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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 96 172
Rank change year-on-year +26 +76 +26
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,657 1,564 1,103
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.25% 3.17% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.07% 3.56% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 1,550 432 411
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,705 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,500 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.36% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £87,500 £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 86,578 43,908 59,440
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.25% 88.94% 82.23%
Number of salaries quoted 59,120 24,542 31,807
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,054 £43,750
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 £78,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +17.02% -10.48% -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 11 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 11 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 +22 2,438 £57,500 +4.55% 4,099
UK excluding London -3 1,924 £55,000 +4.56% 2,555
Work from Home +141 691 £60,000 -5.88% 1,459
London +85 630 £68,750 -14.06% 1,784
South East -14 505 £62,500 +13.64% 625
North of England +113 497 £51,000 +6.96% 426
Midlands -15 318 £50,000 -9.09% 398
North West +116 306 £55,000 +9.88% 220
South West +28 247 £55,000 +7.32% 298
East of England -38 217 £55,000 -10.20% 354
West Midlands +45 174 £47,500 -13.64% 255
East Midlands -35 144 £50,000 +17.65% 143
Yorkshire +22 99 £42,500 - 145
Scotland +52 96 £70,000 +16.67% 331
North East +1 92 £55,000 +57.14% 61
Wales -37 47 £60,000 -7.69% 65
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 4
Northern Ireland -69 4 - - 89

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 55 (2.07%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.77%) Apache
2 47 (1.77%) Apache Airflow
3 37 (1.39%) SharePoint
4 36 (1.35%) Confluence
5 32 (1.20%) CMS
6 21 (0.79%) Jupyter
6 21 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.49%) SAS
8 10 (0.38%) WinCC
9 6 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 6 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
10 4 (0.15%) Artix
11 3 (0.11%) nginx
11 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.075%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.075%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.038%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.038%) WebSphere
Applications
1 162 (6.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 72 (2.71%) Microsoft Office
3 57 (2.15%) Simulink
4 38 (1.43%) Microsoft Project
5 31 (1.17%) Spreadsheet
6 23 (0.87%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.72%) SOLIDWORKS
8 16 (0.60%) Revit
9 15 (0.56%) MS Visio
10 14 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 12 (0.45%) OrCAD
12 11 (0.41%) EPLAN
12 11 (0.41%) Navisworks
13 9 (0.34%) Notion
14 6 (0.23%) Mathcad
15 5 (0.19%) LaTeX
15 5 (0.19%) Stateflow
16 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
16 4 (0.15%) Chatbot
17 3 (0.11%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 43 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.38%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.34%) SAP MDG
5 8 (0.30%) Elite 3E
5 8 (0.30%) iTrent
5 8 (0.30%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.26%) Infor M3
6 7 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
6 7 (0.26%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.23%) Oracle Applications
7 6 (0.23%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.19%) Maximo
8 5 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.11%) Sage 200
10 3 (0.11%) SAP MDG-BP
10 3 (0.11%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 359 (13.51%) Azure
2 285 (10.73%) AWS
3 198 (7.45%) Power Platform
4 105 (3.95%) GCP
5 89 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
6 88 (3.31%) GitHub
7 81 (3.05%) SaaS
8 71 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
9 65 (2.45%) Serverless
10 51 (1.92%) Entra ID
11 50 (1.88%) Amazon S3
12 42 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
13 36 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
