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 5 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 92 208
Rank change year-on-year -24 +116 -11
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,595 1,630 1,385
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.64% 3.40% 1.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.23% 3.74% 1.61%
Number of salaries quoted 959 476 750
10th Percentile £35,000 £39,434 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,000 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £56,752 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.09% +3.19% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -3.64% +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 71,495 43,542 85,819
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.57% 90.95% 82.13%
Number of salaries quoted 49,394 24,103 60,537
10th Percentile £30,250 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -8.72%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.00% - -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 5 July 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 5 July 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 1,444 £55,000 -1.79% 1,127
UK excluding London -51 1,070 £53,000 -3.64% 801
Work from Home +117 518 £55,000 -8.33% 478
London +72 413 £77,500 - 441
South East -41 322 £55,500 +0.91% 266
North of England +93 294 £55,000 +15.35% 163
North West +72 185 £55,000 +15.35% 87
Midlands -68 168 £42,500 -22.73% 125
South West -42 113 £52,750 -1.03% 115
East of England -78 108 £60,000 +5.26% 91
West Midlands +2 98 £44,000 -29.60% 64
East Midlands -84 68 £30,000 -36.84% 61
Yorkshire +8 62 £44,000 +5.39% 49
North East -4 47 £55,000 +22.22% 27
Scotland +2 43 £48,750 -16.00% 45
Wales -39 22 £47,500 -17.39% 10
Northern Ireland -48 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 52 (3.26%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (3.01%) Apache Spark
3 46 (2.88%) Apache
4 26 (1.63%) Confluence
5 21 (1.32%) ArcGIS
5 21 (1.32%) SharePoint
6 15 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.75%) Jupyter
8 10 (0.63%) SAS
9 5 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.25%) Appian
10 4 (0.25%) CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.19%) Artix
12 2 (0.13%) IIS
13 1 (0.063%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 87 (5.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 47 (2.95%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (1.57%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (1.25%) MS Visio
5 18 (1.13%) Simulink
6 15 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.50%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.31%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.25%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.25%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.25%) Sketch
10 3 (0.19%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.19%) Productboard
10 3 (0.19%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.19%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 1 (0.063%) Chatbot
12 1 (0.063%) PTC Creo
12 1 (0.063%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 45 (2.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (2.57%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.69%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.63%) SAP ERP
5 9 (0.56%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.50%) iTrent
6 8 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.38%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.31%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle Applications
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG-BP
9 3 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.13%) SAP Business One
10 2 (0.13%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.13%) SAP PSCD
10 2 (0.13%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 233 (14.61%) Azure
2 206 (12.92%) AWS
3 152 (9.53%) Power Platform
4 80 (5.02%) GCP
5 79 (4.95%) SaaS
6 63 (3.95%) Azure DevOps
7 45 (2.82%) Serverless
8 42 (2.63%) GitHub
8 42 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
9 38 (2.38%) Amazon S3
10 33 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
11 25 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
