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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 172 176
Rank change year-on-year +32 +4 -21
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,070 683 1,274
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.50% 1.87% 1.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 2.00% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 640 357 722
10th Percentile £34,425 £40,000 £35,775
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,000 £42,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,750 £85,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -8.33%

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 54,669 34,077 68,349
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 76.51% 93.17% 86.19%
Number of salaries quoted 34,477 20,466 52,607
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £103,750 £93,750
UK median annual salary £55,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -7.50% +9.09% -11.00%

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 4 April 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 4 April 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 +54 331 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +36 248 £55,000 +7.32% 215
North of England +2 175 £60,000 +25.83% 152
Midlands -29 131 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +15 111 £60,000 +25.83% 74
East of England -2 93 £57,500 +4.55% 96
West Midlands -8 79 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -24 78 £53,750 -2.27% 89
East Midlands -36 50 £34,500 -32.35% 41
Yorkshire -32 43 £60,000 +26.32% 51
North East -5 21 £50,000 -11.89% 27
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 42 (3.93%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.52%) Apache Spark
3 23 (2.15%) Apache
4 16 (1.50%) Confluence
4 16 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.12%) Appian
5 12 (1.12%) CMS
6 8 (0.75%) SharePoint
7 6 (0.56%) Kinematics
8 4 (0.37%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.093%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.093%) IIS
10 1 (0.093%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.093%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.093%) SAS
Applications
1 85 (7.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (4.86%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.65%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (0.47%) Simulink
5 5 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.37%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.28%) Solid Edge
7 3 (0.28%) SOLIDWORKS
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.19%) CATIA
8 2 (0.19%) Elementor
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.19%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.19%) Weka
Business Applications
1 15 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
1 15 (1.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.47%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.37%) SAP BPC
3 4 (0.37%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.28%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.28%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.19%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.093%) Magento
6 1 (0.093%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.093%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.093%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.093%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.093%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.093%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 1 (0.093%) SAP FSCM
6 1 (0.093%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 141 (13.18%) Azure
2 102 (9.53%) Power Platform
3 86 (8.04%) AWS
4 52 (4.86%) SaaS
5 41 (3.83%) GCP
6 40 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (2.71%) Power Automate
8 26 (2.43%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (2.34%) Azure Data Factory
9 25 (2.34%) Snowflake
10 24 (2.24%) Amazon S3
11 23 (2.15%) dbt
12 20 (1.87%) Entra ID
12 20 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
13 18 (1.68%) GitHub
14 14 (1.31%) Datadog
14 14 (1.31%) Serverless
15 13 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
15 13 (1.21%) OpenShift
