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 18 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 106 149
Rank change year-on-year +41 +43 -4
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,161 697 706
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.85% 2.27% 1.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.27% 2.62% 2.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 699 363 416
10th Percentile £356 £325 £350
25th Percentile £420 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £622 £599 £638
90th Percentile £688 £672 £840
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 76 92
10th Percentile £29.13 £28.00 £51.20
25th Percentile £41.25 £45.99 £56.28
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.53
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -7.45% +9.80%
75th Percentile £67.25 £66.00 £84.36
90th Percentile £76.80 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.50
% change year-on-year +4.00% -7.41% +9.76%

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 27,183 26,639 35,184
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.25% 86.82% 88.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,253 16,245 24,094
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £644 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,795 955 1,480
10th Percentile £14.75 £15.10 £14.49
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% -16.67% +28.57%
75th Percentile £47.06 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.94 £74.82 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +25.71%

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 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 18 November 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 +71 526 £525 +2.94% 477
South East +12 156 £500 +2.56% 271
North of England +24 125 £440 +4.76% 118
East of England +22 115 £500 +33.33% 152
South West 0 105 £475 -18.80% 133
Midlands -21 92 £492 -0.61% 105
North West +11 77 £425 -6.85% 85
West Midlands -20 74 £500 -3.61% 70
Yorkshire -16 36 £440 +4.76% 24
East Midlands -8 18 £430 +5.85% 34
North East +3 12 £515 -10.43% 10
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 46 (3.96%) Confluence
2 33 (2.84%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.07%) Apache Spark
4 23 (1.98%) Apache Airflow
5 22 (1.89%) SAS
6 16 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 15 (1.29%) Skype for Business
8 12 (1.03%) Apache
9 8 (0.69%) CMS
10 7 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
10 7 (0.60%) Mattermost
11 6 (0.52%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.34%) Smallworld
12 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
13 3 (0.26%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.26%) GeoServer
14 2 (0.17%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.17%) Documentum
14 2 (0.17%) Jupyter
Applications
1 80 (6.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.89%) MS Visio
4 18 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.52%) Chatbot
5 6 (0.52%) Sketch
5 6 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.17%) Simulink
8 1 (0.086%) CANalyzer
8 1 (0.086%) NASTRAN
8 1 (0.086%) Notion
8 1 (0.086%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.086%) Stateflow
8 1 (0.086%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (4.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.12%) Aladdin
3 11 (0.95%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.95%) SAP EHS
4 10 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
4 10 (0.86%) SAP FI
5 9 (0.78%) SAP MDG
6 7 (0.60%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 6 (0.52%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.43%) Oracle Payables
8 5 (0.43%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.34%) Markit EDM
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
9 4 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.34%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
10 3 (0.26%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 256 (22.05%) Azure
2 126 (10.85%) AWS
3 108 (9.30%) Azure DevOps
4 101 (8.70%) Power Platform
5 51 (4.39%) GCP
6 45 (3.88%) GitHub
7 35 (3.01%) SaaS
8 34 (2.93%) Entra ID
9 28 (2.41%) Serverless
10 26 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
10 26 (2.24%) Snowflake
11 25 (2.15%) Microsoft 365
12 24 (2.07%) OCI
