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 30 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 78 203
Rank change year-on-year -48 +125 -16
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,470 1,602 1,400
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.58% 3.69% 1.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.14% 3.96% 1.66%
Number of salaries quoted 845 433 771
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,341
90th Percentile £90,000 £94,500 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% -4.62%

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 68,833 40,438 84,237
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.92% 93.25% 83.74%
Number of salaries quoted 44,981 21,310 60,621
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,200
25th Percentile £41,000 £40,871 £39,885
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,610 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.15% +4.75% -9.69%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.94% +2.00% -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 30 May 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 30 May 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 -55 1,319 £57,500 +2.68% 837
UK excluding London -67 970 £52,500 -4.55% 639
Work from Home +126 465 £55,000 -8.33% 338
London +68 381 £75,000 +5.26% 295
South East -39 295 £55,000 +4.76% 191
North of England +57 265 £55,000 +15.35% 140
Midlands -81 165 £40,000 -30.43% 98
North West +60 164 £55,000 +15.35% 80
West Midlands -11 102 £44,000 -32.31% 62
East of England -84 101 £60,000 +5.26% 86
South West -50 90 £52,500 -3.67% 89
Yorkshire -11 61 £50,000 +5.26% 41
East Midlands -81 61 £30,000 -42.31% 36
North East -8 40 £55,000 -21.43% 21
Scotland -8 39 £42,000 -27.63% 28
Wales -28 14 £44,000 -26.67% 17
Northern Ireland -39 3 - - 12

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 51 (3.47%) Apache Airflow
2 38 (2.59%) Apache Spark
3 37 (2.52%) Apache
4 27 (1.84%) Confluence
5 21 (1.43%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (0.95%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.68%) Jupyter
9 9 (0.61%) Appian
10 8 (0.54%) CMS
11 6 (0.41%) Kinematics
11 6 (0.41%) SAS
12 5 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.20%) Artix
14 2 (0.14%) IIS
15 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
15 1 (0.068%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 93 (6.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.16%) Microsoft Project
5 16 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 14 (0.95%) Simulink
7 8 (0.54%) SOLIDWORKS
8 7 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
9 5 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
10 4 (0.27%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.27%) CANalyzer
10 4 (0.27%) Sketch
11 3 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.20%) Fusion 360
11 3 (0.20%) Productboard
11 3 (0.20%) Solid Edge
12 2 (0.14%) CATIA
12 2 (0.14%) Stateflow
13 1 (0.068%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 39 (2.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.48%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.41%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.41%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.34%) iTrent
7 5 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG-BP
8 3 (0.20%) Markit EDM
8 3 (0.20%) Oracle Applications
8 3 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP MM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
9 2 (0.14%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 212 (14.42%) Azure
2 171 (11.63%) AWS
3 131 (8.91%) Power Platform
4 69 (4.69%) GCP
5 61 (4.15%) SaaS
6 51 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
7 40 (2.72%) GitHub
8 38 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
8 38 (2.59%) Serverless
9 37 (2.52%) Amazon S3
10 32 (2.18%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
12 29 (1.97%) Snowflake
13 25 (1.70%) Entra ID
14 22 (1.50%) dbt
15 21 (1.43%) Power Automate
16 16 (1.09%) OpenShift
17 15 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
18 14 (0.95%) Azure AI
19 13 (0.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 58 (3.95%) Broadband
