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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 86 193
Rank change year-on-year +1 +107 +15
Permanent jobs citing Validation 2,181 1,635 1,125
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.98% 3.33% 1.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.71% 3.77% 1.76%
Number of salaries quoted 1,306 493 463
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,750 £39,000
25th Percentile £42,501 £41,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £71,250 £75,000 £75,625
90th Percentile £86,500 £89,750 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.56% -4.36% -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 80,539 43,404 64,098
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.01% 88.47% 80.63%
Number of salaries quoted 56,017 24,525 38,712
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,500 £36,250 £41,250
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 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,650 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -8.65% -5.04%

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 4 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 4 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 -2 2,019 £57,500 +4.55% 3,296
UK excluding London -19 1,583 £55,000 +4.56% 2,079
Work from Home +116 605 £56,000 -6.67% 1,262
London +72 520 £70,000 -12.50% 1,692
South East -16 462 £60,000 +11.63% 516
North of England +100 408 £55,000 +15.79% 307
North West +93 242 £55,000 +15.35% 185
Midlands -38 232 £47,500 -13.64% 271
South West +15 204 £55,000 +4.56% 320
East of England -54 160 £55,000 -8.33% 317
West Midlands +35 132 £47,500 -13.64% 181
East Midlands -59 99 £46,743 +9.98% 90
Yorkshire +11 83 £43,000 +1.18% 71
North East 0 83 £55,000 +57.14% 58
Scotland +36 77 £70,000 +20.62% 270
Wales -45 34 £70,000 +30.23% 51
Isle of Man - 5 £38,500 -
Northern Ireland -83 2 - - 64

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 45 (2.06%) Apache Airflow
2 43 (1.97%) Apache Spark
3 41 (1.88%) Apache
4 34 (1.56%) Confluence
5 33 (1.51%) SharePoint
6 20 (0.92%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.60%) SAS
8 11 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
9 7 (0.32%) WinCC
10 5 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.23%) CMS
11 3 (0.14%) Artix
11 3 (0.14%) Kinematics
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.092%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.092%) IIS
13 1 (0.046%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.046%) nginx
13 1 (0.046%) Oracle Workflow
13 1 (0.046%) WebSphere
Applications
1 117 (5.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (2.84%) Microsoft Office
3 44 (2.02%) Simulink
4 35 (1.60%) Microsoft Project
5 17 (0.78%) SOLIDWORKS
5 17 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
6 15 (0.69%) MS Visio
7 11 (0.50%) AutoCAD
7 11 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 5 (0.23%) LaTeX
8 5 (0.23%) Mathcad
8 5 (0.23%) Revit
9 4 (0.18%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.18%) CANalyzer
9 4 (0.18%) OrCAD
9 4 (0.18%) Sketch
10 3 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
10 3 (0.14%) Navisworks
10 3 (0.14%) Productboard
10 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 41 (1.88%) Dynamics CRM
2 40 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.46%) SAP MDG
4 9 (0.41%) iTrent
4 9 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
5 8 (0.37%) Oracle Applications
6 7 (0.32%) Elite 3E
6 7 (0.32%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.32%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.32%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.28%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.23%) SAP MDG-BP
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.14%) Infor M3
10 3 (0.14%) Loan IQ
10 3 (0.14%) Maximo
10 3 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.14%) SystmOne
11 2 (0.092%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 293 (13.43%) Azure
2 251 (11.51%) AWS
3 166 (7.61%) Power Platform
4 93 (4.26%) GCP
5 76 (3.48%) SaaS
6 70 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
7 64 (2.93%) Microsoft 365
8 59 (2.71%) GitHub
9 49 (2.25%) Serverless
