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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 90 179
Rank change year-on-year +15 +89 +21
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,529 1,608 1,133
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.15% 3.25% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.95% 3.66% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 1,492 453 436
10th Percentile £36,025 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,745 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +8.63% -5.23% -10.72%
75th Percentile £71,063 £76,250 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £94,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £53,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.77% -3.64% -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 85,853 43,932 62,432
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.10% 88.75% 81.70%
Number of salaries quoted 59,280 24,639 34,370
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,585 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.11% -3.39%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £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 26 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 26 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 +16 2,333 £58,250 +5.91% 4,320
UK excluding London -5 1,845 £55,000 +3.77% 2,648
Work from Home +129 666 £60,000 -2.24% 1,635
London +71 591 £70,000 -12.50% 2,046
South East -20 497 £62,500 +13.64% 710
North of England +119 478 £53,851 +12.93% 452
North West +110 295 £55,000 +10.00% 254
Midlands -25 284 £50,000 -9.09% 352
South West +23 250 £55,000 +4.56% 343
East of England -43 201 £55,000 -8.33% 364
West Midlands +48 163 £50,000 -9.09% 241
East Midlands -52 121 £50,000 +17.65% 110
Yorkshire +20 94 £43,000 +1.18% 135
North East +4 89 £55,000 +57.14% 64
Scotland +43 87 £70,000 +20.62% 319
Wales -31 42 £70,000 +21.74% 59
Northern Ireland -81 5 - - 80
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 49 (1.94%) Apache Spark
2 46 (1.82%) Apache Airflow
3 43 (1.70%) Apache
4 39 (1.54%) Confluence
5 36 (1.42%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.79%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.51%) SAS
8 9 (0.36%) WinCC
9 6 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) CMS
11 3 (0.12%) Artix
11 3 (0.12%) nginx
11 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.079%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.079%) IIS
12 2 (0.079%) Kinematics
13 1 (0.040%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.040%) WebSphere
Applications
1 145 (5.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 54 (2.14%) Simulink
4 37 (1.46%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
7 19 (0.75%) AutoCAD
8 16 (0.63%) MS Visio
9 12 (0.47%) Revit
10 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 8 (0.32%) EPLAN
11 8 (0.32%) OrCAD
12 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
13 5 (0.20%) LaTeX
13 5 (0.20%) Mathcad
14 4 (0.16%) CANalyzer
14 4 (0.16%) Stateflow
15 3 (0.12%) Adobe XD
15 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
15 3 (0.12%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 44 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (1.70%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.43%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.36%) iTrent
4 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
4 9 (0.36%) Workday HCM
5 8 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.28%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.24%) Elite 3E
7 6 (0.24%) Infor M3
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.20%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.16%) Maximo
9 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 330 (13.05%) Azure
2 270 (10.68%) AWS
3 184 (7.28%) Power Platform
4 101 (3.99%) GCP
5 87 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
6 77 (3.04%) GitHub
7 75 (2.97%) SaaS
8 68 (2.69%) Serverless
9 67 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
10 45 (1.78%) Amazon S3
11 41 (1.62%) Dynamics 365
11 41 (1.62%) Entra ID
12 38 (1.50%) GitHub Actions
13 35 (1.38%) Microsoft Copilot
14 29 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
14 29 (1.15%) Microsoft Purview
