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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 172 191
Rank change year-on-year +34 +19 -32
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,247 763 1,436
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.51% 1.86% 1.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.99% 2.00% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 706 383 786
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,125
25th Percentile £43,750 £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 £53,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% -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 62,747 38,173 78,463
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 76.19% 93.03% 86.26%
Number of salaries quoted 38,762 22,528 58,201
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,290 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,557
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -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 7 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 7 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 +31 1,091 £60,000 +7.14% 872
UK excluding London +7 802 £53,500 -2.73% 714
Work from Home +90 358 £57,500 +1.77% 341
London +67 335 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +35 254 £55,000 +7.32% 215
North of England +10 179 £59,000 +23.97% 152
Midlands -21 137 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +13 113 £60,000 +25.83% 74
East of England -2 94 £57,500 +4.55% 96
West Midlands 0 83 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -40 78 £53,750 -2.27% 89
East Midlands -38 52 £34,000 -33.33% 41
Yorkshire -33 45 £60,000 +26.32% 51
Scotland -20 44 £42,000 -27.63% 42
North East -9 21 £50,000 -11.89% 27
Wales -21 15 £55,000 +12.01% 16
Northern Ireland -36 3 - - 5

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 42 (3.37%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.17%) Apache Spark
3 23 (1.84%) Apache
4 21 (1.68%) Confluence
5 20 (1.60%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.96%) Appian
7 12 (0.96%) CMS
8 9 (0.72%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.48%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.32%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.16%) WordPress
12 1 (0.080%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.080%) IIS
12 1 (0.080%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.080%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.080%) SAS
Applications
1 89 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (4.89%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.44%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.56%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.48%) Simulink
7 5 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 5 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.32%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.32%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.24%) Solid Edge
9 3 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
10 2 (0.16%) Adobe After Effects
10 2 (0.16%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
10 2 (0.16%) Adobe Premiere
10 2 (0.16%) CATIA
10 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.16%) Photoshop
10 2 (0.16%) Weka
Business Applications
1 21 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.44%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.64%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.40%) Elite 3E
5 5 (0.40%) Loan IQ
6 4 (0.32%) Markit EDM
6 4 (0.32%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.24%) SAP BPC
7 3 (0.24%) SAP MDG
8 2 (0.16%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 2 (0.16%) SAP CX
8 2 (0.16%) SAP FSCM
9 1 (0.080%) Endur
9 1 (0.080%) Magento
9 1 (0.080%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.080%) Oracle Applications
9 1 (0.080%) Oracle Financials
9 1 (0.080%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 184 (14.76%) Azure
2 121 (9.70%) AWS
3 112 (8.98%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.73%) SaaS
5 44 (3.53%) GCP
6 41 (3.29%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (2.57%) Dynamics 365
8 31 (2.49%) dbt
9 30 (2.41%) Azure Data Factory
10 29 (2.33%) Power Automate
10 29 (2.33%) Snowflake
11 24 (1.92%) Amazon S3
12 23 (1.84%) Entra ID
12 23 (1.84%) GitHub
13 22 (1.76%) Microsoft 365
14 18 (1.44%) Datadog
14 18 (1.44%) Serverless
