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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 192 176
Rank change year-on-year +45 -16 -27
Permanent jobs citing Validation 904 707 1,127
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.49% 1.62% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.88% 1.75% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 495 287 700
10th Percentile £35,950 £37,650 £34,975
25th Percentile £45,000 £47,000 £43,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -11.41%
75th Percentile £78,750 £71,250 £73,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -12.00%

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 48,128 40,388 58,996
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 79.10% 92.71% 88.19%
Number of salaries quoted 29,549 20,191 46,643
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,250 £29,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £46,250 £40,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 February 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 February 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 +79 303 £75,000 +9.09% 202
South East +43 197 £53,500 +1.90% 202
North of England -4 128 £60,000 +25.83% 122
Midlands +8 107 £36,250 -30.95% 124
North West +8 88 £59,000 +23.73% 80
East of England +9 85 £59,000 +7.27% 82
South West +2 71 £62,500 +18.82% 83
West Midlands +14 66 £41,108 -28.51% 83
East Midlands -6 40 £35,000 -32.69% 39
Yorkshire -23 29 £65,000 +42.94% 34
North East -14 11 £45,497 +9.63% 9
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 24 (2.65%) Apache Airflow
2 15 (1.66%) Apache Spark
3 14 (1.55%) Confluence
4 13 (1.44%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.33%) Appian
6 10 (1.11%) CMS
6 10 (1.11%) SharePoint
7 9 (1.00%) Apache
8 4 (0.44%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.22%) Kinematics
9 2 (0.22%) WordPress
10 1 (0.11%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.11%) FileNet
10 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.11%) SAS
10 1 (0.11%) SugarCRM
Applications
1 85 (9.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (6.08%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.88%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.77%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 4 (0.44%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.44%) Simulink
7 3 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.22%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.22%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.22%) Elementor
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.22%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.22%) Weka
9 1 (0.11%) CATIA
9 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.11%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 23 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.44%) SAP BPC
4 3 (0.33%) SAP CX
4 3 (0.33%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.33%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.33%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.22%) Primavera
6 1 (0.11%) Endur
6 1 (0.11%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.11%) Magento
6 1 (0.11%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.11%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FSCM
Cloud Services
1 137 (15.15%) Azure
2 86 (9.51%) Power Platform
3 54 (5.97%) AWS
4 47 (5.20%) SaaS
5 38 (4.20%) Azure DevOps
6 31 (3.43%) GCP
7 22 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
8 21 (2.32%) Power Automate
9 20 (2.21%) Dynamics 365
9 20 (2.21%) Snowflake
10 19 (2.10%) Microsoft 365
11 18 (1.99%) Entra ID
12 17 (1.88%) dbt
12 17 (1.88%) GitHub
13 12 (1.33%) Amazon S3
13 12 (1.33%) Anthropic Claude
13 12 (1.33%) Azure AI
14 11 (1.22%) Figma
15 10 (1.11%) Serverless
16 8 (0.88%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.21%) CHAP
2 12 (1.33%) WAN
3 11 (1.22%) 5G
3 11 (1.22%) SD-WAN
