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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 47 88
Rank change year-on-year +8 +41 -31
Contract jobs citing Validation 131 77 60
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.24% 4.53% 1.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.34% 5.00% 2.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 48 25
10th Percentile £363 £445 £164
25th Percentile £450 £525 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £575 £450
Median % change year-on-year -17.39% +27.78% -18.18%
75th Percentile £529 £675 £575
90th Percentile £575 £732 £725
England median daily rate £490 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -6.67% +2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 8 21
10th Percentile £58.59 £43.10 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £59.19 £47.83
Median hourly rate £65.00 £64.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.78% +17.27% -10.57%
75th Percentile £67.25 £69.38 £57.50
90th Percentile £71.13 £77.63 £74.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £61.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +5.69% +2.50% -4.00%

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 2,451 1,540 2,674
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 79.35% 90.53% 83.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,362 1,018 1,765
10th Percentile £306 £250 £239
25th Percentile £410 £409 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £630
90th Percentile £715 £700 £706
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 415 121 308
10th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £13.80
25th Percentile £25.15 £36.00 £24.66
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £46.95
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +38.46% -23.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £67.38
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year +15.38% -1.71% -11.83%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +17 65 £475 -24.00% 30
Gloucestershire +19 33 £475 +118.55% 16
Somerset -4 12 £523 +19.43% 12
Wiltshire -42 11 £535 -6.96% 10
Devon - 5 £450 - 10
Dorset -10 3 £449 -18.36% 8
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 (7.63%) Confluence
2 3 (2.29%) Jupyter
2 3 (2.29%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.76%) Apache
4 1 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 4 (3.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.53%) LaTeX
2 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (4.58%) Teamcenter
2 2 (1.53%) Primavera
2 2 (1.53%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 2 (1.53%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 46 (35.11%) Azure
2 32 (24.43%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (4.58%) AWS
4 3 (2.29%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.53%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (1.53%) Boomi
5 2 (1.53%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.53%) GitHub
5 2 (1.53%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.53%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.53%) ShareGate
6 1 (0.76%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.76%) GCP
6 1 (0.76%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.76%) OCI
6 1 (0.76%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.16%) TCP/IP
2 11 (8.40%) Ethernet
3 4 (3.05%) Firewall
4 3 (2.29%) DNS
5 1 (0.76%) 2G
5 1 (0.76%) 4G
5 1 (0.76%) 5G
5 1 (0.76%) Radio Access Network
5 1 (0.76%) VoIP
5 1 (0.76%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.29%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.53%) Delta Lake
2 2 (1.53%) Metadata
2 2 (1.53%) Power BI
3 1 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.76%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.76%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 28 (21.37%) Oracle APEX
2 10 (7.63%) JIRA
3 4 (3.05%) Eclipse
3 4 (3.05%) Visual Studio
4 3 (2.29%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.76%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.76%) SoapUI
General
1 49 (37.40%) Social Skills
2 19 (14.50%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (9.92%) Finance
4 10 (7.63%) Aerospace
4 10 (7.63%) Military
5 6 (4.58%) Aviation
5 6 (4.58%) Electronics
5 6 (4.58%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.82%) Public Sector
7 3 (2.29%) Police
7 3 (2.29%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (2.29%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.76%) Back Office
9 1 (0.76%) Billing
9 1 (0.76%) Legal
9 1 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.76%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 34 (25.95%) Senior
