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

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 152 198
Rank change year-on-year +19 +46 -16
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,320 885 1,441
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.48% 2.11% 1.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.98% 2.27% 1.76%
Number of salaries quoted 751 412 782
10th Percentile £34,500 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £43,500 £46,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.19% +2.73% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £54,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +1.85% +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 66,694 39,010 81,874
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.98% 92.82% 85.70%
Number of salaries quoted 41,292 22,669 59,633
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £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 26 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 26 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 +22 1,170 £60,000 +7.14% 709
UK excluding London -1 859 £55,000 +1.85% 601
Work from Home +97 391 £60,000 +5.26% 413
London +66 348 £77,500 +10.71% 207
South East +7 268 £55,000 +7.84% 198
North of England +30 208 £58,000 +21.64% 112
Midlands -31 143 £37,500 -33.33% 96
North West +27 129 £60,000 +25.83% 63
East of England -19 98 £60,000 +5.26% 89
West Midlands -18 91 £44,000 -33.58% 58
South West -40 88 £55,000 +0.92% 81
Yorkshire -25 53 £60,000 +26.32% 32
East Midlands -63 50 £32,000 -37.25% 38
Scotland -21 41 £42,000 -27.63% 30
North East -22 26 £51,500 -9.25% 18
Wales -28 13 £44,000 -15.47% 8
Northern Ireland -42 2 - - 7

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 (3.33%) Apache Airflow
2 28 (2.12%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.89%) Confluence
4 23 (1.74%) Apache
5 21 (1.59%) ArcGIS
6 17 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.91%) Appian
7 12 (0.91%) CMS
8 9 (0.68%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.45%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.30%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.15%) IIS
12 1 (0.076%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.076%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.076%) SAS
12 1 (0.076%) WordPress
Applications
1 93 (7.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 64 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 16 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 6 (0.45%) Simulink
6 5 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.30%) CANalyzer
7 4 (0.30%) Fusion 360
8 3 (0.23%) Solid Edge
8 3 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.15%) CATIA
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.076%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.076%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.076%) Adobe Premiere
10 1 (0.076%) PTC Creo
10 1 (0.076%) Revit
10 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 31 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.44%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.76%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.53%) Workday HCM
6 6 (0.45%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.38%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.38%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.30%) Markit EDM
9 3 (0.23%) Oracle Applications
9 3 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.23%) SAP MDG-BP
10 2 (0.15%) iTrent
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 2 (0.15%) SAP FSCM
11 1 (0.076%) Magento
11 1 (0.076%) NetSuite
11 1 (0.076%) SAP EHS
11 1 (0.076%) SAP PSCD
11 1 (0.076%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 199 (15.08%) Azure
2 124 (9.39%) AWS
3 121 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 54 (4.09%) SaaS
5 48 (3.64%) GCP
6 44 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
8 34 (2.58%) Azure Data Factory
9 30 (2.27%) Snowflake
10 27 (2.05%) GitHub
10 27 (2.05%) Microsoft 365
10 27 (2.05%) Power Automate
10 27 (2.05%) Serverless
11 25 (1.89%) Amazon S3
11 25 (1.89%) dbt
12 24 (1.82%) Entra ID
13 16 (1.21%) OpenShift
14 15 (1.14%) Azure AI
15 14 (1.06%) Anthropic Claude
16 12 (0.91%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.12%) CHAP
