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 9 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 94 172
Rank change year-on-year +24 +78 +35
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,628 1,584 1,111
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.23% 3.18% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.05% 3.58% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 1,541 440 415
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,693 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £76,563 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £88,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £54,500
% change year-on-year +4.56% -3.49% -5.22%

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 86,265 44,296 59,619
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.17% 89.00% 82.18%
Number of salaries quoted 59,107 24,598 32,082
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
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 9 October 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 9 October 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 +19 2,414 £57,500 +4.55% 4,388
UK excluding London -1 1,903 £55,000 +4.56% 2,556
Work from Home +141 690 £60,000 -5.88% 1,535
London +80 623 £68,375 -14.53% 2,078
South East -9 501 £62,500 +16.28% 621
North of England +121 490 £51,000 +6.96% 422
Midlands -11 314 £50,000 -9.09% 379
North West +118 302 £55,000 +9.94% 225
South West +24 246 £55,000 +4.56% 317
East of England -39 215 £55,000 -10.20% 362
West Midlands +54 174 £47,500 -13.64% 248
East Midlands -44 140 £50,000 +17.65% 129
Yorkshire +27 96 £42,500 - 134
Scotland +47 94 £70,000 +16.67% 346
North East +5 92 £55,000 +57.14% 63
Wales -37 46 £60,000 -4.00% 60
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 4
Northern Ireland -77 4 - - 80

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 54 (2.05%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.79%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (1.75%) Apache
4 36 (1.37%) SharePoint
5 35 (1.33%) Confluence
6 32 (1.22%) CMS
7 21 (0.80%) Jupyter
8 17 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
9 13 (0.49%) SAS
10 10 (0.38%) WinCC
11 6 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.15%) Artix
13 3 (0.11%) nginx
13 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 2 (0.076%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.076%) IIS
15 1 (0.038%) ArcGIS
15 1 (0.038%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 157 (5.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
3 57 (2.17%) Simulink
4 38 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
5 30 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
6 22 (0.84%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.72%) SOLIDWORKS
8 15 (0.57%) MS Visio
8 15 (0.57%) Revit
9 13 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 12 (0.46%) OrCAD
11 11 (0.42%) EPLAN
12 10 (0.38%) Navisworks
13 7 (0.27%) Notion
14 6 (0.23%) Mathcad
15 5 (0.19%) LaTeX
15 5 (0.19%) Stateflow
16 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
17 3 (0.11%) Autodesk Inventor
17 3 (0.11%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 43 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.38%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.34%) SAP MDG
5 8 (0.30%) iTrent
5 8 (0.30%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.27%) Infor M3
6 7 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
6 7 (0.27%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.23%) Elite 3E
7 6 (0.23%) Oracle Applications
7 6 (0.23%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.19%) Maximo
8 5 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.11%) Sage 200
10 3 (0.11%) SAP MDG-BP
10 3 (0.11%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 354 (13.47%) Azure
2 284 (10.81%) AWS
3 190 (7.23%) Power Platform
4 107 (4.07%) GCP
5 88 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
5 88 (3.35%) GitHub
6 81 (3.08%) SaaS
7 68 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
8 64 (2.44%) Serverless
9 49 (1.86%) Amazon S3
10 47 (1.79%) Entra ID
11 43 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
12 37 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
13 34 (1.29%) Microsoft Copilot
14 32 (1.22%) Microsoft Purview
