Validation Contracts

Validation
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Validation skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Validation over the 6 months to 9 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 125 156 187
Rank change year-on-year +31 +31 -17
Contract jobs citing Validation 810 951 1,344
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.87% 1.71% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.19% 1.91% 1.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 399 540 770
10th Percentile £325 £380 £350
25th Percentile £413 £462 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £558 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.07% +6.19% +10.53%
75th Percentile £599 £700 £625
90th Percentile £675 £962 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £481
% change year-on-year - +3.90% +13.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 159 81
10th Percentile £26.88 £42.50 £25.50
25th Percentile £51.25 £52.55 £42.50
Median hourly rate £60.00 £63.23 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.11% +26.46% +33.33%
75th Percentile £72.50 £68.75 £59.00
90th Percentile £76.86 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.00 £62.55 £48.13
% change year-on-year -0.88% +29.97% +20.32%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Validation is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 36,914 49,809 79,437
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.21% 89.64% 90.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,592 34,469 55,846
10th Percentile £300 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £438 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £649
90th Percentile £750 £750 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £490
% change year-on-year - +2.04% +8.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,564 1,687 1,868
10th Percentile £12.75 £10.70 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.75 £15.75
Median hourly rate £36.50 £35.80 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% +39.41% +11.65%
75th Percentile £61.25 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.12 £35.00 £20.51
% change year-on-year +8.91% +70.69% -2.36%

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 9 June 2024.

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 9 June 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 18 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 9 June 2024. 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 +37 741 £500 -13.04% 967
UK excluding London +47 470 £500 - 776
London -17 266 £530 -18.46% 187
Work from Home +38 248 £525 -4.55% 318
South West +32 130 £525 -9.95% 113
South East +32 117 £525 +5.00% 236
East of England +1 86 £488 -1.52% 154
North of England +67 85 £463 -9.31% 121
Midlands +41 65 £570 +42.50% 129
West Midlands +41 56 £575 +27.78% 85
North West +27 44 £500 -1.96% 79
Yorkshire +35 34 £432 -21.45% 29
East Midlands +7 11 £458 +14.38% 42
Northern Ireland +10 10 £600 - 3
North East +15 7 £500 -9.09% 13
Scotland +5 6 £481 -2.78% 41
Isle of Man - 2 - -
Wales +15 1 - - 15

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 28 (3.46%) Confluence
2 23 (2.84%) SAS
3 18 (2.22%) SharePoint
4 11 (1.36%) Apache Spark
5 9 (1.11%) CMS
6 7 (0.86%) Apache
7 6 (0.74%) IIS
7 6 (0.74%) Sitecore CMS
8 3 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.37%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.12%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.12%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 47 (5.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (4.32%) Simulink
3 33 (4.07%) Microsoft Office
4 29 (3.58%) Stateflow
5 18 (2.22%) AutoCAD
6 16 (1.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.99%) Microsoft Project
8 7 (0.86%) MS Visio
9 5 (0.62%) Sketch
9 5 (0.62%) TargetLink
10 1 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
10 1 (0.12%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.12%) InVision
10 1 (0.12%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.12%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 29 (3.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.74%) Magento
3 3 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.37%) SAP Hybris
3 3 (0.37%) SAP MDG
3 3 (0.37%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.25%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.25%) SAP Business One
