Validation Contract Job Trends

Validation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Validation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 110 153
Rank change year-on-year +45 +43 -7
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,347 803 811
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.79% 2.19% 1.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.24% 2.53% 1.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 795 404 469
10th Percentile £359 £340 £355
25th Percentile £414 £408 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £528
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% -3.17% -3.43%
75th Percentile £616 £600 £638
90th Percentile £688 £675 £802
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.00% -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 80 91
10th Percentile £31.55 £28.00 £50.00
25th Percentile £41.60 £45.22 £56.30
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -7.41% +9.76%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.25 £84.36
90th Percentile £75.90 £75.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £69.25
% change year-on-year +4.00% -9.75% +12.60%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 31,798 31,745 40,964
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.44% 86.76% 88.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,901 19,110 27,507
10th Percentile £300 £310 £308
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £531
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £740 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,102 1,148 1,575
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.20 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.12 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +25.43%
75th Percentile £45.46 £64.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.74 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.05% -26.97% +39.06%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Validation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Validation job vacancy trend in the UK

Validation
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation over the 6 months to 24 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation over the 6 months to 24 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 24 November 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
England +41 1,151 £500 - 721
UK excluding London +19 648 £490 -2.00% 661
London +71 525 £525 +0.48% 169
Work from Home +80 439 £500 -7.19% 363
South East +5 156 £500 - 253
North of England +16 122 £425 -13.92% 75
East of England +24 112 £500 +33.33% 126
South West +2 106 £475 -18.80% 112
Midlands -16 91 £493 -0.51% 93
North West +12 78 £425 -15.00% 55
West Midlands -8 74 £500 -4.76% 65
Scotland +31 42 £519 +14.01% 31
Yorkshire -15 32 £400 -4.76% 15
East Midlands -5 17 £438 +9.38% 27
Northern Ireland +7 14 £425 - 8
Wales +7 12 £500 - 9
North East +1 12 £515 -26.43% 6
Channel Islands - 1 - -

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 53 (3.93%) Confluence
2 35 (2.60%) SharePoint
3 34 (2.52%) Apache Spark
4 23 (1.71%) SAS
5 21 (1.56%) Apache Airflow
6 18 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.19%) Apache
8 15 (1.11%) Skype for Business
9 13 (0.97%) WebLogic
10 10 (0.74%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 9 (0.67%) Oracle Service Bus
12 8 (0.59%) CMS
13 7 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2013
13 7 (0.52%) Mattermost
14 6 (0.45%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 4 (0.30%) ArcGIS
15 4 (0.30%) Smallworld
16 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
16 3 (0.22%) GeoServer
Applications
1 85 (6.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (1.93%) MS Visio
4 20 (1.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.59%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.45%) Sketch
7 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.15%) Simulink
9 1 (0.074%) CANalyzer
9 1 (0.074%) NASTRAN
9 1 (0.074%) Notion
9 1 (0.074%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.074%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.074%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 80 (5.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.04%) SAP MDG
3 13 (0.97%) Oracle EBS
4 12 (0.89%) Aladdin
4 12 (0.89%) SAP EHS
4 12 (0.89%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.67%) Oracle BPM
7 7 (0.52%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 7 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.52%) SAP MM
8 6 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.45%) Oracle Receivables
8 6 (0.45%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.37%) Markit EDM
