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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 129 85 199
Rank change year-on-year -44 +114 -11
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,422 1,605 1,405
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.54% 3.65% 1.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.09% 3.92% 1.70%
Number of salaries quoted 802 448 775
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,350
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,188 £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 £70,000 £72,125
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 67,989 40,970 82,440
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.70% 93.29% 84.80%
Number of salaries quoted 43,964 22,120 59,644
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,033 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.39% +5.51% -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 £51,887 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.18% +3.77% -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 21 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 21 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 1,266 £58,000 +5.45% 876
UK excluding London -68 932 £52,500 -2.78% 718
Work from Home +131 448 £55,000 -8.33% 411
London +65 368 £75,000 +7.14% 285
South East -38 286 £55,000 +7.84% 216
North of England +52 244 £55,000 +15.35% 132
Midlands -82 156 £40,000 -28.89% 93
North West +57 153 £55,000 +15.35% 81
West Midlands -24 99 £44,000 -32.31% 61
East of England -82 96 £60,000 +5.26% 114
South West -52 95 £52,500 -2.78% 110
Yorkshire -10 57 £52,500 +10.53% 35
East Midlands -87 55 £30,000 -42.31% 32
Scotland -10 42 £42,000 -27.63% 34
North East -10 34 £52,500 +10.53% 18
Wales -29 13 £44,000 -26.67% 18
Northern Ireland -40 2 - - 21

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 32 (2.25%) Apache Spark
3 30 (2.11%) Apache
4 25 (1.76%) Confluence
5 21 (1.48%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.84%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.70%) Appian
9 8 (0.56%) CMS
10 6 (0.42%) Kinematics
10 6 (0.42%) SAS
11 5 (0.35%) Jupyter
12 3 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.21%) Artix
13 2 (0.14%) IIS
14 1 (0.070%) Anypoint
14 1 (0.070%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 90 (6.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 56 (3.94%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.41%) 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 36 (2.53%) 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%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 201 (14.14%) Azure
2 154 (10.83%) AWS
3 130 (9.14%) Power Platform
4 64 (4.50%) GCP
5 63 (4.43%) SaaS
6 45 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (2.67%) Serverless
8 35 (2.46%) Azure Data Factory
8 35 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
9 33 (2.32%) GitHub
10 31 (2.18%) Amazon S3
11 30 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 30 (2.11%) Snowflake
12 25 (1.76%) Entra ID
13 24 (1.69%) dbt
14 22 (1.55%) Power Automate
15 17 (1.20%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.05%) Azure AI
17 13 (0.91%) Anthropic Claude
18 12 (0.84%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 55 (3.87%) Broadband
2 34 (2.39%) Firewall
3 24 (1.69%) WAN
4 23 (1.62%) CHAP
4 23 (1.62%) DNS
5 22 (1.55%) 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
1 122 (8.58%) Power BI
2 52 (3.66%) Tableau
3 50 (3.52%) SQL Server
4 43 (3.02%) PostgreSQL
5 40 (2.81%) 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
12 10 (0.70%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.70%) JMeter
13 9 (0.63%) TestRail
14 7 (0.49%) TeamCity
15 6 (0.42%) Robot Framework
16 5 (0.35%) Locust
16 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
16 5 (0.35%) SpecFlow
General
1 447 (31.43%) Social Skills
2 375 (26.37%) Finance
3 301 (21.17%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.52%) Aerospace
5 106 (7.45%) Manufacturing
6 101 (7.10%) Electronics
7 82 (5.77%) Banking
7 82 (5.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 61 (4.29%) Legal
9 52 (3.66%) Public Sector
10 50 (3.52%) Retail
11 45 (3.16%) Law
11 45 (3.16%) Marketing
12 41 (2.88%) Pharmaceutical
13 35 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
13 35 (2.46%) Presentation Skills
14 32 (2.25%) Financial Institution
14 32 (2.25%) Games
15 28 (1.97%) Automotive
16 22 (1.55%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 241 (16.95%) Senior
2 228 (16.03%) Analyst
3 148 (10.41%) Systems Engineer
4 101 (7.10%) 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 70 (4.92%) Consultant
10 61 (4.29%) Data Analyst
11 58 (4.08%) 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%) JSON
3 31 (2.18%) RESTful
4 29 (2.04%) Pandas
5 27 (1.90%) PySpark
5 27 (1.90%) pytest
6 26 (1.83%) Middleware
7 22 (1.55%) Kafka
8 21 (1.48%) .NET
9 19 (1.34%) Swagger
10 18 (1.27%) Node.js
10 18 (1.27%) OAuth
10 18 (1.27%) XML
11 16 (1.13%) CSS
11 16 (1.13%) JWT
11 16 (1.13%) Playwright
11 16 (1.13%) TensorFlow
12 15 (1.05%) NumPy
13 14 (0.98%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 82 (5.77%) Management Information System
2 64 (4.50%) Onboarding
3 54 (3.80%) Cloud Native
4 52 (3.66%) Data Structures
5 45 (3.16%) Algorithms
6 44 (3.09%) Low-Code
7 37 (2.60%) 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 27 (1.90%) 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 21 (1.48%) FPGA
16 20 (1.41%) Distributed Systems
17 19 (1.34%) Robotics
18 16 (1.13%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 79 (5.56%) Linux
2 65 (4.57%) Windows
3 23 (1.62%) 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%) Mac OS
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
2 283 (19.90%) Agile
3 267 (18.78%) Continuous Improvement
4 233 (16.39%) AI
5 213 (14.98%) Analytics
6 206 (14.49%) CI/CD
7 202 (14.21%) Verification and Validation
8 193 (13.57%) Test Automation
9 163 (11.46%) Data Validation
10 153 (10.76%) Migration
11 149 (10.48%) Business Intelligence
12 146 (10.27%) Data Modelling
13 138 (9.70%) Decision-Making
14 136 (9.56%) Software Engineering
14 136 (9.56%) Stakeholder Management
15 133 (9.35%) Data Governance
16 132 (9.28%) DevOps
17 131 (9.21%) Mentoring
18 130 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 128 (9.00%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 333 (23.42%) Python
2 282 (19.83%) SQL
3 57 (4.01%) C++
4 55 (3.87%) Java
5 50 (3.52%) C
6 39 (2.74%) Go
7 36 (2.53%) PowerShell
8 34 (2.39%) C#
9 29 (2.04%) Bash
9 29 (2.04%) JavaScript
10 25 (1.76%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.27%) T-SQL
12 16 (1.13%) Embedded C
13 12 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 12 (0.84%) TypeScript
14 10 (0.70%) Embedded C++
15 9 (0.63%) ABAP
15 9 (0.63%) VBA
16 8 (0.56%) R
16 8 (0.56%) Scala
Qualifications
1 313 (22.01%) Degree
2 170 (11.95%) Security Cleared
3 123 (8.65%) BPSS Clearance
4 70 (4.92%) SC Cleared
5 69 (4.85%) Master's Degree
6 41 (2.88%) DV Cleared
7 40 (2.81%) 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
1 205 (14.42%) 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 38 (2.67%) 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
1 183 (12.87%) Microsoft
2 82 (5.77%) Oracle
3 72 (5.06%) 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%) Google
11 22 (1.55%) Tenable
12 21 (1.48%) Cisco
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