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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 88 180
Rank change year-on-year +10 +92 +32
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,430 1,629 1,162
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.11% 3.30% 1.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.89% 3.71% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 1,439 465 449
10th Percentile £35,700 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,490 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +8.16% -5.23% -7.15%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,900 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £88,750 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -0.42%

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 84,196 43,853 63,499
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.06% 88.72% 81.26%
Number of salaries quoted 58,302 24,746 35,929
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 £96,750 £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 18 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 18 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 +10 2,245 £58,000 +5.45% 3,892
UK excluding London -13 1,779 £55,000 +4.56% 2,384
Work from Home +116 635 £60,000 - 1,483
London +71 564 £70,000 -12.50% 1,831
South East -11 494 £62,500 +16.28% 651
North of England +103 467 £52,500 +10.53% 406
North West +114 286 £55,000 +10.00% 232
Midlands -33 264 £50,000 -9.09% 343
South West +13 237 £60,000 +14.29% 308
East of England -49 186 £55,000 -8.33% 337
West Midlands +33 149 £50,000 -9.09% 237
East Midlands -54 115 £48,372 +13.82% 106
Yorkshire +12 91 £42,750 +0.59% 113
North East +1 90 £55,000 +57.14% 64
Scotland +37 82 £70,000 +20.62% 269
Wales -34 42 £70,000 +30.23% 56
Northern Ireland -73 5 - - 49
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 (1.93%) Apache Spark
2 45 (1.85%) Apache Airflow
3 41 (1.69%) Apache
4 35 (1.44%) Confluence
4 35 (1.44%) SharePoint
5 20 (0.82%) Jupyter
6 13 (0.53%) SAS
7 10 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
8 9 (0.37%) WinCC
9 5 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) CMS
11 3 (0.12%) Artix
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.082%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.082%) IIS
12 2 (0.082%) Kinematics
12 2 (0.082%) nginx
13 1 (0.041%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.041%) WebSphere
Applications
1 136 (5.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.92%) Microsoft Office
3 51 (2.10%) Simulink
4 37 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
5 22 (0.91%) Spreadsheet
6 19 (0.78%) SOLIDWORKS
7 18 (0.74%) AutoCAD
8 16 (0.66%) MS Visio
9 10 (0.41%) Revit
10 9 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
12 6 (0.25%) EPLAN
13 5 (0.21%) CANalyzer
13 5 (0.21%) LaTeX
13 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
13 5 (0.21%) OrCAD
14 3 (0.12%) Adobe XD
14 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
14 3 (0.12%) Productboard
14 3 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 43 (1.77%) Dynamics CRM
1 43 (1.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.45%) SAP MDG
3 9 (0.37%) iTrent
3 9 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.33%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
4 8 (0.33%) Workday HCM
5 7 (0.29%) SAP ERP
5 7 (0.29%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) Elite 3E
7 5 (0.21%) Infor M3
7 5 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
8 4 (0.16%) Maximo
8 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 311 (12.80%) Azure
2 265 (10.91%) AWS
3 173 (7.12%) Power Platform
4 98 (4.03%) GCP
5 75 (3.09%) Azure DevOps
6 71 (2.92%) SaaS
7 69 (2.84%) GitHub
8 65 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
9 63 (2.59%) Serverless
10 44 (1.81%) Amazon S3
11 39 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
12 35 (1.44%) Entra ID
12 35 (1.44%) GitHub Actions
13 32 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
14 27 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
15 26 (1.07%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
17 24 (0.99%) Amazon EMR
17 24 (0.99%) PowerApps
18 23 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.88%) DNS