16 12 (1.12%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.34%) CHAP
2 18 (1.68%) Broadband
3 16 (1.50%) WAN
4 15 (1.40%) Firewall
5 14 (1.31%) DNS
5 14 (1.31%) SD-WAN
6 11 (1.03%) 5G
7 10 (0.93%) Wireless
8 9 (0.84%) HTTP
8 9 (0.84%) TCP/IP
9 7 (0.65%) LAN
9 7 (0.65%) Modbus
9 7 (0.65%) MQTT
10 6 (0.56%) NAS
11 5 (0.47%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (0.47%) VPN
11 5 (0.47%) WAAS
12 4 (0.37%) SMTP
12 4 (0.37%) VoIP
13 3 (0.28%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (9.35%) Power BI
2 43 (4.02%) SQL Server
2 43 (4.02%) Tableau
3 29 (2.71%) Relational Database
4 26 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
5 25 (2.34%) Metadata
5 25 (2.34%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (1.40%) Oracle Reports
6 15 (1.40%) Spark SQL
7 14 (1.31%) Azure SQL Database
7 14 (1.31%) Oracle Database
8 13 (1.21%) Apache Hive
8 13 (1.21%) Impala
8 13 (1.21%) MySQL
8 13 (1.21%) Parquet
8 13 (1.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 12 (1.12%) Pinecone
10 11 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
10 11 (1.03%) Data Lake
11 10 (0.93%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 61 (5.70%) Git
2 55 (5.14%) JIRA
3 36 (3.36%) Rational DOORS
4 18 (1.68%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.68%) Postman
5 14 (1.31%) GitLab
5 14 (1.31%) JMeter
5 14 (1.31%) LabVIEW
5 14 (1.31%) MLflow
5 14 (1.31%) Selenium
6 13 (1.21%) Cucumber
6 13 (1.21%) IBM UrbanCode
7 11 (1.03%) Eclipse
7 11 (1.03%) TestRail
8 8 (0.75%) Locust
9 7 (0.65%) SoapUI
10 6 (0.56%) LoadRunner
10 6 (0.56%) Subversion
11 5 (0.47%) SpecFlow
11 5 (0.47%) Zephyr
General
1 359 (33.55%) Social Skills
2 267 (24.95%) Finance
3 253 (23.64%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (7.85%) Banking
5 65 (6.07%) Electronics
6 63 (5.89%) Manufacturing
7 57 (5.33%) Aerospace
8 45 (4.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 44 (4.11%) Legal
10 43 (4.02%) Law
11 42 (3.93%) Retail
12 40 (3.74%) Financial Institution
12 40 (3.74%) Marketing
13 30 (2.80%) Presentation Skills
14 29 (2.71%) Public Sector
15 26 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
16 23 (2.15%) Pharmaceutical
16 23 (2.15%) Telecoms
17 22 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
18 21 (1.96%) Games
Job Titles
1 193 (18.04%) Analyst
2 169 (15.79%) Senior
3 135 (12.62%) Systems Engineer
4 77 (7.20%) Lead
5 71 (6.64%) Validation Engineer
6 68 (6.36%) Business Analyst
6 68 (6.36%) Test Engineer
7 55 (5.14%) Architect
8 52 (4.86%) Data Analyst
9 49 (4.58%) Integration Engineer
10 42 (3.93%) Principal Engineer
11 39 (3.64%) Systems Integration Engineer
12 38 (3.55%) Data Engineer
12 38 (3.55%) Developer
13 36 (3.36%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 35 (3.27%) Junior
15 33 (3.08%) Software Validation Engineer
15 33 (3.08%) Verification Engineer
16 31 (2.90%) Principal Systems Engineer
17 28 (2.62%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (5.05%) REST
2 37 (3.46%) Pandas
3 29 (2.71%) JSON
4 27 (2.52%) Middleware
5 26 (2.43%) pytest
6 24 (2.24%) XML
7 20 (1.87%) PySpark
8 19 (1.78%) OAuth
9 18 (1.68%) JWT
9 18 (1.68%) NumPy
9 18 (1.68%) PyTorch
9 18 (1.68%) Swagger
9 18 (1.68%) TensorFlow
10 16 (1.50%) .NET
10 16 (1.50%) RESTful
11 15 (1.40%) Kafka
11 15 (1.40%) React
11 15 (1.40%) scikit-learn
11 15 (1.40%) Web Services
12 14 (1.31%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 68 (6.36%) Management Information System
2 51 (4.77%) Onboarding
3 41 (3.83%) Data Structures
4 37 (3.46%) Low-Code
5 32 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
6 29 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
7 25 (2.34%) Analytical Mindset
7 25 (2.34%) Product Ownership
8 24 (2.24%) Life Science
9 18 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
10 15 (1.40%) Robotics
11 14 (1.31%) Blockchain
11 14 (1.31%) Embedded Systems
12 13 (1.21%) Algorithms
12 13 (1.21%) Data Centre
12 13 (1.21%) IoT
12 13 (1.21%) Reinsurance
13 11 (1.03%) Hackathon
14 10 (0.93%) Cloud Native
14 10 (0.93%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.95%) Linux
2 44 (4.11%) Windows
3 17 (1.59%) Unix
4 13 (1.21%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.93%) Android
6 6 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.37%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.19%) AIX
