Validation Contracts in the South West

Validation
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West requiring Validation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Validation over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 39 70 64
Rank change year-on-year +31 -6 +44
Contract jobs citing Validation 80 92 123
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 4.77% 2.88% 3.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.28% 3.46% 3.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 31 43
10th Percentile £431 £208 £413
25th Percentile £525 £220 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year +27.78% -18.18% +10.00%
75th Percentile £653 £549 £612
90th Percentile £695 £725 £636
England median daily rate £538 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +7.50% -9.09% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 29 61
10th Percentile £43.10 £47.83 £51.25
25th Percentile £59.56 £52.50 £57.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £55.00 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% -10.57% +36.67%
75th Percentile £75.00 £70.66 £65.75
90th Percentile £77.63 £72.80 -
England median hourly rate £57.75 £62.00 £62.00
% change year-on-year -6.85% - +12.73%

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 1,516 2,656 3,250
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 90.35% 83.03% 89.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 965 1,696 2,395
10th Percentile £235 £220 £313
25th Percentile £400 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £549
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.37% +9.80%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £644
90th Percentile £688 £700 £719
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 145 336 335
10th Percentile £18.33 £13.86 £9.80
25th Percentile £20.48 £27.50 £17.00
Median hourly rate £63.00 £50.00 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.00% -18.70% +26.16%
75th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £70.30
90th Percentile £70.00 £77.50 £83.36
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

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
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Validation in the South West.

Daily rate trend for Validation in the South West

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation in the South West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in the South West

Validation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Validation in the South West.

