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

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 97 129
Rank change year-on-year +50 +32 +8
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,669 682 699
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.52% 2.74% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 3.02% 2.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,028 408 391
10th Percentile £350 £363 £325
25th Percentile £404 £423 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £548 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.50% +4.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £616
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £540 £530
% change year-on-year -10.88% +1.89% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 40 143
10th Percentile £33.00 £25.26 £23.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £46.00 £50.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.65 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.76% -3.93% -4.00%
75th Percentile £72.00 £64.06 £75.16
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.03 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £60.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -4.10% -4.60%

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 31,916 22,554 32,925
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.52% 90.61% 86.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,413 14,598 21,798
10th Percentile £313 £310 £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 £614 £639 £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 1,990 810 2,146
10th Percentile £15.31 £15.22 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.50 £34.06 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.44% +4.78% -12.16%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +64 772 £510 -7.27% 227
North of England +30 229 £443 -8.05% 126
South East +1 197 £500 - 218
Midlands +34 176 £481 -1.46% 118
North West +32 149 £420 -9.19% 63
West Midlands +20 140 £481 -1.79% 80
South West +4 134 £475 -17.39% 95
East of England +25 111 £475 +5.56% 88
Yorkshire -2 70 £462 +9.93% 41
East Midlands -3 34 £513 +39.27% 38
North East -4 13 £463 -36.21% 22
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 69 (4.13%) Confluence
2 33 (1.98%) Apache Spark
3 32 (1.92%) SAS
4 28 (1.68%) Apache Airflow
5 16 (0.96%) Apache
6 15 (0.90%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
8 9 (0.54%) Appian
9 8 (0.48%) Jupyter
10 6 (0.36%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.36%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
10 6 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
11 5 (0.30%) CMS
12 4 (0.24%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.24%) Smallworld
13 3 (0.18%) CICS
13 3 (0.18%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.18%) Oracle Self-Service HR
13 3 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 81 (4.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.14%) MS Visio
4 12 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
6 9 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
7 8 (0.48%) Chatbot
8 4 (0.24%) Notion
9 3 (0.18%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.12%) CATIA
10 2 (0.12%) Sketch
11 1 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
11 1 (0.060%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.060%) MicroStation
11 1 (0.060%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.060%) Simulink
11 1 (0.060%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 82 (4.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.68%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.84%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 13 (0.78%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.78%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.78%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
6 9 (0.54%) Oracle Assets
6 9 (0.54%) SAP FI
7 8 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.48%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 8 (0.48%) Oracle EBS R12
8 7 (0.42%) Aladdin
8 7 (0.42%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.42%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 7 (0.42%) SAP MDG
8 7 (0.42%) SAP MM
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.36%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 391 (23.43%) Azure
2 200 (11.98%) AWS
