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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 84 192
Rank change year-on-year -9 +108 +8
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,077 1,688 1,159
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.92% 3.39% 1.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.62% 3.80% 1.73%
Number of salaries quoted 1,224 519 502
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.82% -8.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £72,500 £71,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,675 £90,300 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -4.35%

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 79,126 44,376 67,104
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.31% 89.04% 80.77%
Number of salaries quoted 54,636 25,137 42,574
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 -9 1,910 £56,465 +2.66% 1,237
UK excluding London -28 1,469 £55,000 +4.76% 997
Work from Home +123 605 £56,000 -6.67% 469
London +66 519 £70,000 -12.50% 412
South East -24 433 £59,000 +12.38% 306
North of England +94 397 £55,000 +15.79% 163
North West +93 233 £55,000 +15.35% 88
Midlands -52 208 £44,720 -18.69% 163
South West -3 177 £55,000 +4.56% 161
East of England -64 143 £60,000 +10.60% 144
West Midlands +15 114 £44,720 -18.69% 108
East Midlands -63 93 £46,209 +8.73% 55
North East +12 83 £55,000 +57.14% 36
Yorkshire +11 81 £43,000 +1.18% 41
Scotland +36 75 £62,500 +7.70% 65
Wales -33 32 £50,000 -6.98% 24
Isle of Man - 3 £38,500 - 3
Northern Ireland -84 2 - - 3

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 60 (2.89%) Apache Airflow
2 56 (2.70%) Apache Spark
3 55 (2.65%) Apache
4 36 (1.73%) Confluence
5 32 (1.54%) SharePoint
6 21 (1.01%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.63%) SAS
8 10 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
9 6 (0.29%) WinCC
10 5 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.24%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.24%) CMS
11 4 (0.19%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.14%) Artix
12 3 (0.14%) IIS
12 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.096%) Cloud Foundry
14 1 (0.048%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.048%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.048%) WebSphere
Applications
1 119 (5.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 64 (3.08%) Microsoft Office
3 37 (1.78%) Simulink
4 36 (1.73%) Microsoft Project
5 27 (1.30%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.82%) Spreadsheet
7 13 (0.63%) SOLIDWORKS
8 12 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 9 (0.43%) AutoCAD
10 5 (0.24%) LaTeX
10 5 (0.24%) Mathcad
11 4 (0.19%) Adobe XD
11 4 (0.19%) CANalyzer
11 4 (0.19%) OrCAD
11 4 (0.19%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.14%) Productboard
12 3 (0.14%) Revit
12 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
13 2 (0.096%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 43 (2.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (1.97%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.48%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.43%) iTrent
4 9 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
4 9 (0.43%) SAP ERP
5 8 (0.39%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.34%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.34%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.29%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.24%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.24%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.096%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
11 2 (0.096%) SAP FI
11 2 (0.096%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 291 (14.01%) Azure
2 265 (12.76%) AWS
3 162 (7.80%) Power Platform
4 93 (4.48%) GCP
5 80 (3.85%) SaaS
6 67 (3.23%) Azure DevOps
7 63 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
8 57 (2.74%) GitHub
9 52 (2.50%) Serverless
10 49 (2.36%) Amazon S3
11 37 (1.78%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (1.59%) Entra ID
13 29 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
13 29 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
