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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 82 176
Rank change year-on-year +11 +94 +17
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,295 1,525 1,046
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.23% 3.54% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.03% 3.99% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,375 426 402
10th Percentile £35,850 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.45% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £59,490 £55,000 £58,033
% change year-on-year +8.16% -5.23% -10.72%

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 75,707 38,228 55,757
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.45% 88.79% 81.96%
Number of salaries quoted 53,452 21,986 30,884
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,233 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,298
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.66% -6.72%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
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 24 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 24 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 +73 582 £70,000 -12.50% 1,938
South East -19 492 £62,500 +13.64% 648
North of England +114 475 £54,750 +15.04% 441
North West +108 293 £55,000 +10.00% 248
Midlands -28 275 £50,000 -9.09% 347
South West +11 243 £55,000 +4.56% 320
East of England -44 195 £55,000 -8.33% 325
West Midlands +40 158 £50,000 -9.09% 241
East Midlands -54 117 £50,000 +17.65% 105
Yorkshire +23 93 £43,000 +1.18% 127
North East +2 89 £55,000 +57.14% 68
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 (2.05%) Apache Spark
2 42 (1.83%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.74%) Apache
4 38 (1.66%) Confluence
5 33 (1.44%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.78%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.57%) SAS
8 11 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
9 9 (0.39%) WinCC
10 6 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 5 (0.22%) CMS
12 3 (0.13%) Artix
12 3 (0.13%) nginx
12 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.087%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.087%) IIS
13 2 (0.087%) Kinematics
14 1 (0.044%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.044%) WebSphere
Applications
1 140 (6.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 68 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 50 (2.18%) Simulink
4 37 (1.61%) Microsoft Project
5 23 (1.00%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.87%) SOLIDWORKS
7 18 (0.78%) AutoCAD
8 15 (0.65%) MS Visio
9 11 (0.48%) Revit
10 10 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.31%) OrCAD
12 6 (0.26%) EPLAN
12 6 (0.26%) Navisworks
13 5 (0.22%) Mathcad
14 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
14 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
14 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
14 3 (0.13%) LaTeX
14 3 (0.13%) Sketch
14 3 (0.13%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 41 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.74%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.48%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
4 9 (0.39%) 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 (0.17%) Elite 3E
9 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.17%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 302 (13.16%) Azure
2 248 (10.81%) AWS
3 174 (7.58%) Power Platform
4 94 (4.10%) GCP
5 76 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
6 71 (3.09%) GitHub
7 65 (2.83%) SaaS
8 63 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
9 59 (2.57%) Serverless
10 42 (1.83%) Amazon S3
11 37 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
12 36 (1.57%) Entra ID
13 35 (1.53%) GitHub Actions
14 34 (1.48%) Microsoft Copilot
15 28 (1.22%) Microsoft Purview
16 27 (1.18%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.13%) Cloud Computing
18 25 (1.09%) Amazon EMR
19 23 (1.00%) PowerApps
20 22 (0.96%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 69 (3.01%) DNS
2 63 (2.75%) Firewall
3 54 (2.35%) Broadband
4 38 (1.66%) VPN
5 37 (1.61%) TCP/IP
