Validation Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Validation
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Validation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 108 117
Rank change year-on-year +33 +9 -18
Permanent jobs citing Validation 102 59 132
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 1.91% 2.09% 2.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.62% 2.24% 2.38%
Number of salaries quoted 59 19 85
10th Percentile £28,000 £45,650 £34,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,875 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -5.83% +14.29% +5.00%
75th Percentile £73,750 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £79,500 £78,750
South East median annual salary £55,000 £51,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +7.84% -2.86% +0.48%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,888 2,630 5,556
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 72.73% 93.23% 84.92%
Number of salaries quoted 2,510 1,196 4,068
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,000 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +15.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £73,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £87,500 £80,375
South East median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -9.09%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Validation job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Validation
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Validation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Validation

Validation
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Validation in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 19 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the Thames Valley

Validation
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 19 April 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
Berkshire +34 64 £56,500 -13.08% 39
Oxfordshire -8 24 £78,750 +43.18% 15
Buckinghamshire -16 14 £50,000 -16.67% 4
Validation
South East

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 (1.96%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (1.96%) WordPress
2 1 (0.98%) Apache
2 1 (0.98%) Kinematics
Applications
1 4 (3.92%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.92%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.96%) Adobe After Effects
2 2 (1.96%) Adobe Captivate
2 2 (1.96%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (1.96%) Adobe Illustrator
2 2 (1.96%) Adobe Premiere
2 2 (1.96%) Elementor
2 2 (1.96%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.98%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (6.86%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 8 (7.84%) Azure
1 8 (7.84%) Power Platform
2 6 (5.88%) Dynamics 365
3 5 (4.90%) AWS
4 2 (1.96%) Adobe Creative Cloud
4 2 (1.96%) AWS CodePipeline
4 2 (1.96%) Azure Data Factory
4 2 (1.96%) GCP
4 2 (1.96%) Veeva
5 1 (0.98%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 1 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (0.98%) Azure Service Bus
5 1 (0.98%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 1 (0.98%) Collibra
5 1 (0.98%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (7.84%) DNS
1 8 (7.84%) Firewall
2 7 (6.86%) MQTT
3 6 (5.88%) Modbus
4 2 (1.96%) NAS
4 2 (1.96%) NetScaler
4 2 (1.96%) SAN
4 2 (1.96%) SpaceWire
4 2 (1.96%) TCP/IP
4 2 (1.96%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.98%) Broadband
5 1 (0.98%) Intranet
5 1 (0.98%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.86%) Power BI
2 4 (3.92%) Metadata
3 3 (2.94%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.96%) Oracle Reports
4 2 (1.96%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.98%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.98%) BusinessObjects
5 1 (0.98%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.98%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.98%) MySQL
5 1 (0.98%) Power Query
5 1 (0.98%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.98%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (7.84%) Git
2 3 (2.94%) Polyspace
2 3 (2.94%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (2.94%) VectorCAST
3 2 (1.96%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.98%) Browser DevTools
4 1 (0.98%) JIRA
4 1 (0.98%) JMeter
4 1 (0.98%) LoadRunner
4 1 (0.98%) Subversion
General
1 29 (28.43%) Social Skills
2 14 (13.73%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (8.82%) Manufacturing
4 8 (7.84%) Finance
5 6 (5.88%) Aerospace
