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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 102 130
Rank change year-on-year +51 +28 +2
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,562 659 698
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.41% 2.58% 1.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.06% 2.86% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 958 376 398
10th Percentile £350 £353 £314
25th Percentile £404 £413 £427
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.45% +2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £618
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £490 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -6.67% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 35 143
10th Percentile £34.20 £25.26 £24.78
25th Percentile £60.00 £44.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +3.96%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.88 £75.25
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.15 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £63.75
% change year-on-year +4.00% -1.96% +1.37%

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 30,846 23,044 33,123
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.12% 90.26% 87.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,757 14,550 21,943
10th Percentile £313 £307 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £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 1,917 778 2,099
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.50 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.55 £35.00 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year -18.43% +2.31% -2.92%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £73.41 £75.73 £72.07
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% -1.52% -5.71%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 +60 734 £513 -6.82% 266
North of England +28 209 £428 -10.00% 177
South East +10 179 £500 - 303
Midlands +30 154 £491 +0.41% 178
North West +17 136 £402 -8.11% 84
South West +5 131 £475 -17.39% 131
West Midlands +21 126 £492 -0.61% 102
East of England +23 105 £478 +12.47% 138
Yorkshire -9 65 £465 +2.48% 68
East Midlands -6 26 £463 +26.02% 74
North East -6 11 £463 -36.21% 26
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 65 (4.16%) Confluence
2 32 (2.05%) Apache Spark
3 31 (1.98%) SAS
4 26 (1.66%) Apache Airflow
5 22 (1.41%) SharePoint
6 17 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.02%) Apache
8 9 (0.58%) Appian
9 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
10 6 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2013
10 6 (0.38%) Jupyter
10 6 (0.38%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
11 5 (0.32%) CMS
12 4 (0.26%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.19%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.19%) Mattermost
13 3 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.19%) Smallworld
Applications
1 74 (4.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.54%) MS Visio
4 15 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.51%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.26%) Notion
8 3 (0.19%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.13%) Simulink
9 2 (0.13%) Sketch
10 1 (0.064%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.064%) CATIA
10 1 (0.064%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.064%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.064%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 70 (4.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.41%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.70%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.70%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.70%) Workday HCM
4 10 (0.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 9 (0.58%) SAP FI
6 8 (0.51%) Aladdin
6 8 (0.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 8 (0.51%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.45%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle EBS R12
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 7 (0.45%) SAP MDG
7 7 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
8 6 (0.38%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 366 (23.43%) Azure
2 183 (11.72%) AWS
3 129 (8.26%) Power Platform
4 119 (7.62%) Azure DevOps
5 76 (4.87%) GCP
6 69 (4.42%) GitHub
7 55 (3.52%) Entra ID
8 47 (3.01%) Serverless
