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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 89 182
Rank change year-on-year +13 +93 +19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,485 1,611 1,114
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.13% 3.29% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.91% 3.71% 1.82%
Number of salaries quoted 1,471 460 433
10th Percentile £35,750 £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% -10.03%
75th Percentile £71,000 £75,900 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -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 85,252 43,434 61,296
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.06% 88.68% 81.27%
Number of salaries quoted 58,899 24,470 34,327
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £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 £96,250 £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 23 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 23 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 +13 2,293 £58,000 +5.45% 4,323
UK excluding London -4 1,814 £55,000 +4.56% 2,599
Work from Home +123 653 £60,000 -0.83% 1,538
London +69 579 £70,000 -12.50% 2,063
South East -14 494 £62,500 +13.64% 681
North of England +114 475 £53,851 +13.15% 448
North West +108 292 £55,000 +10.00% 254
Midlands -32 275 £50,000 -9.09% 354
South West +14 243 £55,000 +4.56% 339
East of England -45 194 £55,000 -8.33% 355
West Midlands +48 158 £50,000 -9.09% 244
East Midlands -53 117 £50,000 +17.65% 109
Yorkshire +25 94 £42,750 +0.59% 124
North East +2 89 £55,000 +57.14% 71
Scotland +46 84 £70,000 +20.62% 318
Wales -44 42 £70,000 +21.74% 64
Northern Ireland -79 5 - - 68
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 48 (1.93%) Apache Spark
2 46 (1.85%) Apache Airflow
3 42 (1.69%) Apache
4 40 (1.61%) Confluence
5 35 (1.41%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.80%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.52%) 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%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.080%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.080%) IIS
12 2 (0.080%) Kinematics
12 2 (0.080%) nginx
13 1 (0.040%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.040%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 145 (5.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
3 53 (2.13%) Simulink
4 37 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
5 24 (0.97%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.80%) SOLIDWORKS
7 19 (0.76%) AutoCAD
8 16 (0.64%) MS Visio
9 12 (0.48%) Revit
10 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 7 (0.28%) EPLAN
11 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
11 7 (0.28%) OrCAD
12 5 (0.20%) LaTeX
12 5 (0.20%) Mathcad
13 4 (0.16%) CANalyzer
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 44 (1.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (1.73%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.44%) 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%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
10 3 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 326 (13.12%) Azure
2 268 (10.78%) AWS
3 183 (7.36%) Power Platform
4 101 (4.06%) GCP
5 87 (3.50%) Azure DevOps
6 74 (2.98%) GitHub
6 74 (2.98%) SaaS
7 67 (2.70%) Serverless
8 65 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
9 44 (1.77%) Amazon S3
10 40 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
11 39 (1.57%) Entra ID
12 36 (1.45%) GitHub Actions
13 34 (1.37%) Microsoft Copilot
14 29 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
15 28 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (1.05%) Cloud Computing
17 25 (1.01%) Amazon EMR
17 25 (1.01%) Azure Service Bus
18 24 (0.97%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.82%) DNS
2 69 (2.78%) Firewall
3 56 (2.25%) Broadband
4 42 (1.69%) Wireless
5 39 (1.57%) VPN
6 37 (1.49%) Network Security
6 37 (1.49%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.49%) WAN
7 36 (1.45%) Ethernet
8 32 (1.29%) Modbus
9 29 (1.17%) LAN
