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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 85 191
Rank change year-on-year -7 +106 +8
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,078 1,690 1,172
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.92% 3.38% 1.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.62% 3.79% 1.74%
Number of salaries quoted 1,229 522 503
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,465 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.66% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £72,500 £71,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,550 £91,350 £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 79,395 44,536 67,357
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.20% 88.97% 80.72%
Number of salaries quoted 54,920 25,310 42,355
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% - -8.33%
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 24 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 24 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 -6 1,913 £56,500 +2.73% 1,177
UK excluding London -27 1,478 £55,000 +4.76% 981
Work from Home +125 599 £56,000 -6.67% 450
London +71 515 £70,500 -11.88% 366
South East -22 434 £59,490 +13.31% 300
North of England +105 398 £55,000 +15.79% 171
North West +89 234 £55,000 +15.35% 91
Midlands -48 209 £44,720 -18.69% 162
South West +2 180 £55,000 +4.56% 168
East of England -65 144 £60,000 +18.23% 133
West Midlands +25 116 £44,720 -18.69% 109
East Midlands -60 92 £46,209 +8.73% 53
North East +7 83 £55,000 +57.14% 39
Yorkshire +20 81 £43,000 +1.18% 43
Scotland +35 77 £63,750 +9.85% 57
Wales -34 32 £50,000 -6.98% 21
Isle of Man - 3 £38,500 - 3
Northern Ireland -79 2 - - 2

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 58 (2.79%) Apache Airflow
2 54 (2.60%) Apache Spark
3 53 (2.55%) 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%) CMS
11 4 (0.19%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.14%) ArcGIS
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%) FactoryTalk
14 1 (0.048%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 118 (5.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 64 (3.08%) Microsoft Office
3 38 (1.83%) Simulink
4 35 (1.68%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (1.20%) 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%) OrCAD
11 4 (0.19%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
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 (0.38%) 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%) Oracle Receivables
11 2 (0.096%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
11 2 (0.096%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 286 (13.76%) Azure
2 260 (12.51%) AWS
3 161 (7.75%) Power Platform
4 91 (4.38%) GCP
5 80 (3.85%) SaaS
6 67 (3.22%) Azure DevOps
7 63 (3.03%) Microsoft 365
8 57 (2.74%) GitHub
9 52 (2.50%) Serverless
10 47 (2.26%) Amazon S3
11 36 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (1.59%) Entra ID
13 29 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
15 22 (1.06%) Amazon EC2
15 22 (1.06%) Amazon EMR
16 21 (1.01%) Snowflake
17 20 (0.96%) Cloud Computing
17 20 (0.96%) PowerApps
18 19 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 65 (3.13%) Broadband
2 61 (2.94%) Firewall
3 57 (2.74%) DNS
4 38 (1.83%) Wireless
5 34 (1.64%) Network Security
6 32 (1.54%) WAN
7 31 (1.49%) TCP/IP
8 30 (1.44%) VPN
9 24 (1.15%) Ethernet
10 21 (1.01%) LAN
11 20 (0.96%) SD-WAN
12 18 (0.87%) MQTT
12 18 (0.87%) Wireshark
13 17 (0.82%) BGP
13 17 (0.82%) OSPF
13 17 (0.82%) VLAN
13 17 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
14 15 (0.72%) Internet
15 14 (0.67%) Modbus
16 13 (0.63%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (7.07%) Power BI
2 56 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
4 51 (2.45%) Tableau
5 49 (2.36%) Metadata
6 46 (2.21%) SQL Server
7 44 (2.12%) Data Lake
8 34 (1.64%) MongoDB
9 28 (1.35%) Amazon Athena
9 28 (1.35%) Relational Database
10 27 (1.30%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.25%) DynamoDB
12 23 (1.11%) Semantic Layer
13 21 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 20 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
15 18 (0.87%) Big Data
15 18 (0.87%) MySQL
16 17 (0.82%) Spark SQL
17 16 (0.77%) NoSQL
18 15 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 127 (6.11%) JIRA
2 111 (5.34%) Git
3 53 (2.55%) Jenkins
4 47 (2.26%) GitLab
5 36 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.35%) Selenium
7 24 (1.15%) 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%) Burp Suite
14 11 (0.53%) REST Assured
15 10 (0.48%) Gatling
15 10 (0.48%) IBM UrbanCode
15 10 (0.48%) TeamCity
16 8 (0.38%) Rational Rhapsody
16 8 (0.38%) Zephyr
17 7 (0.34%) MLflow
General
1 702 (33.78%) Social Skills
2 569 (27.38%) Finance
3 506 (24.35%) Analytical Skills
4 201 (9.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 200 (9.62%) Aerospace
6 186 (8.95%) Manufacturing
7 173 (8.33%) Electronics
8 121 (5.82%) Law
9 113 (5.44%) Banking
10 85 (4.09%) Public Sector
11 80 (3.85%) Retail
