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

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 127 81 195
Rank change year-on-year -46 +114 -4
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,361 1,546 1,458
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.51% 3.60% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.02% 3.87% 1.78%
Number of salaries quoted 768 429 782
10th Percentile £34,500 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,938 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,325
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £54,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% -4.55%

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 67,342 39,928 81,978
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.57% 92.95% 85.54%
Number of salaries quoted 41,961 22,681 59,568
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,625 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.86% +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 4 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 4 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 -49 1,210 £60,000 +7.14% 914
UK excluding London -70 888 £52,500 -2.78% 700
Work from Home +107 410 £60,000 +4.35% 443
London +70 356 £77,500 +10.71% 355
South East -46 284 £55,000 +7.84% 247
North of England +27 219 £55,000 +15.35% 119
Midlands -88 148 £38,750 -29.55% 92
North West +25 135 £58,000 +21.64% 70
West Midlands -3 96 £44,000 -32.31% 55
East of England -85 96 £60,000 +5.26% 97
South West -48 87 £53,750 -1.38% 105
Yorkshire -28 53 £59,000 +24.21% 37
East Midlands -104 50 £30,000 -41.18% 37
Scotland -28 41 £42,000 -27.63% 35
North East -9 31 £52,500 -7.49% 13
Wales -29 13 £44,000 -15.47% 16
Northern Ireland -39 2 - - 11

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 (3.38%) Apache Airflow
2 28 (2.06%) Apache Spark
3 26 (1.91%) Apache
4 23 (1.69%) Confluence
5 21 (1.54%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.88%) Appian
8 11 (0.81%) CMS
9 8 (0.59%) SharePoint
10 6 (0.44%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.22%) Headless CMS
11 3 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 2 (0.15%) IIS
13 1 (0.073%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.073%) Artix
13 1 (0.073%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.073%) SAS
13 1 (0.073%) WordPress
Applications
1 91 (6.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 63 (4.63%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.47%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.59%) Simulink
6 6 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.29%) CANalyzer
7 4 (0.29%) Fusion 360
8 3 (0.22%) Solid Edge
8 3 (0.22%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.15%) Adobe XD
9 2 (0.15%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.15%) CATIA
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
9 2 (0.15%) Sketch
10 1 (0.073%) Elementor
10 1 (0.073%) Navisworks
10 1 (0.073%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 35 (2.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.73%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.66%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.51%) Workday HCM
6 6 (0.44%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.44%) Loan IQ
6 6 (0.44%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.29%) Markit EDM
7 4 (0.29%) SAP MDG-BP
8 3 (0.22%) iTrent
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 2 (0.15%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
10 1 (0.073%) Oracle Payables
10 1 (0.073%) Oracle Receivables
10 1 (0.073%) SAP BRIM
10 1 (0.073%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 201 (14.77%) Azure
2 134 (9.85%) AWS
3 119 (8.74%) Power Platform
4 55 (4.04%) SaaS
5 54 (3.97%) GCP
6 44 (3.23%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (2.65%) Dynamics 365
8 35 (2.57%) Azure Data Factory
9 32 (2.35%) Serverless
10 30 (2.20%) Snowflake
11 28 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
12 27 (1.98%) Amazon S3
12 27 (1.98%) GitHub
13 25 (1.84%) Power Automate
14 24 (1.76%) dbt
14 24 (1.76%) Entra ID
15 16 (1.18%) OpenShift
16 15 (1.10%) Anthropic Claude
16 15 (1.10%) Azure AI
17 12 (0.88%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 36 (2.65%) Broadband
