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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 114 133
Rank change year-on-year +53 +19 +1
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,274 618 673
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.05% 2.25% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.58% 2.53% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 773 325 389
10th Percentile £356 £328 £350
25th Percentile £413 £402 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £623
90th Percentile £700 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 45 92
10th Percentile £31.54 £27.35 £51.38
25th Percentile £41.25 £46.25 £61.06
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.36 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.57% -22.34% +9.18%
75th Percentile £67.31 £63.75 £88.75
90th Percentile £76.13 £70.14 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £54.36 £70.00
% change year-on-year +19.57% -22.34% +9.18%

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 27,843 24,416 31,995
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.51% 88.85% 88.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,784 15,001 21,658
10th Percentile £304 £310 £306
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £645 £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 1,756 802 1,433
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.34 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +23.66%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +21.43%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +80 594 £510 +2.00% 273
North of England +30 160 £417 -0.71% 173
South East +11 155 £500 +5.26% 314
East of England +27 109 £492 +27.02% 134
South West +11 108 £475 -17.39% 132
North West +25 107 £400 -2.97% 85
Midlands +4 104 £515 +21.18% 143
West Midlands -1 87 £515 +8.42% 85
Yorkshire -18 37 £456 +8.63% 70
East Midlands -16 17 £456 +25.43% 53
North East -1 16 £475 -42.42% 18
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 (3.61%) Confluence
2 29 (2.28%) Apache Spark
3 27 (2.12%) SAS
3 27 (2.12%) SharePoint
4 21 (1.65%) Apache Airflow
5 19 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (1.10%) Skype for Business
7 13 (1.02%) Apache
8 9 (0.71%) Exchange Server 2013
9 8 (0.63%) CMS
10 7 (0.55%) Mattermost
11 6 (0.47%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.31%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.31%) Jupyter
13 3 (0.24%) Appian
13 3 (0.24%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.24%) Smallworld
13 3 (0.24%) WebSphere
Applications
1 75 (5.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (2.98%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.65%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.55%) Chatbot
5 7 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.47%) Sketch
7 4 (0.31%) Notion
8 3 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.16%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.16%) Simulink
10 1 (0.078%) CATIA
10 1 (0.078%) NASTRAN
10 1 (0.078%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.078%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.078%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.078%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 61 (4.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.02%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.86%) SAP EHS
3 11 (0.86%) SAP FI
4 9 (0.71%) Aladdin
4 9 (0.71%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
5 7 (0.55%) NetSuite
5 7 (0.55%) OpenText VIM for SAP
5 7 (0.55%) Oracle General Ledger
5 7 (0.55%) Oracle Payables
5 7 (0.55%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.47%) SAP MM
7 5 (0.39%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 5 (0.39%) SAP ERP
7 5 (0.39%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
8 4 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
8 4 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
8 4 (0.31%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 297 (23.31%) Azure
2 138 (10.83%) AWS
3 118 (9.26%) Azure DevOps
4 108 (8.48%) Power Platform
5 55 (4.32%) GitHub
6 53 (4.16%) GCP
7 46 (3.61%) SaaS
8 40 (3.14%) Entra ID
9 33 (2.59%) Azure Data Factory
9 33 (2.59%) Serverless
10 32 (2.51%) GitHub Actions
11 27 (2.12%) Microsoft 365
11 27 (2.12%) OpenShift
12 24 (1.88%) OCI
12 24 (1.88%) Snowflake
13 18 (1.41%) Amazon S3
