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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 67 86 170
Rank change year-on-year +19 +84 +32
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,381 1,502 1,051
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.29% 3.48% 1.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.11% 3.90% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 1,406 412 390
10th Percentile £35,875 £38,750 £38,636
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £56,254
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -2.23% -13.46%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £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 76,481 38,519 54,833
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.55% 89.12% 82.39%
Number of salaries quoted 53,828 21,783 29,723
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £36,532 £42,608
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,700
% change year-on-year +9.09% -6.30% -2.17%

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 3 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 3 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 +71 615 £69,375 -13.28% 1,881
South East -11 496 £62,500 +13.64% 772
North of England +117 482 £51,000 +6.96% 532
Midlands -13 306 £50,000 -9.09% 407
North West +111 300 £55,000 +9.88% 272
South West +22 244 £55,000 +4.56% 385
East of England -42 209 £55,000 -8.33% 378
West Midlands +47 170 £48,750 -11.36% 263
East Midlands -45 136 £50,000 +17.65% 144
Yorkshire +22 94 £42,500 - 168
North East +6 88 £55,000 +57.14% 97
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 50 (2.10%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.85%) Apache Airflow
3 43 (1.81%) Apache
4 37 (1.55%) Confluence
5 35 (1.47%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.76%) CMS
6 18 (0.76%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.55%) SAS
8 12 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
9 10 (0.42%) WinCC
10 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
12 3 (0.13%) Artix
12 3 (0.13%) nginx
12 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.084%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.084%) IIS
14 1 (0.042%) ArcGIS
14 1 (0.042%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 149 (6.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 67 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 52 (2.18%) Simulink
4 37 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (1.05%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.84%) AutoCAD
6 20 (0.84%) SOLIDWORKS
7 15 (0.63%) MS Visio
8 13 (0.55%) Revit
9 11 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 10 (0.42%) OrCAD
11 8 (0.34%) 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%) Adobe XD
15 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
15 3 (0.13%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 43 (1.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.46%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.42%) Workday HCM
5 9 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.34%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.29%) Infor M3
7 7 (0.29%) Oracle Applications
7 7 (0.29%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.21%) iTrent
8 5 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.17%) Elite 3E
9 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.17%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.13%) Maximo
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.13%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 318 (13.36%) Azure
2 255 (10.71%) AWS
3 182 (7.64%) Power Platform
4 96 (4.03%) GCP
5 77 (3.23%) GitHub
6 73 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
7 66 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
8 65 (2.73%) SaaS
9 62 (2.60%) Serverless
10 45 (1.89%) Amazon S3
11 42 (1.76%) Entra ID
12 36 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
13 35 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
14 34 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
15 30 (1.26%) Microsoft Purview
16 27 (1.13%) Amazon EMR
