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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 93 179
Rank change year-on-year +20 +86 +21
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,586 1,590 1,131
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.19% 3.21% 1.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.99% 3.60% 1.84%
Number of salaries quoted 1,510 446 429
10th Percentile £35,725 £38,725 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,490 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +8.16% -5.23% -10.72%
75th Percentile £71,250 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £89,375 £95,000
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 86,437 44,202 61,341
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 89.12% 81.82%
Number of salaries quoted 59,483 24,460 33,440
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,500 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,465
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.93% -2.56%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £96,250
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 2 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 2 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 +21 2,383 £57,750 +5.00% 4,596
UK excluding London -4 1,870 £55,000 +4.56% 2,813
Work from Home +138 682 £60,000 -3.23% 1,683
London +74 618 £70,000 -12.50% 2,196
South East -15 499 £62,500 +16.28% 745
North of England +116 479 £51,000 +6.96% 467
Midlands -17 304 £50,000 -9.09% 376
North West +103 299 £55,000 +9.88% 251
South West +24 247 £55,000 +4.56% 375
East of England -45 207 £55,000 -8.33% 371
West Midlands +48 171 £48,750 -11.36% 253
East Midlands -43 133 £50,000 +17.65% 123
Yorkshire +29 93 £42,500 - 142
Scotland +45 89 £70,000 +18.61% 371
North East +3 87 £55,000 +57.14% 76
Wales -38 44 £70,000 +16.67% 69
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 2
Northern Ireland -83 4 - - 67

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 51 (1.97%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.82%) Apache Airflow
3 44 (1.70%) Apache
4 40 (1.55%) Confluence
5 37 (1.43%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.77%) Jupyter
7 18 (0.70%) CMS
8 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
9 13 (0.50%) SAS
10 10 (0.39%) WinCC
11 6 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.15%) Palantir Foundry
13 3 (0.12%) Artix
13 3 (0.12%) nginx
13 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 2 (0.077%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.077%) IIS
15 1 (0.039%) ArcGIS
15 1 (0.039%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 152 (5.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (2.67%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (2.13%) Simulink
4 37 (1.43%) Microsoft Project
5 28 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
6 21 (0.81%) AutoCAD
7 20 (0.77%) SOLIDWORKS
8 16 (0.62%) MS Visio
9 14 (0.54%) Revit
10 11 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 10 (0.39%) OrCAD
12 9 (0.35%) Navisworks
13 8 (0.31%) EPLAN
14 5 (0.19%) LaTeX
14 5 (0.19%) Mathcad
15 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
15 4 (0.15%) Notion
15 4 (0.15%) Stateflow
16 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
16 3 (0.12%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 45 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (1.59%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.43%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.39%) Workday HCM
5 9 (0.35%) iTrent
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.31%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.31%) Oracle Applications
7 7 (0.27%) Infor M3
7 7 (0.27%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.27%) Teamcenter
8 6 (0.23%) Elite 3E
9 5 (0.19%) Maximo
9 5 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 5 (0.19%) SAP MDG-BP
10 4 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 342 (13.23%) Azure
2 280 (10.83%) AWS
3 189 (7.31%) Power Platform
4 106 (4.10%) GCP
5 85 (3.29%) Azure DevOps
6 82 (3.17%) GitHub
7 75 (2.90%) SaaS
8 70 (2.71%) Serverless
9 68 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
10 47 (1.82%) Amazon S3
11 44 (1.70%) Entra ID
12 40 (1.55%) GitHub Actions
13 39 (1.51%) Dynamics 365
14 35 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