2 31 (2.28%) Firewall
3 29 (2.13%) CHAP
4 23 (1.69%) DNS
5 21 (1.54%) WAN
6 18 (1.32%) TCP/IP
6 18 (1.32%) Wireless
7 17 (1.25%) SD-WAN
8 13 (0.96%) 5G
9 11 (0.81%) HTTP
10 10 (0.73%) Wireshark
11 9 (0.66%) LAN
11 9 (0.66%) Modbus
11 9 (0.66%) NAS
12 8 (0.59%) Multicast
12 8 (0.59%) VPN
13 7 (0.51%) Ethernet
13 7 (0.51%) MQTT
13 7 (0.51%) Network Security
14 6 (0.44%) ATM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (8.23%) Power BI
2 49 (3.60%) SQL Server
3 45 (3.31%) Tableau
4 35 (2.57%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (2.57%) PostgreSQL
5 33 (2.42%) Metadata
5 33 (2.42%) Relational Database
6 25 (1.84%) QGIS
7 23 (1.69%) GIS
8 21 (1.54%) Data Lake
9 20 (1.47%) Spatial Data
10 18 (1.32%) Oracle Reports
11 17 (1.25%) Spark SQL
12 16 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
13 15 (1.10%) MongoDB
13 15 (1.10%) Oracle Database
14 14 (1.03%) BigQuery
14 14 (1.03%) MySQL
14 14 (1.03%) Parquet
14 14 (1.03%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 65 (4.78%) Git
2 61 (4.48%) JIRA
3 39 (2.87%) Rational DOORS
4 28 (2.06%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.47%) GitLab
6 17 (1.25%) LabVIEW
6 17 (1.25%) Postman
6 17 (1.25%) Snyk
7 15 (1.10%) MLflow
7 15 (1.10%) Selenium
8 13 (0.96%) IBM UrbanCode
9 12 (0.88%) Cucumber
9 12 (0.88%) JMeter
10 11 (0.81%) TestRail
11 10 (0.73%) Eclipse
12 7 (0.51%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.44%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.37%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.37%) Subversion
14 5 (0.37%) Visual Studio
General
1 446 (32.77%) Social Skills
2 369 (27.11%) Finance
3 288 (21.16%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.86%) Manufacturing
5 98 (7.20%) Aerospace
6 89 (6.54%) Electronics
7 86 (6.32%) Banking
8 70 (5.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 59 (4.34%) Legal
10 51 (3.75%) Public Sector
11 45 (3.31%) Retail
12 42 (3.09%) Law
12 42 (3.09%) Marketing
13 40 (2.94%) Financial Institution
14 39 (2.87%) Pharmaceutical
15 36 (2.65%) Presentation Skills
16 31 (2.28%) Organisational Skills
17 30 (2.20%) Automotive
18 26 (1.91%) Games
19 22 (1.62%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 224 (16.46%) Senior
2 220 (16.16%) Analyst
3 155 (11.39%) Systems Engineer
4 96 (7.05%) Lead
5 91 (6.69%) Test Engineer
6 86 (6.32%) Architect
7 83 (6.10%) Business Analyst
7 83 (6.10%) Validation Engineer
8 65 (4.78%) Consultant
9 58 (4.26%) Data Analyst
10 52 (3.82%) Integration Engineer
11 50 (3.67%) Data Engineer
12 46 (3.38%) Developer
13 45 (3.31%) Junior
14 44 (3.23%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 42 (3.09%) Principal Engineer
16 39 (2.87%) Verification Engineer
17 36 (2.65%) Software Validation Engineer
17 36 (2.65%) Systems Integration Engineer
18 32 (2.35%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (3.89%) REST
2 37 (2.72%) PyTorch
3 34 (2.50%) JSON
3 34 (2.50%) Pandas
4 29 (2.13%) Middleware
5 26 (1.91%) pytest
6 23 (1.69%) RESTful
7 22 (1.62%) PySpark
7 22 (1.62%) XML
8 20 (1.47%) OAuth
9 19 (1.40%) .NET
9 19 (1.40%) Swagger
10 18 (1.32%) JWT
11 17 (1.25%) Kafka
11 17 (1.25%) NumPy
11 17 (1.25%) Playwright
11 17 (1.25%) TensorFlow
12 15 (1.10%) React
13 14 (1.03%) OpenAPI
13 14 (1.03%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 80 (5.88%) Management Information System
2 55 (4.04%) Onboarding
3 50 (3.67%) Data Structures
4 39 (2.87%) Low-Code
5 37 (2.72%) Algorithms
6 36 (2.65%) Cloud Native
6 36 (2.65%) Product Ownership
6 36 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
8 27 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
8 27 (1.98%) Data Centre
8 27 (1.98%) Life Science
9 23 (1.69%) Embedded Systems
10 20 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
11 18 (1.32%) SCADA
12 17 (1.25%) Robotics
13 16 (1.18%) Driving Licence
14 15 (1.10%) Blockchain
15 14 (1.03%) IoT
15 14 (1.03%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 78 (5.73%) Linux
2 64 (4.70%) Windows
3 21 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 21 (1.54%) Windows Server
4 20 (1.47%) Unix
5 12 (0.88%) Android
6 4 (0.29%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.29%) CentOS
6 4 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
