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

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 108 153
Rank change year-on-year +43 +45 -5
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,310 792 802
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.79% 2.17% 1.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.20% 2.52% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 762 406 462
10th Percentile £358 £338 £363
25th Percentile £420 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £618 £591 £638
90th Percentile £688 £671 £849
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £482 £514
% change year-on-year +2.70% -6.27% +2.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 82 93
10th Percentile £29.24 £28.00 £51.21
25th Percentile £41.25 £46.25 £56.30
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -7.41% +11.11%
75th Percentile £67.06 £65.00 £84.36
90th Percentile £74.63 £72.50 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £68.50
% change year-on-year +4.00% -8.76% +14.17%

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 31,170 31,428 41,118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.15% 86.05% 88.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,492 18,903 27,760
10th Percentile £294 £310 £310
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £623 £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 2,014 1,111 1,579
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.33 £20.00 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.36 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.87% -20.54% +27.14%
75th Percentile £43.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £66.85 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.58 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -35.50% -21.35% +51.85%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +42 1,125 £500 - 1,404
UK excluding London +14 628 £495 +2.70% 1,177
London +66 510 £525 +5.00% 551
Work from Home +76 420 £500 -4.76% 611
South East +11 153 £500 +2.56% 523
North of England +5 119 £430 -7.03% 126
East of England +21 111 £500 +33.33% 152
Midlands -2 99 £492 +0.51% 127
South West -6 96 £475 -18.80% 163
West Midlands -11 79 £500 -3.61% 67
North West -1 73 £425 -8.11% 88
Scotland +20 34 £550 +20.88% 40
Yorkshire -11 34 £430 +2.38% 26
East Midlands -5 19 £434 +6.77% 55
Wales +9 12 £500 - 33
North East -1 12 £515 -10.43% 12
Northern Ireland +1 11 £450 - 23
Channel Islands - 1 - - 20

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 55 (4.20%) Confluence
2 36 (2.75%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.98%) Apache Spark
4 23 (1.76%) Apache Airflow
5 22 (1.68%) SAS
6 16 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
7 15 (1.15%) Skype for Business
8 13 (0.99%) WebLogic
9 12 (0.92%) Apache
10 11 (0.84%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 9 (0.69%) Oracle Service Bus
12 8 (0.61%) CMS
13 7 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2013
13 7 (0.53%) Mattermost
14 6 (0.46%) OpenStack
14 6 (0.46%) Smallworld
15 4 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 4 (0.31%) ArcGIS
16 3 (0.23%) Anypoint
16 3 (0.23%) GeoServer
Applications
1 91 (6.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (3.28%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.83%) MS Visio
4 20 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.46%) Sketch
5 6 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.23%) Simulink
7 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.076%) CANalyzer
8 1 (0.076%) NASTRAN
8 1 (0.076%) Notion
8 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.076%) Stateflow
8 1 (0.076%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 84 (6.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.37%) Oracle EBS
3 16 (1.22%) SAP MDG
4 13 (0.99%) Aladdin
4 13 (0.99%) SAP FI
5 12 (0.92%) SAP EHS
6 9 (0.69%) Oracle BPM
6 9 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
7 8 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
8 7 (0.53%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 7 (0.53%) SAP MM
8 7 (0.53%) Workday HCM
9 6 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
9 6 (0.46%) SAP CO
9 6 (0.46%) SAP FI/CO
9 6 (0.46%) SAP PLM
9 6 (0.46%) SAP PM
10 5 (0.38%) Markit EDM
10 5 (0.38%) NetSuite
10 5 (0.38%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 276 (21.07%) Azure
2 149 (11.37%) AWS
3 111 (8.47%) Power Platform
4 102 (7.79%) Azure DevOps
5 56 (4.27%) GCP
6 54 (4.12%) GitHub
7 35 (2.67%) SaaS
8 34 (2.60%) Entra ID
8 34 (2.60%) GitHub Actions
