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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 63 106 150
Rank change year-on-year +43 +44 -7
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,378 781 806
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.82% 2.13% 1.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.27% 2.45% 2.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 816 389 465
10th Percentile £360 £330 £359
25th Percentile £414 £405 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.96%
75th Percentile £615 £588 £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 87 80 88
10th Percentile £31.55 £28.00 £51.23
25th Percentile £41.60 £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 £75.90 £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 32,259 31,857 40,400
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.36% 87.03% 88.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,239 19,190 27,102
10th Percentile £300 £310 £308
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £743 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,092 1,151 1,562
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.22 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.25 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.88
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.24% +25.37%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +50 1,185 £500 - 714
UK excluding London +25 656 £475 - 650
London +75 546 £525 +5.00% 209
Work from Home +82 441 £500 -6.98% 328
South East +11 159 £500 +14.29% 295
North of England +16 129 £425 -12.82% 67
East of England +19 114 £496 +32.29% 127
South West +1 103 £475 -17.39% 89
Midlands +4 93 £500 +19.40% 81
North West +19 82 £425 -7.86% 33
West Midlands -5 76 £503 +5.89% 54
Scotland +22 39 £450 -1.10% 29
Yorkshire -22 32 £400 -4.76% 26
East Midlands -6 17 £438 +9.38% 26
North East +5 15 £475 -32.14% 9
Northern Ireland +8 14 £425 - 4
Wales +5 12 £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 (2.39%) SharePoint
4 24 (1.74%) SAS
5 21 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.16%) Apache
8 14 (1.02%) Skype for Business
9 13 (0.94%) WebLogic
10 10 (0.73%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 9 (0.65%) Oracle Service Bus
12 8 (0.58%) CMS
13 7 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2013
13 7 (0.51%) Mattermost
14 6 (0.44%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 4 (0.29%) ArcGIS
15 4 (0.29%) Smallworld
16 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
16 3 (0.22%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 83 (6.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (2.90%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (1.89%) 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 81 (5.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.09%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (1.02%) SAP MDG
4 13 (0.94%) SAP FI
5 12 (0.87%) Aladdin
5 12 (0.87%) SAP EHS
6 10 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
7 9 (0.65%) Oracle BPM
8 8 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
9 7 (0.51%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 7 (0.51%) Oracle Payables
9 7 (0.51%) SAP MM
10 6 (0.44%) NetSuite
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Receivables
10 6 (0.44%) SAP ERP
11 5 (0.36%) Markit EDM
11 5 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
11 5 (0.36%) SAP PLM
11 5 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 5 (0.36%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 311 (22.57%) Azure
2 158 (11.47%) AWS
3 122 (8.85%) Azure DevOps
4 117 (8.49%) Power Platform
5 61 (4.43%) GCP
6 59 (4.28%) GitHub
7 39 (2.83%) SaaS
8 38 (2.76%) GitHub Actions
9 37 (2.69%) Entra ID
