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 18 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 169 180 191
Rank change year-on-year +11 +11 -53
Permanent jobs citing Validation 838 1,030 941
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.59% 1.54% 1.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.85% 1.84% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 454 384 535
10th Percentile £37,500 £37,575 £37,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -6.67% -
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,625 £77,500
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,250 £54,500 £55,043
% change year-on-year -2.29% -0.99% +10.09%

All Process and 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 45,214 55,881 49,346
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 85.89% 83.44% 93.81%
Number of salaries quoted 27,281 28,909 37,851
10th Percentile £28,250 £34,404 £32,500
25th Percentile £35,854 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £98,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -

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 18 November 2025.

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 18 November 2025. 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 +12 761 £60,000 +9.09% 1,201
UK excluding London +2 543 £53,250 -2.29% 805
London +22 246 £80,000 +14.29% 477
South East +17 202 £52,500 -19.23% 269
Work from Home +52 192 £62,000 -1.21% 653
North of England -9 112 £52,500 +15.38% 118
Midlands +50 75 £45,000 -10.00% 105
South West +23 66 £50,000 -16.67% 137
North West -7 65 £53,375 +11.94% 85
East of England -24 50 £59,500 +8.18% 152
West Midlands +46 49 £50,000 - 70
Yorkshire +2 34 £57,617 +44.04% 24
Scotland -8 30 £60,000 +6.18% 48
East Midlands +33 26 £42,500 -5.56% 34
North East 0 13 £35,000 -30.00% 10
Wales +20 10 £61,250 +31.13% 11
Northern Ireland -7 2 - - 8

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 (2.86%) Confluence
2 18 (2.15%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (2.03%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.19%) SugarCRM
5 9 (1.07%) Apache
6 8 (0.95%) SharePoint
7 7 (0.84%) CMS
8 5 (0.60%) SAS
9 3 (0.36%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.36%) Jupyter
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.24%) WordPress
11 1 (0.12%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.12%) Appian
11 1 (0.12%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.12%) FileNet
11 1 (0.12%) Luigi
Applications
1 53 (6.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 46 (5.49%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (2.63%) Simulink
4 19 (2.27%) MS Visio
5 13 (1.55%) Mathcad
6 9 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 7 (0.84%) AutoCAD
8 5 (0.60%) Blender
9 4 (0.48%) Revit
10 3 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
10 3 (0.36%) Photoshop
10 3 (0.36%) SOLIDWORKS
11 2 (0.24%) Adobe After Effects
11 2 (0.24%) Adobe Captivate
11 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 2 (0.24%) Adobe Premiere
11 2 (0.24%) Elementor
11 2 (0.24%) Oracle Smart View
11 2 (0.24%) Weka
12 1 (0.12%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 27 (3.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.72%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 5 (0.60%) Oracle Assets
4 5 (0.60%) Oracle Cash Management
4 5 (0.60%) Oracle General Ledger
4 5 (0.60%) Oracle Payables
4 5 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
5 4 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.48%) SAP BPC
5 4 (0.48%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 3 (0.36%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.36%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.24%) Aladdin
7 2 (0.24%) Endur
7 2 (0.24%) Primavera
7 2 (0.24%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.24%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.24%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 109 (13.01%) Azure
2 83 (9.90%) Power Platform
3 81 (9.67%) AWS
4 39 (4.65%) SaaS
5 28 (3.34%) Azure DevOps
6 24 (2.86%) GCP
7 19 (2.27%) Amazon S3
7 19 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (2.03%) GitHub
8 17 (2.03%) Serverless
9 16 (1.91%) Snowflake
10 15 (1.79%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (1.67%) Datadog
