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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 88 130
Rank change year-on-year +44 +42 +3
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,785 683 672
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.69% 2.81% 1.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.45% 3.10% 2.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,107 416 357
10th Percentile £350 £362 £319
25th Percentile £404 £421 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £533 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.98% +1.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £613
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £487 £525 £531
% change year-on-year -7.19% -1.18% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 100 43 142
10th Percentile £31.58 £26.80 £23.35
25th Percentile £59.61 £48.75 £50.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £73.13 £65.50 £75.25
90th Percentile £82.33 £75.20 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £60.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +7.44% +0.83% -4.08%

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 32,752 22,033 32,691
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.09% 90.76% 86.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,983 14,520 21,608
10th Percentile £313 £312 £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 £615 £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 2,011 860 2,165
10th Percentile £15.34 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.25 £20.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £37.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.85% - -13.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.34 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.50 £31.88 £32.50
% change year-on-year +11.36% -1.91% -10.48%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 +66 833 £501 -9.00% 268
North of England +36 239 £435 -5.95% 152
South East 0 203 £500 - 215
Midlands +35 194 £491 +3.37% 118
West Midlands +28 153 £486 -0.38% 77
North West +29 152 £416 -6.25% 74
South West +10 136 £475 -17.39% 89
East of England +15 126 £492 +9.38% 96
Yorkshire +6 78 £458 +9.04% 51
East Midlands -7 39 £525 +42.66% 41
North East -5 12 £450 -37.93% 27
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 72 (4.03%) Confluence
2 36 (2.02%) SAS
3 35 (1.96%) Apache Airflow
4 32 (1.79%) Apache Spark
5 16 (0.90%) Apache
6 14 (0.78%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.62%) Microsoft Exchange
8 9 (0.50%) Appian
9 8 (0.45%) Jupyter
10 7 (0.39%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.34%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
11 6 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
12 5 (0.28%) Anypoint
12 5 (0.28%) CMS
13 3 (0.17%) CICS
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle Self-Service HR
13 3 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
14 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle Service Bus
Applications
1 105 (5.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.46%) MS Visio
3 23 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (0.95%) Spreadsheet
5 12 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.45%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.22%) Notion
8 3 (0.17%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.11%) CATIA
9 2 (0.11%) Sketch
10 1 (0.056%) Autodesk Inventor
10 1 (0.056%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.056%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.056%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.056%) Simulink
10 1 (0.056%) UXPin
10 1 (0.056%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 85 (4.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (1.79%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.78%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.73%) Workday HCM
5 12 (0.67%) Oracle Payables
5 12 (0.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 9 (0.50%) Oracle Assets
6 9 (0.50%) Oracle Receivables
6 9 (0.50%) SAP FI
7 8 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.45%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 7 (0.39%) Aladdin
8 7 (0.39%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.39%) Oracle EBS R12
8 7 (0.39%) SAP MM
8 7 (0.39%) Teamcenter
9 6 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 6 (0.34%) Payment Gateway
9 6 (0.34%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 425 (23.81%) Azure
2 219 (12.27%) AWS
3 157 (8.80%) Power Platform
4 134 (7.51%) Azure DevOps
