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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 85 194
Rank change year-on-year -4 +109 +11
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,096 1,688 1,169
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.92% 3.38% 1.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.63% 3.80% 1.74%
Number of salaries quoted 1,248 520 502
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.73% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £72,500 £73,125 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,150 £91,500 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -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 79,759 44,399 67,357
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.20% 88.84% 80.67%
Number of salaries quoted 55,200 25,247 42,330
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 26 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 26 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 -5 1,935 £56,500 +2.73% 2,199
UK excluding London -21 1,500 £55,000 +4.76% 1,525
Work from Home +126 601 £56,000 -6.67% 909
London +65 514 £70,000 -12.50% 990
South East -19 441 £59,490 +13.31% 342
North of England +95 404 £55,000 +15.79% 264
North West +99 239 £55,000 +15.35% 153
Midlands -46 215 £47,122 -14.32% 195
South West -1 183 £55,000 +4.56% 275
East of England -63 145 £58,750 +23.68% 225
West Midlands +17 118 £46,110 -16.16% 132
East Midlands -62 96 £48,372 +13.82% 63
North East +4 83 £55,000 +57.14% 51
Yorkshire +11 82 £43,000 +1.18% 67
Scotland +30 75 £67,500 +16.31% 191
Wales -36 32 £60,000 +11.63% 40
Isle of Man - 4 £38,500 - 3
Northern Ireland -80 2 - - 31

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 49 (2.34%) Apache Airflow
2 46 (2.19%) Apache Spark
3 44 (2.10%) Apache
4 36 (1.72%) Confluence
5 32 (1.53%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.95%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.62%) SAS
8 10 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
9 6 (0.29%) WinCC
10 5 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.24%) CMS
11 4 (0.19%) Kinematics
12 3 (0.14%) Artix
12 3 (0.14%) IIS
12 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.095%) Cloud Foundry
14 1 (0.048%) FactoryTalk
14 1 (0.048%) OpenStack
14 1 (0.048%) Palantir Foundry
14 1 (0.048%) WebSphere
Applications
1 118 (5.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 38 (1.81%) Simulink
4 35 (1.67%) Microsoft Project
5 17 (0.81%) MS Visio
5 17 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
6 13 (0.62%) SOLIDWORKS
7 11 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 10 (0.48%) AutoCAD
9 5 (0.24%) LaTeX
9 5 (0.24%) Mathcad
10 4 (0.19%) Adobe XD
10 4 (0.19%) OrCAD
10 4 (0.19%) Revit
10 4 (0.19%) Sketch
11 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
11 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
11 3 (0.14%) Productboard
11 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
12 2 (0.095%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 42 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (1.96%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.48%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.43%) iTrent
4 9 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.38%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.38%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.33%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.33%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.29%) Workday HCM
8 5 (0.24%) Loan IQ
8 5 (0.24%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.095%) Oracle Payables
11 2 (0.095%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
11 2 (0.095%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 286 (13.65%) Azure
2 252 (12.02%) AWS
3 161 (7.68%) Power Platform
4 91 (4.34%) GCP
5 80 (3.82%) SaaS
6 67 (3.20%) Azure DevOps
7 63 (3.01%) Microsoft 365
8 58 (2.77%) GitHub
9 50 (2.39%) Serverless
10 38 (1.81%) Amazon S3
11 36 (1.72%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (1.57%) Entra ID
13 30 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
15 22 (1.05%) Amazon EMR
16 21 (1.00%) Amazon EC2
16 21 (1.00%) Snowflake
17 20 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
