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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 94 129
Rank change year-on-year +49 +35 +6
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,688 676 699
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.57% 2.76% 1.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.29% 3.04% 2.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,046 406 389
10th Percentile £350 £363 £325
25th Percentile £404 £423 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.91% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £619
90th Percentile £700 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £481 £545 £535
% change year-on-year -11.70% +1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 40 145
10th Percentile £32.86 £25.26 £23.65
25th Percentile £60.00 £46.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.65 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.76% -3.93% -4.00%
75th Percentile £72.25 £64.06 £75.16
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.03 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £60.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -4.10% -4.60%

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 31,926 22,217 32,932
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.44% 90.67% 86.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,427 14,455 21,796
10th Percentile £313 £313 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £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 1,975 819 2,151
10th Percentile £15.31 £15.14 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £31.00 £33.11 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.37% +1.88% -11.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%

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 18 March 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 18 March 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 18 March 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 +69 781 £506 -8.05% 269
North of England +32 230 £435 -9.61% 147
South East -2 198 £500 - 233
Midlands +37 176 £481 - 116
North West +25 147 £418 -9.62% 72
West Midlands +25 140 £486 -2.88% 77
South West +5 134 £475 -17.39% 94
East of England +24 118 £489 +8.63% 92
Yorkshire 0 73 £462 +9.93% 49
East Midlands -11 34 £513 +39.27% 39
North East -3 13 £463 -36.21% 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 71 (4.21%) Confluence
2 32 (1.90%) Apache Spark
2 32 (1.90%) SAS
3 29 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (0.95%) Apache
5 15 (0.89%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
7 9 (0.53%) Appian
8 8 (0.47%) Jupyter
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.30%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.30%) CMS
11 4 (0.24%) Anypoint
11 4 (0.24%) Smallworld
12 3 (0.18%) CICS
12 3 (0.18%) GeoServer
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 3 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 83 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (1.18%) MS Visio
3 19 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
4 12 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 10 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
7 8 (0.47%) Chatbot
8 4 (0.24%) Notion
9 3 (0.18%) LaTeX
10 2 (0.12%) CATIA
10 2 (0.12%) Sketch
11 1 (0.059%) Autodesk Inventor
11 1 (0.059%) CANalyzer
11 1 (0.059%) MicroStation
11 1 (0.059%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.059%) Simulink
11 1 (0.059%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 81 (4.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.66%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 13 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
4 13 (0.77%) Oracle Payables
4 13 (0.77%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.59%) Oracle Receivables
6 9 (0.53%) Oracle Assets
6 9 (0.53%) SAP FI
7 8 (0.47%) Aladdin
7 8 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.47%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 8 (0.47%) Oracle EBS R12
8 7 (0.41%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.41%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 7 (0.41%) SAP MDG
8 7 (0.41%) SAP MM
9 6 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (0.36%) Sage X3
9 6 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 403 (23.87%) Azure
2 200 (11.85%) AWS
3 148 (8.77%) Power Platform
4 130 (7.70%) Azure DevOps
5 83 (4.92%) GitHub
