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

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 62 108 146
Rank change year-on-year +46 +38 +1
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,165 706 714
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.85% 2.26% 1.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.26% 2.61% 2.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 702 366 425
10th Percentile £358 £325 £350
25th Percentile £425 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -5.66% -3.64%
75th Percentile £622 £594 £638
90th Percentile £688 £671 £865
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 76 93
10th Percentile £28.91 £28.00 £50.24
25th Percentile £41.25 £45.22 £56.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -7.41% +9.76%
75th Percentile £67.50 £65.25 £84.36
90th Percentile £77.25 £73.75 £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 27,324 27,092 35,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.37% 86.76% 88.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,372 16,558 24,038
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.43% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £640 £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 1,791 983 1,478
10th Percentile £14.75 £15.10 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.17 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.46% -18.73% +27.14%
75th Percentile £46.38 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £74.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -19.54% +24.29%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +80 532 £525 +5.00% 464
South East +15 157 £500 +2.56% 250
North of England +13 124 £450 -0.83% 135
East of England +22 113 £500 +33.33% 133
South West 0 106 £475 -18.80% 125
Midlands -11 93 £492 +0.51% 123
North West +10 76 £428 +3.64% 93
West Midlands -20 75 £500 -3.61% 76
Yorkshire -18 36 £440 -3.03% 28
East Midlands -5 18 £430 +5.85% 45
North East -1 12 £515 -10.43% 14
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 (4.03%) Confluence
2 33 (2.83%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.97%) Apache Airflow
3 23 (1.97%) Apache Spark
4 22 (1.89%) SAS
5 15 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (1.29%) Skype for Business
6 12 (1.03%) Apache
7 8 (0.69%) CMS
8 7 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
8 7 (0.60%) Mattermost
9 6 (0.52%) OpenStack
9 6 (0.52%) Smallworld
10 4 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.34%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.26%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.26%) ArcGIS
11 3 (0.26%) GeoServer
12 2 (0.17%) Documentum
12 2 (0.17%) Jupyter
Applications
1 82 (7.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (3.43%) 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
6 3 (0.26%) Simulink
7 1 (0.086%) CANalyzer
7 1 (0.086%) NASTRAN
7 1 (0.086%) Notion
7 1 (0.086%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.086%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.086%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 57 (4.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.12%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.12%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.94%) SAP EHS
4 10 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
4 10 (0.86%) SAP FI
5 9 (0.77%) SAP MDG
6 7 (0.60%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 6 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
7 6 (0.52%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.43%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.34%) Markit EDM
9 4 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
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
Cloud Services
1 254 (21.80%) Azure
2 127 (10.90%) AWS
3 106 (9.10%) Azure DevOps
4 103 (8.84%) Power Platform
5 52 (4.46%) GCP
6 44 (3.78%) GitHub
7 36 (3.09%) SaaS
8 33 (2.83%) Entra ID
9 27 (2.32%) OCI
9 27 (2.32%) Serverless
9 27 (2.32%) Snowflake
10 25 (2.15%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (2.15%) Microsoft 365
11 23 (1.97%) OpenShift
