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

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 74 190
Rank change year-on-year -52 +116 -8
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,229 1,503 1,299
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.51% 3.84% 1.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.02% 4.13% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 722 401 720
10th Percentile £33,025 £40,000 £35,975
25th Percentile £43,750 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £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 60,747 36,431 71,585
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 74.63% 93.15% 85.51%
Number of salaries quoted 38,643 20,635 53,886
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,580 £29,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £59,773 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -0.38% +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 7 May 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 May 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 +62 363 £77,500 +10.71% 308
South East -42 289 £55,000 +7.84% 235
North of England +33 219 £55,000 +15.35% 137
Midlands -83 151 £40,000 -27.27% 97
North West +36 136 £58,000 +21.64% 77
West Midlands -9 97 £44,000 -32.31% 57
East of England -83 97 £60,000 +5.26% 102
South West -53 90 £52,500 -3.67% 101
Yorkshire -26 52 £57,000 +20.00% 47
East Midlands -96 52 £30,000 -41.18% 40
North East 0 31 £52,500 -7.49% 15
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 46 (3.74%) Apache Airflow
2 28 (2.28%) Apache Spark
3 26 (2.12%) Apache
4 20 (1.63%) Confluence
5 16 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.98%) Appian
7 10 (0.81%) CMS
8 7 (0.57%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.49%) Kinematics
10 3 (0.24%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.16%) Artix
11 2 (0.16%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.16%) IIS
11 2 (0.16%) SAS
12 1 (0.081%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 1 (0.081%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.081%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.081%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 86 (7.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (4.39%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.38%) MS Visio
4 13 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
6 7 (0.57%) Simulink
7 6 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 4 (0.33%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.24%) AutoCAD
10 3 (0.24%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
11 2 (0.16%) Adobe XD
11 2 (0.16%) Autodesk Inventor
11 2 (0.16%) CATIA
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.16%) Sketch
12 1 (0.081%) Productboard
12 1 (0.081%) PTC Creo
12 1 (0.081%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 27 (2.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (1.63%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.81%) SAP ERP
4 6 (0.49%) Loan IQ
4 6 (0.49%) SAP MDG
5 4 (0.33%) SAP MDG-BP
6 3 (0.24%) iTrent
6 3 (0.24%) Oracle Applications
6 3 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.16%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.081%) Magento
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle Financials
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.081%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.081%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 1 (0.081%) SAP EHS
8 1 (0.081%) SAP FSCM
8 1 (0.081%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 159 (12.94%) Azure
2 110 (8.95%) Power Platform
3 106 (8.62%) AWS
4 53 (4.31%) SaaS
5 51 (4.15%) GCP
6 44 (3.58%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (2.60%) Serverless
8 30 (2.44%) Azure Data Factory
9 29 (2.36%) Dynamics 365
9 29 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
10 27 (2.20%) Amazon S3
11 26 (2.12%) Snowflake
12 25 (2.03%) Power Automate
13 23 (1.87%) GitHub
14 22 (1.79%) Entra ID
15 19 (1.55%) dbt
16 15 (1.22%) Anthropic Claude
17 13 (1.06%) OpenShift
18 12 (0.98%) Azure AI
19 11 (0.90%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 39 (3.17%) Broadband
2 29 (2.36%) CHAP
2 29 (2.36%) Firewall
3 24 (1.95%) DNS
4 19 (1.55%) WAN
5 17 (1.38%) SD-WAN
