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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 168 179
Rank change year-on-year +30 +11 -23
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,067 678 1,262
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.50% 1.86% 1.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 1.99% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 633 352 720
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 £99,625 £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 54,454 34,050 67,812
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 76.60% 93.17% 86.25%
Number of salaries quoted 34,258 20,315 52,343
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 £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £103,750 £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 3 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 3 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 +62 329 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +40 254 £55,000 +10.00% 215
North of England +2 173 £59,000 +24.21% 152
Midlands -18 127 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +14 109 £59,000 +23.73% 74
East of England -6 93 £57,500 +4.55% 96
West Midlands -11 78 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -29 77 £55,000 - 89
East Midlands -37 47 £35,000 -31.37% 41
Yorkshire -35 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 41 (3.84%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.53%) Apache Spark
3 23 (2.16%) Apache
4 15 (1.41%) Confluence
4 15 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (1.12%) Appian
5 12 (1.12%) CMS
6 8 (0.75%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.47%) Kinematics
8 4 (0.37%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.094%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.094%) IIS
10 1 (0.094%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.094%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.094%) SAS
Applications
1 85 (7.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (4.87%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 16 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.66%) 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 18 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.47%) Loan IQ
4 4 (0.37%) SAP BPC
4 4 (0.37%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.28%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.28%) 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
7 1 (0.094%) Endur
7 1 (0.094%) Magento
7 1 (0.094%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.094%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.094%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.094%) Primavera
7 1 (0.094%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.094%) SAP Business ByDesign
7 1 (0.094%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 143 (13.40%) Azure
2 101 (9.47%) Power Platform
3 85 (7.97%) AWS
4 52 (4.87%) SaaS
5 40 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (3.75%) GCP
6 28 (2.62%) Power Automate
7 25 (2.34%) Azure Data Factory
7 25 (2.34%) Dynamics 365
7 25 (2.34%) Snowflake
8 24 (2.25%) Amazon S3
9 23 (2.16%) dbt
10 20 (1.87%) Entra ID
10 20 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
11 18 (1.69%) GitHub
12 14 (1.31%) Datadog
13 13 (1.22%) Anthropic Claude
13 13 (1.22%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.22%) Serverless
14 12 (1.12%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.34%) CHAP
2 18 (1.69%) Broadband
3 16 (1.50%) WAN
4 15 (1.41%) Firewall
5 14 (1.31%) DNS
5 14 (1.31%) SD-WAN
6 11 (1.03%) 5G
7 10 (0.94%) Wireless
8 9 (0.84%) HTTP
8 9 (0.84%) TCP/IP
9 7 (0.66%) LAN
9 7 (0.66%) Modbus
9 7 (0.66%) 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 99 (9.28%) Power BI
2 43 (4.03%) Tableau
3 42 (3.94%) SQL Server
4 29 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
5 28 (2.62%) Metadata
5 28 (2.62%) Relational Database
6 24 (2.25%) PostgreSQL
7 15 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
7 15 (1.41%) Spark SQL
8 14 (1.31%) Azure SQL Database
8 14 (1.31%) Oracle Database
9 13 (1.22%) Apache Hive
9 13 (1.22%) Impala
9 13 (1.22%) MySQL
9 13 (1.22%) Parquet
9 13 (1.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 12 (1.12%) Pinecone
11 11 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
12 10 (0.94%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.94%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 60 (5.62%) Git
2 54 (5.06%) JIRA
3 36 (3.37%) Rational DOORS
4 18 (1.69%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.69%) Postman
5 14 (1.31%) GitLab
5 14 (1.31%) JMeter
5 14 (1.31%) LabVIEW
5 14 (1.31%) MLflow
6 13 (1.22%) Cucumber
6 13 (1.22%) IBM UrbanCode
6 13 (1.22%) Selenium
7 11 (1.03%) Eclipse
7 11 (1.03%) TestRail
8 8 (0.75%) Locust
9 7 (0.66%) SoapUI
10 6 (0.56%) LoadRunner
10 6 (0.56%) Subversion
11 5 (0.47%) SpecFlow
11 5 (0.47%) Zephyr
General
1 362 (33.93%) Social Skills
2 267 (25.02%) Finance
3 251 (23.52%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (7.87%) Banking
5 65 (6.09%) Electronics
5 65 (6.09%) Manufacturing
6 57 (5.34%) Aerospace
7 44 (4.12%) Legal
8 43 (4.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 43 (4.03%) Law
8 43 (4.03%) Marketing
9 40 (3.75%) Financial Institution
10 39 (3.66%) Retail
11 30 (2.81%) Presentation Skills
12 28 (2.62%) Public Sector
13 26 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
14 23 (2.16%) Pharmaceutical
14 23 (2.16%) Telecoms
15 22 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
16 20 (1.87%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 190 (17.81%) Analyst
2 169 (15.84%) Senior
3 134 (12.56%) Systems Engineer
