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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 86 211
Rank change year-on-year -33 +125 -22
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,536 1,618 1,402
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.62% 3.58% 1.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.21% 3.88% 1.59%
Number of salaries quoted 919 460 766
10th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £35,375
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £41,250
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 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,750 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.09% +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 69,604 41,717 88,260
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.20% 92.25% 81.84%
Number of salaries quoted 48,009 22,461 62,520
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,800 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £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 24 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 24 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 -39 1,390 £55,000 -3.51% 726
UK excluding London -51 1,035 £52,750 -4.09% 640
Work from Home +129 500 £55,000 -8.33% 291
London +68 392 £77,500 +3.33% 226
South East -38 316 £55,000 - 238
North of England +88 283 £55,000 +15.35% 115
North West +74 181 £55,000 +15.35% 55
Midlands -76 162 £42,500 -22.73% 109
East of England -75 109 £60,000 +5.26% 65
South West -50 105 £53,000 -3.64% 88
West Midlands +2 95 £44,000 -29.60% 56
East Midlands -80 65 £30,000 -36.84% 53
Yorkshire -9 59 £50,000 +18.69% 36
North East -6 43 £55,000 +15.79% 25
Scotland -5 41 £44,250 -23.75% 32
Wales -34 19 £47,500 -20.83% 9
Northern Ireland -33 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 52 (3.39%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (3.13%) Apache Spark
3 46 (2.99%) Apache
4 26 (1.69%) Confluence
5 21 (1.37%) ArcGIS
6 19 (1.24%) SharePoint
7 15 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
8 12 (0.78%) Jupyter
9 10 (0.65%) SAS
10 6 (0.39%) Appian
11 5 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.26%) CMS
12 4 (0.26%) Kinematics
13 3 (0.20%) Artix
14 2 (0.13%) IIS
15 1 (0.065%) Oracle Workflow
15 1 (0.065%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 84 (5.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (2.80%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (1.30%) MS Visio
5 16 (1.04%) Simulink
6 15 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.52%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.33%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.26%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.26%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.26%) Sketch
10 3 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 3 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.20%) Productboard
10 3 (0.20%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.065%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.065%) PTC Creo
11 1 (0.065%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 43 (2.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (2.67%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.72%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.65%) SAP ERP
5 8 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.46%) iTrent
7 6 (0.39%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.33%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.33%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.33%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
10 2 (0.13%) FastStats
10 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
10 2 (0.13%) SAP Business One
10 2 (0.13%) SAP EWM
10 2 (0.13%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.13%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.13%) SAP PSCD
10 2 (0.13%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 223 (14.52%) Azure
2 193 (12.57%) AWS
3 143 (9.31%) Power Platform
4 83 (5.40%) GCP
5 75 (4.88%) SaaS
6 58 (3.78%) Azure DevOps
7 42 (2.73%) Serverless
8 41 (2.67%) GitHub
9 40 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
10 38 (2.47%) Amazon S3
11 35 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
12 27 (1.76%) Azure Data Factory
13 23 (1.50%) Snowflake
14 21 (1.37%) Entra ID
