Validation Contracts in the UK excluding London

Validation
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London 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 76 97 121
Rank change year-on-year +21 +24 +39
Contract jobs citing Validation 407 443 516
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 3.19% 2.13% 2.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.53% 2.52% 2.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 185 248
10th Percentile £326 £269 £259
25th Percentile £408 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +4.17% +1.05%
75th Percentile £620 £588 £575
90th Percentile £688 £688 £632
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 150 158
10th Percentile £25.75 £22.28 £42.50
25th Percentile £47.50 £52.50 £51.90
Median hourly rate £58.88 £63.75 £62.25
Median % change year-on-year -7.65% +2.41% +13.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £75.16 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £88.75 £75.82
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £60.50 £62.55
% change year-on-year -4.96% -3.28% +13.73%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,543 17,602 21,544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.42% 84.74% 89.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,249 10,520 14,947
10th Percentile £235 £250 £255
25th Percentile £375 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £662 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 825 2,048 1,307
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.33 £11.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.28 £16.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £72.98
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Validation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Validation in the UK excluding London

Validation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Validation in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Validation in the UK excluding London

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in the UK excluding London

Validation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Validation in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Validation in the UK excluding London

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in the UK excluding London

Validation
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the UK excluding London 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
South East +53 135 £500 -2.49% 413
South West +31 80 £575 +27.78% 170
North of England +13 79 £475 +6.74% 230
North West +35 60 £438 -12.50% 144
East of England 0 49 £450 -7.69% 222
Midlands +14 47 £475 +11.76% 222
West Midlands +10 31 £475 - 144
Scotland +22 19 £456 -3.95% 86
East Midlands +6 16 £459 +13.33% 66
Yorkshire -13 14 £445 +4.59% 64
North East -4 5 £725 +59.69% 23
Northern Ireland -16 3 £588 -2.08% 24
Wales 0 2 £155 -74.80% 23
Validation
UK

