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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 90 126
Rank change year-on-year +44 +36 +8
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,719 674 680
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.59% 2.77% 1.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.32% 3.05% 2.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,068 411 371
10th Percentile £350 £363 £319
25th Percentile £407 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.55% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £596 £638 £613
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £488 £545 £531
% change year-on-year -10.55% +2.59% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 41 144
10th Percentile £32.15 £26.25 £23.55
25th Percentile £60.00 £47.50 £50.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.44% +0.83% -4.00%
75th Percentile £72.00 £66.00 £75.18
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.25 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £59.13 £60.00
% change year-on-year +9.94% -1.46% -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 32,321 22,086 32,747
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.33% 90.81% 86.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,717 14,513 21,645
10th Percentile £313 £310 £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 1,977 834 2,155
10th Percentile £15.31 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.67 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.06% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.70
90th Percentile £75.40 £77.41 £71.89
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year - - -9.47%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 +64 800 £510 -8.11% 269
North of England +36 231 £435 -8.42% 149
South East -5 198 £500 - 221
Midlands +38 186 £486 +2.24% 120
North West +29 149 £418 -7.11% 75
West Midlands +24 146 £481 -2.53% 75
South West +9 137 £475 -17.39% 90
East of England +19 114 £500 +11.11% 103
Yorkshire -4 73 £463 +10.12% 50
East Midlands -3 38 £525 +42.66% 45
North East -10 12 £450 -37.93% 24
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 (4.19%) Confluence
2 33 (1.92%) Apache Spark
2 33 (1.92%) SAS
3 31 (1.80%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (0.93%) Apache
4 16 (0.93%) SharePoint
5 13 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
6 9 (0.52%) Appian
7 8 (0.47%) Jupyter
8 6 (0.35%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.35%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
8 6 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.29%) Anypoint
9 5 (0.29%) CMS
10 4 (0.23%) Smallworld
11 3 (0.17%) CICS
11 3 (0.17%) GeoServer
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
Applications
1 89 (5.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (1.34%) MS Visio
3 22 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
4 14 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
6 12 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
7 8 (0.47%) Chatbot
8 4 (0.23%) Notion
9 3 (0.17%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.12%) CATIA
10 2 (0.12%) Sketch
11 1 (0.058%) Autodesk Inventor
11 1 (0.058%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.058%) MicroStation
11 1 (0.058%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.058%) Simulink
11 1 (0.058%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 86 (5.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 15 (0.87%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.76%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.76%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 13 (0.76%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.58%) Oracle Receivables
6 9 (0.52%) Aladdin
6 9 (0.52%) Oracle Assets
6 9 (0.52%) SAP FI
7 8 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.47%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 7 (0.41%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.41%) Oracle EBS R12
8 7 (0.41%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 7 (0.41%) SAP MDG
8 7 (0.41%) SAP MM
9 6 (0.35%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.35%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 407 (23.68%) Azure
2 204 (11.87%) AWS
3 148 (8.61%) Power Platform
4 133 (7.74%) Azure DevOps
5 81 (4.71%) GitHub
6 79 (4.60%) GCP
7 53 (3.08%) Azure Data Factory
7 53 (3.08%) Entra ID
