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 6 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 53 111 119
Rank change year-on-year +58 +8 +14
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,434 627 754
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.29% 2.39% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.90% 2.66% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 883 337 427
10th Percentile £336 £337 £317
25th Percentile £404 £409 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.24% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £611
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £491 £516 £538
% change year-on-year -4.89% -3.95% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 35 151
10th Percentile £32.13 £27.35 £30.70
25th Percentile £43.61 £47.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.75 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.55% -11.15% +2.80%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £76.13
90th Percentile £74.25 £66.90 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +12.55% -11.15% +2.80%

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 29,282 23,546 33,173
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.65% 89.63% 87.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,737 14,474 22,202
10th Percentile £306 £310 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £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 1,833 746 1,958
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £16.69
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -1.41% +2.66%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.01 £61.96
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +9.38%

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 6 February 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 6 February 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 6 February 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 +79 679 £513 -2.84% 249
North of England +26 192 £420 - 134
South East +9 174 £500 - 188
North West +24 126 £400 +1.27% 84
Midlands +17 124 £500 +2.15% 116
South West +13 120 £475 -17.39% 76
West Midlands +18 104 £500 +2.04% 77
East of England +13 91 £477 +19.13% 85
Yorkshire -9 56 £487 -0.10% 41
East Midlands -13 20 £475 +58.33% 39
North East -7 12 £450 -37.93% 9
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 (3.77%) Confluence
2 30 (2.09%) Apache Spark
2 30 (2.09%) SharePoint
3 29 (2.02%) SAS
4 23 (1.60%) Apache Airflow
5 19 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (0.98%) Skype for Business
7 12 (0.84%) Apache
8 9 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2013
9 8 (0.56%) Appian
9 8 (0.56%) CMS
10 7 (0.49%) Mattermost
11 5 (0.35%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.28%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.28%) Jupyter
12 4 (0.28%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
13 3 (0.21%) ArcGIS
13 3 (0.21%) Smallworld
13 3 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 77 (5.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (1.74%) MS Visio
4 16 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.56%) Sketch
6 7 (0.49%) Chatbot
6 7 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.28%) Notion
8 3 (0.21%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.14%) Simulink
10 1 (0.070%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.070%) CATIA
10 1 (0.070%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.070%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.070%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.070%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 63 (4.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.19%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.77%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.77%) SAP EHS
4 9 (0.63%) Aladdin
4 9 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.56%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 8 (0.56%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.56%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 8 (0.56%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
6 7 (0.49%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.49%) SAP MDG
6 7 (0.49%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 6 (0.42%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.42%) Payment Gateway