15 20 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
16 18 (1.17%) Power Automate
17 17 (1.11%) dbt
18 16 (1.04%) Amazon EMR
19 15 (0.98%) Amazon EC2
19 15 (0.98%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 71 (4.62%) Broadband
2 45 (2.93%) Firewall
3 34 (2.21%) DNS
4 22 (1.43%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.43%) Wireless
5 21 (1.37%) WAN
6 19 (1.24%) CHAP
7 16 (1.04%) Network Security
8 15 (0.98%) SD-WAN
8 15 (0.98%) VPN
9 13 (0.85%) 5G
10 12 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
11 11 (0.72%) HTTP
11 11 (0.72%) MQTT
12 10 (0.65%) Ethernet
12 10 (0.65%) LAN
12 10 (0.65%) Wireshark
13 9 (0.59%) NAS
14 7 (0.46%) Multicast
14 7 (0.46%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (8.85%) Power BI
2 55 (3.58%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (3.58%) Tableau
3 50 (3.26%) SQL Server
4 47 (3.06%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (2.21%) MongoDB
6 33 (2.15%) Metadata
7 30 (1.95%) Relational Database
8 28 (1.82%) BigQuery
9 25 (1.63%) Data Lake
9 25 (1.63%) QGIS
10 24 (1.56%) Semantic Layer
11 23 (1.50%) Azure SQL Database
11 23 (1.50%) GIS
12 20 (1.30%) Spatial Data
13 19 (1.24%) Spark SQL
14 18 (1.17%) Amazon Athena
15 17 (1.11%) DynamoDB
15 17 (1.11%) Oracle Database
16 16 (1.04%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 80 (5.21%) JIRA
2 70 (4.56%) Git
3 49 (3.19%) Jenkins
4 38 (2.47%) GitLab
5 31 (2.02%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.43%) Snyk
7 17 (1.11%) Postman
7 17 (1.11%) Selenium
8 14 (0.91%) LabVIEW
9 13 (0.85%) IBM UrbanCode
10 12 (0.78%) Cypress.io
11 11 (0.72%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.72%) JMeter
12 10 (0.65%) MLflow
12 10 (0.65%) TeamCity
13 9 (0.59%) Eclipse
14 7 (0.46%) Rational Rhapsody
14 7 (0.46%) REST Assured
15 6 (0.39%) Zephyr
16 5 (0.33%) Burp Suite
General
1 490 (31.90%) Social Skills
2 412 (26.82%) Finance
3 337 (21.94%) Analytical Skills
4 116 (7.55%) Aerospace
5 114 (7.42%) Manufacturing
6 103 (6.71%) Electronics
7 94 (6.12%) Banking
8 91 (5.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (3.91%) Public Sector
10 58 (3.78%) Retail
11 56 (3.65%) Legal
12 54 (3.52%) Law
13 43 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
13 43 (2.80%) Pharmaceutical
14 42 (2.73%) Marketing
15 41 (2.67%) Games
16 38 (2.47%) Automotive
17 32 (2.08%) Financial Institution
18 26 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
18 26 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 262 (17.06%) Senior
2 239 (15.56%) Analyst
3 134 (8.72%) Systems Engineer
4 119 (7.75%) Lead
5 103 (6.71%) Architect
6 100 (6.51%) Test Engineer
7 85 (5.53%) Validation Engineer
8 82 (5.34%) Business Analyst
9 78 (5.08%) Data Engineer
10 70 (4.56%) Consultant
10 70 (4.56%) Developer
11 66 (4.30%) Data Analyst
12 45 (2.93%) Principal Engineer
13 43 (2.80%) Integration Engineer
14 42 (2.73%) Embedded Engineer
15 37 (2.41%) IT Manager
15 37 (2.41%) Support Engineer
16 36 (2.34%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 35 (2.28%) Security Architect
18 34 (2.21%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.86%) RESTful
2 39 (2.54%) REST
3 36 (2.34%) JSON
4 35 (2.28%) PySpark
5 34 (2.21%) PyTorch
6 32 (2.08%) Node.js
7 30 (1.95%) Kafka
8 27 (1.76%) XML
9 26 (1.69%) Middleware
9 26 (1.69%) Pandas
10 23 (1.50%) .NET
11 22 (1.43%) pytest
12 21 (1.37%) Playwright
13 19 (1.24%) Swagger
14 18 (1.17%) Regular Expression
14 18 (1.17%) XMPP
15 15 (0.98%) CSS
15 15 (0.98%) LDAP
16 14 (0.91%) HTML
16 14 (0.91%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 96 (6.25%) Cloud Native
2 74 (4.82%) Onboarding
3 72 (4.69%) Data Structures
4 67 (4.36%) Management Information System
5 58 (3.78%) Algorithms
6 49 (3.19%) Low-Code
7 45 (2.93%) Product Ownership
8 42 (2.73%) Embedded Systems
9 40 (2.60%) Driving Licence
10 34 (2.21%) Data Centre
10 34 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
11 33 (2.15%) Distributed Systems
11 33 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
11 33 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
12 32 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
13 31 (2.02%) Video\Live Streaming
14 28 (1.82%) Life Science
15 24 (1.56%) FPGA
16 23 (1.50%) Robotics
17 19 (1.24%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 98 (6.38%) Linux
2 67 (4.36%) Windows
3 27 (1.76%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.50%) Unix
