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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 91 176
Rank change year-on-year +19 +85 +25
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,546 1,587 1,122
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.16% 3.23% 1.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.96% 3.63% 1.83%
Number of salaries quoted 1,495 442 429
10th Percentile £35,850 £38,750 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,033
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.23% -10.72%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,188 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £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 86,023 43,711 61,337
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.11% 89.05% 81.75%
Number of salaries quoted 59,242 24,267 33,446
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,880 £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 £79,688 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £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 29 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 29 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 +14 2,345 £58,250 +5.91% 3,714
UK excluding London -3 1,843 £55,000 +4.56% 2,267
Work from Home +144 672 £60,000 -3.23% 1,384
London +72 607 £68,750 -14.06% 1,686
South East -11 498 £62,500 +13.64% 559
North of England +111 474 £54,750 +14.82% 427
North West +110 294 £55,000 +10.00% 232
Midlands -25 288 £50,000 -9.09% 323
South West +18 248 £55,000 +4.56% 299
East of England -43 202 £55,000 -8.33% 293
West Midlands +45 165 £50,000 -9.09% 228
East Midlands -49 123 £50,000 +17.65% 95
Yorkshire +30 94 £42,750 +0.59% 133
Scotland +51 88 £70,000 +18.61% 278
North East +1 86 £55,000 +57.14% 64
Wales -35 43 £70,000 +16.67% 47
Northern Ireland -81 5 - - 73
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 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 51 (2.00%) Apache Spark
2 46 (1.81%) Apache Airflow
3 43 (1.69%) Apache
4 37 (1.45%) Confluence
4 37 (1.45%) SharePoint
5 20 (0.79%) Jupyter
6 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.51%) SAS
8 10 (0.39%) 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
12 2 (0.079%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.039%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.039%) Kinematics
Applications
1 147 (5.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 70 (2.75%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (2.16%) Simulink
4 36 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (0.98%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.79%) AutoCAD
6 20 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
7 16 (0.63%) MS Visio
8 13 (0.51%) Revit
9 10 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 9 (0.35%) OrCAD
11 8 (0.31%) EPLAN
11 8 (0.31%) 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 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (1.65%) 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 (0.24%) Elite 3E
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 Payables
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 336 (13.20%) Azure
2 276 (10.84%) AWS
3 186 (7.31%) Power Platform
4 104 (4.08%) GCP
5 86 (3.38%) Azure DevOps
6 77 (3.02%) GitHub
7 76 (2.99%) SaaS
8 70 (2.75%) Serverless
9 68 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
10 47 (1.85%) Amazon S3
11 42 (1.65%) Entra ID
12 41 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
13 38 (1.49%) GitHub Actions
14 36 (1.41%) Microsoft Copilot
15 31 (1.22%) Microsoft Purview
16 29 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
17 27 (1.06%) Amazon EMR
18 26 (1.02%) Cloud Computing
19 25 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
19 25 (0.98%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.75%) DNS
2 69 (2.71%) Firewall
3 55 (2.16%) Broadband
4 43 (1.69%) VPN
