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 22 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 165 194
Rank change year-on-year +33 +29 -19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,154 731 1,255
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.48% 1.95% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 2.10% 1.78%
Number of salaries quoted 688 377 723
10th Percentile £33,600 £40,000 £36,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -11.41%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.19% +2.73% -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 58,792 34,849 70,673
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 75.40% 92.99% 85.78%
Number of salaries quoted 37,008 20,692 53,458
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%

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 22 April 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 22 April 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 +67 346 £76,250 +8.93% 294
South East +20 259 £55,000 +7.84% 219
North of England +34 207 £58,000 +21.64% 126
Midlands -30 142 £37,500 -34.78% 110
North West +31 129 £59,000 +23.73% 66
East of England +4 97 £60,000 +5.26% 85
West Midlands -13 91 £44,360 -34.28% 69
South West -44 86 £55,000 +0.92% 83
Yorkshire -29 53 £60,000 +26.32% 43
East Midlands -45 49 £32,000 -37.25% 41
North East -21 25 £51,500 -9.25% 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 43 (3.73%) Apache Airflow
2 26 (2.25%) Apache Spark
3 22 (1.91%) Apache
4 20 (1.73%) Confluence
5 17 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (1.04%) Appian
6 12 (1.04%) CMS
7 7 (0.61%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.52%) Kinematics
9 4 (0.35%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.17%) IIS
10 2 (0.17%) WordPress
11 1 (0.087%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.087%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.087%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.087%) SAS
Applications
1 88 (7.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 56 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.56%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.61%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 5 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.43%) Simulink
6 5 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.35%) Fusion 360
8 3 (0.26%) Solid Edge
8 3 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe Captivate
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.17%) CATIA
9 2 (0.17%) Elementor
9 2 (0.17%) Oracle Smart View
9 2 (0.17%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.087%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 22 (1.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.69%) SAP ERP
4 5 (0.43%) Loan IQ
4 5 (0.43%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
5 3 (0.26%) SAP MDG-BP
5 3 (0.26%) Workday HCM
6 2 (0.17%) iTrent
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.17%) SAP CX
7 1 (0.087%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.087%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.087%) SAP BRIM
7 1 (0.087%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 154 (13.34%) Azure
2 110 (9.53%) Power Platform
3 94 (8.15%) AWS
4 53 (4.59%) SaaS
5 45 (3.90%) GCP
6 41 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (2.60%) Dynamics 365
8 28 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
9 27 (2.34%) Power Automate
10 26 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
10 26 (2.25%) Serverless
10 26 (2.25%) Snowflake
11 24 (2.08%) Amazon S3
11 24 (2.08%) dbt
12 22 (1.91%) Entra ID
13 21 (1.82%) GitHub
14 14 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
14 14 (1.21%) Datadog
15 13 (1.13%) OpenShift
16 12 (1.04%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.43%) CHAP
2 23 (1.99%) Broadband
3 22 (1.91%) Firewall
4 19 (1.65%) WAN
5 17 (1.47%) DNS
5 17 (1.47%) SD-WAN
6 13 (1.13%) Wireless
7 10 (0.87%) 5G
7 10 (0.87%) LAN
7 10 (0.87%) TCP/IP
8 9 (0.78%) HTTP
9 8 (0.69%) Modbus
10 7 (0.61%) MQTT
10 7 (0.61%) NAS
11 6 (0.52%) Cisco ISE
