Validation Contract Job Trends in the South West

Validation
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Validation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 33 46
Rank change year-on-year -16 +13 +34
Contract jobs citing Validation 124 90 129
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.50% 4.76% 4.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.35% 5.32% 5.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 55 43
10th Percentile £331 £419 £400
25th Percentile £400 £525 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £575 £570
Median % change year-on-year -9.57% +0.88% +1.79%
75th Percentile £584 £649 £638
90th Percentile £626 £677 £672
England median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -11.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 6 45
10th Percentile £17.75 £31.67 £28.00
25th Percentile £29.25 £41.26 £47.83
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +7.69% +5.69%
75th Percentile £67.84 £75.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £79.38 -
England median hourly rate £62.50 £60.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.17% - -4.08%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

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 the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,853 1,693 2,576
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 80.43% 89.53% 83.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,559 1,002 1,635
10th Percentile £325 £220 £263
25th Percentile £415 £371 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 442 201 352
10th Percentile £16.62 £15.25 £14.42
25th Percentile £32.50 £18.51 £34.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £25.15 £62.25
Median % change year-on-year +128.63% -59.60% -4.23%
75th Percentile £68.00 £65.00 £71.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £39.50
% change year-on-year +88.87% -36.33% -7.06%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Validation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Validation job vacancy trend in the South West

Validation
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Validation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Validation

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation in the South West over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in the South West

Validation
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Validation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Validation

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation in the South West over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in the South West

Validation
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the South West region over the 6 months to 20 July 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
Bristol +9 67 £525 -4.33% 26
Somerset -20 17 £524 -11.42% 3
Wiltshire -29 16 £405 -32.50% 9
Dorset -2 9 £449 -18.36% 5
Devon -10 6 £600 +50.00% 3
Gloucestershire -19 6 £531 +51.79% 16
Cornwall - 1 - -
Validation
England