7 6 (0.42%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.35%) Markit EDM
Cloud Services
1 334 (23.29%) Azure
2 162 (11.30%) AWS
3 126 (8.79%) Azure DevOps
4 114 (7.95%) Power Platform
5 61 (4.25%) GCP
6 60 (4.18%) GitHub
7 54 (3.77%) Entra ID
8 46 (3.21%) SaaS
9 41 (2.86%) Serverless
10 40 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
11 33 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
12 32 (2.23%) Snowflake
13 29 (2.02%) OCI
14 27 (1.88%) Microsoft 365
15 25 (1.74%) Amazon S3
16 24 (1.67%) OpenShift
17 19 (1.32%) AWS Lambda
18 17 (1.19%) Azure Functions
18 17 (1.19%) Dynamics 365
19 16 (1.12%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 47 (3.28%) Firewall
2 24 (1.67%) TCP/IP
3 21 (1.46%) Network Security
4 18 (1.26%) Ethernet
5 16 (1.12%) VPN
6 15 (1.05%) VLAN
7 14 (0.98%) Skype
7 14 (0.98%) WAN
7 14 (0.98%) Wireless
8 13 (0.91%) BGP
9 12 (0.84%) DNS
9 12 (0.84%) LAN
9 12 (0.84%) MPLS
9 12 (0.84%) OSPF
10 10 (0.70%) TACACS
11 7 (0.49%) HTTP
12 6 (0.42%) Cisco ASA
12 6 (0.42%) Cisco ISE
12 6 (0.42%) Internet
12 6 (0.42%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (7.53%) Power BI
2 63 (4.39%) Metadata
3 53 (3.70%) Data Warehouse
4 38 (2.65%) SQL Server
5 37 (2.58%) Tableau
6 30 (2.09%) Data Lake
7 26 (1.81%) NoSQL
8 19 (1.32%) Amazon Redshift
8 19 (1.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 18 (1.26%) Oracle Database
10 17 (1.19%) Pinecone
10 17 (1.19%) Relational Database
11 15 (1.05%) Oracle Reports
12 14 (0.98%) Big Data
12 14 (0.98%) Delta Lake
12 14 (0.98%) Elasticsearch
13 13 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 12 (0.84%) BigQuery
15 10 (0.70%) Looker
Development Applications
1 148 (10.32%) JIRA
2 68 (4.74%) Git
3 64 (4.46%) Jenkins
4 41 (2.86%) GitLab
5 40 (2.79%) Postman
6 39 (2.72%) Selenium
7 32 (2.23%) Oracle APEX
8 24 (1.67%) Rational DOORS
9 17 (1.19%) Visual Studio
10 15 (1.05%) JMeter
11 13 (0.91%) Cucumber
11 13 (0.91%) MLflow
11 13 (0.91%) TestRail
12 11 (0.77%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.77%) JUnit
13 10 (0.70%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.70%) Zephyr
14 9 (0.63%) Bitbucket
15 7 (0.49%) SpecFlow
16 6 (0.42%) Gatling
General
1 539 (37.59%) Social Skills
2 415 (28.94%) Finance
3 306 (21.34%) Analytical Skills
4 129 (9.00%) Public Sector
5 125 (8.72%) Banking
6 77 (5.37%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (3.28%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
8 30 (2.09%) Marketing
9 29 (2.02%) Front Office
9 29 (2.02%) Manufacturing
9 29 (2.02%) Telecoms
10 28 (1.95%) Electronics
11 27 (1.88%) Aerospace
11 27 (1.88%) Military
12 22 (1.53%) Investment Banking
12 22 (1.53%) Legal
13 21 (1.46%) Financial Institution
13 21 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
13 21 (1.46%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 286 (19.94%) Analyst
2 149 (10.39%) Senior
3 129 (9.00%) Business Analyst
4 126 (8.79%) Lead
5 104 (7.25%) Consultant
5 104 (7.25%) Developer
6 83 (5.79%) Architect
7 69 (4.81%) Data Analyst
8 65 (4.53%) Data Engineer
9 49 (3.42%) Software Engineer
10 44 (3.07%) Project Manager
11 43 (3.00%) Tester
12 37 (2.58%) Senior Analyst
13 34 (2.37%) Senior Developer
13 34 (2.37%) Test Analyst
14 32 (2.23%) Test Manager
15 31 (2.16%) SAP Consultant
16 28 (1.95%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (1.88%) Embedded Engineer
18 26 (1.81%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (6.56%) REST
2 63 (4.39%) JSON
3 48 (3.35%) XML
4 47 (3.28%) Oracle Fusion
5 45 (3.14%) OAuth
6 39 (2.72%) SOAP
7 38 (2.65%) Middleware
8 34 (2.37%) Kafka
9 31 (2.16%) .NET
10 30 (2.09%) Node.js
10 30 (2.09%) PyTorch
10 30 (2.09%) RESTful
11 28 (1.95%) Swagger
12 27 (1.88%) PySpark
12 27 (1.88%) TensorFlow
12 27 (1.88%) Web Services
13 22 (1.53%) JWT
13 22 (1.53%) Pandas
13 22 (1.53%) Playwright
13 22 (1.53%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.79%) Legacy Systems
2 57 (3.97%) Data Structures
3 54 (3.77%) Onboarding
4 52 (3.63%) Product Ownership
5 40 (2.79%) Cloud Native
5 40 (2.79%) Management Information System
6 26 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
6 26 (1.81%) Data Centre
7 24 (1.67%) Algorithms
8 23 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
9 20 (1.39%) Derivative
10 19 (1.32%) FPGA
11 17 (1.19%) Replication
12 16 (1.12%) Distributed Systems
12 16 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
13 14 (0.98%) Credit Risk
13 14 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
