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

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 78 203
Rank change year-on-year -50 +125 -17
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,460 1,607 1,402
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.57% 3.67% 1.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.12% 3.94% 1.65%
Number of salaries quoted 841 437 767
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £47,000 £42,000
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 £71,957
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,500 £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 68,751 40,768 85,185
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.84% 93.20% 83.29%
Number of salaries quoted 44,945 21,478 61,112
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,625 £29,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £40,000 £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 £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 2 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 2 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 -50 1,311 £56,500 +0.44% 1,214
UK excluding London -67 970 £52,500 -4.55% 882
Work from Home +129 462 £55,000 -8.33% 593
London +70 372 £75,000 +1.69% 471
South East -39 299 £55,000 +4.76% 257
North of England +70 263 £55,000 +15.35% 180
Midlands -78 164 £40,000 -33.33% 132
North West +59 163 £55,000 +15.35% 106
West Midlands -12 102 £44,000 -32.31% 79
East of England -79 101 £60,000 +5.26% 134
South West -53 90 £52,500 -3.67% 124
Yorkshire -8 61 £50,000 +5.26% 54
East Midlands -89 60 £30,000 -42.31% 53
North East -6 39 £55,000 -21.43% 22
Scotland -9 38 £42,250 -27.20% 39
Wales -31 14 £44,000 -26.67% 19
Northern Ireland -39 3 - - 21

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 (3.36%) Apache Airflow
2 38 (2.60%) Apache Spark
3 37 (2.53%) Apache
4 27 (1.85%) Confluence
5 21 (1.44%) ArcGIS
6 16 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
7 14 (0.96%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.68%) Jupyter
9 8 (0.55%) Appian
9 8 (0.55%) CMS
10 6 (0.41%) Kinematics
10 6 (0.41%) SAS
11 5 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.21%) Artix
13 2 (0.14%) IIS
14 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
14 1 (0.068%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 95 (6.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.51%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.16%) Microsoft Project
5 16 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 13 (0.89%) Simulink
7 8 (0.55%) SOLIDWORKS
7 8 (0.55%) 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 (0.21%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.21%) Fusion 360
10 3 (0.21%) Productboard
10 3 (0.21%) Solid Edge
10 3 (0.21%) Stateflow
11 2 (0.14%) CATIA
12 1 (0.068%) Trello
Business Applications
1 39 (2.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.68%) SAP ERP
4 7 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.48%) SAP MDG
5 6 (0.41%) Elite 3E
5 6 (0.41%) Loan IQ
5 6 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.34%) iTrent
6 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG-BP
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
8 3 (0.21%) Markit EDM
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Applications
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP FSCM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP MM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
9 2 (0.14%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 208 (14.25%) Azure
2 168 (11.51%) AWS
3 131 (8.97%) Power Platform
4 68 (4.66%) GCP
5 60 (4.11%) SaaS
6 50 (3.42%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (2.67%) GitHub
8 38 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
8 38 (2.60%) Serverless
9 36 (2.47%) Amazon S3
10 31 (2.12%) Azure Data Factory
11 30 (2.05%) Dynamics 365
12 28 (1.92%) Snowflake
13 24 (1.64%) Entra ID
14 22 (1.51%) dbt
15 20 (1.37%) Power Automate
16 16 (1.10%) OpenShift
17 15 (1.03%) GitHub Actions
