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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 86 175
Rank change year-on-year +16 +89 +24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,329 1,510 1,043
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.25% 3.48% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.06% 3.92% 1.87%
Number of salaries quoted 1,390 412 398
10th Percentile £35,725 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,000 £55,000 £56,509
Median % change year-on-year +5.45% -2.67% -13.06%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £91,350 £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 76,043 38,474 55,663
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.46% 88.78% 82.23%
Number of salaries quoted 53,667 22,007 30,452
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £36,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £59,664
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -7.82% -4.27%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £78,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -5.17% -3.33%

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 27 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 27 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 +80 594 £68,750 -14.06% 1,847
South East -14 497 £62,500 +13.64% 703
North of England +122 470 £52,951 +11.05% 440
North West +105 293 £55,000 +10.00% 249
Midlands -26 286 £50,000 -9.09% 345
South West +18 249 £55,000 +4.66% 339
East of England -44 201 £55,000 -8.33% 350
West Midlands +48 165 £50,000 -9.09% 236
East Midlands -51 121 £50,000 +17.65% 108
Yorkshire +26 91 £42,750 +0.59% 131
North East +4 86 £55,000 +57.14% 61
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 48 (2.06%) Apache Spark
2 41 (1.76%) Apache
2 41 (1.76%) Apache Airflow
3 36 (1.55%) Confluence
4 34 (1.46%) SharePoint
5 18 (0.77%) Jupyter
6 13 (0.56%) SAS
7 11 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
8 10 (0.43%) WinCC
9 6 (0.26%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.17%) CMS
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) nginx
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.086%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.086%) IIS
13 1 (0.043%) Kinematics
13 1 (0.043%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.043%) WebSphere
Applications
1 143 (6.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 51 (2.19%) Simulink
4 36 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
5 23 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.86%) SOLIDWORKS
7 19 (0.82%) AutoCAD
8 15 (0.64%) MS Visio
9 12 (0.52%) Revit
10 10 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 9 (0.39%) OrCAD
12 7 (0.30%) EPLAN
12 7 (0.30%) Navisworks
13 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
14 4 (0.17%) Stateflow
15 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
15 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
15 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
15 3 (0.13%) LaTeX
15 3 (0.13%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 41 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (1.67%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.47%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.43%) Workday HCM
5 9 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.34%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
7 7 (0.30%) SAP ERP
8 6 (0.26%) Infor M3
9 5 (0.21%) iTrent
9 5 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
9 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
10 4 (0.17%) Elite 3E
10 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.17%) Teamcenter
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.13%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 305 (13.10%) Azure
2 247 (10.61%) AWS
3 176 (7.56%) Power Platform
4 93 (3.99%) GCP
5 76 (3.26%) Azure DevOps
6 71 (3.05%) GitHub
7 65 (2.79%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.66%) SaaS
9 60 (2.58%) Serverless
10 43 (1.85%) Amazon S3
11 38 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
11 38 (1.63%) Entra ID
12 35 (1.50%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
13 29 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
14 27 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