15 26 (1.03%) Amazon EMR
15 26 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
16 25 (0.99%) Azure Service Bus
17 24 (0.95%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.73%) DNS
1 69 (2.73%) Firewall
2 55 (2.17%) Broadband
3 43 (1.70%) Wireless
4 40 (1.58%) VPN
5 38 (1.50%) Ethernet
5 38 (1.50%) Network Security
6 37 (1.46%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.46%) WAN
7 32 (1.27%) Modbus
8 30 (1.19%) LAN
9 29 (1.15%) VLAN
10 27 (1.07%) OSPF
11 24 (0.95%) MQTT
11 24 (0.95%) Wireshark
12 23 (0.91%) SD-WAN
13 21 (0.83%) BGP
14 19 (0.75%) 5G
15 17 (0.67%) HTTP
15 17 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 168 (6.64%) Power BI
2 70 (2.77%) Metadata
3 64 (2.53%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.17%) Data Lake
5 51 (2.02%) SQL Server
6 49 (1.94%) PostgreSQL
7 41 (1.62%) Tableau
8 39 (1.54%) Amazon Athena
9 38 (1.50%) Relational Database
10 31 (1.23%) MongoDB
11 28 (1.11%) BigQuery
12 27 (1.07%) Big Data
13 25 (0.99%) DynamoDB
13 25 (0.99%) NoSQL
14 23 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
15 22 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 21 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
16 21 (0.83%) Semantic Layer
17 20 (0.79%) Power Query
18 19 (0.75%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 145 (5.73%) JIRA
2 127 (5.02%) Git
3 64 (2.53%) Jenkins
4 58 (2.29%) GitLab
5 47 (1.86%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.27%) Selenium
7 29 (1.15%) LabVIEW
8 26 (1.03%) Postman
9 22 (0.87%) Snyk
10 21 (0.83%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.55%) Burp Suite
11 14 (0.55%) JMeter
12 12 (0.47%) REST Assured
13 11 (0.43%) Claude Code
13 11 (0.43%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.43%) Eclipse
14 10 (0.40%) TeamCity
15 9 (0.36%) Gatling
15 9 (0.36%) MLflow
15 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 850 (33.61%) Social Skills
2 651 (25.74%) Finance
3 596 (23.57%) Analytical Skills
4 246 (9.73%) Aerospace
5 245 (9.69%) Manufacturing
6 240 (9.49%) Electronics
7 208 (8.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 143 (5.65%) Law
9 113 (4.47%) Organisational Skills
9 113 (4.47%) Public Sector
10 110 (4.35%) Banking
10 110 (4.35%) Retail
11 95 (3.76%) Marketing
12 94 (3.72%) Telecoms
13 84 (3.32%) Pharmaceutical
14 82 (3.24%) Automotive
15 62 (2.45%) Legal
16 49 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
17 47 (1.86%) Documentation Skills
18 44 (1.74%) Military
Job Titles
1 450 (17.79%) Senior
2 314 (12.42%) Systems Engineer
3 283 (11.19%) Analyst
4 218 (8.62%) Lead
5 133 (5.26%) Test Engineer
6 126 (4.98%) Architect
6 126 (4.98%) Data Engineer
7 102 (4.03%) Developer
8 96 (3.80%) Consultant
9 91 (3.60%) Business Analyst
10 87 (3.44%) Software Engineer
11 80 (3.16%) Principal Engineer
12 79 (3.12%) Electronics Engineer
13 68 (2.69%) Data Analyst
14 66 (2.61%) Validation Engineer
15 58 (2.29%) Network Engineer
16 50 (1.98%) Embedded Engineer
17 49 (1.94%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (1.90%) Data Scientist
18 48 (1.90%) Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (3.52%) Terraform
2 60 (2.37%) REST
3 57 (2.25%) RESTful
4 56 (2.21%) Kafka
5 51 (2.02%) Node.js
6 44 (1.74%) PySpark
7 43 (1.70%) Playwright
8 41 (1.62%) .NET
9 37 (1.46%) JSON
10 36 (1.42%) XML
11 32 (1.27%) FastAPI
12 30 (1.19%) CSS
13 29 (1.15%) React
14 28 (1.11%) HTML
15 26 (1.03%) Middleware
16 25 (0.99%) LDAP
16 25 (0.99%) Swagger
17 22 (0.87%) OAuth
18 21 (0.83%) ModSecurity
18 21 (0.83%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 167 (6.60%) Cloud Native
2 140 (5.54%) Management Information System
3 128 (5.06%) Onboarding
4 87 (3.44%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.20%) Data Centre
6 70 (2.77%) Embedded Systems
7 69 (2.73%) Driving Licence
8 62 (2.45%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.37%) Distributed Systems
9 60 (2.37%) Enterprise Software
10 54 (2.14%) Algorithms
11 52 (2.06%) AI Agents
12 51 (2.02%) SCADA
13 47 (1.86%) Life Science
14 43 (1.70%) IoT
15 42 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
16 39 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
16 39 (1.54%) Robotics
17 38 (1.50%) Low-Code
18 37 (1.46%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 136 (5.38%) Linux