4 9 (1.00%) Firewall
5 8 (0.88%) DNS
5 8 (0.88%) HTTP
5 8 (0.88%) MQTT
6 7 (0.77%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.66%) Broadband
7 6 (0.66%) LAN
7 6 (0.66%) Modbus
8 5 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (0.55%) VoIP
8 5 (0.55%) WAAS
8 5 (0.55%) Wireless
9 4 (0.44%) NAS
9 4 (0.44%) SMTP
10 3 (0.33%) Network Security
10 3 (0.33%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (9.29%) Power BI
2 38 (4.20%) SQL Server
3 25 (2.77%) Data Warehouse
4 24 (2.65%) Relational Database
5 23 (2.54%) Metadata
6 21 (2.32%) Tableau
7 13 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
8 12 (1.33%) Azure SQL Database
8 12 (1.33%) Pinecone
8 12 (1.33%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (1.22%) Data Lake
9 11 (1.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (1.11%) Spotfire
11 9 (1.00%) Amazon Redshift
12 8 (0.88%) BigQuery
12 8 (0.88%) MySQL
13 7 (0.77%) Data Vault
13 7 (0.77%) Power Query
14 6 (0.66%) Data Mining
14 6 (0.66%) DB2
Development Applications
1 51 (5.64%) JIRA
2 42 (4.65%) Git
3 38 (4.20%) Rational DOORS
4 20 (2.21%) Postman
5 17 (1.88%) Jenkins
6 15 (1.66%) GitLab
7 14 (1.55%) LabVIEW
7 14 (1.55%) MLflow
8 11 (1.22%) Eclipse
9 10 (1.11%) Cucumber
9 10 (1.11%) Selenium
9 10 (1.11%) TestRail
10 9 (1.00%) SoapUI
11 8 (0.88%) JMeter
12 6 (0.66%) LoadRunner
12 6 (0.66%) Subversion
13 5 (0.55%) SpecFlow
14 4 (0.44%) Locust
14 4 (0.44%) TestDirector
14 4 (0.44%) Zephyr
General
1 329 (36.39%) Social Skills
2 242 (26.77%) Finance
3 216 (23.89%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (7.74%) Banking
5 48 (5.31%) Financial Institution
6 47 (5.20%) Electronics
7 46 (5.09%) Marketing
8 43 (4.76%) Manufacturing
9 38 (4.20%) Law
10 37 (4.09%) Presentation Skills
11 35 (3.87%) Aerospace
12 32 (3.54%) Legal
13 31 (3.43%) Organisational Skills
14 28 (3.10%) Telecoms
15 26 (2.88%) Retail
16 25 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 23 (2.54%) Public Sector
18 20 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
19 19 (2.10%) Billing
20 17 (1.88%) Avionics
Job Titles
1 149 (16.48%) Analyst
2 140 (15.49%) Senior
3 115 (12.72%) Systems Engineer
4 67 (7.41%) Lead
5 62 (6.86%) Architect
6 51 (5.64%) Test Engineer
7 50 (5.53%) Validation Engineer
8 47 (5.20%) Business Analyst
9 44 (4.87%) Data Analyst
10 43 (4.76%) Integration Engineer
11 35 (3.87%) Junior
12 34 (3.76%) Systems Integration Engineer
13 33 (3.65%) Principal Engineer
14 32 (3.54%) Data Engineer
14 32 (3.54%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 28 (3.10%) Solutions Architect
16 26 (2.88%) Principal Systems Engineer
16 26 (2.88%) Verification Engineer
17 25 (2.77%) Developer
18 23 (2.54%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (5.53%) REST
2 31 (3.43%) Middleware
3 28 (3.10%) JSON
4 27 (2.99%) Pandas
5 25 (2.77%) pytest
6 22 (2.43%) XML
7 19 (2.10%) PyTorch
7 19 (2.10%) TensorFlow
8 18 (1.99%) NumPy
9 17 (1.88%) OAuth
9 17 (1.88%) scikit-learn
10 16 (1.77%) JWT
10 16 (1.77%) Swagger
10 16 (1.77%) Web Services
11 14 (1.55%) FastAPI
11 14 (1.55%) React
12 13 (1.44%) Flask
12 13 (1.44%) Hugging Face
12 13 (1.44%) RESTful
13 12 (1.33%) Faiss
Miscellaneous
1 59 (6.53%) Management Information System
2 43 (4.76%) Onboarding
3 33 (3.65%) Data Structures
4 30 (3.32%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (2.88%) Legacy Systems
6 24 (2.65%) Low-Code
7 22 (2.43%) Product Ownership
8 20 (2.21%) Life Science
9 18 (1.99%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.99%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 15 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.55%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 13 (1.44%) Reinsurance
13 12 (1.33%) Algorithms
13 12 (1.33%) Blockchain
14 11 (1.22%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (1.11%) IoT
16 9 (1.00%) Data Centre
17 8 (0.88%) CMDB
17 8 (0.88%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 39 (4.31%) Linux
2 37 (4.09%) Windows
