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

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 78 205
Rank change year-on-year -47 +127 -18
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,470 1,609 1,396
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.58% 3.67% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.13% 3.93% 1.65%
Number of salaries quoted 845 438 766
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £47,000 £42,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -11.41%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £71,979
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,250 £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 68,914 40,901 84,819
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.88% 93.19% 83.44%
Number of salaries quoted 45,055 21,599 60,884
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £40,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.01% +1.93% -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 1 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 1 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 -47 1,319 £57,000 +1.79% 1,228
UK excluding London -65 974 £52,500 -4.55% 879
Work from Home +135 465 £55,000 -8.33% 556
London +69 377 £75,000 +3.45% 485
South East -38 299 £55,000 +4.76% 263
North of England +70 264 £55,000 +15.35% 180
Midlands -79 164 £40,000 -36.00% 124
North West +61 163 £55,000 +15.35% 106
West Midlands -7 102 £44,000 -32.31% 76
East of England -81 101 £60,000 +5.26% 133
South West -48 92 £52,500 -3.67% 122
Yorkshire -17 61 £50,000 +5.26% 55
East Midlands -90 60 £30,000 -42.31% 48
North East -8 40 £55,000 -21.43% 21
Scotland -15 39 £42,000 -27.63% 37
Wales -32 14 £44,000 -26.67% 20
Northern Ireland -37 3 - - 22

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 49 (3.33%) Apache Airflow
2 38 (2.59%) Apache Spark
3 37 (2.52%) Apache
4 27 (1.84%) Confluence
5 21 (1.43%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (0.95%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.68%) Jupyter
9 9 (0.61%) Appian
10 8 (0.54%) CMS
11 6 (0.41%) Kinematics
11 6 (0.41%) SAS
12 5 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 3 (0.20%) Artix
14 2 (0.14%) IIS
15 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
15 1 (0.068%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 95 (6.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.16%) Microsoft Project
5 16 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 13 (0.88%) Simulink
7 8 (0.54%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
9 4 (0.27%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.27%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.27%) Sketch
10 3 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.20%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.20%) Productboard
10 3 (0.20%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.14%) CATIA
12 1 (0.068%) Trello
Business Applications
1 39 (2.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 9 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.48%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.41%) Elite 3E
6 6 (0.41%) Loan IQ
6 6 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.34%) iTrent
7 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
9 3 (0.20%) Markit EDM
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Applications
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
10 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
10 2 (0.14%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 211 (14.35%) Azure
2 169 (11.50%) AWS
3 131 (8.91%) Power Platform
4 68 (4.63%) GCP
5 61 (4.15%) SaaS
6 51 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
7 40 (2.72%) GitHub
8 38 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
8 38 (2.59%) Serverless
9 36 (2.45%) Amazon S3
10 32 (2.18%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
12 28 (1.90%) Snowflake
13 24 (1.63%) Entra ID
14 22 (1.50%) dbt
15 21 (1.43%) Power Automate
16 16 (1.09%) OpenShift
17 15 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
18 14 (0.95%) Azure AI
19 13 (0.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 58 (3.95%) Broadband