2 67 (2.76%) Firewall
3 56 (2.30%) Broadband
4 40 (1.65%) Wireless
5 38 (1.56%) VPN
6 37 (1.52%) TCP/IP
7 36 (1.48%) Network Security
7 36 (1.48%) WAN
8 32 (1.32%) Ethernet
9 29 (1.19%) Modbus
10 28 (1.15%) LAN
10 28 (1.15%) VLAN
11 26 (1.07%) OSPF
12 22 (0.91%) BGP
12 22 (0.91%) MQTT
12 22 (0.91%) SD-WAN
12 22 (0.91%) Wireshark
13 19 (0.78%) 5G
14 17 (0.70%) HTTP
14 17 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (6.50%) Power BI
2 61 (2.51%) Metadata
3 59 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.26%) Data Lake
5 49 (2.02%) SQL Server
6 46 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
7 40 (1.65%) Tableau
8 37 (1.52%) Amazon Athena
9 33 (1.36%) Relational Database
10 31 (1.28%) MongoDB
11 28 (1.15%) BigQuery
12 26 (1.07%) Big Data
13 25 (1.03%) DynamoDB
14 23 (0.95%) NoSQL
15 22 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 21 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
16 21 (0.86%) Semantic Layer
17 20 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
18 18 (0.74%) MySQL
18 18 (0.74%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 138 (5.68%) JIRA
2 124 (5.10%) Git
3 62 (2.55%) Jenkins
4 54 (2.22%) GitLab
5 44 (1.81%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.32%) Selenium
7 28 (1.15%) LabVIEW
8 25 (1.03%) Postman
9 22 (0.91%) Snyk
10 21 (0.86%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.58%) Burp Suite
12 13 (0.53%) JMeter
13 12 (0.49%) REST Assured
14 11 (0.45%) Claude Code
14 11 (0.45%) Cucumber
15 10 (0.41%) TeamCity
16 9 (0.37%) Eclipse
16 9 (0.37%) Gatling
16 9 (0.37%) MLflow
16 9 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 810 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 625 (25.72%) Finance
3 575 (23.66%) Analytical Skills
4 241 (9.92%) Aerospace
5 227 (9.34%) Manufacturing
6 223 (9.18%) Electronics
7 205 (8.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 141 (5.80%) Law
9 108 (4.44%) Organisational Skills
10 102 (4.20%) Banking
11 101 (4.16%) Retail
12 100 (4.12%) Public Sector
13 91 (3.74%) Marketing
14 90 (3.70%) Telecoms
15 84 (3.46%) Pharmaceutical
16 75 (3.09%) Automotive
17 61 (2.51%) Legal
18 49 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
19 43 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
19 43 (1.77%) Military
Job Titles
1 429 (17.65%) Senior
2 314 (12.92%) Systems Engineer
3 272 (11.19%) Analyst
4 210 (8.64%) Lead
5 133 (5.47%) Test Engineer
6 121 (4.98%) Architect
7 117 (4.81%) Data Engineer
8 100 (4.12%) Developer
9 96 (3.95%) Consultant
10 84 (3.46%) Business Analyst
11 81 (3.33%) Software Engineer
12 77 (3.17%) Principal Engineer
13 71 (2.92%) Data Analyst
13 71 (2.92%) Electronics Engineer
14 63 (2.59%) Validation Engineer
15 56 (2.30%) Network Engineer
16 50 (2.06%) Embedded Engineer
17 48 (1.98%) Data Scientist
17 48 (1.98%) Support Engineer
18 45 (1.85%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.37%) Terraform
2 55 (2.26%) RESTful
3 53 (2.18%) Kafka
4 50 (2.06%) REST
5 48 (1.98%) Node.js
6 43 (1.77%) Playwright
7 40 (1.65%) PySpark
8 36 (1.48%) .NET
9 35 (1.44%) XML
10 34 (1.40%) JSON
11 29 (1.19%) CSS
12 28 (1.15%) FastAPI
12 28 (1.15%) React
13 27 (1.11%) HTML
14 25 (1.03%) LDAP
14 25 (1.03%) Middleware
15 22 (0.91%) Swagger
16 21 (0.86%) ModSecurity
17 19 (0.78%) pytest
18 18 (0.74%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 163 (6.71%) Cloud Native
2 131 (5.39%) Management Information System
3 121 (4.98%) Onboarding
4 84 (3.46%) Product Ownership
5 82 (3.37%) Data Centre
6 69 (2.84%) Embedded Systems
7 65 (2.67%) Driving Licence
8 59 (2.43%) Data Structures
8 59 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
9 57 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
10 54 (2.22%) Algorithms
11 50 (2.06%) AI Agents
12 48 (1.98%) Life Science
13 47 (1.93%) SCADA
14 42 (1.73%) Analytical Mindset
15 40 (1.65%) IoT
15 40 (1.65%) Low-Code
16 38 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
16 38 (1.56%) Robotics
17 34 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.51%) Linux
2 91 (3.74%) Windows
3 31 (1.28%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.03%) Unix
5 16 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.41%) Android