6 4 (0.29%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.22%) AIX
7 3 (0.22%) Kali Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.15%) ThreadX
8 2 (0.15%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.073%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Rocky
9 1 (0.073%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 303 (22.26%) Problem-Solving
2 284 (20.87%) Agile
3 256 (18.81%) Continuous Improvement
4 209 (15.36%) Verification and Validation
5 208 (15.28%) Analytics
6 198 (14.55%) AI
7 177 (13.01%) Test Automation
8 176 (12.93%) CI/CD
9 165 (12.12%) Data Validation
10 151 (11.09%) Migration
11 141 (10.36%) Business Intelligence
12 139 (10.21%) Data Modelling
13 134 (9.85%) Stakeholder Management
14 133 (9.77%) Decision-Making
14 133 (9.77%) User Acceptance Testing
15 130 (9.55%) Systems Engineering
16 128 (9.40%) Data Governance
17 127 (9.33%) Mentoring
18 122 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 120 (8.82%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 299 (21.97%) Python
2 268 (19.69%) SQL
3 49 (3.60%) C++
4 47 (3.45%) Java
5 40 (2.94%) C
6 36 (2.65%) PowerShell
7 27 (1.98%) Go
7 27 (1.98%) JavaScript
8 26 (1.91%) Bash
9 24 (1.76%) C#
10 22 (1.62%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.32%) T-SQL
12 14 (1.03%) TypeScript
13 12 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 12 (0.88%) Embedded C
14 9 (0.66%) VBA
15 8 (0.59%) R
16 7 (0.51%) ABAP
16 7 (0.51%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.51%) VB
Qualifications
1 302 (22.19%) Degree
2 166 (12.20%) Security Cleared
3 131 (9.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 63 (4.63%) Master's Degree
5 61 (4.48%) SC Cleared
6 39 (2.87%) CISSP
7 38 (2.79%) CISA
7 38 (2.79%) Computer Science Degree
7 38 (2.79%) DV Cleared
8 36 (2.65%) Chartered Engineer
8 36 (2.65%) CISM
9 33 (2.42%) SANS
10 29 (2.13%) CGEIT
10 29 (2.13%) FFIEC
11 28 (2.06%) HNC
12 24 (1.76%) HND
13 23 (1.69%) PMI Certification
14 20 (1.47%) PMP
15 12 (0.88%) ISTQB
16 10 (0.73%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 189 (13.89%) Data Quality
2 147 (10.80%) QA
3 66 (4.85%) GDPR
4 60 (4.41%) Accessibility
5 37 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 35 (2.57%) GRC
7 31 (2.28%) NIST
8 29 (2.13%) COBIT
9 21 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 18 (1.32%) IEC 61508
10 18 (1.32%) IFRS
11 15 (1.10%) SLA
12 13 (0.96%) ISO 9001
13 12 (0.88%) GAAP
14 11 (0.81%) GMP
15 10 (0.73%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.73%) PMO
15 10 (0.73%) WCAG
16 9 (0.66%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 9 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 61 (4.48%) Docker
2 36 (2.65%) Active Directory
3 28 (2.06%) Firmware
4 18 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (1.10%) vSphere
6 6 (0.44%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.44%) KVM
7 5 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.15%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.073%) iptables
10 1 (0.073%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.073%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.073%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.073%) pfSense
Systems Management
1 66 (4.85%) Kubernetes
2 46 (3.38%) Terraform
3 32 (2.35%) Grafana
4 25 (1.84%) Ansible
5 17 (1.25%) Prometheus
6 14 (1.03%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 14 (1.03%) Functional Safety
7 10 (0.73%) Puppet
7 10 (0.73%) SCCM
8 7 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.29%) Argo
9 4 (0.29%) Cilium
9 4 (0.29%) Rancher
9 4 (0.29%) yum
10 3 (0.22%) HP Fortify
11 2 (0.15%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.15%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 2 (0.15%) Kibana
11 2 (0.15%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.073%) Nessus
Vendors
1 177 (13.01%) Microsoft
2 74 (5.44%) Oracle
3 64 (4.70%) SAP
4 44 (3.23%) Salesforce
5 29 (2.13%) Red Hat
5 29 (2.13%) VMware
6 24 (1.76%) Databricks
7 21 (1.54%) Cisco
8 19 (1.40%) CrowdStrike
8 19 (1.40%) Google
8 19 (1.40%) Palo Alto
9 18 (1.32%) IBM
10 17 (1.25%) Foundry
10 17 (1.25%) Tenable
11 16 (1.18%) Adobe
11 16 (1.18%) OpenAI
11 16 (1.18%) ServiceNow
12 14 (1.03%) Citrix
13 12 (0.88%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (0.88%) Workday