9 29 (1.17%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) OSPF
11 24 (0.97%) MQTT
12 23 (0.93%) SD-WAN
12 23 (0.93%) Wireshark
13 21 (0.85%) BGP
14 19 (0.76%) 5G
15 17 (0.68%) HTTP
15 17 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 167 (6.72%) Power BI
2 68 (2.74%) Metadata
3 62 (2.49%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.21%) Data Lake
5 51 (2.05%) SQL Server
6 48 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
7 42 (1.69%) Tableau
8 38 (1.53%) Amazon Athena
8 38 (1.53%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.25%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.13%) Big Data
10 28 (1.13%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.01%) DynamoDB
12 24 (0.97%) NoSQL
13 23 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
14 22 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (0.85%) Semantic Layer
16 20 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
17 19 (0.76%) Delta Lake
17 19 (0.76%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 144 (5.79%) JIRA
2 126 (5.07%) Git
3 64 (2.58%) Jenkins
4 55 (2.21%) GitLab
5 44 (1.77%) Rational DOORS
6 33 (1.33%) Selenium
7 29 (1.17%) LabVIEW
8 26 (1.05%) Postman
9 22 (0.89%) Snyk
10 21 (0.85%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.56%) Burp Suite
11 14 (0.56%) JMeter
12 12 (0.48%) REST Assured
13 11 (0.44%) Claude Code
13 11 (0.44%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.44%) Eclipse
14 10 (0.40%) TeamCity
15 9 (0.36%) Gatling
15 9 (0.36%) MLflow
15 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 834 (33.56%) Social Skills
2 639 (25.71%) Finance
3 590 (23.74%) Analytical Skills
4 239 (9.62%) Aerospace
5 237 (9.54%) Manufacturing
6 231 (9.30%) Electronics
7 205 (8.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 143 (5.75%) Law
9 111 (4.47%) Organisational Skills
10 109 (4.39%) Public Sector
11 107 (4.31%) Banking
12 106 (4.27%) Retail
13 92 (3.70%) Marketing
14 90 (3.62%) Telecoms
15 84 (3.38%) Pharmaceutical
16 77 (3.10%) Automotive
17 63 (2.54%) Legal
18 48 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
19 47 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
20 44 (1.77%) Military
Job Titles
1 441 (17.75%) Senior
2 311 (12.52%) Systems Engineer
3 282 (11.35%) Analyst
4 214 (8.61%) Lead
5 135 (5.43%) Test Engineer
6 125 (5.03%) Architect
7 124 (4.99%) Data Engineer
8 99 (3.98%) Developer
9 97 (3.90%) Consultant
10 90 (3.62%) Business Analyst
11 85 (3.42%) Software Engineer
12 76 (3.06%) Principal Engineer
13 72 (2.90%) Electronics Engineer
14 71 (2.86%) Data Analyst
15 62 (2.49%) Validation Engineer
16 57 (2.29%) Network Engineer
17 50 (2.01%) Embedded Engineer
18 48 (1.93%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (1.93%) Data Scientist
19 47 (1.89%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.50%) Terraform
2 57 (2.29%) RESTful
3 56 (2.25%) REST
4 55 (2.21%) Kafka
5 49 (1.97%) Node.js
6 44 (1.77%) PySpark
7 43 (1.73%) Playwright
8 39 (1.57%) .NET
9 36 (1.45%) JSON
9 36 (1.45%) XML
10 31 (1.25%) FastAPI
11 29 (1.17%) CSS
12 28 (1.13%) React
13 27 (1.09%) HTML
14 26 (1.05%) LDAP
14 26 (1.05%) Middleware
15 25 (1.01%) Swagger
16 22 (0.89%) OAuth
17 21 (0.85%) ModSecurity
18 20 (0.80%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 167 (6.72%) Cloud Native
2 141 (5.67%) Management Information System
3 125 (5.03%) Onboarding
4 86 (3.46%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.26%) Data Centre
6 69 (2.78%) Embedded Systems
7 67 (2.70%) Driving Licence
8 61 (2.45%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
10 58 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
11 54 (2.17%) Algorithms
12 50 (2.01%) AI Agents
12 50 (2.01%) SCADA
13 47 (1.89%) Life Science
14 42 (1.69%) Analytical Mindset
15 40 (1.61%) IoT
16 39 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
17 38 (1.53%) Low-Code
17 38 (1.53%) Robotics
18 36 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 136 (5.47%) Linux
2 93 (3.74%) Windows
3 31 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.05%) Unix
