Validation Contract Job Trends in England

Validation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Validation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 60 114 135
Rank change year-on-year +54 +21 +7
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,223 658 685
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.90% 2.28% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.39% 2.58% 2.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 736 347 403
10th Percentile £358 £329 £350
25th Percentile £413 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -5.66% -3.64%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £625
90th Percentile £694 £675 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 54 89
10th Percentile £31.35 £29.23 £51.25
25th Percentile £41.25 £46.25 £59.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £59.02 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.13% -15.69% +11.96%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £84.36
90th Percentile £75.23 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £68.50
% change year-on-year +12.96% -16.00% +9.56%

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

Validation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 27,831 25,521 32,842
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.70% 88.62% 88.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,689 15,759 22,371
10th Percentile £300 £310 £310
25th Percentile £406 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,818 840 1,378
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.85%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.25 £74.88 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.84
% change year-on-year -22.62% -25.86% +25.25%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Validation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Validation job vacancy trend in England

Validation
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in England

Validation
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in England

Validation
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the England region over the 6 months to 21 December 2025. 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
London +73 575 £520 - 146
South East +9 154 £500 +9.59% 223
North of England +22 140 £425 +1.19% 89
East of England +24 112 £482 +24.32% 90
South West +5 101 £475 -17.82% 90
Midlands +3 100 £506 +22.67% 42
North West +9 88 £402 -2.55% 49
West Midlands +6 83 £515 +8.42% 29
Yorkshire -20 35 £440 +4.76% 27
North East +6 17 £475 -42.42% 13
East Midlands -12 17 £456 +25.43% 13
Validation
UK