5 86 (4.82%) GCP
6 83 (4.65%) GitHub
7 54 (3.03%) Azure Data Factory
7 54 (3.03%) Entra ID
8 50 (2.80%) Serverless
9 48 (2.69%) GitHub Actions
9 48 (2.69%) SaaS
10 45 (2.52%) OCI
11 38 (2.13%) Snowflake
12 37 (2.07%) Amazon S3
13 31 (1.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 27 (1.51%) OpenShift
15 25 (1.40%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (1.29%) Microsoft 365
17 22 (1.23%) Boomi
17 22 (1.23%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.98%) Firewall
2 49 (2.75%) Network Security
3 34 (1.90%) TCP/IP
4 25 (1.40%) VLAN
5 24 (1.34%) DNS
6 21 (1.18%) Ethernet
6 21 (1.18%) VPN
7 17 (0.95%) WAN
8 15 (0.84%) SAN
9 13 (0.73%) NAS
10 11 (0.62%) BGP
10 11 (0.62%) HTTP
10 11 (0.62%) LAN
10 11 (0.62%) OSPF
11 10 (0.56%) Wireless
12 9 (0.50%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.45%) Cisco ISE
13 8 (0.45%) Internet
14 7 (0.39%) MPLS
14 7 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 145 (8.12%) Power BI
2 95 (5.32%) Data Warehouse
3 90 (5.04%) Metadata
4 57 (3.19%) SQL Server
5 55 (3.08%) Tableau
6 42 (2.35%) Data Lake
7 40 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
8 29 (1.62%) Oracle Reports
9 27 (1.51%) Amazon Redshift
10 25 (1.40%) Delta Lake
11 23 (1.29%) Big Data
11 23 (1.29%) Relational Database
12 22 (1.23%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 22 (1.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (1.18%) NoSQL
13 21 (1.18%) Oracle Database
14 20 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
15 18 (1.01%) Pinecone
16 16 (0.90%) Star Schema
17 15 (0.84%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 176 (9.86%) JIRA
2 108 (6.05%) Git
3 81 (4.54%) Jenkins
4 61 (3.42%) Selenium
5 47 (2.63%) GitLab
6 41 (2.30%) Postman
7 36 (2.02%) JUnit
8 33 (1.85%) Cucumber
9 30 (1.68%) Rational DOORS
10 28 (1.57%) Oracle APEX
11 27 (1.51%) JMeter
12 22 (1.23%) WebDriver
13 19 (1.06%) Visual Studio
14 17 (0.95%) MLflow
15 14 (0.78%) Eclipse
16 12 (0.67%) Bitbucket
16 12 (0.67%) REST Assured
17 10 (0.56%) Rational Rhapsody
17 10 (0.56%) TestRail
18 9 (0.50%) SpecFlow
General
1 612 (34.29%) Social Skills
2 535 (29.97%) Finance
3 358 (20.06%) Analytical Skills
4 160 (8.96%) Public Sector
5 152 (8.52%) Banking
6 97 (5.43%) Documentation Skills
7 49 (2.75%) Manufacturing
8 48 (2.69%) Presentation Skills
9 47 (2.63%) Aerospace
10 35 (1.96%) Electronics
11 33 (1.85%) Marketing
12 32 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
13 30 (1.68%) Organisational Skills
14 29 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
14 29 (1.62%) Retail
14 29 (1.62%) Telecoms
15 28 (1.57%) Military
16 27 (1.51%) Financial Institution
17 26 (1.46%) Front Office
18 25 (1.40%) Legal
Job Titles
1 331 (18.54%) Analyst
2 184 (10.31%) Lead
3 182 (10.20%) Senior
4 152 (8.52%) Business Analyst
5 126 (7.06%) Data Engineer
6 123 (6.89%) Developer
7 118 (6.61%) Consultant
8 113 (6.33%) Architect
9 82 (4.59%) Data Analyst
10 69 (3.87%) Project Manager
11 53 (2.97%) Tester
12 45 (2.52%) Software Engineer
13 39 (2.18%) Senior Analyst
14 38 (2.13%) Senior Developer
15 37 (2.07%) SAP Consultant
15 37 (2.07%) Test Engineer
16 35 (1.96%) Test Analyst
17 34 (1.90%) Test Manager
18 33 (1.85%) Network Engineer
18 33 (1.85%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (6.72%) REST
2 80 (4.48%) JSON
3 58 (3.25%) Kafka
3 58 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (2.97%) XML
5 49 (2.75%) OAuth
6 46 (2.58%) Middleware
7 39 (2.18%) SOAP
8 37 (2.07%) .NET
8 37 (2.07%) Node.js
8 37 (2.07%) PySpark
9 31 (1.74%) Swagger
10 30 (1.68%) PyTorch
10 30 (1.68%) Web Services
11 29 (1.62%) Playwright
12 28 (1.57%) pytest
13 27 (1.51%) RESTful
14 26 (1.46%) TensorFlow
15 24 (1.34%) JWT
15 24 (1.34%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 105 (5.88%) Legacy Systems
2 90 (5.04%) Data Structures
3 71 (3.98%) Onboarding
3 71 (3.98%) Product Ownership
4 45 (2.52%) Cloud Native
5 44 (2.46%) Management Information System
6 37 (2.07%) Data Centre
7 34 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
8 29 (1.62%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.57%) Replication
10 22 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
11 21 (1.18%) Algorithms
12 20 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
12 20 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
13 19 (1.06%) Public Cloud
14 17 (0.95%) Derivative
15 16 (0.90%) Virtual Team
16 15 (0.84%) CMDB
16 15 (0.84%) Credit Risk
17 14 (0.78%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 91 (5.10%) Windows
2 74 (4.15%) Linux
3 27 (1.51%) Unix
4 11 (0.62%) Android
