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

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 207 299 315
Rank change year-on-year +92 +16 +42
Contract jobs citing Metadata 641 241 281
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.28% 0.82% 0.64%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.44% 4.37% 3.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 429 166 177
10th Percentile £358 £285 £394
25th Percentile £428 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £524 £575
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% -8.91% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £825
90th Percentile £750 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £469 £550
% change year-on-year +11.94% -14.73% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 8 17
10th Percentile £33.48 £13.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £20.19 £19.00
Median hourly rate £64.00 £28.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +122.61% -11.54% -7.14%
75th Percentile £73.75 £82.25 £46.18
90th Percentile £82.95 £83.83 £46.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +132.73% -31.68% +11.03%

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 7,595 5,517 7,468
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.18% 18.69% 17.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,070 3,752 5,332
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -3.67%
75th Percentile £600 £634 £650
90th Percentile £700 £756 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 241 103 155
10th Percentile £14.85 £19.84 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £25.01 £20.77
Median hourly rate £41.00 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.14% -12.50% -31.73%
75th Percentile £69.44 £65.81 £53.94
90th Percentile £77.50 £78.46 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £31.85 £34.47
% change year-on-year +20.11% -7.60% -39.48%

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 13 June 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 13 June 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 13 June 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 +71 535 £525 -3.67% 183
London +72 309 £520 -13.33% 94
UK excluding London +26 254 £525 +11.94% 119
Work from Home +26 185 £525 -8.70% 92
Midlands -10 66 £570 +432.59% 20
West Midlands -7 64 £573 +435.51% 14
North of England -26 58 £524 +4.75% 25
Scotland +27 49 £488 +2.63% 2
South East -41 45 £513 +7.33% 49
East of England -8 31 £525 +63.36% 11
North West -27 27 £575 +5.50% 18
Yorkshire -30 26 £567 +51.13% 5
South West -16 10 £563 -4.21% 10
North East -29 8 £463 - 2
Wales -14 3 £750 +184.67% 3
East Midlands -18 2 £474 +15.49% 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 36 (5.62%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.99%) Apache Spark
3 28 (4.37%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (3.12%) Confluence
5 16 (2.50%) Apache
5 16 (2.50%) SAS
6 11 (1.72%) CMS
7 4 (0.62%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.47%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.31%) Alfresco
9 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
9 2 (0.31%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.31%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.16%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.16%) Apache Synapse
10 1 (0.16%) Drupal
10 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.16%) Liferay
10 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (3.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.25%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.09%) Navisworks
3 7 (1.09%) Notepad++
3 7 (1.09%) Revit
4 4 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.31%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (1.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.94%) Summit
3 2 (0.31%) Maximo
3 2 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.16%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
4 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 184 (28.71%) Azure
2 135 (21.06%) AWS
3 87 (13.57%) Power Platform
4 64 (9.98%) GCP
5 55 (8.58%) Collibra
6 47 (7.33%) Microsoft Purview
7 40 (6.24%) GitHub
8 39 (6.08%) Azure Data Factory
9 35 (5.46%) Amazon S3
10 33 (5.15%) dbt
11 32 (4.99%) Serverless
12 30 (4.68%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 29 (4.52%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (4.37%) AWS Lambda
15 26 (4.06%) Snowflake
16 18 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
17 15 (2.34%) Entra ID
18 14 (2.18%) Microsoft Copilot
19 13 (2.03%) ChatGPT
19 13 (2.03%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.09%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.09%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.78%) Intranet
3 4 (0.62%) Firewall
3 4 (0.62%) SSL
4 3 (0.47%) HTTP
5 1 (0.16%) 4G
5 1 (0.16%) 5G
5 1 (0.16%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (17.16%) Data Warehouse
2 77 (12.01%) Power BI
3 76 (11.86%) Data Lake
4 35 (5.46%) Relational Database
5 32 (4.99%) Data Vault
6 31 (4.84%) Metadata Repository
7 29 (4.52%) NoSQL
8 27 (4.21%) Tableau
9 26 (4.06%) SQL Server
10 22 (3.43%) PostgreSQL
11 21 (3.28%) Delta Lake
11 21 (3.28%) Snowflake Schema
12 20 (3.12%) Big Data
13 19 (2.96%) Amazon Redshift
14 16 (2.50%) Amazon Athena
14 16 (2.50%) Hadoop
15 14 (2.18%) Oracle Database
16 13 (2.03%) Db2
17 12 (1.87%) MongoDB
17 12 (1.87%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 36 (5.62%) ERwin
2 28 (4.37%) Git
3 20 (3.12%) JIRA
4 17 (2.65%) ER Studio
5 15 (2.34%) Jenkins
5 15 (2.34%) PowerDesigner
6 14 (2.18%) GitLab
7 11 (1.72%) Maven
8 10 (1.56%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.47%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.31%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.31%) git-flow
10 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.16%) Deequ
11 1 (0.16%) Postman
11 1 (0.16%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
