Validation Contracts in England

Validation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring Validation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Validation over the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 70 111 144
Rank change year-on-year +41 +33 +38
Contract jobs citing Validation 931 769 814
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 3.57% 2.06% 1.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.92% 2.41% 1.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 575 380 477
10th Percentile £353 £325 £374
25th Percentile £422 £400 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £565
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -11.50% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £589 £718
90th Percentile £700 £675 £1,000
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% +5.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 177 135
10th Percentile £18.90 £27.55 £42.50
25th Percentile £37.25 £47.83 £54.18
Median hourly rate £60.00 £60.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - -4.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £65.50 £70.66 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.75 £75.25 £89.00
UK median hourly rate £57.75 £60.00 £63.23
% change year-on-year -3.75% -5.11% +26.46%

All Process and 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 23,765 31,961 42,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 91.03% 85.51% 89.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,278 20,746 29,768
10th Percentile £300 £305 £325
25th Percentile £406 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £505 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% +1.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,187 2,306 1,553
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.79 £11.87
25th Percentile £17.87 £16.06 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.12 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -34.02% +1.65% +44.23%
75th Percentile £55.00 £61.60 £64.63
90th Percentile £72.50 £73.75 £75.82
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -32.93% +4.17% +38.46%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Validation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Validation in England

Validation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Validation in England.

Daily rate trend for Validation in England

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in England

Validation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Validation in England.

Hourly rate trend for Validation in England

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

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 3 July 2025. 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 +94 437 £550 +10.00% 1,875
South East +42 158 £500 -4.76% 706
North of England +13 91 £450 - 489
South West -3 83 £575 +8.24% 363
East of England +4 66 £500 +2.56% 375
Midlands +4 63 £450 -17.77% 358
North West +22 60 £450 -8.16% 310
West Midlands -13 41 £403 -28.43% 253
Yorkshire -2 27 £414 -4.17% 149
East Midlands +12 21 £455 +12.22% 105
North East -1 5 £550 +10.00% 32
Validation
UK