5 16 (0.64%) 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 (0.080%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.080%) VMS
12 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.040%) AIX
13 1 (0.040%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.040%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 641 (25.79%) Problem-Solving
2 559 (22.49%) Continuous Improvement
3 461 (18.55%) Agile
4 450 (18.11%) Verification and Validation
5 417 (16.78%) AI
6 350 (14.08%) CI/CD
7 335 (13.48%) Stakeholder Management
8 310 (12.47%) Migration
8 310 (12.47%) Test Automation
9 267 (10.74%) Analytics
10 261 (10.50%) Mentoring
11 246 (9.90%) Software Engineering
12 239 (9.62%) Decision-Making
13 238 (9.58%) DevOps
14 223 (8.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 222 (8.93%) Data Analysis
16 211 (8.49%) Business Intelligence
17 204 (8.21%) Roadmaps
18 196 (7.89%) Machine Learning
19 194 (7.81%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 510 (20.52%) Python
2 438 (17.63%) SQL
3 107 (4.31%) Java
4 94 (3.78%) C++
5 84 (3.38%) C
6 74 (2.98%) JavaScript
7 70 (2.82%) MATLAB
8 64 (2.58%) C#
9 48 (1.93%) Go
10 37 (1.49%) Bash
11 31 (1.25%) Embedded C
11 31 (1.25%) TypeScript
12 29 (1.17%) PowerShell
13 26 (1.05%) R
14 25 (1.01%) Scala
15 18 (0.72%) Embedded C++
16 14 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.48%) Shell Script
18 10 (0.40%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 543 (21.85%) Security Cleared
2 541 (21.77%) Degree
3 405 (16.30%) SC Cleared
4 122 (4.91%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (4.35%) DV Cleared
6 95 (3.82%) Master's Degree
7 56 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.69%) HND
8 42 (1.69%) PhD
9 38 (1.53%) Chartered Engineer
10 36 (1.45%) HNC
10 36 (1.45%) PMI Certification
11 31 (1.25%) CISSP
12 30 (1.21%) Azure Certification
13 28 (1.13%) ACCA
14 26 (1.05%) AWS Certification
15 25 (1.01%) CIMA
16 24 (0.97%) PMP
17 21 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
17 21 (0.85%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 368 (14.81%) Data Quality
2 312 (12.56%) QA
3 80 (3.22%) Accessibility
4 60 (2.41%) GDPR
5 37 (1.49%) GRC
6 32 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.13%) GxP
8 23 (0.93%) IEC 61508
8 23 (0.93%) SLA
9 22 (0.89%) NIST
10 15 (0.60%) GMP
10 15 (0.60%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.60%) ISO 9001
10 15 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 15 (0.60%) PMO
11 13 (0.52%) SOC 2
11 13 (0.52%) WCAG
12 12 (0.48%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.36%) GAAP
System Software
1 98 (3.94%) Firmware
2 95 (3.82%) Docker
3 46 (1.85%) Active Directory
4 44 (1.77%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.13%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (0.72%) vSphere
7 8 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 2 (0.080%) iptables
10 2 (0.080%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.080%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 86 (3.46%) Kubernetes
2 45 (1.81%) Grafana
3 33 (1.33%) Ansible
3 33 (1.33%) Functional Safety
4 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 10 (0.40%) Puppet
7 9 (0.36%) Cilium
8 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (0.32%) Nessus
8 8 (0.32%) Nmap
9 7 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
9 7 (0.28%) Kibana
10 5 (0.20%) Argo
10 5 (0.20%) WMI
11 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.16%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.16%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.16%) Rancher
11 4 (0.16%) yum
Vendors
1 318 (12.80%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.27%) SAP
3 104 (4.19%) Oracle
4 67 (2.70%) Databricks
5 63 (2.54%) Salesforce
6 56 (2.25%) EMC
7 55 (2.21%) ServiceNow
8 54 (2.17%) Cisco
9 42 (1.69%) Google
10 31 (1.25%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.13%) Palo Alto
12 24 (0.97%) Sage
12 24 (0.97%) VMware
13 23 (0.93%) Tenable
13 23 (0.93%) Thales
14 22 (0.89%) IBM
15 20 (0.80%) Red Hat
16 19 (0.76%) Siemens
17 18 (0.72%) Autodesk
17 18 (0.72%) Informatica