11 6 (0.52%) Ethernet
11 6 (0.52%) Network Security
11 6 (0.52%) WebEx
11 6 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
12 5 (0.43%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (9.36%) Power BI
2 44 (3.81%) SQL Server
2 44 (3.81%) Tableau
3 32 (2.77%) Metadata
4 31 (2.69%) Relational Database
5 29 (2.51%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (1.39%) Data Lake
7 16 (1.39%) Oracle Reports
7 16 (1.39%) Spark SQL
8 15 (1.30%) Azure SQL Database
8 15 (1.30%) Oracle Database
9 14 (1.21%) Parquet
10 13 (1.13%) Apache Hive
10 13 (1.13%) Impala
10 13 (1.13%) MySQL
10 13 (1.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 12 (1.04%) Pinecone
12 11 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.87%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 62 (5.37%) Git
2 56 (4.85%) JIRA
3 34 (2.95%) Rational DOORS
4 19 (1.65%) Jenkins
5 18 (1.56%) Postman
6 16 (1.39%) GitLab
7 15 (1.30%) JMeter
7 15 (1.30%) MLflow
7 15 (1.30%) Selenium
8 14 (1.21%) Cucumber
8 14 (1.21%) LabVIEW
9 13 (1.13%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (1.13%) Snyk
10 10 (0.87%) Eclipse
11 8 (0.69%) Locust
11 8 (0.69%) TestRail
12 7 (0.61%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.52%) SoapUI
13 6 (0.52%) Subversion
14 5 (0.43%) SpecFlow
General
1 374 (32.41%) Social Skills
2 299 (25.91%) Finance
3 266 (23.05%) Analytical Skills
4 86 (7.45%) Banking
5 79 (6.85%) Manufacturing
6 75 (6.50%) Aerospace
6 75 (6.50%) Electronics
7 55 (4.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 45 (3.90%) Legal
9 44 (3.81%) Law
10 41 (3.55%) Marketing
10 41 (3.55%) Retail
11 40 (3.47%) Financial Institution
12 34 (2.95%) Public Sector
13 31 (2.69%) Pharmaceutical
14 27 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
15 26 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
16 24 (2.08%) Aviation
17 20 (1.73%) Automotive
17 20 (1.73%) Games
Job Titles
1 207 (17.94%) Analyst
2 188 (16.29%) Senior
3 146 (12.65%) Systems Engineer
4 84 (7.28%) Lead
5 79 (6.85%) Test Engineer
6 74 (6.41%) Validation Engineer
7 72 (6.24%) Business Analyst
8 68 (5.89%) Architect
9 57 (4.94%) Data Analyst
10 47 (4.07%) Integration Engineer
11 44 (3.81%) Data Engineer
12 39 (3.38%) Senior Systems Engineer
13 38 (3.29%) Junior
14 37 (3.21%) Developer
15 36 (3.12%) Principal Engineer
15 36 (3.12%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 34 (2.95%) Software Validation Engineer
16 34 (2.95%) Verification Engineer
17 31 (2.69%) Auditor
18 28 (2.43%) Security Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.59%) REST
2 35 (3.03%) Pandas
3 31 (2.69%) JSON
4 29 (2.51%) Middleware
5 26 (2.25%) pytest
6 24 (2.08%) XML
7 21 (1.82%) PySpark
8 20 (1.73%) OAuth
9 19 (1.65%) Swagger
10 18 (1.56%) JWT
10 18 (1.56%) PyTorch
10 18 (1.56%) TensorFlow
11 17 (1.47%) RESTful
12 16 (1.39%) .NET
12 16 (1.39%) NumPy
12 16 (1.39%) React
13 15 (1.30%) CSS
13 15 (1.30%) Kafka
13 15 (1.30%) Web Services
14 14 (1.21%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 76 (6.59%) Management Information System
2 50 (4.33%) Onboarding
3 40 (3.47%) Data Structures
4 35 (3.03%) Low-Code
4 35 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
5 32 (2.77%) Legacy Systems
6 28 (2.43%) Product Ownership
7 27 (2.34%) Analytical Mindset
8 25 (2.17%) Life Science
9 21 (1.82%) Data Centre
10 20 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
11 18 (1.56%) Embedded Systems
12 16 (1.39%) Algorithms
12 16 (1.39%) Robotics
13 15 (1.30%) Blockchain
13 15 (1.30%) Cloud Native
13 15 (1.30%) IoT
14 13 (1.13%) Reinsurance
15 11 (0.95%) Driving Licence
15 11 (0.95%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 58 (5.03%) Linux
2 47 (4.07%) Windows
3 19 (1.65%) Unix
4 15 (1.30%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.87%) Android
6 8 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.35%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.35%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.26%) AIX
8 3 (0.26%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.17%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.17%) ThreadX
