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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 78 208
Rank change year-on-year -42 +130 -24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,468 1,623 1,418
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.59% 3.69% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.17% 3.97% 1.65%
Number of salaries quoted 847 443 771
10th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £47,000 £42,000
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 £91,500 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +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 67,549 40,838 86,137
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.19% 92.97% 82.99%
Number of salaries quoted 45,324 21,582 61,408
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £29,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £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 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.01% +1.93% -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 6 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 6 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 -44 1,323 £56,500 -0.44% 1,132
UK excluding London -65 977 £52,500 -4.55% 829
Work from Home +128 467 £55,000 -9.09% 455
London +75 377 £75,000 - 393
South East -44 297 £55,000 - 234
North of England +66 267 £55,000 +15.35% 169
North West +62 168 £55,000 +15.35% 91
Midlands -73 164 £40,000 -33.33% 141
East of England -80 105 £60,000 +5.26% 107
West Midlands -14 99 £44,000 -32.31% 88
South West -48 91 £52,500 -3.67% 124
East Midlands -84 63 £30,000 -42.31% 53
Yorkshire -6 59 £50,000 +5.26% 59
North East -7 40 £55,000 -6.38% 21
Scotland -14 37 £42,250 -27.20% 40
Wales -34 15 £45,750 -23.75% 18
Northern Ireland -37 3 - - 18

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 50 (3.41%) Apache Airflow
2 40 (2.72%) Apache Spark
3 39 (2.66%) Apache
4 24 (1.63%) Confluence
5 21 (1.43%) ArcGIS
6 15 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (0.95%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.68%) Jupyter
9 8 (0.54%) Appian
10 6 (0.41%) CMS
10 6 (0.41%) SAS
11 5 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 5 (0.34%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.20%) Artix
13 2 (0.14%) IIS
14 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
14 1 (0.068%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 93 (6.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 53 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.43%) MS Visio
4 19 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
5 16 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 14 (0.95%) Simulink
7 8 (0.54%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.27%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.27%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.27%) Sketch
10 3 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.20%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.20%) Productboard
10 3 (0.20%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.14%) CATIA
12 1 (0.068%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (2.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (2.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 8 (0.54%) SAP MDG
5 7 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.41%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.41%) Loan IQ
6 6 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.34%) iTrent
7 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Applications
10 2 (0.14%) Markit EDM
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
10 2 (0.14%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 211 (14.37%) Azure
2 171 (11.65%) AWS
3 130 (8.86%) Power Platform
4 70 (4.77%) GCP
5 62 (4.22%) SaaS
6 54 (3.68%) Azure DevOps
7 40 (2.72%) GitHub
8 39 (2.66%) Serverless
9 37 (2.52%) Microsoft 365
10 36 (2.45%) Amazon S3
11 30 (2.04%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
12 27 (1.84%) Snowflake
13 23 (1.57%) Entra ID
14 20 (1.36%) dbt
14 20 (1.36%) Power Automate
15 16 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
