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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 169 178
Rank change year-on-year +31 +9 -19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,091 687 1,269
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.49% 1.87% 1.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 2.01% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 650 359 718
10th Percentile £33,700 £40,000 £35,925
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% -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -8.33%

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 55,804 34,167 68,231
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 76.31% 93.17% 86.13%
Number of salaries quoted 35,190 20,509 52,490
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £103,750 £93,750
UK median annual salary £56,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -6.67% +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 7 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 7 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 +67 335 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +35 254 £55,000 +7.32% 215
North of England +10 179 £59,000 +23.97% 152
Midlands -21 137 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +13 113 £60,000 +25.83% 74
East of England -2 94 £57,500 +4.55% 96
West Midlands 0 83 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -40 78 £53,750 -2.27% 89
East Midlands -38 52 £34,000 -33.33% 41
Yorkshire -33 45 £60,000 +26.32% 51
North East -9 21 £50,000 -11.89% 27
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 42 (3.85%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.47%) Apache Spark
3 23 (2.11%) Apache
4 17 (1.56%) Confluence
5 16 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (1.10%) Appian
6 12 (1.10%) CMS
7 8 (0.73%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.55%) Kinematics
9 4 (0.37%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.18%) WordPress
11 1 (0.092%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.092%) IIS
11 1 (0.092%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.092%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.092%) SAS
Applications
1 86 (7.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (4.95%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (1.47%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.64%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.46%) Simulink
5 5 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.37%) Fusion 360
7 3 (0.27%) Solid Edge
7 3 (0.27%) SOLIDWORKS
8 2 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.18%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.18%) CATIA
8 2 (0.18%) Elementor
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.18%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.18%) Weka
Business Applications
1 16 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.46%) Loan IQ
4 4 (0.37%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.27%) SAP BPC
5 3 (0.27%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.27%) Workday HCM
6 2 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.18%) SAP CX
7 1 (0.092%) Magento
7 1 (0.092%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.092%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.092%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.092%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.092%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.092%) SAP Business ByDesign
7 1 (0.092%) SAP FSCM
7 1 (0.092%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 142 (13.02%) Azure
2 103 (9.44%) Power Platform
3 86 (7.88%) AWS
4 52 (4.77%) SaaS
5 41 (3.76%) GCP
6 39 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (2.66%) Power Automate
8 26 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (2.29%) Azure Data Factory
9 25 (2.29%) Snowflake
10 24 (2.20%) Amazon S3
11 23 (2.11%) dbt
12 22 (2.02%) Microsoft 365
13 21 (1.92%) Entra ID
14 18 (1.65%) GitHub
14 18 (1.65%) Serverless
15 14 (1.28%) Datadog
16 13 (1.19%) Anthropic Claude
16 13 (1.19%) OpenShift
17 12 (1.10%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.38%) CHAP
2 18 (1.65%) Broadband
3 16 (1.47%) Firewall
3 16 (1.47%) WAN
4 14 (1.28%) DNS
4 14 (1.28%) SD-WAN
