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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 80 172
Rank change year-on-year +10 +92 +28
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,245 1,538 1,076
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.21% 3.56% 1.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.01% 4.01% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 1,345 430 415
10th Percentile £36,100 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.45% -4.35% -10.16%
75th Percentile £71,250 £76,163 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £94,500
UK median annual salary £59,490 £55,000 £58,033
% change year-on-year +8.16% -5.23% -7.15%

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 74,604 38,365 56,474
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.40% 88.79% 81.71%
Number of salaries quoted 52,829 22,080 32,110
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,233 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £96,250
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 18 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 18 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 +71 564 £70,000 -12.50% 1,843
South East -11 494 £62,500 +16.28% 653
North of England +103 467 £52,500 +10.53% 410
North West +114 286 £55,000 +10.00% 232
Midlands -33 264 £50,000 -9.09% 350
South West +13 237 £60,000 +14.29% 314
East of England -49 186 £55,000 -8.33% 341
West Midlands +33 149 £50,000 -9.09% 239
East Midlands -54 115 £48,372 +13.82% 111
Yorkshire +12 91 £42,750 +0.59% 113
North East +1 90 £55,000 +57.14% 67
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 (2.05%) Apache Spark
2 42 (1.87%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.78%) Apache
4 33 (1.47%) Confluence
4 33 (1.47%) SharePoint
5 18 (0.80%) Jupyter
6 13 (0.58%) SAS
7 9 (0.40%) WinCC
8 8 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.18%) CMS
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.089%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.089%) IIS
12 2 (0.089%) Kinematics
12 2 (0.089%) nginx
13 1 (0.045%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.045%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 133 (5.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (3.07%) Microsoft Office
3 48 (2.14%) Simulink
4 37 (1.65%) Microsoft Project
5 21 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
6 19 (0.85%) SOLIDWORKS
7 18 (0.80%) AutoCAD
8 15 (0.67%) MS Visio
9 9 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 9 (0.40%) Revit
10 6 (0.27%) EPLAN
10 6 (0.27%) Navisworks
11 5 (0.22%) Mathcad
11 5 (0.22%) OrCAD
12 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
12 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.13%) LaTeX
12 3 (0.13%) Productboard
12 3 (0.13%) Sketch
12 3 (0.13%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 40 (1.78%) Dynamics CRM
1 40 (1.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.49%) SAP MDG
3 9 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.36%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.36%) Oracle Applications
4 8 (0.36%) Workday HCM
5 7 (0.31%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.22%) Infor M3
6 5 (0.22%) iTrent
6 5 (0.22%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.22%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.18%) Elite 3E
7 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
7 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 287 (12.78%) Azure
2 244 (10.87%) AWS
3 167 (7.44%) Power Platform
4 91 (4.05%) GCP
5 65 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
6 63 (2.81%) GitHub
6 63 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
7 62 (2.76%) SaaS
8 55 (2.45%) Serverless
9 42 (1.87%) Amazon S3
10 36 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
11 32 (1.43%) Entra ID
11 32 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
11 32 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
12 25 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
12 25 (1.11%) Cloud Computing
12 25 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
13 24 (1.07%) Amazon EMR
14 23 (1.02%) PowerApps
15 21 (0.94%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.12%) DNS