8 49 (2.85%) GitHub Actions
8 49 (2.85%) Serverless
9 47 (2.73%) SaaS
10 44 (2.56%) OCI
11 37 (2.15%) Snowflake
12 36 (2.09%) Amazon S3
13 30 (1.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 27 (1.57%) OpenShift
15 25 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
15 25 (1.45%) Microsoft 365
16 21 (1.22%) Boomi
16 21 (1.22%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 62 (3.61%) Firewall
2 45 (2.62%) Network Security
3 33 (1.92%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.28%) DNS
5 21 (1.22%) Ethernet
6 18 (1.05%) VPN
7 15 (0.87%) SAN
7 15 (0.87%) VLAN
7 15 (0.87%) WAN
8 13 (0.76%) NAS
9 11 (0.64%) HTTP
10 9 (0.52%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.52%) Wireless
11 8 (0.47%) BGP
11 8 (0.47%) Internet
11 8 (0.47%) LAN
11 8 (0.47%) OSPF
12 7 (0.41%) Cisco ISE
12 7 (0.41%) MPLS
12 7 (0.41%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (7.97%) Power BI
2 91 (5.29%) Data Warehouse
3 87 (5.06%) Metadata
4 56 (3.26%) SQL Server
5 51 (2.97%) Tableau
6 41 (2.39%) Data Lake
7 37 (2.15%) PostgreSQL
8 30 (1.75%) Oracle Reports
9 25 (1.45%) Amazon Redshift
10 23 (1.34%) Delta Lake
11 22 (1.28%) Relational Database
11 22 (1.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 21 (1.22%) Big Data
12 21 (1.22%) NoSQL
13 20 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 19 (1.11%) Oracle Database
14 19 (1.11%) SAS Enterprise Guide
15 18 (1.05%) Pinecone
16 14 (0.81%) Star Schema
17 13 (0.76%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 173 (10.06%) JIRA
2 101 (5.88%) Git
3 81 (4.71%) Jenkins
4 58 (3.37%) Selenium
5 48 (2.79%) GitLab
6 39 (2.27%) Postman
7 36 (2.09%) JUnit
8 33 (1.92%) Cucumber
9 32 (1.86%) Rational DOORS
10 29 (1.69%) Oracle APEX
11 26 (1.51%) JMeter
12 20 (1.16%) Visual Studio
12 20 (1.16%) WebDriver
13 18 (1.05%) MLflow
14 14 (0.81%) Eclipse
15 12 (0.70%) REST Assured
16 11 (0.64%) Bitbucket
17 10 (0.58%) Rational Rhapsody
17 10 (0.58%) TestRail
18 9 (0.52%) Cypress.io
General
1 604 (35.14%) Social Skills
2 522 (30.37%) Finance
3 344 (20.01%) Analytical Skills
4 155 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 148 (8.61%) Banking
6 91 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
8 46 (2.68%) Manufacturing
9 43 (2.50%) Aerospace
10 32 (1.86%) Electronics
11 31 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
12 30 (1.75%) Marketing
13 28 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
13 28 (1.63%) Military
14 26 (1.51%) Financial Institution
14 26 (1.51%) Front Office
14 26 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
14 26 (1.51%) Retail
15 24 (1.40%) Telecoms
16 23 (1.34%) Legal
Job Titles
1 314 (18.27%) Analyst
2 179 (10.41%) Senior
3 178 (10.35%) Lead
4 145 (8.44%) Business Analyst
5 120 (6.98%) Consultant
5 120 (6.98%) Developer
6 117 (6.81%) Data Engineer
7 113 (6.57%) Architect
8 80 (4.65%) Data Analyst
9 69 (4.01%) Project Manager
10 52 (3.03%) Tester
11 46 (2.68%) Software Engineer
12 40 (2.33%) SAP Consultant
13 38 (2.21%) Senior Developer
14 37 (2.15%) Senior Analyst
15 34 (1.98%) Test Analyst
16 33 (1.92%) Embedded Engineer
17 32 (1.86%) Security Engineer
17 32 (1.86%) Test Engineer
17 32 (1.86%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (6.81%) REST
2 73 (4.25%) JSON
3 58 (3.37%) Oracle Fusion
4 55 (3.20%) Kafka
5 53 (3.08%) XML
6 49 (2.85%) OAuth
7 46 (2.68%) Middleware
8 40 (2.33%) SOAP
9 36 (2.09%) Node.js
9 36 (2.09%) PySpark
10 35 (2.04%) .NET
11 32 (1.86%) Web Services
12 31 (1.80%) Swagger
13 30 (1.75%) PyTorch
14 28 (1.63%) Playwright
15 27 (1.57%) pytest
16 26 (1.51%) RESTful
16 26 (1.51%) TensorFlow
17 24 (1.40%) JWT
17 24 (1.40%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 106 (6.17%) Legacy Systems
2 87 (5.06%) Data Structures
3 71 (4.13%) Product Ownership
4 65 (3.78%) Onboarding
5 43 (2.50%) Management Information System
6 41 (2.39%) Cloud Native
7 35 (2.04%) Data Centre
8 33 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
9 29 (1.69%) Distributed Systems
10 26 (1.51%) Replication
11 21 (1.22%) Algorithms
11 21 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
12 19 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
12 19 (1.11%) Public Cloud
13 18 (1.05%) Derivative
13 18 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
14 16 (0.93%) Virtual Team
15 15 (0.87%) Credit Risk
16 14 (0.81%) AI Agents
16 14 (0.81%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 87 (5.06%) Windows
