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

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 107 120
Rank change year-on-year +53 +13 +15
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,401 626 758
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.24% 2.40% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.83% 2.68% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 856 332 425
10th Percentile £325 £335 £317
25th Percentile £400 £409 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £499 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.05% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £611
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £492 £513 £538
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.65% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 37 152
10th Percentile £32.13 £27.90 £31.18
25th Percentile £43.61 £47.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.96% -11.48% +2.80%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £75.69
90th Percentile £74.25 £66.60 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £65.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -11.48% +2.80%

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 28,984 23,348 33,451
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.65% 89.57% 87.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,549 14,241 22,377
10th Percentile £306 £310 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £640 £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 1,798 747 1,965
10th Percentile £15.06 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £16.74
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -1.41% +1.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £61.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +8.53%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +75 656 £513 -2.84% 257
North of England +21 188 £417 -0.71% 127
South East +6 169 £500 - 217
Midlands +18 125 £500 +2.15% 117
North West +15 122 £400 +1.27% 67
South West +16 119 £475 -17.39% 86
West Midlands +20 104 £503 +2.65% 81
East of England +14 92 £478 +19.50% 101
Yorkshire -6 54 £487 -0.10% 51
East Midlands -13 21 £463 +54.17% 35
North East -5 14 £463 -36.21% 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 54 (3.85%) Confluence
2 32 (2.28%) SAS
3 30 (2.14%) Apache Spark
4 29 (2.07%) SharePoint
5 25 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (1.00%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.79%) Apache
9 9 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2013
10 8 (0.57%) Appian
10 8 (0.57%) CMS
11 7 (0.50%) Mattermost
12 5 (0.36%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.29%) Anypoint
13 4 (0.29%) Jupyter
13 4 (0.29%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
14 3 (0.21%) ArcGIS
14 3 (0.21%) CICS
14 3 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 77 (5.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.71%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
6 7 (0.50%) Chatbot
7 6 (0.43%) Sketch
7 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.29%) Notion
9 3 (0.21%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.14%) Simulink
11 1 (0.071%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.071%) CATIA
11 1 (0.071%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.071%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.071%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.071%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 63 (4.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.07%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.79%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.79%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.79%) SAP EHS
4 10 (0.71%) Aladdin
5 9 (0.64%) Remedy ITSM
5 9 (0.64%) SAP FI
6 8 (0.57%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 8 (0.57%) Oracle Receivables
6 8 (0.57%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 7 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.50%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.50%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 7 (0.50%) SAP MDG
8 6 (0.43%) Oracle Assets
8 6 (0.43%) SAP MM
9 5 (0.36%) Markit EDM
9 5 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
9 5 (0.36%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 330 (23.55%) Azure
2 161 (11.49%) AWS
3 125 (8.92%) Azure DevOps
4 111 (7.92%) Power Platform
5 58 (4.14%) GCP