3 142 (8.51%) Power Platform
4 123 (7.37%) Azure DevOps
5 81 (4.85%) GCP
6 78 (4.67%) GitHub
7 52 (3.12%) Entra ID
7 52 (3.12%) Serverless
8 48 (2.88%) SaaS
9 47 (2.82%) Azure Data Factory
10 45 (2.70%) GitHub Actions
11 41 (2.46%) OCI
12 34 (2.04%) Amazon S3
13 33 (1.98%) Snowflake
14 28 (1.68%) OpenShift
15 25 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
15 25 (1.50%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 21 (1.26%) SuccessFactors
17 19 (1.14%) Amazon GuardDuty
17 19 (1.14%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 60 (3.59%) Firewall
2 42 (2.52%) Network Security
3 33 (1.98%) TCP/IP
4 21 (1.26%) DNS
4 21 (1.26%) Ethernet
5 17 (1.02%) VPN
6 15 (0.90%) SAN
6 15 (0.90%) VLAN
7 13 (0.78%) NAS
7 13 (0.78%) WAN
8 9 (0.54%) HTTP
8 9 (0.54%) LAN
8 9 (0.54%) Wireless
9 8 (0.48%) BGP
9 8 (0.48%) Internet
9 8 (0.48%) OSPF
10 7 (0.42%) Cisco ISE
10 7 (0.42%) MPLS
10 7 (0.42%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.42%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 131 (7.85%) Power BI
2 82 (4.91%) Data Warehouse
3 81 (4.85%) Metadata
4 48 (2.88%) SQL Server
5 45 (2.70%) Tableau
6 41 (2.46%) Data Lake
7 35 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
8 28 (1.68%) Oracle Reports
9 27 (1.62%) NoSQL
10 25 (1.50%) Amazon Redshift
11 22 (1.32%) Delta Lake
12 20 (1.20%) Big Data
12 20 (1.20%) Relational Database
12 20 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 18 (1.08%) Oracle Database
13 18 (1.08%) Pinecone
13 18 (1.08%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 16 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
15 13 (0.78%) Amazon Athena
16 12 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 168 (10.07%) JIRA
2 99 (5.93%) Git
3 80 (4.79%) Jenkins
4 59 (3.54%) Selenium
5 50 (3.00%) GitLab
6 42 (2.52%) Postman
7 34 (2.04%) JUnit
8 31 (1.86%) Cucumber
8 31 (1.86%) Rational DOORS
9 29 (1.74%) Oracle APEX
10 28 (1.68%) JMeter
11 20 (1.20%) Visual Studio
12 19 (1.14%) WebDriver
13 17 (1.02%) MLflow
14 14 (0.84%) Eclipse
15 12 (0.72%) REST Assured
16 10 (0.60%) Bitbucket
16 10 (0.60%) TestRail
17 9 (0.54%) Cypress.io
17 9 (0.54%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 588 (35.23%) Social Skills
2 502 (30.08%) Finance
3 341 (20.43%) Analytical Skills
4 151 (9.05%) Public Sector
5 145 (8.69%) Banking
6 86 (5.15%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (3.00%) Presentation Skills
8 45 (2.70%) Manufacturing
9 41 (2.46%) Aerospace
10 31 (1.86%) Electronics
10 31 (1.86%) Influencing Skills
11 29 (1.74%) Marketing
12 28 (1.68%) Front Office
13 27 (1.62%) Military
13 27 (1.62%) Pharmaceutical
14 26 (1.56%) Telecoms
15 25 (1.50%) Financial Institution
15 25 (1.50%) Organisational Skills
16 24 (1.44%) Legal
16 24 (1.44%) Retail
Job Titles
1 298 (17.86%) Analyst
2 172 (10.31%) Senior
3 169 (10.13%) Lead
4 135 (8.09%) Business Analyst
5 118 (7.07%) Developer
6 117 (7.01%) Consultant
7 111 (6.65%) Data Engineer
8 110 (6.59%) Architect
9 81 (4.85%) Data Analyst
10 61 (3.65%) Project Manager
11 48 (2.88%) Tester
12 47 (2.82%) Software Engineer
13 38 (2.28%) Senior Analyst
14 36 (2.16%) SAP Consultant
14 36 (2.16%) Senior Developer
15 33 (1.98%) Test Engineer
16 32 (1.92%) Embedded Engineer
16 32 (1.92%) Test Manager
17 31 (1.86%) Test Analyst
18 30 (1.80%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (6.47%) REST
2 67 (4.01%) JSON
3 62 (3.71%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (3.12%) Kafka
5 50 (3.00%) XML
6 47 (2.82%) OAuth
7 44 (2.64%) Middleware
8 43 (2.58%) .NET
9 39 (2.34%) SOAP
10 37 (2.22%) Node.js
11 36 (2.16%) PySpark
11 36 (2.16%) PyTorch
12 33 (1.98%) RESTful
13 32 (1.92%) TensorFlow
14 31 (1.86%) Web Services
15 30 (1.80%) Swagger
16 29 (1.74%) Playwright
17 27 (1.62%) pytest
18 26 (1.56%) Pandas
19 23 (1.38%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 103 (6.17%) Legacy Systems
2 83 (4.97%) Data Structures
3 72 (4.31%) Product Ownership
4 56 (3.36%) Onboarding
5 49 (2.94%) Cloud Native
6 42 (2.52%) Management Information System
7 35 (2.10%) Data Centre
8 33 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 26 (1.56%) Algorithms
9 26 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
10 25 (1.50%) Replication
11 21 (1.26%) Derivative
12 18 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
14 16 (0.96%) Credit Risk
15 15 (0.90%) Public Cloud
16 14 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
