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

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 116 128
Rank change year-on-year +58 +12 +7
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,315 607 699
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.11% 2.26% 1.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.66% 2.53% 2.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 811 321 396
10th Percentile £356 £335 £319
25th Percentile £413 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £534
Median % change year-on-year - -6.32% -2.95%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £620
90th Percentile £700 £700 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 43 116
10th Percentile £30.98 £29.20 £41.25
25th Percentile £41.25 £46.88 £58.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.96% -17.80% +10.71%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £84.36
90th Percentile £75.45 £67.20 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £70.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -17.80% +10.71%

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 28,213 24,003 32,272
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.28% 89.19% 87.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,027 14,736 21,710
10th Percentile £304 £310 £305
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £648 £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 1,750 779 1,598
10th Percentile £15.17 £15.62 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.29
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -13.14% +15.12%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.47 £75.00 £76.33
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -18.75% +16.65%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 +81 629 £513 -2.38% 162
North of England +19 168 £420 - 157
South East +16 156 £500 +2.56% 301
Midlands +14 112 £515 +8.42% 128
South West +8 110 £475 -17.82% 150
North West +19 107 £400 -3.03% 62
East of England +16 92 £482 +24.32% 158
West Midlands +10 91 £517 +8.79% 67
Yorkshire -14 47 £487 +15.95% 70
East Midlands -15 21 £475 +54.47% 60
North East -1 14 £475 -42.42% 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 50 (3.80%) Confluence
2 29 (2.21%) Apache Spark
2 29 (2.21%) SAS
3 27 (2.05%) SharePoint
4 20 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (1.06%) Skype for Business
6 12 (0.91%) Apache
7 9 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2013
8 8 (0.61%) CMS
9 7 (0.53%) Mattermost
10 6 (0.46%) OpenStack
11 5 (0.38%) Appian
12 4 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.30%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.30%) Jupyter
13 3 (0.23%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
13 3 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 3 (0.23%) Smallworld
13 3 (0.23%) WebSphere
Applications
1 71 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.83%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.61%) Chatbot
6 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
7 6 (0.46%) Sketch
8 4 (0.30%) Notion
9 3 (0.23%) LaTeX
9 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.15%) Simulink
11 1 (0.076%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.076%) CATIA
11 1 (0.076%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.076%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.076%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 64 (4.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.99%) Oracle EBS
3 11 (0.84%) Oracle General Ledger
3 11 (0.84%) Oracle Payables
3 11 (0.84%) SAP EHS
3 11 (0.84%) SAP FI
4 9 (0.68%) Aladdin
4 9 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (0.61%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 7 (0.53%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.53%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 7 (0.53%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 7 (0.53%) SAP MDG
7 6 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.46%) Markit EDM
7 6 (0.46%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.46%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS R12
8 5 (0.38%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 313 (23.80%) Azure
2 146 (11.10%) AWS
3 123 (9.35%) Azure DevOps
4 111 (8.44%) Power Platform
5 56 (4.26%) GCP
6 55 (4.18%) GitHub
7 48 (3.65%) SaaS
8 46 (3.50%) Entra ID
9 35 (2.66%) Azure Data Factory
