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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 60 110 141
Rank change year-on-year +50 +31 -1
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,185 692 703
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.85% 2.22% 1.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.29% 2.54% 2.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 713 351 422
10th Percentile £358 £320 £357
25th Percentile £419 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £620 £591 £638
90th Percentile £688 £650 £813
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 79 86
10th Percentile £31.50 £28.00 £51.25
25th Percentile £41.25 £45.22 £58.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £68.03
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -8.13% +10.62%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £87.65
90th Percentile £77.25 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.53
% change year-on-year +4.00% -7.45% +9.80%

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 27,627 27,254 34,345
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.85% 87.54% 88.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,569 16,646 23,463
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -4.53% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,791 1,000 1,454
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £14.68
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.29 £19.15
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +19.85%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.88
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.24% +25.37%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +75 546 £525 +5.00% 209
South East +11 159 £500 +14.29% 293
North of England +16 129 £425 -12.82% 67
East of England +19 114 £496 +32.29% 124
South West +1 103 £475 -17.39% 89
Midlands +4 93 £500 +19.40% 80
North West +19 82 £425 -7.86% 33
West Midlands -5 76 £503 +5.89% 54
Yorkshire -22 32 £400 -4.76% 26
East Midlands -6 17 £438 +9.38% 25
North East +5 15 £475 -32.14% 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 47 (3.97%) Confluence
2 29 (2.45%) SharePoint
3 26 (2.19%) Apache Spark
4 23 (1.94%) SAS
5 21 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (1.18%) Skype for Business
8 13 (1.10%) Apache
9 8 (0.68%) CMS
10 7 (0.59%) Exchange Server 2013
10 7 (0.59%) Mattermost
11 6 (0.51%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.34%) Smallworld
12 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
13 3 (0.25%) Anypoint
13 3 (0.25%) ArcGIS
13 3 (0.25%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.25%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
14 2 (0.17%) Jupyter
Applications
1 73 (6.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (3.21%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.86%) MS Visio
4 18 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.59%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.51%) Sketch
7 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.17%) Simulink
9 1 (0.084%) CANalyzer
9 1 (0.084%) NASTRAN
9 1 (0.084%) Notion
9 1 (0.084%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.084%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.084%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (4.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.10%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (1.01%) Aladdin
4 11 (0.93%) SAP EHS
4 11 (0.93%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
6 8 (0.68%) SAP MDG
7 7 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.59%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 6 (0.51%) SAP MM
9 5 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.34%) Markit EDM
10 4 (0.34%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 4 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
10 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.34%) SAP ERP
10 4 (0.34%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.25%) Algo Collateral
11 3 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
11 3 (0.25%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 273 (23.04%) Azure
2 130 (10.97%) AWS
3 115 (9.70%) Azure DevOps
4 105 (8.86%) Power Platform
5 54 (4.56%) GCP
6 47 (3.97%) GitHub
7 36 (3.04%) SaaS
8 34 (2.87%) Entra ID
9 28 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (2.36%) Serverless
