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

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 104 200
Rank change year-on-year -30 +96 -6
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,340 1,250 1,445
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.49% 2.95% 1.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.00% 3.18% 1.77%
Number of salaries quoted 759 413 780
10th Percentile £34,500 £40,000 £35,475
25th Percentile £43,000 £46,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,250 £54,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -1.39% +2.86% -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 67,110 39,339 81,745
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.81% 92.87% 85.63%
Number of salaries quoted 41,656 22,592 59,463
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%

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 29 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 29 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 -30 1,190 £60,000 +7.14% 661
UK excluding London -52 879 £53,250 -1.39% 541
Work from Home +88 395 £60,000 +5.26% 297
London +69 348 £77,500 +10.71% 228
South East -25 280 £55,000 +7.84% 184
North of England +35 214 £55,550 +16.50% 96
Midlands -69 146 £37,500 -33.33% 78
North West +20 131 £58,000 +21.64% 56
East of England -68 98 £60,000 +5.26% 70
West Midlands -15 94 £44,000 -33.58% 49
South West -43 87 £55,000 +0.92% 83
Yorkshire -28 56 £60,000 +26.32% 29
East Midlands -96 50 £30,000 -41.18% 29
Scotland -24 41 £42,000 -27.63% 28
North East -15 27 £51,500 -9.25% 13
Wales -29 13 £44,000 -15.47% 8
Northern Ireland -40 2 - - 13

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 44 (3.28%) Apache Airflow
2 28 (2.09%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.87%) Confluence
4 23 (1.72%) Apache
5 21 (1.57%) ArcGIS
6 17 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.90%) Appian
7 12 (0.90%) CMS
8 8 (0.60%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.45%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.30%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.15%) IIS
12 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.075%) Artix
12 1 (0.075%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.075%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.075%) SAS
12 1 (0.075%) WordPress
Applications
1 94 (7.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 65 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.57%) MS Visio
4 16 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.52%) Simulink
6 6 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
8 4 (0.30%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.30%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.22%) Solid Edge
9 3 (0.22%) SOLIDWORKS
10 2 (0.15%) AutoCAD
10 2 (0.15%) CATIA
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
11 1 (0.075%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.075%) Elementor
11 1 (0.075%) Navisworks
11 1 (0.075%) Photoshop
11 1 (0.075%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 34 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
3 9 (0.67%) SAP ERP
4 7 (0.52%) Workday HCM
5 6 (0.45%) Elite 3E
5 6 (0.45%) SAP MDG
6 5 (0.37%) Loan IQ
7 4 (0.30%) Markit EDM
7 4 (0.30%) SAP MDG-BP
8 3 (0.22%) iTrent
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 2 (0.15%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
10 1 (0.075%) Oracle Payables
10 1 (0.075%) Oracle Receivables
10 1 (0.075%) SAP BRIM
10 1 (0.075%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 202 (15.07%) Azure
2 127 (9.48%) AWS
3 121 (9.03%) Power Platform
4 55 (4.10%) SaaS
5 49 (3.66%) GCP
6 45 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
8 35 (2.61%) Azure Data Factory
9 31 (2.31%) Serverless
10 30 (2.24%) Snowflake
11 27 (2.01%) GitHub
11 27 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
12 26 (1.94%) Power Automate
13 25 (1.87%) Amazon S3
13 25 (1.87%) dbt
14 24 (1.79%) Entra ID
15 16 (1.19%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.12%) Anthropic Claude
16 15 (1.12%) Azure AI
17 12 (0.90%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.16%) CHAP
1 29 (2.16%) Firewall
