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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 84 208
Rank change year-on-year -36 +124 -18
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,525 1,623 1,416
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.61% 3.59% 1.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.20% 3.89% 1.59%
Number of salaries quoted 910 462 768
10th Percentile £36,125 £40,000 £35,425
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 £52,500 £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 69,314 41,679 88,914
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.17% 92.27% 81.73%
Number of salaries quoted 47,751 22,444 62,987
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £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% -9.41%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,159
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 23 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 23 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 -36 1,380 £55,000 -3.51% 824
UK excluding London -51 1,025 £52,500 -4.55% 672
Work from Home +123 492 £55,000 -9.09% 320
London +67 391 £75,000 -3.23% 285
South East -35 311 £55,000 - 249
North of England +86 283 £55,000 +15.35% 129
North West +86 181 £55,000 +15.35% 62
Midlands -77 162 £40,000 -28.89% 103
East of England -75 108 £60,000 +5.26% 73
South West -49 102 £53,000 -3.64% 93
West Midlands -3 94 £44,000 -29.60% 54
East Midlands -76 66 £30,000 -36.84% 49
Yorkshire +2 59 £50,000 +18.69% 43
North East -14 43 £55,000 +15.79% 25
Scotland -1 41 £44,250 -23.75% 32
Wales -32 18 £47,500 -20.83% 9
Northern Ireland -35 2 - - 10

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 (3.41%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (3.15%) Apache Spark
3 46 (3.02%) Apache
4 26 (1.70%) Confluence
5 21 (1.38%) ArcGIS
6 19 (1.25%) SharePoint
7 15 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
8 12 (0.79%) Jupyter
9 10 (0.66%) 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 (0.066%) Oracle Workflow
15 1 (0.066%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 84 (5.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.57%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (1.31%) MS Visio
5 16 (1.05%) 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 (0.066%) CATIA
11 1 (0.066%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.066%) Revit
Business Applications
1 42 (2.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (2.69%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.66%) SAP ERP
3 10 (0.66%) SAP MDG
4 8 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.46%) iTrent
6 6 (0.39%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.33%) Loan IQ
7 5 (0.33%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.33%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
9 2 (0.13%) FastStats
9 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
9 2 (0.13%) SAP Business One
9 2 (0.13%) SAP EWM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP MM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP PSCD
9 2 (0.13%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 222 (14.56%) Azure
2 192 (12.59%) AWS
3 142 (9.31%) Power Platform
4 84 (5.51%) GCP
5 72 (4.72%) SaaS
6 59 (3.87%) Azure DevOps
7 41 (2.69%) Serverless
8 40 (2.62%) GitHub
8 40 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
9 38 (2.49%) Amazon S3
10 35 (2.30%) Dynamics 365
11 27 (1.77%) Azure Data Factory
12 23 (1.51%) Snowflake
13 21 (1.38%) Entra ID
14 18 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
14 18 (1.18%) Power Automate
15 17 (1.11%) dbt
16 16 (1.05%) Amazon EMR
17 15 (0.98%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 15 (0.98%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 71 (4.66%) Broadband
2 46 (3.02%) Firewall
3 35 (2.30%) DNS
4 22 (1.44%) WAN
4 22 (1.44%) Wireless
5 21 (1.38%) TCP/IP