6 14 (1.14%) Wireless
7 13 (1.06%) TCP/IP
8 12 (0.98%) 5G
8 12 (0.98%) HTTP
9 9 (0.73%) LAN
9 9 (0.73%) NAS
10 8 (0.65%) Modbus
10 8 (0.65%) MQTT
10 8 (0.65%) VPN
11 7 (0.57%) Ethernet
11 7 (0.57%) Network Security
11 7 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
12 6 (0.49%) Cisco ISE
12 6 (0.49%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (8.79%) Power BI
2 48 (3.91%) SQL Server
3 45 (3.66%) Tableau
4 40 (3.25%) PostgreSQL
5 33 (2.69%) Metadata
6 30 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (2.44%) Relational Database
7 20 (1.63%) Data Lake
7 20 (1.63%) MongoDB
8 17 (1.38%) Spark SQL
9 16 (1.30%) Azure SQL Database
9 16 (1.30%) Oracle Reports
10 15 (1.22%) Oracle Database
11 14 (1.14%) BigQuery
11 14 (1.14%) MySQL
11 14 (1.14%) Parquet
12 13 (1.06%) Apache Hive
12 13 (1.06%) Impala
12 13 (1.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 12 (0.98%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 61 (4.96%) Git
2 57 (4.64%) JIRA
3 35 (2.85%) Rational DOORS
4 26 (2.12%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.63%) GitLab
6 17 (1.38%) Postman
6 17 (1.38%) Snyk
7 15 (1.22%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.22%) MLflow
7 15 (1.22%) Selenium
8 13 (1.06%) IBM UrbanCode
9 11 (0.90%) Cucumber
9 11 (0.90%) JMeter
10 10 (0.81%) Eclipse
11 8 (0.65%) TestRail
12 7 (0.57%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.49%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.41%) SonarQube
14 5 (0.41%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.41%) Subversion
General
1 377 (30.68%) Social Skills
2 312 (25.39%) Finance
3 274 (22.29%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (7.40%) Manufacturing
5 88 (7.16%) Aerospace
6 87 (7.08%) Electronics
7 86 (7.00%) Banking
8 64 (5.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (3.50%) Legal
10 42 (3.42%) Law
10 42 (3.42%) Marketing
11 41 (3.34%) Financial Institution
11 41 (3.34%) Retail
12 35 (2.85%) Pharmaceutical
13 33 (2.69%) Public Sector
14 31 (2.52%) Games
15 28 (2.28%) Organisational Skills
16 27 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
17 23 (1.87%) Automotive
18 22 (1.79%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 208 (16.92%) Analyst
2 206 (16.76%) Senior
3 145 (11.80%) Systems Engineer
4 91 (7.40%) Test Engineer
5 85 (6.92%) Lead
6 80 (6.51%) Validation Engineer
7 79 (6.43%) Architect
8 73 (5.94%) Business Analyst
9 57 (4.64%) Data Analyst
10 50 (4.07%) Data Engineer
11 46 (3.74%) Integration Engineer
12 41 (3.34%) Principal Engineer
13 39 (3.17%) Developer
14 38 (3.09%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 37 (3.01%) Junior
16 36 (2.93%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 36 (2.93%) Verification Engineer
17 33 (2.69%) Software Validation Engineer
18 32 (2.60%) Auditor
19 31 (2.52%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.82%) REST
2 34 (2.77%) Pandas
3 29 (2.36%) JSON
4 28 (2.28%) RESTful
5 27 (2.20%) Middleware
5 27 (2.20%) pytest
6 22 (1.79%) PySpark
7 21 (1.71%) XML
8 20 (1.63%) OAuth
9 19 (1.55%) Swagger
10 18 (1.46%) JWT
11 17 (1.38%) Kafka
11 17 (1.38%) NumPy
11 17 (1.38%) Playwright
11 17 (1.38%) PyTorch
11 17 (1.38%) TensorFlow
12 16 (1.30%) .NET
13 15 (1.22%) CSS
14 14 (1.14%) OpenAPI
14 14 (1.14%) React
Miscellaneous
1 77 (6.27%) Management Information System
2 53 (4.31%) Onboarding
3 44 (3.58%) Low-Code
4 42 (3.42%) Data Structures
5 36 (2.93%) Self-Motivation
6 33 (2.69%) Legacy Systems
7 32 (2.60%) Cloud Native
8 29 (2.36%) Analytical Mindset
9 28 (2.28%) Life Science
9 28 (2.28%) Product Ownership
10 24 (1.95%) Data Centre
11 21 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
12 20 (1.63%) Embedded Systems
13 18 (1.46%) Algorithms
13 18 (1.46%) Video\Live Streaming
14 16 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
14 16 (1.30%) Robotics
15 15 (1.22%) Blockchain
15 15 (1.22%) Driving Licence
15 15 (1.22%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 68 (5.53%) Linux
2 54 (4.39%) Windows
3 20 (1.63%) Unix
4 19 (1.55%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.90%) Android
7 5 (0.41%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.33%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.33%) Mac OS X
9 3 (0.24%) AIX