4 43 (1.69%) Wireless
5 40 (1.57%) Ethernet
6 39 (1.53%) Network Security
6 39 (1.53%) TCP/IP
7 37 (1.45%) WAN
8 35 (1.37%) Modbus
9 32 (1.26%) VLAN
10 30 (1.18%) LAN
11 28 (1.10%) OSPF
12 24 (0.94%) MQTT
12 24 (0.94%) Wireshark
13 23 (0.90%) SD-WAN
14 21 (0.82%) BGP
15 19 (0.75%) 5G
16 17 (0.67%) DHCP
16 17 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 170 (6.68%) Power BI
2 71 (2.79%) Metadata
3 64 (2.51%) Data Warehouse
4 56 (2.20%) Data Lake
5 53 (2.08%) SQL Server
6 49 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
7 40 (1.57%) Amazon Athena
8 39 (1.53%) Relational Database
8 39 (1.53%) Tableau
9 31 (1.22%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.10%) BigQuery
11 27 (1.06%) Big Data
12 26 (1.02%) NoSQL
13 25 (0.98%) DynamoDB
14 23 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
14 23 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 22 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
16 20 (0.79%) Power Query
16 20 (0.79%) Semantic Layer
17 19 (0.75%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 143 (5.62%) JIRA
2 130 (5.11%) Git
3 63 (2.47%) Jenkins
4 57 (2.24%) GitLab
5 48 (1.89%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (1.18%) LabVIEW
6 30 (1.18%) Selenium
7 25 (0.98%) Postman
8 22 (0.86%) Snyk
9 20 (0.79%) Cypress.io
10 13 (0.51%) Burp Suite
10 13 (0.51%) Claude Code
11 12 (0.47%) JMeter
12 11 (0.43%) Eclipse
12 11 (0.43%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.39%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.35%) Cucumber
14 9 (0.35%) MLflow
14 9 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
15 8 (0.31%) Gatling
General
1 850 (33.39%) Social Skills
2 652 (25.61%) Finance
3 605 (23.76%) Analytical Skills
4 252 (9.90%) Manufacturing
5 245 (9.62%) Aerospace
6 238 (9.35%) Electronics
7 209 (8.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 142 (5.58%) Law
9 115 (4.52%) Organisational Skills
10 114 (4.48%) Public Sector
11 109 (4.28%) Banking
12 107 (4.20%) Retail
13 94 (3.69%) Telecoms
14 93 (3.65%) Marketing
15 85 (3.34%) Pharmaceutical
16 83 (3.26%) Automotive
17 59 (2.32%) Legal
18 47 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
19 46 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
20 44 (1.73%) Military
Job Titles
1 453 (17.79%) Senior
2 312 (12.25%) Systems Engineer
3 278 (10.92%) Analyst
4 217 (8.52%) Lead
5 133 (5.22%) Test Engineer
6 131 (5.15%) Data Engineer
7 126 (4.95%) Architect
8 105 (4.12%) Developer
9 96 (3.77%) Consultant
10 89 (3.50%) Software Engineer
11 86 (3.38%) Business Analyst
12 82 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
13 80 (3.14%) Electronics Engineer
14 68 (2.67%) Data Analyst
15 66 (2.59%) Validation Engineer
16 58 (2.28%) Network Engineer
17 50 (1.96%) Automation Engineer
17 50 (1.96%) Embedded Engineer
18 49 (1.92%) Design Engineer
19 47 (1.85%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (3.53%) Terraform
2 62 (2.44%) REST
3 59 (2.32%) RESTful
4 57 (2.24%) Kafka
5 53 (2.08%) Node.js
6 46 (1.81%) .NET
7 45 (1.77%) PySpark
8 43 (1.69%) Playwright
9 37 (1.45%) JSON
10 36 (1.41%) XML
11 32 (1.26%) FastAPI
11 32 (1.26%) React
12 31 (1.22%) CSS
13 29 (1.14%) HTML
14 25 (0.98%) Middleware
14 25 (0.98%) Swagger
15 24 (0.94%) LDAP
16 22 (0.86%) OAuth
17 21 (0.82%) ModSecurity
17 21 (0.82%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 168 (6.60%) Cloud Native
2 147 (5.77%) Management Information System
3 127 (4.99%) Onboarding
4 87 (3.42%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.18%) Data Centre
6 71 (2.79%) Embedded Systems
7 68 (2.67%) Driving Licence
8 62 (2.44%) Data Structures
8 62 (2.44%) Distributed Systems
9 59 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
10 55 (2.16%) Algorithms
11 54 (2.12%) AI Agents
11 54 (2.12%) SCADA
12 47 (1.85%) Life Science
13 43 (1.69%) IoT
14 41 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
15 40 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
