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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 108 147
Rank change year-on-year +43 +39 +11
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,031 715 748
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 3.74% 2.20% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.12% 2.56% 1.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 617 352 422
10th Percentile £335 £320 £350
25th Percentile £413 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £493 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.06% -10.45% -
75th Percentile £630 £588 £675
90th Percentile £700 £659 £1,000
UK median daily rate £510 £500 £540
% change year-on-year +2.00% -7.41% +1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 100 103
10th Percentile £20.50 £30.00 £48.40
25th Percentile £41.25 £51.19 £56.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year - -3.70% +22.73%
75th Percentile £67.00 £71.50 £84.36
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +22.73%

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 25,024 27,970 37,992
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.88% 86.03% 89.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,893 17,419 26,295
10th Percentile £300 £313 £319
25th Percentile £405 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £645 £656
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,490 1,309 1,438
10th Percentile £14.37 £14.96 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.00 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.54
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.24% +50.14%
75th Percentile £49.31 £66.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% +1.18% +46.55%

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
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 16 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 +96 492 £525 +5.00% 305
South East +29 152 £500 +4.49% 276
North of England +18 101 £425 -8.11% 153
East of England +21 95 £508 -18.80% 124
Midlands -6 85 £475 +11.76% 147
South West -19 67 £550 -5.50% 145
North West +15 65 £425 -8.11% 104
West Midlands -15 61 £475 - 96
Yorkshire -8 26 £475 -5.00% 36
East Midlands +6 23 £500 +21.21% 47
North East 0 11 £450 +7.14% 13
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 60 (5.82%) Confluence
2 31 (3.01%) SharePoint
3 17 (1.65%) Apache Spark
4 16 (1.55%) Apache Airflow
5 15 (1.45%) Skype for Business
6 13 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
7 10 (0.97%) Apache
8 9 (0.87%) SAS
9 7 (0.68%) CMS
9 7 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
9 7 (0.68%) Mattermost
10 6 (0.58%) OpenStack
11 4 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 3 (0.29%) ArcGIS
12 3 (0.29%) Smallworld
13 2 (0.19%) Documentum
13 2 (0.19%) Oracle Spatial
13 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
13 2 (0.19%) TPMS
Applications
1 81 (7.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (4.27%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 21 (2.04%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.78%) Simulink
6 6 (0.58%) Sketch
7 5 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) CANalyzer
8 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.19%) Siemens NX
8 2 (0.19%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.097%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.097%) NASTRAN
9 1 (0.097%) Trello
9 1 (0.097%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (5.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 10 (0.97%) Aladdin
3 10 (0.97%) Oracle Payables
3 10 (0.97%) Teamcenter
4 9 (0.87%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.78%) Oracle Assets
5 8 (0.78%) Oracle E-Business Tax
5 8 (0.78%) Oracle General Ledger
5 8 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
6 7 (0.68%) SAP EHS
6 7 (0.68%) SAP MDG
7 6 (0.58%) SAP PM
8 5 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.48%) SAP ERP
9 4 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.39%) SAP FI
10 3 (0.29%) Markit EDM
10 3 (0.29%) Oracle EBS R12
10 3 (0.29%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 155 (15.03%) Azure
2 109 (10.57%) AWS
3 85 (8.24%) Power Platform
4 53 (5.14%) Azure DevOps
5 43 (4.17%) GCP
6 32 (3.10%) SaaS
7 26 (2.52%) GitHub
8 23 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
