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 29 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 64 110 152
Rank change year-on-year +46 +42 -11
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,376 781 811
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.82% 2.14% 1.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.28% 2.46% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 391 469
10th Percentile £360 £335 £355
25th Percentile £419 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.87%
75th Percentile £613 £590 £638
90th Percentile £688 £675 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £525
% change year-on-year - -9.52% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 80 88
10th Percentile £31.53 £28.00 £51.23
25th Percentile £41.94 £45.22 £56.45
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.53
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -7.45% +9.80%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £85.46
90th Percentile £76.35 £75.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £61.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +5.69% -12.14% +13.82%

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 32,184 31,740 40,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.29% 87.07% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,215 19,128 27,258
10th Percentile £300 £310 £310
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £744 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,084 1,140 1,567
10th Percentile £14.56 £15.22 £14.32
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.24 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.04 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -23.87% -24.65% +25.26%
75th Percentile £45.53 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.69% -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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +45 1,185 £500 - 694
UK excluding London +22 652 £475 - 633
London +79 549 £523 +4.50% 200
Work from Home +75 439 £500 -7.19% 315
South East +12 156 £500 +15.94% 292
North of England +16 132 £425 -12.82% 65
East of England +21 114 £496 +32.29% 119
South West +2 101 £475 -18.24% 89
Midlands -1 92 £500 +17.65% 77
North West +16 84 £425 -7.86% 32
West Midlands +2 75 £511 +7.47% 52
Scotland +27 38 £450 -1.10% 28
Yorkshire -9 33 £415 -1.19% 25
East Midlands -7 17 £438 +9.38% 24
North East +5 15 £475 -32.14% 9
Northern Ireland +8 14 £425 - 4
Wales +6 11 £500 - 11
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 54 (3.92%) Confluence
2 34 (2.47%) Apache Spark
3 33 (2.40%) SharePoint
4 25 (1.82%) SAS
5 21 (1.53%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.16%) Apache
8 14 (1.02%) Skype for Business
9 12 (0.87%) WebLogic
10 9 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
10 9 (0.65%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 8 (0.58%) CMS
12 7 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2013
12 7 (0.51%) Mattermost
13 6 (0.44%) OpenStack
14 4 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.29%) ArcGIS
14 4 (0.29%) Smallworld
15 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
15 3 (0.22%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 84 (6.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (2.91%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (1.96%) MS Visio
4 20 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.65%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.44%) 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 (0.073%) CANalyzer
9 1 (0.073%) NASTRAN
9 1 (0.073%) Notion
9 1 (0.073%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.073%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.073%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 79 (5.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.02%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (0.87%) SAP EHS
3 12 (0.87%) SAP FI
3 12 (0.87%) SAP MDG
4 11 (0.80%) Aladdin
5 10 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.65%) Oracle BPM
7 8 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
8 7 (0.51%) NetSuite
8 7 (0.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 7 (0.51%) Oracle Payables
8 7 (0.51%) SAP MM
9 6 (0.44%) Oracle Receivables
9 6 (0.44%) SAP ERP
10 5 (0.36%) Markit EDM
10 5 (0.36%) SAP PLM
10 5 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 5 (0.36%) Workday HCM
11 4 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 315 (22.89%) Azure
2 159 (11.56%) AWS
3 123 (8.94%) Azure DevOps