17 20 (0.95%) PowerApps
18 19 (0.91%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 66 (3.15%) Broadband
2 62 (2.96%) Firewall
3 59 (2.81%) DNS
4 40 (1.91%) Wireless
5 34 (1.62%) Network Security
6 33 (1.57%) WAN
7 32 (1.53%) TCP/IP
8 30 (1.43%) VPN
9 24 (1.15%) Ethernet
10 23 (1.10%) LAN
11 21 (1.00%) SD-WAN
12 18 (0.86%) MQTT
12 18 (0.86%) VLAN
13 17 (0.81%) BGP
13 17 (0.81%) OSPF
13 17 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
13 17 (0.81%) Wireshark
14 16 (0.76%) Modbus
15 15 (0.72%) Internet
16 14 (0.67%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (7.01%) Power BI
2 56 (2.67%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.48%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (2.34%) Metadata
5 45 (2.15%) SQL Server
6 44 (2.10%) Data Lake
7 43 (2.05%) Tableau
8 35 (1.67%) MongoDB
9 28 (1.34%) Amazon Athena
9 28 (1.34%) Relational Database
10 27 (1.29%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.19%) DynamoDB
12 23 (1.10%) Semantic Layer
13 21 (1.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 19 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
14 19 (0.91%) MySQL
15 18 (0.86%) Big Data
16 17 (0.81%) NoSQL
17 14 (0.67%) Amazon Redshift
17 14 (0.67%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 128 (6.11%) JIRA
2 105 (5.01%) Git
3 55 (2.62%) Jenkins
4 49 (2.34%) GitLab
5 36 (1.72%) Rational DOORS
6 29 (1.38%) Selenium
7 24 (1.15%) Postman
8 22 (1.05%) Snyk
9 21 (1.00%) Cypress.io
10 18 (0.86%) LabVIEW
11 16 (0.76%) JMeter
12 15 (0.72%) Cucumber
13 12 (0.57%) Burp Suite
14 11 (0.52%) REST Assured
15 10 (0.48%) Gatling
15 10 (0.48%) TeamCity
16 9 (0.43%) Zephyr
17 8 (0.38%) Rational Rhapsody
18 7 (0.33%) Hudson
18 7 (0.33%) LoadRunner
General
1 709 (33.83%) Social Skills
2 561 (26.77%) Finance
3 505 (24.09%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (9.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 199 (9.49%) Aerospace
6 184 (8.78%) Manufacturing
7 175 (8.35%) Electronics
8 123 (5.87%) Law
9 102 (4.87%) Banking
10 85 (4.06%) Public Sector
11 80 (3.82%) Retail
12 78 (3.72%) Marketing
13 73 (3.48%) Pharmaceutical
14 71 (3.39%) Organisational Skills
15 59 (2.81%) Legal
16 58 (2.77%) Automotive
17 52 (2.48%) Telecoms
18 46 (2.19%) Games
19 44 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
20 40 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 380 (18.13%) Senior
2 261 (12.45%) Analyst
3 218 (10.40%) Systems Engineer
4 192 (9.16%) Lead
5 127 (6.06%) Test Engineer
6 117 (5.58%) Architect
7 101 (4.82%) Data Engineer
8 92 (4.39%) Developer
9 81 (3.86%) Consultant
10 79 (3.77%) Business Analyst
11 77 (3.67%) Software Engineer
12 67 (3.20%) Data Analyst
13 65 (3.10%) Principal Engineer
14 63 (3.01%) Validation Engineer
15 50 (2.39%) Embedded Engineer
16 49 (2.34%) Support Engineer
17 47 (2.24%) Data Scientist
18 44 (2.10%) Electronics Engineer
18 44 (2.10%) Network Engineer
18 44 (2.10%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.53%) Terraform
2 50 (2.39%) RESTful
3 47 (2.24%) Kafka
4 45 (2.15%) REST
5 40 (1.91%) Node.js
6 34 (1.62%) JSON
7 32 (1.53%) Playwright
8 31 (1.48%) .NET
8 31 (1.48%) XML
9 29 (1.38%) PySpark
10 27 (1.29%) LDAP
10 27 (1.29%) Middleware
11 23 (1.10%) CSS
12 22 (1.05%) HTML
13 21 (1.00%) ModSecurity
13 21 (1.00%) React
14 20 (0.95%) FastAPI
15 19 (0.91%) OAuth
15 19 (0.91%) Regular Expression
15 19 (0.91%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 152 (7.25%) Cloud Native
2 126 (6.01%) Onboarding
3 114 (5.44%) Management Information System
4 79 (3.77%) Product Ownership
5 75 (3.58%) Data Centre
6 60 (2.86%) Embedded Systems
7 59 (2.81%) Data Structures
8 56 (2.67%) Driving Licence
8 56 (2.67%) Enterprise Software
9 54 (2.58%) Distributed Systems
10 52 (2.48%) Algorithms
11 48 (2.29%) Low-Code
12 41 (1.96%) AI Agents
12 41 (1.96%) Life Science
13 39 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
14 37 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
15 35 (1.67%) Robotics
15 35 (1.67%) Video\Live Streaming
16 33 (1.57%) IoT
17 31 (1.48%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 128 (6.11%) Linux
2 92 (4.39%) Windows
3 35 (1.67%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (0.95%) Unix
6 10 (0.48%) Android