18 13 (0.89%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 13 (0.89%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 58 (3.97%) Broadband
2 41 (2.81%) Firewall
3 26 (1.78%) DNS
4 24 (1.64%) WAN
4 24 (1.64%) Wireless
5 23 (1.58%) CHAP
6 19 (1.30%) TCP/IP
7 17 (1.16%) 5G
7 17 (1.16%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.96%) Network Security
9 12 (0.82%) MQTT
9 12 (0.82%) VPN
10 10 (0.68%) HTTP
10 10 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (0.68%) Wireshark
11 9 (0.62%) LAN
11 9 (0.62%) NAS
12 8 (0.55%) Ethernet
13 7 (0.48%) ATM
13 7 (0.48%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (8.49%) Power BI
2 53 (3.63%) Tableau
3 46 (3.15%) SQL Server
4 44 (3.01%) PostgreSQL
5 39 (2.67%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (2.05%) Metadata
6 30 (2.05%) Relational Database
7 25 (1.71%) MongoDB
7 25 (1.71%) QGIS
8 23 (1.58%) GIS
9 21 (1.44%) Azure SQL Database
9 21 (1.44%) BigQuery
9 21 (1.44%) Data Lake
10 20 (1.37%) Semantic Layer
10 20 (1.37%) Spatial Data
11 18 (1.23%) Spark SQL
12 16 (1.10%) Oracle Database
12 16 (1.10%) Oracle Reports
13 15 (1.03%) MySQL
14 14 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 68 (4.66%) Git
2 65 (4.45%) JIRA
3 43 (2.95%) Jenkins
4 34 (2.33%) GitLab
5 33 (2.26%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.51%) Snyk
7 16 (1.10%) LabVIEW
7 16 (1.10%) Postman
8 13 (0.89%) IBM UrbanCode
8 13 (0.89%) Selenium
9 12 (0.82%) MLflow
10 10 (0.68%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.68%) Eclipse
10 10 (0.68%) JMeter
11 9 (0.62%) Cypress.io
11 9 (0.62%) TeamCity
12 6 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
12 6 (0.41%) Robot Framework
12 6 (0.41%) TestRail
13 5 (0.34%) Locust
General
1 460 (31.51%) Social Skills
2 385 (26.37%) Finance
3 322 (22.05%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (7.81%) Manufacturing
5 110 (7.53%) Aerospace
6 104 (7.12%) Electronics
7 90 (6.16%) Banking
8 89 (6.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 61 (4.18%) Legal
10 55 (3.77%) Public Sector
10 55 (3.77%) Retail
11 51 (3.49%) Law
12 46 (3.15%) Marketing
13 44 (3.01%) Pharmaceutical
14 38 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
15 32 (2.19%) Financial Institution
15 32 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
16 30 (2.05%) Automotive
16 30 (2.05%) Games
17 23 (1.58%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 243 (16.64%) Senior
2 239 (16.37%) Analyst
3 149 (10.21%) Systems Engineer
4 101 (6.92%) Lead
5 95 (6.51%) Architect
6 94 (6.44%) Test Engineer
7 87 (5.96%) Business Analyst
8 85 (5.82%) Validation Engineer
9 71 (4.86%) Consultant
10 62 (4.25%) Data Analyst
10 62 (4.25%) Data Engineer
11 60 (4.11%) Developer
12 51 (3.49%) Integration Engineer
13 47 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
14 45 (3.08%) Junior
15 39 (2.67%) Embedded Engineer
16 37 (2.53%) Senior Systems Engineer
17 34 (2.33%) Systems Integration Engineer
17 34 (2.33%) Verification Engineer
18 32 (2.19%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (3.01%) REST
2 35 (2.40%) PyTorch
3 32 (2.19%) RESTful
4 31 (2.12%) JSON
4 31 (2.12%) PySpark
5 28 (1.92%) Pandas
6 27 (1.85%) Middleware
7 25 (1.71%) pytest
8 24 (1.64%) Kafka
9 23 (1.58%) .NET
10 21 (1.44%) Node.js
11 20 (1.37%) XML
12 18 (1.23%) CSS
13 17 (1.16%) Playwright
13 17 (1.16%) Swagger
14 16 (1.10%) OAuth
15 15 (1.03%) TensorFlow
16 14 (0.96%) NumPy
16 14 (0.96%) Regular Expression
16 14 (0.96%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 81 (5.55%) Management Information System
2 70 (4.79%) Onboarding
3 67 (4.59%) Cloud Native
4 56 (3.84%) Data Structures
5 46 (3.15%) Algorithms
6 42 (2.88%) Low-Code
7 39 (2.67%) Product Ownership
8 35 (2.40%) Embedded Systems
9 32 (2.19%) Data Centre
9 32 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
10 31 (2.12%) Analytical Mindset
11 30 (2.05%) Legacy Systems
12 29 (1.99%) Driving Licence
13 27 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
13 27 (1.85%) Life Science
14 23 (1.58%) FPGA
15 22 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
15 22 (1.51%) Robotics