17 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.09%) Cloud Computing
18 22 (0.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 22 (0.92%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.94%) DNS
2 63 (2.65%) Firewall
3 54 (2.27%) Broadband
4 42 (1.76%) VPN
5 40 (1.68%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.55%) Network Security
7 36 (1.51%) Ethernet
8 35 (1.47%) Modbus
8 35 (1.47%) Wireless
9 33 (1.39%) WAN
10 32 (1.34%) VLAN
11 28 (1.18%) LAN
12 27 (1.13%) OSPF
13 25 (1.05%) MQTT
14 24 (1.01%) Wireshark
15 21 (0.88%) SD-WAN
16 20 (0.84%) BGP
17 18 (0.76%) 5G
17 18 (0.76%) DHCP
18 17 (0.71%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 170 (7.14%) Power BI
2 63 (2.65%) Metadata
3 61 (2.56%) Data Warehouse
4 54 (2.27%) SQL Server
5 50 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
6 49 (2.06%) Data Lake
7 38 (1.60%) Amazon Athena
7 38 (1.60%) Relational Database
8 34 (1.43%) Tableau
9 31 (1.30%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.18%) NoSQL
11 26 (1.09%) Big Data
12 25 (1.05%) DynamoDB
13 24 (1.01%) BigQuery
14 22 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
16 20 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
16 20 (0.84%) Power Query
17 19 (0.80%) Semantic Layer
18 18 (0.76%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 138 (5.80%) JIRA
2 127 (5.33%) Git
3 60 (2.52%) Jenkins
4 57 (2.39%) GitLab
5 43 (1.81%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (1.26%) LabVIEW
7 22 (0.92%) Snyk
8 21 (0.88%) Selenium
9 18 (0.76%) Postman
10 17 (0.71%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.50%) 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
14 8 (0.34%) Gatling
14 8 (0.34%) REST Assured
14 8 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 801 (33.64%) Social Skills
2 609 (25.58%) Finance
3 563 (23.65%) Analytical Skills
4 237 (9.95%) Manufacturing
5 229 (9.62%) Electronics
6 226 (9.49%) Aerospace
7 201 (8.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 123 (5.17%) Law
9 108 (4.54%) Public Sector
10 106 (4.45%) Organisational Skills
11 103 (4.33%) Banking
12 102 (4.28%) Marketing
13 101 (4.24%) Retail
14 86 (3.61%) Telecoms
15 83 (3.49%) Pharmaceutical
16 81 (3.40%) Automotive
17 51 (2.14%) Legal
18 46 (1.93%) Military
19 42 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
20 39 (1.64%) Games
Job Titles
1 433 (18.19%) Senior
2 265 (11.13%) Systems Engineer
3 259 (10.88%) Analyst
4 189 (7.94%) Lead
5 120 (5.04%) Data Engineer
5 120 (5.04%) Test Engineer
6 114 (4.79%) Architect
7 101 (4.24%) Developer
8 89 (3.74%) Software Engineer
9 81 (3.40%) Consultant
10 80 (3.36%) Principal Engineer
11 79 (3.32%) Business Analyst
12 74 (3.11%) Electronics Engineer
13 65 (2.73%) Data Analyst
14 59 (2.48%) Validation Engineer
15 56 (2.35%) Network Engineer
16 51 (2.14%) Automation Engineer
17 47 (1.97%) Data Scientist
18 46 (1.93%) Administrator
18 46 (1.93%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.65%) Terraform
2 63 (2.65%) REST
3 59 (2.48%) RESTful
4 58 (2.44%) Kafka
5 50 (2.10%) Node.js
6 48 (2.02%) .NET
7 37 (1.55%) PySpark
8 36 (1.51%) JSON
8 36 (1.51%) Playwright
9 34 (1.43%) FastAPI
10 32 (1.34%) CSS
11 30 (1.26%) HTML
11 30 (1.26%) React
12 29 (1.22%) XML
13 26 (1.09%) Swagger
14 23 (0.97%) LDAP
14 23 (0.97%) RabbitMQ
15 22 (0.92%) Middleware
15 22 (0.92%) OAuth
16 21 (0.88%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 156 (6.55%) Cloud Native
2 139 (5.84%) Onboarding
3 137 (5.75%) Management Information System
4 78 (3.28%) Data Centre
4 78 (3.28%) Product Ownership
5 67 (2.81%) Driving Licence
6 65 (2.73%) Distributed Systems
7 63 (2.65%) Embedded Systems
8 61 (2.56%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.52%) Enterprise Software
10 53 (2.23%) SCADA
11 49 (2.06%) AI Agents
12 48 (2.02%) Algorithms
12 48 (2.02%) Life Science
13 41 (1.72%) Robotics
14 39 (1.64%) Analytical Mindset
14 39 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
15 38 (1.60%) Low-Code
16 35 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
17 33 (1.39%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 132 (5.54%) Linux
