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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 190 290 364
Rank change year-on-year +100 +74 +9
Contract jobs citing Metadata 804 295 192
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.50% 0.91% 0.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 9.83% 5.02% 2.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 505 202 121
10th Percentile £400 £330 £400
25th Percentile £456 £451 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -0.94% -7.83%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £750
90th Percentile £750 £750 £913
UK excluding London median daily rate £546 £467 £481
% change year-on-year +17.10% -3.06% -11.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 4 10
10th Percentile £20.00 - £13.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £13.25 £14.95
Median hourly rate £67.50 £22.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +206.82% -20.00% -44.44%
75th Percentile £70.00 £45.69 £33.75
90th Percentile - £70.78 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £13.50 £16.40
% change year-on-year +400.00% -17.68% -69.82%

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 8,182 5,873 6,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.26% 18.07% 18.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,455 3,930 4,835
10th Percentile £358 £339 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.09%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 96 98
10th Percentile £15.91 £21.23 £15.69
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.05 £19.87
Median hourly rate £39.00 £38.85 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.40% +19.52% -40.91%
75th Percentile £60.94 £65.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £75.10 £80.00 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £34.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.87% +13.97% -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 3 September 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 September 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 September 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 +90 690 £550 +4.76% 593
London +65 400 £550 -2.22% 379
UK excluding London +64 312 £546 +17.10% 301
Work from Home +62 231 £525 -10.64% 280
North of England +11 84 £500 - 73
Midlands -1 75 £600 +100.00% 31
West Midlands -1 68 £612 +471.96% 24
South East -37 55 £538 +14.85% 81
Yorkshire +8 51 £500 -15.79% 23
Scotland +8 44 £533 +12.11% 32
East of England +2 32 £450 -18.18% 14
North West -28 29 £575 +41.10% 43
South West -17 27 £575 -4.17% 49
East Midlands -18 7 £494 +18.98% 7
North East -36 7 £463 +2.78% 7
Wales -18 3 £750 +76.47% 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 49 (6.09%) SharePoint
2 36 (4.48%) Apache Airflow
3 30 (3.73%) Apache
4 27 (3.36%) CMS
5 23 (2.86%) Apache Spark
6 19 (2.36%) Confluence
7 16 (1.99%) SAS
8 10 (1.24%) Headless CMS
9 9 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
10 6 (0.75%) Palantir Foundry
11 4 (0.50%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.25%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.25%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 1 (0.12%) Apache Solr
13 1 (0.12%) Camunda
13 1 (0.12%) Liferay
13 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.87%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.87%) Notepad++
2 7 (0.87%) Revit
3 6 (0.75%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.12%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.12%) Notion
7 1 (0.12%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 18 (2.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.50%) Summit
4 3 (0.37%) Maximo
4 3 (0.37%) SAP HR
5 2 (0.25%) HFM
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.25%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.25%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 2 (0.25%) Workfront
