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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 72 117
Rank change year-on-year +30 +45 +30
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,944 793 721
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.77% 3.28% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.64% 3.59% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,201 478 362
10th Percentile £325 £350 £320
25th Percentile £400 £416 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £539 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.68% +7.75% -9.91%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £600
90th Percentile £700 £718 £700
UK median daily rate £485 £528 £507
% change year-on-year -8.06% +4.04% -7.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 121 55 163
10th Percentile £17.75 £23.86 £26.88
25th Percentile £40.00 £39.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £62.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% -7.26% -0.80%
75th Percentile £72.50 £65.00 £74.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.00 £76.97
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £55.52 £61.00
% change year-on-year +12.57% -8.98% -4.86%

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 34,498 22,079 31,531
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.70% 91.24% 86.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,001 14,439 20,650
10th Percentile £320 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,129 933 2,247
10th Percentile £15.34 £14.44 £12.90
25th Percentile £20.38 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.07 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.68% -20.36% -2.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.01 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.75 £36.50
% change year-on-year +47.83% -21.23% +0.29%

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 15 May 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 15 May 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 15 May 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 +55 945 £501 -9.00% 308
North of England +38 270 £425 -5.56% 132
Midlands +27 232 £481 +1.32% 91
South East -9 220 £500 - 187
West Midlands +22 168 £475 - 50
North West +30 163 £416 -4.91% 83
East of England +5 116 £500 +11.11% 79
South West -6 106 £488 -15.22% 97
Yorkshire +17 97 £451 +8.03% 38
East Midlands +8 60 £525 +4.06% 41
North East -12 13 £450 -28.00% 12
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 81 (4.17%) Confluence
2 39 (2.01%) Apache Airflow
3 36 (1.85%) Apache Spark
4 33 (1.70%) SAS
5 18 (0.93%) Apache
6 12 (0.62%) SharePoint
7 9 (0.46%) Appian
7 9 (0.46%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
8 8 (0.41%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.26%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
11 4 (0.21%) CMS
11 4 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.15%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.10%) CICS
13 2 (0.10%) Documentum
13 2 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
13 2 (0.10%) Umbraco
Applications
1 134 (6.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (1.39%) MS Visio
3 26 (1.34%) Microsoft Office
4 18 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 17 (0.87%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
7 5 (0.26%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.15%) CATIA
8 3 (0.15%) LaTeX
8 3 (0.15%) Notion
9 2 (0.10%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.10%) EPLAN
9 2 (0.10%) Simulink
9 2 (0.10%) Sketch
10 1 (0.051%) Autodesk Inventor
10 1 (0.051%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.051%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.051%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.051%) UXPin
10 1 (0.051%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 95 (4.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (1.65%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.72%) Oracle General Ledger
3 14 (0.72%) Teamcenter
4 13 (0.67%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 12 (0.62%) Workday HCM
6 10 (0.51%) Oracle Assets
7 8 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.41%) NetSuite
7 8 (0.41%) Oracle EBS R12
7 8 (0.41%) Oracle Receivables
7 8 (0.41%) SAP ERP
8 7 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
9 6 (0.31%) Aladdin
9 6 (0.31%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.31%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.31%) SAP Business One
10 5 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