14 22 (1.06%) Amazon EC2
14 22 (1.06%) Amazon EMR
15 21 (1.01%) Snowflake
16 20 (0.96%) Cloud Computing
16 20 (0.96%) PowerApps
17 19 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 67 (3.23%) Broadband
2 60 (2.89%) Firewall
3 57 (2.74%) DNS
4 38 (1.83%) Wireless
5 34 (1.64%) Network Security
6 33 (1.59%) WAN
7 32 (1.54%) TCP/IP
8 29 (1.40%) VPN
9 23 (1.11%) Ethernet
10 22 (1.06%) LAN
11 21 (1.01%) SD-WAN
12 18 (0.87%) MQTT
13 17 (0.82%) BGP
13 17 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
14 16 (0.77%) OSPF
14 16 (0.77%) Wireshark
15 15 (0.72%) Internet
15 15 (0.72%) VLAN
16 13 (0.63%) HTTP
16 13 (0.63%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (7.08%) Power BI
2 57 (2.74%) Data Warehouse
3 53 (2.55%) PostgreSQL
3 53 (2.55%) Tableau
4 50 (2.41%) Metadata
5 47 (2.26%) SQL Server
6 45 (2.17%) Data Lake
7 34 (1.64%) MongoDB
8 28 (1.35%) Amazon Athena
8 28 (1.35%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.30%) BigQuery
10 26 (1.25%) DynamoDB
11 23 (1.11%) Semantic Layer
12 21 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 20 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
14 19 (0.91%) MySQL
14 19 (0.91%) Spark SQL
15 18 (0.87%) Big Data
16 16 (0.77%) NoSQL
16 16 (0.77%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 128 (6.16%) JIRA
2 113 (5.44%) Git
3 53 (2.55%) Jenkins
4 47 (2.26%) GitLab
5 36 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.35%) Selenium
7 24 (1.16%) Postman
8 22 (1.06%) Snyk
9 21 (1.01%) Cypress.io
10 17 (0.82%) LabVIEW
11 16 (0.77%) JMeter
12 15 (0.72%) Cucumber
13 12 (0.58%) IBM UrbanCode
14 11 (0.53%) Burp Suite
14 11 (0.53%) REST Assured
15 10 (0.48%) Gatling
15 10 (0.48%) TeamCity
16 8 (0.39%) Rational Rhapsody
16 8 (0.39%) Zephyr
17 7 (0.34%) MLflow
General
1 701 (33.75%) Social Skills
2 571 (27.49%) Finance
3 508 (24.46%) Analytical Skills
4 202 (9.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 199 (9.58%) Aerospace
6 186 (8.96%) Manufacturing
7 172 (8.28%) Electronics
8 121 (5.83%) Law
9 115 (5.54%) Banking
10 85 (4.09%) Public Sector
11 82 (3.95%) Retail
12 79 (3.80%) Marketing
13 72 (3.47%) Pharmaceutical
14 70 (3.37%) Organisational Skills
15 58 (2.79%) Automotive
16 57 (2.74%) Legal
17 49 (2.36%) Telecoms
18 47 (2.26%) Games
19 42 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
20 38 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 379 (18.25%) Senior
2 275 (13.24%) Analyst
3 204 (9.82%) Systems Engineer
4 187 (9.00%) Lead
5 123 (5.92%) Test Engineer
6 116 (5.58%) Architect
7 102 (4.91%) Data Engineer
8 91 (4.38%) Developer
9 90 (4.33%) Business Analyst
10 86 (4.14%) Consultant
11 76 (3.66%) Software Engineer
12 67 (3.23%) Data Analyst
13 64 (3.08%) Principal Engineer
13 64 (3.08%) Validation Engineer
14 50 (2.41%) Embedded Engineer
15 49 (2.36%) Support Engineer
16 47 (2.26%) Data Scientist
17 45 (2.17%) Electronics Engineer
18 42 (2.02%) IT Manager
19 41 (1.97%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (3.61%) Terraform
2 49 (2.36%) RESTful
3 45 (2.17%) Kafka
4 43 (2.07%) REST
5 40 (1.93%) Node.js
5 40 (1.93%) PySpark
6 33 (1.59%) JSON
7 31 (1.49%) Playwright
8 30 (1.44%) .NET
8 30 (1.44%) XML
9 27 (1.30%) LDAP
10 26 (1.25%) Middleware
11 22 (1.06%) CSS
12 21 (1.01%) HTML
12 21 (1.01%) ModSecurity
12 21 (1.01%) Pandas
12 21 (1.01%) React
13 19 (0.91%) FastAPI
13 19 (0.91%) OAuth
13 19 (0.91%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 152 (7.32%) Cloud Native
2 129 (6.21%) Onboarding
3 113 (5.44%) Management Information System
4 77 (3.71%) Product Ownership
5 75 (3.61%) Data Centre
6 59 (2.84%) Data Structures
7 58 (2.79%) Embedded Systems
8 56 (2.70%) Algorithms
9 55 (2.65%) Enterprise Software
10 53 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
10 53 (2.55%) Driving Licence
11 47 (2.26%) Low-Code
12 40 (1.93%) AI Agents
13 39 (1.88%) Life Science
14 38 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
15 37 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
16 35 (1.69%) Video\Live Streaming
17 33 (1.59%) IoT
17 33 (1.59%) Robotics
18 29 (1.40%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 125 (6.02%) Linux
2 91 (4.38%) Windows
