Validation Contracts

Validation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Validation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Validation over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 83 126 146
Rank change year-on-year +43 +20 +45
Contract jobs citing Validation 845 800 1,085
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.89% 1.84% 1.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.18% 2.13% 2.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 495 399 618
10th Percentile £350 £319 £363
25th Percentile £413 £413 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £608 £676
90th Percentile £703 £700 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 158 182
10th Percentile £25.15 £23.14 £42.50
25th Percentile £47.21 £52.50 £51.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £60.50 £62.55
Median % change year-on-year -4.96% -3.28% +13.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £75.16 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.53 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.88 £63.75 £62.25
% change year-on-year -7.65% +2.41% +13.18%

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 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Validation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Validation in the UK

Validation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Validation.

Daily rate trend for Validation in the UK

Validation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Validation over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Validation.

Hourly rate trend for Validation in the UK

Validation
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Validation over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 17 Contract 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 30 April 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 +39 745 £539 +7.75% 1,211
UK excluding London +23 402 £513 +2.50% 817
London +53 326 £550 - 460
Work from Home +23 250 £500 -5.21% 624
South East +52 133 £500 -0.10% 217
South West +31 79 £575 +27.78% 112
North of England +20 79 £475 +6.74% 156
North West +30 60 £438 -12.50% 112
East of England +5 48 £450 -7.69% 120
Midlands +15 46 £475 +11.76% 148
West Midlands +11 30 £475 - 107
Scotland +18 19 £456 -3.95% 61
East Midlands +6 16 £459 +13.33% 38
Yorkshire -6 14 £445 +4.59% 32
North East -4 5 £725 +59.69% 12
Northern Ireland -16 3 £588 -2.08% 18
Wales +4 2 £155 -74.80% 13

