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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 88 207
Rank change year-on-year -28 +119 -13
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,633 1,642 1,378
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.67% 3.37% 1.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.26% 3.72% 1.63%
Number of salaries quoted 980 482 747
10th Percentile £35,000 £39,881 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,000 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £56,252 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% +2.28% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £72,375
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 72,161 44,144 84,574
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.86% 90.58% 82.41%
Number of salaries quoted 49,802 24,628 59,539
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 £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -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 9 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 9 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 -30 1,480 £55,000 -1.79% 1,129
UK excluding London -46 1,090 £53,000 -3.64% 827
Work from Home +124 530 £55,000 -8.33% 424
London +83 428 £77,500 - 475
South East -38 330 £55,000 - 236
North of England +92 302 £55,000 +15.35% 149
North West +79 189 £55,000 +15.35% 79
Midlands -69 175 £41,875 -23.86% 123
South West -39 112 £52,750 +0.29% 180
East of England -81 105 £61,250 +7.46% 79
West Midlands -3 103 £43,250 -30.80% 62
East Midlands -77 70 £30,000 -36.84% 61
Yorkshire +3 62 £44,000 +5.39% 50
North East -2 51 £55,000 +22.22% 20
Scotland -4 42 £48,750 -16.00% 50
Wales -33 24 £47,500 -17.39% 8
Northern Ireland -60 2 - - 17

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 (3.18%) Apache Airflow
2 48 (2.94%) Apache Spark
3 46 (2.82%) Apache
4 27 (1.65%) Confluence
5 24 (1.47%) SharePoint
6 21 (1.29%) ArcGIS
7 15 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
8 12 (0.73%) Jupyter
9 11 (0.67%) SAS
10 5 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.24%) Appian
11 4 (0.24%) CMS
11 4 (0.24%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.18%) Artix
13 2 (0.12%) IIS
14 1 (0.061%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 1 (0.061%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 89 (5.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 53 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (1.29%) MS Visio
5 19 (1.16%) Simulink
6 16 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 11 (0.67%) Spreadsheet
8 8 (0.49%) SOLIDWORKS
9 5 (0.31%) 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 (2.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (2.57%) 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 6 (0.37%) Elite 3E
7 6 (0.37%) Oracle Applications
8 5 (0.31%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.24%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.12%) FastStats
10 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
10 2 (0.12%) SAP Business One
10 2 (0.12%) SAP EWM
10 2 (0.12%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.12%) SAP PSCD
10 2 (0.12%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 239 (14.64%) Azure
2 216 (13.23%) AWS
3 159 (9.74%) Power Platform
4 80 (4.90%) GCP
5 79 (4.84%) SaaS
6 64 (3.92%) Azure DevOps
7 48 (2.94%) Serverless
8 44 (2.69%) Microsoft 365
9 42 (2.57%) GitHub
10 38 (2.33%) Amazon S3
11 32 (1.96%) Dynamics 365
12 25 (1.53%) Azure Data Factory
13 22 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
13 22 (1.35%) Snowflake
14 21 (1.29%) Entra ID
15 19 (1.16%) 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 (4.35%) Broadband
2 51 (3.12%) Firewall
3 34 (2.08%) DNS
4 26 (1.59%) Wireless
5 24 (1.47%) TCP/IP
5 24 (1.47%) WAN
6 18 (1.10%) Network Security
7 17 (1.04%) CHAP
7 17 (1.04%) VPN
8 16 (0.98%) SD-WAN
9 13 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.80%) Wireshark
