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 21 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 85 173
Rank change year-on-year +13 +88 +26
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,266 1,525 1,056
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.21% 3.55% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.02% 4.00% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,358 428 410
10th Percentile £35,925 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £75,988 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £59,490 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +8.16% -8.33% -6.98%

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 75,111 38,102 56,218
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.37% 88.73% 81.79%
Number of salaries quoted 53,062 21,909 31,807
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,250 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,560
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.45% -7.90%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 21 September 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 21 September 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 +75 572 £70,000 -12.50% 2,458
South East -11 495 £62,500 +16.28% 705
North of England +107 468 £52,500 +10.31% 455
North West +101 288 £55,000 +10.00% 270
Midlands -30 273 £50,000 -9.09% 384
South West +21 238 £56,250 +7.14% 380
East of England -46 189 £55,000 -8.33% 397
West Midlands +33 156 £50,000 -9.09% 257
East Midlands -51 117 £48,372 +13.82% 126
Yorkshire +24 92 £42,500 - 125
North East +8 88 £55,000 +57.14% 69
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 47 (2.07%) Apache Spark
2 42 (1.85%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.77%) Apache
4 37 (1.63%) Confluence
5 33 (1.46%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.79%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.57%) SAS
8 9 (0.40%) WinCC
9 8 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.18%) CMS
12 3 (0.13%) Artix
12 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.088%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.088%) IIS
13 2 (0.088%) Kinematics
13 2 (0.088%) nginx
14 1 (0.044%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.044%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 138 (6.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (3.05%) Microsoft Office
3 50 (2.21%) Simulink
4 37 (1.63%) Microsoft Project
5 21 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.88%) SOLIDWORKS
7 18 (0.79%) AutoCAD
8 15 (0.66%) MS Visio
9 10 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 10 (0.44%) Revit
10 7 (0.31%) OrCAD
11 6 (0.26%) EPLAN
11 6 (0.26%) Navisworks
12 5 (0.22%) Mathcad
13 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
13 3 (0.13%) LaTeX
13 3 (0.13%) Productboard
13 3 (0.13%) Sketch
13 3 (0.13%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 41 (1.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.77%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.49%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
4 9 (0.40%) Workday HCM
5 8 (0.35%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.35%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.31%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.26%) Infor M3
8 5 (0.22%) iTrent
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.22%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.18%) Elite 3E
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
10 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 291 (12.84%) Azure
2 245 (10.81%) AWS
3 173 (7.63%) Power Platform
4 90 (3.97%) GCP
5 69 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
6 64 (2.82%) GitHub
7 63 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.74%) SaaS
9 56 (2.47%) Serverless
10 42 (1.85%) Amazon S3
11 37 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
12 34 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
13 32 (1.41%) Entra ID
13 32 (1.41%) GitHub Actions
14 27 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
14 27 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
15 26 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
16 25 (1.10%) Amazon EMR
17 23 (1.02%) PowerApps
18 21 (0.93%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.09%) DNS
