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

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 64 108 149
Rank change year-on-year +44 +41 -3
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,383 801 798
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.83% 2.18% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.28% 2.51% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 820 403 460
10th Percentile £358 £332 £356
25th Percentile £413 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.96%
75th Percentile £613 £594 £638
90th Percentile £688 £675 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £525
% change year-on-year -2.71% -7.00% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 82 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 £74.75 £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 32,304 31,906 40,162
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.43% 86.97% 88.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,227 19,221 26,955
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% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,107 1,156 1,551
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.22 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.52 £20.24 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +25.71%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.23% -26.97% +41.14%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +46 1,188 £500 - 741
UK excluding London +20 658 £475 -2.71% 674
London +74 547 £525 +5.00% 205
Work from Home +74 440 £500 -7.41% 364
South East +7 159 £500 +2.56% 291
North of England +24 128 £425 -12.82% 74
East of England +22 113 £500 +33.33% 121
South West +2 105 £475 -21.49% 99
Midlands -6 95 £492 +2.13% 96
North West +13 81 £425 -7.86% 40
West Midlands -9 78 £500 - 59
Scotland +24 39 £450 -1.10% 31
Yorkshire -20 32 £400 -4.76% 25
East Midlands -6 17 £438 +9.38% 36
North East +4 15 £475 -32.14% 10
Northern Ireland +7 14 £425 - 5
Wales +6 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 (3.90%) Confluence
2 35 (2.53%) SharePoint
3 33 (2.39%) Apache Spark
4 24 (1.74%) SAS
5 21 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.16%) Apache
8 15 (1.08%) Skype for Business
9 13 (0.94%) WebLogic
10 10 (0.72%) 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 (0.43%) OpenStack
15 4 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 4 (0.29%) ArcGIS
15 4 (0.29%) Smallworld
16 3 (0.22%) GeoServer
16 3 (0.22%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 87 (6.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (1.95%) MS Visio
4 20 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.65%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.43%) Sketch
7 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.14%) Simulink
9 1 (0.072%) CANalyzer
9 1 (0.072%) NASTRAN
9 1 (0.072%) Notion
9 1 (0.072%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.072%) Stateflow
9 1 (0.072%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 82 (5.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.08%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (1.01%) SAP MDG
4 13 (0.94%) SAP FI
5 12 (0.87%) Aladdin
5 12 (0.87%) SAP EHS
6 10 (0.72%) 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 (0.43%) NetSuite
10 6 (0.43%) Oracle Receivables
10 6 (0.43%) SAP ERP
10 6 (0.43%) Workday HCM
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
Cloud Services
1 309 (22.34%) Azure
2 156 (11.28%) AWS
3 122 (8.82%) Azure DevOps
4 121 (8.75%) Power Platform
5 59 (4.27%) GCP
5 59 (4.27%) GitHub
6 40 (2.89%) SaaS
7 38 (2.75%) GitHub Actions
8 36 (2.60%) Entra ID
9 34 (2.46%) Serverless
10 32 (2.31%) Microsoft 365
11 30 (2.17%) Snowflake
12 26 (1.88%) Azure Data Factory
13 24 (1.74%) OpenShift
14 23 (1.66%) Amazon S3
14 23 (1.66%) OCI
15 22 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
16 16 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 16 (1.16%) dbt
17 15 (1.08%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.75%) Firewall
