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

6 months to
2 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 55 107 119
Rank change year-on-year +52 +12 +12
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,386 629 761
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.22% 2.40% 1.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.82% 2.68% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 845 333 430
10th Percentile £325 £336 £318
25th Percentile £400 £409 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £611
90th Percentile £700 £725 £726
UK median daily rate £492 £513 £538
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.65% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 37 149
10th Percentile £32.04 £27.90 £29.41
25th Percentile £43.19 £47.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.96% -11.48% +3.26%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £77.00
90th Percentile £74.38 £66.60 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £65.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -11.48% +3.26%

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 28,761 23,490 33,473
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.64% 89.52% 87.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,392 14,344 22,407
10th Percentile £305 £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 £641 £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 1,792 750 1,956
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.00 £16.75
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 £61.90
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% +7.69%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +73 652 £513 -3.30% 281
North of England +24 187 £417 -0.71% 132
South East +9 166 £500 - 216
North West +24 122 £400 +1.27% 68
Midlands +16 121 £500 +2.15% 121
South West +13 117 £475 -17.39% 89
West Midlands +17 101 £506 +3.27% 82
East of England +15 92 £478 +19.50% 90
Yorkshire -13 53 £487 -0.10% 54
East Midlands -9 20 £475 +58.33% 37
North East -5 14 £463 -36.21% 11
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 (3.90%) Confluence
2 31 (2.24%) SAS
3 30 (2.16%) Apache Spark
4 29 (2.09%) SharePoint
5 25 (1.80%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (1.01%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.79%) Apache
9 9 (0.65%) Exchange Server 2013
10 8 (0.58%) CMS
11 7 (0.51%) Appian
11 7 (0.51%) 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 (0.22%) ArcGIS
14 3 (0.22%) CICS
14 3 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 77 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.73%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
6 7 (0.51%) Chatbot
7 6 (0.43%) Sketch
7 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.29%) Notion
9 3 (0.22%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.14%) Simulink
11 1 (0.072%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.072%) CATIA
11 1 (0.072%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.072%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.072%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.072%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 63 (4.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.08%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.79%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.79%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.79%) SAP EHS
4 10 (0.72%) Aladdin
5 9 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
5 9 (0.65%) SAP FI
6 8 (0.58%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 8 (0.58%) Oracle Receivables
6 8 (0.58%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 7 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.51%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 7 (0.51%) 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
1 329 (23.74%) Azure
2 161 (11.62%) AWS
3 125 (9.02%) Azure DevOps
4 111 (8.01%) Power Platform
5 58 (4.18%) GCP
6 56 (4.04%) GitHub
7 54 (3.90%) Entra ID
8 46 (3.32%) SaaS
9 40 (2.89%) Serverless
10 38 (2.74%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.16%) GitHub Actions
11 30 (2.16%) Snowflake
12 28 (2.02%) OCI
13 27 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
14 24 (1.73%) Amazon S3
15 23 (1.66%) OpenShift
16 19 (1.37%) AWS Lambda
17 17 (1.23%) Azure Functions
17 17 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
