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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 162 197
Rank change year-on-year +7 +35 -57
Permanent jobs citing Validation 916 973 914
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.53% 1.81% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.00% 1.86%
Number of salaries quoted 491 355 509
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £36,875
25th Percentile £41,250 £45,000 £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 £99,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,550 £52,500
% change year-on-year -0.10% +0.10% -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 48,482 48,584 49,041
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.16% 90.44% 89.96%
Number of salaries quoted 28,500 23,705 37,321
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,000 £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 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%

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 9 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 9 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 +7 831 £60,000 +9.09% 1,308
UK excluding London +5 603 £52,500 -0.10% 1,214
London +31 259 £75,000 +20.00% 229
Work from Home +75 229 £60,000 +9.09% 448
South East +30 207 £49,750 -17.08% 389
North of England -12 122 £55,000 +19.57% 218
Midlands +20 85 £41,000 -21.15% 162
East of England +2 76 £60,000 +9.09% 186
North West -4 76 £54,500 +14.30% 85
South West +16 69 £52,500 -4.55% 189
West Midlands +5 51 £37,500 -28.57% 63
Yorkshire -5 36 £61,250 +63.33% 103
East Midlands +9 34 £42,500 -5.56% 97
Scotland -6 32 £60,000 +3.39% 46
North East 0 10 £31,000 -25.30% 32
Wales +6 9 £65,000 +32.37% 50
Northern Ireland -16 3 - - 20

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 (2.62%) Confluence
2 18 (1.97%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.31%) Apache Spark
4 11 (1.20%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.98%) CMS
5 9 (0.98%) SugarCRM
6 8 (0.87%) Apache
6 8 (0.87%) Appian
7 5 (0.55%) 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
11 1 (0.11%) Luigi
Applications
1 63 (6.88%) Microsoft Office
2 61 (6.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.75%) Simulink
4 15 (1.64%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 6 (0.66%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 5 (0.55%) Mathcad
8 4 (0.44%) Fusion 360
9 3 (0.33%) Oracle Smart View
10 2 (0.22%) Adobe After Effects
10 2 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.22%) Adobe Illustrator
10 2 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
10 2 (0.22%) AutoCAD
10 2 (0.22%) Elementor
10 2 (0.22%) Photoshop
10 2 (0.22%) Revit
10 2 (0.22%) Weka
11 1 (0.11%) CATIA
11 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 (0.55%) 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%) Loan IQ
Cloud Services
1 133 (14.52%) Azure
2 74 (8.08%) Power Platform
3 66 (7.21%) AWS
4 44 (4.80%) SaaS
5 37 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (2.84%) GCP
7 25 (2.73%) Snowflake
8 20 (2.18%) dbt
8 20 (2.18%) Dynamics 365
9 18 (1.97%) Azure Data Factory
10 16 (1.75%) GitHub
10 16 (1.75%) Power Automate
11 14 (1.53%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (1.42%) Amazon S3
13 11 (1.20%) Datadog
13 11 (1.20%) Entra ID
14 10 (1.09%) Figma
14 10 (1.09%) Serverless
15 9 (0.98%) Azure AI
16 8 (0.87%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.53%) LAN
2 13 (1.42%) Firewall
3 12 (1.31%) CHAP
3 12 (1.31%) DNS
4 10 (1.09%) WAN
5 9 (0.98%) 5G
6 8 (0.87%) HTTP
6 8 (0.87%) TCP/IP
7 7 (0.76%) MQTT
7 7 (0.76%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.66%) Modbus
9 5 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (0.55%) Ethernet VPN