12 22 (1.38%) Snowflake
13 21 (1.32%) Entra ID
13 21 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
14 17 (1.07%) Amazon EC2
14 17 (1.07%) dbt
14 17 (1.07%) Power Automate
15 16 (1.00%) Amazon EMR
16 15 (0.94%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 71 (4.45%) Broadband
2 47 (2.95%) Firewall
3 33 (2.07%) DNS
4 24 (1.50%) Wireless
5 23 (1.44%) TCP/IP
6 22 (1.38%) WAN
7 17 (1.07%) CHAP
8 16 (1.00%) Network Security
8 16 (1.00%) SD-WAN
9 15 (0.94%) VPN
10 13 (0.82%) Wireshark
11 12 (0.75%) 5G
11 12 (0.75%) Ethernet
11 12 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
12 11 (0.69%) HTTP
12 11 (0.69%) MQTT
13 10 (0.63%) LAN
14 9 (0.56%) NAS
15 8 (0.50%) BGP
16 7 (0.44%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 143 (8.97%) Power BI
2 57 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
3 56 (3.51%) Tableau
4 52 (3.26%) SQL Server
5 51 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
6 37 (2.32%) Metadata
7 34 (2.13%) MongoDB
8 30 (1.88%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.69%) BigQuery
9 27 (1.69%) Data Lake
10 25 (1.57%) QGIS
11 24 (1.50%) Semantic Layer
12 23 (1.44%) Azure SQL Database
12 23 (1.44%) GIS
13 20 (1.25%) Spatial Data
14 19 (1.19%) DynamoDB
14 19 (1.19%) Spark SQL
15 18 (1.13%) Amazon Athena
15 18 (1.13%) MySQL
16 17 (1.07%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 90 (5.64%) JIRA
2 79 (4.95%) Git
3 50 (3.13%) Jenkins
4 40 (2.51%) GitLab
5 29 (1.82%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.38%) Snyk
7 17 (1.07%) Selenium
8 16 (1.00%) LabVIEW
9 15 (0.94%) Postman
10 13 (0.82%) IBM UrbanCode
11 12 (0.75%) Cucumber
11 12 (0.75%) Cypress.io
11 12 (0.75%) JMeter
12 10 (0.63%) TeamCity
13 8 (0.50%) Burp Suite
13 8 (0.50%) Eclipse
13 8 (0.50%) MLflow
14 7 (0.44%) Rational Rhapsody
14 7 (0.44%) REST Assured
15 6 (0.38%) Zephyr
General
1 511 (32.04%) Social Skills
2 430 (26.96%) Finance
3 352 (22.07%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (7.46%) Aerospace
5 118 (7.40%) Manufacturing
6 111 (6.96%) Electronics
7 96 (6.02%) Banking
8 95 (5.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 63 (3.95%) Retail
10 61 (3.82%) Public Sector
11 54 (3.39%) Legal
12 52 (3.26%) Law
13 50 (3.13%) Organisational Skills
14 48 (3.01%) Pharmaceutical
15 42 (2.63%) Games
15 42 (2.63%) Marketing
16 41 (2.57%) Automotive
17 33 (2.07%) Financial Institution
18 30 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
19 23 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 276 (17.30%) Senior
2 248 (15.55%) Analyst
3 126 (7.90%) Lead
3 126 (7.90%) Systems Engineer
4 104 (6.52%) Test Engineer
5 101 (6.33%) Architect
6 84 (5.27%) Data Engineer
7 81 (5.08%) Business Analyst
8 79 (4.95%) Validation Engineer
9 75 (4.70%) Consultant
10 73 (4.58%) Developer
11 70 (4.39%) Data Analyst
12 43 (2.70%) Embedded Engineer
13 42 (2.63%) Principal Engineer
14 41 (2.57%) IT Manager
14 41 (2.57%) Support Engineer
15 39 (2.45%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 38 (2.38%) Integration Engineer
16 38 (2.38%) Software Engineer
17 35 (2.19%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.82%) RESTful
2 35 (2.19%) PySpark
2 35 (2.19%) REST
3 34 (2.13%) JSON
3 34 (2.13%) Node.js
4 32 (2.01%) PyTorch
5 30 (1.88%) Kafka
6 28 (1.76%) XML
7 26 (1.63%) Pandas
8 25 (1.57%) .NET
9 24 (1.50%) Middleware
10 21 (1.32%) Playwright
11 20 (1.25%) pytest
12 18 (1.13%) Regular Expression
12 18 (1.13%) XMPP
13 16 (1.00%) CSS
13 16 (1.00%) React
14 15 (0.94%) HTML
14 15 (0.94%) Swagger
15 14 (0.88%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 100 (6.27%) Cloud Native
2 87 (5.45%) Onboarding
3 73 (4.58%) Data Structures
4 68 (4.26%) Management Information System
5 62 (3.89%) Algorithms
6 50 (3.13%) Product Ownership
7 48 (3.01%) Low-Code
8 45 (2.82%) Embedded Systems
9 43 (2.70%) Driving Licence
10 39 (2.45%) Data Centre
10 39 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
11 36 (2.26%) Enterprise Software
12 35 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 35 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
13 32 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
14 31 (1.94%) Video\Live Streaming
15 28 (1.76%) Life Science
16 24 (1.50%) FPGA
16 24 (1.50%) Robotics
17 19 (1.19%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 107 (6.71%) Linux
