Validation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Validation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 163 200
Rank change year-on-year +31 +37 -28
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,302 793 1,429
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.91% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.01% 2.06% 1.77%
Number of salaries quoted 737 398 800
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,475
25th Percentile £43,500 £46,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £54,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -0.92% +3.81% -4.55%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 64,759 38,558 80,920
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.53% 92.98% 86.03%
Number of salaries quoted 39,875 22,521 59,469
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.54%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -8.26%

Validation
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Validation job vacancy trend in the UK

Validation
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Validation

Validation
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Validation over the 6 months to 16 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Validation within the UK over the 6 months to 16 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
England +37 1,147 £60,000 +7.14% 825
UK excluding London +14 839 £54,000 -0.92% 649
Work from Home +97 382 £60,000 +5.26% 378
London +69 351 £77,500 +10.71% 261
South East +30 263 £55,000 +8.91% 209
North of England +29 194 £58,000 +21.64% 123
Midlands -18 142 £37,500 -31.82% 120
North West +22 121 £60,000 +25.83% 67
East of England +1 95 £57,500 +2.68% 86
West Midlands -2 89 £44,360 -31.75% 78
South West -45 87 £55,000 - 86
East Midlands -46 51 £32,000 -37.25% 42
Yorkshire -24 50 £60,000 +26.32% 44
Scotland -20 42 £42,000 -27.63% 25
North East -14 23 £51,500 -9.25% 14
Wales -24 15 £55,000 +12.01% 9
Northern Ireland -42 3 - - 3

Validation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 43 (3.30%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.07%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.92%) Confluence
4 23 (1.77%) Apache
5 20 (1.54%) ArcGIS
6 17 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.92%) Appian
7 12 (0.92%) CMS
8 9 (0.69%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.46%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.31%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.15%) IIS
11 2 (0.15%) WordPress
12 1 (0.077%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.077%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.077%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.077%) SAS
Applications
1 90 (6.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (4.76%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.54%) MS Visio
4 16 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.46%) Simulink
7 5 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 5 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.31%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.31%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.23%) Solid Edge
9 3 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
10 2 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
10 2 (0.15%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
10 2 (0.15%) Adobe Premiere
10 2 (0.15%) CATIA
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.15%) Photoshop
10 2 (0.15%) Weka
Business Applications
1 23 (1.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.54%) Workday HCM
5 6 (0.46%) Elite 3E
6 5 (0.38%) Loan IQ
6 5 (0.38%) SAP ERP
7 4 (0.31%) Markit EDM
7 4 (0.31%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.23%) Oracle Applications
8 3 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 2 (0.15%) SAP CX
9 2 (0.15%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.15%) SAP MDG-BP
10 1 (0.077%) Oracle Payables
10 1 (0.077%) Oracle Receivables
10 1 (0.077%) SAP BRIM
10 1 (0.077%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 198 (15.21%) Azure
2 129 (9.91%) AWS
3 115 (8.83%) Power Platform
4 62 (4.76%) SaaS
5 49 (3.76%) GCP
6 44 (3.38%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
8 32 (2.46%) Azure Data Factory
9 31 (2.38%) dbt
10 29 (2.23%) Snowflake
11 28 (2.15%) Power Automate
12 26 (2.00%) GitHub
13 24 (1.84%) Amazon S3
13 24 (1.84%) Entra ID