10 5 (0.26%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 389 (20.01%) Azure
2 236 (12.14%) AWS
3 195 (10.03%) Power Platform
4 100 (5.14%) GCP
5 94 (4.84%) Azure DevOps
6 84 (4.32%) GitHub
7 54 (2.78%) Azure Data Factory
7 54 (2.78%) Snowflake
8 51 (2.62%) Serverless
9 50 (2.57%) Entra ID
10 49 (2.52%) SaaS
11 45 (2.31%) OCI
12 43 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
13 40 (2.06%) Amazon S3
14 34 (1.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 30 (1.54%) dbt
15 30 (1.54%) Microsoft 365
16 24 (1.23%) AWS Lambda
17 21 (1.08%) SuccessFactors
18 20 (1.03%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 82 (4.22%) Firewall
2 55 (2.83%) Network Security
3 36 (1.85%) VLAN
4 31 (1.59%) TCP/IP
5 27 (1.39%) DNS
6 26 (1.34%) VPN
7 24 (1.23%) WAN
8 19 (0.98%) Ethernet
9 17 (0.87%) LAN
10 16 (0.82%) SAN
11 14 (0.72%) Wireless
12 13 (0.67%) SD-WAN
13 12 (0.62%) BGP
13 12 (0.62%) NAS
13 12 (0.62%) OSPF
13 12 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (0.57%) Cisco ISE
15 10 (0.51%) TACACS
16 9 (0.46%) Internet
17 7 (0.36%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 183 (9.41%) Power BI
2 108 (5.56%) Data Warehouse
3 84 (4.32%) Metadata
4 70 (3.60%) Tableau
5 65 (3.34%) SQL Server
6 55 (2.83%) Data Lake
7 44 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
8 36 (1.85%) Relational Database
9 28 (1.44%) Amazon Redshift
10 25 (1.29%) Big Data
10 25 (1.29%) NoSQL
11 24 (1.23%) Oracle Reports
12 23 (1.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 22 (1.13%) BigQuery
14 21 (1.08%) Delta Lake
14 21 (1.08%) Oracle Database
15 18 (0.93%) Power Query
16 17 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
17 16 (0.82%) Amazon Athena
17 16 (0.82%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 188 (9.67%) JIRA
2 106 (5.45%) Git
3 74 (3.81%) Jenkins
4 51 (2.62%) Selenium
5 47 (2.42%) GitLab
6 40 (2.06%) Postman
7 35 (1.80%) JMeter
8 30 (1.54%) JUnit
9 26 (1.34%) Cucumber
10 25 (1.29%) WebDriver
11 24 (1.23%) Rational DOORS
12 15 (0.77%) Eclipse
12 15 (0.77%) MLflow
12 15 (0.77%) Visual Studio
13 12 (0.62%) Rational Rhapsody
14 11 (0.57%) Bitbucket
14 11 (0.57%) REST Assured
15 10 (0.51%) Gatling
15 10 (0.51%) Gradle
15 10 (0.51%) Maven
General
1 599 (30.81%) Social Skills
2 596 (30.66%) Finance
3 372 (19.14%) Analytical Skills
4 164 (8.44%) Banking
5 158 (8.13%) Public Sector
6 104 (5.35%) Documentation Skills
7 58 (2.98%) Manufacturing
8 49 (2.52%) Aerospace
9 43 (2.21%) Retail
10 42 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
11 41 (2.11%) Organisational Skills
12 32 (1.65%) Legal
12 32 (1.65%) Pharmaceutical
13 31 (1.59%) Front Office
13 31 (1.59%) Marketing
14 29 (1.49%) General Ledger
15 28 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
15 28 (1.44%) Military
16 27 (1.39%) Financial Institution
16 27 (1.39%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 367 (18.88%) Analyst
2 203 (10.44%) Lead
3 169 (8.69%) Senior
4 158 (8.13%) Business Analyst
5 154 (7.92%) Data Engineer
6 129 (6.64%) Consultant
7 121 (6.22%) Architect
8 108 (5.56%) Developer
9 102 (5.25%) Data Analyst
10 75 (3.86%) Project Manager
11 52 (2.67%) Tester
12 44 (2.26%) Software Engineer
13 42 (2.16%) Test Engineer
14 40 (2.06%) Network Engineer
14 40 (2.06%) Senior Analyst
15 38 (1.95%) Test Manager
16 36 (1.85%) Security Engineer
17 35 (1.80%) Systems Engineer
18 33 (1.70%) Migration Engineer
18 33 (1.70%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (5.25%) REST
2 69 (3.55%) Kafka
3 66 (3.40%) JSON
4 52 (2.67%) Oracle Fusion
5 47 (2.42%) Middleware
6 45 (2.31%) OAuth
7 39 (2.01%) PySpark
7 39 (2.01%) XML
8 35 (1.80%) Swagger
9 33 (1.70%) SOAP
10 32 (1.65%) .NET
11 31 (1.59%) Node.js
12 30 (1.54%) Web Services
13 28 (1.44%) Pandas
13 28 (1.44%) RESTful
13 28 (1.44%) Spring
14 27 (1.39%) PyTorch
15 25 (1.29%) Playwright
16 24 (1.23%) JWT
16 24 (1.23%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 115 (5.92%) Legacy Systems
2 101 (5.20%) Data Structures
3 94 (4.84%) Onboarding
4 81 (4.17%) Product Ownership
5 64 (3.29%) Cloud Native
6 61 (3.14%) Data Centre
7 46 (2.37%) Management Information System
8 35 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
8 35 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
9 30 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
10 26 (1.34%) Replication
11 24 (1.23%) Public Cloud
12 23 (1.18%) Hybrid Cloud
13 22 (1.13%) SCADA
14 21 (1.08%) Algorithms
14 21 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
15 20 (1.03%) Derivative
15 20 (1.03%) Reference Data
16 19 (0.98%) NHS
