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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 86 194
Rank change year-on-year -1 +108 +9
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,156 1,665 1,144
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.96% 3.33% 1.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.69% 3.76% 1.74%
Number of salaries quoted 1,290 518 473
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,925 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,563 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £71,250 £75,000 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,550 £90,000 £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 80,269 44,315 65,850
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.06% 88.64% 80.88%
Number of salaries quoted 55,761 25,263 40,217
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -6.67%
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 £51,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -6.86% -6.87%

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 1 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 1 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 -3 1,997 £57,500 +4.55% 3,217
UK excluding London -23 1,556 £55,000 +4.76% 2,057
Work from Home +117 603 £56,000 -6.67% 1,270
London +64 521 £70,000 -12.50% 1,624
South East -18 455 £60,000 +11.63% 502
North of England +101 405 £55,000 +15.79% 352
North West +92 240 £55,000 +15.35% 210
Midlands -44 226 £47,500 -13.64% 259
South West +14 203 £55,000 +4.56% 311
East of England -58 154 £57,500 +4.07% 299
West Midlands +30 127 £47,500 -13.64% 179
East Midlands -56 98 £46,743 +9.98% 80
North East +4 83 £55,000 +57.14% 63
Yorkshire +12 82 £43,000 +1.18% 86
Scotland +26 75 £70,000 +20.62% 250
Wales -41 33 £60,000 +11.63% 49
Isle of Man - 4 £38,500 - 3
Northern Ireland -78 2 - - 71

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 (2.18%) Apache Airflow
2 44 (2.04%) Apache Spark
3 43 (1.99%) Apache
4 35 (1.62%) Confluence
5 33 (1.53%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.93%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.60%) SAS
8 11 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
9 7 (0.32%) WinCC
10 5 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.23%) CMS
11 4 (0.19%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.14%) Artix
12 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.093%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.093%) IIS
14 1 (0.046%) ArcGIS
14 1 (0.046%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.046%) OpenStack
14 1 (0.046%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 115 (5.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (2.83%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (1.90%) Simulink
4 35 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
5 17 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
5 17 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.74%) MS Visio
7 11 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 10 (0.46%) AutoCAD
9 5 (0.23%) LaTeX
9 5 (0.23%) Mathcad
10 4 (0.19%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.19%) CANalyzer
10 4 (0.19%) OrCAD
10 4 (0.19%) Revit
10 4 (0.19%) Sketch
11 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.14%) Productboard
11 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.093%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 41 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 40 (1.86%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.46%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.42%) iTrent
4 9 (0.42%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.37%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.37%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.32%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.32%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.28%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.28%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.23%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.19%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.14%) Infor M3
10 3 (0.14%) Maximo
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.093%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 291 (13.50%) Azure
2 254 (11.78%) AWS
3 162 (7.51%) Power Platform
4 93 (4.31%) GCP
5 75 (3.48%) SaaS