Validation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 87 (9.34%) Confluence
2 20 (2.15%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.72%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.75%) Apache
6 6 (0.64%) SAS
7 5 (0.54%) Oracle Workflow
7 5 (0.54%) WebLogic
8 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.43%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.32%) Smallworld
10 2 (0.21%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.21%) Documentum
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle Spatial
10 2 (0.21%) TPMS
11 1 (0.11%) CICS
11 1 (0.11%) CMS
11 1 (0.11%) MS Project Server
11 1 (0.11%) Skype for Business
11 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
Applications
1 59 (6.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (3.76%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 9 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.86%) Simulink
6 6 (0.64%) Oracle Smart View
7 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.21%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.11%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.11%) CANalyzer
9 1 (0.11%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.11%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 31 (3.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (3.01%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (1.29%) Teamcenter
4 9 (0.97%) Oracle Payables
5 7 (0.75%) Oracle Assets
5 7 (0.75%) Oracle E-Business Tax
5 7 (0.75%) Oracle General Ledger
5 7 (0.75%) Payment Gateway
5 7 (0.75%) SAP MDG
6 5 (0.54%) Aladdin
6 5 (0.54%) SAP PM
7 4 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
7 4 (0.43%) Oracle EBS R12
7 4 (0.43%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
8 3 (0.32%) Bankmaster
8 3 (0.32%) Oracle Payroll
8 3 (0.32%) SAP CO
8 3 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
8 3 (0.32%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 110 (11.82%) Azure
2 79 (8.49%) AWS
3 66 (7.09%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.65%) GCP
5 33 (3.54%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (3.22%) OCI
7 28 (3.01%) SaaS
8 16 (1.72%) Cloud Computing
8 16 (1.72%) GitHub
9 15 (1.61%) Azure Data Factory
10 14 (1.50%) PaaS
10 14 (1.50%) Serverless
11 12 (1.29%) dbt
12 11 (1.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 11 (1.18%) Entra ID
13 10 (1.07%) Snowflake
14 9 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
14 9 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
15 7 (0.75%) Microsoft 365
16 6 (0.64%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 50 (5.37%) Firewall
2 35 (3.76%) VPN
3 26 (2.79%) BGP
4 22 (2.36%) Network Security
5 21 (2.26%) MPLS
6 18 (1.93%) OSPF
7 14 (1.50%) DNS
8 13 (1.40%) Ethernet
9 12 (1.29%) TCP/IP
10 11 (1.18%) 5G
11 10 (1.07%) IPsec
11 10 (1.07%) VoIP
12 9 (0.97%) Cisco IOS
12 9 (0.97%) PBX
12 9 (0.97%) SNMP
12 9 (0.97%) WAN
13 8 (0.86%) Unified Communications
13 8 (0.86%) Wireless
14 7 (0.75%) Cisco Nexus
14 7 (0.75%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (6.66%) Power BI
2 50 (5.37%) Data Warehouse
3 30 (3.22%) Oracle Reports
3 30 (3.22%) Tableau
4 20 (2.15%) SQL Server
5 17 (1.83%) NoSQL
6 16 (1.72%) Metadata
6 16 (1.72%) PostgreSQL
7 13 (1.40%) Amazon Redshift
7 13 (1.40%) Relational Database
8 10 (1.07%) Data Lake
8 10 (1.07%) Oracle Database
8 10 (1.07%) SAP Data Services
9 9 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
9 9 (0.97%) BigQuery
9 9 (0.97%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 9 (0.97%) Qlik Sense
10 7 (0.75%) Delta Lake
10 7 (0.75%) GIS
11 6 (0.64%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 120 (12.89%) JIRA
2 48 (5.16%) Git
3 46 (4.94%) Jenkins
4 28 (3.01%) Postman
5 18 (1.93%) Selenium
6 17 (1.83%) Bitbucket
7 14 (1.50%) Cucumber
7 14 (1.50%) Eclipse
7 14 (1.50%) GitLab
8 12 (1.29%) JMeter
8 12 (1.29%) Visual Studio
9 11 (1.18%) Cypress.io
10 9 (0.97%) Rational DOORS
11 7 (0.75%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.75%) REST Assured
11 7 (0.75%) Robot Framework
12 6 (0.64%) GoogleTest
12 6 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
12 6 (0.64%) SoapUI
12 6 (0.64%) Zephyr
General
1 385 (41.35%) Social Skills
2 232 (24.92%) Finance
3 209 (22.45%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (7.95%) Banking
5 57 (6.12%) Presentation Skills
6 45 (4.83%) Front Office
7 42 (4.51%) Public Sector
8 38 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
9 37 (3.97%) Telecoms
10 29 (3.11%) Marketing
11 26 (2.79%) Investment Banking
11 26 (2.79%) Retail
12 20 (2.15%) Organisational Skills
13 19 (2.04%) Military
14 18 (1.93%) Electronics
14 18 (1.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 17 (1.83%) Aerospace
16 15 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
17 13 (1.40%) General Ledger
17 13 (1.40%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 190 (20.41%) Analyst
2 94 (10.10%) Senior
3 85 (9.13%) Business Analyst
4 77 (8.27%) Consultant
5 71 (7.63%) Lead
6 60 (6.44%) Data Analyst
7 43 (4.62%) Developer
8 41 (4.40%) Data Engineer
9 39 (4.19%) Network Engineer
10 35 (3.76%) Architect
11 32 (3.44%) Systems Engineer
12 29 (3.11%) Test Engineer
13 28 (3.01%) Senior Analyst
14 26 (2.79%) Project Manager
15 24 (2.58%) Tester
16 22 (2.36%) Software Engineer
16 22 (2.36%) Test Analyst
17 19 (2.04%) Data Consultant
18 16 (1.72%) DevOps Engineer
