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

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 162 196
Rank change year-on-year +17 +34 -57
Permanent jobs citing Validation 839 885 784
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.60% 1.81% 1.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.96% 2.01% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 459 327 468
10th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £45,000 £47,519
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £79,375 £71,250 £76,563
90th Percentile £93,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -11.35%

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 42,879 44,101 42,810
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 81.54% 90.44% 90.20%
Number of salaries quoted 25,666 21,767 33,083
10th Percentile £28,571 £35,000 £32,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £43,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 7 January 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 7 January 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 +23 260 £75,000 +20.00% 216
South East +27 210 £49,500 -17.50% 300
North of England -20 123 £55,000 +19.57% 144
Midlands +13 85 £41,000 -19.61% 93
East of England +6 78 £60,000 +9.09% 128
North West -8 77 £54,500 +14.30% 67
South West +24 70 £50,000 -9.09% 122
West Midlands +5 51 £37,500 -28.57% 48
Yorkshire -9 36 £61,250 +63.33% 56
East Midlands +16 34 £42,500 -5.56% 44
North East -2 10 £31,000 -25.30% 22
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 19 (2.26%) Apache Airflow
1 19 (2.26%) Confluence
2 13 (1.55%) Apache Spark
3 9 (1.07%) CMS
3 9 (1.07%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.07%) SugarCRM
4 8 (0.95%) Apache
4 8 (0.95%) Appian
5 5 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.48%) Headless CMS
7 3 (0.36%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.36%) SAS
8 2 (0.24%) Kinematics
8 2 (0.24%) WordPress
9 1 (0.12%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.12%) FileNet
9 1 (0.12%) Luigi
Applications
1 57 (6.79%) Microsoft Office
2 56 (6.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (1.67%) MS Visio
4 13 (1.55%) Simulink
5 7 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.60%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.48%) Fusion 360
8 2 (0.24%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.24%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.24%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.24%) Elementor
8 2 (0.24%) Mathcad
8 2 (0.24%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.24%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.24%) Weka
9 1 (0.12%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.12%) CATIA
9 1 (0.12%) Doxygen
9 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.48%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 4 (0.48%) SAP BPC
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle Cash Management
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle General Ledger
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle Receivables
4 3 (0.36%) SAP CX
4 3 (0.36%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.24%) Aladdin
5 2 (0.24%) Endur
5 2 (0.24%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.24%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.24%) Primavera
5 2 (0.24%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.12%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 121 (14.42%) Azure
2 67 (7.99%) Power Platform
3 60 (7.15%) AWS
4 41 (4.89%) SaaS
5 30 (3.58%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (3.10%) GCP
7 17 (2.03%) Snowflake
8 16 (1.91%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (1.91%) Power Automate
9 15 (1.79%) GitHub
10 14 (1.67%) Azure Data Factory
11 13 (1.55%) dbt
11 13 (1.55%) Microsoft 365
12 12 (1.43%) Amazon S3
13 10 (1.19%) Entra ID
13 10 (1.19%) Serverless
14 9 (1.07%) Azure AI
14 9 (1.07%) Figma
15 8 (0.95%) Anthropic Claude
15 8 (0.95%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.67%) LAN
2 12 (1.43%) CHAP
2 12 (1.43%) DNS
2 12 (1.43%) Firewall
3 9 (1.07%) WAN
4 8 (0.95%) 5G
4 8 (0.95%) HTTP
