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

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 77 202
Rank change year-on-year -16 +125 -14
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,734 1,583 998
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.86% 3.63% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.52% 4.06% 1.69%
Number of salaries quoted 1,038 475 487
10th Percentile £34,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £42,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £73,987 £71,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £91,500 £90,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% -4.00%

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 68,721 39,007 59,047
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.81% 89.54% 81.26%
Number of salaries quoted 48,509 22,580 39,212
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,132
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,474 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 7 August 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 7 August 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 +77 489 £72,500 -6.45% 756
South East -30 392 £56,000 +1.82% 317
North of England +104 362 £53,625 +12.89% 226
North West +91 210 £55,000 +15.35% 130
Midlands -48 197 £44,000 -20.00% 183
South West -18 142 £52,500 -0.19% 171
East of England -80 121 £62,500 +9.65% 147
West Midlands +4 107 £44,720 -25.47% 117
East Midlands -68 89 £42,500 - 66
North East +9 77 £55,000 +57.14% 44
Yorkshire +19 75 £43,000 +1.18% 55
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 59 (3.40%) Apache Airflow
2 56 (3.23%) Apache Spark
3 54 (3.11%) Apache
4 31 (1.79%) SharePoint
5 30 (1.73%) Confluence
6 18 (1.04%) Jupyter
7 12 (0.69%) SAS
8 11 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.29%) CMS
10 4 (0.23%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.23%) WinCC
11 3 (0.17%) Artix
11 3 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.12%) IIS
13 1 (0.058%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.058%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.058%) WebSphere
Applications
1 115 (6.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 63 (3.63%) Microsoft Office
3 32 (1.85%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.50%) MS Visio
5 25 (1.44%) Simulink
6 16 (0.92%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 11 (0.63%) SOLIDWORKS
9 6 (0.35%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.29%) Mathcad
11 4 (0.23%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.23%) Sketch
12 3 (0.17%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.17%) LaTeX
12 3 (0.17%) Productboard
12 3 (0.17%) Stateflow
13 2 (0.12%) EPLAN
13 2 (0.12%) OrCAD
13 2 (0.12%) Solid Edge
14 1 (0.058%) Trello
Business Applications
1 41 (2.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (2.25%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.63%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.58%) SAP ERP
5 9 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.46%) Oracle Applications
7 6 (0.35%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.29%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.29%) iTrent
8 5 (0.29%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.29%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.23%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.23%) Workday HCM
10 3 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.17%) Teamcenter
11 2 (0.12%) SAP CO
11 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
11 2 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
11 2 (0.12%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 241 (13.90%) Azure
2 230 (13.26%) AWS
3 159 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 85 (4.90%) GCP
5 67 (3.86%) SaaS
6 58 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
7 54 (3.11%) Microsoft 365
8 49 (2.83%) GitHub
9 44 (2.54%) Amazon S3
10 43 (2.48%) Serverless
11 34 (1.96%) Dynamics 365
12 28 (1.61%) Microsoft Copilot
13 25 (1.44%) Entra ID
14 24 (1.38%) GitHub Actions
15 21 (1.21%) Amazon EC2
15 21 (1.21%) Amazon EMR
15 21 (1.21%) Cloud Computing
16 20 (1.15%) Snowflake