2 69 (4.01%) Linux
3 26 (1.51%) Unix
4 9 (0.52%) Android
5 7 (0.41%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.35%) zOS
7 5 (0.29%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
9 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.058%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.058%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.058%) pSOS
10 1 (0.058%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 425 (24.72%) Migration
2 406 (23.62%) Agile
3 358 (20.83%) Problem-Solving
4 317 (18.44%) Stakeholder Management
5 295 (17.16%) Data Validation
6 292 (16.99%) CI/CD
7 276 (16.06%) Analytics
8 274 (15.94%) DevOps
9 261 (15.18%) Data Migration
10 239 (13.90%) Data Modelling
11 229 (13.32%) ETL
12 225 (13.09%) User Acceptance Testing
13 204 (11.87%) Test Automation
14 197 (11.46%) AI
15 191 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
16 183 (10.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 179 (10.41%) Business Intelligence
18 170 (9.89%) Data Governance
19 146 (8.49%) Workshop Facilitation
20 144 (8.38%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 429 (24.96%) SQL
2 312 (18.15%) Python
3 88 (5.12%) Java
4 86 (5.00%) JavaScript
5 64 (3.72%) C#
6 50 (2.91%) PL/SQL
7 46 (2.68%) C++
8 41 (2.39%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.33%) C
10 28 (1.63%) TypeScript
11 27 (1.57%) Bash
12 22 (1.28%) Bicep
12 22 (1.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 22 (1.28%) R
13 21 (1.22%) Ada
14 17 (0.99%) Groovy
14 17 (0.99%) T-SQL
15 14 (0.81%) Scala
16 12 (0.70%) VBA
17 10 (0.58%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 369 (21.47%) Security Cleared
2 265 (15.42%) SC Cleared
3 155 (9.02%) Degree
4 51 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 50 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
6 37 (2.15%) DV Cleared
7 33 (1.92%) Master's Degree
8 27 (1.57%) PMI Certification
9 25 (1.45%) PMP
10 24 (1.40%) ISTQB
11 15 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (0.87%) CISSP
11 15 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (0.76%) CBAP
13 12 (0.70%) AWS Certification
13 12 (0.70%) CCNP
14 9 (0.52%) Azure Certification
15 8 (0.47%) CCNA
15 8 (0.47%) Oracle Certification
16 7 (0.41%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 274 (15.94%) Data Quality
2 218 (12.68%) QA
3 97 (5.64%) GDPR
4 69 (4.01%) NIST
5 58 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.40%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.28%) IFRS
8 20 (1.16%) Def Stans
9 19 (1.11%) IFRS 17
10 18 (1.05%) SLA
11 17 (0.99%) GRC
12 16 (0.93%) PMO
13 14 (0.81%) PCI DSS
14 13 (0.76%) NCSC
15 12 (0.70%) COBIT
16 11 (0.64%) GxP
16 11 (0.64%) MiFID
16 11 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 10 (0.58%) HL7
17 10 (0.58%) MISRA
System Software
1 74 (4.30%) Docker
2 41 (2.39%) Active Directory
3 31 (1.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.22%) Firmware
5 10 (0.58%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.35%) Hyper-V
9 5 (0.29%) NFS
10 4 (0.23%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
10 4 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
11 3 (0.17%) vSphere
12 2 (0.12%) Ceph
12 2 (0.12%) KVM
12 2 (0.12%) Lustre
12 2 (0.12%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.12%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.12%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 110 (6.40%) Kubernetes
2 77 (4.48%) Terraform
3 29 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
4 28 (1.63%) Ansible
4 28 (1.63%) Prometheus
5 25 (1.45%) Grafana
6 11 (0.64%) Kibana
6 11 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (0.64%) Puppet
7 9 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (0.35%) Nessus
8 6 (0.35%) SCCM
9 5 (0.29%) CASB
10 4 (0.23%) EMC NetWorker
10 4 (0.23%) EMC VPLEX
10 4 (0.23%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.23%) vMotion
11 3 (0.17%) Control-M
11 3 (0.17%) OMEGAMON
11 3 (0.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 226 (13.15%) Microsoft
2 185 (10.76%) Oracle
3 150 (8.73%) SAP
4 82 (4.77%) Databricks
5 72 (4.19%) ServiceNow
6 41 (2.39%) Salesforce
6 41 (2.39%) Splunk
7 38 (2.21%) VMware
8 36 (2.09%) Google
9 32 (1.86%) Cisco
10 29 (1.69%) Informatica
10 29 (1.69%) MuleSoft
11 27 (1.57%) Sage
11 27 (1.57%) Workday
12 21 (1.22%) IBM
13 19 (1.11%) Palo Alto
14 18 (1.05%) CyberArk
15 15 (0.87%) Murex
15 15 (0.87%) OpenAI
16 13 (0.76%) Bloomberg