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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 86 182
Rank change year-on-year +5 +96 +19
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,337 1,637 1,144
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.06% 3.30% 1.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.83% 3.72% 1.80%
Number of salaries quoted 1,398 481 449
10th Percentile £35,675 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,250 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.91% -4.35% -10.16%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -0.42%

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 82,683 43,966 63,604
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.91% 88.62% 80.92%
Number of salaries quoted 57,515 24,838 36,851
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,875
25th Percentile £41,500 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £76,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,375 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -3.37%

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 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 12 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 +7 2,153 £57,500 +4.55% 2,696
UK excluding London -13 1,714 £55,000 +4.56% 1,747
Work from Home +121 630 £56,500 -5.83% 2,064
London +68 539 £70,000 -12.50% 1,257
South East -15 484 £62,500 +19.05% 456
North of England +110 448 £55,000 +15.79% 269
North West +100 276 £55,000 +15.35% 150
Midlands -33 250 £48,750 -11.36% 269
South West +18 230 £58,750 +11.69% 255
East of England -56 170 £55,000 -8.33% 247
West Midlands +28 142 £50,000 -9.09% 182
East Midlands -55 108 £46,209 +8.73% 86
Yorkshire +7 87 £43,000 +1.18% 76
North East +5 85 £55,000 +57.14% 46
Scotland +41 84 £70,000 +20.62% 191
Wales -36 41 £70,000 +30.23% 51
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 1
Northern Ireland -72 4 - - 44

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 47 (2.01%) Apache Spark
2 44 (1.88%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (1.71%) Apache
4 35 (1.50%) Confluence
5 34 (1.45%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.86%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.56%) SAS
8 11 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.34%) WinCC
10 5 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.21%) CMS
11 3 (0.13%) Artix
11 3 (0.13%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.086%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.086%) IIS
13 1 (0.043%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.043%) Palantir Foundry
13 1 (0.043%) WebSphere
Applications
1 125 (5.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 70 (3.00%) Microsoft Office
3 48 (2.05%) Simulink
4 36 (1.54%) Microsoft Project
5 18 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
6 17 (0.73%) SOLIDWORKS
7 16 (0.68%) MS Visio
8 14 (0.60%) AutoCAD
9 10 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (0.34%) Revit
11 6 (0.26%) CANalyzer
11 6 (0.26%) Navisworks
12 5 (0.21%) LaTeX
12 5 (0.21%) Mathcad
13 4 (0.17%) Adobe XD
13 4 (0.17%) EPLAN
13 4 (0.17%) OrCAD
13 4 (0.17%) Sketch
14 3 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
14 3 (0.13%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 42 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 40 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.47%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.39%) iTrent
4 9 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.34%) Workday HCM
6 7 (0.30%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.30%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.30%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.26%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.21%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.17%) Infor M3
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) Loan IQ
10 3 (0.13%) Maximo
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.086%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 307 (13.14%) Azure
2 260 (11.13%) AWS
3 171 (7.32%) Power Platform
4 92 (3.94%) GCP
5 75 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
6 73 (3.12%) SaaS
7 65 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
8 64 (2.74%) GitHub
9 58 (2.48%) Serverless
10 43 (1.84%) Amazon S3
11 37 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
12 35 (1.50%) Entra ID
13 32 (1.37%) GitHub Actions