15 16 (1.28%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.20%) Azure AI
17 13 (1.04%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.09%) CHAP
2 21 (1.68%) Broadband
3 18 (1.44%) Firewall
4 17 (1.36%) WAN
5 15 (1.20%) TCP/IP
5 15 (1.20%) Wireless
6 14 (1.12%) DNS
6 14 (1.12%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.96%) 5G
8 9 (0.72%) HTTP
8 9 (0.72%) Multicast
9 8 (0.64%) Modbus
10 7 (0.56%) LAN
10 7 (0.56%) MQTT
10 7 (0.56%) Wireshark
11 6 (0.48%) ATM
11 6 (0.48%) NAS
11 6 (0.48%) tcpdump
11 6 (0.48%) VPN
11 6 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (8.42%) Power BI
2 44 (3.53%) SQL Server
3 43 (3.45%) Tableau
4 31 (2.49%) Data Warehouse
5 30 (2.41%) Relational Database
6 26 (2.09%) Metadata
6 26 (2.09%) PostgreSQL
7 25 (2.00%) GIS
8 20 (1.60%) QGIS
8 20 (1.60%) Spatial Data
9 17 (1.36%) Oracle Reports
10 15 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
10 15 (1.20%) Spark SQL
11 14 (1.12%) Oracle Database
12 13 (1.04%) Apache Hive
12 13 (1.04%) Impala
12 13 (1.04%) MySQL
12 13 (1.04%) Parquet
12 13 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 12 (0.96%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 68 (5.45%) Git
1 68 (5.45%) JIRA
2 42 (3.37%) Rational DOORS
3 22 (1.76%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.44%) JMeter
5 17 (1.36%) Cucumber
5 17 (1.36%) Postman
6 16 (1.28%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.20%) GitLab
7 15 (1.20%) Selenium
8 14 (1.12%) MLflow
8 14 (1.12%) TestRail
9 13 (1.04%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.96%) Locust
11 11 (0.88%) Eclipse
12 7 (0.56%) SoapUI
13 6 (0.48%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.48%) Snyk
13 6 (0.48%) Subversion
14 5 (0.40%) Visual Studio
General
1 437 (35.04%) Social Skills
2 327 (26.22%) Finance
3 277 (22.21%) Analytical Skills
4 87 (6.98%) Manufacturing
5 85 (6.82%) Banking
6 75 (6.01%) Electronics
7 73 (5.85%) Aerospace
8 58 (4.65%) Legal
9 54 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 45 (3.61%) Law
10 45 (3.61%) Retail
11 44 (3.53%) Public Sector
12 41 (3.29%) Financial Institution
12 41 (3.29%) Marketing
13 39 (3.13%) Presentation Skills
14 29 (2.33%) Organisational Skills
14 29 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
15 26 (2.09%) Automotive
16 24 (1.92%) Telecoms
17 23 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 208 (16.68%) Analyst
2 195 (15.64%) Senior
3 148 (11.87%) Systems Engineer
4 97 (7.78%) Lead
5 79 (6.34%) Business Analyst
6 75 (6.01%) Validation Engineer
7 69 (5.53%) Test Engineer
8 66 (5.29%) Architect
9 59 (4.73%) Consultant
10 56 (4.49%) Integration Engineer
11 53 (4.25%) Data Analyst
12 45 (3.61%) Developer
13 43 (3.45%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 42 (3.37%) Junior
14 42 (3.37%) Principal Engineer
15 40 (3.21%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 38 (3.05%) Data Engineer
17 37 (2.97%) Verification Engineer
18 35 (2.81%) Software Validation Engineer
19 31 (2.49%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.73%) REST
2 39 (3.13%) PyTorch
3 37 (2.97%) Pandas
4 34 (2.73%) JSON
5 29 (2.33%) Middleware
6 25 (2.00%) pytest
6 25 (2.00%) XML
7 20 (1.60%) PySpark
8 19 (1.52%) OAuth
9 18 (1.44%) .NET
9 18 (1.44%) JWT
9 18 (1.44%) NumPy
9 18 (1.44%) Swagger
9 18 (1.44%) TensorFlow
10 16 (1.28%) RESTful
11 15 (1.20%) Kafka
11 15 (1.20%) React
11 15 (1.20%) scikit-learn
11 15 (1.20%) Web Services
12 14 (1.12%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 73 (5.85%) Management Information System
2 56 (4.49%) Onboarding
3 48 (3.85%) Data Structures
4 37 (2.97%) Low-Code
5 36 (2.89%) Algorithms
6 35 (2.81%) Product Ownership
7 33 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
8 29 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
9 25 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 24 (1.92%) Life Science
11 19 (1.52%) Cloud Native
11 19 (1.52%) Embedded Systems
11 19 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
12 18 (1.44%) SCADA
13 17 (1.36%) Data Centre
13 17 (1.36%) Robotics
14 14 (1.12%) Blockchain
14 14 (1.12%) IoT
15 13 (1.04%) Reinsurance
16 11 (0.88%) Hackathon
Operating Systems
1 65 (5.21%) Linux
2 57 (4.57%) Windows
3 17 (1.36%) Unix
4 16 (1.28%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.96%) Android
7 4 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.32%) CentOS
8 3 (0.24%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.16%) AIX
