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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 85 201
Rank change year-on-year -45 +116 -13
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,422 1,605 1,417
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.54% 3.64% 1.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.09% 3.90% 1.72%
Number of salaries quoted 804 447 776
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,125
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.68% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £70,625 £72,250
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £54,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% -8.70%

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 67,959 41,142 82,492
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.66% 93.29% 84.82%
Number of salaries quoted 43,928 22,326 59,700
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,269 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.97% +5.94% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -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 20 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 20 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 -51 1,268 £59,245 +7.72% 855
UK excluding London -73 932 £52,500 -2.78% 672
Work from Home +132 449 £55,000 -8.33% 386
London +76 369 £77,500 +10.71% 294
South East -42 288 £55,000 +7.84% 201
North of England +55 243 £55,000 +15.35% 123
Midlands -84 156 £40,000 -30.43% 88
North West +57 152 £55,000 +15.35% 77
West Midlands -10 99 £44,000 -32.31% 60
East of England -84 98 £60,000 +5.26% 111
South West -56 93 £52,500 -2.78% 106
Yorkshire -15 57 £52,500 +10.53% 29
East Midlands -93 55 £30,000 -42.31% 28
Scotland -6 42 £42,000 -27.63% 37
North East -10 34 £52,500 +10.53% 18
Wales -26 12 £44,000 -23.48% 18
Northern Ireland -38 2 - - 9

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 46 (3.23%) Apache Airflow
2 31 (2.18%) Apache Spark
3 30 (2.11%) Apache
4 24 (1.69%) Confluence
5 21 (1.48%) ArcGIS
6 15 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
7 10 (0.70%) Appian
7 10 (0.70%) SharePoint
8 8 (0.56%) CMS
9 6 (0.42%) Kinematics
9 6 (0.42%) SAS
10 5 (0.35%) Jupyter
11 3 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.21%) Artix
12 2 (0.14%) IIS
13 1 (0.070%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.070%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 89 (6.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 56 (3.94%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.34%) MS Visio
4 14 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.84%) Simulink
6 6 (0.42%) SOLIDWORKS
6 6 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 4 (0.28%) Adobe XD
8 4 (0.28%) AutoCAD
8 4 (0.28%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.28%) Fusion 360
8 4 (0.28%) Sketch
9 3 (0.21%) Autodesk Inventor
9 3 (0.21%) Productboard
9 3 (0.21%) Solid Edge
10 2 (0.14%) CATIA
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.14%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 37 (2.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.70%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.63%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.49%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.42%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.42%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.35%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.28%) Markit EDM
8 4 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
8 4 (0.28%) Workday HCM
9 3 (0.21%) iTrent
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Applications
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
11 1 (0.070%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 202 (14.21%) Azure
2 151 (10.62%) AWS
3 129 (9.07%) Power Platform
4 64 (4.50%) SaaS
5 62 (4.36%) GCP
6 45 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
7 37 (2.60%) Serverless
8 35 (2.46%) Azure Data Factory
9 33 (2.32%) GitHub
9 33 (2.32%) Microsoft 365
10 30 (2.11%) Amazon S3
10 30 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
10 30 (2.11%) Snowflake
11 24 (1.69%) dbt
11 24 (1.69%) Entra ID
