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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 44 37
Rank change year-on-year -1 -7 +63
Contract jobs citing Validation 133 75 135
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.64% 3.95% 4.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.62% 4.40% 5.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 42 43
10th Percentile £331 £450 £410
25th Percentile £413 £525 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £582
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -1.20% +10.86%
75th Percentile £600 £649 £638
90th Percentile £725 £661 £671
England median daily rate £500 £513 £488
% change year-on-year -2.44% +5.13% -11.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 5 38
10th Percentile £17.75 £31.34 £28.00
25th Percentile £55.59 £33.34 £47.83
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% - -0.76%
75th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £85.00 - -
England median hourly rate £62.50 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -

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 2,881 1,705 2,309
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 78.82% 89.69% 83.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,623 989 1,485
10th Percentile £325 £216 £263
25th Percentile £425 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £613 £619 £634
90th Percentile £725 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £511 £525
% change year-on-year +2.68% -2.61% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 430 216 260
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.92 £14.35
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.51 £43.75
Median hourly rate £58.92 £25.15 £67.14
Median % change year-on-year +134.25% -62.54% +6.56%
75th Percentile £68.00 £64.06 £72.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +5.81%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 62 £550 +6.02% 113
Wiltshire -15 21 £400 -36.00% 26
Somerset -15 20 £524 -17.19% 18
Gloucestershire -14 10 £525 +16.67% 94
Dorset -2 8 £449 -18.36% 21
Devon -11 8 £463 +15.63% 16
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 3 (2.26%) Confluence
2 2 (1.50%) Apache
2 2 (1.50%) CMS
2 2 (1.50%) Sitecore CMS
3 1 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.75%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.75%) Palantir Foundry
3 1 (0.75%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (3.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.26%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.50%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.75%) LaTeX
4 1 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.50%) Magento
1 2 (1.50%) Oracle Assets
1 2 (1.50%) SAP CRM
1 2 (1.50%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 2 (1.50%) Unit4 Business World
2 1 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.75%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.75%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 1 (0.75%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.75%) Sage 50
2 1 (0.75%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 30 (22.56%) Azure
2 11 (8.27%) AWS
3 7 (5.26%) GCP
4 6 (4.51%) Dynamics 365
4 6 (4.51%) GitHub
5 5 (3.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (3.76%) Azure Monitor
5 5 (3.76%) Azure Sentinel
6 4 (3.01%) GitHub Actions
6 4 (3.01%) Power Platform
7 3 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (1.50%) Azure Data Factory
8 2 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.50%) Boomi
8 2 (1.50%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.50%) Intacct
8 2 (1.50%) Lucidchart
8 2 (1.50%) PowerApps
8 2 (1.50%) SAP Commerce Cloud
8 2 (1.50%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 10 (7.52%) TCP/IP
2 9 (6.77%) Firewall
3 8 (6.02%) DNS
4 7 (5.26%) DHCP
5 6 (4.51%) BGP
5 6 (4.51%) Ethernet
6 5 (3.76%) WAN
7 4 (3.01%) VLAN
8 3 (2.26%) VSAN
9 2 (1.50%) ATM
9 2 (1.50%) Network Security
10 1 (0.75%) Ethernet VPN
10 1 (0.75%) Modbus
10 1 (0.75%) NX-OS
10 1 (0.75%) VXLAN
10 1 (0.75%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.51%) Metadata
2 4 (3.01%) Power BI
2 4 (3.01%) SQL Server
3 3 (2.26%) SQLite
4 2 (1.50%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.75%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.75%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (6.02%) Rational DOORS
1 8 (6.02%) Rational Rhapsody
2 6 (4.51%) Eclipse
2 6 (4.51%) GitLab
2 6 (4.51%) JIRA
2 6 (4.51%) Visual Studio
3 5 (3.76%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.75%) Cucumber
4 1 (0.75%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.75%) Gatling
4 1 (0.75%) Git
4 1 (0.75%) Oracle Forms
4 1 (0.75%) Postman
General
1 47 (35.34%) Social Skills
2 21 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (15.04%) Finance
4 12 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 11 (8.27%) Military
6 8 (6.02%) Manufacturing
7 7 (5.26%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (4.51%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (3.76%) Aerospace
10 4 (3.01%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (3.01%) Local Government
10 4 (3.01%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (2.26%) Banking
11 3 (2.26%) Law
11 3 (2.26%) Police
12 2 (1.50%) General Ledger
12 2 (1.50%) Investment Banking
12 2 (1.50%) Marketing