15 16 (1.09%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.89%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 13 (0.89%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 58 (3.95%) Broadband
2 43 (2.93%) Firewall
3 30 (2.04%) DNS
4 23 (1.57%) CHAP
4 23 (1.57%) WAN
5 22 (1.50%) Wireless
6 19 (1.29%) TCP/IP
7 17 (1.16%) SD-WAN
8 16 (1.09%) 5G
9 14 (0.95%) Network Security
10 13 (0.89%) VPN
11 11 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (0.68%) MQTT
12 10 (0.68%) Wireshark
13 9 (0.61%) HTTP
13 9 (0.61%) LAN
13 9 (0.61%) NAS
14 8 (0.54%) Ethernet
15 7 (0.48%) ATM
15 7 (0.48%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (8.38%) Power BI
2 53 (3.61%) Tableau
3 46 (3.13%) SQL Server
4 44 (3.00%) PostgreSQL
5 40 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
6 31 (2.11%) Metadata
7 30 (2.04%) Relational Database
8 25 (1.70%) MongoDB
8 25 (1.70%) QGIS
9 23 (1.57%) GIS
10 22 (1.50%) Data Lake
11 21 (1.43%) Azure SQL Database
11 21 (1.43%) BigQuery
12 20 (1.36%) Semantic Layer
12 20 (1.36%) Spatial Data
13 18 (1.23%) Spark SQL
14 16 (1.09%) Oracle Database
15 15 (1.02%) MySQL
16 14 (0.95%) DynamoDB
16 14 (0.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 69 (4.70%) Git
2 67 (4.56%) JIRA
3 45 (3.07%) Jenkins
4 35 (2.38%) GitLab
5 33 (2.25%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.50%) Snyk
7 16 (1.09%) LabVIEW
8 15 (1.02%) Postman
9 14 (0.95%) Selenium
10 13 (0.89%) IBM UrbanCode
11 12 (0.82%) MLflow
12 11 (0.75%) Cucumber
13 10 (0.68%) Cypress.io
13 10 (0.68%) Eclipse
13 10 (0.68%) JMeter
14 9 (0.61%) TeamCity
15 6 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
15 6 (0.41%) REST Assured
15 6 (0.41%) Robot Framework
16 5 (0.34%) TestRail
General
1 458 (31.20%) Social Skills
2 391 (26.63%) Finance
3 319 (21.73%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (7.63%) Manufacturing
5 110 (7.49%) Aerospace
6 105 (7.15%) Electronics
7 94 (6.40%) Banking
8 87 (5.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (4.09%) Legal
10 57 (3.88%) Public Sector
11 54 (3.68%) Retail
12 49 (3.34%) Law
13 46 (3.13%) Marketing
14 45 (3.07%) Pharmaceutical
15 38 (2.59%) Organisational Skills
16 32 (2.18%) Financial Institution
16 32 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
17 30 (2.04%) Automotive
17 30 (2.04%) Games
18 23 (1.57%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 244 (16.62%) Senior
2 234 (15.94%) Analyst
3 148 (10.08%) Systems Engineer
4 100 (6.81%) Lead
5 98 (6.68%) Test Engineer
6 97 (6.61%) Architect
7 87 (5.93%) Validation Engineer
8 85 (5.79%) Business Analyst
9 71 (4.84%) Consultant
10 66 (4.50%) Data Engineer
11 65 (4.43%) Developer
12 62 (4.22%) Data Analyst
13 50 (3.41%) Integration Engineer
14 47 (3.20%) Principal Engineer
15 41 (2.79%) Junior
16 40 (2.72%) Embedded Engineer
17 37 (2.52%) Senior Systems Engineer
18 34 (2.32%) IT Manager
18 34 (2.32%) Security Architect
18 34 (2.32%) Verification Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (2.93%) REST
2 35 (2.38%) PyTorch
3 32 (2.18%) RESTful
4 31 (2.11%) JSON
4 31 (2.11%) PySpark
5 28 (1.91%) Pandas
6 26 (1.77%) Middleware
6 26 (1.77%) pytest
7 25 (1.70%) Kafka
8 23 (1.57%) .NET
9 22 (1.50%) Node.js
10 20 (1.36%) XML
11 18 (1.23%) CSS
11 18 (1.23%) Playwright
12 17 (1.16%) Swagger
13 16 (1.09%) OAuth
13 16 (1.09%) Regular Expression
13 16 (1.09%) XMPP
14 15 (1.02%) TensorFlow
15 14 (0.95%) React
Miscellaneous
1 79 (5.38%) Management Information System
2 71 (4.84%) Cloud Native
3 70 (4.77%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.81%) Data Structures
5 47 (3.20%) Algorithms
6 42 (2.86%) Low-Code
7 38 (2.59%) Product Ownership
8 35 (2.38%) Embedded Systems
9 32 (2.18%) Analytical Mindset
9 32 (2.18%) Driving Licence
9 32 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
9 32 (2.18%) Self-Motivation
10 31 (2.11%) Data Centre
11 29 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
12 28 (1.91%) Life Science
13 23 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
13 23 (1.57%) FPGA
14 22 (1.50%) Video\Live Streaming
15 21 (1.43%) Robotics
16 17 (1.16%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 85 (5.79%) Linux
2 65 (4.43%) Windows
3 24 (1.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 24 (1.63%) Unix
3 24 (1.63%) Windows Server
