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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 77 199
Rank change year-on-year -47 +122 -14
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,453 1,576 1,398
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.57% 3.70% 1.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.12% 3.97% 1.68%
Number of salaries quoted 825 416 771
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,465 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £71,957
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -6.36% +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 68,523 39,694 83,256
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.83% 93.27% 84.12%
Number of salaries quoted 44,541 20,818 60,168
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,875 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% +6.36% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.94% +3.00% -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 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 26 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 -47 1,296 £57,500 +2.68% 927
UK excluding London -68 961 £51,500 -6.36% 676
Work from Home +130 461 £55,000 -8.33% 405
London +68 370 £75,000 - 342
South East -44 292 £55,000 +4.76% 193
North of England +66 257 £55,000 +15.35% 149
Midlands -85 166 £40,000 -33.33% 98
North West +58 162 £55,000 +15.35% 87
West Midlands -17 104 £42,500 -35.85% 58
East of England -88 96 £60,000 +5.26% 93
South West -52 94 £52,500 -3.67% 102
East Midlands -87 60 £30,000 -42.31% 40
Yorkshire -17 59 £51,250 +7.89% 42
Scotland -11 42 £42,000 -27.63% 35
North East -9 36 £53,750 -12.96% 20
Wales -28 14 £44,000 -23.48% 16
Northern Ireland -41 2 - - 11

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 48 (3.30%) Apache Airflow
2 34 (2.34%) Apache Spark
3 32 (2.20%) Apache
4 26 (1.79%) Confluence
5 21 (1.45%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.83%) SharePoint
8 9 (0.62%) Appian
9 8 (0.55%) CMS
10 7 (0.48%) Jupyter
11 6 (0.41%) Kinematics
11 6 (0.41%) SAS
12 5 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.21%) Artix
14 2 (0.14%) IIS
15 1 (0.069%) Anypoint
15 1 (0.069%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 90 (6.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (3.79%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.45%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.96%) Simulink
6 13 (0.89%) Microsoft Project
7 8 (0.55%) SOLIDWORKS
8 6 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
9 5 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
10 4 (0.28%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.28%) CANalyzer
10 4 (0.28%) Sketch
11 3 (0.21%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.21%) Fusion 360
11 3 (0.21%) Productboard
11 3 (0.21%) Solid Edge
12 2 (0.14%) CATIA
12 2 (0.14%) Stateflow
13 1 (0.069%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 36 (2.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 26 (1.79%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.69%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.62%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.48%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.41%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.41%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.28%) Markit EDM
9 3 (0.21%) iTrent
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Applications
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
11 1 (0.069%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 1 (0.069%) SAP BRIM
11 1 (0.069%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 204 (14.04%) Azure
2 164 (11.29%) AWS
3 130 (8.95%) Power Platform
4 66 (4.54%) GCP
5 61 (4.20%) SaaS
6 48 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (2.62%) GitHub
7 38 (2.62%) Serverless
8 36 (2.48%) Microsoft 365
9 34 (2.34%) Amazon S3
10 33 (2.27%) Azure Data Factory
11 31 (2.13%) Dynamics 365
11 31 (2.13%) Snowflake
12 25 (1.72%) Entra ID
13 24 (1.65%) dbt
14 21 (1.45%) Power Automate
15 17 (1.17%) OpenShift
16 14 (0.96%) Azure AI
17 13 (0.89%) GitHub Actions
18 12 (0.83%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 55 (3.79%) Broadband
2 38 (2.62%) Firewall
3 25 (1.72%) WAN
4 24 (1.65%) Wireless
5 23 (1.58%) CHAP
