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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 82 185
Rank change year-on-year -2 +103 +19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,962 1,585 1,073
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.03% 3.61% 1.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.76% 4.07% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 1,196 482 451
10th Percentile £36,125 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £72,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,625 £92,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% -7.69%

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 70,979 38,973 59,191
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.36% 88.89% 81.01%
Number of salaries quoted 50,404 22,584 37,530
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,000 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -10.40%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 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 27 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 +62 520 £70,000 -12.50% 345
South East -19 448 £59,490 +8.16% 221
North of England +101 403 £55,000 +15.79% 164
North West +97 239 £55,000 +15.35% 90
Midlands -42 219 £47,500 -13.64% 127
South West +1 190 £55,000 +4.56% 180
East of England -61 149 £57,500 +21.05% 125
West Midlands +19 122 £47,500 -13.64% 83
East Midlands -63 96 £48,372 +13.82% 44
Yorkshire +14 82 £43,000 +1.18% 37
North East +3 82 £55,000 +57.14% 39
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 (2.34%) Apache Airflow
2 44 (2.24%) Apache Spark
3 43 (2.19%) Apache
4 32 (1.63%) Confluence
5 31 (1.58%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.92%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.66%) SAS
8 9 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
9 6 (0.31%) WinCC
10 5 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.25%) CMS
11 4 (0.20%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.15%) Artix
12 3 (0.15%) IIS
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
14 1 (0.051%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.051%) OpenStack
14 1 (0.051%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.051%) WebSphere
Applications
1 115 (5.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (3.11%) Microsoft Office
3 36 (1.83%) Simulink
4 35 (1.78%) Microsoft Project
5 17 (0.87%) SOLIDWORKS
6 16 (0.82%) MS Visio
6 16 (0.82%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 10 (0.51%) AutoCAD
9 5 (0.25%) Mathcad
10 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.20%) OrCAD
10 4 (0.20%) Revit
10 4 (0.20%) Sketch
11 3 (0.15%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.15%) LaTeX
11 3 (0.15%) Productboard
11 3 (0.15%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.10%) EPLAN
12 2 (0.10%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 38 (1.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 36 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.51%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.41%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.41%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.36%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.31%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.25%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.25%) iTrent
8 5 (0.25%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.25%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.20%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.15%) SystmOne
10 3 (0.15%) Teamcenter
11 2 (0.10%) Oracle Payables
11 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
11 2 (0.10%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 261 (13.30%) Azure
2 234 (11.93%) AWS
3 156 (7.95%) Power Platform
4 86 (4.38%) GCP
5 68 (3.47%) SaaS
6 62 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
7 59 (3.01%) Azure DevOps
8 53 (2.70%) GitHub
9 44 (2.24%) Serverless
10 38 (1.94%) Amazon S3
11 33 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
12 31 (1.58%) Entra ID
13 28 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
14 27 (1.38%) GitHub Actions
15 22 (1.12%) Amazon EMR
16 21 (1.07%) Amazon EC2
16 21 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