4 2 (0.25%) SAP Retail
4 2 (0.25%) SAP SD
5 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.12%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.12%) SAP LE
5 1 (0.12%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.12%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.12%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 79 (9.75%) Azure
2 51 (6.30%) Power Platform
3 42 (5.19%) AWS
4 32 (3.95%) GCP
5 17 (2.10%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 16 (1.98%) dbt
7 13 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.36%) OCI
9 10 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
9 10 (1.23%) Serverless
10 9 (1.11%) Amazon S3
10 9 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
10 9 (1.11%) BrowserStack
10 9 (1.11%) Microsoft 365
10 9 (1.11%) SaaS
11 8 (0.99%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (0.99%) BlazeMeter
11 8 (0.99%) Firebase
12 7 (0.86%) Azure Functions
12 7 (0.86%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 23 (2.84%) TCP/IP
2 16 (1.98%) SNMP
3 15 (1.85%) Internet
4 13 (1.60%) Ethernet
4 13 (1.60%) Software-Defined Radio
5 11 (1.36%) Firewall
5 11 (1.36%) WAN
6 10 (1.23%) LAN
7 9 (1.11%) Network Security
7 9 (1.11%) SSL
8 8 (0.99%) BGP
9 7 (0.86%) MPLS
9 7 (0.86%) VLAN
9 7 (0.86%) Wireless
10 6 (0.74%) DNS
10 6 (0.74%) Remote Desktop
11 5 (0.62%) Kerberos
11 5 (0.62%) VSAN
11 5 (0.62%) WLAN
12 4 (0.49%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (6.79%) Data Warehouse
2 39 (4.81%) Power BI
3 19 (2.35%) SQL Server
4 13 (1.60%) Data Lake
4 13 (1.60%) Relational Database
5 11 (1.36%) Oracle Database
6 10 (1.23%) Electronic Patient Records
7 9 (1.11%) Big Data
8 8 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
8 8 (0.99%) Couchbase
8 8 (0.99%) SAP HANA
8 8 (0.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 7 (0.86%) Tableau
10 6 (0.74%) Hadoop
10 6 (0.74%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.74%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
12 4 (0.49%) Metadata
12 4 (0.49%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 63 (7.78%) JIRA
2 62 (7.65%) Git
3 28 (3.46%) Rational DOORS
4 26 (3.21%) Eclipse
5 17 (2.10%) Bitbucket
6 15 (1.85%) JMeter
7 12 (1.48%) GoogleTest
7 12 (1.48%) Robot Framework
7 12 (1.48%) Selenium
7 12 (1.48%) Subversion
7 12 (1.48%) Visual Studio
8 11 (1.36%) Jenkins
9 10 (1.23%) Postman
9 10 (1.23%) Rational Rhapsody
10 8 (0.99%) Appium
10 8 (0.99%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.99%) GitLab
11 4 (0.49%) LSMW
12 3 (0.37%) IntelliJ
12 3 (0.37%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 188 (23.21%) Social Skills
2 164 (20.25%) Finance
3 111 (13.70%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (5.68%) Public Sector
5 42 (5.19%) Manufacturing
6 39 (4.81%) Automotive
7 36 (4.44%) Aerospace
8 35 (4.32%) Legal
8 35 (4.32%) Presentation Skills
9 32 (3.95%) Banking
10 31 (3.83%) Marketing
11 28 (3.46%) Telecoms
12 23 (2.84%) Military
13 22 (2.72%) Electronics
14 21 (2.59%) Retail
15 20 (2.47%) Pharmaceutical
16 18 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
16 18 (2.22%) Organisational Skills
17 12 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
18 11 (1.36%) Law
Job Titles
1 125 (15.43%) Analyst
2 83 (10.25%) Software Engineer
3 66 (8.15%) Architect
4 57 (7.04%) Lead
5 55 (6.79%) Developer
6 50 (6.17%) Senior
7 48 (5.93%) Business Analyst
8 44 (5.43%) Systems Engineer
9 41 (5.06%) Consultant
10 32 (3.95%) Embedded Engineer
11 29 (3.58%) Data Engineer
11 29 (3.58%) Embedded Software Engineer
12 28 (3.46%) Data Analyst
13 27 (3.33%) Project Manager
14 23 (2.84%) C++ Software Engineer
15 22 (2.72%) Principal Engineer
15 22 (2.72%) Principal Systems Engineer
16 18 (2.22%) Tester
17 17 (2.10%) Administrator
17 17 (2.10%) Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (2.84%) CSS
1 23 (2.84%) HTML
2 19 (2.35%) Node.js
2 19 (2.35%) YAML
3 16 (1.98%) Web Services
4 15 (1.85%) PySpark
5 12 (1.48%) Kafka
5 12 (1.48%) REST
6 10 (1.23%) ADO
6 10 (1.23%) Middleware
7 9 (1.11%) React
8 8 (0.99%) JSON
8 8 (0.99%) OpenAPI
8 8 (0.99%) RESTful
8 8 (0.99%) Swagger
8 8 (0.99%) WebdriverIO
9 7 (0.86%) .NET
10 6 (0.74%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.74%) JWT
10 6 (0.74%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 43 (5.31%) Algorithms
2 32 (3.95%) Management Information System
3 30 (3.70%) Product Ownership