2 41 (2.79%) Firewall
3 27 (1.84%) DNS
4 25 (1.70%) WAN
5 24 (1.63%) Wireless
6 23 (1.56%) CHAP
7 20 (1.36%) TCP/IP
8 18 (1.22%) 5G
8 18 (1.22%) SD-WAN
9 14 (0.95%) Network Security
10 12 (0.82%) HTTP
10 12 (0.82%) MQTT
10 12 (0.82%) VPN
11 10 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (0.68%) Wireshark
12 9 (0.61%) LAN
12 9 (0.61%) NAS
13 8 (0.54%) Ethernet
14 7 (0.48%) ATM
14 7 (0.48%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (8.44%) Power BI
2 53 (3.61%) Tableau
3 48 (3.27%) SQL Server
4 44 (2.99%) PostgreSQL
5 40 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (2.04%) Metadata
6 30 (2.04%) Relational Database
7 25 (1.70%) MongoDB
7 25 (1.70%) QGIS
8 23 (1.56%) GIS
9 21 (1.43%) Azure SQL Database
9 21 (1.43%) BigQuery
9 21 (1.43%) Data Lake
10 20 (1.36%) Semantic Layer
10 20 (1.36%) Spatial Data
11 18 (1.22%) Spark SQL
12 17 (1.16%) Oracle Reports
13 16 (1.09%) Oracle Database
14 15 (1.02%) MySQL
15 14 (0.95%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 72 (4.90%) Git
2 66 (4.49%) JIRA
3 43 (2.93%) Jenkins
4 34 (2.31%) GitLab
5 33 (2.24%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.50%) Snyk
7 17 (1.16%) LabVIEW
8 16 (1.09%) Postman
9 13 (0.88%) IBM UrbanCode
9 13 (0.88%) MLflow
9 13 (0.88%) Selenium
10 11 (0.75%) Cucumber
11 10 (0.68%) Eclipse
11 10 (0.68%) JMeter
12 9 (0.61%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.61%) TeamCity
13 7 (0.48%) TestRail
14 6 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
14 6 (0.41%) Robot Framework
15 5 (0.34%) SpecFlow
General
1 466 (31.70%) Social Skills
2 390 (26.53%) Finance
3 326 (22.18%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (7.76%) Manufacturing
5 110 (7.48%) Aerospace
6 105 (7.14%) Electronics
7 89 (6.05%) Banking
7 89 (6.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 61 (4.15%) Legal
9 56 (3.81%) Public Sector
10 55 (3.74%) Retail
11 51 (3.47%) Law
12 47 (3.20%) Marketing
13 44 (2.99%) Pharmaceutical
14 37 (2.52%) Organisational Skills
15 33 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
16 32 (2.18%) Financial Institution
17 31 (2.11%) Games
18 30 (2.04%) Automotive
19 24 (1.63%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 245 (16.67%) Senior
2 239 (16.26%) Analyst
3 149 (10.14%) Systems Engineer
4 101 (6.87%) Lead
5 96 (6.53%) Test Engineer
6 95 (6.46%) Architect
7 87 (5.92%) Business Analyst
8 85 (5.78%) Validation Engineer
9 71 (4.83%) Consultant
10 62 (4.22%) Data Analyst
10 62 (4.22%) Data Engineer
11 60 (4.08%) Developer
12 51 (3.47%) Integration Engineer
13 47 (3.20%) Principal Engineer
14 45 (3.06%) Junior
15 39 (2.65%) Embedded Engineer
16 37 (2.52%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 35 (2.38%) Verification Engineer
18 34 (2.31%) Systems Integration Engineer
19 32 (2.18%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.20%) REST
2 36 (2.45%) PyTorch
3 33 (2.24%) RESTful
4 31 (2.11%) JSON
4 31 (2.11%) PySpark
5 29 (1.97%) Pandas
6 27 (1.84%) Middleware
6 27 (1.84%) pytest
7 24 (1.63%) Kafka
8 23 (1.56%) .NET
9 22 (1.50%) Node.js
10 20 (1.36%) XML
11 19 (1.29%) CSS
11 19 (1.29%) Playwright
11 19 (1.29%) Swagger
12 17 (1.16%) OAuth
13 16 (1.09%) TensorFlow
14 15 (1.02%) HTML
14 15 (1.02%) JWT
14 15 (1.02%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 81 (5.51%) Management Information System
2 70 (4.76%) Onboarding
3 67 (4.56%) Cloud Native
4 58 (3.95%) Data Structures
5 46 (3.13%) Algorithms
6 43 (2.93%) Low-Code
7 39 (2.65%) Product Ownership
8 35 (2.38%) Embedded Systems
9 34 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
10 32 (2.18%) Analytical Mindset
10 32 (2.18%) Data Centre
11 31 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
12 29 (1.97%) Driving Licence
13 27 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
13 27 (1.84%) Life Science
14 23 (1.56%) FPGA
15 22 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
15 22 (1.50%) Robotics
15 22 (1.50%) Video\Live Streaming
16 17 (1.16%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 83 (5.65%) Linux
2 67 (4.56%) Windows
3 24 (1.63%) Unix
4 23 (1.56%) Windows Server
5 22 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.88%) Android