2 41 (2.79%) Firewall
3 27 (1.84%) DNS
4 25 (1.70%) WAN
5 24 (1.63%) Wireless
6 23 (1.56%) CHAP
7 20 (1.36%) TCP/IP
8 18 (1.22%) 5G
8 18 (1.22%) SD-WAN
9 14 (0.95%) Network Security
10 12 (0.82%) HTTP
10 12 (0.82%) MQTT
10 12 (0.82%) VPN
11 10 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (0.68%) Wireshark
12 9 (0.61%) LAN
12 9 (0.61%) NAS
13 8 (0.54%) Ethernet
14 7 (0.48%) ATM
14 7 (0.48%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (8.44%) Power BI
2 53 (3.61%) Tableau
3 49 (3.33%) SQL Server
4 44 (2.99%) PostgreSQL
5 40 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
6 31 (2.11%) Relational Database
7 30 (2.04%) Metadata
8 25 (1.70%) MongoDB
8 25 (1.70%) QGIS
9 23 (1.56%) GIS
10 22 (1.50%) BigQuery
10 22 (1.50%) Data Lake
11 21 (1.43%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (1.36%) Semantic Layer
12 20 (1.36%) Spatial Data
13 18 (1.22%) Spark SQL
14 17 (1.16%) Oracle Reports
15 16 (1.09%) Oracle Database
16 15 (1.02%) MySQL
17 14 (0.95%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 72 (4.90%) Git
2 66 (4.49%) JIRA
3 43 (2.93%) Jenkins
4 34 (2.31%) GitLab
5 33 (2.24%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.50%) Snyk
7 17 (1.16%) LabVIEW
8 16 (1.09%) Postman
9 13 (0.88%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (0.88%) MLflow
9 13 (0.88%) Selenium
10 11 (0.75%) Cucumber
11 10 (0.68%) Eclipse
11 10 (0.68%) JMeter
12 9 (0.61%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.61%) TeamCity
13 7 (0.48%) TestRail
14 6 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
14 6 (0.41%) Robot Framework
15 5 (0.34%) SpecFlow
General
1 463 (31.50%) Social Skills
2 388 (26.39%) Finance
3 326 (22.18%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (7.69%) Manufacturing
5 108 (7.35%) Aerospace
6 105 (7.14%) Electronics
7 91 (6.19%) Banking
8 90 (6.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 61 (4.15%) Legal
10 56 (3.81%) Public Sector
11 55 (3.74%) Retail
12 51 (3.47%) Law
13 47 (3.20%) Marketing
14 44 (2.99%) Pharmaceutical
15 37 (2.52%) Organisational Skills
16 33 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
17 32 (2.18%) Financial Institution
18 31 (2.11%) Games
19 30 (2.04%) Automotive
20 24 (1.63%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 244 (16.60%) Senior
2 238 (16.19%) Analyst
3 151 (10.27%) Systems Engineer
4 102 (6.94%) Lead
5 96 (6.53%) Architect
6 94 (6.39%) Test Engineer
7 87 (5.92%) Business Analyst
8 83 (5.65%) Validation Engineer
9 71 (4.83%) Consultant
10 64 (4.35%) Data Engineer
11 61 (4.15%) Data Analyst
12 60 (4.08%) Developer
13 51 (3.47%) Integration Engineer
14 47 (3.20%) Principal Engineer
15 44 (2.99%) Junior
16 39 (2.65%) Embedded Engineer
17 37 (2.52%) Senior Systems Engineer
18 35 (2.38%) Verification Engineer
19 34 (2.31%) Systems Integration Engineer
20 32 (2.18%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.20%) REST
2 36 (2.45%) PyTorch
3 33 (2.24%) RESTful
4 31 (2.11%) JSON
4 31 (2.11%) PySpark
5 29 (1.97%) Pandas
6 27 (1.84%) Middleware
6 27 (1.84%) pytest
7 24 (1.63%) Kafka
8 23 (1.56%) .NET
9 22 (1.50%) Node.js
10 20 (1.36%) XML
11 19 (1.29%) CSS
11 19 (1.29%) Playwright
11 19 (1.29%) Swagger
12 17 (1.16%) OAuth
13 16 (1.09%) TensorFlow
14 15 (1.02%) HTML
14 15 (1.02%) JWT
14 15 (1.02%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 81 (5.51%) Management Information System
2 68 (4.63%) Onboarding
3 67 (4.56%) Cloud Native
4 58 (3.95%) Data Structures
5 46 (3.13%) Algorithms
6 43 (2.93%) Low-Code
7 39 (2.65%) Product Ownership
8 35 (2.38%) Embedded Systems
9 33 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
10 32 (2.18%) Analytical Mindset
10 32 (2.18%) Data Centre
11 31 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
12 29 (1.97%) Driving Licence
13 27 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
13 27 (1.84%) Life Science
14 23 (1.56%) FPGA
15 22 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
15 22 (1.50%) Video\Live Streaming
16 21 (1.43%) Robotics
17 17 (1.16%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 83 (5.65%) Linux
2 68 (4.63%) Windows
3 24 (1.63%) Unix
3 24 (1.63%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (0.88%) Android
