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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 43 46
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 +23
Contract jobs citing Validation 127 78 124
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.75% 4.62% 3.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.74% 5.09% 4.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 49 45
10th Percentile £325 £419 £208
25th Percentile £400 £525 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £649 £625
90th Percentile £600 £695 £672
England median daily rate £500 £538 £500
% change year-on-year -6.98% +7.50% -12.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 5 36
10th Percentile £17.75 £46.00 £47.83
25th Percentile £43.84 £65.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £75.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% +15.38% +5.26%
75th Percentile £67.25 - £71.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.25 £72.50
England median hourly rate £64.07 £57.50 £60.50
% change year-on-year +11.42% -4.96% -3.20%

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 2,682 1,532 2,670
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 79.09% 90.81% 82.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,449 937 1,703
10th Percentile £325 £220 £233
25th Percentile £413 £384 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £623 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £700
England median daily rate £514 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.10% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 471 156 353
10th Percentile £16.01 £18.13 £13.86
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.51 £29.75
Median hourly rate £57.50 £35.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +61.97% -35.45% -4.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £28.18 £36.84
% change year-on-year +66.78% -23.51% -1.29%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +21 75 £475 -13.64% 36
Somerset -6 17 £525 +10.53% 5
Wiltshire -30 14 £475 -19.15% 10
Dorset -4 8 £449 -18.36% 6
Devon -14 6 £600 +50.00% 7
Gloucestershire -11 4 £525 +141.56% 19
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 (7.09%) Confluence
2 3 (2.36%) Jupyter
3 2 (1.57%) Apache
3 2 (1.57%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (6.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.57%) LaTeX
2 2 (1.57%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (4.72%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.57%) Oracle Assets
2 2 (1.57%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.79%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.79%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 21 (16.54%) Azure
2 8 (6.30%) AWS
3 4 (3.15%) Dynamics 365
3 4 (3.15%) GCP
4 3 (2.36%) Azure Data Factory
4 3 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.36%) GitHub
4 3 (2.36%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.57%) Boomi
5 2 (1.57%) Lucidchart
6 1 (0.79%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.79%) dbt
6 1 (0.79%) Entra ID
6 1 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.79%) Intacct
6 1 (0.79%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.79%) OCI
6 1 (0.79%) PowerApps
6 1 (0.79%) SaaS
6 1 (0.79%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 13 (10.24%) Ethernet
2 12 (9.45%) TCP/IP
3 6 (4.72%) DNS
4 4 (3.15%) DHCP
5 3 (2.36%) Firewall
6 2 (1.57%) Network Security
7 1 (0.79%) VLAN
7 1 (0.79%) VoIP
7 1 (0.79%) VSAN
7 1 (0.79%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.94%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.57%) Delta Lake
2 2 (1.57%) Electronic Patient Records
2 2 (1.57%) Metadata
2 2 (1.57%) Power BI
3 1 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.79%) Power Query
3 1 (0.79%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 9 (7.09%) JIRA
2 7 (5.51%) Rational DOORS
3 6 (4.72%) Eclipse
3 6 (4.72%) Visual Studio
4 5 (3.94%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.79%) GitLab
5 1 (0.79%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.79%) Oracle APEX
General
1 34 (26.77%) Social Skills
2 17 (13.39%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (11.81%) Finance
4 13 (10.24%) Military
5 9 (7.09%) Aerospace
5 9 (7.09%) Manufacturing
6 6 (4.72%) Aviation
6 6 (4.72%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (4.72%) Public Sector
7 3 (2.36%) Police
8 2 (1.57%) Banking
8 2 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.57%) Electronics
8 2 (1.57%) General Ledger
8 2 (1.57%) Investment Banking
8 2 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.79%) Advertising
9 1 (0.79%) Billing
9 1 (0.79%) Local Government
9 1 (0.79%) Retail
Job Titles
1 15 (11.81%) Validation Engineer
2 14 (11.02%) Analyst
3 13 (10.24%) Software Engineer
4 11 (8.66%) Embedded Engineer
5 9 (7.09%) Systems Engineer
6 7 (5.51%) Administrator
6 7 (5.51%) Architect
6 7 (5.51%) Senior
6 7 (5.51%) Systems Administrator