2 63 (2.78%) Firewall
3 55 (2.43%) Broadband
4 38 (1.68%) TCP/IP
5 37 (1.63%) VPN
6 36 (1.59%) Network Security
7 34 (1.50%) WAN
8 33 (1.46%) Wireless
9 32 (1.41%) Ethernet
10 30 (1.32%) Modbus
11 28 (1.24%) LAN
12 27 (1.19%) VLAN
13 25 (1.10%) OSPF
14 23 (1.02%) Wireshark
15 22 (0.97%) MQTT
15 22 (0.97%) SD-WAN
16 21 (0.93%) BGP
17 18 (0.79%) 5G
18 17 (0.75%) HTTP
18 17 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 161 (7.11%) Power BI
2 58 (2.56%) Data Warehouse
3 54 (2.38%) Metadata
4 50 (2.21%) SQL Server
5 49 (2.16%) Data Lake
6 46 (2.03%) PostgreSQL
7 37 (1.63%) Tableau
8 36 (1.59%) Amazon Athena
9 34 (1.50%) Relational Database
10 29 (1.28%) MongoDB
11 27 (1.19%) Big Data
12 25 (1.10%) DynamoDB
13 24 (1.06%) BigQuery
14 23 (1.02%) NoSQL
15 22 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
16 21 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 20 (0.88%) Semantic Layer
18 18 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
18 18 (0.79%) Delta Lake
18 18 (0.79%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 134 (5.91%) JIRA
2 119 (5.25%) Git
3 59 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 50 (2.21%) GitLab
5 40 (1.77%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.24%) LabVIEW
7 26 (1.15%) Selenium
8 22 (0.97%) Snyk
9 20 (0.88%) Postman
10 18 (0.79%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.53%) Burp Suite
11 12 (0.53%) JMeter
12 11 (0.49%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.49%) Eclipse
13 10 (0.44%) Claude Code
13 10 (0.44%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.40%) Gatling
14 9 (0.40%) MLflow
14 9 (0.40%) REST Assured
15 8 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 752 (33.19%) Social Skills
2 563 (24.85%) Finance
3 544 (24.01%) Analytical Skills
4 218 (9.62%) Manufacturing
5 215 (9.49%) Aerospace
6 212 (9.36%) Electronics
7 174 (7.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 124 (5.47%) Law
9 100 (4.41%) Banking
9 100 (4.41%) Organisational Skills
9 100 (4.41%) Retail
10 94 (4.15%) Public Sector
11 83 (3.66%) Marketing
11 83 (3.66%) Pharmaceutical
12 80 (3.53%) Telecoms
13 75 (3.31%) Automotive
14 54 (2.38%) Legal
15 43 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
15 43 (1.90%) Military
16 38 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 401 (17.70%) Senior
2 269 (11.87%) Systems Engineer
3 260 (11.47%) Analyst
4 187 (8.25%) Lead
5 127 (5.60%) Test Engineer
6 111 (4.90%) Architect
7 110 (4.85%) Data Engineer
8 93 (4.10%) Developer
9 83 (3.66%) Business Analyst
10 80 (3.53%) Consultant
11 77 (3.40%) Software Engineer
12 73 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
13 65 (2.87%) Data Analyst
13 65 (2.87%) Electronics Engineer
14 63 (2.78%) Validation Engineer
15 56 (2.47%) Network Engineer
16 48 (2.12%) Data Scientist
16 48 (2.12%) Embedded Engineer
17 47 (2.07%) Support Engineer
18 46 (2.03%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.53%) Terraform
2 53 (2.34%) Kafka
2 53 (2.34%) RESTful
3 50 (2.21%) REST
4 45 (1.99%) Node.js
5 37 (1.63%) PySpark
6 36 (1.59%) Playwright
7 35 (1.54%) .NET
8 33 (1.46%) JSON
9 30 (1.32%) XML
10 29 (1.28%) CSS
11 28 (1.24%) FastAPI
12 27 (1.19%) HTML
13 25 (1.10%) LDAP
13 25 (1.10%) Middleware
13 25 (1.10%) React
14 22 (0.97%) Swagger
15 21 (0.93%) ModSecurity
16 19 (0.84%) pytest
17 18 (0.79%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 151 (6.66%) Cloud Native
2 123 (5.43%) Management Information System
3 122 (5.38%) Onboarding
4 80 (3.53%) Data Centre
5 79 (3.49%) Product Ownership
6 62 (2.74%) Embedded Systems
7 61 (2.69%) Driving Licence
8 58 (2.56%) Data Structures
8 58 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
9 56 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
10 48 (2.12%) Life Science
11 47 (2.07%) Algorithms
12 46 (2.03%) SCADA
13 42 (1.85%) AI Agents
13 42 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
14 39 (1.72%) Low-Code
15 37 (1.63%) Robotics
16 34 (1.50%) Legacy Systems
17 33 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
18 32 (1.41%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 133 (5.87%) Linux
2 91 (4.02%) Windows
3 31 (1.37%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.10%) Unix
5 16 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.44%) Android