4 79 (7.40%) Lead
5 71 (6.65%) Validation Engineer
6 68 (6.37%) Test Engineer
7 66 (6.19%) Business Analyst
8 54 (5.06%) Architect
9 51 (4.78%) Data Analyst
10 49 (4.59%) Integration Engineer
11 42 (3.94%) Principal Engineer
12 39 (3.66%) Systems Integration Engineer
13 38 (3.56%) Developer
14 37 (3.47%) Data Engineer
15 36 (3.37%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 34 (3.19%) Junior
17 33 (3.09%) Software Validation Engineer
17 33 (3.09%) Verification Engineer
18 31 (2.91%) Principal Systems Engineer
19 28 (2.62%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.97%) REST
2 37 (3.47%) Pandas
3 29 (2.72%) JSON
4 26 (2.44%) Middleware
4 26 (2.44%) pytest
5 24 (2.25%) XML
6 20 (1.87%) PySpark
7 19 (1.78%) OAuth
8 18 (1.69%) JWT
8 18 (1.69%) NumPy
8 18 (1.69%) PyTorch
8 18 (1.69%) Swagger
8 18 (1.69%) TensorFlow
9 16 (1.50%) RESTful
10 15 (1.41%) .NET
10 15 (1.41%) React
10 15 (1.41%) scikit-learn
10 15 (1.41%) Web Services
11 14 (1.31%) CSS
11 14 (1.31%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 71 (6.65%) Management Information System
2 51 (4.78%) Onboarding
3 41 (3.84%) Data Structures
4 37 (3.47%) Low-Code
5 32 (3.00%) Legacy Systems
6 29 (2.72%) Self-Motivation
7 28 (2.62%) Product Ownership
8 25 (2.34%) Analytical Mindset
9 24 (2.25%) Life Science
10 18 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.31%) Blockchain
11 14 (1.31%) Robotics
12 13 (1.22%) Algorithms
12 13 (1.22%) Embedded Systems
12 13 (1.22%) IoT
12 13 (1.22%) Reinsurance
13 12 (1.12%) Data Centre
14 11 (1.03%) Hackathon
15 10 (0.94%) Self-Driving Car
16 9 (0.84%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 53 (4.97%) Linux
2 43 (4.03%) Windows
3 17 (1.59%) Unix
4 13 (1.22%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.94%) 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 (0.094%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.094%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.094%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (21.65%) Agile
2 227 (21.27%) Problem-Solving
3 191 (17.90%) Verification and Validation
4 184 (17.24%) Continuous Improvement
5 161 (15.09%) Analytics
6 148 (13.87%) Data Validation
7 133 (12.46%) Test Automation
8 126 (11.81%) AI
8 126 (11.81%) Business Intelligence
9 125 (11.72%) CI/CD
10 119 (11.15%) Systems Engineering
11 114 (10.68%) Data Modelling
12 109 (10.22%) DevOps
13 107 (10.03%) Decision-Making
14 103 (9.65%) Migration
15 101 (9.47%) Data Governance
15 101 (9.47%) Mentoring
16 99 (9.28%) ETL
17 98 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
18 97 (9.09%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 236 (22.12%) SQL
2 223 (20.90%) Python
3 43 (4.03%) Java
4 30 (2.81%) JavaScript
5 29 (2.72%) C++
6 28 (2.62%) PowerShell
7 27 (2.53%) C
8 21 (1.97%) Bash
9 19 (1.78%) T-SQL
10 18 (1.69%) 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 (0.66%) VB
16 6 (0.56%) PHP
17 5 (0.47%) Embedded C
17 5 (0.47%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 239 (22.40%) Degree
2 129 (12.09%) Security Cleared
3 115 (10.78%) BPSS Clearance
4 52 (4.87%) Master's Degree
5 47 (4.40%) SC Cleared
6 37 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (3.00%) CISA
7 32 (3.00%) CISSP
8 31 (2.91%) CISM
9 29 (2.72%) DV Cleared
10 25 (2.34%) CGEIT
10 25 (2.34%) Chartered Engineer
10 25 (2.34%) FFIEC
10 25 (2.34%) SANS
11 20 (1.87%) HNC
12 17 (1.59%) ISTQB
13 16 (1.50%) PMI Certification
14 15 (1.41%) HND
14 15 (1.41%) PMP
15 8 (0.75%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 153 (14.34%) Data Quality
2 114 (10.68%) QA
3 60 (5.62%) GDPR
4 43 (4.03%) Accessibility
5 38 (3.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (2.44%) NIST
7 25 (2.34%) COBIT
8 19 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 18 (1.69%) SLA
10 16 (1.50%) IFRS
11 15 (1.41%) GRC
12 13 (1.22%) WCAG
13 11 (1.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 10 (0.94%) GAAP
14 10 (0.94%) Good Clinical Practice
15 9 (0.84%) ISO 9001
16 7 (0.66%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 7 (0.66%) GxP
16 7 (0.66%) ISO 20022
16 7 (0.66%) PMO
System Software
1 57 (5.34%) Docker
2 22 (2.06%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.97%) Firmware
4 9 (0.84%) vSphere
5 8 (0.75%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (0.47%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.28%) 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 (0.094%) iptables
9 1 (0.094%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.094%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.094%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.094%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 56 (5.25%) Kubernetes
2 43 (4.03%) Terraform
3 24 (2.25%) Grafana
4 17 (1.59%) Ansible
5 14 (1.31%) Prometheus
6 12 (1.12%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.94%) SCCM
8 7 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.56%) Functional Safety
10 5 (0.47%) Argo
10 5 (0.47%) Rancher
10 5 (0.47%) yum
11 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.19%) Cilium
11 2 (0.19%) Nessus
11 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
11 2 (0.19%) Puppet
12 1 (0.094%) Istio
12 1 (0.094%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.094%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 141 (13.21%) Microsoft
2 54 (5.06%) Oracle
3 49 (4.59%) SAP
4 38 (3.56%) 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
7 16 (1.50%) VMware
8 15 (1.41%) ServiceNow
9 13 (1.22%) IBM
9 13 (1.22%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.12%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.12%) Google
10 12 (1.12%) UiPath
11 10 (0.94%) Citrix
11 10 (0.94%) Software AG
12 9 (0.84%) Intapp
12 9 (0.84%) Workday