9 31 (2.37%) Snowflake
10 30 (2.29%) Serverless
11 29 (2.21%) OCI
12 28 (2.14%) Microsoft 365
13 24 (1.83%) Azure Data Factory
14 23 (1.76%) OpenShift
15 19 (1.45%) dbt
15 19 (1.45%) Dynamics 365
16 17 (1.30%) Amazon S3
17 15 (1.15%) Azure Functions
17 15 (1.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 35 (2.67%) Firewall
2 30 (2.29%) DNS
3 28 (2.14%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.68%) BGP
5 21 (1.60%) VPN
5 21 (1.60%) WAN
6 20 (1.53%) MPLS
7 18 (1.37%) Ethernet
8 15 (1.15%) 3GPP
8 15 (1.15%) LTE
8 15 (1.15%) Skype
9 13 (0.99%) HTTP
9 13 (0.99%) OSPF
10 12 (0.92%) SSL
11 11 (0.84%) LAN
11 11 (0.84%) SD-WAN
12 10 (0.76%) Wireless
13 9 (0.69%) SNMP
14 8 (0.61%) Internet
14 8 (0.61%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 103 (7.86%) Power BI
2 70 (5.34%) Data Warehouse
3 41 (3.13%) Metadata
4 37 (2.82%) Tableau
5 31 (2.37%) Oracle Database
6 30 (2.29%) SQL Server
7 29 (2.21%) NoSQL
8 27 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
9 22 (1.68%) Azure SQL Database
9 22 (1.68%) Data Lake
9 22 (1.68%) Relational Database
10 20 (1.53%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (1.37%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 16 (1.22%) BigQuery
13 14 (1.07%) SAP HANA
14 13 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
14 13 (0.99%) Delta Lake
14 13 (0.99%) GIS
14 13 (0.99%) SAP Data Services
15 11 (0.84%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 133 (10.15%) JIRA
2 60 (4.58%) Git
3 58 (4.43%) Jenkins
4 37 (2.82%) Postman
4 37 (2.82%) Selenium
5 30 (2.29%) GitLab
6 24 (1.83%) Oracle APEX
6 24 (1.83%) Visual Studio
7 18 (1.37%) Eclipse
8 16 (1.22%) TestRail
9 15 (1.15%) Cucumber
9 15 (1.15%) JMeter
9 15 (1.15%) Rational DOORS
10 13 (0.99%) JUnit
10 13 (0.99%) Zephyr
11 10 (0.76%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.69%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.69%) REST Assured
13 8 (0.61%) SpecFlow
14 7 (0.53%) MLflow
General
1 531 (40.53%) Social Skills
2 340 (25.95%) Finance
3 289 (22.06%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (8.47%) Public Sector
5 79 (6.03%) Banking
6 77 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
7 52 (3.97%) Presentation Skills
8 41 (3.13%) Manufacturing
9 34 (2.60%) Aerospace
9 34 (2.60%) Pharmaceutical
10 33 (2.52%) Telecoms
11 30 (2.29%) Front Office
12 29 (2.21%) Marketing
13 27 (2.06%) Electronics
13 27 (2.06%) Military
14 24 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
14 24 (1.83%) Investment Banking
15 21 (1.60%) Billing
16 20 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
17 18 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 261 (19.92%) Analyst
2 146 (11.15%) Consultant
3 122 (9.31%) Senior
4 109 (8.32%) Business Analyst
5 107 (8.17%) Developer
6 99 (7.56%) Lead
7 73 (5.57%) Data Analyst
8 53 (4.05%) SAP Consultant
9 51 (3.89%) Tester
10 48 (3.66%) Architect
11 44 (3.36%) Software Engineer
12 42 (3.21%) Data Engineer
13 33 (2.52%) Data Scientist
14 32 (2.44%) Test Analyst
15 27 (2.06%) Project Manager
15 27 (2.06%) Senior Developer
15 27 (2.06%) Test Engineer
16 24 (1.83%) Oracle Consultant
16 24 (1.83%) Senior Analyst
17 23 (1.76%) Data Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (5.57%) REST
2 65 (4.96%) JSON
3 47 (3.59%) XML
4 39 (2.98%) SOAP
5 34 (2.60%) Oracle Fusion
5 34 (2.60%) RESTful
6 32 (2.44%) Node.js
7 29 (2.21%) SAP Fiori
8 28 (2.14%) .NET
8 28 (2.14%) Web Services
9 27 (2.06%) OAuth
10 20 (1.53%) Middleware
11 18 (1.37%) OAuth2
11 18 (1.37%) Playwright
11 18 (1.37%) Swagger
12 17 (1.30%) Kafka
12 17 (1.30%) PySpark
12 17 (1.30%) React
13 16 (1.22%) Pandas
14 15 (1.15%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 65 (4.96%) Legacy Systems
2 46 (3.51%) Onboarding
2 46 (3.51%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.36%) Management Information System
4 42 (3.21%) Data Structures
5 30 (2.29%) FPGA
6 29 (2.21%) Data Centre
7 28 (2.14%) Cloud Native
7 28 (2.14%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.91%) Virtual Team
9 22 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
10 20 (1.53%) IoT
11 19 (1.45%) SCADA
12 16 (1.22%) Derivative
13 15 (1.15%) Algorithms
13 15 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
13 15 (1.15%) NB-IoT
14 14 (1.07%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
15 13 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 104 (7.94%) Linux
2 79 (6.03%) Windows
3 30 (2.29%) Unix
4 10 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.61%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.38%) VMS