6 7 (0.46%) Android
7 4 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.26%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.26%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.20%) AIX
8 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.20%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.13%) CentOS
9 2 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.13%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.065%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.065%) Rocky
10 1 (0.065%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.065%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 336 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
2 324 (21.09%) Continuous Improvement
3 323 (21.03%) Agile
4 274 (17.84%) AI
5 245 (15.95%) CI/CD
6 222 (14.45%) Analytics
7 218 (14.19%) Test Automation
8 183 (11.91%) Verification and Validation
9 181 (11.78%) Migration
10 171 (11.13%) Data Validation
11 165 (10.74%) Business Intelligence
12 164 (10.68%) Stakeholder Management
13 160 (10.42%) Data Modelling
13 160 (10.42%) DevOps
14 153 (9.96%) Mentoring
15 152 (9.90%) Software Engineering
16 151 (9.83%) Decision-Making
17 147 (9.57%) Data Analysis
18 146 (9.51%) Machine Learning
19 145 (9.44%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 390 (25.39%) Python
2 317 (20.64%) SQL
3 69 (4.49%) C++
4 65 (4.23%) Java
5 64 (4.17%) C
6 49 (3.19%) Go
7 43 (2.80%) C#
8 34 (2.21%) JavaScript
9 28 (1.82%) MATLAB
10 25 (1.63%) Bash
11 24 (1.56%) PowerShell
12 23 (1.50%) T-SQL
13 20 (1.30%) Embedded C
14 18 (1.17%) Embedded C++
15 15 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 14 (0.91%) Scala
17 13 (0.85%) TypeScript
18 10 (0.65%) ABAP
19 9 (0.59%) VBA
20 7 (0.46%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 294 (19.14%) Degree
2 174 (11.33%) Security Cleared
3 111 (7.23%) BPSS Clearance
4 81 (5.27%) SC Cleared
5 75 (4.88%) Master's Degree
6 46 (2.99%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 35 (2.28%) Chartered Engineer
9 29 (1.89%) CISA
9 29 (1.89%) CISSP
9 29 (1.89%) SANS
10 28 (1.82%) HNC
11 26 (1.69%) CISM
12 22 (1.43%) HND
13 20 (1.30%) ACCA
13 20 (1.30%) CIMA
13 20 (1.30%) PMI Certification
14 19 (1.24%) CGEIT
14 19 (1.24%) FFIEC
15 17 (1.11%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (16.47%) Data Quality
2 181 (11.78%) QA
3 63 (4.10%) Accessibility
4 56 (3.65%) GDPR
5 40 (2.60%) GRC
6 27 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.50%) NIST
8 22 (1.43%) IEC 61508
8 22 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 19 (1.24%) COBIT
10 18 (1.17%) IFRS
11 16 (1.04%) ISO 9001
11 16 (1.04%) PMO
12 14 (0.91%) SLA
13 13 (0.85%) GAAP
14 11 (0.72%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.72%) SOC 2
14 11 (0.72%) WCAG
15 9 (0.59%) GMP
15 9 (0.59%) GxP
System Software
1 73 (4.75%) Docker
2 44 (2.86%) Firmware
3 37 (2.41%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.43%) Virtual Machines
5 20 (1.30%) Embedded Firmware
5 20 (1.30%) vSphere
6 15 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.39%) KVM
8 5 (0.33%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.13%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.065%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.065%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.065%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (4.69%) Kubernetes
2 65 (4.23%) Terraform
3 31 (2.02%) Grafana
4 23 (1.50%) Functional Safety
5 20 (1.30%) Ansible
6 15 (0.98%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.65%) Cilium
7 10 (0.65%) Puppet
8 8 (0.52%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 7 (0.46%) Kibana
9 7 (0.46%) SCCM
10 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.20%) HP Fortify
11 2 (0.13%) Argo
11 2 (0.13%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.13%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.13%) Rancher
11 2 (0.13%) yum
12 1 (0.065%) Nessus
Vendors
1 192 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 98 (6.38%) SAP
3 91 (5.92%) Oracle
4 53 (3.45%) Salesforce
5 39 (2.54%) Databricks
6 34 (2.21%) Red Hat
6 34 (2.21%) ServiceNow
7 33 (2.15%) VMware
8 29 (1.89%) CrowdStrike
9 26 (1.69%) Google
10 23 (1.50%) Palo Alto
11 22 (1.43%) Cisco
11 22 (1.43%) Tenable
12 20 (1.30%) Adobe
13 16 (1.04%) Foundry
14 14 (0.91%) Citrix
14 14 (0.91%) McAfee
15 13 (0.85%) OpenAI
16 9 (0.59%) EMC
16 9 (0.59%) IBM