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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 92 170
Rank change year-on-year +20 +78 +30
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,606 1,592 1,121
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.20% 3.21% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.01% 3.61% 1.87%
Number of salaries quoted 1,519 444 418
10th Percentile £36,200 £38,715 £38,734
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,490 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +8.16% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £71,250 £77,500 £77,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £89,625 £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 86,526 44,119 60,045
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.14% 89.04% 81.91%
Number of salaries quoted 59,327 24,381 32,429
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,500
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 £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 6 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 6 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 +17 2,400 £57,500 +4.55% 4,723
UK excluding London -6 1,881 £55,000 +4.56% 3,052
Work from Home +136 683 £60,000 -7.69% 1,830
London +70 627 £67,750 -15.31% 2,064
South East -13 499 £62,500 +16.28% 783
North of England +124 488 £51,000 +7.37% 526
Midlands -15 305 £50,000 -9.09% 434
North West +110 302 £55,000 +10.00% 268
South West +20 245 £55,000 +4.56% 361
East of England -37 211 £55,000 -10.20% 419
West Midlands +54 172 £48,750 -11.36% 274
East Midlands -39 133 £50,000 +17.65% 159
Yorkshire +30 96 £42,500 - 174
Scotland +38 92 £70,000 +18.61% 400
North East +5 90 £55,000 +57.14% 85
Wales -30 44 £70,000 +12.00% 86
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 4
Northern Ireland -86 4 - - 82

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 53 (2.03%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.80%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (1.77%) Apache
4 38 (1.46%) Confluence
5 37 (1.42%) SharePoint
6 25 (0.96%) CMS
7 21 (0.81%) Jupyter
8 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
9 13 (0.50%) SAS
10 10 (0.38%) WinCC
11 6 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 5 (0.19%) 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 (0.038%) ArcGIS
15 1 (0.038%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 153 (5.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 71 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (2.11%) Simulink
4 38 (1.46%) Microsoft Project
5 29 (1.11%) Spreadsheet
6 21 (0.81%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.73%) SOLIDWORKS
8 16 (0.61%) MS Visio
9 15 (0.58%) Revit
10 11 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 11 (0.42%) OrCAD
11 10 (0.38%) Navisworks
12 8 (0.31%) EPLAN
13 6 (0.23%) Notion
14 5 (0.19%) LaTeX
14 5 (0.19%) Mathcad
14 5 (0.19%) Stateflow
15 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
16 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
16 3 (0.12%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 45 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.38%) SAP MDG
3 10 (0.38%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.35%) iTrent
5 8 (0.31%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
6 7 (0.27%) Infor M3
6 7 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.27%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.27%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.23%) Elite 3E
8 5 (0.19%) Maximo
8 5 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Sage 200
10 3 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 348 (13.35%) Azure
2 282 (10.82%) AWS
3 189 (7.25%) Power Platform
4 103 (3.95%) GCP
5 86 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
6 83 (3.18%) GitHub
7 79 (3.03%) SaaS
8 68 (2.61%) Microsoft 365
8 68 (2.61%) Serverless
9 49 (1.88%) Amazon S3
10 45 (1.73%) Entra ID
11 39 (1.50%) GitHub Actions
12 36 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