5 8 (0.45%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.34%) zOS
7 4 (0.22%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.22%) SUSE
8 3 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
8 3 (0.17%) VMS
9 2 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.11%) Debian
9 2 (0.11%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.056%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.056%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.056%) pSOS
10 1 (0.056%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 440 (24.65%) Migration
2 412 (23.08%) Agile
3 364 (20.39%) Problem-Solving
4 323 (18.10%) Stakeholder Management
5 306 (17.14%) Data Validation
6 301 (16.86%) CI/CD
7 292 (16.36%) Analytics
8 277 (15.52%) DevOps
9 263 (14.73%) Data Migration
10 250 (14.01%) Data Modelling
11 245 (13.73%) ETL
12 231 (12.94%) User Acceptance Testing
13 211 (11.82%) Test Automation
14 197 (11.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 192 (10.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 191 (10.70%) AI
17 189 (10.59%) Business Intelligence
18 173 (9.69%) Data Governance
19 152 (8.52%) Data Pipeline
20 151 (8.46%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 449 (25.15%) SQL
2 333 (18.66%) Python
3 92 (5.15%) Java
4 87 (4.87%) JavaScript
5 67 (3.75%) C#
6 52 (2.91%) PL/SQL
7 47 (2.63%) C++
8 43 (2.41%) PowerShell
9 41 (2.30%) C
10 28 (1.57%) TypeScript
11 27 (1.51%) Bash
12 26 (1.46%) R
13 24 (1.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 22 (1.23%) Bicep
15 21 (1.18%) Ada
16 17 (0.95%) T-SQL
17 16 (0.90%) Groovy
18 14 (0.78%) Scala
19 13 (0.73%) VBA
20 10 (0.56%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 383 (21.46%) Security Cleared
2 274 (15.35%) SC Cleared
3 161 (9.02%) Degree
4 51 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 49 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 38 (2.13%) DV Cleared
7 30 (1.68%) Master's Degree
8 29 (1.62%) PMI Certification
9 27 (1.51%) PMP
10 25 (1.40%) ISTQB
11 16 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.84%) CISSP
12 15 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (0.73%) CBAP
13 13 (0.73%) CCNP
14 12 (0.67%) AWS Certification
14 12 (0.67%) Azure Certification
15 8 (0.45%) CCNA
15 8 (0.45%) IIBA
15 8 (0.45%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 287 (16.08%) Data Quality
2 226 (12.66%) QA
3 102 (5.71%) GDPR
4 73 (4.09%) NIST
5 60 (3.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.40%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.23%) IFRS
8 20 (1.12%) Def Stans
9 19 (1.06%) IFRS 17
9 19 (1.06%) SLA
10 16 (0.90%) GRC
10 16 (0.90%) PMO
11 14 (0.78%) NCSC
11 14 (0.78%) PCI DSS
12 12 (0.67%) COBIT
13 11 (0.62%) GxP
13 11 (0.62%) HL7
13 11 (0.62%) MiFID
13 11 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 10 (0.56%) MISRA
System Software
1 76 (4.26%) Docker
2 40 (2.24%) Active Directory
3 35 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.51%) Firmware
5 11 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (0.62%) VMware NSX
6 10 (0.56%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (0.39%) vSphere
9 5 (0.28%) NFS
10 4 (0.22%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 3 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
12 2 (0.11%) Ceph
12 2 (0.11%) KVM
12 2 (0.11%) Lustre
12 2 (0.11%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.11%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.11%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.11%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 111 (6.22%) Kubernetes
2 79 (4.43%) Terraform
3 30 (1.68%) Ansible
4 29 (1.62%) Prometheus
4 29 (1.62%) Single Sign-On
5 27 (1.51%) Grafana
6 12 (0.67%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (0.62%) Kibana
7 11 (0.62%) Puppet
8 8 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.34%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.34%) Nessus
9 6 (0.34%) SCCM
10 5 (0.28%) CASB
10 5 (0.28%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.22%) EMC NetWorker
11 4 (0.22%) EMC VPLEX
11 4 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (0.22%) vMotion
11 4 (0.22%) VxRail
Vendors
1 237 (13.28%) Microsoft
2 188 (10.53%) Oracle
3 150 (8.40%) SAP
4 85 (4.76%) Databricks
5 74 (4.15%) ServiceNow
6 47 (2.63%) Salesforce
7 42 (2.35%) Splunk
7 42 (2.35%) VMware
8 38 (2.13%) Google
9 35 (1.96%) Cisco
10 31 (1.74%) Informatica
11 30 (1.68%) MuleSoft
12 28 (1.57%) Workday
13 27 (1.51%) Sage
14 21 (1.18%) Palo Alto
15 20 (1.12%) CyberArk
16 18 (1.01%) IBM
17 15 (0.84%) OpenAI
18 13 (0.73%) Bloomberg
18 13 (0.73%) Murex