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 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 103 128
Rank change year-on-year +52 +25 +7
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,571 656 694
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.42% 2.55% 1.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.07% 2.83% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 962 372 396
10th Percentile £350 £351 £317
25th Percentile £404 £413 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £535 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.54% +1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £615
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £492 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -6.29% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 35 142
10th Percentile £34.20 £25.26 £24.51
25th Percentile £60.00 £44.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +3.92%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.88 £75.25
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.15 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +4.00% - -0.08%

All Process & 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 30,972 23,170 33,015
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.17% 90.22% 87.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,848 14,569 21,913
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,919 779 2,056
10th Percentile £15.24 £15.59 £13.42
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.50 £35.00 £34.77
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% +0.68% -0.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £59.93
90th Percentile £72.51 £75.30 £72.17
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.50
% change year-on-year -15.38% -2.99% -4.29%

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 28 February 2026.

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 February 2026.

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 February 2026. 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 +60 735 £513 -6.82% 188
North of England +28 209 £428 -3.66% 108
South East +16 183 £501 +0.25% 184
Midlands +27 156 £491 +0.41% 112
North West +18 136 £402 -5.41% 57
South West +8 132 £475 -17.39% 77
West Midlands +26 128 £492 -0.61% 77
East of England +27 105 £478 +12.47% 83
Yorkshire -9 65 £465 +2.48% 36
East Midlands -3 26 £463 +26.02% 34
North East -7 11 £463 -36.21% 16
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 65 (4.14%) Confluence
2 32 (2.04%) Apache Spark
3 31 (1.97%) SAS
4 26 (1.65%) Apache Airflow
5 23 (1.46%) SharePoint
6 17 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.02%) Apache
8 9 (0.57%) Appian
9 7 (0.45%) Skype for Business
10 6 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2013
10 6 (0.38%) Jupyter
10 6 (0.38%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
11 5 (0.32%) CMS
12 4 (0.25%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.19%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.19%) Mattermost
13 3 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.19%) Smallworld
Applications
1 75 (4.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.53%) MS Visio
4 15 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.51%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.25%) Notion
8 3 (0.19%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.13%) Simulink
9 2 (0.13%) Sketch
10 1 (0.064%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.064%) CATIA
10 1 (0.064%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.064%) Stateflow
10 1 (0.064%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 71 (4.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.40%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.70%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.70%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.70%) Workday HCM
4 10 (0.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 9 (0.57%) SAP FI
6 8 (0.51%) Aladdin
6 8 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (0.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 8 (0.51%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.45%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle EBS R12
7 7 (0.45%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 7 (0.45%) SAP MDG
7 7 (0.45%) SAP MM
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Financials
8 6 (0.38%) SAP EHS
8 6 (0.38%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 367 (23.36%) Azure
