Validation Job Trends

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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 169 190
Rank change year-on-year +35 +21 -30
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,216 753 1,427
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.84% 1.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.99% 1.98% 1.84%
Number of salaries quoted 685 375 789
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £43,750 £46,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -8.71%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,750 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £52,600 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.66% +0.19% -4.55%

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 61,153 38,054 77,716
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 76.62% 93.06% 86.41%
Number of salaries quoted 37,653 22,322 57,935
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,097
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.41%

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 2 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Validation in the UK

Validation
Top 17 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 2 April 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 +32 1,059 £60,000 +7.14% 872
UK excluding London +11 775 £54,000 +2.66% 714
Work from Home +94 345 £57,500 +2.68% 341
London +66 330 £75,000 +7.14% 268
South East +40 255 £55,000 +10.00% 215
North of England +4 170 £58,500 +23.16% 152
Midlands -23 124 £37,500 -31.82% 118
North West +17 108 £59,000 +23.73% 74
East of England -9 91 £58,750 +6.82% 96
West Midlands -10 77 £44,000 -33.58% 77
South West -25 75 £55,000 - 89
East Midlands -44 45 £35,000 -31.37% 41
Scotland -21 44 £42,000 -27.63% 42
Yorkshire -31 41 £60,000 +26.32% 51
North East -8 21 £50,000 -11.89% 27
Wales -19 14 £49,500 +0.81% 16
Northern Ireland -39 4 - - 5