13 23 (1.98%) OpenShift
14 18 (1.55%) Azure Data Factory
15 16 (1.38%) dbt
16 15 (1.29%) Azure Functions
16 15 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
17 14 (1.21%) OneDrive
18 13 (1.12%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 33 (2.84%) TCP/IP
2 32 (2.76%) Firewall
3 28 (2.41%) DNS
4 23 (1.98%) Ethernet
5 22 (1.89%) BGP
5 22 (1.89%) VPN
6 21 (1.81%) MPLS
7 16 (1.38%) WAN
8 15 (1.29%) 3GPP
8 15 (1.29%) Skype
9 14 (1.21%) LTE
10 13 (1.12%) OSPF
11 10 (0.86%) LAN
11 10 (0.86%) SSL
12 9 (0.78%) SD-WAN
12 9 (0.78%) SNMP
12 9 (0.78%) Wireless
13 8 (0.69%) DMARC
13 8 (0.69%) HTTP
13 8 (0.69%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (8.27%) Power BI
2 59 (5.08%) Data Warehouse
3 41 (3.53%) Metadata
4 36 (3.10%) Tableau
5 29 (2.50%) NoSQL
6 23 (1.98%) SQL Server
7 20 (1.72%) Relational Database
8 19 (1.64%) Oracle Database
9 18 (1.55%) Data Lake
10 17 (1.46%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 16 (1.38%) Oracle Reports
12 13 (1.12%) Amazon Redshift
12 13 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
12 13 (1.12%) BigQuery
13 12 (1.03%) Big Data
13 12 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
14 11 (0.95%) SAP HANA
15 9 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
15 9 (0.78%) Geospatial Data
15 9 (0.78%) Looker
Development Applications
1 121 (10.42%) JIRA
2 58 (5.00%) Git
2 58 (5.00%) Jenkins
3 33 (2.84%) Selenium
4 32 (2.76%) Oracle APEX
5 31 (2.67%) Postman
6 29 (2.50%) GitLab
7 28 (2.41%) Visual Studio
8 23 (1.98%) Eclipse
9 16 (1.38%) Rational DOORS
10 15 (1.29%) TestRail
11 14 (1.21%) Cucumber
12 12 (1.03%) JUnit
12 12 (1.03%) Zephyr
13 11 (0.95%) JMeter
14 10 (0.86%) Bitbucket
15 7 (0.60%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.60%) MLflow
15 7 (0.60%) REST Assured
16 6 (0.52%) SpecFlow
General
1 488 (42.03%) Social Skills
2 307 (26.44%) Finance
3 257 (22.14%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (9.22%) Public Sector
5 79 (6.80%) Banking
6 72 (6.20%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (4.74%) Presentation Skills
8 34 (2.93%) Military
9 32 (2.76%) Aerospace
10 29 (2.50%) Marketing
10 29 (2.50%) Telecoms
11 27 (2.33%) Front Office
12 26 (2.24%) Electronics
12 26 (2.24%) Investment Banking
13 25 (2.15%) Pharmaceutical
14 23 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
15 22 (1.89%) Manufacturing
16 20 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
17 15 (1.29%) Automotive
18 14 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 230 (19.81%) Analyst
2 112 (9.65%) Senior
3 102 (8.79%) Consultant
4 100 (8.61%) Developer
5 98 (8.44%) Business Analyst
6 87 (7.49%) Lead
7 65 (5.60%) Data Analyst
8 48 (4.13%) Architect
9 47 (4.05%) Software Engineer
10 44 (3.79%) Tester
11 38 (3.27%) Data Engineer
12 35 (3.01%) Senior Developer
13 34 (2.93%) SAP Consultant
14 33 (2.84%) Data Scientist
15 28 (2.41%) Test Analyst
16 24 (2.07%) Project Manager
16 24 (2.07%) QA Engineer
17 21 (1.81%) C# Software Engineer
17 21 (1.81%) C++ Software Engineer
17 21 (1.81%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (5.08%) REST
2 42 (3.62%) JSON
3 36 (3.10%) Node.js
4 32 (2.76%) XML
5 30 (2.58%) Oracle Fusion
5 30 (2.58%) Web Services
6 28 (2.41%) RESTful
6 28 (2.41%) SOAP
7 27 (2.33%) .NET
8 19 (1.64%) SAP Fiori
9 18 (1.55%) Middleware
9 18 (1.55%) OAuth
10 16 (1.38%) Kafka
10 16 (1.38%) Playwright
10 16 (1.38%) PyTorch
11 14 (1.21%) TensorFlow
12 13 (1.12%) Pandas
12 13 (1.12%) React
13 12 (1.03%) PySpark
13 12 (1.03%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.13%) Legacy Systems
2 42 (3.62%) Product Ownership
3 40 (3.45%) Data Structures
4 36 (3.10%) Onboarding
5 35 (3.01%) Management Information System
6 31 (2.67%) FPGA
7 28 (2.41%) Cloud Native
8 24 (2.07%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
10 16 (1.38%) Algorithms
10 16 (1.38%) Derivative
10 16 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
10 16 (1.38%) IoT
11 15 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
11 15 (1.29%) NB-IoT
11 15 (1.29%) Virtual Team
12 13 (1.12%) SCADA
12 13 (1.12%) Security Posture
12 13 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (1.03%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 102 (8.79%) Linux
2 80 (6.89%) Windows
3 27 (2.33%) Unix
4 8 (0.69%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.43%) Android