5 23 (1.58%) DNS
6 19 (1.31%) TCP/IP
7 18 (1.24%) 5G
7 18 (1.24%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.96%) Network Security
9 11 (0.76%) MQTT
9 11 (0.76%) VPN
10 10 (0.69%) HTTP
10 10 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (0.69%) Wireshark
11 9 (0.62%) LAN
11 9 (0.62%) NAS
12 7 (0.48%) Ethernet
12 7 (0.48%) Modbus
12 7 (0.48%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (8.47%) Power BI
2 54 (3.72%) Tableau
3 49 (3.37%) SQL Server
4 44 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (2.68%) Data Warehouse
6 31 (2.13%) Metadata
6 31 (2.13%) Relational Database
7 25 (1.72%) QGIS
8 24 (1.65%) MongoDB
9 23 (1.58%) GIS
10 21 (1.45%) Data Lake
11 20 (1.38%) Spatial Data
12 19 (1.31%) Azure SQL Database
12 19 (1.31%) BigQuery
13 18 (1.24%) Semantic Layer
13 18 (1.24%) Spark SQL
14 17 (1.17%) Oracle Reports
15 16 (1.10%) Oracle Database
16 15 (1.03%) MySQL
17 14 (0.96%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 72 (4.96%) Git
2 62 (4.27%) JIRA
3 39 (2.68%) Jenkins
4 36 (2.48%) Rational DOORS
5 29 (2.00%) GitLab
6 22 (1.51%) Snyk
7 17 (1.17%) LabVIEW
8 15 (1.03%) Postman
9 13 (0.89%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (0.89%) MLflow
9 13 (0.89%) Selenium
10 11 (0.76%) Cucumber
11 10 (0.69%) Eclipse
11 10 (0.69%) JMeter
12 9 (0.62%) TeamCity
12 9 (0.62%) TestRail
13 7 (0.48%) Cypress.io
13 7 (0.48%) Robot Framework
14 6 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
15 5 (0.34%) SpecFlow
General
1 456 (31.38%) Social Skills
2 381 (26.22%) Finance
3 319 (21.95%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (7.57%) Manufacturing
5 109 (7.50%) Aerospace
6 104 (7.16%) Electronics
7 89 (6.13%) Banking
8 83 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 61 (4.20%) Legal
10 54 (3.72%) Public Sector
10 54 (3.72%) Retail
11 47 (3.23%) Marketing
12 46 (3.17%) Law
13 42 (2.89%) Pharmaceutical
14 36 (2.48%) Organisational Skills
15 34 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
16 32 (2.20%) Financial Institution
17 31 (2.13%) Games
18 29 (2.00%) Automotive
19 23 (1.58%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 243 (16.72%) Senior
2 235 (16.17%) Analyst
3 154 (10.60%) Systems Engineer
4 100 (6.88%) Lead
5 97 (6.68%) Architect
6 93 (6.40%) Test Engineer
7 85 (5.85%) Business Analyst
8 83 (5.71%) Validation Engineer
9 71 (4.89%) Consultant
10 61 (4.20%) Data Analyst
11 58 (3.99%) Data Engineer
12 56 (3.85%) Developer
13 51 (3.51%) Integration Engineer
14 46 (3.17%) Principal Engineer
15 45 (3.10%) Junior
16 39 (2.68%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 38 (2.62%) Embedded Engineer
18 36 (2.48%) Verification Engineer
19 35 (2.41%) Systems Integration Engineer
20 32 (2.20%) Software Validation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (3.17%) REST
2 36 (2.48%) PyTorch
3 32 (2.20%) RESTful
4 31 (2.13%) JSON
5 28 (1.93%) Pandas
5 28 (1.93%) PySpark
6 27 (1.86%) Middleware
6 27 (1.86%) pytest
7 22 (1.51%) .NET
7 22 (1.51%) Kafka
8 20 (1.38%) XML
9 19 (1.31%) Node.js
10 18 (1.24%) CSS
10 18 (1.24%) Playwright
10 18 (1.24%) Swagger
11 17 (1.17%) OAuth
12 16 (1.10%) TensorFlow
13 15 (1.03%) JWT
14 14 (0.96%) HTML
14 14 (0.96%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 82 (5.64%) Management Information System
2 67 (4.61%) Onboarding
3 60 (4.13%) Cloud Native
4 56 (3.85%) Data Structures
5 46 (3.17%) Algorithms
6 43 (2.96%) Low-Code
7 39 (2.68%) Product Ownership
8 34 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
9 33 (2.27%) Embedded Systems
10 32 (2.20%) Data Centre
11 31 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
12 30 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
13 25 (1.72%) Driving Licence
14 24 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
14 24 (1.65%) Life Science
15 23 (1.58%) FPGA
16 22 (1.51%) Video\Live Streaming
17 21 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
18 19 (1.31%) Robotics
19 17 (1.17%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 81 (5.57%) Linux
2 67 (4.61%) Windows
3 23 (1.58%) Unix
4 21 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (1.45%) Windows Server
5 13 (0.89%) Android
6 5 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.28%) CentOS
7 4 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.28%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.21%) AIX