10 34 (2.47%) Serverless
11 31 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
12 29 (2.10%) Snowflake
13 26 (1.89%) Azure Data Factory
14 24 (1.74%) OpenShift
15 23 (1.67%) Amazon S3
15 23 (1.67%) OCI
16 22 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
17 16 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 16 (1.16%) dbt
18 15 (1.09%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.76%) Firewall
2 35 (2.54%) TCP/IP
3 29 (2.10%) DNS
4 22 (1.60%) Ethernet
5 20 (1.45%) VPN
5 20 (1.45%) WAN
6 19 (1.38%) BGP
7 18 (1.31%) 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%) SSL
12 11 (0.80%) Network Security
12 11 (0.80%) SD-WAN
12 11 (0.80%) Wireless
13 10 (0.73%) LAN
14 9 (0.65%) SNMP
14 9 (0.65%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (7.98%) Power BI
2 67 (4.86%) Data Warehouse
3 55 (3.99%) Metadata
4 39 (2.83%) Tableau
5 31 (2.25%) 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 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 20 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
12 18 (1.31%) Oracle Reports
12 18 (1.31%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 17 (1.23%) BigQuery
14 16 (1.16%) Delta Lake
15 14 (1.02%) Big Data
15 14 (1.02%) Geospatial Data
15 14 (1.02%) Parquet
15 14 (1.02%) SAP Data Services
15 14 (1.02%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 138 (10.01%) JIRA
2 68 (4.93%) Git
3 65 (4.72%) Jenkins
4 40 (2.90%) GitLab
4 40 (2.90%) Postman
4 40 (2.90%) Selenium
5 32 (2.32%) Oracle APEX
6 27 (1.96%) Visual Studio
7 22 (1.60%) Eclipse
8 19 (1.38%) TestRail
9 17 (1.23%) Cucumber
10 16 (1.16%) Rational DOORS
11 15 (1.09%) JMeter
11 15 (1.09%) Zephyr
12 13 (0.94%) JUnit
13 11 (0.80%) Bitbucket
14 10 (0.73%) Cypress.io
14 10 (0.73%) REST Assured
14 10 (0.73%) SpecFlow
15 9 (0.65%) MLflow
General
1 555 (40.28%) Social Skills
2 361 (26.20%) Finance
3 314 (22.79%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (8.85%) Public Sector
5 96 (6.97%) Banking
6 83 (6.02%) Documentation Skills
7 53 (3.85%) Presentation Skills
8 35 (2.54%) Pharmaceutical
9 34 (2.47%) Aerospace
9 34 (2.47%) Military
10 33 (2.39%) Manufacturing
11 30 (2.18%) Telecoms
12 29 (2.10%) Marketing
13 27 (1.96%) Electronics
13 27 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
14 26 (1.89%) Front Office
14 26 (1.89%) Investment Banking
15 22 (1.60%) Billing
15 22 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
16 19 (1.38%) Legal
Job Titles
1 278 (20.17%) Analyst
2 140 (10.16%) Consultant
2 140 (10.16%) Senior
3 125 (9.07%) Developer
4 121 (8.78%) Business Analyst
5 99 (7.18%) Lead
6 70 (5.08%) Data Analyst
7 57 (4.14%) Architect
8 51 (3.70%) Software Engineer
8 51 (3.70%) Tester
9 47 (3.41%) SAP Consultant
10 44 (3.19%) Data Engineer
11 38 (2.76%) Data Scientist
12 37 (2.69%) Test Analyst
13 36 (2.61%) Senior Developer
14 31 (2.25%) Senior Analyst
15 28 (2.03%) Project Manager
15 28 (2.03%) QA Engineer
16 26 (1.89%) Test Engineer
17 24 (1.74%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (5.95%) REST
2 73 (5.30%) JSON
3 53 (3.85%) XML
4 43 (3.12%) Node.js
5 41 (2.98%) SOAP
6 39 (2.83%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (2.39%) OAuth
7 33 (2.39%) Web Services
8 32 (2.32%) RESTful
9 30 (2.18%) .NET
10 28 (2.03%) PySpark
10 28 (2.03%) SAP Fiori
11 24 (1.74%) Middleware
12 23 (1.67%) Playwright
13 21 (1.52%) Swagger
14 18 (1.31%) Kafka
14 18 (1.31%) OAuth2
14 18 (1.31%) OpenAPI
15 17 (1.23%) Pandas
16 16 (1.16%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 67 (4.86%) Legacy Systems
2 48 (3.48%) Product Ownership
3 47 (3.41%) Data Structures
3 47 (3.41%) Onboarding
4 41 (2.98%) Management Information System
5 29 (2.10%) FPGA
6 28 (2.03%) Cloud Native
6 28 (2.03%) Data Centre
