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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 80 173
Rank change year-on-year +5 +93 +33
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,167 1,539 1,052
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.16% 3.58% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.95% 4.04% 1.89%
Number of salaries quoted 1,316 430 410
10th Percentile £35,875 £38,750 £38,973
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,000 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,150 £93,875
UK median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £57,767
% change year-on-year +7.27% -4.79% -9.74%

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 73,454 38,135 55,596
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.14% 88.76% 81.34%
Number of salaries quoted 52,251 21,803 32,273
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,571 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,040
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 15 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 15 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 +65 536 £68,750 -14.06% 2,296
South East -16 488 £62,500 +16.28% 654
North of England +113 451 £55,000 +18.92% 446
North West +108 280 £55,000 +15.35% 266
Midlands -37 256 £50,000 -9.09% 367
South West +13 228 £60,000 +14.18% 377
East of England -54 174 £55,000 -8.33% 414
West Midlands +34 144 £50,000 -9.09% 250
East Midlands -49 112 £48,372 +13.82% 116
North East +4 86 £55,000 +57.14% 70
Yorkshire +10 85 £43,000 +1.18% 120
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 46 (2.12%) Apache Spark
2 42 (1.94%) Apache Airflow
3 39 (1.80%) Apache
4 33 (1.52%) Confluence
5 32 (1.48%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.83%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.60%) SAS
8 8 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
8 8 (0.37%) WinCC
9 5 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.18%) CMS
11 3 (0.14%) Artix
11 3 (0.14%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.092%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.092%) IIS
13 1 (0.046%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.046%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.046%) WebSphere
Applications
1 121 (5.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 67 (3.09%) Microsoft Office
3 47 (2.17%) Simulink
4 36 (1.66%) Microsoft Project
5 18 (0.83%) SOLIDWORKS
6 17 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.69%) AutoCAD
7 15 (0.69%) MS Visio
8 9 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 7 (0.32%) Revit
10 5 (0.23%) Mathcad
10 5 (0.23%) Navisworks
11 4 (0.18%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.18%) EPLAN
11 4 (0.18%) OrCAD
11 4 (0.18%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
12 3 (0.14%) LaTeX
12 3 (0.14%) Productboard
12 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 39 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 38 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.51%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.42%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.37%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.37%) Workday HCM
6 7 (0.32%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.32%) SAP ERP
7 5 (0.23%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.23%) Infor M3
7 5 (0.23%) iTrent
7 5 (0.23%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle Financials
8 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
9 3 (0.14%) Teamcenter
10 2 (0.092%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
10 2 (0.092%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.092%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 281 (12.97%) Azure
2 239 (11.03%) AWS
3 168 (7.75%) Power Platform
4 88 (4.06%) GCP
5 66 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
6 63 (2.91%) SaaS
7 62 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
8 60 (2.77%) GitHub
9 54 (2.49%) Serverless
10 42 (1.94%) Amazon S3
11 34 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
12 32 (1.48%) Entra ID
13 31 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
14 30 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
15 25 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
