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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 204 300 362
Rank change year-on-year +96 +62 +20
Contract jobs citing Metadata 726 273 236
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.38% 0.84% 0.58%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.94% 4.58% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 472 190 153
10th Percentile £363 £306 £376
25th Percentile £450 £436 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -12.50% +4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £750 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +16.67% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 5 10
10th Percentile £43.55 - £13.50
25th Percentile £60.25 £13.25 £15.44
Median hourly rate £64.00 £25.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +156.00% -23.08% -8.77%
75th Percentile £70.00 £30.00 £43.07
90th Percentile - £64.50 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £19.25 £29.84
% change year-on-year +232.47% -35.49% -25.40%

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 8,118 5,955 7,321
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.38% 18.22% 17.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,378 4,041 5,218
10th Percentile £352 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% -3.33% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
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 257 92 111
10th Percentile £16.70 £19.28 £14.25
25th Percentile £25.25 £23.50 £20.38
Median hourly rate £41.71 £36.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.06% -3.33% -31.82%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.06 £58.73
90th Percentile £77.00 £78.58 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £31.64 £30.00
% change year-on-year +24.84% +5.47% -42.86%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 +83 606 £525 - 233
London +51 345 £525 -12.50% 127
UK excluding London +54 293 £525 +16.67% 130
Work from Home +51 212 £525 -8.70% 116
Midlands 0 72 £575 +437.38% 12
North of England -9 72 £514 +24.61% 26
West Midlands -13 68 £577 +438.79% 7
Scotland +35 54 £525 +10.53% 7
South East -44 47 £525 +12.18% 56
Yorkshire -11 36 £520 +13.93% 9
East of England +3 29 £463 +45.44% 7
North West -26 29 £575 +83.12% 14
South West -24 23 £545 -7.28% 18
North East -28 9 £463 +1.37% 3
East Midlands -8 4 £500 +21.95% 4
Wales -16 3 £750 +191.91% 1

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 40 (5.51%) SharePoint
2 36 (4.96%) Apache Spark
3 34 (4.68%) Apache Airflow
4 28 (3.86%) Apache
5 20 (2.75%) Confluence
6 18 (2.48%) SAS
7 17 (2.34%) CMS
8 4 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.41%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.28%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.28%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.14%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.14%) Drupal
11 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.14%) Liferay
11 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 20 (2.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.96%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.96%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.96%) Revit
3 5 (0.69%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.14%) Notion
Business Applications
1 12 (1.65%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.69%) Summit
3 3 (0.41%) SAP HR
3 3 (0.41%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.28%) HFM
4 2 (0.28%) Maximo
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
4 2 (0.28%) Workfront
5 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
5 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 213 (29.34%) Azure
2 158 (21.76%) AWS
3 98 (13.50%) Power Platform
4 79 (10.88%) GCP
5 63 (8.68%) Collibra
6 51 (7.02%) Microsoft Purview
7 46 (6.34%) Amazon S3
8 44 (6.06%) Azure Data Factory
9 36 (4.96%) GitHub
10 35 (4.82%) dbt
11 34 (4.68%) Serverless
12 32 (4.41%) Snowflake
13 31 (4.27%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
13 31 (4.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 24 (3.31%) Microsoft 365
15 17 (2.34%) Power Automate
16 16 (2.20%) Amazon EMR
16 16 (2.20%) Microsoft Copilot
17 15 (2.07%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.96%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.96%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.69%) Intranet
3 4 (0.55%) SSL
4 3 (0.41%) Firewall
4 3 (0.41%) HTTP
5 2 (0.28%) Broadband
6 1 (0.14%) 4G
6 1 (0.14%) 5G
6 1 (0.14%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (17.22%) Data Warehouse
2 86 (11.85%) Power BI
3 85 (11.71%) Data Lake
4 34 (4.68%) Relational Database
5 33 (4.55%) Data Vault
6 30 (4.13%) NoSQL
7 29 (3.99%) Tableau
8 27 (3.72%) Delta Lake
9 22 (3.03%) Big Data
9 22 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
10 21 (2.89%) Semantic Layer
11 20 (2.75%) BigQuery
11 20 (2.75%) Snowflake Schema
11 20 (2.75%) SQL Server
12 19 (2.62%) Amazon Redshift
13 17 (2.34%) Hadoop
13 17 (2.34%) Metadata Repository
14 15 (2.07%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (1.93%) Db2
16 12 (1.65%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 42 (5.79%) ERwin
2 34 (4.68%) Git
3 26 (3.58%) ER Studio
4 21 (2.89%) JIRA
5 18 (2.48%) Jenkins
6 16 (2.20%) Maven
6 16 (2.20%) PowerDesigner
7 14 (1.93%) GitLab
8 11 (1.52%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.28%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.28%) git-flow
10 2 (0.28%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.28%) Selenium
11 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.14%) Subversion
11 1 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.14%) TestRail
