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 11 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 76 208
Rank change year-on-year -40 +132 -24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,494 1,635 1,423
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.62% 3.70% 1.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.22% 3.99% 1.62%
Number of salaries quoted 865 443 773
10th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,750 £46,875 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -11.41%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,433
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 67,331 40,980 87,741
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.88% 92.69% 82.42%
Number of salaries quoted 46,057 21,831 62,274
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +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 11 June 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 11 June 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 -43 1,350 £56,283 -1.26% 898
UK excluding London -56 992 £52,500 -4.55% 740
Work from Home +127 482 £55,000 -9.09% 381
London +71 391 £75,000 - 273
South East -35 305 £55,000 - 239
North of England +83 272 £55,000 +15.35% 147
North West +78 172 £55,000 +15.35% 80
Midlands -75 160 £40,000 -30.43% 122
East of England -76 107 £60,000 +5.26% 90
West Midlands -6 96 £44,000 -32.31% 73
South West -46 94 £52,750 -4.09% 108
East Midlands -81 62 £30,000 -42.31% 49
Yorkshire -9 60 £50,000 +11.11% 49
North East -10 40 £55,000 +15.79% 21
Scotland -3 39 £42,500 -26.77% 33
Wales -33 15 £45,750 -23.75% 13
Northern Ireland -35 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 50 (3.35%) Apache Airflow
2 41 (2.74%) Apache Spark
3 40 (2.68%) Apache
4 24 (1.61%) Confluence
5 21 (1.41%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
7 15 (1.00%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.67%) Jupyter
9 8 (0.54%) Appian
10 7 (0.47%) SAS
11 5 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 5 (0.33%) CMS
11 5 (0.33%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.20%) Artix
13 2 (0.13%) IIS
14 1 (0.067%) Anypoint
14 1 (0.067%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 90 (6.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 49 (3.28%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
4 19 (1.27%) MS Visio
5 15 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 14 (0.94%) Simulink
7 8 (0.54%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 5 (0.33%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.27%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.27%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.27%) Sketch
10 3 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.20%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.20%) Productboard
10 3 (0.20%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.067%) Revit
11 1 (0.067%) Trello
Business Applications
1 41 (2.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.67%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.60%) SAP MDG
5 8 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.40%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.33%) iTrent
7 5 (0.33%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.33%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.33%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
9 2 (0.13%) Markit EDM
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.13%) SAP EWM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP MM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP PSCD
9 2 (0.13%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 219 (14.66%) Azure
2 181 (12.12%) AWS
3 135 (9.04%) Power Platform
4 74 (4.95%) GCP
5 65 (4.35%) SaaS
6 56 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
7 40 (2.68%) GitHub
7 40 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
8 39 (2.61%) Serverless
9 36 (2.41%) Amazon S3
10 30 (2.01%) Azure Data Factory
10 30 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
11 27 (1.81%) Snowflake
12 24 (1.61%) Entra ID
13 20 (1.34%) dbt
13 20 (1.34%) Power Automate
14 17 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
15 16 (1.07%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 13 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 69 (4.62%) Broadband
