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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 94 174
Rank change year-on-year +23 +80 +28
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,719 1,565 1,079
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.28% 3.20% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.11% 3.60% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 1,587 439 399
10th Percentile £36,150 £38,686 £38,537
25th Percentile £42,750 £41,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £56,509
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -2.67% -13.06%
75th Percentile £71,250 £75,900 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £87,500 £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 87,497 43,445 57,940
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.45% 88.84% 82.20%
Number of salaries quoted 59,802 24,607 31,056
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £33,099
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £44,541
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,000 £75,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +17.02% -11.32% -1.85%

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 16 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 16 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 +19 2,486 £57,500 +4.55% 2,489
UK excluding London -7 1,972 £55,000 +4.56% 1,454
Work from Home +139 699 £60,000 -7.69% 1,048
London +80 642 £65,000 -18.24% 1,171
South East -15 513 £62,500 +19.05% 380
North of England +110 498 £51,000 +6.96% 257
Midlands -6 331 £47,500 -13.64% 199
North West +100 299 £55,000 +9.94% 137
South West +33 255 £55,000 +10.00% 177
East of England -37 223 £56,000 -8.57% 215
West Midlands +48 179 £45,000 -18.18% 127
East Midlands -35 152 £50,000 +17.65% 72
Scotland +54 103 £70,000 +16.67% 169
Yorkshire +32 103 £42,500 - 82
North East +1 96 £55,000 +57.14% 39
Wales -33 52 £60,000 -7.69% 33
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 - 2
Northern Ireland -78 4 - - 43

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 56 (2.06%) Apache Spark
2 47 (1.73%) Apache
2 47 (1.73%) Apache Airflow
3 39 (1.43%) Confluence
3 39 (1.43%) SharePoint
4 32 (1.18%) CMS
5 22 (0.81%) Microsoft Exchange
6 21 (0.77%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.48%) SAS
8 10 (0.37%) WinCC
9 6 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 6 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
10 4 (0.15%) Artix
11 3 (0.11%) nginx
11 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.074%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.074%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.037%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.037%) WebSphere
Applications
1 170 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 75 (2.76%) Microsoft Office
3 57 (2.10%) Simulink
4 38 (1.40%) Microsoft Project
5 33 (1.21%) Spreadsheet
6 27 (0.99%) AutoCAD
7 19 (0.70%) SOLIDWORKS
8 18 (0.66%) Revit
9 17 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 17 (0.63%) MS Visio
10 14 (0.51%) OrCAD
11 13 (0.48%) Navisworks
12 12 (0.44%) Notion
13 11 (0.40%) EPLAN
14 6 (0.22%) Mathcad
15 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
15 5 (0.18%) LaTeX
15 5 (0.18%) Stateflow
16 4 (0.15%) CANalyzer
17 3 (0.11%) Productboard
Business Applications
1 45 (1.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.40%) Workday HCM
4 9 (0.33%) SAP MDG
5 8 (0.29%) iTrent
5 8 (0.29%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.26%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.26%) Infor M3
6 7 (0.26%) Maximo
6 7 (0.26%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
7 6 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.22%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
8 5 (0.18%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (0.18%) Sage 200
9 4 (0.15%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.11%) SAP MDG-BP
10 3 (0.11%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 363 (13.35%) Azure
2 287 (10.56%) AWS
3 203 (7.47%) Power Platform
4 103 (3.79%) GCP
5 90 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
6 88 (3.24%) GitHub
7 82 (3.02%) SaaS
8 72 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
9 63 (2.32%) Serverless
10 52 (1.91%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.88%) Amazon S3