10 38 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
11 36 (1.65%) Amazon S3
12 35 (1.60%) Entra ID
13 30 (1.38%) GitHub Actions
14 28 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
15 22 (1.01%) Amazon EMR
15 22 (1.01%) Cloud Computing
16 21 (0.96%) PowerApps
17 20 (0.92%) Amazon EC2
17 20 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
17 20 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 66 (3.03%) Firewall
2 65 (2.98%) DNS
3 64 (2.93%) Broadband
4 42 (1.93%) Wireless
5 36 (1.65%) VPN
5 36 (1.65%) WAN
6 35 (1.60%) Network Security
7 34 (1.56%) TCP/IP
8 27 (1.24%) Ethernet
9 26 (1.19%) LAN
10 23 (1.05%) SD-WAN
11 22 (1.01%) OSPF
11 22 (1.01%) VLAN
12 21 (0.96%) Modbus
13 20 (0.92%) BGP
13 20 (0.92%) MQTT
14 19 (0.87%) Wireshark
15 17 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
16 15 (0.69%) 5G
16 15 (0.69%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (6.92%) Power BI
2 56 (2.57%) Data Warehouse
3 51 (2.34%) Metadata
3 51 (2.34%) PostgreSQL
4 47 (2.15%) Data Lake
5 45 (2.06%) SQL Server
6 42 (1.93%) Tableau
7 34 (1.56%) MongoDB
8 30 (1.38%) Relational Database
9 29 (1.33%) Amazon Athena
10 27 (1.24%) BigQuery
11 25 (1.15%) DynamoDB
12 22 (1.01%) Semantic Layer
13 21 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 20 (0.92%) Big Data
15 19 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
16 17 (0.78%) MySQL
16 17 (0.78%) NoSQL
17 16 (0.73%) Power Query
18 13 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 127 (5.82%) JIRA
2 107 (4.91%) Git
3 56 (2.57%) Jenkins
4 50 (2.29%) GitLab
5 37 (1.70%) Rational DOORS
6 28 (1.28%) Selenium
7 24 (1.10%) Postman
8 22 (1.01%) LabVIEW
8 22 (1.01%) Snyk
9 21 (0.96%) Cypress.io
10 13 (0.60%) Burp Suite
11 12 (0.55%) Cucumber
11 12 (0.55%) JMeter
12 11 (0.50%) REST Assured
13 10 (0.46%) TeamCity
14 9 (0.41%) Gatling
14 9 (0.41%) Zephyr
15 8 (0.37%) Rational Rhapsody
16 7 (0.32%) Hudson
16 7 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 726 (33.29%) Social Skills
2 572 (26.23%) Finance
3 517 (23.70%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (9.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 205 (9.40%) Aerospace
6 194 (8.90%) Manufacturing
7 191 (8.76%) Electronics
8 128 (5.87%) Law
9 99 (4.54%) Banking
10 88 (4.03%) Public Sector
11 82 (3.76%) Marketing
12 80 (3.67%) Retail
13 76 (3.48%) Organisational Skills
13 76 (3.48%) Pharmaceutical
14 63 (2.89%) Legal
15 61 (2.80%) Automotive
16 58 (2.66%) Telecoms
17 46 (2.11%) Influencing Skills
18 44 (2.02%) Games
19 41 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 392 (17.97%) Senior
2 261 (11.97%) Analyst
3 258 (11.83%) Systems Engineer
4 195 (8.94%) Lead
5 129 (5.91%) Test Engineer
6 120 (5.50%) Architect
7 102 (4.68%) Data Engineer
8 95 (4.36%) Developer
9 83 (3.81%) Consultant
10 79 (3.62%) Software Engineer
11 78 (3.58%) Business Analyst
12 68 (3.12%) Principal Engineer
13 67 (3.07%) Data Analyst
14 64 (2.93%) Validation Engineer
15 51 (2.34%) Embedded Engineer
16 50 (2.29%) Electronics Engineer
17 49 (2.25%) Network Engineer
17 49 (2.25%) Support Engineer
18 48 (2.20%) Data Scientist
19 43 (1.97%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.39%) Terraform
2 52 (2.38%) RESTful
3 49 (2.25%) Kafka
4 48 (2.20%) REST
5 44 (2.02%) Node.js
6 34 (1.56%) XML
7 33 (1.51%) JSON
7 33 (1.51%) Playwright
8 31 (1.42%) .NET
9 28 (1.28%) PySpark
10 27 (1.24%) LDAP
11 25 (1.15%) Middleware
12 24 (1.10%) CSS
12 24 (1.10%) React
13 23 (1.05%) HTML
14 22 (1.01%) FastAPI
15 21 (0.96%) ModSecurity
15 21 (0.96%) Swagger
16 20 (0.92%) XMPP
17 19 (0.87%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 155 (7.11%) Cloud Native
2 125 (5.73%) Onboarding
3 121 (5.55%) Management Information System
4 83 (3.81%) Product Ownership
5 79 (3.62%) Data Centre
6 64 (2.93%) Embedded Systems
7 60 (2.75%) Data Structures
8 57 (2.61%) Driving Licence
8 57 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
9 54 (2.48%) Algorithms
9 54 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
10 48 (2.20%) Low-Code
11 44 (2.02%) AI Agents
11 44 (2.02%) Life Science
12 40 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
12 40 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
12 40 (1.83%) Robotics
13 38 (1.74%) SCADA
14 35 (1.60%) IoT
15 34 (1.56%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 131 (6.01%) Linux
