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

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 196 315 305
Rank change year-on-year +119 -10 +30
Contract jobs citing Metadata 608 210 310
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.33% 0.72% 0.71%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 8.45% 3.77% 4.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 151 210
10th Percentile £358 £236 £385
25th Percentile £415 £436 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -10.00% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £775
90th Percentile £717 £775 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £470 £575
% change year-on-year +9.04% -18.26% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 7 22
10th Percentile £35.91 £22.63 £13.55
25th Percentile £60.25 £22.72 £19.37
Median hourly rate £67.50 £27.50 £36.38
Median % change year-on-year +145.45% -24.40% +3.93%
75th Percentile £82.25 £56.13 £46.18
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +145.45% -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 7,198 5,566 7,224
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.74% 19.01% 16.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,937 3,847 5,128
10th Percentile £350 £354 £350
25th Percentile £413 £420 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £594 £645 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £485
% change year-on-year -2.56% +0.52% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 108 152
10th Percentile £18.13 £21.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £30.90 £24.25 £20.77
Median hourly rate £51.75 £32.96 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +57.01% -17.60% -33.33%
75th Percentile £74.68 £65.62 £53.84
90th Percentile £83.50 £73.63 £72.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.50 £31.64 £35.00
% change year-on-year +59.61% -9.60% -39.13%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 +100 515 £500 -3.85% 148
London +84 294 £500 -16.67% 68
UK excluding London +40 243 £513 +9.04% 115
Work from Home +39 159 £525 -3.23% 62
Midlands -17 61 £551 +415.19% 20
West Midlands -19 54 £561 +423.83% 13
North of England -48 52 £500 -4.76% 26
South East -25 45 £506 +6.02% 35
Scotland +40 43 £450 -14.93% 10
East of England -7 32 £489 +53.51% 16
North West -22 28 £511 -6.19% 11
Yorkshire -41 22 £567 +51.13% 13
South West -23 16 £569 +8.33% 8
East Midlands - 7 £447 - 7
North East -19 5 £419 -22.94% 2
Wales -15 4 £750 +217.80% 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 41 (6.74%) Apache Spark
2 34 (5.59%) SharePoint
3 26 (4.28%) Confluence
3 26 (4.28%) SAS
4 21 (3.45%) Apache Airflow
5 16 (2.63%) Apache
6 13 (2.14%) CMS
7 7 (1.15%) Drupal
7 7 (1.15%) Sitecore CMS
8 5 (0.82%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.66%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.33%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.16%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
11 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 32 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.97%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.15%) Notepad++
4 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.33%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (0.33%) Navisworks
6 2 (0.33%) Revit
Business Applications
1 17 (2.80%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 13 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.99%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 6 (0.99%) SAP FI
3 6 (0.99%) SAP MM
3 6 (0.99%) Summit
4 3 (0.49%) Maximo
5 2 (0.33%) Actimize
5 2 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
6 1 (0.16%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.16%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 184 (30.26%) Azure
2 138 (22.70%) AWS
3 92 (15.13%) Power Platform
4 76 (12.50%) GCP