4 10 (0.68%) Android
5 4 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (0.27%) Mac OS X
6 3 (0.20%) AIX
6 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.20%) CentOS
6 3 (0.20%) Kali Linux
7 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
8 1 (0.068%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.068%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.068%) Rocky
8 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.068%) VxWorks
8 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 323 (22.00%) Problem-Solving
2 300 (20.44%) Agile
3 284 (19.35%) Continuous Improvement
4 247 (16.83%) AI
5 224 (15.26%) CI/CD
6 213 (14.51%) Analytics
7 202 (13.76%) Test Automation
8 196 (13.35%) Verification and Validation
9 160 (10.90%) Data Validation
10 159 (10.83%) Migration
11 151 (10.29%) Business Intelligence
12 150 (10.22%) Data Modelling
12 150 (10.22%) DevOps
13 147 (10.01%) Decision-Making
14 139 (9.47%) Stakeholder Management
15 138 (9.40%) Mentoring
16 136 (9.26%) Machine Learning
17 135 (9.20%) Software Engineering
17 135 (9.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 134 (9.13%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 357 (24.32%) Python
2 294 (20.03%) SQL
3 64 (4.36%) Java
4 59 (4.02%) C++
5 56 (3.81%) C
6 40 (2.72%) Go
7 37 (2.52%) C#
8 33 (2.25%) JavaScript
9 31 (2.11%) PowerShell
10 29 (1.98%) Bash
11 26 (1.77%) MATLAB
12 18 (1.23%) Embedded C
12 18 (1.23%) T-SQL
13 14 (0.95%) Embedded C++
14 13 (0.89%) TypeScript
15 12 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.68%) Scala
16 10 (0.68%) VBA
17 9 (0.61%) ABAP
18 8 (0.54%) R
Qualifications
1 306 (20.84%) Degree
2 174 (11.85%) Security Cleared
3 114 (7.77%) BPSS Clearance
4 80 (5.45%) SC Cleared
5 69 (4.70%) Master's Degree
6 43 (2.93%) DV Cleared
7 42 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (2.59%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.25%) CISA
9 33 (2.25%) CISSP
10 32 (2.18%) SANS
11 30 (2.04%) CISM
12 27 (1.84%) HNC
13 24 (1.63%) HND
14 23 (1.57%) CGEIT
14 23 (1.57%) FFIEC
15 22 (1.50%) PMI Certification
16 19 (1.29%) PMP
17 14 (0.95%) ACCA
17 14 (0.95%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (15.12%) Data Quality
2 158 (10.76%) QA
3 62 (4.22%) Accessibility
4 60 (4.09%) GDPR
5 43 (2.93%) GRC
6 27 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 27 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.70%) NIST
8 23 (1.57%) COBIT
9 20 (1.36%) IEC 61508
10 19 (1.29%) IFRS
11 16 (1.09%) SLA
12 15 (1.02%) PMO
13 14 (0.95%) ISO 9001
14 12 (0.82%) GAAP
14 12 (0.82%) GMP
15 11 (0.75%) WCAG
16 10 (0.68%) Good Clinical Practice
16 10 (0.68%) ISO 13485
16 10 (0.68%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (4.77%) Docker
2 43 (2.93%) Firmware
3 37 (2.52%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.23%) vSphere
6 14 (0.95%) Embedded Firmware
6 14 (0.95%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.41%) KVM
8 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.068%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.068%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.068%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (4.90%) Kubernetes
2 61 (4.16%) Terraform
3 30 (2.04%) Grafana
4 22 (1.50%) Ansible
5 19 (1.29%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.09%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 10 (0.68%) SCCM
9 9 (0.61%) Cilium
9 9 (0.61%) Puppet
10 6 (0.41%) Kibana
10 6 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.20%) Argo
11 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.20%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.20%) Rancher
11 3 (0.20%) yum
12 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
13 1 (0.068%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 191 (13.01%) Microsoft
2 87 (5.93%) Oracle
2 87 (5.93%) SAP
3 52 (3.54%) Salesforce
4 34 (2.32%) Databricks
5 33 (2.25%) Red Hat
6 31 (2.11%) VMware
7 29 (1.98%) ServiceNow
8 28 (1.91%) CrowdStrike
9 23 (1.57%) Palo Alto
10 22 (1.50%) Adobe
10 22 (1.50%) Google
10 22 (1.50%) Tenable
11 21 (1.43%) Cisco
12 15 (1.02%) Foundry
13 14 (0.95%) Citrix
13 14 (0.95%) OpenAI
14 12 (0.82%) McAfee
15 11 (0.75%) IBM
15 11 (0.75%) Splunk