9 5 (0.55%) SMTP
9 5 (0.55%) WAAS
10 4 (0.44%) BGP
10 4 (0.44%) DHCP
10 4 (0.44%) Internet
10 4 (0.44%) OSPF
10 4 (0.44%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (7.75%) Power BI
2 32 (3.49%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (3.17%) Tableau
4 27 (2.95%) SQL Server
5 24 (2.62%) Metadata
6 21 (2.29%) Relational Database
7 18 (1.97%) BigQuery
8 14 (1.53%) Oracle Reports
9 10 (1.09%) Spotfire
10 9 (0.98%) Big Data
10 9 (0.98%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
11 8 (0.87%) Pinecone
11 8 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
12 7 (0.76%) Looker
13 6 (0.66%) GIS
13 6 (0.66%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.55%) SAP HANA
14 5 (0.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 74 (8.08%) JIRA
2 48 (5.24%) Rational DOORS
3 45 (4.91%) Git
4 24 (2.62%) Postman
5 18 (1.97%) Jenkins
6 14 (1.53%) Selenium
7 12 (1.31%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.31%) JMeter
7 12 (1.31%) TestRail
8 11 (1.20%) GitLab
9 10 (1.09%) MLflow
9 10 (1.09%) SoapUI
10 9 (0.98%) LabVIEW
11 7 (0.76%) Eclipse
11 7 (0.76%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.76%) Locust
12 5 (0.55%) Charles Proxy
12 5 (0.55%) Fiddler
12 5 (0.55%) TestNG
12 5 (0.55%) Zephyr
General
1 330 (36.03%) Social Skills
2 248 (27.07%) Finance
3 195 (21.29%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (6.55%) Electronics
5 53 (5.79%) Law
6 52 (5.68%) Banking
7 46 (5.02%) Manufacturing
7 46 (5.02%) Presentation Skills
8 44 (4.80%) Marketing
9 40 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
10 36 (3.93%) Aerospace
10 36 (3.93%) Financial Institution
11 34 (3.71%) Organisational Skills
12 32 (3.49%) Public Sector
13 30 (3.28%) Telecoms
14 28 (3.06%) Retail
15 27 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 24 (2.62%) Pharmaceutical
17 23 (2.51%) Legal
18 20 (2.18%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 144 (15.72%) Analyst
2 131 (14.30%) Senior
3 96 (10.48%) Lead
4 90 (9.83%) Systems Engineer
5 50 (5.46%) Architect
6 49 (5.35%) Business Analyst
7 44 (4.80%) Test Engineer
8 37 (4.04%) Data Analyst
9 34 (3.71%) Junior
9 34 (3.71%) Validation Engineer
10 33 (3.60%) Developer
11 32 (3.49%) Applications Engineer
12 31 (3.38%) Applications Support
12 31 (3.38%) Principal Engineer
13 30 (3.28%) Data Engineer
13 30 (3.28%) Integration Engineer
14 28 (3.06%) Support Engineer
15 26 (2.84%) Applications Support Engineer
16 25 (2.73%) Solutions Architect
17 22 (2.40%) Systems Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.69%) REST
2 28 (3.06%) Middleware
3 26 (2.84%) JSON
4 23 (2.51%) Pandas
5 21 (2.29%) XML
6 19 (2.07%) pytest
6 19 (2.07%) scikit-learn
7 16 (1.75%) PyTorch
7 16 (1.75%) TensorFlow
8 14 (1.53%) NumPy
9 13 (1.42%) CSS
9 13 (1.42%) FastAPI
9 13 (1.42%) HTML
9 13 (1.42%) OAuth
10 12 (1.31%) JWT
10 12 (1.31%) React
10 12 (1.31%) Swagger
10 12 (1.31%) Web Services
11 11 (1.20%) Flask
12 10 (1.09%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 81 (8.84%) Management Information System
2 39 (4.26%) Life Science
3 38 (4.15%) Onboarding
4 35 (3.82%) Product Ownership
5 26 (2.84%) Self-Motivation
6 25 (2.73%) Operational Technology
7 18 (1.97%) Algorithms
7 18 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
8 16 (1.75%) Low-Code
9 15 (1.64%) Data Structures
9 15 (1.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 14 (1.53%) SCADA
11 12 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
11 12 (1.31%) Data Centre
11 12 (1.31%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.20%) FPGA
12 11 (1.20%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 10 (1.09%) Cloud Native
13 10 (1.09%) Embedded Systems
14 9 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (5.68%) Windows