4 8 (0.95%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.83%) MQTT
5 7 (0.83%) SD-WAN
6 5 (0.60%) Cisco IOS
6 5 (0.60%) Modbus
6 5 (0.60%) SMTP
6 5 (0.60%) WAAS
7 4 (0.48%) DHCP
7 4 (0.48%) Ethernet VPN
7 4 (0.48%) Network Security
7 4 (0.48%) VoIP
8 3 (0.36%) NX-OS
8 3 (0.36%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (7.75%) Power BI
2 26 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (3.10%) SQL Server
2 26 (3.10%) Tableau
3 20 (2.38%) Metadata
3 20 (2.38%) Relational Database
4 18 (2.15%) BigQuery
5 14 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
6 11 (1.31%) Data Lake
7 10 (1.19%) Spotfire
8 9 (1.07%) Big Data
9 8 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (0.95%) Pinecone
10 7 (0.83%) Looker
10 7 (0.83%) NoSQL
10 7 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
11 6 (0.72%) GIS
12 5 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.60%) Data Vault
12 5 (0.60%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 61 (7.27%) JIRA
2 38 (4.53%) Git
2 38 (4.53%) Rational DOORS
3 22 (2.62%) Postman
4 15 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 14 (1.67%) Selenium
6 11 (1.31%) GitLab
6 11 (1.31%) MLflow
7 10 (1.19%) SoapUI
7 10 (1.19%) TestRail
8 9 (1.07%) Cucumber
8 9 (1.07%) JMeter
9 7 (0.83%) LabVIEW
9 7 (0.83%) LoadRunner
10 6 (0.72%) Eclipse
11 5 (0.60%) Charles Proxy
11 5 (0.60%) Fiddler
11 5 (0.60%) TestNG
11 5 (0.60%) Zephyr
12 4 (0.48%) Browser DevTools
General
1 304 (36.23%) Social Skills
2 215 (25.63%) Finance
3 177 (21.10%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (6.67%) Law
5 52 (6.20%) Banking
6 51 (6.08%) Electronics
7 44 (5.24%) Marketing
8 42 (5.01%) Manufacturing
9 40 (4.77%) Documentation Skills
9 40 (4.77%) Presentation Skills
10 36 (4.29%) Financial Institution
11 35 (4.17%) Organisational Skills
12 28 (3.34%) Retail
12 28 (3.34%) Telecoms
13 26 (3.10%) Aerospace
14 25 (2.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 25 (2.98%) Pharmaceutical
14 25 (2.98%) Public Sector
15 20 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
16 17 (2.03%) Legal
Job Titles
1 129 (15.38%) Analyst
2 121 (14.42%) Senior
3 89 (10.61%) Lead
4 85 (10.13%) Systems Engineer
5 47 (5.60%) Architect
6 44 (5.24%) Test Engineer
7 37 (4.41%) Business Analyst
8 36 (4.29%) Data Analyst
9 32 (3.81%) Validation Engineer
10 31 (3.69%) Data Engineer
11 30 (3.58%) Developer
11 30 (3.58%) Junior
11 30 (3.58%) Principal Engineer
12 29 (3.46%) Integration Engineer
13 28 (3.34%) Applications Engineer
14 27 (3.22%) Applications Support
15 23 (2.74%) Solutions Architect
15 23 (2.74%) Support Engineer
15 23 (2.74%) Team Leader
16 22 (2.62%) Applications Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (5.01%) REST
2 27 (3.22%) Middleware
3 23 (2.74%) JSON
3 23 (2.74%) Pandas
4 20 (2.38%) scikit-learn
4 20 (2.38%) XML
5 19 (2.26%) pytest
6 17 (2.03%) TensorFlow
7 16 (1.91%) PyTorch
8 14 (1.67%) NumPy
9 13 (1.55%) FastAPI
10 12 (1.43%) CSS
10 12 (1.43%) HTML
10 12 (1.43%) OAuth
10 12 (1.43%) React
10 12 (1.43%) Web Services
11 11 (1.31%) Flask
11 11 (1.31%) JWT
11 11 (1.31%) Swagger
12 10 (1.19%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 82 (9.77%) Management Information System
2 40 (4.77%) Life Science
3 35 (4.17%) Onboarding
4 29 (3.46%) Operational Technology
5 25 (2.98%) Product Ownership
5 25 (2.98%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (2.15%) Algorithms
7 16 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (1.79%) Data Structures
8 15 (1.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 15 (1.79%) Low-Code
9 12 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (1.43%) SCADA
10 11 (1.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 9 (1.07%) Credit Risk
11 9 (1.07%) Data Centre
12 8 (0.95%) CMDB
12 8 (0.95%) e-Learning
12 8 (0.95%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.89%) Windows
2 33 (3.93%) Linux
3 11 (1.31%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.07%) Android
5 7 (0.83%) Unix
6 5 (0.60%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.36%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.24%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.12%) AIX