16 14 (0.84%) Taxonomies
17 13 (0.78%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 87 (5.21%) Windows
2 70 (4.19%) Linux
3 28 (1.68%) Unix
4 9 (0.54%) Android
5 7 (0.42%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.36%) zOS
7 5 (0.30%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
9 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.060%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.060%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.060%) pSOS
10 1 (0.060%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.060%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 412 (24.69%) Agile
2 393 (23.55%) Migration
3 365 (21.87%) Problem-Solving
4 311 (18.63%) Stakeholder Management
5 285 (17.08%) CI/CD
6 279 (16.72%) Data Validation
7 275 (16.48%) Analytics
8 261 (15.64%) DevOps
9 235 (14.08%) Data Migration
10 229 (13.72%) Data Modelling
11 214 (12.82%) ETL
12 210 (12.58%) Test Automation
13 206 (12.34%) User Acceptance Testing
14 199 (11.92%) AI
15 191 (11.44%) Continuous Improvement
16 172 (10.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 171 (10.25%) Business Intelligence
18 156 (9.35%) Data Governance
19 141 (8.45%) Data Pipeline
19 141 (8.45%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 414 (24.81%) SQL
2 322 (19.29%) Python
3 88 (5.27%) JavaScript
4 85 (5.09%) Java
5 65 (3.89%) C#
6 51 (3.06%) PL/SQL
7 46 (2.76%) C++
8 38 (2.28%) C
8 38 (2.28%) PowerShell
9 30 (1.80%) TypeScript
10 29 (1.74%) Bash
11 23 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 23 (1.38%) R
12 22 (1.32%) Bicep
13 20 (1.20%) Ada
14 17 (1.02%) Groovy
15 14 (0.84%) Scala
15 14 (0.84%) T-SQL
16 12 (0.72%) VBA
17 10 (0.60%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 364 (21.81%) Security Cleared
2 266 (15.94%) SC Cleared
3 153 (9.17%) Degree
4 53 (3.18%) Computer Science Degree
5 46 (2.76%) BPSS Clearance
6 38 (2.28%) DV Cleared
7 33 (1.98%) Master's Degree
8 26 (1.56%) ISTQB
8 26 (1.56%) PMI Certification
9 23 (1.38%) PMP
10 15 (0.90%) CISSP
11 14 (0.84%) CBAP
11 14 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (0.78%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.66%) CCNP
14 10 (0.60%) Oracle Certification
15 9 (0.54%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.42%) CCNA
16 7 (0.42%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 244 (14.62%) Data Quality
2 214 (12.82%) QA
3 89 (5.33%) GDPR
4 74 (4.43%) NIST
5 53 (3.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.44%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.32%) IFRS
8 19 (1.14%) Def Stans
8 19 (1.14%) IFRS 17
9 18 (1.08%) SLA
10 17 (1.02%) GRC
11 15 (0.90%) PCI DSS
11 15 (0.90%) PMO
12 13 (0.78%) NCSC
13 12 (0.72%) COBIT
13 12 (0.72%) EU AI Act
14 11 (0.66%) MiFID
15 10 (0.60%) HL7
15 10 (0.60%) MISRA
16 9 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 77 (4.61%) Docker
2 37 (2.22%) Active Directory
3 31 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.26%) Firmware
5 10 (0.60%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.42%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.30%) NFS
9 4 (0.24%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.18%) vSphere
11 2 (0.12%) Ceph
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
11 2 (0.12%) Lustre
11 2 (0.12%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.12%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.12%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 112 (6.71%) Kubernetes
2 77 (4.61%) Terraform
3 31 (1.86%) Ansible
4 28 (1.68%) Prometheus
4 28 (1.68%) Single Sign-On
5 24 (1.44%) Grafana
6 12 (0.72%) Kibana
6 12 (0.72%) Puppet
7 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.36%) Nessus
9 6 (0.36%) SCCM
10 5 (0.30%) CASB
11 4 (0.24%) EMC NetWorker
11 4 (0.24%) EMC VPLEX
11 4 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.24%) vMotion
12 3 (0.18%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.18%) OMEGAMON
12 3 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 219 (13.12%) Microsoft
2 179 (10.72%) Oracle
3 140 (8.39%) SAP
4 76 (4.55%) Databricks
5 74 (4.43%) ServiceNow
6 42 (2.52%) Splunk
7 38 (2.28%) Salesforce
8 37 (2.22%) VMware
9 34 (2.04%) Google
10 33 (1.98%) Cisco
11 31 (1.86%) Workday
12 28 (1.68%) Sage
13 26 (1.56%) Informatica
13 26 (1.56%) MuleSoft
14 21 (1.26%) IBM
15 19 (1.14%) Palo Alto
16 17 (1.02%) Murex
17 15 (0.90%) CyberArk
18 14 (0.84%) Bloomberg
18 14 (0.84%) OpenAI