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

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 80 204
Rank change year-on-year -46 +124 -11
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,404 1,611 1,418
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.55% 3.67% 1.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.10% 3.93% 1.72%
Number of salaries quoted 796 442 779
10th Percentile £34,750 £40,000 £35,450
25th Percentile £42,688 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,500 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.46% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,988 £71,250 £72,216
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +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 66,871 40,971 82,332
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.97% 93.32% 85.23%
Number of salaries quoted 42,937 22,765 59,727
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,410 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £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 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 11 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 -49 1,251 £60,000 +7.14% 810
UK excluding London -72 916 £52,500 -4.55% 616
Work from Home +122 446 £57,500 -2.13% 384
London +68 370 £77,500 +10.71% 293
South East -40 284 £55,000 +7.84% 203
North of England +45 230 £55,000 +15.35% 123
Midlands -87 156 £40,000 -27.27% 85
North West +44 143 £55,000 +15.35% 75
West Midlands -8 101 £44,000 -32.31% 50
East of England -79 98 £60,000 +5.26% 83
South West -43 94 £52,500 -2.78% 86
Yorkshire -17 56 £55,000 +15.79% 37
East Midlands -96 53 £30,000 -41.18% 35
Scotland -9 42 £42,000 -27.63% 32
North East -16 31 £52,500 -7.49% 12
Wales -29 12 £44,000 -20.00% 17
Northern Ireland -37 2 - - 8

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 45 (3.21%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (1.92%) Apache
2 27 (1.92%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.78%) Confluence
4 21 (1.50%) ArcGIS
5 16 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (0.85%) Appian
7 10 (0.71%) CMS
7 10 (0.71%) SharePoint
8 7 (0.50%) SAS
9 6 (0.43%) Kinematics
10 3 (0.21%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 2 (0.14%) Artix
11 2 (0.14%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.14%) IIS
12 1 (0.071%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.071%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 91 (6.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (4.34%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.42%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (0.71%) Simulink
6 6 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 5 (0.36%) SOLIDWORKS
8 4 (0.28%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.28%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.21%) Adobe XD
9 3 (0.21%) AutoCAD
9 3 (0.21%) Sketch
9 3 (0.21%) Solid Edge
10 2 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
10 2 (0.14%) CATIA
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.14%) Productboard
11 1 (0.071%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 36 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.71%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.64%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.50%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.43%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.43%) Loan IQ
6 6 (0.43%) Workday HCM
7 5 (0.36%) 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 EBS
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
11 1 (0.071%) Magento
11 1 (0.071%) Oracle Financials
11 1 (0.071%) SAP EHS
11 1 (0.071%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 202 (14.39%) Azure
2 144 (10.26%) AWS
3 126 (8.97%) Power Platform
4 65 (4.63%) SaaS
5 55 (3.92%) GCP
6 43 (3.06%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (2.56%) Serverless
8 34 (2.42%) Azure Data Factory
9 33 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
9 33 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (2.14%) Snowflake
11 29 (2.07%) GitHub
12 27 (1.92%) Amazon S3
13 25 (1.78%) Power Automate
14 24 (1.71%) dbt
14 24 (1.71%) Entra ID
15 17 (1.21%) Azure AI
15 17 (1.21%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.07%) Anthropic Claude