18 16 (1.72%) Migration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (3.87%) REST
2 32 (3.44%) Web Services
3 21 (2.26%) Oracle Fusion
3 21 (2.26%) SOAP
4 19 (2.04%) Kafka
4 19 (2.04%) RESTful
5 17 (1.83%) Node.js
6 15 (1.61%) Middleware
7 13 (1.40%) CSS
7 13 (1.40%) XML
8 12 (1.29%) HTML
8 12 (1.29%) JSON
9 11 (1.18%) Flash
9 11 (1.18%) Pandas
10 7 (0.75%) Lightning Web Components
10 7 (0.75%) NETCONF
10 7 (0.75%) React
10 7 (0.75%) RESTCONF
10 7 (0.75%) SAP Fiori
11 6 (0.64%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 47 (5.05%) Legacy Systems
2 37 (3.97%) Product Ownership
3 36 (3.87%) Management Information System
4 29 (3.11%) Data Structures
5 28 (3.01%) Onboarding
6 21 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (2.04%) FPGA
8 17 (1.83%) Data Centre
8 17 (1.83%) Derivative
9 16 (1.72%) Cloud Native
10 15 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (1.61%) Verilog
11 14 (1.50%) Algorithms
12 13 (1.40%) Replication
12 13 (1.40%) SCADA
13 12 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
13 12 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (1.18%) Clustering
14 11 (1.18%) Credit Risk
14 11 (1.18%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 74 (7.95%) Linux
2 56 (6.02%) Windows
3 25 (2.69%) Unix
4 18 (1.93%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.97%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.43%) Android
7 3 (0.32%) VMS
8 2 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.21%) zOS
9 1 (0.11%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (26.42%) Problem-Solving
2 224 (24.06%) Migration
3 221 (23.74%) Agile
4 133 (14.29%) Data Validation
5 128 (13.75%) Data Migration
6 107 (11.49%) Test Automation
7 106 (11.39%) User Acceptance Testing
8 101 (10.85%) Analytics
9 99 (10.63%) Data Analysis
9 99 (10.63%) ETL
10 97 (10.42%) Stakeholder Management
11 96 (10.31%) CI/CD
12 95 (10.20%) DevOps
13 93 (9.99%) Business Intelligence
14 89 (9.56%) Data Modelling
15 75 (8.06%) Data Governance
16 67 (7.20%) Computer Science
17 66 (7.09%) Project Management
17 66 (7.09%) Verification and Validation
17 66 (7.09%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 215 (23.09%) SQL
2 178 (19.12%) Python
3 45 (4.83%) Java
4 31 (3.33%) JavaScript
5 28 (3.01%) PL/SQL
6 27 (2.90%) C++
7 26 (2.79%) Bash
7 26 (2.79%) PowerShell
8 23 (2.47%) C#
9 19 (2.04%) Shell Script
10 16 (1.72%) R
10 16 (1.72%) Tcl
11 15 (1.61%) SystemVerilog
12 12 (1.29%) VBA
13 10 (1.07%) Apex Code
13 10 (1.07%) TypeScript
14 9 (0.97%) MATLAB
14 9 (0.97%) Scala
15 8 (0.86%) Perl
16 7 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 177 (19.01%) Security Cleared
2 143 (15.36%) SC Cleared
3 132 (14.18%) Degree
4 59 (6.34%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (5.37%) CCNP
6 37 (3.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 31 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 29 (3.11%) DV Cleared
9 27 (2.90%) Master's Degree
10 25 (2.69%) BPSS Clearance
11 23 (2.47%) CCNA
12 15 (1.61%) PhD
13 13 (1.40%) AWS Certification
13 13 (1.40%) ISTQB
14 11 (1.18%) CBAP
14 11 (1.18%) CISSP
15 10 (1.07%) OCA
15 10 (1.07%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (1.07%) RHCA
15 10 (1.07%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (10.63%) Data Quality
2 87 (9.34%) QA
3 22 (2.36%) MiFID
4 18 (1.93%) GDPR
5 14 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.40%) EMIR
7 11 (1.18%) NIST
8 10 (1.07%) IFRS
9 9 (0.97%) IFRS 9
9 9 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 8 (0.86%) GxP
10 8 (0.86%) PMO
11 7 (0.75%) COBIT
12 6 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 17025
13 5 (0.54%) Accessibility
13 5 (0.54%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.54%) SLA
14 4 (0.43%) GRC
14 4 (0.43%) HIPAA
14 4 (0.43%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 49 (5.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (3.01%) VMware ESXi
3 18 (1.93%) Active Directory
4 15 (1.61%) VMware NSX
5 13 (1.40%) Docker
6 11 (1.18%) vSphere
7 8 (0.86%) Firmware
8 7 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.32%) OpenAM
10 2 (0.21%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.21%) iptables
11 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.11%) KVM
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.11%) QEMU
11 1 (0.11%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.11%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.11%) Xen
Systems Management
1 50 (5.37%) Ansible
2 28 (3.01%) vCenter Server
3 23 (2.47%) Kubernetes
4 16 (1.72%) Puppet
5 14 (1.50%) Terraform
6 13 (1.40%) Progress Chef
7 7 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.54%) Grafana
8 5 (0.54%) vRealize
9 4 (0.43%) EnCase
9 4 (0.43%) FTK
9 4 (0.43%) HP ALM
9 4 (0.43%) PowerCLI
10 3 (0.32%) SCCM
10 3 (0.32%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.21%) Cacti
11 2 (0.21%) Nagios
11 2 (0.21%) Netcool
11 2 (0.21%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 2 (0.21%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 119 (12.78%) Microsoft
2 114 (12.24%) Oracle
3 76 (8.16%) SAP
4 66 (7.09%) VMware
5 57 (6.12%) Cisco
6 45 (4.83%) Salesforce
7 39 (4.19%) ServiceNow
8 29 (3.11%) Atlassian
9 22 (2.36%) Google
10 18 (1.93%) Workday
11 17 (1.83%) Databricks
12 15 (1.61%) Xilinx
13 13 (1.40%) F5
14 12 (1.29%) Palo Alto
15 11 (1.18%) Informatica
15 11 (1.18%) Juniper
15 11 (1.18%) Nokia
16 10 (1.07%) Adobe
16 10 (1.07%) EMC
16 10 (1.07%) Fortinet