7 8 (0.33%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.16%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.082%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.082%) VMS
12 2 (0.082%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.041%) AIX
13 1 (0.041%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.041%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 619 (25.47%) Problem-Solving
2 548 (22.55%) Continuous Improvement
3 446 (18.35%) Verification and Validation
4 445 (18.31%) Agile
5 411 (16.91%) AI
6 336 (13.83%) CI/CD
7 322 (13.25%) Stakeholder Management
8 302 (12.43%) Test Automation
9 299 (12.30%) Migration
10 257 (10.58%) Analytics
10 257 (10.58%) Mentoring
11 238 (9.79%) Software Engineering
12 235 (9.67%) Decision-Making
13 224 (9.22%) DevOps
14 221 (9.09%) Data Analysis
15 220 (9.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 200 (8.23%) Business Intelligence
17 195 (8.02%) Machine Learning
18 193 (7.94%) Roadmaps
19 191 (7.86%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 495 (20.37%) Python
2 424 (17.45%) SQL
3 105 (4.32%) Java
4 91 (3.74%) C++
5 84 (3.46%) C
6 72 (2.96%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.76%) MATLAB
8 61 (2.51%) C#
9 49 (2.02%) Go
10 36 (1.48%) Bash
11 32 (1.32%) Embedded C
12 29 (1.19%) TypeScript
13 28 (1.15%) PowerShell
14 24 (0.99%) R
14 24 (0.99%) Scala
15 18 (0.74%) Embedded C++
16 14 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 11 (0.45%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.45%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.37%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 533 (21.93%) Security Cleared
2 527 (21.69%) Degree
3 398 (16.38%) SC Cleared
4 126 (5.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.40%) DV Cleared
6 95 (3.91%) Master's Degree
7 53 (2.18%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.73%) PhD
9 41 (1.69%) Chartered Engineer
9 41 (1.69%) HND
10 35 (1.44%) HNC
10 35 (1.44%) PMI Certification
11 32 (1.32%) CISSP
12 28 (1.15%) ACCA
13 26 (1.07%) AWS Certification
13 26 (1.07%) Azure Certification
14 25 (1.03%) CIMA
15 22 (0.91%) CISM
15 22 (0.91%) PMP
16 21 (0.86%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 358 (14.73%) Data Quality
2 306 (12.59%) QA
3 82 (3.37%) Accessibility
4 58 (2.39%) GDPR
5 37 (1.52%) GRC
6 32 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.15%) GxP
8 23 (0.95%) IEC 61508
8 23 (0.95%) SLA
9 22 (0.91%) NIST
10 15 (0.62%) GMP
10 15 (0.62%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.62%) PMO
11 14 (0.58%) ISO 9001
11 14 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 13 (0.53%) SOC 2
12 13 (0.53%) WCAG
13 11 (0.45%) ISO 19650
14 9 (0.37%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.37%) JTAG
System Software
1 97 (3.99%) Firmware
2 90 (3.70%) Docker
3 44 (1.81%) Active Directory
4 43 (1.77%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (0.74%) vSphere
7 8 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.16%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 2 (0.082%) iptables
10 2 (0.082%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.082%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.041%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 82 (3.37%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.73%) Grafana
3 33 (1.36%) Ansible
3 33 (1.36%) Functional Safety
4 18 (0.74%) Prometheus
5 15 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.41%) Cilium
7 8 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (0.33%) Nessus
7 8 (0.33%) Nmap
7 8 (0.33%) Puppet
8 7 (0.29%) BMC PATROL
8 7 (0.29%) Kibana
9 5 (0.21%) WMI
10 4 (0.16%) Argo
10 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.16%) HP Fortify
10 4 (0.16%) Kubeflow
10 4 (0.16%) SCCM
11 3 (0.12%) Rancher
Vendors
1 301 (12.39%) Microsoft
2 130 (5.35%) SAP
3 103 (4.24%) Oracle
4 64 (2.63%) Databricks
5 60 (2.47%) Salesforce
6 56 (2.30%) ServiceNow
7 53 (2.18%) Cisco
8 52 (2.14%) EMC
9 41 (1.69%) Google
10 31 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.15%) Palo Alto
12 24 (0.99%) Sage
12 24 (0.99%) VMware
13 23 (0.95%) Tenable
13 23 (0.95%) Thales
14 22 (0.91%) IBM
15 20 (0.82%) Red Hat
16 19 (0.78%) Siemens
17 18 (0.74%) Splunk
18 17 (0.70%) Autodesk