17 19 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (1.10%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 66 (3.81%) Broadband
2 51 (2.94%) Firewall
3 47 (2.71%) DNS
4 29 (1.67%) Network Security
5 27 (1.56%) Wireless
6 26 (1.50%) TCP/IP
7 24 (1.38%) VPN
7 24 (1.38%) WAN
8 18 (1.04%) Ethernet
8 18 (1.04%) SD-WAN
9 16 (0.92%) MQTT
9 16 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (0.87%) LAN
11 13 (0.75%) HTTP
11 13 (0.75%) Internet
12 11 (0.63%) BGP
12 11 (0.63%) NGN
12 11 (0.63%) RS-232
13 10 (0.58%) 5G
13 10 (0.58%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (8.59%) Power BI
2 56 (3.23%) Data Warehouse
3 54 (3.11%) PostgreSQL
3 54 (3.11%) Tableau
4 50 (2.88%) SQL Server
5 43 (2.48%) Metadata
6 38 (2.19%) Data Lake
7 33 (1.90%) MongoDB
8 29 (1.67%) Relational Database
9 25 (1.44%) BigQuery
10 23 (1.33%) Amazon Athena
11 22 (1.27%) DynamoDB
11 22 (1.27%) Semantic Layer
12 21 (1.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 20 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (1.15%) MySQL
13 20 (1.15%) Spark SQL
14 19 (1.10%) Power Query
15 17 (0.98%) Oracle Database
16 16 (0.92%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 111 (6.40%) JIRA
2 102 (5.88%) Git
3 47 (2.71%) Jenkins
4 42 (2.42%) GitLab
5 32 (1.85%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.27%) Snyk
7 18 (1.04%) Selenium
8 17 (0.98%) LabVIEW
9 15 (0.87%) Postman
10 14 (0.81%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.75%) IBM UrbanCode
12 12 (0.69%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.63%) JMeter
14 10 (0.58%) TeamCity
15 8 (0.46%) MLflow
15 8 (0.46%) Rational Rhapsody
16 7 (0.40%) Burp Suite
16 7 (0.40%) REST Assured
17 6 (0.35%) GDB
17 6 (0.35%) Hudson
General
1 568 (32.76%) Social Skills
2 481 (27.74%) Finance
3 441 (25.43%) Analytical Skills
4 162 (9.34%) Aerospace
5 158 (9.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 149 (8.59%) Manufacturing
7 139 (8.02%) Electronics
8 100 (5.77%) Banking
9 94 (5.42%) Law
10 69 (3.98%) Retail
11 66 (3.81%) Public Sector
12 62 (3.58%) Pharmaceutical
13 60 (3.46%) Marketing
14 59 (3.40%) Organisational Skills
15 52 (3.00%) Legal
16 46 (2.65%) Games
17 44 (2.54%) Automotive
18 32 (1.85%) Telecoms
19 29 (1.67%) Financial Institution
19 29 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 315 (18.17%) Senior
2 251 (14.48%) Analyst
3 142 (8.19%) Lead
4 126 (7.27%) Systems Engineer
5 108 (6.23%) Test Engineer
6 102 (5.88%) Architect
7 94 (5.42%) Data Engineer
8 81 (4.67%) Business Analyst
9 79 (4.56%) Developer
10 67 (3.86%) Consultant
10 67 (3.86%) Validation Engineer
11 65 (3.75%) Software Engineer
12 62 (3.58%) Data Analyst
13 59 (3.40%) Principal Engineer
14 45 (2.60%) Support Engineer
15 44 (2.54%) Data Scientist
16 43 (2.48%) Embedded Engineer
17 39 (2.25%) IT Manager
18 38 (2.19%) Project Manager
19 36 (2.08%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.60%) RESTful
2 43 (2.48%) Kafka
3 37 (2.13%) PySpark
4 35 (2.02%) Node.js
5 33 (1.90%) REST
6 29 (1.67%) XML
7 27 (1.56%) .NET
7 27 (1.56%) JSON
8 24 (1.38%) Middleware
8 24 (1.38%) Pandas
9 22 (1.27%) LDAP
10 21 (1.21%) CSS
11 20 (1.15%) HTML
11 20 (1.15%) Playwright
12 19 (1.10%) Regular Expression
12 19 (1.10%) XMPP
13 17 (0.98%) FastAPI
13 17 (0.98%) React
14 15 (0.87%) Swagger
15 14 (0.81%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 127 (7.32%) Onboarding
2 126 (7.27%) Cloud Native
3 92 (5.31%) Management Information System
4 64 (3.69%) Product Ownership
5 63 (3.63%) Data Centre
6 56 (3.23%) Data Structures
7 51 (2.94%) Enterprise Software
8 49 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
9 48 (2.77%) Driving Licence
10 47 (2.71%) Embedded Systems
11 45 (2.60%) Algorithms
11 45 (2.60%) Low-Code
12 38 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
13 35 (2.02%) Life Science
14 33 (1.90%) Video\Live Streaming
15 31 (1.79%) AI Agents
15 31 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
16 30 (1.73%) Robotics
17 28 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
18 24 (1.38%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 114 (6.57%) Linux
2 86 (4.96%) Windows
3 34 (1.96%) Windows Server
4 19 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (1.10%) Unix
5 6 (0.35%) Android
5 6 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
