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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 82 176
Rank change year-on-year +5 +94 +27
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,161 1,549 1,062
As % of all permanent jobs in England 2.16% 3.56% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.94% 4.02% 1.89%
Number of salaries quoted 1,310 450 418
10th Percentile £35,975 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,000 £75,000 £73,438
90th Percentile £86,250 £91,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £58,033
% change year-on-year +4.55% -5.23% -9.32%

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 73,420 38,536 56,218
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.29% 88.67% 81.27%
Number of salaries quoted 52,272 22,193 32,991
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,750
25th Percentile £42,000 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 11 September 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 11 September 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 +66 538 £70,000 -12.50% 1,196
South East -16 487 £60,000 +11.63% 449
North of England +112 448 £55,000 +15.79% 263
North West +101 276 £55,000 +12.61% 144
Midlands -36 252 £47,500 -13.64% 264
South West +22 230 £55,000 +4.56% 246
East of England -55 173 £55,000 -8.33% 242
West Midlands +36 144 £48,750 -11.36% 179
East Midlands -57 108 £46,209 +8.73% 84
Yorkshire +10 87 £43,000 +1.18% 76
North East +10 85 £55,000 +57.14% 46
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 45 (2.08%) Apache Spark
2 42 (1.94%) Apache Airflow
3 39 (1.80%) Apache
4 33 (1.53%) Confluence
5 32 (1.48%) SharePoint
6 18 (0.83%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.60%) SAS
8 9 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.37%) WinCC
10 5 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.23%) CMS
11 3 (0.14%) Artix
11 3 (0.14%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.093%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.093%) IIS
13 1 (0.046%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.046%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.046%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 123 (5.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 68 (3.15%) Microsoft Office
3 45 (2.08%) Simulink
4 36 (1.67%) Microsoft Project
5 17 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
5 17 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
6 15 (0.69%) MS Visio
7 14 (0.65%) AutoCAD
8 11 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 7 (0.32%) Revit
10 5 (0.23%) Mathcad
10 5 (0.23%) Navisworks
11 4 (0.19%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.19%) EPLAN
11 4 (0.19%) OrCAD
11 4 (0.19%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
12 3 (0.14%) LaTeX
12 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 39 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
1 39 (1.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.51%) SAP MDG
3 9 (0.42%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.37%) Oracle Applications
4 8 (0.37%) Workday HCM
5 7 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 7 (0.32%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.23%) Elite 3E
6 5 (0.23%) iTrent
6 5 (0.23%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.19%) Infor M3
7 4 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
7 4 (0.19%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.14%) Loan IQ
8 3 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
8 3 (0.14%) Teamcenter
9 2 (0.093%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.093%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 280 (12.96%) Azure
2 241 (11.15%) AWS
3 168 (7.77%) Power Platform
4 88 (4.07%) GCP
5 64 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
6 63 (2.92%) Microsoft 365
6 63 (2.92%) SaaS
7 57 (2.64%) GitHub
8 50 (2.31%) Serverless
9 41 (1.90%) Amazon S3
10 34 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
11 32 (1.48%) Entra ID
12 30 (1.39%) Microsoft Copilot
13 29 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
14 24 (1.11%) Amazon EMR
14 24 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
14 24 (1.11%) Cloud Computing
15 22 (1.02%) PowerApps