3 15 (1.66%) Unix
4 10 (1.11%) Android
5 6 (0.66%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.44%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.33%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.22%) AIX
8 2 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.22%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (24.00%) Agile
2 205 (22.68%) Problem-Solving
3 165 (18.25%) Verification and Validation
4 125 (13.83%) Continuous Improvement
4 125 (13.83%) Data Validation
5 123 (13.61%) Analytics
6 106 (11.73%) Test Automation
7 102 (11.28%) Business Intelligence
7 102 (11.28%) DevOps
8 100 (11.06%) Migration
8 100 (11.06%) Systems Engineering
9 96 (10.62%) CI/CD
10 95 (10.51%) AI
11 92 (10.18%) Mentoring
12 88 (9.73%) Decision-Making
13 86 (9.51%) Data Modelling
14 85 (9.40%) Stakeholder Management
15 84 (9.29%) Roadmaps
15 84 (9.29%) Software Engineering
16 81 (8.96%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 209 (23.12%) SQL
2 176 (19.47%) Python
3 36 (3.98%) Java
4 29 (3.21%) C
5 28 (3.10%) C++
6 27 (2.99%) PowerShell
7 24 (2.65%) JavaScript
8 19 (2.10%) MATLAB
9 17 (1.88%) Bash
10 16 (1.77%) T-SQL
11 13 (1.44%) TypeScript
12 10 (1.11%) C#
13 9 (1.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 9 (1.00%) R
14 7 (0.77%) Go
14 7 (0.77%) VB
14 7 (0.77%) VBA
15 5 (0.55%) PHP
16 4 (0.44%) Bicep
16 4 (0.44%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 229 (25.33%) Degree
2 115 (12.72%) Security Cleared
3 111 (12.28%) BPSS Clearance
4 49 (5.42%) Master's Degree
5 44 (4.87%) SC Cleared
6 38 (4.20%) Computer Science Degree
7 24 (2.65%) CISA
7 24 (2.65%) CISSP
8 23 (2.54%) CISM
9 21 (2.32%) CGEIT
9 21 (2.32%) SANS
10 20 (2.21%) FFIEC
11 19 (2.10%) DV Cleared
12 16 (1.77%) Chartered Engineer
12 16 (1.77%) HNC
12 16 (1.77%) ISTQB
13 13 (1.44%) PMI Certification
13 13 (1.44%) PMP
14 12 (1.33%) HND
15 8 (0.88%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (13.05%) Data Quality
2 86 (9.51%) QA
3 47 (5.20%) GDPR
4 39 (4.31%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 30 (3.32%) Accessibility
6 20 (2.21%) COBIT
6 20 (2.21%) NIST
7 17 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 16 (1.77%) SLA
9 14 (1.55%) ISO 20022
10 13 (1.44%) SEPA
11 11 (1.22%) GRC
12 10 (1.11%) Good Clinical Practice
13 9 (1.00%) TARGET2
13 9 (1.00%) WCAG
14 8 (0.88%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 8 (0.88%) GxP
14 8 (0.88%) IFRS
14 8 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 12207
15 5 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 49 (5.42%) Docker
2 16 (1.77%) Firmware
3 14 (1.55%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.55%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.33%) vSphere
7 2 (0.22%) Ceph
7 2 (0.22%) Lustre
7 2 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.11%) iptables
8 1 (0.11%) OpenAM
8 1 (0.11%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.11%) OpenIDM
8 1 (0.11%) pfSense
8 1 (0.11%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (4.76%) Kubernetes
2 31 (3.43%) Terraform
3 16 (1.77%) Ansible
4 14 (1.55%) Grafana
5 11 (1.22%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.00%) SCCM
7 7 (0.77%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.55%) Argo
8 5 (0.55%) Rancher
8 5 (0.55%) yum
9 2 (0.22%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.22%) Nessus
9 2 (0.22%) PowerCLI
9 2 (0.22%) Puppet
10 1 (0.11%) Control-M
10 1 (0.11%) Kibana
10 1 (0.11%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 123 (13.61%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.08%) SAP
3 37 (4.09%) Oracle
4 28 (3.10%) Salesforce
5 18 (1.99%) Cisco
5 18 (1.99%) Foundry
6 16 (1.77%) IBM
7 14 (1.55%) Adobe
7 14 (1.55%) OpenAI
7 14 (1.55%) ServiceNow
7 14 (1.55%) Software AG
8 12 (1.33%) Automation Anywhere
8 12 (1.33%) Databricks
8 12 (1.33%) UiPath
9 11 (1.22%) Google
10 8 (0.88%) Intapp
10 8 (0.88%) VMware
11 7 (0.77%) Citrix
11 7 (0.77%) Guidewire
12 6 (0.66%) MuleSoft