Validation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 48 (11.79%) Confluence
2 13 (3.19%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.47%) SAS
4 4 (0.98%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.74%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.74%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.49%) TPMS
7 1 (0.25%) Apache
7 1 (0.25%) CICS
7 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 23 (5.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (4.91%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.97%) Simulink
4 5 (1.23%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.25%) CANalyzer
6 1 (0.25%) Fusion 360
6 1 (0.25%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.25%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 15 (3.69%) Oracle EBS
2 9 (2.21%) Teamcenter
3 6 (1.47%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.98%) Workday HCM
5 3 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.74%) Oracle EBS R12
5 3 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.49%) Maximo
6 2 (0.49%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.49%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.49%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle Payroll
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.25%) Primavera
7 1 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.25%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.25%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 50 (12.29%) Azure
2 29 (7.13%) Power Platform
3 22 (5.41%) AWS
4 17 (4.18%) SaaS
5 13 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (3.19%) PaaS
6 11 (2.70%) Entra ID
7 10 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (2.21%) PowerApps
9 6 (1.47%) Azure Data Factory
9 6 (1.47%) GCP
9 6 (1.47%) GitHub
9 6 (1.47%) Google Workspace
10 5 (1.23%) Power Automate
11 4 (0.98%) Adobe Analytics
11 4 (0.98%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 4 (0.98%) Cloud Computing
11 4 (0.98%) Dynamics 365
12 3 (0.74%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.74%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.13%) Firewall
2 11 (2.70%) Network Security
3 10 (2.46%) 5G
4 9 (2.21%) PBX
4 9 (2.21%) SNMP
4 9 (2.21%) Software-Defined Radio
4 9 (2.21%) VoIP
5 8 (1.97%) VPN
6 6 (1.47%) 4G
6 6 (1.47%) BGP
6 6 (1.47%) Cisco IOS
6 6 (1.47%) OSPF
7 5 (1.23%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (1.23%) DMVPN
7 5 (1.23%) Ethernet
7 5 (1.23%) HTTP
7 5 (1.23%) TCP/IP
7 5 (1.23%) VXLAN
7 5 (1.23%) Wireless
8 4 (0.98%) 3G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (5.16%) Power BI
2 18 (4.42%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (3.19%) SQL Server
4 9 (2.21%) NoSQL
4 9 (2.21%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (1.97%) Big Data
5 8 (1.97%) Tableau
6 7 (1.72%) Oracle Reports
7 6 (1.47%) Amazon Redshift
7 6 (1.47%) Metadata
7 6 (1.47%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.47%) Qlik Sense
7 6 (1.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (1.23%) MySQL
9 3 (0.74%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (0.74%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.49%) InfluxDB
10 2 (0.49%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.49%) NewSQL
Development Applications
1 68 (16.71%) JIRA
2 34 (8.35%) Git
3 33 (8.11%) Jenkins
4 19 (4.67%) Bitbucket
5 16 (3.93%) Selenium
6 15 (3.69%) Postman
7 12 (2.95%) JMeter
8 10 (2.46%) Cucumber
8 10 (2.46%) Cypress.io
8 10 (2.46%) Eclipse
9 9 (2.21%) GoogleTest
9 9 (2.21%) Robot Framework
10 8 (1.97%) GitLab
10 8 (1.97%) Rational DOORS
11 7 (1.72%) LoadRunner
12 5 (1.23%) Toad
13 4 (0.98%) SoapUI
13 4 (0.98%) Visual Studio
13 4 (0.98%) WebDriver
14 3 (0.74%) NeoLoad
General
1 163 (40.05%) Social Skills
2 96 (23.59%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (9.83%) Finance
4 31 (7.62%) Public Sector
5 20 (4.91%) Presentation Skills
6 19 (4.67%) Telecoms
7 13 (3.19%) Manufacturing
8 11 (2.70%) Aerospace
9 10 (2.46%) Banking
9 10 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (2.46%) Legal
10 8 (1.97%) Pharmaceutical
11 7 (1.72%) Automotive
11 7 (1.72%) Electronics
11 7 (1.72%) Military
11 7 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.47%) Retail
13 5 (1.23%) Aviation
14 4 (0.98%) Local Government
14 4 (0.98%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 67 (16.46%) Analyst
2 34 (8.35%) Senior
3 27 (6.63%) Business Analyst
4 26 (6.39%) Data Analyst
4 26 (6.39%) Systems Engineer
5 25 (6.14%) Consultant
6 20 (4.91%) Lead
7 18 (4.42%) Architect
7 18 (4.42%) Data Engineer
8 17 (4.18%) Test Engineer
9 15 (3.69%) Virtualisation Engineer
10 14 (3.44%) Network Engineer
11 13 (3.19%) Test Analyst
12 12 (2.95%) Developer
12 12 (2.95%) Senior Analyst
13 11 (2.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 11 (2.70%) Test Leader
13 11 (2.70%) Tester
14 10 (2.46%) FPGA Engineer
14 10 (2.46%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.18%) REST
2 16 (3.93%) CSS
2 16 (3.93%) HTML
3 15 (3.69%) Web Services
4 14 (3.44%) Flash
5 12 (2.95%) SOAP
