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

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 74 188
Rank change year-on-year -42 +114 -7
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,341 1,533 1,312
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.64% 3.90% 1.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.25% 4.20% 1.72%
Number of salaries quoted 805 411 717
10th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £35,900
25th Percentile £43,750 £46,625 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.88% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -11.41%

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 59,697 36,481 76,151
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 72.91% 92.81% 82.64%
Number of salaries quoted 41,672 19,839 55,609
10th Percentile £30,500 £29,000 £29,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £101,250 £92,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 +59 382 £76,250 +1.67% 276
South East -36 301 £55,000 - 227
North of England +74 273 £55,000 +15.35% 151
North West +72 172 £55,000 +15.35% 84
Midlands -72 162 £40,000 -30.43% 123
East of England -71 107 £60,000 +5.26% 89
West Midlands -7 98 £44,000 -32.31% 72
South West -42 94 £52,500 -4.55% 108
East Midlands -80 62 £30,000 -42.31% 51
Yorkshire -9 61 £50,000 +5.26% 50
North East -9 40 £55,000 -6.38% 19
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 50 (3.73%) Apache Airflow
2 40 (2.98%) Apache Spark
3 39 (2.91%) Apache
4 20 (1.49%) Confluence
5 14 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (1.04%) SharePoint
6 10 (0.75%) Jupyter
7 8 (0.60%) Appian
8 6 (0.45%) CMS
8 6 (0.45%) SAS
9 5 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.37%) Kinematics
10 3 (0.22%) Artix
11 2 (0.15%) IIS
12 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.075%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.075%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 87 (6.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 46 (3.43%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.34%) MS Visio
5 15 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 14 (1.04%) Simulink
7 8 (0.60%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.37%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 5 (0.37%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.30%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.30%) Sketch
10 3 (0.22%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.22%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.22%) Productboard
10 3 (0.22%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.22%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.15%) CATIA
12 1 (0.075%) Revit
12 1 (0.075%) Trello
Business Applications
1 33 (2.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (2.24%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.75%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.67%) SAP MDG
5 7 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.37%) iTrent
6 5 (0.37%) Loan IQ
6 5 (0.37%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.37%) SAP MDG-BP
7 3 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.15%) SAP EWM
8 2 (0.15%) SAP MM
8 2 (0.15%) SAP WM
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.075%) SAP Business ByDesign
9 1 (0.075%) SAP Business One
9 1 (0.075%) SAP EHS
9 1 (0.075%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 172 (12.83%) Azure
2 140 (10.44%) AWS
3 123 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 66 (4.92%) GCP
5 57 (4.25%) SaaS
6 52 (3.88%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
7 38 (2.83%) Serverless
8 36 (2.68%) Amazon S3
9 35 (2.61%) GitHub
10 27 (2.01%) Azure Data Factory
11 25 (1.86%) Dynamics 365
11 25 (1.86%) Snowflake
12 20 (1.49%) Entra ID
12 20 (1.49%) Power Automate
13 17 (1.27%) dbt
14 16 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
15 14 (1.04%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.97%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 13 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 62 (4.62%) Broadband
2 39 (2.91%) Firewall
3 30 (2.24%) DNS
4 23 (1.72%) CHAP
5 21 (1.57%) WAN
6 17 (1.27%) SD-WAN
6 17 (1.27%) Wireless
