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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 158 198
Rank change year-on-year +3 +40 -55
Permanent jobs citing Validation 918 974 933
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.53% 1.82% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.01% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 492 355 523
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,600 £36,980
25th Percentile £41,250 £45,625 £48,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,875 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,000 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +0.95% - -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 48,596 48,532 50,084
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.00% 90.69% 89.94%
Number of salaries quoted 28,664 23,590 38,164
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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 +6 833 £60,000 +9.09% 923
UK excluding London +2 596 £53,000 +0.95% 848
London +34 267 £75,000 +20.00% 189
Work from Home +80 237 £60,000 +9.09% 431
South East +30 202 £50,000 -13.04% 298
North of England -24 123 £55,000 +19.29% 134
Midlands +8 83 £40,000 -23.08% 104
East of England +10 77 £60,000 +9.09% 133
North West -5 77 £54,500 +14.30% 53
South West +23 68 £55,000 +4.56% 142
West Midlands -2 51 £36,250 -30.95% 49
Yorkshire -8 36 £61,250 +51.33% 63
East Midlands +3 32 £42,500 -5.56% 54
Scotland -10 32 £60,000 +3.39% 33
North East +3 10 £31,000 -25.30% 20
Wales +11 8 £65,000 +32.37% 33
Northern Ireland -19 3 - - 12

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 24 (2.61%) Confluence
2 18 (1.96%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.31%) Apache Spark
4 11 (1.20%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.98%) Appian
5 9 (0.98%) CMS
6 7 (0.76%) Apache
6 7 (0.76%) SugarCRM
7 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.44%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.33%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.33%) SAS
10 2 (0.22%) Kinematics
10 2 (0.22%) WordPress
11 1 (0.11%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.11%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.11%) FileNet
Applications
1 65 (7.08%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (6.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.63%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.53%) Simulink
5 8 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.76%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.44%) Fusion 360
7 4 (0.44%) Mathcad
8 3 (0.33%) Oracle Smart View
9 2 (0.22%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
9 2 (0.22%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.22%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.22%) Elementor
9 2 (0.22%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.22%) Revit
9 2 (0.22%) Weka
10 1 (0.11%) CATIA
10 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (2.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.76%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.44%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.44%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.44%) SAP BPC
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.33%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.22%) Aladdin
7 2 (0.22%) Endur
7 2 (0.22%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.22%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.22%) Primavera
7 2 (0.22%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.11%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 137 (14.92%) Azure
2 74 (8.06%) Power Platform
3 67 (7.30%) AWS
4 44 (4.79%) SaaS
5 38 (4.14%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (3.05%) GCP
7 26 (2.83%) Snowflake
8 21 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
9 20 (2.18%) Azure Data Factory
9 20 (2.18%) dbt
10 17 (1.85%) GitHub
10 17 (1.85%) Power Automate
11 14 (1.53%) Microsoft 365
12 12 (1.31%) Amazon S3
13 11 (1.20%) Datadog
13 11 (1.20%) Entra ID
13 11 (1.20%) Figma
14 10 (1.09%) Azure AI
14 10 (1.09%) Serverless
15 9 (0.98%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.53%) CHAP
2 13 (1.42%) LAN
3 12 (1.31%) Firewall
