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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 91 178
Rank change year-on-year +16 +87 +32
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,524 1,593 1,129
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.15% 3.23% 1.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.94% 3.63% 1.82%
Number of salaries quoted 1,484 445 434
10th Percentile £35,575 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,745 £55,000 £57,767
Median % change year-on-year +8.63% -4.79% -11.13%
75th Percentile £71,063 £76,250 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £94,625
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 85,804 43,854 61,991
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.05% 88.92% 81.71%
Number of salaries quoted 59,130 24,461 33,915
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.17% -3.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £96,000
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 28 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 28 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 +12 2,327 £58,000 +5.45% 3,627
UK excluding London -6 1,832 £55,000 +4.56% 2,223
Work from Home +135 663 £60,000 -2.44% 1,344
London +84 599 £68,375 -14.53% 1,638
South East -9 493 £62,500 +13.64% 552
North of England +114 469 £54,750 +14.82% 407
North West +108 294 £55,000 +10.00% 227
Midlands -24 285 £50,000 -9.09% 316
South West +23 248 £55,000 +4.66% 296
East of England -41 202 £55,000 -8.33% 291
West Midlands +47 164 £50,000 -9.09% 220
East Midlands -46 121 £50,000 +17.65% 95
Yorkshire +29 89 £42,750 +0.59% 125
Scotland +43 88 £70,000 +18.61% 271
North East +3 86 £55,000 +57.14% 57
Wales -25 42 £70,000 +16.67% 48
Northern Ireland -83 5 - - 75
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 45 (1.78%) Apache Airflow
3 43 (1.70%) Apache
4 37 (1.47%) Confluence
5 36 (1.43%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.79%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.52%) SAS
8 10 (0.40%) WinCC
9 6 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) 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
13 1 (0.040%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.040%) Kinematics
13 1 (0.040%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 147 (5.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 54 (2.14%) Simulink
4 36 (1.43%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.79%) AutoCAD
6 20 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
7 16 (0.63%) MS Visio
8 13 (0.52%) Revit
9 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 9 (0.36%) OrCAD
11 8 (0.32%) EPLAN
11 8 (0.32%) Navisworks
12 5 (0.20%) LaTeX
12 5 (0.20%) Mathcad
13 4 (0.16%) CANalyzer
13 4 (0.16%) Stateflow
14 3 (0.12%) Adobe XD
14 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
14 3 (0.12%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 44 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (1.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.44%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.40%) Workday HCM
5 9 (0.36%) iTrent
5 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.32%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
7 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Teamcenter
8 6 (0.24%) Elite 3E
8 6 (0.24%) Infor M3
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
9 5 (0.20%) SAP MDG-BP
10 4 (0.16%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
11 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
11 3 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 328 (13.00%) Azure
2 269 (10.66%) AWS
3 183 (7.25%) Power Platform
4 101 (4.00%) GCP
5 86 (3.41%) Azure DevOps
6 76 (3.01%) GitHub
7 75 (2.97%) SaaS
8 68 (2.69%) Serverless
9 66 (2.61%) Microsoft 365
10 45 (1.78%) Amazon S3
11 41 (1.62%) Dynamics 365
12 40 (1.58%) Entra ID
13 38 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
