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 23 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 66 106 147
Rank change year-on-year +40 +41 -2
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,160 717 711
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.82% 2.28% 1.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.24% 2.62% 2.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 695 370 425
10th Percentile £358 £325 £353
25th Percentile £419 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £623 £600 £638
90th Percentile £688 £672 £823
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 78 90
10th Percentile £30.30 £28.00 £51.08
25th Percentile £41.25 £45.47 £56.91
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £68.03
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -8.13% +10.62%
75th Percentile £67.25 £66.00 £84.36
90th Percentile £76.80 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.53
% change year-on-year +4.00% -7.45% +9.80%

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 27,360 27,372 34,995
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.00% 87.10% 88.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,349 16,711 23,948
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £417 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £648 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £532
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.22% -3.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,809 1,012 1,477
10th Percentile £14.97 £15.10 £14.52
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.23 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.75 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.65% -19.66% +25.35%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £43.85
% change year-on-year -26.03% -22.46% +25.29%

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 23 November 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 23 November 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 23 November 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 +82 528 £525 +0.48% 161
South East +8 158 £500 - 233
North of England +18 124 £425 -13.92% 63
East of England +24 114 £500 +33.33% 113
South West -2 106 £475 -18.80% 105
Midlands -20 91 £493 +0.72% 84
North West +13 78 £425 -15.00% 39
West Midlands -13 74 £500 -1.23% 60
Yorkshire -10 34 £415 -1.19% 17
East Midlands -4 17 £438 +9.38% 23
North East +3 12 £515 -26.43% 8
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 46 (3.97%) Confluence
2 31 (2.67%) SharePoint
3 26 (2.24%) Apache Spark
4 22 (1.90%) SAS
5 21 (1.81%) Apache Airflow
6 16 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 15 (1.29%) Skype for Business
8 13 (1.12%) Apache
9 8 (0.69%) CMS
10 7 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
10 7 (0.60%) Mattermost
11 6 (0.52%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.34%) Smallworld
12 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
13 3 (0.26%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.26%) ArcGIS
13 3 (0.26%) GeoServer
14 2 (0.17%) Jupyter
14 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 75 (6.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (3.36%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.90%) MS Visio
4 18 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.60%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.52%) Sketch
7 5 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.17%) Simulink
10 1 (0.086%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.086%) NASTRAN
10 1 (0.086%) Notion
10 1 (0.086%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.086%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.086%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (4.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.03%) Aladdin
3 11 (0.95%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.95%) SAP EHS
4 10 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
4 10 (0.86%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.69%) SAP MDG
6 7 (0.60%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 6 (0.52%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.43%) Oracle Payables
8 5 (0.43%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.34%) Markit EDM
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
9 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.34%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.26%) Oracle EBS R12