12 41 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
13 37 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.25%) Dynamics 365
15 32 (1.18%) Microsoft Purview
16 30 (1.10%) Amazon EMR
17 28 (1.03%) AWS Lambda
17 28 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
17 28 (1.03%) Azure Service Bus
17 28 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 75 (2.76%) DNS
2 74 (2.72%) Firewall
3 58 (2.13%) Broadband
4 54 (1.99%) TCP/IP
5 49 (1.80%) VPN
5 49 (1.80%) Wireless
6 42 (1.54%) Ethernet
6 42 (1.54%) VLAN
7 41 (1.51%) Modbus
8 40 (1.47%) WAN
9 36 (1.32%) Network Security
10 34 (1.25%) OSPF
11 33 (1.21%) LAN
12 29 (1.07%) MQTT
13 28 (1.03%) Wireshark
14 25 (0.92%) SD-WAN
15 24 (0.88%) BGP
16 22 (0.81%) DHCP
17 19 (0.70%) 5G
17 19 (0.70%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (6.84%) Power BI
2 80 (2.94%) Metadata
3 68 (2.50%) Data Warehouse
4 56 (2.06%) SQL Server
5 53 (1.95%) Data Lake
6 48 (1.77%) PostgreSQL
7 42 (1.54%) Amazon Athena
7 42 (1.54%) Tableau
8 40 (1.47%) Relational Database
9 30 (1.10%) MongoDB
10 28 (1.03%) Big Data
10 28 (1.03%) BigQuery
11 27 (0.99%) NoSQL
11 27 (0.99%) Power Query
12 23 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
13 22 (0.81%) DynamoDB
14 21 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
14 21 (0.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 19 (0.70%) MySQL
15 19 (0.70%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 147 (5.41%) JIRA
2 139 (5.11%) Git
3 70 (2.57%) GitLab
4 67 (2.46%) Jenkins
5 53 (1.95%) Rational DOORS
6 34 (1.25%) LabVIEW
7 27 (0.99%) Selenium
8 24 (0.88%) Postman
9 20 (0.74%) Cypress.io
10 14 (0.51%) Claude Code
11 13 (0.48%) Burp Suite
12 12 (0.44%) JMeter
12 12 (0.44%) Snyk
12 12 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
13 11 (0.40%) Eclipse
13 11 (0.40%) Rational Rhapsody
13 11 (0.40%) REST Assured
14 10 (0.37%) Zephyr
15 9 (0.33%) Cucumber
16 8 (0.29%) Gatling
General
1 925 (34.02%) Social Skills
2 685 (25.19%) Finance
3 647 (23.80%) Analytical Skills
4 296 (10.89%) Manufacturing
5 280 (10.30%) Electronics
6 268 (9.86%) Aerospace
7 257 (9.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 143 (5.26%) Law
9 126 (4.63%) Marketing
10 124 (4.56%) Organisational Skills
10 124 (4.56%) Public Sector
11 112 (4.12%) Banking
12 105 (3.86%) Telecoms
13 104 (3.82%) Retail
14 87 (3.20%) Automotive
15 86 (3.16%) Pharmaceutical
16 61 (2.24%) Legal
17 52 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
18 50 (1.84%) Military
19 43 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 465 (17.10%) Senior
2 312 (11.47%) Systems Engineer
3 272 (10.00%) Analyst
4 228 (8.39%) Lead
5 138 (5.08%) Data Engineer
6 133 (4.89%) Test Engineer
7 115 (4.23%) Architect
8 110 (4.05%) Developer
9 107 (3.94%) Consultant
10 102 (3.75%) Electronics Engineer
10 102 (3.75%) Software Engineer
11 92 (3.38%) Principal Engineer
12 81 (2.98%) Business Analyst
13 79 (2.91%) Design Engineer
14 67 (2.46%) Data Analyst
15 64 (2.35%) Network Engineer
16 58 (2.13%) Automation Engineer
16 58 (2.13%) Validation Engineer
17 52 (1.91%) Administrator
18 49 (1.80%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (3.38%) Terraform
2 68 (2.50%) REST
3 64 (2.35%) Kafka
4 63 (2.32%) RESTful
5 58 (2.13%) .NET
6 55 (2.02%) Node.js
7 45 (1.66%) PySpark
8 43 (1.58%) Playwright
9 39 (1.43%) JSON
10 38 (1.40%) FastAPI
11 36 (1.32%) XML
12 33 (1.21%) CSS
12 33 (1.21%) React
13 32 (1.18%) HTML
14 31 (1.14%) Swagger
15 27 (0.99%) OpenAPI
15 27 (0.99%) RabbitMQ
16 23 (0.85%) LDAP
17 22 (0.81%) Middleware
17 22 (0.81%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 173 (6.36%) Cloud Native
2 165 (6.07%) Management Information System
3 164 (6.03%) Onboarding
4 89 (3.27%) Product Ownership
5 80 (2.94%) Driving Licence
6 79 (2.91%) Embedded Systems
7 75 (2.76%) Data Centre
8 70 (2.57%) Distributed Systems
9 68 (2.50%) Data Structures
10 64 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
11 63 (2.32%) AI Agents
12 61 (2.24%) SCADA
13 54 (1.99%) Algorithms
14 51 (1.88%) Life Science
15 47 (1.73%) Analogue Electronics
16 46 (1.69%) IoT
17 45 (1.66%) Robotics
18 41 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
18 41 (1.51%) Low-Code
19 37 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 139 (5.11%) Linux
2 98 (3.60%) Windows
3 36 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 25 (0.92%) Unix
