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 19 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 50 74
Rank change year-on-year +10 +24 -3
Contract jobs citing Validation 109 80 72
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.39% 4.13% 2.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.38% 4.66% 2.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 70 27 31
10th Percentile £411 £443 £208
25th Percentile £450 £503 £220
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £581 £500
Median % change year-on-year -18.24% +16.20% -9.09%
75th Percentile £522 £675 £650
90th Percentile £561 £749 £747
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 14 28
10th Percentile £31.59 £25.26 £51.75
25th Percentile £60.00 £34.50 £56.03
Median hourly rate £63.14 £57.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +10.76% -13.61% +1.51%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.44 £73.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £67.05 £75.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.54 £70.00
% change year-on-year +12.96% -17.80% +11.71%

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 2,027 1,715 2,510
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 81.67% 88.54% 84.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,175 1,043 1,648
10th Percentile £263 £248 £275
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £706 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 331 106 282
10th Percentile £15.74 £18.51 £15.16
25th Percentile £22.00 £46.56 £36.06
Median hourly rate £44.00 £65.00 £57.31
Median % change year-on-year -32.31% +13.42% -6.82%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile - £72.63 £81.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -12.50% +14.29%

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 19 January 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 19 January 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 19 January 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 +14 50 £500 -13.04% 68
Gloucestershire +18 36 £475 -18.24% 20
Somerset -5 8 £475 -24.90% 14
Wiltshire -30 8 £545 -3.11% 14
Devon - 5 £475 - 11
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 8 (7.34%) Confluence
2 6 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (5.50%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.83%) Jupyter
Applications
1 2 (1.83%) LaTeX
1 2 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.92%) Siemens NX
2 1 (0.92%) Simulink
2 1 (0.92%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 2 (1.83%) Primavera
1 2 (1.83%) SAP Oil and Gas
1 2 (1.83%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.92%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 39 (35.78%) Azure
2 35 (32.11%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (5.50%) Microsoft 365
3 6 (5.50%) OneDrive
4 5 (4.59%) ShareGate
5 4 (3.67%) AWS
5 4 (3.67%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.83%) Google Workspace
6 2 (1.83%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.92%) GitHub
7 1 (0.92%) OCI
7 1 (0.92%) PaaS
7 1 (0.92%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.92%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (8.26%) TCP/IP
2 7 (6.42%) Ethernet
3 3 (2.75%) DNS
3 3 (2.75%) Firewall
4 1 (0.92%) 2G
4 1 (0.92%) 4G
4 1 (0.92%) 5G
4 1 (0.92%) PBX
4 1 (0.92%) Radio Access Network
4 1 (0.92%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.92%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (0.92%) Delta Lake
1 1 (0.92%) Power BI
1 1 (0.92%) SAP BW
1 1 (0.92%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 31 (28.44%) Oracle APEX
2 12 (11.01%) JIRA
3 4 (3.67%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (1.83%) Git
4 2 (1.83%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.92%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.92%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.92%) Rational Team Concert
5 1 (0.92%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.92%) Visual Studio
General
1 47 (43.12%) Social Skills
2 20 (18.35%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (8.26%) Electronics
3 9 (8.26%) Finance
4 7 (6.42%) Military
5 6 (5.50%) Aerospace
5 6 (5.50%) Public Sector
6 4 (3.67%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.83%) General Ledger
8 1 (0.92%) Aviation
8 1 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.92%) Law
