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 23 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 86 124
Rank change year-on-year +42 +38 +9
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,885 733 693
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.75% 2.98% 1.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.57% 3.27% 2.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,163 441 362
10th Percentile £325 £356 £313
25th Percentile £400 £413 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.62% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £600
90th Percentile £700 £720 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 46 152
10th Percentile £23.64 £27.63 £24.19
25th Percentile £51.25 £48.13 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.63 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.80% -6.30% -0.81%
75th Percentile £74.38 £65.00 £75.18
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.00 £88.75
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +13.04% -4.17% -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 33,832 22,384 32,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.21% 91.08% 86.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,627 14,686 21,247
10th Percentile £315 £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 £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £521 £525
% change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,111 905 2,227
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.79 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £15.91
Median hourly rate £42.50 £31.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.10% -11.43% -6.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.47
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £29.90 £35.00
% change year-on-year +32.11% -14.57% -6.67%

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 23 April 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 23 April 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 23 April 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 +68 902 £500 -9.05% 259
North of England +44 251 £437 -8.00% 111
South East +2 220 £500 - 221
Midlands +33 212 £475 - 108
West Midlands +32 157 £475 -1.30% 66
North West +30 148 £418 -5.80% 59
South West +3 127 £475 -17.39% 89
East of England +14 117 £489 +8.63% 107
Yorkshire +20 92 £455 +8.33% 36
East Midlands 0 52 £525 +14.38% 42
North East -10 14 £450 -37.93% 17
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 75 (3.98%) Confluence
2 38 (2.02%) Apache Airflow
3 35 (1.86%) Apache Spark
4 30 (1.59%) SAS
5 17 (0.90%) Apache
6 13 (0.69%) SharePoint
7 9 (0.48%) Appian
7 9 (0.48%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
8 8 (0.42%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.32%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
11 5 (0.27%) CMS
12 4 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.21%) WebLogic
13 3 (0.16%) CICS
13 3 (0.16%) Oracle Self-Service HR
13 3 (0.16%) Tomcat
14 2 (0.11%) Documentum
14 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 121 (6.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (1.54%) MS Visio
3 26 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
4 18 (0.95%) Spreadsheet
5 17 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 12 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
7 8 (0.42%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.16%) LaTeX
8 3 (0.16%) Notion
9 2 (0.11%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.11%) CATIA
9 2 (0.11%) EPLAN
9 2 (0.11%) Sketch
10 1 (0.053%) Autodesk Inventor
10 1 (0.053%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.053%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.053%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.053%) UXPin
10 1 (0.053%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 95 (5.04%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 15 (0.80%) Oracle General Ledger
4 14 (0.74%) Workday HCM
5 13 (0.69%) Oracle Payables
6 12 (0.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 10 (0.53%) Oracle Assets
7 10 (0.53%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.53%) Teamcenter
8 9 (0.48%) Oracle Receivables
9 8 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
9 8 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 7 (0.37%) Aladdin
10 7 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
10 7 (0.37%) Payment Gateway
10 7 (0.37%) SAP MM
11 6 (0.32%) Oracle Financials
11 6 (0.32%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 6 (0.32%) Sage X3