17 19 (0.97%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.97%) PowerApps
18 18 (0.92%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 62 (3.16%) Broadband
2 59 (3.01%) DNS
3 58 (2.96%) Firewall
4 33 (1.68%) Network Security
5 32 (1.63%) Wireless
6 30 (1.53%) TCP/IP
6 30 (1.53%) WAN
7 29 (1.48%) VPN
8 24 (1.22%) Ethernet
9 22 (1.12%) LAN
10 20 (1.02%) SD-WAN
11 19 (0.97%) MQTT
12 17 (0.87%) VLAN
12 17 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
13 16 (0.82%) BGP
13 16 (0.82%) Modbus
13 16 (0.82%) OSPF
14 15 (0.76%) Wireshark
15 14 (0.71%) HTTP
16 13 (0.66%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 145 (7.39%) Power BI
2 56 (2.85%) Data Warehouse
3 53 (2.70%) PostgreSQL
4 46 (2.34%) Metadata
5 45 (2.29%) SQL Server
6 40 (2.04%) Data Lake
7 38 (1.94%) Tableau
8 34 (1.73%) MongoDB
9 29 (1.48%) Relational Database
10 28 (1.43%) Amazon Athena
11 25 (1.27%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.27%) DynamoDB
12 22 (1.12%) Semantic Layer
13 21 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 19 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
14 19 (0.97%) MySQL
15 18 (0.92%) Big Data
16 16 (0.82%) NoSQL
17 14 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
18 13 (0.66%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 120 (6.12%) JIRA
2 102 (5.20%) Git
3 51 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 45 (2.29%) GitLab
5 34 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
6 23 (1.17%) Selenium
7 22 (1.12%) Snyk
8 18 (0.92%) Cypress.io
8 18 (0.92%) LabVIEW
8 18 (0.92%) Postman
9 14 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 13 (0.66%) JMeter
11 10 (0.51%) Burp Suite
11 10 (0.51%) Gatling
11 10 (0.51%) TeamCity
12 8 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
12 8 (0.41%) REST Assured
13 7 (0.36%) Hudson
13 7 (0.36%) LoadRunner
13 7 (0.36%) MLflow
General
1 641 (32.67%) Social Skills
2 502 (25.59%) Finance
3 478 (24.36%) Analytical Skills
4 183 (9.33%) Aerospace
5 175 (8.92%) Manufacturing
6 174 (8.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 172 (8.77%) Electronics
8 108 (5.50%) Law
9 96 (4.89%) Banking
10 79 (4.03%) Public Sector
10 79 (4.03%) Retail
11 70 (3.57%) Marketing
12 69 (3.52%) Pharmaceutical
13 66 (3.36%) Organisational Skills
14 58 (2.96%) Automotive
15 52 (2.65%) Legal
16 45 (2.29%) Games
16 45 (2.29%) Telecoms
17 39 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
18 36 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 363 (18.50%) Senior
2 246 (12.54%) Analyst
3 202 (10.30%) Systems Engineer
4 163 (8.31%) Lead
5 122 (6.22%) Test Engineer
6 107 (5.45%) Architect
7 97 (4.94%) Data Engineer
8 87 (4.43%) Developer
9 76 (3.87%) Business Analyst
10 70 (3.57%) Software Engineer
11 69 (3.52%) Consultant
12 66 (3.36%) Principal Engineer
13 63 (3.21%) Validation Engineer
14 62 (3.16%) Data Analyst
15 49 (2.50%) Support Engineer
16 47 (2.40%) Data Scientist
16 47 (2.40%) Embedded Engineer
17 43 (2.19%) Network Engineer
18 42 (2.14%) Electronics Engineer
19 41 (2.09%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (3.57%) Terraform
2 49 (2.50%) RESTful
3 47 (2.40%) Kafka
4 44 (2.24%) REST
5 36 (1.83%) Node.js
6 30 (1.53%) JSON
7 29 (1.48%) .NET
8 27 (1.38%) LDAP
8 27 (1.38%) XML
9 26 (1.33%) Playwright
9 26 (1.33%) PySpark
10 25 (1.27%) Middleware
11 23 (1.17%) CSS
12 22 (1.12%) HTML
13 21 (1.07%) FastAPI
13 21 (1.07%) ModSecurity
14 20 (1.02%) Swagger
15 19 (0.97%) React
15 19 (0.97%) Regular Expression
15 19 (0.97%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 141 (7.19%) Cloud Native
2 121 (6.17%) Onboarding
3 108 (5.50%) Management Information System
4 73 (3.72%) Data Centre
4 73 (3.72%) Product Ownership
5 57 (2.91%) Enterprise Software
6 55 (2.80%) Data Structures
6 55 (2.80%) Distributed Systems
6 55 (2.80%) Driving Licence
6 55 (2.80%) Embedded Systems
7 48 (2.45%) Low-Code
8 46 (2.34%) Algorithms
9 41 (2.09%) Life Science
10 39 (1.99%) Analytical Mindset
11 38 (1.94%) Robotics
12 35 (1.78%) AI Agents
12 35 (1.78%) Video\Live Streaming
13 34 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
14 30 (1.53%) SCADA
15 29 (1.48%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 125 (6.37%) Linux
2 90 (4.59%) Windows
3 35 (1.78%) Windows Server
4 20 (1.02%) Unix
5 19 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.51%) Android
