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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 63 112 144
Rank change year-on-year +49 +32 -5
Contract jobs citing Validation 1,352 777 809
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 2.16% 1.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.25% 2.48% 2.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 802 391 467
10th Percentile £360 £332 £350
25th Percentile £413 £404 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £611 £588 £625
90th Percentile £688 £675 £785
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £514
% change year-on-year - -7.50% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 76 88
10th Percentile £31.53 £28.00 £51.23
25th Percentile £41.77 £45.22 £58.19
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 £75.00 £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 31,830 31,370 40,452
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.08% 87.18% 88.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,997 18,966 27,094
10th Percentile £300 £310 £310
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.59% -3.00%
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 2,072 1,117 1,558
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.22 £14.33
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.24 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £43.42
Median % change year-on-year -23.79% -23.99% +24.04%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £32.50 £43.90
% change year-on-year -30.37% -25.97% +36.12%

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 1 December 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 1 December 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 1 December 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 1,164 £500 - 623
UK excluding London +21 637 £475 - 557
London +74 541 £520 +4.00% 151
Work from Home +75 432 £500 -6.98% 318
South East +7 152 £500 +15.94% 236
North of England +21 131 £428 -12.31% 56
East of England +23 113 £492 +31.25% 127
South West +2 97 £475 -18.24% 93
Midlands -6 89 £506 +22.67% 69
North West +20 84 £425 -7.86% 28
West Midlands +4 73 £515 +8.42% 47
Scotland +26 36 £450 -1.10% 18
Yorkshire -19 32 £430 +2.38% 20
East Midlands -7 16 £456 +14.06% 20
North East +4 15 £475 -32.14% 9
Northern Ireland +6 14 £425 - 1
Wales +2 11 £500 - 8
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 50 (3.70%) Confluence
2 34 (2.51%) Apache Spark
3 32 (2.37%) SharePoint
4 25 (1.85%) SAS
5 21 (1.55%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.18%) Apache
8 14 (1.04%) Skype for Business
9 12 (0.89%) WebLogic
10 9 (0.67%) Oracle Service Bus
10 9 (0.67%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 8 (0.59%) CMS
12 7 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2013
12 7 (0.52%) Mattermost
13 6 (0.44%) OpenStack
14 4 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
15 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
15 3 (0.22%) GeoServer
15 3 (0.22%) Smallworld
Applications
1 84 (6.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 36 (2.66%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (2.00%) MS Visio
4 20 (1.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.67%) 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 (0.074%) 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 79 (5.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.04%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (0.89%) SAP EHS
3 12 (0.89%) SAP FI
3 12 (0.89%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.74%) Aladdin
4 10 (0.74%) Remedy ITSM
5 9 (0.67%) Oracle BPM
6 8 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
7 7 (0.52%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.52%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 7 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
7 7 (0.52%) SAP MM
8 6 (0.44%) Oracle Receivables
8 6 (0.44%) SAP ERP
9 5 (0.37%) Markit EDM
9 5 (0.37%) SAP PLM
9 5 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 5 (0.37%) Workday HCM
10 4 (0.30%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 315 (23.30%) Azure
2 157 (11.61%) AWS
3 124 (9.17%) Azure DevOps
4 118 (8.73%) Power Platform
5 60 (4.44%) GCP
5 60 (4.44%) GitHub
6 41 (3.03%) SaaS
7 39 (2.88%) GitHub Actions
8 38 (2.81%) Entra ID
9 33 (2.44%) Serverless
10 31 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