9 5 (0.37%) NetSuite
9 5 (0.37%) SAP ERP
9 5 (0.37%) SAP PLM
9 5 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 4 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 297 (22.05%) Azure
2 151 (11.21%) AWS
3 116 (8.61%) Azure DevOps
3 116 (8.61%) Power Platform
4 57 (4.23%) GCP
5 56 (4.16%) GitHub
6 37 (2.75%) SaaS
7 36 (2.67%) Entra ID
7 36 (2.67%) GitHub Actions
8 32 (2.38%) Serverless
9 31 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (2.23%) Snowflake
11 26 (1.93%) Azure Data Factory
12 24 (1.78%) OpenShift
13 21 (1.56%) OCI
14 20 (1.48%) Amazon S3
14 20 (1.48%) Dynamics 365
15 15 (1.11%) Azure Functions
15 15 (1.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 15 (1.11%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.60%) Firewall
2 33 (2.45%) TCP/IP
3 30 (2.23%) DNS
4 22 (1.63%) BGP
4 22 (1.63%) Ethernet
4 22 (1.63%) VPN
5 21 (1.56%) MPLS
6 20 (1.48%) WAN
7 15 (1.11%) 3GPP
7 15 (1.11%) Skype
8 14 (1.04%) HTTP
8 14 (1.04%) LTE
9 13 (0.97%) OSPF
10 12 (0.89%) SSL
11 11 (0.82%) SD-WAN
12 10 (0.74%) LAN
12 10 (0.74%) Wireless
13 9 (0.67%) SNMP
14 8 (0.59%) Internet
14 8 (0.59%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (8.09%) Power BI
2 66 (4.90%) Data Warehouse
3 51 (3.79%) Metadata
4 39 (2.90%) Tableau
5 30 (2.23%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.08%) NoSQL
7 27 (2.00%) Oracle Database
8 22 (1.63%) Data Lake
8 22 (1.63%) Relational Database
9 21 (1.56%) Azure SQL Database
10 20 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (1.34%) Oracle Reports
11 18 (1.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 16 (1.19%) BigQuery
13 15 (1.11%) Delta Lake
14 14 (1.04%) Big Data
14 14 (1.04%) Geospatial Data
14 14 (1.04%) SAP Data Services
14 14 (1.04%) SAP HANA
15 13 (0.97%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 136 (10.10%) JIRA
2 65 (4.83%) Git
3 59 (4.38%) Jenkins
4 39 (2.90%) Postman
5 38 (2.82%) Selenium
6 37 (2.75%) GitLab
7 32 (2.38%) Oracle APEX
8 27 (2.00%) Visual Studio
9 22 (1.63%) Eclipse
10 19 (1.41%) TestRail
11 17 (1.26%) Cucumber
12 16 (1.19%) Rational DOORS
13 15 (1.11%) Zephyr
14 14 (1.04%) JMeter
15 12 (0.89%) JUnit
16 10 (0.74%) Bitbucket
16 10 (0.74%) SpecFlow
17 9 (0.67%) Cypress.io
17 9 (0.67%) MLflow
17 9 (0.67%) REST Assured
General
1 548 (40.68%) Social Skills
2 354 (26.28%) Finance
3 305 (22.64%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (8.76%) Public Sector
5 92 (6.83%) Banking
6 81 (6.01%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (3.71%) Presentation Skills
8 34 (2.52%) Aerospace
8 34 (2.52%) Manufacturing
8 34 (2.52%) Pharmaceutical
9 33 (2.45%) Military
10 31 (2.30%) Marketing
10 31 (2.30%) Telecoms
11 28 (2.08%) Electronics
12 27 (2.00%) Front Office
13 26 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
13 26 (1.93%) Investment Banking
14 23 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.63%) Billing
16 18 (1.34%) Legal
Job Titles
1 271 (20.12%) Analyst
2 139 (10.32%) Consultant
3 134 (9.95%) Senior
4 123 (9.13%) Developer
5 119 (8.83%) Business Analyst
6 100 (7.42%) Lead
7 72 (5.35%) Data Analyst
8 56 (4.16%) Architect
9 51 (3.79%) Tester
10 49 (3.64%) Software Engineer
11 47 (3.49%) SAP Consultant
12 41 (3.04%) Data Engineer
13 38 (2.82%) Data Scientist
14 36 (2.67%) Senior Developer
15 35 (2.60%) Test Analyst
16 29 (2.15%) Senior Analyst
17 27 (2.00%) Project Manager
18 24 (1.78%) QA Engineer
18 24 (1.78%) Test Engineer
19 23 (1.71%) Data Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (6.09%) REST
2 71 (5.27%) JSON
3 53 (3.93%) XML
4 43 (3.19%) Node.js
5 42 (3.12%) SOAP
6 36 (2.67%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (2.45%) OAuth
7 33 (2.45%) Web Services
8 32 (2.38%) RESTful
9 30 (2.23%) .NET
10 27 (2.00%) SAP Fiori
11 23 (1.71%) PySpark
12 22 (1.63%) Middleware
13 21 (1.56%) Playwright
13 21 (1.56%) Swagger
14 18 (1.34%) OAuth2
14 18 (1.34%) OpenAPI
15 17 (1.26%) Pandas
16 16 (1.19%) Kafka
16 16 (1.19%) React
Miscellaneous
1 64 (4.75%) Legacy Systems
2 46 (3.41%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.27%) Onboarding
4 42 (3.12%) Data Structures
4 42 (3.12%) Management Information System
5 30 (2.23%) FPGA
6 27 (2.00%) Cloud Native
7 26 (1.93%) Data Centre
8 25 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.86%) Virtual Team
9 22 (1.63%) Algorithms
10 19 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
10 19 (1.41%) IoT
11 18 (1.34%) Derivative
12 16 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 15 (1.11%) NB-IoT
14 14 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
14 14 (1.04%) SCADA
15 13 (0.97%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 103 (7.65%) Linux
2 84 (6.24%) Windows
