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 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 87 181
Rank change year-on-year +8 +94 +25
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,385 1,639 1,152
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.09% 3.32% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.87% 3.74% 1.82%
Number of salaries quoted 1,423 467 444
10th Percentile £35,550 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £57,767
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% -4.79% -9.74%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,450 £75,313
90th Percentile £86,000 £88,750 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,550 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.66% -4.45% -1.27%

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 83,236 43,812 63,193
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.95% 88.75% 81.16%
Number of salaries quoted 57,755 24,707 35,897
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 16 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 18 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 16 September 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 +8 2,204 £57,500 +4.55% 4,717
UK excluding London -11 1,750 £55,000 +4.66% 2,787
Work from Home +123 621 £57,500 -4.17% 1,796
London +71 550 £68,375 -14.53% 2,358
South East -15 488 £62,500 +16.28% 660
North of England +101 458 £52,726 +17.17% 456
North West +108 283 £55,000 +12.61% 280
Midlands -29 260 £50,000 -9.09% 393
South West +19 231 £58,750 +14.63% 381
East of England -46 183 £55,000 -8.33% 425
West Midlands +40 147 £50,000 -9.09% 278
East Midlands -47 113 £48,372 +13.82% 114
North East +5 88 £55,000 +57.14% 66
Yorkshire +24 87 £42,750 +0.59% 120
Scotland +34 81 £70,000 +20.62% 360
Wales -42 41 £70,000 +30.23% 63
Northern Ireland -70 5 - - 84
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 1

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 47 (1.97%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.84%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.68%) Apache
4 37 (1.55%) Confluence
5 34 (1.43%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.84%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.55%) SAS
8 10 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.34%) WinCC
10 5 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.17%) CMS
12 3 (0.13%) Artix
12 3 (0.13%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.084%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.084%) IIS
13 2 (0.084%) nginx
14 1 (0.042%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.042%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 132 (5.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
3 50 (2.10%) Simulink
4 37 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
5 22 (0.92%) Spreadsheet
6 18 (0.75%) SOLIDWORKS
7 16 (0.67%) MS Visio
8 15 (0.63%) AutoCAD
9 9 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (0.34%) Revit
11 6 (0.25%) EPLAN
11 6 (0.25%) Navisworks
12 5 (0.21%) CANalyzer
12 5 (0.21%) LaTeX
12 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
12 5 (0.21%) OrCAD
13 3 (0.13%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
13 3 (0.13%) Sketch
13 3 (0.13%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 43 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 42 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.46%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.38%) iTrent
4 9 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.34%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.34%) Workday HCM
6 7 (0.29%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.29%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.29%) Teamcenter
7 5 (0.21%) Infor M3
7 5 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.13%) Maximo
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 304 (12.75%) Azure
2 260 (10.90%) AWS
3 175 (7.34%) Power Platform
4 94 (3.94%) GCP
5 74 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
6 72 (3.02%) SaaS
7 66 (2.77%) GitHub
8 64 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
9 62 (2.60%) Serverless
10 44 (1.84%) Amazon S3
11 38 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
12 35 (1.47%) Entra ID
12 35 (1.47%) GitHub Actions
13 31 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