17 12 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 51 (3.63%) Broadband
2 32 (2.28%) Firewall
3 29 (2.07%) CHAP
4 24 (1.71%) DNS
5 22 (1.57%) WAN
6 20 (1.42%) Wireless
7 19 (1.35%) TCP/IP
8 18 (1.28%) 5G
9 17 (1.21%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.85%) HTTP
11 10 (0.71%) Wireshark
12 9 (0.64%) LAN
12 9 (0.64%) Modbus
12 9 (0.64%) MQTT
12 9 (0.64%) NAS
12 9 (0.64%) VPN
13 8 (0.57%) Multicast
13 8 (0.57%) Network Security
13 8 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
14 7 (0.50%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (8.40%) Power BI
2 50 (3.56%) SQL Server
3 48 (3.42%) Tableau
4 44 (3.13%) PostgreSQL
5 35 (2.49%) Data Warehouse
6 34 (2.42%) Metadata
7 30 (2.14%) Relational Database
8 25 (1.78%) QGIS
9 24 (1.71%) MongoDB
10 23 (1.64%) GIS
11 21 (1.50%) Data Lake
12 20 (1.42%) Spatial Data
13 18 (1.28%) Oracle Reports
14 17 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
14 17 (1.21%) Spark SQL
15 15 (1.07%) BigQuery
15 15 (1.07%) Oracle Database
16 14 (1.00%) MySQL
16 14 (1.00%) Parquet
16 14 (1.00%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 70 (4.99%) Git
2 65 (4.63%) JIRA
3 38 (2.71%) Rational DOORS
4 29 (2.07%) Jenkins
5 22 (1.57%) GitLab
6 21 (1.50%) Snyk
7 17 (1.21%) LabVIEW
7 17 (1.21%) Postman
8 15 (1.07%) MLflow
9 13 (0.93%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (0.93%) Selenium
10 12 (0.85%) Cucumber
10 12 (0.85%) JMeter
11 10 (0.71%) Eclipse
12 9 (0.64%) TestRail
13 7 (0.50%) LoadRunner
14 5 (0.36%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.36%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.36%) Subversion
14 5 (0.36%) Visual Studio
General
1 453 (32.26%) Social Skills
2 370 (26.35%) Finance
3 300 (21.37%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.62%) Manufacturing
5 101 (7.19%) Aerospace
6 97 (6.91%) Electronics
7 86 (6.13%) Banking
8 74 (5.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (4.27%) Legal
10 51 (3.63%) Public Sector
11 48 (3.42%) Retail
12 44 (3.13%) Law
12 44 (3.13%) Marketing
13 39 (2.78%) Financial Institution
13 39 (2.78%) Pharmaceutical
14 37 (2.64%) Presentation Skills
15 35 (2.49%) Games
15 35 (2.49%) Organisational Skills
16 30 (2.14%) Automotive
17 23 (1.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 231 (16.45%) Senior
2 225 (16.03%) Analyst
3 155 (11.04%) Systems Engineer
4 102 (7.26%) Lead
5 93 (6.62%) Architect
6 89 (6.34%) Test Engineer
7 84 (5.98%) Business Analyst
8 80 (5.70%) Validation Engineer
9 69 (4.91%) Consultant
10 61 (4.34%) Data Analyst
11 51 (3.63%) Integration Engineer
12 50 (3.56%) Data Engineer
13 49 (3.49%) Developer
14 44 (3.13%) Junior
15 42 (2.99%) Principal Engineer
15 42 (2.99%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 36 (2.56%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 36 (2.56%) Verification Engineer
17 32 (2.28%) Auditor
17 32 (2.28%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (3.70%) REST
2 37 (2.64%) PyTorch
3 34 (2.42%) Pandas
4 33 (2.35%) JSON
5 32 (2.28%) RESTful
6 29 (2.07%) Middleware
7 28 (1.99%) pytest
8 21 (1.50%) .NET
8 21 (1.50%) PySpark
8 21 (1.50%) XML
9 20 (1.42%) OAuth
9 20 (1.42%) Swagger
10 18 (1.28%) JWT
11 17 (1.21%) Kafka
11 17 (1.21%) NumPy
11 17 (1.21%) TensorFlow
12 16 (1.14%) CSS
12 16 (1.14%) Playwright
13 14 (1.00%) Oracle Fusion
13 14 (1.00%) React
Miscellaneous
1 87 (6.20%) Management Information System
2 59 (4.20%) Onboarding
3 51 (3.63%) Data Structures
4 47 (3.35%) Low-Code
5 45 (3.21%) Cloud Native
6 44 (3.13%) Algorithms
7 38 (2.71%) Product Ownership
8 36 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
9 35 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
10 31 (2.21%) Data Centre
11 30 (2.14%) Analytical Mindset
12 27 (1.92%) Embedded Systems
13 24 (1.71%) Life Science
14 23 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
15 22 (1.57%) Video\Live Streaming
16 20 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
16 20 (1.42%) Driving Licence
17 18 (1.28%) Robotics
18 17 (1.21%) SCADA
19 16 (1.14%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 81 (5.77%) Linux
2 67 (4.77%) Windows
3 21 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 21 (1.50%) Unix
3 21 (1.50%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.93%) Android
