Validation Job Trends in the North West

Validation
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Validation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 106 156
Rank change year-on-year 0 +50 +41
Permanent jobs citing Validation 77 106 41
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.21% 2.10% 0.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.49% 2.31% 1.04%
Number of salaries quoted 41 36 25
10th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £38,734 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,500 £47,683 £50,734
Median % change year-on-year +14.30% -6.01% -7.76%
75th Percentile £73,000 £57,588 £85,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £62,234 -
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,155 4,593 3,945
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 81.26% 91.15% 87.61%
Number of salaries quoted 2,531 2,248 3,069
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,114 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,250 £68,750
90th Percentile £81,250 £80,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Validation relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Validation job vacancy trend in the North West

Validation
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Validation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Validation

Validation
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Validation in the North West over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the North West

Validation
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the North West region over the 6 months to 13 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
Manchester +14 28 £60,000 +34.83% 27
Cumbria +11 23 £54,500 +40.70%
Lancashire +8 13 £45,497 -4.58% 12
Cheshire -19 8 £57,500 +1.75% 11
Merseyside -12 5 £53,000 +16.48% 5
Validation
England

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 2 (2.60%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (6.49%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (3.90%) Simulink
3 2 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (1.30%) NetSuite
1 1 (1.30%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 5 (6.49%) Power Platform
2 4 (5.19%) Azure
3 3 (3.90%) AWS
4 2 (2.60%) AWS Step Functions
4 2 (2.60%) Dagster
4 2 (2.60%) dbt
4 2 (2.60%) Intacct
4 2 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (2.60%) Prefect
4 2 (2.60%) Workato
5 1 (1.30%) Collibra
5 1 (1.30%) Datadog
5 1 (1.30%) PaaS
5 1 (1.30%) SaaS
5 1 (1.30%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (6.49%) Power BI
2 3 (3.90%) Metadata
2 3 (3.90%) Relational Database
2 3 (3.90%) SQL Server
3 2 (2.60%) Amazon Redshift
3 2 (2.60%) DB2
3 2 (2.60%) NoSQL
4 1 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (1.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (1.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (1.30%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.60%) JIRA
1 2 (2.60%) Rational DOORS
2 1 (1.30%) Cucumber
2 1 (1.30%) JMeter
2 1 (1.30%) Locust
2 1 (1.30%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 19 (24.68%) Social Skills
2 11 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (14.29%) Finance
3 5 (6.49%) Banking
3 5 (6.49%) Electronics
4 4 (5.19%) Avionics
4 4 (5.19%) Billing
4 4 (5.19%) Financial Institution
4 4 (5.19%) Public Sector
5 3 (3.90%) Aerospace
6 2 (2.60%) Automotive
6 2 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (2.60%) Legal
6 2 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.30%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.30%) Local Government
7 1 (1.30%) Marketing
7 1 (1.30%) Military
Job Titles
1 19 (24.68%) Senior
2 13 (16.88%) Systems Engineer
3 12 (15.58%) Analyst
4 8 (10.39%) Principal Engineer
5 7 (9.09%) Architect
5 7 (9.09%) Validation Engineer
6 4 (5.19%) Business Systems Analyst
6 4 (5.19%) Integration Engineer
6 4 (5.19%) Payments Architect
6 4 (5.19%) Principal Systems Engineer
6 4 (5.19%) QC Analyst
6 4 (5.19%) Senior Systems Engineer
6 4 (5.19%) Systems Analyst
6 4 (5.19%) Systems Integration Engineer
7 3 (3.90%) Control Systems Engineer
7 3 (3.90%) Data Engineer
7 3 (3.90%) Incident Responder
7 3 (3.90%) Ontologist
7 3 (3.90%) Research Engineer
7 3 (3.90%) Systems Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.60%) CSS
1 2 (2.60%) HTML
1 2 (2.60%) Middleware
1 2 (2.60%) React
2 1 (1.30%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 4 (5.19%) Analytical Mindset
1 4 (5.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
1 4 (5.19%) SWIFT Messaging Network
1 4 (5.19%) Taxonomies
2 3 (3.90%) CAN bus
2 3 (3.90%) Semantic Web
3 2 (2.60%) Client/Server
3 2 (2.60%) Greenfield Project
3 2 (2.60%) Management Information System
3 2 (2.60%) Onboarding
4 1 (1.30%) Contactless
4 1 (1.30%) Data Structures
4 1 (1.30%) EMV
4 1 (1.30%) IoT
4 1 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.30%) Life Science
4 1 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (35.06%) Systems Engineering
2 23 (29.87%) Verification and Validation
3 21 (27.27%) Mentoring
4 15 (19.48%) Mathematics
4 15 (19.48%) Physics
5 12 (15.58%) Agile
5 12 (15.58%) Problem-Solving
6 8 (10.39%) AI
6 8 (10.39%) Business Analysis
6 8 (10.39%) Continuous Improvement
6 8 (10.39%) Migration
6 8 (10.39%) PRINCE2
6 8 (10.39%) Project Delivery
6 8 (10.39%) Software Engineering
7 7 (9.09%) Coaching
7 7 (9.09%) Fintech
7 7 (9.09%) Technical Leadership
8 6 (7.79%) Analytics
8 6 (7.79%) Data Governance
8 6 (7.79%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 5 (6.49%) Python
1 5 (6.49%) SQL
2 3 (3.90%) MATLAB
3 2 (2.60%) Java
3 2 (2.60%) JavaScript
3 2 (2.60%) TypeScript
4 1 (1.30%) R
4 1 (1.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 30 (38.96%) BPSS Clearance
2 29 (37.66%) Degree
3 7 (9.09%) RIBA
4 4 (5.19%) Chartered Engineer
4 4 (5.19%) Numerate Degree
5 3 (3.90%) HNC
5 3 (3.90%) HND
5 3 (3.90%) PMI Certification
5 3 (3.90%) PMP
6 2 (2.60%) Security Cleared
7 1 (1.30%) City & Guilds
7 1 (1.30%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (12.99%) Data Quality
2 4 (5.19%) GMP
2 4 (5.19%) ISO 20022
2 4 (5.19%) QA
2 4 (5.19%) SEPA
2 4 (5.19%) TARGET2
3 3 (3.90%) Accessibility
4 2 (2.60%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 2 (2.60%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 2 (2.60%) PCI DSS
5 1 (1.30%) FINRA
5 1 (1.30%) PMO
5 1 (1.30%) SLA
5 1 (1.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 3 (3.90%) Docker
2 1 (1.30%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (3.90%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 2 (2.60%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.30%) Grafana
3 1 (1.30%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (6.49%) Microsoft
2 4 (5.19%) Guidewire
3 2 (2.60%) Concur
3 2 (2.60%) IBM
3 2 (2.60%) Oracle
3 2 (2.60%) Sage
4 1 (1.30%) Alteryx
4 1 (1.30%) Databricks
4 1 (1.30%) SAP