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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 198 171
Rank change year-on-year +52 -27 -21
Permanent jobs citing Validation 919 694 1,134
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.49% 1.62% 1.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 1.74% 1.93%
Number of salaries quoted 499 286 700
10th Percentile £35,750 £37,625 £34,750
25th Percentile £45,000 £47,000 £43,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -11.35%
75th Percentile £78,750 £71,250 £73,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.19% +2.73% -12.00%

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 48,545 39,830 58,606
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 78.97% 93.00% 88.20%
Number of salaries quoted 29,808 20,123 46,265
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,875 £29,750
25th Percentile £39,000 £46,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £103,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,001 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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 +74 308 £75,000 +7.14% 198
South East +51 199 £55,000 +4.76% 191
North of England -2 129 £60,000 +26.32% 117
Midlands +12 111 £37,500 -30.23% 123
North West +9 89 £58,000 +21.64% 67
East of England +2 89 £59,000 +7.27% 85
South West +5 70 £62,500 +18.82% 73
West Midlands +13 67 £42,215 -32.46% 83
East Midlands -3 43 £35,000 -32.69% 39
Yorkshire -39 29 £65,000 +42.94% 38
North East -4 11 £45,497 +9.63% 13
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 35 (3.81%) Apache Airflow
2 25 (2.72%) Apache Spark
3 20 (2.18%) Apache
4 14 (1.52%) Confluence
5 13 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (1.31%) Appian
7 10 (1.09%) CMS
7 10 (1.09%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.44%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.22%) Kinematics
9 2 (0.22%) WordPress
10 1 (0.11%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.11%) FileNet
10 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.11%) SAS
10 1 (0.11%) SugarCRM
Applications
1 83 (9.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 51 (5.55%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (1.96%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.76%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 4 (0.44%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.44%) Simulink
5 4 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.22%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
6 2 (0.22%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
6 2 (0.22%) Elementor
6 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.22%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.22%) Weka
7 1 (0.11%) GNU Octave
7 1 (0.11%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.11%) Revit
Business Applications
1 23 (2.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.44%) SAP BPC
3 4 (0.44%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.33%) SAP CX
4 3 (0.33%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.33%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.22%) Primavera
6 1 (0.11%) Endur
6 1 (0.11%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.11%) Magento
6 1 (0.11%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.11%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.11%) SAP Business ByDesign
6 1 (0.11%) SAP FSCM
Cloud Services
1 133 (14.47%) Azure
2 84 (9.14%) Power Platform
3 65 (7.07%) AWS
4 46 (5.01%) SaaS
5 38 (4.13%) Azure DevOps
6 33 (3.59%) GCP
7 23 (2.50%) Amazon S3
8 22 (2.39%) Azure Data Factory
8 22 (2.39%) Power Automate
9 20 (2.18%) Dynamics 365
9 20 (2.18%) Snowflake
10 18 (1.96%) Entra ID
11 17 (1.85%) GitHub
12 16 (1.74%) dbt
13 15 (1.63%) Microsoft 365
14 12 (1.31%) Anthropic Claude
14 12 (1.31%) Azure AI
15 11 (1.20%) Figma
15 11 (1.20%) OpenShift
15 11 (1.20%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (2.39%) CHAP
2 13 (1.41%) WAN
3 12 (1.31%) SD-WAN
