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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 175 176
Rank change year-on-year +35 +1 -26
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,037 680 1,256
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.48% 1.86% 1.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.93% 1.99% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 612 348 720
10th Percentile £34,500 £40,000 £35,739
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,000 £43,438
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 £100,000 £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 53,786 34,133 67,457
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 76.78% 93.22% 86.35%
Number of salaries quoted 33,742 20,386 52,114
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,762 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,163 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.06% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £98,750 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 +59 326 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +42 249 £55,000 +10.00% 215
North of England 0 163 £58,000 +22.11% 152
Midlands -17 125 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +12 103 £58,000 +21.64% 74
East of England -12 91 £58,750 +6.82% 96
West Midlands -4 76 £44,000 -33.58% 77
South West -36 69 £60,000 +9.09% 89
East Midlands -40 47 £35,000 -31.37% 41
Yorkshire -24 40 £60,000 +26.32% 51
North East -3 20 £48,500 -14.54% 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 41 (3.95%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.60%) Apache Spark
3 23 (2.22%) Apache
4 13 (1.25%) Confluence
4 13 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.16%) Appian
5 12 (1.16%) CMS
6 8 (0.77%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.48%) Kinematics
8 4 (0.39%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.096%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.096%) IIS
10 1 (0.096%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.096%) SAS
Applications
1 87 (8.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (5.01%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.54%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.68%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 5 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.39%) Fusion 360
7 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.39%) Simulink
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%) Elementor
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.19%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.19%) Solid Edge
8 2 (0.19%) SOLIDWORKS
8 2 (0.19%) Weka
9 1 (0.096%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 18 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.48%) Loan IQ
3 5 (0.48%) SAP ERP
4 4 (0.39%) SAP BPC
5 3 (0.29%) Workday HCM
6 2 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.19%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.19%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.096%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.096%) Endur
7 1 (0.096%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.096%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.096%) Primavera
7 1 (0.096%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.096%) SAP Business ByDesign
7 1 (0.096%) SAP FSCM
7 1 (0.096%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 143 (13.79%) Azure
2 97 (9.35%) Power Platform
3 81 (7.81%) AWS
4 53 (5.11%) SaaS
5 38 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
5 38 (3.66%) GCP
6 24 (2.31%) Amazon S3
6 24 (2.31%) Power Automate
6 24 (2.31%) Snowflake
7 23 (2.22%) Azure Data Factory
8 22 (2.12%) dbt
9 21 (2.03%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (1.93%) Entra ID
11 18 (1.74%) Microsoft 365
12 17 (1.64%) GitHub
13 14 (1.35%) Datadog
14 13 (1.25%) Anthropic Claude
14 13 (1.25%) OpenShift
15 12 (1.16%) Azure AI
16 10 (0.96%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.41%) CHAP
2 18 (1.74%) Broadband
3 15 (1.45%) WAN