2 35 (2.53%) TCP/IP
3 29 (2.10%) DNS
4 22 (1.59%) Ethernet
5 21 (1.52%) VPN
6 20 (1.45%) WAN
7 19 (1.37%) BGP
8 18 (1.30%) MPLS
9 15 (1.08%) 3GPP
9 15 (1.08%) Skype
10 14 (1.01%) HTTP
10 14 (1.01%) LTE
11 13 (0.94%) OSPF
12 12 (0.87%) SSL
13 11 (0.80%) Network Security
13 11 (0.80%) SD-WAN
13 11 (0.80%) Wireless
14 10 (0.72%) LAN
15 9 (0.65%) SNMP
15 9 (0.65%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (8.24%) Power BI
2 69 (4.99%) Data Warehouse
3 55 (3.98%) Metadata
4 40 (2.89%) Tableau
5 31 (2.24%) SQL Server
6 28 (2.02%) NoSQL
7 27 (1.95%) Oracle Database
8 23 (1.66%) Data Lake
9 22 (1.59%) Relational Database
10 21 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 20 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
12 18 (1.30%) Oracle Reports
12 18 (1.30%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 17 (1.23%) BigQuery
14 15 (1.08%) Delta Lake
15 14 (1.01%) Big Data
15 14 (1.01%) Geospatial Data
15 14 (1.01%) SAP Data Services
15 14 (1.01%) SAP HANA
16 13 (0.94%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 139 (10.05%) JIRA
2 69 (4.99%) Git
3 65 (4.70%) Jenkins
4 40 (2.89%) GitLab
4 40 (2.89%) Postman
4 40 (2.89%) Selenium
5 32 (2.31%) Oracle APEX
6 27 (1.95%) Visual Studio
7 22 (1.59%) Eclipse
8 19 (1.37%) TestRail
9 17 (1.23%) Cucumber
10 16 (1.16%) Rational DOORS
11 15 (1.08%) JMeter
11 15 (1.08%) Zephyr
12 13 (0.94%) JUnit
13 11 (0.80%) Bitbucket
14 10 (0.72%) Cypress.io
14 10 (0.72%) REST Assured
14 10 (0.72%) SpecFlow
15 9 (0.65%) MLflow
General
1 565 (40.85%) Social Skills
2 364 (26.32%) Finance
3 317 (22.92%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (8.82%) Public Sector
5 96 (6.94%) Banking
6 84 (6.07%) Documentation Skills
7 53 (3.83%) Presentation Skills
8 34 (2.46%) Aerospace
8 34 (2.46%) Manufacturing
8 34 (2.46%) Pharmaceutical
9 33 (2.39%) Military
10 30 (2.17%) Telecoms
11 29 (2.10%) Marketing
12 27 (1.95%) Electronics
12 27 (1.95%) Front Office
13 26 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
13 26 (1.88%) Investment Banking
14 23 (1.66%) Organisational Skills
15 22 (1.59%) Billing
16 19 (1.37%) Legal
Job Titles
1 284 (20.54%) Analyst
2 142 (10.27%) Consultant
3 141 (10.20%) Senior
4 126 (9.11%) Developer
5 122 (8.82%) Business Analyst
6 101 (7.30%) Lead
7 75 (5.42%) Data Analyst
8 57 (4.12%) Architect
9 51 (3.69%) Tester
10 50 (3.62%) Software Engineer
11 48 (3.47%) SAP Consultant
12 43 (3.11%) Data Engineer
13 38 (2.75%) Data Scientist
13 38 (2.75%) Test Analyst
14 36 (2.60%) Senior Developer
15 32 (2.31%) Senior Analyst
16 28 (2.02%) Project Manager
16 28 (2.02%) QA Engineer
17 26 (1.88%) Test Engineer
18 24 (1.74%) Data Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (6.00%) REST
2 72 (5.21%) JSON
3 53 (3.83%) XML
4 43 (3.11%) Node.js
5 42 (3.04%) SOAP
6 38 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (2.46%) OAuth
8 33 (2.39%) Web Services
9 32 (2.31%) RESTful
10 30 (2.17%) .NET
11 28 (2.02%) SAP Fiori
12 26 (1.88%) PySpark
13 25 (1.81%) Middleware
14 23 (1.66%) Playwright
15 21 (1.52%) Swagger
16 18 (1.30%) OAuth2
16 18 (1.30%) OpenAPI
17 17 (1.23%) Kafka
17 17 (1.23%) Pandas
18 16 (1.16%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 66 (4.77%) Legacy Systems
2 46 (3.33%) Data Structures
2 46 (3.33%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.18%) Onboarding
4 41 (2.96%) Management Information System
5 29 (2.10%) FPGA
6 28 (2.02%) Data Centre
7 27 (1.95%) Cloud Native
8 25 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.81%) Virtual Team
9 22 (1.59%) Algorithms
10 19 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
10 19 (1.37%) IoT
11 18 (1.30%) Derivative
12 16 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
13 15 (1.08%) Hybrid Cloud
13 15 (1.08%) NB-IoT
14 14 (1.01%) SCADA
15 13 (0.94%) Replication
15 13 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 105 (7.59%) Linux
2 84 (6.07%) Windows
3 28 (2.02%) 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
7 4 (0.29%) VMS
8 3 (0.22%) zOS