16 38 (1.49%) Low-Code
16 38 (1.49%) Robotics
17 37 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.26%) Linux
2 94 (3.69%) Windows
3 31 (1.22%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.02%) Unix
5 14 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.39%) Android
7 8 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.31%) 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 (0.039%) AIX
12 1 (0.039%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.039%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 666 (26.16%) Problem-Solving
2 577 (22.66%) Continuous Improvement
3 462 (18.15%) Agile
3 462 (18.15%) Verification and Validation
4 428 (16.81%) AI
5 355 (13.94%) CI/CD
6 344 (13.51%) Stakeholder Management
7 323 (12.69%) Test Automation
8 318 (12.49%) Migration
9 272 (10.68%) Analytics
10 266 (10.45%) Mentoring
11 253 (9.94%) Software Engineering
12 244 (9.58%) Decision-Making
13 237 (9.31%) DevOps
14 227 (8.92%) Data Analysis
15 225 (8.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 212 (8.33%) Business Intelligence
17 205 (8.05%) Roadmaps
18 198 (7.78%) Machine Learning
19 196 (7.70%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 523 (20.54%) Python
2 449 (17.64%) SQL
3 105 (4.12%) Java
4 94 (3.69%) C++
5 84 (3.30%) C
6 76 (2.99%) JavaScript
7 72 (2.83%) C#
7 72 (2.83%) MATLAB
8 48 (1.89%) Go
9 36 (1.41%) Bash
10 34 (1.34%) TypeScript
11 32 (1.26%) PowerShell
12 30 (1.18%) Embedded C
13 28 (1.10%) R
14 25 (0.98%) Scala
15 18 (0.71%) Embedded C++
16 16 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.47%) Shell Script
18 10 (0.39%) Apex Code
18 10 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 553 (21.72%) Security Cleared
2 551 (21.64%) Degree
3 414 (16.26%) SC Cleared
4 122 (4.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (4.24%) DV Cleared
6 95 (3.73%) Master's Degree
7 55 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
8 44 (1.73%) HND
8 44 (1.73%) PhD
9 39 (1.53%) Chartered Engineer
10 38 (1.49%) HNC
11 37 (1.45%) PMI Certification
12 32 (1.26%) CISSP
13 30 (1.18%) ACCA
14 29 (1.14%) Azure Certification
15 28 (1.10%) AWS Certification
16 27 (1.06%) CIMA
17 25 (0.98%) PMP
18 21 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.82%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 379 (14.89%) Data Quality
2 309 (12.14%) QA
3 79 (3.10%) Accessibility
4 63 (2.47%) GDPR
5 37 (1.45%) GRC
6 33 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.10%) GxP
8 25 (0.98%) SLA
9 23 (0.90%) NIST
10 20 (0.79%) IEC 61508
11 16 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 15 (0.59%) GMP
12 15 (0.59%) ISO 9001
12 15 (0.59%) PMO
13 13 (0.51%) ISO 19650
13 13 (0.51%) ISO 26262
13 13 (0.51%) SOC 2
14 12 (0.47%) WCAG
15 10 (0.39%) GAAP
16 9 (0.35%) JTAG
System Software
1 102 (4.01%) Docker
1 102 (4.01%) Firmware
2 47 (1.85%) Active Directory
3 45 (1.77%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (0.63%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.12%) KVM
9 2 (0.079%) iptables
9 2 (0.079%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.079%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.039%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 88 (3.46%) Kubernetes
2 45 (1.77%) Grafana
3 34 (1.34%) Ansible
4 31 (1.22%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.67%) Prometheus
7 11 (0.43%) 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 (0.20%) 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
1 336 (13.20%) Microsoft
2 129 (5.07%) SAP
3 104 (4.08%) Oracle
4 69 (2.71%) Databricks
5 67 (2.63%) Salesforce
6 64 (2.51%) EMC
7 54 (2.12%) Cisco
7 54 (2.12%) ServiceNow
8 42 (1.65%) Google
9 32 (1.26%) CrowdStrike
10 28 (1.10%) Palo Alto
11 27 (1.06%) Thales
12 25 (0.98%) Sage
13 23 (0.90%) IBM
13 23 (0.90%) Tenable
14 22 (0.86%) Siemens
14 22 (0.86%) VMware
15 21 (0.82%) Informatica
16 18 (0.71%) Autodesk
16 18 (0.71%) Red Hat