14 13 (0.91%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 13 (0.91%) Security Posture
15 12 (0.84%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 85 (5.93%) Linux
2 83 (5.79%) Windows
3 28 (1.95%) Unix
4 11 (0.77%) Android
5 6 (0.42%) zOS
6 5 (0.35%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.35%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.28%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.14%) Debian
9 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.070%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.070%) pSOS
10 1 (0.070%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 390 (27.20%) Agile
2 342 (23.85%) Problem-Solving
3 322 (22.45%) Migration
4 260 (18.13%) DevOps
5 249 (17.36%) Stakeholder Management
6 227 (15.83%) CI/CD
7 224 (15.62%) Data Validation
8 217 (15.13%) Analytics
9 180 (12.55%) Test Automation
10 178 (12.41%) User Acceptance Testing
11 172 (11.99%) Data Modelling
12 170 (11.85%) Data Migration
13 167 (11.65%) AI
14 156 (10.88%) ETL
15 145 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 143 (9.97%) Business Intelligence
17 128 (8.93%) Continuous Improvement
18 126 (8.79%) Data Analysis
18 126 (8.79%) Data Governance
19 116 (8.09%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 367 (25.59%) SQL
2 313 (21.83%) Python
3 93 (6.49%) JavaScript
4 79 (5.51%) Java
5 59 (4.11%) C#
6 51 (3.56%) PL/SQL
7 47 (3.28%) PowerShell
8 45 (3.14%) Bash
8 45 (3.14%) C++
9 39 (2.72%) C
10 26 (1.81%) TypeScript
11 24 (1.67%) R
12 17 (1.19%) Groovy
13 16 (1.12%) Ada
13 16 (1.12%) Bicep
14 14 (0.98%) Shell Script
15 13 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.84%) Scala
17 11 (0.77%) T-SQL
18 8 (0.56%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 307 (21.41%) Security Cleared
2 223 (15.55%) SC Cleared
3 148 (10.32%) Degree
4 55 (3.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
6 36 (2.51%) DV Cleared
6 36 (2.51%) Master's Degree
7 28 (1.95%) PMI Certification
8 27 (1.88%) ISTQB
9 21 (1.46%) PMP
10 20 (1.39%) AWS Certification
11 16 (1.12%) CBAP
12 15 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (0.91%) Oracle Certification
14 11 (0.77%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.70%) CCIE
15 10 (0.70%) CCNP
16 9 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
16 9 (0.63%) OCA
17 8 (0.56%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 189 (13.18%) Data Quality
2 172 (11.99%) QA
3 78 (5.44%) GDPR
4 60 (4.18%) NIST
5 38 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (2.16%) Accessibility
7 19 (1.32%) IFRS
8 17 (1.19%) IFRS 17
9 15 (1.05%) Def Stans
9 15 (1.05%) PCI DSS
10 13 (0.91%) EU AI Act
11 12 (0.84%) NCSC
12 11 (0.77%) PMO
13 10 (0.70%) COBIT
13 10 (0.70%) GRC
13 10 (0.70%) GxP
13 10 (0.70%) MiFID
13 10 (0.70%) MISRA
14 9 (0.63%) DO-178B
15 8 (0.56%) PSD2
System Software
1 57 (3.97%) Docker
2 44 (3.07%) Active Directory
3 30 (2.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.46%) Firmware
5 13 (0.91%) VMware NSX
6 10 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.42%) Hyper-V
9 4 (0.28%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.28%) vSphere
10 3 (0.21%) KVM
10 3 (0.21%) QEMU
11 2 (0.14%) Ceph
11 2 (0.14%) Lustre
11 2 (0.14%) NFS
11 2 (0.14%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.14%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.14%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 78 (5.44%) Kubernetes
2 68 (4.74%) Terraform
3 42 (2.93%) Ansible
4 21 (1.46%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (1.26%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (1.05%) Kibana
7 14 (0.98%) Puppet
7 14 (0.98%) SCCM
8 12 (0.84%) Grafana
9 11 (0.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.70%) Prometheus
11 8 (0.56%) Nmap
11 8 (0.56%) SCOM
12 7 (0.49%) HP SiteScope
13 6 (0.42%) Nessus
14 4 (0.28%) Iperf
15 3 (0.21%) CloudHub
15 3 (0.21%) FortiGate
15 3 (0.21%) OMEGAMON
15 3 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 203 (14.16%) Microsoft
2 151 (10.53%) Oracle
3 110 (7.67%) SAP
4 58 (4.04%) ServiceNow
5 56 (3.91%) Databricks
6 42 (2.93%) Cisco
6 42 (2.93%) Splunk
7 36 (2.51%) VMware
8 35 (2.44%) Salesforce
9 34 (2.37%) Google
10 23 (1.60%) Workday
11 19 (1.32%) Murex
11 19 (1.32%) Palo Alto
12 18 (1.26%) IBM
12 18 (1.26%) MuleSoft
13 16 (1.12%) Informatica
14 14 (0.98%) Sage
15 13 (0.91%) Bloomberg
15 13 (0.91%) CheckPoint
15 13 (0.91%) Fortinet