12 22 (1.55%) Power Automate
13 17 (1.20%) OpenShift
14 15 (1.05%) Azure AI
15 13 (0.91%) Anthropic Claude
16 12 (0.84%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 55 (3.87%) Broadband
2 33 (2.32%) Firewall
3 23 (1.62%) CHAP
3 23 (1.62%) WAN
4 22 (1.55%) DNS
5 21 (1.48%) Wireless
6 18 (1.27%) 5G
6 18 (1.27%) TCP/IP
7 17 (1.20%) SD-WAN
8 11 (0.77%) Network Security
9 10 (0.70%) HTTP
9 10 (0.70%) MQTT
9 10 (0.70%) Wireshark
10 9 (0.63%) NAS
10 9 (0.63%) VPN
10 9 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (0.56%) LAN
12 7 (0.49%) Ethernet
12 7 (0.49%) Modbus
12 7 (0.49%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (8.51%) Power BI
2 52 (3.66%) Tableau
3 49 (3.45%) SQL Server
4 43 (3.02%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (2.74%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (2.32%) Metadata
7 30 (2.11%) Relational Database
8 25 (1.76%) QGIS
9 24 (1.69%) MongoDB
10 23 (1.62%) GIS
11 21 (1.48%) Data Lake
12 20 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
12 20 (1.41%) Spatial Data
13 19 (1.34%) BigQuery
14 18 (1.27%) Oracle Reports
14 18 (1.27%) Semantic Layer
14 18 (1.27%) Spark SQL
15 16 (1.13%) Oracle Database
16 14 (0.98%) MySQL
16 14 (0.98%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 73 (5.13%) Git
2 61 (4.29%) JIRA
3 36 (2.53%) Jenkins
4 35 (2.46%) Rational DOORS
5 24 (1.69%) GitLab
6 22 (1.55%) Snyk
7 17 (1.20%) LabVIEW
8 14 (0.98%) MLflow
8 14 (0.98%) Postman
9 13 (0.91%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.84%) Selenium
11 11 (0.77%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.77%) JMeter
12 10 (0.70%) Eclipse
13 9 (0.63%) TestRail
14 7 (0.49%) TeamCity
15 6 (0.42%) LoadRunner
15 6 (0.42%) Robot Framework
16 5 (0.35%) Locust
16 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
General
1 448 (31.50%) Social Skills
2 377 (26.51%) Finance
3 302 (21.24%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.52%) Aerospace
5 106 (7.45%) Manufacturing
6 102 (7.17%) Electronics
7 83 (5.84%) Banking
8 82 (5.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 61 (4.29%) Legal
10 53 (3.73%) Public Sector
11 51 (3.59%) Retail
12 45 (3.16%) Law
12 45 (3.16%) Marketing
13 41 (2.88%) Pharmaceutical
14 36 (2.53%) Presentation Skills
15 34 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
16 33 (2.32%) Games
17 32 (2.25%) Financial Institution
18 29 (2.04%) Automotive
19 22 (1.55%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 238 (16.74%) Senior
2 227 (15.96%) Analyst
3 149 (10.48%) Systems Engineer
4 100 (7.03%) Lead
5 97 (6.82%) Architect
6 89 (6.26%) Test Engineer
7 85 (5.98%) Business Analyst
8 84 (5.91%) Validation Engineer
9 69 (4.85%) Consultant
10 61 (4.29%) Data Analyst
11 56 (3.94%) Data Engineer
12 53 (3.73%) Integration Engineer
13 50 (3.52%) Developer
14 46 (3.23%) Principal Engineer
15 45 (3.16%) Junior
16 39 (2.74%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 36 (2.53%) Systems Integration Engineer
17 36 (2.53%) Verification Engineer
18 35 (2.46%) Embedded Engineer
19 32 (2.25%) Software Validation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.31%) REST
2 36 (2.53%) PyTorch
3 31 (2.18%) RESTful
4 30 (2.11%) JSON
5 29 (2.04%) Pandas
6 27 (1.90%) Middleware
6 27 (1.90%) pytest
7 26 (1.83%) PySpark
8 21 (1.48%) .NET
8 21 (1.48%) Kafka
9 19 (1.34%) Swagger
10 18 (1.27%) Node.js
10 18 (1.27%) OAuth
11 17 (1.20%) XML
12 16 (1.13%) CSS
12 16 (1.13%) JWT
12 16 (1.13%) Playwright
12 16 (1.13%) TensorFlow
13 15 (1.05%) NumPy
14 14 (0.98%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.84%) Management Information System
2 62 (4.36%) Onboarding
3 53 (3.73%) Cloud Native
4 52 (3.66%) Data Structures
5 45 (3.16%) Algorithms
6 44 (3.09%) Low-Code
7 38 (2.67%) Product Ownership
8 34 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
9 32 (2.25%) Data Centre
9 32 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
10 30 (2.11%) Embedded Systems
11 28 (1.97%) Analytical Mindset
12 24 (1.69%) Life Science
13 23 (1.62%) Driving Licence
13 23 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
14 22 (1.55%) Video\Live Streaming
15 20 (1.41%) Distributed Systems
15 20 (1.41%) FPGA
16 19 (1.34%) Robotics