14 36 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
15 31 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
16 29 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.03%) Amazon EMR
17 26 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
18 25 (0.99%) Azure Service Bus
19 24 (0.95%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 68 (2.69%) DNS
1 68 (2.69%) Firewall
2 55 (2.18%) Broadband
3 42 (1.66%) Wireless
4 41 (1.62%) VPN
5 40 (1.58%) Ethernet
6 38 (1.51%) Network Security
7 37 (1.47%) TCP/IP
7 37 (1.47%) WAN
8 34 (1.35%) Modbus
9 31 (1.23%) VLAN
10 30 (1.19%) LAN
11 28 (1.11%) OSPF
12 24 (0.95%) MQTT
12 24 (0.95%) Wireshark
13 23 (0.91%) SD-WAN
14 21 (0.83%) BGP
15 19 (0.75%) 5G
16 17 (0.67%) HTTP
16 17 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 167 (6.62%) Power BI
2 70 (2.77%) Metadata
3 62 (2.46%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.18%) Data Lake
5 52 (2.06%) SQL Server
6 49 (1.94%) PostgreSQL
7 39 (1.55%) Amazon Athena
7 39 (1.55%) Tableau
8 38 (1.51%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.23%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.11%) BigQuery
11 27 (1.07%) Big Data
12 25 (0.99%) DynamoDB
12 25 (0.99%) NoSQL
13 23 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
14 22 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
16 20 (0.79%) Power Query
16 20 (0.79%) Semantic Layer
17 19 (0.75%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 142 (5.63%) JIRA
2 128 (5.07%) Git
3 63 (2.50%) Jenkins
4 57 (2.26%) GitLab
5 47 (1.86%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (1.19%) Selenium
7 29 (1.15%) LabVIEW
8 25 (0.99%) Postman
9 22 (0.87%) Snyk
10 20 (0.79%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.52%) Burp Suite
12 12 (0.48%) JMeter
13 11 (0.44%) Claude Code
13 11 (0.44%) Eclipse
13 11 (0.44%) REST Assured
14 10 (0.40%) TeamCity
15 9 (0.36%) Cucumber
15 9 (0.36%) MLflow
15 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
16 8 (0.32%) Zephyr
General
1 846 (33.52%) Social Skills
2 649 (25.71%) Finance
3 596 (23.61%) Analytical Skills
4 250 (9.90%) Manufacturing
5 244 (9.67%) Aerospace
6 239 (9.47%) Electronics
7 209 (8.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 141 (5.59%) Law
9 114 (4.52%) Organisational Skills
10 112 (4.44%) Public Sector
11 109 (4.32%) Banking
12 107 (4.24%) Retail
13 94 (3.72%) Telecoms
14 93 (3.68%) Marketing
15 85 (3.37%) Pharmaceutical
16 82 (3.25%) Automotive
17 58 (2.30%) Legal
18 47 (1.86%) Influencing Skills
19 46 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
20 44 (1.74%) Military
Job Titles
1 448 (17.75%) Senior
2 311 (12.32%) Systems Engineer
3 277 (10.97%) Analyst
4 216 (8.56%) Lead
5 132 (5.23%) Test Engineer
6 128 (5.07%) Data Engineer
7 125 (4.95%) Architect
8 101 (4.00%) Developer
9 96 (3.80%) Consultant
10 87 (3.45%) Software Engineer
11 86 (3.41%) Business Analyst
12 80 (3.17%) Electronics Engineer
12 80 (3.17%) Principal Engineer
13 67 (2.65%) Data Analyst
14 66 (2.61%) Validation Engineer
15 58 (2.30%) Network Engineer
16 50 (1.98%) Embedded Engineer
17 49 (1.94%) Automation Engineer
17 49 (1.94%) Design Engineer
18 47 (1.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (3.49%) Terraform
2 61 (2.42%) REST
3 57 (2.26%) RESTful
4 56 (2.22%) Kafka
5 52 (2.06%) Node.js
6 44 (1.74%) PySpark
7 43 (1.70%) Playwright
8 41 (1.62%) .NET
9 37 (1.47%) JSON
10 36 (1.43%) XML
11 32 (1.27%) FastAPI
12 31 (1.23%) CSS
13 30 (1.19%) React
14 29 (1.15%) HTML
15 25 (0.99%) Middleware
15 25 (0.99%) Swagger
16 24 (0.95%) LDAP
17 22 (0.87%) OAuth
18 21 (0.83%) ModSecurity
18 21 (0.83%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 167 (6.62%) Cloud Native
2 144 (5.71%) Management Information System
3 127 (5.03%) Onboarding
4 86 (3.41%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.21%) Data Centre
6 71 (2.81%) Embedded Systems
7 67 (2.65%) Driving Licence
