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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 80 200
Rank change year-on-year -17 +120 -10
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,705 1,578 1,002
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.84% 3.62% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.50% 4.04% 1.69%
Number of salaries quoted 1,026 471 488
10th Percentile £34,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £58,750
Median % change year-on-year - -6.38% -8.20%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £90,375 £91,500 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% -4.00%

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 68,259 39,039 59,330
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.77% 89.57% 81.31%
Number of salaries quoted 48,144 22,613 39,487
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 5 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 5 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 +82 481 £73,377 -5.32% 798
South East -35 385 £55,000 - 345
North of England +108 355 £52,500 +10.53% 215
North West +91 206 £55,000 +15.35% 128
Midlands -55 195 £44,000 -20.00% 188
South West -22 138 £51,000 -3.04% 171
East of England -78 118 £60,000 +5.26% 157
West Midlands +4 107 £44,360 -22.85% 119
East Midlands -67 87 £42,500 - 69
Yorkshire +10 75 £43,000 +1.18% 45
North East +6 74 £55,000 +57.14% 45
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 60 (3.52%) Apache Airflow
2 57 (3.34%) Apache Spark
3 55 (3.23%) Apache
4 30 (1.76%) Confluence
4 30 (1.76%) SharePoint
5 18 (1.06%) Jupyter
6 12 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.70%) SAS
7 5 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 5 (0.29%) CMS
8 4 (0.23%) Kinematics
9 3 (0.18%) Artix
9 3 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.18%) WinCC
10 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.12%) IIS
11 1 (0.059%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.059%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.059%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.059%) WebSphere
Applications
1 110 (6.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (3.58%) Microsoft Office
3 31 (1.82%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.52%) MS Visio
5 23 (1.35%) Simulink
6 15 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 15 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.65%) SOLIDWORKS
8 5 (0.29%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.23%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.23%) Mathcad
9 4 (0.23%) Sketch
10 3 (0.18%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.18%) LaTeX
10 3 (0.18%) Productboard
10 3 (0.18%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.12%) OrCAD
11 2 (0.12%) Solid Edge
12 1 (0.059%) EPLAN
12 1 (0.059%) Trello
Business Applications
1 42 (2.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (2.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.65%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.59%) SAP ERP
5 9 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.47%) Oracle Applications
7 5 (0.29%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.29%) iTrent
7 5 (0.29%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.29%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.29%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.23%) Oracle Financials
8 4 (0.23%) SAP MM
8 4 (0.23%) Workday HCM
9 3 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
10 2 (0.12%) SAP CO
10 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
10 2 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
10 2 (0.12%) SAP WM
10 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 241 (14.13%) Azure
2 228 (13.37%) AWS
3 157 (9.21%) Power Platform
4 84 (4.93%) GCP
5 68 (3.99%) SaaS
6 59 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
7 53 (3.11%) Microsoft 365
8 47 (2.76%) GitHub
9 44 (2.58%) Amazon S3
9 44 (2.58%) Serverless
10 33 (1.94%) Dynamics 365
11 27 (1.58%) Microsoft Copilot
12 26 (1.52%) Entra ID
13 24 (1.41%) GitHub Actions
14 22 (1.29%) Amazon EC2
14 22 (1.29%) Cloud Computing
15 21 (1.23%) Amazon EMR
16 20 (1.17%) Snowflake