16 19 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 93 (4.78%) Windows
2 77 (3.96%) Linux
3 25 (1.29%) Unix
4 11 (0.57%) Android
5 9 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.46%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.26%) zOS
7 4 (0.21%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.21%) SUSE
7 4 (0.21%) VMS
8 3 (0.15%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.051%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.051%) Debian
10 1 (0.051%) HPUX
10 1 (0.051%) pSOS
10 1 (0.051%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 543 (27.93%) Migration
2 384 (19.75%) Agile
3 357 (18.36%) Problem-Solving
4 340 (17.49%) Data Validation
4 340 (17.49%) Stakeholder Management
5 333 (17.13%) Data Migration
6 299 (15.38%) CI/CD
7 296 (15.23%) Data Modelling
8 294 (15.12%) Analytics
9 290 (14.92%) User Acceptance Testing
10 270 (13.89%) ETL
11 238 (12.24%) DevOps
12 227 (11.68%) Business Intelligence
13 217 (11.16%) Test Automation
14 211 (10.85%) AI
15 200 (10.29%) Continuous Improvement
16 193 (9.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 190 (9.77%) Data Governance
18 174 (8.95%) Data Analysis
19 171 (8.80%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 479 (24.64%) SQL
2 342 (17.59%) Python
3 98 (5.04%) Java
4 55 (2.83%) C#
5 46 (2.37%) C++
6 42 (2.16%) PowerShell
7 40 (2.06%) C
8 39 (2.01%) JavaScript
9 35 (1.80%) Bash
10 27 (1.39%) R
11 26 (1.34%) TypeScript
12 25 (1.29%) Bicep
13 24 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 24 (1.23%) PL/SQL
14 20 (1.03%) Ada
15 17 (0.87%) Apex Code
15 17 (0.87%) Scala
16 13 (0.67%) MATLAB
17 12 (0.62%) VBA
18 9 (0.46%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 361 (18.57%) Security Cleared
2 258 (13.27%) SC Cleared
3 155 (7.97%) Degree
4 45 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
4 45 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (1.75%) PMI Certification
6 33 (1.70%) DV Cleared
7 28 (1.44%) Master's Degree
7 28 (1.44%) PMP
8 24 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
9 19 (0.98%) CCNP
10 16 (0.82%) CISSP
10 16 (0.82%) ISTQB
11 15 (0.77%) CBAP
12 13 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (0.62%) ACCA
13 12 (0.62%) AWS Certification
13 12 (0.62%) Azure Certification
14 10 (0.51%) CIMA
15 9 (0.46%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 338 (17.39%) Data Quality
2 234 (12.04%) QA
3 104 (5.35%) GDPR
4 65 (3.34%) NIST
5 56 (2.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.29%) IFRS
7 24 (1.23%) Accessibility
8 23 (1.18%) SLA
9 21 (1.08%) PMO
10 20 (1.03%) IFRS 17
11 18 (0.93%) GRC
12 16 (0.82%) Def Stans
13 14 (0.72%) HL7
13 14 (0.72%) MiFID
14 13 (0.67%) PCI DSS
15 12 (0.62%) GxP
15 12 (0.62%) NIST 800
16 11 (0.57%) ISO 20022
16 11 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 10 (0.51%) GMP
System Software
1 78 (4.01%) Docker
2 39 (2.01%) Active Directory
3 34 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.08%) Firmware
5 16 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (0.62%) VMware NSX
7 10 (0.51%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.36%) vSphere
10 5 (0.26%) NFS
11 4 (0.21%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.10%) BitLocker
12 2 (0.10%) Ceph
12 2 (0.10%) KVM
12 2 (0.10%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.10%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.10%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.10%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.10%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 118 (6.07%) Kubernetes
2 82 (4.22%) Terraform
3 41 (2.11%) Prometheus
4 39 (2.01%) Grafana
5 36 (1.85%) Ansible
6 28 (1.44%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
8 11 (0.57%) FortiGate
8 11 (0.57%) Kibana
9 10 (0.51%) Puppet
10 8 (0.41%) SCCM
11 6 (0.31%) Nessus
11 6 (0.31%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.26%) CASB
12 5 (0.26%) vMotion
13 4 (0.21%) Argo
13 4 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
13 4 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
13 4 (0.21%) Istio
13 4 (0.21%) VxRail
Vendors
1 266 (13.68%) Microsoft
2 169 (8.69%) SAP
3 166 (8.54%) Oracle
4 89 (4.58%) Databricks
5 64 (3.29%) Salesforce
6 59 (3.03%) ServiceNow
7 44 (2.26%) Cisco
8 43 (2.21%) VMware
9 41 (2.11%) Splunk
10 33 (1.70%) Google
11 31 (1.59%) Informatica
12 25 (1.29%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.29%) Sage
13 24 (1.23%) Workday
14 23 (1.18%) MuleSoft
15 22 (1.13%) IBM
16 21 (1.08%) CyberArk
17 20 (1.03%) IFS
18 16 (0.82%) Fortinet
19 15 (0.77%) CheckPoint