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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 118 86 208
Rank change year-on-year -32 +122 -19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,547 1,615 1,399
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.63% 3.56% 1.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.22% 3.86% 1.60%
Number of salaries quoted 928 459 759
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,450
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 £72,466
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 69,702 41,872 87,252
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.38% 92.19% 82.13%
Number of salaries quoted 48,070 22,602 61,776
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% -9.54%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,681 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.36% - -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 26 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 26 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 -35 1,402 £55,000 -3.51% 860
UK excluding London -49 1,041 £53,000 -3.64% 692
Work from Home +123 502 £55,000 -8.33% 337
London +71 396 £76,250 - 306
South East -43 316 £55,000 - 259
North of England +93 286 £55,000 +15.35% 129
North West +77 182 £55,000 +15.35% 65
Midlands -67 164 £41,250 -25.00% 110
East of England -76 109 £60,000 +5.26% 69
South West -42 107 £53,000 -3.64% 101
West Midlands 0 96 £44,000 -29.60% 57
East Midlands -78 66 £30,000 -36.84% 53
Yorkshire -2 61 £44,000 +4.45% 39
North East -7 43 £55,000 +15.79% 26
Scotland -8 40 £44,250 -23.75% 30
Wales -36 19 £47,500 -20.83% 9
Northern Ireland -34 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 (3.30%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (3.10%) Apache Spark
3 46 (2.97%) Apache
4 26 (1.68%) Confluence
5 21 (1.36%) ArcGIS
6 20 (1.29%) SharePoint
7 15 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
8 12 (0.78%) Jupyter
9 10 (0.65%) SAS
10 6 (0.39%) Appian
11 5 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.26%) CMS
12 4 (0.26%) Kinematics
13 3 (0.19%) Artix
14 2 (0.13%) IIS
15 1 (0.065%) Oracle Workflow
15 1 (0.065%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 85 (5.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (2.84%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (1.29%) MS Visio
5 17 (1.10%) Simulink
6 15 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.52%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.32%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.26%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.26%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.26%) Sketch
10 3 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 3 (0.19%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.19%) Productboard
10 3 (0.19%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.19%) Stateflow
11 1 (0.065%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.065%) PTC Creo
11 1 (0.065%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 44 (2.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (2.59%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.71%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.65%) SAP ERP
5 8 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.45%) iTrent
7 6 (0.39%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.32%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.32%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.32%) 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
1 225 (14.54%) Azure
2 193 (12.48%) AWS
3 142 (9.18%) Power Platform
4 81 (5.24%) GCP
5 75 (4.85%) SaaS
6 60 (3.88%) Azure DevOps
7 42 (2.71%) Serverless
8 41 (2.65%) GitHub
9 40 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
10 37 (2.39%) Amazon S3
11 35 (2.26%) Dynamics 365
12 27 (1.75%) Azure Data Factory
13 22 (1.42%) Snowflake
14 21 (1.36%) Entra ID
15 20 (1.29%) GitHub Actions
16 18 (1.16%) Power Automate
17 17 (1.10%) dbt
18 16 (1.03%) Amazon EMR
19 15 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
19 15 (0.97%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 71 (4.59%) Broadband