17 19 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (1.11%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 67 (3.93%) Broadband
2 51 (2.99%) Firewall
3 45 (2.64%) DNS
4 27 (1.58%) Network Security
4 27 (1.58%) Wireless
5 25 (1.47%) TCP/IP
6 24 (1.41%) WAN
7 23 (1.35%) VPN
8 18 (1.06%) Ethernet
8 18 (1.06%) SD-WAN
9 16 (0.94%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (0.88%) LAN
10 15 (0.88%) MQTT
11 12 (0.70%) HTTP
11 12 (0.70%) Internet
12 11 (0.65%) BGP
12 11 (0.65%) NGN
12 11 (0.65%) RS-232
13 10 (0.59%) 5G
13 10 (0.59%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (8.62%) Power BI
2 56 (3.28%) Data Warehouse
2 56 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
3 54 (3.17%) Tableau
4 51 (2.99%) SQL Server
5 43 (2.52%) Metadata
6 36 (2.11%) Data Lake
7 33 (1.94%) MongoDB
8 31 (1.82%) Relational Database
9 25 (1.47%) BigQuery
10 23 (1.35%) DynamoDB
11 22 (1.29%) Amazon Athena
11 22 (1.29%) Semantic Layer
12 21 (1.23%) MySQL
12 21 (1.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 20 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (1.17%) Spark SQL
14 19 (1.11%) Power Query
15 17 (1.00%) Oracle Database
16 16 (0.94%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 111 (6.51%) JIRA
2 101 (5.92%) Git
3 48 (2.82%) Jenkins
4 43 (2.52%) GitLab
5 31 (1.82%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.29%) Snyk
7 18 (1.06%) Selenium
8 16 (0.94%) LabVIEW
9 15 (0.88%) Postman
10 14 (0.82%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.76%) IBM UrbanCode
12 12 (0.70%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.65%) JMeter
14 10 (0.59%) TeamCity
15 8 (0.47%) Rational Rhapsody
16 7 (0.41%) Burp Suite
16 7 (0.41%) MLflow
16 7 (0.41%) REST Assured
17 6 (0.35%) GDB
17 6 (0.35%) Hudson
General
1 558 (32.73%) Social Skills
2 473 (27.74%) Finance
3 439 (25.75%) Analytical Skills
4 155 (9.09%) Aerospace
5 147 (8.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 142 (8.33%) Manufacturing
7 136 (7.98%) Electronics
8 97 (5.69%) Banking
9 90 (5.28%) Law
10 68 (3.99%) Retail
11 67 (3.93%) Public Sector
12 60 (3.52%) Pharmaceutical
13 57 (3.34%) Marketing
13 57 (3.34%) Organisational Skills
14 52 (3.05%) Legal
15 46 (2.70%) Games
16 41 (2.40%) Automotive
17 32 (1.88%) Telecoms
18 29 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
18 29 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 313 (18.36%) Senior
2 250 (14.66%) Analyst
3 138 (8.09%) Lead
4 117 (6.86%) Systems Engineer
5 108 (6.33%) Test Engineer
6 104 (6.10%) Architect
7 96 (5.63%) Data Engineer
8 81 (4.75%) Business Analyst
9 79 (4.63%) Developer
10 67 (3.93%) Consultant
11 66 (3.87%) Validation Engineer
12 64 (3.75%) Data Analyst
13 60 (3.52%) Software Engineer
14 55 (3.23%) Principal Engineer
15 45 (2.64%) Support Engineer
16 43 (2.52%) Embedded Engineer
17 42 (2.46%) Data Scientist
18 38 (2.23%) IT Manager
19 37 (2.17%) Project Manager
20 36 (2.11%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.64%) RESTful
2 42 (2.46%) Kafka
3 37 (2.17%) PySpark
4 35 (2.05%) Node.js
5 33 (1.94%) REST
6 30 (1.76%) XML
7 29 (1.70%) JSON
8 26 (1.52%) .NET
9 25 (1.47%) Middleware
10 24 (1.41%) Pandas
11 22 (1.29%) LDAP
12 21 (1.23%) CSS
13 20 (1.17%) HTML
13 20 (1.17%) Playwright
14 19 (1.11%) Regular Expression
14 19 (1.11%) XMPP
15 16 (0.94%) FastAPI
15 16 (0.94%) React
16 14 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
16 14 (0.82%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 126 (7.39%) Onboarding
2 124 (7.27%) Cloud Native
3 86 (5.04%) Management Information System
4 63 (3.70%) Data Centre
5 62 (3.64%) Product Ownership
6 58 (3.40%) Data Structures
7 51 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
8 49 (2.87%) Distributed Systems
9 47 (2.76%) Embedded Systems
10 46 (2.70%) Driving Licence
10 46 (2.70%) Low-Code
11 44 (2.58%) Algorithms
12 38 (2.23%) Analytical Mindset
13 33 (1.94%) Video\Live Streaming
14 32 (1.88%) Legacy Systems
14 32 (1.88%) Life Science
15 29 (1.70%) AI Agents
16 28 (1.64%) Robotics
16 28 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
17 24 (1.41%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 113 (6.63%) Linux
2 85 (4.99%) Windows
3 33 (1.94%) Windows Server
4 19 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (1.11%) Unix