11 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 203 (27.96%) Finance
2 195 (26.86%) Social Skills
3 142 (19.56%) Analytical Skills
4 98 (13.50%) Banking
5 77 (10.61%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.23%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (5.23%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
7 18 (2.48%) Legal
7 18 (2.48%) Retail
8 17 (2.34%) Marketing
9 16 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
9 16 (2.20%) Publishing
10 12 (1.65%) Aviation
10 12 (1.65%) Front Office
11 10 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (0.96%) Manufacturing
12 7 (0.96%) Military
12 7 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.69%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 184 (25.34%) Architect
2 132 (18.18%) Data Architect
3 103 (14.19%) Data Engineer
4 88 (12.12%) Analyst
5 83 (11.43%) Lead
6 60 (8.26%) Senior
7 55 (7.58%) Data Analyst
8 52 (7.16%) Data Modeller
9 45 (6.20%) Developer
10 36 (4.96%) Business Analyst
11 25 (3.44%) Consultant
12 22 (3.03%) Data Business Analyst
13 20 (2.75%) Data Manager
14 18 (2.48%) DevOps Engineer
14 18 (2.48%) Product Owner
15 16 (2.20%) Lead Data Engineer
15 16 (2.20%) Solutions Architect
16 15 (2.07%) Enterprise Architect
16 15 (2.07%) Senior Data Engineer
17 13 (1.79%) Information Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (6.47%) PySpark
2 39 (5.37%) JSON
3 35 (4.82%) Kafka
4 26 (3.58%) REST
5 17 (2.34%) YAML
6 13 (1.79%) Node.js
6 13 (1.79%) Spring Boot
6 13 (1.79%) XML
7 12 (1.65%) .NET
8 11 (1.52%) SLSA
9 10 (1.38%) OAuth
9 10 (1.38%) React
10 8 (1.10%) GraphQL
10 8 (1.10%) Middleware
10 8 (1.10%) OAuth2
10 8 (1.10%) Spring
11 7 (0.96%) RESTful
11 7 (0.96%) SPFx
12 6 (0.83%) CSS
12 6 (0.83%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 69 (9.50%) Cloud Native
2 61 (8.40%) Data Structures
2 61 (8.40%) Onboarding
3 55 (7.58%) Taxonomies
4 48 (6.61%) Product Ownership
5 44 (6.06%) Management Information System
5 44 (6.06%) Reference Data
6 38 (5.23%) Legacy Systems
7 20 (2.75%) Derivative
8 18 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
9 13 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
10 12 (1.65%) AI Agents
10 12 (1.65%) Equity Derivative
11 11 (1.52%) Distributed Computing
11 11 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.38%) Life Science
13 9 (1.24%) Clustering
13 9 (1.24%) Credit Risk
13 9 (1.24%) Fixed Income
13 9 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.62%) Unix
2 12 (1.65%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (49.31%) Data Governance
2 350 (48.21%) Data Modelling
3 245 (33.75%) Metadata Management
4 240 (33.06%) Analytics
5 188 (25.90%) Data Architecture
6 175 (24.10%) AI
7 166 (22.87%) ETL
8 161 (22.18%) Data Pipeline
9 158 (21.76%) Data Engineering
10 152 (20.94%) Agile
11 141 (19.42%) CI/CD
12 139 (19.15%) Migration
13 131 (18.04%) Stakeholder Management
14 122 (16.80%) Business Intelligence
15 117 (16.12%) Validation
16 116 (15.98%) Data Lineage
17 111 (15.29%) Data Management
18 110 (15.15%) Decision-Making
19 108 (14.88%) DevOps
20 106 (14.60%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 279 (38.43%) SQL
2 183 (25.21%) Python
3 57 (7.85%) Java
4 24 (3.31%) PL/SQL
5 17 (2.34%) C#
6 15 (2.07%) Shell Script
7 14 (1.93%) Groovy
8 13 (1.79%) PowerShell
9 11 (1.52%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.24%) Bash
10 9 (1.24%) C++
10 9 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 8 (1.10%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.96%) SPARQL
13 6 (0.83%) Bicep
13 6 (0.83%) T-SQL
14 5 (0.69%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.69%) Scala
15 4 (0.55%) Cypher
15 4 (0.55%) Perl
Qualifications
1 166 (22.87%) Security Cleared
2 126 (17.36%) SC Cleared
3 47 (6.47%) Degree
4 32 (4.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (2.75%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 14 (1.93%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.65%) Azure Certification
9 11 (1.52%) TOGAF Certification
10 7 (0.96%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.28%) ACCA
13 2 (0.28%) CBAP
13 2 (0.28%) CIMA
13 2 (0.28%) CISM
13 2 (0.28%) CISSP
13 2 (0.28%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.28%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.28%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 287 (39.53%) Data Quality
2 67 (9.23%) GDPR
3 39 (5.37%) QA
4 38 (5.23%) Accessibility
5 7 (0.96%) GRC
5 7 (0.96%) Solvency II
6 6 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 6 (0.83%) ISO 19650
6 6 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.83%) NIST
7 4 (0.55%) ISO 22301
7 4 (0.55%) MiFID
8 3 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.41%) HIPAA
8 3 (0.41%) ISO 31000
8 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.41%) NCSC
8 3 (0.41%) WCAG
9 2 (0.28%) IFRS
9 2 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (1.93%) Docker
2 9 (1.24%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 31 (4.27%) Terraform
2 18 (2.48%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.38%) Grafana
4 7 (0.96%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.55%) CA Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.55%) PingFederate
7 2 (0.28%) Ansible
7 2 (0.28%) Kibana
8 1 (0.14%) Apache Ranger
Vendors
1 125 (17.22%) Microsoft
2 118 (16.25%) Databricks
3 60 (8.26%) Oracle
4 53 (7.30%) Informatica
5 22 (3.03%) Google
6 20 (2.75%) Salesforce
7 18 (2.48%) Talend
8 15 (2.07%) IBM
8 15 (2.07%) SAP
9 13 (1.79%) Autodesk
10 12 (1.65%) Sparx
11 11 (1.52%) Sonatype
11 11 (1.52%) Sybase
12 9 (1.24%) Adobe
13 8 (1.10%) Denodo
13 8 (1.10%) Palantir
13 8 (1.10%) ServiceNow
14 7 (0.96%) CA Agile Central
14 7 (0.96%) Foundry
15 6 (0.83%) Signiant