13 36 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
14 32 (1.20%) Microsoft Purview
15 30 (1.13%) Amazon EMR
16 29 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
17 28 (1.05%) Cloud Computing
18 27 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
18 27 (1.02%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 76 (2.86%) Firewall
2 74 (2.79%) DNS
3 58 (2.18%) Broadband
4 51 (1.92%) TCP/IP
5 48 (1.81%) VPN
6 47 (1.77%) Wireless
7 41 (1.54%) Ethernet
8 40 (1.51%) Modbus
8 40 (1.51%) VLAN
9 39 (1.47%) WAN
10 36 (1.35%) Network Security
11 33 (1.24%) OSPF
12 32 (1.20%) LAN
13 28 (1.05%) MQTT
14 27 (1.02%) Wireshark
15 25 (0.94%) SD-WAN
16 24 (0.90%) BGP
17 21 (0.79%) DHCP
18 19 (0.72%) 5G
19 18 (0.68%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 182 (6.85%) Power BI
2 79 (2.97%) Metadata
3 68 (2.56%) Data Warehouse
4 57 (2.15%) SQL Server
5 54 (2.03%) Data Lake
6 46 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
7 42 (1.58%) Amazon Athena
8 40 (1.51%) Tableau
9 36 (1.35%) Relational Database
10 30 (1.13%) MongoDB
11 28 (1.05%) Big Data
11 28 (1.05%) BigQuery
12 27 (1.02%) NoSQL
13 26 (0.98%) Power Query
14 23 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
15 22 (0.83%) DynamoDB
15 22 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 21 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
17 19 (0.72%) MySQL
17 19 (0.72%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 142 (5.34%) JIRA
2 135 (5.08%) Git
3 68 (2.56%) GitLab
4 67 (2.52%) Jenkins
5 50 (1.88%) Rational DOORS
6 34 (1.28%) LabVIEW
7 27 (1.02%) Selenium
8 23 (0.87%) Postman
9 20 (0.75%) Cypress.io
10 16 (0.60%) Snyk
11 14 (0.53%) Claude Code
12 13 (0.49%) Burp Suite
13 12 (0.45%) Eclipse
13 12 (0.45%) JMeter
13 12 (0.45%) Sonatype Nexus
14 11 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
14 11 (0.41%) REST Assured
15 9 (0.34%) Cucumber
15 9 (0.34%) Zephyr
16 8 (0.30%) Metasploit
General
1 904 (34.02%) Social Skills
2 683 (25.71%) Finance
3 631 (23.75%) Analytical Skills
4 269 (10.12%) Manufacturing
5 262 (9.86%) Electronics
6 260 (9.79%) Aerospace
7 250 (9.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 144 (5.42%) Law
9 124 (4.67%) Marketing
10 121 (4.55%) Public Sector
11 119 (4.48%) Organisational Skills
12 113 (4.25%) Banking
13 102 (3.84%) Retail
13 102 (3.84%) Telecoms
14 87 (3.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 85 (3.20%) Automotive
16 61 (2.30%) Legal
17 51 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
18 50 (1.88%) Military
19 43 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 469 (17.65%) Senior
2 309 (11.63%) Systems Engineer
3 273 (10.27%) Analyst
4 223 (8.39%) Lead
5 138 (5.19%) Data Engineer
6 131 (4.93%) Test Engineer
7 120 (4.52%) Architect
8 109 (4.10%) Developer
9 104 (3.91%) Consultant
10 96 (3.61%) Software Engineer
11 90 (3.39%) Electronics Engineer
12 87 (3.27%) Principal Engineer
13 79 (2.97%) Business Analyst
14 67 (2.52%) Data Analyst
15 65 (2.45%) Design Engineer
16 62 (2.33%) Network Engineer
17 60 (2.26%) Validation Engineer
18 57 (2.15%) Automation Engineer
19 50 (1.88%) Data Scientist
20 48 (1.81%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (3.50%) Terraform
2 69 (2.60%) REST
3 63 (2.37%) Kafka
4 62 (2.33%) RESTful
5 57 (2.15%) .NET
6 55 (2.07%) Node.js
7 45 (1.69%) PySpark
8 43 (1.62%) Playwright
9 39 (1.47%) JSON
10 37 (1.39%) FastAPI
11 36 (1.35%) XML
12 33 (1.24%) CSS
12 33 (1.24%) React
13 32 (1.20%) HTML
14 29 (1.09%) Swagger
15 26 (0.98%) RabbitMQ
16 25 (0.94%) Middleware
16 25 (0.94%) OpenAPI
17 23 (0.87%) LDAP
18 22 (0.83%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 174 (6.55%) Cloud Native
2 163 (6.13%) Onboarding
3 160 (6.02%) Management Information System
4 87 (3.27%) Product Ownership
5 79 (2.97%) Driving Licence
6 77 (2.90%) Data Centre
7 75 (2.82%) Embedded Systems
8 70 (2.63%) Distributed Systems
9 67 (2.52%) Data Structures
10 64 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
11 60 (2.26%) AI Agents
12 59 (2.22%) SCADA
13 54 (2.03%) Algorithms
14 49 (1.84%) Life Science
15 42 (1.58%) Robotics
16 41 (1.54%) Analogue Electronics
16 41 (1.54%) IoT
16 41 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
17 38 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
17 38 (1.43%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 138 (5.19%) Linux