4 11 (1.20%) 5G
5 10 (1.09%) Firewall
6 8 (0.87%) Broadband
6 8 (0.87%) DNS
6 8 (0.87%) HTTP
6 8 (0.87%) MQTT
6 8 (0.87%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.76%) LAN
8 6 (0.65%) Modbus
9 5 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (0.54%) VoIP
9 5 (0.54%) WAAS
9 5 (0.54%) Wireless
10 4 (0.44%) NAS
10 4 (0.44%) SMTP
11 3 (0.33%) Network Security
11 3 (0.33%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (8.92%) Power BI
2 40 (4.35%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.37%) Tableau
4 24 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
4 24 (2.61%) Metadata
4 24 (2.61%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
6 13 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 13 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
7 12 (1.31%) Pinecone
7 12 (1.31%) Spark SQL
8 11 (1.20%) Apache Hive
8 11 (1.20%) Data Lake
8 11 (1.20%) Impala
8 11 (1.20%) Oracle Database
8 11 (1.20%) Parquet
8 11 (1.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (1.09%) Amazon Redshift
9 10 (1.09%) Spotfire
10 9 (0.98%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 51 (5.55%) Git
1 51 (5.55%) JIRA
2 38 (4.13%) Rational DOORS
3 18 (1.96%) Postman
4 17 (1.85%) Jenkins
5 15 (1.63%) GitLab
6 14 (1.52%) LabVIEW
6 14 (1.52%) MLflow
7 11 (1.20%) Eclipse
7 11 (1.20%) IBM UrbanCode
8 10 (1.09%) Cucumber
8 10 (1.09%) TestRail
9 9 (0.98%) Selenium
10 8 (0.87%) JMeter
10 8 (0.87%) SoapUI
11 6 (0.65%) LoadRunner
11 6 (0.65%) Subversion
12 5 (0.54%) SpecFlow
13 4 (0.44%) Locust
13 4 (0.44%) TestDirector
General
1 334 (36.34%) Social Skills
2 250 (27.20%) Finance
3 232 (25.24%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (9.14%) Banking
5 51 (5.55%) Financial Institution
6 46 (5.01%) Electronics
6 46 (5.01%) Marketing
7 44 (4.79%) Manufacturing
8 38 (4.13%) Law
9 37 (4.03%) Presentation Skills
10 35 (3.81%) Aerospace
11 31 (3.37%) Legal
12 30 (3.26%) Organisational Skills
13 28 (3.05%) Telecoms
14 27 (2.94%) Retail
15 26 (2.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 24 (2.61%) Public Sector
17 20 (2.18%) Documentation Skills
18 19 (2.07%) Billing
19 17 (1.85%) Avionics
Job Titles
1 163 (17.74%) Analyst
2 138 (15.02%) Senior
3 116 (12.62%) Systems Engineer
4 65 (7.07%) Lead
5 61 (6.64%) Architect
6 57 (6.20%) Business Analyst
7 52 (5.66%) Validation Engineer
8 51 (5.55%) Test Engineer
9 44 (4.79%) Data Analyst
9 44 (4.79%) Integration Engineer
10 35 (3.81%) Junior
10 35 (3.81%) Systems Integration Engineer
11 33 (3.59%) Principal Engineer
11 33 (3.59%) Senior Systems Engineer
12 32 (3.48%) Data Engineer
13 27 (2.94%) Solutions Architect
13 27 (2.94%) Verification Engineer
14 26 (2.83%) Principal Systems Engineer
15 25 (2.72%) Auditor
16 24 (2.61%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (5.33%) REST
2 36 (3.92%) Pandas
3 27 (2.94%) JSON
3 27 (2.94%) Middleware
4 24 (2.61%) pytest
5 23 (2.50%) XML
6 19 (2.07%) PyTorch
6 19 (2.07%) TensorFlow
7 17 (1.85%) NumPy
7 17 (1.85%) OAuth
8 16 (1.74%) JWT
8 16 (1.74%) PySpark
8 16 (1.74%) scikit-learn
8 16 (1.74%) Swagger
8 16 (1.74%) Web Services
9 14 (1.52%) React
10 13 (1.41%) FastAPI
10 13 (1.41%) Hugging Face
10 13 (1.41%) RESTful
11 12 (1.31%) Faiss
Miscellaneous
1 62 (6.75%) Management Information System
2 45 (4.90%) Onboarding
3 33 (3.59%) Data Structures
4 30 (3.26%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
6 24 (2.61%) Low-Code
7 21 (2.29%) Product Ownership
8 20 (2.18%) Life Science
9 18 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.96%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 16 (1.74%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 15 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (1.41%) Blockchain
12 13 (1.41%) Reinsurance
13 12 (1.31%) Algorithms
14 11 (1.20%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (1.09%) Data Centre
15 10 (1.09%) IoT
16 8 (0.87%) CMDB
16 8 (0.87%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 39 (4.24%) Linux
2 37 (4.03%) Windows
