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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 89 184
Rank change year-on-year +9 +95 +18
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,328 1,637 1,145
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.06% 3.30% 1.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.82% 3.72% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 1,394 488 451
10th Percentile £35,825 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,750 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.23% -10.72%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,425 £89,125 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -0.42%

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 82,520 44,009 63,385
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.04% 88.59% 80.80%
Number of salaries quoted 57,449 24,888 36,814
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,875
25th Percentile £41,250 £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 £76,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,288 £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 10 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 10 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 +6 2,145 £57,500 +4.55% 3,086
UK excluding London -14 1,703 £55,000 +4.56% 1,959
Work from Home +124 637 £56,300 -6.17% 1,199
London +63 539 £70,000 -12.50% 1,558
South East -15 485 £60,000 +11.63% 471
North of England +108 443 £55,000 +15.79% 304
North West +107 274 £55,000 +12.61% 175
Midlands -33 248 £47,500 -13.64% 274
South West +18 223 £55,000 +4.56% 299
East of England -56 174 £55,000 -8.33% 291
West Midlands +35 143 £47,500 -13.64% 197
East Midlands -58 105 £44,424 +4.53% 77
Yorkshire +9 85 £43,000 +1.18% 87
Scotland +39 84 £70,000 +20.62% 251
North East +7 84 £55,000 +57.14% 50
Wales -43 39 £70,000 +30.23% 50
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 1
Northern Ireland -75 3 - - 54

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 45 (1.93%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.89%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.72%) Apache
4 35 (1.50%) Confluence
5 34 (1.46%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.86%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.56%) SAS
8 11 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.34%) WinCC
10 5 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.21%) CMS
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.086%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.086%) IIS
13 1 (0.043%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.043%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.043%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 124 (5.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 47 (2.02%) Simulink
4 36 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
5 19 (0.82%) Spreadsheet
6 16 (0.69%) MS Visio
6 16 (0.69%) SOLIDWORKS
7 14 (0.60%) AutoCAD
8 11 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 8 (0.34%) Revit
10 6 (0.26%) CANalyzer
10 6 (0.26%) Navisworks
11 5 (0.21%) LaTeX
11 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
12 4 (0.17%) Adobe XD
12 4 (0.17%) OrCAD
12 4 (0.17%) Sketch
13 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
13 3 (0.13%) EPLAN
13 3 (0.13%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 42 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 41 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.47%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.39%) iTrent
4 9 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.30%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.30%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.30%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.30%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.26%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.17%) Infor M3
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) Loan IQ
10 3 (0.13%) Maximo
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.086%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
Cloud Services
1 304 (13.06%) Azure
2 258 (11.08%) AWS
3 173 (7.43%) Power Platform
4 93 (3.99%) GCP
5 76 (3.26%) SaaS
6 73 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
7 65 (2.79%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.66%) GitHub
9 53 (2.28%) Serverless
10 39 (1.68%) Amazon S3
10 39 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