9 35 (2.66%) Serverless
10 31 (2.36%) GitHub Actions
11 27 (2.05%) OCI
12 26 (1.98%) Microsoft 365
12 26 (1.98%) Snowflake
13 25 (1.90%) OpenShift
14 17 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
15 16 (1.22%) Amazon S3
15 16 (1.22%) Azure Functions
15 16 (1.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 16 (1.22%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.66%) Firewall
2 27 (2.05%) TCP/IP
3 19 (1.44%) DNS
3 19 (1.44%) Ethernet
4 18 (1.37%) Network Security
5 17 (1.29%) WAN
6 15 (1.14%) VPN
7 14 (1.06%) Skype
8 13 (0.99%) VLAN
9 12 (0.91%) BGP
9 12 (0.91%) Internet
10 11 (0.84%) LAN
10 11 (0.84%) MPLS
10 11 (0.84%) OSPF
10 11 (0.84%) TACACS
10 11 (0.84%) Wireless
11 10 (0.76%) DMARC
12 8 (0.61%) DKIM
12 8 (0.61%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.61%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (7.83%) Power BI
2 59 (4.49%) Metadata
3 57 (4.33%) Data Warehouse
4 37 (2.81%) Tableau
5 32 (2.43%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.13%) Data Lake
7 23 (1.75%) NoSQL
8 21 (1.60%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 20 (1.52%) Oracle Database
10 18 (1.37%) Relational Database
11 16 (1.22%) Oracle Reports
12 15 (1.14%) Big Data
12 15 (1.14%) Pinecone
13 14 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
13 14 (1.06%) Elasticsearch
14 13 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
15 12 (0.91%) Delta Lake
15 12 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 11 (0.84%) BigQuery
16 11 (0.84%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 142 (10.80%) JIRA
2 67 (5.10%) Jenkins
3 63 (4.79%) Git
4 40 (3.04%) Selenium
5 39 (2.97%) GitLab
6 38 (2.89%) Postman
7 32 (2.43%) Oracle APEX
8 20 (1.52%) Rational DOORS
9 19 (1.44%) Visual Studio
10 16 (1.22%) JMeter
11 14 (1.06%) Eclipse
12 13 (0.99%) Cucumber
12 13 (0.99%) TestRail
13 12 (0.91%) Bitbucket
14 10 (0.76%) JUnit
14 10 (0.76%) MLflow
14 10 (0.76%) Zephyr
15 9 (0.68%) REST Assured
16 8 (0.61%) SpecFlow
17 6 (0.46%) Cypress.io
General
1 502 (38.17%) Social Skills
2 368 (27.98%) Finance
3 288 (21.90%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (9.58%) Public Sector
5 109 (8.29%) Banking
6 65 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
7 49 (3.73%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.13%) Electronics
8 28 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
8 28 (2.13%) Marketing
8 28 (2.13%) Military
9 27 (2.05%) Front Office
10 26 (1.98%) Investment Banking
10 26 (1.98%) Telecoms
11 25 (1.90%) Manufacturing
12 24 (1.83%) Pharmaceutical
13 22 (1.67%) Aerospace
14 21 (1.60%) Financial Institution
15 20 (1.52%) Legal
16 18 (1.37%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 262 (19.92%) Analyst
2 136 (10.34%) Senior
3 116 (8.82%) Business Analyst
4 111 (8.44%) Lead
5 106 (8.06%) Consultant
6 102 (7.76%) Developer
7 71 (5.40%) Architect
8 63 (4.79%) Data Analyst
9 56 (4.26%) Data Engineer
10 49 (3.73%) Software Engineer
11 41 (3.12%) Project Manager
11 41 (3.12%) Tester
12 35 (2.66%) SAP Consultant
13 34 (2.59%) Senior Developer
14 32 (2.43%) Senior Analyst
15 29 (2.21%) Data Scientist
15 29 (2.21%) Test Analyst
16 28 (2.13%) Test Manager
17 26 (1.98%) QA Engineer
18 25 (1.90%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (6.39%) REST
2 55 (4.18%) JSON
3 46 (3.50%) XML
4 45 (3.42%) Oracle Fusion
5 35 (2.66%) Middleware
5 35 (2.66%) SOAP
6 34 (2.59%) OAuth
7 31 (2.36%) Node.js
8 28 (2.13%) .NET
9 27 (2.05%) Kafka
9 27 (2.05%) PySpark
9 27 (2.05%) RESTful
10 26 (1.98%) PyTorch
11 25 (1.90%) Web Services
12 23 (1.75%) Playwright
12 23 (1.75%) TensorFlow
13 22 (1.67%) Swagger
14 20 (1.52%) SAP Fiori
15 18 (1.37%) JWT
15 18 (1.37%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 71 (5.40%) Legacy Systems
2 55 (4.18%) Data Structures
3 49 (3.73%) Onboarding
4 48 (3.65%) Product Ownership
5 37 (2.81%) Management Information System
6 31 (2.36%) Cloud Native
7 25 (1.90%) Algorithms
8 22 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
8 22 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
9 21 (1.60%) Data Centre
10 20 (1.52%) Derivative
11 19 (1.44%) FPGA
12 15 (1.14%) Replication
13 13 (0.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 11 (0.84%) Credit Risk
14 11 (0.84%) Embedded Systems
14 11 (0.84%) Fixed Income
14 11 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
14 11 (0.84%) PCIe
14 11 (0.84%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 95 (7.22%) Linux