17 16 (1.13%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 80 (5.63%) Linux
2 65 (4.57%) Windows
3 22 (1.55%) Unix
4 21 (1.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 21 (1.48%) Windows Server
5 13 (0.91%) Android
6 5 (0.35%) 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 (0.070%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.070%) Rocky
10 1 (0.070%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.070%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 311 (21.87%) Problem-Solving
2 286 (20.11%) Agile
3 265 (18.64%) Continuous Improvement
4 231 (16.24%) AI
5 212 (14.91%) Analytics
6 205 (14.42%) CI/CD
6 205 (14.42%) Verification and Validation
7 191 (13.43%) Test Automation
8 163 (11.46%) Data Validation
9 152 (10.69%) Migration
10 148 (10.41%) Business Intelligence
11 146 (10.27%) Data Modelling
12 138 (9.70%) Decision-Making
13 136 (9.56%) Software Engineering
13 136 (9.56%) Stakeholder Management
14 133 (9.35%) Data Governance
14 133 (9.35%) DevOps
15 131 (9.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 128 (9.00%) Collaborative Working
16 128 (9.00%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 330 (23.21%) Python
2 279 (19.62%) SQL
3 58 (4.08%) C++
4 55 (3.87%) Java
5 51 (3.59%) C
6 39 (2.74%) Go
7 36 (2.53%) PowerShell
8 33 (2.32%) C#
9 29 (2.04%) Bash
10 28 (1.97%) JavaScript
11 25 (1.76%) MATLAB
12 18 (1.27%) T-SQL
13 16 (1.13%) Embedded C
14 12 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 11 (0.77%) TypeScript
16 10 (0.70%) Embedded C++
17 9 (0.63%) ABAP
17 9 (0.63%) VBA
18 8 (0.56%) R
19 7 (0.49%) Scala
Qualifications
1 314 (22.08%) Degree
2 172 (12.10%) Security Cleared
3 124 (8.72%) BPSS Clearance
4 71 (4.99%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.92%) Master's Degree
6 42 (2.95%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (2.67%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.32%) CISA
9 33 (2.32%) CISSP
10 30 (2.11%) CISM
11 29 (2.04%) SANS
12 27 (1.90%) HNC
13 25 (1.76%) HND
14 24 (1.69%) PMI Certification
15 23 (1.62%) CGEIT
15 23 (1.62%) FFIEC
16 21 (1.48%) PMP
17 11 (0.77%) ACCA
17 11 (0.77%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 203 (14.28%) Data Quality
2 150 (10.55%) QA
3 62 (4.36%) GDPR
4 59 (4.15%) Accessibility
5 43 (3.02%) GRC
6 30 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 25 (1.76%) NIST
8 24 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 23 (1.62%) COBIT
10 19 (1.34%) IEC 61508
10 19 (1.34%) IFRS
11 17 (1.20%) SLA
12 13 (0.91%) ISO 9001
13 12 (0.84%) GAAP
13 12 (0.84%) PMO
14 11 (0.77%) GMP
15 10 (0.70%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.70%) ISO 13485
15 10 (0.70%) WCAG
16 9 (0.63%) 21 CFR Part 11
System Software
1 67 (4.71%) Docker
2 39 (2.74%) Firmware
3 36 (2.53%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.55%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (1.05%) vSphere
6 10 (0.70%) Embedded Firmware
7 6 (0.42%) KVM
8 5 (0.35%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.070%) iptables
11 1 (0.070%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.070%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.070%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (5.06%) Kubernetes
2 51 (3.59%) Terraform
3 31 (2.18%) Grafana
4 25 (1.76%) Ansible
5 17 (1.20%) Functional Safety
5 17 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 14 (0.98%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 11 (0.77%) SCCM
8 9 (0.63%) Puppet
9 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
10 7 (0.49%) Cilium
11 4 (0.28%) Argo
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%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.14%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 180 (12.66%) Microsoft
2 81 (5.70%) Oracle
3 73 (5.13%) SAP
4 51 (3.59%) Salesforce
5 30 (2.11%) Red Hat
6 28 (1.97%) VMware
7 27 (1.90%) Databricks
8 25 (1.76%) CrowdStrike
9 24 (1.69%) Palo Alto
10 23 (1.62%) ServiceNow
11 22 (1.55%) Tenable
12 21 (1.48%) Cisco
12 21 (1.48%) Google
13 20 (1.41%) Adobe
14 16 (1.13%) Foundry
14 16 (1.13%) OpenAI
15 15 (1.05%) IBM
16 14 (0.98%) Citrix
17 10 (0.70%) Automation Anywhere
17 10 (0.70%) UiPath