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 10 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 88 209
Rank change year-on-year -27 +121 -15
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,640 1,642 1,369
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.68% 3.35% 1.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.27% 3.71% 1.63%
Number of salaries quoted 984 480 738
10th Percentile £35,000 £39,781 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,000 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -3.64% +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 72,315 44,278 84,054
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.86% 90.47% 82.35%
Number of salaries quoted 49,904 24,657 59,064
10th Percentile £30,250 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,772 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.54% - -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 10 July 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 10 July 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 -32 1,484 £55,000 -2.23% 961
UK excluding London -45 1,097 £53,000 -3.64% 711
Work from Home +122 531 £55,000 -8.33% 395
London +79 426 £75,000 -1.64% 404
South East -42 330 £55,000 - 231
North of England +89 303 £55,000 +15.35% 122
North West +77 190 £55,000 +15.35% 61
Midlands -62 178 £41,875 -23.86% 116
South West -32 113 £52,750 +0.29% 127
East of England -77 106 £62,500 +9.65% 77
West Midlands +10 103 £43,250 -30.80% 56
East Midlands -74 73 £34,000 -28.42% 60
Yorkshire +6 62 £44,000 +5.39% 42
North East -5 51 £55,000 +22.22% 19
Scotland +4 42 £48,750 -16.00% 40
Wales -30 25 £47,500 -17.39% 8
Northern Ireland -60 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 51 (3.11%) Apache Airflow
2 49 (2.99%) Apache Spark
3 46 (2.80%) Apache
4 28 (1.71%) Confluence
5 24 (1.46%) SharePoint
6 21 (1.28%) ArcGIS
7 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
8 12 (0.73%) Jupyter
9 11 (0.67%) SAS
10 5 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.24%) CMS
11 4 (0.24%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.18%) Appian
12 3 (0.18%) Artix
13 2 (0.12%) IIS
13 2 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 1 (0.061%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 88 (5.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (3.29%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (1.28%) MS Visio
5 19 (1.16%) Simulink
6 16 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 12 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
8 8 (0.49%) SOLIDWORKS
9 5 (0.30%) AutoCAD
10 4 (0.24%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.24%) CANalyzer
10 4 (0.24%) Sketch
11 3 (0.18%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.18%) Productboard
11 3 (0.18%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.12%) Solid Edge
13 1 (0.061%) CATIA
13 1 (0.061%) Revit
13 1 (0.061%) Trello
13 1 (0.061%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 46 (2.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (2.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.67%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.61%) SAP ERP
5 9 (0.55%) iTrent
5 9 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.49%) Oracle ERP
7 7 (0.43%) Oracle Applications
8 6 (0.37%) Elite 3E
9 5 (0.30%) Loan IQ
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
9 5 (0.30%) SAP MDG-BP
10 4 (0.24%) SAP MM
11 2 (0.12%) FastStats
11 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
11 2 (0.12%) SAP EWM
11 2 (0.12%) SAP FSCM
11 2 (0.12%) SAP PSCD
11 2 (0.12%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 242 (14.76%) Azure
2 217 (13.23%) AWS
3 160 (9.76%) Power Platform
4 82 (5.00%) GCP
5 78 (4.76%) SaaS
6 66 (4.02%) Azure DevOps
7 48 (2.93%) Serverless
8 44 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
9 42 (2.56%) GitHub
10 38 (2.32%) Amazon S3
11 32 (1.95%) Dynamics 365
12 24 (1.46%) Azure Data Factory
13 22 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
13 22 (1.34%) Snowflake
14 21 (1.28%) Entra ID
15 18 (1.10%) Power Automate
16 17 (1.04%) Amazon EC2
16 17 (1.04%) Amazon EMR