7 4 (0.31%) Android
7 4 (0.31%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.076%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.076%) MVS
9 1 (0.076%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.076%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.076%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.076%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.076%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.076%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.076%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 325 (24.81%) Agile
2 302 (23.05%) Problem-Solving
3 290 (22.14%) Migration
4 216 (16.49%) Data Validation
5 210 (16.03%) DevOps
6 201 (15.34%) CI/CD
7 194 (14.81%) Analytics
8 174 (13.28%) Data Migration
9 172 (13.13%) Stakeholder Management
10 159 (12.14%) Test Automation
11 137 (10.46%) ETL
12 135 (10.31%) Business Intelligence
13 134 (10.23%) Data Modelling
14 132 (10.08%) Data Analysis
15 130 (9.92%) User Acceptance Testing
16 128 (9.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 127 (9.69%) Data Governance
18 98 (7.48%) Data Pipeline
18 98 (7.48%) Visualisation
19 97 (7.40%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 337 (25.73%) SQL
2 286 (21.83%) Python
3 83 (6.34%) JavaScript
4 63 (4.81%) C#
5 62 (4.73%) Java
6 47 (3.59%) PL/SQL
7 42 (3.21%) PowerShell
8 41 (3.13%) C++
9 38 (2.90%) Bash
10 26 (1.98%) R
11 23 (1.76%) TypeScript
12 20 (1.53%) Shell Script
13 16 (1.22%) C
14 15 (1.15%) ABAP
14 15 (1.15%) VBA
15 14 (1.07%) T-SQL
16 12 (0.92%) SystemVerilog
17 10 (0.76%) Groovy
17 10 (0.76%) Tcl
18 9 (0.69%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 292 (22.29%) Security Cleared
2 226 (17.25%) SC Cleared
3 145 (11.07%) Degree
4 41 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 34 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 33 (2.52%) DV Cleared
7 25 (1.91%) ISTQB
8 24 (1.83%) Master's Degree
9 23 (1.76%) PMI Certification
10 19 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
11 18 (1.37%) AWS Certification
12 17 (1.30%) PhD
13 13 (0.99%) CBAP
13 13 (0.99%) CISSP
14 12 (0.92%) CCNP
14 12 (0.92%) PMP
15 9 (0.69%) CCIE
15 9 (0.69%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.69%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 8 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 153 (11.68%) Data Quality
2 150 (11.45%) QA
3 63 (4.81%) GDPR
4 43 (3.28%) NIST
5 29 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.91%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.15%) MiFID
8 14 (1.07%) EU AI Act
9 13 (0.99%) GxP
9 13 (0.99%) IFRS
10 10 (0.76%) EMIR
11 9 (0.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 8 (0.61%) COBIT
12 8 (0.61%) PCI DSS
13 7 (0.53%) Def Stans
13 7 (0.53%) PMO
13 7 (0.53%) SLA
14 6 (0.46%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 6 (0.46%) HL7
15 5 (0.38%) MISRA
System Software
1 50 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 39 (2.98%) Docker
3 36 (2.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (1.53%) VMware ESXi
5 16 (1.22%) vSphere
6 13 (0.99%) Firmware
7 9 (0.69%) VMware NSX
8 6 (0.46%) Dovecot
8 6 (0.46%) Postfix
9 4 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.23%) QEMU
10 3 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
11 2 (0.15%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.076%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.076%) KVM
12 1 (0.076%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.076%) Squid
12 1 (0.076%) Time Sharing Option
12 1 (0.076%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 52 (3.97%) Kubernetes
2 47 (3.59%) Ansible
3 45 (3.44%) Terraform
4 14 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 10 (0.76%) SCCM
7 9 (0.69%) HP ALM
7 9 (0.69%) Nessus
7 9 (0.69%) SCOM
8 8 (0.61%) Argo
8 8 (0.61%) Grafana
8 8 (0.61%) Istio
9 7 (0.53%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.53%) Puppet
10 6 (0.46%) Kibana
10 6 (0.46%) Nmap
11 5 (0.38%) vCenter Server
12 4 (0.31%) CASB
12 4 (0.31%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 197 (15.04%) Microsoft
2 162 (12.37%) Oracle
3 124 (9.47%) SAP
4 55 (4.20%) VMware
5 53 (4.05%) ServiceNow
6 44 (3.36%) Salesforce
7 39 (2.98%) Databricks
8 35 (2.67%) Cisco
9 28 (2.14%) Splunk
10 25 (1.91%) Workday
11 23 (1.76%) Google
12 17 (1.30%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.07%) EMC
14 13 (0.99%) Informatica
14 13 (0.99%) Remedy
15 11 (0.84%) MuleSoft
16 10 (0.76%) CyberArk
16 10 (0.76%) F5
16 10 (0.76%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.76%) OpenText