10 3 (0.26%) SAP HR
10 3 (0.26%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 261 (22.50%) Azure
2 127 (10.95%) AWS
3 109 (9.40%) Azure DevOps
4 103 (8.88%) Power Platform
5 51 (4.40%) GCP
6 44 (3.79%) GitHub
7 35 (3.02%) SaaS
8 33 (2.84%) Entra ID
9 27 (2.33%) Serverless
10 26 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
10 26 (2.24%) Microsoft 365
10 26 (2.24%) Snowflake
11 23 (1.98%) OpenShift
12 21 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
13 19 (1.64%) OCI
14 16 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
15 15 (1.29%) Azure Functions
16 14 (1.21%) Azure Monitor
16 14 (1.21%) dbt
16 14 (1.21%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 34 (2.93%) TCP/IP
2 32 (2.76%) Firewall
3 28 (2.41%) DNS
4 23 (1.98%) Ethernet
5 22 (1.90%) BGP
5 22 (1.90%) VPN
6 21 (1.81%) MPLS
7 16 (1.38%) WAN
8 15 (1.29%) 3GPP
8 15 (1.29%) Skype
9 14 (1.21%) LTE
10 13 (1.12%) OSPF
11 10 (0.86%) SSL
12 9 (0.78%) LAN
12 9 (0.78%) SD-WAN
12 9 (0.78%) SNMP
12 9 (0.78%) Wireless
13 8 (0.69%) DMARC
13 8 (0.69%) IPsec
13 8 (0.69%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (8.45%) Power BI
2 56 (4.83%) Data Warehouse
3 44 (3.79%) Metadata
4 34 (2.93%) Tableau
5 29 (2.50%) NoSQL
6 23 (1.98%) SQL Server
7 20 (1.72%) Relational Database
8 19 (1.64%) Data Lake
8 19 (1.64%) Oracle Database
9 17 (1.47%) SAS Enterprise Guide
10 15 (1.29%) Oracle Reports
11 14 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
12 13 (1.12%) BigQuery
13 12 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
13 12 (1.03%) Big Data
14 11 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
14 11 (0.95%) SAP HANA
15 10 (0.86%) Geospatial Data
16 9 (0.78%) Looker
16 9 (0.78%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 123 (10.60%) JIRA
2 59 (5.09%) Git
3 56 (4.83%) Jenkins
4 35 (3.02%) Selenium
5 32 (2.76%) Oracle APEX
6 29 (2.50%) GitLab
6 29 (2.50%) Postman
7 28 (2.41%) Visual Studio
8 23 (1.98%) Eclipse
9 16 (1.38%) Rational DOORS
10 15 (1.29%) TestRail
11 14 (1.21%) Cucumber
12 12 (1.03%) JUnit
12 12 (1.03%) Zephyr
13 10 (0.86%) Bitbucket
13 10 (0.86%) JMeter
14 7 (0.60%) Cypress.io
14 7 (0.60%) REST Assured
15 6 (0.52%) MLflow
15 6 (0.52%) SpecFlow
General
1 483 (41.64%) Social Skills
2 309 (26.64%) Finance
3 260 (22.41%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (9.22%) Public Sector
5 79 (6.81%) Banking
6 72 (6.21%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (4.31%) Presentation Skills
8 34 (2.93%) Military
9 32 (2.76%) Aerospace
10 29 (2.50%) Marketing
10 29 (2.50%) Telecoms
11 27 (2.33%) Electronics
11 27 (2.33%) Front Office
12 26 (2.24%) Investment Banking
13 23 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
14 22 (1.90%) Pharmaceutical
15 21 (1.81%) Manufacturing
15 21 (1.81%) Organisational Skills
16 17 (1.47%) Automotive
17 15 (1.29%) Legal
Job Titles
1 230 (19.83%) Analyst
2 112 (9.66%) Senior
3 103 (8.88%) Developer
4 101 (8.71%) Consultant
5 100 (8.62%) Business Analyst
6 87 (7.50%) Lead
7 62 (5.34%) Data Analyst
8 48 (4.14%) Software Engineer
9 46 (3.97%) Architect
10 43 (3.71%) Tester
11 36 (3.10%) Senior Developer
12 35 (3.02%) Data Engineer
13 33 (2.84%) Data Scientist
13 33 (2.84%) SAP Consultant
14 28 (2.41%) Test Analyst
15 25 (2.16%) Project Manager
16 23 (1.98%) QA Engineer
17 22 (1.90%) Test Engineer
18 21 (1.81%) C# Software Engineer
18 21 (1.81%) C++ Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (5.26%) REST
2 43 (3.71%) JSON
3 37 (3.19%) Node.js
4 34 (2.93%) XML
5 31 (2.67%) Web Services
6 29 (2.50%) Oracle Fusion
6 29 (2.50%) SOAP
7 27 (2.33%) .NET
8 26 (2.24%) RESTful
9 21 (1.81%) OAuth
10 19 (1.64%) SAP Fiori
11 18 (1.55%) Middleware
12 16 (1.38%) Kafka
12 16 (1.38%) Playwright
13 15 (1.29%) PyTorch
14 14 (1.21%) SAML
15 13 (1.12%) Pandas
15 13 (1.12%) PySpark
15 13 (1.12%) React
15 13 (1.12%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 49 (4.22%) Legacy Systems
2 42 (3.62%) Product Ownership
3 38 (3.28%) Data Structures
4 36 (3.10%) Onboarding
5 34 (2.93%) Management Information System
6 30 (2.59%) FPGA
7 26 (2.24%) Cloud Native
8 24 (2.07%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
10 18 (1.55%) Algorithms
10 18 (1.55%) Derivative
10 18 (1.55%) IoT
11 16 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
12 15 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
12 15 (1.29%) NB-IoT
12 15 (1.29%) Virtual Team
13 13 (1.12%) SCADA
13 13 (1.12%) Security Posture
13 13 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