5 6 (0.35%) Android
5 6 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
5 6 (0.35%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.23%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.23%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.12%) AIX
8 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.12%) ThreadX
8 2 (0.12%) VMS
8 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.059%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 446 (26.16%) Problem-Solving
2 401 (23.52%) Continuous Improvement
3 365 (21.41%) Agile
4 319 (18.71%) AI
5 287 (16.83%) CI/CD
6 224 (13.14%) Analytics
6 224 (13.14%) Migration
7 217 (12.73%) Test Automation
8 212 (12.43%) Stakeholder Management
9 202 (11.85%) Mentoring
10 193 (11.32%) Decision-Making
11 184 (10.79%) Software Engineering
12 177 (10.38%) Verification and Validation
13 175 (10.26%) DevOps
14 173 (10.15%) Business Intelligence
15 160 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 159 (9.33%) Data Analysis
17 156 (9.15%) Data Modelling
17 156 (9.15%) ERP
18 155 (9.09%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 415 (24.34%) Python
2 360 (21.11%) SQL
3 80 (4.69%) C++
4 74 (4.34%) Java
5 73 (4.28%) C
6 55 (3.23%) Go
7 53 (3.11%) JavaScript
8 44 (2.58%) C#
9 36 (2.11%) MATLAB
10 30 (1.76%) PowerShell
11 27 (1.58%) Bash
12 20 (1.17%) Embedded C
12 20 (1.17%) Scala
12 20 (1.17%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.06%) Embedded C++
14 16 (0.94%) TypeScript
15 15 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 8 (0.47%) ABAP
16 8 (0.47%) PL/SQL
16 8 (0.47%) VBA
Qualifications
1 344 (20.18%) Degree
2 235 (13.78%) Security Cleared
3 124 (7.27%) SC Cleared
4 115 (6.74%) BPSS Clearance
5 83 (4.87%) DV Cleared
6 75 (4.40%) Master's Degree
7 39 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
8 31 (1.82%) CISSP
9 30 (1.76%) Chartered Engineer
10 27 (1.58%) PMI Certification
11 25 (1.47%) CISM
11 25 (1.47%) HNC
12 23 (1.35%) AWS Certification
13 22 (1.29%) ACCA
13 22 (1.29%) CIMA
13 22 (1.29%) PhD
14 20 (1.17%) CISA
14 20 (1.17%) SANS
15 19 (1.11%) HND
16 18 (1.06%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 296 (17.36%) Data Quality
2 226 (13.26%) QA
3 55 (3.23%) GDPR
4 53 (3.11%) Accessibility
5 38 (2.23%) GRC
6 24 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 21 (1.23%) IEC 61508
8 18 (1.06%) NIST
8 18 (1.06%) PMO
9 17 (1.00%) SLA
10 16 (0.94%) GxP
11 15 (0.88%) IFRS
11 15 (0.88%) ISO 26262
12 14 (0.82%) GAAP
13 13 (0.76%) ISO 9001
14 12 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 15288
15 11 (0.65%) SOC 2
15 11 (0.65%) WCAG
16 10 (0.59%) COBIT
16 10 (0.59%) GMP
System Software
1 71 (4.16%) Docker
2 65 (3.81%) Firmware
3 43 (2.52%) Active Directory
4 28 (1.64%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.64%) Virtual Machines
5 22 (1.29%) vSphere
6 13 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.18%) KVM
9 2 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.059%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.059%) iptables
10 1 (0.059%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.059%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 74 (4.34%) Terraform
2 73 (4.28%) Kubernetes
3 37 (2.17%) Grafana
4 25 (1.47%) Functional Safety
5 21 (1.23%) Ansible
6 17 (1.00%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.59%) Cilium
7 10 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.47%) SCCM
9 7 (0.41%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 7 (0.41%) Kibana
10 6 (0.35%) Puppet
11 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.23%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.23%) Nessus
12 4 (0.23%) Nmap
12 4 (0.23%) WMI
13 3 (0.18%) Argo
13 3 (0.18%) HP Fortify
13 3 (0.18%) Rancher
Vendors
1 255 (14.96%) Microsoft
2 108 (6.33%) SAP
3 97 (5.69%) Oracle
4 55 (3.23%) Salesforce
5 46 (2.70%) Databricks
6 42 (2.46%) ServiceNow
7 35 (2.05%) Red Hat
8 33 (1.94%) Cisco
8 33 (1.94%) Google
9 32 (1.88%) VMware
10 29 (1.70%) CrowdStrike
11 24 (1.41%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.29%) Tenable
13 15 (0.88%) EMC
13 15 (0.88%) McAfee
14 14 (0.82%) Adobe
14 14 (0.82%) IBM
15 13 (0.76%) Foundry
15 13 (0.76%) Splunk
15 13 (0.76%) Workday