2 45 (3.01%) Firewall
3 33 (2.21%) DNS
4 22 (1.47%) CHAP
4 22 (1.47%) WAN
4 22 (1.47%) Wireless
5 19 (1.27%) TCP/IP
6 16 (1.07%) SD-WAN
7 15 (1.00%) 5G
8 14 (0.94%) Network Security
8 14 (0.94%) VPN
9 11 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (0.67%) HTTP
10 10 (0.67%) MQTT
10 10 (0.67%) Wireshark
11 9 (0.60%) LAN
11 9 (0.60%) NAS
12 8 (0.54%) Ethernet
13 7 (0.47%) ATM
13 7 (0.47%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (8.57%) Power BI
2 54 (3.61%) Tableau
3 53 (3.55%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (3.28%) SQL Server
5 43 (2.88%) Data Warehouse
6 34 (2.28%) MongoDB
7 30 (2.01%) Metadata
7 30 (2.01%) Relational Database
8 25 (1.67%) QGIS
9 24 (1.61%) BigQuery
10 23 (1.54%) Data Lake
10 23 (1.54%) GIS
11 22 (1.47%) Semantic Layer
12 21 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (1.34%) Spatial Data
14 18 (1.20%) Spark SQL
15 17 (1.14%) Oracle Database
16 15 (1.00%) MySQL
17 14 (0.94%) DynamoDB
17 14 (0.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 71 (4.75%) JIRA
2 69 (4.62%) Git
3 47 (3.15%) Jenkins
4 35 (2.34%) GitLab
5 32 (2.14%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.47%) Snyk
7 15 (1.00%) Postman
7 15 (1.00%) Selenium
8 14 (0.94%) LabVIEW
9 13 (0.87%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.80%) MLflow
11 11 (0.74%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.74%) JMeter
12 10 (0.67%) Cypress.io
12 10 (0.67%) Eclipse
13 9 (0.60%) TeamCity
14 6 (0.40%) Rational Rhapsody
14 6 (0.40%) REST Assured
14 6 (0.40%) Robot Framework
15 5 (0.33%) TestRail
General
1 463 (30.99%) Social Skills
2 403 (26.97%) Finance
3 321 (21.49%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (7.56%) Aerospace
5 109 (7.30%) Manufacturing
6 103 (6.89%) Electronics
7 93 (6.22%) Banking
8 89 (5.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (4.02%) Legal
10 57 (3.82%) Public Sector
11 54 (3.61%) Law
12 52 (3.48%) Retail
13 44 (2.95%) Pharmaceutical
14 43 (2.88%) Marketing
15 39 (2.61%) Games
16 37 (2.48%) Organisational Skills
17 33 (2.21%) Financial Institution
18 32 (2.14%) Automotive
19 30 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
20 24 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 252 (16.87%) Senior
2 235 (15.73%) Analyst
3 140 (9.37%) Systems Engineer
4 107 (7.16%) Lead
5 101 (6.76%) Test Engineer
6 99 (6.63%) Architect
7 88 (5.89%) Validation Engineer
8 82 (5.49%) Business Analyst
9 71 (4.75%) Data Engineer
10 69 (4.62%) Consultant
11 68 (4.55%) Developer
12 64 (4.28%) Data Analyst
13 48 (3.21%) Principal Engineer
14 45 (3.01%) Integration Engineer
15 40 (2.68%) Embedded Engineer
16 39 (2.61%) IT Manager
17 37 (2.48%) Junior
18 35 (2.34%) Senior Systems Engineer
19 34 (2.28%) Security Architect
20 33 (2.21%) Software Validation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (2.88%) RESTful
2 41 (2.74%) REST
3 35 (2.34%) PyTorch
4 32 (2.14%) JSON
5 31 (2.07%) PySpark
6 28 (1.87%) Pandas
7 26 (1.74%) Kafka
7 26 (1.74%) pytest
8 25 (1.67%) Middleware
8 25 (1.67%) Node.js
9 23 (1.54%) XML
10 22 (1.47%) .NET
11 19 (1.27%) Playwright
12 18 (1.20%) Swagger
13 17 (1.14%) Regular Expression
13 17 (1.14%) XMPP
14 16 (1.07%) CSS
14 16 (1.07%) OAuth
15 15 (1.00%) TensorFlow
16 14 (0.94%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 85 (5.69%) Cloud Native
2 78 (5.22%) Management Information System
3 71 (4.75%) Onboarding
4 59 (3.95%) Data Structures
5 51 (3.41%) Low-Code
6 49 (3.28%) Algorithms
7 39 (2.61%) Product Ownership
8 35 (2.34%) Embedded Systems
9 33 (2.21%) Driving Licence
9 33 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
9 33 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
10 32 (2.14%) Analytical Mindset
10 32 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
11 31 (2.07%) Data Centre
11 31 (2.07%) Video\Live Streaming
12 29 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
13 28 (1.87%) Life Science
14 23 (1.54%) FPGA
15 21 (1.41%) Robotics
16 17 (1.14%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 89 (5.96%) Linux
2 67 (4.48%) Windows
3 26 (1.74%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (1.61%) Unix
6 9 (0.60%) Android
7 4 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.27%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.20%) AIX
