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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 92 177
Rank change year-on-year +16 +85 +31
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,505 1,608 1,133
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.14% 3.26% 1.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.93% 3.67% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 1,479 455 436
10th Percentile £35,700 £38,750 £38,867
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £47,500
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 £76,250 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £90,000 £94,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,800 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -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 85,591 43,838 62,686
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.02% 88.74% 81.52%
Number of salaries quoted 59,105 24,621 34,654
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,560
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.45% -4.07%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
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 25 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 25 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 2,312 £58,250 +5.91% 4,035
UK excluding London -6 1,823 £55,000 +4.17% 2,447
Work from Home +132 661 £60,000 -2.04% 1,524
London +76 589 £70,000 -12.50% 1,920
South East -16 495 £62,500 +13.64% 636
North of England +115 477 £53,851 +13.15% 433
North West +109 294 £55,000 +10.00% 244
Midlands -26 277 £50,000 -9.09% 345
South West +16 243 £55,000 +4.56% 320
East of England -43 198 £55,000 -8.33% 320
West Midlands +43 159 £50,000 -9.09% 239
East Midlands -52 118 £50,000 +17.65% 105
Yorkshire +24 93 £43,000 +1.18% 122
North East 0 90 £55,000 +57.14% 69
Scotland +44 84 £70,000 +20.62% 298
Wales -36 42 £70,000 +21.74% 51
Northern Ireland -85 5 - - 76
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 1

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 48 (1.92%) Apache Spark
2 46 (1.84%) Apache Airflow
3 42 (1.68%) Apache
4 40 (1.60%) Confluence
5 36 (1.44%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.80%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
7 13 (0.52%) SAS
8 9 (0.36%) WinCC
9 6 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) 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 (0.080%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.080%) IIS
12 2 (0.080%) Kinematics
13 1 (0.040%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.040%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 145 (5.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 70 (2.79%) Microsoft Office
3 53 (2.12%) Simulink
4 37 (1.48%) Microsoft Project
5 25 (1.00%) Spreadsheet
6 20 (0.80%) SOLIDWORKS
7 19 (0.76%) AutoCAD
8 16 (0.64%) MS Visio
9 12 (0.48%) Revit
10 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 8 (0.32%) EPLAN
12 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
12 7 (0.28%) OrCAD
13 5 (0.20%) LaTeX
13 5 (0.20%) Mathcad
14 4 (0.16%) CANalyzer
15 3 (0.12%) Adobe XD
15 3 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
15 3 (0.12%) Productboard
15 3 (0.12%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 44 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (1.72%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.44%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.36%) iTrent
4 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
4 9 (0.36%) Workday HCM
5 8 (0.32%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.28%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.24%) Elite 3E
7 6 (0.24%) Infor M3
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.20%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.16%) Maximo
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 329 (13.13%) Azure
2 271 (10.82%) AWS
3 183 (7.31%) Power Platform
4 102 (4.07%) GCP
5 87 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
6 76 (3.03%) GitHub
7 75 (2.99%) SaaS
8 67 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.67%) Serverless
9 44 (1.76%) Amazon S3
10 41 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
11 40 (1.60%) Entra ID
12 38 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
13 35 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
14 29 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
