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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 82 195
Rank change year-on-year -35 +113 -12
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,402 1,517 1,293
As % of all permanent jobs in England 1.66% 3.77% 1.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.26% 4.09% 1.69%
Number of salaries quoted 872 426 706
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,875
25th Percentile £43,000 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £72,500 £72,483
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 62,143 37,121 76,581
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.57% 92.27% 82.24%
Number of salaries quoted 43,798 20,470 55,428
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,822 £29,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £93,750
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 26 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 26 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 +71 396 £76,250 - 306
South East -43 316 £55,000 - 248
North of England +93 286 £55,000 +15.35% 123
North West +77 182 £55,000 +15.35% 59
Midlands -67 164 £41,250 -25.00% 108
East of England -76 109 £60,000 +5.26% 71
South West -42 107 £53,000 -3.64% 90
West Midlands 0 96 £44,000 -29.60% 54
East Midlands -78 66 £30,000 -36.84% 54
Yorkshire -2 61 £44,000 +4.45% 38
North East -7 43 £55,000 +15.79% 27
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 51 (3.64%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (3.42%) Apache Spark
3 46 (3.28%) Apache
4 22 (1.57%) Confluence
5 19 (1.36%) SharePoint
6 14 (1.00%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.86%) Jupyter
8 10 (0.71%) SAS
9 6 (0.43%) Appian
10 5 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.29%) CMS
11 4 (0.29%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.21%) Artix
13 2 (0.14%) IIS
14 1 (0.071%) ArcGIS
14 1 (0.071%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.071%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 82 (5.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (2.85%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.71%) Microsoft Project
4 19 (1.36%) MS Visio
5 16 (1.14%) Simulink
6 15 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.57%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.36%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.29%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.29%) Sketch
10 3 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 3 (0.21%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.21%) Productboard
10 3 (0.21%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.21%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.071%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.071%) PTC Creo
11 1 (0.071%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.071%) Trello
Business Applications
1 38 (2.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 36 (2.57%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.78%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.71%) SAP ERP
5 8 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.36%) iTrent
6 5 (0.36%) Loan IQ
6 5 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
6 5 (0.36%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.29%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.14%) FastStats
8 2 (0.14%) NetSuite
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.14%) SAP Business One
8 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
8 2 (0.14%) SAP MM
8 2 (0.14%) SAP WM
9 1 (0.071%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 182 (12.98%) Azure
2 156 (11.13%) AWS
3 132 (9.42%) Power Platform
4 74 (5.28%) GCP
5 67 (4.78%) SaaS
6 57 (4.07%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
7 39 (2.78%) Serverless
8 37 (2.64%) Amazon S3
9 35 (2.50%) GitHub
10 29 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
11 26 (1.85%) Azure Data Factory
12 22 (1.57%) Snowflake
13 19 (1.36%) Entra ID
14 18 (1.28%) GitHub Actions
14 18 (1.28%) Power Automate
15 16 (1.14%) Amazon EMR
15 16 (1.14%) dbt