15 25 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
16 24 (1.11%) Amazon EMR
16 24 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
17 22 (1.02%) PowerApps
18 21 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.23%) DNS
2 63 (2.91%) Firewall
3 55 (2.54%) Broadband
4 37 (1.71%) TCP/IP
5 35 (1.62%) VPN
6 34 (1.57%) Network Security
6 34 (1.57%) WAN
7 32 (1.48%) Wireless
8 28 (1.29%) Ethernet
9 27 (1.25%) LAN
10 26 (1.20%) Modbus
11 25 (1.15%) VLAN
12 24 (1.11%) OSPF
13 22 (1.02%) SD-WAN
14 21 (0.97%) BGP
14 21 (0.97%) MQTT
14 21 (0.97%) Wireshark
15 17 (0.78%) 5G
16 16 (0.74%) HTTP
16 16 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (7.20%) Power BI
2 57 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.40%) Metadata
4 49 (2.26%) Data Lake
5 47 (2.17%) SQL Server
6 46 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
7 38 (1.75%) Tableau
8 35 (1.62%) Amazon Athena
9 31 (1.43%) Relational Database
10 30 (1.38%) MongoDB
11 25 (1.15%) Big Data
11 25 (1.15%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.15%) DynamoDB
12 22 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
13 21 (0.97%) NoSQL
13 21 (0.97%) Semantic Layer
14 18 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
15 17 (0.78%) MySQL
16 16 (0.74%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 124 (5.72%) JIRA
2 116 (5.35%) Git
3 57 (2.63%) Jenkins
4 49 (2.26%) GitLab
5 39 (1.80%) Rational DOORS
6 26 (1.20%) LabVIEW
7 25 (1.15%) Selenium
8 22 (1.02%) Snyk
9 19 (0.88%) Cypress.io
9 19 (0.88%) Postman
10 12 (0.55%) Burp Suite
11 11 (0.51%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.51%) JMeter
12 10 (0.46%) TeamCity
13 9 (0.42%) Eclipse
13 9 (0.42%) Gatling
13 9 (0.42%) MLflow
14 8 (0.37%) Claude Code
14 8 (0.37%) REST Assured
14 8 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 711 (32.81%) Social Skills
2 536 (24.73%) Finance
3 522 (24.09%) Analytical Skills
4 211 (9.74%) Aerospace
5 202 (9.32%) Electronics
6 200 (9.23%) Manufacturing
7 173 (7.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 119 (5.49%) Law
9 93 (4.29%) Banking
9 93 (4.29%) Retail
10 88 (4.06%) Organisational Skills
10 88 (4.06%) Public Sector
11 79 (3.65%) Pharmaceutical
12 78 (3.60%) Marketing
13 73 (3.37%) Telecoms
14 69 (3.18%) Automotive
15 53 (2.45%) Legal
16 40 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
17 38 (1.75%) Games
18 37 (1.71%) Military
Job Titles
1 386 (17.81%) Senior
2 271 (12.51%) Systems Engineer
3 247 (11.40%) Analyst
4 179 (8.26%) Lead
5 124 (5.72%) Test Engineer
6 110 (5.08%) Architect
7 107 (4.94%) Data Engineer
8 88 (4.06%) Developer
9 75 (3.46%) Consultant
10 74 (3.41%) Business Analyst
11 73 (3.37%) Software Engineer
12 71 (3.28%) Principal Engineer
13 65 (3.00%) Validation Engineer
14 63 (2.91%) Data Analyst
15 57 (2.63%) Electronics Engineer
16 53 (2.45%) Network Engineer
17 49 (2.26%) Embedded Engineer
17 49 (2.26%) Support Engineer
18 48 (2.22%) Data Scientist
19 41 (1.89%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.60%) Terraform
2 52 (2.40%) RESTful
3 51 (2.35%) Kafka
4 45 (2.08%) REST
5 40 (1.85%) Node.js
6 34 (1.57%) PySpark
7 32 (1.48%) JSON
8 31 (1.43%) .NET
8 31 (1.43%) Playwright
9 29 (1.34%) XML
10 27 (1.25%) FastAPI
11 26 (1.20%) CSS
11 26 (1.20%) LDAP
12 25 (1.15%) HTML
13 23 (1.06%) Middleware
14 22 (1.02%) React
15 21 (0.97%) ModSecurity
16 20 (0.92%) Swagger
17 18 (0.83%) OpenID
17 18 (0.83%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 148 (6.83%) Cloud Native
2 118 (5.45%) Onboarding
3 114 (5.26%) Management Information System
4 79 (3.65%) Data Centre
5 73 (3.37%) Product Ownership
6 59 (2.72%) Driving Licence
6 59 (2.72%) Embedded Systems
7 58 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
8 57 (2.63%) Data Structures
9 55 (2.54%) Distributed Systems
10 45 (2.08%) Algorithms
10 45 (2.08%) Life Science
11 42 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
11 42 (1.94%) SCADA
12 41 (1.89%) Low-Code
13 39 (1.80%) AI Agents
13 39 (1.80%) Robotics
14 36 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
15 30 (1.38%) IoT
15 30 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 134 (6.18%) Linux
2 89 (4.11%) Windows
3 32 (1.48%) Windows Server
4 24 (1.11%) Unix
5 17 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.46%) Android