5 5 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.28%) CentOS
6 4 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.28%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.21%) AIX
7 3 (0.21%) Kali Linux
7 3 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
9 1 (0.071%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.071%) Rocky
9 1 (0.071%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.071%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 308 (21.94%) Problem-Solving
2 287 (20.44%) Agile
3 269 (19.16%) Continuous Improvement
4 223 (15.88%) AI
5 218 (15.53%) Analytics
6 206 (14.67%) Verification and Validation
7 193 (13.75%) CI/CD
8 190 (13.53%) Test Automation
9 163 (11.61%) Data Validation
10 152 (10.83%) Migration
11 146 (10.40%) Business Intelligence
12 142 (10.11%) Data Modelling
13 138 (9.83%) Decision-Making
14 135 (9.62%) Stakeholder Management
15 132 (9.40%) Data Governance
15 132 (9.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 131 (9.33%) User Acceptance Testing
17 128 (9.12%) Software Engineering
18 125 (8.90%) DevOps
18 125 (8.90%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 320 (22.79%) Python
2 278 (19.80%) SQL
3 55 (3.92%) C++
4 51 (3.63%) Java
5 47 (3.35%) C
6 38 (2.71%) PowerShell
7 36 (2.56%) Go
8 29 (2.07%) C#
9 28 (1.99%) Bash
9 28 (1.99%) JavaScript
10 23 (1.64%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.28%) T-SQL
12 14 (1.00%) Embedded C
13 13 (0.93%) TypeScript
14 12 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 9 (0.64%) VBA
16 8 (0.57%) ABAP
16 8 (0.57%) Embedded C++
16 8 (0.57%) R
17 7 (0.50%) VB
Qualifications
1 311 (22.15%) Degree
2 168 (11.97%) Security Cleared
3 128 (9.12%) BPSS Clearance
4 66 (4.70%) SC Cleared
5 64 (4.56%) Master's Degree
6 41 (2.92%) DV Cleared
7 40 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
8 39 (2.78%) CISA
8 39 (2.78%) CISSP
9 36 (2.56%) Chartered Engineer
9 36 (2.56%) CISM
10 35 (2.49%) SANS
11 29 (2.07%) CGEIT
11 29 (2.07%) FFIEC
12 27 (1.92%) HNC
13 24 (1.71%) HND
14 23 (1.64%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.42%) PMP
16 12 (0.85%) ISTQB
17 10 (0.71%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (13.89%) Data Quality
2 150 (10.68%) QA
3 68 (4.84%) GDPR
4 59 (4.20%) Accessibility
5 39 (2.78%) GRC
6 37 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 31 (2.21%) NIST
8 29 (2.07%) COBIT
9 21 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 20 (1.42%) IFRS
11 18 (1.28%) IEC 61508
12 15 (1.07%) SLA
13 13 (0.93%) GAAP
13 13 (0.93%) ISO 9001
14 11 (0.78%) GMP
14 11 (0.78%) PMO
15 10 (0.71%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.71%) WCAG
16 9 (0.64%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 9 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 60 (4.27%) Docker
2 36 (2.56%) Active Directory
3 34 (2.42%) Firmware
4 21 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.07%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (1.07%) vSphere
6 8 (0.57%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.43%) KVM
8 5 (0.36%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.071%) iptables
11 1 (0.071%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.071%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.071%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 66 (4.70%) Kubernetes
2 45 (3.21%) Terraform
3 30 (2.14%) Grafana
4 25 (1.78%) Ansible
5 16 (1.14%) Prometheus
6 15 (1.07%) Functional Safety
7 14 (1.00%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 11 (0.78%) SCCM
9 9 (0.64%) Puppet
10 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.28%) Argo
11 4 (0.28%) Cilium
11 4 (0.28%) Rancher
11 4 (0.28%) yum
12 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.21%) Kibana
13 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 2 (0.14%) PowerCLI
14 1 (0.071%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 184 (13.11%) Microsoft
2 78 (5.56%) Oracle
3 71 (5.06%) SAP
4 49 (3.49%) Salesforce
5 30 (2.14%) Red Hat
6 28 (1.99%) VMware
7 24 (1.71%) CrowdStrike
7 24 (1.71%) Databricks
8 23 (1.64%) Palo Alto
9 22 (1.57%) Cisco
10 21 (1.50%) Tenable
11 20 (1.42%) Google
11 20 (1.42%) ServiceNow
12 18 (1.28%) Adobe
12 18 (1.28%) IBM
12 18 (1.28%) OpenAI
13 14 (1.00%) Citrix
14 13 (0.93%) Foundry
15 12 (0.85%) Automation Anywhere
15 12 (0.85%) UiPath