2 37 (4.04%) Linux
3 13 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.20%) Android
5 7 (0.76%) Unix
6 5 (0.55%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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
1 236 (25.76%) Agile
2 216 (23.58%) Problem-Solving
3 146 (15.94%) Verification and Validation
4 133 (14.52%) Continuous Improvement
5 122 (13.32%) Data Validation
6 117 (12.77%) Migration
7 112 (12.23%) Analytics
8 104 (11.35%) Test Automation
9 101 (11.03%) Systems Engineering
10 97 (10.59%) DevOps
11 91 (9.93%) CI/CD
12 87 (9.50%) ETL
13 86 (9.39%) Decision-Making
14 85 (9.28%) Mentoring
15 84 (9.17%) Business Intelligence
16 80 (8.73%) Data Analysis
16 80 (8.73%) Data Management
17 77 (8.41%) Roadmaps
18 76 (8.30%) Software Engineering
19 74 (8.08%) AI
Programming Languages
1 197 (21.51%) SQL
2 171 (18.67%) Python
3 36 (3.93%) C
4 34 (3.71%) C++
5 30 (3.28%) Java
5 30 (3.28%) MATLAB
6 27 (2.95%) PowerShell
7 24 (2.62%) JavaScript
8 16 (1.75%) Bash
9 13 (1.42%) TypeScript
10 10 (1.09%) R
11 9 (0.98%) C#
12 7 (0.76%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.66%) Bicep
14 5 (0.55%) PHP
14 5 (0.55%) PL/SQL
15 4 (0.44%) Apex Code
16 3 (0.33%) Go
16 3 (0.33%) Google Apps Script
16 3 (0.33%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 283 (30.90%) Degree
2 120 (13.10%) Security Cleared
3 107 (11.68%) BPSS Clearance
4 56 (6.11%) SC Cleared
5 49 (5.35%) Master's Degree
6 44 (4.80%) Computer Science Degree
7 20 (2.18%) HNC
8 19 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (1.75%) DV Cleared
9 16 (1.75%) ISTQB
10 15 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
11 14 (1.53%) CISA
11 14 (1.53%) CISSP
11 14 (1.53%) PMI Certification
11 14 (1.53%) PMP
12 13 (1.42%) CGEIT
12 13 (1.42%) Chartered Engineer
12 13 (1.42%) CISM
12 13 (1.42%) FFIEC
12 13 (1.42%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (12.12%) QA
2 110 (12.01%) Data Quality
3 42 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 35 (3.82%) SLA
5 33 (3.60%) GDPR
6 30 (3.28%) Accessibility
7 28 (3.06%) GxP
8 17 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 17 (1.86%) NIST
9 13 (1.42%) COBIT
10 11 (1.20%) ISO 20022
10 11 (1.20%) SEPA
10 11 (1.20%) WCAG
11 10 (1.09%) Good Clinical Practice
11 10 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 8 (0.87%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 8 (0.87%) GRC
12 8 (0.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.76%) TARGET2
14 5 (0.55%) ARP4761
System Software
1 46 (5.02%) Docker
2 26 (2.84%) Firmware
3 22 (2.40%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (1.53%) Active Directory
5 8 (0.87%) 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%) Dovecot
8 1 (0.11%) iptables
8 1 (0.11%) OpenDJ
8 1 (0.11%) Postfix
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 38 (4.15%) Kubernetes
2 19 (2.07%) Terraform
3 16 (1.75%) Ansible
3 16 (1.75%) Grafana
4 9 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.76%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 7 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.55%) 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%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.11%) Puppet
9 1 (0.11%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.11%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 114 (12.45%) Microsoft
2 50 (5.46%) SAP
3 35 (3.82%) Oracle
4 27 (2.95%) Salesforce
4 27 (2.95%) VMware
5 26 (2.84%) Cisco
6 24 (2.62%) IBM
7 15 (1.64%) Foundry
8 13 (1.42%) Software AG
9 11 (1.20%) CheckPoint
9 11 (1.20%) F5
10 9 (0.98%) Adobe
10 9 (0.98%) OpenAI
10 9 (0.98%) ServiceNow
10 9 (0.98%) Workday
11 8 (0.87%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (0.87%) Databricks
11 8 (0.87%) Intapp
11 8 (0.87%) Splunk
11 8 (0.87%) UiPath