Hourly rate trend for Validation in the South West

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation in the South West over the 6 months to 1 May 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 1 May 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
Wiltshire +40 34 £575 +24.32% 12
Bristol +7 21 £600 +33.33% 58
Gloucestershire +18 10 £217 -45.67% 59
Dorset +6 10 £550 -8.33% 6
Somerset -2 4 £438 +265.76% 14
Devon +9 1 £400 - 20
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 21 (26.25%) Confluence
Applications
1 14 (17.50%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (3.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (3.75%) Simulink
3 1 (1.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (1.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 9 (11.25%) PaaS
1 9 (11.25%) SaaS
2 8 (10.00%) Azure
3 6 (7.50%) Entra ID
3 6 (7.50%) Google Workspace
3 6 (7.50%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (3.75%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.25%) AWS
5 1 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (1.25%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (1.25%) GitHub
5 1 (1.25%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (11.25%) PBX
1 9 (11.25%) VoIP
2 7 (8.75%) Firewall
3 5 (6.25%) BGP
3 5 (6.25%) Cisco IOS
3 5 (6.25%) Cisco Nexus
3 5 (6.25%) DMVPN
3 5 (6.25%) OSPF
3 5 (6.25%) VXLAN
4 3 (3.75%) 5G
5 2 (2.50%) iSCSI
5 2 (2.50%) LTE
5 2 (2.50%) SAN
5 2 (2.50%) VSAN
6 1 (1.25%) 4G
6 1 (1.25%) Ethernet
6 1 (1.25%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.25%) Unified Communications
6 1 (1.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (7.50%) SQL Server
1 6 (7.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 3 (3.75%) Power BI
3 1 (1.25%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 22 (27.50%) JIRA
2 13 (16.25%) Jenkins
3 12 (15.00%) Git
4 11 (13.75%) Bitbucket
5 4 (5.00%) Cucumber
5 4 (5.00%) Cypress.io
6 2 (2.50%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (2.50%) Rational Statemate
7 1 (1.25%) Ant
7 1 (1.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (1.25%) Eclipse
7 1 (1.25%) JUnit
7 1 (1.25%) Visual Studio
General
1 27 (33.75%) Social Skills
2 18 (22.50%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (21.25%) Public Sector
4 9 (11.25%) Telecoms
5 6 (7.50%) Legal
6 3 (3.75%) Aerospace
6 3 (3.75%) Finance
6 3 (3.75%) Military
7 2 (2.50%) Local Government
7 2 (2.50%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.25%) Banking
8 1 (1.25%) Billing
8 1 (1.25%) Electronics
8 1 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.25%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 14 (17.50%) Virtualisation Engineer
2 9 (11.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 6 (7.50%) Lead
3 6 (7.50%) Network Engineer
4 5 (6.25%) Site Reliability Engineer
4 5 (6.25%) Systems Engineer
4 5 (6.25%) Test Leader
5 4 (5.00%) Automation Engineer
5 4 (5.00%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
5 4 (5.00%) Project Manager
5 4 (5.00%) Site Engineer
5 4 (5.00%) Software Engineer
6 3 (3.75%) Analyst
6 3 (3.75%) Change Manager
6 3 (3.75%) Delivery Manager
6 3 (3.75%) DevOps Engineer
7 2 (2.50%) Core Network Project Manager
7 2 (2.50%) Mobile Project Manager
7 2 (2.50%) Principal Engineer
7 2 (2.50%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (17.50%) Flash
2 12 (15.00%) REST
2 12 (15.00%) SOAP
3 6 (7.50%) Microsoft Graph
4 5 (6.25%) Spine.js
5 1 (1.25%) CSS
5 1 (1.25%) HTML
5 1 (1.25%) Lightning Web Components
5 1 (1.25%) Node.js
5 1 (1.25%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (1.25%) pytest
5 1 (1.25%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (17.50%) Clustering
2 9 (11.25%) Blackberry
2 9 (11.25%) Video Conferencing
3 3 (3.75%) Algorithms
4 2 (2.50%) PKI
4 2 (2.50%) Replication
5 1 (1.25%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.25%) e-Learning
5 1 (1.25%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.25%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 15 (18.75%) Linux
2 14 (17.50%) Windows
3 12 (15.00%) Windows Server
4 3 (3.75%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (2.50%) VMS
6 1 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.25%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (48.75%) Agile
2 33 (41.25%) Service Management
3 31 (38.75%) System Testing
4 27 (33.75%) NsoIT
5 25 (31.25%) Problem-Solving
6 24 (30.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 17 (21.25%) Migration
8 15 (18.75%) Network Virtualisation
9 14 (17.50%) High Availability
9 14 (17.50%) Power Management
10 13 (16.25%) Computer Science
10 13 (16.25%) Critical Thinking
11 12 (15.00%) Configuration Management
11 12 (15.00%) Deployment Automation
11 12 (15.00%) Waterfall
12 11 (13.75%) Infrastructure Automation
12 11 (13.75%) Reverse Engineering
13 10 (12.50%) Change Management
13 10 (12.50%) DevOps
14 9 (11.25%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 17 (21.25%) PowerShell
2 13 (16.25%) Python
3 11 (13.75%) Bash
4 8 (10.00%) SQL
5 7 (8.75%) JavaScript
6 4 (5.00%) Java
7 3 (3.75%) MATLAB
8 2 (2.50%) C++
9 1 (1.25%) Apex Code
9 1 (1.25%) C#
9 1 (1.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (1.25%) Fortran
Qualifications
1 57 (71.25%) Security Cleared
2 46 (57.50%) SC Cleared
3 39 (48.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 36 (45.00%) Cisco Certification
5 26 (32.50%) CCNP
6 17 (21.25%) DV Cleared
7 16 (20.00%) Degree
8 13 (16.25%) Master's Degree
9 12 (15.00%) CCNA
10 10 (12.50%) OCA
10 10 (12.50%) Oracle Certification
10 10 (12.50%) RHCA
10 10 (12.50%) RHCE
11 8 (10.00%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (3.75%) MCSA
12 3 (3.75%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (2.50%) MCSE
13 2 (2.50%) RIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.50%) QA
2 1 (1.25%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.25%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 39 (48.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (17.50%) VMware ESXi
2 14 (17.50%) VMware NSX
3 6 (7.50%) Active Directory
4 2 (2.50%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 29 (36.25%) vCenter Server
2 11 (13.75%) Ansible
2 11 (13.75%) Progress Chef
2 11 (13.75%) Puppet
3 2 (2.50%) SCOM
4 1 (1.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.25%) Terraform
Vendors
1 39 (48.75%) Cisco
1 39 (48.75%) VMware
2 20 (25.00%) Atlassian
3 11 (13.75%) Microsoft
3 11 (13.75%) Oracle
4 9 (11.25%) Avaya
4 9 (11.25%) Ericsson
4 9 (11.25%) F5
4 9 (11.25%) Juniper
4 9 (11.25%) Nokia
4 9 (11.25%) Palo Alto
4 9 (11.25%) Ribbon
5 6 (7.50%) Google
6 3 (3.75%) SAP
7 2 (2.50%) Ariba
8 1 (1.25%) Aruba
8 1 (1.25%) Pardot
8 1 (1.25%) Salesforce
8 1 (1.25%) ServiceNow
8 1 (1.25%) Workday