15 26 (1.12%) Amazon EMR
15 26 (1.12%) Cloud Computing
16 23 (0.99%) PowerApps
17 22 (0.94%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.96%) DNS
2 64 (2.75%) Firewall
3 54 (2.32%) Broadband
4 40 (1.72%) VPN
5 37 (1.59%) Ethernet
5 37 (1.59%) Network Security
5 37 (1.59%) TCP/IP
6 35 (1.50%) Wireless
7 34 (1.46%) Modbus
7 34 (1.46%) WAN
8 30 (1.29%) VLAN
9 29 (1.25%) LAN
10 27 (1.16%) OSPF
11 24 (1.03%) MQTT
11 24 (1.03%) Wireshark
12 22 (0.94%) SD-WAN
13 20 (0.86%) BGP
14 18 (0.77%) 5G
15 17 (0.73%) HTTP
15 17 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 163 (7.00%) Power BI
2 60 (2.58%) Data Warehouse
2 60 (2.58%) Metadata
3 52 (2.23%) SQL Server
4 49 (2.10%) Data Lake
4 49 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
5 37 (1.59%) Amazon Athena
5 37 (1.59%) Relational Database
6 33 (1.42%) Tableau
7 30 (1.29%) MongoDB
8 26 (1.12%) Big Data
9 25 (1.07%) DynamoDB
10 24 (1.03%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.03%) NoSQL
11 23 (0.99%) Azure SQL Database
12 22 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 19 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
13 19 (0.82%) Power Query
13 19 (0.82%) Semantic Layer
14 18 (0.77%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 135 (5.80%) JIRA
2 121 (5.20%) Git
3 60 (2.58%) Jenkins
4 54 (2.32%) GitLab
5 43 (1.85%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.20%) LabVIEW
7 24 (1.03%) Selenium
8 22 (0.94%) Snyk
9 20 (0.86%) Postman
10 18 (0.77%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.52%) Burp Suite
12 11 (0.47%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.47%) JMeter
13 10 (0.43%) Claude Code
13 10 (0.43%) Cucumber
13 10 (0.43%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.39%) Gatling
14 9 (0.39%) MLflow
14 9 (0.39%) REST Assured
15 8 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 776 (33.32%) Social Skills
2 585 (25.12%) Finance
3 550 (23.62%) Analytical Skills
4 233 (10.00%) Manufacturing
5 228 (9.79%) Electronics
6 221 (9.49%) Aerospace
7 178 (7.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 124 (5.32%) Law
9 105 (4.51%) Public Sector
10 104 (4.47%) Organisational Skills
10 104 (4.47%) Retail
11 101 (4.34%) Banking
12 86 (3.69%) Marketing
13 84 (3.61%) Telecoms
14 83 (3.56%) Pharmaceutical
15 80 (3.43%) Automotive
16 52 (2.23%) Legal
17 44 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
18 43 (1.85%) Military
19 40 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 420 (18.03%) Senior
2 269 (11.55%) Systems Engineer
3 259 (11.12%) Analyst
4 189 (8.12%) Lead
5 125 (5.37%) Test Engineer
6 116 (4.98%) Architect
7 115 (4.94%) Data Engineer
8 96 (4.12%) Developer
9 83 (3.56%) Business Analyst
10 82 (3.52%) Software Engineer
11 79 (3.39%) Consultant
12 78 (3.35%) Principal Engineer
13 72 (3.09%) Electronics Engineer
14 65 (2.79%) Validation Engineer
15 61 (2.62%) Data Analyst
16 57 (2.45%) Network Engineer
17 50 (2.15%) Automation Engineer
18 49 (2.10%) Embedded Engineer
19 47 (2.02%) Data Scientist
20 46 (1.98%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (3.69%) Terraform
2 61 (2.62%) REST
3 55 (2.36%) Kafka
3 55 (2.36%) RESTful
4 48 (2.06%) Node.js
5 38 (1.63%) .NET
6 37 (1.59%) Playwright
6 37 (1.59%) PySpark
7 35 (1.50%) JSON
8 32 (1.37%) FastAPI
9 31 (1.33%) CSS
9 31 (1.33%) XML
10 29 (1.25%) HTML
11 27 (1.16%) React
12 25 (1.07%) LDAP
12 25 (1.07%) Middleware
12 25 (1.07%) Swagger
13 22 (0.94%) OAuth
14 21 (0.90%) ModSecurity
14 21 (0.90%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 154 (6.61%) Cloud Native
2 130 (5.58%) Management Information System
3 125 (5.37%) Onboarding
4 79 (3.39%) Data Centre
5 78 (3.35%) Product Ownership
6 64 (2.75%) Driving Licence
7 63 (2.71%) Embedded Systems
8 59 (2.53%) Data Structures
8 59 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
8 59 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
9 51 (2.19%) SCADA
10 47 (2.02%) Algorithms
10 47 (2.02%) Life Science
11 44 (1.89%) AI Agents
12 42 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
13 38 (1.63%) Low-Code
13 38 (1.63%) Robotics
14 36 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
14 36 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
15 34 (1.46%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.75%) Linux
2 91 (3.91%) Windows