4 14 (1.35%) DNS
4 14 (1.35%) Firewall
5 13 (1.25%) SD-WAN
6 11 (1.06%) 5G
7 9 (0.87%) HTTP
7 9 (0.87%) TCP/IP
7 9 (0.87%) Wireless
8 7 (0.68%) Modbus
8 7 (0.68%) MQTT
9 6 (0.58%) LAN
9 6 (0.58%) NAS
10 5 (0.48%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (0.48%) WAAS
11 4 (0.39%) SMTP
11 4 (0.39%) VoIP
11 4 (0.39%) VPN
12 3 (0.29%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (9.26%) Power BI
2 43 (4.15%) Tableau
3 41 (3.95%) SQL Server
4 28 (2.70%) Metadata
5 27 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
5 27 (2.60%) Relational Database
6 24 (2.31%) PostgreSQL
7 15 (1.45%) Oracle Reports
8 14 (1.35%) Spark SQL
9 13 (1.25%) Apache Hive
9 13 (1.25%) Impala
9 13 (1.25%) MySQL
9 13 (1.25%) Oracle Database
9 13 (1.25%) Parquet
10 12 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
10 12 (1.16%) Pinecone
10 12 (1.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
11 10 (0.96%) Spotfire
12 9 (0.87%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 60 (5.79%) Git
2 50 (4.82%) JIRA
3 34 (3.28%) Rational DOORS
4 18 (1.74%) Jenkins
5 17 (1.64%) Postman
6 14 (1.35%) Cucumber
6 14 (1.35%) GitLab
6 14 (1.35%) LabVIEW
6 14 (1.35%) MLflow
7 13 (1.25%) IBM UrbanCode
7 13 (1.25%) JMeter
7 13 (1.25%) Selenium
8 11 (1.06%) Eclipse
9 10 (0.96%) TestRail
10 8 (0.77%) Locust
11 7 (0.68%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.68%) SoapUI
12 6 (0.58%) Subversion
13 5 (0.48%) SpecFlow
14 4 (0.39%) Zephyr
General
1 360 (34.72%) Social Skills
2 257 (24.78%) Finance
3 245 (23.63%) Analytical Skills
4 83 (8.00%) Banking
5 62 (5.98%) Electronics
6 59 (5.69%) Manufacturing
7 54 (5.21%) Aerospace
8 43 (4.15%) Law
8 43 (4.15%) Legal
8 43 (4.15%) Marketing
9 41 (3.95%) Financial Institution
10 39 (3.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 36 (3.47%) Retail
12 31 (2.99%) Presentation Skills
13 27 (2.60%) Public Sector
14 26 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
15 23 (2.22%) Telecoms
16 22 (2.12%) Documentation Skills
16 22 (2.12%) Pharmaceutical
17 20 (1.93%) Games
Job Titles
1 183 (17.65%) Analyst
2 163 (15.72%) Senior
3 127 (12.25%) Systems Engineer
4 79 (7.62%) Lead
5 68 (6.56%) Validation Engineer
6 64 (6.17%) Test Engineer
7 59 (5.69%) Business Analyst
8 53 (5.11%) Architect
9 49 (4.73%) Data Analyst
9 49 (4.73%) Integration Engineer
10 39 (3.76%) Systems Integration Engineer
11 38 (3.66%) Developer
11 38 (3.66%) Principal Engineer
12 36 (3.47%) Senior Systems Engineer
13 35 (3.38%) Data Engineer
14 34 (3.28%) Junior
15 32 (3.09%) Software Validation Engineer
15 32 (3.09%) Verification Engineer
16 28 (2.70%) Auditor
16 28 (2.70%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (5.01%) REST
2 37 (3.57%) Pandas
3 30 (2.89%) JSON
4 26 (2.51%) pytest
5 24 (2.31%) Middleware
5 24 (2.31%) XML
6 19 (1.83%) OAuth
7 18 (1.74%) JWT
7 18 (1.74%) NumPy
7 18 (1.74%) PySpark
7 18 (1.74%) PyTorch
7 18 (1.74%) Swagger
7 18 (1.74%) TensorFlow
8 16 (1.54%) RESTful
9 15 (1.45%) Kafka
9 15 (1.45%) React
9 15 (1.45%) scikit-learn
9 15 (1.45%) Web Services
10 14 (1.35%) .NET
10 14 (1.35%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 71 (6.85%) Management Information System
2 51 (4.92%) Onboarding
3 41 (3.95%) Data Structures
4 36 (3.47%) Low-Code
5 31 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
6 28 (2.70%) Product Ownership
6 28 (2.70%) Self-Motivation
7 24 (2.31%) Life Science
8 23 (2.22%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
10 15 (1.45%) Robotics
11 14 (1.35%) Blockchain
12 13 (1.25%) Algorithms
12 13 (1.25%) Reinsurance
13 12 (1.16%) IoT
14 11 (1.06%) Embedded Systems
14 11 (1.06%) Hackathon
14 11 (1.06%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (0.96%) Data Centre
16 8 (0.77%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 52 (5.01%) Linux
2 44 (4.24%) Windows
3 17 (1.64%) Unix
4 13 (1.25%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.96%) Android