8 61 (2.42%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
10 59 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
11 54 (2.14%) Algorithms
12 53 (2.10%) SCADA
13 52 (2.06%) AI Agents
14 47 (1.86%) Life Science
15 43 (1.70%) IoT
16 41 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
17 40 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
18 38 (1.51%) Low-Code
18 38 (1.51%) Robotics
19 37 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.31%) Linux
2 92 (3.65%) Windows
3 29 (1.15%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.03%) Unix
5 14 (0.55%) 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 4 (0.16%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.16%) Mac OS X
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.079%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.079%) VMS
11 2 (0.079%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.040%) AIX
12 1 (0.040%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.040%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 660 (26.15%) Problem-Solving
2 573 (22.70%) Continuous Improvement
3 460 (18.23%) Verification and Validation
4 458 (18.15%) Agile
5 421 (16.68%) AI
6 351 (13.91%) CI/CD
7 342 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
8 314 (12.44%) Migration
8 314 (12.44%) Test Automation
9 270 (10.70%) Analytics
10 265 (10.50%) Mentoring
11 250 (9.90%) Software Engineering
12 243 (9.63%) Decision-Making
13 235 (9.31%) DevOps
14 226 (8.95%) Data Analysis
15 223 (8.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 209 (8.28%) Business Intelligence
17 204 (8.08%) Roadmaps
18 195 (7.73%) Data Migration
18 195 (7.73%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 516 (20.44%) Python
2 444 (17.59%) SQL
3 105 (4.16%) Java
4 94 (3.72%) C++
5 85 (3.37%) C
6 76 (3.01%) JavaScript
7 71 (2.81%) MATLAB
8 65 (2.58%) C#
9 48 (1.90%) Go
10 36 (1.43%) Bash
11 32 (1.27%) TypeScript
12 31 (1.23%) Embedded C
12 31 (1.23%) PowerShell
13 27 (1.07%) R
14 25 (0.99%) Scala
15 18 (0.71%) Embedded C++
16 16 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.48%) Shell Script
18 10 (0.40%) Apex Code
19 9 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 549 (21.75%) Security Cleared
2 547 (21.67%) Degree
3 413 (16.36%) SC Cleared
4 122 (4.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 106 (4.20%) DV Cleared
6 95 (3.76%) Master's Degree
7 53 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
8 45 (1.78%) HND
9 44 (1.74%) PhD
10 39 (1.55%) HNC
11 38 (1.51%) Chartered Engineer
12 36 (1.43%) PMI Certification
13 32 (1.27%) CISSP
14 30 (1.19%) ACCA
15 29 (1.15%) Azure Certification
16 27 (1.07%) AWS Certification
16 27 (1.07%) CIMA
17 24 (0.95%) PMP
18 21 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.83%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 374 (14.82%) Data Quality
2 309 (12.24%) QA
3 79 (3.13%) Accessibility
4 62 (2.46%) GDPR
5 37 (1.47%) GRC
6 33 (1.31%) 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 (0.52%) ISO 19650
12 13 (0.52%) SOC 2
13 12 (0.48%) ISO 26262
13 12 (0.48%) WCAG
14 10 (0.40%) GAAP
15 9 (0.36%) IFRS
System Software
1 102 (4.04%) Firmware
2 101 (4.00%) Docker
3 45 (1.78%) Embedded Firmware
4 44 (1.74%) Active Directory
5 28 (1.11%) Virtual Machines
6 16 (0.63%) 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 87 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 45 (1.78%) Grafana
3 34 (1.35%) Ansible
4 32 (1.27%) 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
1 327 (12.96%) Microsoft
2 129 (5.11%) SAP
3 104 (4.12%) Oracle
4 67 (2.65%) Databricks
4 67 (2.65%) Salesforce
5 64 (2.54%) EMC
6 54 (2.14%) Cisco
6 54 (2.14%) ServiceNow
7 42 (1.66%) Google
8 32 (1.27%) CrowdStrike
9 28 (1.11%) Palo Alto
10 27 (1.07%) Thales
11 25 (0.99%) Sage
12 23 (0.91%) IBM
12 23 (0.91%) Tenable
13 22 (0.87%) Siemens
13 22 (0.87%) VMware
14 21 (0.83%) Informatica
15 18 (0.71%) Autodesk
15 18 (0.71%) Red Hat