7 5 (0.34%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.27%) Mac OS X
9 3 (0.20%) AIX
9 3 (0.20%) CentOS
9 3 (0.20%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.20%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.068%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.068%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.068%) Rocky
11 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.068%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 330 (22.45%) Problem-Solving
2 301 (20.48%) Agile
3 286 (19.46%) Continuous Improvement
4 243 (16.53%) AI
5 222 (15.10%) CI/CD
6 215 (14.63%) Analytics
7 204 (13.88%) Test Automation
8 198 (13.47%) Verification and Validation
9 166 (11.29%) Data Validation
10 160 (10.88%) Migration
11 153 (10.41%) Business Intelligence
12 150 (10.20%) Data Modelling
13 147 (10.00%) DevOps
14 146 (9.93%) Decision-Making
15 142 (9.66%) Mentoring
16 140 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
17 139 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 138 (9.39%) Software Engineering
19 133 (9.05%) Data Analysis
20 132 (8.98%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 353 (24.01%) Python
2 299 (20.34%) SQL
3 63 (4.29%) Java
4 60 (4.08%) C++
5 54 (3.67%) C
6 40 (2.72%) Go
7 38 (2.59%) C#
8 34 (2.31%) JavaScript
9 33 (2.24%) PowerShell
10 29 (1.97%) Bash
11 26 (1.77%) MATLAB
12 18 (1.22%) T-SQL
13 17 (1.16%) Embedded C
14 14 (0.95%) TypeScript
15 13 (0.88%) Embedded C++
16 12 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 10 (0.68%) VBA
18 9 (0.61%) ABAP
18 9 (0.61%) Scala
19 8 (0.54%) R
Qualifications
1 313 (21.29%) Degree
2 174 (11.84%) Security Cleared
3 114 (7.76%) BPSS Clearance
4 79 (5.37%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.76%) Master's Degree
6 43 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
7 41 (2.79%) DV Cleared
8 38 (2.59%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.24%) CISA
9 33 (2.24%) CISSP
10 31 (2.11%) SANS
11 30 (2.04%) CISM
12 27 (1.84%) HNC
13 25 (1.70%) HND
14 23 (1.56%) CGEIT
14 23 (1.56%) FFIEC
14 23 (1.56%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.36%) PMP
16 14 (0.95%) ACCA
16 14 (0.95%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 219 (14.90%) Data Quality
2 158 (10.75%) QA
3 61 (4.15%) Accessibility
4 60 (4.08%) GDPR
5 45 (3.06%) GRC
6 29 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 25 (1.70%) NIST
9 23 (1.56%) COBIT
10 20 (1.36%) IEC 61508
11 19 (1.29%) IFRS
12 17 (1.16%) SLA
13 14 (0.95%) ISO 9001
13 14 (0.95%) PMO
14 12 (0.82%) GAAP
14 12 (0.82%) GMP
15 10 (0.68%) Good Clinical Practice
15 10 (0.68%) GxP
15 10 (0.68%) ISO 13485
15 10 (0.68%) WCAG
System Software
1 70 (4.76%) Docker
2 45 (3.06%) Firmware
3 37 (2.52%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.09%) vSphere
6 14 (0.95%) Embedded Firmware
6 14 (0.95%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.41%) KVM
8 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.068%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.068%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.068%) OpenIDM
Systems Management
1 72 (4.90%) Kubernetes
2 60 (4.08%) Terraform
3 30 (2.04%) Grafana
4 23 (1.56%) Ansible
5 18 (1.22%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.09%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.95%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 11 (0.75%) SCCM
9 9 (0.61%) Cilium
9 9 (0.61%) Puppet
10 8 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.34%) Kibana
12 3 (0.20%) Argo
12 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.20%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.20%) Rancher
12 3 (0.20%) yum
13 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 1 (0.068%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 192 (13.06%) Microsoft
2 89 (6.05%) Oracle
3 84 (5.71%) SAP
4 51 (3.47%) Salesforce
5 31 (2.11%) Databricks
5 31 (2.11%) Red Hat
6 29 (1.97%) VMware
7 27 (1.84%) CrowdStrike
7 27 (1.84%) ServiceNow
8 24 (1.63%) Cisco
8 24 (1.63%) Palo Alto
9 22 (1.50%) Adobe
9 22 (1.50%) Google
9 22 (1.50%) Tenable
10 15 (1.02%) Foundry
10 15 (1.02%) OpenAI
11 14 (0.95%) Citrix
12 12 (0.82%) IBM
13 10 (0.68%) McAfee
13 10 (0.68%) Splunk