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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 56 113 129
Rank change year-on-year +57 +16 +8
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,332 604 705
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.13% 2.27% 1.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.68% 2.54% 2.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 318 395
10th Percentile £356 £337 £317
25th Percentile £413 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £614 £612
90th Percentile £700 £706 £741
UK median daily rate £500 £511 £530
% change year-on-year -2.20% -3.54% -2.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 43 125
10th Percentile £31.53 £29.20 £37.89
25th Percentile £42.36 £46.88 £55.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.96% -14.76% +7.91%
75th Percentile £67.69 £63.75 £84.36
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.20 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £66.74
% change year-on-year +12.96% -13.78% +6.70%

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 28,450 23,808 32,355
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.12% 89.33% 87.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,222 14,593 21,730
10th Percentile £305 £310 £300
25th Percentile £409 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £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 1,765 770 1,701
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £17.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £38.16
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -8.27% +9.67%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.01 £63.29
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -13.33% +17.19%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +79 631 £513 -2.38% 186
North of England +30 173 £423 -2.87% 180
South East +13 159 £500 - 330
Midlands +7 115 £519 +9.16% 157
North West +16 110 £400 -3.03% 68
South West +9 110 £475 -18.24% 158
East of England +15 94 £482 +20.44% 176
West Midlands +10 94 £517 +8.79% 80
Yorkshire -12 49 £487 +15.95% 85
East Midlands -15 21 £550 +83.33% 75
North East -5 14 £475 -34.48% 28
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 52 (3.90%) Confluence
2 29 (2.18%) Apache Spark
2 29 (2.18%) SAS
3 28 (2.10%) SharePoint
4 20 (1.50%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (1.05%) Skype for Business
6 12 (0.90%) Apache
7 9 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
8 8 (0.60%) CMS
9 7 (0.53%) Mattermost
10 6 (0.45%) Appian
10 6 (0.45%) OpenStack
11 4 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.30%) Anypoint
11 4 (0.30%) Jupyter
12 3 (0.23%) GeoServer
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 3 (0.23%) WebSphere
Applications
1 70 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (2.85%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.73%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.60%) Chatbot
6 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
7 6 (0.45%) Sketch
8 4 (0.30%) Notion
9 3 (0.23%) LaTeX
9 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.15%) Simulink
11 1 (0.075%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.075%) CATIA
11 1 (0.075%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.075%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.075%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.075%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 62 (4.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.98%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.83%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.83%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.83%) SAP EHS
3 11 (0.83%) SAP FI
4 9 (0.68%) Aladdin
4 9 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.60%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 7 (0.53%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.53%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 7 (0.53%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 7 (0.53%) SAP MDG
7 6 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.45%) Markit EDM
7 6 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS R12
8 5 (0.38%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 316 (23.72%) Azure
2 152 (11.41%) AWS
3 123 (9.23%) Azure DevOps
4 108 (8.11%) Power Platform
5 57 (4.28%) GCP
6 54 (4.05%) GitHub
7 50 (3.75%) SaaS