9 45 (2.88%) SaaS
10 44 (2.82%) Azure Data Factory
11 40 (2.56%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (2.24%) OCI
13 33 (2.11%) Snowflake
14 27 (1.73%) Amazon S3
14 27 (1.73%) OpenShift
15 23 (1.47%) AWS Lambda
16 22 (1.41%) Microsoft 365
17 20 (1.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 18 (1.15%) Boomi
19 17 (1.09%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 51 (3.27%) Firewall
2 32 (2.05%) TCP/IP
3 28 (1.79%) Network Security
4 23 (1.47%) Ethernet
5 18 (1.15%) DNS
6 15 (0.96%) VPN
7 14 (0.90%) VLAN
8 11 (0.70%) SAN
9 10 (0.64%) WAN
9 10 (0.64%) Wireless
10 9 (0.58%) HTTP
10 9 (0.58%) NAS
11 8 (0.51%) BGP
11 8 (0.51%) MPLS
11 8 (0.51%) OSPF
12 7 (0.45%) LAN
12 7 (0.45%) Skype
13 6 (0.38%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.38%) SSL
13 6 (0.38%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 120 (7.68%) Power BI
2 73 (4.67%) Metadata
3 69 (4.42%) Data Warehouse
4 41 (2.62%) SQL Server
5 40 (2.56%) Tableau
6 38 (2.43%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.60%) PostgreSQL
8 24 (1.54%) NoSQL
8 24 (1.54%) Oracle Reports
9 22 (1.41%) Amazon Redshift
10 18 (1.15%) Big Data
10 18 (1.15%) Delta Lake
10 18 (1.15%) Pinecone
10 18 (1.15%) Relational Database
11 17 (1.09%) Oracle Database
11 17 (1.09%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 17 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 14 (0.90%) Elasticsearch
13 13 (0.83%) Amazon Athena
13 13 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 160 (10.24%) JIRA
2 92 (5.89%) Git
3 74 (4.74%) Jenkins
4 56 (3.59%) Selenium
5 46 (2.94%) GitLab
6 39 (2.50%) Postman
7 31 (1.98%) JUnit
7 31 (1.98%) Oracle APEX
8 30 (1.92%) Rational DOORS
9 29 (1.86%) Cucumber
10 28 (1.79%) JMeter
11 22 (1.41%) Visual Studio
12 17 (1.09%) MLflow
13 16 (1.02%) Eclipse
14 15 (0.96%) WebDriver
15 12 (0.77%) REST Assured
16 9 (0.58%) Bitbucket
16 9 (0.58%) TestRail
17 8 (0.51%) SpecFlow
17 8 (0.51%) Zephyr
General
1 576 (36.88%) Social Skills
2 462 (29.58%) Finance
3 331 (21.19%) Analytical Skills
4 142 (9.09%) Banking
5 137 (8.77%) Public Sector
6 78 (4.99%) Documentation Skills
7 52 (3.33%) Presentation Skills
8 40 (2.56%) Manufacturing
9 37 (2.37%) Aerospace
10 31 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.92%) Electronics
11 30 (1.92%) Front Office
11 30 (1.92%) Marketing
11 30 (1.92%) Military
12 24 (1.54%) Investment Banking
12 24 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
12 24 (1.54%) Telecoms
13 23 (1.47%) Financial Institution
13 23 (1.47%) Legal
13 23 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 301 (19.27%) Analyst
2 161 (10.31%) Senior
3 154 (9.86%) Lead
4 132 (8.45%) Business Analyst
5 113 (7.23%) Developer
6 109 (6.98%) Consultant
7 105 (6.72%) Architect
8 90 (5.76%) Data Engineer
9 78 (4.99%) Data Analyst
10 52 (3.33%) Software Engineer
11 50 (3.20%) Project Manager
12 47 (3.01%) Tester
13 38 (2.43%) Senior Analyst
14 34 (2.18%) Senior Developer
14 34 (2.18%) Test Analyst
15 33 (2.11%) SAP Consultant
16 32 (2.05%) Solutions Architect
17 31 (1.98%) Test Manager
18 30 (1.92%) Embedded Engineer
19 29 (1.86%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (6.40%) REST
2 64 (4.10%) JSON
3 51 (3.27%) Oracle Fusion
4 48 (3.07%) XML
5 47 (3.01%) OAuth
6 46 (2.94%) Kafka
7 43 (2.75%) Middleware
8 37 (2.37%) SOAP
9 36 (2.30%) .NET
9 36 (2.30%) Node.js
9 36 (2.30%) PyTorch
10 32 (2.05%) PySpark
10 32 (2.05%) TensorFlow
10 32 (2.05%) Web Services
11 30 (1.92%) Swagger
12 29 (1.86%) RESTful
13 28 (1.79%) Playwright
14 26 (1.66%) pytest
15 24 (1.54%) OpenAPI
15 24 (1.54%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 95 (6.08%) Legacy Systems
2 65 (4.16%) Data Structures
3 62 (3.97%) Product Ownership
4 50 (3.20%) Onboarding
5 45 (2.88%) Cloud Native
6 38 (2.43%) Management Information System
7 28 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
8 26 (1.66%) Algorithms
8 26 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.60%) Data Centre
10 23 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
11 20 (1.28%) Derivative
11 20 (1.28%) Replication
12 18 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (1.09%) Security Posture
14 16 (1.02%) Credit Risk
14 16 (1.02%) FPGA
14 16 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
15 14 (0.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 14 (0.90%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 89 (5.70%) Windows
