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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 98 126
Rank change year-on-year +53 +28 +10
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,679 677 700
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.56% 2.76% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.27% 3.04% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,038 406 389
10th Percentile £350 £363 £325
25th Percentile £404 £422 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £548 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.50% +4.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £619
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £540 £535
% change year-on-year -10.88% +0.93% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 40 146
10th Percentile £32.86 £25.26 £23.75
25th Percentile £60.00 £46.00 £51.56
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.65 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.76% -4.72% -3.20%
75th Percentile £72.25 £64.06 £75.16
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.03 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £60.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -4.10% -4.60%

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 31,848 22,266 32,932
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.46% 90.63% 86.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,386 14,474 21,796
10th Percentile £313 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £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 1,978 815 2,152
10th Percentile £15.29 £15.18 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.79 £34.11 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.73% +4.95% -12.87%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 +69 776 £510 -7.27% 275
North of England +33 229 £433 -10.13% 143
South East 0 198 £500 - 224
Midlands +38 177 £481 -1.48% 125
North West +29 146 £416 -10.05% 69
West Midlands +21 141 £481 -1.81% 83
South West +4 134 £475 -17.39% 99
East of England +21 115 £478 +6.22% 91
Yorkshire +1 73 £462 +9.93% 48
East Midlands -4 34 £513 +39.27% 42
North East -3 13 £463 -36.21% 26
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 70 (4.17%) Confluence
2 32 (1.91%) Apache Spark
2 32 (1.91%) SAS
3 29 (1.73%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (0.95%) Apache
5 15 (0.89%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
7 9 (0.54%) Appian
8 8 (0.48%) Jupyter
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.30%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.30%) CMS
11 4 (0.24%) Anypoint
11 4 (0.24%) Smallworld
12 3 (0.18%) CICS
12 3 (0.18%) GeoServer
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 83 (4.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.13%) MS Visio
3 12 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.48%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.24%) Notion
8 3 (0.18%) LaTeX
9 2 (0.12%) CATIA
9 2 (0.12%) Sketch
10 1 (0.060%) Autodesk Inventor
10 1 (0.060%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.060%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.060%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.060%) Simulink
10 1 (0.060%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 79 (4.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.67%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 13 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.77%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.77%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
6 9 (0.54%) Oracle Assets
6 9 (0.54%) SAP FI
7 8 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.48%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 8 (0.48%) Oracle EBS R12
8 7 (0.42%) Aladdin
8 7 (0.42%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.42%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 7 (0.42%) SAP MDG
8 7 (0.42%) SAP MM
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.36%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 397 (23.65%) Azure
2 199 (11.85%) AWS
3 146 (8.70%) Power Platform
4 129 (7.68%) Azure DevOps
5 82 (4.88%) GitHub
6 79 (4.71%) GCP
7 52 (3.10%) Entra ID
7 52 (3.10%) Serverless
8 51 (3.04%) Azure Data Factory
9 46 (2.74%) GitHub Actions
10 45 (2.68%) SaaS