7 25 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (1.81%) Virtual Team
8 22 (1.60%) Algorithms
9 19 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.38%) IoT
10 18 (1.31%) Derivative
11 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
12 15 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (1.09%) NB-IoT
13 14 (1.02%) Security Posture
14 13 (0.94%) SCADA
14 13 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 105 (7.62%) Linux
2 84 (6.10%) Windows
3 28 (2.03%) 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
1 370 (26.85%) Agile
2 324 (23.51%) Problem-Solving
3 300 (21.77%) Migration
4 241 (17.49%) DevOps
5 231 (16.76%) CI/CD
6 216 (15.67%) Data Validation
7 208 (15.09%) Analytics
8 195 (14.15%) Stakeholder Management
9 175 (12.70%) Data Migration
10 165 (11.97%) Test Automation
11 143 (10.38%) Data Modelling
12 139 (10.09%) ETL
13 138 (10.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 137 (9.94%) Business Intelligence
15 133 (9.65%) User Acceptance Testing
16 132 (9.58%) Data Governance
17 130 (9.43%) Data Analysis
18 115 (8.35%) AI
19 114 (8.27%) Continuous Improvement
20 110 (7.98%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 349 (25.33%) SQL
2 304 (22.06%) Python
3 99 (7.18%) JavaScript
4 72 (5.22%) C#
5 71 (5.15%) Java
6 59 (4.28%) PL/SQL
7 53 (3.85%) C++
8 42 (3.05%) PowerShell
9 39 (2.83%) Bash
10 31 (2.25%) R
11 25 (1.81%) TypeScript
12 20 (1.45%) C
13 17 (1.23%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.02%) ABAP
14 14 (1.02%) T-SQL
14 14 (1.02%) VBA
15 13 (0.94%) Groovy
16 9 (0.65%) Apex Code
16 9 (0.65%) SystemVerilog
17 8 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 324 (23.51%) Security Cleared
2 249 (18.07%) SC Cleared
3 151 (10.96%) Degree
4 43 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 41 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (2.47%) Master's Degree
7 33 (2.39%) DV Cleared
8 28 (2.03%) ISTQB
9 21 (1.52%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.23%) AWS Certification
10 17 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (1.09%) CISSP
11 15 (1.09%) PhD
12 13 (0.94%) PMP
13 12 (0.87%) Oracle Certification
14 11 (0.80%) CBAP
15 10 (0.73%) Azure Certification
15 10 (0.73%) CCNP
16 9 (0.65%) CCIE
16 9 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 173 (12.55%) QA
2 166 (12.05%) Data Quality
3 70 (5.08%) GDPR
4 49 (3.56%) NIST
5 35 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.10%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.16%) GxP
8 14 (1.02%) EU AI Act
9 11 (0.80%) Def Stans
9 11 (0.80%) IFRS
10 10 (0.73%) COBIT
11 9 (0.65%) MiFID
12 8 (0.58%) MISRA
12 8 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 8 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.51%) DO-178B
13 7 (0.51%) EMIR
13 7 (0.51%) NCSC
13 7 (0.51%) SLA
14 6 (0.44%) 21 CFR Part 11
System Software
1 51 (3.70%) Active Directory
2 40 (2.90%) Docker
3 34 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.38%) Firmware
5 16 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (0.94%) 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 (4.06%) Kubernetes
2 49 (3.56%) Terraform
3 47 (3.41%) Ansible
4 15 (1.09%) 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
10 6 (0.44%) HP ALM
10 6 (0.44%) Nmap
11 5 (0.36%) CASB
11 5 (0.36%) RSA Archer
11 5 (0.36%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 204 (14.80%) Microsoft
2 155 (11.25%) Oracle
3 122 (8.85%) SAP
4 60 (4.35%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.70%) VMware
6 50 (3.63%) Databricks
7 42 (3.05%) Salesforce
8 38 (2.76%) Cisco
9 30 (2.18%) Splunk
10 28 (2.03%) Workday
11 26 (1.89%) 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%) Palo Alto
16 11 (0.80%) EMC
17 10 (0.73%) Adobe
17 10 (0.73%) Informatica