14 29 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
15 26 (1.04%) Cloud Computing
16 25 (1.00%) Amazon EMR
16 25 (1.00%) Azure Service Bus
17 24 (0.96%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.75%) DNS
1 69 (2.75%) Firewall
2 55 (2.20%) Broadband
3 43 (1.72%) Wireless
4 40 (1.60%) VPN
5 38 (1.52%) Network Security
6 37 (1.48%) TCP/IP
6 37 (1.48%) WAN
7 36 (1.44%) Ethernet
8 32 (1.28%) Modbus
9 30 (1.20%) LAN
10 29 (1.16%) VLAN
11 27 (1.08%) OSPF
12 24 (0.96%) MQTT
13 23 (0.92%) SD-WAN
13 23 (0.92%) Wireshark
14 21 (0.84%) BGP
15 19 (0.76%) 5G
16 17 (0.68%) HTTP
16 17 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 167 (6.67%) Power BI
2 70 (2.79%) Metadata
3 64 (2.55%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.20%) Data Lake
5 52 (2.08%) SQL Server
6 49 (1.96%) PostgreSQL
7 42 (1.68%) Tableau
8 38 (1.52%) Amazon Athena
8 38 (1.52%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.24%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.12%) Big Data
10 28 (1.12%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.00%) DynamoDB
11 25 (1.00%) NoSQL
12 23 (0.92%) Azure SQL Database
13 22 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 21 (0.84%) Semantic Layer
15 20 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
16 19 (0.76%) Delta Lake
16 19 (0.76%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 145 (5.79%) JIRA
2 126 (5.03%) Git
3 64 (2.55%) Jenkins
4 57 (2.28%) GitLab
5 45 (1.80%) Rational DOORS
6 32 (1.28%) Selenium
7 29 (1.16%) LabVIEW
8 26 (1.04%) Postman
9 22 (0.88%) Snyk
10 21 (0.84%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.56%) Burp Suite
11 14 (0.56%) JMeter
12 12 (0.48%) REST Assured
13 11 (0.44%) Claude Code
13 11 (0.44%) Cucumber
13 11 (0.44%) Eclipse
14 10 (0.40%) TeamCity
15 9 (0.36%) Gatling
15 9 (0.36%) MLflow
15 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 842 (33.61%) Social Skills
2 650 (25.95%) Finance
3 592 (23.63%) Analytical Skills
4 242 (9.66%) Aerospace
5 238 (9.50%) Manufacturing
6 232 (9.26%) Electronics
7 206 (8.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 143 (5.71%) Law
9 112 (4.47%) Organisational Skills
10 111 (4.43%) Public Sector
11 110 (4.39%) Banking
11 110 (4.39%) Retail
12 94 (3.75%) Marketing
13 92 (3.67%) Telecoms
14 83 (3.31%) Pharmaceutical
15 79 (3.15%) Automotive
16 62 (2.48%) Legal
17 49 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
18 47 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
19 44 (1.76%) Military
Job Titles
1 446 (17.80%) Senior
2 310 (12.38%) Systems Engineer
3 284 (11.34%) Analyst
4 216 (8.62%) Lead
5 134 (5.35%) Test Engineer
6 125 (4.99%) Architect
6 125 (4.99%) Data Engineer
7 101 (4.03%) Developer
8 96 (3.83%) Consultant
9 91 (3.63%) Business Analyst
10 86 (3.43%) Software Engineer
11 77 (3.07%) Principal Engineer
12 73 (2.91%) Electronics Engineer
13 70 (2.79%) Data Analyst
14 62 (2.48%) Validation Engineer
15 58 (2.32%) Network Engineer
16 51 (2.04%) Embedded Engineer
17 49 (1.96%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (1.92%) Data Scientist
19 47 (1.88%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.47%) Terraform
2 59 (2.36%) REST
3 57 (2.28%) RESTful
4 55 (2.20%) Kafka
5 51 (2.04%) Node.js
6 44 (1.76%) PySpark
7 43 (1.72%) Playwright
8 40 (1.60%) .NET
9 37 (1.48%) JSON
10 36 (1.44%) XML
11 32 (1.28%) FastAPI
12 30 (1.20%) CSS
13 29 (1.16%) React
14 28 (1.12%) HTML
15 26 (1.04%) Middleware
16 25 (1.00%) LDAP
16 25 (1.00%) Swagger
17 22 (0.88%) OAuth
18 21 (0.84%) pytest
18 21 (0.84%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 167 (6.67%) Cloud Native
2 140 (5.59%) Management Information System
3 127 (5.07%) Onboarding
4 87 (3.47%) Product Ownership
5 81 (3.23%) Data Centre
6 69 (2.75%) Embedded Systems
7 68 (2.71%) Driving Licence
8 62 (2.48%) Data Structures
9 60 (2.40%) Distributed Systems
9 60 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
10 54 (2.16%) Algorithms
11 51 (2.04%) AI Agents
12 50 (2.00%) SCADA
13 47 (1.88%) Life Science
14 42 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
15 41 (1.64%) IoT
16 39 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
16 39 (1.56%) Robotics
17 38 (1.52%) Low-Code
18 37 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 135 (5.39%) Linux
2 93 (3.71%) Windows
3 30 (1.20%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.04%) Unix
