Validation Job Trends in the South East

Validation
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Validation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 44 143
Rank change year-on-year -42 +99 +2
Permanent jobs citing Validation 330 433 317
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 2.12% 5.09% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.94% 5.74% 2.26%
Number of salaries quoted 194 96 168
10th Percentile £35,375 £33,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £39,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.80% -6.96%
75th Percentile £68,750 £66,563 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,125
England median annual salary £55,000 £56,252 £55,000
% change year-on-year -2.23% +2.28% -12.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

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 South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,225 7,541 14,034
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.99% 88.71% 81.75%
Number of salaries quoted 7,979 3,942 9,799
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Validation job vacancy trend in the South East

Validation
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Validation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Validation

Validation
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Validation in the South East over the 6 months to 10 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the South East

Validation
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the South East region over the 6 months to 10 July 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
Thames Valley -50 121 £64,750 +1.57% 61
Hampshire -9 78 £60,000 +30.43% 61
Berkshire +23 76 £67,500 -3.35% 32
Surrey +11 50 £50,000 -16.67% 16
Kent +1 43 £47,500 +21.79% 9
Oxfordshire -28 35 £56,000 +1.82% 12
West Sussex -13 24 £56,465 +10.72% 8
Buckinghamshire -76 10 £50,000 -16.67% 20
Middlesex +44 5 - - 2
East Sussex -11 5 £37,500 - 4
Isle of Wight -12 3 £66,300 +20.55% 1
Validation
England