2 82 (5.25%) Linux
3 32 (2.05%) Unix
4 9 (0.58%) Android
5 6 (0.38%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.38%) zOS
6 5 (0.32%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.13%) Debian
8 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.064%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.064%) pSOS
9 1 (0.064%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 400 (25.61%) Agile
2 361 (23.11%) Problem-Solving
3 358 (22.92%) Migration
4 288 (18.44%) Stakeholder Management
5 262 (16.77%) CI/CD
6 254 (16.26%) DevOps
7 253 (16.20%) Data Validation
8 249 (15.94%) Analytics
9 216 (13.83%) Data Modelling
10 203 (13.00%) Data Migration
11 201 (12.87%) Test Automation
12 195 (12.48%) ETL
13 187 (11.97%) AI
14 186 (11.91%) User Acceptance Testing
15 165 (10.56%) Continuous Improvement
16 160 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 158 (10.12%) Business Intelligence
18 141 (9.03%) Data Governance
19 133 (8.51%) Data Analysis
19 133 (8.51%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 384 (24.58%) SQL
2 321 (20.55%) Python
3 91 (5.83%) JavaScript
4 82 (5.25%) Java
5 65 (4.16%) C#
6 50 (3.20%) PL/SQL
7 49 (3.14%) C++
8 39 (2.50%) C
9 38 (2.43%) PowerShell
10 36 (2.30%) Bash
11 29 (1.86%) TypeScript
12 24 (1.54%) R
13 20 (1.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 19 (1.22%) Ada
14 19 (1.22%) Bicep
15 17 (1.09%) Groovy
16 13 (0.83%) T-SQL
17 12 (0.77%) Scala
18 11 (0.70%) VBA
19 9 (0.58%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 352 (22.54%) Security Cleared
2 258 (16.52%) SC Cleared
3 151 (9.67%) Degree
4 55 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 44 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 40 (2.56%) DV Cleared
7 34 (2.18%) Master's Degree
8 27 (1.73%) ISTQB
9 26 (1.66%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.41%) PMP
11 16 (1.02%) AWS Certification
12 15 (0.96%) CISSP
13 14 (0.90%) CBAP
14 12 (0.77%) Cisco Certification
14 12 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
15 10 (0.64%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.64%) Oracle Certification
16 9 (0.58%) CCNP
17 7 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
17 7 (0.45%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (14.08%) Data Quality
2 195 (12.48%) QA
3 84 (5.38%) GDPR
4 67 (4.29%) NIST
5 46 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 26 (1.66%) Accessibility
7 21 (1.34%) IFRS
8 18 (1.15%) IFRS 17
9 17 (1.09%) Def Stans
10 14 (0.90%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.83%) NCSC
12 12 (0.77%) COBIT
12 12 (0.77%) EU AI Act
12 12 (0.77%) GRC
12 12 (0.77%) PMO
13 11 (0.70%) MiFID
14 10 (0.64%) MISRA
15 9 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
15 9 (0.58%) DO-178B
15 9 (0.58%) SLA
System Software
1 74 (4.74%) Docker
2 40 (2.56%) Active Directory
3 29 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.34%) Firmware
5 11 (0.70%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (0.45%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.32%) NFS
9 4 (0.26%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.26%) vSphere
10 3 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) Ceph
11 2 (0.13%) KVM
11 2 (0.13%) Lustre
11 2 (0.13%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.13%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.13%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 103 (6.59%) Kubernetes
2 69 (4.42%) Terraform
3 34 (2.18%) Ansible
4 24 (1.54%) Prometheus
5 23 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
6 21 (1.34%) Grafana
7 16 (1.02%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (0.90%) Kibana
9 13 (0.83%) Puppet
10 11 (0.70%) SCCM
11 10 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 10 (0.64%) Nessus
12 7 (0.45%) Nmap
13 5 (0.32%) CASB
14 4 (0.26%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.26%) SCOM
14 4 (0.26%) vMotion
15 3 (0.19%) CloudHub
15 3 (0.19%) OMEGAMON
15 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 207 (13.25%) Microsoft
2 162 (10.37%) Oracle
3 123 (7.87%) SAP
4 71 (4.55%) Databricks
5 67 (4.29%) ServiceNow
6 46 (2.94%) Splunk
7 39 (2.50%) Salesforce
8 35 (2.24%) Cisco
8 35 (2.24%) VMware
9 32 (2.05%) Google
10 29 (1.86%) Workday
11 25 (1.60%) MuleSoft
12 23 (1.47%) Informatica
12 23 (1.47%) Sage
13 21 (1.34%) IBM
14 19 (1.22%) Murex
14 19 (1.22%) Palo Alto
15 15 (0.96%) CyberArk
16 14 (0.90%) Bloomberg
17 13 (0.83%) Avaloq