Validation Job Trends in England

Validation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Validation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 74 195
Rank change year-on-year -48 +121 -12
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,317 1,513 1,293
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.59% 3.87% 1.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.17% 4.16% 1.73%
Number of salaries quoted 787 405 711
10th Percentile £35,750 £40,000 £36,000
25th Percentile £43,625 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,465 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.83% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -11.41%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Validation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 60,824 36,374 74,759
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.54% 93.14% 83.08%
Number of salaries quoted 41,213 19,587 55,053
10th Percentile £30,250 £29,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £101,250 £93,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Validation relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Validation job vacancy trend in England

Validation
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Validation

Validation
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Validation in England over the 6 months to 5 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in England

Validation
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the England region over the 6 months to 5 June 2026. 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +74 375 £76,250 +1.67% 404
South East -40 297 £55,000 +4.76% 236
North of England +57 266 £55,000 +15.35% 178
North West +59 167 £55,000 +15.35% 94
Midlands -67 165 £40,000 -33.33% 144
East of England -84 101 £60,000 +5.26% 109
West Midlands -15 100 £44,000 -32.31% 93
South West -49 91 £52,500 -3.67% 119
East Midlands -84 63 £30,000 -42.31% 51
Yorkshire -9 59 £50,000 +5.26% 63
North East -13 40 £55,000 -6.38% 23
Validation
UK