14 27 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
15 25 (1.05%) Cloud Computing
15 25 (1.05%) Microsoft Purview
16 24 (1.01%) Amazon EMR
17 23 (0.96%) AWS Lambda
17 23 (0.96%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.94%) DNS
2 67 (2.81%) Firewall
3 56 (2.35%) Broadband
4 39 (1.64%) Wireless
5 37 (1.55%) TCP/IP
5 37 (1.55%) VPN
6 36 (1.51%) WAN
7 35 (1.47%) Network Security
8 31 (1.30%) Ethernet
9 28 (1.17%) Modbus
10 27 (1.13%) LAN
10 27 (1.13%) VLAN
11 26 (1.09%) OSPF
12 22 (0.92%) BGP
12 22 (0.92%) MQTT
12 22 (0.92%) SD-WAN
13 21 (0.88%) Wireshark
14 18 (0.75%) 5G
15 17 (0.71%) HTTP
15 17 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 160 (6.71%) Power BI
2 59 (2.47%) Metadata
3 58 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.31%) Data Lake
5 48 (2.01%) SQL Server
6 46 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
7 43 (1.80%) Tableau
8 37 (1.55%) Amazon Athena
9 31 (1.30%) MongoDB
9 31 (1.30%) Relational Database
10 27 (1.13%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.09%) Big Data
12 25 (1.05%) DynamoDB
13 22 (0.92%) NoSQL
13 22 (0.92%) Semantic Layer
13 22 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 21 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
15 20 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
16 18 (0.75%) MySQL
17 17 (0.71%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 137 (5.74%) JIRA
2 122 (5.12%) Git
3 62 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.22%) GitLab
5 43 (1.80%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.34%) Selenium
7 28 (1.17%) LabVIEW
8 26 (1.09%) Postman
9 22 (0.92%) Snyk
10 21 (0.88%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.59%) Burp Suite
12 13 (0.55%) JMeter
13 12 (0.50%) REST Assured
14 11 (0.46%) Cucumber
15 10 (0.42%) TeamCity
16 9 (0.38%) Claude Code
16 9 (0.38%) Eclipse
16 9 (0.38%) Gatling
16 9 (0.38%) MLflow
16 9 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 793 (33.25%) Social Skills
2 616 (25.83%) Finance
3 569 (23.86%) Analytical Skills
4 237 (9.94%) Aerospace
5 218 (9.14%) Manufacturing
6 215 (9.01%) Electronics
7 205 (8.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 141 (5.91%) Law
9 103 (4.32%) Banking
9 103 (4.32%) Organisational Skills
10 100 (4.19%) Retail
11 97 (4.07%) Public Sector
12 89 (3.73%) Marketing
13 87 (3.65%) Telecoms
14 83 (3.48%) Pharmaceutical
15 71 (2.98%) Automotive
16 60 (2.52%) Legal
17 45 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
18 44 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
19 43 (1.80%) Military
Job Titles
1 416 (17.44%) Senior
2 311 (13.04%) Systems Engineer
3 269 (11.28%) Analyst
4 205 (8.60%) Lead
5 133 (5.58%) Test Engineer
6 121 (5.07%) Architect
7 115 (4.82%) Data Engineer
8 96 (4.03%) Developer
9 91 (3.82%) Consultant
10 83 (3.48%) Business Analyst
11 80 (3.35%) Software Engineer
12 75 (3.14%) Principal Engineer
13 68 (2.85%) Data Analyst
14 66 (2.77%) Electronics Engineer
15 63 (2.64%) Validation Engineer
16 54 (2.26%) Network Engineer
17 51 (2.14%) Embedded Engineer
18 48 (2.01%) Data Scientist
18 48 (2.01%) Support Engineer
19 44 (1.84%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.35%) Terraform
2 54 (2.26%) RESTful
3 53 (2.22%) Kafka
4 48 (2.01%) REST
5 46 (1.93%) Node.js
6 40 (1.68%) PySpark
7 39 (1.64%) Playwright
8 35 (1.47%) XML
9 34 (1.43%) .NET
9 34 (1.43%) JSON
10 28 (1.17%) FastAPI
11 26 (1.09%) CSS
11 26 (1.09%) LDAP
11 26 (1.09%) React
12 24 (1.01%) HTML
12 24 (1.01%) Middleware
13 22 (0.92%) Swagger
14 21 (0.88%) ModSecurity
15 18 (0.75%) OAuth
15 18 (0.75%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 160 (6.71%) Cloud Native
2 130 (5.45%) Management Information System
3 121 (5.07%) Onboarding
4 82 (3.44%) Data Centre
5 81 (3.40%) Product Ownership
6 67 (2.81%) Embedded Systems
7 65 (2.73%) Driving Licence
8 60 (2.52%) Enterprise Software
9 59 (2.47%) Data Structures
10 55 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
11 53 (2.22%) Algorithms
12 48 (2.01%) AI Agents
13 46 (1.93%) Life Science
13 46 (1.93%) SCADA
14 42 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
15 40 (1.68%) Low-Code
16 39 (1.64%) Robotics
17 38 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
18 37 (1.55%) IoT
19 32 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.62%) Linux
2 91 (3.82%) Windows
