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

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 164 187
Rank change year-on-year +29 +23 -25
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,260 760 1,436
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.86% 1.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.00% 2.00% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 709 381 786
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 63,052 38,055 78,562
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 76.14% 93.05% 86.27%
Number of salaries quoted 38,936 22,478 58,228
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,237
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,125 £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 £72,500
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% -7.94%

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 8 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 8 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 +28 1,104 £60,000 +7.14% 872
UK excluding London +15 807 £53,500 -2.73% 714
Work from Home +96 361 £58,750 +3.98% 341
London +73 343 £75,000 +9.09% 268
South East +34 255 £55,000 +7.32% 215
North of England +13 180 £59,000 +23.97% 152
Midlands -22 139 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +8 114 £60,000 +25.83% 74
East of England -9 94 £57,500 +4.55% 96
West Midlands +1 85 £44,000 -32.31% 77
South West -34 79 £55,000 - 89
East Midlands -46 52 £34,000 -33.33% 41
Yorkshire -29 45 £60,000 +26.32% 51
Scotland -18 44 £42,000 -27.63% 42
North East -9 21 £50,000 -11.89% 27
Wales -22 15 £55,000 +12.01% 16
Northern Ireland -37 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 (3.33%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.14%) Apache Spark
3 23 (1.83%) Apache
4 22 (1.75%) Confluence
5 20 (1.59%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.95%) Appian
7 12 (0.95%) CMS
8 9 (0.71%) SharePoint
9 6 (0.48%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.32%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.16%) WordPress
12 1 (0.079%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.079%) IIS
12 1 (0.079%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.079%) Palantir Foundry
12 1 (0.079%) SAS
Applications
1 89 (7.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.35%) 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 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.63%) 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 (0.079%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.079%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.079%) SAP BRIM
9 1 (0.079%) SAP Business ByDesign
9 1 (0.079%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 184 (14.60%) Azure
2 121 (9.60%) AWS
3 112 (8.89%) Power Platform
4 60 (4.76%) SaaS
5 44 (3.49%) GCP
6 41 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (2.54%) Dynamics 365
8 31 (2.46%) dbt
9 30 (2.38%) Azure Data Factory
10 29 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 29 (2.30%) Snowflake
11 24 (1.90%) Amazon S3
12 23 (1.83%) Entra ID
12 23 (1.83%) GitHub
13 22 (1.75%) Microsoft 365
14 19 (1.51%) Serverless
15 18 (1.43%) Datadog
16 16 (1.27%) OpenShift
17 15 (1.19%) Azure AI
18 13 (1.03%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.06%) CHAP
2 21 (1.67%) Broadband
3 19 (1.51%) Firewall
4 17 (1.35%) WAN
5 15 (1.19%) DNS
5 15 (1.19%) TCP/IP
5 15 (1.19%) Wireless
6 14 (1.11%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.95%) 5G
8 9 (0.71%) HTTP
8 9 (0.71%) Modbus
8 9 (0.71%) Multicast
9 7 (0.56%) LAN
9 7 (0.56%) MQTT
9 7 (0.56%) Wireshark
10 6 (0.48%) ATM
10 6 (0.48%) NAS
10 6 (0.48%) tcpdump
10 6 (0.48%) VPN
10 6 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (8.33%) Power BI
2 44 (3.49%) SQL Server
3 43 (3.41%) Tableau
4 31 (2.46%) Data Warehouse
5 30 (2.38%) Relational Database
6 27 (2.14%) Metadata