9 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.12%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (23.12%) Agile
2 190 (22.65%) Problem-Solving
3 131 (15.61%) Verification and Validation
4 118 (14.06%) Data Validation
5 111 (13.23%) Analytics
6 104 (12.40%) Migration
7 101 (12.04%) Continuous Improvement
8 94 (11.20%) Test Automation
9 83 (9.89%) Systems Engineering
10 82 (9.77%) Decision-Making
10 82 (9.77%) DevOps
10 82 (9.77%) ETL
11 81 (9.65%) Mentoring
12 78 (9.30%) Business Intelligence
13 77 (9.18%) Data Analysis
14 76 (9.06%) Software Engineering
15 74 (8.82%) Roadmaps
16 73 (8.70%) CI/CD
17 72 (8.58%) Data Management
18 67 (7.99%) AI
Programming Languages
1 184 (21.93%) SQL
2 157 (18.71%) Python
3 27 (3.22%) Java
4 26 (3.10%) C
4 26 (3.10%) MATLAB
5 23 (2.74%) C++
5 23 (2.74%) JavaScript
6 18 (2.15%) PowerShell
7 13 (1.55%) Bash
7 13 (1.55%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.07%) R
9 7 (0.83%) C#
9 7 (0.83%) T-SQL
10 6 (0.72%) Bicep
11 5 (0.60%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.48%) PHP
13 3 (0.36%) Embedded C
13 3 (0.36%) GLSL
13 3 (0.36%) Tcl
13 3 (0.36%) VB
Qualifications
1 259 (30.87%) Degree
2 102 (12.16%) Security Cleared
3 94 (11.20%) BPSS Clearance
4 47 (5.60%) SC Cleared
5 43 (5.13%) Master's Degree
6 38 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
7 20 (2.38%) HNC
8 19 (2.26%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (1.91%) ISTQB
10 15 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
11 14 (1.67%) CISA
11 14 (1.67%) CISSP
11 14 (1.67%) DV Cleared
12 13 (1.55%) CGEIT
12 13 (1.55%) CISM
12 13 (1.55%) FFIEC
12 13 (1.55%) SANS
13 12 (1.43%) CCNP
14 11 (1.31%) Chartered Engineer
14 11 (1.31%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (13.35%) Data Quality
2 101 (12.04%) QA
3 35 (4.17%) SLA
4 33 (3.93%) GxP
5 31 (3.69%) GDPR
5 31 (3.69%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (3.10%) Accessibility
7 17 (2.03%) NIST
8 13 (1.55%) COBIT
9 11 (1.31%) ISO 20022
9 11 (1.31%) SEPA
10 10 (1.19%) Good Clinical Practice
10 10 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 10 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 9 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 8 (0.95%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 8 (0.95%) GRC
13 7 (0.83%) TARGET2
13 7 (0.83%) WCAG
14 5 (0.60%) ARP4761
System Software
1 40 (4.77%) Docker
2 26 (3.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (2.15%) Firmware
4 9 (1.07%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.24%) Ceph
5 2 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
5 2 (0.24%) Lustre
5 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 2 (0.24%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 2 (0.24%) vCloud
5 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
5 2 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.24%) vSphere
6 1 (0.12%) iptables
6 1 (0.12%) OpenAM
6 1 (0.12%) OpenDJ
6 1 (0.12%) OpenIDM
6 1 (0.12%) pfSense
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 33 (3.93%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.91%) Terraform
3 14 (1.67%) Ansible
4 10 (1.19%) Grafana
5 9 (1.07%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (0.83%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 6 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.60%) SCCM
9 3 (0.36%) Argo
9 3 (0.36%) Kubeflow
9 3 (0.36%) Rancher
9 3 (0.36%) yum
10 2 (0.24%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.24%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.24%) Nessus
10 2 (0.24%) Rundeck
11 1 (0.12%) Control-M
11 1 (0.12%) Kibana
11 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.12%) Puppet
Vendors
1 104 (12.40%) Microsoft
2 50 (5.96%) SAP
3 31 (3.69%) Oracle
4 30 (3.58%) VMware
5 25 (2.98%) Cisco
6 21 (2.50%) Salesforce
7 15 (1.79%) Foundry
8 12 (1.43%) IBM
8 12 (1.43%) Software AG
9 11 (1.31%) CheckPoint
9 11 (1.31%) F5
10 9 (1.07%) Databricks
10 9 (1.07%) OpenAI
11 8 (0.95%) Adobe
11 8 (0.95%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (0.95%) Intapp
11 8 (0.95%) ServiceNow
11 8 (0.95%) UiPath
12 6 (0.72%) Google
12 6 (0.72%) Guidewire