4 120 (8.72%) Power Platform
5 61 (4.43%) GCP
6 59 (4.29%) GitHub
7 41 (2.98%) SaaS
8 38 (2.76%) Entra ID
8 38 (2.76%) GitHub Actions
9 33 (2.40%) Serverless
10 31 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
11 29 (2.11%) Snowflake
12 28 (2.03%) Azure Data Factory
13 24 (1.74%) OpenShift
14 23 (1.67%) Amazon S3
14 23 (1.67%) OCI
15 22 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
16 18 (1.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 16 (1.16%) dbt
18 15 (1.09%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.76%) Firewall
2 35 (2.54%) TCP/IP
3 29 (2.11%) DNS
4 22 (1.60%) Ethernet
5 20 (1.45%) VPN
5 20 (1.45%) WAN
6 18 (1.31%) BGP
7 17 (1.24%) MPLS
8 15 (1.09%) 3GPP
9 14 (1.02%) HTTP
9 14 (1.02%) LTE
9 14 (1.02%) Skype
10 13 (0.94%) OSPF
11 12 (0.87%) Network Security
11 12 (0.87%) SSL
11 12 (0.87%) Wireless
12 11 (0.80%) SD-WAN
13 10 (0.73%) LAN
14 9 (0.65%) SNMP
14 9 (0.65%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (8.21%) Power BI
2 70 (5.09%) Data Warehouse
3 58 (4.22%) Metadata
4 41 (2.98%) Tableau
5 32 (2.33%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.03%) NoSQL
7 27 (1.96%) Oracle Database
8 24 (1.74%) Data Lake
9 22 (1.60%) Relational Database
10 21 (1.53%) Azure SQL Database
11 20 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
12 19 (1.38%) Oracle Reports
13 18 (1.31%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 17 (1.24%) BigQuery
15 16 (1.16%) Delta Lake
16 14 (1.02%) Big Data
16 14 (1.02%) Geospatial Data
16 14 (1.02%) Parquet
16 14 (1.02%) SAP Data Services
16 14 (1.02%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 137 (9.96%) JIRA
2 68 (4.94%) Git
3 65 (4.72%) Jenkins
4 41 (2.98%) Postman
4 41 (2.98%) Selenium
5 40 (2.91%) GitLab
6 32 (2.33%) Oracle APEX
7 27 (1.96%) Visual Studio
8 22 (1.60%) Eclipse
9 19 (1.38%) TestRail
10 17 (1.24%) Cucumber
11 16 (1.16%) JMeter
11 16 (1.16%) Rational DOORS
12 15 (1.09%) Zephyr
13 13 (0.94%) JUnit
14 11 (0.80%) Bitbucket
15 10 (0.73%) Cypress.io
15 10 (0.73%) REST Assured
15 10 (0.73%) SpecFlow
16 9 (0.65%) MLflow
General
1 550 (39.97%) Social Skills
2 360 (26.16%) Finance
3 315 (22.89%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (9.01%) Public Sector
5 97 (7.05%) Banking
6 82 (5.96%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (3.71%) Presentation Skills
8 35 (2.54%) Military
8 35 (2.54%) Pharmaceutical
9 32 (2.33%) Aerospace
9 32 (2.33%) Manufacturing
10 30 (2.18%) Marketing
10 30 (2.18%) Telecoms
11 27 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (1.89%) Electronics
12 26 (1.89%) Investment Banking
13 25 (1.82%) Front Office
14 24 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
15 21 (1.53%) Billing
16 19 (1.38%) Legal
Job Titles
1 277 (20.13%) Analyst
2 140 (10.17%) Senior
3 138 (10.03%) Consultant
4 125 (9.08%) Developer
5 119 (8.65%) Business Analyst
6 98 (7.12%) Lead
7 69 (5.01%) Data Analyst
8 58 (4.22%) Architect
9 51 (3.71%) Software Engineer
9 51 (3.71%) Tester
10 46 (3.34%) Data Engineer
10 46 (3.34%) SAP Consultant
11 38 (2.76%) Data Scientist
12 37 (2.69%) Test Analyst
13 36 (2.62%) Senior Developer
14 33 (2.40%) Senior Analyst
15 29 (2.11%) Project Manager
16 28 (2.03%) QA Engineer
17 24 (1.74%) Data Consultant
17 24 (1.74%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (6.03%) REST
2 73 (5.31%) JSON
3 53 (3.85%) XML
4 43 (3.13%) Node.js
5 41 (2.98%) SOAP
6 39 (2.83%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (2.40%) OAuth
8 32 (2.33%) RESTful
8 32 (2.33%) Web Services
9 30 (2.18%) .NET
10 28 (2.03%) PySpark
11 27 (1.96%) SAP Fiori
12 24 (1.74%) Middleware
13 23 (1.67%) Playwright
14 21 (1.53%) Swagger
15 18 (1.31%) Kafka
15 18 (1.31%) OAuth2
15 18 (1.31%) OpenAPI
16 17 (1.24%) Pandas
17 16 (1.16%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 66 (4.80%) Legacy Systems
2 49 (3.56%) Onboarding
3 48 (3.49%) Data Structures
4 47 (3.42%) Product Ownership
5 40 (2.91%) Management Information System
6 29 (2.11%) FPGA
7 28 (2.03%) Cloud Native
8 27 (1.96%) Data Centre
9 25 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.82%) Virtual Team
10 22 (1.60%) Algorithms
11 20 (1.45%) IoT
12 19 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
13 18 (1.31%) Derivative
14 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
15 15 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
15 15 (1.09%) NB-IoT
16 14 (1.02%) Security Posture
16 14 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
17 13 (0.94%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 106 (7.70%) Linux
