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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 92 173
Rank change year-on-year +21 +81 +33
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,618 1,590 1,126
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.22% 3.20% 1.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.04% 3.60% 1.87%
Number of salaries quoted 1,538 444 421
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,651 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,500 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £89,625 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £54,500
% change year-on-year +4.56% -3.49% -5.22%

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 86,155 44,192 60,081
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 88.99% 81.99%
Number of salaries quoted 59,150 24,458 32,463
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,325 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,608
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,750
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 8 October 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 8 October 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 +19 2,406 £57,500 +4.55% 4,255
UK excluding London -3 1,893 £55,000 +4.56% 2,625
Work from Home +139 686 £60,000 -7.69% 1,523
London +79 624 £68,000 -15.00% 1,949
South East -18 499 £62,500 +19.05% 681
North of England +121 492 £51,000 +6.96% 448
Midlands -12 307 £50,000 -9.09% 385
North West +119 304 £55,000 +9.94% 242
South West +23 244 £55,000 +4.56% 316
East of England -40 215 £55,000 -10.20% 341
West Midlands +50 171 £47,500 -13.64% 249
East Midlands -36 136 £50,000 +17.65% 136
Yorkshire +30 97 £42,500 - 145
Scotland +41 94 £70,000 +18.61% 321
North East +10 91 £55,000 +57.14% 61
Wales -38 45 £65,000 +4.00% 61
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 4
Northern Ireland -76 4 - - 101

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 54 (2.06%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.80%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (1.76%) Apache
4 37 (1.41%) SharePoint
5 36 (1.38%) Confluence
6 32 (1.22%) CMS
7 21 (0.80%) Jupyter
8 17 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
9 13 (0.50%) SAS
10 10 (0.38%) WinCC
11 6 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.15%) Artix
13 3 (0.11%) nginx
13 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 2 (0.076%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.076%) IIS
15 1 (0.038%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
15 1 (0.038%) WebSphere
Applications
1 156 (5.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.71%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (2.10%) Simulink
4 37 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
5 29 (1.11%) Spreadsheet
6 22 (0.84%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.73%) SOLIDWORKS
8 15 (0.57%) MS Visio
8 15 (0.57%) Revit
9 13 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 12 (0.46%) OrCAD
11 10 (0.38%) EPLAN
11 10 (0.38%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.23%) Notion
13 5 (0.19%) LaTeX
13 5 (0.19%) Mathcad
13 5 (0.19%) Stateflow
14 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
15 3 (0.11%) Chatbot
15 3 (0.11%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 46 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.38%) SAP MDG
3 10 (0.38%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.34%) iTrent
5 8 (0.31%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
6 7 (0.27%) Infor M3
6 7 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.27%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.27%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.23%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.19%) Maximo
8 5 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.11%) Sage 200
10 3 (0.11%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 352 (13.45%) Azure
2 285 (10.89%) AWS
3 189 (7.22%) Power Platform
4 107 (4.09%) GCP
5 87 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
6 86 (3.28%) GitHub
7 82 (3.13%) SaaS
8 67 (2.56%) Microsoft 365
9 65 (2.48%) Serverless
10 49 (1.87%) Amazon S3
11 46 (1.76%) Entra ID
12 42 (1.60%) GitHub Actions
13 36 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
14 34 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