5 15 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Android
7 8 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.32%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.20%) Kali Linux
10 4 (0.16%) Mac OS X
11 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.080%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.080%) VMS
12 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.040%) AIX
13 1 (0.040%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.040%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 648 (25.87%) Problem-Solving
2 565 (22.55%) Continuous Improvement
3 461 (18.40%) Agile
4 454 (18.12%) Verification and Validation
5 421 (16.81%) AI
6 353 (14.09%) CI/CD
7 340 (13.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 314 (12.53%) Migration
8 314 (12.53%) Test Automation
9 268 (10.70%) Analytics
10 265 (10.58%) Mentoring
11 248 (9.90%) Software Engineering
12 241 (9.62%) Decision-Making
13 238 (9.50%) DevOps
14 227 (9.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 225 (8.98%) Data Analysis
16 212 (8.46%) Business Intelligence
17 204 (8.14%) Roadmaps
18 197 (7.86%) Machine Learning
19 195 (7.78%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 517 (20.64%) Python
2 444 (17.72%) SQL
3 107 (4.27%) Java
4 94 (3.75%) C++
5 84 (3.35%) C
6 76 (3.03%) JavaScript
7 70 (2.79%) MATLAB
8 65 (2.59%) C#
9 48 (1.92%) Go
10 37 (1.48%) Bash
11 31 (1.24%) Embedded C
11 31 (1.24%) PowerShell
11 31 (1.24%) TypeScript
12 26 (1.04%) R
13 25 (1.00%) Scala
14 18 (0.72%) Embedded C++
15 14 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.48%) Shell Script
17 10 (0.40%) T-SQL
18 9 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 546 (21.80%) Security Cleared
2 545 (21.76%) Degree
3 409 (16.33%) SC Cleared
4 122 (4.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 107 (4.27%) DV Cleared
6 95 (3.79%) Master's Degree
7 56 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
8 42 (1.68%) HND
8 42 (1.68%) PhD
9 38 (1.52%) Chartered Engineer
10 36 (1.44%) HNC
10 36 (1.44%) PMI Certification
11 32 (1.28%) CISSP
12 30 (1.20%) Azure Certification
13 29 (1.16%) ACCA
14 26 (1.04%) AWS Certification
14 26 (1.04%) CIMA
15 24 (0.96%) PMP
16 21 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
16 21 (0.84%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 373 (14.89%) Data Quality
2 314 (12.53%) QA
3 79 (3.15%) Accessibility
4 60 (2.40%) GDPR
5 37 (1.48%) GRC
6 33 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 28 (1.12%) GxP
8 24 (0.96%) SLA
9 23 (0.92%) IEC 61508
9 23 (0.92%) NIST
10 15 (0.60%) ISO 26262
10 15 (0.60%) ISO 9001
10 15 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 15 (0.60%) PMO
11 14 (0.56%) GMP
12 13 (0.52%) SOC 2
12 13 (0.52%) WCAG
13 12 (0.48%) ISO 19650
14 10 (0.40%) GAAP
15 9 (0.36%) IFRS
System Software
1 100 (3.99%) Firmware
2 99 (3.95%) Docker
3 45 (1.80%) Active Directory
4 44 (1.76%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.12%) Virtual Machines
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 8 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
8 5 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 2 (0.080%) iptables
10 2 (0.080%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.080%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 86 (3.43%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.88%) Grafana
3 33 (1.32%) Ansible
3 33 (1.32%) Functional Safety
4 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (0.68%) Prometheus
6 10 (0.40%) Puppet
7 9 (0.36%) Cilium
7 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (0.32%) Nessus
8 8 (0.32%) Nmap
9 7 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
9 7 (0.28%) Kibana
10 5 (0.20%) Argo
10 5 (0.20%) WMI
11 4 (0.16%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.16%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.16%) Kubeflow
11 4 (0.16%) SCCM
11 4 (0.16%) yum
Vendors
1 321 (12.81%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.23%) SAP
3 104 (4.15%) Oracle
4 67 (2.67%) Databricks
5 63 (2.51%) Salesforce
6 58 (2.32%) EMC
7 55 (2.20%) ServiceNow
8 54 (2.16%) Cisco
9 42 (1.68%) Google
10 32 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
11 28 (1.12%) Palo Alto
12 27 (1.08%) Thales
13 24 (0.96%) Sage
14 23 (0.92%) IBM
14 23 (0.92%) Tenable
14 23 (0.92%) VMware
15 20 (0.80%) Siemens
16 19 (0.76%) Informatica
16 19 (0.76%) Red Hat
17 18 (0.72%) Autodesk