12 2 (1.50%) Publishing
13 1 (0.75%) Billing
Job Titles
1 15 (11.28%) Analyst
1 15 (11.28%) Senior
2 14 (10.53%) Systems Engineer
3 11 (8.27%) Lead
3 11 (8.27%) Test Engineer
4 10 (7.52%) Business Analyst
4 10 (7.52%) Software Engineer
5 9 (6.77%) Architect
5 9 (6.77%) Consultant
6 7 (5.26%) Administrator
6 7 (5.26%) Systems Administrator
7 6 (4.51%) C# Software Engineer
7 6 (4.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 6 (4.51%) Technical Analyst
8 5 (3.76%) Azure Consultant
8 5 (3.76%) C++ Software Engineer
8 5 (3.76%) Data Architect
8 5 (3.76%) Engineering Specialist
8 5 (3.76%) QA Engineer
8 5 (3.76%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (5.26%) Middleware
2 6 (4.51%) Node.js
2 6 (4.51%) Web Services
3 5 (3.76%) REST
4 4 (3.01%) JSON
4 4 (3.01%) XML
5 3 (2.26%) .NET
5 3 (2.26%) .NET Framework
5 3 (2.26%) EDI
5 3 (2.26%) FastAPI
5 3 (2.26%) pydantic
6 2 (1.50%) Flash
6 2 (1.50%) Oracle Fusion
6 2 (1.50%) Playwright
7 1 (0.75%) Flask
7 1 (0.75%) Handlebars
7 1 (0.75%) Mustache
7 1 (0.75%) PySpark
7 1 (0.75%) RESTful
7 1 (0.75%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (6.77%) Legacy Systems
2 8 (6.02%) Data Structures
2 8 (6.02%) Management Information System
3 5 (3.76%) Data Centre
3 5 (3.76%) Onboarding
4 4 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (2.26%) Analytical Mindset
5 3 (2.26%) Clustering
5 3 (2.26%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (2.26%) Operational Technology
5 3 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.50%) Life Science
6 2 (1.50%) NHS
6 2 (1.50%) SCADA
7 1 (0.75%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (0.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.75%) LIMS
7 1 (0.75%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 20 (15.04%) Windows
2 15 (11.28%) Linux
3 6 (4.51%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.01%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (25.56%) Migration
2 28 (21.05%) Verification and Validation
3 22 (16.54%) Stakeholder Management
4 20 (15.04%) Problem-Solving
5 19 (14.29%) Data Migration
6 18 (13.53%) CI/CD
6 18 (13.53%) ERP
7 17 (12.78%) Agile
7 17 (12.78%) Systems Engineering
8 16 (12.03%) User Acceptance Testing
9 15 (11.28%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (11.28%) Data Validation
10 14 (10.53%) Software Engineering
11 13 (9.77%) Integration Testing
12 12 (9.02%) Data Mapping
12 12 (9.02%) Infrastructure as Code
12 12 (9.02%) System Testing
13 11 (8.27%) Configuration Management
13 11 (8.27%) Data Cleansing
13 11 (8.27%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 15 (11.28%) Python
2 13 (9.77%) C++
3 12 (9.02%) SQL
4 7 (5.26%) C
4 7 (5.26%) JavaScript
5 6 (4.51%) C#
6 4 (3.01%) Ada
7 2 (1.50%) Java
7 2 (1.50%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.75%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.75%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.75%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 39 (29.32%) Security Cleared
2 32 (24.06%) SC Cleared
3 12 (9.02%) Degree
4 4 (3.01%) Chartered Engineer
4 4 (3.01%) DV Cleared
5 3 (2.26%) ACCA
5 3 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 3 (2.26%) CIMA
6 2 (1.50%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.50%) CCNA
6 2 (1.50%) CEH
6 2 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.50%) CompTIA Security+
6 2 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.50%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.75%) CIPD
7 1 (0.75%) CISMP
7 1 (0.75%) CISSP
7 1 (0.75%) ISEB
7 1 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (9.77%) QA
2 11 (8.27%) Data Quality
3 5 (3.76%) GDPR
4 4 (3.01%) Def Stans
5 2 (1.50%) IFRS
5 2 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 2 (1.50%) NCSC
5 2 (1.50%) NIST
5 2 (1.50%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.75%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.75%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.75%) GAMP
6 1 (0.75%) GMP
6 1 (0.75%) HL7
6 1 (0.75%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.75%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.75%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (8.27%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (4.51%) Hyper-V
3 5 (3.76%) Active Directory
3 5 (3.76%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (2.26%) VirtualBox
5 2 (1.50%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.75%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.75%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.75%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (8.27%) Terraform
2 6 (4.51%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.76%) Ansible
3 5 (3.76%) FortiGate
4 2 (1.50%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (1.50%) VxRail
5 1 (0.75%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.75%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 31 (23.31%) Microsoft
2 11 (8.27%) VMware
3 8 (6.02%) IBM
4 5 (3.76%) Zscaler
5 4 (3.01%) Oracle
6 3 (2.26%) Databricks
6 3 (2.26%) SAP
6 3 (2.26%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.50%) Atlassian
7 2 (1.50%) MuleSoft
7 2 (1.50%) Sage
7 2 (1.50%) Sitecore
7 2 (1.50%) Sparx
8 1 (0.75%) Cisco
8 1 (0.75%) Civica
8 1 (0.75%) Informatica
8 1 (0.75%) InterSystems
8 1 (0.75%) Red Hat
8 1 (0.75%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.75%) Siemens