6 78 (4.62%) GCP
7 53 (3.14%) Serverless
8 52 (3.08%) Azure Data Factory
8 52 (3.08%) Entra ID
9 47 (2.78%) GitHub Actions
10 46 (2.73%) SaaS
11 41 (2.43%) OCI
12 35 (2.07%) Amazon S3
13 34 (2.01%) Snowflake
14 28 (1.66%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 27 (1.60%) OpenShift
16 25 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
17 21 (1.24%) SuccessFactors
18 20 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
19 19 (1.13%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 61 (3.61%) Firewall
2 45 (2.67%) Network Security
3 33 (1.95%) TCP/IP
4 21 (1.24%) DNS
4 21 (1.24%) Ethernet
5 18 (1.07%) VPN
6 15 (0.89%) SAN
6 15 (0.89%) VLAN
6 15 (0.89%) WAN
7 13 (0.77%) NAS
8 9 (0.53%) HTTP
8 9 (0.53%) LAN
8 9 (0.53%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.53%) Wireless
9 8 (0.47%) BGP
9 8 (0.47%) Internet
9 8 (0.47%) OSPF
10 7 (0.41%) Cisco ISE
10 7 (0.41%) MPLS
10 7 (0.41%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 138 (8.18%) Power BI
2 87 (5.15%) Data Warehouse
3 85 (5.04%) Metadata
4 50 (2.96%) SQL Server
4 50 (2.96%) Tableau
5 41 (2.43%) Data Lake
6 35 (2.07%) PostgreSQL
7 28 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
8 25 (1.48%) Amazon Redshift
8 25 (1.48%) NoSQL
9 23 (1.36%) Delta Lake
10 20 (1.18%) Relational Database
10 20 (1.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 19 (1.13%) Big Data
12 18 (1.07%) Oracle Database
12 18 (1.07%) Pinecone
12 18 (1.07%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 17 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
14 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
15 12 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 169 (10.01%) JIRA
2 101 (5.98%) Git
3 79 (4.68%) Jenkins
4 59 (3.50%) Selenium
5 48 (2.84%) GitLab
6 42 (2.49%) Postman
7 34 (2.01%) JUnit
8 31 (1.84%) Cucumber
9 30 (1.78%) Rational DOORS
10 29 (1.72%) Oracle APEX
11 28 (1.66%) JMeter
12 20 (1.18%) Visual Studio
13 19 (1.13%) WebDriver
14 17 (1.01%) MLflow
15 14 (0.83%) Eclipse
16 12 (0.71%) REST Assured
17 11 (0.65%) Bitbucket
18 10 (0.59%) TestRail
19 9 (0.53%) Cypress.io
19 9 (0.53%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 594 (35.19%) Social Skills
2 507 (30.04%) Finance
3 343 (20.32%) Analytical Skills
4 150 (8.89%) Public Sector
5 148 (8.77%) Banking
6 88 (5.21%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
8 45 (2.67%) Manufacturing
9 40 (2.37%) Aerospace
10 31 (1.84%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.78%) Electronics
11 30 (1.78%) Marketing
12 29 (1.72%) Pharmaceutical
13 27 (1.60%) Military
14 26 (1.54%) Financial Institution
14 26 (1.54%) Front Office
15 25 (1.48%) Organisational Skills
16 24 (1.42%) Retail
17 23 (1.36%) Legal
17 23 (1.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 304 (18.01%) Analyst
2 175 (10.37%) Senior
3 173 (10.25%) Lead
4 137 (8.12%) Business Analyst
5 120 (7.11%) Consultant
6 119 (7.05%) Developer
7 116 (6.87%) Data Engineer
8 108 (6.40%) Architect
9 83 (4.92%) Data Analyst
10 65 (3.85%) Project Manager
11 50 (2.96%) Tester
12 47 (2.78%) Software Engineer
13 39 (2.31%) SAP Consultant
14 38 (2.25%) Senior Analyst
15 37 (2.19%) Senior Developer
16 33 (1.95%) Test Engineer
16 33 (1.95%) Test Manager
17 32 (1.90%) Embedded Engineer
18 31 (1.84%) Test Analyst
19 30 (1.78%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (6.64%) REST
2 71 (4.21%) JSON
3 60 (3.55%) Oracle Fusion
4 53 (3.14%) Kafka
5 52 (3.08%) XML
6 47 (2.78%) OAuth
7 44 (2.61%) Middleware
8 43 (2.55%) .NET
9 40 (2.37%) SOAP
10 37 (2.19%) PySpark
11 36 (2.13%) Node.js
11 36 (2.13%) PyTorch
12 32 (1.90%) RESTful
12 32 (1.90%) TensorFlow
13 31 (1.84%) Web Services
14 30 (1.78%) Swagger
15 29 (1.72%) Playwright
16 27 (1.60%) pytest
17 24 (1.42%) Pandas
18 23 (1.36%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 103 (6.10%) Legacy Systems
2 84 (4.98%) Data Structures
3 73 (4.32%) Product Ownership
4 57 (3.38%) Onboarding
5 48 (2.84%) Cloud Native
6 42 (2.49%) Management Information System
7 35 (2.07%) Data Centre
8 33 (1.95%) Analytical Mindset
9 26 (1.54%) Algorithms
9 26 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
10 25 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
10 25 (1.48%) Replication
11 19 (1.13%) Derivative
12 18 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
13 17 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
14 16 (0.95%) Credit Risk
14 16 (0.95%) Public Cloud
15 13 (0.77%) FPGA
15 13 (0.77%) NHS