16 17 (1.04%) dbt
16 17 (1.04%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 71 (4.33%) Broadband
2 51 (3.11%) Firewall
3 34 (2.07%) DNS
4 27 (1.65%) Wireless
5 24 (1.46%) TCP/IP
5 24 (1.46%) WAN
6 18 (1.10%) Network Security
7 17 (1.04%) VPN
8 16 (0.98%) SD-WAN
9 15 (0.91%) CHAP
10 14 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (0.79%) MQTT
11 13 (0.79%) Wireshark
12 12 (0.73%) Ethernet
13 11 (0.67%) 5G
13 11 (0.67%) HTTP
14 10 (0.61%) LAN
15 9 (0.55%) NAS
16 8 (0.49%) BGP
17 7 (0.43%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (9.02%) Power BI
2 58 (3.54%) Tableau
3 57 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
4 55 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
5 51 (3.11%) SQL Server
6 39 (2.38%) Metadata
7 34 (2.07%) MongoDB
8 30 (1.83%) Relational Database
9 29 (1.77%) Data Lake
10 27 (1.65%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.52%) QGIS
11 25 (1.52%) Semantic Layer
12 23 (1.40%) Azure SQL Database
12 23 (1.40%) GIS
13 20 (1.22%) Spatial Data
14 19 (1.16%) Amazon Athena
14 19 (1.16%) DynamoDB
14 19 (1.16%) Spark SQL
15 18 (1.10%) MySQL
16 17 (1.04%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 99 (6.04%) JIRA
2 83 (5.06%) Git
3 54 (3.29%) Jenkins
4 44 (2.68%) GitLab
5 30 (1.83%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.34%) Snyk
7 19 (1.16%) Selenium
8 17 (1.04%) Postman
9 16 (0.98%) LabVIEW
10 13 (0.79%) Cypress.io
10 13 (0.79%) IBM UrbanCode
10 13 (0.79%) JMeter
11 12 (0.73%) Cucumber
12 10 (0.61%) TeamCity
13 8 (0.49%) Burp Suite
13 8 (0.49%) REST Assured
14 7 (0.43%) MLflow
14 7 (0.43%) Rational Rhapsody
14 7 (0.43%) Zephyr
15 6 (0.37%) GDB
General
1 524 (31.95%) Social Skills
2 435 (26.52%) Finance
3 366 (22.32%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (7.62%) Aerospace
5 120 (7.32%) Manufacturing
6 117 (7.13%) Electronics
7 96 (5.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 93 (5.67%) Banking
9 68 (4.15%) Retail
10 63 (3.84%) Public Sector
11 54 (3.29%) Legal
12 53 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
13 52 (3.17%) Law
14 49 (2.99%) Pharmaceutical
15 44 (2.68%) Marketing
16 42 (2.56%) Games
17 41 (2.50%) Automotive
18 31 (1.89%) Financial Institution
19 30 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
20 26 (1.59%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 285 (17.38%) Senior
2 252 (15.37%) Analyst
3 132 (8.05%) Lead
4 125 (7.62%) Systems Engineer
5 106 (6.46%) Test Engineer
6 105 (6.40%) Architect
7 86 (5.24%) Data Engineer
8 81 (4.94%) Business Analyst
9 80 (4.88%) Consultant
10 78 (4.76%) Validation Engineer
11 75 (4.57%) Developer
12 72 (4.39%) Data Analyst
13 44 (2.68%) Embedded Engineer
14 43 (2.62%) Support Engineer
15 42 (2.56%) IT Manager
15 42 (2.56%) Principal Engineer
16 41 (2.50%) Software Engineer
17 40 (2.44%) Senior Systems Engineer
18 36 (2.20%) Project Manager
19 35 (2.13%) Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.68%) RESTful
2 36 (2.20%) Node.js
3 35 (2.13%) PySpark
4 34 (2.07%) JSON
5 33 (2.01%) REST
6 32 (1.95%) PyTorch
7 31 (1.89%) Kafka
8 30 (1.83%) XML
9 26 (1.59%) .NET
9 26 (1.59%) Pandas
10 23 (1.40%) Middleware
10 23 (1.40%) Playwright
11 19 (1.16%) Regular Expression
11 19 (1.16%) XMPP
12 18 (1.10%) pytest
12 18 (1.10%) React
13 16 (0.98%) CSS
14 15 (0.91%) HTML
14 15 (0.91%) LDAP
14 15 (0.91%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 105 (6.40%) Cloud Native
2 92 (5.61%) Onboarding
3 73 (4.45%) Data Structures
4 70 (4.27%) Management Information System
5 62 (3.78%) Algorithms
6 54 (3.29%) Product Ownership
7 50 (3.05%) Embedded Systems
8 46 (2.80%) Low-Code
9 45 (2.74%) Data Centre
10 44 (2.68%) Driving Licence
11 41 (2.50%) Distributed Systems
12 38 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
13 36 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
14 34 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
15 33 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
16 31 (1.89%) Video\Live Streaming
17 28 (1.71%) Life Science
18 25 (1.52%) IoT
19 24 (1.46%) FPGA
19 24 (1.46%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 114 (6.95%) Linux
2 80 (4.88%) Windows
