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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 119 124
Rank change year-on-year +63 +5 +9
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,339 611 701
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.14% 2.28% 1.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.69% 2.55% 2.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 321 395
10th Percentile £350 £335 £317
25th Percentile £410 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £615 £612
90th Percentile £700 £725 £741
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £534
% change year-on-year -2.44% -3.98% -1.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 44 126
10th Percentile £31.56 £29.30 £38.45
25th Percentile £45.52 £47.19 £54.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.65 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.76% -14.60% +7.91%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £83.27
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.05 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.65 £65.98
% change year-on-year +12.76% -12.63% +5.48%

All Process & 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 28,535 23,973 32,137
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.13% 89.35% 87.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,262 14,701 21,581
10th Percentile £305 £310 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,781 779 1,693
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £17.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.10% -9.21% +8.57%
75th Percentile £58.00 £63.75 £63.29
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -13.33% +17.19%

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 22 January 2026.

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 22 January 2026.

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 22 January 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
London +71 632 £513 -2.38% 185
North of England +20 179 £420 - 171
South East +8 159 £500 - 312
North West +21 116 £400 -2.08% 66
South West +8 113 £475 -18.24% 156
Midlands +10 111 £515 +8.42% 150
East of England +18 98 £482 +20.44% 158
West Midlands +5 91 £515 +8.42% 77
Yorkshire -10 51 £487 +15.95% 81
East Midlands -9 20 £475 +58.33% 71
North East -4 14 £475 -34.48% 25
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 54 (4.03%) Confluence
2 31 (2.32%) SAS
3 29 (2.17%) Apache Spark
4 28 (2.09%) SharePoint
5 20 (1.49%) Apache Airflow
5 20 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (1.05%) Skype for Business
7 12 (0.90%) Apache
8 9 (0.67%) Exchange Server 2013
9 8 (0.60%) CMS
10 7 (0.52%) Mattermost
11 6 (0.45%) Appian
11 6 (0.45%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.30%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.30%) Jupyter
13 3 (0.22%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.22%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
13 3 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.22%) WebSphere
Applications
1 70 (5.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (2.84%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.72%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.52%) Chatbot
5 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.45%) Sketch
7 4 (0.30%) Notion
8 3 (0.22%) LaTeX
8 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.15%) Simulink
10 1 (0.075%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.075%) CATIA
10 1 (0.075%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.075%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.075%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.075%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 62 (4.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.97%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.82%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.82%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.82%) SAP EHS
3 11 (0.82%) SAP FI
4 9 (0.67%) Aladdin
4 9 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.60%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 7 (0.52%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.52%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 7 (0.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 7 (0.52%) SAP MDG
7 6 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.45%) Markit EDM
7 6 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
8 5 (0.37%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 318 (23.75%) Azure
2 155 (11.58%) AWS