15 31 (1.18%) Microsoft Purview
16 29 (1.11%) Amazon EMR
17 28 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
18 27 (1.03%) AWS Lambda
18 27 (1.03%) Azure Service Bus
18 27 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.67%) DNS
2 69 (2.64%) Firewall
3 57 (2.18%) Broadband
4 45 (1.72%) VPN
4 45 (1.72%) Wireless
5 44 (1.68%) TCP/IP
6 39 (1.49%) Ethernet
7 38 (1.45%) Modbus
7 38 (1.45%) WAN
8 37 (1.41%) Network Security
9 36 (1.38%) VLAN
10 32 (1.22%) OSPF
11 31 (1.18%) LAN
12 27 (1.03%) MQTT
13 26 (0.99%) Wireshark
14 24 (0.92%) SD-WAN
15 23 (0.88%) BGP
16 19 (0.73%) 5G
17 18 (0.69%) DHCP
18 17 (0.65%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 174 (6.65%) Power BI
2 79 (3.02%) Metadata
3 63 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.10%) Data Lake
4 55 (2.10%) SQL Server
5 49 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
6 42 (1.60%) Amazon Athena
7 39 (1.49%) Tableau
8 38 (1.45%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.18%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.07%) Big Data
10 28 (1.07%) BigQuery
10 28 (1.07%) NoSQL
11 24 (0.92%) DynamoDB
12 22 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
12 22 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.80%) Power Query
14 20 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
15 19 (0.73%) MySQL
15 19 (0.73%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 141 (5.39%) JIRA
2 132 (5.04%) Git
3 65 (2.48%) GitLab
4 64 (2.44%) Jenkins
5 46 (1.76%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.22%) LabVIEW
7 27 (1.03%) Selenium
8 23 (0.88%) Postman
9 20 (0.76%) Cypress.io
10 16 (0.61%) Snyk
11 14 (0.53%) Claude Code
12 13 (0.50%) Burp Suite
13 11 (0.42%) Eclipse
13 11 (0.42%) JMeter
13 11 (0.42%) Rational Rhapsody
13 11 (0.42%) REST Assured
13 11 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
14 9 (0.34%) Cucumber
14 9 (0.34%) MLflow
15 8 (0.31%) TeamCity
General
1 882 (33.69%) Social Skills
2 682 (26.05%) Finance
3 617 (23.57%) Analytical Skills
4 266 (10.16%) Manufacturing
5 255 (9.74%) Electronics
6 253 (9.66%) Aerospace
7 245 (9.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 141 (5.39%) Law
9 122 (4.66%) Marketing
10 120 (4.58%) Public Sector
11 117 (4.47%) Organisational Skills
12 109 (4.16%) Banking
13 104 (3.97%) Retail
14 99 (3.78%) Telecoms
15 85 (3.25%) Automotive
15 85 (3.25%) Pharmaceutical
16 58 (2.22%) Legal
17 50 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
18 47 (1.80%) Military
19 43 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 463 (17.69%) Senior
2 304 (11.61%) Systems Engineer
3 270 (10.31%) Analyst
4 218 (8.33%) Lead
5 138 (5.27%) Data Engineer
6 125 (4.77%) Test Engineer
7 117 (4.47%) Architect
8 108 (4.13%) Developer
9 104 (3.97%) Consultant
10 95 (3.63%) Software Engineer
11 90 (3.44%) Electronics Engineer
12 86 (3.28%) Principal Engineer
13 78 (2.98%) Business Analyst
14 68 (2.60%) Data Analyst
15 62 (2.37%) Design Engineer
16 60 (2.29%) Network Engineer
16 60 (2.29%) Validation Engineer
17 55 (2.10%) Automation Engineer
18 49 (1.87%) Data Scientist
19 48 (1.83%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (3.44%) Terraform
2 66 (2.52%) REST
3 62 (2.37%) RESTful
4 61 (2.33%) Kafka
5 55 (2.10%) Node.js
6 53 (2.02%) .NET
7 45 (1.72%) PySpark
8 43 (1.64%) Playwright
9 38 (1.45%) JSON
10 36 (1.38%) FastAPI
11 35 (1.34%) XML
12 34 (1.30%) React
13 33 (1.26%) CSS
14 31 (1.18%) HTML
15 28 (1.07%) Swagger
16 25 (0.95%) RabbitMQ
17 24 (0.92%) OpenAPI
18 23 (0.88%) LDAP
18 23 (0.88%) Middleware
18 23 (0.88%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 175 (6.68%) Cloud Native
2 160 (6.11%) Onboarding
3 156 (5.96%) Management Information System
4 86 (3.28%) Product Ownership
5 75 (2.86%) Data Centre
5 75 (2.86%) Driving Licence
5 75 (2.86%) Embedded Systems
6 67 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
7 65 (2.48%) Data Structures
8 61 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
9 59 (2.25%) AI Agents
10 55 (2.10%) SCADA
11 53 (2.02%) Algorithms
12 48 (1.83%) Life Science
13 41 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
14 40 (1.53%) Analogue Electronics
14 40 (1.53%) IoT
14 40 (1.53%) Robotics
15 39 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
16 37 (1.41%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 131 (5.00%) Linux