7 9 (0.43%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
8 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.24%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.095%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.095%) ThreadX
12 2 (0.095%) VMS
12 2 (0.095%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.048%) AIX
13 1 (0.048%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 537 (25.62%) Problem-Solving
2 505 (24.09%) Continuous Improvement
3 425 (20.28%) Agile
4 374 (17.84%) AI
5 316 (15.08%) Verification and Validation
6 304 (14.50%) CI/CD
7 277 (13.22%) Test Automation
8 270 (12.88%) Stakeholder Management
9 254 (12.12%) Analytics
10 248 (11.83%) Migration
11 240 (11.45%) Mentoring
12 226 (10.78%) Decision-Making
13 221 (10.54%) Software Engineering
14 204 (9.73%) DevOps
15 186 (8.87%) Data Analysis
16 185 (8.83%) Machine Learning
17 184 (8.78%) Business Intelligence
18 183 (8.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 171 (8.16%) Roadmaps
20 166 (7.92%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 465 (22.19%) Python
2 385 (18.37%) SQL
3 98 (4.68%) Java
4 88 (4.20%) C++
5 80 (3.82%) C
6 63 (3.01%) JavaScript
7 55 (2.62%) Go
8 53 (2.53%) C#
8 53 (2.53%) MATLAB
9 31 (1.48%) Bash
10 28 (1.34%) Embedded C
10 28 (1.34%) PowerShell
11 22 (1.05%) Scala
12 20 (0.95%) TypeScript
13 19 (0.91%) R
14 18 (0.86%) Embedded C++
15 12 (0.57%) T-SQL
16 10 (0.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 9 (0.43%) ABAP
17 9 (0.43%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 455 (21.71%) Degree
2 405 (19.32%) Security Cleared
3 272 (12.98%) SC Cleared
4 126 (6.01%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (5.10%) DV Cleared
6 85 (4.06%) Master's Degree
7 47 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (1.77%) PhD
9 36 (1.72%) CISSP
10 32 (1.53%) Chartered Engineer
11 31 (1.48%) HNC
12 30 (1.43%) PMI Certification
13 29 (1.38%) HND
14 28 (1.34%) CISM
15 26 (1.24%) ACCA
16 25 (1.19%) CIMA
17 24 (1.15%) AWS Certification
18 23 (1.10%) Azure Certification
19 19 (0.91%) ISTQB
20 18 (0.86%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 308 (14.69%) Data Quality
2 288 (13.74%) QA
3 79 (3.77%) Accessibility
4 52 (2.48%) GDPR
5 37 (1.77%) GRC
6 26 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.10%) IEC 61508
7 23 (1.10%) NIST
8 21 (1.00%) GxP
8 21 (1.00%) SLA
9 18 (0.86%) PMO
10 17 (0.81%) WCAG
11 15 (0.72%) ISO 26262
12 14 (0.67%) GAAP
12 14 (0.67%) IFRS
12 14 (0.67%) ISO 9001
13 13 (0.62%) GMP
14 11 (0.52%) SOC 2
15 9 (0.43%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.43%) JTAG
System Software
1 80 (3.82%) Docker
1 80 (3.82%) Firmware
2 47 (2.24%) Active Directory
3 35 (1.67%) Embedded Firmware
4 28 (1.34%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (1.00%) vSphere
6 12 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
7 5 (0.24%) KVM
8 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.095%) iptables
9 2 (0.095%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.095%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.048%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.048%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 80 (3.82%) Kubernetes
2 46 (2.19%) Grafana
3 27 (1.29%) Functional Safety
4 26 (1.24%) Ansible
5 16 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.48%) Cilium
8 8 (0.38%) Puppet
9 7 (0.33%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 7 (0.33%) Kibana
9 7 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.29%) Nessus
10 6 (0.29%) Nmap
11 5 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.24%) SCCM
11 5 (0.24%) WMI
12 4 (0.19%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.19%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.14%) Argo
14 2 (0.095%) kaniko
Vendors
1 270 (12.88%) Microsoft
2 115 (5.49%) SAP
3 96 (4.58%) Oracle
4 57 (2.72%) Salesforce
5 56 (2.67%) Databricks
6 49 (2.34%) Cisco
7 48 (2.29%) ServiceNow
8 43 (2.05%) Google
9 31 (1.48%) VMware
10 29 (1.38%) CrowdStrike
10 29 (1.38%) EMC
11 28 (1.34%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.19%) Red Hat
13 22 (1.05%) Tenable
14 18 (0.86%) IBM
15 17 (0.81%) Splunk
16 15 (0.72%) McAfee
16 15 (0.72%) Workday
17 14 (0.67%) Foundry
18 13 (0.62%) Siemens