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 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 187 174
Rank change year-on-year +44 -13 -24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,054 769 1,287
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.62% 1.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.92% 1.75% 1.93%
Number of salaries quoted 542 307 760
10th Percentile £36,250 £38,200 £34,750
25th Percentile £44,972 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,438 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £91,125 £97,500 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £51,528
% change year-on-year - +6.74% -6.31%

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 54,960 44,026 66,518
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 79.09% 92.87% 88.40%
Number of salaries quoted 32,942 21,945 51,245
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £29,494
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,651 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%

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 25 February 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 25 February 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 +46 918 £60,000 +7.14% 695
UK excluding London +21 650 £55,000 - 595
London +59 307 £75,000 +7.14% 195
Work from Home +115 302 £58,750 +4.91% 312
South East +41 199 £55,000 +4.76% 191
North of England -6 129 £60,000 +26.32% 122
Midlands +2 110 £37,500 -30.23% 117
North West +12 89 £58,000 +21.64% 74
East of England +3 89 £59,000 +7.27% 82
South West +2 71 £62,500 +18.82% 69
West Midlands +6 66 £41,108 -34.23% 80
East Midlands -14 43 £35,000 -32.69% 36
Scotland -26 39 £42,000 -27.63% 22
Yorkshire -23 29 £65,000 +42.94% 38
Wales -4 11 £61,250 +24.74% 7
North East -11 11 £45,497 +9.63% 11
Northern Ireland -31 3 - - 4

