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

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 107 120
Rank change year-on-year +53 +13 +10
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,469 629 742
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.30% 2.41% 1.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.92% 2.69% 2.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 903 353 418
10th Percentile £350 £338 £318
25th Percentile £403 £409 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.47% -4.09%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £499 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -5.05% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 33 150
10th Percentile £32.04 £26.80 £24.15
25th Percentile £43.19 £47.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +3.92%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £75.25
90th Percentile £74.38 £74.75 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +3.92%

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 29,880 23,401 33,008
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.55% 89.79% 87.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,087 14,489 22,006
10th Percentile £309 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £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 1,872 735 1,965
10th Percentile £15.10 £15.62 £13.35
25th Percentile £18.03 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.37% - -
75th Percentile £60.61 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £72.84
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.53
% change year-on-year -22.62% -3.06% +3.15%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 +79 694 £522 -4.27% 206
North of England +34 204 £419 -0.36% 116
South East +4 171 £503 +0.50% 205
North West +29 133 £400 +1.27% 75
Midlands +16 125 £492 +0.61% 117
South West +11 122 £475 -17.39% 68
West Midlands +12 102 £500 +2.04% 77
East of England +24 94 £482 +20.44% 82
Yorkshire -12 61 £475 -2.62% 34
East Midlands -15 22 £463 +21.87% 39
North East -5 12 £450 -45.45% 7
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 (3.68%) Confluence
2 30 (2.04%) Apache Spark
2 30 (2.04%) SharePoint
3 27 (1.84%) SAS
4 21 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
5 18 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 14 (0.95%) Skype for Business
7 13 (0.88%) Apache
8 9 (0.61%) Appian
8 9 (0.61%) Exchange Server 2013
9 7 (0.48%) Mattermost
10 6 (0.41%) CMS
11 5 (0.34%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
12 4 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.27%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.27%) Jupyter
12 4 (0.27%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.20%) GeoServer
13 3 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 82 (5.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (1.77%) MS Visio
4 18 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.54%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
6 7 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
7 6 (0.41%) Sketch
8 4 (0.27%) Notion
9 3 (0.20%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.14%) Simulink
11 1 (0.068%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.068%) CATIA
11 1 (0.068%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.068%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.068%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.068%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 63 (4.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.23%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (0.82%) Oracle Payables
4 11 (0.75%) Oracle General Ledger
4 11 (0.75%) SAP EHS
4 11 (0.75%) Workday HCM
5 9 (0.61%) Aladdin
5 9 (0.61%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 9 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
5 9 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
6 8 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (0.54%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 8 (0.54%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.48%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.48%) Oracle Assets
7 7 (0.48%) SAP MDG
8 6 (0.41%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 6 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
8 6 (0.41%) SAP MM
9 5 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
Cloud Services
1 338 (23.01%) Azure
2 162 (11.03%) AWS
