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 19 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 68 105
Rank change year-on-year +37 +37 +42
Contract jobs citing Validation 2,801 1,039 747
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.03% 3.69% 2.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.08% 4.06% 2.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,645 619 380
10th Percentile £350 £354 £325
25th Percentile £413 £420 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -7.41%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £588
90th Percentile £705 £700 £651
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 78 92
10th Percentile £19.75 £20.50 £29.79
25th Percentile £28.25 £35.24 £47.88
Median hourly rate £53.50 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.69% +4.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £53.50 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -17.69% +4.00% -7.41%

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.

6 months to
19 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,550 25,580 27,549
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.13% 90.91% 86.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,832 16,199 16,775
10th Percentile £325 £295 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £417
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £639
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,107 1,630 1,072
10th Percentile £13.54 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.69 £20.30
Median hourly rate £38.00 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.09% -39.40% -7.78%
75th Percentile £67.25 £44.75 £66.61
90th Percentile £79.40 £67.50 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £37.24 £25.08 £39.59
% change year-on-year +48.51% -36.66% -9.82%

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 19 October 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 19 October 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 19 October 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 +45 1,349 £525 - 1,340
North of England +50 382 £463 +2.78% 336
South East +9 339 £525 +5.00% 561
Midlands +42 325 £450 -5.26% 349
West Midlands +30 235 £451 -8.06% 212
North West +20 196 £469 +10.24% 172
South West +17 177 £525 -4.55% 263
Yorkshire +61 155 £471 -0.95% 106
East of England -2 151 £475 -6.40% 355
East Midlands +37 87 £425 -5.56% 137
North East -17 36 £425 -11.92% 58
Validation
UK

Validation Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Migration27.4%768
2Stakeholder Management22.9%641
3CI/CD21.1%590
4Agile19.2%537
5Data Migration16.2%453
6User Acceptance Testing16.0%448
7Data Modelling15.9%444
8Analytics15.2%425
8Problem-Solving15.2%425
10Data Validation15.1%424
11AI14.6%410
12Test Automation14.4%402
13DevOps14.2%398
14Continuous Improvement14.0%391
15ETL11.8%331
16Data Pipeline10.4%291
17Data Analysis10.2%287
18Stakeholder Engagement10.2%286
19Data Governance10.0%280
20Business Intelligence9.9%277