10 12 (0.73%) Ethernet
10 12 (0.73%) MQTT
11 11 (0.67%) 5G
11 11 (0.67%) HTTP
12 10 (0.61%) LAN
13 9 (0.55%) NAS
14 8 (0.49%) BGP
15 7 (0.43%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (9.00%) Power BI
2 57 (3.49%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (3.49%) Tableau
3 54 (3.31%) Data Warehouse
4 52 (3.18%) SQL Server
5 37 (2.27%) Metadata
6 34 (2.08%) MongoDB
7 30 (1.84%) Data Lake
7 30 (1.84%) Relational Database
8 27 (1.65%) BigQuery
9 25 (1.53%) QGIS
10 24 (1.47%) Semantic Layer
11 23 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
11 23 (1.41%) GIS
12 20 (1.22%) Spatial Data
13 19 (1.16%) Amazon Athena
13 19 (1.16%) DynamoDB
13 19 (1.16%) Spark SQL
14 18 (1.10%) MySQL
15 17 (1.04%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 97 (5.94%) JIRA
2 80 (4.90%) Git
3 53 (3.25%) Jenkins
4 43 (2.63%) GitLab
5 30 (1.84%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.35%) Snyk
7 18 (1.10%) Selenium
8 16 (0.98%) LabVIEW
8 16 (0.98%) Postman
9 13 (0.80%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.80%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (0.80%) JMeter
10 12 (0.73%) Cucumber
11 10 (0.61%) TeamCity
12 8 (0.49%) Burp Suite
12 8 (0.49%) MLflow
12 8 (0.49%) REST Assured
13 7 (0.43%) Rational Rhapsody
13 7 (0.43%) Zephyr
14 6 (0.37%) Eclipse
General
1 523 (32.03%) Social Skills
2 437 (26.76%) Finance
3 362 (22.17%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (7.59%) Aerospace
5 120 (7.35%) Manufacturing
6 116 (7.10%) Electronics
7 98 (6.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 96 (5.88%) Banking
9 68 (4.16%) Retail
10 62 (3.80%) Public Sector
11 54 (3.31%) Legal
12 53 (3.25%) Organisational Skills
13 52 (3.18%) Law
14 49 (3.00%) Pharmaceutical
15 43 (2.63%) Marketing
16 42 (2.57%) Games
17 41 (2.51%) Automotive
18 33 (2.02%) Financial Institution
19 30 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
20 26 (1.59%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 285 (17.45%) Senior
2 251 (15.37%) Analyst
3 132 (8.08%) Lead
4 126 (7.72%) Systems Engineer
5 106 (6.49%) Test Engineer
6 105 (6.43%) Architect
7 86 (5.27%) Data Engineer
8 81 (4.96%) Business Analyst
9 80 (4.90%) Consultant
10 78 (4.78%) Validation Engineer
11 74 (4.53%) Developer
12 71 (4.35%) Data Analyst
13 43 (2.63%) Embedded Engineer
13 43 (2.63%) Support Engineer
14 42 (2.57%) IT Manager
14 42 (2.57%) Principal Engineer
15 41 (2.51%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 40 (2.45%) Software Engineer
17 36 (2.20%) Project Manager
18 35 (2.14%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (2.76%) RESTful
2 36 (2.20%) Node.js
3 35 (2.14%) PySpark
4 34 (2.08%) JSON
4 34 (2.08%) REST
5 32 (1.96%) PyTorch
6 30 (1.84%) Kafka
6 30 (1.84%) XML
7 27 (1.65%) Pandas
8 25 (1.53%) .NET
9 23 (1.41%) Middleware
10 22 (1.35%) Playwright
11 19 (1.16%) pytest
11 19 (1.16%) Regular Expression
11 19 (1.16%) XMPP
12 17 (1.04%) CSS
12 17 (1.04%) React
13 16 (0.98%) HTML
14 15 (0.92%) LDAP
15 14 (0.86%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 104 (6.37%) Cloud Native
2 92 (5.63%) Onboarding
3 73 (4.47%) Data Structures
4 72 (4.41%) Management Information System
5 62 (3.80%) Algorithms
6 51 (3.12%) Product Ownership
7 49 (3.00%) Embedded Systems
8 47 (2.88%) Low-Code
9 44 (2.69%) Data Centre
9 44 (2.69%) Driving Licence
10 40 (2.45%) Distributed Systems
11 38 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
12 36 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
13 34 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
13 34 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
14 31 (1.90%) Video\Live Streaming
15 28 (1.71%) Life Science
16 24 (1.47%) FPGA
16 24 (1.47%) IoT
16 24 (1.47%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 111 (6.80%) Linux
2 80 (4.90%) Windows
3 30 (1.84%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (1.35%) Unix
6 8 (0.49%) Android
