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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 85 199
Rank change year-on-year -12 +114 -6
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,976 1,703 1,128
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.86% 3.42% 1.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.54% 3.83% 1.66%
Number of salaries quoted 1,141 530 537
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,438 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -5.51%
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £88,750 £87,625 £92,000
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 77,915 44,448 67,793
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.48% 89.27% 81.15%
Number of salaries quoted 53,724 25,250 43,771
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.58% -4.00% -9.09%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -13 1,802 £55,000 - 2,964
UK excluding London -30 1,372 £55,000 +4.56% 1,836
Work from Home +117 597 £56,000 -6.67% 1,097
London +77 497 £73,000 -4.26% 1,443
South East -29 408 £56,233 +4.62% 449
North of England +98 378 £53,625 +12.89% 318
North West +87 220 £55,000 +15.35% 191
Midlands -44 199 £44,000 -20.00% 249
South West -13 158 £53,000 +0.76% 287
East of England -74 131 £61,250 +7.46% 268
West Midlands +17 109 £44,360 -22.85% 157
East Midlands -63 89 £42,500 - 92
Yorkshire +16 79 £43,000 +1.18% 74
North East +7 79 £55,000 +57.14% 59
Scotland +29 67 £55,000 -5.23% 206
Wales -35 30 £47,500 -11.63% 51
Northern Ireland -68 2 - - 37
Isle of Man - 1 £38,500 - 3

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 60 (3.04%) Apache Airflow
2 59 (2.99%) Apache Spark
3 56 (2.83%) Apache
4 34 (1.72%) Confluence
5 31 (1.57%) SharePoint
6 20 (1.01%) Jupyter
7 17 (0.86%) ArcGIS
8 12 (0.61%) SAS
9 11 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.25%) CMS
10 5 (0.25%) WinCC
11 4 (0.20%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.15%) Artix
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.10%) IIS
14 1 (0.051%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.051%) Oracle Workflow
14 1 (0.051%) WebSphere
Applications
1 116 (5.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 68 (3.44%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.72%) Microsoft Project
3 34 (1.72%) Simulink
4 27 (1.37%) MS Visio
5 17 (0.86%) Spreadsheet
6 15 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 14 (0.71%) SOLIDWORKS
8 8 (0.40%) AutoCAD
9 5 (0.25%) LaTeX
9 5 (0.25%) Mathcad
10 4 (0.20%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.20%) CANalyzer
10 4 (0.20%) Sketch
11 3 (0.15%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.15%) OrCAD
11 3 (0.15%) Productboard
11 3 (0.15%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.10%) Revit
12 2 (0.10%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 50 (2.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (2.07%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.56%) SAP MDG
4 10 (0.51%) SAP ERP
5 9 (0.46%) Elite 3E
5 9 (0.46%) iTrent
5 9 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Applications
7 7 (0.35%) NetSuite
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.30%) Teamcenter
9 5 (0.25%) Loan IQ
9 5 (0.25%) SAP MDG-BP
9 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
10 4 (0.20%) SAP MM
11 2 (0.10%) SAP Business One
11 2 (0.10%) SAP CO
11 2 (0.10%) SAP FI/CO
11 2 (0.10%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 291 (14.73%) Azure
2 268 (13.56%) AWS
3 161 (8.15%) Power Platform
4 89 (4.50%) GCP
5 78 (3.95%) SaaS
6 67 (3.39%) Azure DevOps
7 58 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
8 57 (2.88%) GitHub
9 50 (2.53%) Serverless
10 45 (2.28%) Amazon S3
11 38 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
12 30 (1.52%) Entra ID
13 29 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
14 28 (1.42%) GitHub Actions
15 22 (1.11%) Amazon EMR
15 22 (1.11%) Snowflake
16 21 (1.06%) Amazon EC2
17 20 (1.01%) Cloud Computing
18 19 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
19 18 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.54%) Broadband