6 36 (1.57%) Network Security
7 35 (1.53%) Wireless
8 34 (1.48%) Ethernet
8 34 (1.48%) WAN
9 32 (1.39%) Modbus
10 28 (1.22%) LAN
10 28 (1.22%) VLAN
11 26 (1.13%) OSPF
12 24 (1.05%) MQTT
13 23 (1.00%) Wireshark
14 22 (0.96%) SD-WAN
15 20 (0.87%) BGP
16 18 (0.78%) 5G
17 17 (0.74%) HTTP
17 17 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 161 (7.02%) Power BI
2 60 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
3 59 (2.57%) Metadata
4 52 (2.27%) SQL Server
5 49 (2.14%) Data Lake
5 49 (2.14%) PostgreSQL
6 37 (1.61%) Relational Database
7 36 (1.57%) Amazon Athena
7 36 (1.57%) Tableau
8 30 (1.31%) MongoDB
9 27 (1.18%) Big Data
10 25 (1.09%) DynamoDB
11 24 (1.05%) BigQuery
11 24 (1.05%) NoSQL
12 23 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
13 22 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 20 (0.87%) Semantic Layer
15 18 (0.78%) Delta Lake
15 18 (0.78%) MySQL
15 18 (0.78%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 136 (5.93%) JIRA
2 119 (5.19%) Git
3 60 (2.61%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.31%) GitLab
5 40 (1.74%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.22%) LabVIEW
7 26 (1.13%) Selenium
8 22 (0.96%) Snyk
9 20 (0.87%) Postman
10 18 (0.78%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.52%) Burp Suite
11 12 (0.52%) JMeter
12 11 (0.48%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.48%) Eclipse
13 10 (0.44%) Claude Code
13 10 (0.44%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.39%) Gatling
14 9 (0.39%) MLflow
14 9 (0.39%) REST Assured
15 8 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 767 (33.42%) Social Skills
2 577 (25.14%) Finance
3 545 (23.75%) Analytical Skills
4 220 (9.59%) Electronics
4 220 (9.59%) Manufacturing
5 215 (9.37%) Aerospace
6 176 (7.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 125 (5.45%) Law
8 101 (4.40%) Banking
8 101 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
8 101 (4.40%) Public Sector
8 101 (4.40%) Retail
9 84 (3.66%) Marketing
10 81 (3.53%) Pharmaceutical
10 81 (3.53%) Telecoms
11 76 (3.31%) Automotive
12 54 (2.35%) Legal
13 43 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
13 43 (1.87%) Military
14 39 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 415 (18.08%) Senior
2 267 (11.63%) Systems Engineer
3 263 (11.46%) Analyst
4 189 (8.24%) Lead
5 128 (5.58%) Test Engineer
6 114 (4.97%) Architect
7 112 (4.88%) Data Engineer
8 95 (4.14%) Developer
9 86 (3.75%) Business Analyst
10 81 (3.53%) Software Engineer
11 80 (3.49%) Consultant
12 74 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
13 66 (2.88%) Electronics Engineer
14 64 (2.79%) Data Analyst
15 61 (2.66%) Validation Engineer
16 56 (2.44%) Network Engineer
17 50 (2.18%) Embedded Engineer
18 48 (2.09%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (2.09%) Data Scientist
19 47 (2.05%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.70%) Terraform
2 59 (2.57%) REST
3 55 (2.40%) RESTful
4 54 (2.35%) Kafka
5 46 (2.00%) Node.js
6 37 (1.61%) .NET
6 37 (1.61%) Playwright
6 37 (1.61%) PySpark
7 34 (1.48%) JSON
8 31 (1.35%) FastAPI
8 31 (1.35%) XML
9 29 (1.26%) CSS
10 27 (1.18%) HTML
11 26 (1.13%) Middleware
11 26 (1.13%) React
12 25 (1.09%) LDAP
12 25 (1.09%) Swagger
13 22 (0.96%) OAuth
14 21 (0.92%) pytest
14 21 (0.92%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 154 (6.71%) Cloud Native
2 128 (5.58%) Management Information System
3 124 (5.40%) Onboarding
4 79 (3.44%) Data Centre
5 78 (3.40%) Product Ownership
6 64 (2.79%) Driving Licence
7 62 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
8 60 (2.61%) Data Structures
8 60 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
9 59 (2.57%) Distributed Systems
10 48 (2.09%) SCADA
11 47 (2.05%) Algorithms
11 47 (2.05%) Life Science
12 42 (1.83%) AI Agents
12 42 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
13 38 (1.66%) Low-Code
13 38 (1.66%) Robotics
14 36 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
14 36 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
15 33 (1.44%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.84%) Linux
2 90 (3.92%) Windows
3 30 (1.31%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.13%) Unix