11 28 (2.07%) Azure Data Factory
11 28 (2.07%) Snowflake
12 24 (1.78%) OpenShift
13 23 (1.70%) Amazon S3
14 22 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
15 21 (1.55%) OCI
16 18 (1.33%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 15 (1.11%) Azure Functions
17 15 (1.11%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.81%) Firewall
2 35 (2.59%) TCP/IP
3 25 (1.85%) DNS
4 22 (1.63%) Ethernet
5 20 (1.48%) WAN
6 16 (1.18%) VPN
7 15 (1.11%) 3GPP
8 14 (1.04%) BGP
8 14 (1.04%) HTTP
8 14 (1.04%) LTE
8 14 (1.04%) Skype
9 13 (0.96%) MPLS
9 13 (0.96%) OSPF
10 12 (0.89%) Network Security
10 12 (0.89%) SSL
10 12 (0.89%) Wireless
11 11 (0.81%) SD-WAN
12 10 (0.74%) LAN
13 9 (0.67%) SNMP
13 9 (0.67%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (8.21%) Power BI
2 69 (5.10%) Data Warehouse
3 58 (4.29%) Metadata
4 39 (2.88%) Tableau
5 32 (2.37%) SQL Server
6 27 (2.00%) NoSQL
6 27 (2.00%) Oracle Database
7 23 (1.70%) Data Lake
8 22 (1.63%) Relational Database
9 21 (1.55%) Azure SQL Database
10 19 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
11 18 (1.33%) Oracle Reports
11 18 (1.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 16 (1.18%) BigQuery
12 16 (1.18%) Delta Lake
13 14 (1.04%) Big Data
13 14 (1.04%) Geospatial Data
13 14 (1.04%) Parquet
13 14 (1.04%) SAP Data Services
13 14 (1.04%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 133 (9.84%) JIRA
2 67 (4.96%) Git
3 65 (4.81%) Jenkins
4 42 (3.11%) Selenium
5 41 (3.03%) Postman
6 40 (2.96%) GitLab
7 32 (2.37%) Oracle APEX
8 27 (2.00%) Visual Studio
9 22 (1.63%) Eclipse
10 20 (1.48%) TestRail
11 18 (1.33%) Cucumber
12 16 (1.18%) JMeter
12 16 (1.18%) Rational DOORS
12 16 (1.18%) Zephyr
13 13 (0.96%) JUnit
14 11 (0.81%) Bitbucket
14 11 (0.81%) SpecFlow
15 10 (0.74%) REST Assured
16 9 (0.67%) Cypress.io
16 9 (0.67%) MLflow
General
1 534 (39.50%) Social Skills
2 354 (26.18%) Finance
3 309 (22.86%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 95 (7.03%) Banking
6 82 (6.07%) Documentation Skills
7 49 (3.62%) Presentation Skills
8 35 (2.59%) Military
8 35 (2.59%) Pharmaceutical
9 32 (2.37%) Aerospace
9 32 (2.37%) Manufacturing
10 30 (2.22%) Marketing
10 30 (2.22%) Telecoms
11 27 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (1.92%) Investment Banking
13 25 (1.85%) Electronics
14 24 (1.78%) Front Office
14 24 (1.78%) Organisational Skills
15 21 (1.55%) Billing
16 18 (1.33%) Legal
Job Titles
1 273 (20.19%) Analyst
2 140 (10.36%) Senior
3 137 (10.13%) Consultant
4 120 (8.88%) Developer
5 117 (8.65%) Business Analyst
6 96 (7.10%) Lead
7 67 (4.96%) Data Analyst
8 57 (4.22%) Architect
9 51 (3.77%) Software Engineer
9 51 (3.77%) Tester
10 46 (3.40%) Data Engineer
10 46 (3.40%) SAP Consultant
11 38 (2.81%) Data Scientist
12 37 (2.74%) Test Analyst
13 36 (2.66%) Senior Developer
14 33 (2.44%) Senior Analyst
15 28 (2.07%) Project Manager
15 28 (2.07%) QA Engineer
16 24 (1.78%) Data Consultant
16 24 (1.78%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (6.07%) REST
2 73 (5.40%) JSON
3 54 (3.99%) XML
4 42 (3.11%) Node.js
5 40 (2.96%) SOAP
6 39 (2.88%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (2.44%) OAuth
8 32 (2.37%) Web Services
9 30 (2.22%) .NET
9 30 (2.22%) RESTful
10 28 (2.07%) PySpark
11 27 (2.00%) SAP Fiori
12 23 (1.70%) Middleware
12 23 (1.70%) Playwright
13 21 (1.55%) Swagger
14 18 (1.33%) Kafka
14 18 (1.33%) OAuth2
14 18 (1.33%) OpenAPI
15 17 (1.26%) Pandas
16 16 (1.18%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (4.66%) Legacy Systems
2 47 (3.48%) Data Structures
2 47 (3.48%) Product Ownership
3 46 (3.40%) Onboarding
4 39 (2.88%) Management Information System
5 29 (2.14%) FPGA
6 28 (2.07%) Cloud Native
7 27 (2.00%) Data Centre
8 25 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.85%) Virtual Team
9 22 (1.63%) Algorithms
10 20 (1.48%) IoT
11 19 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
12 18 (1.33%) Derivative
13 16 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
14 15 (1.11%) Hybrid Cloud
14 15 (1.11%) NB-IoT
15 14 (1.04%) Security Posture
15 14 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
16 12 (0.89%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 105 (7.77%) Linux
2 84 (6.21%) Windows
3 27 (2.00%) Unix
4 9 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.59%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.52%) Android