2 63 (2.81%) Firewall
3 55 (2.45%) Broadband
4 37 (1.65%) TCP/IP
4 37 (1.65%) VPN
5 35 (1.56%) Network Security
6 33 (1.47%) WAN
7 32 (1.43%) Wireless
8 30 (1.34%) Ethernet
9 29 (1.29%) Modbus
10 27 (1.20%) LAN
10 27 (1.20%) VLAN
11 25 (1.11%) OSPF
12 22 (0.98%) MQTT
12 22 (0.98%) Wireshark
13 21 (0.94%) BGP
13 21 (0.94%) SD-WAN
14 18 (0.80%) 5G
15 17 (0.76%) HTTP
15 17 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 155 (6.90%) Power BI
2 57 (2.54%) Data Warehouse
3 53 (2.36%) Metadata
4 49 (2.18%) Data Lake
4 49 (2.18%) SQL Server
5 46 (2.05%) PostgreSQL
6 35 (1.56%) Amazon Athena
6 35 (1.56%) Tableau
7 32 (1.43%) Relational Database
8 30 (1.34%) MongoDB
9 25 (1.11%) Big Data
9 25 (1.11%) BigQuery
9 25 (1.11%) DynamoDB
10 22 (0.98%) NoSQL
10 22 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 21 (0.94%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (0.89%) Semantic Layer
13 18 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
13 18 (0.80%) MySQL
14 17 (0.76%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 130 (5.79%) JIRA
2 117 (5.21%) Git
3 58 (2.58%) Jenkins
4 50 (2.23%) GitLab
5 40 (1.78%) Rational DOORS
6 27 (1.20%) LabVIEW
7 25 (1.11%) Selenium
8 22 (0.98%) Snyk
9 19 (0.85%) Postman
10 18 (0.80%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.53%) Burp Suite
12 11 (0.49%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.49%) JMeter
13 10 (0.45%) Claude Code
13 10 (0.45%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.40%) Eclipse
14 9 (0.40%) Gatling
14 9 (0.40%) MLflow
14 9 (0.40%) REST Assured
15 8 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 742 (33.05%) Social Skills
2 561 (24.99%) Finance
3 534 (23.79%) Analytical Skills
4 217 (9.67%) Aerospace
5 212 (9.44%) Manufacturing
6 211 (9.40%) Electronics
7 175 (7.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 123 (5.48%) Law
9 98 (4.37%) Organisational Skills
10 97 (4.32%) Retail
11 96 (4.28%) Banking
12 92 (4.10%) Public Sector
13 83 (3.70%) Marketing
14 82 (3.65%) Pharmaceutical
15 81 (3.61%) Telecoms
16 73 (3.25%) Automotive
17 54 (2.41%) Legal
18 44 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
19 42 (1.87%) Military
20 39 (1.74%) Games
Job Titles
1 402 (17.91%) Senior
2 272 (12.12%) Systems Engineer
3 255 (11.36%) Analyst
4 184 (8.20%) Lead
5 126 (5.61%) Test Engineer
6 111 (4.94%) Architect
7 107 (4.77%) Data Engineer
8 94 (4.19%) Developer
9 79 (3.52%) Business Analyst
9 79 (3.52%) Consultant
10 75 (3.34%) Principal Engineer
10 75 (3.34%) Software Engineer
11 66 (2.94%) Data Analyst
12 64 (2.85%) Electronics Engineer
13 63 (2.81%) Validation Engineer
14 55 (2.45%) Network Engineer
15 48 (2.14%) Data Scientist
15 48 (2.14%) Embedded Engineer
15 48 (2.14%) Support Engineer
16 45 (2.00%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.56%) Terraform
2 53 (2.36%) RESTful
3 52 (2.32%) Kafka
4 50 (2.23%) REST
5 44 (1.96%) Node.js
6 36 (1.60%) Playwright
7 34 (1.51%) PySpark
8 33 (1.47%) .NET
9 32 (1.43%) JSON
10 30 (1.34%) XML
11 29 (1.29%) CSS
12 28 (1.25%) FastAPI
13 27 (1.20%) HTML
14 25 (1.11%) LDAP
14 25 (1.11%) Middleware
14 25 (1.11%) React
15 22 (0.98%) Swagger
16 21 (0.94%) ModSecurity
17 19 (0.85%) pytest
18 18 (0.80%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 150 (6.68%) Cloud Native
2 121 (5.39%) Management Information System
3 120 (5.35%) Onboarding
4 80 (3.56%) Data Centre
5 77 (3.43%) Product Ownership
6 61 (2.72%) Driving Licence
6 61 (2.72%) Embedded Systems
7 59 (2.63%) Enterprise Software
8 57 (2.54%) Data Structures
9 56 (2.49%) Distributed Systems
10 48 (2.14%) Life Science
11 47 (2.09%) Algorithms
12 45 (2.00%) SCADA
13 42 (1.87%) AI Agents
13 42 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
14 40 (1.78%) Low-Code
15 38 (1.69%) Robotics
16 35 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
17 33 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
18 32 (1.43%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 133 (5.92%) Linux
2 89 (3.96%) Windows
3 31 (1.38%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.11%) Unix
5 16 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.45%) Android
