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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 88 185
Rank change year-on-year +7 +97 +24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,347 1,643 1,148
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.07% 3.31% 1.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.83% 3.73% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 1,405 486 453
10th Percentile £35,850 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -5.23% -9.32%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £89,375 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -2.59%

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 82,871 44,018 63,575
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.00% 88.61% 80.87%
Number of salaries quoted 57,674 24,857 36,941
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,875
25th Percentile £41,250 £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 £76,250
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% -3.67%

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 11 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 11 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 +5 2,161 £57,500 +4.55% 2,294
UK excluding London -14 1,723 £55,000 +4.56% 1,566
Work from Home +131 638 £56,300 -6.17% 887
London +66 538 £70,000 -12.50% 1,037
South East -16 487 £60,000 +11.63% 408
North of England +112 448 £55,000 +15.79% 238
North West +101 276 £55,000 +12.61% 130
Midlands -36 252 £47,500 -13.64% 240
South West +22 230 £55,000 +4.56% 228
East of England -55 173 £55,000 -8.33% 225
West Midlands +36 144 £48,750 -11.36% 168
East Midlands -57 108 £46,209 +8.73% 72
Yorkshire +10 87 £43,000 +1.18% 68
North East +10 85 £55,000 +57.14% 42
Scotland +41 84 £70,000 +20.62% 175
Wales -34 41 £70,000 +30.23% 49
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 1
Northern Ireland -73 4 - - 35

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 (1.96%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.87%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.70%) Apache
4 35 (1.49%) Confluence
5 34 (1.45%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.85%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.55%) SAS
8 11 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.34%) WinCC
10 5 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.21%) CMS
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.085%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.085%) IIS
13 1 (0.043%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.043%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.043%) WebSphere
Applications
1 125 (5.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 70 (2.98%) Microsoft Office
3 48 (2.05%) Simulink
4 36 (1.53%) Microsoft Project
5 18 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
6 17 (0.72%) SOLIDWORKS
7 16 (0.68%) MS Visio
8 14 (0.60%) AutoCAD
9 11 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (0.34%) Revit
11 6 (0.26%) CANalyzer
11 6 (0.26%) Navisworks
12 5 (0.21%) LaTeX
12 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
13 4 (0.17%) Adobe XD
13 4 (0.17%) EPLAN
13 4 (0.17%) OrCAD
13 4 (0.17%) Sketch
14 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
14 3 (0.13%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 42 (1.79%) Dynamics CRM
1 42 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.47%) SAP MDG
3 9 (0.38%) iTrent
3 9 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
4 8 (0.34%) Workday HCM
5 7 (0.30%) Elite 3E
5 7 (0.30%) NetSuite
5 7 (0.30%) SAP ERP
6 6 (0.26%) Teamcenter
7 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.17%) Infor M3
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
8 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.13%) Loan IQ
9 3 (0.13%) Maximo
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
10 2 (0.085%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 307 (13.08%) Azure
2 261 (11.12%) AWS
3 173 (7.37%) Power Platform
4 94 (4.01%) GCP
5 73 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
5 73 (3.11%) SaaS
6 65 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
7 64 (2.73%) GitHub
8 57 (2.43%) Serverless
9 42 (1.79%) Amazon S3
10 37 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
11 35 (1.49%) Entra ID
12 32 (1.36%) GitHub Actions
13 30 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
14 26 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