8 47 (3.53%) Entra ID
9 36 (2.70%) Serverless
10 35 (2.63%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
12 27 (2.03%) OCI
13 26 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
13 26 (1.95%) Snowflake
14 24 (1.80%) OpenShift
15 17 (1.28%) Amazon S3
15 17 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
16 16 (1.20%) Azure Functions
16 16 (1.20%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 34 (2.55%) Firewall
2 27 (2.03%) TCP/IP
3 20 (1.50%) Ethernet
4 19 (1.43%) DNS
5 18 (1.35%) Network Security
6 17 (1.28%) WAN
7 15 (1.13%) VPN
8 14 (1.05%) Skype
9 13 (0.98%) VLAN
9 13 (0.98%) Wireless
10 12 (0.90%) BGP
10 12 (0.90%) Internet
11 11 (0.83%) LAN
11 11 (0.83%) MPLS
11 11 (0.83%) OSPF
11 11 (0.83%) TACACS
12 10 (0.75%) DMARC
13 8 (0.60%) DKIM
13 8 (0.60%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.60%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (7.58%) Power BI
2 58 (4.35%) Metadata
3 54 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
4 37 (2.78%) Tableau
5 32 (2.40%) SQL Server
6 29 (2.18%) Data Lake
7 23 (1.73%) NoSQL
8 21 (1.58%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 20 (1.50%) Oracle Database
10 17 (1.28%) Relational Database
11 16 (1.20%) Oracle Reports
11 16 (1.20%) Pinecone
12 15 (1.13%) Big Data
13 14 (1.05%) Amazon Redshift
13 14 (1.05%) Elasticsearch
14 13 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
15 12 (0.90%) Delta Lake
15 12 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 11 (0.83%) BigQuery
17 10 (0.75%) Looker
Development Applications
1 145 (10.89%) JIRA
2 67 (5.03%) Jenkins
3 62 (4.65%) Git
4 39 (2.93%) GitLab
5 38 (2.85%) Selenium
6 36 (2.70%) Postman
7 32 (2.40%) Oracle APEX
8 20 (1.50%) Rational DOORS
8 20 (1.50%) Visual Studio
9 15 (1.13%) JMeter
10 14 (1.05%) Eclipse
11 13 (0.98%) TestRail
12 12 (0.90%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.83%) Bitbucket
13 11 (0.83%) MLflow
14 10 (0.75%) JUnit
14 10 (0.75%) Zephyr
15 9 (0.68%) REST Assured
16 8 (0.60%) SpecFlow
17 6 (0.45%) Cypress.io
General
1 509 (38.21%) Social Skills
2 372 (27.93%) Finance
3 293 (22.00%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (9.76%) Public Sector
5 110 (8.26%) Banking
6 65 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (3.75%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.10%) Electronics
8 28 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
8 28 (2.10%) Marketing
8 28 (2.10%) Military
9 27 (2.03%) Telecoms
10 26 (1.95%) Front Office
10 26 (1.95%) Manufacturing
11 24 (1.80%) Investment Banking
12 23 (1.73%) Aerospace
12 23 (1.73%) Pharmaceutical
13 21 (1.58%) Financial Institution
14 20 (1.50%) Legal
15 19 (1.43%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 264 (19.82%) Analyst
2 138 (10.36%) Senior
3 119 (8.93%) Business Analyst
4 113 (8.48%) Lead
5 104 (7.81%) Consultant
6 101 (7.58%) Developer
7 72 (5.41%) Architect
8 62 (4.65%) Data Analyst
9 55 (4.13%) Data Engineer
10 51 (3.83%) Software Engineer
11 43 (3.23%) Project Manager
12 41 (3.08%) Tester
13 34 (2.55%) SAP Consultant
13 34 (2.55%) Senior Developer
14 33 (2.48%) Senior Analyst
15 30 (2.25%) Test Analyst
15 30 (2.25%) Test Manager
16 29 (2.18%) Data Scientist
17 26 (1.95%) QA Engineer
18 25 (1.88%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (6.46%) REST
2 55 (4.13%) JSON
3 45 (3.38%) Oracle Fusion
3 45 (3.38%) XML
4 40 (3.00%) Middleware
5 36 (2.70%) OAuth
6 35 (2.63%) SOAP
7 32 (2.40%) Node.js
8 28 (2.10%) RESTful
9 27 (2.03%) .NET
9 27 (2.03%) Kafka
9 27 (2.03%) PySpark
9 27 (2.03%) PyTorch
10 26 (1.95%) Web Services
11 24 (1.80%) TensorFlow
12 23 (1.73%) Playwright
12 23 (1.73%) Swagger
13 20 (1.50%) JWT
13 20 (1.50%) SAP Fiori
14 19 (1.43%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 72 (5.41%) Legacy Systems
2 56 (4.20%) Data Structures
3 49 (3.68%) Onboarding
4 48 (3.60%) Product Ownership
5 37 (2.78%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.40%) Cloud Native
7 25 (1.88%) Algorithms
7 25 (1.88%) Data Centre
8 22 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
8 22 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (1.43%) Derivative
9 19 (1.43%) FPGA
10 15 (1.13%) Replication
11 13 (0.98%) Distributed Systems
11 13 (0.98%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 12 (0.90%) PCIe
13 11 (0.83%) Embedded Systems
13 11 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (0.83%) Fixed Income