9 2 (0.16%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.16%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.080%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.080%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.080%) Rocky
10 1 (0.080%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.080%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 290 (23.26%) Agile
2 276 (22.13%) Problem-Solving
3 241 (19.33%) Continuous Improvement
4 205 (16.44%) Verification and Validation
5 196 (15.72%) Analytics
6 168 (13.47%) AI
7 159 (12.75%) Data Validation
8 154 (12.35%) Test Automation
9 147 (11.79%) CI/CD
10 138 (11.07%) Systems Engineering
11 136 (10.91%) Business Intelligence
12 131 (10.51%) Migration
12 131 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
13 123 (9.86%) Data Modelling
13 123 (9.86%) DevOps
14 121 (9.70%) Mentoring
15 117 (9.38%) User Acceptance Testing
16 116 (9.30%) Decision-Making
17 111 (8.90%) ETL
18 107 (8.58%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 276 (22.13%) Python
2 255 (20.45%) SQL
3 51 (4.09%) Java
4 40 (3.21%) C++
5 37 (2.97%) PowerShell
6 36 (2.89%) C
7 30 (2.41%) JavaScript
8 25 (2.00%) Bash
9 20 (1.60%) C#
10 19 (1.52%) T-SQL
11 18 (1.44%) Go
12 17 (1.36%) MATLAB
13 14 (1.12%) TypeScript
14 11 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 11 (0.88%) R
15 9 (0.72%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.72%) VBA
16 7 (0.56%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.56%) VB
17 6 (0.48%) PHP
Qualifications
1 284 (22.77%) Degree
2 157 (12.59%) Security Cleared
3 131 (10.51%) BPSS Clearance
4 59 (4.73%) SC Cleared
5 55 (4.41%) Master's Degree
6 40 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 33 (2.65%) CISA
7 33 (2.65%) CISSP
8 32 (2.57%) CISM
9 31 (2.49%) DV Cleared
10 29 (2.33%) Chartered Engineer
11 26 (2.09%) CGEIT
11 26 (2.09%) FFIEC
11 26 (2.09%) HNC
11 26 (2.09%) SANS
12 22 (1.76%) PMI Certification
13 20 (1.60%) HND
13 20 (1.60%) PMP
14 17 (1.36%) ISTQB
15 10 (0.80%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 159 (12.75%) Data Quality
2 147 (11.79%) QA
3 66 (5.29%) GDPR
4 64 (5.13%) Accessibility
5 41 (3.29%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 27 (2.17%) NIST
7 26 (2.09%) COBIT
8 22 (1.76%) GRC
9 19 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 18 (1.44%) SLA
11 17 (1.36%) IFRS
11 17 (1.36%) WCAG
12 13 (1.04%) ISO 9001
13 11 (0.88%) GAAP
13 11 (0.88%) IEC 61508
14 10 (0.80%) Good Clinical Practice
14 10 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 9 (0.72%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 8 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 12207
16 8 (0.64%) PMO
System Software
1 72 (5.77%) Docker
2 28 (2.25%) Active Directory
3 26 (2.09%) Firmware
4 15 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 9 (0.72%) vSphere
6 7 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.48%) KVM
8 4 (0.32%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.16%) Ceph
10 2 (0.16%) Lustre
10 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.16%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.080%) iptables
11 1 (0.080%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.080%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.080%) OpenIDM
11 1 (0.080%) pfSense
11 1 (0.080%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 70 (5.61%) Kubernetes
2 50 (4.01%) Terraform
3 34 (2.73%) Grafana
4 25 (2.00%) Ansible
5 16 (1.28%) Prometheus
6 12 (0.96%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.80%) SCCM
8 8 (0.64%) Functional Safety
8 8 (0.64%) Puppet
9 7 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.40%) Argo
10 5 (0.40%) Rancher
10 5 (0.40%) yum
11 2 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.16%) Cilium
11 2 (0.16%) Nessus
11 2 (0.16%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.080%) Control-M
12 1 (0.080%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.080%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 162 (12.99%) Microsoft
2 65 (5.21%) Oracle
3 53 (4.25%) SAP
4 47 (3.77%) Salesforce
5 23 (1.84%) Red Hat
5 23 (1.84%) VMware
6 20 (1.60%) Foundry
6 20 (1.60%) IBM
7 19 (1.52%) Cisco
7 19 (1.52%) Databricks
8 16 (1.28%) Adobe
8 16 (1.28%) OpenAI
8 16 (1.28%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.20%) Google
10 13 (1.04%) Workday
11 12 (0.96%) Automation Anywhere
11 12 (0.96%) UiPath
12 11 (0.88%) Intapp
13 10 (0.80%) Citrix
13 10 (0.80%) Siemens