3 124 (8.44%) Azure DevOps
4 118 (8.03%) Power Platform
5 61 (4.15%) GCP
5 61 (4.15%) GitHub
6 54 (3.68%) Entra ID
7 48 (3.27%) SaaS
8 42 (2.86%) Serverless
9 41 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
10 33 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
11 31 (2.11%) Snowflake
12 30 (2.04%) OCI
13 28 (1.91%) OpenShift
14 27 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
15 25 (1.70%) Amazon S3
16 20 (1.36%) AWS Lambda
17 17 (1.16%) Azure Functions
17 17 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
18 16 (1.09%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 49 (3.34%) Firewall
2 25 (1.70%) TCP/IP
3 24 (1.63%) Network Security
4 17 (1.16%) Ethernet
5 16 (1.09%) VLAN
6 15 (1.02%) VPN
7 14 (0.95%) Skype
7 14 (0.95%) Wireless
8 13 (0.88%) BGP
8 13 (0.88%) DNS
8 13 (0.88%) WAN
9 12 (0.82%) OSPF
10 11 (0.75%) LAN
10 11 (0.75%) MPLS
11 9 (0.61%) TACACS
12 8 (0.54%) HTTP
13 6 (0.41%) Cisco ASA
13 6 (0.41%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.41%) Internet
13 6 (0.41%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (7.69%) Power BI
2 66 (4.49%) Metadata
3 57 (3.88%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (2.72%) SQL Server
5 39 (2.65%) Tableau
6 30 (2.04%) Data Lake
7 26 (1.77%) NoSQL
8 20 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
9 18 (1.23%) Pinecone
10 16 (1.09%) Oracle Database
10 16 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
10 16 (1.09%) Relational Database
10 16 (1.09%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 15 (1.02%) Delta Lake
12 14 (0.95%) Big Data
12 14 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
13 13 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (0.88%) BigQuery
13 13 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 11 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 149 (10.14%) JIRA
2 71 (4.83%) Git
3 63 (4.29%) Jenkins
4 41 (2.79%) GitLab
4 41 (2.79%) Postman
5 40 (2.72%) Selenium
6 32 (2.18%) Oracle APEX
7 24 (1.63%) Rational DOORS
8 16 (1.09%) JMeter
8 16 (1.09%) Visual Studio
9 15 (1.02%) MLflow
10 13 (0.88%) Cucumber
11 12 (0.82%) JUnit
11 12 (0.82%) TestRail
12 11 (0.75%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.68%) Eclipse
13 10 (0.68%) Zephyr
14 9 (0.61%) Bitbucket
15 7 (0.48%) Cypress.io
15 7 (0.48%) SpecFlow
General
1 555 (37.78%) Social Skills
2 430 (29.27%) Finance
3 313 (21.31%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (8.71%) Banking
4 128 (8.71%) Public Sector
5 81 (5.51%) Documentation Skills
6 46 (3.13%) Presentation Skills
7 31 (2.11%) Influencing Skills
8 30 (2.04%) Manufacturing
9 29 (1.97%) Electronics
9 29 (1.97%) Front Office
9 29 (1.97%) Marketing
10 27 (1.84%) Aerospace
11 26 (1.77%) Military
11 26 (1.77%) Telecoms
12 23 (1.57%) Legal
13 22 (1.50%) Investment Banking
13 22 (1.50%) Pharmaceutical
14 21 (1.43%) Financial Institution
14 21 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 295 (20.08%) Analyst
2 150 (10.21%) Senior
3 131 (8.92%) Lead
4 128 (8.71%) Business Analyst
5 107 (7.28%) Developer
6 103 (7.01%) Consultant
7 95 (6.47%) Architect
8 73 (4.97%) Data Engineer
9 70 (4.77%) Data Analyst
10 49 (3.34%) Software Engineer
11 46 (3.13%) Project Manager
12 41 (2.79%) Tester
13 38 (2.59%) Senior Analyst
14 34 (2.31%) Senior Developer
15 33 (2.25%) Test Analyst
16 32 (2.18%) Solutions Architect
16 32 (2.18%) Test Manager
17 31 (2.11%) SAP Consultant
18 28 (1.91%) Embedded Engineer
19 26 (1.77%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 95 (6.47%) REST
2 67 (4.56%) JSON
3 49 (3.34%) XML
4 48 (3.27%) Oracle Fusion
5 47 (3.20%) OAuth
6 40 (2.72%) Kafka
6 40 (2.72%) Middleware
7 38 (2.59%) SOAP
8 33 (2.25%) .NET
9 32 (2.18%) RESTful
10 31 (2.11%) PyTorch
11 30 (2.04%) Swagger
12 29 (1.97%) Node.js
13 28 (1.91%) PySpark
13 28 (1.91%) TensorFlow
14 27 (1.84%) Web Services
15 24 (1.63%) Playwright
16 23 (1.57%) JWT
16 23 (1.57%) OpenAPI
16 23 (1.57%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 87 (5.92%) Legacy Systems
2 62 (4.22%) Data Structures
3 52 (3.54%) Onboarding
3 52 (3.54%) Product Ownership
4 40 (2.72%) Cloud Native
5 39 (2.65%) Management Information System
6 27 (1.84%) Analytical Mindset
7 26 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (1.63%) Algorithms
9 23 (1.57%) Data Centre
10 20 (1.36%) Derivative
11 19 (1.29%) FPGA
11 19 (1.29%) Hybrid Cloud
12 18 (1.23%) Replication
13 16 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