14 12 (1.03%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 100 (8.62%) Linux
2 81 (6.98%) Windows
3 26 (2.24%) Unix
4 8 (0.69%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.52%) Android
7 4 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.34%) VMS
8 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.17%) zOS
9 1 (0.086%) Debian
9 1 (0.086%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.086%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.086%) MVS
9 1 (0.086%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.086%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 328 (28.28%) Agile
2 273 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
3 234 (20.17%) Migration
4 208 (17.93%) DevOps
5 191 (16.47%) CI/CD
6 180 (15.52%) Analytics
7 173 (14.91%) Data Validation
8 161 (13.88%) Stakeholder Management
9 145 (12.50%) Test Automation
10 129 (11.12%) Data Migration
11 122 (10.52%) Business Intelligence
12 113 (9.74%) Data Analysis
13 112 (9.66%) Data Modelling
14 108 (9.31%) User Acceptance Testing
15 107 (9.22%) ETL
15 107 (9.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 104 (8.97%) AI
17 102 (8.79%) Data Governance
18 100 (8.62%) Scrum
19 98 (8.45%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 288 (24.83%) SQL
2 268 (23.10%) Python
3 96 (8.28%) JavaScript
4 67 (5.78%) C#
5 63 (5.43%) Java
6 53 (4.57%) C++
7 47 (4.05%) PL/SQL
8 38 (3.28%) Bash
9 37 (3.19%) PowerShell
10 27 (2.33%) R
11 18 (1.55%) TypeScript
12 17 (1.47%) C
13 16 (1.38%) Shell Script
14 15 (1.29%) VBA
15 13 (1.12%) Groovy
15 13 (1.12%) T-SQL
16 10 (0.86%) ABAP
17 9 (0.78%) Apex Code
17 9 (0.78%) Tcl
18 8 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 270 (23.28%) Security Cleared
2 210 (18.10%) SC Cleared
3 131 (11.29%) Degree
4 35 (3.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.67%) DV Cleared
6 26 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (2.24%) Master's Degree
7 23 (1.98%) ISTQB
8 19 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.47%) PMI Certification
10 15 (1.29%) AWS Certification
11 14 (1.21%) PhD
12 12 (1.03%) CCNP
12 12 (1.03%) CISSP
13 10 (0.86%) Oracle Certification
13 10 (0.86%) PMP
14 9 (0.78%) CBAP
14 9 (0.78%) CCIE
14 9 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 137 (11.81%) QA
2 128 (11.03%) Data Quality
3 51 (4.40%) GDPR
4 41 (3.53%) NIST
5 26 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (1.90%) Accessibility
7 14 (1.21%) EU AI Act
8 10 (0.86%) Def Stans
9 9 (0.78%) MiFID
10 8 (0.69%) COBIT
10 8 (0.69%) EMIR
10 8 (0.69%) GxP
10 8 (0.69%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.60%) MISRA
12 6 (0.52%) DO-178B
12 6 (0.52%) IFRS
12 6 (0.52%) NCSC
12 6 (0.52%) PMO
12 6 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.34%) 21 CFR Part 11
System Software
1 46 (3.97%) Active Directory
2 35 (3.02%) Docker
2 35 (3.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (1.64%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (1.38%) Firmware
5 14 (1.21%) vSphere
6 9 (0.78%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.52%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.52%) Postfix
8 3 (0.26%) QEMU
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.17%) OpenAM
9 2 (0.17%) OpenDJ
9 2 (0.17%) OpenIDM
9 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.086%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.086%) KVM
10 1 (0.086%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.086%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 48 (4.14%) Kubernetes
2 47 (4.05%) Ansible
3 44 (3.79%) Terraform
4 15 (1.29%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (0.78%) Nessus
7 9 (0.78%) SCCM
8 8 (0.69%) Argo
8 8 (0.69%) Istio
8 8 (0.69%) SCOM
9 7 (0.60%) Grafana
9 7 (0.60%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.60%) Puppet
10 6 (0.52%) Kibana
10 6 (0.52%) Nmap
11 5 (0.43%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.43%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.34%) CASB
12 4 (0.34%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 190 (16.38%) Microsoft
2 131 (11.29%) Oracle
3 89 (7.67%) SAP
4 52 (4.48%) ServiceNow
4 52 (4.48%) VMware
5 39 (3.36%) Salesforce
6 35 (3.02%) Cisco
7 29 (2.50%) Databricks
8 28 (2.41%) Splunk
9 22 (1.90%) Google
9 22 (1.90%) Workday
10 14 (1.21%) MuleSoft
10 14 (1.21%) Red Hat
10 14 (1.21%) Remedy
11 13 (1.12%) IBM
12 11 (0.95%) CyberArk
12 11 (0.95%) EMC
13 10 (0.86%) F5
13 10 (0.86%) Fortinet
13 10 (0.86%) Informatica