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 41 (3.37%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.22%) Apache Spark
3 23 (1.89%) Apache
4 20 (1.64%) ArcGIS
5 18 (1.48%) Confluence
6 15 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (0.99%) Appian
7 12 (0.99%) CMS
8 9 (0.74%) SharePoint
9 5 (0.41%) Kinematics
10 4 (0.33%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.16%) WordPress
12 1 (0.082%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.082%) IIS
12 1 (0.082%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.082%) SAS
Applications
1 88 (7.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.48%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.49%) Simulink
7 5 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.33%) CANalyzer
8 4 (0.33%) Fusion 360
8 4 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.16%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.16%) Adobe Captivate
9 2 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.16%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.16%) Elementor
9 2 (0.16%) Oracle Smart View
9 2 (0.16%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.16%) Solid Edge
9 2 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
9 2 (0.16%) Weka
Business Applications
1 23 (1.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.66%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.58%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.41%) Loan IQ
6 4 (0.33%) Elite 3E
6 4 (0.33%) Markit EDM
6 4 (0.33%) SAP BPC
6 4 (0.33%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.16%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.16%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.16%) SAP FSCM
7 2 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 1 (0.082%) Endur
8 1 (0.082%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.082%) Oracle Financials
8 1 (0.082%) Primavera
8 1 (0.082%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 1 (0.082%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 188 (15.46%) Azure
2 119 (9.79%) AWS
3 111 (9.13%) Power Platform
4 60 (4.93%) SaaS
5 43 (3.54%) GCP
6 42 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (2.47%) Azure Data Factory
7 30 (2.47%) dbt
7 30 (2.47%) Dynamics 365
8 28 (2.30%) Power Automate
8 28 (2.30%) Snowflake
9 25 (2.06%) Amazon S3
10 24 (1.97%) GitHub
11 23 (1.89%) Entra ID
12 20 (1.64%) Microsoft 365
13 18 (1.48%) Datadog
14 16 (1.32%) OpenShift
15 15 (1.23%) Azure AI
16 13 (1.07%) Anthropic Claude
16 13 (1.07%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.06%) CHAP
2 21 (1.73%) Broadband
3 17 (1.40%) Firewall
3 17 (1.40%) WAN
4 15 (1.23%) TCP/IP
5 14 (1.15%) DNS
5 14 (1.15%) SD-WAN
5 14 (1.15%) Wireless
6 12 (0.99%) 5G
7 9 (0.74%) HTTP
7 9 (0.74%) Multicast
8 8 (0.66%) Modbus
9 7 (0.58%) LAN
9 7 (0.58%) MQTT
9 7 (0.58%) Wireshark
10 6 (0.49%) ATM
10 6 (0.49%) NAS
10 6 (0.49%) tcpdump
10 6 (0.49%) VPN
11 5 (0.41%) WAAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (8.55%) Power BI
2 43 (3.54%) SQL Server
2 43 (3.54%) Tableau
3 33 (2.71%) Data Warehouse
4 29 (2.38%) Metadata
4 29 (2.38%) Relational Database
5 25 (2.06%) GIS
5 25 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
6 20 (1.64%) QGIS
6 20 (1.64%) Spatial Data
7 17 (1.40%) Oracle Reports
8 15 (1.23%) Spark SQL
9 14 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
9 14 (1.15%) Oracle Database
9 14 (1.15%) Parquet
10 13 (1.07%) Apache Hive
10 13 (1.07%) Impala
10 13 (1.07%) MySQL
10 13 (1.07%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 12 (0.99%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 66 (5.43%) Git
2 62 (5.10%) JIRA
3 41 (3.37%) Rational DOORS
4 21 (1.73%) Jenkins
5 19 (1.56%) Postman
6 18 (1.48%) JMeter
7 17 (1.40%) Cucumber
8 16 (1.32%) LabVIEW
9 15 (1.23%) GitLab
10 14 (1.15%) MLflow
10 14 (1.15%) TestRail
11 13 (1.07%) IBM UrbanCode
11 13 (1.07%) Selenium
12 12 (0.99%) Locust
13 11 (0.90%) Eclipse
14 7 (0.58%) SoapUI
15 6 (0.49%) LoadRunner
15 6 (0.49%) Subversion
16 5 (0.41%) SpecFlow
16 5 (0.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 433 (35.61%) Social Skills
2 317 (26.07%) Finance
3 274 (22.53%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (6.91%) Banking
5 80 (6.58%) Manufacturing
6 71 (5.84%) Electronics
7 69 (5.67%) Aerospace
8 57 (4.69%) Legal
9 47 (3.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 43 (3.54%) Law
10 43 (3.54%) Marketing
10 43 (3.54%) Retail
11 41 (3.37%) Public Sector
12 40 (3.29%) Financial Institution
12 40 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
13 30 (2.47%) Organisational Skills
14 27 (2.22%) Pharmaceutical
15 24 (1.97%) Automotive
15 24 (1.97%) Telecoms
16 23 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 203 (16.69%) Analyst
2 188 (15.46%) Senior
3 141 (11.60%) Systems Engineer
4 95 (7.81%) Lead
5 75 (6.17%) Business Analyst
6 72 (5.92%) Validation Engineer
7 68 (5.59%) Test Engineer
8 60 (4.93%) Architect
9 58 (4.77%) Consultant
10 55 (4.52%) Integration Engineer
11 50 (4.11%) Data Analyst
12 45 (3.70%) Developer
13 42 (3.45%) Principal Engineer
13 42 (3.45%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 41 (3.37%) Junior
15 39 (3.21%) Systems Integration Engineer
16 37 (3.04%) Data Engineer
17 34 (2.80%) Software Validation Engineer
17 34 (2.80%) Verification Engineer
18 30 (2.47%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.85%) REST
2 39 (3.21%) PyTorch
3 37 (3.04%) Pandas
4 36 (2.96%) JSON
5 29 (2.38%) Middleware
6 26 (2.14%) pytest
7 25 (2.06%) XML
8 19 (1.56%) OAuth
8 19 (1.56%) PySpark
9 18 (1.48%) JWT
9 18 (1.48%) NumPy
9 18 (1.48%) Swagger