2 73 (5.55%) Windows
3 30 (2.28%) Unix
4 11 (0.84%) Android
5 7 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.46%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.38%) zOS
8 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.23%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.15%) Debian
10 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.076%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.076%) VMS
11 1 (0.076%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 378 (28.75%) Agile
2 308 (23.42%) Problem-Solving
3 286 (21.75%) Migration
4 255 (19.39%) DevOps
5 223 (16.96%) CI/CD
6 213 (16.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 208 (15.82%) Data Validation
8 199 (15.13%) Analytics
9 162 (12.32%) Test Automation
10 154 (11.71%) Data Modelling
11 150 (11.41%) User Acceptance Testing
12 148 (11.25%) Data Migration
13 147 (11.18%) AI
14 146 (11.10%) ETL
15 136 (10.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 131 (9.96%) Business Intelligence
17 118 (8.97%) Data Governance
18 116 (8.82%) Data Analysis
19 111 (8.44%) Data Pipeline
20 110 (8.37%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 344 (26.16%) SQL
2 296 (22.51%) Python
3 93 (7.07%) JavaScript
4 79 (6.01%) Java
5 63 (4.79%) C#
6 52 (3.95%) PL/SQL
7 47 (3.57%) C++
8 44 (3.35%) Bash
9 41 (3.12%) PowerShell
10 30 (2.28%) C
11 27 (2.05%) R
12 24 (1.83%) TypeScript
13 15 (1.14%) Groovy
14 14 (1.06%) Shell Script
15 12 (0.91%) Scala
16 11 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 11 (0.84%) T-SQL
17 10 (0.76%) ABAP
18 9 (0.68%) VBA
19 8 (0.61%) Ada
Qualifications
1 285 (21.67%) Security Cleared
2 211 (16.05%) SC Cleared
3 132 (10.04%) Degree
4 52 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 35 (2.66%) BPSS Clearance
6 32 (2.43%) DV Cleared
6 32 (2.43%) Master's Degree
7 26 (1.98%) PMI Certification
8 24 (1.83%) ISTQB
9 19 (1.44%) AWS Certification
9 19 (1.44%) PMP
10 15 (1.14%) CBAP
11 13 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
11 13 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
12 10 (0.76%) Azure Certification
13 9 (0.68%) CCIE
13 9 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
13 9 (0.68%) OCA
14 7 (0.53%) CCNP
14 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 168 (12.78%) QA
2 164 (12.47%) Data Quality
3 76 (5.78%) GDPR
4 53 (4.03%) NIST
5 30 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.21%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.37%) IFRS
8 14 (1.06%) IFRS 17
9 13 (0.99%) EU AI Act
10 10 (0.76%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.76%) GxP
10 10 (0.76%) MiFID
10 10 (0.76%) MISRA
10 10 (0.76%) NCSC
11 9 (0.68%) DO-178B
11 9 (0.68%) PCI DSS
11 9 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
12 7 (0.53%) GRC
13 6 (0.46%) COBIT
System Software
1 54 (4.11%) Docker
2 44 (3.35%) Active Directory
3 27 (2.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (1.67%) Firmware
5 9 (0.68%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.46%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.46%) Postfix
8 5 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.30%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.30%) vSphere
10 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.23%) KVM
10 3 (0.23%) QEMU
11 2 (0.15%) Ceph
11 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 67 (5.10%) Kubernetes
2 58 (4.41%) Terraform
3 46 (3.50%) Ansible
4 16 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (1.06%) Kibana
5 14 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (1.06%) Puppet
6 10 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.76%) SCCM
7 9 (0.68%) Grafana
8 7 (0.53%) HP SiteScope
8 7 (0.53%) SCOM
9 6 (0.46%) Nmap
10 5 (0.38%) Nessus
11 4 (0.30%) Argo
11 4 (0.30%) Istio
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.23%) CloudHub
12 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.23%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 189 (14.37%) Microsoft
2 146 (11.10%) Oracle
3 101 (7.68%) SAP
4 57 (4.33%) ServiceNow
5 49 (3.73%) Databricks
6 37 (2.81%) Cisco
7 35 (2.66%) Splunk
7 35 (2.66%) VMware
8 32 (2.43%) Google
8 32 (2.43%) Salesforce
9 20 (1.52%) Workday
10 19 (1.44%) IBM
10 19 (1.44%) MuleSoft
11 17 (1.29%) Murex
12 15 (1.14%) Bloomberg
13 13 (0.99%) Informatica
13 13 (0.99%) Palo Alto
14 12 (0.91%) Adobe
15 10 (0.76%) Juniper
15 10 (0.76%) Red Hat