3 123 (9.19%) Azure DevOps
4 108 (8.07%) Power Platform
5 58 (4.33%) GCP
6 54 (4.03%) GitHub
7 49 (3.66%) Entra ID
8 45 (3.36%) SaaS
9 37 (2.76%) Serverless
10 36 (2.69%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
12 27 (2.02%) OCI
12 27 (2.02%) Snowflake
13 26 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
14 24 (1.79%) OpenShift
15 18 (1.34%) Amazon S3
16 17 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
17 16 (1.19%) Azure Functions
17 16 (1.19%) Dynamics 365
17 16 (1.19%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.61%) Firewall
2 27 (2.02%) TCP/IP
3 20 (1.49%) Ethernet
4 19 (1.42%) Network Security
5 17 (1.27%) WAN
6 15 (1.12%) VPN
7 14 (1.05%) Skype
8 13 (0.97%) DNS
8 13 (0.97%) VLAN
8 13 (0.97%) Wireless
9 12 (0.90%) BGP
10 11 (0.82%) LAN
10 11 (0.82%) MPLS
10 11 (0.82%) OSPF
10 11 (0.82%) TACACS
11 8 (0.60%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.60%) SNMP
12 7 (0.52%) HTTP
13 6 (0.45%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.45%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (7.54%) Power BI
2 59 (4.41%) Metadata
3 55 (4.11%) Data Warehouse
4 37 (2.76%) Tableau
5 32 (2.39%) SQL Server
6 29 (2.17%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.87%) NoSQL
8 21 (1.57%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 20 (1.49%) Oracle Database
10 17 (1.27%) Relational Database
11 16 (1.19%) Pinecone
12 15 (1.12%) Big Data
12 15 (1.12%) Oracle Reports
13 14 (1.05%) Amazon Redshift
13 14 (1.05%) Elasticsearch
14 13 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
15 12 (0.90%) Delta Lake
15 12 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 11 (0.82%) BigQuery
17 10 (0.75%) Looker
Development Applications
1 147 (10.98%) JIRA
2 67 (5.00%) Jenkins
3 62 (4.63%) Git
4 39 (2.91%) GitLab
5 38 (2.84%) Postman
5 38 (2.84%) Selenium
6 32 (2.39%) Oracle APEX
7 24 (1.79%) Rational DOORS
8 20 (1.49%) Visual Studio
9 15 (1.12%) JMeter
10 14 (1.05%) Eclipse
11 13 (0.97%) TestRail
12 12 (0.90%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.82%) Bitbucket
13 11 (0.82%) MLflow
14 10 (0.75%) JUnit
14 10 (0.75%) Zephyr
15 9 (0.67%) REST Assured
16 8 (0.60%) SpecFlow
17 6 (0.45%) Cypress.io
General
1 511 (38.16%) Social Skills
2 373 (27.86%) Finance
3 296 (22.11%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (9.71%) Public Sector
5 112 (8.36%) Banking
6 70 (5.23%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (3.73%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.24%) Marketing
9 28 (2.09%) Aerospace
9 28 (2.09%) Electronics
9 28 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
9 28 (2.09%) Military
10 27 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 26 (1.94%) Front Office
11 26 (1.94%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.72%) Investment Banking
12 23 (1.72%) Pharmaceutical
13 21 (1.57%) Financial Institution
14 20 (1.49%) Legal
15 18 (1.34%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 268 (20.01%) Analyst
2 139 (10.38%) Senior
3 121 (9.04%) Business Analyst
4 115 (8.59%) Lead
5 104 (7.77%) Consultant
6 102 (7.62%) Developer
7 70 (5.23%) Architect
8 62 (4.63%) Data Analyst
9 56 (4.18%) Data Engineer
10 52 (3.88%) Software Engineer
11 42 (3.14%) Tester
12 41 (3.06%) Project Manager
13 34 (2.54%) SAP Consultant
13 34 (2.54%) Senior Developer
14 33 (2.46%) Senior Analyst
15 30 (2.24%) Test Analyst
15 30 (2.24%) Test Manager
16 29 (2.17%) Data Scientist
17 26 (1.94%) QA Engineer
18 25 (1.87%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (6.57%) REST
2 57 (4.26%) JSON
3 47 (3.51%) XML
4 45 (3.36%) Oracle Fusion
5 39 (2.91%) Middleware
6 38 (2.84%) OAuth
7 37 (2.76%) SOAP
8 32 (2.39%) Node.js
9 28 (2.09%) RESTful
10 27 (2.02%) .NET
10 27 (2.02%) Kafka
10 27 (2.02%) PySpark
10 27 (2.02%) PyTorch
11 26 (1.94%) Web Services
12 25 (1.87%) Swagger
13 24 (1.79%) TensorFlow
14 23 (1.72%) Playwright
15 20 (1.49%) JWT
15 20 (1.49%) SAML
15 20 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 72 (5.38%) Legacy Systems
2 55 (4.11%) Data Structures
3 50 (3.73%) Onboarding
4 49 (3.66%) Product Ownership
5 39 (2.91%) Management Information System
6 34 (2.54%) Cloud Native
7 25 (1.87%) Algorithms
7 25 (1.87%) Data Centre
8 22 (1.64%) Analytical Mindset
8 22 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (1.42%) Derivative
9 19 (1.42%) FPGA
10 15 (1.12%) Replication
11 13 (0.97%) Credit Risk
11 13 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
11 13 (0.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 12 (0.90%) PCIe
13 11 (0.82%) Embedded Systems