8 1 (0.92%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.92%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 33 (30.28%) Developer
1 33 (30.28%) Senior
2 29 (26.61%) Senior Developer
3 13 (11.93%) Embedded Engineer
4 12 (11.01%) Validation Engineer
5 10 (9.17%) Software Engineer
6 9 (8.26%) Analyst
6 9 (8.26%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 7 (6.42%) Integration Engineer
8 6 (5.50%) Systems Engineer
9 5 (4.59%) Lead
9 5 (4.59%) Network Engineer
10 4 (3.67%) Consultant
10 4 (3.67%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
10 4 (3.67%) Migration Consultant
10 4 (3.67%) Network Integration Engineer
10 4 (3.67%) Software Validation Engineer
11 3 (2.75%) Microsoft Consultant
11 3 (2.75%) Project Manager
11 3 (2.75%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.75%) OAuth
1 3 (2.75%) OAuth2
1 3 (2.75%) OpenID
1 3 (2.75%) REST
1 3 (2.75%) SAML
1 3 (2.75%) SOAP
2 2 (1.83%) AngularJS
2 2 (1.83%) Bootstrap
2 2 (1.83%) CSS
2 2 (1.83%) HTML
2 2 (1.83%) JSON
2 2 (1.83%) Web Services
2 2 (1.83%) XML
3 1 (0.92%) Node.js
3 1 (0.92%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.17%) Legacy Systems
2 9 (8.26%) Embedded Systems
3 7 (6.42%) PCIe
4 6 (5.50%) FPGA
5 5 (4.59%) Data Structures
6 4 (3.67%) Management Information System
6 4 (3.67%) SCADA
7 3 (2.75%) CMDB
7 3 (2.75%) Private Cloud
7 3 (2.75%) Replication
8 2 (1.83%) Algorithms
8 2 (1.83%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.92%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.92%) IoT
9 1 (0.92%) NB-IoT
9 1 (0.92%) Robotics
9 1 (0.92%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 13 (11.93%) Windows
2 9 (8.26%) Linux
3 4 (3.67%) Android
4 3 (2.75%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.92%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (38.53%) Agile
2 35 (32.11%) DevOps
3 34 (31.19%) Scrum
4 29 (26.61%) Collaborative Working
4 29 (26.61%) Requirements Analysis
5 27 (24.77%) Software Delivery
5 27 (24.77%) Web Application Development
6 21 (19.27%) Systems Engineering
7 20 (18.35%) Verification and Validation
8 17 (15.60%) Problem-Solving
9 13 (11.93%) Migration
9 13 (11.93%) Software Engineering
10 11 (10.09%) Change Management
10 11 (10.09%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (10.09%) Stakeholder Management
11 9 (8.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 9 (8.26%) Unit Testing
12 8 (7.34%) Analytics
12 8 (7.34%) Collaborative Culture
12 8 (7.34%) Data Validation
Programming Languages
1 38 (34.86%) JavaScript
2 37 (33.94%) SQL
3 31 (28.44%) PL/SQL
4 17 (15.60%) C
5 14 (12.84%) PowerShell
6 11 (10.09%) Python
7 3 (2.75%) Embedded C
7 3 (2.75%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.92%) ABAP
8 1 (0.92%) Ada
8 1 (0.92%) C#
8 1 (0.92%) C++
8 1 (0.92%) Fortran
8 1 (0.92%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 57 (52.29%) Security Cleared
2 50 (45.87%) SC Cleared
3 9 (8.26%) Degree
4 4 (3.67%) DV Cleared
4 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (0.92%) ACCA
5 1 (0.92%) CCNP
5 1 (0.92%) CIMA
5 1 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (0.92%) CISSP
5 1 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.92%) HND
5 1 (0.92%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.92%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.92%) MCSE
5 1 (0.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.26%) Def Stans
1 9 (8.26%) DO-178B
1 9 (8.26%) MISRA
2 7 (6.42%) GDPR
3 5 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (3.67%) QA
5 3 (2.75%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.92%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.92%) GMP
6 1 (0.92%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.92%) NIST
6 1 (0.92%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 11 (10.09%) Firmware
2 7 (6.42%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 7 (6.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 4 (3.67%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.92%) HP ALM
3 1 (0.92%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.92%) SCCM
Vendors
1 35 (32.11%) Oracle
2 15 (13.76%) Microsoft
3 5 (4.59%) SAP
4 4 (3.67%) VMware
5 3 (2.75%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.83%) Google
6 2 (1.83%) Siemens
6 2 (1.83%) Workday
7 1 (0.92%) Avaya
7 1 (0.92%) BMC
7 1 (0.92%) Cisco
7 1 (0.92%) Databricks
7 1 (0.92%) Ericsson
7 1 (0.92%) HP
7 1 (0.92%) IBM
7 1 (0.92%) Juniper
7 1 (0.92%) MathWorks
7 1 (0.92%) Nokia
7 1 (0.92%) Remedy
7 1 (0.92%) Salesforce