12 78 (3.75%) Marketing
13 72 (3.46%) Pharmaceutical
14 68 (3.27%) Organisational Skills
15 59 (2.84%) Automotive
16 57 (2.74%) Legal
17 50 (2.41%) Telecoms
18 46 (2.21%) Games
19 42 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
20 39 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 376 (18.09%) Senior
2 271 (13.04%) Analyst
3 211 (10.15%) Systems Engineer
4 189 (9.10%) Lead
5 123 (5.92%) Test Engineer
6 115 (5.53%) Architect
7 102 (4.91%) Data Engineer
8 91 (4.38%) Developer
9 88 (4.23%) Business Analyst
10 83 (3.99%) Consultant
11 76 (3.66%) Software Engineer
12 67 (3.22%) Data Analyst
13 65 (3.13%) Principal Engineer
14 63 (3.03%) Validation Engineer
15 51 (2.45%) Embedded Engineer
16 49 (2.36%) Support Engineer
17 47 (2.26%) Data Scientist
18 44 (2.12%) Electronics Engineer
19 42 (2.02%) IT Manager
20 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 (1.92%) Node.js
6 38 (1.83%) PySpark
7 33 (1.59%) JSON
8 31 (1.49%) Playwright
9 30 (1.44%) .NET
10 29 (1.40%) XML
11 27 (1.30%) LDAP
12 26 (1.25%) Middleware
13 22 (1.06%) CSS
14 21 (1.01%) HTML
14 21 (1.01%) ModSecurity
14 21 (1.01%) React
15 19 (0.91%) FastAPI
15 19 (0.91%) OAuth
15 19 (0.91%) Pandas
15 19 (0.91%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 152 (7.31%) Cloud Native
2 128 (6.16%) Onboarding
3 114 (5.49%) Management Information System
4 77 (3.71%) Product Ownership
5 74 (3.56%) Data Centre
6 59 (2.84%) Data Structures
6 59 (2.84%) Embedded Systems
7 56 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
8 54 (2.60%) Algorithms
8 54 (2.60%) Driving Licence
9 53 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
10 47 (2.26%) Low-Code
11 40 (1.92%) AI Agents
12 39 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
12 39 (1.88%) Life Science
13 37 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
14 35 (1.68%) Video\Live Streaming
15 33 (1.59%) IoT
15 33 (1.59%) Robotics
16 30 (1.44%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 126 (6.06%) Linux
2 92 (4.43%) Windows
3 35 (1.68%) 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
7 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.24%) Kali Linux
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
1 533 (25.65%) Problem-Solving
2 499 (24.01%) Continuous Improvement
3 429 (20.64%) Agile
4 380 (18.29%) AI
5 307 (14.77%) CI/CD
6 302 (14.53%) Verification and Validation
7 270 (12.99%) Test Automation
8 269 (12.95%) Stakeholder Management
9 265 (12.75%) Analytics
10 248 (11.93%) Migration
11 236 (11.36%) Mentoring
12 225 (10.83%) Decision-Making
13 219 (10.54%) Software Engineering
14 198 (9.53%) DevOps
15 194 (9.34%) Data Analysis
16 186 (8.95%) Machine Learning
17 184 (8.85%) Business Intelligence
17 184 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 171 (8.23%) Roadmaps
19 166 (7.99%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 475 (22.86%) Python
2 393 (18.91%) SQL
3 96 (4.62%) Java
4 87 (4.19%) C++
5 79 (3.80%) C
6 62 (2.98%) JavaScript
7 55 (2.65%) Go
8 53 (2.55%) MATLAB
9 52 (2.50%) C#
10 30 (1.44%) Bash
11 28 (1.35%) Embedded C
11 28 (1.35%) PowerShell
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
1 449 (21.61%) Degree
2 394 (18.96%) Security Cleared
3 258 (12.42%) SC Cleared
4 130 (6.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (5.20%) DV Cleared
6 83 (3.99%) Master's Degree
7 45 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (1.83%) CISSP
9 37 (1.78%) PhD
10 32 (1.54%) Chartered Engineer
11 30 (1.44%) CISM
11 30 (1.44%) HNC
11 30 (1.44%) PMI Certification
12 27 (1.30%) HND
13 26 (1.25%) ACCA
14 25 (1.20%) CIMA
15 24 (1.15%) AWS Certification
16 23 (1.11%) Azure Certification
17 19 (0.91%) SANS
18 18 (0.87%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 316 (15.21%) Data Quality
2 281 (13.52%) QA
3 79 (3.80%) Accessibility
4 54 (2.60%) 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 21 (1.01%) 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 80 (3.85%) Firmware
2 79 (3.80%) Docker
3 47 (2.26%) Active Directory
4 34 (1.64%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (1.01%) vSphere
7 13 (0.63%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.29%) KVM
9 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.096%) iptables
10 2 (0.096%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.096%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.048%) BitLocker
11 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 6 (0.29%) Nessus
8 6 (0.29%) Nmap
9 5 (0.24%) FortiGate
9 5 (0.24%) SCCM
9 5 (0.24%) WMI
10 4 (0.19%) HP Fortify
10 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
11 3 (0.14%) Argo
12 2 (0.096%) kaniko
Vendors
1 270 (12.99%) Microsoft
2 116 (5.58%) SAP
3 103 (4.96%) Oracle
4 57 (2.74%) Databricks
4 57 (2.74%) Salesforce
5 48 (2.31%) ServiceNow
6 47 (2.26%) Cisco
7 43 (2.07%) Google
8 33 (1.59%) Red Hat
9 32 (1.54%) VMware
10 30 (1.44%) EMC
11 29 (1.40%) CrowdStrike
12 28 (1.35%) Palo Alto
13 22 (1.06%) Tenable
14 17 (0.82%) Splunk
15 16 (0.77%) IBM
16 15 (0.72%) McAfee
16 15 (0.72%) Workday
17 14 (0.67%) Foundry
17 14 (0.67%) Siemens