5 11 (1.01%) 5G
5 11 (1.01%) Wireless
6 9 (0.82%) HTTP
6 9 (0.82%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.64%) LAN
7 7 (0.64%) Modbus
7 7 (0.64%) MQTT
8 6 (0.55%) NAS
8 6 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.46%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (0.46%) VPN
9 5 (0.46%) WAAS
10 4 (0.37%) SMTP
10 4 (0.37%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (9.26%) Power BI
2 43 (3.94%) SQL Server
2 43 (3.94%) Tableau
3 29 (2.66%) Relational Database
4 26 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
4 26 (2.38%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (2.29%) Metadata
6 15 (1.37%) Azure SQL Database
6 15 (1.37%) Oracle Reports
6 15 (1.37%) Spark SQL
7 14 (1.28%) Oracle Database
8 13 (1.19%) Apache Hive
8 13 (1.19%) Impala
8 13 (1.19%) MySQL
8 13 (1.19%) Parquet
8 13 (1.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 12 (1.10%) Pinecone
10 11 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
10 11 (1.01%) Data Lake
11 10 (0.92%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 61 (5.59%) Git
2 58 (5.32%) JIRA
3 36 (3.30%) Rational DOORS
4 18 (1.65%) Jenkins
5 17 (1.56%) Postman
6 15 (1.37%) Selenium
7 14 (1.28%) GitLab
7 14 (1.28%) JMeter
7 14 (1.28%) LabVIEW
7 14 (1.28%) MLflow
8 13 (1.19%) Cucumber
8 13 (1.19%) IBM UrbanCode
9 11 (1.01%) Eclipse
9 11 (1.01%) TestRail
10 8 (0.73%) Locust
11 7 (0.64%) SoapUI
12 6 (0.55%) LoadRunner
12 6 (0.55%) Snyk
12 6 (0.55%) Subversion
13 5 (0.46%) SpecFlow
General
1 367 (33.64%) Social Skills
2 272 (24.93%) Finance
3 256 (23.46%) Analytical Skills
4 85 (7.79%) Banking
5 70 (6.42%) Manufacturing
6 69 (6.32%) Electronics
7 60 (5.50%) Aerospace
8 48 (4.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 45 (4.12%) Law
10 44 (4.03%) Legal
11 41 (3.76%) Financial Institution
11 41 (3.76%) Marketing
11 41 (3.76%) Retail
12 30 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
12 30 (2.75%) Public Sector
13 25 (2.29%) Organisational Skills
14 24 (2.20%) Pharmaceutical
15 23 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
15 23 (2.11%) Telecoms
16 21 (1.92%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 193 (17.69%) Analyst
2 175 (16.04%) Senior
3 138 (12.65%) Systems Engineer
4 81 (7.42%) Lead
5 73 (6.69%) Validation Engineer
6 69 (6.32%) Test Engineer
7 68 (6.23%) Business Analyst
8 59 (5.41%) Architect
9 52 (4.77%) Data Analyst
10 50 (4.58%) Integration Engineer
11 42 (3.85%) Principal Engineer
12 40 (3.67%) Systems Integration Engineer
13 38 (3.48%) Data Engineer
13 38 (3.48%) Developer
14 37 (3.39%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 35 (3.21%) Junior
15 35 (3.21%) Verification Engineer
16 33 (3.02%) Software Validation Engineer
17 31 (2.84%) Principal Systems Engineer
18 29 (2.66%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (4.95%) REST
2 37 (3.39%) Pandas
3 29 (2.66%) JSON
4 27 (2.47%) Middleware
5 25 (2.29%) pytest
6 24 (2.20%) XML
7 20 (1.83%) PySpark
8 19 (1.74%) OAuth
9 18 (1.65%) JWT
9 18 (1.65%) NumPy
9 18 (1.65%) PyTorch
9 18 (1.65%) Swagger
9 18 (1.65%) TensorFlow
10 16 (1.47%) .NET
10 16 (1.47%) RESTful
11 15 (1.37%) Kafka
11 15 (1.37%) React
11 15 (1.37%) scikit-learn
11 15 (1.37%) Web Services
12 14 (1.28%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 70 (6.42%) Management Information System
2 51 (4.67%) Onboarding
3 41 (3.76%) Data Structures
4 37 (3.39%) Low-Code
5 32 (2.93%) Legacy Systems
6 29 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (2.38%) Product Ownership
8 25 (2.29%) Analytical Mindset
9 24 (2.20%) Life Science
10 19 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
11 16 (1.47%) Algorithms
11 16 (1.47%) Data Centre
11 16 (1.47%) Robotics
12 14 (1.28%) Blockchain
12 14 (1.28%) Embedded Systems
12 14 (1.28%) IoT
13 13 (1.19%) Reinsurance
14 11 (1.01%) Hackathon
14 11 (1.01%) SCADA
15 10 (0.92%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.86%) Linux
2 44 (4.03%) Windows
3 17 (1.56%) Unix
4 13 (1.19%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.92%) Android
6 6 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.37%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.27%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.18%) AIX