6 6 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.39%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.29%) 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 (0.096%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.096%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.096%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (22.28%) Agile
2 226 (21.79%) Problem-Solving
3 184 (17.74%) Verification and Validation
4 178 (17.16%) Continuous Improvement
5 155 (14.95%) Analytics
6 146 (14.08%) Data Validation
7 131 (12.63%) Test Automation
8 123 (11.86%) Business Intelligence
9 119 (11.48%) AI
9 119 (11.48%) CI/CD
10 116 (11.19%) Systems Engineering
11 108 (10.41%) Data Modelling
11 108 (10.41%) DevOps
12 105 (10.13%) Decision-Making
13 100 (9.64%) Migration
14 98 (9.45%) ETL
15 97 (9.35%) Mentoring
16 94 (9.06%) Stakeholder Management
17 93 (8.97%) User Acceptance Testing
18 92 (8.87%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 234 (22.57%) SQL
2 217 (20.93%) Python
3 44 (4.24%) Java
4 30 (2.89%) JavaScript
5 28 (2.70%) C++
5 28 (2.70%) PowerShell
6 27 (2.60%) C
7 21 (2.03%) Bash
8 18 (1.74%) T-SQL
9 17 (1.64%) Go
10 15 (1.45%) MATLAB
11 14 (1.35%) C#
11 14 (1.35%) TypeScript
12 11 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 9 (0.87%) R
13 9 (0.87%) VBA
14 7 (0.68%) VB
15 6 (0.58%) PHP
16 5 (0.48%) Embedded C
16 5 (0.48%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 232 (22.37%) Degree
2 129 (12.44%) Security Cleared
3 113 (10.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 53 (5.11%) Master's Degree
5 49 (4.73%) SC Cleared
6 36 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (3.09%) CISA
7 32 (3.09%) CISSP
8 31 (2.99%) CISM
9 28 (2.70%) DV Cleared
10 25 (2.41%) CGEIT
10 25 (2.41%) FFIEC
10 25 (2.41%) SANS
11 23 (2.22%) Chartered Engineer
12 20 (1.93%) HNC
13 17 (1.64%) ISTQB
14 15 (1.45%) HND
14 15 (1.45%) PMI Certification
14 15 (1.45%) PMP
15 7 (0.68%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (14.18%) Data Quality
2 112 (10.80%) QA
3 57 (5.50%) GDPR
4 44 (4.24%) Accessibility
5 37 (3.57%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (2.51%) NIST
7 25 (2.41%) COBIT
8 18 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 18 (1.74%) SLA
9 15 (1.45%) IFRS
10 13 (1.25%) WCAG
11 11 (1.06%) GRC
12 10 (0.96%) Good Clinical Practice
12 10 (0.96%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 9 (0.87%) GAAP
13 9 (0.87%) ISO 9001
14 8 (0.77%) ISO 20022
15 7 (0.68%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 7 (0.68%) GxP
16 6 (0.58%) GMP
System Software
1 57 (5.50%) Docker
2 22 (2.12%) Active Directory
3 20 (1.93%) Firmware
4 9 (0.87%) vSphere
5 8 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.19%) Ceph
8 2 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.19%) Lustre
8 2 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.19%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.096%) iptables
9 1 (0.096%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.096%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.096%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.096%) pfSense
9 1 (0.096%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 54 (5.21%) Kubernetes
2 40 (3.86%) Terraform
3 23 (2.22%) Grafana
4 17 (1.64%) Ansible
5 14 (1.35%) Prometheus
6 12 (1.16%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.96%) SCCM
8 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.48%) Argo
9 5 (0.48%) Functional Safety
9 5 (0.48%) Rancher
9 5 (0.48%) yum
10 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
10 2 (0.19%) Nessus
10 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.19%) Puppet
11 1 (0.096%) Control-M
11 1 (0.096%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.096%) Kibana
11 1 (0.096%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 138 (13.31%) Microsoft
2 54 (5.21%) Oracle
3 50 (4.82%) SAP
4 36 (3.47%) Salesforce
5 19 (1.83%) Red Hat
6 16 (1.54%) Adobe
6 16 (1.54%) Cisco
6 16 (1.54%) Databricks
6 16 (1.54%) Foundry
6 16 (1.54%) ServiceNow
6 16 (1.54%) VMware
7 13 (1.25%) IBM
7 13 (1.25%) OpenAI
8 12 (1.16%) Automation Anywhere
8 12 (1.16%) Google
8 12 (1.16%) UiPath
9 11 (1.06%) Software AG
10 10 (0.96%) Citrix
11 9 (0.87%) Intapp
11 9 (0.87%) Workday