2 84 (6.10%) Windows
3 27 (1.96%) Unix
4 9 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.58%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.51%) Android
7 4 (0.29%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.22%) VMS
8 3 (0.22%) zOS
9 2 (0.15%) Debian
9 2 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.073%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.073%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (26.82%) Agile
2 323 (23.47%) Problem-Solving
3 301 (21.88%) Migration
4 242 (17.59%) DevOps
5 231 (16.79%) CI/CD
6 217 (15.77%) Data Validation
7 211 (15.33%) Analytics
8 192 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
9 175 (12.72%) Data Migration
10 164 (11.92%) Test Automation
11 142 (10.32%) Data Modelling
11 142 (10.32%) ETL
12 139 (10.10%) Business Intelligence
12 139 (10.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 134 (9.74%) Data Governance
14 133 (9.67%) User Acceptance Testing
15 130 (9.45%) Data Analysis
16 115 (8.36%) AI
17 114 (8.28%) Continuous Improvement
18 112 (8.14%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 350 (25.44%) SQL
2 306 (22.24%) Python
3 100 (7.27%) JavaScript
4 72 (5.23%) Java
5 71 (5.16%) C#
6 58 (4.22%) PL/SQL
7 53 (3.85%) C++
8 42 (3.05%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.91%) Bash
10 32 (2.33%) R
11 25 (1.82%) TypeScript
12 20 (1.45%) C
13 17 (1.24%) Shell Script
14 15 (1.09%) T-SQL
15 14 (1.02%) ABAP
16 13 (0.94%) Groovy
16 13 (0.94%) VBA
17 9 (0.65%) Apex Code
17 9 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 9 (0.65%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 323 (23.47%) Security Cleared
2 246 (17.88%) SC Cleared
3 151 (10.97%) Degree
4 43 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (2.47%) Master's Degree
7 32 (2.33%) DV Cleared
8 28 (2.03%) ISTQB
9 21 (1.53%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.24%) AWS Certification
10 17 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (1.09%) CISSP
11 15 (1.09%) PhD
12 13 (0.94%) PMP
13 12 (0.87%) CBAP
13 12 (0.87%) Oracle Certification
14 10 (0.73%) Azure Certification
14 10 (0.73%) CCNP
15 9 (0.65%) CCIE
15 9 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (12.65%) QA
2 169 (12.28%) Data Quality
3 71 (5.16%) GDPR
4 50 (3.63%) NIST
5 37 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.11%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.16%) GxP
8 14 (1.02%) EU AI Act
9 11 (0.80%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.73%) COBIT
10 10 (0.73%) IFRS
11 8 (0.58%) MiFID
11 8 (0.58%) MISRA
11 8 (0.58%) NCSC
11 8 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 8 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.51%) DO-178B
12 7 (0.51%) SLA
13 6 (0.44%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 6 (0.44%) HL7
System Software
1 51 (3.71%) Active Directory
2 40 (2.91%) Docker
3 34 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (1.45%) Firmware
5 15 (1.09%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.87%) vSphere
7 9 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.44%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.44%) Postfix
9 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
11 3 (0.22%) QEMU
12 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
12 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
13 1 (0.073%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.073%) KVM
13 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
13 1 (0.073%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 56 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 49 (3.56%) Terraform
3 47 (3.42%) Ansible
4 16 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (0.65%) Nessus
7 9 (0.65%) SCCM
7 9 (0.65%) SCOM
8 8 (0.58%) Argo
8 8 (0.58%) Grafana
8 8 (0.58%) Istio
8 8 (0.58%) Puppet
9 7 (0.51%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.51%) Kibana
9 7 (0.51%) Nmap
10 6 (0.44%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.36%) CASB
11 5 (0.36%) RSA Archer
11 5 (0.36%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 203 (14.75%) Microsoft
2 155 (11.26%) Oracle
3 121 (8.79%) SAP
4 62 (4.51%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.71%) Databricks
6 50 (3.63%) VMware
7 44 (3.20%) Salesforce
8 39 (2.83%) Cisco
9 30 (2.18%) Splunk
10 28 (2.03%) Workday
11 24 (1.74%) Google
12 16 (1.16%) MuleSoft
12 16 (1.16%) Red Hat
13 15 (1.09%) IBM
14 14 (1.02%) Remedy
15 12 (0.87%) CyberArk
15 12 (0.87%) Informatica
15 12 (0.87%) Palo Alto
16 11 (0.80%) Adobe
16 11 (0.80%) EMC