15 13 (0.77%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 87 (5.15%) Windows
2 70 (4.15%) Linux
3 28 (1.66%) Unix
4 9 (0.53%) Android
5 7 (0.41%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.36%) zOS
7 5 (0.30%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
9 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.059%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.059%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.059%) pSOS
10 1 (0.059%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 413 (24.47%) Agile
2 409 (24.23%) Migration
3 362 (21.45%) Problem-Solving
4 314 (18.60%) Stakeholder Management
5 288 (17.06%) Data Validation
6 287 (17.00%) CI/CD
7 274 (16.23%) Analytics
8 268 (15.88%) DevOps
9 248 (14.69%) Data Migration
10 235 (13.92%) Data Modelling
11 221 (13.09%) ETL
12 210 (12.44%) Test Automation
12 210 (12.44%) User Acceptance Testing
13 198 (11.73%) AI
14 193 (11.43%) Continuous Improvement
15 183 (10.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 179 (10.60%) Business Intelligence
17 163 (9.66%) Data Governance
18 145 (8.59%) Data Pipeline
18 145 (8.59%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 422 (25.00%) SQL
2 321 (19.02%) Python
3 87 (5.15%) JavaScript
4 85 (5.04%) Java
5 65 (3.85%) C#
6 51 (3.02%) PL/SQL
7 46 (2.73%) C++
8 40 (2.37%) PowerShell
9 38 (2.25%) C
10 29 (1.72%) Bash
10 29 (1.72%) TypeScript
11 24 (1.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 23 (1.36%) R
13 22 (1.30%) Bicep
14 20 (1.18%) Ada
15 17 (1.01%) Groovy
16 16 (0.95%) T-SQL
17 14 (0.83%) Scala
18 12 (0.71%) VBA
19 10 (0.59%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 363 (21.50%) Security Cleared
2 263 (15.58%) SC Cleared
3 152 (9.00%) Degree
4 53 (3.14%) Computer Science Degree
5 48 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
6 38 (2.25%) DV Cleared
7 33 (1.95%) Master's Degree
8 27 (1.60%) PMI Certification
9 26 (1.54%) ISTQB
10 24 (1.42%) PMP
11 15 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (0.89%) CISSP
12 14 (0.83%) CBAP
12 14 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (0.77%) AWS Certification
14 12 (0.71%) CCNP
15 9 (0.53%) Azure Certification
16 8 (0.47%) CCNA
16 8 (0.47%) Oracle Certification
17 7 (0.41%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 259 (15.34%) Data Quality
2 216 (12.80%) QA
3 92 (5.45%) GDPR
4 76 (4.50%) NIST
5 55 (3.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.42%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.30%) IFRS
8 19 (1.13%) Def Stans
8 19 (1.13%) IFRS 17
9 18 (1.07%) SLA
10 17 (1.01%) GRC
11 16 (0.95%) PMO
12 15 (0.89%) PCI DSS
13 13 (0.77%) NCSC
14 12 (0.71%) COBIT
14 12 (0.71%) EU AI Act
15 11 (0.65%) MiFID
16 10 (0.59%) HL7
16 10 (0.59%) MISRA
17 9 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 75 (4.44%) Docker
2 39 (2.31%) Active Directory
3 32 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (1.24%) Firmware
5 10 (0.59%) VMware NSX
6 8 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.41%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.30%) NFS
9 4 (0.24%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.18%) vSphere
11 2 (0.12%) Ceph
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
11 2 (0.12%) Lustre
11 2 (0.12%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.12%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.12%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 112 (6.64%) Kubernetes
2 77 (4.56%) Terraform
3 30 (1.78%) Ansible
4 28 (1.66%) Prometheus
4 28 (1.66%) Single Sign-On
5 25 (1.48%) Grafana
6 12 (0.71%) Kibana
6 12 (0.71%) Puppet
7 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
8 9 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.36%) Nessus
9 6 (0.36%) SCCM
10 5 (0.30%) CASB
11 4 (0.24%) EMC NetWorker
11 4 (0.24%) EMC VPLEX
11 4 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.24%) vMotion
12 3 (0.18%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.18%) OMEGAMON
12 3 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 224 (13.27%) Microsoft
2 177 (10.49%) Oracle
3 143 (8.47%) SAP
4 78 (4.62%) Databricks
5 75 (4.44%) ServiceNow
6 41 (2.43%) Splunk
7 38 (2.25%) Salesforce
7 38 (2.25%) VMware
8 34 (2.01%) Google
9 32 (1.90%) Cisco
10 30 (1.78%) Workday
11 28 (1.66%) Informatica
11 28 (1.66%) Sage
12 26 (1.54%) MuleSoft
13 21 (1.24%) IBM
14 19 (1.13%) Palo Alto
15 16 (0.95%) CyberArk
16 15 (0.89%) Murex
17 14 (0.83%) OpenAI
18 13 (0.77%) Bloomberg