7 26 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
8 25 (1.98%) GIS
9 24 (1.90%) QGIS
10 20 (1.59%) Spatial Data
11 17 (1.35%) Oracle Reports
12 15 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
12 15 (1.19%) Spark SQL
13 14 (1.11%) Oracle Database
14 13 (1.03%) Apache Hive
14 13 (1.03%) Impala
14 13 (1.03%) MySQL
14 13 (1.03%) Parquet
14 13 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 12 (0.95%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 69 (5.48%) Git
1 69 (5.48%) JIRA
2 42 (3.33%) Rational DOORS
3 22 (1.75%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.43%) JMeter
4 18 (1.43%) Postman
5 17 (1.35%) Cucumber
6 16 (1.27%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.19%) GitLab
7 15 (1.19%) Selenium
8 14 (1.11%) MLflow
8 14 (1.11%) TestRail
9 13 (1.03%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.95%) Locust
11 11 (0.87%) Eclipse
12 7 (0.56%) Snyk
12 7 (0.56%) SoapUI
13 6 (0.48%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.48%) Subversion
14 5 (0.40%) SpecFlow
General
1 445 (35.32%) Social Skills
2 329 (26.11%) Finance
3 279 (22.14%) Analytical Skills
4 87 (6.90%) Manufacturing
5 85 (6.75%) Banking
6 76 (6.03%) Electronics
7 74 (5.87%) Aerospace
8 59 (4.68%) Legal
9 55 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 45 (3.57%) Law
10 45 (3.57%) Retail
11 44 (3.49%) Public Sector
12 42 (3.33%) Marketing
13 41 (3.25%) Financial Institution
14 39 (3.10%) Presentation Skills
15 30 (2.38%) Organisational Skills
16 29 (2.30%) Pharmaceutical
17 26 (2.06%) Automotive
18 24 (1.90%) Aviation
18 24 (1.90%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 209 (16.59%) Analyst
2 199 (15.79%) Senior
3 150 (11.90%) Systems Engineer
4 97 (7.70%) Lead
5 80 (6.35%) Business Analyst
6 75 (5.95%) Validation Engineer
7 70 (5.56%) Test Engineer
8 67 (5.32%) Architect
9 60 (4.76%) Consultant
10 56 (4.44%) Integration Engineer
11 53 (4.21%) Data Analyst
12 46 (3.65%) Developer
13 43 (3.41%) Junior
13 43 (3.41%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 42 (3.33%) Principal Engineer
15 40 (3.17%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 38 (3.02%) Data Engineer
17 37 (2.94%) Verification Engineer
18 35 (2.78%) Software Validation Engineer
19 31 (2.46%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (4.76%) REST
2 39 (3.10%) PyTorch
3 37 (2.94%) Pandas
4 35 (2.78%) JSON
5 29 (2.30%) Middleware
6 25 (1.98%) pytest
6 25 (1.98%) XML
7 20 (1.59%) PySpark
8 19 (1.51%) JWT
8 19 (1.51%) OAuth
8 19 (1.51%) Swagger
9 18 (1.43%) .NET
9 18 (1.43%) NumPy
9 18 (1.43%) TensorFlow
10 17 (1.35%) RESTful
11 15 (1.19%) Kafka
11 15 (1.19%) React
11 15 (1.19%) scikit-learn
11 15 (1.19%) Web Services
12 14 (1.11%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 74 (5.87%) Management Information System
2 57 (4.52%) Onboarding
3 48 (3.81%) Data Structures
4 37 (2.94%) Low-Code
5 36 (2.86%) Algorithms
6 35 (2.78%) Product Ownership
7 33 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
7 33 (2.62%) Self-Motivation
8 25 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 24 (1.90%) Life Science
10 19 (1.51%) Cloud Native
10 19 (1.51%) Embedded Systems
10 19 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
11 18 (1.43%) Data Centre
11 18 (1.43%) SCADA
12 17 (1.35%) Robotics
13 15 (1.19%) IoT
14 14 (1.11%) Blockchain
15 13 (1.03%) Reinsurance
16 11 (0.87%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 66 (5.24%) Linux
2 59 (4.68%) Windows
3 17 (1.35%) Unix
4 16 (1.27%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.95%) Android
7 4 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.32%) CentOS
7 4 (0.32%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
8 3 (0.24%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.16%) AIX
9 2 (0.16%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.079%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.079%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.079%) Rocky