6 56 (4.00%) GitHub
7 54 (3.85%) Entra ID
8 46 (3.28%) SaaS
9 40 (2.86%) Serverless
10 39 (2.78%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.14%) GitHub Actions
11 30 (2.14%) Snowflake
12 28 (2.00%) OCI
13 27 (1.93%) Microsoft 365
14 25 (1.78%) Amazon S3
14 25 (1.78%) OpenShift
15 19 (1.36%) AWS Lambda
16 17 (1.21%) Azure Functions
16 17 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
16 17 (1.21%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (3.00%) Firewall
2 24 (1.71%) TCP/IP
3 20 (1.43%) Network Security
4 18 (1.28%) Ethernet
5 17 (1.21%) VPN
6 15 (1.07%) VLAN
6 15 (1.07%) WAN
7 14 (1.00%) Skype
8 13 (0.93%) BGP
9 12 (0.86%) DNS
9 12 (0.86%) MPLS
9 12 (0.86%) OSPF
9 12 (0.86%) Wireless
10 11 (0.79%) LAN
11 10 (0.71%) TACACS
12 7 (0.50%) HTTP
12 7 (0.50%) SD-WAN
13 6 (0.43%) Cisco ASA
13 6 (0.43%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.43%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (7.57%) Power BI
2 58 (4.14%) Metadata
3 54 (3.85%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (2.78%) Tableau
5 37 (2.64%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.00%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.78%) NoSQL
8 22 (1.57%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 21 (1.50%) Oracle Database
10 19 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
11 18 (1.28%) Relational Database
12 17 (1.21%) Pinecone
13 15 (1.07%) Oracle Reports
14 14 (1.00%) Big Data
14 14 (1.00%) Delta Lake
14 14 (1.00%) Elasticsearch
15 13 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
15 13 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 11 (0.79%) BigQuery
17 10 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 148 (10.56%) JIRA
2 66 (4.71%) Jenkins
3 65 (4.64%) Git
4 40 (2.86%) GitLab
5 38 (2.71%) Postman
5 38 (2.71%) Selenium
6 32 (2.28%) Oracle APEX
7 24 (1.71%) Rational DOORS
8 17 (1.21%) Visual Studio
9 15 (1.07%) JMeter
10 13 (0.93%) Cucumber
10 13 (0.93%) TestRail
11 12 (0.86%) MLflow
12 11 (0.79%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.79%) JUnit
13 10 (0.71%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.71%) Zephyr
14 9 (0.64%) Bitbucket
15 7 (0.50%) SpecFlow
16 6 (0.43%) Cypress.io
General
1 527 (37.62%) Social Skills
2 398 (28.41%) Finance
3 298 (21.27%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (9.35%) Public Sector
5 123 (8.78%) Banking
6 76 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (3.35%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
8 30 (2.14%) Marketing
9 29 (2.07%) Aerospace
9 29 (2.07%) Manufacturing
9 29 (2.07%) Telecoms
10 28 (2.00%) Front Office
11 27 (1.93%) Electronics
11 27 (1.93%) Military
12 24 (1.71%) Investment Banking
13 22 (1.57%) Legal
14 21 (1.50%) Financial Institution
14 21 (1.50%) Pharmaceutical
15 19 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 280 (19.99%) Analyst
2 145 (10.35%) Senior
3 127 (9.06%) Business Analyst
4 121 (8.64%) Lead
5 104 (7.42%) Developer
6 102 (7.28%) Consultant
7 78 (5.57%) Architect
8 66 (4.71%) Data Analyst
9 61 (4.35%) Data Engineer
10 49 (3.50%) Software Engineer
11 44 (3.14%) Tester
12 43 (3.07%) Project Manager
13 37 (2.64%) Senior Analyst
14 34 (2.43%) Senior Developer
15 32 (2.28%) SAP Consultant
15 32 (2.28%) Test Manager
16 31 (2.21%) Test Analyst
17 28 (2.00%) Solutions Architect
18 27 (1.93%) Embedded Engineer
19 26 (1.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (6.64%) REST
2 63 (4.50%) JSON
3 49 (3.50%) XML
4 46 (3.28%) Oracle Fusion
5 44 (3.14%) OAuth
6 39 (2.78%) SOAP
7 38 (2.71%) Middleware
8 31 (2.21%) Kafka
9 30 (2.14%) .NET
9 30 (2.14%) Node.js
9 30 (2.14%) RESTful
10 28 (2.00%) PyTorch
10 28 (2.00%) Swagger
11 27 (1.93%) PySpark
11 27 (1.93%) Web Services
12 25 (1.78%) TensorFlow
13 22 (1.57%) JWT
13 22 (1.57%) SAML
14 21 (1.50%) OpenAPI
14 21 (1.50%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.92%) Legacy Systems
2 57 (4.07%) Data Structures
3 54 (3.85%) Product Ownership
4 52 (3.71%) Onboarding
5 39 (2.78%) Management Information System
6 38 (2.71%) Cloud Native
7 26 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
7 26 (1.86%) Data Centre
8 24 (1.71%) Algorithms
9 23 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (1.43%) Derivative
11 19 (1.36%) FPGA
12 17 (1.21%) Replication
13 14 (1.00%) Credit Risk
13 14 (1.00%) Hybrid Cloud
14 13 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 13 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