7 8 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.31%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.22%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.088%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.088%) VMS
13 2 (0.088%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.044%) AIX
14 1 (0.044%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.044%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 582 (25.68%) Problem-Solving
2 499 (22.02%) Continuous Improvement
3 417 (18.40%) Agile
4 390 (17.21%) Verification and Validation
5 384 (16.95%) AI
6 324 (14.30%) CI/CD
7 306 (13.50%) Stakeholder Management
8 284 (12.53%) Migration
9 278 (12.27%) Test Automation
10 240 (10.59%) Analytics
11 235 (10.37%) Mentoring
12 222 (9.80%) Software Engineering
13 218 (9.62%) Decision-Making
14 210 (9.27%) DevOps
15 207 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 202 (8.91%) Data Analysis
17 201 (8.87%) Business Intelligence
18 189 (8.34%) Roadmaps
19 187 (8.25%) Data Migration
20 182 (8.03%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 461 (20.34%) Python
2 409 (18.05%) SQL
3 92 (4.06%) C++
3 92 (4.06%) Java
4 82 (3.62%) C
5 69 (3.05%) JavaScript
6 64 (2.82%) MATLAB
7 56 (2.47%) C#
8 48 (2.12%) Go
9 35 (1.54%) Bash
10 30 (1.32%) Embedded C
11 29 (1.28%) PowerShell
12 25 (1.10%) Scala
12 25 (1.10%) TypeScript
13 20 (0.88%) R
14 18 (0.79%) Embedded C++
15 14 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 11 (0.49%) Shell Script
17 10 (0.44%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.40%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 486 (21.45%) Degree
2 470 (20.74%) Security Cleared
3 342 (15.09%) SC Cleared
4 111 (4.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 97 (4.28%) DV Cleared
6 95 (4.19%) Master's Degree
7 49 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
8 39 (1.72%) HND
9 36 (1.59%) PhD
9 36 (1.59%) PMI Certification
10 34 (1.50%) HNC
11 33 (1.46%) Chartered Engineer
12 31 (1.37%) CISSP
13 28 (1.24%) ACCA
14 27 (1.19%) Azure Certification
15 26 (1.15%) AWS Certification
16 25 (1.10%) CIMA
17 23 (1.02%) PMP
18 21 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.93%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 340 (15.00%) Data Quality
2 287 (12.67%) QA
3 66 (2.91%) Accessibility
4 55 (2.43%) GDPR
5 37 (1.63%) GRC
6 31 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.19%) GxP
8 23 (1.02%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.79%) NIST
9 18 (0.79%) SLA
10 15 (0.66%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 15 (0.66%) PMO
11 13 (0.57%) ISO 9001
11 13 (0.57%) SOC 2
12 12 (0.53%) GMP
13 10 (0.44%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.44%) WCAG
14 9 (0.40%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.40%) GAAP
System Software
1 89 (3.93%) Docker
2 88 (3.88%) Firmware
3 45 (1.99%) Active Directory
4 42 (1.85%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (0.79%) vSphere
7 8 (0.35%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.088%) iptables
10 2 (0.088%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.088%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.044%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.044%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 82 (3.62%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.63%) Grafana
3 32 (1.41%) Ansible
3 32 (1.41%) Functional Safety
4 17 (0.75%) Prometheus
5 15 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.44%) Cilium
7 8 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.35%) Nessus
7 8 (0.35%) Nmap
7 8 (0.35%) Puppet
8 7 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
8 7 (0.31%) Kibana
9 5 (0.22%) WMI
10 4 (0.18%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.18%) HP Fortify
10 4 (0.18%) Kubeflow
10 4 (0.18%) SCCM
11 3 (0.13%) Argo
11 3 (0.13%) Rancher
Vendors
1 298 (13.15%) Microsoft
2 125 (5.52%) SAP
3 102 (4.50%) Oracle
4 61 (2.69%) Databricks
5 60 (2.65%) Salesforce
6 54 (2.38%) ServiceNow
7 51 (2.25%) Cisco
8 49 (2.16%) EMC
9 37 (1.63%) Google
10 31 (1.37%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.15%) Palo Alto
12 24 (1.06%) Sage
12 24 (1.06%) VMware
13 23 (1.02%) Tenable
14 20 (0.88%) Red Hat
15 18 (0.79%) IBM
15 18 (0.79%) Informatica
16 17 (0.75%) Thales
17 16 (0.71%) Siemens
17 16 (0.71%) Workday