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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 42 61
Rank change year-on-year -6 +19 +7
Contract jobs citing Validation 110 80 96
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.31% 4.71% 3.03%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.22% 5.19% 3.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 48 30
10th Percentile £363 £429 £200
25th Percentile £400 £525 £220
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £575 £431
Median % change year-on-year -17.39% +33.33% -23.13%
75th Percentile £538 £658 £546
90th Percentile £599 £699 £635
England median daily rate £490 £538 £500
% change year-on-year -8.84% +7.50% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 8 32
10th Percentile £17.75 £43.10 £47.83
25th Percentile £60.00 £59.56 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £60.25
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +16.18% -2.03%
75th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £70.87
90th Percentile £69.10 £77.63 £72.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £61.50
% change year-on-year +13.04% -6.50% -0.81%

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 2,605 1,541 2,638
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 78.37% 90.65% 83.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,435 967 1,681
10th Percentile £320 £233 £220
25th Percentile £413 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £623 £625
90th Percentile £715 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 452 154 336
10th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £13.86
25th Percentile £25.62 £18.87 £29.19
Median hourly rate £58.75 £62.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +13.64% -8.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £46.65 £29.07 £36.50
% change year-on-year +60.47% -20.36% -2.25%

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 9 May 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 9 May 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 9 May 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 +10 64 £463 -22.92% 38
Somerset -5 13 £525 +15.07% 4
Wiltshire -40 11 £504 -12.39% 8
Gloucestershire -4 8 £475 +118.55% 17
Devon -12 6 £600 +50.00% 5
Dorset -6 5 £449 -25.17% 10
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 9 (8.18%) Confluence
2 3 (2.73%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.91%) Apache
3 1 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.91%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (7.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.82%) LaTeX
3 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.91%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (5.45%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.82%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.91%) Primavera
3 1 (0.91%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 24 (21.82%) Azure
2 8 (7.27%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (6.36%) AWS
4 4 (3.64%) Dynamics 365
5 3 (2.73%) Azure Data Factory
5 3 (2.73%) GCP
5 3 (2.73%) Power Platform
6 2 (1.82%) Boomi
6 2 (1.82%) GitHub
7 1 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.91%) dbt
7 1 (0.91%) OCI
7 1 (0.91%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.91%) SaaS
7 1 (0.91%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 12 (10.91%) Ethernet
1 12 (10.91%) TCP/IP
2 2 (1.82%) Firewall
3 1 (0.91%) DNS
3 1 (0.91%) VoIP
3 1 (0.91%) VSAN
3 1 (0.91%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.64%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.82%) Delta Lake
2 2 (1.82%) Electronic Patient Records
2 2 (1.82%) Metadata
2 2 (1.82%) Power BI
3 1 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.91%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 9 (8.18%) JIRA
2 5 (4.55%) Eclipse
2 5 (4.55%) Oracle APEX
2 5 (4.55%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (4.55%) Visual Studio
3 3 (2.73%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 29 (26.36%) Social Skills
2 17 (15.45%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (12.73%) Finance
4 12 (10.91%) Military
5 8 (7.27%) Aerospace
6 7 (6.36%) Public Sector
7 6 (5.45%) Aviation
7 6 (5.45%) Manufacturing
7 6 (5.45%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.64%) Electronics
9 3 (2.73%) Police
9 3 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.82%) Banking
10 2 (1.82%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.91%) Back Office
11 1 (0.91%) Billing