11 42 (2.50%) OCI
12 35 (2.08%) Amazon S3
13 34 (2.03%) Snowflake
14 28 (1.67%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 27 (1.61%) OpenShift
16 25 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
17 21 (1.25%) SuccessFactors
18 20 (1.19%) Microsoft 365
19 19 (1.13%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 61 (3.63%) Firewall
2 44 (2.62%) Network Security
3 33 (1.97%) TCP/IP
4 21 (1.25%) DNS
4 21 (1.25%) Ethernet
5 17 (1.01%) VPN
6 15 (0.89%) SAN
6 15 (0.89%) VLAN
6 15 (0.89%) WAN
7 13 (0.77%) NAS
8 9 (0.54%) HTTP
8 9 (0.54%) LAN
8 9 (0.54%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.54%) Wireless
9 8 (0.48%) BGP
9 8 (0.48%) Internet
9 8 (0.48%) OSPF
10 7 (0.42%) Cisco ISE
10 7 (0.42%) MPLS
10 7 (0.42%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 135 (8.04%) Power BI
2 86 (5.12%) Data Warehouse
3 83 (4.94%) Metadata
4 50 (2.98%) SQL Server
5 49 (2.92%) Tableau
6 41 (2.44%) Data Lake
7 35 (2.08%) PostgreSQL
8 28 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
9 27 (1.61%) NoSQL
10 25 (1.49%) Amazon Redshift
11 23 (1.37%) Delta Lake
12 20 (1.19%) Relational Database
12 20 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 19 (1.13%) Big Data
14 18 (1.07%) Oracle Database
14 18 (1.07%) Pinecone
14 18 (1.07%) SAS Enterprise Guide
15 17 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
16 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
17 12 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 167 (9.95%) JIRA
2 99 (5.90%) Git
3 79 (4.71%) Jenkins
4 59 (3.51%) Selenium
5 48 (2.86%) GitLab
6 42 (2.50%) Postman
7 34 (2.03%) JUnit
8 31 (1.85%) Cucumber
9 30 (1.79%) Rational DOORS
10 29 (1.73%) Oracle APEX
11 28 (1.67%) JMeter
12 20 (1.19%) Visual Studio
13 19 (1.13%) WebDriver
14 17 (1.01%) MLflow
15 14 (0.83%) Eclipse
16 12 (0.71%) REST Assured
17 11 (0.66%) Bitbucket
18 10 (0.60%) TestRail
19 9 (0.54%) Cypress.io
19 9 (0.54%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 591 (35.20%) Social Skills
2 506 (30.14%) Finance
3 342 (20.37%) Analytical Skills
4 151 (8.99%) Public Sector
5 147 (8.76%) Banking
6 87 (5.18%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
8 45 (2.68%) Manufacturing
9 40 (2.38%) Aerospace
10 31 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.79%) Electronics
12 29 (1.73%) Marketing
13 28 (1.67%) Front Office
14 27 (1.61%) Military
14 27 (1.61%) Pharmaceutical
15 25 (1.49%) Financial Institution
15 25 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
15 25 (1.49%) Telecoms
16 24 (1.43%) Retail
17 23 (1.37%) Legal
Job Titles
1 299 (17.81%) Analyst
2 175 (10.42%) Senior
3 174 (10.36%) Lead
4 135 (8.04%) Business Analyst
5 121 (7.21%) Developer
6 118 (7.03%) Consultant
7 113 (6.73%) Data Engineer
8 109 (6.49%) Architect
9 81 (4.82%) Data Analyst
10 63 (3.75%) Project Manager
11 50 (2.98%) Tester
12 47 (2.80%) Software Engineer
13 38 (2.26%) Senior Analyst
14 37 (2.20%) SAP Consultant
14 37 (2.20%) Senior Developer
15 33 (1.97%) Test Engineer
15 33 (1.97%) Test Manager
16 32 (1.91%) Embedded Engineer
17 31 (1.85%) Test Analyst
18 30 (1.79%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (6.67%) REST
2 69 (4.11%) JSON
3 61 (3.63%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (3.16%) Kafka
5 50 (2.98%) XML
6 47 (2.80%) OAuth
7 44 (2.62%) Middleware
8 43 (2.56%) .NET
9 41 (2.44%) SOAP
10 37 (2.20%) PySpark
11 36 (2.14%) Node.js
11 36 (2.14%) PyTorch
12 32 (1.91%) RESTful
12 32 (1.91%) TensorFlow
13 31 (1.85%) Web Services
14 30 (1.79%) Swagger
15 29 (1.73%) Playwright
16 27 (1.61%) pytest
17 26 (1.55%) Pandas
18 23 (1.37%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 103 (6.13%) Legacy Systems
2 83 (4.94%) Data Structures
3 74 (4.41%) Product Ownership
4 56 (3.34%) Onboarding
5 48 (2.86%) Cloud Native
6 42 (2.50%) Management Information System
7 36 (2.14%) Data Centre
8 33 (1.97%) Analytical Mindset
9 26 (1.55%) Algorithms
9 26 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
10 25 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
10 25 (1.49%) Replication
11 19 (1.13%) Derivative
12 18 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
14 16 (0.95%) Credit Risk
15 15 (0.89%) Public Cloud
16 13 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (0.77%) FPGA
16 13 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 87 (5.18%) Windows
