.95%) Playwright
12 6 (0.81%) CSS
12 6 (0.81%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.81%) RESTful
12 6 (0.81%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 72 (9.76%) Cloud Native
2 63 (8.54%) Onboarding
3 61 (8.27%) Data Structures
4 53 (7.18%) Taxonomies
5 50 (6.78%) Product Ownership
6 49 (6.64%) Management Information System
7 46 (6.23%) Legacy Systems
8 43 (5.83%) Reference Data
9 20 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
10 19 (2.57%) Derivative
11 14 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.76%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.63%) Equity Derivative
13 12 (1.63%) Life Science
14 10 (1.36%) Data Fabric
14 10 (1.36%) Digital Media
14 10 (1.36%) Distributed Computing
15 9 (1.22%) Clustering
15 9 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
15 9 (1.22%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.57%) Unix
2 14 (1.90%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
3 1 (0.14%) Windows
3 1 (0.14%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (50.00%) Data Governance
2 349 (47.29%) Data Modelling
3 264 (35.77%) Metadata Management
4 249 (33.74%) Analytics
5 189 (25.61%) AI
6 183 (24.80%) Data Architecture
7 174 (23.58%) Data Pipeline
8 173 (23.44%) Agile
9 162 (21.95%) ETL
10 157 (21.27%) Data Engineering
11 156 (21.14%) CI/CD
12 152 (20.60%) Stakeholder Management
13 150 (20.33%) Migration
14 123 (16.67%) Data Lineage
15 122 (16.53%) Business Intelligence
16 119 (16.12%) Validation
17 118 (15.99%) DevOps
18 117 (15.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 114 (15.45%) Data Management
20 112 (15.18%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 284 (38.48%) SQL
2 194 (26.29%) Python
3 62 (8.40%) Java
4 21 (2.85%) PL/SQL
5 15 (2.03%) PowerShell
5 15 (2.03%) Shell Script
6 14 (1.90%) Groovy
7 13 (1.76%) C#
7 13 (1.76%) JavaScript
8 11 (1.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 9 (1.22%) Bash
9 9 (1.22%) C++
10 8 (1.08%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.95%) SPARQL
12 6 (0.81%) Bicep
12 6 (0.81%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.68%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.68%) Scala
14 4 (0.54%) Cypher
14 4 (0.54%) Perl
Qualifications
1 155 (21.00%) Security Cleared
2 118 (15.99%) SC Cleared
3 42 (5.69%) Degree
4 34 (4.61%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (2.44%) DV Cleared
6 12 (1.63%) Azure Certification
7 9 (1.22%) TOGAF Certification
8 8 (1.08%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.95%) AWS Certification
10 6 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.41%) CISSP
11 3 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
11 3 (0.41%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.27%) ACCA
12 2 (0.27%) CBAP
12 2 (0.27%) CIMA
12 2 (0.27%) CISM
12 2 (0.27%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 307 (41.60%) Data Quality
2 62 (8.40%) GDPR
3 44 (5.96%) QA
4 39 (5.28%) Accessibility
5 7 (0.95%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 7 (0.95%) ISO 19650
6 6 (0.81%) GRC
6 6 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.81%) NIST
7 5 (0.68%) WCAG
8 4 (0.54%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.54%) MiFID
8 4 (0.54%) Solvency II
9 3 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.41%) IFRS
9 3 (0.41%) IFRS 9
9 3 (0.41%) ISO 22301
9 3 (0.41%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.41%) NCSC
System Software
1 20 (2.71%) Docker
2 10 (1.36%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.14%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 36 (4.88%) Terraform
2 23 (3.12%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.22%) Grafana
4 7 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (0.81%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.54%) Ansible
6 4 (0.54%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.54%) PingFederate
7 2 (0.27%) Control-M
7 2 (0.27%) Kibana
8 1 (0.14%) Apache Ranger
8 1 (0.14%) systemd
Vendors
1 131 (17.75%) Microsoft
2 115 (15.58%) Databricks
3 54 (7.32%) Oracle
4 49 (6.64%) Informatica
5 27 (3.66%) Google
6 18 (2.44%) Sparx
7 17 (2.30%) Salesforce
8 16 (2.17%) IBM
8 16 (2.17%) SAP
9 13 (1.76%) Autodesk
10 11 (1.49%) Sonatype
10 11 (1.49%) Sybase
10 11 (1.49%) Talend
11 10 (1.36%) Denodo
12 8 (1.08%) Adobe
12 8 (1.08%) CA Agile Central
12 8 (1.08%) Palantir
13 7 (0.95%) Aspera
13 7 (0.95%) Foundry
13 7 (0.95%) Signiant