2 26 (1.94%) Broadband
3 21 (1.57%) DNS
3 21 (1.57%) WAN
4 18 (1.34%) TCP/IP
4 18 (1.34%) Wireless
5 17 (1.27%) SD-WAN
6 13 (0.97%) 5G
7 11 (0.82%) HTTP
8 10 (0.75%) LAN
9 9 (0.67%) Modbus
9 9 (0.67%) Multicast
9 9 (0.67%) Wireshark
10 8 (0.60%) NAS
10 8 (0.60%) VPN
11 7 (0.52%) Ethernet
11 7 (0.52%) MQTT
11 7 (0.52%) Network Security
12 6 (0.45%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (8.51%) Power BI
2 47 (3.51%) SQL Server
3 45 (3.36%) Tableau
4 34 (2.54%) Data Warehouse
4 34 (2.54%) Metadata
5 33 (2.46%) Relational Database
6 29 (2.16%) PostgreSQL
7 25 (1.87%) QGIS
8 23 (1.72%) GIS
9 21 (1.57%) Data Lake
10 20 (1.49%) Spatial Data
11 18 (1.34%) Oracle Reports
12 17 (1.27%) Spark SQL
13 16 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
14 15 (1.12%) Oracle Database
15 14 (1.04%) MySQL
15 14 (1.04%) Parquet
16 13 (0.97%) Apache Hive
16 13 (0.97%) Impala
16 13 (0.97%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 66 (4.93%) Git
2 62 (4.63%) JIRA
3 40 (2.99%) Rational DOORS
4 23 (1.72%) Jenkins
5 18 (1.34%) GitLab
6 17 (1.27%) Postman
7 16 (1.19%) LabVIEW
7 16 (1.19%) Snyk
8 15 (1.12%) MLflow
8 15 (1.12%) Selenium
9 13 (0.97%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.90%) JMeter
11 11 (0.82%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.82%) TestRail
12 10 (0.75%) Eclipse
13 7 (0.52%) LoadRunner
14 5 (0.37%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.37%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.37%) Subversion
14 5 (0.37%) Visual Studio
General
1 449 (33.51%) Social Skills
2 371 (27.69%) Finance
3 294 (21.94%) Analytical Skills
4 103 (7.69%) Manufacturing
5 98 (7.31%) Aerospace
6 87 (6.49%) Banking
7 85 (6.34%) Electronics
8 63 (4.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 59 (4.40%) Legal
10 49 (3.66%) Public Sector
11 45 (3.36%) Retail
12 43 (3.21%) Law
13 41 (3.06%) Marketing
14 40 (2.99%) Financial Institution
15 39 (2.91%) Pharmaceutical
16 37 (2.76%) Presentation Skills
17 30 (2.24%) Organisational Skills
18 29 (2.16%) Automotive
19 25 (1.87%) Aviation
20 22 (1.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 222 (16.57%) Analyst
2 219 (16.34%) Senior
3 159 (11.87%) Systems Engineer
4 93 (6.94%) Lead
5 89 (6.64%) Test Engineer
6 83 (6.19%) Business Analyst
7 81 (6.04%) Architect
8 80 (5.97%) Validation Engineer
9 64 (4.78%) Consultant
10 59 (4.40%) Data Analyst
11 52 (3.88%) Integration Engineer
12 48 (3.58%) Data Engineer
13 45 (3.36%) Developer
13 45 (3.36%) Junior
14 44 (3.28%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 41 (3.06%) Principal Engineer
16 38 (2.84%) Verification Engineer
17 36 (2.69%) Software Validation Engineer
17 36 (2.69%) Systems Integration Engineer
18 32 (2.39%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (4.10%) REST
2 38 (2.84%) PyTorch
3 35 (2.61%) JSON
3 35 (2.61%) Pandas
4 29 (2.16%) Middleware
5 26 (1.94%) pytest
6 23 (1.72%) XML
7 22 (1.64%) PySpark
8 20 (1.49%) OAuth
9 19 (1.42%) .NET
9 19 (1.42%) Swagger
10 18 (1.34%) JWT
10 18 (1.34%) TensorFlow
11 17 (1.27%) React
11 17 (1.27%) RESTful
12 16 (1.19%) Kafka
12 16 (1.19%) NumPy
12 16 (1.19%) Playwright
13 15 (1.12%) CSS
14 14 (1.04%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 79 (5.90%) Management Information System
2 55 (4.10%) Onboarding
3 50 (3.73%) Data Structures
4 37 (2.76%) Algorithms
5 36 (2.69%) Product Ownership
6 35 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
7 34 (2.54%) Low-Code
8 28 (2.09%) Analytical Mindset
9 26 (1.94%) Data Centre
9 26 (1.94%) Life Science
10 24 (1.79%) Cloud Native
11 22 (1.64%) Embedded Systems
12 20 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
13 18 (1.34%) SCADA
14 17 (1.27%) Robotics
15 15 (1.12%) Blockchain
15 15 (1.12%) Driving Licence
16 14 (1.04%) IoT
16 14 (1.04%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 75 (5.60%) Linux
2 62 (4.63%) Windows
3 20 (1.49%) Unix
4 19 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 19 (1.42%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.90%) Android
6 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.30%) CentOS
6 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.30%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.22%) AIX