2 92 (3.51%) Windows
3 32 (1.22%) Windows Server
4 26 (0.99%) Unix
5 13 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.38%) Android
7 8 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.31%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.15%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.076%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.076%) VMS
10 2 (0.076%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.038%) AIX
11 1 (0.038%) OpenWrt
11 1 (0.038%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 678 (25.90%) Problem-Solving
2 595 (22.73%) Continuous Improvement
3 469 (17.91%) Agile
4 468 (17.88%) AI
5 466 (17.80%) Verification and Validation
6 362 (13.83%) CI/CD
7 350 (13.37%) Stakeholder Management
8 335 (12.80%) Test Automation
9 325 (12.41%) Migration
10 282 (10.77%) Mentoring
11 280 (10.70%) Analytics
12 262 (10.01%) Software Engineering
13 257 (9.82%) Decision-Making
14 245 (9.36%) DevOps
15 227 (8.67%) Data Analysis
16 225 (8.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 213 (8.14%) Business Intelligence
18 209 (7.98%) Roadmaps
19 204 (7.79%) Machine Learning
20 202 (7.72%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 547 (20.89%) Python
2 459 (17.53%) SQL
3 108 (4.13%) Java
4 95 (3.63%) C++
5 91 (3.48%) C
6 79 (3.02%) C#
7 77 (2.94%) JavaScript
8 70 (2.67%) MATLAB
9 47 (1.80%) Go
10 37 (1.41%) PowerShell
11 36 (1.38%) Bash
11 36 (1.38%) TypeScript
12 29 (1.11%) Embedded C
12 29 (1.11%) R
13 25 (0.95%) Scala
14 20 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 18 (0.69%) Embedded C++
16 12 (0.46%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.42%) Apex Code
18 10 (0.38%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 573 (21.89%) Degree
2 568 (21.70%) Security Cleared
3 429 (16.39%) SC Cleared
4 124 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.09%) DV Cleared
6 103 (3.93%) Master's Degree
7 54 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
8 50 (1.91%) PhD
9 45 (1.72%) HND
10 38 (1.45%) Chartered Engineer
11 36 (1.38%) HNC
12 34 (1.30%) PMI Certification
13 33 (1.26%) Azure Certification
14 31 (1.18%) CISSP
15 30 (1.15%) ACCA
16 29 (1.11%) AWS Certification
17 27 (1.03%) CIMA
18 26 (0.99%) PMP
19 23 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
20 20 (0.76%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 390 (14.90%) Data Quality
2 310 (11.84%) QA
3 88 (3.36%) Accessibility
4 65 (2.48%) GDPR
5 34 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 29 (1.11%) GRC
6 29 (1.11%) GxP
7 27 (1.03%) SLA
8 22 (0.84%) NIST
9 18 (0.69%) IEC 61508
9 18 (0.69%) ISO 9001
10 16 (0.61%) GMP
10 16 (0.61%) ISO 19650
11 15 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 13 (0.50%) SOC 2
13 12 (0.46%) WCAG
14 11 (0.42%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.42%) PMO
15 9 (0.34%) JTAG
16 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 113 (4.32%) Docker
2 105 (4.01%) Firmware
3 49 (1.87%) Active Directory
4 46 (1.76%) Embedded Firmware
5 21 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.57%) vSphere
7 8 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.11%) KVM
10 2 (0.076%) iptables
10 2 (0.076%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.076%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.038%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 92 (3.51%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.80%) Grafana
3 36 (1.38%) Ansible
4 28 (1.07%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.61%) Prometheus
7 13 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.38%) Puppet
9 8 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.31%) Cilium
9 8 (0.31%) Kibana
9 8 (0.31%) Nessus
9 8 (0.31%) Nmap
10 5 (0.19%) Argo
10 5 (0.19%) WMI
11 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.15%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.15%) Rancher
11 4 (0.15%) SCCM
11 4 (0.15%) yum
Vendors
1 348 (13.29%) Microsoft
2 132 (5.04%) SAP
3 103 (3.93%) Oracle
4 99 (3.78%) Salesforce
5 76 (2.90%) EMC
6 68 (2.60%) Databricks
7 57 (2.18%) Cisco
8 55 (2.10%) ServiceNow
9 45 (1.72%) Google
10 39 (1.49%) Adobe
11 30 (1.15%) Samsung
11 30 (1.15%) Thales
12 28 (1.07%) TikTok
13 25 (0.95%) CrowdStrike
13 25 (0.95%) Sage
14 23 (0.88%) IBM
15 22 (0.84%) Siemens
16 21 (0.80%) Informatica
16 21 (0.80%) Palo Alto
16 21 (0.80%) VMware