6 7 (5.51%) Test Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) C# Software Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) Data Architect
7 6 (4.72%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) Integration Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) Lead
7 6 (4.72%) Support Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) Technical Engineer
7 6 (4.72%) Technical Support
7 6 (4.72%) Technical Support Engineer
8 5 (3.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.72%) Node.js
1 6 (4.72%) Web Services
2 4 (3.15%) Middleware
3 3 (2.36%) .NET
3 3 (2.36%) .NET Framework
3 3 (2.36%) REST
4 2 (1.57%) Flask
4 2 (1.57%) JSON
4 2 (1.57%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (1.57%) Pandas
4 2 (1.57%) XML
5 1 (0.79%) EDI
5 1 (0.79%) FastAPI
5 1 (0.79%) FHIR
5 1 (0.79%) Flash
5 1 (0.79%) OAuth
5 1 (0.79%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.79%) pydantic
5 1 (0.79%) PySpark
5 1 (0.79%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.45%) Data Structures
2 8 (6.30%) PCIe
3 7 (5.51%) FPGA
4 6 (4.72%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (3.15%) Management Information System
6 3 (2.36%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.57%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.57%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.57%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.57%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.57%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.57%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.57%) Replication
8 1 (0.79%) Clustering
8 1 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.79%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.79%) Life Science
8 1 (0.79%) PKI
8 1 (0.79%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 17 (13.39%) Windows
2 15 (11.81%) Linux
3 4 (3.15%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.57%) Android
5 1 (0.79%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (24.41%) Verification and Validation
2 26 (20.47%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (19.69%) Migration
4 20 (15.75%) Data Validation
5 18 (14.17%) Data Migration
5 18 (14.17%) Systems Engineering
6 16 (12.60%) ERP
7 15 (11.81%) Agile
7 15 (11.81%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (10.24%) CI/CD
8 13 (10.24%) Data Mapping
8 13 (10.24%) Integration Testing
8 13 (10.24%) Software Engineering
9 11 (8.66%) Configuration Management
9 11 (8.66%) Data Transformation
9 11 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
9 11 (8.66%) Unit Testing
9 11 (8.66%) Workflow
10 10 (7.87%) Data Cleansing
10 10 (7.87%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 20 (15.75%) Python
2 14 (11.02%) C
2 14 (11.02%) SQL
3 10 (7.87%) C++
4 9 (7.09%) JavaScript
5 6 (4.72%) C#
6 5 (3.94%) Ada
7 4 (3.15%) PowerShell
8 3 (2.36%) Embedded C
9 2 (1.57%) Java
9 2 (1.57%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.79%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.79%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 46 (36.22%) Security Cleared
2 39 (30.71%) SC Cleared
3 9 (7.09%) Degree
4 6 (4.72%) DV Cleared
5 3 (2.36%) BPSS Clearance
5 3 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.57%) ACCA
6 2 (1.57%) CCNA
6 2 (1.57%) CEH
6 2 (1.57%) Chartered Engineer
6 2 (1.57%) CIMA
6 2 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.57%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.79%) CISA
7 1 (0.79%) CISMP
7 1 (0.79%) CISSP
7 1 (0.79%) CRISC
7 1 (0.79%) ISEB
7 1 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (9.45%) QA
2 11 (8.66%) Data Quality
3 5 (3.94%) Def Stans
4 4 (3.15%) GDPR
5 2 (1.57%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.57%) DO-178B
5 2 (1.57%) IFRS
5 2 (1.57%) MISRA
5 2 (1.57%) NCSC
5 2 (1.57%) NIST
5 2 (1.57%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.79%) GMP
6 1 (0.79%) HL7
6 1 (0.79%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.79%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.79%) JSP 440
System Software
1 7 (5.51%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.15%) Firmware
4 3 (2.36%) Hyper-V
4 3 (2.36%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.57%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.79%) VirtualBox
6 1 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.79%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (2.36%) Kubernetes
1 3 (2.36%) Terraform
2 1 (0.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 1 (0.79%) Ansible
2 1 (0.79%) Functional Safety
2 1 (0.79%) SCCM
2 1 (0.79%) SCOM
2 1 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.79%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 19 (14.96%) Microsoft
2 7 (5.51%) VMware
3 6 (4.72%) Siemens
4 4 (3.15%) IBM
4 4 (3.15%) Oracle
5 3 (2.36%) Databricks
6 2 (1.57%) Alteryx
6 2 (1.57%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.79%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.79%) EMC
7 1 (0.79%) InterSystems
7 1 (0.79%) Sage
7 1 (0.79%) SAP
7 1 (0.79%) Tagetik
7 1 (0.79%) UiPath