13 11 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 89 (6.65%) Linux
2 76 (5.68%) Windows
3 30 (2.24%) Unix
4 11 (0.82%) Android
5 6 (0.45%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.37%) zOS
7 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.15%) Debian
9 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.075%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.075%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.075%) VMS
10 1 (0.075%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 386 (28.83%) Agile
2 317 (23.67%) Problem-Solving
3 289 (21.58%) Migration
4 261 (19.49%) DevOps
5 226 (16.88%) CI/CD
6 222 (16.58%) Stakeholder Management
7 209 (15.61%) Data Validation
8 200 (14.94%) Analytics
9 169 (12.62%) Test Automation
10 157 (11.73%) User Acceptance Testing
11 155 (11.58%) Data Modelling
12 149 (11.13%) Data Migration
13 148 (11.05%) AI
14 141 (10.53%) ETL
15 136 (10.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 130 (9.71%) Business Intelligence
17 118 (8.81%) Data Analysis
18 115 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
19 114 (8.51%) Data Governance
20 111 (8.29%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 346 (25.84%) SQL
2 297 (22.18%) Python
3 94 (7.02%) JavaScript
4 79 (5.90%) Java
5 60 (4.48%) C#
6 52 (3.88%) C++
7 51 (3.81%) PL/SQL
8 43 (3.21%) Bash
9 41 (3.06%) PowerShell
10 36 (2.69%) C
11 26 (1.94%) R
12 24 (1.79%) TypeScript
13 16 (1.19%) Groovy
14 14 (1.05%) Ada
14 14 (1.05%) Shell Script
15 12 (0.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 12 (0.90%) Scala
16 10 (0.75%) T-SQL
17 9 (0.67%) ABAP
17 9 (0.67%) VBA
Qualifications
1 292 (21.81%) Security Cleared
2 211 (15.76%) SC Cleared
3 134 (10.01%) Degree
4 55 (4.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 36 (2.69%) BPSS Clearance
6 35 (2.61%) DV Cleared
7 32 (2.39%) Master's Degree
8 27 (2.02%) PMI Certification
9 24 (1.79%) ISTQB
10 20 (1.49%) AWS Certification
10 20 (1.49%) PMP
11 15 (1.12%) CBAP
12 13 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.97%) Oracle Certification
13 10 (0.75%) Azure Certification
14 9 (0.67%) CCIE
14 9 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (0.67%) OCA
15 8 (0.60%) CISSP
16 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (12.40%) QA
2 162 (12.10%) Data Quality
3 76 (5.68%) GDPR
4 55 (4.11%) NIST
5 34 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 28 (2.09%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.34%) IFRS
8 14 (1.05%) Def Stans
8 14 (1.05%) IFRS 17
9 13 (0.97%) EU AI Act
10 12 (0.90%) PCI DSS
11 11 (0.82%) GxP
12 10 (0.75%) MiFID
12 10 (0.75%) MISRA
12 10 (0.75%) NCSC
13 9 (0.67%) DO-178B
13 9 (0.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 8 (0.60%) GRC
15 7 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
15 7 (0.52%) PSD2
System Software
1 55 (4.11%) Docker
2 45 (3.36%) Active Directory
3 22 (1.64%) Firmware
3 22 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.75%) VMware NSX
5 7 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.30%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 4 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.30%) vSphere
8 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.22%) KVM
8 3 (0.22%) QEMU
9 2 (0.15%) Ceph
9 2 (0.15%) Lustre
9 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
9 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
9 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
9 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.075%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 70 (5.23%) Kubernetes
2 61 (4.56%) Terraform
3 45 (3.36%) Ansible
4 19 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (1.05%) Kibana
5 14 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (1.05%) Puppet
6 10 (0.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.75%) SCCM
7 9 (0.67%) Grafana
8 7 (0.52%) HP SiteScope
8 7 (0.52%) SCOM
9 6 (0.45%) Nmap
10 5 (0.37%) Nessus
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.22%) Argo
12 3 (0.22%) CloudHub
12 3 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.22%) Istio
12 3 (0.22%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 188 (14.04%) Microsoft
2 145 (10.83%) Oracle
3 100 (7.47%) SAP
4 57 (4.26%) ServiceNow
5 50 (3.73%) Databricks
6 39 (2.91%) Cisco
7 36 (2.69%) Splunk
8 33 (2.46%) Google
8 33 (2.46%) Salesforce
9 29 (2.17%) VMware
10 20 (1.49%) Workday
11 19 (1.42%) IBM
11 19 (1.42%) MuleSoft
12 17 (1.27%) Murex
13 15 (1.12%) Bloomberg
13 15 (1.12%) Palo Alto
14 13 (0.97%) Informatica
15 12 (0.90%) Adobe
16 11 (0.82%) Avaloq
16 11 (0.82%) Sage