2 46 (2.97%) Firewall
3 34 (2.20%) DNS
4 22 (1.42%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.42%) Wireless
5 21 (1.36%) WAN
6 19 (1.23%) CHAP
7 16 (1.03%) Network Security
8 15 (0.97%) SD-WAN
8 15 (0.97%) VPN
9 13 (0.84%) 5G
10 12 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (0.78%) Wireshark
11 11 (0.71%) Ethernet
11 11 (0.71%) HTTP
11 11 (0.71%) MQTT
12 10 (0.65%) LAN
13 9 (0.58%) NAS
14 7 (0.45%) Multicast
14 7 (0.45%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 135 (8.73%) Power BI
2 55 (3.56%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (3.56%) Tableau
3 53 (3.43%) SQL Server
4 48 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (2.20%) Metadata
5 34 (2.20%) MongoDB
6 31 (2.00%) Relational Database
7 27 (1.75%) BigQuery
8 25 (1.62%) Data Lake
8 25 (1.62%) QGIS
9 24 (1.55%) Semantic Layer
10 23 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
10 23 (1.49%) GIS
11 20 (1.29%) Spatial Data
12 19 (1.23%) Spark SQL
13 18 (1.16%) Amazon Athena
14 17 (1.10%) DynamoDB
14 17 (1.10%) Oracle Database
15 16 (1.03%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 82 (5.30%) JIRA
2 71 (4.59%) Git
3 49 (3.17%) Jenkins
4 38 (2.46%) GitLab
5 31 (2.00%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.42%) Snyk
7 17 (1.10%) Selenium
8 16 (1.03%) Postman
9 15 (0.97%) LabVIEW
10 13 (0.84%) IBM UrbanCode
11 12 (0.78%) Cypress.io
12 11 (0.71%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.71%) JMeter
13 10 (0.65%) Eclipse
13 10 (0.65%) MLflow
13 10 (0.65%) TeamCity
14 7 (0.45%) Rational Rhapsody
14 7 (0.45%) REST Assured
15 6 (0.39%) Burp Suite
15 6 (0.39%) Zephyr
General
1 495 (32.00%) Social Skills
2 416 (26.89%) Finance
3 340 (21.98%) Analytical Skills
4 116 (7.50%) Aerospace
5 115 (7.43%) Manufacturing
6 106 (6.85%) Electronics
7 95 (6.14%) Banking
8 91 (5.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 60 (3.88%) Public Sector
10 59 (3.81%) Retail
11 54 (3.49%) Legal
12 53 (3.43%) Law
13 47 (3.04%) Pharmaceutical
14 45 (2.91%) Organisational Skills
15 42 (2.71%) Marketing
16 41 (2.65%) Games
17 39 (2.52%) Automotive
18 33 (2.13%) Financial Institution
19 26 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
20 25 (1.62%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 265 (17.13%) Senior
2 238 (15.38%) Analyst
3 132 (8.53%) Systems Engineer
4 121 (7.82%) Lead
5 102 (6.59%) Test Engineer
6 101 (6.53%) Architect
7 82 (5.30%) Validation Engineer
8 80 (5.17%) Business Analyst
9 79 (5.11%) Data Engineer
10 70 (4.52%) Consultant
10 70 (4.52%) Developer
11 66 (4.27%) Data Analyst
12 45 (2.91%) Principal Engineer
13 42 (2.71%) Embedded Engineer
14 41 (2.65%) Integration Engineer
15 39 (2.52%) IT Manager
15 39 (2.52%) Support Engineer
16 37 (2.39%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 35 (2.26%) Security Architect
18 34 (2.20%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (2.84%) RESTful
2 38 (2.46%) REST
3 35 (2.26%) JSON
3 35 (2.26%) PySpark
4 34 (2.20%) PyTorch
5 32 (2.07%) Node.js
6 30 (1.94%) Kafka
7 27 (1.75%) XML
8 26 (1.68%) Pandas
9 25 (1.62%) Middleware
10 24 (1.55%) .NET
11 22 (1.42%) pytest
12 21 (1.36%) Playwright
13 18 (1.16%) Regular Expression
13 18 (1.16%) Swagger
13 18 (1.16%) XMPP
14 15 (0.97%) CSS
15 14 (0.90%) HTML
15 14 (0.90%) LDAP
15 14 (0.90%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 97 (6.27%) Cloud Native
2 76 (4.91%) Onboarding
3 72 (4.65%) Data Structures
4 66 (4.27%) Management Information System
5 59 (3.81%) Algorithms
6 49 (3.17%) Low-Code
7 45 (2.91%) Product Ownership
8 42 (2.71%) Embedded Systems
9 41 (2.65%) Driving Licence
10 34 (2.20%) Data Centre
10 34 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
10 34 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
11 33 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
11 33 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
11 33 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
12 31 (2.00%) Video\Live Streaming
13 29 (1.87%) Life Science
14 24 (1.55%) FPGA
15 23 (1.49%) Robotics
16 19 (1.23%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 100 (6.46%) Linux