Validation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 64 (7.57%) Confluence
2 18 (2.13%) Apache Spark
3 16 (1.89%) SharePoint
4 13 (1.54%) SAS
5 7 (0.83%) Apache
6 5 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (0.47%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.36%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.24%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.24%) TPMS
10 1 (0.12%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.12%) CICS
10 1 (0.12%) IBM Domino
10 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 47 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (3.20%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.66%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.07%) Simulink
6 6 (0.71%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.12%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.12%) CANalyzer
8 1 (0.12%) Fusion 360
8 1 (0.12%) Revit
8 1 (0.12%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.12%) Stateflow
8 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (2.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (2.37%) Oracle EBS
3 10 (1.18%) Teamcenter
4 9 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
5 7 (0.83%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.71%) Workday HCM
7 5 (0.59%) Oracle Assets
7 5 (0.59%) Oracle E-Business Tax
7 5 (0.59%) Oracle General Ledger
7 5 (0.59%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.59%) SAP QM
8 4 (0.47%) Oracle ERP
8 4 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.47%) SAP CO
9 3 (0.36%) Bankmaster
9 3 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
9 3 (0.36%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.36%) SAP FI
9 3 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
9 3 (0.36%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 120 (14.20%) Azure
2 65 (7.69%) Power Platform
3 60 (7.10%) AWS
4 30 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
5 28 (3.31%) GCP
6 24 (2.84%) SaaS
7 20 (2.37%) Azure Data Factory
8 15 (1.78%) Entra ID
8 15 (1.78%) Microsoft 365
8 15 (1.78%) OCI
8 15 (1.78%) PaaS
9 13 (1.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 13 (1.54%) GitHub
9 13 (1.54%) PowerApps
10 12 (1.42%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (1.30%) Serverless
12 10 (1.18%) Cloud Computing
13 8 (0.95%) Google Workspace
13 8 (0.95%) Snowflake
13 8 (0.95%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 52 (6.15%) Firewall
2 26 (3.08%) VPN
3 24 (2.84%) Network Security
4 15 (1.78%) BGP
4 15 (1.78%) OSPF
5 11 (1.30%) 5G
5 11 (1.30%) SNMP
6 9 (1.07%) Cisco IOS
6 9 (1.07%) MPLS
6 9 (1.07%) PBX
6 9 (1.07%) Software-Defined Radio
6 9 (1.07%) VoIP
6 9 (1.07%) Wireless
7 7 (0.83%) Cisco Nexus
7 7 (0.83%) Internet
7 7 (0.83%) VXLAN
7 7 (0.83%) WAN
8 6 (0.71%) 4G
8 6 (0.71%) Ethernet
8 6 (0.71%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (6.27%) Power BI
2 50 (5.92%) Data Warehouse
3 28 (3.31%) SQL Server
4 27 (3.20%) Tableau
5 25 (2.96%) Oracle Reports
6 24 (2.84%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (1.89%) Big Data
8 12 (1.42%) Metadata
8 12 (1.42%) MySQL
8 12 (1.42%) Qlik Sense
9 11 (1.30%) Data Lake
9 11 (1.30%) NoSQL
10 9 (1.07%) Oracle Database
10 9 (1.07%) Relational Database
11 8 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
11 8 (0.95%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 8 (0.95%) SAP Data Services
12 7 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.83%) Hadoop
12 7 (0.83%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 95 (11.24%) JIRA
2 50 (5.92%) Git
3 44 (5.21%) Jenkins
4 28 (3.31%) Postman
5 23 (2.72%) Selenium
6 20 (2.37%) Bitbucket
7 17 (2.01%) Cucumber
8 16 (1.89%) JMeter
9 15 (1.78%) Cypress.io
10 14 (1.66%) GitLab
11 10 (1.18%) Eclipse
11 10 (1.18%) REST Assured
11 10 (1.18%) Robot Framework
12 9 (1.07%) GoogleTest
12 9 (1.07%) Rational DOORS
13 8 (0.95%) LoadRunner
14 6 (0.71%) Oracle Forms
14 6 (0.71%) SoapUI
15 5 (0.59%) SpecFlow
15 5 (0.59%) Toad
General
1 304 (35.98%) Social Skills
2 204 (24.14%) Analytical Skills
3 182 (21.54%) Finance
4 58 (6.86%) Banking
5 56 (6.63%) Public Sector
6 36 (4.26%) Presentation Skills
7 33 (3.91%) Telecoms
8 30 (3.55%) Marketing
9 26 (3.08%) Front Office
9 26 (3.08%) Manufacturing
10 25 (2.96%) Retail
11 22 (2.60%) Investment Banking
12 20 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 15 (1.78%) Legal
15 13 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
16 12 (1.42%) Aerospace
16 12 (1.42%) Military
16 12 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
17 11 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 159 (18.82%) Analyst
2 85 (10.06%) Senior
3 74 (8.76%) Consultant
4 72 (8.52%) Business Analyst
5 60 (7.10%) Data Analyst
6 49 (5.80%) Developer
7 47 (5.56%) Data Engineer
8 46 (5.44%) Lead
9 44 (5.21%) Architect
10 31 (3.67%) Systems Engineer
11 30 (3.55%) Network Engineer
12 29 (3.43%) Tester
13 27 (3.20%) Test Engineer
14 24 (2.84%) Project Manager
15 20 (2.37%) Data Consultant
16 17 (2.01%) SAP Consultant
16 17 (2.01%) Senior Analyst
16 17 (2.01%) Technical Analyst
16 17 (2.01%) Test Analyst
17 15 (1.78%) QA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.31%) REST
2 24 (2.84%) Web Services