3 30 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.12%) Unix
5 15 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.43%) Android
7 8 (0.34%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.30%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.086%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.086%) VMS
13 2 (0.086%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.043%) AIX
14 1 (0.043%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.043%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 607 (26.06%) Problem-Solving
2 523 (22.46%) Continuous Improvement
3 421 (18.08%) Agile
4 403 (17.30%) Verification and Validation
5 388 (16.66%) AI
6 336 (14.43%) CI/CD
7 321 (13.78%) Stakeholder Management
8 292 (12.54%) Migration
9 289 (12.41%) Test Automation
10 247 (10.61%) Analytics
11 246 (10.56%) Mentoring
12 235 (10.09%) Software Engineering
13 222 (9.53%) Decision-Making
14 219 (9.40%) DevOps
15 207 (8.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 205 (8.80%) Data Analysis
17 204 (8.76%) Business Intelligence
18 198 (8.50%) Roadmaps
19 188 (8.07%) Data Migration
20 182 (7.81%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 471 (20.22%) Python
2 417 (17.90%) SQL
3 93 (3.99%) C++
4 92 (3.95%) Java
5 84 (3.61%) C
6 71 (3.05%) JavaScript
7 66 (2.83%) MATLAB
8 58 (2.49%) C#
9 47 (2.02%) Go
10 35 (1.50%) Bash
11 31 (1.33%) PowerShell
12 30 (1.29%) Embedded C
13 28 (1.20%) TypeScript
14 25 (1.07%) Scala
15 20 (0.86%) R
16 18 (0.77%) Embedded C++
17 16 (0.69%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 12 (0.52%) Shell Script
19 10 (0.43%) Apex Code
20 9 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 502 (21.55%) Degree
2 483 (20.74%) Security Cleared
3 353 (15.16%) SC Cleared
4 112 (4.81%) BPSS Clearance
5 97 (4.16%) DV Cleared
6 94 (4.04%) Master's Degree
7 49 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
8 43 (1.85%) HND
9 38 (1.63%) HNC
10 36 (1.55%) PMI Certification
11 35 (1.50%) PhD
12 34 (1.46%) Chartered Engineer
13 32 (1.37%) CISSP
14 30 (1.29%) ACCA
15 29 (1.25%) Azure Certification
16 27 (1.16%) AWS Certification
16 27 (1.16%) CIMA
17 24 (1.03%) PMP
18 21 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.90%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 349 (14.98%) Data Quality
2 289 (12.41%) QA
3 65 (2.79%) Accessibility
4 58 (2.49%) GDPR
5 37 (1.59%) GRC
6 32 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.16%) GxP
8 21 (0.90%) IEC 61508
9 19 (0.82%) NIST
9 19 (0.82%) SLA
10 15 (0.64%) ISO 9001
10 15 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 15 (0.64%) PMO
11 13 (0.56%) ISO 26262
11 13 (0.56%) SOC 2
12 12 (0.52%) GMP
12 12 (0.52%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.43%) GAAP
14 9 (0.39%) IFRS
14 9 (0.39%) WCAG
System Software
1 99 (4.25%) Docker
2 93 (3.99%) Firmware
3 46 (1.98%) Active Directory
4 43 (1.85%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
6 17 (0.73%) vSphere
7 8 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.21%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.086%) iptables
10 2 (0.086%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.086%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.043%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.043%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 86 (3.69%) Kubernetes
2 41 (1.76%) Grafana
3 33 (1.42%) Ansible
4 32 (1.37%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.69%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.43%) Puppet
8 9 (0.39%) Cilium
8 9 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.34%) Nessus
9 8 (0.34%) Nmap
10 7 (0.30%) BMC PATROL
10 7 (0.30%) Kibana
11 5 (0.21%) WMI
12 4 (0.17%) Argo
12 4 (0.17%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.17%) SCCM
12 4 (0.17%) yum
Vendors
1 312 (13.40%) Microsoft
2 124 (5.32%) SAP
3 103 (4.42%) Oracle
4 66 (2.83%) Salesforce
5 60 (2.58%) Databricks
6 59 (2.53%) EMC
7 53 (2.28%) ServiceNow
8 51 (2.19%) Cisco
9 36 (1.55%) Google
10 32 (1.37%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.12%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.07%) Sage
13 23 (0.99%) Tenable
13 23 (0.99%) VMware
14 20 (0.86%) Informatica
14 20 (0.86%) Thales
15 19 (0.82%) IBM
15 19 (0.82%) Red Hat
15 19 (0.82%) Siemens
16 18 (0.77%) Workday