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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 46 83
Rank change year-on-year +5 +37 -20
Contract jobs citing Validation 127 78 65
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.99% 4.50% 2.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.08% 4.96% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 47 27
10th Percentile £363 £443 £179
25th Percentile £449 £525 £214
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £575 £400
Median % change year-on-year -17.39% +43.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £518 £664 £549
90th Percentile £568 £703 £725
England median daily rate £488 £525 £503
% change year-on-year -7.14% +4.43% -8.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 7 23
10th Percentile £25.89 £40.55 £47.83
25th Percentile £60.00 £56.63 £50.17
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year - +18.18% -10.57%
75th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £67.83
90th Percentile £67.77 £78.50 £73.70
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +12.55% -3.75% -3.23%

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 2,502 1,571 2,647
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 78.56% 90.65% 82.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,376 1,020 1,735
10th Percentile £312 £240 £228
25th Percentile £410 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.57% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £628
90th Percentile £714 £688 £706
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 433 130 312
10th Percentile £16.62 £18.20 £13.85
25th Percentile £25.15 £25.38 £25.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £63.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.51% +33.68% -22.76%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.50 £77.50
England median hourly rate £41.86 £31.64 £34.21
% change year-on-year +32.29% -7.51% -6.66%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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 18 April 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 +11 60 £450 -28.00% 32
Gloucestershire +17 32 £475 +118.55% 12
Somerset -2 12 £525 +20.00% 5
Wiltshire -43 11 £535 -6.96% 11
Dorset -11 5 £449 -18.36% 5
Devon - 5 £450 - 10
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 10 (7.87%) Confluence
2 3 (2.36%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.79%) Apache
3 1 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (4.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.57%) LaTeX
3 1 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (4.72%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.57%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.79%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 46 (36.22%) Azure
2 31 (24.41%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (5.51%) AWS
4 3 (2.36%) GCP
4 3 (2.36%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (1.57%) Boomi
5 2 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (1.57%) GitHub
6 1 (0.79%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.79%) OCI
6 1 (0.79%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.45%) TCP/IP
2 11 (8.66%) Ethernet
3 4 (3.15%) Firewall
4 3 (2.36%) DNS
5 1 (0.79%) VoIP
5 1 (0.79%) VSAN
5 1 (0.79%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (3.15%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.57%) Delta Lake
2 2 (1.57%) Metadata
2 2 (1.57%) Power BI
3 1 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.79%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 28 (22.05%) Oracle APEX
2 10 (7.87%) JIRA
3 4 (3.15%) Eclipse
3 4 (3.15%) Visual Studio
4 3 (2.36%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.79%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 49 (38.58%) Social Skills
2 19 (14.96%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (10.24%) Finance
4 10 (7.87%) Military
5 8 (6.30%) Aerospace
6 6 (4.72%) Aviation
6 6 (4.72%) Manufacturing
6 6 (4.72%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.94%) Electronics
8 4 (3.15%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (2.36%) Police
9 3 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.57%) Banking
10 2 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.57%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.79%) Back Office
11 1 (0.79%) Billing
11 1 (0.79%) Law
11 1 (0.79%) Legal
11 1 (0.79%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 33 (25.98%) Senior
2 29 (22.83%) Developer
3 28 (22.05%) Senior Developer
4 15 (11.81%) Validation Engineer
5 13 (10.24%) Embedded Engineer
6 12 (9.45%) Analyst
6 12 (9.45%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.30%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 8 (6.30%) Integration Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Architect
8 6 (4.72%) Support Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Technical Engineer
8 6 (4.72%) Technical Support
8 6 (4.72%) Technical Support Engineer
9 5 (3.94%) Data Architect
9 5 (3.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (3.94%) Software Validation Engineer
9 5 (3.94%) Systems Engineer
10 4 (3.15%) Network Engineer
10 4 (3.15%) Network Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.15%) Node.js
1 4 (3.15%) Web Services
2 3 (2.36%) .NET
2 3 (2.36%) .NET Framework
2 3 (2.36%) Middleware
2 3 (2.36%) OAuth
2 3 (2.36%) OAuth2
2 3 (2.36%) OpenID
2 3 (2.36%) SAML
3 2 (1.57%) Flask
3 2 (1.57%) Pandas
4 1 (0.79%) FHIR
4 1 (0.79%) Flash
4 1 (0.79%) PySpark
4 1 (0.79%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (7.87%) Data Structures
2 8 (6.30%) PCIe
3 7 (5.51%) FPGA
4 5 (3.94%) Embedded Systems
4 5 (3.94%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (2.36%) Cloud Native
5 3 (2.36%) Private Cloud
5 3 (2.36%) Replication
6 2 (1.57%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.57%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.57%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.57%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.79%) Clustering
7 1 (0.79%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.79%) NHS
7 1 (0.79%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 16 (12.60%) Windows
2 14 (11.02%) Linux
3 4 (3.15%) Android
4 3 (2.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (33.07%) Agile
2 31 (24.41%) DevOps
3 30 (23.62%) Collaborative Working
4 29 (22.83%) Scrum
5 28 (22.05%) Requirements Analysis
6 27 (21.26%) Software Delivery
6 27 (21.26%) Web Application Development
7 24 (18.90%) Verification and Validation
8 23 (18.11%) Problem-Solving
9 15 (11.81%) Systems Engineering
10 14 (11.02%) Data Validation
10 14 (11.02%) Software Engineering
11 13 (10.24%) Continuous Improvement
12 12 (9.45%) Migration
12 12 (9.45%) Unit Testing
13 11 (8.66%) Integration Testing
13 11 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
14 10 (7.87%) CI/CD
15 9 (7.09%) Data Migration
15 9 (7.09%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 36 (28.35%) JavaScript
1 36 (28.35%) SQL
2 28 (22.05%) PL/SQL
3 17 (13.39%) Python
4 16 (12.60%) C
5 7 (5.51%) C++
5 7 (5.51%) PowerShell
6 4 (3.15%) C#
7 3 (2.36%) Ada
7 3 (2.36%) Embedded C
8 2 (1.57%) Java
8 2 (1.57%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.79%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 70 (55.12%) Security Cleared
2 61 (48.03%) SC Cleared
3 6 (4.72%) Degree
3 6 (4.72%) DV Cleared
4 4 (3.15%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (1.57%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.57%) CCNA
5 2 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (1.57%) CISSP
5 2 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.79%) CEH
6 1 (0.79%) Chartered Engineer
6 1 (0.79%) CISA
6 1 (0.79%) CISMP
6 1 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (0.79%) HND
6 1 (0.79%) ISEB
6 1 (0.79%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 1 (0.79%) MCSE
6 1 (0.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.87%) QA
2 8 (6.30%) Data Quality
3 6 (4.72%) Def Stans
4 5 (3.94%) DO-178B
4 5 (3.94%) MISRA
5 4 (3.15%) GDPR
6 2 (1.57%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.79%) GMP
7 1 (0.79%) HL7
7 1 (0.79%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.79%) NCSC
7 1 (0.79%) NIST
7 1 (0.79%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 7 (5.51%) Firmware
2 4 (3.15%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.79%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (2.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
1 3 (2.36%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.57%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.57%) Terraform
3 1 (0.79%) SCCM
3 1 (0.79%) SCOM
3 1 (0.79%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (22.05%) Oracle
2 16 (12.60%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.72%) Siemens
4 5 (3.94%) VMware
5 3 (2.36%) Databricks
6 2 (1.57%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.79%) Alteryx
7 1 (0.79%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.79%) EMC
7 1 (0.79%) InterSystems
7 1 (0.79%) Tagetik
7 1 (0.79%) UiPath