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 49 (3.72%) Apache Airflow
2 39 (2.96%) Apache Spark
3 38 (2.89%) Apache
4 20 (1.52%) Confluence
5 14 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.84%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.76%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.61%) Appian
9 6 (0.46%) CMS
9 6 (0.46%) SAS
10 5 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.38%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.23%) Artix
12 2 (0.15%) IIS
13 1 (0.076%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.076%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.076%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 89 (6.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (3.64%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.44%) Microsoft Project
3 19 (1.44%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.91%) Simulink
6 8 (0.61%) SOLIDWORKS
6 8 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.38%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 5 (0.38%) AutoCAD
8 4 (0.30%) Adobe XD
8 4 (0.30%) Sketch
9 3 (0.23%) Autodesk Inventor
9 3 (0.23%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.23%) Productboard
9 3 (0.23%) Solid Edge
9 3 (0.23%) Stateflow
10 2 (0.15%) CATIA
11 1 (0.076%) Revit
11 1 (0.076%) Trello
Business Applications
1 32 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (2.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.76%) SAP ERP
4 8 (0.61%) SAP MDG
5 6 (0.46%) Loan IQ
5 6 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.38%) iTrent
6 5 (0.38%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
8 3 (0.23%) Oracle Applications
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.15%) SAP EWM
9 2 (0.15%) SAP MM
9 2 (0.15%) SAP WM
10 1 (0.076%) NetSuite
10 1 (0.076%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 1 (0.076%) SAP Business ByDesign
10 1 (0.076%) SAP EHS
10 1 (0.076%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 166 (12.60%) Azure
2 133 (10.10%) AWS
3 120 (9.11%) Power Platform
4 63 (4.78%) GCP
5 56 (4.25%) SaaS
6 50 (3.80%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (2.89%) Serverless
8 36 (2.73%) Amazon S3
9 35 (2.66%) Microsoft 365
10 34 (2.58%) GitHub
11 27 (2.05%) Azure Data Factory
12 24 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
12 24 (1.82%) Snowflake
13 20 (1.52%) Entra ID
13 20 (1.52%) Power Automate
14 17 (1.29%) dbt
15 15 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
16 14 (1.06%) OpenShift
17 13 (0.99%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 13 (0.99%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 55 (4.18%) Broadband
2 38 (2.89%) Firewall
3 29 (2.20%) DNS
4 23 (1.75%) CHAP
5 21 (1.59%) WAN
6 17 (1.29%) SD-WAN
6 17 (1.29%) Wireless
7 15 (1.14%) 5G
8 14 (1.06%) Network Security
9 13 (0.99%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.91%) VPN
11 11 (0.84%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (0.76%) MQTT
13 9 (0.68%) HTTP
13 9 (0.68%) LAN
13 9 (0.68%) NAS
14 8 (0.61%) Ethernet
15 6 (0.46%) Cisco ISE
15 6 (0.46%) WebEx
16 5 (0.38%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (8.96%) Power BI
2 53 (4.02%) Tableau
3 46 (3.49%) SQL Server
4 44 (3.34%) PostgreSQL
5 36 (2.73%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (2.28%) Relational Database
7 29 (2.20%) Metadata
8 24 (1.82%) MongoDB
9 21 (1.59%) Azure SQL Database
9 21 (1.59%) BigQuery
10 20 (1.52%) Data Lake
11 18 (1.37%) Spark SQL
12 17 (1.29%) Semantic Layer
13 16 (1.21%) Oracle Database
14 15 (1.14%) MySQL
15 14 (1.06%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (1.06%) DynamoDB
15 14 (1.06%) Parquet
15 14 (1.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 13 (0.99%) Impala
Development Applications
1 64 (4.86%) Git
2 59 (4.48%) JIRA
3 41 (3.11%) Jenkins
4 33 (2.51%) GitLab
5 32 (2.43%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.67%) Snyk
7 14 (1.06%) LabVIEW
7 14 (1.06%) Postman
8 13 (0.99%) IBM UrbanCode
8 13 (0.99%) Selenium
9 12 (0.91%) MLflow
10 10 (0.76%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.76%) Eclipse
11 9 (0.68%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.68%) JMeter
11 9 (0.68%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.46%) Rational Rhapsody
13 5 (0.38%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.38%) REST Assured
13 5 (0.38%) SonarQube
General
1 387 (29.38%) Social Skills
2 339 (25.74%) Finance
3 300 (22.78%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (7.59%) Aerospace
5 99 (7.52%) Electronics
6 93 (7.06%) Banking
7 92 (6.99%) Manufacturing
8 80 (6.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 49 (3.72%) Law
9 49 (3.72%) Retail
10 46 (3.49%) Legal
10 46 (3.49%) Marketing
11 42 (3.19%) Public Sector
12 40 (3.04%) Pharmaceutical
13 32 (2.43%) Financial Institution
14 31 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
15 30 (2.28%) Games
16 27 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
17 23 (1.75%) Automotive
18 22 (1.67%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 219 (16.63%) Analyst
1 219 (16.63%) Senior
2 143 (10.86%) Systems Engineer
3 94 (7.14%) Test Engineer
4 88 (6.68%) Lead
5 86 (6.53%) Architect
6 85 (6.45%) Validation Engineer
7 75 (5.69%) Business Analyst
8 63 (4.78%) Data Engineer
9 60 (4.56%) Data Analyst
10 59 (4.48%) Developer
11 47 (3.57%) Principal Engineer
12 45 (3.42%) Integration Engineer
13 38 (2.89%) Junior
14 37 (2.81%) Consultant
15 36 (2.73%) Embedded Engineer