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 8 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.21%) Confluence
3 3 (0.91%) Artix
3 3 (0.91%) SAS
4 2 (0.61%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.30%) Apache
5 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.30%) CMS
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 19 (5.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (3.94%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.82%) Simulink
4 2 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.21%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (1.21%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.30%) Cognos Business Intelligence
3 1 (0.30%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 25 (7.58%) Power Platform
2 19 (5.76%) Azure
3 18 (5.45%) SaaS
4 14 (4.24%) AWS
5 9 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (2.42%) Entra ID
7 4 (1.21%) OCI
8 3 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (0.91%) GCP
8 3 (0.91%) GitHub
8 3 (0.91%) Smartsheet
9 2 (0.61%) AWS CodePipeline
9 2 (0.61%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.30%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.30%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (0.30%) Collibra
10 1 (0.30%) Copilot Studio
10 1 (0.30%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (0.30%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 27 (8.18%) DNS
1 27 (8.18%) Firewall
2 8 (2.42%) NAS
2 8 (2.42%) TCP/IP
2 8 (2.42%) VPN
3 7 (2.12%) HTTP
4 5 (1.52%) Broadband
5 4 (1.21%) NetScaler
5 4 (1.21%) SAN
5 4 (1.21%) Wireless
5 4 (1.21%) Wireshark
6 3 (0.91%) Remote Desktop
6 3 (0.91%) RS-232
7 2 (0.61%) Modbus
7 2 (0.61%) MQTT
7 2 (0.61%) Network Security
8 1 (0.30%) NFC
8 1 (0.30%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.30%) Software-Defined Radio
8 1 (0.30%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (7.58%) Power BI
2 13 (3.94%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (3.94%) SQL Server
3 10 (3.03%) MySQL
4 8 (2.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 4 (1.21%) MongoDB
6 3 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.61%) Data Mining
7 2 (0.61%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.61%) Tableau
8 1 (0.30%) Apache Hive
8 1 (0.30%) Impala
8 1 (0.30%) Metadata
8 1 (0.30%) Parquet
8 1 (0.30%) Power Query
8 1 (0.30%) PowerPivot
8 1 (0.30%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 22 (6.67%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (3.94%) Git
3 11 (3.33%) LabVIEW
4 9 (2.73%) JIRA
5 4 (1.21%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.91%) Polyspace
6 3 (0.91%) Rational Rhapsody
6 3 (0.91%) VectorCAST
7 1 (0.30%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.30%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.30%) GitLab
7 1 (0.30%) IBM UrbanCode
7 1 (0.30%) PHPUnit
7 1 (0.30%) Ranorex
7 1 (0.30%) Selenium
7 1 (0.30%) Subversion
7 1 (0.30%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 86 (26.06%) Social Skills
2 75 (22.73%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (22.12%) Finance
4 72 (21.82%) Aerospace
5 47 (14.24%) Electronics
6 14 (4.24%) Automotive
6 14 (4.24%) Aviation
7 13 (3.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 13 (3.94%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.73%) Marketing
8 9 (2.73%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.42%) Legal
9 8 (2.42%) Military
10 7 (2.12%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.82%) Billing
11 6 (1.82%) Italian Language
11 6 (1.82%) Japanese Language
11 6 (1.82%) Law
12 4 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 78 (23.64%) Systems Engineer
2 51 (15.45%) Analyst
2 51 (15.45%) Senior
3 45 (13.64%) Test Engineer
4 36 (10.91%) Validation Engineer
5 29 (8.79%) Lead
6 27 (8.18%) Principal Engineer
7 22 (6.67%) Principal Systems Engineer
8 20 (6.06%) Architect
9 18 (5.45%) Test and Validation Engineer
10 17 (5.15%) Senior Systems Engineer
11 16 (4.85%) Applications Architect
12 15 (4.55%) Software Validation Engineer
12 15 (4.55%) Support Engineer
12 15 (4.55%) Technical Engineer
12 15 (4.55%) Technical Support
12 15 (4.55%) Technical Support Engineer
12 15 (4.55%) Verification Engineer
13 14 (4.24%) Data Analyst
13 14 (4.24%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.76%) Regular Expression
1 19 (5.76%) XMPP
2 15 (4.55%) LDAP
3 14 (4.24%) XML
4 11 (3.33%) JSON
5 8 (2.42%) .NET
6 4 (1.21%) OLE
6 4 (1.21%) Qt
6 4 (1.21%) REST
7 3 (0.91%) JSON Schema
7 3 (0.91%) Middleware
7 3 (0.91%) pytest
8 2 (0.61%) QML
9 1 (0.30%) 802.1X
9 1 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.30%) FastAPI
9 1 (0.30%) OpenTelemetry
9 1 (0.30%) Playwright
9 1 (0.30%) PySpark
9 1 (0.30%) Yocto
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.36%) Onboarding
2 20 (6.06%) Data Structures
3 18 (5.45%) Algorithms
4 14 (4.24%) Driving Licence
4 14 (4.24%) Embedded Systems
5 12 (3.64%) Analytical Mindset
5 12 (3.64%) FPGA
6 11 (3.33%) Low-Code
6 11 (3.33%) VHDL
7 10 (3.03%) Smart Energy
8 9 (2.73%) Cyber Defence
8 9 (2.73%) PCIe
8 9 (2.73%) PKI
8 9 (2.73%) Product Ownership
9 7 (2.12%) Cyber Threat
9 7 (2.12%) Fibre Optics
9 7 (2.12%) Hackathon
9 7 (2.12%) Life Science
9 7 (2.12%) Security Posture
9 7 (2.12%) Verilog
Operating Systems
1 36 (10.91%) Linux
2 32 (9.70%) Windows
3 19 (5.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 19 (5.76%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.61%) Robot Operating System
5 1 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.30%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (30.30%) Verification and Validation
2 83 (25.15%) Problem-Solving
3 48 (14.55%) Continuous Improvement
4 40 (12.12%) Systems Engineering
5 39 (11.82%) Software Engineering
6 36 (10.91%) Technical Leadership
7 33 (10.00%) Agile
8 31 (9.39%) Data Validation
8 31 (9.39%) Test Automation
9 30 (9.09%) AI
10 26 (7.88%) Change Management
10 26 (7.88%) CRM
11 25 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
12 24 (7.27%) Collaborative Working
12 24 (7.27%) Computer Science
13 23 (6.97%) Mentoring
13 23 (6.97%) SIEM
14 22 (6.67%) Data Management
14 22 (6.67%) Platform Engineering
15 21 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 58 (17.58%) Python
2 33 (10.00%) SQL
3 28 (8.48%) C
4 26 (7.88%) C++
5 16 (4.85%) MATLAB
6 12 (3.64%) C#
7 9 (2.73%) Embedded C
7 9 (2.73%) Embedded C++
8 8 (2.42%) PowerShell
8 8 (2.42%) T-SQL
9 7 (2.12%) Search Processing Language
10 4 (1.21%) Bash
10 4 (1.21%) Go
10 4 (1.21%) JavaScript
10 4 (1.21%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.91%) Java
11 3 (0.91%) Pascal
11 3 (0.91%) SAS Macro
12 2 (0.61%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.30%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 85 (25.76%) Degree
2 56 (16.97%) Security Cleared
3 51 (15.45%) BPSS Clearance
4 37 (11.21%) DV Cleared
5 29 (8.79%) Chartered Engineer
6 24 (7.27%) Master's Degree
7 20 (6.06%) SC Cleared
8 11 (3.33%) HNC
8 11 (3.33%) HND
9 9 (2.73%) CREST Certified
10 8 (2.42%) OSCP
10 8 (2.42%) SANS
11 7 (2.12%) GCED
11 7 (2.12%) GCIA
11 7 (2.12%) GCIH
11 7 (2.12%) GIAC
11 7 (2.12%) PhD
12 5 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.61%) ISTQB
13 2 (0.61%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (7.88%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.24%) QA
3 12 (3.64%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 10 (3.03%) Accessibility
5 9 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (2.42%) GDPR
7 7 (2.12%) ISO 26262
8 6 (1.82%) IEC 61508
9 5 (1.52%) Def Stans
10 4 (1.21%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 4 (1.21%) GxP
10 4 (1.21%) ISO 9001
11 3 (0.91%) CDISC
11 3 (0.91%) DO-178B
11 3 (0.91%) HAZOP
11 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 12207
11 3 (0.91%) PMO
12 2 (0.61%) GRC
12 2 (0.61%) NIST
13 1 (0.30%) ITGC
System Software
1 32 (9.70%) Active Directory
2 23 (6.97%) Firmware
3 19 (5.76%) vSphere
4 9 (2.73%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (1.21%) Docker
5 4 (1.21%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 8 (2.42%) Functional Safety
2 7 (2.12%) Kibana
3 2 (0.61%) BMC PATROL
3 2 (0.61%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.30%) Ansible
4 1 (0.30%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (0.30%) Grafana
4 1 (0.30%) MOM
4 1 (0.30%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.30%) Terraform
Vendors
1 42 (12.73%) Microsoft
2 20 (6.06%) Red Hat
3 19 (5.76%) VMware
4 15 (4.55%) McAfee
5 12 (3.64%) Oracle
6 11 (3.33%) Salesforce
7 8 (2.42%) Citrix
8 7 (2.12%) CrowdStrike
8 7 (2.12%) Splunk
9 6 (1.82%) Carbon Black
9 6 (1.82%) Foundry
9 6 (1.82%) SAP
10 4 (1.21%) NetApp
10 4 (1.21%) QNAP
10 4 (1.21%) Synology
10 4 (1.21%) Veeam
10 4 (1.21%) Xilinx
11 3 (0.91%) Motorola
11 3 (0.91%) ServiceNow
12 1 (0.30%) JD Edwards