3 15 (1.63%) Unix
4 10 (1.09%) Android
5 6 (0.65%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.44%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.33%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.22%) AIX
8 2 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.22%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (24.81%) Agile
2 210 (22.85%) Problem-Solving
3 167 (18.17%) Verification and Validation
4 133 (14.47%) Analytics
5 132 (14.36%) Data Validation
6 123 (13.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 106 (11.53%) Test Automation
8 104 (11.32%) AI
8 104 (11.32%) Business Intelligence
8 104 (11.32%) CI/CD
9 103 (11.21%) Migration
10 102 (11.10%) Systems Engineering
11 100 (10.88%) DevOps
12 93 (10.12%) Mentoring
13 91 (9.90%) Decision-Making
13 91 (9.90%) ETL
14 88 (9.58%) Data Modelling
14 88 (9.58%) Stakeholder Management
15 87 (9.47%) User Acceptance Testing
16 85 (9.25%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 218 (23.72%) SQL
2 186 (20.24%) Python
3 36 (3.92%) Java
4 29 (3.16%) C
5 28 (3.05%) C++
6 27 (2.94%) PowerShell
7 24 (2.61%) JavaScript
8 19 (2.07%) MATLAB
9 17 (1.85%) Bash
9 17 (1.85%) T-SQL
10 13 (1.41%) TypeScript
11 10 (1.09%) C#
11 10 (1.09%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 9 (0.98%) R
13 8 (0.87%) VBA
14 7 (0.76%) Go
14 7 (0.76%) VB
15 5 (0.54%) PHP
16 4 (0.44%) VBScript
17 3 (0.33%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 230 (25.03%) Degree
2 119 (12.95%) Security Cleared
3 113 (12.30%) BPSS Clearance
4 49 (5.33%) Master's Degree
5 46 (5.01%) SC Cleared
6 38 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
7 26 (2.83%) CISA
7 26 (2.83%) CISSP
8 25 (2.72%) CISM
9 23 (2.50%) CGEIT
9 23 (2.50%) SANS
10 22 (2.39%) FFIEC
11 20 (2.18%) DV Cleared
12 18 (1.96%) HNC
13 16 (1.74%) Chartered Engineer
13 16 (1.74%) ISTQB
14 14 (1.52%) PMI Certification
14 14 (1.52%) PMP
15 12 (1.31%) HND
16 8 (0.87%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 130 (14.15%) Data Quality
2 85 (9.25%) QA
3 50 (5.44%) GDPR
4 39 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 30 (3.26%) Accessibility
6 22 (2.39%) COBIT
6 22 (2.39%) NIST
7 17 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (1.85%) SLA
8 16 (1.74%) ISO 20022
9 13 (1.41%) SEPA
10 11 (1.20%) GRC
11 10 (1.09%) Good Clinical Practice
12 9 (0.98%) TARGET2
12 9 (0.98%) WCAG
13 8 (0.87%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 8 (0.87%) GxP
13 8 (0.87%) IFRS
13 8 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 12207
14 6 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 49 (5.33%) Docker
2 17 (1.85%) Firmware
3 14 (1.52%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.54%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.33%) vSphere
7 2 (0.22%) Ceph
7 2 (0.22%) Lustre
7 2 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.11%) iptables
8 1 (0.11%) OpenAM
8 1 (0.11%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.11%) OpenIDM
8 1 (0.11%) pfSense
8 1 (0.11%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (4.68%) Kubernetes
2 32 (3.48%) Terraform
3 16 (1.74%) Ansible
4 14 (1.52%) Grafana
5 11 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.98%) SCCM
7 7 (0.76%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.54%) Argo
8 5 (0.54%) Rancher
8 5 (0.54%) yum
9 2 (0.22%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.22%) Nessus
9 2 (0.22%) PowerCLI
9 2 (0.22%) Puppet
10 1 (0.11%) Control-M
10 1 (0.11%) Kibana
10 1 (0.11%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 122 (13.28%) Microsoft
2 54 (5.88%) SAP
3 47 (5.11%) Oracle
4 28 (3.05%) Salesforce
5 19 (2.07%) Foundry
6 18 (1.96%) Cisco
7 16 (1.74%) IBM
8 14 (1.52%) OpenAI
8 14 (1.52%) ServiceNow
8 14 (1.52%) Software AG
9 13 (1.41%) Adobe
10 12 (1.31%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.31%) Databricks
10 12 (1.31%) Google
10 12 (1.31%) UiPath
11 11 (1.20%) Red Hat
12 8 (0.87%) Intapp
12 8 (0.87%) VMware
13 7 (0.76%) Citrix
13 7 (0.76%) Guidewire