2 185 (11.78%) AWS
3 130 (8.27%) Power Platform
4 120 (7.64%) Azure DevOps
5 76 (4.84%) GCP
6 69 (4.39%) GitHub
7 55 (3.50%) Entra ID
8 47 (2.99%) Serverless
9 46 (2.93%) SaaS
10 44 (2.80%) Azure Data Factory
11 40 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (2.23%) OCI
13 33 (2.10%) Snowflake
14 28 (1.78%) OpenShift
15 27 (1.72%) Amazon S3
16 23 (1.46%) AWS Lambda
17 22 (1.40%) Microsoft 365
18 20 (1.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 18 (1.15%) Boomi
20 17 (1.08%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 51 (3.25%) Firewall
2 32 (2.04%) TCP/IP
3 28 (1.78%) Network Security
4 23 (1.46%) Ethernet
5 18 (1.15%) DNS
6 15 (0.95%) VPN
7 14 (0.89%) VLAN
8 11 (0.70%) SAN
8 11 (0.70%) WAN
8 11 (0.70%) Wireless
9 9 (0.57%) BGP
9 9 (0.57%) HTTP
9 9 (0.57%) MPLS
9 9 (0.57%) NAS
9 9 (0.57%) OSPF
10 8 (0.51%) LAN
11 7 (0.45%) Skype
11 7 (0.45%) TACACS
12 6 (0.38%) Cisco ISE
12 6 (0.38%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (7.70%) Power BI
2 73 (4.65%) Metadata
3 69 (4.39%) Data Warehouse
4 42 (2.67%) SQL Server
5 40 (2.55%) Tableau
6 38 (2.42%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
8 24 (1.53%) NoSQL
8 24 (1.53%) Oracle Reports
9 22 (1.40%) Amazon Redshift
10 18 (1.15%) Big Data
10 18 (1.15%) Delta Lake
10 18 (1.15%) Pinecone
10 18 (1.15%) Relational Database
10 18 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 17 (1.08%) Oracle Database
11 17 (1.08%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 15 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
13 13 (0.83%) Amazon Athena
13 13 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 160 (10.18%) JIRA
2 92 (5.86%) Git
3 74 (4.71%) Jenkins
4 56 (3.56%) Selenium
5 46 (2.93%) GitLab
6 39 (2.48%) Postman
7 32 (2.04%) Oracle APEX
8 31 (1.97%) JUnit
9 30 (1.91%) Rational DOORS
10 29 (1.85%) Cucumber
11 28 (1.78%) JMeter
12 22 (1.40%) Visual Studio
13 17 (1.08%) MLflow
14 16 (1.02%) Eclipse
15 15 (0.95%) WebDriver
16 12 (0.76%) REST Assured
17 9 (0.57%) Bitbucket
17 9 (0.57%) TestRail
18 8 (0.51%) SpecFlow
18 8 (0.51%) Zephyr
General
1 581 (36.98%) Social Skills
2 463 (29.47%) Finance
3 334 (21.26%) Analytical Skills
4 142 (9.04%) Banking
5 137 (8.72%) Public Sector
6 80 (5.09%) Documentation Skills
7 52 (3.31%) Presentation Skills
8 40 (2.55%) Manufacturing
9 38 (2.42%) Aerospace
10 31 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.91%) Electronics
11 30 (1.91%) Front Office
11 30 (1.91%) Marketing
11 30 (1.91%) Military
12 25 (1.59%) Telecoms
13 24 (1.53%) Investment Banking
13 24 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
13 24 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
14 23 (1.46%) Financial Institution
14 23 (1.46%) Legal
Job Titles
1 301 (19.16%) Analyst
2 161 (10.25%) Senior
3 155 (9.87%) Lead
4 132 (8.40%) Business Analyst
5 114 (7.26%) Developer
6 109 (6.94%) Consultant
7 106 (6.75%) Architect
8 90 (5.73%) Data Engineer
9 78 (4.96%) Data Analyst
10 52 (3.31%) Project Manager
10 52 (3.31%) Software Engineer
11 47 (2.99%) Tester
12 38 (2.42%) Senior Analyst
13 34 (2.16%) Senior Developer
13 34 (2.16%) Test Analyst
14 33 (2.10%) SAP Consultant
15 32 (2.04%) Solutions Architect
16 31 (1.97%) Test Manager
17 30 (1.91%) Embedded Engineer
18 28 (1.78%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (6.43%) REST
2 65 (4.14%) JSON
3 51 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
4 49 (3.12%) XML
5 47 (2.99%) OAuth
6 46 (2.93%) Kafka
7 43 (2.74%) Middleware
8 38 (2.42%) SOAP
9 36 (2.29%) .NET
9 36 (2.29%) Node.js
9 36 (2.29%) PyTorch
10 32 (2.04%) PySpark
10 32 (2.04%) TensorFlow
10 32 (2.04%) Web Services
11 30 (1.91%) Swagger
12 29 (1.85%) RESTful
13 28 (1.78%) Playwright
14 26 (1.65%) pytest
15 24 (1.53%) OpenAPI
15 24 (1.53%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 95 (6.05%) Legacy Systems
2 65 (4.14%) Data Structures
3 62 (3.95%) Product Ownership
4 50 (3.18%) Onboarding
5 45 (2.86%) Cloud Native
6 39 (2.48%) Management Information System
7 29 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
8 26 (1.65%) Algorithms
8 26 (1.65%) Data Centre
8 26 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
9 23 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
10 20 (1.27%) Derivative
10 20 (1.27%) Replication
11 18 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
12 17 (1.08%) Hybrid Cloud
12 17 (1.08%) Security Posture
13 16 (1.02%) Credit Risk
13 16 (1.02%) FPGA