7 6 (0.37%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
8 4 (0.24%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.24%) Mac OS X
8 4 (0.24%) Robot Operating System
9 3 (0.18%) AIX
9 3 (0.18%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.12%) CentOS
10 2 (0.12%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.061%) Rocky
11 1 (0.061%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.061%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 363 (22.23%) Problem-Solving
2 348 (21.31%) Continuous Improvement
3 343 (21.00%) Agile
4 296 (18.13%) AI
5 258 (15.80%) CI/CD
6 235 (14.39%) Analytics
7 227 (13.90%) Test Automation
8 210 (12.86%) Migration
9 189 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
10 178 (10.90%) Business Intelligence
11 175 (10.72%) Verification and Validation
12 174 (10.66%) Data Validation
13 171 (10.47%) Mentoring
14 165 (10.10%) DevOps
15 162 (9.92%) Decision-Making
16 161 (9.86%) Data Modelling
17 160 (9.80%) Software Engineering
18 158 (9.68%) Data Analysis
19 150 (9.19%) Machine Learning
20 148 (9.06%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 417 (25.54%) Python
2 341 (20.88%) SQL
3 75 (4.59%) C++
4 72 (4.41%) C
5 68 (4.16%) Java
6 50 (3.06%) Go
7 47 (2.88%) C#
8 36 (2.20%) JavaScript
9 33 (2.02%) MATLAB
10 28 (1.71%) Bash
11 26 (1.59%) PowerShell
12 24 (1.47%) T-SQL
13 21 (1.29%) Embedded C
14 18 (1.10%) Embedded C++
15 16 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 15 (0.92%) TypeScript
17 14 (0.86%) Scala
18 10 (0.61%) ABAP
19 9 (0.55%) VBA
20 8 (0.49%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 316 (19.35%) Degree
2 181 (11.08%) Security Cleared
3 112 (6.86%) BPSS Clearance
4 82 (5.02%) SC Cleared
5 74 (4.53%) Master's Degree
6 51 (3.12%) DV Cleared
7 41 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
8 33 (2.02%) Chartered Engineer
9 28 (1.71%) HNC
10 27 (1.65%) CISA
10 27 (1.65%) CISSP
10 27 (1.65%) SANS
11 24 (1.47%) CISM
12 20 (1.22%) ACCA
12 20 (1.22%) CIMA
12 20 (1.22%) HND
13 17 (1.04%) AWS Certification
13 17 (1.04%) CGEIT
13 17 (1.04%) FFIEC
14 16 (0.98%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 270 (16.53%) Data Quality
2 211 (12.92%) QA
3 62 (3.80%) Accessibility
4 59 (3.61%) GDPR
5 39 (2.39%) GRC
6 26 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.35%) IEC 61508
7 22 (1.35%) NIST
8 19 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 18 (1.10%) IFRS
9 18 (1.10%) ISO 9001
10 17 (1.04%) COBIT
11 16 (0.98%) PMO
12 15 (0.92%) SLA
13 13 (0.80%) GAAP
13 13 (0.80%) ISO 26262
14 12 (0.73%) WCAG
15 11 (0.67%) SOC 2
16 10 (0.61%) GxP
17 9 (0.55%) GMP
System Software
1 69 (4.23%) Docker
2 54 (3.31%) Firmware
3 38 (2.33%) Active Directory
4 25 (1.53%) Virtual Machines
5 24 (1.47%) Embedded Firmware
6 21 (1.29%) vSphere
7 15 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.37%) KVM
9 5 (0.31%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.12%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 71 (4.35%) Terraform
2 69 (4.23%) Kubernetes
3 37 (2.27%) Grafana
4 24 (1.47%) Ansible
5 23 (1.41%) Functional Safety
6 16 (0.98%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.73%) 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 3 (0.18%) Argo
11 3 (0.18%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.18%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.18%) Nessus
11 3 (0.18%) Nmap
11 3 (0.18%) Rancher
11 3 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.18%) yum
12 2 (0.12%) Computer Incident Response Team
Vendors
1 215 (13.17%) Microsoft
2 106 (6.49%) SAP
3 96 (5.88%) Oracle
4 50 (3.06%) Salesforce
5 42 (2.57%) Databricks
6 35 (2.14%) Red Hat
7 34 (2.08%) VMware
8 33 (2.02%) ServiceNow
9 29 (1.78%) Cisco
9 29 (1.78%) CrowdStrike
10 25 (1.53%) Google
11 23 (1.41%) Palo Alto
12 22 (1.35%) Tenable
13 18 (1.10%) Adobe
14 16 (0.98%) Foundry
15 15 (0.92%) McAfee
16 14 (0.86%) Citrix
16 14 (0.86%) IBM
17 13 (0.80%) EMC
18 11 (0.67%) OpenAI