8 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.20%) CentOS
8 3 (0.20%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.13%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.13%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.067%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.067%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.067%) Rocky
10 1 (0.067%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.067%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.067%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 324 (21.69%) Problem-Solving
2 307 (20.55%) Agile
3 305 (20.41%) Continuous Improvement
4 261 (17.47%) AI
5 235 (15.73%) CI/CD
6 216 (14.46%) Test Automation
7 214 (14.32%) Analytics
8 191 (12.78%) Verification and Validation
9 167 (11.18%) Migration
10 164 (10.98%) Data Validation
11 156 (10.44%) DevOps
12 155 (10.37%) Business Intelligence
12 155 (10.37%) Data Modelling
13 148 (9.91%) Stakeholder Management
14 147 (9.84%) Decision-Making
14 147 (9.84%) Machine Learning
15 144 (9.64%) Mentoring
15 144 (9.64%) Software Engineering
16 140 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 135 (9.04%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 370 (24.77%) Python
2 302 (20.21%) SQL
3 65 (4.35%) Java
4 59 (3.95%) C++
5 57 (3.82%) C
6 49 (3.28%) Go
7 38 (2.54%) C#
8 31 (2.07%) JavaScript
8 31 (2.07%) PowerShell
9 29 (1.94%) Bash
10 25 (1.67%) MATLAB
11 19 (1.27%) T-SQL
12 18 (1.20%) Embedded C
13 14 (0.94%) Embedded C++
14 13 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 11 (0.74%) Scala
15 11 (0.74%) TypeScript
16 10 (0.67%) ABAP
17 9 (0.60%) VBA
18 8 (0.54%) R
Qualifications
1 299 (20.01%) Degree
2 172 (11.51%) Security Cleared
3 111 (7.43%) BPSS Clearance
4 79 (5.29%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.69%) Master's Degree
6 45 (3.01%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (2.48%) Chartered Engineer
9 32 (2.14%) CISA
9 32 (2.14%) CISSP
9 32 (2.14%) SANS
10 29 (1.94%) CISM
11 27 (1.81%) HNC
12 23 (1.54%) HND
13 22 (1.47%) CGEIT
13 22 (1.47%) FFIEC
14 21 (1.41%) PMI Certification
15 18 (1.20%) PMP
16 17 (1.14%) ACCA
16 17 (1.14%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 233 (15.60%) Data Quality
2 163 (10.91%) QA
3 63 (4.22%) Accessibility
4 59 (3.95%) GDPR
5 43 (2.88%) GRC
6 28 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 24 (1.61%) NIST
9 22 (1.47%) COBIT
10 20 (1.34%) IEC 61508
11 19 (1.27%) IFRS
12 16 (1.07%) SLA
13 15 (1.00%) ISO 9001
13 15 (1.00%) PMO
14 12 (0.80%) GAAP
15 11 (0.74%) GMP
15 11 (0.74%) WCAG
16 10 (0.67%) ISO 13485
16 10 (0.67%) SOC 2
17 9 (0.60%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 71 (4.75%) Docker
2 44 (2.95%) Firmware
3 40 (2.68%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.47%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (1.27%) vSphere
6 16 (1.07%) Embedded Firmware
7 15 (1.00%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.40%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.40%) KVM
9 2 (0.13%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.067%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.067%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.067%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 73 (4.89%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.15%) Terraform
3 31 (2.07%) Grafana
4 22 (1.47%) Ansible
5 19 (1.27%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.07%) Prometheus
7 11 (0.74%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 10 (0.67%) SCCM
9 9 (0.60%) Cilium
9 9 (0.60%) Puppet
10 7 (0.47%) Kibana
11 6 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
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 (0.13%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.13%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 1 (0.067%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 197 (13.19%) Microsoft
2 92 (6.16%) Oracle
3 90 (6.02%) SAP
4 52 (3.48%) Salesforce
5 36 (2.41%) Databricks
6 34 (2.28%) Red Hat
7 33 (2.21%) VMware
8 32 (2.14%) ServiceNow
9 29 (1.94%) CrowdStrike
10 23 (1.54%) Palo Alto
11 22 (1.47%) Adobe
11 22 (1.47%) Google
11 22 (1.47%) Tenable
12 21 (1.41%) Cisco
13 15 (1.00%) Foundry
14 14 (0.94%) Citrix
14 14 (0.94%) OpenAI
15 13 (0.87%) McAfee
16 12 (0.80%) Splunk
17 10 (0.67%) IBM