2 69 (4.11%) Linux
3 28 (1.67%) Unix
4 9 (0.54%) Android
5 7 (0.42%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.36%) zOS
7 5 (0.30%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
9 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.060%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.060%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.060%) pSOS
10 1 (0.060%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 411 (24.48%) Agile
2 403 (24.00%) Migration
3 363 (21.62%) Problem-Solving
4 312 (18.58%) Stakeholder Management
5 285 (16.97%) CI/CD
5 285 (16.97%) Data Validation
6 271 (16.14%) Analytics
7 267 (15.90%) DevOps
8 244 (14.53%) Data Migration
9 231 (13.76%) Data Modelling
10 217 (12.92%) ETL
11 211 (12.57%) User Acceptance Testing
12 208 (12.39%) Test Automation
13 198 (11.79%) AI
14 191 (11.38%) Continuous Improvement
15 177 (10.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 176 (10.48%) Business Intelligence
17 158 (9.41%) Data Governance
18 144 (8.58%) Data Pipeline
19 143 (8.52%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 419 (24.96%) SQL
2 322 (19.18%) Python
3 86 (5.12%) JavaScript
4 85 (5.06%) Java
5 65 (3.87%) C#
6 51 (3.04%) PL/SQL
7 46 (2.74%) C++
8 40 (2.38%) PowerShell
9 38 (2.26%) C
10 29 (1.73%) Bash
10 29 (1.73%) TypeScript
11 23 (1.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 23 (1.37%) R
12 22 (1.31%) Bicep
13 20 (1.19%) Ada
14 17 (1.01%) Groovy
15 16 (0.95%) T-SQL
16 14 (0.83%) Scala
17 12 (0.71%) VBA
18 10 (0.60%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 363 (21.62%) Security Cleared
2 263 (15.66%) SC Cleared
3 152 (9.05%) Degree
4 53 (3.16%) Computer Science Degree
5 47 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 38 (2.26%) DV Cleared
7 33 (1.97%) Master's Degree
8 26 (1.55%) ISTQB
8 26 (1.55%) PMI Certification
9 23 (1.37%) PMP
10 15 (0.89%) CISSP
11 14 (0.83%) CBAP
11 14 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (0.77%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.66%) CCNP
14 9 (0.54%) Azure Certification
15 8 (0.48%) Oracle Certification
16 7 (0.42%) CCNA
16 7 (0.42%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 254 (15.13%) Data Quality
2 215 (12.81%) QA
3 89 (5.30%) GDPR
4 75 (4.47%) NIST
5 53 (3.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 23 (1.37%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.31%) IFRS
8 19 (1.13%) Def Stans
8 19 (1.13%) IFRS 17
9 18 (1.07%) SLA
10 17 (1.01%) GRC
11 16 (0.95%) PMO
12 15 (0.89%) PCI DSS
13 13 (0.77%) NCSC
14 12 (0.71%) COBIT
14 12 (0.71%) EU AI Act
15 11 (0.66%) MiFID
16 10 (0.60%) HL7
16 10 (0.60%) MISRA
17 9 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 77 (4.59%) Docker
2 39 (2.32%) Active Directory
3 32 (1.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.25%) Firmware
5 10 (0.60%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.42%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.30%) NFS
9 4 (0.24%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.18%) vSphere
11 2 (0.12%) Ceph
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
11 2 (0.12%) Lustre
11 2 (0.12%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.12%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.12%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 112 (6.67%) Kubernetes
2 77 (4.59%) Terraform
3 30 (1.79%) Ansible
4 28 (1.67%) Prometheus
4 28 (1.67%) Single Sign-On
5 24 (1.43%) Grafana
6 12 (0.71%) Kibana
6 12 (0.71%) Puppet
7 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.36%) Nessus
9 6 (0.36%) SCCM
10 5 (0.30%) CASB
11 4 (0.24%) EMC NetWorker
11 4 (0.24%) EMC VPLEX
11 4 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.24%) vMotion
12 3 (0.18%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.18%) OMEGAMON
12 3 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 224 (13.34%) Microsoft
2 178 (10.60%) Oracle
3 139 (8.28%) SAP
4 77 (4.59%) Databricks
5 75 (4.47%) ServiceNow
6 42 (2.50%) Splunk
7 38 (2.26%) Salesforce
7 38 (2.26%) VMware
8 33 (1.97%) Cisco
8 33 (1.97%) Google
9 30 (1.79%) Workday
10 28 (1.67%) Informatica
10 28 (1.67%) Sage
11 26 (1.55%) MuleSoft
12 21 (1.25%) IBM
13 19 (1.13%) Palo Alto
14 15 (0.89%) CyberArk
14 15 (0.89%) Murex
15 14 (0.83%) Bloomberg
15 14 (0.83%) OpenAI