5 15 (0.65%) 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 (0.17%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.087%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.087%) VMS
13 2 (0.087%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.044%) AIX
14 1 (0.044%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.044%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 590 (25.71%) Problem-Solving
2 509 (22.18%) Continuous Improvement
3 422 (18.39%) Agile
4 394 (17.17%) Verification and Validation
5 389 (16.95%) AI
6 337 (14.68%) CI/CD
7 315 (13.73%) Stakeholder Management
8 288 (12.55%) Migration
8 288 (12.55%) Test Automation
9 246 (10.72%) Analytics
10 242 (10.54%) Mentoring
11 233 (10.15%) Software Engineering
12 221 (9.63%) DevOps
13 218 (9.50%) Decision-Making
14 207 (9.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 203 (8.85%) Business Intelligence
15 203 (8.85%) Data Analysis
16 197 (8.58%) Roadmaps
17 187 (8.15%) Data Migration
18 182 (7.93%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 471 (20.52%) Python
2 415 (18.08%) SQL
3 93 (4.05%) C++
3 93 (4.05%) Java
4 83 (3.62%) C
5 70 (3.05%) JavaScript
6 65 (2.83%) MATLAB
7 58 (2.53%) C#
8 47 (2.05%) Go
9 36 (1.57%) Bash
10 30 (1.31%) Embedded C
11 29 (1.26%) PowerShell
12 27 (1.18%) TypeScript
13 25 (1.09%) Scala
14 20 (0.87%) R
15 18 (0.78%) Embedded C++
16 14 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.52%) Shell Script
18 10 (0.44%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.39%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 497 (21.66%) Degree
2 476 (20.74%) Security Cleared
3 346 (15.08%) SC Cleared
4 111 (4.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 97 (4.23%) DV Cleared
6 95 (4.14%) Master's Degree
7 51 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 39 (1.70%) HND
9 36 (1.57%) PhD
9 36 (1.57%) PMI Certification
10 34 (1.48%) Chartered Engineer
10 34 (1.48%) HNC
11 31 (1.35%) CISSP
12 30 (1.31%) Azure Certification
13 28 (1.22%) ACCA
14 26 (1.13%) AWS Certification
15 25 (1.09%) CIMA
16 24 (1.05%) PMP
17 21 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
17 21 (0.92%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 344 (14.99%) Data Quality
2 292 (12.72%) QA
3 65 (2.83%) Accessibility
4 56 (2.44%) GDPR
5 37 (1.61%) GRC
6 31 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.18%) GxP
8 23 (1.00%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.78%) NIST
9 18 (0.78%) SLA
10 15 (0.65%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 15 (0.65%) PMO
11 14 (0.61%) ISO 9001
12 13 (0.57%) SOC 2
13 11 (0.48%) GMP
13 11 (0.48%) ISO 19650
14 10 (0.44%) WCAG
15 9 (0.39%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.39%) GAAP
System Software
1 97 (4.23%) Docker
2 91 (3.97%) Firmware
3 45 (1.96%) Active Directory
4 42 (1.83%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
6 17 (0.74%) vSphere
7 8 (0.35%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.087%) iptables
10 2 (0.087%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.087%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.044%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.044%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 85 (3.70%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.83%) Grafana
3 32 (1.39%) Ansible
3 32 (1.39%) Functional Safety
4 18 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (0.70%) Prometheus
6 10 (0.44%) Puppet
7 9 (0.39%) Cilium
8 8 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (0.35%) Nessus
8 8 (0.35%) Nmap
9 7 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
9 7 (0.31%) Kibana
10 5 (0.22%) WMI
11 4 (0.17%) Argo
11 4 (0.17%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.17%) Rancher
11 4 (0.17%) SCCM
11 4 (0.17%) yum
Vendors
1 305 (13.29%) Microsoft
2 124 (5.40%) SAP
3 103 (4.49%) Oracle
4 62 (2.70%) Salesforce
5 61 (2.66%) Databricks
6 54 (2.35%) ServiceNow
7 52 (2.27%) EMC
8 51 (2.22%) Cisco
9 36 (1.57%) Google
10 31 (1.35%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.13%) Palo Alto
12 24 (1.05%) Sage
13 23 (1.00%) Tenable
13 23 (1.00%) VMware
14 19 (0.83%) Informatica
14 19 (0.83%) Red Hat
15 18 (0.78%) IBM
16 17 (0.74%) Autodesk
16 17 (0.74%) Thales
16 17 (0.74%) Workday