14 30 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
15 27 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
16 25 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
17 24 (1.03%) Amazon EMR
18 23 (0.98%) Microsoft Purview
18 23 (0.98%) PowerApps
19 22 (0.94%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 72 (3.08%) DNS
2 69 (2.95%) Firewall
3 64 (2.74%) Broadband
4 41 (1.75%) Wireless
5 38 (1.63%) WAN
6 37 (1.58%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.58%) VPN
7 35 (1.50%) Network Security
8 28 (1.20%) LAN
9 27 (1.16%) Ethernet
10 26 (1.11%) VLAN
11 25 (1.07%) Modbus
11 25 (1.07%) OSPF
12 23 (0.98%) SD-WAN
13 22 (0.94%) BGP
14 21 (0.90%) MQTT
14 21 (0.90%) Wireshark
15 18 (0.77%) 5G
16 16 (0.68%) HTTP
16 16 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (6.68%) Power BI
2 58 (2.48%) Data Warehouse
3 57 (2.44%) Metadata
4 54 (2.31%) Data Lake
5 51 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
6 47 (2.01%) SQL Server
7 43 (1.84%) Tableau
8 36 (1.54%) Amazon Athena
8 36 (1.54%) MongoDB
9 31 (1.33%) Relational Database
10 27 (1.16%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.07%) Big Data
11 25 (1.07%) DynamoDB
12 22 (0.94%) Semantic Layer
12 22 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 21 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
13 21 (0.90%) NoSQL
14 19 (0.81%) Amazon Redshift
15 17 (0.73%) Delta Lake
15 17 (0.73%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 132 (5.65%) JIRA
2 120 (5.13%) Git
3 61 (2.61%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.27%) GitLab
5 41 (1.75%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (1.33%) Selenium
7 25 (1.07%) Postman
8 24 (1.03%) LabVIEW
9 22 (0.94%) Cypress.io
9 22 (0.94%) Snyk
10 14 (0.60%) Burp Suite
11 13 (0.56%) JMeter
12 11 (0.47%) Cucumber
12 11 (0.47%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.43%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.39%) Claude Code
14 9 (0.39%) Gatling
14 9 (0.39%) MLflow
14 9 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
15 8 (0.34%) Metasploit
General
1 778 (33.29%) Social Skills
2 601 (25.72%) Finance
3 555 (23.75%) Analytical Skills
4 229 (9.80%) Aerospace
5 215 (9.20%) Manufacturing
6 208 (8.90%) Electronics
7 204 (8.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 139 (5.95%) Law
9 101 (4.32%) Banking
10 97 (4.15%) Organisational Skills
11 95 (4.07%) Retail
12 94 (4.02%) Public Sector
13 86 (3.68%) Marketing
14 82 (3.51%) Pharmaceutical
15 80 (3.42%) Telecoms
16 68 (2.91%) Automotive
17 61 (2.61%) Legal
18 47 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
19 43 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
19 43 (1.84%) Games
Job Titles
1 411 (17.59%) Senior
2 301 (12.88%) Systems Engineer
3 267 (11.42%) Analyst
4 205 (8.77%) Lead
5 130 (5.56%) Test Engineer
6 123 (5.26%) Architect
7 114 (4.88%) Data Engineer
8 96 (4.11%) Developer
9 91 (3.89%) Consultant
10 81 (3.47%) Business Analyst
11 79 (3.38%) Software Engineer
12 72 (3.08%) Principal Engineer
13 69 (2.95%) Data Analyst
14 65 (2.78%) Validation Engineer
15 64 (2.74%) Electronics Engineer
16 54 (2.31%) Network Engineer
17 51 (2.18%) Embedded Engineer
18 50 (2.14%) Support Engineer
19 48 (2.05%) Data Scientist
20 44 (1.88%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.29%) Terraform
2 53 (2.27%) RESTful
3 52 (2.23%) Kafka
4 51 (2.18%) REST
5 44 (1.88%) Node.js
6 39 (1.67%) PySpark
7 37 (1.58%) Playwright
8 35 (1.50%) JSON
9 34 (1.45%) XML
10 32 (1.37%) .NET
11 27 (1.16%) FastAPI
11 27 (1.16%) LDAP
12 26 (1.11%) CSS
13 25 (1.07%) HTML
14 24 (1.03%) React
15 23 (0.98%) Middleware
16 21 (0.90%) ModSecurity
17 20 (0.86%) Swagger
17 20 (0.86%) XMPP
18 19 (0.81%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 160 (6.85%) Cloud Native
2 124 (5.31%) Management Information System
3 121 (5.18%) Onboarding
4 87 (3.72%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.47%) Data Centre
6 66 (2.82%) Embedded Systems
7 63 (2.70%) Driving Licence
8 60 (2.57%) Data Structures
9 58 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
10 56 (2.40%) Algorithms
11 54 (2.31%) Distributed Systems
12 46 (1.97%) AI Agents
12 46 (1.97%) Low-Code
13 45 (1.93%) Life Science
14 44 (1.88%) SCADA
15 41 (1.75%) Analytical Mindset
16 40 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
16 40 (1.71%) Robotics
17 37 (1.58%) IoT
18 34 (1.45%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 139 (5.95%) Linux
2 94 (4.02%) Windows