9 3 (0.24%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.24%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.16%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.081%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.081%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
2 239 (19.45%) Agile
3 217 (17.66%) Continuous Improvement
4 204 (16.60%) Verification and Validation
5 180 (14.65%) Analytics
6 174 (14.16%) AI
7 170 (13.83%) CI/CD
7 170 (13.83%) Test Automation
8 154 (12.53%) Data Validation
9 130 (10.58%) Business Intelligence
10 129 (10.50%) Data Modelling
11 128 (10.41%) Decision-Making
12 124 (10.09%) Migration
13 123 (10.01%) Data Governance
14 116 (9.44%) Systems Engineering
15 113 (9.19%) DevOps
16 111 (9.03%) Software Engineering
17 110 (8.95%) User Acceptance Testing
18 109 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 107 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 259 (21.07%) Python
2 257 (20.91%) SQL
3 44 (3.58%) C++
4 42 (3.42%) Java
5 35 (2.85%) C
6 32 (2.60%) Go
7 28 (2.28%) PowerShell
8 27 (2.20%) JavaScript
9 24 (1.95%) Bash
10 21 (1.71%) MATLAB
11 19 (1.55%) C#
12 18 (1.46%) T-SQL
13 13 (1.06%) TypeScript
14 12 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 9 (0.73%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.73%) VBA
16 7 (0.57%) VB
17 6 (0.49%) Embedded C++
17 6 (0.49%) PHP
17 6 (0.49%) R
Qualifications
1 270 (21.97%) Degree
2 141 (11.47%) Security Cleared
3 117 (9.52%) BPSS Clearance
4 63 (5.13%) Master's Degree
5 52 (4.23%) SC Cleared
6 39 (3.17%) CISA
6 39 (3.17%) CISSP
7 36 (2.93%) CISM
7 36 (2.93%) DV Cleared
8 35 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
9 34 (2.77%) SANS
10 33 (2.69%) Chartered Engineer
11 29 (2.36%) CGEIT
11 29 (2.36%) FFIEC
12 25 (2.03%) HNC
13 21 (1.71%) HND
14 15 (1.22%) PMI Certification
15 13 (1.06%) ISTQB
16 12 (0.98%) PMP
17 8 (0.65%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 186 (15.13%) Data Quality
2 120 (9.76%) QA
3 63 (5.13%) GDPR
4 38 (3.09%) Accessibility
5 36 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 32 (2.60%) GRC
7 31 (2.52%) NIST
8 29 (2.36%) COBIT
9 21 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 20 (1.63%) IFRS
11 15 (1.22%) SLA
12 13 (1.06%) GAAP
12 13 (1.06%) IEC 61508
13 11 (0.90%) GMP
13 11 (0.90%) PMO
14 10 (0.81%) Good Clinical Practice
15 9 (0.73%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.73%) WCAG
16 8 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 12207
17 7 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 51 (4.15%) Docker
2 31 (2.52%) Active Directory
3 26 (2.12%) Firmware
4 18 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (1.14%) vSphere
6 8 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
7 5 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
7 5 (0.41%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.16%) Terminal Services
8 2 (0.16%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.081%) iptables
9 1 (0.081%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.081%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.081%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.081%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 56 (4.56%) Kubernetes
2 44 (3.58%) Terraform
3 28 (2.28%) Grafana
4 17 (1.38%) Ansible
4 17 (1.38%) Prometheus
5 15 (1.22%) Functional Safety
6 14 (1.14%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 11 (0.90%) SCCM
8 8 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.33%) Argo
9 4 (0.33%) Cilium
9 4 (0.33%) Puppet
9 4 (0.33%) Rancher
9 4 (0.33%) yum
10 3 (0.24%) HP Fortify
10 3 (0.24%) Kibana
11 2 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.16%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 2 (0.16%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.081%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 164 (13.34%) Microsoft
2 68 (5.53%) Oracle
3 55 (4.48%) SAP
4 39 (3.17%) Salesforce
5 25 (2.03%) Databricks
5 25 (2.03%) Red Hat
6 21 (1.71%) VMware
7 20 (1.63%) CrowdStrike
8 18 (1.46%) Cisco
8 18 (1.46%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.38%) Palo Alto
9 17 (1.38%) Tenable
10 16 (1.30%) Adobe
10 16 (1.30%) Google
11 14 (1.14%) Citrix
11 14 (1.14%) Foundry
12 13 (1.06%) IBM
12 13 (1.06%) OpenAI
13 12 (0.98%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (0.98%) UiPath