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 247 (30.72%) Azure
2 193 (24.00%) AWS
3 110 (13.68%) Power Platform
4 91 (11.32%) GCP
5 69 (8.58%) Microsoft Purview
6 61 (7.59%) Collibra
7 52 (6.47%) Azure Data Factory
8 42 (5.22%) GitHub
9 41 (5.10%) Amazon S3
10 40 (4.98%) dbt
10 40 (4.98%) Snowflake
11 39 (4.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 36 (4.48%) Serverless
13 35 (4.35%) Azure DevOps
14 34 (4.23%) AWS Lambda
15 32 (3.98%) Microsoft 365
16 27 (3.36%) Azure Databricks
17 23 (2.86%) Power Automate
18 21 (2.61%) Entra ID
18 21 (2.61%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.87%) PuTTY
1 7 (0.87%) WinSCP
2 5 (0.62%) Broadband
3 4 (0.50%) HTTP
3 4 (0.50%) Intranet
3 4 (0.50%) SSL
4 3 (0.37%) Firewall
5 1 (0.12%) DNS
5 1 (0.12%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.12%) SAN
5 1 (0.12%) SMS
5 1 (0.12%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (15.05%) Data Warehouse
2 96 (11.94%) Power BI
3 91 (11.32%) Data Lake
4 39 (4.85%) Relational Database
5 36 (4.48%) NoSQL
6 35 (4.35%) Delta Lake
7 31 (3.86%) Tableau
8 27 (3.36%) Semantic Layer
9 26 (3.23%) Data Vault
9 26 (3.23%) PostgreSQL
10 23 (2.86%) BigQuery
11 20 (2.49%) Amazon Redshift
12 16 (1.99%) Elasticsearch
12 16 (1.99%) SQL Server
13 14 (1.74%) Db2
14 13 (1.62%) MongoDB
14 13 (1.62%) Parquet
15 12 (1.49%) Amazon Athena
15 12 (1.49%) Geospatial Data
15 12 (1.49%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 38 (4.73%) Git
2 34 (4.23%) ERwin
3 25 (3.11%) ER Studio
4 23 (2.86%) JIRA
5 17 (2.11%) Jenkins
6 15 (1.87%) Maven
7 13 (1.62%) PowerDesigner
8 12 (1.49%) GitLab
9 10 (1.24%) SonarQube
10 6 (0.75%) Selenium
11 3 (0.37%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.37%) MLflow
12 2 (0.25%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.25%) TestRail
13 1 (0.12%) git-flow
13 1 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 1 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.12%) VersionOne
13 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 240 (29.85%) Social Skills
2 209 (26.00%) Finance
3 161 (20.02%) Analytical Skills
4 102 (12.69%) Public Sector
5 100 (12.44%) Banking
6 38 (4.73%) Investment Banking
7 36 (4.48%) Influencing Skills
8 27 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (2.86%) Publishing
9 23 (2.86%) Retail
10 22 (2.74%) Marketing
11 18 (2.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (2.24%) Legal
12 15 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.62%) Manufacturing
14 12 (1.49%) Front Office
15 10 (1.24%) Law
15 10 (1.24%) Military
16 8 (1.00%) Aerospace
16 8 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 209 (26.00%) Architect
2 150 (18.66%) Data Architect
3 128 (15.92%) Data Engineer
4 106 (13.18%) Lead
5 94 (11.69%) Analyst
6 73 (9.08%) Senior
7 54 (6.72%) Data Analyst
8 43 (5.35%) Data Modeller
9 36 (4.48%) Developer
10 35 (4.35%) Business Analyst
11 28 (3.48%) Senior Data Engineer
12 24 (2.99%) Consultant
12 24 (2.99%) Data Manager
13 21 (2.61%) Solutions Architect
14 20 (2.49%) Data Business Analyst
14 20 (2.49%) Lead Data Engineer
14 20 (2.49%) Product Owner
15 19 (2.36%) Enterprise Architect
16 17 (2.11%) DevOps Engineer
17 16 (1.99%) Information Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (7.21%) PySpark
2 43 (5.35%) JSON
3 40 (4.98%) Terraform
4 36 (4.48%) REST
5 32 (3.98%) Kafka
6 19 (2.36%) YAML
7 15 (1.87%) Spring Boot
8 13 (1.62%) XML
9 12 (1.49%) Node.js
10 11 (1.37%) React
11 10 (1.24%) SLSA
11 10 (1.24%) Spring
12 9 (1.12%) .NET
12 9 (1.12%) GraphQL
12 9 (1.12%) Playwright
13 8 (1.00%) Middleware
14 7 (0.87%) RESTful
15 6 (0.75%) OAuth
15 6 (0.75%) OAuth2
15 6 (0.75%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.20%) Cloud Native
2 66 (8.21%) Onboarding
3 65 (8.08%) Data Structures
4 62 (7.71%) Taxonomies
5 57 (7.09%) Management Information System
6 53 (6.59%) Product Ownership
7 46 (5.72%) Legacy Systems
8 43 (5.35%) Reference Data