3 28 (2.08%) Unix
4 9 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.59%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.45%) Android
7 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.30%) VMS
8 2 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.15%) zOS
9 1 (0.074%) Debian
9 1 (0.074%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.074%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.074%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.074%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.074%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.074%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.074%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 357 (26.50%) Agile
2 316 (23.46%) Problem-Solving
3 290 (21.53%) Migration
4 228 (16.93%) DevOps
5 216 (16.04%) CI/CD
6 209 (15.52%) Data Validation
7 205 (15.22%) Analytics
8 186 (13.81%) Stakeholder Management
9 168 (12.47%) Data Migration
10 159 (11.80%) Test Automation
11 137 (10.17%) Data Modelling
12 135 (10.02%) Business Intelligence
13 133 (9.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 132 (9.80%) Data Analysis
15 131 (9.73%) ETL
16 129 (9.58%) Data Governance
17 128 (9.50%) User Acceptance Testing
18 113 (8.39%) AI
19 108 (8.02%) Continuous Improvement
20 105 (7.80%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 343 (25.46%) SQL
2 299 (22.20%) Python
3 98 (7.28%) JavaScript
4 71 (5.27%) C#
5 69 (5.12%) Java
6 58 (4.31%) PL/SQL
7 52 (3.86%) C++
8 43 (3.19%) PowerShell
9 38 (2.82%) Bash
10 31 (2.30%) R
11 24 (1.78%) TypeScript
12 18 (1.34%) C
12 18 (1.34%) Shell Script
13 15 (1.11%) VBA
14 14 (1.04%) ABAP
14 14 (1.04%) T-SQL
15 13 (0.97%) Groovy
16 10 (0.74%) Apex Code
16 10 (0.74%) SystemVerilog
17 9 (0.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 319 (23.68%) Security Cleared
2 248 (18.41%) SC Cleared
3 150 (11.14%) Degree
4 41 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
6 33 (2.45%) DV Cleared
7 30 (2.23%) Master's Degree
8 28 (2.08%) ISTQB
9 21 (1.56%) PMI Certification
10 19 (1.41%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (1.19%) AWS Certification
11 16 (1.19%) PhD
12 15 (1.11%) CISSP
13 12 (0.89%) CCNP
13 12 (0.89%) PMP
14 11 (0.82%) CBAP
14 11 (0.82%) Oracle Certification
15 9 (0.67%) Azure Certification
15 9 (0.67%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.67%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (12.25%) QA
2 156 (11.58%) Data Quality
3 65 (4.83%) GDPR
4 46 (3.41%) NIST
5 33 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 27 (2.00%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.19%) GxP
8 14 (1.04%) EU AI Act
9 10 (0.74%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.74%) MiFID
10 9 (0.67%) IFRS
11 8 (0.59%) COBIT
11 8 (0.59%) EMIR
11 8 (0.59%) PCI DSS
11 8 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.52%) MISRA
12 7 (0.52%) SLA
13 6 (0.45%) DO-178B
13 6 (0.45%) HL7
13 6 (0.45%) PMO
System Software
1 50 (3.71%) Active Directory
2 37 (2.75%) Docker
2 37 (2.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (1.26%) Firmware
5 14 (1.04%) vSphere
6 9 (0.67%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.45%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.45%) Postfix
8 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.22%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) QEMU
9 3 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
10 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
10 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
11 1 (0.074%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.074%) KVM
11 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.074%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 53 (3.93%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.56%) Ansible
3 46 (3.41%) Terraform
4 15 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.74%) SCCM
7 9 (0.67%) Nessus
7 9 (0.67%) SCOM
8 8 (0.59%) Argo
8 8 (0.59%) Grafana
8 8 (0.59%) Istio
9 7 (0.52%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.52%) Puppet
10 6 (0.45%) HP ALM
10 6 (0.45%) Kibana
10 6 (0.45%) Nmap
11 5 (0.37%) RSA Archer
11 5 (0.37%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.30%) Control-M
Vendors
1 197 (14.63%) Microsoft
2 153 (11.36%) Oracle
3 122 (9.06%) SAP
4 57 (4.23%) ServiceNow
5 54 (4.01%) VMware
6 47 (3.49%) Databricks
7 42 (3.12%) Salesforce
8 36 (2.67%) Cisco
9 29 (2.15%) Workday
10 28 (2.08%) Splunk
11 24 (1.78%) Google
12 16 (1.19%) Red Hat
13 15 (1.11%) MuleSoft
14 14 (1.04%) IBM
14 14 (1.04%) Remedy
15 11 (0.82%) CyberArk
15 11 (0.82%) EMC
16 10 (0.74%) F5
16 10 (0.74%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.74%) Informatica