2 71 (4.59%) Windows
3 29 (1.87%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.49%) Unix
6 6 (0.39%) Android
7 4 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.26%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.26%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.19%) AIX
8 3 (0.19%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.19%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.13%) CentOS
9 2 (0.13%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.13%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.065%) Rocky
10 1 (0.065%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.065%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (21.98%) Problem-Solving
2 325 (21.01%) Continuous Improvement
3 323 (20.88%) Agile
4 275 (17.78%) AI
5 245 (15.84%) CI/CD
6 222 (14.35%) Analytics
7 218 (14.09%) Test Automation
8 186 (12.02%) Migration
9 181 (11.70%) Verification and Validation
10 171 (11.05%) Data Validation
11 166 (10.73%) Stakeholder Management
12 165 (10.67%) Business Intelligence
13 160 (10.34%) Data Modelling
14 159 (10.28%) DevOps
15 153 (9.89%) Mentoring
16 152 (9.83%) Software Engineering
17 150 (9.70%) Decision-Making
18 147 (9.50%) Data Analysis
18 147 (9.50%) Machine Learning
19 144 (9.31%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 391 (25.27%) Python
2 321 (20.75%) SQL
3 69 (4.46%) C++
4 66 (4.27%) C
5 64 (4.14%) Java
6 49 (3.17%) Go
7 44 (2.84%) C#
8 33 (2.13%) JavaScript
9 30 (1.94%) MATLAB
10 25 (1.62%) Bash
10 25 (1.62%) PowerShell
11 24 (1.55%) T-SQL
12 21 (1.36%) Embedded C
13 18 (1.16%) Embedded C++
14 15 (0.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 14 (0.90%) Scala
16 13 (0.84%) TypeScript
17 10 (0.65%) ABAP
18 9 (0.58%) VBA
19 7 (0.45%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 294 (19.00%) Degree
2 169 (10.92%) Security Cleared
3 110 (7.11%) BPSS Clearance
4 78 (5.04%) SC Cleared
5 75 (4.85%) Master's Degree
6 46 (2.97%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
8 35 (2.26%) Chartered Engineer
9 29 (1.87%) CISA
9 29 (1.87%) CISSP
9 29 (1.87%) SANS
10 28 (1.81%) HNC
11 26 (1.68%) CISM
12 22 (1.42%) HND
13 20 (1.29%) ACCA
13 20 (1.29%) CIMA
14 19 (1.23%) CGEIT
14 19 (1.23%) FFIEC
15 18 (1.16%) PMI Certification
16 15 (0.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 255 (16.48%) Data Quality
2 186 (12.02%) QA
3 62 (4.01%) Accessibility
4 56 (3.62%) GDPR
5 39 (2.52%) GRC
6 26 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.49%) NIST
8 22 (1.42%) IEC 61508
9 21 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 19 (1.23%) COBIT
11 18 (1.16%) IFRS
12 16 (1.03%) ISO 9001
12 16 (1.03%) PMO
13 14 (0.90%) SLA
14 13 (0.84%) GAAP
15 12 (0.78%) ISO 26262
16 11 (0.71%) SOC 2
16 11 (0.71%) WCAG
17 10 (0.65%) GxP
18 9 (0.58%) GMP
System Software
1 72 (4.65%) Docker
2 44 (2.84%) Firmware
3 37 (2.39%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.42%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (1.36%) Embedded Firmware
6 20 (1.29%) vSphere
7 15 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.39%) KVM
9 5 (0.32%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.13%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 71 (4.59%) Kubernetes
2 65 (4.20%) Terraform
3 31 (2.00%) Grafana
4 23 (1.49%) Functional Safety
5 20 (1.29%) Ansible
6 15 (0.97%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.65%) Cilium
7 10 (0.65%) Puppet
8 7 (0.45%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 7 (0.45%) Kibana
9 6 (0.39%) SCCM
10 3 (0.19%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.19%) 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%) Nessus
11 2 (0.13%) Nmap
11 2 (0.13%) Rancher
11 2 (0.13%) yum
Vendors
1 193 (12.48%) Microsoft
2 99 (6.40%) SAP
3 91 (5.88%) Oracle
4 52 (3.36%) Salesforce
5 39 (2.52%) Databricks
6 34 (2.20%) Red Hat
6 34 (2.20%) ServiceNow
7 33 (2.13%) VMware
8 29 (1.87%) CrowdStrike
9 25 (1.62%) Google
10 23 (1.49%) Palo Alto
11 22 (1.42%) Cisco
11 22 (1.42%) Tenable
12 20 (1.29%) Adobe
13 16 (1.03%) Foundry
14 14 (0.90%) Citrix
14 14 (0.90%) McAfee
15 13 (0.84%) OpenAI
16 10 (0.65%) EMC
17 9 (0.58%) IBM