13 18 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
14 16 (1.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 16 (1.26%) Tricentis Tosca
15 15 (1.18%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.75%) Firewall
2 32 (2.51%) TCP/IP
3 23 (1.81%) DNS
4 19 (1.49%) Ethernet
5 17 (1.33%) 3GPP
5 17 (1.33%) WAN
6 15 (1.18%) Network Security
6 15 (1.18%) VPN
7 14 (1.10%) LTE
7 14 (1.10%) Skype
8 12 (0.94%) BGP
8 12 (0.94%) Internet
9 11 (0.86%) LAN
9 11 (0.86%) MPLS
9 11 (0.86%) OSPF
9 11 (0.86%) Wireless
10 10 (0.78%) DMARC
10 10 (0.78%) VLAN
11 9 (0.71%) SSL
11 9 (0.71%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (7.93%) Power BI
2 57 (4.47%) Metadata
3 56 (4.40%) Data Warehouse
4 37 (2.90%) Tableau
5 29 (2.28%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.20%) Data Lake
7 23 (1.81%) NoSQL
8 20 (1.57%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 19 (1.49%) Oracle Database
10 17 (1.33%) Oracle Reports
11 16 (1.26%) Relational Database
12 15 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
13 14 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
13 14 (1.10%) Big Data
14 13 (1.02%) BigQuery
14 13 (1.02%) Pinecone
15 12 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
15 12 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 11 (0.86%) Delta Lake
16 11 (0.86%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 130 (10.20%) JIRA
2 64 (5.02%) Jenkins
3 62 (4.87%) Git
4 40 (3.14%) Selenium
5 37 (2.90%) GitLab
6 33 (2.59%) Oracle APEX
7 32 (2.51%) Postman
8 21 (1.65%) Visual Studio
9 19 (1.49%) Rational DOORS
10 16 (1.26%) Eclipse
11 13 (1.02%) Cucumber
11 13 (1.02%) TestRail
12 12 (0.94%) Bitbucket
12 12 (0.94%) JMeter
13 11 (0.86%) Zephyr
14 10 (0.78%) JUnit
14 10 (0.78%) MLflow
15 9 (0.71%) REST Assured
16 8 (0.63%) SpecFlow
17 7 (0.55%) Cypress.io
General
1 492 (38.62%) Social Skills
2 344 (27.00%) Finance
3 272 (21.35%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (9.81%) Public Sector
5 99 (7.77%) Banking
6 67 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
7 48 (3.77%) Presentation Skills
8 31 (2.43%) Military
9 28 (2.20%) Electronics
9 28 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
10 27 (2.12%) Telecoms
11 26 (2.04%) Marketing
12 25 (1.96%) Investment Banking
12 25 (1.96%) Manufacturing
13 24 (1.88%) Aerospace
13 24 (1.88%) Front Office
14 20 (1.57%) Pharmaceutical
15 19 (1.49%) Financial Institution
15 19 (1.49%) Legal
16 17 (1.33%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 249 (19.54%) Analyst
2 132 (10.36%) Senior
3 109 (8.56%) Business Analyst
4 102 (8.01%) Lead
5 101 (7.93%) Developer
6 99 (7.77%) Consultant
7 65 (5.10%) Architect
8 60 (4.71%) Data Analyst
9 50 (3.92%) Data Engineer
9 50 (3.92%) Software Engineer
10 44 (3.45%) Tester
11 38 (2.98%) Project Manager
12 35 (2.75%) Senior Developer
13 33 (2.59%) SAP Consultant
14 32 (2.51%) Senior Analyst
15 29 (2.28%) Data Scientist
16 27 (2.12%) QA Engineer
17 26 (2.04%) Technical Analyst
18 25 (1.96%) Test Analyst
19 24 (1.88%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (6.12%) REST
2 55 (4.32%) JSON
3 44 (3.45%) XML
4 41 (3.22%) Oracle Fusion
5 35 (2.75%) SOAP
6 32 (2.51%) Node.js
7 31 (2.43%) Middleware
8 30 (2.35%) OAuth
9 26 (2.04%) .NET
9 26 (2.04%) RESTful
10 25 (1.96%) PySpark
11 24 (1.88%) PyTorch
11 24 (1.88%) Web Services
12 22 (1.73%) Kafka
12 22 (1.73%) Swagger
13 21 (1.65%) SAP Fiori
13 21 (1.65%) TensorFlow
14 18 (1.41%) Playwright
15 17 (1.33%) JWT
15 17 (1.33%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 63 (4.95%) Legacy Systems
2 52 (4.08%) Data Structures
3 48 (3.77%) Onboarding
4 45 (3.53%) Product Ownership
5 32 (2.51%) FPGA
6 30 (2.35%) Management Information System
7 27 (2.12%) Cloud Native
8 23 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (1.73%) Algorithms
9 22 (1.73%) Analytical Mindset
10 21 (1.65%) Data Centre
10 21 (1.65%) IoT
11 20 (1.57%) Derivative
12 15 (1.18%) NB-IoT
13 14 (1.10%) Security Posture
14 13 (1.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 13 (1.02%) Replication
15 12 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
16 11 (0.86%) Distributed Systems
16 11 (0.86%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 101 (7.93%) Linux
2 79 (6.20%) Windows
3 32 (2.51%) Unix
4 11 (0.86%) Android
5 7 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.39%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.31%) zOS