8 23 (2.23%) OCI
9 22 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.75%) Snowflake
11 17 (1.65%) Serverless
12 15 (1.45%) Azure Data Factory
12 15 (1.45%) dbt
12 15 (1.45%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.45%) PaaS
13 14 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
14 11 (1.07%) OneDrive
15 10 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
15 10 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (3.10%) Firewall
2 30 (2.91%) VPN
3 28 (2.72%) TCP/IP
4 27 (2.62%) DNS
5 26 (2.52%) BGP
6 25 (2.42%) MPLS
7 20 (1.94%) Ethernet
8 19 (1.84%) WAN
9 17 (1.65%) LTE
9 17 (1.65%) OSPF
10 15 (1.45%) 3GPP
10 15 (1.45%) Skype
11 13 (1.26%) LAN
12 12 (1.16%) SNMP
13 11 (1.07%) Internet
13 11 (1.07%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.07%) Wireless
14 10 (0.97%) Network Security
15 9 (0.87%) IPsec
15 9 (0.87%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (7.47%) Power BI
2 50 (4.85%) Data Warehouse
3 31 (3.01%) Tableau
4 23 (2.23%) NoSQL
4 23 (2.23%) SQL Server
5 20 (1.94%) Oracle Reports
6 18 (1.75%) Relational Database
7 17 (1.65%) Oracle Database
8 16 (1.55%) Metadata
9 14 (1.36%) Data Lake
10 13 (1.26%) BigQuery
11 12 (1.16%) Amazon Redshift
12 11 (1.07%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (1.07%) PostgreSQL
12 11 (1.07%) SAP HANA
13 10 (0.97%) SAP BW
13 10 (0.97%) SAP Data Services
14 7 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
14 7 (0.68%) GIS
14 7 (0.68%) Looker
Development Applications
1 112 (10.86%) JIRA
2 46 (4.46%) Git
3 41 (3.98%) Jenkins
4 30 (2.91%) Postman
5 22 (2.13%) Visual Studio
6 19 (1.84%) Eclipse
7 17 (1.65%) Cucumber
7 17 (1.65%) Selenium
8 14 (1.36%) GitLab
9 13 (1.26%) JMeter
10 10 (0.97%) Cypress.io
10 10 (0.97%) TestRail
11 8 (0.78%) Bitbucket
11 8 (0.78%) REST Assured
11 8 (0.78%) Zephyr
12 6 (0.58%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.48%) JUnit
13 5 (0.48%) SoapUI
14 4 (0.39%) Metasploit
14 4 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
General
1 430 (41.71%) Social Skills
2 258 (25.02%) Finance
3 197 (19.11%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (7.18%) Public Sector
5 69 (6.69%) Banking
6 56 (5.43%) Presentation Skills
7 50 (4.85%) Documentation Skills
8 40 (3.88%) Telecoms
9 39 (3.78%) Front Office
10 34 (3.30%) Aerospace
11 29 (2.81%) Military
12 27 (2.62%) Marketing
13 22 (2.13%) Pharmaceutical
14 20 (1.94%) Investment Banking
15 19 (1.84%) Manufacturing
15 19 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
16 18 (1.75%) Electronics
17 16 (1.55%) General Ledger
17 16 (1.55%) Retail
18 14 (1.36%) Legal
Job Titles
1 223 (21.63%) Analyst
2 91 (8.83%) Business Analyst
2 91 (8.83%) Consultant
3 78 (7.57%) Lead
4 75 (7.27%) Senior
5 65 (6.30%) Data Analyst
6 46 (4.46%) Developer
7 37 (3.59%) Tester
8 35 (3.39%) Architect
9 32 (3.10%) Software Engineer
10 31 (3.01%) Data Engineer
10 31 (3.01%) Project Manager
11 28 (2.72%) Test Engineer
12 26 (2.52%) FPGA Engineer
12 26 (2.52%) SAP Consultant
12 26 (2.52%) Test Analyst
13 24 (2.33%) Data Scientist
14 23 (2.23%) Network Engineer
15 22 (2.13%) Systems Engineer
16 21 (2.04%) C++ Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (3.30%) Web Services
2 27 (2.62%) REST
3 25 (2.42%) Node.js
4 22 (2.13%) JSON
4 22 (2.13%) RESTful
5 20 (1.94%) Kafka
6 15 (1.45%) XML
7 14 (1.36%) Middleware
7 14 (1.36%) Oracle Fusion
7 14 (1.36%) SAP Fiori
8 13 (1.26%) SOAP
9 10 (0.97%) Pandas
10 9 (0.87%) Playwright
10 9 (0.87%) React
11 8 (0.78%) .NET
11 8 (0.78%) Keycloak
11 8 (0.78%) Swagger
12 7 (0.68%) CSS
12 7 (0.68%) HTML
12 7 (0.68%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 42 (4.07%) Legacy Systems
2 40 (3.88%) Onboarding
3 38 (3.69%) FPGA
4 35 (3.39%) Data Structures
5 34 (3.30%) Product Ownership
6 33 (3.20%) Management Information System
7 27 (2.62%) Data Centre
8 22 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
9 20 (1.94%) Cloud Native
10 18 (1.75%) IoT
11 17 (1.65%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.55%) SCADA
13 15 (1.45%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (1.36%) Derivative
14 14 (1.36%) NB-IoT
14 14 (1.36%) Virtual Team
15 13 (1.26%) Hybrid Cloud
15 13 (1.26%) Verilog
16 12 (1.16%) Algorithms
16 12 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 104 (10.09%) Linux
2 73 (7.08%) Windows