15 29 (1.10%) Amazon EMR
16 28 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
16 28 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
17 27 (1.03%) Azure Service Bus
18 26 (0.99%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.66%) DNS
1 70 (2.66%) Firewall
2 57 (2.17%) Broadband
3 46 (1.75%) Wireless
4 45 (1.71%) TCP/IP
4 45 (1.71%) VPN
5 39 (1.48%) Ethernet
5 39 (1.48%) Modbus
6 38 (1.45%) WAN
7 37 (1.41%) Network Security
8 36 (1.37%) VLAN
9 32 (1.22%) OSPF
10 31 (1.18%) LAN
11 28 (1.07%) MQTT
12 26 (0.99%) Wireshark
13 24 (0.91%) SD-WAN
14 23 (0.88%) BGP
15 19 (0.72%) 5G
16 18 (0.68%) DHCP
16 18 (0.68%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 175 (6.66%) Power BI
2 79 (3.01%) Metadata
3 63 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.09%) Data Lake
4 55 (2.09%) SQL Server
5 47 (1.79%) PostgreSQL
6 41 (1.56%) Amazon Athena
7 39 (1.48%) Tableau
8 37 (1.41%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.18%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.07%) Big Data
10 28 (1.07%) BigQuery
10 28 (1.07%) NoSQL
11 23 (0.88%) DynamoDB
12 22 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
12 22 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.80%) Power Query
14 20 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
15 19 (0.72%) MySQL
15 19 (0.72%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 143 (5.44%) JIRA
2 134 (5.10%) Git
3 66 (2.51%) GitLab
3 66 (2.51%) Jenkins
4 48 (1.83%) Rational DOORS
5 32 (1.22%) LabVIEW
6 27 (1.03%) Selenium
7 23 (0.88%) Postman
8 20 (0.76%) Cypress.io
9 16 (0.61%) Snyk
10 14 (0.53%) Claude Code
11 13 (0.49%) Burp Suite
12 11 (0.42%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.42%) JMeter
12 11 (0.42%) Rational Rhapsody
12 11 (0.42%) REST Assured
12 11 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
13 9 (0.34%) Cucumber
13 9 (0.34%) MLflow
13 9 (0.34%) Zephyr
General
1 892 (33.94%) Social Skills
2 679 (25.84%) Finance
3 619 (23.55%) Analytical Skills
4 267 (10.16%) Manufacturing
5 258 (9.82%) Electronics
6 256 (9.74%) Aerospace
7 248 (9.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 140 (5.33%) Law
9 124 (4.72%) Marketing
10 120 (4.57%) Public Sector
11 118 (4.49%) Organisational Skills
12 110 (4.19%) Banking
13 103 (3.92%) Retail
14 100 (3.81%) Telecoms
15 85 (3.23%) Pharmaceutical
16 84 (3.20%) Automotive
17 57 (2.17%) Legal
18 50 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
19 46 (1.75%) Military
20 44 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 464 (17.66%) Senior
2 308 (11.72%) Systems Engineer
3 268 (10.20%) Analyst
4 220 (8.37%) Lead
5 137 (5.21%) Data Engineer
6 127 (4.83%) Test Engineer
7 118 (4.49%) Architect
8 107 (4.07%) Developer
9 102 (3.88%) Consultant
10 95 (3.61%) Software Engineer
11 90 (3.42%) Electronics Engineer
12 86 (3.27%) Principal Engineer
13 78 (2.97%) Business Analyst
14 66 (2.51%) Data Analyst
15 63 (2.40%) Design Engineer
16 60 (2.28%) Network Engineer
17 59 (2.25%) Validation Engineer
18 56 (2.13%) Automation Engineer
19 49 (1.86%) Administrator
19 49 (1.86%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 91 (3.46%) Terraform
2 67 (2.55%) REST
3 62 (2.36%) RESTful
4 61 (2.32%) Kafka
5 55 (2.09%) .NET
6 54 (2.05%) Node.js
7 45 (1.71%) PySpark
8 43 (1.64%) Playwright
9 39 (1.48%) JSON
10 37 (1.41%) FastAPI
11 36 (1.37%) XML
12 33 (1.26%) React
13 32 (1.22%) CSS
14 31 (1.18%) HTML
15 28 (1.07%) Swagger
16 25 (0.95%) RabbitMQ
17 24 (0.91%) OpenAPI
18 23 (0.88%) LDAP
18 23 (0.88%) Middleware
18 23 (0.88%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 175 (6.66%) Cloud Native
2 160 (6.09%) Onboarding
3 156 (5.94%) Management Information System
4 86 (3.27%) Product Ownership
5 76 (2.89%) Driving Licence
6 75 (2.85%) Data Centre
6 75 (2.85%) Embedded Systems
7 69 (2.63%) Distributed Systems
8 66 (2.51%) Data Structures
9 62 (2.36%) Enterprise Software
10 60 (2.28%) AI Agents
11 57 (2.17%) SCADA
12 54 (2.05%) Algorithms
13 48 (1.83%) Life Science
14 41 (1.56%) IoT
14 41 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
14 41 (1.56%) Robotics
15 40 (1.52%) Analogue Electronics
16 39 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
17 37 (1.41%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.10%) Linux
2 93 (3.54%) Windows
