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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 53 30
Rank change year-on-year +16 -23 +69
Contract jobs citing Validation 176 68 155
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.73% 3.47% 6.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.07% 3.84% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 80 38 47
10th Percentile £325 £409 £417
25th Percentile £411 £463 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £581
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -5.34% +4.68%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £712 £649 £670
England median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 10 41
10th Percentile £17.58 £31.43 £28.00
25th Percentile £26.00 £40.01 £30.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.75 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% -1.92% -1.49%
75th Percentile £70.00 £72.13 £72.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £75.00 -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% - -3.79%

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 2,900 1,770 2,133
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 77.87% 90.31% 83.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,612 1,001 1,228
10th Percentile £331 £213 £300
25th Percentile £450 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.95% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £715 £725
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 480 266 206
10th Percentile £14.79 £15.00 £22.50
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.60 £46.69
Median hourly rate £62.13 £25.15 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +147.02% -62.74% +8.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £68.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -3.37%

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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Bristol +17 88 £550 +2.56% 82
Wiltshire +3 32 £450 -28.00% 50
Somerset -19 17 £523 -5.64% 46
Gloucestershire -2 12 £538 +38.71% 56
Dorset - 10 £300 - 48
Devon -6 9 £463 -2.63% 24
Avon - 2 - - 38
Cornwall - 1 - - 3
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 9 (5.11%) Apache
2 7 (3.98%) Confluence
3 5 (2.84%) Apache Spark
4 4 (2.27%) CMS
5 3 (1.70%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (1.14%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (1.14%) IIS
6 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (1.14%) SharePoint
6 2 (1.14%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 16 (9.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.84%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (1.14%) Simulink
6 1 (0.57%) LaTeX
6 1 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (2.84%) SAP HR
2 3 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.70%) Magento
2 3 (1.70%) SAP CRM
2 3 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.14%) Oracle Assets
3 2 (1.14%) SAP MM
3 2 (1.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.57%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.57%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.57%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 1 (0.57%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.57%) Sage 50
4 1 (0.57%) SAP PM
4 1 (0.57%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 28 (15.91%) Azure
2 21 (11.93%) GCP
3 13 (7.39%) dbt
4 12 (6.82%) AWS
5 8 (4.55%) GitHub
6 7 (3.98%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (3.41%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (3.41%) Power Platform
8 5 (2.84%) Amazon S3
8 5 (2.84%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 5 (2.84%) Azure Monitor
8 5 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (2.84%) OpenShift
9 4 (2.27%) Lucidchart
10 3 (1.70%) Power Automate
10 3 (1.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
11 2 (1.14%) Google Workspace
11 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Purview
11 2 (1.14%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 11 (6.25%) Firewall
2 10 (5.68%) DNS
2 10 (5.68%) TCP/IP
3 9 (5.11%) DHCP
4 6 (3.41%) BGP
4 6 (3.41%) Ethernet
4 6 (3.41%) VLAN
5 5 (2.84%) WAN
6 2 (1.14%) ATM
6 2 (1.14%) NetScaler
6 2 (1.14%) Network Security
6 2 (1.14%) RS-232
6 2 (1.14%) VSAN
6 2 (1.14%) Wireless
7 1 (0.57%) Ethernet VPN
7 1 (0.57%) Modbus
7 1 (0.57%) NX-OS
7 1 (0.57%) VXLAN
7 1 (0.57%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.39%) Metadata
2 6 (3.41%) Power BI
3 5 (2.84%) Oracle Reports
3 5 (2.84%) Parquet
4 4 (2.27%) Big Data
4 4 (2.27%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.70%) SQL Server
5 3 (1.70%) SQLite
6 1 (0.57%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.57%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.57%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.57%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 13 (7.39%) GitLab
2 11 (6.25%) JIRA
3 8 (4.55%) Rational DOORS
3 8 (4.55%) Rational Rhapsody
4 7 (3.98%) Jenkins
5 4 (2.27%) Cucumber
5 4 (2.27%) Eclipse
5 4 (2.27%) Visual Studio
6 3 (1.70%) Selenium
7 1 (0.57%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.57%) Gatling
7 1 (0.57%) Git
7 1 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.57%) Postman
General
1 63 (35.80%) Social Skills
2 24 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (11.36%) Finance
3 20 (11.36%) Manufacturing
4 15 (8.52%) Public Sector
5 13 (7.39%) Aerospace
6 11 (6.25%) Military
7 9 (5.11%) Banking
8 6 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.41%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (2.84%) Marketing
10 4 (2.27%) Electronics
