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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 59 34 100
Rank change year-on-year -25 +66 -22
Contract jobs citing Validation 66 153 55
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 3.34% 5.77% 1.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.69% 6.89% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 45 24
10th Percentile £435 £437 £428
25th Percentile £463 £463 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £582 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.50% +5.82% +4.76%
75th Percentile £649 £638 £635
90th Percentile £650 £670 £726
England median daily rate £513 £490 £550
% change year-on-year +4.59% -10.91% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 40 23
10th Percentile £32.00 £28.00 £56.29
25th Percentile £49.17 £43.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year - -1.49% +9.97%
75th Percentile £74.38 £72.50 £75.50
90th Percentile £75.00 - £80.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - -3.70% +22.73%

All Process and 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 1,787 2,221 2,816
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 90.53% 83.81% 87.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,036 1,324 1,946
10th Percentile £220 £281 £310
25th Percentile £363 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £706 £705 £725
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 244 214 256
10th Percentile £15.08 £18.20 £20.38
25th Percentile £18.51 £48.50 £45.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £67.50 £64.57
Median % change year-on-year -62.74% +4.53% +11.43%
75th Percentile £63.75 £72.50 £74.06
90th Percentile £68.53 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +53.66%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Job postings citing Validation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Job vacancy trend for Validation 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 September 2025.

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 September 2025.

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 September 2025. 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 -16 29 £536 +17.73% 64
Wiltshire -17 14 £625 +7.11% 10
Gloucestershire +6 9 £450 +12.50% 46
Somerset -5 7 £633 - 19
Devon 0 3 £475 - 12
Validation
England