2 56 (2.83%) Firewall
3 50 (2.53%) DNS
4 33 (1.67%) Wireless
5 31 (1.57%) Network Security
5 31 (1.57%) TCP/IP
6 28 (1.42%) WAN
7 27 (1.37%) VPN
8 21 (1.06%) Ethernet
9 19 (0.96%) SD-WAN
10 17 (0.86%) LAN
10 17 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (0.81%) MQTT
12 15 (0.76%) Internet
12 15 (0.76%) Wireshark
13 14 (0.71%) BGP
14 13 (0.66%) HTTP
15 12 (0.61%) OSPF
16 11 (0.56%) NGN
16 11 (0.56%) RS-232
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (7.39%) Power BI
2 58 (2.94%) Data Warehouse
2 58 (2.94%) Tableau
3 53 (2.68%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (2.48%) SQL Server
5 47 (2.38%) Metadata
6 44 (2.23%) Data Lake
7 34 (1.72%) MongoDB
8 30 (1.52%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.37%) BigQuery
10 23 (1.16%) Amazon Athena
10 23 (1.16%) Semantic Layer
11 22 (1.11%) DynamoDB
12 21 (1.06%) QGIS
12 21 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 20 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
13 20 (1.01%) GIS
13 20 (1.01%) MySQL
13 20 (1.01%) Spark SQL
14 17 (0.86%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 124 (6.28%) JIRA
2 110 (5.57%) Git
3 51 (2.58%) Jenkins
4 46 (2.33%) GitLab
5 38 (1.92%) Rational DOORS
6 24 (1.21%) Selenium
7 22 (1.11%) Snyk
8 21 (1.06%) Postman
9 17 (0.86%) Cypress.io
9 17 (0.86%) LabVIEW
10 14 (0.71%) JMeter
11 13 (0.66%) Cucumber
11 13 (0.66%) IBM UrbanCode
12 10 (0.51%) REST Assured
12 10 (0.51%) TeamCity
13 9 (0.46%) Burp Suite
14 8 (0.40%) MLflow
14 8 (0.40%) Rational Rhapsody
15 7 (0.35%) Hudson
15 7 (0.35%) Zephyr
General
1 669 (33.86%) Social Skills
2 560 (28.34%) Finance
3 480 (24.29%) Analytical Skills
4 195 (9.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 192 (9.72%) Aerospace
6 179 (9.06%) Manufacturing
7 161 (8.15%) Electronics
8 111 (5.62%) Law
9 107 (5.41%) Banking
10 77 (3.90%) Public Sector
11 75 (3.80%) Retail
12 71 (3.59%) Marketing
13 69 (3.49%) Pharmaceutical
14 68 (3.44%) Organisational Skills
15 60 (3.04%) Legal
16 52 (2.63%) Automotive
17 46 (2.33%) Games
18 44 (2.23%) Telecoms
19 36 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
20 35 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 365 (18.47%) Senior
2 269 (13.61%) Analyst
3 181 (9.16%) Lead
4 164 (8.30%) Systems Engineer
5 118 (5.97%) Test Engineer
6 113 (5.72%) Architect
7 101 (5.11%) Consultant
7 101 (5.11%) Data Engineer
8 88 (4.45%) Business Analyst
9 86 (4.35%) Developer
10 71 (3.59%) Software Engineer
11 66 (3.34%) Validation Engineer
12 64 (3.24%) Data Analyst
12 64 (3.24%) Principal Engineer
13 46 (2.33%) Data Scientist
13 46 (2.33%) Embedded Engineer
13 46 (2.33%) Support Engineer
14 41 (2.07%) Electronics Engineer
15 40 (2.02%) IT Manager
16 38 (1.92%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (2.38%) RESTful
2 44 (2.23%) Kafka
3 39 (1.97%) Node.js
3 39 (1.97%) PySpark
4 38 (1.92%) REST
5 30 (1.52%) .NET
5 30 (1.52%) JSON
5 30 (1.52%) XML
6 28 (1.42%) PyTorch
7 26 (1.32%) Middleware
7 26 (1.32%) Playwright
8 24 (1.21%) LDAP
9 23 (1.16%) Pandas
10 21 (1.06%) CSS
11 20 (1.01%) HTML
11 20 (1.01%) React
12 19 (0.96%) Regular Expression
12 19 (0.96%) XMPP
13 18 (0.91%) ModSecurity
14 17 (0.86%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 143 (7.24%) Cloud Native
2 134 (6.78%) Onboarding
3 108 (5.47%) Management Information System
4 74 (3.74%) Product Ownership
5 69 (3.49%) Data Centre
6 68 (3.44%) Algorithms
7 60 (3.04%) Data Structures
8 55 (2.78%) Embedded Systems
9 53 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
10 51 (2.58%) Driving Licence
11 49 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
12 45 (2.28%) Low-Code
13 38 (1.92%) Legacy Systems
14 37 (1.87%) AI Agents
14 37 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
15 36 (1.82%) Life Science
16 34 (1.72%) Video\Live Streaming
17 33 (1.67%) Robotics
18 31 (1.57%) IoT
19 30 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 122 (6.17%) Linux
2 88 (4.45%) Windows
3 34 (1.72%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.01%) Unix
6 8 (0.40%) Embedded Linux
7 6 (0.30%) Android