6 70 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
7 64 (2.97%) Microsoft 365
8 59 (2.74%) GitHub
9 50 (2.32%) Serverless
10 37 (1.72%) Amazon S3
11 36 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
12 34 (1.58%) Entra ID
13 30 (1.39%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
15 22 (1.02%) Amazon EMR
15 22 (1.02%) Cloud Computing
16 21 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
17 20 (0.93%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.93%) PowerApps
18 19 (0.88%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 65 (3.01%) Broadband
1 65 (3.01%) Firewall
2 63 (2.92%) DNS
3 41 (1.90%) Wireless
4 35 (1.62%) WAN
5 34 (1.58%) Network Security
6 33 (1.53%) VPN
7 32 (1.48%) TCP/IP
8 26 (1.21%) Ethernet
9 25 (1.16%) LAN
10 22 (1.02%) SD-WAN
11 21 (0.97%) VLAN
12 20 (0.93%) OSPF
13 19 (0.88%) BGP
13 19 (0.88%) Modbus
13 19 (0.88%) MQTT
14 18 (0.83%) Wireshark
15 17 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
16 15 (0.70%) 5G
16 15 (0.70%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (6.82%) Power BI
2 57 (2.64%) Data Warehouse
3 53 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
4 51 (2.37%) Metadata
5 46 (2.13%) Data Lake
6 44 (2.04%) SQL Server
7 42 (1.95%) Tableau
8 35 (1.62%) MongoDB
9 29 (1.35%) Relational Database
10 28 (1.30%) Amazon Athena
11 27 (1.25%) BigQuery
12 25 (1.16%) DynamoDB
13 23 (1.07%) Semantic Layer
14 21 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 20 (0.93%) Big Data
16 19 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
16 19 (0.88%) MySQL
17 17 (0.79%) NoSQL
18 15 (0.70%) Power Query
19 14 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 129 (5.98%) JIRA
2 108 (5.01%) Git
3 56 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 50 (2.32%) GitLab
5 38 (1.76%) Rational DOORS
6 29 (1.35%) Selenium
7 24 (1.11%) Postman
8 22 (1.02%) Snyk
9 21 (0.97%) Cypress.io
9 21 (0.97%) LabVIEW
10 13 (0.60%) Burp Suite
10 13 (0.60%) JMeter
11 12 (0.56%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.51%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.46%) Gatling
13 10 (0.46%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.42%) Zephyr
15 8 (0.37%) Rational Rhapsody
16 7 (0.32%) Metasploit
16 7 (0.32%) MLflow
General
1 722 (33.49%) Social Skills
2 569 (26.39%) Finance
3 511 (23.70%) Analytical Skills
4 204 (9.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 202 (9.37%) Aerospace
6 194 (9.00%) Manufacturing
7 186 (8.63%) Electronics
8 126 (5.84%) Law
9 102 (4.73%) Banking
10 88 (4.08%) Public Sector
11 81 (3.76%) Retail
12 80 (3.71%) Marketing
13 75 (3.48%) Pharmaceutical
14 74 (3.43%) Organisational Skills
15 60 (2.78%) Automotive
16 59 (2.74%) Legal
17 56 (2.60%) Telecoms
18 46 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
19 45 (2.09%) Games
20 42 (1.95%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 389 (18.04%) Senior
2 264 (12.24%) Analyst
3 248 (11.50%) Systems Engineer
4 191 (8.86%) Lead
5 129 (5.98%) Test Engineer
6 118 (5.47%) Architect
7 104 (4.82%) Data Engineer
8 93 (4.31%) Developer
9 82 (3.80%) Consultant
10 80 (3.71%) Business Analyst
11 78 (3.62%) Software Engineer
12 69 (3.20%) Principal Engineer
13 68 (3.15%) Data Analyst
14 65 (3.01%) Validation Engineer
15 51 (2.37%) Embedded Engineer
16 50 (2.32%) Support Engineer
17 48 (2.23%) Electronics Engineer
17 48 (2.23%) Network Engineer
18 47 (2.18%) Data Scientist
19 45 (2.09%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (3.39%) Terraform
2 51 (2.37%) RESTful
3 48 (2.23%) Kafka
4 47 (2.18%) REST
5 41 (1.90%) Node.js
6 33 (1.53%) JSON
7 32 (1.48%) .NET
7 32 (1.48%) Playwright
7 32 (1.48%) XML
8 29 (1.35%) PySpark
9 27 (1.25%) LDAP
10 26 (1.21%) Middleware
11 23 (1.07%) CSS
11 23 (1.07%) React
12 22 (1.02%) HTML
13 21 (0.97%) FastAPI
13 21 (0.97%) ModSecurity
14 20 (0.93%) Swagger
15 19 (0.88%) Regular Expression
15 19 (0.88%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 155 (7.19%) Cloud Native
2 125 (5.80%) Onboarding
3 117 (5.43%) Management Information System
4 83 (3.85%) Product Ownership
5 77 (3.57%) Data Centre
6 63 (2.92%) Embedded Systems
7 61 (2.83%) Data Structures
8 57 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
9 56 (2.60%) Driving Licence
10 55 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
11 54 (2.50%) Algorithms
12 48 (2.23%) Low-Code
13 44 (2.04%) AI Agents
14 41 (1.90%) Life Science
15 40 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