11 35 (1.50%) Entra ID
12 31 (1.33%) GitHub Actions
13 30 (1.29%) Microsoft Copilot
14 24 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
14 24 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
15 23 (0.99%) PowerApps
16 22 (0.95%) Amazon EMR
16 22 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.86%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.05%) DNS
2 69 (2.96%) Firewall
3 64 (2.75%) Broadband
4 42 (1.80%) Wireless
5 38 (1.63%) TCP/IP
5 38 (1.63%) WAN
6 37 (1.59%) VPN
7 35 (1.50%) Network Security
8 28 (1.20%) LAN
9 27 (1.16%) Ethernet
10 26 (1.12%) VLAN
11 25 (1.07%) Modbus
11 25 (1.07%) OSPF
12 23 (0.99%) SD-WAN
13 22 (0.95%) BGP
13 22 (0.95%) Wireshark
14 21 (0.90%) MQTT
15 18 (0.77%) 5G
16 17 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
17 16 (0.69%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (6.79%) Power BI
2 56 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
3 55 (2.36%) Metadata
4 53 (2.28%) PostgreSQL
5 51 (2.19%) Data Lake
6 47 (2.02%) SQL Server
7 44 (1.89%) Tableau
8 36 (1.55%) MongoDB
9 32 (1.37%) Amazon Athena
9 32 (1.37%) Relational Database
10 27 (1.16%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.07%) DynamoDB
12 23 (0.99%) Big Data
13 22 (0.95%) Semantic Layer
13 22 (0.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 21 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
15 20 (0.86%) NoSQL
16 19 (0.82%) MySQL
17 17 (0.73%) Power Query
18 16 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 133 (5.71%) JIRA
2 117 (5.03%) Git
3 59 (2.53%) Jenkins
4 52 (2.23%) GitLab
5 42 (1.80%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (1.29%) Selenium
7 24 (1.03%) LabVIEW
7 24 (1.03%) Postman
8 22 (0.95%) Snyk
9 21 (0.90%) Cypress.io
10 14 (0.60%) Burp Suite
11 12 (0.52%) Cucumber
11 12 (0.52%) JMeter
12 11 (0.47%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.43%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.39%) Gatling
14 9 (0.39%) MLflow
14 9 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
14 9 (0.39%) Zephyr
15 8 (0.34%) Claude Code
General
1 787 (33.81%) Social Skills
2 602 (25.86%) Finance
3 551 (23.67%) Analytical Skills
4 224 (9.62%) Aerospace
5 210 (9.02%) Electronics
5 210 (9.02%) Manufacturing
6 207 (8.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 139 (5.97%) Law
8 102 (4.38%) Banking
9 96 (4.12%) Organisational Skills
10 92 (3.95%) Public Sector
11 90 (3.87%) Retail
12 86 (3.69%) Marketing
13 80 (3.44%) Pharmaceutical
14 79 (3.39%) Telecoms
15 66 (2.84%) Automotive
16 63 (2.71%) Legal
17 47 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
18 44 (1.89%) Games
19 43 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 411 (17.65%) Senior
2 291 (12.50%) Systems Engineer
3 266 (11.43%) Analyst
4 205 (8.81%) Lead
5 130 (5.58%) Test Engineer
6 121 (5.20%) Architect
7 109 (4.68%) Data Engineer
8 98 (4.21%) Developer
9 93 (3.99%) Consultant
10 81 (3.48%) Business Analyst
11 79 (3.39%) Software Engineer
12 71 (3.05%) Principal Engineer
13 69 (2.96%) Data Analyst
14 66 (2.84%) Validation Engineer
15 63 (2.71%) Electronics Engineer
16 53 (2.28%) Network Engineer
17 51 (2.19%) Embedded Engineer
18 50 (2.15%) Support Engineer
19 48 (2.06%) Data Scientist
20 44 (1.89%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.35%) Terraform
2 55 (2.36%) RESTful
3 52 (2.23%) Kafka
4 50 (2.15%) REST
5 44 (1.89%) Node.js
6 36 (1.55%) Playwright
7 35 (1.50%) JSON
8 34 (1.46%) PySpark
8 34 (1.46%) XML
9 32 (1.37%) .NET
10 27 (1.16%) FastAPI
10 27 (1.16%) LDAP
11 26 (1.12%) CSS
12 25 (1.07%) HTML
13 24 (1.03%) React
14 23 (0.99%) Middleware
15 22 (0.95%) Swagger
16 21 (0.90%) ModSecurity
17 20 (0.86%) XMPP
18 19 (0.82%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 160 (6.87%) Cloud Native
2 125 (5.37%) Management Information System
3 124 (5.33%) Onboarding
4 86 (3.69%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.48%) Data Centre
6 67 (2.88%) Embedded Systems
7 61 (2.62%) Data Structures
7 61 (2.62%) Driving Licence
8 59 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
9 56 (2.41%) Algorithms
10 54 (2.32%) Distributed Systems
11 46 (1.98%) AI Agents
11 46 (1.98%) Low-Code
12 44 (1.89%) Life Science
12 44 (1.89%) SCADA
13 42 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
14 41 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
15 40 (1.72%) Robotics
16 38 (1.63%) IoT
17 34 (1.46%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 141 (6.06%) Linux