11 6 (0.32%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 426 (22.60%) Azure
2 226 (11.99%) AWS
3 186 (9.87%) Power Platform
4 126 (6.68%) Azure DevOps
5 96 (5.09%) GCP
6 84 (4.46%) GitHub
7 52 (2.76%) Azure Data Factory
8 51 (2.71%) Serverless
9 50 (2.65%) Entra ID
10 47 (2.49%) OCI
11 43 (2.28%) GitHub Actions
11 43 (2.28%) SaaS
12 42 (2.23%) Snowflake
13 40 (2.12%) Amazon S3
14 34 (1.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 27 (1.43%) dbt
15 27 (1.43%) Microsoft 365
16 24 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
17 23 (1.22%) SuccessFactors
18 19 (1.01%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 77 (4.08%) Firewall
2 53 (2.81%) Network Security
3 34 (1.80%) TCP/IP
4 32 (1.70%) VLAN
5 23 (1.22%) DNS
5 23 (1.22%) VPN
6 21 (1.11%) Ethernet
6 21 (1.11%) WAN
7 15 (0.80%) SAN
8 14 (0.74%) LAN
9 13 (0.69%) BGP
9 13 (0.69%) NAS
9 13 (0.69%) OSPF
10 12 (0.64%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.64%) Wireless
11 11 (0.58%) Cisco ISE
12 10 (0.53%) TACACS
12 10 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
13 9 (0.48%) HTTP
14 8 (0.42%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 174 (9.23%) Power BI
2 103 (5.46%) Data Warehouse
3 92 (4.88%) Metadata
4 68 (3.61%) Tableau
5 59 (3.13%) SQL Server
6 44 (2.33%) Data Lake
7 40 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
8 28 (1.49%) Oracle Reports
9 27 (1.43%) Amazon Redshift
10 26 (1.38%) Relational Database
11 25 (1.33%) Big Data
12 24 (1.27%) NoSQL
13 22 (1.17%) Delta Lake
13 22 (1.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 19 (1.01%) Oracle Database
15 18 (0.95%) Pinecone
16 17 (0.90%) Amazon Athena
16 17 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
17 16 (0.85%) SAS Enterprise Guide
17 16 (0.85%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 187 (9.92%) JIRA
2 107 (5.68%) Git
3 71 (3.77%) Jenkins
4 55 (2.92%) Selenium
5 45 (2.39%) GitLab
6 40 (2.12%) Postman
7 33 (1.75%) Cucumber
8 31 (1.64%) JUnit
9 29 (1.54%) JMeter
10 28 (1.49%) Oracle APEX
11 25 (1.33%) WebDriver
12 23 (1.22%) Rational DOORS
13 18 (0.95%) Visual Studio
14 15 (0.80%) MLflow
15 14 (0.74%) Eclipse
16 12 (0.64%) Bitbucket
16 12 (0.64%) REST Assured
17 11 (0.58%) SpecFlow
17 11 (0.58%) TestRail
18 10 (0.53%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 624 (33.10%) Social Skills
2 584 (30.98%) Finance
3 384 (20.37%) Analytical Skills
4 161 (8.54%) Public Sector
5 160 (8.49%) Banking
6 106 (5.62%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.65%) Manufacturing
8 47 (2.49%) Presentation Skills
9 46 (2.44%) Aerospace
10 40 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
11 38 (2.02%) Retail
12 34 (1.80%) Marketing
13 31 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
13 31 (1.64%) Pharmaceutical
14 30 (1.59%) Front Office
15 29 (1.54%) Financial Institution
15 29 (1.54%) Legal
15 29 (1.54%) Military
16 28 (1.49%) General Ledger
17 27 (1.43%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 363 (19.26%) Analyst
2 191 (10.13%) Lead
3 190 (10.08%) Senior
4 165 (8.75%) Business Analyst
5 139 (7.37%) Data Engineer
6 126 (6.68%) Consultant
7 123 (6.53%) Developer
8 119 (6.31%) Architect
9 97 (5.15%) Data Analyst
10 71 (3.77%) Project Manager
11 51 (2.71%) Tester
12 42 (2.23%) Senior Analyst
12 42 (2.23%) Senior Developer
13 40 (2.12%) Software Engineer
14 39 (2.07%) Test Engineer
15 38 (2.02%) Test Manager
16 37 (1.96%) Network Engineer
16 37 (1.96%) SAP Consultant
17 35 (1.86%) Systems Engineer
18 34 (1.80%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (5.89%) REST
2 69 (3.66%) JSON
3 62 (3.29%) Kafka
4 61 (3.24%) Oracle Fusion
5 50 (2.65%) Middleware
6 45 (2.39%) XML
7 43 (2.28%) OAuth
8 38 (2.02%) Node.js
9 37 (1.96%) PySpark
10 34 (1.80%) .NET
11 33 (1.75%) Swagger
12 30 (1.59%) Web Services
13 29 (1.54%) Pandas
13 29 (1.54%) Playwright
13 29 (1.54%) PyTorch
14 28 (1.49%) SOAP
15 27 (1.43%) RESTful
16 26 (1.38%) TensorFlow
17 24 (1.27%) OpenAPI
18 23 (1.22%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 113 (5.99%) Legacy Systems
2 98 (5.20%) Data Structures
3 83 (4.40%) Onboarding
4 78 (4.14%) Product Ownership
5 49 (2.60%) Cloud Native
6 47 (2.49%) Data Centre
7 46 (2.44%) Management Information System
8 34 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
9 32 (1.70%) Analytical Mindset
10 28 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
11 26 (1.38%) Replication
12 24 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
12 24 (1.27%) Public Cloud
13 22 (1.17%) Algorithms