1 28 (2.12%) Firewall
2 26 (1.97%) Broadband
3 21 (1.59%) WAN
4 20 (1.52%) DNS
5 18 (1.36%) Wireless
6 17 (1.29%) SD-WAN
6 17 (1.29%) TCP/IP
7 13 (0.98%) 5G
8 10 (0.76%) HTTP
8 10 (0.76%) LAN
9 9 (0.68%) Modbus
9 9 (0.68%) Multicast
9 9 (0.68%) Wireshark
10 8 (0.61%) NAS
11 7 (0.53%) Ethernet
11 7 (0.53%) MQTT
11 7 (0.53%) Network Security
11 7 (0.53%) VPN
12 6 (0.45%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (8.64%) Power BI
2 46 (3.48%) SQL Server
3 45 (3.41%) Tableau
4 34 (2.58%) Data Warehouse
4 34 (2.58%) Metadata
5 33 (2.50%) Relational Database
6 29 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
7 25 (1.89%) QGIS
8 23 (1.74%) GIS
9 20 (1.52%) Data Lake
9 20 (1.52%) Spatial Data
10 18 (1.36%) Oracle Reports
11 17 (1.29%) Spark SQL
12 15 (1.14%) Azure SQL Database
12 15 (1.14%) Oracle Database
13 14 (1.06%) MySQL
13 14 (1.06%) Parquet
14 13 (0.98%) Apache Hive
14 13 (0.98%) Impala
14 13 (0.98%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 67 (5.08%) Git
2 62 (4.70%) JIRA
3 40 (3.03%) Rational DOORS
4 22 (1.67%) Jenkins
5 17 (1.29%) GitLab
5 17 (1.29%) Postman
6 16 (1.21%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.14%) MLflow
7 15 (1.14%) Selenium
8 13 (0.98%) IBM UrbanCode
8 13 (0.98%) Snyk
9 12 (0.91%) JMeter
10 11 (0.83%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.83%) TestRail
11 10 (0.76%) Eclipse
12 7 (0.53%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.45%) Subversion
14 5 (0.38%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.38%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.38%) Visual Studio
General
1 444 (33.64%) Social Skills
2 361 (27.35%) Finance
3 291 (22.05%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (7.65%) Manufacturing
5 92 (6.97%) Aerospace
6 86 (6.52%) Banking
7 81 (6.14%) Electronics
8 61 (4.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (4.55%) Legal
10 47 (3.56%) Public Sector
11 44 (3.33%) Retail
12 43 (3.26%) Law
13 40 (3.03%) Marketing
14 39 (2.95%) Financial Institution
15 36 (2.73%) Pharmaceutical
15 36 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
16 30 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
17 28 (2.12%) Automotive
18 24 (1.82%) Aviation
19 22 (1.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 219 (16.59%) Analyst
2 209 (15.83%) Senior
3 159 (12.05%) Systems Engineer
4 93 (7.05%) Lead
5 83 (6.29%) Test Engineer
6 81 (6.14%) Business Analyst
7 79 (5.98%) Validation Engineer
8 78 (5.91%) Architect
9 63 (4.77%) Consultant
10 58 (4.39%) Data Analyst
11 53 (4.02%) Integration Engineer
12 47 (3.56%) Data Engineer
13 46 (3.48%) Developer
14 45 (3.41%) Junior
15 44 (3.33%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 38 (2.88%) Principal Engineer
17 37 (2.80%) Verification Engineer
18 36 (2.73%) Software Validation Engineer
18 36 (2.73%) Systems Integration Engineer
19 31 (2.35%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (4.32%) REST
2 39 (2.95%) PyTorch
3 36 (2.73%) JSON
4 35 (2.65%) Pandas
5 29 (2.20%) Middleware
6 26 (1.97%) pytest
7 24 (1.82%) XML
8 22 (1.67%) PySpark
9 20 (1.52%) OAuth
10 19 (1.44%) .NET
10 19 (1.44%) Swagger
11 18 (1.36%) JWT
11 18 (1.36%) TensorFlow
12 17 (1.29%) RESTful
13 16 (1.21%) Kafka
13 16 (1.21%) NumPy
13 16 (1.21%) Playwright
13 16 (1.21%) React
14 15 (1.14%) CSS
14 15 (1.14%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 79 (5.98%) Management Information System
2 57 (4.32%) Onboarding
3 50 (3.79%) Data Structures
4 36 (2.73%) Algorithms
4 36 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
5 35 (2.65%) Low-Code
5 35 (2.65%) Product Ownership
6 33 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
7 27 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
8 25 (1.89%) Life Science
9 24 (1.82%) Cloud Native
10 23 (1.74%) Data Centre
11 22 (1.67%) Embedded Systems
12 20 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
13 18 (1.36%) SCADA
14 17 (1.29%) Robotics
15 15 (1.14%) Blockchain
16 14 (1.06%) Driving Licence
16 14 (1.06%) IoT
16 14 (1.06%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 74 (5.61%) Linux
2 61 (4.62%) Windows
3 19 (1.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 19 (1.44%) Unix
3 19 (1.44%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.91%) Android
