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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 68 85 169
Rank change year-on-year +17 +84 +27
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,400 1,501 1,036
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.31% 3.47% 1.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.13% 3.90% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 1,416 409 384
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,740 £38,045
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £71,563 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,300 £95,000
UK median annual salary £59,490 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.16% -4.35% -11.54%

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 76,581 38,469 54,071
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.57% 89.04% 82.44%
Number of salaries quoted 53,748 21,719 29,115
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £36,250 £43,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.64%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 +70 627 £67,750 -15.31% 2,064
South East -13 499 £62,500 +16.28% 783
North of England +124 488 £51,000 +7.37% 524
Midlands -15 305 £50,000 -9.09% 433
North West +110 302 £55,000 +10.00% 266
South West +20 245 £55,000 +4.56% 361
East of England -37 211 £55,000 -10.20% 419
West Midlands +54 172 £48,750 -11.36% 274
East Midlands -39 133 £50,000 +17.65% 158
Yorkshire +30 96 £42,500 - 174
North East +5 90 £55,000 +57.14% 85
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 51 (2.13%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.83%) Apache
3 43 (1.79%) Apache Airflow
4 35 (1.46%) Confluence
4 35 (1.46%) SharePoint
5 25 (1.04%) CMS
6 19 (0.79%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.54%) SAS
8 10 (0.42%) WinCC
9 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) nginx
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.083%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.083%) IIS
13 1 (0.042%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.042%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 150 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 68 (2.83%) Microsoft Office
3 52 (2.17%) Simulink
4 38 (1.58%) Microsoft Project
5 26 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.83%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
8 15 (0.63%) MS Visio
9 14 (0.58%) Revit
10 11 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 11 (0.46%) OrCAD
11 9 (0.38%) Navisworks
12 7 (0.29%) EPLAN
13 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
13 5 (0.21%) Stateflow
14 4 (0.17%) CANalyzer
14 4 (0.17%) Notion
15 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
15 3 (0.13%) LaTeX
15 3 (0.13%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 42 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (1.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.42%) SAP MDG
3 10 (0.42%) Workday HCM
4 8 (0.33%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
5 7 (0.29%) Infor M3
5 7 (0.29%) Oracle Applications
5 7 (0.29%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.21%) Elite 3E
6 5 (0.21%) iTrent
6 5 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
7 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.17%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
7 4 (0.17%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.13%) Maximo
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.13%) Sage 200
8 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 323 (13.46%) Azure
2 257 (10.71%) AWS
3 181 (7.54%) Power Platform
4 95 (3.96%) GCP
5 78 (3.25%) GitHub
6 75 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
7 69 (2.88%) SaaS
8 66 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
9 59 (2.46%) Serverless
10 46 (1.92%) Amazon S3
11 43 (1.79%) Entra ID
12 36 (1.50%) GitHub Actions
13 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Copilot
14 33 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
15 30 (1.25%) Microsoft Purview
16 28 (1.17%) Amazon EMR
17 27 (1.13%) Cloud Computing
18 26 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
19 24 (1.00%) Azure Service Bus