3 21 (2.49%) CSS
4 20 (2.37%) HTML
5 18 (2.13%) SOAP
6 17 (2.01%) Oracle Fusion
7 16 (1.89%) RESTful
8 14 (1.66%) Flash
8 14 (1.66%) Kafka
9 12 (1.42%) JSON
9 12 (1.42%) SAP Fiori
9 12 (1.42%) XML
10 11 (1.30%) Middleware
10 11 (1.30%) PySpark
11 10 (1.18%) Node.js
12 7 (0.83%) Pandas
12 7 (0.83%) Playwright
12 7 (0.83%) pytest
13 6 (0.71%) Microsoft Graph
13 6 (0.71%) React
Miscellaneous
1 45 (5.33%) Legacy Systems
2 33 (3.91%) Product Ownership
3 29 (3.43%) Management Information System
4 23 (2.72%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.01%) Data Structures
5 17 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (1.78%) Credit Risk
6 15 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (1.66%) Algorithms
7 14 (1.66%) Clustering
7 14 (1.66%) Derivative
8 13 (1.54%) FPGA
8 13 (1.54%) Replication
9 12 (1.42%) IoT
10 10 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.18%) Verilog
11 9 (1.07%) Blackberry
11 9 (1.07%) Mobile App
11 9 (1.07%) Multi-touch
11 9 (1.07%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 63 (7.46%) Linux
2 54 (6.39%) Windows
3 24 (2.84%) Unix
4 19 (2.25%) Windows Server
5 14 (1.66%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.83%) Android
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.24%) VMS
9 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Solaris
9 1 (0.12%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.12%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 242 (28.64%) Problem-Solving
2 215 (25.44%) Migration
3 195 (23.08%) Agile
4 110 (13.02%) Test Automation
5 108 (12.78%) Data Validation
6 107 (12.66%) Data Migration
7 102 (12.07%) Analytics
8 95 (11.24%) ETL
9 94 (11.12%) User Acceptance Testing
10 91 (10.77%) DevOps
11 86 (10.18%) Data Modelling
12 85 (10.06%) CI/CD
13 81 (9.59%) Business Intelligence
13 81 (9.59%) Stakeholder Management
14 76 (8.99%) Data Analysis
15 65 (7.69%) Computer Science
16 61 (7.22%) Data Management
17 58 (6.86%) Decision-Making
17 58 (6.86%) Project Management
18 56 (6.63%) Data Cleansing
Programming Languages
1 208 (24.62%) SQL
2 154 (18.22%) Python
3 38 (4.50%) JavaScript
4 35 (4.14%) Java
5 31 (3.67%) Bash
5 31 (3.67%) PowerShell
6 25 (2.96%) PL/SQL
7 23 (2.72%) C++
8 17 (2.01%) C#
8 17 (2.01%) Shell Script
9 14 (1.66%) R
10 12 (1.42%) VBA
11 11 (1.30%) Tcl
12 10 (1.18%) ABAP
12 10 (1.18%) SystemVerilog
12 10 (1.18%) TypeScript
13 9 (1.07%) MATLAB
14 8 (0.95%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (0.95%) Perl
Qualifications
1 152 (17.99%) Security Cleared
2 127 (15.03%) SC Cleared
3 118 (13.96%) Degree
4 57 (6.75%) Cisco Certification
5 47 (5.56%) CCNP
6 39 (4.62%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 32 (3.79%) Computer Science Degree
8 28 (3.31%) CCNA
9 25 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (2.60%) DV Cleared
11 21 (2.49%) Master's Degree
12 17 (2.01%) ISTQB
13 11 (1.30%) Oracle Certification
14 10 (1.18%) CISSP
14 10 (1.18%) OCA
14 10 (1.18%) PhD
14 10 (1.18%) RHCA
14 10 (1.18%) RHCE
15 9 (1.07%) ISEB
15 9 (1.07%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (13.02%) QA
2 99 (11.72%) Data Quality
3 20 (2.37%) GDPR
4 12 (1.42%) GxP
5 9 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (0.95%) Accessibility
6 8 (0.95%) IFRS
6 8 (0.95%) IFRS 9
6 8 (0.95%) NIST
7 7 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 7 (0.83%) MiFID
7 7 (0.83%) PCI DSS
7 7 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (0.71%) HIPAA
8 6 (0.71%) SEPA
9 5 (0.59%) PMO
10 4 (0.47%) SLA
11 2 (0.24%) HL7
11 2 (0.24%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 39 (4.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 30 (3.55%) Active Directory
3 18 (2.13%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.66%) VMware ESXi
5 12 (1.42%) Docker
6 10 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.59%) Firmware
8 3 (0.36%) OpenAM
8 3 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.24%) FreeRADIUS
9 2 (0.24%) iptables
10 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.12%) KVM
10 1 (0.12%) LXC
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.12%) QEMU
10 1 (0.12%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.12%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (4.73%) Ansible
2 29 (3.43%) vCenter Server
3 20 (2.37%) Kubernetes
4 15 (1.78%) Puppet
5 14 (1.66%) Progress Chef
6 13 (1.54%) Terraform
7 6 (0.71%) vRealize
8 5 (0.59%) EnCase
8 5 (0.59%) FTK
8 5 (0.59%) Grafana
9 4 (0.47%) PowerCLI
10 3 (0.36%) Functional Safety
10 3 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.36%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.24%) Cacti
11 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.24%) Nagios
11 2 (0.24%) Netcool
11 2 (0.24%) SCOM
11 2 (0.24%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 107 (12.66%) Microsoft
2 98 (11.60%) Oracle
3 86 (10.18%) SAP
4 54 (6.39%) Cisco
5 47 (5.56%) VMware
6 37 (4.38%) Salesforce
7 31 (3.67%) Google
8 30 (3.55%) ServiceNow
9 29 (3.43%) Atlassian
10 28 (3.31%) Databricks
11 27 (3.20%) Workday
12 15 (1.78%) Informatica
13 12 (1.42%) Palo Alto
14 11 (1.30%) Juniper
14 11 (1.30%) Nokia
14 11 (1.30%) Splunk
15 10 (1.18%) Adobe
15 10 (1.18%) Ariba
15 10 (1.18%) F5
15 10 (1.18%) Xilinx