2 93 (3.68%) Windows
3 30 (1.19%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.03%) Unix
5 15 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Android
7 8 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.32%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.20%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.16%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.079%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.079%) VMS
12 2 (0.079%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.040%) AIX
13 1 (0.040%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.040%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 659 (26.06%) Problem-Solving
2 573 (22.66%) Continuous Improvement
3 463 (18.31%) Agile
3 463 (18.31%) Verification and Validation
4 420 (16.61%) AI
5 354 (14.00%) CI/CD
6 342 (13.52%) Stakeholder Management
7 315 (12.46%) Migration
7 315 (12.46%) Test Automation
8 269 (10.64%) Analytics
9 268 (10.60%) Mentoring
10 250 (9.89%) Software Engineering
11 242 (9.57%) Decision-Making
12 239 (9.45%) DevOps
13 226 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 225 (8.90%) Data Analysis
15 212 (8.38%) Business Intelligence
16 205 (8.11%) Roadmaps
17 196 (7.75%) Data Migration
18 195 (7.71%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 517 (20.44%) Python
2 445 (17.60%) SQL
3 107 (4.23%) Java
4 95 (3.76%) C++
5 85 (3.36%) C
6 76 (3.01%) JavaScript
7 71 (2.81%) MATLAB
8 66 (2.61%) C#
9 48 (1.90%) Go
10 36 (1.42%) Bash
11 31 (1.23%) Embedded C
11 31 (1.23%) PowerShell
11 31 (1.23%) TypeScript
12 27 (1.07%) R
13 25 (0.99%) Scala
14 18 (0.71%) Embedded C++
15 16 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.47%) Shell Script
17 10 (0.40%) Apex Code
18 9 (0.36%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 551 (21.79%) Degree
1 551 (21.79%) Security Cleared
2 413 (16.33%) SC Cleared
3 122 (4.82%) BPSS Clearance
4 107 (4.23%) DV Cleared
5 95 (3.76%) Master's Degree
6 54 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
7 45 (1.78%) HND
8 42 (1.66%) PhD
9 39 (1.54%) HNC
10 38 (1.50%) Chartered Engineer
11 36 (1.42%) PMI Certification
12 32 (1.27%) CISSP
13 30 (1.19%) ACCA
14 29 (1.15%) Azure Certification
15 27 (1.07%) AWS Certification
15 27 (1.07%) CIMA
16 24 (0.95%) PMP
17 21 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
17 21 (0.83%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 375 (14.83%) Data Quality
2 311 (12.30%) QA
3 80 (3.16%) Accessibility
4 61 (2.41%) GDPR
5 37 (1.46%) GRC
6 33 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.11%) GxP
8 24 (0.95%) SLA
9 23 (0.91%) NIST
10 21 (0.83%) IEC 61508
11 15 (0.59%) GMP
11 15 (0.59%) ISO 9001
11 15 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 15 (0.59%) PMO
12 13 (0.51%) ISO 26262
12 13 (0.51%) SOC 2
12 13 (0.51%) WCAG
13 12 (0.47%) ISO 19650
14 10 (0.40%) GAAP
15 9 (0.36%) IFRS
System Software
1 102 (4.03%) Firmware
2 101 (3.99%) Docker
3 46 (1.82%) Active Directory
4 45 (1.78%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.11%) Virtual Machines
6 17 (0.67%) vSphere
7 8 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 2 (0.079%) iptables
10 2 (0.079%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 88 (3.48%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.86%) Grafana
3 34 (1.34%) Ansible
4 33 (1.30%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.67%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.40%) Puppet
8 9 (0.36%) Cilium
8 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (0.32%) Nessus
9 8 (0.32%) Nmap
10 7 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
10 7 (0.28%) Kibana
11 5 (0.20%) Argo
11 5 (0.20%) WMI
12 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.16%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.16%) Rancher
12 4 (0.16%) SCCM
12 4 (0.16%) yum
Vendors
1 324 (12.81%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.18%) SAP
3 104 (4.11%) Oracle
4 67 (2.65%) Databricks
4 67 (2.65%) Salesforce
5 63 (2.49%) EMC
6 55 (2.17%) ServiceNow
7 54 (2.14%) Cisco
8 42 (1.66%) Google
9 32 (1.27%) CrowdStrike
10 28 (1.11%) Palo Alto
11 27 (1.07%) Thales
12 25 (0.99%) Sage
13 23 (0.91%) IBM
13 23 (0.91%) Tenable
13 23 (0.91%) VMware
14 21 (0.83%) Siemens
15 19 (0.75%) Informatica
15 19 (0.75%) Red Hat
16 18 (0.71%) Autodesk