9 2 (0.14%) Debian
9 2 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.072%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.072%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 370 (26.75%) Agile
2 325 (23.50%) Problem-Solving
3 300 (21.69%) Migration
4 240 (17.35%) DevOps
5 228 (16.49%) CI/CD
6 220 (15.91%) Data Validation
7 209 (15.11%) Analytics
8 197 (14.24%) Stakeholder Management
9 174 (12.58%) Data Migration
10 165 (11.93%) Test Automation
11 143 (10.34%) Data Modelling
12 141 (10.20%) Business Intelligence
13 140 (10.12%) ETL
13 140 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 135 (9.76%) Data Governance
15 133 (9.62%) Data Analysis
15 133 (9.62%) User Acceptance Testing
16 115 (8.32%) AI
16 115 (8.32%) Continuous Improvement
17 109 (7.88%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 353 (25.52%) SQL
2 304 (21.98%) Python
3 98 (7.09%) JavaScript
4 72 (5.21%) C#
5 71 (5.13%) Java
6 59 (4.27%) PL/SQL
7 53 (3.83%) C++
8 43 (3.11%) PowerShell
9 39 (2.82%) Bash
10 30 (2.17%) R
11 25 (1.81%) TypeScript
12 20 (1.45%) C
13 17 (1.23%) Shell Script
14 15 (1.08%) VBA
15 14 (1.01%) ABAP
15 14 (1.01%) T-SQL
16 13 (0.94%) Groovy
17 10 (0.72%) Apex Code
18 9 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 9 (0.65%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 321 (23.21%) Security Cleared
2 247 (17.86%) SC Cleared
3 151 (10.92%) Degree
4 43 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 41 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (2.46%) Master's Degree
7 33 (2.39%) DV Cleared
8 28 (2.02%) ISTQB
9 22 (1.59%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (1.16%) AWS Certification
12 15 (1.08%) CISSP
12 15 (1.08%) PhD
13 13 (0.94%) PMP
14 12 (0.87%) CBAP
14 12 (0.87%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (0.72%) CCNP
16 9 (0.65%) CCIE
16 9 (0.65%) CTC Cleared
16 9 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (12.58%) QA
2 165 (11.93%) Data Quality
3 68 (4.92%) GDPR
4 48 (3.47%) NIST
5 35 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.10%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.16%) GxP
8 14 (1.01%) EU AI Act
9 12 (0.87%) IFRS
10 11 (0.80%) Def Stans
10 11 (0.80%) MiFID
11 10 (0.72%) COBIT
12 8 (0.58%) EMIR
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%) SLA
14 6 (0.43%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 6 (0.43%) HL7
System Software
1 50 (3.62%) Active Directory
2 40 (2.89%) Docker
3 34 (2.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.37%) Firmware
5 16 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
6 14 (1.01%) vSphere
7 9 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.43%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.43%) Postfix
9 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
11 3 (0.22%) QEMU
11 3 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.14%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.14%) OpenDJ
12 2 (0.14%) OpenIDM
13 1 (0.072%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.072%) KVM
13 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
13 1 (0.072%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 56 (4.05%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.47%) Terraform
3 47 (3.40%) Ansible
4 15 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.72%) SCCM
7 9 (0.65%) Nessus
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 (0.43%) HP ALM
10 6 (0.43%) Nmap
11 5 (0.36%) RSA Archer
11 5 (0.36%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 206 (14.90%) Microsoft
2 155 (11.21%) Oracle
3 123 (8.89%) SAP
4 60 (4.34%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.69%) VMware
6 48 (3.47%) Databricks
7 43 (3.11%) Salesforce
8 37 (2.68%) Cisco
9 29 (2.10%) Splunk
9 29 (2.10%) Workday
10 26 (1.88%) Google
11 16 (1.16%) MuleSoft
11 16 (1.16%) Red Hat
12 15 (1.08%) IBM
13 14 (1.01%) Remedy
14 12 (0.87%) CyberArk
14 12 (0.87%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.80%) EMC
16 10 (0.72%) Bloomberg
16 10 (0.72%) Informatica