3 32 (3.10%) Unix
4 9 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.58%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.48%) VMS
7 2 (0.19%) Android
7 2 (0.19%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
8 1 (0.097%) MVS
8 1 (0.097%) Robot Operating System
8 1 (0.097%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.097%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.097%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.097%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 242 (23.47%) Migration
2 235 (22.79%) Agile
3 232 (22.50%) Problem-Solving
4 152 (14.74%) Data Validation
5 130 (12.61%) Data Migration
6 124 (12.03%) CI/CD
7 122 (11.83%) Analytics
7 122 (11.83%) Test Automation
8 121 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
9 120 (11.64%) DevOps
10 113 (10.96%) Data Analysis
11 109 (10.57%) Business Intelligence
12 108 (10.48%) ETL
13 104 (10.09%) User Acceptance Testing
14 90 (8.73%) Data Governance
15 87 (8.44%) Data Modelling
16 85 (8.24%) Visualisation
17 79 (7.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 77 (7.47%) Data Cleansing
19 68 (6.60%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 245 (23.76%) SQL
2 232 (22.50%) Python
3 46 (4.46%) C#
3 46 (4.46%) Java
4 45 (4.36%) C++
5 44 (4.27%) JavaScript
6 35 (3.39%) Bash
7 28 (2.72%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.04%) Shell Script
8 21 (2.04%) VBA
9 19 (1.84%) Tcl
10 18 (1.75%) R
11 16 (1.55%) SystemVerilog
12 15 (1.45%) PL/SQL
13 11 (1.07%) C
14 10 (0.97%) MATLAB
14 10 (0.97%) TypeScript
15 8 (0.78%) ABAP
15 8 (0.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 7 (0.68%) Perl
Qualifications
1 192 (18.62%) Security Cleared
2 150 (14.55%) SC Cleared
3 121 (11.74%) Degree
4 30 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (2.72%) Cisco Certification
6 24 (2.33%) DV Cleared
6 24 (2.33%) Master's Degree
7 22 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
8 20 (1.94%) CCNP
9 19 (1.84%) AWS Certification
10 17 (1.65%) PhD
11 16 (1.55%) PMI Certification
12 12 (1.16%) ISTQB
13 11 (1.07%) CBAP
13 11 (1.07%) CISSP
14 10 (0.97%) CCIE
15 8 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.78%) PMP
15 8 (0.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 7 (0.68%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 114 (11.06%) Data Quality
2 103 (9.99%) QA
3 39 (3.78%) GDPR
4 18 (1.75%) MiFID
5 17 (1.65%) Accessibility
5 17 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (1.65%) NIST
6 13 (1.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 12 (1.16%) EMIR
8 11 (1.07%) IFRS
9 10 (0.97%) GxP
9 10 (0.97%) PMO
10 9 (0.87%) PCI DSS
11 6 (0.58%) COBIT
11 6 (0.58%) IFRS 9
12 5 (0.48%) GRC
13 4 (0.39%) HL7
13 4 (0.39%) IEC 61508
14 3 (0.29%) HIPAA
14 3 (0.29%) SEPA
System Software
1 41 (3.98%) Active Directory
2 35 (3.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.04%) VMware ESXi
4 18 (1.75%) Docker
5 16 (1.55%) vSphere
6 11 (1.07%) VMware NSX
7 9 (0.87%) Firmware
8 6 (0.58%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.58%) Postfix
9 4 (0.39%) QEMU
10 3 (0.29%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
11 2 (0.19%) KVM
11 2 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.097%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.097%) Squid
12 1 (0.097%) Time Sharing Option
12 1 (0.097%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.097%) Xen
Systems Management
1 48 (4.66%) Ansible
2 34 (3.30%) Terraform
3 32 (3.10%) Kubernetes
4 10 (0.97%) SCCM
4 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (0.87%) Nessus
6 8 (0.78%) Argo
6 8 (0.78%) Istio
6 8 (0.78%) SCOM
7 7 (0.68%) HP ALM
7 7 (0.68%) HP SiteScope
7 7 (0.68%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.58%) CASB
8 6 (0.58%) Nmap
8 6 (0.58%) Puppet
9 4 (0.39%) Control-M
9 4 (0.39%) Functional Safety
9 4 (0.39%) Kibana
9 4 (0.39%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 176 (17.07%) Microsoft
2 98 (9.51%) Oracle
3 92 (8.92%) SAP
4 54 (5.24%) VMware
5 42 (4.07%) Cisco
5 42 (4.07%) Salesforce
6 30 (2.91%) ServiceNow
7 22 (2.13%) Databricks
8 21 (2.04%) Splunk
9 15 (1.45%) Red Hat
10 14 (1.36%) EMC
10 14 (1.36%) F5
10 14 (1.36%) Google
11 13 (1.26%) Adobe
11 13 (1.26%) Juniper
12 12 (1.16%) Remedy
12 12 (1.16%) Workday
12 12 (1.16%) Xilinx
13 11 (1.07%) Fortinet
13 11 (1.07%) Palo Alto