7 8 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.31%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.22%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.089%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.089%) VMS
13 2 (0.089%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.045%) AIX
14 1 (0.045%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.045%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 570 (25.39%) Problem-Solving
2 497 (22.14%) Continuous Improvement
3 407 (18.13%) Agile
4 390 (17.37%) Verification and Validation
5 382 (17.02%) AI
6 320 (14.25%) CI/CD
7 302 (13.45%) Stakeholder Management
8 280 (12.47%) Migration
9 276 (12.29%) Test Automation
10 237 (10.56%) Analytics
11 236 (10.51%) Mentoring
12 223 (9.93%) Software Engineering
13 216 (9.62%) Decision-Making
14 207 (9.22%) DevOps
15 204 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 201 (8.95%) Data Analysis
17 195 (8.69%) Business Intelligence
18 187 (8.33%) Roadmaps
19 185 (8.24%) Data Migration
20 182 (8.11%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 455 (20.27%) Python
2 400 (17.82%) SQL
3 91 (4.05%) Java
4 89 (3.96%) C++
5 82 (3.65%) C
6 67 (2.98%) JavaScript
7 62 (2.76%) MATLAB
8 54 (2.41%) C#
9 49 (2.18%) Go
10 35 (1.56%) Bash
11 30 (1.34%) Embedded C
12 28 (1.25%) PowerShell
13 25 (1.11%) TypeScript
14 24 (1.07%) Scala
15 19 (0.85%) R
16 18 (0.80%) Embedded C++
17 14 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 11 (0.49%) Shell Script
18 11 (0.49%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.40%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 480 (21.38%) Degree
2 467 (20.80%) Security Cleared
3 339 (15.10%) SC Cleared
4 115 (5.12%) BPSS Clearance
5 97 (4.32%) DV Cleared
6 95 (4.23%) Master's Degree
7 48 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (1.65%) Chartered Engineer
8 37 (1.65%) HND
9 36 (1.60%) PhD
10 35 (1.56%) PMI Certification
11 32 (1.43%) CISSP
11 32 (1.43%) HNC
12 28 (1.25%) ACCA
13 26 (1.16%) AWS Certification
13 26 (1.16%) Azure Certification
14 25 (1.11%) CIMA
15 22 (0.98%) CISM
15 22 (0.98%) PMP
16 21 (0.94%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 338 (15.06%) Data Quality
2 287 (12.78%) QA
3 68 (3.03%) Accessibility
4 55 (2.45%) GDPR
5 37 (1.65%) GRC
6 31 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.20%) GxP
8 23 (1.02%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.80%) NIST
9 18 (0.80%) SLA
10 15 (0.67%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.67%) PMO
11 14 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 13 (0.58%) ISO 9001
12 13 (0.58%) SOC 2
13 12 (0.53%) GMP
14 10 (0.45%) ISO 19650
14 10 (0.45%) WCAG
15 9 (0.40%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.40%) GAAP
System Software
1 88 (3.92%) Docker
1 88 (3.92%) Firmware
2 44 (1.96%) Active Directory
3 41 (1.83%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (0.80%) vSphere
6 8 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
7 4 (0.18%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.13%) KVM
9 2 (0.089%) iptables
9 2 (0.089%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.089%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.045%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 81 (3.61%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.65%) Grafana
3 32 (1.43%) Ansible
3 32 (1.43%) Functional Safety
4 17 (0.76%) Prometheus
5 15 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.45%) Cilium
7 8 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.36%) Nessus
7 8 (0.36%) Nmap
7 8 (0.36%) Puppet
8 7 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
8 7 (0.31%) Kibana
9 5 (0.22%) WMI
10 4 (0.18%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.18%) HP Fortify
10 4 (0.18%) Kubeflow
10 4 (0.18%) SCCM
11 3 (0.13%) Argo
11 3 (0.13%) Rancher
Vendors
1 288 (12.83%) Microsoft
2 124 (5.52%) SAP
3 102 (4.54%) Oracle
4 60 (2.67%) Salesforce
5 58 (2.58%) Databricks
6 55 (2.45%) ServiceNow
7 50 (2.23%) Cisco
8 47 (2.09%) EMC
9 37 (1.65%) Google
10 31 (1.38%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.16%) Palo Alto
12 24 (1.07%) Sage
12 24 (1.07%) VMware
13 23 (1.02%) Tenable
14 20 (0.89%) Red Hat
15 18 (0.80%) IBM
16 17 (0.76%) Thales
17 16 (0.71%) Autodesk
17 16 (0.71%) Informatica
17 16 (0.71%) Siemens