Validation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 10 (15.15%) Confluence
2 2 (3.03%) Documentum
2 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (3.03%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (10.61%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (4.55%) Simulink
3 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.52%) NASTRAN
3 1 (1.52%) Siemens NX
3 1 (1.52%) Stateflow
3 1 (1.52%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (3.03%) Oracle Payroll
1 2 (3.03%) SAP S/4HANA
1 2 (3.03%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 7 (10.61%) Azure
2 6 (9.09%) AWS
2 6 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (7.58%) PaaS
3 5 (7.58%) SaaS
4 3 (4.55%) Power Platform
5 2 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (3.03%) OCI
5 2 (3.03%) OneDrive
6 1 (1.52%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.52%) GCP
6 1 (1.52%) Google Workspace
6 1 (1.52%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 8 (12.12%) BGP
1 8 (12.12%) MPLS
2 7 (10.61%) DNS
2 7 (10.61%) IPsec
2 7 (10.61%) Unified Communications
2 7 (10.61%) VPN
3 5 (7.58%) PBX
3 5 (7.58%) VoIP
4 3 (4.55%) 5G
4 3 (4.55%) Firewall
4 3 (4.55%) LTE
5 2 (3.03%) Ethernet
5 2 (3.03%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.55%) Power BI
2 2 (3.03%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (3.03%) SAP BW
2 2 (3.03%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 11 (16.67%) JIRA
2 4 (6.06%) Oracle APEX
3 3 (4.55%) Cucumber
3 3 (4.55%) Cypress.io
3 3 (4.55%) Jenkins
4 2 (3.03%) Bitbucket
4 2 (3.03%) Eclipse
4 2 (3.03%) Git
4 2 (3.03%) Rational Statemate
4 2 (3.03%) Visual Studio
5 1 (1.52%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (1.52%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (1.52%) Rational Team Concert
General
1 23 (34.85%) Social Skills
2 10 (15.15%) Aerospace
2 10 (15.15%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (13.64%) Public Sector
4 5 (7.58%) Military
4 5 (7.58%) Telecoms
5 3 (4.55%) Finance
6 2 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (3.03%) General Ledger
7 1 (1.52%) Aviation
7 1 (1.52%) Banking
7 1 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 10 (15.15%) Lead
2 9 (13.64%) Network Engineer
3 6 (9.09%) Developer
3 6 (9.09%) Systems Engineer
4 5 (7.58%) Analyst
4 5 (7.58%) Senior
4 5 (7.58%) Test Leader
5 4 (6.06%) Architect
5 4 (6.06%) Data Engineer
6 3 (4.55%) Consultant
6 3 (4.55%) Core Network Project Manager
6 3 (4.55%) Data Migration Lead
6 3 (4.55%) Mobile Project Manager
6 3 (4.55%) Network Manager
6 3 (4.55%) Network Project Manager
6 3 (4.55%) Project Manager
6 3 (4.55%) Software Engineer
7 2 (3.03%) Oracle Consultant
7 2 (3.03%) Oracle Payroll Consultant
7 2 (3.03%) SAP Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (10.61%) NETCONF
1 7 (10.61%) RESTCONF
2 2 (3.03%) Node.js
2 2 (3.03%) REST
2 2 (3.03%) SOAP
2 2 (3.03%) Web Services
3 1 (1.52%) PySpark
3 1 (1.52%) PyTorch
3 1 (1.52%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 7 (10.61%) PKI
2 6 (9.09%) Data Centre
3 5 (7.58%) Blackberry
3 5 (7.58%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (6.06%) CMDB
4 4 (6.06%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (6.06%) SCADA
5 3 (4.55%) Algorithms
5 3 (4.55%) Replication
6 2 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (3.03%) Data Structures
6 2 (3.03%) Management Information System
6 2 (3.03%) Operational Technology
7 1 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (1.52%) FPGA
7 1 (1.52%) Robotics
7 1 (1.52%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 6 (9.09%) Linux
2 5 (7.58%) Windows
3 2 (3.03%) Windows Server
3 2 (3.03%) Windows Server 2003
4 1 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.52%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (28.79%) Migration
2 11 (16.67%) DevOps
3 10 (15.15%) Agile
3 10 (15.15%) Service Management
4 9 (13.64%) NsoIT
4 9 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (13.64%) Roadmaps
4 9 (13.64%) System Testing
5 8 (12.12%) Critical Thinking
5 8 (12.12%) Data Validation
5 8 (12.12%) ITIL
5 8 (12.12%) Network Virtualisation
5 8 (12.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 6 (9.09%) Analytics
6 6 (9.09%) Data Migration
6 6 (9.09%) GAP Analysis
6 6 (9.09%) Software Testing
6 6 (9.09%) Verification and Validation
7 5 (7.58%) Cost Reduction
7 5 (7.58%) Impact Assessments
Programming Languages
1 17 (25.76%) Python
2 9 (13.64%) JavaScript
3 8 (12.12%) SQL
4 4 (6.06%) PL/SQL
5 3 (4.55%) C++
5 3 (4.55%) Java
5 3 (4.55%) MATLAB
5 3 (4.55%) PowerShell
6 2 (3.03%) ABAP
6 2 (3.03%) Bash
6 2 (3.03%) C
6 2 (3.03%) C#
6 2 (3.03%) Tcl
7 1 (1.52%) Ada
7 1 (1.52%) Assembly Language
7 1 (1.52%) Fortran
7 1 (1.52%) Perl
7 1 (1.52%) Shell Script
7 1 (1.52%) SystemVerilog
7 1 (1.52%) VBA
Qualifications
1 36 (54.55%) Security Cleared
2 31 (46.97%) SC Cleared
3 14 (21.21%) CCNP
3 14 (21.21%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (15.15%) Degree
5 8 (12.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (10.61%) DV Cleared
7 6 (9.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (1.52%) ACCA
8 1 (1.52%) CIMA
8 1 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.52%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (1.52%) Master's Degree
8 1 (1.52%) OCA
8 1 (1.52%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (1.52%) RHCA
8 1 (1.52%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.03%) Data Quality
1 2 (3.03%) GDPR
1 2 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.52%) Accessibility
2 1 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 1 (1.52%) ISO 22301
2 1 (1.52%) NIST
2 1 (1.52%) QA
2 1 (1.52%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 13 (19.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (10.61%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.52%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 9 (13.64%) Ansible
2 2 (3.03%) Progress Chef
2 2 (3.03%) Puppet
3 1 (1.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (1.52%) HP ALM
3 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.52%) SCCM
3 1 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (1.52%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 14 (21.21%) Cisco
2 13 (19.70%) VMware
3 9 (13.64%) Oracle
4 7 (10.61%) Atlassian
5 6 (9.09%) Microsoft
6 5 (7.58%) Avaya
6 5 (7.58%) Ericsson
6 5 (7.58%) F5
6 5 (7.58%) Juniper
6 5 (7.58%) Nokia
6 5 (7.58%) Palo Alto
6 5 (7.58%) Ribbon
7 4 (6.06%) SAP
7 4 (6.06%) ServiceNow
8 2 (3.03%) EMC
8 2 (3.03%) McAfee
8 2 (3.03%) Sophos
8 2 (3.03%) Workday
9 1 (1.52%) Aruba
9 1 (1.52%) Twitter