4 23 (2.84%) Self-Motivation
5 14 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.60%) NHS
7 11 (1.36%) Life Science
8 10 (1.23%) Data Structures
9 9 (1.11%) LIMS
9 9 (1.11%) Linux Command Line
9 9 (1.11%) Operational Technology
10 8 (0.99%) Embedded Systems
10 8 (0.99%) Mobile App
10 8 (0.99%) PKI
11 7 (0.86%) Biopharmaceutical
11 7 (0.86%) CMDB
11 7 (0.86%) Credit Risk
11 7 (0.86%) Replication
12 6 (0.74%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (0.74%) DataPower
Operating Systems
1 63 (7.78%) Windows
2 60 (7.41%) Linux
3 16 (1.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (1.73%) Unix
5 6 (0.74%) Oracle Linux
5 6 (0.74%) Solaris
5 6 (0.74%) VMS
5 6 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (0.62%) Android
7 4 (0.49%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.49%) SafeRTOS
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (16.91%) Agile
2 130 (16.05%) Problem-Solving
3 129 (15.93%) Verification and Validation
4 114 (14.07%) Software Engineering
5 109 (13.46%) Migration
6 78 (9.63%) Data Validation
7 73 (9.01%) Computer Science
8 71 (8.77%) Data Migration
8 71 (8.77%) Data Modelling
9 67 (8.27%) Project Management
10 66 (8.15%) User Acceptance Testing
11 61 (7.53%) ETL
11 61 (7.53%) Scrum
12 59 (7.28%) Analytics
13 58 (7.16%) Test Automation
14 56 (6.91%) Data Management
14 56 (6.91%) Use Case
15 53 (6.54%) CI/CD
16 48 (5.93%) Business Intelligence
16 48 (5.93%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 107 (13.21%) SQL
2 80 (9.88%) Python
3 63 (7.78%) C++
4 52 (6.42%) JavaScript
5 51 (6.30%) C
6 46 (5.68%) Java
7 39 (4.81%) MATLAB
7 39 (4.81%) PowerShell
8 35 (4.32%) C#
9 15 (1.85%) Bash
10 12 (1.48%) Embedded C
11 11 (1.36%) R
12 10 (1.23%) Ada
12 10 (1.23%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.99%) Assembly Language
13 8 (0.99%) Embedded C++
14 7 (0.86%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.86%) VB
15 6 (0.74%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.62%) Perl
Qualifications
1 133 (16.42%) Degree
2 121 (14.94%) Security Cleared
3 88 (10.86%) SC Cleared
4 40 (4.94%) Master's Degree
5 29 (3.58%) DV Cleared
6 28 (3.46%) Computer Science Degree
7 14 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (1.48%) PhD
9 11 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (1.11%) ITIL Certification
11 8 (0.99%) CCNA
11 8 (0.99%) ISTQB
12 6 (0.74%) PMI Certification
12 6 (0.74%) PMP
12 6 (0.74%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (0.62%) CCNP
13 5 (0.62%) OSCP
14 4 (0.49%) Chartered Engineer
15 3 (0.37%) BC Cleared
15 3 (0.37%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (9.63%) QA
2 71 (8.77%) Data Quality
3 27 (3.33%) NIST
4 17 (2.10%) GxP
5 16 (1.98%) GDPR
6 15 (1.85%) PMO
7 11 (1.36%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.99%) CDISC
8 8 (0.99%) HL7
9 7 (0.86%) AUTOSAR
9 7 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 6 (0.74%) GAMP
10 6 (0.74%) HIPAA
10 6 (0.74%) ISO 26262
11 5 (0.62%) IFRS
11 5 (0.62%) IFRS 9
11 5 (0.62%) JTAG
11 5 (0.62%) MISRA
11 5 (0.62%) MISRA C
12 4 (0.49%) Accessibility
System Software
1 44 (5.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (3.83%) Virtual Machines
3 25 (3.09%) Firmware
4 12 (1.48%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (0.99%) Active Directory
5 8 (0.99%) Docker
6 7 (0.86%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.74%) KVM
7 6 (0.74%) VMFS
8 5 (0.62%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.25%) vSphere
10 1 (0.12%) HDFS
10 1 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 25 (3.09%) Ansible
2 19 (2.35%) Terraform
3 15 (1.85%) Progress Chef
3 15 (1.85%) Puppet
4 14 (1.73%) Salt
5 8 (0.99%) Kubernetes
6 5 (0.62%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.37%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (0.25%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.25%) Nmap
8 2 (0.25%) OpenNMS
9 1 (0.12%) Kibana
9 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.12%) QRadar
9 1 (0.12%) SCCM
Vendors
1 103 (12.72%) Microsoft
2 81 (10.00%) SAP
3 51 (6.30%) VMware
4 45 (5.56%) Oracle
5 34 (4.20%) Google
6 19 (2.35%) Cisco
7 18 (2.22%) Atlassian
7 18 (2.22%) IBM
7 18 (2.22%) Salesforce
8 17 (2.10%) Databricks
9 16 (1.98%) EMC
9 16 (1.98%) Red Hat
10 13 (1.60%) SaltStack
11 8 (0.99%) CA
12 7 (0.86%) Sitecore
13 6 (0.74%) ServiceNow
14 5 (0.62%) Adobe
14 5 (0.62%) Cadence
14 5 (0.62%) MathWorks
14 5 (0.62%) Workday