15 30 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
16 28 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
17 27 (1.04%) Amazon EMR
18 26 (1.01%) Cloud Computing
19 25 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
19 25 (0.97%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.71%) DNS
2 68 (2.63%) Firewall
3 55 (2.13%) Broadband
4 45 (1.74%) Wireless
5 43 (1.66%) VPN
6 40 (1.55%) TCP/IP
7 39 (1.51%) Network Security
8 38 (1.47%) Ethernet
9 37 (1.43%) WAN
10 35 (1.35%) Modbus
11 33 (1.28%) VLAN
12 30 (1.16%) LAN
13 28 (1.08%) OSPF
14 25 (0.97%) MQTT
15 24 (0.93%) Wireshark
16 23 (0.89%) SD-WAN
17 21 (0.81%) BGP
18 19 (0.73%) 5G
19 18 (0.70%) DHCP
20 17 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 174 (6.73%) Power BI
2 74 (2.86%) Metadata
3 63 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
4 56 (2.17%) Data Lake
5 54 (2.09%) SQL Server
6 50 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
7 40 (1.55%) Amazon Athena
8 39 (1.51%) Relational Database
8 39 (1.51%) Tableau
9 32 (1.24%) MongoDB
10 29 (1.12%) NoSQL
11 28 (1.08%) BigQuery
12 27 (1.04%) Big Data
13 25 (0.97%) DynamoDB
14 22 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
14 22 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 21 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
16 20 (0.77%) Power Query
16 20 (0.77%) Semantic Layer
17 18 (0.70%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 148 (5.72%) JIRA
2 132 (5.10%) Git
3 64 (2.47%) Jenkins
4 60 (2.32%) GitLab
5 48 (1.86%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.20%) LabVIEW
7 29 (1.12%) Selenium
8 25 (0.97%) Postman
9 22 (0.85%) Snyk
10 20 (0.77%) Cypress.io
11 13 (0.50%) Burp Suite
11 13 (0.50%) Claude Code
12 12 (0.46%) JMeter
13 11 (0.43%) Eclipse
13 11 (0.43%) Rational Rhapsody
13 11 (0.43%) REST Assured
14 10 (0.39%) TeamCity
15 9 (0.35%) Cucumber
15 9 (0.35%) MLflow
15 9 (0.35%) Zephyr
General
1 870 (33.64%) Social Skills
2 673 (26.02%) Finance
3 611 (23.63%) Analytical Skills
4 253 (9.78%) Manufacturing
5 251 (9.71%) Aerospace
6 243 (9.40%) Electronics
7 227 (8.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 141 (5.45%) Law
9 116 (4.49%) Organisational Skills
10 115 (4.45%) Public Sector
11 111 (4.29%) Banking
12 110 (4.25%) Marketing
13 106 (4.10%) Retail
14 96 (3.71%) Telecoms
15 85 (3.29%) Pharmaceutical
16 84 (3.25%) Automotive
17 60 (2.32%) Legal
18 49 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
19 47 (1.82%) Military
20 45 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 466 (18.02%) Senior
2 311 (12.03%) Systems Engineer
3 282 (10.90%) Analyst
4 217 (8.39%) Lead
5 133 (5.14%) Data Engineer
6 128 (4.95%) Test Engineer
7 123 (4.76%) Architect
8 106 (4.10%) Developer
9 96 (3.71%) Consultant
10 93 (3.60%) Software Engineer
11 87 (3.36%) Business Analyst
12 84 (3.25%) Principal Engineer
13 82 (3.17%) Electronics Engineer
14 71 (2.75%) Data Analyst
15 63 (2.44%) Validation Engineer
16 58 (2.24%) Network Engineer
17 52 (2.01%) Design Engineer
18 51 (1.97%) Automation Engineer
19 47 (1.82%) Data Scientist
20 46 (1.78%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (3.44%) Terraform
2 64 (2.47%) REST
3 61 (2.36%) RESTful
4 59 (2.28%) Kafka
5 53 (2.05%) Node.js
6 51 (1.97%) .NET
7 44 (1.70%) PySpark
8 43 (1.66%) Playwright
9 38 (1.47%) JSON
10 34 (1.31%) FastAPI
10 34 (1.31%) XML
11 33 (1.28%) React
12 31 (1.20%) CSS
13 29 (1.12%) HTML
14 26 (1.01%) Swagger
15 23 (0.89%) LDAP
15 23 (0.89%) Middleware
15 23 (0.89%) RabbitMQ
16 22 (0.85%) OAuth
17 21 (0.81%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 170 (6.57%) Cloud Native
2 149 (5.76%) Management Information System
3 143 (5.53%) Onboarding
4 86 (3.33%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.13%) Data Centre
6 72 (2.78%) Embedded Systems
7 71 (2.75%) Driving Licence
8 66 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
9 63 (2.44%) Data Structures
10 60 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
11 57 (2.20%) AI Agents
12 55 (2.13%) Algorithms
12 55 (2.13%) SCADA
13 48 (1.86%) Life Science
14 42 (1.62%) IoT
15 41 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
16 40 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
16 40 (1.55%) Robotics
17 38 (1.47%) Low-Code
18 37 (1.43%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 133 (5.14%) Linux
2 94 (3.63%) Windows
3 31 (1.20%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.01%) Unix