10 1 (0.079%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.079%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.079%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 292 (23.17%) Agile
2 282 (22.38%) Problem-Solving
3 243 (19.29%) Continuous Improvement
4 207 (16.43%) Verification and Validation
5 197 (15.63%) Analytics
6 169 (13.41%) AI
7 160 (12.70%) Data Validation
8 155 (12.30%) Test Automation
9 148 (11.75%) CI/CD
10 140 (11.11%) Systems Engineering
11 136 (10.79%) Business Intelligence
12 133 (10.56%) Stakeholder Management
13 132 (10.48%) Migration
14 123 (9.76%) Data Modelling
14 123 (9.76%) DevOps
15 121 (9.60%) Mentoring
16 119 (9.44%) User Acceptance Testing
17 117 (9.29%) Decision-Making
18 111 (8.81%) ETL
19 107 (8.49%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 277 (21.98%) Python
2 255 (20.24%) SQL
3 51 (4.05%) Java
4 41 (3.25%) C++
5 37 (2.94%) C
5 37 (2.94%) PowerShell
6 31 (2.46%) JavaScript
7 25 (1.98%) Bash
8 20 (1.59%) C#
9 19 (1.51%) T-SQL
10 18 (1.43%) Go
10 18 (1.43%) MATLAB
11 14 (1.11%) TypeScript
12 11 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 11 (0.87%) R
13 9 (0.71%) Embedded C
13 9 (0.71%) VBA
14 7 (0.56%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.56%) VB
15 6 (0.48%) PHP
Qualifications
1 286 (22.70%) Degree
2 158 (12.54%) Security Cleared
3 132 (10.48%) BPSS Clearance
4 59 (4.68%) SC Cleared
5 55 (4.37%) Master's Degree
6 40 (3.17%) Computer Science Degree
7 33 (2.62%) CISA
7 33 (2.62%) CISSP
8 32 (2.54%) CISM
9 31 (2.46%) DV Cleared
10 29 (2.30%) Chartered Engineer
11 26 (2.06%) CGEIT
11 26 (2.06%) FFIEC
11 26 (2.06%) HNC
11 26 (2.06%) SANS
12 23 (1.83%) PMI Certification
13 20 (1.59%) HND
13 20 (1.59%) PMP
14 17 (1.35%) ISTQB
15 10 (0.79%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 159 (12.62%) Data Quality
2 149 (11.83%) QA
3 66 (5.24%) GDPR
4 64 (5.08%) Accessibility
5 41 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 27 (2.14%) NIST
7 26 (2.06%) COBIT
8 23 (1.83%) GRC
9 19 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 18 (1.43%) SLA
11 17 (1.35%) IFRS
11 17 (1.35%) WCAG
12 13 (1.03%) ISO 9001
13 12 (0.95%) IEC 61508
14 11 (0.87%) GAAP
15 10 (0.79%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 9 (0.71%) 21 CFR Part 11
17 8 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 12207
17 8 (0.63%) PMO
System Software
1 73 (5.79%) Docker
2 28 (2.22%) Active Directory
3 27 (2.14%) Firmware
4 15 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 9 (0.71%) vSphere
6 8 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.48%) KVM
8 5 (0.40%) 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 (0.079%) iptables
11 1 (0.079%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.079%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.079%) OpenIDM
11 1 (0.079%) pfSense
11 1 (0.079%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 71 (5.63%) Kubernetes
2 50 (3.97%) Terraform
3 34 (2.70%) Grafana
4 25 (1.98%) Ansible
5 16 (1.27%) Prometheus
6 12 (0.95%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.79%) SCCM
8 9 (0.71%) Functional Safety
9 8 (0.63%) Puppet
10 7 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.40%) Argo
11 5 (0.40%) Rancher
11 5 (0.40%) yum
12 2 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.16%) Cilium
12 2 (0.16%) Nessus
12 2 (0.16%) PowerCLI
13 1 (0.079%) Control-M
13 1 (0.079%) Docker Swarm
13 1 (0.079%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 162 (12.86%) Microsoft
2 65 (5.16%) Oracle
3 54 (4.29%) SAP
4 47 (3.73%) Salesforce
5 23 (1.83%) Red Hat
5 23 (1.83%) VMware
6 20 (1.59%) Foundry
6 20 (1.59%) IBM
7 19 (1.51%) Cisco
7 19 (1.51%) Databricks
8 16 (1.27%) Adobe
8 16 (1.27%) OpenAI
8 16 (1.27%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.19%) Google
10 13 (1.03%) Workday
11 12 (0.95%) Automation Anywhere
11 12 (0.95%) UiPath
12 11 (0.87%) Intapp
13 10 (0.79%) Citrix
13 10 (0.79%) Siemens