7 4 (0.30%) 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 (0.074%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.074%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.074%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.074%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.074%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.074%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 364 (26.92%) Agile
2 319 (23.59%) Problem-Solving
3 297 (21.97%) Migration
4 242 (17.90%) DevOps
5 231 (17.09%) CI/CD
6 215 (15.90%) Data Validation
7 209 (15.46%) Analytics
8 188 (13.91%) Stakeholder Management
9 171 (12.65%) Data Migration
10 160 (11.83%) Test Automation
11 140 (10.36%) ETL
12 139 (10.28%) Data Modelling
13 137 (10.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 135 (9.99%) Business Intelligence
15 133 (9.84%) User Acceptance Testing
16 131 (9.69%) Data Governance
17 128 (9.47%) Data Analysis
18 115 (8.51%) AI
19 111 (8.21%) Continuous Improvement
19 111 (8.21%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 345 (25.52%) SQL
2 302 (22.34%) Python
3 99 (7.32%) JavaScript
4 72 (5.33%) C#
5 70 (5.18%) Java
6 58 (4.29%) PL/SQL
7 53 (3.92%) C++
8 42 (3.11%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.96%) Bash
10 32 (2.37%) R
11 23 (1.70%) TypeScript
12 20 (1.48%) C
13 17 (1.26%) Shell Script
14 15 (1.11%) T-SQL
15 14 (1.04%) ABAP
16 13 (0.96%) Groovy
16 13 (0.96%) VBA
17 9 (0.67%) Apex Code
17 9 (0.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 9 (0.67%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 314 (23.22%) Security Cleared
2 239 (17.68%) SC Cleared
3 145 (10.72%) Degree
4 43 (3.18%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (2.51%) Master's Degree
7 30 (2.22%) DV Cleared
8 28 (2.07%) ISTQB
9 20 (1.48%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.26%) AWS Certification
11 15 (1.11%) CISSP
11 15 (1.11%) PhD
12 13 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.96%) PMP
13 12 (0.89%) CBAP
13 12 (0.89%) Oracle Certification
14 10 (0.74%) Azure Certification
15 9 (0.67%) CTC Cleared
15 9 (0.67%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 9 (0.67%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 169 (12.50%) QA
2 167 (12.35%) Data Quality
3 70 (5.18%) GDPR
4 50 (3.70%) NIST
5 37 (2.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (2.14%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.18%) GxP
8 14 (1.04%) EU AI Act
9 11 (0.81%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.74%) COBIT
10 10 (0.74%) IFRS
11 8 (0.59%) MISRA
11 8 (0.59%) NCSC
11 8 (0.59%) PCI DSS
11 8 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.52%) DO-178B
12 7 (0.52%) MiFID
12 7 (0.52%) SLA
13 6 (0.44%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 6 (0.44%) HL7
System Software
1 51 (3.77%) Active Directory
2 39 (2.88%) Docker
3 30 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (1.48%) Firmware
5 10 (0.74%) vSphere
6 9 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (0.67%) VMware NSX
7 6 (0.44%) Dovecot
7 6 (0.44%) Postfix
8 5 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.22%) QEMU
11 2 (0.15%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.15%) OpenDJ
11 2 (0.15%) OpenIDM
11 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
12 1 (0.074%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.074%) KVM
12 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
12 1 (0.074%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 55 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 49 (3.62%) Terraform
3 43 (3.18%) Ansible
4 16 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (0.67%) Nessus
7 9 (0.67%) SCCM
7 9 (0.67%) SCOM
8 8 (0.59%) Argo
8 8 (0.59%) Grafana
8 8 (0.59%) Istio
8 8 (0.59%) Puppet
9 7 (0.52%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (0.52%) Kibana
9 7 (0.52%) Nmap
10 6 (0.44%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.37%) CASB
11 5 (0.37%) RSA Archer
11 5 (0.37%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 198 (14.64%) Microsoft
2 152 (11.24%) Oracle
3 121 (8.95%) SAP
4 62 (4.59%) ServiceNow
5 51 (3.77%) Databricks
6 44 (3.25%) Salesforce
6 44 (3.25%) VMware
7 35 (2.59%) Cisco
8 30 (2.22%) Splunk
9 27 (2.00%) Workday
10 23 (1.70%) Google
11 16 (1.18%) MuleSoft
11 16 (1.18%) Red Hat
12 15 (1.11%) IBM
13 14 (1.04%) Remedy
14 12 (0.89%) Informatica
14 12 (0.89%) Palo Alto
15 11 (0.81%) Adobe
15 11 (0.81%) CyberArk
15 11 (0.81%) EMC