4 11 (1.20%) DNS
5 10 (1.09%) 5G
5 10 (1.09%) WAN
6 8 (0.87%) HTTP
6 8 (0.87%) MQTT
7 7 (0.76%) Modbus
7 7 (0.76%) SD-WAN
7 7 (0.76%) TCP/IP
8 5 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (0.54%) Ethernet VPN
8 5 (0.54%) SMTP
8 5 (0.54%) WAAS
9 4 (0.44%) BGP
9 4 (0.44%) Internet
9 4 (0.44%) OSPF
9 4 (0.44%) VoIP
9 4 (0.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (7.73%) Power BI
2 34 (3.70%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (3.16%) SQL Server
4 25 (2.72%) Metadata
5 24 (2.61%) Tableau
6 20 (2.18%) Relational Database
7 14 (1.53%) BigQuery
7 14 (1.53%) Oracle Reports
8 10 (1.09%) Data Lake
8 10 (1.09%) Spotfire
9 9 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
9 9 (0.98%) Pinecone
10 8 (0.87%) Big Data
10 8 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
11 7 (0.76%) Looker
12 6 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
12 6 (0.65%) GIS
12 6 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (0.54%) NoSQL
13 5 (0.54%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 75 (8.17%) JIRA
2 48 (5.23%) Rational DOORS
3 43 (4.68%) Git
4 24 (2.61%) Postman
5 17 (1.85%) Jenkins
6 14 (1.53%) Selenium
7 13 (1.42%) TestRail
8 12 (1.31%) Cucumber
8 12 (1.31%) JMeter
9 11 (1.20%) LabVIEW
9 11 (1.20%) MLflow
10 10 (1.09%) GitLab
10 10 (1.09%) SoapUI
11 8 (0.87%) Eclipse
12 7 (0.76%) LoadRunner
12 7 (0.76%) Locust
13 6 (0.65%) Zephyr
14 5 (0.54%) Charles Proxy
14 5 (0.54%) Fiddler
14 5 (0.54%) TestNG
General
1 334 (36.38%) Social Skills
2 252 (27.45%) Finance
3 197 (21.46%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (6.54%) Electronics
5 57 (6.21%) Banking
6 46 (5.01%) Law
6 46 (5.01%) Manufacturing
7 45 (4.90%) Presentation Skills
8 44 (4.79%) Marketing
9 38 (4.14%) Financial Institution
10 36 (3.92%) Aerospace
10 36 (3.92%) Documentation Skills
11 33 (3.59%) Organisational Skills
12 32 (3.49%) Public Sector
13 29 (3.16%) Telecoms
14 28 (3.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 27 (2.94%) Retail
16 24 (2.61%) Legal
16 24 (2.61%) Pharmaceutical
17 18 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 143 (15.58%) Analyst
2 132 (14.38%) Senior
3 93 (10.13%) Systems Engineer
4 89 (9.69%) Lead
5 50 (5.45%) Architect
6 49 (5.34%) Business Analyst
7 44 (4.79%) Test Engineer
8 36 (3.92%) Validation Engineer
9 35 (3.81%) Data Analyst
10 34 (3.70%) Data Engineer
11 33 (3.59%) Junior
12 32 (3.49%) Applications Engineer
12 32 (3.49%) Developer
12 32 (3.49%) Integration Engineer
13 31 (3.38%) Applications Support
14 30 (3.27%) Principal Engineer
15 28 (3.05%) Support Engineer
16 26 (2.83%) Applications Support Engineer
17 24 (2.61%) Solutions Architect
18 23 (2.51%) Systems Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.79%) REST
2 28 (3.05%) Middleware
3 25 (2.72%) JSON
4 24 (2.61%) Pandas
5 21 (2.29%) pytest
6 20 (2.18%) scikit-learn
6 20 (2.18%) XML
7 17 (1.85%) PyTorch
7 17 (1.85%) TensorFlow
8 15 (1.63%) NumPy
9 14 (1.53%) CSS
9 14 (1.53%) FastAPI
9 14 (1.53%) OAuth
10 13 (1.42%) HTML
10 13 (1.42%) JWT
10 13 (1.42%) Swagger
10 13 (1.42%) Web Services
11 12 (1.31%) Flask
12 11 (1.20%) React
13 10 (1.09%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 72 (7.84%) Management Information System
2 38 (4.14%) Onboarding
3 34 (3.70%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.49%) Life Science
5 27 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
6 21 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
7 18 (1.96%) Low-Code
7 18 (1.96%) Operational Technology
8 17 (1.85%) Algorithms
9 16 (1.74%) Data Structures
10 15 (1.63%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 15 (1.63%) SCADA
11 13 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
12 12 (1.31%) Data Centre
12 12 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.20%) SWIFT Messaging Network
14 10 (1.09%) Cloud Native
14 10 (1.09%) Embedded Systems
14 10 (1.09%) FPGA
15 9 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 53 (5.77%) Windows
2 37 (4.03%) Linux
3 13 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.09%) Android
5 8 (0.87%) Unix
6 5 (0.54%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.22%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.22%) CentOS