20 23 (0.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.92%) DNS
2 63 (2.63%) Firewall
3 55 (2.29%) Broadband
4 43 (1.79%) VPN
5 41 (1.71%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.54%) Ethernet
6 37 (1.54%) Network Security
6 37 (1.54%) Wireless
7 36 (1.50%) Modbus
8 34 (1.42%) WAN
9 33 (1.38%) VLAN
10 29 (1.21%) LAN
10 29 (1.21%) OSPF
11 27 (1.13%) MQTT
12 25 (1.04%) Wireshark
13 22 (0.92%) SD-WAN
14 21 (0.88%) BGP
15 18 (0.75%) 5G
15 18 (0.75%) DHCP
15 18 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 169 (7.04%) Power BI
2 65 (2.71%) Metadata
3 60 (2.50%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.29%) SQL Server
5 48 (2.00%) Data Lake
5 48 (2.00%) PostgreSQL
6 39 (1.63%) Amazon Athena
7 37 (1.54%) Relational Database
8 34 (1.42%) Tableau
9 30 (1.25%) MongoDB
10 27 (1.13%) Big Data
10 27 (1.13%) NoSQL
11 24 (1.00%) BigQuery
11 24 (1.00%) DynamoDB
12 22 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 20 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (0.83%) Power Query
14 19 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
14 19 (0.79%) MySQL
15 18 (0.75%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 137 (5.71%) JIRA
2 124 (5.17%) Git
3 60 (2.50%) Jenkins
4 58 (2.42%) GitLab
5 42 (1.75%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (1.25%) LabVIEW
7 21 (0.88%) Selenium
8 19 (0.79%) Snyk
9 18 (0.75%) Postman
10 17 (0.71%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.54%) Claude Code
12 11 (0.46%) Burp Suite
12 11 (0.46%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.46%) Rational Rhapsody
13 9 (0.38%) Cucumber
13 9 (0.38%) JMeter
13 9 (0.38%) MLflow
13 9 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
14 8 (0.33%) Metasploit
14 8 (0.33%) TeamCity
General
1 808 (33.67%) Social Skills
2 613 (25.54%) Finance
3 565 (23.54%) Analytical Skills
4 243 (10.13%) Manufacturing
5 234 (9.75%) Electronics
6 228 (9.50%) Aerospace
7 208 (8.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 124 (5.17%) Law
9 110 (4.58%) Public Sector
10 108 (4.50%) Marketing
11 106 (4.42%) Organisational Skills
12 103 (4.29%) Banking
13 98 (4.08%) Retail
14 88 (3.67%) Telecoms
15 84 (3.50%) Automotive
16 83 (3.46%) Pharmaceutical
17 52 (2.17%) Legal
18 46 (1.92%) Military
19 42 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
20 38 (1.58%) Games
Job Titles
1 434 (18.08%) Senior
2 261 (10.88%) Systems Engineer
3 252 (10.50%) Analyst
4 189 (7.88%) Lead
5 121 (5.04%) Data Engineer
6 120 (5.00%) Test Engineer
7 112 (4.67%) Architect
8 102 (4.25%) Developer
9 91 (3.79%) Software Engineer
10 82 (3.42%) Consultant
11 81 (3.38%) Principal Engineer
12 77 (3.21%) Electronics Engineer
13 75 (3.13%) Business Analyst
14 62 (2.58%) Data Analyst
15 58 (2.42%) Network Engineer
16 57 (2.38%) Validation Engineer
17 52 (2.17%) Automation Engineer
18 47 (1.96%) Administrator
18 47 (1.96%) Data Scientist
19 45 (1.88%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.63%) Terraform
2 65 (2.71%) REST
3 61 (2.54%) RESTful
4 59 (2.46%) Kafka
5 51 (2.13%) Node.js
6 49 (2.04%) .NET
7 37 (1.54%) JSON
7 37 (1.54%) Playwright
7 37 (1.54%) PySpark
8 36 (1.50%) FastAPI
9 33 (1.38%) CSS
10 31 (1.29%) HTML
10 31 (1.29%) React
11 30 (1.25%) XML
12 29 (1.21%) Swagger
13 25 (1.04%) RabbitMQ
14 24 (1.00%) OpenAPI
15 23 (0.96%) LDAP
15 23 (0.96%) Middleware
15 23 (0.96%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 159 (6.63%) Cloud Native
2 150 (6.25%) Onboarding
3 142 (5.92%) Management Information System
4 79 (3.29%) Product Ownership
5 76 (3.17%) Data Centre
6 69 (2.88%) Driving Licence
7 64 (2.67%) Distributed Systems
7 64 (2.67%) Embedded Systems
8 63 (2.63%) Data Structures
9 62 (2.58%) Enterprise Software
10 53 (2.21%) SCADA
11 51 (2.13%) AI Agents
12 49 (2.04%) Algorithms
13 48 (2.00%) Life Science
14 40 (1.67%) Robotics
15 39 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
16 38 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
17 37 (1.54%) Low-Code
18 35 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
19 32 (1.33%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 131 (5.46%) Linux
2 91 (3.79%) Windows
3 31 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.08%) Unix
5 13 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.42%) Android