14 13 (0.93%) Security Posture
15 12 (0.86%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 85 (6.07%) Linux
2 80 (5.71%) Windows
3 28 (2.00%) Unix
4 11 (0.79%) Android
5 6 (0.43%) zOS
6 5 (0.36%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.29%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.14%) Debian
9 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.071%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.071%) pSOS
10 1 (0.071%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 385 (27.48%) Agile
2 335 (23.91%) Problem-Solving
3 319 (22.77%) Migration
4 261 (18.63%) DevOps
5 244 (17.42%) Stakeholder Management
6 225 (16.06%) CI/CD
7 223 (15.92%) Data Validation
8 213 (15.20%) Analytics
9 175 (12.49%) Test Automation
10 173 (12.35%) User Acceptance Testing
11 165 (11.78%) Data Migration
11 165 (11.78%) Data Modelling
12 156 (11.13%) AI
13 152 (10.85%) ETL
14 145 (10.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 139 (9.92%) Business Intelligence
16 122 (8.71%) Continuous Improvement
16 122 (8.71%) Data Governance
17 118 (8.42%) Data Analysis
18 113 (8.07%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 358 (25.55%) SQL
2 303 (21.63%) Python
3 93 (6.64%) JavaScript
4 79 (5.64%) Java
5 58 (4.14%) C#
6 51 (3.64%) PL/SQL
7 46 (3.28%) PowerShell
8 45 (3.21%) Bash
8 45 (3.21%) C++
9 39 (2.78%) C
10 26 (1.86%) TypeScript
11 24 (1.71%) R
12 17 (1.21%) Groovy
13 16 (1.14%) Ada
14 15 (1.07%) Bicep
15 14 (1.00%) Shell Script
16 12 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.86%) Scala
17 11 (0.79%) T-SQL
18 8 (0.57%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 304 (21.70%) Security Cleared
2 222 (15.85%) SC Cleared
3 142 (10.14%) Degree
4 54 (3.85%) Computer Science Degree
5 37 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
6 35 (2.50%) DV Cleared
7 34 (2.43%) Master's Degree
8 27 (1.93%) ISTQB
9 26 (1.86%) PMI Certification
10 19 (1.36%) AWS Certification
10 19 (1.36%) PMP
11 16 (1.14%) CBAP
12 14 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (0.93%) Oracle Certification
14 11 (0.79%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.71%) CCIE
16 9 (0.64%) CCNP
16 9 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
16 9 (0.64%) OCA
17 8 (0.57%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 183 (13.06%) Data Quality
2 171 (12.21%) QA
3 79 (5.64%) GDPR
4 57 (4.07%) NIST
5 37 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 28 (2.00%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.28%) IFRS
8 16 (1.14%) IFRS 17
9 15 (1.07%) Def Stans
10 14 (1.00%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.93%) EU AI Act
12 12 (0.86%) NCSC
13 10 (0.71%) GxP
13 10 (0.71%) MiFID
13 10 (0.71%) MISRA
14 9 (0.64%) COBIT
14 9 (0.64%) DO-178B
14 9 (0.64%) GRC
14 9 (0.64%) PMO
15 8 (0.57%) PSD2
System Software
1 57 (4.07%) Docker
2 43 (3.07%) Active Directory
3 28 (2.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.50%) Firmware
5 12 (0.86%) VMware NSX
6 9 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.43%) Hyper-V
9 4 (0.29%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.29%) vSphere
10 3 (0.21%) KVM
10 3 (0.21%) QEMU
11 2 (0.14%) Ceph
11 2 (0.14%) Lustre
11 2 (0.14%) NFS
11 2 (0.14%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.14%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.14%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 76 (5.42%) Kubernetes
2 65 (4.64%) Terraform
3 44 (3.14%) Ansible
4 21 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.21%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (1.00%) Kibana
6 14 (1.00%) Puppet
7 12 (0.86%) SCCM
8 11 (0.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 11 (0.79%) Grafana
9 8 (0.57%) Nmap
10 7 (0.50%) HP SiteScope
10 7 (0.50%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.50%) SCOM
11 6 (0.43%) Nessus
12 4 (0.29%) Iperf
13 3 (0.21%) CloudHub
13 3 (0.21%) Istio
13 3 (0.21%) OMEGAMON
13 3 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 198 (14.13%) Microsoft
2 149 (10.64%) Oracle
3 107 (7.64%) SAP
4 58 (4.14%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.64%) Databricks
6 41 (2.93%) Cisco
7 39 (2.78%) Splunk
8 34 (2.43%) Salesforce
9 33 (2.36%) Google
9 33 (2.36%) VMware
10 20 (1.43%) Workday
11 19 (1.36%) Murex
12 18 (1.28%) IBM
12 18 (1.28%) MuleSoft
12 18 (1.28%) Palo Alto
13 14 (1.00%) Informatica
13 14 (1.00%) Sage
14 13 (0.93%) Avaloq
14 13 (0.93%) Bloomberg
15 12 (0.86%) Fortinet