13 24 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
13 24 (1.84%) Serverless
14 18 (1.38%) Datadog
15 16 (1.23%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.15%) Azure AI
17 14 (1.08%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 27 (2.07%) CHAP
2 23 (1.77%) Broadband
3 22 (1.69%) Firewall
4 18 (1.38%) WAN
5 16 (1.23%) TCP/IP
5 16 (1.23%) Wireless
6 15 (1.15%) DNS
6 15 (1.15%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.92%) 5G
8 9 (0.69%) HTTP
8 9 (0.69%) Modbus
8 9 (0.69%) Multicast
9 8 (0.61%) LAN
10 7 (0.54%) MQTT
10 7 (0.54%) Wireshark
11 6 (0.46%) ATM
11 6 (0.46%) NAS
11 6 (0.46%) Network Security
11 6 (0.46%) tcpdump
11 6 (0.46%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (8.29%) Power BI
2 45 (3.46%) SQL Server
3 43 (3.30%) Tableau
4 32 (2.46%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (2.46%) Metadata
4 32 (2.46%) Relational Database
5 29 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (1.84%) GIS
6 24 (1.84%) QGIS
7 20 (1.54%) Spatial Data
8 18 (1.38%) Oracle Reports
9 16 (1.23%) Spark SQL
10 15 (1.15%) Data Lake
10 15 (1.15%) Oracle Database
11 14 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (1.08%) Parquet
12 13 (1.00%) Apache Hive
12 13 (1.00%) Impala
12 13 (1.00%) MySQL
12 13 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 68 (5.22%) Git
1 68 (5.22%) JIRA
2 38 (2.92%) Rational DOORS
3 24 (1.84%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.38%) JMeter
5 17 (1.31%) Cucumber
5 17 (1.31%) GitLab
5 17 (1.31%) Postman
6 16 (1.23%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.15%) MLflow
7 15 (1.15%) Selenium
8 14 (1.08%) TestRail
9 13 (1.00%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.92%) Locust
11 11 (0.84%) Eclipse
11 11 (0.84%) Snyk
12 6 (0.46%) LoadRunner
12 6 (0.46%) SoapUI
12 6 (0.46%) Subversion
13 5 (0.38%) SpecFlow
General
1 455 (34.95%) Social Skills
2 356 (27.34%) Finance
3 290 (22.27%) Analytical Skills
4 92 (7.07%) Manufacturing
5 88 (6.76%) Banking
6 84 (6.45%) Aerospace
7 80 (6.14%) Electronics
8 61 (4.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (4.61%) Legal
10 47 (3.61%) Public Sector
10 47 (3.61%) Retail
11 45 (3.46%) Law
12 41 (3.15%) Financial Institution
12 41 (3.15%) Marketing
13 39 (3.00%) Presentation Skills
14 32 (2.46%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (2.30%) Organisational Skills
16 26 (2.00%) Automotive
17 23 (1.77%) Aviation
17 23 (1.77%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 217 (16.67%) Analyst
2 210 (16.13%) Senior
3 152 (11.67%) Systems Engineer
4 100 (7.68%) Lead
5 82 (6.30%) Business Analyst
6 78 (5.99%) Validation Engineer
7 74 (5.68%) Test Engineer
8 73 (5.61%) Architect
9 62 (4.76%) Consultant
10 56 (4.30%) Data Analyst
10 56 (4.30%) Integration Engineer
11 45 (3.46%) Developer
11 45 (3.46%) Senior Systems Engineer
12 44 (3.38%) Junior
13 43 (3.30%) Data Engineer
14 39 (3.00%) Systems Integration Engineer
15 38 (2.92%) Principal Engineer
16 37 (2.84%) Verification Engineer
17 36 (2.76%) Software Validation Engineer
18 30 (2.30%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.53%) REST
2 40 (3.07%) PyTorch
3 37 (2.84%) Pandas
4 35 (2.69%) JSON
5 32 (2.46%) Middleware
6 26 (2.00%) pytest
7 25 (1.92%) XML
8 21 (1.61%) PySpark
9 20 (1.54%) OAuth
10 19 (1.46%) JWT
10 19 (1.46%) Swagger
10 19 (1.46%) TensorFlow
11 18 (1.38%) .NET
11 18 (1.38%) NumPy
12 17 (1.31%) RESTful
13 16 (1.23%) Kafka
13 16 (1.23%) React
14 15 (1.15%) CSS
14 15 (1.15%) scikit-learn
14 15 (1.15%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 78 (5.99%) Management Information System
2 57 (4.38%) Onboarding
3 48 (3.69%) Data Structures
4 38 (2.92%) Product Ownership
5 37 (2.84%) Algorithms
6 36 (2.76%) Low-Code
7 35 (2.69%) Self-Motivation
8 34 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 24 (1.84%) Cloud Native
10 24 (1.84%) Life Science
11 22 (1.69%) Data Centre
12 21 (1.61%) Embedded Systems
13 19 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
14 18 (1.38%) SCADA
15 17 (1.31%) Robotics
16 15 (1.15%) Blockchain
16 15 (1.15%) IoT
17 13 (1.00%) Reinsurance
18 11 (0.84%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 69 (5.30%) Linux
2 59 (4.53%) Windows
3 19 (1.46%) Unix
4 16 (1.23%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.92%) Android
7 4 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.31%) CentOS
7 4 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.31%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.23%) AIX