9 2 (0.17%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.087%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.087%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 256 (22.18%) Problem-Solving
2 233 (20.19%) Agile
3 208 (18.02%) Continuous Improvement
4 194 (16.81%) Verification and Validation
5 172 (14.90%) Analytics
6 153 (13.26%) Data Validation
7 148 (12.82%) CI/CD
8 146 (12.65%) AI
8 146 (12.65%) Test Automation
9 129 (11.18%) Business Intelligence
10 119 (10.31%) Migration
11 118 (10.23%) Data Modelling
11 118 (10.23%) Decision-Making
12 117 (10.14%) Systems Engineering
13 116 (10.05%) Data Governance
14 112 (9.71%) DevOps
15 109 (9.45%) User Acceptance Testing
16 108 (9.36%) Stakeholder Management
17 102 (8.84%) Mentoring
18 101 (8.75%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 249 (21.58%) SQL
2 232 (20.10%) Python
3 43 (3.73%) Java
4 36 (3.12%) C++
5 29 (2.51%) JavaScript
6 28 (2.43%) C
6 28 (2.43%) PowerShell
7 22 (1.91%) Go
8 21 (1.82%) Bash
9 18 (1.56%) T-SQL
10 16 (1.39%) C#
10 16 (1.39%) MATLAB
11 15 (1.30%) TypeScript
12 11 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 9 (0.78%) VBA
14 8 (0.69%) R
15 7 (0.61%) Embedded C
15 7 (0.61%) VB
16 6 (0.52%) PHP
17 5 (0.43%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 255 (22.10%) Degree
2 133 (11.53%) Security Cleared
3 110 (9.53%) BPSS Clearance
4 57 (4.94%) Master's Degree
5 47 (4.07%) SC Cleared
6 38 (3.29%) CISSP
7 37 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (3.12%) CISA
9 35 (3.03%) CISM
10 31 (2.69%) DV Cleared
11 30 (2.60%) SANS
12 28 (2.43%) CGEIT
12 28 (2.43%) FFIEC
13 27 (2.34%) Chartered Engineer
14 22 (1.91%) HNC
15 19 (1.65%) HND
16 14 (1.21%) ISTQB
16 14 (1.21%) PMI Certification
17 11 (0.95%) PMP
18 8 (0.69%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 167 (14.47%) Data Quality
2 119 (10.31%) QA
3 63 (5.46%) GDPR
4 44 (3.81%) Accessibility
5 37 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 30 (2.60%) NIST
7 28 (2.43%) COBIT
7 28 (2.43%) GRC
8 21 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 17 (1.47%) IFRS
10 15 (1.30%) SLA
11 13 (1.13%) WCAG
12 12 (1.04%) GAAP
13 10 (0.87%) GMP
13 10 (0.87%) Good Clinical Practice
14 9 (0.78%) IEC 61508
14 9 (0.78%) ISO 9001
14 9 (0.78%) PMO
15 7 (0.61%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 7 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 57 (4.94%) Docker
2 27 (2.34%) Active Directory
3 22 (1.91%) Firmware
4 14 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.87%) vSphere
6 8 (0.69%) VMware Infrastructure
7 5 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
7 5 (0.43%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.17%) Terminal Services
8 2 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.087%) iptables
9 1 (0.087%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.087%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.087%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.087%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 59 (5.11%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.99%) Terraform
3 28 (2.43%) Grafana
4 16 (1.39%) Ansible
4 16 (1.39%) Prometheus
5 14 (1.21%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 11 (0.95%) Functional Safety
7 10 (0.87%) SCCM
8 7 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.43%) Argo
9 5 (0.43%) Rancher
9 5 (0.43%) yum
10 4 (0.35%) Cilium
11 3 (0.26%) Puppet
12 2 (0.17%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.17%) Computer Incident Response Team
12 2 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 2 (0.17%) PowerCLI
13 1 (0.087%) Single Sign-On
13 1 (0.087%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 157 (13.60%) Microsoft
2 64 (5.55%) Oracle
3 50 (4.33%) SAP
4 38 (3.29%) Salesforce
5 22 (1.91%) Databricks
6 21 (1.82%) Red Hat
7 20 (1.73%) Cisco
8 17 (1.47%) VMware
9 16 (1.39%) Adobe
10 15 (1.30%) ServiceNow
11 14 (1.21%) Foundry
11 14 (1.21%) Google
12 13 (1.13%) CrowdStrike
12 13 (1.13%) IBM
12 13 (1.13%) OpenAI
12 13 (1.13%) Palo Alto
12 13 (1.13%) Tenable
13 12 (1.04%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (1.04%) Citrix
13 12 (1.04%) UiPath