13 35 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
14 31 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
15 29 (1.11%) Amazon EMR
16 28 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
17 27 (1.04%) Azure Service Bus
17 27 (1.04%) Cloud Computing
18 26 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 70 (2.69%) DNS
2 69 (2.65%) Firewall
3 56 (2.15%) Broadband
4 45 (1.73%) Wireless
5 43 (1.65%) VPN
6 42 (1.61%) TCP/IP
7 39 (1.50%) Ethernet
8 38 (1.46%) Network Security
9 37 (1.42%) WAN
10 36 (1.38%) Modbus
11 34 (1.30%) VLAN
12 31 (1.19%) OSPF
13 30 (1.15%) LAN
14 27 (1.04%) MQTT
15 26 (1.00%) Wireshark
16 23 (0.88%) BGP
16 23 (0.88%) SD-WAN
17 19 (0.73%) 5G
18 18 (0.69%) DHCP
18 18 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 174 (6.68%) Power BI
2 76 (2.92%) Metadata
3 63 (2.42%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.11%) Data Lake
4 55 (2.11%) SQL Server
5 48 (1.84%) PostgreSQL
6 42 (1.61%) Amazon Athena
7 39 (1.50%) Tableau
8 38 (1.46%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.19%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.07%) Big Data
10 28 (1.07%) BigQuery
10 28 (1.07%) NoSQL
11 24 (0.92%) DynamoDB
12 22 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
12 22 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.81%) Power Query
14 20 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
15 19 (0.73%) MySQL
15 19 (0.73%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 145 (5.56%) JIRA
2 131 (5.03%) Git
3 64 (2.46%) Jenkins
4 62 (2.38%) GitLab
5 46 (1.77%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.19%) LabVIEW
7 28 (1.07%) Selenium
8 24 (0.92%) Postman
9 20 (0.77%) Cypress.io
10 19 (0.73%) Snyk
11 14 (0.54%) Claude Code
12 13 (0.50%) Burp Suite
13 11 (0.42%) Eclipse
13 11 (0.42%) JMeter
13 11 (0.42%) Rational Rhapsody
13 11 (0.42%) REST Assured
13 11 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
14 9 (0.35%) Cucumber
14 9 (0.35%) MLflow
15 8 (0.31%) Gatling
General
1 881 (33.81%) Social Skills
2 676 (25.94%) Finance
3 613 (23.52%) Analytical Skills
4 262 (10.05%) Manufacturing
5 254 (9.75%) Aerospace
6 249 (9.55%) Electronics
7 236 (9.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 142 (5.45%) Law
9 119 (4.57%) Public Sector
10 117 (4.49%) Organisational Skills
11 116 (4.45%) Marketing
12 110 (4.22%) Banking
13 102 (3.91%) Retail
14 99 (3.80%) Telecoms
15 86 (3.30%) Automotive
16 85 (3.26%) Pharmaceutical
17 59 (2.26%) Legal
18 50 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
19 47 (1.80%) Military
20 42 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 466 (17.88%) Senior
2 307 (11.78%) Systems Engineer
3 273 (10.48%) Analyst
4 217 (8.33%) Lead
5 135 (5.18%) Data Engineer
6 127 (4.87%) Test Engineer
7 121 (4.64%) Architect
8 108 (4.14%) Developer
9 97 (3.72%) Consultant
10 95 (3.65%) Software Engineer
11 86 (3.30%) Electronics Engineer
12 83 (3.18%) Principal Engineer
13 80 (3.07%) Business Analyst
14 68 (2.61%) Data Analyst
15 61 (2.34%) Validation Engineer
16 60 (2.30%) Network Engineer
17 55 (2.11%) Design Engineer
18 52 (2.00%) Automation Engineer
19 48 (1.84%) Administrator
20 47 (1.80%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (3.42%) Terraform
2 65 (2.49%) REST
3 63 (2.42%) RESTful
4 61 (2.34%) Kafka
5 55 (2.11%) Node.js
6 52 (2.00%) .NET
7 44 (1.69%) Playwright
7 44 (1.69%) PySpark
8 39 (1.50%) JSON
9 36 (1.38%) FastAPI
10 35 (1.34%) XML
11 34 (1.30%) React
12 33 (1.27%) CSS
13 31 (1.19%) HTML
14 29 (1.11%) Swagger
15 25 (0.96%) RabbitMQ
16 24 (0.92%) OpenAPI
17 23 (0.88%) LDAP
17 23 (0.88%) Middleware
17 23 (0.88%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 173 (6.64%) Cloud Native
2 154 (5.91%) Management Information System
2 154 (5.91%) Onboarding
3 87 (3.34%) Product Ownership
4 79 (3.03%) Data Centre
5 73 (2.80%) Driving Licence
6 72 (2.76%) Embedded Systems
7 65 (2.49%) Distributed Systems
8 64 (2.46%) Data Structures
9 62 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
10 59 (2.26%) AI Agents
11 56 (2.15%) Algorithms
12 55 (2.11%) SCADA
13 48 (1.84%) Life Science
14 41 (1.57%) IoT
