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 10 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 71 196
Rank change year-on-year -40 +125 -15
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,336 1,536 1,312
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.64% 3.91% 1.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.24% 4.22% 1.71%
Number of salaries quoted 803 413 717
10th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £36,000
25th Percentile £43,625 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.88% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -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 59,579 36,425 76,751
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 72.93% 92.76% 82.48%
Number of salaries quoted 41,667 19,839 55,940
10th Percentile £30,580 £29,000 £29,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £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 £92,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 10 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 10 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 +71 386 £75,000 - 293
South East -38 300 £55,000 - 240
North of England +83 269 £55,000 +15.35% 158
North West +77 170 £55,000 +15.35% 88
Midlands -72 160 £40,000 -30.43% 126
East of England -77 107 £60,000 +5.26% 96
West Midlands -6 96 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -49 93 £52,500 -4.55% 113
East Midlands -82 62 £30,000 -42.31% 49
Yorkshire -13 59 £50,000 +11.11% 54
North East -7 40 £55,000 +15.79% 18
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 50 (3.74%) Apache Airflow
2 40 (2.99%) Apache Spark
3 39 (2.92%) Apache
4 20 (1.50%) Confluence
5 14 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (1.05%) SharePoint
6 10 (0.75%) Jupyter
7 8 (0.60%) Appian
8 6 (0.45%) SAS
9 5 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.37%) CMS
9 5 (0.37%) Kinematics
10 3 (0.22%) Artix
11 2 (0.15%) IIS
12 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.075%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.075%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 87 (6.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 45 (3.37%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.57%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.35%) MS Visio
5 15 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 13 (0.97%) Simulink
7 8 (0.60%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.37%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 5 (0.37%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.30%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.30%) Sketch
10 3 (0.22%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.22%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.22%) Productboard
10 3 (0.22%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.22%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.075%) CATIA
11 1 (0.075%) Revit
11 1 (0.075%) Trello
Business Applications
1 33 (2.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (2.32%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.75%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.67%) SAP MDG
5 8 (0.60%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.37%) iTrent
6 5 (0.37%) Loan IQ
6 5 (0.37%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.37%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.15%) SAP EWM
8 2 (0.15%) SAP MM
8 2 (0.15%) SAP WM
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.075%) SAP Business ByDesign
9 1 (0.075%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.075%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 172 (12.87%) Azure
2 143 (10.70%) AWS
3 123 (9.21%) Power Platform
4 66 (4.94%) GCP
5 57 (4.27%) SaaS
6 52 (3.89%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
7 38 (2.84%) Serverless
8 36 (2.69%) Amazon S3
9 34 (2.54%) GitHub
10 27 (2.02%) Azure Data Factory
11 25 (1.87%) Dynamics 365
11 25 (1.87%) Snowflake
12 20 (1.50%) Entra ID
12 20 (1.50%) Power Automate
13 17 (1.27%) dbt
14 16 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
15 14 (1.05%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.97%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 13 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 65 (4.87%) Broadband