14 14 (0.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 14 (0.89%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 89 (5.67%) Windows
2 83 (5.28%) Linux
3 33 (2.10%) Unix
4 9 (0.57%) Android
5 6 (0.38%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.38%) zOS
6 5 (0.32%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.13%) Debian
8 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.064%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.064%) pSOS
9 1 (0.064%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (25.59%) Agile
2 364 (23.17%) Problem-Solving
3 361 (22.98%) Migration
4 289 (18.40%) Stakeholder Management
5 262 (16.68%) CI/CD
6 256 (16.30%) DevOps
7 254 (16.17%) Data Validation
8 250 (15.91%) Analytics
9 217 (13.81%) Data Modelling
10 204 (12.99%) Data Migration
11 201 (12.79%) Test Automation
12 195 (12.41%) ETL
13 187 (11.90%) AI
14 186 (11.84%) User Acceptance Testing
15 165 (10.50%) Continuous Improvement
16 160 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 159 (10.12%) Business Intelligence
18 141 (8.98%) Data Governance
19 133 (8.47%) Data Analysis
19 133 (8.47%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 387 (24.63%) SQL
2 323 (20.56%) Python
3 93 (5.92%) JavaScript
4 83 (5.28%) Java
5 65 (4.14%) C#
6 51 (3.25%) PL/SQL
7 49 (3.12%) C++
8 39 (2.48%) C
9 38 (2.42%) PowerShell
10 37 (2.36%) Bash
11 29 (1.85%) TypeScript
12 24 (1.53%) R
13 20 (1.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 19 (1.21%) Ada
14 19 (1.21%) Bicep
15 17 (1.08%) Groovy
16 13 (0.83%) T-SQL
17 12 (0.76%) Scala
18 11 (0.70%) VBA
19 9 (0.57%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 354 (22.53%) Security Cleared
2 260 (16.55%) SC Cleared
3 154 (9.80%) Degree
4 56 (3.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 44 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 40 (2.55%) DV Cleared
7 35 (2.23%) Master's Degree
8 27 (1.72%) ISTQB
9 26 (1.65%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.40%) PMP
11 17 (1.08%) AWS Certification
12 15 (0.95%) CISSP
13 14 (0.89%) CBAP
14 13 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
15 12 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
16 10 (0.64%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.64%) Oracle Certification
17 9 (0.57%) CCNP
18 7 (0.45%) CCIE
18 7 (0.45%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (14.00%) Data Quality
2 196 (12.48%) QA
3 84 (5.35%) GDPR
4 67 (4.26%) NIST
5 46 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 26 (1.65%) Accessibility
7 21 (1.34%) IFRS
8 18 (1.15%) IFRS 17
9 17 (1.08%) Def Stans
10 14 (0.89%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.83%) NCSC
12 12 (0.76%) COBIT
12 12 (0.76%) EU AI Act
12 12 (0.76%) GRC
12 12 (0.76%) PMO
13 11 (0.70%) MiFID
14 10 (0.64%) MISRA
15 9 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
15 9 (0.57%) DO-178B
15 9 (0.57%) SLA
System Software
1 75 (4.77%) Docker
2 40 (2.55%) Active Directory
3 30 (1.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.34%) Firmware
5 12 (0.76%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (0.45%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.32%) NFS
9 4 (0.25%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.25%) vSphere
10 3 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.13%) Ceph
11 2 (0.13%) KVM
11 2 (0.13%) Lustre
11 2 (0.13%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.13%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.13%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 104 (6.62%) Kubernetes
2 70 (4.46%) Terraform
3 36 (2.29%) Ansible
4 24 (1.53%) Prometheus
5 23 (1.46%) Single Sign-On
6 21 (1.34%) Grafana
7 16 (1.02%) Microsoft Intune
8 15 (0.95%) Kibana
9 14 (0.89%) Puppet
10 11 (0.70%) SCCM
11 10 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 10 (0.64%) Nessus
12 7 (0.45%) Nmap
13 5 (0.32%) CASB
14 4 (0.25%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.25%) SCOM
14 4 (0.25%) vMotion
15 3 (0.19%) CloudHub
15 3 (0.19%) OMEGAMON
15 3 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 208 (13.24%) Microsoft
2 163 (10.38%) Oracle
3 125 (7.96%) SAP
4 71 (4.52%) Databricks
5 67 (4.26%) ServiceNow
6 47 (2.99%) Splunk
7 39 (2.48%) Salesforce
8 36 (2.29%) Cisco
8 36 (2.29%) VMware
9 32 (2.04%) Google
10 29 (1.85%) Workday
11 25 (1.59%) MuleSoft
12 23 (1.46%) Informatica
12 23 (1.46%) Sage
13 21 (1.34%) IBM
14 19 (1.21%) Murex
14 19 (1.21%) Palo Alto
15 15 (0.95%) CyberArk
16 14 (0.89%) Bloomberg
17 13 (0.83%) Avaloq