16 21 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
16 21 (0.97%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.29%) DNS
2 65 (3.01%) Firewall
3 60 (2.78%) Broadband
4 37 (1.71%) TCP/IP
5 36 (1.67%) VPN
6 35 (1.62%) WAN
7 34 (1.57%) Network Security
7 34 (1.57%) Wireless
8 27 (1.25%) Ethernet
8 27 (1.25%) LAN
9 25 (1.16%) Modbus
9 25 (1.16%) VLAN
10 24 (1.11%) OSPF
11 22 (1.02%) SD-WAN
12 21 (0.97%) BGP
12 21 (0.97%) MQTT
12 21 (0.97%) Wireshark
13 17 (0.79%) 5G
13 17 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
14 16 (0.74%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (7.22%) Power BI
2 56 (2.59%) Data Warehouse
3 54 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (2.27%) Metadata
5 48 (2.22%) Data Lake
5 48 (2.22%) SQL Server
6 39 (1.80%) Tableau
7 35 (1.62%) MongoDB
8 34 (1.57%) Amazon Athena
9 32 (1.48%) Relational Database
10 25 (1.16%) BigQuery
10 25 (1.16%) DynamoDB
11 23 (1.06%) Big Data
12 22 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
13 21 (0.97%) Semantic Layer
14 19 (0.88%) MySQL
14 19 (0.88%) NoSQL
15 17 (0.79%) Amazon Redshift
16 16 (0.74%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 125 (5.78%) JIRA
2 113 (5.23%) Git
3 56 (2.59%) Jenkins
4 49 (2.27%) GitLab
5 38 (1.76%) Rational DOORS
6 25 (1.16%) Selenium
7 24 (1.11%) LabVIEW
8 22 (1.02%) Snyk
9 19 (0.88%) Cypress.io
9 19 (0.88%) Postman
10 12 (0.56%) Burp Suite
11 11 (0.51%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.51%) JMeter
12 10 (0.46%) TeamCity
13 9 (0.42%) Gatling
13 9 (0.42%) MLflow
14 8 (0.37%) Metasploit
14 8 (0.37%) Rational Rhapsody
14 8 (0.37%) REST Assured
14 8 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 711 (32.90%) Social Skills
2 538 (24.90%) Finance
3 513 (23.74%) Analytical Skills
4 207 (9.58%) Aerospace
5 201 (9.30%) Electronics
6 199 (9.21%) Manufacturing
7 174 (8.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 121 (5.60%) Law
9 96 (4.44%) Banking
10 92 (4.26%) Retail
11 87 (4.03%) Organisational Skills
12 85 (3.93%) Public Sector
13 79 (3.66%) Marketing
14 78 (3.61%) Pharmaceutical
15 71 (3.29%) Telecoms
16 66 (3.05%) Automotive
17 55 (2.55%) Legal
18 42 (1.94%) Games
18 42 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
19 38 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 387 (17.91%) Senior
2 259 (11.99%) Systems Engineer
3 249 (11.52%) Analyst
4 178 (8.24%) Lead
5 126 (5.83%) Test Engineer
6 113 (5.23%) Architect
7 103 (4.77%) Data Engineer
8 92 (4.26%) Developer
9 76 (3.52%) Business Analyst
9 76 (3.52%) Consultant
10 72 (3.33%) Software Engineer
11 71 (3.29%) Principal Engineer
12 66 (3.05%) Validation Engineer
13 64 (2.96%) Data Analyst
14 57 (2.64%) Electronics Engineer
15 52 (2.41%) Network Engineer
16 50 (2.31%) Support Engineer
17 49 (2.27%) Embedded Engineer
18 48 (2.22%) Data Scientist
19 42 (1.94%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (3.47%) Terraform
2 53 (2.45%) RESTful
3 52 (2.41%) Kafka
4 50 (2.31%) REST
5 40 (1.85%) Node.js
6 33 (1.53%) JSON
7 31 (1.43%) Playwright
7 31 (1.43%) PySpark
8 29 (1.34%) .NET
8 29 (1.34%) XML
9 27 (1.25%) FastAPI
9 27 (1.25%) LDAP
10 26 (1.20%) CSS
11 25 (1.16%) HTML
12 23 (1.06%) Middleware
13 22 (1.02%) Swagger
14 21 (0.97%) ModSecurity
14 21 (0.97%) React
15 20 (0.93%) XMPP
16 19 (0.88%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 147 (6.80%) Cloud Native
2 120 (5.55%) Onboarding
3 113 (5.23%) Management Information System
4 79 (3.66%) Data Centre
4 79 (3.66%) Product Ownership
5 60 (2.78%) Driving Licence
5 60 (2.78%) Embedded Systems
6 58 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 57 (2.64%) Data Structures
8 54 (2.50%) Distributed Systems
9 50 (2.31%) Algorithms
10 46 (2.13%) Low-Code
11 44 (2.04%) Life Science
12 42 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
13 41 (1.90%) SCADA
14 39 (1.80%) Robotics
15 38 (1.76%) AI Agents
15 38 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
16 34 (1.57%) Video\Live Streaming
17 31 (1.43%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 139 (6.43%) Linux
2 92 (4.26%) Windows
3 35 (1.62%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.16%) Unix
5 19 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.46%) Android