2 41 (3.07%) Firewall
3 32 (2.40%) DNS
4 22 (1.65%) CHAP
5 20 (1.50%) WAN
6 17 (1.27%) Wireless
7 16 (1.20%) SD-WAN
8 14 (1.05%) 5G
8 14 (1.05%) Network Security
9 13 (0.97%) TCP/IP
9 13 (0.97%) VPN
10 11 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (0.75%) HTTP
11 10 (0.75%) MQTT
12 9 (0.67%) LAN
12 9 (0.67%) NAS
13 8 (0.60%) Ethernet
14 6 (0.45%) Cisco ISE
14 6 (0.45%) WebEx
15 5 (0.37%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (9.06%) Power BI
2 54 (4.04%) Tableau
3 53 (3.97%) PostgreSQL
4 48 (3.59%) SQL Server
5 40 (2.99%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (2.47%) MongoDB
7 30 (2.25%) Relational Database
8 28 (2.10%) Metadata
9 23 (1.72%) BigQuery
10 22 (1.65%) Data Lake
11 21 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
12 18 (1.35%) Semantic Layer
12 18 (1.35%) Spark SQL
13 17 (1.27%) Oracle Database
14 15 (1.12%) MySQL
15 14 (1.05%) Amazon Athena
15 14 (1.05%) DynamoDB
15 14 (1.05%) Parquet
15 14 (1.05%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 13 (0.97%) Impala
Development Applications
1 65 (4.87%) Git
2 63 (4.72%) JIRA
3 43 (3.22%) Jenkins
4 33 (2.47%) GitLab
5 31 (2.32%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.65%) Snyk
7 14 (1.05%) Postman
7 14 (1.05%) Selenium
8 13 (0.97%) IBM UrbanCode
9 12 (0.90%) LabVIEW
9 12 (0.90%) MLflow
10 10 (0.75%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.75%) Eclipse
11 9 (0.67%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.67%) JMeter
11 9 (0.67%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.45%) Rational Rhapsody
13 5 (0.37%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.37%) REST Assured
13 5 (0.37%) SonarQube
General
1 391 (29.27%) Social Skills
2 350 (26.20%) Finance
3 301 (22.53%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (7.56%) Aerospace
5 98 (7.34%) Electronics
6 92 (6.89%) Banking
7 91 (6.81%) Manufacturing
8 81 (6.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 50 (3.74%) Law
10 47 (3.52%) Legal
10 47 (3.52%) Retail
11 43 (3.22%) Marketing
11 43 (3.22%) Public Sector
12 39 (2.92%) Games
13 38 (2.84%) Pharmaceutical
14 33 (2.47%) Financial Institution
15 30 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
16 26 (1.95%) Automotive
16 26 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
17 22 (1.65%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 226 (16.92%) Senior
2 219 (16.39%) Analyst
3 132 (9.88%) Systems Engineer
4 95 (7.11%) Lead
4 95 (7.11%) Test Engineer
5 90 (6.74%) Architect
6 85 (6.36%) Validation Engineer
7 73 (5.46%) Business Analyst
8 67 (5.01%) Data Engineer
9 62 (4.64%) Data Analyst
9 62 (4.64%) Developer
10 47 (3.52%) Principal Engineer
11 39 (2.92%) Integration Engineer
12 38 (2.84%) IT Manager
13 37 (2.77%) Embedded Engineer
14 35 (2.62%) Consultant
15 34 (2.54%) Security Architect
16 33 (2.47%) Junior
17 31 (2.32%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 31 (2.32%) Software Validation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.14%) RESTful
2 36 (2.69%) REST
3 29 (2.17%) PySpark
4 28 (2.10%) JSON
4 28 (2.10%) Pandas
5 26 (1.95%) Kafka
5 26 (1.95%) pytest
6 23 (1.72%) Middleware
6 23 (1.72%) Node.js
7 22 (1.65%) XML
8 20 (1.50%) .NET
9 18 (1.35%) Playwright
9 18 (1.35%) Swagger
10 17 (1.27%) Regular Expression
10 17 (1.27%) XMPP
11 16 (1.20%) CSS
11 16 (1.20%) OAuth
12 15 (1.12%) PyTorch
12 15 (1.12%) TensorFlow
13 14 (1.05%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 75 (5.61%) Cloud Native
2 72 (5.39%) Management Information System
3 66 (4.94%) Onboarding
4 51 (3.82%) Low-Code
5 49 (3.67%) Data Structures
6 33 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.40%) Analytical Mindset
7 32 (2.40%) Distributed Systems
7 32 (2.40%) Embedded Systems
8 31 (2.32%) Driving Licence
8 31 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (2.32%) Product Ownership
8 31 (2.32%) Video\Live Streaming
9 30 (2.25%) Data Centre
10 29 (2.17%) Algorithms
10 29 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
11 28 (2.10%) Life Science
12 20 (1.50%) Robotics
13 17 (1.27%) FPGA
14 16 (1.20%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 78 (5.84%) Linux
2 58 (4.34%) Windows