5 13 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.39%) Android
7 8 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.31%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.15%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.15%) Mac OS X
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.077%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.077%) VMS
11 2 (0.077%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.039%) AIX
12 1 (0.039%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.039%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 675 (26.10%) Problem-Solving
2 582 (22.51%) Continuous Improvement
3 472 (18.25%) Agile
4 468 (18.10%) Verification and Validation
5 449 (17.36%) AI
6 360 (13.92%) CI/CD
7 350 (13.53%) Stakeholder Management
8 330 (12.76%) Test Automation
9 320 (12.37%) Migration
10 275 (10.63%) Analytics
10 275 (10.63%) Mentoring
11 260 (10.05%) Software Engineering
12 248 (9.59%) Decision-Making
13 240 (9.28%) DevOps
14 229 (8.86%) Data Analysis
15 227 (8.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 215 (8.31%) Business Intelligence
17 208 (8.04%) Roadmaps
18 200 (7.73%) Machine Learning
19 199 (7.70%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 532 (20.57%) Python
2 456 (17.63%) SQL
3 107 (4.14%) Java
4 95 (3.67%) C++
5 87 (3.36%) C
6 76 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 75 (2.90%) C#
8 71 (2.75%) MATLAB
9 48 (1.86%) Go
10 36 (1.39%) Bash
11 35 (1.35%) TypeScript
12 33 (1.28%) PowerShell
13 29 (1.12%) Embedded C
13 29 (1.12%) R
14 25 (0.97%) Scala
15 18 (0.70%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 17 (0.66%) Embedded C++
17 12 (0.46%) Shell Script
18 10 (0.39%) Apex Code
19 9 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 562 (21.73%) Degree
2 557 (21.54%) Security Cleared
3 417 (16.13%) SC Cleared
4 127 (4.91%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.14%) DV Cleared
6 97 (3.75%) Master's Degree
7 56 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 45 (1.74%) HND
9 44 (1.70%) PhD
10 41 (1.59%) Chartered Engineer
11 37 (1.43%) HNC
11 37 (1.43%) PMI Certification
12 32 (1.24%) CISSP
13 31 (1.20%) Azure Certification
14 29 (1.12%) ACCA
15 28 (1.08%) AWS Certification
16 26 (1.01%) CIMA
16 26 (1.01%) PMP
17 21 (0.81%) Cisco Certification
17 21 (0.81%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 386 (14.93%) Data Quality
2 316 (12.22%) QA
3 83 (3.21%) Accessibility
4 64 (2.47%) GDPR
5 37 (1.43%) GRC
6 33 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.08%) GxP
8 25 (0.97%) SLA
9 23 (0.89%) NIST
10 19 (0.73%) IEC 61508
11 16 (0.62%) ISO 9001
11 16 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 15 (0.58%) GMP
13 14 (0.54%) ISO 19650
14 13 (0.50%) ISO 26262
14 13 (0.50%) PMO
14 13 (0.50%) SOC 2
15 12 (0.46%) WCAG
16 9 (0.35%) GAAP
16 9 (0.35%) JTAG
System Software
1 109 (4.22%) Docker
2 103 (3.98%) Firmware
3 48 (1.86%) Active Directory
4 46 (1.78%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.58%) vSphere
7 8 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 2 (0.077%) iptables
10 2 (0.077%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.077%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.077%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.039%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 92 (3.56%) Kubernetes
2 46 (1.78%) Grafana
3 34 (1.31%) Ansible
4 31 (1.20%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.66%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.39%) Puppet
9 9 (0.35%) Cilium
10 8 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
10 8 (0.31%) Kibana
10 8 (0.31%) Nessus
10 8 (0.31%) Nmap
11 5 (0.19%) Argo
11 5 (0.19%) WMI
12 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.15%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.15%) Rancher
12 4 (0.15%) SCCM
12 4 (0.15%) yum
Vendors
1 336 (12.99%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.07%) SAP
3 105 (4.06%) Oracle
4 82 (3.17%) Salesforce
5 69 (2.67%) EMC
6 68 (2.63%) Databricks
7 55 (2.13%) ServiceNow
8 54 (2.09%) Cisco
9 43 (1.66%) Google
10 32 (1.24%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.08%) Palo Alto
12 27 (1.04%) Thales
13 25 (0.97%) Adobe
13 25 (0.97%) Sage
14 23 (0.89%) IBM
14 23 (0.89%) Tenable
15 22 (0.85%) Siemens
16 21 (0.81%) Informatica
16 21 (0.81%) VMware
17 18 (0.70%) Autodesk