8 3 (0.21%) Kali Linux
8 3 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.069%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.069%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.069%) Rocky
10 1 (0.069%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.069%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.069%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 322 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
2 292 (20.10%) Agile
3 278 (19.13%) Continuous Improvement
4 237 (16.31%) AI
5 213 (14.66%) Analytics
5 213 (14.66%) CI/CD
6 205 (14.11%) Verification and Validation
7 197 (13.56%) Test Automation
8 162 (11.15%) Data Validation
9 157 (10.81%) Migration
10 150 (10.32%) Business Intelligence
11 146 (10.05%) Data Modelling
12 142 (9.77%) Decision-Making
13 139 (9.57%) DevOps
13 139 (9.57%) Software Engineering
14 138 (9.50%) Stakeholder Management
15 136 (9.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 135 (9.29%) Data Governance
17 134 (9.22%) Mentoring
18 129 (8.88%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 342 (23.54%) Python
2 289 (19.89%) SQL
3 61 (4.20%) Java
4 59 (4.06%) C++
5 53 (3.65%) C
6 41 (2.82%) Go
7 36 (2.48%) C#
7 36 (2.48%) PowerShell
8 32 (2.20%) JavaScript
9 30 (2.06%) Bash
10 27 (1.86%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.24%) T-SQL
12 16 (1.10%) Embedded C
13 12 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 12 (0.83%) TypeScript
14 11 (0.76%) Embedded C++
15 9 (0.62%) ABAP
15 9 (0.62%) VBA
16 8 (0.55%) R
16 8 (0.55%) Scala
Qualifications
1 323 (22.23%) Degree
2 175 (12.04%) Security Cleared
3 123 (8.47%) BPSS Clearance
4 73 (5.02%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.82%) Master's Degree
6 44 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
7 42 (2.89%) DV Cleared
8 38 (2.62%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.27%) CISA
9 33 (2.27%) CISSP
10 30 (2.06%) CISM
10 30 (2.06%) SANS
11 27 (1.86%) HNC
12 25 (1.72%) HND
13 24 (1.65%) PMI Certification
14 23 (1.58%) CGEIT
14 23 (1.58%) FFIEC
15 21 (1.45%) PMP
16 12 (0.83%) ACCA
16 12 (0.83%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 206 (14.18%) Data Quality
2 154 (10.60%) QA
3 61 (4.20%) GDPR
4 60 (4.13%) Accessibility
5 45 (3.10%) GRC
6 30 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 29 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 25 (1.72%) NIST
9 23 (1.58%) COBIT
10 20 (1.38%) IEC 61508
11 19 (1.31%) IFRS
12 17 (1.17%) SLA
13 14 (0.96%) ISO 9001
14 13 (0.89%) PMO
15 12 (0.83%) GAAP
16 11 (0.76%) GMP
17 10 (0.69%) Good Clinical Practice
17 10 (0.69%) ISO 13485
17 10 (0.69%) SOC 2
17 10 (0.69%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (4.61%) Docker
2 44 (3.03%) Firmware
3 36 (2.48%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.51%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.03%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (1.03%) vSphere
6 13 (0.89%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.41%) KVM
8 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.069%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.069%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.069%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (4.96%) Kubernetes
2 55 (3.79%) Terraform
3 30 (2.06%) Grafana
4 24 (1.65%) Ansible
5 18 (1.24%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.10%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.96%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 11 (0.76%) SCCM
9 9 (0.62%) Cilium
9 9 (0.62%) Puppet
10 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.28%) Argo
11 4 (0.28%) Kibana
11 4 (0.28%) Rancher
11 4 (0.28%) yum
12 3 (0.21%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
13 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 2 (0.14%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 188 (12.94%) Microsoft
2 82 (5.64%) Oracle
3 77 (5.30%) SAP
4 52 (3.58%) Salesforce
5 30 (2.06%) Red Hat
6 28 (1.93%) VMware
7 27 (1.86%) Databricks
8 26 (1.79%) CrowdStrike
9 24 (1.65%) Cisco
9 24 (1.65%) Palo Alto
9 24 (1.65%) ServiceNow
10 22 (1.51%) Adobe
10 22 (1.51%) Google
10 22 (1.51%) Tenable
11 16 (1.10%) Foundry
12 15 (1.03%) IBM
12 15 (1.03%) OpenAI
13 14 (0.96%) Citrix
14 10 (0.69%) Splunk
15 9 (0.62%) Automation Anywhere