7 15 (1.12%) 5G
8 14 (1.04%) Network Security
9 13 (0.97%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.89%) VPN
11 11 (0.82%) MQTT
11 11 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
12 9 (0.67%) HTTP
12 9 (0.67%) LAN
12 9 (0.67%) NAS
13 8 (0.60%) Ethernet
14 6 (0.45%) Cisco ISE
14 6 (0.45%) WebEx
15 5 (0.37%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (9.02%) Power BI
2 54 (4.03%) Tableau
3 50 (3.73%) PostgreSQL
4 48 (3.58%) SQL Server
5 40 (2.98%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (2.24%) MongoDB
6 30 (2.24%) Relational Database
7 28 (2.09%) Metadata
8 23 (1.72%) BigQuery
9 22 (1.64%) Data Lake
10 21 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
11 18 (1.34%) Semantic Layer
11 18 (1.34%) Spark SQL
12 17 (1.27%) Oracle Database
13 15 (1.12%) MySQL
14 14 (1.04%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (1.04%) DynamoDB
14 14 (1.04%) Parquet
14 14 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 13 (0.97%) Impala
Development Applications
1 66 (4.92%) Git
2 63 (4.70%) JIRA
3 43 (3.21%) Jenkins
4 33 (2.46%) GitLab
5 32 (2.39%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.64%) Snyk
7 14 (1.04%) LabVIEW
7 14 (1.04%) Postman
7 14 (1.04%) Selenium
8 13 (0.97%) IBM UrbanCode
9 12 (0.89%) MLflow
10 10 (0.75%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.75%) Eclipse
11 9 (0.67%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.67%) JMeter
11 9 (0.67%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.45%) Rational Rhapsody
13 5 (0.37%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.37%) REST Assured
13 5 (0.37%) SonarQube
General
1 392 (29.23%) Social Skills
2 348 (25.95%) Finance
3 300 (22.37%) Analytical Skills
4 102 (7.61%) Aerospace
5 100 (7.46%) Electronics
6 93 (6.94%) Banking
6 93 (6.94%) Manufacturing
7 81 (6.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 49 (3.65%) Law
8 49 (3.65%) Retail
9 46 (3.43%) Legal
10 45 (3.36%) Marketing
11 43 (3.21%) Public Sector
12 39 (2.91%) Pharmaceutical
13 36 (2.68%) Games
14 34 (2.54%) Financial Institution
15 31 (2.31%) Organisational Skills
16 27 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
17 25 (1.86%) Automotive
18 22 (1.64%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 228 (17.00%) Senior
2 217 (16.18%) Analyst
3 140 (10.44%) Systems Engineer
4 95 (7.08%) Test Engineer
5 93 (6.94%) Lead
6 89 (6.64%) Architect
7 86 (6.41%) Validation Engineer
8 74 (5.52%) Business Analyst
9 67 (5.00%) Data Engineer
10 62 (4.62%) Developer
11 60 (4.47%) Data Analyst
12 47 (3.50%) Principal Engineer
13 41 (3.06%) Integration Engineer
14 37 (2.76%) Embedded Engineer
14 37 (2.76%) IT Manager
15 35 (2.61%) Consultant
16 34 (2.54%) Security Architect
17 33 (2.46%) Junior
17 33 (2.46%) Senior Systems Engineer
18 32 (2.39%) Verification Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (2.91%) REST
1 39 (2.91%) RESTful
2 29 (2.16%) PySpark
3 28 (2.09%) Pandas
4 27 (2.01%) JSON
4 27 (2.01%) pytest
5 26 (1.94%) Kafka
6 24 (1.79%) Middleware
7 23 (1.72%) Node.js
8 21 (1.57%) .NET
8 21 (1.57%) XML
9 18 (1.34%) CSS
9 18 (1.34%) Playwright
9 18 (1.34%) Swagger
10 16 (1.19%) OAuth
10 16 (1.19%) Regular Expression
10 16 (1.19%) XMPP
11 15 (1.12%) PyTorch
11 15 (1.12%) TensorFlow
12 14 (1.04%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 73 (5.44%) Management Information System
2 72 (5.37%) Cloud Native
3 66 (4.92%) Onboarding
4 49 (3.65%) Data Structures
5 48 (3.58%) Low-Code
6 33 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.39%) Embedded Systems
8 31 (2.31%) Analytical Mindset
8 31 (2.31%) Driving Licence
8 31 (2.31%) Product Ownership
9 30 (2.24%) Data Centre
9 30 (2.24%) Enterprise Software
9 30 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
10 29 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
10 29 (2.16%) Life Science
11 28 (2.09%) Algorithms
11 28 (2.09%) Video\Live Streaming
12 20 (1.49%) Robotics
13 17 (1.27%) FPGA
14 16 (1.19%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 76 (5.67%) Linux
2 56 (4.18%) Windows
3 24 (1.79%) Unix
4 22 (1.64%) Windows Server
5 16 (1.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.60%) Android