3 35 (1.50%) Windows Server
4 24 (1.03%) Unix
5 19 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.43%) Android
7 8 (0.34%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.34%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.21%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.086%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.086%) VMS
12 2 (0.086%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.043%) AIX
13 1 (0.043%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.043%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 593 (25.37%) Problem-Solving
2 528 (22.59%) Continuous Improvement
3 434 (18.57%) Agile
4 420 (17.97%) Verification and Validation
5 403 (17.24%) AI
6 317 (13.56%) CI/CD
7 300 (12.84%) Stakeholder Management
8 294 (12.58%) Test Automation
9 280 (11.98%) Migration
10 261 (11.17%) Analytics
11 251 (10.74%) Mentoring
12 236 (10.10%) Software Engineering
13 230 (9.84%) Decision-Making
14 213 (9.11%) DevOps
15 205 (8.77%) Data Analysis
16 204 (8.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 199 (8.52%) Business Intelligence
17 199 (8.52%) Machine Learning
18 187 (8.00%) Roadmaps
19 178 (7.62%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 491 (21.01%) Python
2 413 (17.67%) SQL
3 102 (4.36%) Java
4 91 (3.89%) C++
5 85 (3.64%) C
6 70 (3.00%) JavaScript
7 63 (2.70%) MATLAB
8 56 (2.40%) C#
9 54 (2.31%) Go
10 34 (1.45%) Bash
11 32 (1.37%) Embedded C
12 27 (1.16%) PowerShell
13 25 (1.07%) TypeScript
14 24 (1.03%) Scala
15 22 (0.94%) R
16 18 (0.77%) Embedded C++
17 13 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 11 (0.47%) T-SQL
19 9 (0.39%) Shell Script
20 8 (0.34%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 517 (22.12%) Security Cleared
2 506 (21.65%) Degree
3 380 (16.26%) SC Cleared
4 126 (5.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 110 (4.71%) DV Cleared
6 91 (3.89%) Master's Degree
7 53 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
8 41 (1.75%) PhD
9 38 (1.63%) Chartered Engineer
10 35 (1.50%) HND
11 34 (1.45%) CISSP
11 34 (1.45%) PMI Certification
12 33 (1.41%) HNC
13 25 (1.07%) Azure Certification
13 25 (1.07%) CISM
14 24 (1.03%) ACCA
14 24 (1.03%) AWS Certification
15 21 (0.90%) CIMA
15 21 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
15 21 (0.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 342 (14.63%) Data Quality
2 299 (12.79%) QA
3 82 (3.51%) Accessibility
4 55 (2.35%) GDPR
5 37 (1.58%) GRC
6 30 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.20%) GxP
8 22 (0.94%) IEC 61508
8 22 (0.94%) NIST
9 21 (0.90%) SLA
10 16 (0.68%) PMO
11 15 (0.64%) GMP
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 26262
11 15 (0.64%) ISO 9001
12 13 (0.56%) WCAG
13 12 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 12 (0.51%) SOC 2
14 10 (0.43%) ISO 19650
15 9 (0.39%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.39%) JTAG
System Software
1 89 (3.81%) Firmware
2 81 (3.47%) Docker
3 48 (2.05%) Active Directory
4 40 (1.71%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.90%) vSphere
7 9 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.17%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.13%) KVM
10 2 (0.086%) iptables
10 2 (0.086%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.086%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.043%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.043%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 78 (3.34%) Kubernetes
2 42 (1.80%) Grafana
3 33 (1.41%) Ansible
4 28 (1.20%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.77%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.43%) Cilium
8 8 (0.34%) Nessus
8 8 (0.34%) Nmap
8 8 (0.34%) Puppet
9 7 (0.30%) Kibana
9 7 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
11 5 (0.21%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.21%) WMI
12 4 (0.17%) Argo
12 4 (0.17%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
12 4 (0.17%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.17%) Kubeflow
12 4 (0.17%) SCCM
Vendors
1 292 (12.49%) Microsoft
2 123 (5.26%) SAP
3 99 (4.24%) Oracle
4 60 (2.57%) Databricks
5 56 (2.40%) Salesforce
6 55 (2.35%) Cisco
7 53 (2.27%) ServiceNow
8 43 (1.84%) Google
9 42 (1.80%) EMC
10 30 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.20%) Palo Alto
11 28 (1.20%) VMware
12 23 (0.98%) Red Hat
12 23 (0.98%) Tenable
13 19 (0.81%) IBM
14 18 (0.77%) Siemens
14 18 (0.77%) Splunk
15 17 (0.73%) Sage
15 17 (0.73%) Thales
16 15 (0.64%) McAfee