16 15 (1.07%) Amazon EC2
17 14 (1.00%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 67 (4.78%) Broadband
2 42 (3.00%) Firewall
3 34 (2.43%) DNS
4 19 (1.36%) CHAP
4 19 (1.36%) WAN
5 17 (1.21%) Wireless
6 16 (1.14%) Network Security
6 16 (1.14%) TCP/IP
7 15 (1.07%) SD-WAN
8 14 (1.00%) VPN
9 12 (0.86%) 5G
9 12 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
10 11 (0.78%) Ethernet
10 11 (0.78%) HTTP
10 11 (0.78%) MQTT
11 10 (0.71%) LAN
12 9 (0.64%) NAS
13 7 (0.50%) WebEx
14 6 (0.43%) Cisco ISE
14 6 (0.43%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (9.27%) Power BI
2 55 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (3.92%) Tableau
3 53 (3.78%) SQL Server
4 47 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
5 33 (2.35%) MongoDB
6 32 (2.28%) Metadata
7 31 (2.21%) Relational Database
8 26 (1.85%) BigQuery
9 24 (1.71%) Data Lake
10 23 (1.64%) Azure SQL Database
11 20 (1.43%) Semantic Layer
12 19 (1.36%) Spark SQL
13 18 (1.28%) Amazon Athena
14 17 (1.21%) DynamoDB
14 17 (1.21%) Oracle Database
15 16 (1.14%) MySQL
15 16 (1.14%) Parquet
16 14 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 13 (0.93%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 75 (5.35%) JIRA
2 67 (4.78%) Git
3 45 (3.21%) Jenkins
4 35 (2.50%) GitLab
5 30 (2.14%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.57%) Snyk
7 15 (1.07%) Selenium
8 14 (1.00%) LabVIEW
8 14 (1.00%) Postman
9 13 (0.93%) IBM UrbanCode
10 10 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.71%) Cypress.io
10 10 (0.71%) Eclipse
10 10 (0.71%) MLflow
10 10 (0.71%) TeamCity
11 9 (0.64%) JMeter
12 7 (0.50%) Rational Rhapsody
13 5 (0.36%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.36%) REST Assured
13 5 (0.36%) SonarQube
General
1 426 (30.39%) Social Skills
2 369 (26.32%) Finance
3 327 (23.32%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.56%) Aerospace
5 101 (7.20%) Electronics
6 96 (6.85%) Manufacturing
7 94 (6.70%) Banking
8 84 (5.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 54 (3.85%) Retail
10 52 (3.71%) Law
11 45 (3.21%) Public Sector
12 43 (3.07%) Legal
13 42 (3.00%) Marketing
13 42 (3.00%) Pharmaceutical
14 41 (2.92%) Games
15 38 (2.71%) Organisational Skills
16 33 (2.35%) Automotive
16 33 (2.35%) Financial Institution
17 22 (1.57%) Aviation
17 22 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 241 (17.19%) Senior
2 224 (15.98%) Analyst
3 126 (8.99%) Systems Engineer
4 106 (7.56%) Lead
5 97 (6.92%) Test Engineer
6 92 (6.56%) Architect
7 81 (5.78%) Validation Engineer
8 76 (5.42%) Data Engineer
9 73 (5.21%) Business Analyst
10 64 (4.56%) Data Analyst
10 64 (4.56%) Developer
11 44 (3.14%) Principal Engineer
12 39 (2.78%) Embedded Engineer
12 39 (2.78%) Support Engineer
13 38 (2.71%) IT Manager
14 36 (2.57%) Consultant
15 35 (2.50%) Integration Engineer
15 35 (2.50%) Security Architect
16 33 (2.35%) Project Manager
16 33 (2.35%) Senior Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.07%) RESTful
2 33 (2.35%) PySpark
2 33 (2.35%) REST
3 31 (2.21%) JSON
4 30 (2.14%) Kafka
5 29 (2.07%) Node.js
6 27 (1.93%) XML
7 26 (1.85%) Pandas
8 23 (1.64%) Middleware
9 22 (1.57%) .NET
9 22 (1.57%) pytest
10 19 (1.36%) Playwright
11 18 (1.28%) Regular Expression
11 18 (1.28%) Swagger
11 18 (1.28%) XMPP
12 15 (1.07%) CSS
13 14 (1.00%) HTML
13 14 (1.00%) LDAP
13 14 (1.00%) PyTorch
13 14 (1.00%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 89 (6.35%) Cloud Native
2 72 (5.14%) Onboarding
3 64 (4.56%) Data Structures
4 61 (4.35%) Management Information System
5 49 (3.50%) Low-Code
6 40 (2.85%) Driving Licence
7 39 (2.78%) Algorithms
7 39 (2.78%) Product Ownership
8 38 (2.71%) Embedded Systems
9 34 (2.43%) Distributed Systems
9 34 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
10 33 (2.35%) Analytical Mindset
10 33 (2.35%) Data Centre
10 33 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
11 31 (2.21%) Video\Live Streaming
12 30 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
13 29 (2.07%) Life Science
14 22 (1.57%) Robotics
15 19 (1.36%) PKI
16 18 (1.28%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 91 (6.49%) Linux