7 8 (0.33%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.29%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
10 4 (0.17%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.083%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.083%) VMS
12 2 (0.083%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.042%) AIX
13 1 (0.042%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.042%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 627 (26.13%) Problem-Solving
2 540 (22.50%) Continuous Improvement
3 435 (18.13%) Agile
4 423 (17.63%) AI
5 404 (16.83%) Verification and Validation
6 345 (14.38%) CI/CD
7 329 (13.71%) Stakeholder Management
8 306 (12.75%) Test Automation
9 303 (12.63%) Migration
10 259 (10.79%) Analytics
11 254 (10.58%) Mentoring
12 246 (10.25%) Software Engineering
13 228 (9.50%) Decision-Making
13 228 (9.50%) DevOps
14 209 (8.71%) Data Analysis
14 209 (8.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 208 (8.67%) Business Intelligence
16 205 (8.54%) Roadmaps
17 197 (8.21%) Data Migration
18 186 (7.75%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 497 (20.71%) Python
2 432 (18.00%) SQL
3 95 (3.96%) C++
4 94 (3.92%) Java
5 90 (3.75%) C
6 73 (3.04%) JavaScript
7 71 (2.96%) C#
8 66 (2.75%) MATLAB
9 46 (1.92%) Go
10 35 (1.46%) Bash
10 35 (1.46%) PowerShell
11 32 (1.33%) TypeScript
12 29 (1.21%) Embedded C
13 25 (1.04%) Scala
14 22 (0.92%) R
15 20 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 17 (0.71%) Embedded C++
17 12 (0.50%) Shell Script
18 11 (0.46%) Apex Code
19 9 (0.38%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 517 (21.54%) Degree
2 496 (20.67%) Security Cleared
3 366 (15.25%) SC Cleared
4 114 (4.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 99 (4.13%) Master's Degree
6 96 (4.00%) DV Cleared
7 48 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
8 43 (1.79%) HND
9 41 (1.71%) PhD
10 36 (1.50%) PMI Certification
11 35 (1.46%) HNC
12 34 (1.42%) Chartered Engineer
13 32 (1.33%) Azure Certification
13 32 (1.33%) CISSP
14 30 (1.25%) ACCA
15 27 (1.13%) AWS Certification
15 27 (1.13%) CIMA
16 26 (1.08%) PMP
17 22 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.88%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 364 (15.17%) Data Quality
2 295 (12.29%) QA
3 73 (3.04%) Accessibility
4 59 (2.46%) GDPR
5 33 (1.38%) GRC
6 32 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.13%) GxP
8 20 (0.83%) SLA
9 19 (0.79%) IEC 61508
9 19 (0.79%) NIST
10 16 (0.67%) ISO 9001
11 15 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 14 (0.58%) ISO 19650
13 13 (0.54%) GMP
14 12 (0.50%) ISO 26262
14 12 (0.50%) SOC 2
15 11 (0.46%) PMO
16 9 (0.38%) GAAP
16 9 (0.38%) WCAG
17 8 (0.33%) IFRS
System Software
1 110 (4.58%) Docker
2 94 (3.92%) Firmware
3 49 (2.04%) Active Directory
4 44 (1.83%) Embedded Firmware
5 25 (1.04%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.63%) vSphere
7 8 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.25%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.083%) iptables
10 2 (0.083%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.083%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.083%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.042%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 92 (3.83%) Kubernetes
2 40 (1.67%) Grafana
3 34 (1.42%) Ansible
4 28 (1.17%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.63%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.42%) Puppet
9 8 (0.33%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.33%) Cilium
9 8 (0.33%) Kibana
9 8 (0.33%) Nessus
9 8 (0.33%) Nmap
10 5 (0.21%) WMI
11 4 (0.17%) Argo
11 4 (0.17%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.17%) Rancher
11 4 (0.17%) SCCM
11 4 (0.17%) yum
Vendors
1 328 (13.67%) Microsoft
2 126 (5.25%) SAP
3 103 (4.29%) Oracle
4 90 (3.75%) Salesforce
5 66 (2.75%) EMC
6 60 (2.50%) Databricks
7 55 (2.29%) ServiceNow
8 52 (2.17%) Cisco
9 37 (1.54%) Google
10 32 (1.33%) Adobe
11 29 (1.21%) CrowdStrike
12 25 (1.04%) Sage
13 23 (0.96%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.96%) Samsung
14 22 (0.92%) Thales
15 21 (0.88%) Informatica
15 21 (0.88%) TikTok
15 21 (0.88%) VMware
16 20 (0.83%) Tenable
17 19 (0.79%) IBM