5 58 (9.54%) Collibra
6 46 (7.57%) Azure Data Factory
7 44 (7.24%) Microsoft Purview
8 34 (5.59%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 32 (5.26%) Amazon S3
10 31 (5.10%) Serverless
10 31 (5.10%) Snowflake
11 29 (4.77%) GitHub
12 25 (4.11%) AWS Lambda
12 25 (4.11%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (3.95%) dbt
14 16 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
15 12 (1.97%) Amazon EMR
16 9 (1.48%) Entra ID
16 9 (1.48%) Power Automate
17 8 (1.32%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.15%) PuTTY
1 7 (1.15%) WinSCP
2 4 (0.66%) SSL
3 3 (0.49%) Firewall
3 3 (0.49%) Intranet
4 2 (0.33%) Hyperconnected
5 1 (0.16%) 4G
5 1 (0.16%) 5G
5 1 (0.16%) HTTP
5 1 (0.16%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (21.22%) Data Warehouse
2 84 (13.82%) Power BI
3 71 (11.68%) Data Lake
4 40 (6.58%) Metadata Repository
5 30 (4.93%) Tableau
6 29 (4.77%) SQL Server
7 28 (4.61%) Big Data
8 27 (4.44%) NoSQL
8 27 (4.44%) Relational Database
9 24 (3.95%) Data Vault
9 24 (3.95%) PostgreSQL
10 23 (3.78%) Snowflake Schema
11 21 (3.45%) Amazon Redshift
12 19 (3.13%) Delta Lake
12 19 (3.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 18 (2.96%) Hadoop
13 18 (2.96%) Oracle Database
14 17 (2.80%) BigQuery
15 15 (2.47%) Azure SQL Database
16 14 (2.30%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 30 (4.93%) Git
2 29 (4.77%) ERwin
3 27 (4.44%) JIRA
4 16 (2.63%) Jenkins
5 12 (1.97%) GitLab
6 11 (1.81%) PowerDesigner
7 10 (1.64%) ER Studio
8 9 (1.48%) Maven
9 8 (1.32%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.49%) Subversion
11 2 (0.33%) git-flow
11 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 1 (0.16%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.16%) gulp
12 1 (0.16%) Postman
12 1 (0.16%) ScriptRunner
12 1 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.16%) Terragrunt
12 1 (0.16%) Yeoman
General
1 197 (32.40%) Social Skills
2 163 (26.81%) Finance
3 129 (21.22%) Analytical Skills
4 81 (13.32%) Public Sector
5 66 (10.86%) Banking
6 41 (6.74%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (2.96%) Legal
8 17 (2.80%) Publishing
9 16 (2.63%) Investment Banking
10 15 (2.47%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (1.97%) Aviation
11 12 (1.97%) Marketing
12 11 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
13 10 (1.64%) Retail
14 8 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 7 (1.15%) Financial Institution
15 7 (1.15%) Military
15 7 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (0.99%) Law
17 4 (0.66%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 144 (23.68%) Architect
2 112 (18.42%) Data Architect
3 88 (14.47%) Data Engineer
4 85 (13.98%) Analyst
5 59 (9.70%) Data Analyst
6 53 (8.72%) Senior
7 45 (7.40%) Lead
8 41 (6.74%) Developer
9 39 (6.41%) Data Modeller
10 31 (5.10%) Business Analyst
11 27 (4.44%) Consultant
12 16 (2.63%) Data Business Analyst
12 16 (2.63%) Data Manager
13 15 (2.47%) AWS Engineer
13 15 (2.47%) Azure Engineer
14 14 (2.30%) DevOps Engineer
14 14 (2.30%) Software Engineer
15 13 (2.14%) Senior Data Engineer
16 12 (1.97%) Governance Analyst
16 12 (1.97%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (7.40%) PySpark
2 35 (5.76%) Kafka
3 34 (5.59%) REST
4 27 (4.44%) JSON
5 18 (2.96%) YAML
6 15 (2.47%) .NET
6 15 (2.47%) XML
7 13 (2.14%) SOAP
8 12 (1.97%) OAuth
8 12 (1.97%) React
9 10 (1.64%) Node.js
10 8 (1.32%) RESTful
10 8 (1.32%) SLSA
11 7 (1.15%) ADO
11 7 (1.15%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.99%) HTML
12 6 (0.99%) Middleware
12 6 (0.99%) SAP Business Workflow
12 6 (0.99%) SAP Fiori
12 6 (0.99%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (9.21%) Cloud Native
2 46 (7.57%) Data Structures
3 39 (6.41%) Onboarding
3 39 (6.41%) Taxonomies
4 37 (6.09%) Management Information System
5 33 (5.43%) Reference Data
6 28 (4.61%) Product Ownership