9 2 (0.18%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.18%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.092%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.092%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.092%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (21.81%) Problem-Solving
2 232 (21.26%) Agile
3 197 (18.06%) Verification and Validation
4 191 (17.51%) Continuous Improvement
5 164 (15.03%) Analytics
6 150 (13.75%) Data Validation
7 136 (12.47%) Test Automation
8 135 (12.37%) AI
9 129 (11.82%) CI/CD
10 126 (11.55%) Business Intelligence
11 122 (11.18%) Systems Engineering
12 111 (10.17%) Data Modelling
13 109 (9.99%) DevOps
14 108 (9.90%) Decision-Making
15 106 (9.72%) Migration
16 103 (9.44%) Stakeholder Management
17 102 (9.35%) Mentoring
18 99 (9.07%) Data Governance
19 98 (8.98%) ETL
19 98 (8.98%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 242 (22.18%) SQL
2 226 (20.71%) Python
3 43 (3.94%) Java
4 31 (2.84%) C++
5 30 (2.75%) JavaScript
6 28 (2.57%) C
6 28 (2.57%) PowerShell
7 21 (1.92%) Bash
8 19 (1.74%) T-SQL
9 18 (1.65%) Go
10 16 (1.47%) C#
10 16 (1.47%) MATLAB
11 14 (1.28%) TypeScript
12 11 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 9 (0.82%) R
13 9 (0.82%) VBA
14 7 (0.64%) VB
15 6 (0.55%) Embedded C
15 6 (0.55%) PHP
16 5 (0.46%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 244 (22.36%) Degree
2 129 (11.82%) Security Cleared
3 116 (10.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 51 (4.67%) Master's Degree
5 48 (4.40%) SC Cleared
6 34 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
7 33 (3.02%) CISA
7 33 (3.02%) CISSP
8 32 (2.93%) CISM
9 28 (2.57%) DV Cleared
10 26 (2.38%) CGEIT
10 26 (2.38%) Chartered Engineer
10 26 (2.38%) FFIEC
10 26 (2.38%) SANS
11 23 (2.11%) HNC
12 17 (1.56%) HND
12 17 (1.56%) ISTQB
13 14 (1.28%) PMI Certification
14 12 (1.10%) PMP
15 8 (0.73%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 154 (14.12%) Data Quality
2 115 (10.54%) QA
3 61 (5.59%) GDPR
4 40 (3.67%) Accessibility
5 38 (3.48%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 27 (2.47%) NIST
7 26 (2.38%) COBIT
8 19 (1.74%) GRC
8 19 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 18 (1.65%) SLA
10 17 (1.56%) IFRS
11 13 (1.19%) WCAG
12 11 (1.01%) GAAP
13 10 (0.92%) Good Clinical Practice
13 10 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 9 (0.82%) ISO 9001
15 8 (0.73%) PMO
16 7 (0.64%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 7 (0.64%) GxP
16 7 (0.64%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 58 (5.32%) Docker
2 23 (2.11%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.92%) Firmware
4 8 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.73%) vSphere
5 7 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.46%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.18%) Ceph
7 2 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.18%) Lustre
7 2 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (0.18%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.092%) iptables
8 1 (0.092%) OpenAM
8 1 (0.092%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.092%) OpenIDM
8 1 (0.092%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 57 (5.22%) Kubernetes
2 44 (4.03%) Terraform
3 26 (2.38%) Grafana
4 17 (1.56%) Ansible
5 15 (1.37%) Prometheus
6 12 (1.10%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.92%) SCCM
8 8 (0.73%) Functional Safety
9 7 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.46%) Argo
10 5 (0.46%) Rancher
10 5 (0.46%) yum
11 2 (0.18%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.18%) Cilium
11 2 (0.18%) Nessus
11 2 (0.18%) PowerCLI
11 2 (0.18%) Puppet
12 1 (0.092%) Control-M
12 1 (0.092%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.092%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 147 (13.47%) Microsoft
2 57 (5.22%) Oracle
3 43 (3.94%) SAP
4 38 (3.48%) Salesforce
5 19 (1.74%) Databricks
5 19 (1.74%) Red Hat
6 17 (1.56%) Cisco
6 17 (1.56%) Foundry
7 16 (1.47%) Adobe
7 16 (1.47%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.37%) VMware
9 13 (1.19%) IBM
9 13 (1.19%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.10%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.10%) Google
10 12 (1.10%) UiPath
11 10 (0.92%) Citrix
11 10 (0.92%) Intapp
11 10 (0.92%) Software AG
12 9 (0.82%) Workday