6 8 (1.97%) Node.js
6 8 (1.97%) SAP Fiori
7 6 (1.47%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (1.23%) CSS3
8 5 (1.23%) HTML5
8 5 (1.23%) jQuery
8 5 (1.23%) SAPUI5
8 5 (1.23%) Spine.js
8 5 (1.23%) XML
9 4 (0.98%) Middleware
9 4 (0.98%) PySpark
10 3 (0.74%) .NET
10 3 (0.74%) Playwright
10 3 (0.74%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 20 (4.91%) Legacy Systems
1 20 (4.91%) Product Ownership
2 14 (3.44%) Clustering
3 13 (3.19%) FPGA
4 12 (2.95%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (2.46%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.46%) Onboarding
5 10 (2.46%) Verilog
6 9 (2.21%) Blackberry
6 9 (2.21%) Operational Technology
6 9 (2.21%) Replication
6 9 (2.21%) Video Conferencing
7 8 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.97%) IoT
8 7 (1.72%) Algorithms
8 7 (1.72%) Credit Risk
8 7 (1.72%) Mainframe
9 6 (1.47%) Data Structures
10 5 (1.23%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.23%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 52 (12.78%) Linux
2 44 (10.81%) Windows
3 18 (4.42%) Unix
4 16 (3.93%) Windows Server
5 11 (2.70%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.98%) Android
7 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.49%) VMS
9 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.25%) Solaris
9 1 (0.25%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.25%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (30.96%) Problem-Solving
2 110 (27.03%) Agile
3 95 (23.34%) Migration
4 57 (14.00%) Test Automation
5 50 (12.29%) Data Migration
5 50 (12.29%) DevOps
6 46 (11.30%) Verification and Validation
7 44 (10.81%) CI/CD
8 43 (10.57%) System Testing
9 40 (9.83%) Data Validation
9 40 (9.83%) ETL
9 40 (9.83%) Service Management
9 40 (9.83%) User Acceptance Testing
10 39 (9.58%) Analytics
11 38 (9.34%) Data Modelling
12 37 (9.09%) Software Testing
13 34 (8.35%) Software Engineering
14 32 (7.86%) Test Strategy
15 30 (7.37%) Data Mapping
16 28 (6.88%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 90 (22.11%) SQL
2 53 (13.02%) Python
3 26 (6.39%) JavaScript
4 22 (5.41%) PowerShell
5 21 (5.16%) Java
6 20 (4.91%) Bash
7 18 (4.42%) PL/SQL
8 17 (4.18%) C++
9 14 (3.44%) Shell Script
10 11 (2.70%) Tcl
11 10 (2.46%) C#
11 10 (2.46%) SystemVerilog
12 8 (1.97%) MATLAB
13 6 (1.47%) ABAP
14 5 (1.23%) COBOL
14 5 (1.23%) Perl
14 5 (1.23%) Scala
15 4 (0.98%) TypeScript
15 4 (0.98%) VBA
16 3 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 96 (23.59%) Security Cleared
2 78 (19.16%) SC Cleared
3 58 (14.25%) Degree
4 46 (11.30%) Cisco Certification
5 39 (9.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 36 (8.85%) CCNP
7 21 (5.16%) CCNA
8 18 (4.42%) DV Cleared
9 15 (3.69%) BPSS Clearance
9 15 (3.69%) Master's Degree
10 12 (2.95%) ISTQB
11 11 (2.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 11 (2.70%) Oracle Certification
12 10 (2.46%) CISSP
12 10 (2.46%) OCA
12 10 (2.46%) RHCA
12 10 (2.46%) RHCE
13 8 (1.97%) CISM
13 8 (1.97%) ISEB
13 8 (1.97%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (11.79%) QA
2 25 (6.14%) Data Quality
3 11 (2.70%) GDPR
4 10 (2.46%) GxP
5 6 (1.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (1.23%) IFRS
6 5 (1.23%) IFRS 9
6 5 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.23%) NIST
7 3 (0.74%) MiFID
8 2 (0.49%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.49%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.49%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.25%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.25%) AUTOSAR
9 1 (0.25%) HAZOP
9 1 (0.25%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.25%) ITGC
9 1 (0.25%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 39 (9.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 22 (5.41%) Active Directory
3 14 (3.44%) VMware ESXi
3 14 (3.44%) VMware NSX
4 9 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.23%) Docker
5 5 (1.23%) Firmware
6 3 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.25%) KVM
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.25%) QEMU
7 1 (0.25%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.25%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (7.13%) vCenter Server
2 20 (4.91%) Ansible
3 13 (3.19%) Progress Chef
3 13 (3.19%) Puppet
4 5 (1.23%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.23%) Terraform
5 3 (0.74%) Functional Safety
5 3 (0.74%) Grafana
6 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.49%) SCOM
6 2 (0.49%) vRealize
7 1 (0.25%) CA Endevor
7 1 (0.25%) Data Guard
7 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle RMAN
7 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.25%) SCCM
Vendors
1 57 (14.00%) Microsoft
2 49 (12.04%) Oracle
3 46 (11.30%) Cisco
4 41 (10.07%) VMware
5 31 (7.62%) SAP
6 28 (6.88%) Atlassian
7 24 (5.90%) ServiceNow
8 17 (4.18%) Google
9 10 (2.46%) Xilinx
10 9 (2.21%) Avaya
10 9 (2.21%) Ericsson
10 9 (2.21%) F5
10 9 (2.21%) Juniper
10 9 (2.21%) Nokia
10 9 (2.21%) Palo Alto
10 9 (2.21%) Ribbon
10 9 (2.21%) Workday
11 8 (1.97%) Databricks
11 8 (1.97%) IBM
12 6 (1.47%) Informatica