12 17 (1.46%) Azure Data Factory
12 17 (1.46%) dbt
13 15 (1.29%) Azure Functions
14 14 (1.20%) Dynamics 365
14 14 (1.20%) OneDrive
14 14 (1.20%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.75%) Firewall
1 32 (2.75%) TCP/IP
2 28 (2.40%) DNS
3 22 (1.89%) BGP
3 22 (1.89%) Ethernet
3 22 (1.89%) VPN
4 21 (1.80%) MPLS
5 16 (1.37%) WAN
6 15 (1.29%) 3GPP
6 15 (1.29%) Skype
7 14 (1.20%) LTE
8 13 (1.12%) OSPF
9 10 (0.86%) LAN
9 10 (0.86%) SSL
10 9 (0.77%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.77%) SNMP
11 8 (0.69%) DMARC
11 8 (0.69%) HTTP
11 8 (0.69%) Internet
11 8 (0.69%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (8.41%) Power BI
2 59 (5.06%) Data Warehouse
3 40 (3.43%) Metadata
4 37 (3.18%) Tableau
5 29 (2.49%) NoSQL
6 23 (1.97%) SQL Server
7 22 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
8 21 (1.80%) Relational Database
9 20 (1.72%) Data Lake
10 19 (1.63%) Oracle Database
11 17 (1.46%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 13 (1.12%) Amazon Redshift
12 13 (1.12%) BigQuery
13 12 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
13 12 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
14 11 (0.94%) Big Data
14 11 (0.94%) SAP HANA
15 9 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
15 9 (0.77%) Geospatial Data
15 9 (0.77%) Looker
Development Applications
1 120 (10.30%) JIRA
2 58 (4.98%) Jenkins
3 57 (4.89%) Git
4 34 (2.92%) Selenium
5 32 (2.75%) Oracle APEX
6 31 (2.66%) Postman
7 27 (2.32%) GitLab
7 27 (2.32%) Visual Studio
8 22 (1.89%) Eclipse
9 16 (1.37%) Rational DOORS
10 15 (1.29%) TestRail
11 14 (1.20%) Cucumber
12 13 (1.12%) JUnit
13 12 (1.03%) Zephyr
14 11 (0.94%) JMeter
15 9 (0.77%) Bitbucket
16 7 (0.60%) Cypress.io
16 7 (0.60%) MLflow
16 7 (0.60%) REST Assured
17 6 (0.52%) SpecFlow
General
1 493 (42.32%) Social Skills
2 310 (26.61%) Finance
3 256 (21.97%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (9.10%) Public Sector
5 81 (6.95%) Banking
6 73 (6.27%) Documentation Skills
7 56 (4.81%) Presentation Skills
8 33 (2.83%) Aerospace
8 33 (2.83%) Military
9 30 (2.58%) Telecoms
10 29 (2.49%) Marketing
11 28 (2.40%) Front Office
12 26 (2.23%) Electronics
13 25 (2.15%) Investment Banking
13 25 (2.15%) Pharmaceutical
14 23 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
15 21 (1.80%) Manufacturing
16 20 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
17 14 (1.20%) Automotive
18 13 (1.12%) Legal
Job Titles
1 229 (19.66%) Analyst
2 114 (9.79%) Senior
3 103 (8.84%) Consultant
4 100 (8.58%) Developer
5 98 (8.41%) Business Analyst
6 90 (7.73%) Lead
7 66 (5.67%) Data Analyst
8 48 (4.12%) Architect
9 45 (3.86%) Software Engineer
9 45 (3.86%) Tester
10 37 (3.18%) Data Engineer
11 35 (3.00%) Senior Developer
12 34 (2.92%) SAP Consultant
13 33 (2.83%) Data Scientist
14 26 (2.23%) Test Analyst
15 25 (2.15%) Project Manager
16 22 (1.89%) QA Engineer
17 21 (1.80%) C++ Software Engineer
17 21 (1.80%) Network Engineer
17 21 (1.80%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (5.06%) REST
2 41 (3.52%) JSON
3 34 (2.92%) Node.js
4 31 (2.66%) XML
5 29 (2.49%) Oracle Fusion
5 29 (2.49%) Web Services
6 28 (2.40%) RESTful
6 28 (2.40%) SOAP
7 27 (2.32%) .NET
8 19 (1.63%) SAP Fiori
9 17 (1.46%) Middleware
9 17 (1.46%) OAuth
10 15 (1.29%) Kafka
10 15 (1.29%) Playwright
10 15 (1.29%) PyTorch
11 13 (1.12%) Pandas
11 13 (1.12%) React
11 13 (1.12%) TensorFlow
12 12 (1.03%) PySpark
12 12 (1.03%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.12%) Legacy Systems
2 42 (3.61%) Product Ownership
3 40 (3.43%) Data Structures
4 38 (3.26%) Onboarding
5 37 (3.18%) Management Information System
6 31 (2.66%) FPGA
7 27 (2.32%) Cloud Native
8 25 (2.15%) Data Centre
9 22 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
10 17 (1.46%) Algorithms
10 17 (1.46%) Derivative
11 16 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
11 16 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
11 16 (1.37%) IoT
12 15 (1.29%) NB-IoT
12 15 (1.29%) SCADA
12 15 (1.29%) Virtual Team
13 14 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
14 13 (1.12%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.03%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 102 (8.76%) Linux