7 6 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.20%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.20%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.20%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.10%) AIX
9 2 (0.10%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.10%) ThreadX
9 2 (0.10%) VMS
9 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.051%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 515 (26.06%) Problem-Solving
2 486 (24.60%) Continuous Improvement
3 415 (21.00%) Agile
4 377 (19.08%) AI
5 305 (15.44%) CI/CD
6 276 (13.97%) Analytics
7 254 (12.85%) Stakeholder Management
8 250 (12.65%) Test Automation
9 244 (12.35%) Migration
10 242 (12.25%) Verification and Validation
11 235 (11.89%) Mentoring
12 221 (11.18%) Decision-Making
13 207 (10.48%) Software Engineering
14 203 (10.27%) Data Analysis
15 199 (10.07%) Machine Learning
16 191 (9.67%) DevOps
17 179 (9.06%) Business Intelligence
18 177 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 174 (8.81%) ERP
19 174 (8.81%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 484 (24.49%) Python
2 381 (19.28%) SQL
3 92 (4.66%) Java
4 86 (4.35%) C++
5 77 (3.90%) C
6 58 (2.94%) JavaScript
7 56 (2.83%) Go
8 51 (2.58%) C#
9 49 (2.48%) MATLAB
10 27 (1.37%) Bash
10 27 (1.37%) PowerShell
11 26 (1.32%) Embedded C
12 22 (1.11%) Scala
13 20 (1.01%) TypeScript
14 18 (0.91%) Embedded C++
15 16 (0.81%) T-SQL
16 15 (0.76%) R
17 12 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 10 (0.51%) ABAP
18 10 (0.51%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 426 (21.56%) Degree
2 317 (16.04%) Security Cleared
3 191 (9.67%) SC Cleared
4 141 (7.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 105 (5.31%) DV Cleared
6 82 (4.15%) Master's Degree
7 44 (2.23%) Computer Science Degree
8 35 (1.77%) CISSP
9 34 (1.72%) Chartered Engineer
9 34 (1.72%) PhD
10 30 (1.52%) HNC
10 30 (1.52%) PMI Certification
11 28 (1.42%) CISM
12 26 (1.32%) ACCA
12 26 (1.32%) CIMA
13 24 (1.21%) HND
14 23 (1.16%) AWS Certification
15 20 (1.01%) Azure Certification
15 20 (1.01%) SANS
16 19 (0.96%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 311 (15.74%) Data Quality
2 269 (13.61%) QA
3 90 (4.55%) Accessibility
4 57 (2.88%) GDPR
5 38 (1.92%) GRC
6 27 (1.37%) IEC 61508
7 26 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 25 (1.27%) NIST
9 21 (1.06%) SLA
10 18 (0.91%) GxP
10 18 (0.91%) PMO
11 15 (0.76%) GAAP
11 15 (0.76%) IFRS
11 15 (0.76%) ISO 26262
11 15 (0.76%) WCAG
12 13 (0.66%) GMP
13 12 (0.61%) ISO 9001
14 11 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 11 (0.56%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.51%) COBIT
System Software
1 79 (4.00%) Docker
2 77 (3.90%) Firmware
3 44 (2.23%) Active Directory
4 31 (1.57%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.42%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (1.06%) vSphere
7 17 (0.86%) VMware Infrastructure
8 7 (0.35%) KVM
9 5 (0.25%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.10%) iptables
10 2 (0.10%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.051%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.051%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 80 (4.05%) Kubernetes
2 74 (3.74%) Terraform
3 40 (2.02%) Grafana
4 26 (1.32%) Functional Safety
5 25 (1.27%) Ansible
6 16 (0.81%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.51%) Cilium
8 10 (0.51%) Puppet
9 8 (0.40%) SCCM
10 7 (0.35%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 7 (0.35%) Kibana
11 6 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.20%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.20%) Nessus
12 4 (0.20%) Nmap
12 4 (0.20%) WMI
13 3 (0.15%) Argo
13 3 (0.15%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 270 (13.66%) Microsoft
2 123 (6.22%) SAP
3 109 (5.52%) Oracle
4 58 (2.94%) Salesforce
5 53 (2.68%) Databricks
6 45 (2.28%) ServiceNow
7 42 (2.13%) Google
8 40 (2.02%) Cisco
9 36 (1.82%) Red Hat
9 36 (1.82%) VMware
10 29 (1.47%) CrowdStrike
11 27 (1.37%) Palo Alto
12 26 (1.32%) EMC
13 22 (1.11%) Tenable
14 18 (0.91%) Foundry
14 18 (0.91%) IBM
15 15 (0.76%) McAfee
15 15 (0.76%) Splunk
16 14 (0.71%) Siemens
16 14 (0.71%) Workday