15 22 (1.51%) Video\Live Streaming
16 17 (1.16%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 82 (5.62%) Linux
2 65 (4.45%) Windows
3 23 (1.58%) Unix
3 23 (1.58%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (0.89%) Android
6 5 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.27%) Mac OS X
8 3 (0.21%) AIX
8 3 (0.21%) CentOS
8 3 (0.21%) Kali Linux
8 3 (0.21%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.14%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.068%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.068%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.068%) Rocky
10 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.068%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 324 (22.19%) Problem-Solving
2 296 (20.27%) Agile
3 285 (19.52%) Continuous Improvement
4 242 (16.58%) AI
5 220 (15.07%) CI/CD
6 214 (14.66%) Analytics
7 199 (13.63%) Test Automation
8 197 (13.49%) Verification and Validation
9 162 (11.10%) Data Validation
10 158 (10.82%) Migration
11 152 (10.41%) Business Intelligence
12 149 (10.21%) Data Modelling
13 146 (10.00%) Decision-Making
13 146 (10.00%) DevOps
14 141 (9.66%) Mentoring
15 138 (9.45%) Stakeholder Management
16 136 (9.32%) Software Engineering
16 136 (9.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 132 (9.04%) Data Analysis
17 132 (9.04%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 351 (24.04%) Python
2 295 (20.21%) SQL
3 63 (4.32%) Java
4 59 (4.04%) C++
5 54 (3.70%) C
6 40 (2.74%) Go
7 37 (2.53%) C#
8 33 (2.26%) JavaScript
8 33 (2.26%) PowerShell
9 29 (1.99%) Bash
10 25 (1.71%) MATLAB
11 18 (1.23%) T-SQL
12 17 (1.16%) Embedded C
13 13 (0.89%) Embedded C++
14 12 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 12 (0.82%) TypeScript
15 10 (0.68%) VBA
16 9 (0.62%) ABAP
16 9 (0.62%) Scala
17 8 (0.55%) R
Qualifications
1 310 (21.23%) Degree
2 172 (11.78%) Security Cleared
3 114 (7.81%) BPSS Clearance
4 79 (5.41%) SC Cleared
5 70 (4.79%) Master's Degree
6 43 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 41 (2.81%) DV Cleared
8 38 (2.60%) Chartered Engineer
9 33 (2.26%) CISA
9 33 (2.26%) CISSP
10 31 (2.12%) SANS
11 30 (2.05%) CISM
12 27 (1.85%) HNC
13 24 (1.64%) HND
14 23 (1.58%) CGEIT
14 23 (1.58%) FFIEC
14 23 (1.58%) PMI Certification
15 20 (1.37%) PMP
16 14 (0.96%) ACCA
16 14 (0.96%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (14.86%) Data Quality
2 155 (10.62%) QA
3 61 (4.18%) Accessibility
4 60 (4.11%) GDPR
5 45 (3.08%) GRC
6 29 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 25 (1.71%) NIST
9 23 (1.58%) COBIT
10 20 (1.37%) IEC 61508
11 19 (1.30%) IFRS
12 17 (1.16%) SLA
13 15 (1.03%) PMO
14 14 (0.96%) ISO 9001
15 12 (0.82%) GAAP
15 12 (0.82%) GMP
16 10 (0.68%) Good Clinical Practice
16 10 (0.68%) GxP
16 10 (0.68%) ISO 13485
16 10 (0.68%) WCAG
System Software
1 69 (4.73%) Docker
2 45 (3.08%) Firmware
3 37 (2.53%) Active Directory
4 22 (1.51%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.10%) vSphere
6 14 (0.96%) Embedded Firmware
6 14 (0.96%) 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 71 (4.86%) Kubernetes
2 60 (4.11%) Terraform
3 30 (2.05%) Grafana
4 23 (1.58%) Ansible
5 18 (1.23%) Functional Safety
6 16 (1.10%) Prometheus
7 13 (0.89%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 11 (0.75%) SCCM
9 9 (0.62%) Cilium
9 9 (0.62%) Puppet
10 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (0.34%) Kibana
12 3 (0.21%) Argo
12 3 (0.21%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
12 3 (0.21%) Rancher
12 3 (0.21%) yum
13 2 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
13 2 (0.14%) Computer Incident Response Team
14 1 (0.068%) MOM
Vendors
1 191 (13.08%) Microsoft
2 87 (5.96%) Oracle
3 84 (5.75%) SAP
4 50 (3.42%) Salesforce
5 31 (2.12%) Databricks
5 31 (2.12%) Red Hat
6 29 (1.99%) VMware
7 27 (1.85%) CrowdStrike
7 27 (1.85%) ServiceNow
8 24 (1.64%) Palo Alto
9 23 (1.58%) Cisco
10 22 (1.51%) Adobe
10 22 (1.51%) Google
10 22 (1.51%) Tenable
11 15 (1.03%) Foundry
12 14 (0.96%) Citrix
12 14 (0.96%) OpenAI
13 12 (0.82%) IBM
14 10 (0.68%) McAfee
14 10 (0.68%) Splunk