13 22 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
14 19 (1.01%) Reference Data
14 19 (1.01%) Virtual Team
15 18 (0.95%) Derivative
16 17 (0.90%) Credit Risk
17 16 (0.85%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 95 (5.04%) Windows
2 79 (4.19%) Linux
3 24 (1.27%) Unix
4 12 (0.64%) Android
5 8 (0.42%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.32%) zOS
8 4 (0.21%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.21%) SUSE
8 4 (0.21%) VMS
9 3 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
9 3 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
11 1 (0.053%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.053%) pSOS
11 1 (0.053%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 497 (26.37%) Migration
2 416 (22.07%) Agile
3 363 (19.26%) Problem-Solving
4 340 (18.04%) Stakeholder Management
5 328 (17.40%) Data Validation
6 308 (16.34%) Data Migration
7 301 (15.97%) Analytics
8 287 (15.23%) CI/CD
9 271 (14.38%) Data Modelling
9 271 (14.38%) User Acceptance Testing
10 265 (14.06%) DevOps
11 256 (13.58%) ETL
12 223 (11.83%) Business Intelligence
13 219 (11.62%) Test Automation
14 203 (10.77%) AI
15 199 (10.56%) Continuous Improvement
16 197 (10.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 184 (9.76%) Data Governance
18 166 (8.81%) Data Pipeline
19 163 (8.65%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 488 (25.89%) SQL
2 346 (18.36%) Python
3 101 (5.36%) Java
4 75 (3.98%) JavaScript
5 63 (3.34%) C#
6 53 (2.81%) PL/SQL
7 49 (2.60%) C++
8 41 (2.18%) PowerShell
9 39 (2.07%) C
10 31 (1.64%) Bash
10 31 (1.64%) R
11 26 (1.38%) TypeScript
12 24 (1.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 22 (1.17%) Bicep
14 19 (1.01%) Ada
15 17 (0.90%) Scala
16 13 (0.69%) VBA
17 10 (0.53%) Apex Code
17 10 (0.53%) MATLAB
18 9 (0.48%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 374 (19.84%) Security Cleared
2 269 (14.27%) SC Cleared
3 157 (8.33%) Degree
4 51 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
5 47 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
6 32 (1.70%) DV Cleared
7 30 (1.59%) Master's Degree
8 29 (1.54%) PMI Certification
9 26 (1.38%) ISTQB
9 26 (1.38%) PMP
10 20 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.90%) CCNP
12 13 (0.69%) Azure Certification
12 13 (0.69%) CBAP
12 13 (0.69%) CISSP
12 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (0.58%) AWS Certification
14 9 (0.48%) ACCA
14 9 (0.48%) CCNA
15 8 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 311 (16.50%) Data Quality
2 234 (12.41%) QA
3 110 (5.84%) GDPR
4 65 (3.45%) NIST
5 56 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.27%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.17%) IFRS
7 22 (1.17%) SLA
8 20 (1.06%) PMO
9 19 (1.01%) IFRS 17
10 18 (0.95%) GRC
11 16 (0.85%) Def Stans
12 15 (0.80%) HL7
13 13 (0.69%) PCI DSS
14 12 (0.64%) COBIT
14 12 (0.64%) GxP
14 12 (0.64%) NCSC
15 11 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 10 (0.53%) MiFID
16 10 (0.53%) Solvency II
System Software
1 71 (3.77%) Docker
2 38 (2.02%) Active Directory
3 35 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (1.27%) Firmware
5 13 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (0.58%) VMware NSX
7 10 (0.53%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.27%) NFS
9 5 (0.27%) vSphere
10 4 (0.21%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 3 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
12 2 (0.11%) Ceph
12 2 (0.11%) KVM
12 2 (0.11%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.11%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.11%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.11%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 106 (5.62%) Kubernetes
2 83 (4.40%) Terraform
3 32 (1.70%) Prometheus
4 30 (1.59%) Ansible
4 30 (1.59%) Grafana
5 27 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (0.53%) FortiGate
7 10 (0.53%) Kibana
8 9 (0.48%) Puppet
9 7 (0.37%) SCCM
10 6 (0.32%) Nessus
11 5 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.27%) CASB
11 5 (0.27%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.21%) Istio
12 4 (0.21%) vMotion
12 4 (0.21%) VxRail
Vendors
1 254 (13.47%) Microsoft
2 190 (10.08%) Oracle
3 165 (8.75%) SAP
4 86 (4.56%) Databricks
5 72 (3.82%) ServiceNow
6 52 (2.76%) Salesforce
7 42 (2.23%) Cisco
8 40 (2.12%) VMware
9 39 (2.07%) Splunk
10 35 (1.86%) Google
11 30 (1.59%) Informatica
11 30 (1.59%) Workday
12 27 (1.43%) Sage
13 26 (1.38%) MuleSoft
14 25 (1.33%) Palo Alto
15 20 (1.06%) CyberArk
16 19 (1.01%) IBM
17 16 (0.85%) IFS
17 16 (0.85%) OpenAI
18 15 (0.80%) CheckPoint