8 3 (0.23%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
9 2 (0.15%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.077%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.077%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.077%) Rocky
10 1 (0.077%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.077%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 295 (22.66%) Problem-Solving
2 293 (22.50%) Agile
3 257 (19.74%) Continuous Improvement
4 204 (15.67%) Verification and Validation
5 202 (15.51%) Analytics
6 180 (13.82%) AI
7 163 (12.52%) Data Validation
8 161 (12.37%) CI/CD
9 159 (12.21%) Test Automation
10 141 (10.83%) Migration
11 139 (10.68%) Stakeholder Management
12 137 (10.52%) Business Intelligence
12 137 (10.52%) Systems Engineering
13 129 (9.91%) Data Modelling
14 128 (9.83%) User Acceptance Testing
15 127 (9.75%) DevOps
16 124 (9.52%) Decision-Making
17 123 (9.45%) Mentoring
18 119 (9.14%) Data Governance
19 117 (8.99%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 284 (21.81%) Python
2 264 (20.28%) SQL
3 51 (3.92%) Java
4 42 (3.23%) C++
5 37 (2.84%) PowerShell
6 36 (2.76%) C
7 31 (2.38%) JavaScript
8 27 (2.07%) Bash
9 21 (1.61%) Go
10 20 (1.54%) C#
11 18 (1.38%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.38%) T-SQL
12 15 (1.15%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 11 (0.84%) R
14 10 (0.77%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.69%) VBA
16 7 (0.54%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.54%) VB
17 6 (0.46%) PHP
Qualifications
1 296 (22.73%) Degree
2 164 (12.60%) Security Cleared
3 126 (9.68%) BPSS Clearance
4 62 (4.76%) SC Cleared
5 61 (4.69%) Master's Degree
6 44 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
7 36 (2.76%) CISSP
8 35 (2.69%) CISA
9 34 (2.61%) DV Cleared
10 33 (2.53%) CISM
11 29 (2.23%) Chartered Engineer
11 29 (2.23%) SANS
12 27 (2.07%) CGEIT
12 27 (2.07%) FFIEC
13 25 (1.92%) HNC
14 22 (1.69%) PMI Certification
15 21 (1.61%) HND
16 19 (1.46%) PMP
17 18 (1.38%) ISTQB
18 9 (0.69%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 169 (12.98%) Data Quality
2 150 (11.52%) QA
3 67 (5.15%) GDPR
4 66 (5.07%) Accessibility
5 38 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 29 (2.23%) GRC
7 28 (2.15%) NIST
8 27 (2.07%) COBIT
9 21 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 19 (1.46%) SLA
11 18 (1.38%) IFRS
12 17 (1.31%) WCAG
13 15 (1.15%) IEC 61508
14 13 (1.00%) ISO 9001
15 12 (0.92%) GAAP
16 10 (0.77%) Good Clinical Practice
17 9 (0.69%) 21 CFR Part 11
17 9 (0.69%) PMO
18 8 (0.61%) GMP
18 8 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 76 (5.84%) Docker
2 29 (2.23%) Active Directory
3 27 (2.07%) Firmware
4 15 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
5 12 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (0.69%) vSphere
7 6 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.46%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.46%) KVM
8 3 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.15%) Ceph
9 2 (0.15%) Lustre
9 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.077%) iptables
10 1 (0.077%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.077%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.077%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.077%) pfSense
10 1 (0.077%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 75 (5.76%) Kubernetes
2 54 (4.15%) Terraform
3 36 (2.76%) Grafana
4 27 (2.07%) Ansible
5 18 (1.38%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.08%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 11 (0.84%) Functional Safety
8 10 (0.77%) SCCM
9 9 (0.69%) Puppet
10 7 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.38%) Argo
11 5 (0.38%) Rancher
11 5 (0.38%) yum
12 4 (0.31%) Cilium
13 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 2 (0.15%) Nessus
13 2 (0.15%) PowerCLI
14 1 (0.077%) Control-M
14 1 (0.077%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 168 (12.90%) Microsoft
2 70 (5.38%) Oracle
3 56 (4.30%) SAP
4 45 (3.46%) Salesforce
5 23 (1.77%) Red Hat
5 23 (1.77%) VMware
6 21 (1.61%) Databricks
7 20 (1.54%) Cisco
8 18 (1.38%) Foundry
8 18 (1.38%) IBM
9 16 (1.23%) Adobe
9 16 (1.23%) Google
9 16 (1.23%) OpenAI
10 15 (1.15%) ServiceNow
11 13 (1.00%) Workday
12 12 (0.92%) Automation Anywhere
12 12 (0.92%) Palo Alto
12 12 (0.92%) UiPath
13 11 (0.84%) CrowdStrike
13 11 (0.84%) Tenable