2 78 (6.70%) Windows
3 27 (2.32%) Unix
4 8 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (0.69%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.43%) Android
5 5 (0.43%) VMS
6 4 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.17%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.17%) zOS
8 1 (0.086%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.086%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.086%) MVS
8 1 (0.086%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.086%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 324 (27.81%) Agile
2 271 (23.26%) Problem-Solving
3 238 (20.43%) Migration
4 203 (17.42%) DevOps
5 190 (16.31%) CI/CD
6 179 (15.36%) Analytics
7 175 (15.02%) Data Validation
8 162 (13.91%) Stakeholder Management
9 144 (12.36%) Test Automation
10 134 (11.50%) Data Migration
11 129 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
12 115 (9.87%) Data Analysis
13 114 (9.79%) Data Modelling
14 112 (9.61%) User Acceptance Testing
15 110 (9.44%) ETL
16 107 (9.18%) Data Governance
17 106 (9.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 103 (8.84%) Visualisation
19 102 (8.76%) Scrum
20 99 (8.50%) AI
Programming Languages
1 289 (24.81%) SQL
2 266 (22.83%) Python
3 93 (7.98%) JavaScript
4 64 (5.49%) C#
5 63 (5.41%) Java
6 46 (3.95%) C++
7 45 (3.86%) PL/SQL
8 38 (3.26%) Bash
9 36 (3.09%) PowerShell
10 26 (2.23%) R
11 17 (1.46%) Shell Script
11 17 (1.46%) TypeScript
12 16 (1.37%) C
13 15 (1.29%) VBA
14 12 (1.03%) T-SQL
15 11 (0.94%) ABAP
15 11 (0.94%) Groovy
16 10 (0.86%) Tcl
17 9 (0.77%) Apex Code
18 8 (0.69%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 264 (22.66%) Security Cleared
2 206 (17.68%) SC Cleared
3 132 (11.33%) Degree
4 32 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (2.66%) DV Cleared
6 26 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
7 24 (2.06%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.97%) ISTQB
9 19 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
9 19 (1.63%) 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 (0.94%) CBAP
14 10 (0.86%) PMP
15 9 (0.77%) CCIE
15 9 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
16 8 (0.69%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 130 (11.16%) QA
2 126 (10.82%) Data Quality
3 49 (4.21%) GDPR
4 39 (3.35%) NIST
5 24 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (1.80%) Accessibility
7 14 (1.20%) EU AI Act
8 12 (1.03%) MiFID
9 9 (0.77%) Def Stans
9 9 (0.77%) 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
11 7 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.52%) MISRA
12 6 (0.52%) NCSC
13 5 (0.43%) DO-178B
14 4 (0.34%) Basel III
System Software
1 46 (3.95%) Active Directory
2 37 (3.18%) Docker
3 35 (3.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.63%) VMware ESXi
5 14 (1.20%) Firmware
5 14 (1.20%) vSphere
6 9 (0.77%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.52%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.52%) Postfix
8 3 (0.26%) QEMU
8 3 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.086%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.086%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.086%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.086%) KVM
10 1 (0.086%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.086%) Squid
10 1 (0.086%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.086%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 51 (4.38%) Kubernetes
2 47 (4.03%) Ansible
3 43 (3.69%) Terraform
4 14 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.86%) SCCM
7 9 (0.77%) 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
1 190 (16.31%) Microsoft
2 140 (12.02%) Oracle
3 86 (7.38%) SAP
4 52 (4.46%) VMware
5 51 (4.38%) ServiceNow
6 40 (3.43%) Salesforce
7 35 (3.00%) Cisco
8 27 (2.32%) Splunk
9 23 (1.97%) Databricks
9 23 (1.97%) Google
10 22 (1.89%) Workday
11 15 (1.29%) Red Hat
12 14 (1.20%) Remedy
13 12 (1.03%) MuleSoft
14 11 (0.94%) CyberArk
14 11 (0.94%) EMC
14 11 (0.94%) IBM
15 10 (0.86%) F5
15 10 (0.86%) Fortinet
15 10 (0.86%) Informatica