7 9 (0.46%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.25%) Kali Linux
9 5 (0.25%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.20%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.10%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.10%) ThreadX
12 2 (0.10%) VMS
12 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.051%) AIX
13 1 (0.051%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 498 (25.38%) Problem-Solving
2 453 (23.09%) Continuous Improvement
3 385 (19.62%) Agile
4 349 (17.79%) AI
5 291 (14.83%) CI/CD
6 290 (14.78%) Verification and Validation
7 257 (13.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 252 (12.84%) Test Automation
9 240 (12.23%) Migration
10 231 (11.77%) Analytics
11 221 (11.26%) Mentoring
12 205 (10.45%) Software Engineering
13 204 (10.40%) Decision-Making
14 190 (9.68%) DevOps
15 180 (9.17%) Business Intelligence
16 174 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 173 (8.82%) Machine Learning
18 167 (8.51%) Roadmaps
19 165 (8.41%) Data Analysis
20 158 (8.05%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 424 (21.61%) Python
2 362 (18.45%) SQL
3 86 (4.38%) C++
4 82 (4.18%) Java
5 78 (3.98%) C
6 60 (3.06%) JavaScript
7 55 (2.80%) Go
8 49 (2.50%) MATLAB
9 46 (2.34%) C#
10 30 (1.53%) Bash
11 29 (1.48%) PowerShell
12 25 (1.27%) Embedded C
13 22 (1.12%) Scala
14 19 (0.97%) TypeScript
15 18 (0.92%) Embedded C++
16 15 (0.76%) R
17 12 (0.61%) T-SQL
18 10 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
19 8 (0.41%) ABAP
19 8 (0.41%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 420 (21.41%) Degree
2 370 (18.86%) Security Cleared
3 243 (12.39%) SC Cleared
4 118 (6.01%) BPSS Clearance
5 98 (4.99%) DV Cleared
6 86 (4.38%) Master's Degree
7 43 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (1.83%) CISSP
9 33 (1.68%) Chartered Engineer
10 32 (1.63%) PhD
11 30 (1.53%) PMI Certification
12 28 (1.43%) CISM
12 28 (1.43%) HNC
13 26 (1.33%) HND
14 24 (1.22%) ACCA
14 24 (1.22%) AWS Certification
15 23 (1.17%) Azure Certification
15 23 (1.17%) CIMA
16 18 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
16 18 (0.92%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 294 (14.98%) Data Quality
2 272 (13.86%) QA
3 67 (3.41%) Accessibility
4 51 (2.60%) GDPR
5 37 (1.89%) GRC
6 25 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.17%) IEC 61508
8 21 (1.07%) GxP
9 19 (0.97%) NIST
10 18 (0.92%) PMO
11 16 (0.82%) SLA
12 15 (0.76%) ISO 26262
13 13 (0.66%) GAAP
13 13 (0.66%) IFRS
13 13 (0.66%) ISO 9001
13 13 (0.66%) WCAG
14 11 (0.56%) GMP
14 11 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 11 (0.56%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.46%) Def Stans
System Software
1 77 (3.92%) Docker
2 72 (3.67%) Firmware
3 47 (2.40%) Active Directory
4 34 (1.73%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.43%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (1.07%) vSphere
7 10 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.15%) KVM
10 2 (0.10%) iptables
10 2 (0.10%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.051%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.051%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 77 (3.92%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.99%) Grafana
3 26 (1.33%) Functional Safety
4 24 (1.22%) Ansible
5 15 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (0.71%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.51%) Cilium
8 7 (0.36%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 7 (0.36%) Kibana
8 7 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.31%) Nessus
9 6 (0.31%) Nmap
9 6 (0.31%) Puppet
10 5 (0.25%) FortiGate
10 5 (0.25%) SCCM
10 5 (0.25%) WMI
11 4 (0.20%) BMC PATROL
11 4 (0.20%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.10%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 259 (13.20%) Microsoft
2 110 (5.61%) SAP
3 94 (4.79%) Oracle
4 56 (2.85%) Salesforce
5 51 (2.60%) Databricks
6 48 (2.45%) ServiceNow
7 46 (2.34%) Cisco
8 37 (1.89%) Google
9 29 (1.48%) CrowdStrike
9 29 (1.48%) VMware
10 27 (1.38%) EMC
11 26 (1.33%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.27%) Red Hat
13 22 (1.12%) Tenable
14 15 (0.76%) McAfee
15 14 (0.71%) IBM
15 14 (0.71%) Splunk
15 14 (0.71%) Workday
16 12 (0.61%) ForgeRock
16 12 (0.61%) Remedy