3 32 (1.34%) Windows Server
4 24 (1.01%) Unix
5 17 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.42%) Android
7 8 (0.34%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.34%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.084%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.084%) VMS
12 2 (0.084%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.042%) AIX
13 1 (0.042%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.042%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 609 (25.53%) Problem-Solving
2 533 (22.35%) Continuous Improvement
3 437 (18.32%) Verification and Validation
4 435 (18.24%) Agile
5 401 (16.81%) AI
6 326 (13.67%) CI/CD
7 310 (13.00%) Stakeholder Management
8 296 (12.41%) Test Automation
9 294 (12.33%) Migration
10 259 (10.86%) Analytics
11 252 (10.57%) Mentoring
12 234 (9.81%) Software Engineering
13 229 (9.60%) Decision-Making
14 220 (9.22%) Data Analysis
15 219 (9.18%) DevOps
16 217 (9.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 201 (8.43%) Business Intelligence
18 193 (8.09%) Machine Learning
19 190 (7.97%) Data Migration
20 189 (7.92%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 489 (20.50%) Python
2 419 (17.57%) SQL
3 104 (4.36%) Java
4 91 (3.82%) C++
5 83 (3.48%) C
6 70 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 66 (2.77%) MATLAB
8 57 (2.39%) C#
9 49 (2.05%) Go
10 36 (1.51%) Bash
11 32 (1.34%) Embedded C
12 27 (1.13%) PowerShell
12 27 (1.13%) TypeScript
13 24 (1.01%) Scala
14 22 (0.92%) R
15 18 (0.75%) Embedded C++
16 13 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 11 (0.46%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.46%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.38%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 532 (22.31%) Security Cleared
2 516 (21.64%) Degree
3 395 (16.56%) SC Cleared
4 126 (5.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.49%) DV Cleared
6 94 (3.94%) Master's Degree
7 52 (2.18%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.76%) PhD
9 40 (1.68%) Chartered Engineer
10 38 (1.59%) HND
11 35 (1.47%) PMI Certification
12 32 (1.34%) CISSP
12 32 (1.34%) HNC
13 26 (1.09%) ACCA
14 25 (1.05%) Azure Certification
15 24 (1.01%) AWS Certification
16 23 (0.96%) CIMA
16 23 (0.96%) CISM
17 22 (0.92%) PMP
18 21 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 353 (14.80%) Data Quality
2 301 (12.62%) QA
3 81 (3.40%) Accessibility
4 56 (2.35%) GDPR
5 37 (1.55%) GRC
6 30 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.17%) GxP
8 23 (0.96%) SLA
9 22 (0.92%) IEC 61508
9 22 (0.92%) NIST
10 16 (0.67%) PMO
11 15 (0.63%) ISO 26262
12 14 (0.59%) GMP
12 14 (0.59%) ISO 9001
12 14 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 13 (0.55%) WCAG
14 12 (0.50%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.42%) ISO 19650
16 9 (0.38%) Def Stans
16 9 (0.38%) JTAG
System Software
1 93 (3.90%) Firmware
2 86 (3.61%) Docker
3 46 (1.93%) Active Directory
4 42 (1.76%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
6 19 (0.80%) vSphere
7 8 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.17%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.084%) iptables
10 2 (0.084%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.084%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.042%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 80 (3.35%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.76%) Grafana
3 33 (1.38%) Ansible
4 29 (1.22%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.75%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.42%) Cilium
8 8 (0.34%) Nessus
8 8 (0.34%) Nmap
8 8 (0.34%) Puppet
9 7 (0.29%) BMC PATROL
9 7 (0.29%) Kibana
9 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.21%) WMI
11 4 (0.17%) Argo
11 4 (0.17%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.17%) SCCM
12 3 (0.13%) Rancher
Vendors
1 294 (12.33%) Microsoft
2 128 (5.37%) SAP
3 101 (4.23%) Oracle
4 60 (2.52%) Databricks
5 58 (2.43%) Salesforce
6 56 (2.35%) ServiceNow
7 53 (2.22%) Cisco
8 47 (1.97%) EMC
9 40 (1.68%) Google
10 30 (1.26%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.17%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.05%) VMware
13 23 (0.96%) Sage
13 23 (0.96%) Tenable
14 22 (0.92%) Thales
15 21 (0.88%) Red Hat
16 20 (0.84%) IBM
17 18 (0.75%) Siemens
17 18 (0.75%) Splunk
18 16 (0.67%) Civica