10 4 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (2.27%) Local Government
11 3 (1.70%) Automotive
11 3 (1.70%) Law
11 3 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
12 2 (1.14%) Avionics
12 2 (1.14%) Investment Banking
12 2 (1.14%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 19 (10.80%) Data Engineer
2 18 (10.23%) Systems Engineer
3 16 (9.09%) Senior
4 15 (8.52%) Test Engineer
5 14 (7.95%) Analyst
6 13 (7.39%) Lead
7 12 (6.82%) Administrator
7 12 (6.82%) Architect
8 11 (6.25%) GCP Engineer
9 10 (5.68%) GCP Data Engineer
10 9 (5.11%) Business Analyst
11 8 (4.55%) Consultant
11 8 (4.55%) Software Engineer
12 7 (3.98%) QA Engineer
12 7 (3.98%) Systems Administrator
13 6 (3.41%) QA Test Engineer
13 6 (3.41%) Test Automation Engineer
14 5 (2.84%) Azure Consultant
14 5 (2.84%) Engineering Specialist
14 5 (2.84%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.66%) Terraform
2 10 (5.68%) REST
3 8 (4.55%) Middleware
4 6 (3.41%) Web Services
5 5 (2.84%) Apache NiFi
5 5 (2.84%) JSON
5 5 (2.84%) Oracle Fusion
5 5 (2.84%) XML
6 4 (2.27%) EDI
6 4 (2.27%) Node.js
7 3 (1.70%) FastAPI
7 3 (1.70%) Playwright
7 3 (1.70%) pydantic
8 2 (1.14%) LDAP
8 2 (1.14%) Spring
8 2 (1.14%) Spring Boot
9 1 (0.57%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.57%) RESTful
9 1 (0.57%) XSLT
9 1 (0.57%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.23%) Management Information System
2 11 (6.25%) Legacy Systems
3 9 (5.11%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.11%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (2.84%) Data Structures
4 5 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.27%) Algorithms
5 4 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.27%) Linux Command Line
5 4 (2.27%) Robotics
6 3 (1.70%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.70%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.14%) Analogue Electronics
7 2 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.14%) AS400
7 2 (1.14%) Clustering
7 2 (1.14%) GNSS
7 2 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.14%) Life Science
7 2 (1.14%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 23 (13.07%) Windows
2 18 (10.23%) Linux
3 8 (4.55%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.41%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (25.57%) Migration
2 33 (18.75%) Verification and Validation
3 31 (17.61%) Data Validation
4 30 (17.05%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (17.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 28 (15.91%) Data Migration
6 27 (15.34%) CI/CD
7 26 (14.77%) Data Modelling
8 24 (13.64%) AI
8 24 (13.64%) DevOps
9 23 (13.07%) Agile
10 22 (12.50%) Data Engineering
11 21 (11.93%) Continuous Improvement
12 19 (10.80%) Systems Engineering
12 19 (10.80%) User Acceptance Testing
13 18 (10.23%) Decision-Making
13 18 (10.23%) ETL
14 17 (9.66%) Analytics
14 17 (9.66%) Data Cleansing
15 16 (9.09%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 33 (18.75%) SQL
2 29 (16.48%) Python
3 11 (6.25%) C++
4 9 (5.11%) C
5 7 (3.98%) JavaScript
5 7 (3.98%) PowerShell
6 4 (2.27%) Ada
6 4 (2.27%) C#
7 2 (1.14%) Bash
7 2 (1.14%) Java
7 2 (1.14%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.57%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.57%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.57%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.57%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 56 (31.82%) Security Cleared
2 43 (24.43%) SC Cleared
3 20 (11.36%) Degree
4 14 (7.95%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.41%) CIPD
6 3 (1.70%) ACCA
6 3 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.70%) Chartered Engineer
6 3 (1.70%) CIMA
7 2 (1.14%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.14%) CISSP
7 2 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.14%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.57%) CEH
8 1 (0.57%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.57%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.57%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (14.20%) Data Quality
2 24 (13.64%) QA
3 9 (5.11%) GDPR
4 5 (2.84%) Def Stans
5 2 (1.14%) IFRS
5 2 (1.14%) ISO 20022
5 2 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 2 (1.14%) SEPA
6 1 (0.57%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.57%) ARP4761
6 1 (0.57%) DO-254
6 1 (0.57%) GAMP
6 1 (0.57%) GMP
6 1 (0.57%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.57%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.57%) NCSC
6 1 (0.57%) NIST
6 1 (0.57%) SLA
6 1 (0.57%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 14 (7.95%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.11%) Active Directory
3 8 (4.55%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (2.27%) VirtualBox
6 2 (1.14%) Docker
6 2 (1.14%) Firmware
6 2 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.14%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.14%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.57%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 12 (6.82%) Kubernetes
2 11 (6.25%) Ansible
3 5 (2.84%) FortiGate
4 2 (1.14%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (1.14%) VxRail
5 1 (0.57%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 42 (23.86%) Microsoft
2 14 (7.95%) VMware
3 12 (6.82%) Oracle
3 12 (6.82%) SAP
4 11 (6.25%) Google
5 10 (5.68%) IBM
6 6 (3.41%) ServiceNow
6 6 (3.41%) Workday
7 5 (2.84%) Zscaler
8 3 (1.70%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.70%) Databricks
8 3 (1.70%) Sitecore
9 2 (1.14%) Citrix
9 2 (1.14%) EMC
9 2 (1.14%) Facebook
9 2 (1.14%) Qualys
9 2 (1.14%) Rapid7
9 2 (1.14%) Sage
9 2 (1.14%) Sparx
9 2 (1.14%) Tenable