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 3 (2.42%) Apache
1 3 (2.42%) Confluence
2 2 (1.61%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.81%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.81%) Jupyter
Applications
1 7 (5.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.42%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.61%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (4.03%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.61%) Oracle Assets
2 2 (1.61%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.81%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.81%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.81%) Sage 50
3 1 (0.81%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 28 (22.58%) Azure
2 11 (8.87%) AWS
3 5 (4.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
3 5 (4.03%) Azure Monitor
3 5 (4.03%) Azure Sentinel
3 5 (4.03%) Dynamics 365
3 5 (4.03%) GCP
4 4 (3.23%) GitHub
4 4 (3.23%) Power Platform
5 3 (2.42%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (1.61%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.61%) Boomi
6 2 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (1.61%) Intacct
6 2 (1.61%) Lucidchart
6 2 (1.61%) Snowflake
7 1 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.81%) dbt
7 1 (0.81%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.81%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (6.45%) Firewall
1 8 (6.45%) TCP/IP
2 7 (5.65%) Ethernet
3 6 (4.84%) DNS
4 5 (4.03%) BGP
4 5 (4.03%) DHCP
4 5 (4.03%) WAN
5 2 (1.61%) Network Security
5 2 (1.61%) VLAN
6 1 (0.81%) VoIP
6 1 (0.81%) VSAN
6 1 (0.81%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.03%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.23%) Power BI
3 3 (2.42%) Metadata
3 3 (2.42%) SQLite
4 2 (1.61%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.81%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.81%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.81%) Power Query
5 1 (0.81%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (4.84%) Eclipse
1 6 (4.84%) Rational DOORS
1 6 (4.84%) Visual Studio
2 5 (4.03%) Rational Rhapsody
3 3 (2.42%) GitLab
3 3 (2.42%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.42%) JIRA
4 1 (0.81%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.81%) Gatling
4 1 (0.81%) Oracle Forms
General
1 39 (31.45%) Social Skills
2 19 (15.32%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (13.71%) Finance
4 11 (8.87%) Manufacturing
4 11 (8.87%) Military
5 10 (8.06%) Aerospace
6 8 (6.45%) Public Sector
7 7 (5.65%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (4.03%) Aviation
9 3 (2.42%) Banking
9 3 (2.42%) Police
10 2 (1.61%) Billing
10 2 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.61%) General Ledger
10 2 (1.61%) Investment Banking
10 2 (1.61%) Law
10 2 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.61%) Publishing
11 1 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (12.90%) Analyst
2 12 (9.68%) Senior
3 11 (8.87%) Software Engineer
4 10 (8.06%) Architect
4 10 (8.06%) Test Engineer
5 9 (7.26%) Business Analyst
6 8 (6.45%) Consultant
6 8 (6.45%) Data Architect
7 7 (5.65%) Administrator
7 7 (5.65%) Lead
7 7 (5.65%) Systems Administrator
7 7 (5.65%) Systems Engineer
8 6 (4.84%) C# Software Engineer
8 6 (4.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (4.03%) C++ Software Engineer
9 5 (4.03%) Support Engineer
9 5 (4.03%) Technical Analyst
9 5 (4.03%) Technical Engineer
9 5 (4.03%) Technical Support
9 5 (4.03%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.84%) Middleware
1 6 (4.84%) Node.js
1 6 (4.84%) Web Services
2 5 (4.03%) REST
3 3 (2.42%) .NET
3 3 (2.42%) .NET Framework
3 3 (2.42%) FastAPI
3 3 (2.42%) JSON
3 3 (2.42%) pydantic
3 3 (2.42%) XML
4 2 (1.61%) EDI
4 2 (1.61%) Flash
4 2 (1.61%) Flask
4 2 (1.61%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (1.61%) Pandas
5 1 (0.81%) FHIR
5 1 (0.81%) Playwright
5 1 (0.81%) PySpark
5 1 (0.81%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 9 (7.26%) Data Structures
2 7 (5.65%) Legacy Systems
3 6 (4.84%) Management Information System
4 3 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.61%) Data Centre
5 2 (1.61%) Linux Command Line
5 2 (1.61%) NHS
5 2 (1.61%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.61%) Operational Technology
5 2 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.81%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.81%) Distributed Architecture
6 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.81%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.81%) PCIe
6 1 (0.81%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (13.71%) Windows
2 12 (9.68%) Linux
3 3 (2.42%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.61%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (26.61%) Migration
2 26 (20.97%) Verification and Validation
3 22 (17.74%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (16.94%) Data Migration
4 21 (16.94%) Data Validation
5 19 (15.32%) Stakeholder Management
6 17 (13.71%) ERP
7 15 (12.10%) Agile
7 15 (12.10%) CI/CD
8 14 (11.29%) Continuous Improvement
8 14 (11.29%) Data Mapping
8 14 (11.29%) Systems Engineering
9 13 (10.48%) Integration Testing
10 12 (9.68%) Data Cleansing
10 12 (9.68%) System Testing
10 12 (9.68%) User Acceptance Testing
11 11 (8.87%) Configuration Management
11 11 (8.87%) Software Engineering
12 10 (8.06%) Analytics
12 10 (8.06%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 17 (13.71%) Python
2 15 (12.10%) SQL
3 10 (8.06%) C++
4 7 (5.65%) JavaScript
5 6 (4.84%) C#
6 5 (4.03%) Ada
6 5 (4.03%) C
7 2 (1.61%) Java
8 1 (0.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.81%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.81%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.81%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.81%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 44 (35.48%) Security Cleared
2 38 (30.65%) SC Cleared
3 9 (7.26%) Degree
4 4 (3.23%) DV Cleared
5 3 (2.42%) ACCA
5 3 (2.42%) CIMA
5 3 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (1.61%) CCNA
6 2 (1.61%) CEH
6 2 (1.61%) Chartered Engineer
6 2 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.61%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.81%) CIPD
7 1 (0.81%) CISA
7 1 (0.81%) CISMP
7 1 (0.81%) CISSP
7 1 (0.81%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.81%) ISEB
7 1 (0.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (10.48%) Data Quality
2 12 (9.68%) QA
3 4 (3.23%) GDPR
4 3 (2.42%) Def Stans
5 2 (1.61%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.61%) IFRS
5 2 (1.61%) NCSC
5 2 (1.61%) NIST
5 2 (1.61%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.81%) HL7
6 1 (0.81%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.81%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.81%) JSP 440
System Software
1 6 (4.84%) Active Directory
1 6 (4.84%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (2.42%) Hyper-V
2 3 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (1.61%) VirtualBox
3 2 (1.61%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.81%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 10 (8.06%) Terraform
2 5 (4.03%) FortiGate
3 4 (3.23%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.61%) Ansible
5 1 (0.81%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.81%) SCCM
5 1 (0.81%) SCOM
5 1 (0.81%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 24 (19.35%) Microsoft
2 7 (5.65%) VMware
3 5 (4.03%) IBM
3 5 (4.03%) Siemens
3 5 (4.03%) Zscaler
4 4 (3.23%) Oracle
5 3 (2.42%) Databricks
6 2 (1.61%) Alteryx
6 2 (1.61%) MuleSoft
6 2 (1.61%) Sage
7 1 (0.81%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.81%) EMC
7 1 (0.81%) Informatica
7 1 (0.81%) InterSystems
7 1 (0.81%) SAP
7 1 (0.81%) Tagetik
7 1 (0.81%) UiPath
7 1 (0.81%) Workday