2 29 (22.14%) Developer
3 28 (21.37%) Senior Developer
4 16 (12.21%) Analyst
4 16 (12.21%) Validation Engineer
5 12 (9.16%) Embedded Engineer
6 11 (8.40%) Software Engineer
7 7 (5.34%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 7 (5.34%) Integration Engineer
7 7 (5.34%) Systems Engineer
8 6 (4.58%) Architect
8 6 (4.58%) Support Engineer
8 6 (4.58%) Technical Engineer
8 6 (4.58%) Technical Support
8 6 (4.58%) Technical Support Engineer
9 5 (3.82%) Data Architect
9 5 (3.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (3.82%) Network Engineer
9 5 (3.82%) Software Validation Engineer
10 4 (3.05%) Network Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.82%) Web Services
2 4 (3.05%) Node.js
3 3 (2.29%) OAuth
3 3 (2.29%) OAuth2
3 3 (2.29%) OpenID
3 3 (2.29%) SAML
4 2 (1.53%) .NET
4 2 (1.53%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.53%) Flask
4 2 (1.53%) Middleware
4 2 (1.53%) Pandas
4 2 (1.53%) REST
5 1 (0.76%) FHIR
5 1 (0.76%) Flash
5 1 (0.76%) Playwright
5 1 (0.76%) PySpark
5 1 (0.76%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 9 (6.87%) Data Structures
2 8 (6.11%) Legacy Systems
2 8 (6.11%) PCIe
3 7 (5.34%) FPGA
4 6 (4.58%) Embedded Systems
5 3 (2.29%) Cloud Native
5 3 (2.29%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.29%) Private Cloud
5 3 (2.29%) Replication
6 2 (1.53%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.53%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.76%) Clustering
7 1 (0.76%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.76%) IoT
7 1 (0.76%) NB-IoT
7 1 (0.76%) NHS
7 1 (0.76%) PKI
7 1 (0.76%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 16 (12.21%) Windows
2 12 (9.16%) Linux
3 4 (3.05%) Android
4 3 (2.29%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (33.59%) Agile
2 32 (24.43%) DevOps
3 31 (23.66%) Verification and Validation
4 30 (22.90%) Scrum
5 29 (22.14%) Collaborative Working
5 29 (22.14%) Requirements Analysis
6 27 (20.61%) Software Delivery
6 27 (20.61%) Web Application Development
7 22 (16.79%) Problem-Solving
8 18 (13.74%) Systems Engineering
9 15 (11.45%) Data Validation
10 14 (10.69%) Software Engineering
11 13 (9.92%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (9.92%) Stakeholder Management
12 12 (9.16%) Unit Testing
13 11 (8.40%) Migration
14 10 (7.63%) ETL
15 9 (6.87%) Integration Testing
16 8 (6.11%) Analytics
16 8 (6.11%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 38 (29.01%) SQL
2 36 (27.48%) JavaScript
3 28 (21.37%) PL/SQL
4 15 (11.45%) C
5 14 (10.69%) Python
6 9 (6.87%) PowerShell
7 5 (3.82%) C++
8 4 (3.05%) C#
9 3 (2.29%) Embedded C
10 2 (1.53%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.76%) Ada
11 1 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.76%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 72 (54.96%) Security Cleared
2 61 (46.56%) SC Cleared
3 9 (6.87%) Degree
4 7 (5.34%) DV Cleared
5 4 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (1.53%) CCNA
6 2 (1.53%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.53%) CISSP
6 2 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.76%) CEH
7 1 (0.76%) Chartered Engineer
7 1 (0.76%) CISA
7 1 (0.76%) CISMP
7 1 (0.76%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.76%) CRISC
7 1 (0.76%) HND
7 1 (0.76%) ISEB
7 1 (0.76%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 1 (0.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.63%) QA
2 7 (5.34%) Data Quality
2 7 (5.34%) Def Stans
3 6 (4.58%) DO-178B
3 6 (4.58%) GDPR
3 6 (4.58%) MISRA
4 3 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.76%) GMP
6 1 (0.76%) HL7
6 1 (0.76%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 1 (0.76%) NCSC
6 1 (0.76%) NIST
6 1 (0.76%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 8 (6.11%) Firmware
2 6 (4.58%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.76%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 5 (3.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 3 (2.29%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (1.53%) Kubernetes
3 2 (1.53%) Terraform
4 1 (0.76%) SCCM
4 1 (0.76%) SCOM
4 1 (0.76%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 30 (22.90%) Oracle
2 15 (11.45%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.58%) Siemens
4 5 (3.82%) VMware
5 3 (2.29%) Databricks
6 2 (1.53%) MuleSoft
6 2 (1.53%) SAP
7 1 (0.76%) Alteryx
7 1 (0.76%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.76%) BMC
7 1 (0.76%) EMC
7 1 (0.76%) Google
7 1 (0.76%) InterSystems
7 1 (0.76%) Remedy
7 1 (0.76%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.76%) Tagetik
7 1 (0.76%) UiPath