6 5 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.27%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.20%) AIX
8 3 (0.20%) CentOS
8 3 (0.20%) Kali Linux
8 3 (0.20%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.068%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.068%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.068%) Rocky
10 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.068%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 329 (22.38%) Problem-Solving
2 301 (20.48%) Agile
3 283 (19.25%) Continuous Improvement
4 242 (16.46%) AI
5 223 (15.17%) CI/CD
6 217 (14.76%) Analytics
7 204 (13.88%) Test Automation
8 198 (13.47%) Verification and Validation
9 166 (11.29%) Data Validation
10 159 (10.82%) Migration
11 153 (10.41%) Business Intelligence
12 151 (10.27%) Data Modelling
13 147 (10.00%) DevOps
14 146 (9.93%) Decision-Making
15 141 (9.59%) Mentoring
16 140 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
17 138 (9.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 137 (9.32%) Software Engineering
19 132 (8.98%) Data Analysis
19 132 (8.98%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 355 (24.15%) Python
2 301 (20.48%) SQL
3 63 (4.29%) Java
4 60 (4.08%) C++
5 53 (3.61%) C
6 40 (2.72%) Go
7 37 (2.52%) C#
8 34 (2.31%) JavaScript
8 34 (2.31%) PowerShell
9 29 (1.97%) Bash
10 27 (1.84%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.22%) T-SQL
12 17 (1.16%) Embedded C
13 14 (0.95%) TypeScript
14 13 (0.88%) Embedded C++
15 12 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.68%) VBA
17 9 (0.61%) ABAP
17 9 (0.61%) Scala
18 8 (0.54%) R
Qualifications
1 315 (21.43%) Degree
2 175 (11.90%) Security Cleared
3 116 (7.89%) BPSS Clearance
4 79 (5.37%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.76%) Master's Degree
6 43 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
7 41 (2.79%) DV Cleared
8 37 (2.52%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.24%) CISA
9 33 (2.24%) CISSP
10 31 (2.11%) SANS
11 30 (2.04%) CISM
12 27 (1.84%) HNC
13 25 (1.70%) HND
14 23 (1.56%) CGEIT
14 23 (1.56%) FFIEC
14 23 (1.56%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.36%) PMP
16 14 (0.95%) ACCA
16 14 (0.95%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (14.76%) Data Quality
2 157 (10.68%) QA
3 61 (4.15%) Accessibility
4 60 (4.08%) GDPR
5 45 (3.06%) GRC
6 29 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 25 (1.70%) NIST
9 23 (1.56%) COBIT
10 20 (1.36%) IEC 61508
11 19 (1.29%) IFRS
12 18 (1.22%) SLA
13 14 (0.95%) ISO 9001
13 14 (0.95%) PMO
14 12 (0.82%) GAAP
14 12 (0.82%) GMP
15 10 (0.68%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.68%) GxP
15 10 (0.68%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.68%) WCAG
System Software
1 71 (4.83%) Docker
2 45 (3.06%) Firmware
3 37 (2.52%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.09%) vSphere
6 14 (0.95%) Embedded Firmware
6 14 (0.95%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.41%) KVM
8 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.068%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.068%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.068%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (4.90%) Kubernetes
2 60 (4.08%) Terraform
3 30 (2.04%) Grafana
4 23 (1.56%) Ansible
5 18 (1.22%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.09%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.95%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 11 (0.75%) SCCM
9 9 (0.61%) Cilium
9 9 (0.61%) Puppet
10 8 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.34%) Kibana
12 3 (0.20%) Argo
12 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.20%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.20%) Rancher
12 3 (0.20%) yum
13 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 1 (0.068%) MOM
Vendors
1 193 (13.13%) Microsoft
2 88 (5.99%) Oracle
3 84 (5.71%) SAP
4 51 (3.47%) Salesforce
5 31 (2.11%) Databricks
5 31 (2.11%) Red Hat
6 29 (1.97%) VMware
7 27 (1.84%) CrowdStrike
7 27 (1.84%) ServiceNow
8 24 (1.63%) Cisco
8 24 (1.63%) Palo Alto
9 22 (1.50%) Adobe
9 22 (1.50%) Google
9 22 (1.50%) Tenable
10 15 (1.02%) Foundry
10 15 (1.02%) OpenAI
11 14 (0.95%) Citrix
12 12 (0.82%) IBM
13 10 (0.68%) McAfee
13 10 (0.68%) Splunk