10 26 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
11 25 (2.11%) Snowflake
12 23 (1.94%) OpenShift
13 21 (1.77%) Azure Data Factory
13 21 (1.77%) OCI
14 18 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
15 15 (1.27%) Azure Functions
15 15 (1.27%) dbt
16 14 (1.18%) OneDrive
16 14 (1.18%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.95%) Firewall
1 35 (2.95%) TCP/IP
2 27 (2.28%) DNS
3 22 (1.86%) Ethernet
4 20 (1.69%) VPN
5 19 (1.60%) BGP
6 18 (1.52%) MPLS
7 16 (1.35%) WAN
8 15 (1.27%) 3GPP
9 14 (1.18%) LTE
9 14 (1.18%) Skype
10 13 (1.10%) OSPF
11 11 (0.93%) Network Security
12 10 (0.84%) SSL
12 10 (0.84%) Wireless
13 9 (0.76%) LAN
13 9 (0.76%) SD-WAN
13 9 (0.76%) SNMP
13 9 (0.76%) VLAN
14 8 (0.68%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (8.44%) Power BI
2 57 (4.81%) Data Warehouse
3 48 (4.05%) Metadata
4 35 (2.95%) Tableau
5 27 (2.28%) NoSQL
6 24 (2.03%) SQL Server
7 21 (1.77%) Data Lake
8 20 (1.69%) Relational Database
9 19 (1.60%) Oracle Database
10 17 (1.43%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 15 (1.27%) Oracle Reports
12 14 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
12 14 (1.18%) BigQuery
13 13 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
14 12 (1.01%) Big Data
15 11 (0.93%) Amazon RDS
15 11 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
15 11 (0.93%) SAP HANA
16 10 (0.84%) Geospatial Data
16 10 (0.84%) Looker
Development Applications
1 125 (10.55%) JIRA
2 62 (5.23%) Git
3 61 (5.15%) Jenkins
4 37 (3.12%) Selenium
5 32 (2.70%) GitLab
5 32 (2.70%) Oracle APEX
6 30 (2.53%) Postman
7 27 (2.28%) Visual Studio
8 22 (1.86%) Eclipse
9 16 (1.35%) Rational DOORS
10 15 (1.27%) TestRail
11 14 (1.18%) Cucumber
12 13 (1.10%) JUnit
13 12 (1.01%) Zephyr
14 11 (0.93%) Bitbucket
14 11 (0.93%) JMeter
15 8 (0.68%) Cypress.io
15 8 (0.68%) REST Assured
16 6 (0.51%) MLflow
16 6 (0.51%) SpecFlow
General
1 486 (41.01%) Social Skills
2 314 (26.50%) Finance
3 268 (22.62%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (9.28%) Public Sector
5 82 (6.92%) Banking
6 73 (6.16%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (4.30%) Presentation Skills
8 34 (2.87%) Military
9 32 (2.70%) Aerospace
10 28 (2.36%) Telecoms
11 27 (2.28%) Marketing
12 26 (2.19%) Electronics
12 26 (2.19%) Front Office
12 26 (2.19%) Investment Banking
13 24 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (1.94%) Pharmaceutical
15 21 (1.77%) Manufacturing
16 20 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
17 17 (1.43%) Automotive
18 15 (1.27%) Legal
Job Titles
1 238 (20.08%) Analyst
2 118 (9.96%) Senior
3 105 (8.86%) Developer
4 102 (8.61%) Business Analyst
5 100 (8.44%) Consultant
6 86 (7.26%) Lead
7 61 (5.15%) Data Analyst
8 49 (4.14%) Software Engineer
9 46 (3.88%) Architect
10 43 (3.63%) Tester
11 38 (3.21%) Data Engineer
12 36 (3.04%) Senior Developer
13 33 (2.78%) Data Scientist
13 33 (2.78%) SAP Consultant
14 30 (2.53%) Test Analyst
15 26 (2.19%) Project Manager
15 26 (2.19%) QA Engineer
16 24 (2.03%) Test Engineer
17 23 (1.94%) Senior Analyst
18 21 (1.77%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (5.15%) REST
2 45 (3.80%) JSON
3 36 (3.04%) Node.js
4 34 (2.87%) XML
5 32 (2.70%) Oracle Fusion
6 30 (2.53%) Web Services
7 28 (2.36%) SOAP
8 27 (2.28%) .NET
9 26 (2.19%) RESTful
10 21 (1.77%) OAuth
11 20 (1.69%) SAP Fiori
12 19 (1.60%) Middleware
13 18 (1.52%) PySpark
14 17 (1.43%) Kafka
14 17 (1.43%) Playwright
15 16 (1.35%) PyTorch
16 15 (1.27%) SAML
17 14 (1.18%) TensorFlow
18 13 (1.10%) Pandas
18 13 (1.10%) React
Miscellaneous
1 51 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
2 45 (3.80%) Product Ownership
3 42 (3.54%) Data Structures
4 39 (3.29%) Onboarding
5 33 (2.78%) Management Information System
6 29 (2.45%) FPGA
7 26 (2.19%) Cloud Native
7 26 (2.19%) Data Centre
8 22 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
9 18 (1.52%) Algorithms
9 18 (1.52%) Derivative
9 18 (1.52%) IoT
10 16 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 15 (1.27%) NB-IoT
11 15 (1.27%) Virtual Team
12 14 (1.18%) Security Posture
13 13 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
13 13 (1.10%) Replication
13 13 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 100 (8.44%) Linux
2 81 (6.84%) Windows
3 26 (2.19%) Unix
4 8 (0.68%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.59%) Android
5 7 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.25%) VMS
7 3 (0.25%) zOS
8 2 (0.17%) Debian
