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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 236 348 290
Rank change year-on-year +112 -58 +17
Contract jobs citing Metadata 439 192 332
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 0.61% 0.76%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.88% 3.31% 4.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 303 129 230
10th Percentile £363 £318 £393
25th Percentile £417 £464 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £543
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% -3.69% -4.82%
75th Percentile £594 £651 £679
90th Percentile £688 £799 £753
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £570
% change year-on-year +2.56% -14.47% +14.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 7 25
10th Percentile £29.83 £21.35 £14.61
25th Percentile £48.71 £22.72 £20.50
Median hourly rate £69.00 £27.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +150.91% -40.45% +10.61%
75th Percentile £83.13 £61.50 -
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 £63.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.75 £26.47 £43.22
% change year-on-year +182.45% -38.76% -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 6,380 5,806 7,153
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.58% 18.44% 16.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,385 3,816 5,079
10th Percentile £333 £355 £350
25th Percentile £411 £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 £476 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.85% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 86 180
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.25 £15.86
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.56 £21.00
Median hourly rate £51.25 £35.00 £42.35
Median % change year-on-year +46.43% -17.35% -29.43%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.73 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £69.88 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £28.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year +91.97% -28.38% -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 29 January 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 January 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 January 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 +91 376 £510 -2.16% 287
London +91 227 £525 -2.33% 121
UK excluding London +14 168 £500 +2.56% 256
Work from Home +38 114 £513 -1.91% 155
South East -7 38 £500 - 99
Midlands -26 38 £537 +38.58% 36
Scotland +17 30 £458 -33.21% 18
North of England -52 30 £475 -12.84% 32
West Midlands -14 29 £560 +44.52% 17
East of England -2 21 £500 +57.01% 40
North West -19 18 £474 -13.07% 11
South West -12 12 £568 +16.41% 31
Yorkshire -44 12 £525 +35.48% 15
East Midlands - 9 £436 - 19
Wales 0 8 £700 +229.21% 6
North East -16 2 £314 -54.38% 6

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 31 (7.06%) Apache Spark
2 30 (6.83%) SharePoint
3 20 (4.56%) Confluence
4 18 (4.10%) SAS
5 16 (3.64%) Apache
6 11 (2.51%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (2.28%) CMS
8 7 (1.59%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (1.37%) Drupal
9 6 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (1.14%) ArcGIS
10 5 (1.14%) GeoServer
10 5 (1.14%) Smallworld
11 3 (0.68%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.23%) Alfresco
12 1 (0.23%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.23%) Documentum
12 1 (0.23%) Headless CMS
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.23%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 26 (5.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.28%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.23%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
5 1 (0.23%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 14 (3.19%) SAP S/4HANA
1 14 (3.19%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (1.37%) OpenText VIM for SAP
2 6 (1.37%) SAP FI
2 6 (1.37%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.68%) Actimize
3 3 (0.68%) Maximo
4 2 (0.46%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 2 (0.46%) Summit
5 1 (0.23%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.23%) Hyperion Planning
5 1 (0.23%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.23%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 141 (32.12%) Azure
2 101 (23.01%) AWS
3 75 (17.08%) Power Platform
4 51 (11.62%) GCP
5 40 (9.11%) Azure Data Factory
6 39 (8.88%) Collibra
6 39 (8.88%) Microsoft Purview
7 37 (8.43%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 30 (6.83%) Snowflake
9 20 (4.56%) dbt
10 17 (3.87%) Azure DevOps
11 15 (3.42%) Microsoft 365
11 15 (3.42%) Serverless
12 13 (2.96%) Amazon S3
13 12 (2.73%) GitHub
14 10 (2.28%) AWS Lambda
15 8 (1.82%) Alation
16 7 (1.59%) Contentful
16 7 (1.59%) Entra ID
16 7 (1.59%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.68%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.46%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.46%) Intranet
3 1 (0.23%) Firewall
3 1 (0.23%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (19.36%) Data Warehouse
2 67 (15.26%) Power BI
3 54 (12.30%) Data Lake
4 31 (7.06%) Metadata Repository
5 24 (5.47%) Big Data
5 24 (5.47%) NoSQL
6 22 (5.01%) Relational Database
7 21 (4.78%) SQL Server
8 20 (4.56%) Snowflake Schema
9 19 (4.33%) Data Vault
9 19 (4.33%) PostgreSQL
10 18 (4.10%) Tableau
11 17 (3.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 16 (3.64%) Azure SQL Database
13 15 (3.42%) Amazon Redshift
14 14 (3.19%) BigQuery
15 12 (2.73%) Hadoop
15 12 (2.73%) Oracle Database
16 11 (2.51%) Delta Lake
17 10 (2.28%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 26 (5.92%) JIRA
2 24 (5.47%) ERwin
3 22 (5.01%) Git
4 11 (2.51%) ER Studio
5 8 (1.82%) PowerDesigner
6 7 (1.59%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.91%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.68%) Maven
9 2 (0.46%) Subversion
9 2 (0.46%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.23%) GitLab
10 1 (0.23%) gulp
10 1 (0.23%) Poetry
10 1 (0.23%) Pylint