14 41 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
15 40 (1.53%) Robotics
16 39 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
17 38 (1.46%) Analogue Electronics
18 37 (1.42%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 132 (5.07%) Linux
2 93 (3.57%) Windows
3 31 (1.19%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.00%) Unix
5 13 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.38%) 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 (0.038%) AIX
12 1 (0.038%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.038%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 682 (26.17%) Problem-Solving
2 593 (22.76%) Continuous Improvement
3 472 (18.11%) Agile
4 468 (17.96%) Verification and Validation
5 458 (17.57%) AI
6 361 (13.85%) CI/CD
7 350 (13.43%) Stakeholder Management
8 332 (12.74%) Test Automation
9 325 (12.47%) Migration
10 279 (10.71%) Analytics
11 277 (10.63%) Mentoring
12 260 (9.98%) Software Engineering
13 248 (9.52%) Decision-Making
14 245 (9.40%) DevOps
15 229 (8.79%) Data Analysis
16 227 (8.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 213 (8.17%) Business Intelligence
18 211 (8.10%) Roadmaps
19 203 (7.79%) Data Migration
20 202 (7.75%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 541 (20.76%) Python
2 460 (17.65%) SQL
3 108 (4.14%) Java
4 96 (3.68%) C++
5 91 (3.49%) C
6 78 (2.99%) C#
6 78 (2.99%) JavaScript
7 71 (2.72%) MATLAB
8 47 (1.80%) Go
9 36 (1.38%) Bash
9 36 (1.38%) TypeScript
10 35 (1.34%) PowerShell
11 30 (1.15%) Embedded C
12 29 (1.11%) R
13 25 (0.96%) Scala
14 20 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 18 (0.69%) Embedded C++
16 12 (0.46%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.42%) Apex Code
18 9 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 565 (21.68%) Security Cleared
2 561 (21.53%) Degree
3 428 (16.42%) SC Cleared
4 125 (4.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 106 (4.07%) DV Cleared
6 99 (3.80%) Master's Degree
7 53 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
8 47 (1.80%) PhD
9 45 (1.73%) HND
10 38 (1.46%) Chartered Engineer
11 36 (1.38%) HNC
11 36 (1.38%) PMI Certification
12 32 (1.23%) Azure Certification
12 32 (1.23%) CISSP
13 30 (1.15%) ACCA
14 28 (1.07%) AWS Certification
15 27 (1.04%) CIMA
16 26 (1.00%) PMP
17 23 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
18 21 (0.81%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 388 (14.89%) Data Quality
2 315 (12.09%) QA
3 87 (3.34%) Accessibility
4 65 (2.49%) GDPR
5 33 (1.27%) GRC
5 33 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 28 (1.07%) GxP
7 25 (0.96%) SLA
8 23 (0.88%) NIST
9 19 (0.73%) IEC 61508
10 18 (0.69%) ISO 9001
11 16 (0.61%) GMP
12 15 (0.58%) ISO 19650
12 15 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 12 (0.46%) ISO 26262
13 12 (0.46%) SOC 2
13 12 (0.46%) WCAG
14 11 (0.42%) PMO
15 9 (0.35%) GAAP
15 9 (0.35%) JTAG
System Software
1 112 (4.30%) Docker
2 105 (4.03%) Firmware
3 49 (1.88%) Active Directory
4 47 (1.80%) Embedded Firmware
5 25 (0.96%) 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 (0.038%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 93 (3.57%) Kubernetes
2 45 (1.73%) Grafana
3 36 (1.38%) Ansible
4 29 (1.11%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.61%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.38%) Puppet
9 8 (0.31%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.31%) Cilium
9 8 (0.31%) Kibana
9 8 (0.31%) Nessus
9 8 (0.31%) Nmap
10 5 (0.19%) Argo
10 5 (0.19%) WMI
11 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.15%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.15%) Rancher
11 4 (0.15%) SCCM
11 4 (0.15%) yum
Vendors
1 342 (13.12%) Microsoft
2 132 (5.07%) SAP
3 104 (3.99%) Oracle
4 91 (3.49%) Salesforce
5 72 (2.76%) EMC
6 67 (2.57%) Databricks
7 56 (2.15%) Cisco
7 56 (2.15%) ServiceNow
8 44 (1.69%) Google
9 32 (1.23%) Adobe
10 30 (1.15%) Thales
11 29 (1.11%) CrowdStrike
12 25 (0.96%) Palo Alto
12 25 (0.96%) Sage
13 23 (0.88%) IBM
13 23 (0.88%) Samsung
14 21 (0.81%) Informatica
14 21 (0.81%) Siemens
14 21 (0.81%) TikTok
14 21 (0.81%) VMware