2 98 (3.69%) Windows
3 36 (1.35%) Windows Server
4 27 (1.02%) Unix
5 14 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.38%) Android
7 9 (0.34%) macOS
8 8 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.15%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.075%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.075%) VMS
12 1 (0.038%) AIX
12 1 (0.038%) CentOS
12 1 (0.038%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.038%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.038%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 690 (25.97%) Problem-Solving
2 611 (23.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 485 (18.25%) Agile
4 480 (18.07%) AI
5 477 (17.95%) Verification and Validation
6 370 (13.93%) CI/CD
7 352 (13.25%) Stakeholder Management
8 348 (13.10%) Test Automation
9 326 (12.27%) Migration
10 287 (10.80%) Analytics
11 286 (10.76%) Mentoring
12 264 (9.94%) Software Engineering
13 259 (9.75%) Decision-Making
14 253 (9.52%) DevOps
15 231 (8.69%) Data Analysis
16 226 (8.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 222 (8.36%) Business Intelligence
18 209 (7.87%) Roadmaps
19 205 (7.72%) Machine Learning
20 201 (7.56%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 560 (21.08%) Python
2 467 (17.58%) SQL
3 112 (4.22%) Java
4 99 (3.73%) C++
5 95 (3.58%) C
6 85 (3.20%) C#
7 78 (2.94%) JavaScript
8 72 (2.71%) MATLAB
9 46 (1.73%) Go
10 42 (1.58%) PowerShell
11 39 (1.47%) Bash
12 35 (1.32%) TypeScript
13 30 (1.13%) Embedded C
13 30 (1.13%) R
14 25 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 25 (0.94%) Scala
15 18 (0.68%) Embedded C++
16 13 (0.49%) Shell Script
17 12 (0.45%) T-SQL
18 11 (0.41%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 588 (22.13%) Degree
2 577 (21.72%) Security Cleared
3 432 (16.26%) SC Cleared
4 123 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (4.06%) DV Cleared
6 105 (3.95%) Master's Degree
7 53 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
8 51 (1.92%) PhD
9 45 (1.69%) HND
10 40 (1.51%) Chartered Engineer
11 37 (1.39%) HNC
12 34 (1.28%) PMI Certification
13 33 (1.24%) Azure Certification
14 31 (1.17%) CISSP
15 30 (1.13%) ACCA
16 29 (1.09%) AWS Certification
17 27 (1.02%) CIMA
18 26 (0.98%) PMP
19 24 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
20 21 (0.79%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 400 (15.05%) Data Quality
2 317 (11.93%) QA
3 93 (3.50%) Accessibility
4 69 (2.60%) GDPR
5 34 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 30 (1.13%) GxP
7 29 (1.09%) GRC
8 27 (1.02%) SLA
9 22 (0.83%) NIST
10 18 (0.68%) IEC 61508
10 18 (0.68%) ISO 9001
10 18 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 17 (0.64%) GMP
11 17 (0.64%) ISO 19650
12 12 (0.45%) SOC 2
12 12 (0.45%) WCAG
13 11 (0.41%) ISO 26262
13 11 (0.41%) PMO
14 9 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
14 9 (0.34%) JTAG
System Software
1 116 (4.37%) Docker
2 105 (3.95%) Firmware
3 53 (1.99%) Active Directory
4 46 (1.73%) Embedded Firmware
5 21 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.56%) vSphere
7 10 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.11%) KVM
9 3 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.11%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.075%) iptables
10 2 (0.075%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.038%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.038%) LXC
Systems Management
1 96 (3.61%) Kubernetes
2 48 (1.81%) Grafana
3 41 (1.54%) Ansible
4 29 (1.09%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.64%) Prometheus
7 16 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
8 13 (0.49%) Puppet
9 9 (0.34%) BMC PATROL
10 8 (0.30%) Kibana
10 8 (0.30%) Nessus
10 8 (0.30%) Nmap
11 7 (0.26%) Cilium
12 6 (0.23%) Argo
13 5 (0.19%) Autotask
13 5 (0.19%) Rancher
13 5 (0.19%) SCCM
13 5 (0.19%) WMI
13 5 (0.19%) yum
14 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 364 (13.70%) Microsoft
2 129 (4.86%) SAP
3 101 (3.80%) Salesforce
4 100 (3.76%) Oracle
5 78 (2.94%) EMC
6 72 (2.71%) Databricks
7 59 (2.22%) Cisco
8 56 (2.11%) ServiceNow
9 46 (1.73%) Google
10 39 (1.47%) Adobe
11 31 (1.17%) Thales
12 30 (1.13%) Samsung
13 28 (1.05%) TikTok
14 26 (0.98%) CrowdStrike
15 25 (0.94%) IBM
15 25 (0.94%) Sage
16 23 (0.87%) Siemens
16 23 (0.87%) VMware
17 22 (0.83%) Informatica
18 21 (0.79%) Palo Alto