Validation Contract Job Trends in England

Validation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England citing Validation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 65 103
Rank change year-on-year +34 +38 +44
Contract jobs citing Validation 2,852 1,077 725
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.16% 3.77% 2.31%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.20% 4.16% 2.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,654 649 370
10th Percentile £350 £360 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -7.41%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £591
90th Percentile £701 £700 £668
UK median daily rate £500 £505 £500
% change year-on-year -0.89% +0.90% -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 75 87
10th Percentile £19.75 £22.30 £29.06
25th Percentile £28.69 £38.75 £46.88
Median hourly rate £54.25 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.54% +4.00% -7.45%
75th Percentile £70.94 £67.00 £65.50
90th Percentile £81.26 £74.50 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £53.50 £65.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -17.69% +4.00% -7.41%

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 citing process or methodology skills in England.

6 months to
26 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 39,637 25,913 27,188
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 85.56% 90.83% 86.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,856 16,413 16,562
10th Percentile £325 £297 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,183 1,660 1,019
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.54 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.17 £17.67 £20.30
Median hourly rate £36.25 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +44.14% -37.63% -9.38%
75th Percentile £66.46 £44.75 £66.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £74.45
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +39.19% -32.95% -12.28%

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 26 October 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 for jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 26 October 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 26 October 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +43 1,351 £525 - 232
North of England +53 394 £463 +7.56% 100
South East +7 349 £525 +5.00% 224
Midlands +44 332 £451 -9.22% 126
West Midlands +29 243 £459 -9.29% 76
North West +29 199 £465 +9.35% 53
South West +14 189 £521 -4.79% 169
Yorkshire +59 162 £471 +10.71% 25
East of England -1 157 £475 -5.00% 138
East Midlands +34 87 £425 -6.85% 50
North East -11 38 £425 -11.92% 22
Validation
UK

Validation Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Migration27.3%778
2Stakeholder Management23.0%655
3CI/CD21.6%617
4Agile19.3%551
5User Acceptance Testing16.3%464
6Data Migration16.2%463
7Data Modelling15.5%443
8Problem-Solving15.4%439
9AI15.1%431
10Data Validation15.0%429
11Analytics15.0%427
12Test Automation14.6%417
13DevOps14.4%411
14Continuous Improvement14.1%403
15ETL11.9%339
16Data Pipeline10.4%297
17Data Governance10.2%291
17Stakeholder Engagement10.2%291
19Data Analysis10.0%284
20Business Intelligence9.7%277