6 19 (1.25%) CHAP
7 16 (1.05%) Network Security
7 16 (1.05%) SD-WAN
8 15 (0.98%) VPN
9 14 (0.92%) 5G
10 12 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
11 11 (0.72%) HTTP
11 11 (0.72%) MQTT
12 10 (0.66%) Ethernet
12 10 (0.66%) LAN
12 10 (0.66%) Wireshark
13 9 (0.59%) NAS
14 7 (0.46%) ATM
14 7 (0.46%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 135 (8.85%) Power BI
2 55 (3.61%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (3.61%) Tableau
3 49 (3.21%) SQL Server
4 47 (3.08%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (2.23%) MongoDB
6 33 (2.16%) Metadata
7 30 (1.97%) Relational Database
8 28 (1.84%) BigQuery
9 25 (1.64%) Data Lake
9 25 (1.64%) QGIS
10 24 (1.57%) Semantic Layer
11 23 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
11 23 (1.51%) GIS
12 20 (1.31%) Spatial Data
13 19 (1.25%) Spark SQL
14 18 (1.18%) Amazon Athena
15 17 (1.11%) DynamoDB
15 17 (1.11%) Oracle Database
16 16 (1.05%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 78 (5.11%) JIRA
2 70 (4.59%) Git
3 48 (3.15%) Jenkins
4 37 (2.43%) GitLab
5 30 (1.97%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.44%) Snyk
7 16 (1.05%) Postman
8 15 (0.98%) Selenium
9 14 (0.92%) LabVIEW
10 13 (0.85%) IBM UrbanCode
11 11 (0.72%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.72%) JMeter
12 10 (0.66%) Cypress.io
12 10 (0.66%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.66%) MLflow
12 10 (0.66%) TeamCity
13 6 (0.39%) Rational Rhapsody
13 6 (0.39%) REST Assured
14 5 (0.33%) LoadRunner
14 5 (0.33%) Locust
General
1 482 (31.61%) Social Skills
2 410 (26.89%) Finance
3 337 (22.10%) Analytical Skills
4 116 (7.61%) Aerospace
5 113 (7.41%) Manufacturing
6 103 (6.75%) Electronics
7 94 (6.16%) Banking
8 91 (5.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 59 (3.87%) Public Sector
10 57 (3.74%) Retail
11 56 (3.67%) Legal
12 54 (3.54%) Law
13 43 (2.82%) Pharmaceutical
14 42 (2.75%) Marketing
14 42 (2.75%) Organisational Skills
15 40 (2.62%) Games
16 38 (2.49%) Automotive
17 32 (2.10%) Financial Institution
18 27 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
19 26 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 260 (17.05%) Senior
2 240 (15.74%) Analyst
3 133 (8.72%) Systems Engineer
4 118 (7.74%) Lead
5 103 (6.75%) Architect
6 101 (6.62%) Test Engineer
7 84 (5.51%) Validation Engineer
8 82 (5.38%) Business Analyst
9 77 (5.05%) Data Engineer
10 70 (4.59%) Consultant
10 70 (4.59%) Developer
11 65 (4.26%) Data Analyst
12 45 (2.95%) Principal Engineer
13 43 (2.82%) Integration Engineer
14 41 (2.69%) Embedded Engineer
15 37 (2.43%) IT Manager
16 36 (2.36%) Support Engineer
17 35 (2.30%) Security Architect
17 35 (2.30%) Senior Systems Engineer
18 34 (2.23%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.89%) RESTful
2 39 (2.56%) REST
3 36 (2.36%) JSON
4 35 (2.30%) PySpark
5 34 (2.23%) PyTorch
6 31 (2.03%) Node.js
7 30 (1.97%) Kafka
8 27 (1.77%) XML
9 26 (1.70%) Middleware
9 26 (1.70%) Pandas
10 23 (1.51%) .NET
10 23 (1.51%) pytest
11 19 (1.25%) Playwright
11 19 (1.25%) Swagger
12 18 (1.18%) Regular Expression
12 18 (1.18%) XMPP
13 15 (0.98%) LDAP
14 14 (0.92%) CSS
14 14 (0.92%) FastAPI
14 14 (0.92%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 95 (6.23%) Cloud Native
2 73 (4.79%) Onboarding
3 72 (4.72%) Data Structures
4 67 (4.39%) Management Information System
5 57 (3.74%) Algorithms
6 49 (3.21%) Low-Code
7 45 (2.95%) Product Ownership
8 40 (2.62%) Embedded Systems
9 39 (2.56%) Driving Licence
10 34 (2.23%) Data Centre
10 34 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
11 33 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
11 33 (2.16%) Enterprise Software
12 32 (2.10%) Analytical Mindset
12 32 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
13 31 (2.03%) Video\Live Streaming
14 28 (1.84%) Life Science
15 24 (1.57%) FPGA
16 23 (1.51%) Robotics
17 19 (1.25%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 97 (6.36%) Linux