14 15 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
15 14 (0.95%) Credit Risk
15 14 (0.95%) Security Posture
16 13 (0.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 12 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 86 (5.85%) Linux
2 82 (5.58%) Windows
3 29 (1.97%) Unix
4 10 (0.68%) Android
5 6 (0.41%) zOS
6 5 (0.34%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.34%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.20%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.14%) Debian
8 2 (0.14%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.068%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.068%) pSOS
9 1 (0.068%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.068%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 388 (26.41%) Agile
2 349 (23.76%) Problem-Solving
3 326 (22.19%) Migration
4 262 (17.84%) Stakeholder Management
5 254 (17.29%) DevOps
6 235 (16.00%) Data Validation
7 227 (15.45%) Analytics
8 225 (15.32%) CI/CD
9 190 (12.93%) Data Modelling
10 182 (12.39%) Test Automation
11 180 (12.25%) Data Migration
12 179 (12.19%) User Acceptance Testing
13 172 (11.71%) AI
14 167 (11.37%) ETL
15 151 (10.28%) Business Intelligence
16 146 (9.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 133 (9.05%) Continuous Improvement
18 131 (8.92%) Data Governance
19 129 (8.78%) Data Analysis
20 119 (8.10%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 371 (25.26%) SQL
2 315 (21.44%) Python
3 91 (6.19%) JavaScript
4 79 (5.38%) Java
5 59 (4.02%) C#
6 52 (3.54%) PL/SQL
7 46 (3.13%) PowerShell
8 45 (3.06%) Bash
9 43 (2.93%) C++
10 39 (2.65%) C
11 27 (1.84%) TypeScript
12 24 (1.63%) R
13 18 (1.23%) Bicep
14 17 (1.16%) Ada
14 17 (1.16%) Groovy
15 15 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 14 (0.95%) Shell Script
17 12 (0.82%) Scala
18 11 (0.75%) T-SQL
18 11 (0.75%) VBA
Qualifications
1 312 (21.24%) Security Cleared
2 226 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 152 (10.35%) Degree
4 55 (3.74%) Computer Science Degree
5 43 (2.93%) BPSS Clearance
6 37 (2.52%) Master's Degree
7 36 (2.45%) DV Cleared
8 28 (1.91%) PMI Certification
9 26 (1.77%) ISTQB
10 21 (1.43%) PMP
11 19 (1.29%) AWS Certification
12 16 (1.09%) CBAP
13 13 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (0.88%) Oracle Certification
14 11 (0.75%) Azure Certification
15 9 (0.61%) CCIE
15 9 (0.61%) CCNP
15 9 (0.61%) CISSP
15 9 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
15 9 (0.61%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 198 (13.48%) Data Quality
2 184 (12.53%) QA
3 79 (5.38%) GDPR
4 61 (4.15%) NIST
5 39 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (1.97%) Accessibility
7 20 (1.36%) IFRS
8 18 (1.23%) IFRS 17
9 15 (1.02%) Def Stans
9 15 (1.02%) PCI DSS
10 13 (0.88%) EU AI Act
11 12 (0.82%) NCSC
12 11 (0.75%) COBIT
13 10 (0.68%) GRC
13 10 (0.68%) GxP
13 10 (0.68%) MiFID
13 10 (0.68%) MISRA
13 10 (0.68%) PMO
14 9 (0.61%) DO-178B
15 7 (0.48%) Solvency II
System Software
1 59 (4.02%) Docker
2 44 (3.00%) Active Directory
3 30 (2.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (1.36%) Firmware
5 13 (0.88%) VMware NSX
6 10 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.27%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
8 4 (0.27%) vSphere
9 3 (0.20%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.20%) KVM
9 3 (0.20%) NFS
9 3 (0.20%) QEMU
10 2 (0.14%) Ceph
10 2 (0.14%) Lustre
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 84 (5.72%) Kubernetes
2 69 (4.70%) Terraform
3 41 (2.79%) Ansible
4 21 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (1.16%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (1.02%) Kibana
6 15 (1.02%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.95%) Puppet
7 14 (0.95%) SCCM
8 12 (0.82%) Grafana
9 11 (0.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (0.54%) Nmap
10 8 (0.54%) SCOM
11 7 (0.48%) HP SiteScope
11 7 (0.48%) Nessus
12 4 (0.27%) Iperf
13 3 (0.20%) CloudHub
13 3 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.20%) vMotion
Vendors
1 206 (14.02%) Microsoft
2 151 (10.28%) Oracle
3 113 (7.69%) SAP
4 60 (4.08%) ServiceNow
5 58 (3.95%) Databricks
6 48 (3.27%) Splunk
7 41 (2.79%) Cisco
8 37 (2.52%) Salesforce
9 36 (2.45%) VMware
10 34 (2.31%) Google
11 28 (1.91%) Workday
12 20 (1.36%) MuleSoft
13 19 (1.29%) Murex
14 18 (1.23%) IBM
14 18 (1.23%) Palo Alto
15 17 (1.16%) Informatica
15 17 (1.16%) Sage
16 14 (0.95%) Avaloq
16 14 (0.95%) Bloomberg
17 13 (0.88%) CheckPoint