12 13 (1.55%) dbt
13 12 (1.43%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (1.31%) Amazon SageMaker
15 10 (1.19%) Microsoft 365
16 9 (1.07%) Microsoft Purview
16 9 (1.07%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.95%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.03%) LAN
2 13 (1.55%) Ethernet
2 13 (1.55%) Firewall
3 10 (1.19%) Modbus
3 10 (1.19%) WAN
4 8 (0.95%) 5G
4 8 (0.95%) Internet
4 8 (0.95%) Profibus
5 7 (0.84%) SD-WAN
6 6 (0.72%) DNS
6 6 (0.72%) Ethernet VPN
7 5 (0.60%) BGP
7 5 (0.60%) Network Security
7 5 (0.60%) NX-OS
7 5 (0.60%) OSPF
7 5 (0.60%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.48%) CHAP
8 4 (0.48%) DHCP
8 4 (0.48%) MPLS
8 4 (0.48%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (9.31%) Power BI
2 44 (5.25%) Tableau
3 32 (3.82%) Data Warehouse
4 23 (2.74%) SQL Server
5 21 (2.51%) Metadata
6 19 (2.27%) BigQuery
7 13 (1.55%) Big Data
7 13 (1.55%) Relational Database
8 12 (1.43%) NoSQL
9 11 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (1.19%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.95%) Amazon Athena
11 8 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
11 8 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
12 7 (0.84%) MongoDB
13 6 (0.72%) BusinessObjects
13 6 (0.72%) GIS
13 6 (0.72%) Looker
13 6 (0.72%) MySQL
13 6 (0.72%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 74 (8.83%) JIRA
2 43 (5.13%) Git
3 35 (4.18%) Rational DOORS
4 27 (3.22%) Jenkins
5 20 (2.39%) Postman
6 15 (1.79%) Selenium
7 12 (1.43%) GitLab
8 11 (1.31%) Cucumber
8 11 (1.31%) JMeter
9 10 (1.19%) SoapUI
10 7 (0.84%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.84%) Locust
11 6 (0.72%) LoadRunner
11 6 (0.72%) MLflow
11 6 (0.72%) TestRail
12 5 (0.60%) TestNG
12 5 (0.60%) Zephyr
13 4 (0.48%) SonarQube
13 4 (0.48%) WebDriver
13 4 (0.48%) webpack
General
1 323 (38.54%) Social Skills
2 250 (29.83%) Finance
3 173 (20.64%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (7.64%) Law
5 53 (6.32%) Manufacturing
6 50 (5.97%) Documentation Skills
6 50 (5.97%) Electronics
7 48 (5.73%) Marketing
8 41 (4.89%) Banking
9 38 (4.53%) Presentation Skills
10 35 (4.18%) Aerospace
10 35 (4.18%) Retail
11 33 (3.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 33 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
12 30 (3.58%) Financial Institution
13 27 (3.22%) Influencing Skills
13 27 (3.22%) Telecoms
14 24 (2.86%) Pharmaceutical
15 23 (2.74%) Billing
16 22 (2.63%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 125 (14.92%) Analyst
2 121 (14.44%) Senior
3 99 (11.81%) Lead
4 60 (7.16%) Systems Engineer
5 44 (5.25%) Data Analyst
6 41 (4.89%) Business Analyst
7 35 (4.18%) Data Engineer
8 34 (4.06%) Architect
9 32 (3.82%) Support Engineer
10 31 (3.70%) Test Engineer
11 28 (3.34%) Applications Engineer
12 27 (3.22%) Administrator
13 26 (3.10%) Applications Support
13 26 (3.10%) Developer
14 24 (2.86%) Data Quality Analyst
14 24 (2.86%) Principal Engineer
14 24 (2.86%) Quality Analyst
15 23 (2.74%) Team Leader
16 22 (2.63%) Applications Support Engineer
17 19 (2.27%) Hardware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (2.98%) REST
2 21 (2.51%) Middleware
3 20 (2.39%) JSON
3 20 (2.39%) XML
4 17 (2.03%) Kafka
4 17 (2.03%) scikit-learn
5 15 (1.79%) Pandas
5 15 (1.79%) PyTorch
6 14 (1.67%) TensorFlow
7 11 (1.31%) React
8 10 (1.19%) HTML
9 8 (0.95%) Playwright
9 8 (0.95%) PySpark
10 7 (0.84%) CSS
10 7 (0.84%) Gherkin
10 7 (0.84%) NumPy
10 7 (0.84%) Web Services
11 6 (0.72%) SOAP
11 6 (0.72%) Spring
11 6 (0.72%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 70 (8.35%) Management Information System
2 40 (4.77%) Life Science
3 39 (4.65%) Onboarding
4 37 (4.42%) Self-Motivation
5 35 (4.18%) Product Ownership
6 29 (3.46%) Algorithms
7 27 (3.22%) Operational Technology
8 17 (2.03%) SCADA
9 16 (1.91%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 12 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
10 12 (1.43%) Credit Risk
10 12 (1.43%) Data Structures
10 12 (1.43%) FPGA
11 11 (1.31%) Data Centre
11 11 (1.31%) Embedded Systems
11 11 (1.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 10 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
13 9 (1.07%) Driving Licence
13 9 (1.07%) Low-Code
13 9 (1.07%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 31 (3.70%) Linux