7 8 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.23%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.092%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.092%) VMS
13 2 (0.092%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.046%) AIX
14 1 (0.046%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.046%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 551 (25.43%) Problem-Solving
2 475 (21.92%) Continuous Improvement
3 397 (18.32%) Agile
4 381 (17.58%) Verification and Validation
5 369 (17.03%) AI
6 308 (14.21%) CI/CD
7 284 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
8 265 (12.23%) Migration
8 265 (12.23%) Test Automation
9 240 (11.08%) Analytics
10 229 (10.57%) Mentoring
11 217 (10.01%) Software Engineering
12 205 (9.46%) Decision-Making
13 201 (9.28%) DevOps
14 196 (9.04%) Business Intelligence
15 191 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 188 (8.68%) Data Analysis
17 183 (8.44%) Roadmaps
18 180 (8.31%) Machine Learning
19 172 (7.94%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 448 (20.67%) Python
2 393 (18.14%) SQL
3 88 (4.06%) C++
3 88 (4.06%) Java
4 82 (3.78%) C
5 65 (3.00%) JavaScript
6 60 (2.77%) MATLAB
7 50 (2.31%) C#
8 49 (2.26%) Go
9 35 (1.62%) Bash
10 30 (1.38%) Embedded C
11 27 (1.25%) PowerShell
12 24 (1.11%) Scala
13 22 (1.02%) TypeScript
14 18 (0.83%) Embedded C++
14 18 (0.83%) R
15 13 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 11 (0.51%) Shell Script
16 11 (0.51%) T-SQL
17 8 (0.37%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 465 (21.46%) Degree
2 463 (21.37%) Security Cleared
3 333 (15.37%) SC Cleared
4 115 (5.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 98 (4.52%) DV Cleared
6 94 (4.34%) Master's Degree
7 48 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (1.66%) Chartered Engineer
8 36 (1.66%) PhD
9 35 (1.62%) PMI Certification
10 33 (1.52%) CISSP
11 32 (1.48%) HND
12 30 (1.38%) HNC
13 25 (1.15%) Azure Certification
14 24 (1.11%) ACCA
14 24 (1.11%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.11%) CISM
15 22 (1.02%) PMP
16 21 (0.97%) CIMA
16 21 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 327 (15.09%) Data Quality
2 275 (12.69%) QA
3 70 (3.23%) Accessibility
4 52 (2.40%) GDPR
5 37 (1.71%) GRC
6 29 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.25%) GxP
8 22 (1.02%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.83%) NIST
10 16 (0.74%) PMO
10 16 (0.74%) SLA
11 15 (0.69%) ISO 26262
12 14 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 13 (0.60%) ISO 9001
14 12 (0.55%) GMP
14 12 (0.55%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.46%) WCAG
16 9 (0.42%) Def Stans
16 9 (0.42%) ISO 19650
17 8 (0.37%) MISRA C
System Software
1 84 (3.88%) Docker
1 84 (3.88%) Firmware
2 46 (2.12%) Active Directory
3 40 (1.85%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.29%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (0.88%) vSphere
6 8 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
7 4 (0.18%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.14%) KVM
9 2 (0.092%) iptables
9 2 (0.092%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.092%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.046%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 79 (3.65%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.71%) Grafana
3 32 (1.48%) Ansible
4 27 (1.25%) Functional Safety
5 17 (0.78%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.46%) Cilium
8 8 (0.37%) Nessus
8 8 (0.37%) Nmap
8 8 (0.37%) Puppet
9 7 (0.32%) BMC PATROL
9 7 (0.32%) Kibana
9 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.23%) WMI
11 4 (0.18%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.18%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.18%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.18%) SCCM
12 3 (0.14%) Argo
12 3 (0.14%) Rancher
Vendors
1 276 (12.74%) Microsoft
2 118 (5.45%) SAP
3 98 (4.52%) Oracle
4 55 (2.54%) Salesforce
5 54 (2.49%) Databricks
6 52 (2.40%) ServiceNow
7 51 (2.35%) Cisco
8 39 (1.80%) EMC
9 37 (1.71%) Google
10 30 (1.38%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.20%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.15%) VMware
13 23 (1.06%) Tenable
14 21 (0.97%) Red Hat
15 17 (0.78%) Sage
16 16 (0.74%) IBM
17 15 (0.69%) Autodesk
17 15 (0.69%) Informatica
17 15 (0.69%) Siemens
17 15 (0.69%) Thales