7 3 (0.22%) Kali Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
8 2 (0.15%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.075%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.075%) Rocky
9 1 (0.075%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.075%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 301 (22.46%) Problem-Solving
2 279 (20.82%) Agile
3 251 (18.73%) Continuous Improvement
4 212 (15.82%) Verification and Validation
5 206 (15.37%) Analytics
6 185 (13.81%) AI
7 164 (12.24%) CI/CD
7 164 (12.24%) Data Validation
8 163 (12.16%) Test Automation
9 148 (11.04%) Migration
10 143 (10.67%) Business Intelligence
11 136 (10.15%) Data Modelling
11 136 (10.15%) Stakeholder Management
12 133 (9.93%) User Acceptance Testing
13 130 (9.70%) Decision-Making
14 128 (9.55%) Systems Engineering
15 126 (9.40%) Data Governance
16 123 (9.18%) Mentoring
17 121 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 120 (8.96%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 286 (21.34%) Python
2 264 (19.70%) SQL
3 46 (3.43%) C++
4 44 (3.28%) Java
5 38 (2.84%) C
6 37 (2.76%) PowerShell
7 29 (2.16%) JavaScript
8 24 (1.79%) Bash
9 22 (1.64%) C#
10 21 (1.57%) Go
10 21 (1.57%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.34%) T-SQL
12 16 (1.19%) TypeScript
13 12 (0.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 11 (0.82%) Embedded C
15 10 (0.75%) R
16 9 (0.67%) VBA
17 7 (0.52%) ABAP
17 7 (0.52%) Apex Code
17 7 (0.52%) VB
Qualifications
1 301 (22.46%) Degree
2 160 (11.94%) Security Cleared
3 129 (9.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 63 (4.70%) Master's Degree
5 58 (4.33%) SC Cleared
6 41 (3.06%) Computer Science Degree
7 39 (2.91%) CISSP
8 38 (2.84%) CISA
9 36 (2.69%) Chartered Engineer
9 36 (2.69%) CISM
10 35 (2.61%) DV Cleared
11 33 (2.46%) SANS
12 29 (2.16%) CGEIT
12 29 (2.16%) FFIEC
13 28 (2.09%) HNC
14 24 (1.79%) HND
15 23 (1.72%) PMI Certification
16 20 (1.49%) PMP
17 12 (0.90%) ISTQB
18 10 (0.75%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 181 (13.51%) Data Quality
2 143 (10.67%) QA
3 66 (4.93%) GDPR
4 61 (4.55%) Accessibility
5 37 (2.76%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 34 (2.54%) GRC
7 31 (2.31%) NIST
8 29 (2.16%) COBIT
9 21 (1.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 17 (1.27%) IFRS
11 16 (1.19%) IEC 61508
12 15 (1.12%) SLA
13 13 (0.97%) ISO 9001
14 12 (0.90%) GAAP
15 11 (0.82%) GMP
16 10 (0.75%) Good Clinical Practice
16 10 (0.75%) PMO
16 10 (0.75%) WCAG
17 9 (0.67%) 21 CFR Part 11
17 9 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 64 (4.78%) Docker
2 34 (2.54%) Active Directory
3 26 (1.94%) Firmware
4 17 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
6 13 (0.97%) vSphere
7 6 (0.45%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.45%) KVM
8 5 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.075%) iptables
11 1 (0.075%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.075%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.075%) OpenIDM
11 1 (0.075%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 65 (4.85%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.43%) Terraform
3 31 (2.31%) Grafana
4 25 (1.87%) Ansible
5 17 (1.27%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.04%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 12 (0.90%) Functional Safety
8 10 (0.75%) Puppet
8 10 (0.75%) SCCM
9 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.30%) Argo
10 4 (0.30%) Cilium
10 4 (0.30%) Rancher
10 4 (0.30%) yum
11 3 (0.22%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.22%) Kibana
12 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
12 2 (0.15%) PowerCLI
13 1 (0.075%) Control-M
Vendors
1 177 (13.21%) Microsoft
2 73 (5.45%) Oracle
3 62 (4.63%) SAP
4 44 (3.28%) Salesforce
5 27 (2.01%) Red Hat
5 27 (2.01%) VMware
6 24 (1.79%) Databricks
7 22 (1.64%) Cisco
8 18 (1.34%) CrowdStrike
8 18 (1.34%) IBM
8 18 (1.34%) Palo Alto
9 17 (1.27%) Foundry
9 17 (1.27%) Google
10 16 (1.19%) OpenAI
10 16 (1.19%) Tenable
11 15 (1.12%) Adobe
11 15 (1.12%) ServiceNow
12 13 (0.97%) Citrix
13 12 (0.90%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (0.90%) UiPath