2 92 (3.86%) Windows
3 31 (1.30%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.09%) Unix
5 13 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.42%) Android
7 8 (0.34%) 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 (0.084%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.084%) VMS
12 2 (0.084%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.042%) AIX
13 1 (0.042%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.042%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 624 (26.21%) Problem-Solving
2 533 (22.39%) Continuous Improvement
3 435 (18.27%) Agile
4 414 (17.39%) AI
5 405 (17.01%) Verification and Validation
6 345 (14.49%) CI/CD
7 328 (13.78%) Stakeholder Management
8 304 (12.77%) Test Automation
9 297 (12.47%) Migration
10 257 (10.79%) Analytics
11 251 (10.54%) Mentoring
12 245 (10.29%) Software Engineering
13 227 (9.53%) Decision-Making
14 222 (9.32%) DevOps
15 210 (8.82%) Business Intelligence
16 208 (8.74%) Data Analysis
16 208 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 201 (8.44%) Roadmaps
18 194 (8.15%) Data Migration
19 185 (7.77%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 487 (20.45%) Python
2 430 (18.06%) SQL
3 96 (4.03%) C++
4 93 (3.91%) Java
5 88 (3.70%) C
6 72 (3.02%) JavaScript
7 69 (2.90%) C#
8 66 (2.77%) MATLAB
9 46 (1.93%) Go
10 35 (1.47%) Bash
11 34 (1.43%) PowerShell
12 31 (1.30%) TypeScript
13 29 (1.22%) Embedded C
14 25 (1.05%) Scala
15 22 (0.92%) R
16 20 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 17 (0.71%) Embedded C++
18 12 (0.50%) Shell Script
19 10 (0.42%) Apex Code
20 9 (0.38%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 513 (21.55%) Degree
2 490 (20.58%) Security Cleared
3 359 (15.08%) SC Cleared
4 115 (4.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 96 (4.03%) DV Cleared
5 96 (4.03%) Master's Degree
6 49 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
7 43 (1.81%) HND
8 38 (1.60%) PhD
9 37 (1.55%) PMI Certification
10 36 (1.51%) Chartered Engineer
10 36 (1.51%) HNC
11 32 (1.34%) CISSP
12 31 (1.30%) Azure Certification
13 29 (1.22%) ACCA
14 27 (1.13%) AWS Certification
15 26 (1.09%) CIMA
15 26 (1.09%) PMP
16 21 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
16 21 (0.88%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 365 (15.33%) Data Quality
2 296 (12.43%) QA
3 72 (3.02%) Accessibility
4 59 (2.48%) GDPR
5 36 (1.51%) GRC
6 32 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.13%) GxP
8 20 (0.84%) SLA
9 19 (0.80%) IEC 61508
9 19 (0.80%) NIST
10 15 (0.63%) ISO 9001
10 15 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 13 (0.55%) ISO 19650
12 12 (0.50%) GMP
12 12 (0.50%) ISO 26262
12 12 (0.50%) PMO
12 12 (0.50%) SOC 2
13 9 (0.38%) GAAP
13 9 (0.38%) WCAG
14 8 (0.34%) IFRS
System Software
1 108 (4.54%) Docker
2 93 (3.91%) Firmware
3 49 (2.06%) Active Directory
4 43 (1.81%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.63%) vSphere
7 8 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.25%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.084%) iptables
10 2 (0.084%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.084%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.084%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.042%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 91 (3.82%) Kubernetes
2 41 (1.72%) Grafana
3 33 (1.39%) Ansible
4 29 (1.22%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.67%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.42%) Puppet
9 8 (0.34%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.34%) Cilium
9 8 (0.34%) Kibana
9 8 (0.34%) Nessus
9 8 (0.34%) 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
1 324 (13.61%) Microsoft
2 126 (5.29%) SAP
3 104 (4.37%) Oracle
4 81 (3.40%) Salesforce
5 63 (2.65%) EMC
6 62 (2.60%) Databricks
7 54 (2.27%) ServiceNow
8 50 (2.10%) Cisco
9 36 (1.51%) Google
10 32 (1.34%) CrowdStrike
11 26 (1.09%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.05%) Adobe
12 25 (1.05%) Sage
13 23 (0.97%) Tenable
14 21 (0.88%) Informatica
14 21 (0.88%) Thales
14 21 (0.88%) VMware
15 19 (0.80%) IBM
15 19 (0.80%) Siemens
16 17 (0.71%) Red Hat