3 35 (1.69%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 19 (0.91%) Unix
6 9 (0.43%) Android
6 9 (0.43%) Embedded Linux
7 6 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.24%) Kali Linux
8 5 (0.24%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.096%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.096%) Robot Operating System
10 2 (0.096%) ThreadX
10 2 (0.096%) VMS
10 2 (0.096%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.048%) AIX
11 1 (0.048%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 535 (25.76%) Problem-Solving
2 499 (24.03%) Continuous Improvement
3 432 (20.80%) Agile
4 384 (18.49%) AI
5 309 (14.88%) CI/CD
6 294 (14.16%) Verification and Validation
7 271 (13.05%) Stakeholder Management
8 270 (13.00%) Test Automation
9 269 (12.95%) Analytics
10 249 (11.99%) Migration
11 238 (11.46%) Mentoring
12 227 (10.93%) Decision-Making
13 219 (10.54%) Software Engineering
14 199 (9.58%) Data Analysis
15 198 (9.53%) DevOps
16 189 (9.10%) Machine Learning
17 184 (8.86%) Business Intelligence
18 183 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 172 (8.28%) Roadmaps
20 168 (8.09%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 480 (23.11%) Python
2 394 (18.97%) SQL
3 96 (4.62%) Java
4 87 (4.19%) C++
5 78 (3.76%) C
6 62 (2.99%) JavaScript
7 55 (2.65%) Go
8 52 (2.50%) C#
8 52 (2.50%) MATLAB
9 30 (1.44%) Bash
10 28 (1.35%) PowerShell
11 27 (1.30%) Embedded C
12 22 (1.06%) Scala
13 20 (0.96%) TypeScript
14 18 (0.87%) Embedded C++
14 18 (0.87%) R
15 14 (0.67%) T-SQL
16 11 (0.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 9 (0.43%) ABAP
17 9 (0.43%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 447 (21.52%) Degree
2 386 (18.58%) Security Cleared
3 252 (12.13%) SC Cleared
4 131 (6.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (5.20%) DV Cleared
6 83 (4.00%) Master's Degree
7 45 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (1.83%) CISSP
9 36 (1.73%) PhD
10 32 (1.54%) Chartered Engineer
11 31 (1.49%) HNC
12 30 (1.44%) CISM
12 30 (1.44%) PMI Certification
13 27 (1.30%) HND
14 25 (1.20%) ACCA
14 25 (1.20%) CIMA
15 24 (1.16%) AWS Certification
16 23 (1.11%) Azure Certification
17 19 (0.91%) SANS
18 18 (0.87%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 319 (15.36%) Data Quality
2 283 (13.63%) QA
3 81 (3.90%) Accessibility
4 55 (2.65%) GDPR
5 37 (1.78%) GRC
6 26 (1.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.20%) IEC 61508
7 25 (1.20%) NIST
8 22 (1.06%) SLA
9 20 (0.96%) GxP
10 18 (0.87%) PMO
11 17 (0.82%) WCAG
12 15 (0.72%) ISO 26262
13 14 (0.67%) GAAP
13 14 (0.67%) IFRS
14 13 (0.63%) GMP
14 13 (0.63%) ISO 9001
15 11 (0.53%) SOC 2
16 9 (0.43%) COBIT
16 9 (0.43%) JTAG
System Software
1 79 (3.80%) Docker
1 79 (3.80%) Firmware
2 47 (2.26%) Active Directory
3 33 (1.59%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (1.01%) vSphere
6 13 (0.63%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.29%) KVM
8 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.096%) iptables
9 2 (0.096%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.096%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.048%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.048%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 80 (3.85%) Kubernetes
2 45 (2.17%) Grafana
3 27 (1.30%) Ansible
3 27 (1.30%) Functional Safety
4 15 (0.72%) Prometheus
4 15 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (0.48%) Cilium
6 9 (0.43%) Puppet
7 7 (0.34%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.34%) Kibana
7 7 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.24%) FortiGate
8 5 (0.24%) Nessus
8 5 (0.24%) Nmap
8 5 (0.24%) SCCM
8 5 (0.24%) WMI
9 4 (0.19%) HP Fortify
9 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
10 3 (0.14%) Argo
11 2 (0.096%) Rancher
Vendors
1 274 (13.19%) Microsoft
2 117 (5.63%) SAP
3 105 (5.06%) Oracle
4 58 (2.79%) Salesforce
5 57 (2.74%) Databricks
6 48 (2.31%) ServiceNow
7 47 (2.26%) Cisco
8 44 (2.12%) Google
9 35 (1.69%) Red Hat
10 32 (1.54%) VMware
11 30 (1.44%) EMC
12 29 (1.40%) CrowdStrike
13 28 (1.35%) Palo Alto
14 22 (1.06%) Tenable
15 17 (0.82%) Splunk
16 16 (0.77%) IBM
17 15 (0.72%) Foundry
17 15 (0.72%) McAfee
17 15 (0.72%) Workday
18 14 (0.67%) Siemens