16 34 (2.58%) Systems Integration Engineer
17 33 (2.51%) IT Manager
17 33 (2.51%) Security Architect
17 33 (2.51%) Senior Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (2.89%) REST
2 32 (2.43%) RESTful
3 29 (2.20%) PySpark
4 28 (2.13%) Pandas
5 27 (2.05%) JSON
6 26 (1.97%) pytest
7 24 (1.82%) Kafka
8 23 (1.75%) Middleware
9 21 (1.59%) .NET
9 21 (1.59%) Node.js
10 20 (1.52%) XML
11 18 (1.37%) CSS
12 17 (1.29%) Playwright
12 17 (1.29%) Swagger
13 16 (1.21%) OAuth
14 15 (1.14%) PyTorch
14 15 (1.14%) Regular Expression
14 15 (1.14%) TensorFlow
14 15 (1.14%) XMPP
15 14 (1.06%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 73 (5.54%) Management Information System
2 65 (4.94%) Onboarding
3 61 (4.63%) Cloud Native
4 48 (3.64%) Data Structures
5 42 (3.19%) Low-Code
6 32 (2.43%) Analytical Mindset
6 32 (2.43%) Embedded Systems
6 32 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (2.28%) Data Centre
7 30 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
7 30 (2.28%) Product Ownership
8 29 (2.20%) Driving Licence
8 29 (2.20%) Enterprise Software
9 28 (2.13%) Life Science
10 26 (1.97%) Algorithms
11 23 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
12 22 (1.67%) Video\Live Streaming
13 20 (1.52%) Robotics
14 17 (1.29%) FPGA
15 16 (1.21%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 74 (5.62%) Linux
2 53 (4.02%) Windows
3 24 (1.82%) Unix
4 20 (1.52%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.61%) Android
7 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.30%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.23%) AIX
8 3 (0.23%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.23%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.076%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.076%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 293 (22.25%) Problem-Solving
2 255 (19.36%) Agile
3 233 (17.69%) Continuous Improvement
4 217 (16.48%) AI
5 212 (16.10%) CI/CD
6 193 (14.65%) Verification and Validation
7 186 (14.12%) Test Automation
8 179 (13.59%) Analytics
9 152 (11.54%) Data Validation
10 140 (10.63%) Business Intelligence
11 139 (10.55%) Data Modelling
12 138 (10.48%) DevOps
13 136 (10.33%) Decision-Making
14 133 (10.10%) Migration
15 126 (9.57%) Data Governance
16 121 (9.19%) Software Engineering
16 121 (9.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 116 (8.81%) Mentoring
18 112 (8.50%) Machine Learning
18 112 (8.50%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 304 (23.08%) Python
2 280 (21.26%) SQL
3 56 (4.25%) Java
4 53 (4.02%) C++
5 49 (3.72%) C
6 40 (3.04%) Go
7 33 (2.51%) JavaScript
8 32 (2.43%) C#
9 27 (2.05%) Bash
10 25 (1.90%) PowerShell
11 24 (1.82%) MATLAB
12 18 (1.37%) T-SQL
13 14 (1.06%) Embedded C
14 13 (0.99%) Embedded C++
14 13 (0.99%) TypeScript
15 12 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.76%) Scala
16 10 (0.76%) VBA
17 7 (0.53%) ABAP
18 6 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 273 (20.73%) Degree
2 154 (11.69%) Security Cleared
3 104 (7.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 72 (5.47%) SC Cleared
5 68 (5.16%) Master's Degree
6 40 (3.04%) DV Cleared
7 37 (2.81%) Chartered Engineer
7 37 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
8 33 (2.51%) CISA
8 33 (2.51%) CISSP
9 32 (2.43%) SANS
10 30 (2.28%) CISM
11 24 (1.82%) HNC
12 23 (1.75%) CGEIT
12 23 (1.75%) FFIEC
13 21 (1.59%) HND
14 15 (1.14%) PMI Certification
15 12 (0.91%) PMP
16 11 (0.84%) ACCA
16 11 (0.84%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (16.02%) Data Quality
2 127 (9.64%) QA
3 57 (4.33%) GDPR
4 40 (3.04%) Accessibility
4 40 (3.04%) GRC
5 27 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.90%) NIST
8 23 (1.75%) COBIT
9 19 (1.44%) IFRS
10 16 (1.21%) IEC 61508
11 15 (1.14%) PMO
11 15 (1.14%) SLA
12 12 (0.91%) GAAP
12 12 (0.91%) GMP
13 10 (0.76%) Good Clinical Practice
13 10 (0.76%) ISO 9001
13 10 (0.76%) SOC 2
14 9 (0.68%) GxP
14 9 (0.68%) WCAG
System Software
1 60 (4.56%) Docker
2 40 (3.04%) Firmware
3 33 (2.51%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.67%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.21%) vSphere
6 14 (1.06%) Embedded Firmware
7 7 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.30%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.076%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.076%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.076%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.076%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 62 (4.71%) Kubernetes
2 58 (4.40%) Terraform
3 26 (1.97%) Grafana
4 18 (1.37%) Functional Safety
5 16 (1.21%) Prometheus
6 15 (1.14%) Ansible
7 12 (0.91%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 10 (0.76%) SCCM
9 9 (0.68%) Cilium
10 6 (0.46%) Kibana
10 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.23%) Argo
11 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.23%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.23%) Puppet
11 3 (0.23%) Rancher
11 3 (0.23%) yum
12 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 1 (0.076%) MOM
Vendors
1 174 (13.21%) Microsoft
2 81 (6.15%) Oracle
3 75 (5.69%) SAP
4 45 (3.42%) Salesforce
5 32 (2.43%) Databricks
6 29 (2.20%) Red Hat
7 28 (2.13%) CrowdStrike
7 28 (2.13%) ServiceNow
8 22 (1.67%) Adobe
8 22 (1.67%) Palo Alto
8 22 (1.67%) Tenable
8 22 (1.67%) VMware
9 18 (1.37%) Cisco
10 17 (1.29%) Google
11 14 (1.06%) Citrix
12 12 (0.91%) Foundry
13 11 (0.84%) McAfee
13 11 (0.84%) OpenAI
14 9 (0.68%) IBM
14 9 (0.68%) Splunk