8 2 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.11%) AIX
9 1 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.11%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.11%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (26.03%) Agile
2 214 (23.31%) Problem-Solving
3 147 (16.01%) Verification and Validation
4 132 (14.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 121 (13.18%) Data Validation
6 117 (12.75%) Migration
7 116 (12.64%) Analytics
8 104 (11.33%) Test Automation
9 100 (10.89%) Systems Engineering
10 98 (10.68%) DevOps
11 93 (10.13%) CI/CD
12 91 (9.91%) ETL
13 88 (9.59%) Business Intelligence
14 86 (9.37%) Mentoring
15 85 (9.26%) Decision-Making
16 81 (8.82%) Data Analysis
17 78 (8.50%) Data Management
17 78 (8.50%) Software Engineering
18 76 (8.28%) AI
18 76 (8.28%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 199 (21.68%) SQL
2 169 (18.41%) Python
3 35 (3.81%) C
4 33 (3.59%) C++
5 29 (3.16%) Java
5 29 (3.16%) MATLAB
6 27 (2.94%) PowerShell
7 23 (2.51%) JavaScript
8 16 (1.74%) Bash
9 12 (1.31%) TypeScript
10 10 (1.09%) C#
11 9 (0.98%) R
12 7 (0.76%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.65%) Bicep
13 6 (0.65%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.54%) PHP
15 4 (0.44%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.33%) GLSL
16 3 (0.33%) Go
16 3 (0.33%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 273 (29.74%) Degree
2 123 (13.40%) Security Cleared
3 107 (11.66%) BPSS Clearance
4 57 (6.21%) SC Cleared
5 49 (5.34%) Master's Degree
6 41 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (1.96%) HNC
9 16 (1.74%) CISA
9 16 (1.74%) CISSP
9 16 (1.74%) DV Cleared
9 16 (1.74%) ISTQB
10 15 (1.63%) CGEIT
10 15 (1.63%) CISM
10 15 (1.63%) FFIEC
10 15 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
10 15 (1.63%) SANS
11 14 (1.53%) PMI Certification
11 14 (1.53%) PMP
12 13 (1.42%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (12.31%) QA
2 107 (11.66%) Data Quality
3 41 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 35 (3.81%) SLA
5 34 (3.70%) GDPR
6 32 (3.49%) Accessibility
7 21 (2.29%) GxP
8 18 (1.96%) NIST
9 17 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 15 (1.63%) COBIT
11 12 (1.31%) WCAG
12 11 (1.20%) ISO 20022
12 11 (1.20%) SEPA
13 10 (1.09%) Good Clinical Practice
14 9 (0.98%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 9 (0.98%) GRC
14 9 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
15 7 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 7 (0.76%) TARGET2
16 5 (0.54%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 47 (5.12%) Docker
2 25 (2.72%) Firmware
3 15 (1.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (1.53%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.76%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.33%) vCloud
7 2 (0.22%) Ceph
7 2 (0.22%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.22%) Lustre
7 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 2 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.22%) vSphere
8 1 (0.11%) iptables
8 1 (0.11%) OpenAM
8 1 (0.11%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.11%) OpenIDM
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 38 (4.14%) Kubernetes
2 20 (2.18%) Terraform
3 16 (1.74%) Ansible
3 16 (1.74%) Grafana
4 9 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.76%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 7 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.54%) SCCM
7 3 (0.33%) Argo
7 3 (0.33%) Docker Swarm
7 3 (0.33%) Rancher
7 3 (0.33%) yum
8 2 (0.22%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.22%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.22%) Nessus
8 2 (0.22%) Rundeck
9 1 (0.11%) Control-M
9 1 (0.11%) Kibana
9 1 (0.11%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.11%) Puppet
Vendors
1 119 (12.96%) Microsoft
2 53 (5.77%) SAP
3 35 (3.81%) Oracle
4 28 (3.05%) Salesforce
5 26 (2.83%) Cisco
6 24 (2.61%) IBM
7 20 (2.18%) VMware
8 15 (1.63%) Foundry
9 13 (1.42%) Software AG
10 11 (1.20%) CheckPoint
10 11 (1.20%) F5
10 11 (1.20%) OpenAI
10 11 (1.20%) ServiceNow
11 10 (1.09%) Adobe
12 9 (0.98%) Automation Anywhere
12 9 (0.98%) UiPath
12 9 (0.98%) Workday
13 8 (0.87%) Databricks
13 8 (0.87%) Intapp
13 8 (0.87%) Splunk