7 9 (0.42%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.32%) FreeRTOS
8 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.23%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.093%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.093%) ThreadX
12 2 (0.093%) VMS
12 2 (0.093%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.046%) AIX
13 1 (0.046%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 547 (25.31%) Problem-Solving
2 477 (22.07%) Continuous Improvement
3 396 (18.32%) Agile
4 369 (17.08%) AI
5 364 (16.84%) Verification and Validation
6 303 (14.02%) CI/CD
7 283 (13.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 269 (12.45%) Test Automation
9 265 (12.26%) Migration
10 239 (11.06%) Analytics
11 228 (10.55%) Mentoring
12 218 (10.09%) Software Engineering
13 208 (9.63%) Decision-Making
14 198 (9.16%) DevOps
15 197 (9.12%) Business Intelligence
16 190 (8.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 187 (8.65%) Data Analysis
18 183 (8.47%) Machine Learning
19 181 (8.38%) Roadmaps
20 173 (8.01%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 448 (20.73%) Python
2 386 (17.86%) SQL
3 89 (4.12%) C++
4 87 (4.03%) Java
5 84 (3.89%) C
6 64 (2.96%) JavaScript
7 58 (2.68%) MATLAB
8 54 (2.50%) Go
9 48 (2.22%) C#
10 33 (1.53%) Bash
11 30 (1.39%) Embedded C
12 28 (1.30%) PowerShell
13 23 (1.06%) Scala
14 21 (0.97%) TypeScript
15 18 (0.83%) Embedded C++
16 17 (0.79%) R
17 13 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 12 (0.56%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.42%) Shell Script
20 8 (0.37%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 461 (21.33%) Degree
2 450 (20.82%) Security Cleared
3 319 (14.76%) SC Cleared
4 115 (5.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 100 (4.63%) DV Cleared
6 92 (4.26%) Master's Degree
7 47 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (1.67%) PhD
9 35 (1.62%) Chartered Engineer
10 34 (1.57%) CISSP
10 34 (1.57%) PMI Certification
11 32 (1.48%) HND
12 29 (1.34%) HNC
13 25 (1.16%) CISM
14 24 (1.11%) ACCA
14 24 (1.11%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.11%) Azure Certification
15 21 (0.97%) CIMA
15 21 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
15 21 (0.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 321 (14.85%) Data Quality
2 279 (12.91%) QA
3 68 (3.15%) Accessibility
4 54 (2.50%) GDPR
5 37 (1.71%) GRC
6 29 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.20%) GxP
8 22 (1.02%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.83%) NIST
10 16 (0.74%) PMO
10 16 (0.74%) SLA
11 15 (0.69%) ISO 26262
12 14 (0.65%) ISO 9001
13 12 (0.56%) GMP
13 12 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 12 (0.56%) SOC 2
14 10 (0.46%) WCAG
15 9 (0.42%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.42%) ISO 19650
16 8 (0.37%) Automotive SPICE
System Software
1 83 (3.84%) Firmware
2 82 (3.79%) Docker
3 48 (2.22%) Active Directory
4 39 (1.80%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.97%) vSphere
7 10 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.14%) KVM
10 2 (0.093%) iptables
10 2 (0.093%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.093%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.046%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 79 (3.66%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.71%) Grafana
3 32 (1.48%) Ansible
4 27 (1.25%) Functional Safety
5 17 (0.79%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.46%) Cilium
8 8 (0.37%) Nessus
8 8 (0.37%) Nmap
8 8 (0.37%) Puppet
9 7 (0.32%) Kibana
9 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
11 5 (0.23%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.23%) SCCM
11 5 (0.23%) WMI
12 4 (0.19%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
12 4 (0.19%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.14%) Argo
Vendors
1 278 (12.86%) Microsoft
2 119 (5.51%) SAP
3 98 (4.53%) Oracle
4 60 (2.78%) Salesforce
5 54 (2.50%) Databricks
6 53 (2.45%) Cisco
7 52 (2.41%) ServiceNow
8 37 (1.71%) EMC
8 37 (1.71%) Google
9 30 (1.39%) CrowdStrike
10 29 (1.34%) VMware
11 26 (1.20%) Palo Alto
12 23 (1.06%) Red Hat
12 23 (1.06%) Tenable
13 17 (0.79%) Sage
14 16 (0.74%) IBM
15 15 (0.69%) McAfee
15 15 (0.69%) Siemens
15 15 (0.69%) Splunk
16 14 (0.65%) Autodesk