1 31 (3.70%) Windows
2 14 (1.67%) Windows Server
3 7 (0.84%) Windows Server 2016
4 5 (0.60%) Windows 10
4 5 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
5 3 (0.36%) Unix
6 2 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
6 2 (0.24%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.12%) AIX
7 1 (0.12%) Android
7 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.12%) VMS
7 1 (0.12%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (27.21%) Agile
2 225 (26.85%) Problem-Solving
3 121 (14.44%) Data Validation
4 118 (14.08%) Verification and Validation
5 116 (13.84%) Continuous Improvement
5 116 (13.84%) Migration
6 101 (12.05%) Analytics
7 94 (11.22%) Decision-Making
7 94 (11.22%) Test Automation
8 88 (10.50%) Data Analysis
9 87 (10.38%) Business Intelligence
9 87 (10.38%) Mentoring
10 85 (10.14%) Data Management
11 84 (10.02%) DevOps
12 82 (9.79%) CI/CD
12 82 (9.79%) Systems Engineering
13 81 (9.67%) Software Engineering
14 79 (9.43%) ETL
15 78 (9.31%) Stakeholder Management
16 71 (8.47%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 182 (21.72%) Python
2 170 (20.29%) SQL
3 38 (4.53%) Java
4 35 (4.18%) MATLAB
5 32 (3.82%) C
5 32 (3.82%) C++
6 20 (2.39%) JavaScript
7 17 (2.03%) PowerShell
8 14 (1.67%) R
9 12 (1.43%) Bash
10 11 (1.31%) T-SQL
11 9 (1.07%) TypeScript
12 8 (0.95%) Ladder Logic
13 6 (0.72%) C#
14 5 (0.60%) Scala
15 4 (0.48%) Go
16 3 (0.36%) Bicep
16 3 (0.36%) Google Apps Script
16 3 (0.36%) PL/SQL
16 3 (0.36%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 275 (32.82%) Degree
2 78 (9.31%) BPSS Clearance
3 76 (9.07%) Security Cleared
4 62 (7.40%) Master's Degree
5 47 (5.61%) SC Cleared
6 41 (4.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 26 (3.10%) Cisco Certification
8 19 (2.27%) HNC
9 15 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (1.67%) CCNA
10 14 (1.67%) CCNP
10 14 (1.67%) DV Cleared
10 14 (1.67%) PhD
11 13 (1.55%) ACCA
12 12 (1.43%) CCIE
13 11 (1.31%) ISTQB
13 11 (1.31%) Numerate Degree
14 10 (1.19%) Network+ Certification
15 9 (1.07%) CIMA
16 8 (0.95%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (13.37%) Data Quality
2 108 (12.89%) QA
3 40 (4.77%) GxP
4 35 (4.18%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 30 (3.58%) SLA
6 29 (3.46%) Accessibility
7 23 (2.74%) GDPR
8 14 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 11 (1.31%) ISO 20022
9 11 (1.31%) SEPA
10 9 (1.07%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 9 (1.07%) NIST
10 9 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.84%) TARGET2
11 7 (0.84%) WCAG
12 5 (0.60%) ARP4761
12 5 (0.60%) COBIT
12 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 4 (0.48%) NCSC
14 3 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 43 (5.13%) Docker
2 30 (3.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (3.10%) Firmware
4 14 (1.67%) Active Directory
5 12 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.72%) vSphere
7 5 (0.60%) vCloud
8 2 (0.24%) Apache Flume
8 2 (0.24%) Ceph
8 2 (0.24%) HDFS
8 2 (0.24%) Lustre
8 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 2 (0.24%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.12%) DFS Replication
9 1 (0.12%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.12%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 31 (3.70%) Kubernetes
2 24 (2.86%) Terraform
3 22 (2.63%) Grafana
4 17 (2.03%) Ansible
5 11 (1.31%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.60%) Docker Swarm
6 5 (0.60%) Kubeflow
6 5 (0.60%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.48%) Rundeck
8 3 (0.36%) Kibana
9 2 (0.24%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.24%) logstash
9 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.24%) Nessus
9 2 (0.24%) Oozie
9 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.12%) Control-M
10 1 (0.12%) Puppet
10 1 (0.12%) yum
10 1 (0.12%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 90 (10.74%) Microsoft
2 57 (6.80%) SAP
3 36 (4.30%) VMware
4 27 (3.22%) Cisco
5 26 (3.10%) Oracle
6 24 (2.86%) Salesforce
7 19 (2.27%) IBM
8 14 (1.67%) Foundry
9 13 (1.55%) CheckPoint
9 13 (1.55%) F5
9 13 (1.55%) MathWorks
10 12 (1.43%) Siemens
11 10 (1.19%) Allen-Bradley
12 9 (1.07%) ServiceNow
13 8 (0.95%) Databricks
13 8 (0.95%) Intapp
13 8 (0.95%) Rockwell
13 8 (0.95%) Software AG
13 8 (0.95%) Splunk
14 7 (0.84%) Informatica