17 17 (1.23%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (2.96%) Firewall
2 23 (1.66%) TCP/IP
3 20 (1.44%) Network Security
4 18 (1.30%) Ethernet
5 16 (1.15%) VPN
6 15 (1.08%) WAN
7 14 (1.01%) Skype
7 14 (1.01%) VLAN
8 12 (0.87%) BGP
8 12 (0.87%) DNS
8 12 (0.87%) Wireless
9 11 (0.79%) LAN
9 11 (0.79%) MPLS
9 11 (0.79%) OSPF
10 10 (0.72%) TACACS
11 7 (0.51%) HTTP
11 7 (0.51%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.43%) Cisco ISE
12 6 (0.43%) SNMP
13 5 (0.36%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (7.65%) Power BI
2 57 (4.11%) Metadata
3 54 (3.90%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (2.81%) Tableau
5 36 (2.60%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.02%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.80%) NoSQL
8 21 (1.52%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 19 (1.37%) Oracle Database
10 18 (1.30%) Amazon Redshift
11 17 (1.23%) Relational Database
12 16 (1.15%) Pinecone
13 15 (1.08%) Oracle Reports
14 14 (1.01%) Big Data
14 14 (1.01%) Delta Lake
14 14 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
15 13 (0.94%) Azure SQL Database
16 12 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 11 (0.79%) BigQuery
18 10 (0.72%) Looker
Development Applications
1 148 (10.68%) JIRA
2 65 (4.69%) Jenkins
3 64 (4.62%) Git
4 38 (2.74%) GitLab
4 38 (2.74%) Postman
5 37 (2.67%) Selenium
6 32 (2.31%) Oracle APEX
7 24 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
8 17 (1.23%) Visual Studio
9 15 (1.08%) JMeter
10 13 (0.94%) Cucumber
10 13 (0.94%) TestRail
11 11 (0.79%) Eclipse
11 11 (0.79%) MLflow
12 10 (0.72%) JUnit
12 10 (0.72%) REST Assured
12 10 (0.72%) Zephyr
13 9 (0.65%) Bitbucket
14 7 (0.51%) SpecFlow
15 6 (0.43%) Toad
General
1 521 (37.59%) Social Skills
2 397 (28.64%) Finance
3 297 (21.43%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (9.38%) Public Sector
5 122 (8.80%) Banking
6 74 (5.34%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (3.39%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.16%) Influencing Skills
9 29 (2.09%) Aerospace
9 29 (2.09%) Manufacturing
9 29 (2.09%) Marketing
10 28 (2.02%) Front Office
10 28 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 27 (1.95%) Electronics
12 26 (1.88%) Military
13 24 (1.73%) Investment Banking
14 22 (1.59%) Legal
15 21 (1.52%) Financial Institution
15 21 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
16 19 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 279 (20.13%) Analyst
2 144 (10.39%) Senior
3 126 (9.09%) Business Analyst
4 120 (8.66%) Lead
5 104 (7.50%) Developer
6 102 (7.36%) Consultant
7 77 (5.56%) Architect
8 66 (4.76%) Data Analyst
9 59 (4.26%) Data Engineer
10 49 (3.54%) Software Engineer
11 43 (3.10%) Project Manager
11 43 (3.10%) Tester
12 37 (2.67%) Senior Analyst
13 34 (2.45%) Senior Developer
14 32 (2.31%) SAP Consultant
14 32 (2.31%) Test Manager
15 31 (2.24%) Test Analyst
16 28 (2.02%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (1.95%) Embedded Engineer
18 26 (1.88%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 91 (6.57%) REST
2 61 (4.40%) JSON
3 48 (3.46%) XML
4 46 (3.32%) Oracle Fusion
5 43 (3.10%) OAuth
6 39 (2.81%) SOAP
7 38 (2.74%) Middleware
8 30 (2.16%) .NET
8 30 (2.16%) Node.js
9 29 (2.09%) Kafka
9 29 (2.09%) RESTful
10 27 (1.95%) PySpark
10 27 (1.95%) PyTorch
10 27 (1.95%) Swagger
11 26 (1.88%) Web Services
12 24 (1.73%) TensorFlow
13 22 (1.59%) SAML
14 21 (1.52%) JWT
14 21 (1.52%) Playwright
15 20 (1.44%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 80 (5.77%) Legacy Systems
2 57 (4.11%) Data Structures
3 54 (3.90%) Product Ownership
4 52 (3.75%) Onboarding
5 38 (2.74%) Cloud Native
5 38 (2.74%) Management Information System
6 26 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
6 26 (1.88%) Data Centre
7 24 (1.73%) Algorithms
8 23 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
9 20 (1.44%) Derivative
10 19 (1.37%) FPGA
11 17 (1.23%) Replication
12 14 (1.01%) Credit Risk
13 13 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
13 13 (0.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 13 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
13 13 (0.94%) Security Posture
14 12 (0.87%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 84 (6.06%) Linux
2 76 (5.48%) Windows
3 27 (1.95%) Unix
4 11 (0.79%) Android
5 5 (0.36%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.36%) zOS