7 23 (3.78%) Legacy Systems
8 17 (2.80%) Data Protection Act
9 12 (1.97%) Credit Risk
9 12 (1.97%) Virtual Team
10 10 (1.64%) Derivative
10 10 (1.64%) Distributed Computing
10 10 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.48%) Clustering
12 8 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
12 8 (1.32%) Market Risk
13 6 (0.99%) Data Fabric
13 6 (0.99%) Fixed Income
14 5 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.78%) Unix
2 10 (1.64%) Linux
3 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 302 (49.67%) Data Governance
2 287 (47.20%) Data Modelling
3 239 (39.31%) Metadata Management
4 216 (35.53%) Analytics
5 171 (28.13%) ETL
6 163 (26.81%) Data Architecture
7 130 (21.38%) Business Intelligence
8 124 (20.39%) Data Engineering
9 122 (20.07%) Data Pipeline
10 111 (18.26%) Agile
10 111 (18.26%) Problem-Solving
10 111 (18.26%) Validation
11 109 (17.93%) CI/CD
12 107 (17.60%) AI
13 106 (17.43%) Migration
14 100 (16.45%) Data Lineage
15 94 (15.46%) DevOps
16 91 (14.97%) Stakeholder Management
17 90 (14.80%) Data Integration
18 88 (14.47%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 245 (40.30%) SQL
2 159 (26.15%) Python
3 31 (5.10%) Java
4 25 (4.11%) C#
5 22 (3.62%) PL/SQL
6 20 (3.29%) PowerShell
7 15 (2.47%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.97%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.48%) Groovy
10 8 (1.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (1.32%) T-SQL
11 7 (1.15%) R
12 6 (0.99%) ABAP
12 6 (0.99%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.99%) Perl
12 6 (0.99%) Scala
13 5 (0.82%) TypeScript
14 4 (0.66%) C++
15 3 (0.49%) Bicep
16 2 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 151 (24.84%) Security Cleared
2 112 (18.42%) SC Cleared
3 37 (6.09%) Degree
4 26 (4.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (1.97%) Master's Degree
6 11 (1.81%) Azure Certification
6 11 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.48%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (1.15%) DV Cleared
9 6 (0.99%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (0.49%) CISSP
12 2 (0.33%) Analytics IQ
12 2 (0.33%) CISM
12 2 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.16%) AWS Certified Developer
13 1 (0.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 1 (0.16%) CSPO
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 1 (0.16%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (41.61%) Data Quality
2 58 (9.54%) GDPR
3 29 (4.77%) QA
4 19 (3.13%) Accessibility
5 11 (1.81%) GRC
5 11 (1.81%) Solvency II
6 6 (0.99%) IFRS
6 6 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.99%) NIST
7 5 (0.82%) ISO 19650
8 4 (0.66%) ISO 22301
9 3 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.49%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.49%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.49%) MiFID
10 2 (0.33%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.33%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.33%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (2.30%) Docker
2 8 (1.32%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 25 (4.11%) Terraform
2 17 (2.80%) Kubernetes
3 6 (0.99%) Grafana
4 5 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 5 (0.82%) Prometheus
4 5 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.66%) CA Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.66%) PingFederate
6 1 (0.16%) Ansible
Vendors
1 110 (18.09%) Microsoft
2 85 (13.98%) Databricks
3 69 (11.35%) Oracle
4 57 (9.38%) Informatica
5 25 (4.11%) ServiceNow
5 25 (4.11%) Talend
6 24 (3.95%) Salesforce
7 23 (3.78%) SAP
8 19 (3.13%) Google
9 15 (2.47%) Sparx
10 12 (1.97%) Teradata
11 9 (1.48%) Sitecore
12 8 (1.32%) IBM
12 8 (1.32%) OpenText
12 8 (1.32%) Sonatype
13 6 (0.99%) Adobe
13 6 (0.99%) Atlassian
13 6 (0.99%) Optimizely
13 6 (0.99%) Palantir
13 6 (0.99%) Remedy