13 11 (0.83%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 95 (7.13%) Linux
2 76 (5.71%) Windows
3 30 (2.25%) Unix
4 11 (0.83%) Android
5 7 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.45%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.38%) zOS
8 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.23%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.15%) Debian
10 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.075%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.075%) VMS
11 1 (0.075%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 385 (28.90%) Agile
2 311 (23.35%) Problem-Solving
3 289 (21.70%) Migration
4 259 (19.44%) DevOps
5 224 (16.82%) CI/CD
6 220 (16.52%) Stakeholder Management
7 209 (15.69%) Data Validation
8 199 (14.94%) Analytics
9 164 (12.31%) Test Automation
10 156 (11.71%) Data Modelling
10 156 (11.71%) User Acceptance Testing
11 150 (11.26%) Data Migration
12 148 (11.11%) AI
13 142 (10.66%) ETL
14 137 (10.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 128 (9.61%) Business Intelligence
16 118 (8.86%) Data Analysis
17 115 (8.63%) Data Governance
18 114 (8.56%) Continuous Improvement
19 110 (8.26%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 344 (25.83%) SQL
2 295 (22.15%) Python
3 94 (7.06%) JavaScript
4 79 (5.93%) Java
5 60 (4.50%) C#
6 51 (3.83%) PL/SQL
7 47 (3.53%) C++
8 43 (3.23%) Bash
9 41 (3.08%) PowerShell
10 31 (2.33%) C
11 27 (2.03%) R
12 24 (1.80%) TypeScript
13 16 (1.20%) Groovy
14 14 (1.05%) Shell Script
15 12 (0.90%) Scala
16 11 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 10 (0.75%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.68%) ABAP
18 9 (0.68%) Ada
19 8 (0.60%) VBA
Qualifications
1 288 (21.62%) Security Cleared
2 210 (15.77%) SC Cleared
3 133 (9.98%) Degree
4 53 (3.98%) Computer Science Degree
5 35 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 33 (2.48%) DV Cleared
7 32 (2.40%) Master's Degree
8 28 (2.10%) PMI Certification
9 24 (1.80%) ISTQB
10 21 (1.58%) PMP
11 19 (1.43%) AWS Certification
12 15 (1.13%) CBAP
13 13 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (0.98%) Oracle Certification
14 10 (0.75%) Azure Certification
15 9 (0.68%) CCIE
15 9 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.68%) OCA
16 7 (0.53%) CCNP
16 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (12.46%) QA
2 164 (12.31%) Data Quality
3 77 (5.78%) GDPR
4 54 (4.05%) NIST
5 32 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.18%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.35%) IFRS
8 14 (1.05%) IFRS 17
9 13 (0.98%) EU AI Act
10 11 (0.83%) GxP
11 10 (0.75%) Def Stans
11 10 (0.75%) MiFID
11 10 (0.75%) MISRA
11 10 (0.75%) NCSC
12 9 (0.68%) DO-178B
12 9 (0.68%) PCI DSS
12 9 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
13 7 (0.53%) GRC
14 6 (0.45%) GMP
System Software
1 55 (4.13%) Docker
2 45 (3.38%) Active Directory
3 27 (2.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (1.65%) Firmware
5 9 (0.68%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.45%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.45%) Postfix
8 5 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.30%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.30%) vSphere
10 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.23%) KVM
10 3 (0.23%) QEMU
11 2 (0.15%) Ceph
11 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 68 (5.11%) Kubernetes
2 59 (4.43%) Terraform
3 45 (3.38%) Ansible
4 17 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (1.05%) Kibana
5 14 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (1.05%) Puppet
6 10 (0.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.75%) SCCM
7 9 (0.68%) Grafana
8 7 (0.53%) HP SiteScope
8 7 (0.53%) SCOM
9 6 (0.45%) Nmap
10 5 (0.38%) Nessus
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.23%) Argo
12 3 (0.23%) CloudHub
12 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.23%) Istio
12 3 (0.23%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 187 (14.04%) Microsoft
2 146 (10.96%) Oracle
3 100 (7.51%) SAP
4 57 (4.28%) ServiceNow
5 49 (3.68%) Databricks
6 39 (2.93%) Cisco
7 35 (2.63%) Splunk
8 34 (2.55%) VMware
9 33 (2.48%) Google
9 33 (2.48%) Salesforce
10 20 (1.50%) Workday
11 19 (1.43%) IBM
11 19 (1.43%) MuleSoft
12 17 (1.28%) Murex
13 15 (1.13%) Bloomberg
13 15 (1.13%) Palo Alto
14 13 (0.98%) Informatica
15 12 (0.90%) Adobe
16 11 (0.83%) Avaloq
16 11 (0.83%) Sage