9 19 (2.36%) Derivative
10 18 (2.24%) Data Fabric
11 17 (2.11%) AI Agents
11 17 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
12 15 (1.87%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (1.62%) Life Science
14 12 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
14 12 (1.49%) Equity Derivative
15 11 (1.37%) Distributed Computing
16 10 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
17 9 (1.12%) Clustering
17 9 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.36%) Unix
2 13 (1.62%) Linux
3 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.12%) VMS
3 1 (0.12%) Windows
3 1 (0.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 423 (52.61%) Data Governance
2 375 (46.64%) Data Modelling
3 310 (38.56%) Metadata Management
4 259 (32.21%) Analytics
5 221 (27.49%) AI
6 219 (27.24%) Data Architecture
7 206 (25.62%) Stakeholder Management
8 186 (23.13%) Agile
9 184 (22.89%) Data Pipeline
10 172 (21.39%) Data Engineering
10 172 (21.39%) Migration
11 171 (21.27%) ETL
12 169 (21.02%) CI/CD
13 144 (17.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 138 (17.16%) Data Management
15 137 (17.04%) Data Lineage
16 134 (16.67%) Roadmaps
17 130 (16.17%) Validation
18 129 (16.04%) Business Intelligence
19 128 (15.92%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 291 (36.19%) SQL
2 208 (25.87%) Python
3 63 (7.84%) Java
4 22 (2.74%) PL/SQL
5 15 (1.87%) Shell Script
6 14 (1.74%) PowerShell
7 13 (1.62%) C#
7 13 (1.62%) Groovy
7 13 (1.62%) JavaScript
8 12 (1.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 9 (1.12%) Bash
9 9 (1.12%) C++
10 7 (0.87%) Bicep
10 7 (0.87%) SPARQL
11 6 (0.75%) TypeScript
12 5 (0.62%) Scala
12 5 (0.62%) T-SQL
13 4 (0.50%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.50%) Cypher
13 4 (0.50%) Perl
Qualifications
1 187 (23.26%) Security Cleared
2 141 (17.54%) SC Cleared
3 51 (6.34%) Degree
4 44 (5.47%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.49%) DV Cleared
7 14 (1.74%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.49%) TOGAF Certification
9 9 (1.12%) AWS Certification
9 9 (1.12%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.37%) CISSP
12 3 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.37%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.37%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 2 (0.25%) ACCA
13 2 (0.25%) CIMA
13 2 (0.25%) CISM
13 2 (0.25%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 360 (44.78%) Data Quality
2 69 (8.58%) GDPR
3 45 (5.60%) Accessibility
3 45 (5.60%) QA
4 8 (1.00%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 8 (1.00%) WCAG
5 6 (0.75%) GRC
5 6 (0.75%) ISO 19650
5 6 (0.75%) MiFID
5 6 (0.75%) NCSC
6 5 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.62%) NIST
6 5 (0.62%) Solvency II
7 4 (0.50%) HIPAA
7 4 (0.50%) SNOMED CT
8 3 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.25%) IFRS
9 2 (0.25%) IFRS 9
9 2 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 22 (2.74%) Docker
2 9 (1.12%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.12%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 23 (2.86%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.87%) Grafana
4 5 (0.62%) Ansible
4 5 (0.62%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.50%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.50%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.25%) Control-M
6 2 (0.25%) Kibana
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.12%) Istio
7 1 (0.12%) systemd
Vendors
1 151 (18.78%) Microsoft
2 133 (16.54%) Databricks
3 56 (6.97%) Oracle
4 55 (6.84%) Informatica
5 32 (3.98%) Google
6 18 (2.24%) Sparx
7 17 (2.11%) SAP
8 16 (1.99%) IBM
9 15 (1.87%) Salesforce
10 14 (1.74%) Talend
11 13 (1.62%) Autodesk
11 13 (1.62%) ServiceNow
12 11 (1.37%) Sybase
12 11 (1.37%) Teradata
13 10 (1.24%) Denodo
13 10 (1.24%) Palantir
13 10 (1.24%) Sonatype
14 9 (1.12%) Foundry
15 8 (1.00%) Adobe
15 8 (1.00%) CA Agile Central