11 1 (0.91%) Law
11 1 (0.91%) Legal
11 1 (0.91%) Retail
11 1 (0.91%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 15 (13.64%) Validation Engineer
2 13 (11.82%) Embedded Engineer
2 13 (11.82%) Software Engineer
3 12 (10.91%) Analyst
4 10 (9.09%) Senior
5 8 (7.27%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 8 (7.27%) Integration Engineer
6 7 (6.36%) Architect
6 7 (6.36%) Systems Engineer
7 6 (5.45%) Data Architect
7 6 (5.45%) Support Engineer
7 6 (5.45%) Technical Engineer
7 6 (5.45%) Technical Support
7 6 (5.45%) Technical Support Engineer
8 5 (4.55%) C# Software Engineer
8 5 (4.55%) Developer
8 5 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (4.55%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.55%) Software Validation Engineer
9 4 (3.64%) Network Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.55%) Node.js
1 5 (4.55%) Web Services
2 3 (2.73%) .NET
2 3 (2.73%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.73%) Middleware
3 2 (1.82%) Flask
3 2 (1.82%) Pandas
4 1 (0.91%) FHIR
4 1 (0.91%) Flash
4 1 (0.91%) OAuth
4 1 (0.91%) OAuth2
4 1 (0.91%) OpenID
4 1 (0.91%) PySpark
4 1 (0.91%) REST
4 1 (0.91%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.00%) Data Structures
2 8 (7.27%) PCIe
3 7 (6.36%) FPGA
4 6 (5.45%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (3.64%) Embedded Systems
6 3 (2.73%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.82%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.82%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.82%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.91%) Clustering
8 1 (0.91%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.91%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.91%) NHS
8 1 (0.91%) PKI
8 1 (0.91%) Private Cloud
8 1 (0.91%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (13.64%) Linux
2 14 (12.73%) Windows
3 3 (2.73%) Android
4 1 (0.91%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (23.64%) Verification and Validation
2 22 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (17.27%) Agile
4 18 (16.36%) Migration
5 17 (15.45%) Systems Engineering
6 15 (13.64%) Data Validation
7 14 (12.73%) Data Migration
7 14 (12.73%) Software Engineering
8 12 (10.91%) Integration Testing
8 12 (10.91%) Unit Testing
9 11 (10.00%) CI/CD
9 11 (10.00%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (10.00%) ERP
9 11 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
10 10 (9.09%) Data Mapping
10 10 (9.09%) ETL
11 9 (8.18%) Collaborative Working
11 9 (8.18%) Data Transformation
11 9 (8.18%) User Acceptance Testing
11 9 (8.18%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 18 (16.36%) Python
2 16 (14.55%) C
3 15 (13.64%) SQL
4 13 (11.82%) JavaScript
5 9 (8.18%) C++
6 5 (4.55%) C#
6 5 (4.55%) PL/SQL
7 4 (3.64%) Ada
7 4 (3.64%) PowerShell
8 3 (2.73%) Embedded C
9 2 (1.82%) Java
9 2 (1.82%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 48 (43.64%) Security Cleared
2 41 (37.27%) SC Cleared
3 4 (3.64%) Degree
3 4 (3.64%) DV Cleared
4 2 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (1.82%) CCNA
4 2 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.91%) CEH
5 1 (0.91%) Chartered Engineer
5 1 (0.91%) CISA
5 1 (0.91%) CISMP
5 1 (0.91%) CISSP
5 1 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (0.91%) CRISC
5 1 (0.91%) ISEB
5 1 (0.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
5 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (0.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (10.00%) Data Quality
2 10 (9.09%) QA
3 5 (4.55%) Def Stans
4 4 (3.64%) DO-178B
4 4 (3.64%) GDPR
4 4 (3.64%) MISRA
5 2 (1.82%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.82%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.91%) GMP
6 1 (0.91%) HL7
6 1 (0.91%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.91%) NCSC
6 1 (0.91%) NIST
System Software
1 6 (5.45%) Firmware
2 2 (1.82%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.91%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 2 (1.82%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.82%) Terraform
2 1 (0.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 1 (0.91%) SCCM
2 1 (0.91%) SCOM
2 1 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.91%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 16 (14.55%) Microsoft
2 6 (5.45%) Siemens
3 5 (4.55%) Oracle
4 3 (2.73%) Databricks
4 3 (2.73%) VMware
5 2 (1.82%) IBM
5 2 (1.82%) MuleSoft
6 1 (0.91%) Alteryx
6 1 (0.91%) Blue Prism
6 1 (0.91%) EMC
6 1 (0.91%) InterSystems
6 1 (0.91%) Tagetik
6 1 (0.91%) UiPath