7 4 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.34%) VMS
8 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.17%) zOS
9 1 (0.086%) Debian
9 1 (0.086%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.086%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.086%) MVS
9 1 (0.086%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.086%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 324 (27.91%) Agile
2 274 (23.60%) Problem-Solving
3 233 (20.07%) Migration
4 208 (17.92%) DevOps
5 194 (16.71%) CI/CD
6 178 (15.33%) Analytics
7 174 (14.99%) Data Validation
8 162 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
9 147 (12.66%) Test Automation
10 129 (11.11%) Data Migration
11 123 (10.59%) Business Intelligence
12 113 (9.73%) Data Analysis
13 112 (9.65%) Data Modelling
14 110 (9.47%) ETL
14 110 (9.47%) User Acceptance Testing
15 108 (9.30%) Data Governance
16 107 (9.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 103 (8.87%) Visualisation
18 102 (8.79%) AI
19 101 (8.70%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 290 (24.98%) SQL
2 268 (23.08%) Python
3 94 (8.10%) JavaScript
4 68 (5.86%) C#
5 64 (5.51%) Java
6 51 (4.39%) C++
7 47 (4.05%) PL/SQL
8 38 (3.27%) Bash
9 36 (3.10%) PowerShell
10 26 (2.24%) R
11 18 (1.55%) TypeScript
12 17 (1.46%) Shell Script
13 16 (1.38%) C
14 15 (1.29%) VBA
15 13 (1.12%) T-SQL
16 11 (0.95%) ABAP
16 11 (0.95%) Groovy
17 10 (0.86%) Tcl
18 9 (0.78%) Apex Code
19 8 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 265 (22.83%) Security Cleared
2 205 (17.66%) SC Cleared
3 133 (11.46%) Degree
4 35 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.67%) DV Cleared
6 26 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (2.24%) Master's Degree
7 23 (1.98%) ISTQB
8 19 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (1.55%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.46%) AWS Certification
11 15 (1.29%) PhD
12 12 (1.03%) CCNP
12 12 (1.03%) CISSP
13 11 (0.95%) CBAP
14 10 (0.86%) Oracle Certification
15 9 (0.78%) CCIE
15 9 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.78%) PMP
16 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 135 (11.63%) QA
2 126 (10.85%) Data Quality
3 50 (4.31%) GDPR
4 39 (3.36%) NIST
5 24 (2.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (1.81%) Accessibility
7 14 (1.21%) EU AI Act
8 11 (0.95%) MiFID
9 9 (0.78%) Def Stans
9 9 (0.78%) EMIR
10 8 (0.69%) COBIT
10 8 (0.69%) GxP
10 8 (0.69%) IFRS
10 8 (0.69%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.60%) PMO
12 6 (0.52%) MISRA
12 6 (0.52%) NCSC
12 6 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.43%) DO-178B
14 4 (0.34%) Basel III
System Software
1 46 (3.96%) Active Directory
2 38 (3.27%) Docker
3 35 (3.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.64%) VMware ESXi
5 15 (1.29%) Firmware
6 14 (1.21%) vSphere
7 9 (0.78%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.52%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.52%) Postfix
9 3 (0.26%) QEMU
9 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
10 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.086%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.086%) Hyper-V
11 1 (0.086%) KVM
11 1 (0.086%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.086%) Squid
11 1 (0.086%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.086%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 51 (4.39%) Kubernetes
2 47 (4.05%) Ansible
3 43 (3.70%) Terraform
4 14 (1.21%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.86%) SCCM
7 9 (0.78%) Nessus
8 8 (0.69%) Argo
8 8 (0.69%) Istio
8 8 (0.69%) SCOM
9 7 (0.60%) Grafana
9 7 (0.60%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.60%) Puppet
10 6 (0.52%) Kibana
10 6 (0.52%) Nmap
11 5 (0.43%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.43%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.34%) CASB
12 4 (0.34%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 191 (16.45%) Microsoft
2 136 (11.71%) Oracle
3 87 (7.49%) SAP
4 52 (4.48%) VMware
5 51 (4.39%) ServiceNow
6 40 (3.45%) Salesforce
7 35 (3.01%) Cisco
8 27 (2.33%) Splunk
9 25 (2.15%) Databricks
10 22 (1.89%) Google
10 22 (1.89%) Workday
11 14 (1.21%) Red Hat
11 14 (1.21%) Remedy
12 13 (1.12%) MuleSoft
13 11 (0.95%) CyberArk
13 11 (0.95%) EMC
13 11 (0.95%) IBM
14 10 (0.86%) F5
14 10 (0.86%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.78%) Murex