6 4 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.14%) Debian
8 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.14%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.072%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.072%) pSOS
9 1 (0.072%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 383 (27.63%) Agile
2 331 (23.88%) Problem-Solving
3 315 (22.73%) Migration
4 259 (18.69%) DevOps
5 240 (17.32%) Stakeholder Management
6 222 (16.02%) CI/CD
7 221 (15.95%) Data Validation
8 208 (15.01%) Analytics
9 172 (12.41%) Test Automation
10 171 (12.34%) User Acceptance Testing
11 162 (11.69%) Data Modelling
12 161 (11.62%) Data Migration
13 154 (11.11%) AI
14 147 (10.61%) ETL
15 144 (10.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 139 (10.03%) Business Intelligence
17 121 (8.73%) Data Governance
18 119 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
19 118 (8.51%) Data Analysis
20 110 (7.94%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 354 (25.54%) SQL
2 297 (21.43%) Python
3 92 (6.64%) JavaScript
4 78 (5.63%) Java
5 58 (4.18%) C#
6 51 (3.68%) PL/SQL
7 45 (3.25%) C++
7 45 (3.25%) PowerShell
8 44 (3.17%) Bash
9 39 (2.81%) C
10 26 (1.88%) TypeScript
11 24 (1.73%) R
12 17 (1.23%) Groovy
13 16 (1.15%) Ada
14 15 (1.08%) Bicep
15 13 (0.94%) Shell Script
16 12 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.87%) Scala
17 11 (0.79%) T-SQL
18 8 (0.58%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 299 (21.57%) Security Cleared
2 218 (15.73%) SC Cleared
3 142 (10.25%) Degree
4 54 (3.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 37 (2.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 35 (2.53%) DV Cleared
7 34 (2.45%) Master's Degree
8 26 (1.88%) ISTQB
8 26 (1.88%) PMI Certification
9 19 (1.37%) AWS Certification
9 19 (1.37%) PMP
10 16 (1.15%) CBAP
11 13 (0.94%) Cisco Certification
11 13 (0.94%) Oracle Certification
12 11 (0.79%) Azure Certification
13 9 (0.65%) CCIE
13 9 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
13 9 (0.65%) OCA
14 8 (0.58%) CCNP
14 8 (0.58%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 179 (12.91%) Data Quality
2 170 (12.27%) QA
3 77 (5.56%) GDPR
4 57 (4.11%) NIST
5 37 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 28 (2.02%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.30%) IFRS
8 16 (1.15%) IFRS 17
9 15 (1.08%) Def Stans
10 14 (1.01%) PCI DSS
11 13 (0.94%) EU AI Act
12 11 (0.79%) NCSC
13 10 (0.72%) GxP
13 10 (0.72%) MiFID
13 10 (0.72%) MISRA
14 9 (0.65%) COBIT
14 9 (0.65%) DO-178B
14 9 (0.65%) GRC
14 9 (0.65%) PMO
15 8 (0.58%) PSD2
System Software
1 55 (3.97%) Docker
2 43 (3.10%) Active Directory
3 26 (1.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.52%) Firmware
5 12 (0.87%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.43%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.29%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
8 4 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
8 4 (0.29%) vSphere
9 3 (0.22%) KVM
9 3 (0.22%) QEMU
10 2 (0.14%) Ceph
10 2 (0.14%) Lustre
10 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 2 (0.14%) OpenAM
10 2 (0.14%) OpenDJ
10 2 (0.14%) OpenIDM
10 2 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 73 (5.27%) Kubernetes
2 64 (4.62%) Terraform
3 43 (3.10%) Ansible
4 21 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
5 15 (1.08%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (1.01%) Kibana
6 14 (1.01%) Puppet
7 11 (0.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 10 (0.72%) Grafana
8 10 (0.72%) SCCM
9 7 (0.51%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.51%) Nmap
9 7 (0.51%) SCOM
10 6 (0.43%) Nessus
10 6 (0.43%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.22%) CloudHub
11 3 (0.22%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.22%) Istio
11 3 (0.22%) OMEGAMON
11 3 (0.22%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 194 (14.00%) Microsoft
2 147 (10.61%) Oracle
3 107 (7.72%) SAP
4 58 (4.18%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.68%) Databricks
6 40 (2.89%) Cisco
7 38 (2.74%) Splunk
8 34 (2.45%) Salesforce
9 33 (2.38%) Google
10 31 (2.24%) VMware
11 20 (1.44%) Workday
12 19 (1.37%) Murex
13 18 (1.30%) MuleSoft
14 17 (1.23%) IBM
14 17 (1.23%) Palo Alto
15 14 (1.01%) Sage
16 13 (0.94%) Avaloq
16 13 (0.94%) Bloomberg
16 13 (0.94%) Informatica
17 12 (0.87%) Adobe