9 18 (1.48%) TensorFlow
10 17 (1.40%) .NET
11 16 (1.32%) RESTful
12 15 (1.23%) React
12 15 (1.23%) scikit-learn
12 15 (1.23%) Web Services
13 14 (1.15%) CSS
13 14 (1.15%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.09%) Management Information System
2 57 (4.69%) Onboarding
3 47 (3.87%) Data Structures
4 37 (3.04%) Product Ownership
5 36 (2.96%) Low-Code
6 33 (2.71%) Algorithms
7 32 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
8 30 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
9 25 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
10 24 (1.97%) Life Science
11 19 (1.56%) Embedded Systems
11 19 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
12 18 (1.48%) Cloud Native
13 16 (1.32%) Robotics
14 14 (1.15%) Blockchain
14 14 (1.15%) SCADA
15 13 (1.07%) IoT
15 13 (1.07%) Reinsurance
16 11 (0.90%) Data Centre
16 11 (0.90%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 64 (5.26%) Linux
2 56 (4.61%) Windows
3 17 (1.40%) Unix
4 16 (1.32%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.99%) Android
7 4 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.33%) CentOS
8 3 (0.25%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.16%) AIX
9 2 (0.16%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.16%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.16%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.082%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.082%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.082%) Rocky
10 1 (0.082%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.082%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.082%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 289 (23.77%) Agile
2 266 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
3 232 (19.08%) Continuous Improvement
4 197 (16.20%) Verification and Validation
5 190 (15.63%) Analytics
6 158 (12.99%) Data Validation
7 155 (12.75%) AI
8 151 (12.42%) Test Automation
9 140 (11.51%) CI/CD
10 136 (11.18%) Business Intelligence
11 134 (11.02%) Systems Engineering
12 129 (10.61%) Migration
13 125 (10.28%) Stakeholder Management
14 124 (10.20%) DevOps
15 123 (10.12%) Data Modelling
16 120 (9.87%) Mentoring
17 115 (9.46%) Decision-Making
17 115 (9.46%) User Acceptance Testing
18 114 (9.38%) ETL
19 106 (8.72%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 273 (22.45%) Python
2 250 (20.56%) SQL
3 51 (4.19%) Java
4 38 (3.13%) C++
4 38 (3.13%) PowerShell
5 35 (2.88%) C
6 30 (2.47%) JavaScript
7 25 (2.06%) Bash
8 20 (1.64%) C#
9 19 (1.56%) T-SQL
10 18 (1.48%) Go
11 17 (1.40%) MATLAB
12 14 (1.15%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 11 (0.90%) R
14 9 (0.74%) VBA
15 8 (0.66%) Embedded C
16 7 (0.58%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.58%) VB
17 6 (0.49%) PHP
Qualifications
1 279 (22.94%) Degree
2 158 (12.99%) Security Cleared
3 129 (10.61%) BPSS Clearance
4 60 (4.93%) SC Cleared
5 58 (4.77%) Master's Degree
6 43 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (2.63%) CISA
7 32 (2.63%) CISSP
7 32 (2.63%) DV Cleared
8 31 (2.55%) CISM
9 27 (2.22%) Chartered Engineer
10 25 (2.06%) CGEIT
10 25 (2.06%) FFIEC
10 25 (2.06%) SANS
11 23 (1.89%) HNC
11 23 (1.89%) PMI Certification
11 23 (1.89%) PMP
12 18 (1.48%) HND
12 18 (1.48%) ISTQB
13 11 (0.90%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 153 (12.58%) Data Quality
2 144 (11.84%) QA
3 67 (5.51%) Accessibility
4 66 (5.43%) GDPR
5 41 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 26 (2.14%) NIST
7 25 (2.06%) COBIT
8 19 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 18 (1.48%) SLA
10 17 (1.40%) WCAG
11 16 (1.32%) GRC
11 16 (1.32%) IFRS
12 13 (1.07%) ISO 9001
13 11 (0.90%) IEC 61508
13 11 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 10 (0.82%) GAAP
14 10 (0.82%) Good Clinical Practice
15 9 (0.74%) 21 CFR Part 11
16 8 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 12207
17 7 (0.58%) GxP
System Software
1 72 (5.92%) Docker
2 27 (2.22%) Active Directory
3 26 (2.14%) Firmware
4 15 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (0.82%) vSphere
6 6 (0.49%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.49%) KVM
7 4 (0.33%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.16%) Ceph
8 2 (0.16%) Lustre
8 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.16%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.082%) iptables
9 1 (0.082%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.082%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.082%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.082%) pfSense
9 1 (0.082%) vCloud
9 1 (0.082%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 69 (5.67%) Kubernetes
2 48 (3.95%) Terraform
3 32 (2.63%) Grafana
4 25 (2.06%) Ansible
5 15 (1.23%) Prometheus
6 12 (0.99%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 10 (0.82%) SCCM
8 8 (0.66%) Puppet
9 7 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.49%) Functional Safety
11 5 (0.41%) Argo
11 5 (0.41%) Rancher
11 5 (0.41%) yum
12 2 (0.16%) BMC PATROL
12 2 (0.16%) Cilium
12 2 (0.16%) Nessus
12 2 (0.16%) PowerCLI
13 1 (0.082%) Docker Swarm
13 1 (0.082%) Single Sign-On
13 1 (0.082%) SQL Sentry
Vendors
1 157 (12.91%) Microsoft
2 62 (5.10%) Oracle
3 58 (4.77%) SAP
4 48 (3.95%) Salesforce
5 24 (1.97%) VMware
6 23 (1.89%) Red Hat
7 20 (1.64%) IBM
8 19 (1.56%) Cisco
8 19 (1.56%) Foundry
9 17 (1.40%) Databricks
10 16 (1.32%) Adobe
10 16 (1.32%) OpenAI
10 16 (1.32%) ServiceNow
11 15 (1.23%) Google
12 14 (1.15%) Workday
13 12 (0.99%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (0.99%) UiPath
14 11 (0.90%) Software AG
15 10 (0.82%) Citrix
16 9 (0.74%) Siemens