8 3 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.16%) Debian
9 2 (0.16%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.16%) VMS
10 1 (0.078%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.078%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.078%) MVS
10 1 (0.078%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (28.73%) Agile
2 295 (23.16%) Problem-Solving
3 266 (20.88%) Migration
4 242 (19.00%) DevOps
5 213 (16.72%) CI/CD
6 205 (16.09%) Stakeholder Management
7 196 (15.38%) Analytics
8 191 (14.99%) Data Validation
9 154 (12.09%) Test Automation
10 140 (10.99%) Data Modelling
11 138 (10.83%) AI
11 138 (10.83%) Data Migration
12 134 (10.52%) ETL
13 131 (10.28%) User Acceptance Testing
14 130 (10.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 129 (10.13%) Business Intelligence
16 110 (8.63%) Data Governance
17 109 (8.56%) Data Analysis
17 109 (8.56%) Data Pipeline
18 104 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 330 (25.90%) SQL
2 290 (22.76%) Python
3 96 (7.54%) JavaScript
4 66 (5.18%) Java
5 65 (5.10%) C#
6 52 (4.08%) PL/SQL
7 50 (3.92%) C++
8 45 (3.53%) Bash
9 42 (3.30%) PowerShell
10 28 (2.20%) C
11 26 (2.04%) R
12 18 (1.41%) TypeScript
13 15 (1.18%) Groovy
14 14 (1.10%) Shell Script
15 12 (0.94%) T-SQL
16 11 (0.86%) VBA
17 10 (0.78%) ABAP
18 8 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
19 7 (0.55%) Ada
19 7 (0.55%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 285 (22.37%) Security Cleared
2 212 (16.64%) SC Cleared
3 130 (10.20%) Degree
4 48 (3.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (2.51%) DV Cleared
6 31 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
7 29 (2.28%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.96%) PMI Certification
9 23 (1.81%) ISTQB
10 18 (1.41%) AWS Certification
10 18 (1.41%) PMP
11 15 (1.18%) CBAP
12 13 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (1.02%) Oracle Certification
13 11 (0.86%) Azure Certification
13 11 (0.86%) CISSP
14 10 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
15 9 (0.71%) CCIE
15 9 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.71%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 162 (12.72%) QA
2 152 (11.93%) Data Quality
3 72 (5.65%) GDPR
4 52 (4.08%) NIST
5 30 (2.35%) Accessibility
6 27 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 14 (1.10%) EU AI Act
7 14 (1.10%) IFRS
8 12 (0.94%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.78%) GxP
9 10 (0.78%) MiFID
9 10 (0.78%) MISRA
9 10 (0.78%) NCSC
10 9 (0.71%) DO-178B
10 9 (0.71%) IFRS 17
10 9 (0.71%) PCI DSS
10 9 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (0.55%) GRC
12 6 (0.47%) EMIR
System Software
1 49 (3.85%) Docker
2 48 (3.77%) Active Directory
3 24 (1.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 23 (1.81%) Firmware
5 9 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (0.63%) VMware NSX
7 7 (0.55%) vSphere
8 6 (0.47%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.47%) Postfix
9 5 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.31%) Embedded Firmware
11 3 (0.24%) Hyper-V
11 3 (0.24%) KVM
11 3 (0.24%) QEMU
12 2 (0.16%) Ceph
12 2 (0.16%) Lustre
12 2 (0.16%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.16%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.16%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 64 (5.02%) Kubernetes
2 59 (4.63%) Terraform
3 48 (3.77%) Ansible
4 15 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (1.02%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (0.94%) Kibana
6 12 (0.94%) Puppet
7 10 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 9 (0.71%) Grafana
8 9 (0.71%) Nessus
8 9 (0.71%) SCCM
9 8 (0.63%) SCOM
10 7 (0.55%) HP SiteScope
11 6 (0.47%) Argo
11 6 (0.47%) Istio
11 6 (0.47%) Nmap
12 5 (0.39%) CASB
13 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.24%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.24%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 192 (15.07%) Microsoft
2 143 (11.22%) Oracle
3 98 (7.69%) SAP
4 53 (4.16%) ServiceNow
5 45 (3.53%) Databricks
6 36 (2.83%) Splunk
7 35 (2.75%) VMware
8 34 (2.67%) Cisco
9 30 (2.35%) Salesforce
10 27 (2.12%) Google
11 21 (1.65%) Workday
12 19 (1.49%) MuleSoft
13 17 (1.33%) IBM
14 13 (1.02%) Adobe
14 13 (1.02%) Remedy
15 12 (0.94%) Bloomberg
15 12 (0.94%) CyberArk
15 12 (0.94%) Informatica
15 12 (0.94%) Murex
15 12 (0.94%) Red Hat