3 23 (1.72%) Unix
3 23 (1.72%) Windows Server
4 17 (1.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.52%) Android
6 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.30%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.22%) AIX
7 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.22%) Kali Linux
8 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
9 1 (0.075%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.075%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 294 (22.01%) Problem-Solving
2 262 (19.61%) Agile
3 251 (18.79%) Continuous Improvement
4 229 (17.14%) AI
5 223 (16.69%) CI/CD
6 199 (14.90%) Test Automation
7 184 (13.77%) Verification and Validation
8 180 (13.47%) Analytics
9 155 (11.60%) Data Validation
10 144 (10.78%) DevOps
11 143 (10.70%) Data Modelling
12 142 (10.63%) Business Intelligence
13 141 (10.55%) Migration
14 136 (10.18%) Decision-Making
15 130 (9.73%) Software Engineering
16 127 (9.51%) Data Governance
17 125 (9.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 124 (9.28%) Machine Learning
19 120 (8.98%) Mentoring
20 118 (8.83%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 318 (23.80%) Python
2 284 (21.26%) SQL
3 57 (4.27%) Java
4 53 (3.97%) C++
5 52 (3.89%) C
6 49 (3.67%) Go
7 32 (2.40%) C#
8 31 (2.32%) JavaScript
9 27 (2.02%) Bash
10 26 (1.95%) PowerShell
11 24 (1.80%) MATLAB
12 19 (1.42%) T-SQL
13 15 (1.12%) Embedded C
14 14 (1.05%) Embedded C++
15 13 (0.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 11 (0.82%) TypeScript
17 10 (0.75%) Scala
18 9 (0.67%) VBA
19 8 (0.60%) ABAP
20 7 (0.52%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 264 (19.76%) Degree
2 154 (11.53%) Security Cleared
3 99 (7.41%) BPSS Clearance
4 72 (5.39%) SC Cleared
5 68 (5.09%) Master's Degree
6 43 (3.22%) DV Cleared
7 36 (2.69%) Chartered Engineer
7 36 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
8 32 (2.40%) CISA
8 32 (2.40%) CISSP
8 32 (2.40%) SANS
9 29 (2.17%) CISM
10 24 (1.80%) HNC
11 22 (1.65%) CGEIT
11 22 (1.65%) FFIEC
12 20 (1.50%) HND
13 15 (1.12%) PMI Certification
14 14 (1.05%) ACCA
14 14 (1.05%) CIMA
15 12 (0.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (16.62%) Data Quality
2 129 (9.66%) QA
3 56 (4.19%) GDPR
4 40 (2.99%) Accessibility
4 40 (2.99%) GRC
5 26 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.80%) NIST
7 23 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 22 (1.65%) COBIT
9 19 (1.42%) IFRS
10 16 (1.20%) IEC 61508
11 15 (1.12%) PMO
11 15 (1.12%) SLA
12 12 (0.90%) GAAP
13 11 (0.82%) GMP
13 11 (0.82%) ISO 9001
14 10 (0.75%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.67%) ISO 26262
15 9 (0.67%) WCAG
16 8 (0.60%) GxP
System Software
1 62 (4.64%) Docker
2 41 (3.07%) Firmware
3 36 (2.69%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.35%) vSphere
6 16 (1.20%) Embedded Firmware
7 7 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.30%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.075%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.075%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.075%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.075%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 64 (4.79%) Kubernetes
2 60 (4.49%) Terraform
3 26 (1.95%) Grafana
4 19 (1.42%) Functional Safety
5 16 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 15 (1.12%) Ansible
7 11 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 10 (0.75%) SCCM
9 9 (0.67%) Cilium
10 7 (0.52%) Kibana
11 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.22%) Argo
12 3 (0.22%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.22%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.22%) Puppet
12 3 (0.22%) Rancher
12 3 (0.22%) yum
13 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 1 (0.075%) MOM
Vendors
1 180 (13.47%) Microsoft
2 84 (6.29%) Oracle
3 78 (5.84%) SAP
4 46 (3.44%) Salesforce
5 34 (2.54%) Databricks
6 31 (2.32%) Red Hat
7 30 (2.25%) ServiceNow
8 29 (2.17%) CrowdStrike
9 24 (1.80%) VMware
10 22 (1.65%) Adobe
10 22 (1.65%) Palo Alto
10 22 (1.65%) Tenable
11 18 (1.35%) Cisco
12 17 (1.27%) Google
13 14 (1.05%) Citrix
14 13 (0.97%) McAfee
15 12 (0.90%) Foundry
16 11 (0.82%) OpenAI
17 10 (0.75%) Splunk
18 8 (0.60%) IBM