5 14 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.40%) Android
7 9 (0.33%) macOS
8 8 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.15%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.11%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.074%) Robot Operating System
11 2 (0.074%) VMS
12 1 (0.037%) CentOS
12 1 (0.037%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.037%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 723 (26.59%) Problem-Solving
2 627 (23.06%) Continuous Improvement
3 496 (18.24%) Agile
4 492 (18.09%) Verification and Validation
5 487 (17.91%) AI
6 369 (13.57%) CI/CD
7 367 (13.50%) Stakeholder Management
8 348 (12.80%) Test Automation
9 331 (12.17%) Migration
10 296 (10.89%) Mentoring
11 295 (10.85%) Analytics
12 273 (10.04%) Software Engineering
13 268 (9.86%) Decision-Making
14 257 (9.45%) DevOps
15 233 (8.57%) Data Analysis
16 225 (8.28%) Business Intelligence
17 223 (8.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 215 (7.91%) Roadmaps
19 209 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
20 208 (7.65%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 573 (21.07%) Python
2 477 (17.54%) SQL
3 113 (4.16%) Java
4 99 (3.64%) C++
5 97 (3.57%) C
6 86 (3.16%) C#
7 78 (2.87%) JavaScript
8 72 (2.65%) MATLAB
9 45 (1.66%) Go
10 42 (1.54%) PowerShell
11 38 (1.40%) Bash
12 35 (1.29%) TypeScript
13 30 (1.10%) Embedded C
13 30 (1.10%) R
14 26 (0.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 25 (0.92%) Scala
16 19 (0.70%) Embedded C++
17 13 (0.48%) Shell Script
17 13 (0.48%) T-SQL
18 11 (0.40%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 612 (22.51%) Degree
2 589 (21.66%) Security Cleared
3 444 (16.33%) SC Cleared
4 123 (4.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (3.97%) DV Cleared
6 106 (3.90%) Master's Degree
7 55 (2.02%) PhD
8 51 (1.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 51 (1.88%) HND
9 41 (1.51%) HNC
10 39 (1.43%) Chartered Engineer
11 35 (1.29%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.29%) PMI Certification
12 30 (1.10%) ACCA
13 28 (1.03%) AWS Certification
13 28 (1.03%) CISSP
14 27 (0.99%) CIMA
15 26 (0.96%) PMP
16 25 (0.92%) Cisco Certification
17 22 (0.81%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 404 (14.86%) Data Quality
2 321 (11.81%) QA
3 95 (3.49%) Accessibility
4 71 (2.61%) GDPR
5 33 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 30 (1.10%) GxP
7 27 (0.99%) SLA
8 25 (0.92%) GRC
9 21 (0.77%) ISO 9001
9 21 (0.77%) NIST
10 20 (0.74%) ISO 19650
11 19 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 16 (0.59%) GMP
12 16 (0.59%) IEC 61508
13 12 (0.44%) WCAG
14 11 (0.40%) ISO 26262
14 11 (0.40%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.37%) PMO
16 9 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
16 9 (0.33%) JTAG
System Software
1 116 (4.27%) Docker
2 109 (4.01%) Firmware
3 53 (1.95%) Active Directory
4 46 (1.69%) Embedded Firmware
5 17 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (0.55%) vSphere
7 10 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
8 6 (0.22%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.11%) KVM
9 3 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.11%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.074%) iptables
10 2 (0.074%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.037%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.037%) LXC
Systems Management
1 95 (3.49%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.73%) Grafana
3 39 (1.43%) Ansible
4 28 (1.03%) Functional Safety
5 18 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 17 (0.63%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.44%) Puppet
8 9 (0.33%) BMC PATROL
9 8 (0.29%) Kibana
9 8 (0.29%) Nessus
9 8 (0.29%) Nmap
10 7 (0.26%) Argo
11 6 (0.22%) Cilium
12 5 (0.18%) Autotask
12 5 (0.18%) Rancher
12 5 (0.18%) SCCM
12 5 (0.18%) WMI
12 5 (0.18%) yum
13 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 372 (13.68%) Microsoft
2 131 (4.82%) SAP
3 108 (3.97%) Salesforce
4 102 (3.75%) Oracle
5 90 (3.31%) EMC
6 73 (2.68%) Databricks
7 59 (2.17%) Cisco
8 56 (2.06%) ServiceNow
9 46 (1.69%) Google
10 39 (1.43%) Adobe
11 35 (1.29%) Thales
12 30 (1.10%) Samsung
13 28 (1.03%) TikTok
14 27 (0.99%) Sage
15 26 (0.96%) IBM
16 23 (0.85%) Siemens
16 23 (0.85%) VMware
17 22 (0.81%) CrowdStrike
17 22 (0.81%) Informatica
18 21 (0.77%) Autodesk