5 4 (0.30%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.30%) CentOS
5 4 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (0.30%) Mac OS X
6 3 (0.23%) AIX
6 3 (0.23%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.23%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
7 2 (0.15%) VxWorks
8 1 (0.076%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.076%) Rocky
8 1 (0.076%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.076%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 298 (22.58%) Problem-Solving
2 278 (21.06%) Agile
3 252 (19.09%) Continuous Improvement
4 206 (15.61%) Analytics
5 203 (15.38%) Verification and Validation
6 181 (13.71%) AI
7 164 (12.42%) Data Validation
8 160 (12.12%) CI/CD
9 157 (11.89%) Test Automation
10 146 (11.06%) Migration
11 143 (10.83%) Business Intelligence
12 137 (10.38%) Stakeholder Management
13 135 (10.23%) Data Modelling
14 130 (9.85%) User Acceptance Testing
15 129 (9.77%) Decision-Making
15 129 (9.77%) Systems Engineering
16 126 (9.55%) Data Governance
17 120 (9.09%) Mentoring
18 119 (9.02%) DevOps
19 118 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 281 (21.29%) Python
2 266 (20.15%) SQL
3 44 (3.33%) C++
3 44 (3.33%) Java
4 37 (2.80%) PowerShell
5 34 (2.58%) C
6 30 (2.27%) JavaScript
7 24 (1.82%) Bash
8 22 (1.67%) Go
9 21 (1.59%) C#
10 18 (1.36%) T-SQL
11 17 (1.29%) MATLAB
12 15 (1.14%) TypeScript
13 12 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 10 (0.76%) Embedded C
14 10 (0.76%) R
15 9 (0.68%) VBA
16 7 (0.53%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.53%) VB
17 6 (0.45%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 295 (22.35%) Degree
2 159 (12.05%) Security Cleared
3 125 (9.47%) BPSS Clearance
4 61 (4.62%) Master's Degree
5 54 (4.09%) SC Cleared
6 43 (3.26%) Computer Science Degree
7 38 (2.88%) CISSP
8 36 (2.73%) CISA
8 36 (2.73%) DV Cleared
9 35 (2.65%) CISM
10 33 (2.50%) Chartered Engineer
11 31 (2.35%) SANS
12 28 (2.12%) CGEIT
12 28 (2.12%) FFIEC
13 27 (2.05%) HNC
14 23 (1.74%) HND
14 23 (1.74%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.52%) PMP
16 12 (0.91%) ISTQB
17 10 (0.76%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 179 (13.56%) Data Quality
2 140 (10.61%) QA
3 65 (4.92%) GDPR
4 60 (4.55%) Accessibility
5 37 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 31 (2.35%) GRC
7 30 (2.27%) NIST
8 28 (2.12%) COBIT
9 21 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 17 (1.29%) IFRS
11 16 (1.21%) IEC 61508
12 15 (1.14%) SLA
13 13 (0.98%) ISO 9001
14 12 (0.91%) GAAP
15 10 (0.76%) GMP
15 10 (0.76%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.76%) WCAG
16 9 (0.68%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 9 (0.68%) PMO
17 7 (0.53%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 63 (4.77%) Docker
2 34 (2.58%) Active Directory
3 25 (1.89%) Firmware
4 15 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
6 13 (0.98%) vSphere
7 6 (0.45%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.45%) KVM
8 5 (0.38%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.076%) iptables
11 1 (0.076%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.076%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.076%) OpenIDM
11 1 (0.076%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 65 (4.92%) Kubernetes
2 45 (3.41%) Terraform
3 30 (2.27%) Grafana
4 24 (1.82%) Ansible
5 16 (1.21%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.06%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 12 (0.91%) Functional Safety
8 10 (0.76%) SCCM
9 9 (0.68%) Puppet
10 7 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.38%) Argo
11 5 (0.38%) Rancher
11 5 (0.38%) yum
12 4 (0.30%) Cilium
13 3 (0.23%) HP Fortify
14 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
14 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 2 (0.15%) Kibana
14 2 (0.15%) PowerCLI
15 1 (0.076%) Control-M
Vendors
1 176 (13.33%) Microsoft
2 73 (5.53%) Oracle
3 61 (4.62%) SAP
4 45 (3.41%) Salesforce
5 27 (2.05%) Red Hat
5 27 (2.05%) VMware
6 24 (1.82%) Databricks
7 23 (1.74%) Cisco
8 18 (1.36%) IBM
9 17 (1.29%) Foundry
9 17 (1.29%) Google
10 16 (1.21%) OpenAI
11 15 (1.14%) Adobe
11 15 (1.14%) Palo Alto
11 15 (1.14%) ServiceNow
12 14 (1.06%) CrowdStrike
13 13 (0.98%) Citrix
13 13 (0.98%) Tenable
14 12 (0.91%) Automation Anywhere
14 12 (0.91%) UiPath