2 76 (4.76%) Windows
3 29 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.44%) Unix
6 6 (0.38%) Android
7 5 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.25%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.25%) Mac OS X
8 4 (0.25%) Robot Operating System
9 3 (0.19%) AIX
9 3 (0.19%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
9 3 (0.19%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.13%) CentOS
10 2 (0.13%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.063%) Rocky
11 1 (0.063%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.063%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.063%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (21.82%) Problem-Solving
2 339 (21.25%) Continuous Improvement
3 334 (20.94%) Agile
4 290 (18.18%) AI
5 251 (15.74%) CI/CD
6 227 (14.23%) Analytics
7 221 (13.86%) Test Automation
8 199 (12.48%) Migration
9 183 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
10 176 (11.03%) Verification and Validation
11 174 (10.91%) Business Intelligence
12 171 (10.72%) Data Validation
13 162 (10.16%) DevOps
14 160 (10.03%) Mentoring
15 158 (9.91%) Data Modelling
16 157 (9.84%) Decision-Making
16 157 (9.84%) Software Engineering
17 156 (9.78%) Data Analysis
18 148 (9.28%) Machine Learning
19 146 (9.15%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 408 (25.58%) Python
2 334 (20.94%) SQL
3 72 (4.51%) C++
4 70 (4.39%) C
5 66 (4.14%) Java
6 50 (3.13%) Go
7 45 (2.82%) C#
8 35 (2.19%) JavaScript
9 32 (2.01%) MATLAB
10 27 (1.69%) Bash
11 24 (1.50%) PowerShell
11 24 (1.50%) T-SQL
12 21 (1.32%) Embedded C
13 18 (1.13%) Embedded C++
14 16 (1.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 15 (0.94%) TypeScript
16 14 (0.88%) Scala
17 10 (0.63%) ABAP
18 9 (0.56%) VBA
19 7 (0.44%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 304 (19.06%) Degree
2 175 (10.97%) Security Cleared
3 109 (6.83%) BPSS Clearance
4 80 (5.02%) SC Cleared
5 75 (4.70%) Master's Degree
6 49 (3.07%) DV Cleared
7 40 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
8 33 (2.07%) Chartered Engineer
9 29 (1.82%) HNC
10 27 (1.69%) CISA
10 27 (1.69%) CISSP
10 27 (1.69%) SANS
11 24 (1.50%) CISM
12 22 (1.38%) HND
13 20 (1.25%) ACCA
13 20 (1.25%) CIMA
14 17 (1.07%) CGEIT
14 17 (1.07%) FFIEC
14 17 (1.07%) PMI Certification
15 14 (0.88%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (16.68%) Data Quality
2 202 (12.66%) QA
3 61 (3.82%) Accessibility
4 56 (3.51%) GDPR
5 39 (2.45%) GRC
6 26 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.38%) IEC 61508
8 21 (1.32%) NIST
9 19 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 18 (1.13%) IFRS
11 17 (1.07%) COBIT
12 16 (1.00%) ISO 9001
12 16 (1.00%) PMO
13 15 (0.94%) SLA
14 13 (0.82%) GAAP
14 13 (0.82%) ISO 26262
15 11 (0.69%) SOC 2
15 11 (0.69%) WCAG
16 10 (0.63%) GxP
17 9 (0.56%) GMP
System Software
1 70 (4.39%) Docker
2 49 (3.07%) Firmware
3 37 (2.32%) Active Directory
4 24 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
5 23 (1.44%) Embedded Firmware
6 20 (1.25%) vSphere
7 15 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.38%) KVM
9 5 (0.31%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.13%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 70 (4.39%) Kubernetes
1 70 (4.39%) Terraform
2 35 (2.19%) Grafana
3 23 (1.44%) Ansible
3 23 (1.44%) Functional Safety
4 16 (1.00%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.75%) Puppet
6 10 (0.63%) Cilium
7 7 (0.44%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.44%) Kibana
8 6 (0.38%) SCCM
9 3 (0.19%) Argo
9 3 (0.19%) FortiGate
9 3 (0.19%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.19%) Nessus
9 3 (0.19%) Nmap
9 3 (0.19%) Rancher
9 3 (0.19%) yum
10 2 (0.13%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 2 (0.13%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 201 (12.60%) Microsoft
2 103 (6.46%) SAP
3 90 (5.64%) Oracle
4 48 (3.01%) Salesforce
5 41 (2.57%) Databricks
6 34 (2.13%) Red Hat
7 33 (2.07%) ServiceNow
7 33 (2.07%) VMware
8 29 (1.82%) CrowdStrike
9 26 (1.63%) Cisco
10 25 (1.57%) Google
11 23 (1.44%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.38%) Tenable
13 19 (1.19%) Adobe
14 16 (1.00%) Foundry
15 14 (0.88%) Citrix
15 14 (0.88%) McAfee
16 12 (0.75%) EMC
16 12 (0.75%) IBM
17 11 (0.69%) OpenAI