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 (3.35%) Confluence
2 28 (2.29%) SharePoint
3 26 (2.13%) SAS
4 23 (1.88%) Apache Spark
5 22 (1.80%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.55%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (1.14%) Skype for Business
8 12 (0.98%) Apache
9 9 (0.74%) Exchange Server 2013
10 8 (0.65%) CMS
11 7 (0.57%) Mattermost
12 6 (0.49%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.33%) Anypoint
14 3 (0.25%) ArcGIS
14 3 (0.25%) CICS
14 3 (0.25%) GeoServer
14 3 (0.25%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
14 3 (0.25%) Smallworld
14 3 (0.25%) WebLogic
Applications
1 78 (6.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.80%) MS Visio
4 19 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.57%) Chatbot
5 7 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.49%) Sketch
7 4 (0.33%) Notion
8 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.16%) Simulink
10 1 (0.082%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.082%) CATIA
10 1 (0.082%) NASTRAN
10 1 (0.082%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.082%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.082%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (4.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.14%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.90%) SAP EHS
3 11 (0.90%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.82%) Remedy ITSM
5 9 (0.74%) Aladdin
5 9 (0.74%) SAP MDG
6 8 (0.65%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.57%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.57%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 6 (0.49%) Oracle General Ledger
8 6 (0.49%) SAP MM
9 5 (0.41%) Oracle Receivables
9 5 (0.41%) Workday HCM
10 4 (0.33%) Markit EDM
10 4 (0.33%) Oracle Assets
10 4 (0.33%) Oracle EBS R12
10 4 (0.33%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 4 (0.33%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 288 (23.55%) Azure
2 130 (10.63%) AWS
3 119 (9.73%) Azure DevOps
4 113 (9.24%) Power Platform
5 54 (4.42%) GCP
6 53 (4.33%) GitHub
7 43 (3.52%) SaaS
8 39 (3.19%) Entra ID
9 32 (2.62%) GitHub Actions
10 30 (2.45%) Azure Data Factory
10 30 (2.45%) Serverless
11 29 (2.37%) OpenShift
12 28 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
13 21 (1.72%) Snowflake
14 20 (1.64%) OCI
15 17 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (1.31%) Azure Functions
16 16 (1.31%) Tricentis Tosca
17 15 (1.23%) Amazon S3
17 15 (1.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 36 (2.94%) Firewall
2 29 (2.37%) TCP/IP
3 24 (1.96%) DNS
4 17 (1.39%) Ethernet
5 16 (1.31%) WAN
6 15 (1.23%) 3GPP
6 15 (1.23%) VPN
7 14 (1.14%) LTE
7 14 (1.14%) Skype
8 13 (1.06%) Network Security
9 12 (0.98%) BGP
9 12 (0.98%) Internet
10 11 (0.90%) MPLS
10 11 (0.90%) OSPF
10 11 (0.90%) Wireless
11 10 (0.82%) DMARC
11 10 (0.82%) SSL
11 10 (0.82%) VLAN
12 9 (0.74%) SD-WAN
12 9 (0.74%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (8.67%) Power BI
2 57 (4.66%) Data Warehouse
3 54 (4.42%) Metadata
4 38 (3.11%) Tableau
5 28 (2.29%) SQL Server
6 25 (2.04%) Data Lake
7 24 (1.96%) NoSQL
8 21 (1.72%) Relational Database
9 19 (1.55%) Oracle Database
9 19 (1.55%) SAS Enterprise Guide
10 16 (1.31%) Oracle Reports
11 15 (1.23%) Azure SQL Database
12 13 (1.06%) BigQuery
13 12 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
13 12 (0.98%) Big Data
13 12 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 11 (0.90%) Delta Lake
14 11 (0.90%) Pinecone
14 11 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
14 11 (0.90%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 119 (9.73%) JIRA
2 63 (5.15%) Jenkins
3 62 (5.07%) Git
4 41 (3.35%) Selenium
5 36 (2.94%) GitLab
6 35 (2.86%) Postman
7 33 (2.70%) Oracle APEX
8 22 (1.80%) Visual Studio
9 19 (1.55%) Rational DOORS
10 17 (1.39%) Eclipse
11 15 (1.23%) Cucumber
12 13 (1.06%) TestRail
13 12 (0.98%) JMeter
13 12 (0.98%) JUnit
14 11 (0.90%) Bitbucket
14 11 (0.90%) Zephyr
15 9 (0.74%) REST Assured
16 8 (0.65%) SpecFlow
17 7 (0.57%) Cypress.io
17 7 (0.57%) MLflow
General
1 478 (39.08%) Social Skills
2 323 (26.41%) Finance
3 268 (21.91%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (9.73%) Public Sector
5 92 (7.52%) Banking
6 70 (5.72%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (3.84%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.45%) Military
9 29 (2.37%) Electronics
10 28 (2.29%) Aerospace
10 28 (2.29%) Telecoms
11 27 (2.21%) Investment Banking
12 26 (2.13%) Manufacturing
12 26 (2.13%) Marketing
13 23 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
13 23 (1.88%) Pharmaceutical
14 20 (1.64%) Front Office
15 18 (1.47%) Legal
15 18 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
16 17 (1.39%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 239 (19.54%) Analyst
2 121 (9.89%) Senior
3 103 (8.42%) Business Analyst
4 98 (8.01%) Developer
5 97 (7.93%) Consultant
5 97 (7.93%) Lead
6 61 (4.99%) Architect
7 58 (4.74%) Data Analyst
8 49 (4.01%) Data Engineer
8 49 (4.01%) Software Engineer
9 44 (3.60%) Tester
10 38 (3.11%) Senior Developer
11 33 (2.70%) SAP Consultant
12 32 (2.62%) Project Manager
13 30 (2.45%) Data Scientist
14 27 (2.21%) QA Engineer
15 26 (2.13%) Senior Analyst
15 26 (2.13%) Test Analyst
16 23 (1.88%) Technical Analyst
17 21 (1.72%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (5.48%) REST
2 53 (4.33%) JSON
3 43 (3.52%) XML
4 37 (3.03%) Oracle Fusion
5 33 (2.70%) Node.js
6 32 (2.62%) SOAP
7 27 (2.21%) .NET
7 27 (2.21%) Middleware
7 27 (2.21%) RESTful
8 25 (2.04%) Web Services
9 24 (1.96%) OAuth
10 22 (1.80%) PySpark
11 21 (1.72%) Kafka