15 24 (1.02%) Amazon EMR
15 24 (1.02%) Cloud Computing
16 23 (0.98%) PowerApps
17 22 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
18 21 (0.89%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.03%) DNS
2 69 (2.94%) Firewall
3 64 (2.73%) Broadband
4 42 (1.79%) Wireless
5 38 (1.62%) WAN
6 37 (1.58%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.58%) VPN
7 35 (1.49%) Network Security
8 28 (1.19%) LAN
9 27 (1.15%) Ethernet
10 26 (1.11%) VLAN
11 25 (1.07%) Modbus
11 25 (1.07%) OSPF
12 23 (0.98%) SD-WAN
13 22 (0.94%) BGP
14 21 (0.89%) MQTT
14 21 (0.89%) Wireshark
15 18 (0.77%) 5G
16 17 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
17 16 (0.68%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (6.73%) Power BI
2 57 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
3 56 (2.39%) Metadata
4 54 (2.30%) PostgreSQL
5 53 (2.26%) Data Lake
6 48 (2.05%) SQL Server
7 44 (1.87%) Tableau
8 36 (1.53%) MongoDB
9 35 (1.49%) Amazon Athena
10 32 (1.36%) Relational Database
11 27 (1.15%) BigQuery
12 25 (1.07%) DynamoDB
13 24 (1.02%) Big Data
14 22 (0.94%) Semantic Layer
14 22 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
16 20 (0.85%) NoSQL
17 19 (0.81%) MySQL
18 18 (0.77%) Amazon Redshift
19 17 (0.72%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 134 (5.71%) JIRA
2 118 (5.03%) Git
3 60 (2.56%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.26%) GitLab
5 42 (1.79%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.32%) Selenium
7 25 (1.07%) Postman
8 24 (1.02%) LabVIEW
9 22 (0.94%) Cypress.io
9 22 (0.94%) Snyk
10 14 (0.60%) Burp Suite
11 13 (0.55%) JMeter
12 11 (0.47%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.47%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.43%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.38%) Claude Code
14 9 (0.38%) Gatling
14 9 (0.38%) MLflow
14 9 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
14 9 (0.38%) Zephyr
General
1 785 (33.45%) Social Skills
2 602 (25.65%) Finance
3 553 (23.56%) Analytical Skills
4 229 (9.76%) Aerospace
5 214 (9.12%) Manufacturing
6 211 (8.99%) Electronics
7 205 (8.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 139 (5.92%) Law
9 102 (4.35%) Banking
10 97 (4.13%) Organisational Skills
11 95 (4.05%) Retail
12 93 (3.96%) Public Sector
13 87 (3.71%) Marketing
14 81 (3.45%) Pharmaceutical
15 79 (3.37%) Telecoms
16 67 (2.85%) Automotive
17 63 (2.68%) Legal
18 47 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
19 44 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
20 43 (1.83%) Games
Job Titles
1 413 (17.60%) Senior
2 299 (12.74%) Systems Engineer
3 267 (11.38%) Analyst
4 205 (8.73%) Lead
5 132 (5.62%) Test Engineer
6 123 (5.24%) Architect
7 111 (4.73%) Data Engineer
8 98 (4.18%) Developer
9 92 (3.92%) Consultant
10 81 (3.45%) Business Analyst
11 79 (3.37%) Software Engineer
12 73 (3.11%) Principal Engineer
13 69 (2.94%) Data Analyst
14 66 (2.81%) Validation Engineer
15 64 (2.73%) Electronics Engineer
16 53 (2.26%) Network Engineer
17 52 (2.22%) Embedded Engineer
18 50 (2.13%) Support Engineer
19 48 (2.05%) Data Scientist
20 44 (1.87%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.28%) Terraform
2 55 (2.34%) RESTful
3 53 (2.26%) Kafka
4 51 (2.17%) REST
5 44 (1.87%) Node.js
6 37 (1.58%) Playwright
7 36 (1.53%) JSON
7 36 (1.53%) PySpark
8 34 (1.45%) XML
9 32 (1.36%) .NET
10 27 (1.15%) FastAPI
10 27 (1.15%) LDAP
11 26 (1.11%) CSS
12 25 (1.07%) HTML
13 24 (1.02%) React
14 23 (0.98%) Middleware
15 22 (0.94%) Swagger
16 21 (0.89%) ModSecurity
17 20 (0.85%) XMPP
18 19 (0.81%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 161 (6.86%) Cloud Native
2 123 (5.24%) Management Information System
3 122 (5.20%) Onboarding
4 87 (3.71%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.45%) Data Centre
6 68 (2.90%) Embedded Systems
7 64 (2.73%) Driving Licence
8 61 (2.60%) Data Structures
9 58 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
10 57 (2.43%) Algorithms
11 54 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
12 46 (1.96%) AI Agents
12 46 (1.96%) Low-Code
13 44 (1.87%) Life Science
13 44 (1.87%) SCADA
14 42 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
15 41 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
16 40 (1.70%) Robotics
17 38 (1.62%) IoT
18 34 (1.45%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 140 (5.97%) Linux
2 94 (4.01%) Windows
3 35 (1.49%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.07%) Unix