9 2 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.19%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.093%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.093%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.093%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (21.59%) Agile
2 229 (21.40%) Problem-Solving
3 191 (17.85%) Verification and Validation
4 188 (17.57%) Continuous Improvement
5 158 (14.77%) Analytics
6 149 (13.93%) Data Validation
7 135 (12.62%) Test Automation
8 128 (11.96%) AI
9 126 (11.78%) CI/CD
10 125 (11.68%) Business Intelligence
11 119 (11.12%) Systems Engineering
12 112 (10.47%) Data Modelling
13 109 (10.19%) DevOps
14 107 (10.00%) Decision-Making
15 105 (9.81%) Migration
16 100 (9.35%) Stakeholder Management
17 99 (9.25%) Data Governance
17 99 (9.25%) Mentoring
18 98 (9.16%) ETL
19 97 (9.07%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 235 (21.96%) SQL
2 224 (20.93%) Python
3 43 (4.02%) Java
4 31 (2.90%) C++
5 30 (2.80%) JavaScript
6 28 (2.62%) PowerShell
7 27 (2.52%) C
8 21 (1.96%) Bash
9 19 (1.78%) T-SQL
10 18 (1.68%) Go
11 16 (1.50%) C#
11 16 (1.50%) MATLAB
12 14 (1.31%) TypeScript
13 11 (1.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 9 (0.84%) R
14 9 (0.84%) VBA
15 7 (0.65%) VB
16 6 (0.56%) PHP
17 5 (0.47%) Embedded C
17 5 (0.47%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 238 (22.24%) Degree
2 128 (11.96%) Security Cleared
3 115 (10.75%) BPSS Clearance
4 50 (4.67%) Master's Degree
5 47 (4.39%) SC Cleared
6 34 (3.18%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (2.99%) CISA
7 32 (2.99%) CISSP
8 31 (2.90%) CISM
9 28 (2.62%) DV Cleared
10 25 (2.34%) CGEIT
10 25 (2.34%) Chartered Engineer
10 25 (2.34%) FFIEC
10 25 (2.34%) SANS
11 21 (1.96%) HNC
12 17 (1.59%) ISTQB
13 15 (1.40%) HND
14 13 (1.21%) PMI Certification
15 12 (1.12%) PMP
16 8 (0.75%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (14.21%) Data Quality
2 112 (10.47%) QA
3 60 (5.61%) GDPR
4 40 (3.74%) Accessibility
5 38 (3.55%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (2.43%) NIST
7 25 (2.34%) COBIT
8 19 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 18 (1.68%) SLA
10 16 (1.50%) GRC
10 16 (1.50%) IFRS
11 13 (1.21%) WCAG
12 11 (1.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 10 (0.93%) GAAP
13 10 (0.93%) Good Clinical Practice
14 9 (0.84%) ISO 9001
15 8 (0.75%) PMO
16 7 (0.65%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 7 (0.65%) GxP
16 7 (0.65%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 57 (5.33%) Docker
2 22 (2.06%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.96%) Firmware
4 8 (0.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.75%) vSphere
5 5 (0.47%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.19%) Ceph
7 2 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.19%) Lustre
7 2 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (0.19%) Terminal Services
7 2 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.093%) iptables
8 1 (0.093%) OpenAM
8 1 (0.093%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.093%) OpenIDM
8 1 (0.093%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 56 (5.23%) Kubernetes
2 43 (4.02%) Terraform
3 25 (2.34%) Grafana
4 17 (1.59%) Ansible
5 15 (1.40%) Prometheus
6 12 (1.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.93%) SCCM
8 7 (0.65%) Functional Safety
8 7 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.47%) Argo
9 5 (0.47%) Rancher
9 5 (0.47%) yum
10 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
10 2 (0.19%) Cilium
10 2 (0.19%) Nessus
10 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.19%) Puppet
11 1 (0.093%) Istio
11 1 (0.093%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.093%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 143 (13.36%) Microsoft
2 56 (5.23%) Oracle
3 43 (4.02%) SAP
4 38 (3.55%) Salesforce
5 19 (1.78%) Databricks
5 19 (1.78%) Red Hat
6 17 (1.59%) Cisco
6 17 (1.59%) Foundry
7 16 (1.50%) Adobe
8 15 (1.40%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.40%) VMware
9 13 (1.21%) IBM
9 13 (1.21%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.12%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.12%) Google
10 12 (1.12%) UiPath
11 10 (0.93%) Citrix
11 10 (0.93%) Software AG
12 9 (0.84%) Intapp
12 9 (0.84%) Workday