5 6 (5.88%) Electronics
5 6 (5.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (4.90%) Automotive
6 5 (4.90%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (4.90%) Pharmaceutical
7 3 (2.94%) Law
8 2 (1.96%) Back Office
8 2 (1.96%) Legal
8 2 (1.96%) Marketing
8 2 (1.96%) Multimedia
8 2 (1.96%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.98%) Banking
9 1 (0.98%) Games
9 1 (0.98%) Military
9 1 (0.98%) Retail
Job Titles
1 16 (15.69%) Validation Engineer
2 15 (14.71%) Verification Engineer
3 14 (13.73%) Analyst
4 12 (11.76%) Senior
5 11 (10.78%) Associate Director
6 9 (8.82%) Systems Engineer
7 8 (7.84%) Applications Architect
7 8 (7.84%) Architect
7 8 (7.84%) Software Validation Engineer
7 8 (7.84%) Software Verification Engineer
8 7 (6.86%) Technical Analyst
8 7 (6.86%) Test Engineer
9 6 (5.88%) Principal Engineer
9 6 (5.88%) Security Architect
9 6 (5.88%) Senior Manager
10 5 (4.90%) CRM Analyst
10 5 (4.90%) Implementation Engineer
10 5 (4.90%) Lead
10 5 (4.90%) Salesforce Analyst
10 5 (4.90%) Test and Validation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (7.84%) Regular Expression
1 8 (7.84%) XMPP
2 6 (5.88%) LDAP
3 4 (3.92%) Middleware
3 4 (3.92%) REST
4 3 (2.94%) OLE
4 3 (2.94%) pytest
4 3 (2.94%) Qt
5 2 (1.96%) Bootstrap
5 2 (1.96%) HTML
5 2 (1.96%) PySpark
5 2 (1.96%) SOAP
6 1 (0.98%) .NET
6 1 (0.98%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 19 (18.63%) Life Science
2 12 (11.76%) Low-Code
3 11 (10.78%) Hackathon
4 9 (8.82%) Onboarding
5 7 (6.86%) Embedded Systems
6 5 (4.90%) IoT
6 5 (4.90%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 5 (4.90%) SCADA
7 4 (3.92%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (2.94%) Arduino
8 3 (2.94%) FPGA
8 3 (2.94%) Raspberry Pi
8 3 (2.94%) Robotics
9 2 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.96%) e-Learning
9 2 (1.96%) Graphic Design
9 2 (1.96%) LIMS
9 2 (1.96%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.96%) PKI
9 2 (1.96%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 14 (13.73%) Linux
2 10 (9.80%) Windows
3 8 (7.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 8 (7.84%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.96%) VxWorks
5 1 (0.98%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (27.45%) Problem-Solving
2 27 (26.47%) Continuous Improvement
2 27 (26.47%) Verification and Validation
3 24 (23.53%) Computer Science
4 21 (20.59%) AI
4 21 (20.59%) Machine Learning
5 20 (19.61%) Agile
5 20 (19.61%) Analytics
6 19 (18.63%) Biotechnology
7 18 (17.65%) Data Science
8 17 (16.67%) Hematology
8 17 (16.67%) Immunology
9 16 (15.69%) Use Case
10 13 (12.75%) Deployment Automation
11 12 (11.76%) Model Validation
11 12 (11.76%) Test Automation
12 11 (10.78%) Data Validation
12 11 (10.78%) MLOps
13 10 (9.80%) Data Pipeline
14 9 (8.82%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 25 (24.51%) Python
2 20 (19.61%) SQL
3 7 (6.86%) C
4 6 (5.88%) C++
5 3 (2.94%) Bash
5 3 (2.94%) Pascal
6 2 (1.96%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.98%) Go
7 1 (0.98%) Java
7 1 (0.98%) PowerShell
7 1 (0.98%) SystemVerilog
7 1 (0.98%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 35 (34.31%) Degree
2 15 (14.71%) Security Cleared
3 13 (12.75%) Master's Degree
4 11 (10.78%) DV Cleared
5 7 (6.86%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (3.92%) SC Cleared
7 3 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (2.94%) Chartered Engineer
8 1 (0.98%) CISA
8 1 (0.98%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (13.73%) Data Quality
2 11 (10.78%) Accessibility
3 9 (8.82%) QA
4 6 (5.88%) GDPR
5 3 (2.94%) IEC 61508
5 3 (2.94%) ISO 26262
6 2 (1.96%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 2 (1.96%) Def Stans
6 2 (1.96%) ECSS
6 2 (1.96%) GxP
7 1 (0.98%) GRC
7 1 (0.98%) ITGC
7 1 (0.98%) MISRA
7 1 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.98%) SLA
System Software
1 8 (7.84%) Active Directory
1 8 (7.84%) vSphere
2 1 (0.98%) Embedded Firmware
2 1 (0.98%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (0.98%) Control-M
1 1 (0.98%) Functional Safety
1 1 (0.98%) Kibana
1 1 (0.98%) Terraform
Vendors
1 24 (23.53%) Microsoft
2 8 (7.84%) Red Hat
2 8 (7.84%) VMware
3 7 (6.86%) Salesforce
4 6 (5.88%) McAfee
5 5 (4.90%) MuleSoft
6 3 (2.94%) Motorola
7 2 (1.96%) Adobe
7 2 (1.96%) Agilent
7 2 (1.96%) Citrix
7 2 (1.96%) Databricks
7 2 (1.96%) NetApp
7 2 (1.96%) Oracle
7 2 (1.96%) SAP
7 2 (1.96%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.98%) Foundry
8 1 (0.98%) Google
8 1 (0.98%) Palantir
8 1 (0.98%) Talend
8 1 (0.98%) Xilinx