2 94 (4.04%) Windows
3 35 (1.50%) Windows Server
4 25 (1.07%) Unix
5 20 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.43%) Android
7 9 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.086%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.086%) ThreadX
13 2 (0.086%) VMS
13 2 (0.086%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.043%) AIX
14 1 (0.043%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 587 (25.21%) Problem-Solving
2 531 (22.81%) Continuous Improvement
3 433 (18.60%) Agile
4 409 (17.57%) Verification and Validation
5 400 (17.18%) AI
6 316 (13.57%) CI/CD
7 301 (12.93%) Stakeholder Management
8 292 (12.54%) Test Automation
9 281 (12.07%) Migration
10 259 (11.13%) Analytics
11 251 (10.78%) Mentoring
12 234 (10.05%) Software Engineering
13 231 (9.92%) Decision-Making
14 214 (9.19%) DevOps
15 207 (8.89%) Data Analysis
16 203 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 200 (8.59%) Business Intelligence
18 196 (8.42%) Machine Learning
19 186 (7.99%) Roadmaps
20 179 (7.69%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 490 (21.05%) Python
2 405 (17.40%) SQL
3 103 (4.42%) Java
4 91 (3.91%) C++
5 87 (3.74%) C
6 68 (2.92%) JavaScript
7 62 (2.66%) MATLAB
8 55 (2.36%) C#
8 55 (2.36%) Go
9 35 (1.50%) Bash
10 34 (1.46%) Embedded C
11 28 (1.20%) PowerShell
12 24 (1.03%) TypeScript
13 23 (0.99%) Scala
14 20 (0.86%) R
15 18 (0.77%) Embedded C++
16 13 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.52%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.39%) ABAP
18 9 (0.39%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 503 (21.61%) Degree
2 502 (21.56%) Security Cleared
3 364 (15.64%) SC Cleared
4 127 (5.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 110 (4.73%) DV Cleared
6 90 (3.87%) Master's Degree
7 51 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.80%) PhD
9 38 (1.63%) Chartered Engineer
10 35 (1.50%) HND
11 34 (1.46%) CISSP
11 34 (1.46%) PMI Certification
12 33 (1.42%) HNC
13 25 (1.07%) ACCA
13 25 (1.07%) CISM
14 24 (1.03%) AWS Certification
14 24 (1.03%) Azure Certification
15 22 (0.95%) CIMA
16 21 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
16 21 (0.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 338 (14.52%) Data Quality
2 298 (12.80%) QA
3 81 (3.48%) Accessibility
4 55 (2.36%) GDPR
5 37 (1.59%) GRC
6 30 (1.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.12%) GxP
8 22 (0.95%) IEC 61508
8 22 (0.95%) NIST
9 21 (0.90%) SLA
10 17 (0.73%) PMO
11 15 (0.64%) GMP
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 26262
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 9001
12 14 (0.60%) WCAG
13 12 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 12 (0.52%) SOC 2
14 11 (0.47%) GAAP
14 11 (0.47%) IFRS
15 10 (0.43%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 91 (3.91%) Firmware
2 84 (3.61%) Docker
3 48 (2.06%) Active Directory
4 40 (1.72%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.90%) vSphere
7 11 (0.47%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.17%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.17%) KVM
9 2 (0.086%) iptables
9 2 (0.086%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.086%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.043%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.043%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 82 (3.52%) Kubernetes
2 43 (1.85%) Grafana
3 34 (1.46%) Ansible
4 28 (1.20%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.77%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.43%) Cilium
8 9 (0.39%) Puppet
9 8 (0.34%) Nessus
9 8 (0.34%) Nmap
10 7 (0.30%) Kibana
10 7 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
11 6 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
12 5 (0.21%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
12 5 (0.21%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.21%) SCCM
12 5 (0.21%) WMI
13 4 (0.17%) Argo
13 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
13 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 292 (12.54%) Microsoft
2 122 (5.24%) SAP
3 99 (4.25%) Oracle
4 60 (2.58%) Salesforce
5 58 (2.49%) Databricks
6 56 (2.41%) Cisco
7 53 (2.28%) ServiceNow
8 43 (1.85%) Google
9 39 (1.68%) EMC
10 30 (1.29%) CrowdStrike
10 30 (1.29%) VMware
11 28 (1.20%) Palo Alto
12 23 (0.99%) Red Hat
12 23 (0.99%) Tenable
13 20 (0.86%) IBM
14 18 (0.77%) Splunk
15 17 (0.73%) Siemens
16 16 (0.69%) Sage
17 15 (0.64%) Autodesk
17 15 (0.64%) McAfee