3 32 (1.22%) Windows Server
4 27 (1.03%) Unix
5 13 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.38%) Android
7 9 (0.34%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.15%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.15%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.076%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.076%) VMS
12 1 (0.038%) AIX
12 1 (0.038%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.038%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 680 (25.88%) Problem-Solving
2 602 (22.91%) Continuous Improvement
3 476 (18.11%) Agile
4 473 (18.00%) AI
5 471 (17.92%) Verification and Validation
6 366 (13.93%) CI/CD
7 350 (13.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 342 (13.01%) Test Automation
9 323 (12.29%) Migration
10 284 (10.81%) Mentoring
11 282 (10.73%) Analytics
12 263 (10.01%) Software Engineering
13 258 (9.82%) Decision-Making
14 248 (9.44%) DevOps
15 226 (8.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 225 (8.56%) Data Analysis
17 214 (8.14%) Business Intelligence
18 208 (7.91%) Roadmaps
19 206 (7.84%) Machine Learning
20 199 (7.57%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 557 (21.19%) Python
2 459 (17.47%) SQL
3 112 (4.26%) Java
4 97 (3.69%) C++
5 94 (3.58%) C
6 81 (3.08%) C#
7 76 (2.89%) JavaScript
8 72 (2.74%) MATLAB
9 48 (1.83%) Go
10 38 (1.45%) Bash
10 38 (1.45%) PowerShell
11 35 (1.33%) TypeScript
12 30 (1.14%) Embedded C
12 30 (1.14%) R
13 25 (0.95%) Scala
14 20 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 18 (0.68%) Embedded C++
16 13 (0.49%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.42%) Apex Code
18 10 (0.38%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 578 (21.99%) Degree
2 571 (21.73%) Security Cleared
3 427 (16.25%) SC Cleared
4 121 (4.60%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.07%) DV Cleared
6 105 (4.00%) Master's Degree
7 54 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
8 51 (1.94%) PhD
9 45 (1.71%) HND
10 40 (1.52%) Chartered Engineer
11 36 (1.37%) HNC
12 34 (1.29%) PMI Certification
13 33 (1.26%) Azure Certification
14 31 (1.18%) CISSP
15 30 (1.14%) ACCA
16 29 (1.10%) AWS Certification
17 27 (1.03%) CIMA
18 26 (0.99%) PMP
19 23 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
20 20 (0.76%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 392 (14.92%) Data Quality
2 314 (11.95%) QA
3 91 (3.46%) Accessibility
4 66 (2.51%) GDPR
5 35 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 30 (1.14%) GRC
7 29 (1.10%) GxP
8 27 (1.03%) SLA
9 22 (0.84%) NIST
10 19 (0.72%) IEC 61508
11 18 (0.68%) ISO 9001
12 17 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 16 (0.61%) GMP
13 16 (0.61%) ISO 19650
14 13 (0.49%) SOC 2
15 12 (0.46%) WCAG
16 11 (0.42%) ISO 26262
16 11 (0.42%) PMO
17 9 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
17 9 (0.34%) JTAG
System Software
1 116 (4.41%) Docker
2 106 (4.03%) Firmware
3 49 (1.86%) Active Directory
4 47 (1.79%) Embedded Firmware
5 21 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.57%) vSphere
7 8 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.11%) KVM
10 2 (0.076%) iptables
10 2 (0.076%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.076%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.038%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 95 (3.61%) Kubernetes
2 48 (1.83%) Grafana
3 37 (1.41%) Ansible
4 29 (1.10%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.65%) Prometheus
7 13 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (0.46%) Puppet
9 8 (0.30%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.30%) Cilium
9 8 (0.30%) Kibana
9 8 (0.30%) Nessus
9 8 (0.30%) Nmap
10 6 (0.23%) Argo
11 5 (0.19%) Rancher
11 5 (0.19%) WMI
11 5 (0.19%) yum
12 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.15%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.15%) SCCM
Vendors
1 352 (13.39%) Microsoft
2 130 (4.95%) SAP
3 101 (3.84%) Salesforce
4 100 (3.81%) Oracle
5 76 (2.89%) EMC
6 68 (2.59%) Databricks
7 57 (2.17%) Cisco
8 56 (2.13%) ServiceNow
9 45 (1.71%) Google
10 39 (1.48%) Adobe
11 30 (1.14%) Samsung
11 30 (1.14%) Thales
12 28 (1.07%) TikTok
13 25 (0.95%) CrowdStrike
13 25 (0.95%) IBM
13 25 (0.95%) Sage
14 23 (0.88%) Siemens
15 21 (0.80%) Informatica
15 21 (0.80%) Palo Alto
15 21 (0.80%) VMware