11 21 (1.72%) SAP Fiori
12 19 (1.55%) PyTorch
13 18 (1.47%) Playwright
14 17 (1.39%) TensorFlow
15 16 (1.31%) SAML
16 15 (1.23%) Swagger
17 14 (1.14%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 57 (4.66%) Legacy Systems
2 47 (3.84%) Data Structures
3 45 (3.68%) Product Ownership
4 43 (3.52%) Onboarding
5 29 (2.37%) FPGA
6 27 (2.21%) Cloud Native
6 27 (2.21%) Management Information System
7 24 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
8 23 (1.88%) Data Centre
9 19 (1.55%) Derivative
9 19 (1.55%) IoT
10 18 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
11 17 (1.39%) Algorithms
12 15 (1.23%) NB-IoT
13 14 (1.14%) Replication
13 14 (1.14%) Security Posture
14 12 (0.98%) Enterprise Software
14 12 (0.98%) Hybrid Cloud
14 12 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
15 11 (0.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 98 (8.01%) Linux
2 77 (6.30%) Windows
3 26 (2.13%) Unix
4 7 (0.57%) Android
4 7 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.41%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.41%) zOS
6 4 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
7 3 (0.25%) VMS
8 2 (0.16%) Debian
8 2 (0.16%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.082%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.082%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.082%) MVS
9 1 (0.082%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.082%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.082%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.082%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 353 (28.86%) Agile
2 294 (24.04%) Problem-Solving
3 251 (20.52%) Migration
4 236 (19.30%) DevOps
5 205 (16.76%) CI/CD
6 189 (15.45%) Analytics
7 183 (14.96%) Data Validation
8 181 (14.80%) Stakeholder Management
9 155 (12.67%) Test Automation
10 135 (11.04%) Business Intelligence
11 132 (10.79%) Data Modelling
12 128 (10.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 127 (10.38%) Data Migration
14 123 (10.06%) ETL
15 122 (9.98%) AI
16 117 (9.57%) User Acceptance Testing
17 110 (8.99%) Data Analysis
18 109 (8.91%) Data Governance
19 102 (8.34%) Data Pipeline
19 102 (8.34%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 313 (25.59%) SQL
2 279 (22.81%) Python
3 94 (7.69%) JavaScript
4 68 (5.56%) C#
5 64 (5.23%) Java
6 51 (4.17%) PL/SQL
7 50 (4.09%) C++
8 45 (3.68%) Bash
9 38 (3.11%) PowerShell
10 26 (2.13%) R
11 22 (1.80%) C
12 18 (1.47%) TypeScript
13 15 (1.23%) Groovy
14 14 (1.14%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.14%) T-SQL
15 13 (1.06%) VBA
16 11 (0.90%) ABAP
17 8 (0.65%) Assembly Language
17 8 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 7 (0.57%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 275 (22.49%) Security Cleared
2 209 (17.09%) SC Cleared
3 128 (10.47%) Degree
4 45 (3.68%) Computer Science Degree
5 28 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (2.29%) DV Cleared
5 28 (2.29%) Master's Degree
6 21 (1.72%) ISTQB
7 20 (1.64%) PMI Certification
8 18 (1.47%) AWS Certification
9 15 (1.23%) PMP
10 13 (1.06%) CBAP
10 13 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
11 12 (0.98%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (0.90%) CISSP
13 10 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
14 9 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 9 (0.74%) CCIE
14 9 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (0.74%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 156 (12.76%) QA
2 150 (12.26%) Data Quality
3 67 (5.48%) GDPR
4 50 (4.09%) NIST
5 29 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 26 (2.13%) Accessibility
7 14 (1.14%) EU AI Act
8 13 (1.06%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.82%) GxP
9 10 (0.82%) MiFID
9 10 (0.82%) MISRA
9 10 (0.82%) NCSC
9 10 (0.82%) PCI DSS
10 9 (0.74%) DO-178B
11 8 (0.65%) GRC
11 8 (0.65%) IFRS
11 8 (0.65%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.49%) COBIT
12 6 (0.49%) EMIR
12 6 (0.49%) PMO
System Software
1 50 (4.09%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.76%) Docker
3 24 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.72%) Firmware
5 9 (0.74%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.65%) vSphere
7 7 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.49%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.49%) Postfix
9 5 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.25%) QEMU
11 2 (0.16%) Ceph
11 2 (0.16%) Lustre
11 2 (0.16%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.16%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.16%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.082%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 61 (4.99%) Kubernetes
2 55 (4.50%) Terraform
3 48 (3.92%) Ansible
4 15 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.82%) Kibana
6 10 (0.82%) Puppet
7 9 (0.74%) Grafana
7 9 (0.74%) Nessus
7 9 (0.74%) SCCM
8 8 (0.65%) Argo
8 8 (0.65%) Istio
8 8 (0.65%) SCOM
9 7 (0.57%) HP SiteScope
10 6 (0.49%) Nmap
11 5 (0.41%) CASB
12 4 (0.33%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.33%) Prometheus
12 4 (0.33%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 188 (15.37%) Microsoft
2 141 (11.53%) Oracle
3 91 (7.44%) SAP
4 52 (4.25%) ServiceNow
5 42 (3.43%) Databricks
6 37 (3.03%) VMware
7 34 (2.78%) Cisco
7 34 (2.78%) Splunk
8 32 (2.62%) Salesforce
9 26 (2.13%) Google
10 22 (1.80%) Workday
11 16 (1.31%) IBM
11 16 (1.31%) MuleSoft
12 14 (1.14%) Red Hat
12 14 (1.14%) Remedy
13 13 (1.06%) Informatica
14 12 (0.98%) Bloomberg
14 12 (0.98%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.90%) Adobe
15 11 (0.90%) Murex