3 30 (1.83%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (1.34%) Unix
6 8 (0.49%) Android
7 6 (0.37%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.24%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.24%) Mac OS X
9 4 (0.24%) Robot Operating System
10 3 (0.18%) AIX
10 3 (0.18%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.12%) CentOS
11 2 (0.12%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.061%) Rocky
12 1 (0.061%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.061%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (22.32%) Problem-Solving
2 353 (21.52%) Continuous Improvement
3 347 (21.16%) Agile
4 300 (18.29%) AI
5 261 (15.91%) CI/CD
6 235 (14.33%) Analytics
7 228 (13.90%) Test Automation
8 210 (12.80%) Migration
9 190 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
10 180 (10.98%) Business Intelligence
11 174 (10.61%) Verification and Validation
12 172 (10.49%) Mentoring
13 171 (10.43%) Data Validation
14 169 (10.30%) DevOps
15 165 (10.06%) Decision-Making
16 162 (9.88%) Data Modelling
16 162 (9.88%) Software Engineering
17 160 (9.76%) Data Analysis
18 152 (9.27%) Machine Learning
19 149 (9.09%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 421 (25.67%) Python
2 345 (21.04%) SQL
3 76 (4.63%) C++
4 73 (4.45%) C
5 70 (4.27%) Java
6 51 (3.11%) Go
7 48 (2.93%) C#
8 36 (2.20%) JavaScript
9 33 (2.01%) MATLAB
10 29 (1.77%) Bash
11 27 (1.65%) PowerShell
12 25 (1.52%) T-SQL
13 21 (1.28%) Embedded C
14 18 (1.10%) Embedded C++
15 16 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 15 (0.91%) TypeScript
17 14 (0.85%) Scala
18 10 (0.61%) ABAP
19 9 (0.55%) VBA
20 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 319 (19.45%) Degree
2 184 (11.22%) Security Cleared
3 112 (6.83%) BPSS Clearance
4 84 (5.12%) SC Cleared
5 76 (4.63%) Master's Degree
6 52 (3.17%) DV Cleared
7 42 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
8 33 (2.01%) Chartered Engineer
9 28 (1.71%) HNC
10 25 (1.52%) CISA
10 25 (1.52%) CISSP
10 25 (1.52%) SANS
11 22 (1.34%) CISM
12 20 (1.22%) ACCA
12 20 (1.22%) CIMA
12 20 (1.22%) HND
13 17 (1.04%) AWS Certification
14 16 (0.98%) PMI Certification
15 15 (0.91%) CGEIT
15 15 (0.91%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 273 (16.65%) Data Quality
2 216 (13.17%) QA
3 61 (3.72%) Accessibility
4 57 (3.48%) GDPR
5 39 (2.38%) GRC
6 26 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.34%) IEC 61508
8 20 (1.22%) NIST
9 19 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 18 (1.10%) IFRS
10 18 (1.10%) ISO 9001
11 16 (0.98%) PMO
12 15 (0.91%) COBIT
12 15 (0.91%) SLA
13 13 (0.79%) GAAP
13 13 (0.79%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.67%) SOC 2
14 11 (0.67%) WCAG
15 10 (0.61%) GxP
16 9 (0.55%) GMP
System Software
1 68 (4.15%) Docker
2 55 (3.35%) Firmware
3 38 (2.32%) Active Directory
4 25 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
5 24 (1.46%) Embedded Firmware
6 21 (1.28%) vSphere
7 15 (0.91%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.37%) KVM
9 5 (0.30%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.12%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 71 (4.33%) Terraform
2 69 (4.21%) Kubernetes
3 37 (2.26%) Grafana
4 24 (1.46%) Ansible
5 23 (1.40%) Functional Safety
6 16 (0.98%) Prometheus
7 13 (0.79%) Puppet
8 10 (0.61%) Cilium
9 7 (0.43%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 7 (0.43%) Kibana
10 6 (0.37%) SCCM
11 4 (0.24%) Argo
11 4 (0.24%) Rancher
11 4 (0.24%) yum
12 3 (0.18%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.18%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.18%) Nessus
12 3 (0.18%) Nmap
12 3 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.12%) BMC PATROL
Vendors
1 217 (13.23%) Microsoft
2 106 (6.46%) SAP
3 97 (5.91%) Oracle
4 50 (3.05%) Salesforce
5 42 (2.56%) Databricks
6 35 (2.13%) Red Hat
7 34 (2.07%) VMware
8 33 (2.01%) ServiceNow
9 29 (1.77%) Cisco
9 29 (1.77%) CrowdStrike
10 26 (1.59%) Google
11 23 (1.40%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.34%) Tenable
13 17 (1.04%) Adobe
14 16 (0.98%) Foundry
15 15 (0.91%) McAfee
16 14 (0.85%) Citrix
16 14 (0.85%) IBM
17 13 (0.79%) EMC
18 10 (0.61%) Informatica