5 19 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.43%) Android
7 9 (0.38%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.085%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.085%) ThreadX
13 2 (0.085%) VMS
13 2 (0.085%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.043%) AIX
14 1 (0.043%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 594 (25.31%) Problem-Solving
2 533 (22.71%) Continuous Improvement
3 436 (18.58%) Agile
4 419 (17.85%) Verification and Validation
5 401 (17.09%) AI
6 317 (13.51%) CI/CD
7 302 (12.87%) Stakeholder Management
8 296 (12.61%) Test Automation
9 281 (11.97%) Migration
10 260 (11.08%) Analytics
11 253 (10.78%) Mentoring
12 236 (10.06%) Software Engineering
13 230 (9.80%) Decision-Making
14 213 (9.08%) DevOps
15 207 (8.82%) Data Analysis
16 204 (8.69%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 201 (8.56%) Business Intelligence
18 199 (8.48%) Machine Learning
19 187 (7.97%) Roadmaps
20 179 (7.63%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 491 (20.92%) Python
2 410 (17.47%) SQL
3 103 (4.39%) Java
4 92 (3.92%) C++
5 87 (3.71%) C
6 69 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 63 (2.68%) MATLAB
8 56 (2.39%) C#
9 54 (2.30%) Go
10 34 (1.45%) Bash
11 33 (1.41%) Embedded C
12 28 (1.19%) PowerShell
13 25 (1.07%) TypeScript
14 23 (0.98%) Scala
15 21 (0.89%) R
16 18 (0.77%) Embedded C++
17 13 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 12 (0.51%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.38%) ABAP
19 9 (0.38%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 513 (21.86%) Security Cleared
2 509 (21.69%) Degree
3 375 (15.98%) SC Cleared
4 126 (5.37%) BPSS Clearance
5 110 (4.69%) DV Cleared
6 92 (3.92%) Master's Degree
7 52 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.79%) PhD
9 39 (1.66%) Chartered Engineer
10 36 (1.53%) HND
11 34 (1.45%) CISSP
11 34 (1.45%) PMI Certification
12 33 (1.41%) HNC
13 25 (1.07%) CISM
14 24 (1.02%) ACCA
14 24 (1.02%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.02%) Azure Certification
15 21 (0.89%) CIMA
15 21 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
15 21 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 339 (14.44%) Data Quality
2 298 (12.70%) QA
3 81 (3.45%) Accessibility
4 56 (2.39%) GDPR
5 37 (1.58%) GRC
6 30 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.15%) GxP
8 22 (0.94%) IEC 61508
8 22 (0.94%) NIST
9 21 (0.89%) SLA
10 16 (0.68%) PMO
11 15 (0.64%) GMP
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 26262
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 9001
12 13 (0.55%) WCAG
13 12 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 12 (0.51%) SOC 2
14 10 (0.43%) ISO 19650
15 9 (0.38%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.38%) JTAG
System Software
1 92 (3.92%) Firmware
2 82 (3.49%) Docker
3 48 (2.05%) Active Directory
4 41 (1.75%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.89%) vSphere
7 10 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.17%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.085%) iptables
10 2 (0.085%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.085%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.043%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.043%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 79 (3.37%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.79%) Grafana
3 33 (1.41%) Ansible
4 28 (1.19%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.77%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.43%) Cilium
8 8 (0.34%) Nessus
8 8 (0.34%) Nmap
8 8 (0.34%) Puppet
9 7 (0.30%) Kibana
9 7 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
11 5 (0.21%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.21%) SCCM
11 5 (0.21%) WMI
12 4 (0.17%) Argo
12 4 (0.17%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
12 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 292 (12.44%) Microsoft
2 125 (5.33%) SAP
3 99 (4.22%) Oracle
4 61 (2.60%) Salesforce
5 60 (2.56%) Databricks
6 56 (2.39%) Cisco
7 53 (2.26%) ServiceNow
8 43 (1.83%) Google
9 42 (1.79%) EMC
10 30 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
11 29 (1.24%) VMware
12 28 (1.19%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.98%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.98%) Tenable
14 20 (0.85%) IBM
15 18 (0.77%) Siemens
15 18 (0.77%) Splunk
16 17 (0.72%) Sage
16 17 (0.72%) Thales
17 15 (0.64%) McAfee