2 68 (4.46%) Windows
3 27 (1.77%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (1.57%) 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%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.066%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.066%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.066%) Rocky
10 1 (0.066%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.066%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.066%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 333 (21.84%) Problem-Solving
2 322 (21.11%) Continuous Improvement
3 318 (20.85%) Agile
4 272 (17.84%) AI
5 243 (15.93%) CI/CD
6 221 (14.49%) Analytics
7 217 (14.23%) Test Automation
8 181 (11.87%) Verification and Validation
9 178 (11.67%) Migration
10 170 (11.15%) Data Validation
11 164 (10.75%) Business Intelligence
12 161 (10.56%) DevOps
12 161 (10.56%) Stakeholder Management
13 159 (10.43%) Data Modelling
14 153 (10.03%) Mentoring
15 150 (9.84%) Decision-Making
16 149 (9.77%) Software Engineering
17 147 (9.64%) Machine Learning
18 146 (9.57%) Data Analysis
19 145 (9.51%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 390 (25.57%) Python
2 315 (20.66%) SQL
3 65 (4.26%) C++
4 63 (4.13%) Java
5 62 (4.07%) C
6 49 (3.21%) Go
7 42 (2.75%) C#
8 32 (2.10%) JavaScript
9 28 (1.84%) MATLAB
10 26 (1.70%) Bash
11 25 (1.64%) PowerShell
12 23 (1.51%) T-SQL
13 20 (1.31%) Embedded C
14 18 (1.18%) Embedded C++
15 15 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 14 (0.92%) Scala
17 12 (0.79%) TypeScript
18 10 (0.66%) ABAP
19 9 (0.59%) VBA
20 7 (0.46%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 292 (19.15%) Degree
2 172 (11.28%) Security Cleared
3 109 (7.15%) BPSS Clearance
4 81 (5.31%) SC Cleared
5 74 (4.85%) Master's Degree
6 46 (3.02%) DV Cleared
7 40 (2.62%) Computer Science Degree
8 35 (2.30%) Chartered Engineer
9 29 (1.90%) CISA
9 29 (1.90%) CISSP
9 29 (1.90%) SANS
10 28 (1.84%) HNC
11 26 (1.70%) CISM
12 23 (1.51%) HND
13 20 (1.31%) ACCA
13 20 (1.31%) CIMA
13 20 (1.31%) PMI Certification
14 19 (1.25%) CGEIT
14 19 (1.25%) FFIEC
15 17 (1.11%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 250 (16.39%) Data Quality
2 177 (11.61%) QA
3 61 (4.00%) Accessibility
4 56 (3.67%) GDPR
5 40 (2.62%) GRC
6 27 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.51%) NIST
8 22 (1.44%) IEC 61508
8 22 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 19 (1.25%) COBIT
9 19 (1.25%) IFRS
10 16 (1.05%) ISO 9001
11 15 (0.98%) PMO
12 14 (0.92%) SLA
13 13 (0.85%) GAAP
14 11 (0.72%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.72%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.59%) GMP
15 9 (0.59%) GxP
15 9 (0.59%) WCAG
System Software
1 74 (4.85%) Docker
2 43 (2.82%) Firmware
3 37 (2.43%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
5 20 (1.31%) vSphere
6 19 (1.25%) Embedded Firmware
7 15 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.39%) KVM
9 5 (0.33%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.13%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.066%) OpenAM
11 1 (0.066%) OpenDJ
11 1 (0.066%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 73 (4.79%) Kubernetes
2 66 (4.33%) Terraform
3 31 (2.03%) Grafana
4 23 (1.51%) Functional Safety
5 21 (1.38%) Ansible
6 16 (1.05%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.66%) Cilium
7 10 (0.66%) 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 (0.066%) MOM
Vendors
1 193 (12.66%) Microsoft
2 96 (6.30%) SAP
3 92 (6.03%) Oracle
4 53 (3.48%) Salesforce
5 39 (2.56%) Databricks
6 35 (2.30%) ServiceNow
7 34 (2.23%) Red Hat
8 33 (2.16%) VMware
9 29 (1.90%) CrowdStrike
10 26 (1.70%) Google
11 23 (1.51%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.44%) Cisco
12 22 (1.44%) Tenable
13 20 (1.31%) Adobe
14 16 (1.05%) Foundry
15 14 (0.92%) Citrix
15 14 (0.92%) McAfee
16 13 (0.85%) OpenAI
17 10 (0.66%) Splunk
18 9 (0.59%) EMC