2 93 (4.26%) Windows
3 35 (1.60%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.05%) Unix
5 20 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.46%) Android
7 9 (0.41%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.23%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS X
12 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.092%) Robot Operating System
13 2 (0.092%) ThreadX
13 2 (0.092%) VMS
13 2 (0.092%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.046%) AIX
14 1 (0.046%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 552 (25.31%) Problem-Solving
2 509 (23.34%) Continuous Improvement
3 419 (19.21%) Agile
4 385 (17.65%) AI
5 360 (16.51%) Verification and Validation
6 305 (13.98%) CI/CD
7 285 (13.07%) Stakeholder Management
8 279 (12.79%) Test Automation
9 258 (11.83%) Migration
10 252 (11.55%) Analytics
11 242 (11.10%) Mentoring
12 225 (10.32%) Decision-Making
13 224 (10.27%) Software Engineering
14 202 (9.26%) DevOps
15 191 (8.76%) Business Intelligence
16 190 (8.71%) Machine Learning
17 188 (8.62%) Data Analysis
18 186 (8.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 180 (8.25%) Roadmaps
20 166 (7.61%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 471 (21.60%) Python
2 389 (17.84%) SQL
3 97 (4.45%) Java
4 91 (4.17%) C++
5 85 (3.90%) C
6 64 (2.93%) JavaScript
7 59 (2.71%) MATLAB
8 54 (2.48%) C#
8 54 (2.48%) Go
9 32 (1.47%) Bash
10 31 (1.42%) Embedded C
11 27 (1.24%) PowerShell
12 23 (1.05%) TypeScript
13 22 (1.01%) Scala
14 19 (0.87%) R
15 18 (0.83%) Embedded C++
16 12 (0.55%) T-SQL
17 10 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 9 (0.41%) ABAP
19 8 (0.37%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 471 (21.60%) Degree
2 450 (20.63%) Security Cleared
3 318 (14.58%) SC Cleared
4 122 (5.59%) BPSS Clearance
5 108 (4.95%) DV Cleared
6 86 (3.94%) Master's Degree
7 50 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
8 38 (1.74%) PhD
9 36 (1.65%) CISSP
10 34 (1.56%) Chartered Engineer
11 32 (1.47%) HNC
11 32 (1.47%) PMI Certification
12 31 (1.42%) HND
13 27 (1.24%) CISM
14 24 (1.10%) AWS Certification
15 23 (1.05%) ACCA
15 23 (1.05%) Azure Certification
16 22 (1.01%) CIMA
17 21 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
18 20 (0.92%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 319 (14.63%) Data Quality
2 286 (13.11%) QA
3 78 (3.58%) Accessibility
4 56 (2.57%) GDPR
5 37 (1.70%) GRC
6 29 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.15%) GxP
8 24 (1.10%) NIST
9 22 (1.01%) IEC 61508
10 20 (0.92%) SLA
11 17 (0.78%) PMO
12 15 (0.69%) ISO 26262
13 14 (0.64%) GMP
13 14 (0.64%) ISO 9001
13 14 (0.64%) WCAG
14 11 (0.50%) GAAP
14 11 (0.50%) IFRS
14 11 (0.50%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 15288
16 9 (0.41%) Def Stans
System Software
1 86 (3.94%) Firmware
2 80 (3.67%) Docker
3 48 (2.20%) Active Directory
4 38 (1.74%) Embedded Firmware
5 28 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.96%) vSphere
7 11 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
8 4 (0.18%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.18%) KVM
9 2 (0.092%) iptables
9 2 (0.092%) ProxySG
9 2 (0.092%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.046%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 79 (3.62%) Kubernetes
2 41 (1.88%) Grafana
3 31 (1.42%) Ansible
4 27 (1.24%) Functional Safety
5 16 (0.73%) Prometheus
6 15 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.46%) Cilium
8 8 (0.37%) Puppet
9 7 (0.32%) Kibana
9 7 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (0.32%) Nessus
9 7 (0.32%) Nmap
10 5 (0.23%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 5 (0.23%) FortiGate
10 5 (0.23%) SCCM
10 5 (0.23%) WMI
11 4 (0.18%) BMC PATROL
11 4 (0.18%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.18%) Kubeflow
12 3 (0.14%) Argo
Vendors
1 276 (12.65%) Microsoft
2 118 (5.41%) SAP
3 96 (4.40%) Oracle
4 59 (2.71%) Salesforce
5 56 (2.57%) Databricks
6 54 (2.48%) Cisco
7 51 (2.34%) ServiceNow
8 42 (1.93%) Google
9 31 (1.42%) EMC
10 30 (1.38%) CrowdStrike
10 30 (1.38%) VMware
11 28 (1.28%) Palo Alto
12 23 (1.05%) Red Hat
12 23 (1.05%) Tenable
13 18 (0.83%) IBM
13 18 (0.83%) Splunk
14 15 (0.69%) McAfee
14 15 (0.69%) Siemens
15 14 (0.64%) Foundry
15 14 (0.64%) Workday