16 39 (1.81%) Robotics
17 38 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
18 36 (1.67%) IoT
18 36 (1.67%) SCADA
19 35 (1.62%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 131 (6.08%) Linux
2 92 (4.27%) Windows
3 35 (1.62%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.07%) Unix
5 20 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.46%) Android
7 9 (0.42%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.23%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.093%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.093%) ThreadX
13 2 (0.093%) VMS
13 2 (0.093%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.046%) AIX
14 1 (0.046%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 546 (25.32%) Problem-Solving
2 509 (23.61%) Continuous Improvement
3 424 (19.67%) Agile
4 381 (17.67%) AI
5 348 (16.14%) Verification and Validation
6 304 (14.10%) CI/CD
7 279 (12.94%) Test Automation
8 278 (12.89%) Stakeholder Management
9 257 (11.92%) Migration
10 252 (11.69%) Analytics
11 243 (11.27%) Mentoring
12 225 (10.44%) Decision-Making
13 223 (10.34%) Software Engineering
14 203 (9.42%) DevOps
15 188 (8.72%) Machine Learning
16 187 (8.67%) Business Intelligence
16 187 (8.67%) Data Analysis
17 183 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 174 (8.07%) Roadmaps
19 167 (7.75%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 469 (21.75%) Python
2 388 (18.00%) SQL
3 97 (4.50%) Java
4 90 (4.17%) C++
5 82 (3.80%) C
6 63 (2.92%) JavaScript
7 56 (2.60%) MATLAB
8 55 (2.55%) C#
8 55 (2.55%) Go
9 32 (1.48%) Bash
10 29 (1.35%) Embedded C
11 27 (1.25%) PowerShell
12 23 (1.07%) TypeScript
13 22 (1.02%) Scala
14 19 (0.88%) R
15 18 (0.83%) Embedded C++
16 12 (0.56%) T-SQL
17 11 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 9 (0.42%) ABAP
19 8 (0.37%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 467 (21.66%) Degree
2 436 (20.22%) Security Cleared
3 303 (14.05%) SC Cleared
4 125 (5.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (5.01%) DV Cleared
6 86 (3.99%) Master's Degree
7 48 (2.23%) Computer Science Degree
8 39 (1.81%) PhD
9 36 (1.67%) Chartered Engineer
9 36 (1.67%) CISSP
10 32 (1.48%) HNC
11 31 (1.44%) PMI Certification
12 30 (1.39%) HND
13 28 (1.30%) CISM
14 24 (1.11%) ACCA
14 24 (1.11%) AWS Certification
15 23 (1.07%) Azure Certification
15 23 (1.07%) CIMA
16 19 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
16 19 (0.88%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 312 (14.47%) Data Quality
2 289 (13.40%) QA
3 77 (3.57%) Accessibility
4 52 (2.41%) GDPR
5 37 (1.72%) GRC
6 27 (1.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.07%) GxP
7 23 (1.07%) IEC 61508
7 23 (1.07%) NIST
8 19 (0.88%) SLA
9 17 (0.79%) PMO
10 15 (0.70%) ISO 26262
11 14 (0.65%) GMP
11 14 (0.65%) ISO 9001
11 14 (0.65%) WCAG
12 12 (0.56%) GAAP
12 12 (0.56%) IFRS
13 11 (0.51%) SOC 2
14 10 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 15288
15 9 (0.42%) Def Stans
System Software
1 84 (3.90%) Firmware
2 77 (3.57%) Docker
3 47 (2.18%) Active Directory
4 37 (1.72%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.97%) vSphere
7 11 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.19%) KVM
9 2 (0.093%) iptables
9 2 (0.093%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.093%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.046%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 77 (3.57%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.95%) Grafana
3 29 (1.35%) Ansible
4 27 (1.25%) Functional Safety
5 16 (0.74%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.46%) Cilium
8 8 (0.37%) Puppet
9 7 (0.32%) Kibana
9 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (0.32%) Nessus
9 7 (0.32%) Nmap
10 5 (0.23%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 5 (0.23%) FortiGate
10 5 (0.23%) SCCM
10 5 (0.23%) WMI
11 4 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
11 4 (0.19%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
12 3 (0.14%) Argo
Vendors
1 268 (12.43%) Microsoft
2 117 (5.43%) SAP
3 96 (4.45%) Oracle
4 58 (2.69%) Salesforce
5 56 (2.60%) Databricks
6 51 (2.37%) Cisco
7 50 (2.32%) ServiceNow
8 43 (1.99%) Google
9 31 (1.44%) EMC
10 30 (1.39%) VMware
11 29 (1.35%) CrowdStrike
12 28 (1.30%) Palo Alto
13 24 (1.11%) Red Hat
14 22 (1.02%) Tenable
15 18 (0.83%) IBM
16 17 (0.79%) Splunk
17 15 (0.70%) McAfee
18 14 (0.65%) Foundry
18 14 (0.65%) Siemens
18 14 (0.65%) Workday