2 67 (4.78%) Windows
3 28 (2.00%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.64%) Unix
5 18 (1.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.36%) Android
7 4 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.29%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.29%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.21%) AIX
8 3 (0.21%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.071%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.071%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 315 (22.47%) Problem-Solving
2 285 (20.33%) Agile
3 272 (19.40%) Continuous Improvement
4 242 (17.26%) AI
5 237 (16.90%) CI/CD
6 201 (14.34%) Test Automation
7 190 (13.55%) Analytics
8 178 (12.70%) Verification and Validation
9 163 (11.63%) Data Validation
10 161 (11.48%) Migration
11 155 (11.06%) Business Intelligence
12 151 (10.77%) Data Modelling
12 151 (10.77%) DevOps
13 140 (9.99%) Decision-Making
14 139 (9.91%) Software Engineering
14 139 (9.91%) Stakeholder Management
15 132 (9.42%) Data Governance
16 129 (9.20%) Mentoring
17 125 (8.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 122 (8.70%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 340 (24.25%) Python
2 309 (22.04%) SQL
3 65 (4.64%) C++
4 62 (4.42%) C
5 55 (3.92%) Java
6 49 (3.50%) Go
7 39 (2.78%) C#
8 32 (2.28%) JavaScript
9 29 (2.07%) MATLAB
10 24 (1.71%) Bash
10 24 (1.71%) PowerShell
10 24 (1.71%) T-SQL
11 18 (1.28%) Embedded C
11 18 (1.28%) Embedded C++
12 15 (1.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 14 (1.00%) Scala
14 12 (0.86%) TypeScript
15 9 (0.64%) VBA
16 8 (0.57%) ABAP
17 7 (0.50%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 264 (18.83%) Degree
2 154 (10.98%) Security Cleared
3 100 (7.13%) BPSS Clearance
4 74 (5.28%) Master's Degree
5 72 (5.14%) SC Cleared
6 45 (3.21%) DV Cleared
7 37 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
8 34 (2.43%) Chartered Engineer
9 29 (2.07%) CISA
9 29 (2.07%) CISSP
9 29 (2.07%) SANS
10 26 (1.85%) CISM
11 25 (1.78%) HNC
12 19 (1.36%) CGEIT
12 19 (1.36%) FFIEC
12 19 (1.36%) HND
13 17 (1.21%) ACCA
13 17 (1.21%) CIMA
14 14 (1.00%) PMI Certification
15 12 (0.86%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 245 (17.48%) Data Quality
2 154 (10.98%) QA
3 53 (3.78%) GDPR
4 39 (2.78%) Accessibility
5 36 (2.57%) GRC
6 25 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.64%) NIST
8 21 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 19 (1.36%) COBIT
10 18 (1.28%) IEC 61508
10 18 (1.28%) IFRS
11 16 (1.14%) PMO
12 13 (0.93%) GAAP
12 13 (0.93%) ISO 9001
12 13 (0.93%) SLA
13 12 (0.86%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.78%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.71%) GxP
16 9 (0.64%) GMP
17 8 (0.57%) MISRA
System Software
1 64 (4.56%) Docker
2 41 (2.92%) Firmware
3 37 (2.64%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
5 20 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
6 19 (1.36%) vSphere
7 8 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.36%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.071%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 63 (4.49%) Kubernetes
1 63 (4.49%) Terraform
2 27 (1.93%) Grafana
3 23 (1.64%) Functional Safety
4 15 (1.07%) Prometheus
5 13 (0.93%) Ansible
6 10 (0.71%) Cilium
7 7 (0.50%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.50%) Kibana
8 6 (0.43%) SCCM
9 4 (0.29%) Puppet
10 3 (0.21%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
11 2 (0.14%) Argo
11 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 2 (0.14%) Nessus
11 2 (0.14%) Nmap
11 2 (0.14%) Rancher
11 2 (0.14%) yum
Vendors
1 181 (12.91%) Microsoft
2 87 (6.21%) SAP
3 84 (5.99%) Oracle
4 47 (3.35%) Salesforce
5 38 (2.71%) Databricks
6 33 (2.35%) ServiceNow
7 32 (2.28%) Red Hat
8 29 (2.07%) CrowdStrike
9 26 (1.85%) VMware
10 22 (1.57%) Palo Alto
10 22 (1.57%) Tenable
11 20 (1.43%) Adobe
11 20 (1.43%) Google
12 19 (1.36%) Cisco
13 14 (1.00%) Citrix
13 14 (1.00%) McAfee
14 13 (0.93%) Foundry
15 10 (0.71%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.64%) IBM
17 8 (0.57%) EMC