8 2 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.084%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.084%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.084%) MVS
9 1 (0.084%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.084%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.084%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.084%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (28.69%) Agile
2 282 (23.80%) Problem-Solving
3 242 (20.42%) Migration
4 221 (18.65%) DevOps
5 202 (17.05%) CI/CD
6 182 (15.36%) Analytics
7 180 (15.19%) Data Validation
8 170 (14.35%) Stakeholder Management
9 149 (12.57%) Test Automation
10 134 (11.31%) Data Migration
11 124 (10.46%) Business Intelligence
12 117 (9.87%) Data Modelling
13 113 (9.54%) ETL
14 112 (9.45%) User Acceptance Testing
15 111 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 109 (9.20%) Data Analysis
17 106 (8.95%) AI
18 105 (8.86%) Data Governance
19 101 (8.52%) Scrum
20 95 (8.02%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 294 (24.81%) SQL
2 271 (22.87%) Python
3 96 (8.10%) JavaScript
4 67 (5.65%) C#
5 64 (5.40%) Java
6 53 (4.47%) C++
7 48 (4.05%) PL/SQL
8 39 (3.29%) Bash
9 36 (3.04%) PowerShell
10 27 (2.28%) R
11 19 (1.60%) C
12 18 (1.52%) TypeScript
13 15 (1.27%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.18%) VBA
15 13 (1.10%) Groovy
15 13 (1.10%) T-SQL
16 10 (0.84%) ABAP
17 8 (0.68%) Apex Code
17 8 (0.68%) Tcl
18 7 (0.59%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 274 (23.12%) Security Cleared
2 210 (17.72%) SC Cleared
3 132 (11.14%) Degree
4 37 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.62%) DV Cleared
6 30 (2.53%) Master's Degree
7 27 (2.28%) BPSS Clearance
8 23 (1.94%) ISTQB
9 18 (1.52%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (1.18%) AWS Certification
12 13 (1.10%) PhD
13 12 (1.01%) CISSP
14 11 (0.93%) Oracle Certification
14 11 (0.93%) PMP
15 10 (0.84%) CBAP
15 10 (0.84%) CCNP
16 9 (0.76%) CCIE
16 9 (0.76%) ITIL Certification
17 8 (0.68%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 146 (12.32%) QA
2 136 (11.48%) Data Quality
3 56 (4.73%) GDPR
4 44 (3.71%) NIST
5 28 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (2.03%) Accessibility
7 14 (1.18%) EU AI Act
8 11 (0.93%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.84%) COBIT
10 9 (0.76%) IFRS
10 9 (0.76%) MiFID
11 8 (0.68%) GxP
11 8 (0.68%) MISRA
11 8 (0.68%) PCI DSS
12 7 (0.59%) DO-178B
12 7 (0.59%) EMIR
12 7 (0.59%) NCSC
13 6 (0.51%) PMO
13 6 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.34%) 21 CFR Part 11
System Software
1 47 (3.97%) Active Directory
2 37 (3.12%) Docker
3 32 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (1.52%) Firmware
5 16 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (1.10%) vSphere
7 9 (0.76%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.51%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.51%) Postfix
9 3 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.25%) QEMU
9 3 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.17%) OpenAM
10 2 (0.17%) OpenDJ
10 2 (0.17%) OpenIDM
10 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.084%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.084%) KVM
11 1 (0.084%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.084%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 50 (4.22%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.97%) Terraform
3 46 (3.88%) Ansible
4 15 (1.27%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (0.76%) Nessus
8 8 (0.68%) Argo
8 8 (0.68%) Istio
8 8 (0.68%) Puppet
8 8 (0.68%) SCCM
8 8 (0.68%) SCOM
9 7 (0.59%) Grafana
9 7 (0.59%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.59%) Kibana
10 6 (0.51%) Nmap
11 5 (0.42%) CASB
11 5 (0.42%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.42%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.34%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 193 (16.29%) Microsoft
2 132 (11.14%) Oracle
3 87 (7.34%) SAP
4 55 (4.64%) ServiceNow
5 49 (4.14%) VMware
6 38 (3.21%) Salesforce
7 37 (3.12%) Cisco
8 32 (2.70%) Databricks
9 30 (2.53%) Splunk
10 24 (2.03%) Google
11 21 (1.77%) Workday
12 15 (1.27%) MuleSoft
13 14 (1.18%) IBM
13 14 (1.18%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.18%) Remedy
14 12 (1.01%) CyberArk
14 12 (1.01%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.93%) EMC
16 10 (0.84%) Adobe
16 10 (0.84%) Informatica