7 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.30%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.22%) AIX
8 3 (0.22%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.22%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.15%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.075%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.075%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 298 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
2 265 (19.76%) Agile
3 247 (18.42%) Continuous Improvement
4 226 (16.85%) AI
5 222 (16.55%) CI/CD
6 197 (14.69%) Test Automation
7 192 (14.32%) Verification and Validation
8 182 (13.57%) Analytics
9 154 (11.48%) Data Validation
10 143 (10.66%) DevOps
11 142 (10.59%) Business Intelligence
11 142 (10.59%) Data Modelling
12 138 (10.29%) Migration
13 137 (10.22%) Decision-Making
14 128 (9.55%) Data Governance
15 127 (9.47%) Software Engineering
16 125 (9.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 121 (9.02%) Machine Learning
17 121 (9.02%) Mentoring
18 118 (8.80%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 315 (23.49%) Python
2 283 (21.10%) SQL
3 57 (4.25%) Java
4 54 (4.03%) C++
5 52 (3.88%) C
6 46 (3.43%) Go
7 33 (2.46%) C#
7 33 (2.46%) JavaScript
8 27 (2.01%) Bash
9 26 (1.94%) MATLAB
9 26 (1.94%) PowerShell
10 19 (1.42%) T-SQL
11 15 (1.12%) Embedded C
12 14 (1.04%) Embedded C++
13 13 (0.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 13 (0.97%) TypeScript
14 10 (0.75%) Scala
15 9 (0.67%) VBA
16 8 (0.60%) ABAP
17 6 (0.45%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 273 (20.36%) Degree
2 154 (11.48%) Security Cleared
3 106 (7.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 72 (5.37%) SC Cleared
5 69 (5.15%) Master's Degree
6 42 (3.13%) DV Cleared
7 38 (2.83%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (2.76%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.46%) CISA
9 33 (2.46%) CISSP
10 32 (2.39%) SANS
11 30 (2.24%) CISM
12 24 (1.79%) HNC
13 23 (1.72%) CGEIT
13 23 (1.72%) FFIEC
14 21 (1.57%) HND
15 16 (1.19%) PMI Certification
16 13 (0.97%) ACCA
16 13 (0.97%) CIMA
16 13 (0.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (16.41%) Data Quality
2 130 (9.69%) QA
3 57 (4.25%) GDPR
4 40 (2.98%) Accessibility
4 40 (2.98%) GRC
5 27 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.86%) NIST
8 23 (1.72%) COBIT
9 19 (1.42%) IFRS
10 16 (1.19%) IEC 61508
11 15 (1.12%) PMO
11 15 (1.12%) SLA
12 12 (0.89%) GAAP
12 12 (0.89%) ISO 9001
13 11 (0.82%) GMP
14 10 (0.75%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.67%) GxP
15 9 (0.67%) ISO 26262
15 9 (0.67%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (4.62%) Docker
2 41 (3.06%) Firmware
3 35 (2.61%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.64%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (1.27%) vSphere
6 15 (1.12%) Embedded Firmware
7 7 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.30%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.075%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.075%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.075%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.075%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 64 (4.77%) Kubernetes
2 60 (4.47%) Terraform
3 26 (1.94%) Grafana
4 19 (1.42%) Functional Safety
5 16 (1.19%) Prometheus
6 15 (1.12%) Ansible
7 11 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 10 (0.75%) SCCM
9 9 (0.67%) Cilium
10 6 (0.45%) Kibana
10 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.22%) Argo
11 3 (0.22%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.22%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.22%) Puppet
11 3 (0.22%) Rancher
11 3 (0.22%) yum
12 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 1 (0.075%) MOM
Vendors
1 178 (13.27%) Microsoft
2 82 (6.11%) Oracle
3 77 (5.74%) SAP
4 46 (3.43%) Salesforce
5 34 (2.54%) Databricks
6 30 (2.24%) Red Hat
7 29 (2.16%) ServiceNow
8 28 (2.09%) CrowdStrike
9 23 (1.72%) VMware
10 22 (1.64%) Adobe
10 22 (1.64%) Palo Alto
10 22 (1.64%) Tenable
11 18 (1.34%) Cisco
12 17 (1.27%) Google
13 14 (1.04%) Citrix
14 12 (0.89%) Foundry
14 12 (0.89%) McAfee
15 11 (0.82%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.67%) IBM
16 9 (0.67%) Splunk