5 6 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.23%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.23%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.17%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.12%) AIX
8 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.12%) ThreadX
8 2 (0.12%) VMS
8 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.058%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 455 (26.24%) Problem-Solving
2 404 (23.30%) Continuous Improvement
3 366 (21.11%) Agile
4 326 (18.80%) AI
5 286 (16.49%) CI/CD
6 229 (13.21%) Analytics
7 224 (12.92%) Migration
8 218 (12.57%) Test Automation
9 216 (12.46%) Stakeholder Management
10 204 (11.76%) Mentoring
11 198 (11.42%) Decision-Making
12 189 (10.90%) Verification and Validation
13 187 (10.78%) Software Engineering
14 175 (10.09%) Business Intelligence
15 174 (10.03%) DevOps
16 162 (9.34%) Data Analysis
16 162 (9.34%) Machine Learning
17 161 (9.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 159 (9.17%) Roadmaps
19 158 (9.11%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 416 (23.99%) Python
2 357 (20.59%) SQL
3 82 (4.73%) C++
4 75 (4.33%) Java
5 72 (4.15%) C
6 56 (3.23%) Go
7 54 (3.11%) JavaScript
8 45 (2.60%) C#
9 38 (2.19%) MATLAB
10 29 (1.67%) PowerShell
11 27 (1.56%) Bash
12 20 (1.15%) Embedded C
12 20 (1.15%) Scala
13 19 (1.10%) T-SQL
14 18 (1.04%) Embedded C++
15 17 (0.98%) TypeScript
16 15 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 8 (0.46%) ABAP
17 8 (0.46%) PL/SQL
17 8 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 357 (20.59%) Degree
2 247 (14.24%) Security Cleared
3 135 (7.79%) SC Cleared
4 117 (6.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 88 (5.07%) DV Cleared
6 76 (4.38%) Master's Degree
7 40 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
8 32 (1.85%) CISSP
9 31 (1.79%) Chartered Engineer
10 26 (1.50%) PMI Certification
11 25 (1.44%) CISM
11 25 (1.44%) HNC
11 25 (1.44%) PhD
12 23 (1.33%) ACCA
12 23 (1.33%) AWS Certification
12 23 (1.33%) CIMA
13 20 (1.15%) SANS
14 19 (1.10%) CISA
14 19 (1.10%) HND
15 17 (0.98%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 298 (17.19%) Data Quality
2 230 (13.26%) QA
3 56 (3.23%) Accessibility
3 56 (3.23%) GDPR
4 38 (2.19%) GRC
5 24 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (1.21%) IEC 61508
7 19 (1.10%) NIST
8 18 (1.04%) PMO
9 16 (0.92%) GxP
9 16 (0.92%) SLA
10 15 (0.87%) GAAP
10 15 (0.87%) IFRS
10 15 (0.87%) ISO 26262
11 13 (0.75%) ISO 9001
12 11 (0.63%) GMP
12 11 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 11 (0.63%) SOC 2
12 11 (0.63%) WCAG
13 10 (0.58%) COBIT
System Software
1 72 (4.15%) Docker
2 65 (3.75%) Firmware
3 42 (2.42%) Active Directory
4 28 (1.61%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.61%) Virtual Machines
5 22 (1.27%) vSphere
6 14 (0.81%) VMware Infrastructure
7 5 (0.29%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.17%) KVM
8 3 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.12%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.058%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.058%) iptables
10 1 (0.058%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 74 (4.27%) Kubernetes
2 72 (4.15%) Terraform
3 35 (2.02%) Grafana
4 25 (1.44%) Functional Safety
5 21 (1.21%) Ansible
6 15 (0.87%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.58%) Cilium
7 10 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.46%) SCCM
9 7 (0.40%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 7 (0.40%) Kibana
10 6 (0.35%) Puppet
11 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.23%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.23%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.23%) Nessus
12 4 (0.23%) Nmap
12 4 (0.23%) WMI
13 3 (0.17%) Argo
13 3 (0.17%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 258 (14.88%) Microsoft
2 112 (6.46%) SAP
3 99 (5.71%) Oracle
4 55 (3.17%) Salesforce
5 47 (2.71%) Databricks
6 42 (2.42%) ServiceNow
7 36 (2.08%) Google
8 35 (2.02%) Cisco
8 35 (2.02%) Red Hat
9 33 (1.90%) VMware
10 29 (1.67%) CrowdStrike
11 25 (1.44%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.27%) Tenable
13 15 (0.87%) EMC
13 15 (0.87%) McAfee
14 14 (0.81%) Adobe
15 13 (0.75%) Foundry
15 13 (0.75%) IBM
15 13 (0.75%) Splunk
15 13 (0.75%) Workday