10 1 (0.23%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.23%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.23%) Terragrunt
10 1 (0.23%) Yeoman
General
1 166 (37.81%) Social Skills
2 110 (25.06%) Finance
3 85 (19.36%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (14.58%) Public Sector
5 31 (7.06%) Banking
5 31 (7.06%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (4.10%) Publishing
7 15 (3.42%) Retail
8 12 (2.73%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (2.51%) Legal
10 8 (1.82%) Military
10 8 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.59%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.37%) Aviation
12 6 (1.37%) Law
12 6 (1.37%) Marketing
12 6 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.37%) Retail Banking
13 5 (1.14%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 99 (22.55%) Architect
2 71 (16.17%) Data Architect
3 69 (15.72%) Analyst
4 56 (12.76%) Data Engineer
5 48 (10.93%) Data Analyst
6 37 (8.43%) Lead
7 33 (7.52%) Data Modeller
8 29 (6.61%) Developer
8 29 (6.61%) Senior
9 24 (5.47%) Business Analyst
9 24 (5.47%) Consultant
10 17 (3.87%) Azure Engineer
11 13 (2.96%) Azure Data Engineer
11 13 (2.96%) Data Business Analyst
11 13 (2.96%) Software Engineer
12 10 (2.28%) Data Analytics Engineer
12 10 (2.28%) Senior Data Engineer
13 9 (2.05%) Data Quality Analyst
13 9 (2.05%) Governance Analyst
13 9 (2.05%) Quality Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (8.20%) PySpark
2 24 (5.47%) Kafka
2 24 (5.47%) REST
3 15 (3.42%) JSON
4 12 (2.73%) XML
5 10 (2.28%) .NET
5 10 (2.28%) React
5 10 (2.28%) SOAP
5 10 (2.28%) YAML
6 6 (1.37%) OAuth
6 6 (1.37%) SAP Basis
6 6 (1.37%) SAP Business Workflow
6 6 (1.37%) SAP Fiori
6 6 (1.37%) VML
7 5 (1.14%) HTML
7 5 (1.14%) Pandas
7 5 (1.14%) RESTful
8 4 (0.91%) Node.js
9 3 (0.68%) NumPy
9 3 (0.68%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 34 (7.74%) Cloud Native
2 29 (6.61%) Data Structures
2 29 (6.61%) Management Information System
3 22 (5.01%) Taxonomies
4 21 (4.78%) Legacy Systems
5 20 (4.56%) Reference Data
6 19 (4.33%) Onboarding
7 18 (4.10%) Product Ownership
8 9 (2.05%) Distributed Computing
9 7 (1.59%) Data Fabric
9 7 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.59%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.14%) Credit Risk
11 4 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (0.91%) CMDB
11 4 (0.91%) Genomics
11 4 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.91%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.91%) Low-Code
11 4 (0.91%) Omics
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.59%) Unix
2 4 (0.91%) Linux
3 1 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (52.62%) Data Governance
2 214 (48.75%) Data Modelling
3 213 (48.52%) Metadata Management
4 151 (34.40%) Analytics
5 121 (27.56%) Data Architecture
6 114 (25.97%) ETL
7 105 (23.92%) Business Intelligence
8 88 (20.05%) Agile
9 87 (19.82%) Data Lineage
10 84 (19.13%) Problem-Solving
11 80 (18.22%) Data Engineering
11 80 (18.22%) Data Pipeline
12 74 (16.86%) AI
13 71 (16.17%) Validation
14 69 (15.72%) Data Management
15 68 (15.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 67 (15.26%) Decision-Making
16 67 (15.26%) Migration
17 66 (15.03%) Stakeholder Management
18 63 (14.35%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 163 (37.13%) SQL
2 113 (25.74%) Python
3 23 (5.24%) Java
4 20 (4.56%) PowerShell
5 18 (4.10%) C#
6 9 (2.05%) JavaScript
7 8 (1.82%) PL/SQL
8 7 (1.59%) R
8 7 (1.59%) T-SQL
9 6 (1.37%) ABAP
9 6 (1.37%) Perl
9 6 (1.37%) Scala
10 5 (1.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (1.14%) Groovy
10 5 (1.14%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.91%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.91%) C++
12 3 (0.68%) Bicep
12 3 (0.68%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.46%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 99 (22.55%) Security Cleared
2 71 (16.17%) SC Cleared
3 31 (7.06%) Degree
4 18 (4.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.28%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.05%) Master's Degree
7 7 (1.59%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.59%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (1.14%) DV Cleared
9 3 (0.68%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.46%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.23%) Analytics IQ
11 1 (0.23%) CSPO
11 1 (0.23%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.23%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 1 (0.23%) MCP
11 1 (0.23%) MySQL Certification
11 1 (0.23%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.23%) PMP
11 1 (0.23%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (44.42%) Data Quality
2 45 (10.25%) GDPR
3 17 (3.87%) QA
4 13 (2.96%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.59%) GRC
6 6 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (1.14%) IFRS
7 5 (1.14%) Solvency II
8 4 (0.91%) HIPAA
8 4 (0.91%) MiFID
9 3 (0.68%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.46%) CRD IV
10 2 (0.46%) FINREP
10 2 (0.46%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.46%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.46%) NIST
11 1 (0.23%) Basel III
11 1 (0.23%) GMP
11 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.23%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (3.19%) Docker
2 4 (0.91%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.23%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 18 (4.10%) Kubernetes
1 18 (4.10%) Terraform
2 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.68%) SCCM
3 1 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (0.23%) Hadoop YARN
3 1 (0.23%) Oozie
3 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 88 (20.05%) Microsoft
2 66 (15.03%) Databricks
3 41 (9.34%) Oracle
4 36 (8.20%) Informatica
5 21 (4.78%) ServiceNow
6 17 (3.87%) SAP
7 14 (3.19%) Sparx
7 14 (3.19%) Talend
8 13 (2.96%) Google
9 12 (2.73%) Salesforce
10 10 (2.28%) Teradata
11 9 (2.05%) OpenText
12 7 (1.59%) Sitecore
13 6 (1.37%) ESRI
13 6 (1.37%) Optimizely
14 5 (1.14%) Atlassian
14 5 (1.14%) IBM
14 5 (1.14%) Intergraph
14 5 (1.14%) Palantir
15 4 (0.91%) Adobe