11 1 (0.16%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.16%) VersionOne
General
1 181 (28.24%) Social Skills
2 179 (27.93%) Finance
3 123 (19.19%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (14.04%) Banking
5 73 (11.39%) Public Sector
6 38 (5.93%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (5.46%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.81%) Legal
9 16 (2.50%) Publishing
10 15 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.34%) Retail
11 14 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
12 13 (2.03%) Marketing
13 12 (1.87%) Front Office
14 11 (1.72%) Aviation
15 8 (1.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 7 (1.09%) Law
17 5 (0.78%) Manufacturing
17 5 (0.78%) Military
18 4 (0.62%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 148 (23.09%) Architect
2 105 (16.38%) Data Architect
3 97 (15.13%) Data Engineer
4 79 (12.32%) Analyst
5 66 (10.30%) Lead
6 53 (8.27%) Senior
7 50 (7.80%) Data Analyst
8 45 (7.02%) Data Modeller
8 45 (7.02%) Developer
9 31 (4.84%) Business Analyst
10 26 (4.06%) Consultant
11 19 (2.96%) Data Manager
12 18 (2.81%) Data Business Analyst
13 16 (2.50%) DevOps Engineer
14 13 (2.03%) Senior Data Engineer
14 13 (2.03%) Software Engineer
15 12 (1.87%) AWS Engineer
15 12 (1.87%) Enterprise Architect
15 12 (1.87%) Lead Data Engineer
16 11 (1.72%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.71%) PySpark
2 31 (4.84%) JSON
3 26 (4.06%) Kafka
4 22 (3.43%) REST
5 19 (2.96%) .NET
6 16 (2.50%) YAML
7 14 (2.18%) React
8 12 (1.87%) Node.js
9 11 (1.72%) OAuth
9 11 (1.72%) XML
10 10 (1.56%) SLSA
11 9 (1.40%) Middleware
11 9 (1.40%) SOAP
12 8 (1.25%) RESTful
13 7 (1.09%) OAuth2
14 6 (0.94%) ADO
14 6 (0.94%) CSS
14 6 (0.94%) SPFx
14 6 (0.94%) Spring Boot
15 5 (0.78%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 64 (9.98%) Cloud Native
2 49 (7.64%) Onboarding
3 45 (7.02%) Management Information System
4 42 (6.55%) Data Structures
5 39 (6.08%) Taxonomies
6 37 (5.77%) Reference Data
7 34 (5.30%) Legacy Systems
7 34 (5.30%) Product Ownership
8 20 (3.12%) Derivative
9 18 (2.81%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.87%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.87%) Equity Derivative
10 12 (1.87%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
12 9 (1.40%) Distributed Computing
12 9 (1.40%) Fixed Income
13 8 (1.25%) Clustering
13 8 (1.25%) Linux Command Line
13 8 (1.25%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.96%) Unix
2 7 (1.09%) Linux
3 1 (0.16%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 314 (48.99%) Data Governance
2 295 (46.02%) Data Modelling
3 221 (34.48%) Metadata Management
4 218 (34.01%) Analytics
5 156 (24.34%) Data Architecture
6 155 (24.18%) AI
6 155 (24.18%) ETL
7 130 (20.28%) Data Engineering
8 129 (20.12%) Data Pipeline
9 126 (19.66%) CI/CD
10 122 (19.03%) Migration
11 116 (18.10%) Agile
12 111 (17.32%) Stakeholder Management
13 108 (16.85%) Data Lineage
14 107 (16.69%) Business Intelligence
15 105 (16.38%) Problem-Solving
16 102 (15.91%) Decision-Making
17 100 (15.60%) Data Management
18 99 (15.44%) DevOps
19 93 (14.51%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 252 (39.31%) SQL
2 169 (26.37%) Python
3 49 (7.64%) Java
4 29 (4.52%) C#
5 25 (3.90%) PL/SQL
6 16 (2.50%) PowerShell
7 13 (2.03%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.87%) JavaScript
9 10 (1.56%) Groovy
9 10 (1.56%) Perl
10 9 (1.40%) C++
10 9 (1.40%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 6 (0.94%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.78%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.78%) Bicep
13 4 (0.62%) Bash
13 4 (0.62%) Scala
14 3 (0.47%) R
15 2 (0.31%) VBA
Qualifications
1 138 (21.53%) Security Cleared
2 103 (16.07%) SC Cleared
3 40 (6.24%) Degree
4 27 (4.21%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.18%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (2.03%) Master's Degree
7 11 (1.72%) Azure Certification
8 9 (1.40%) DV Cleared
8 9 (1.40%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (1.40%) TOGAF Certification
9 5 (0.78%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.31%) Analytics IQ
10 2 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.31%) CISM
10 2 (0.31%) CISSP
10 2 (0.31%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (0.31%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.31%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.16%) AWS Certified Developer
11 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 256 (39.94%) Data Quality
2 63 (9.83%) GDPR
3 36 (5.62%) QA
4 22 (3.43%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.72%) GRC
6 7 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.09%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.94%) ISO 19650
7 6 (0.94%) NIST
8 5 (0.78%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 5 (0.78%) HIPAA
9 4 (0.62%) ISO 22301
9 4 (0.62%) MiFID
10 3 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.47%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.31%) IFRS
11 2 (0.31%) IFRS 9
11 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.31%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (1.87%) Docker
2 10 (1.56%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 27 (4.21%) Terraform
2 11 (1.72%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.25%) Grafana
4 6 (0.94%) Prometheus
4 6 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.62%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.62%) PingFederate
6 1 (0.16%) Ansible
6 1 (0.16%) Kibana
Vendors
1 121 (18.88%) Microsoft
2 89 (13.88%) Databricks
3 61 (9.52%) Oracle
4 38 (5.93%) Informatica
5 22 (3.43%) Google
6 21 (3.28%) Salesforce
7 17 (2.65%) Talend
8 15 (2.34%) SAP
9 14 (2.18%) IBM
9 14 (2.18%) ServiceNow
10 13 (2.03%) Autodesk
11 11 (1.72%) Sybase
12 10 (1.56%) Sonatype
13 9 (1.40%) Sparx
14 8 (1.25%) OpenAI
15 6 (0.94%) Adobe
16 5 (0.78%) Denodo
16 5 (0.78%) Foundry
16 5 (0.78%) Palantir
17 4 (0.62%) Hortonworks