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 33 (3.13%) Apache Airflow
2 23 (2.18%) Apache Spark
3 20 (1.90%) ArcGIS
3 20 (1.90%) Confluence
4 18 (1.71%) Apache
5 13 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (1.14%) Appian
6 12 (1.14%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.95%) CMS
8 4 (0.38%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.19%) Kinematics
9 2 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.095%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.095%) FileNet
10 1 (0.095%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.095%) SAS
10 1 (0.095%) SugarCRM
Applications
1 91 (8.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (5.79%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 18 (1.71%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.66%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (0.47%) Simulink
6 4 (0.38%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
7 2 (0.19%) Elementor
7 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.19%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.19%) Weka
8 1 (0.095%) CATIA
8 1 (0.095%) GNU Octave
8 1 (0.095%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 25 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.66%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.66%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.38%) Markit EDM
4 4 (0.38%) SAP BPC
5 3 (0.28%) Elite 3E
5 3 (0.28%) SAP CX
5 3 (0.28%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.28%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.19%) Primavera
6 2 (0.19%) SAP FSCM
7 1 (0.095%) Endur
7 1 (0.095%) Loan IQ
7 1 (0.095%) Magento
7 1 (0.095%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.095%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.095%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.095%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 174 (16.51%) Azure
2 99 (9.39%) Power Platform
3 94 (8.92%) AWS
4 50 (4.74%) SaaS
5 44 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (3.42%) GCP
7 28 (2.66%) Snowflake
8 26 (2.47%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (2.37%) Azure Data Factory
10 23 (2.18%) dbt
11 22 (2.09%) Amazon S3
12 21 (1.99%) Power Automate
13 19 (1.80%) Entra ID
13 19 (1.80%) GitHub
14 18 (1.71%) Microsoft 365
15 12 (1.14%) Anthropic Claude
15 12 (1.14%) Azure AI
15 12 (1.14%) OpenShift
16 11 (1.04%) Figma
17 10 (0.95%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.90%) CHAP
2 14 (1.33%) WAN
3 12 (1.14%) 5G
3 12 (1.14%) Firewall
3 12 (1.14%) SD-WAN
3 12 (1.14%) TCP/IP
4 8 (0.76%) Broadband
4 8 (0.76%) DNS
4 8 (0.76%) HTTP
4 8 (0.76%) MQTT
4 8 (0.76%) Wireless
5 7 (0.66%) LAN
5 7 (0.66%) Modbus
6 6 (0.57%) Multicast
7 5 (0.47%) Cisco IOS
7 5 (0.47%) VoIP
7 5 (0.47%) WAAS
8 4 (0.38%) ATM
8 4 (0.38%) Internet
8 4 (0.38%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (8.73%) Power BI
2 40 (3.80%) SQL Server
3 33 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
3 33 (3.13%) Tableau
4 29 (2.75%) Metadata
5 27 (2.56%) GIS
6 25 (2.37%) Relational Database
7 19 (1.80%) QGIS
7 19 (1.80%) Spatial Data
8 15 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
9 14 (1.33%) Oracle Reports
10 12 (1.14%) Azure SQL Database
10 12 (1.14%) Data Lake
10 12 (1.14%) Pinecone
11 11 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
12 10 (0.95%) Parquet
12 10 (0.95%) Spotfire
13 9 (0.85%) Impala
13 9 (0.85%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 63 (5.98%) JIRA
2 56 (5.31%) Git
3 46 (4.36%) Rational DOORS
4 21 (1.99%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.90%) Postman
6 16 (1.52%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.42%) GitLab
8 14 (1.33%) MLflow
9 13 (1.23%) Cucumber
9 13 (1.23%) TestRail
10 11 (1.04%) Eclipse
10 11 (1.04%) JMeter
11 9 (0.85%) IBM UrbanCode
11 9 (0.85%) Selenium
11 9 (0.85%) SoapUI
12 7 (0.66%) Locust
13 6 (0.57%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.57%) Subversion
14 5 (0.47%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.47%) Visual Studio
General
1 384 (36.43%) Social Skills
2 301 (28.56%) Finance
3 251 (23.81%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (7.59%) Banking
5 55 (5.22%) Electronics
5 55 (5.22%) Manufacturing
6 49 (4.65%) Aerospace
7 48 (4.55%) Financial Institution
8 47 (4.46%) Marketing
9 46 (4.36%) Presentation Skills
10 44 (4.17%) Legal
11 38 (3.61%) Law
11 38 (3.61%) Public Sector
12 36 (3.42%) Organisational Skills
13 33 (3.13%) Retail
14 29 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 29 (2.75%) Telecoms
15 20 (1.90%) Billing
15 20 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.80%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 179 (16.98%) Analyst
2 159 (15.09%) Senior
3 125 (11.86%) Systems Engineer
4 79 (7.50%) Lead
5 69 (6.55%) Business Analyst
6 67 (6.36%) Architect
7 54 (5.12%) Validation Engineer
8 51 (4.84%) Test Engineer
9 48 (4.55%) Integration Engineer
10 47 (4.46%) Consultant
11 45 (4.27%) Data Analyst
12 40 (3.80%) Junior
13 38 (3.61%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 35 (3.32%) Systems Integration Engineer
15 33 (3.13%) Principal Engineer
16 32 (3.04%) Data Engineer
17 29 (2.75%) Developer
17 29 (2.75%) Solutions Architect
17 29 (2.75%) Verification Engineer
18 26 (2.47%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.74%) REST
2 39 (3.70%) PyTorch
3 35 (3.32%) Pandas
4 30 (2.85%) JSON
5 29 (2.75%) Middleware
6 25 (2.37%) pytest
6 25 (2.37%) XML
7 19 (1.80%) TensorFlow
8 18 (1.71%) NumPy
9 17 (1.61%) OAuth
9 17 (1.61%) scikit-learn
10 16 (1.52%) JWT
10 16 (1.52%) Swagger
10 16 (1.52%) Web Services
11 14 (1.33%) .NET
11 14 (1.33%) FastAPI
11 14 (1.33%) React
12 13 (1.23%) Flask
12 13 (1.23%) Hugging Face
12 13 (1.23%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 66 (6.26%) Management Information System
2 48 (4.55%) Onboarding
3 37 (3.51%) Data Structures
4 33 (3.13%) Product Ownership
5 32 (3.04%) Self-Motivation
6 31 (2.94%) Algorithms
7 27 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
8 24 (2.28%) Low-Code
9 22 (2.09%) Life Science
10 18 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (1.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 15 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.23%) Reinsurance
14 12 (1.14%) Blockchain
14 12 (1.14%) FPGA
15 11 (1.04%) Data Centre
15 11 (1.04%) Embedded Systems
15 11 (1.04%) SCADA
15 11 (1.04%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 50 (4.74%) Windows
2 49 (4.65%) Linux
3 15 (1.42%) Unix
4 12 (1.14%) Android
5 9 (0.85%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.38%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.38%) CentOS
8 3 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.19%) AIX
9 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.19%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.095%) Rocky
10 1 (0.095%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 281 (26.66%) Agile
2 241 (22.87%) Problem-Solving
3 177 (16.79%) Verification and Validation
4 162 (15.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 153 (14.52%) Analytics
6 136 (12.90%) Data Validation
7 132 (12.52%) AI
8 130 (12.33%) Migration
9 119 (11.29%) CI/CD
9 119 (11.29%) Systems Engineering
10 117 (11.10%) Test Automation
11 116 (11.01%) DevOps
12 115 (10.91%) Business Intelligence
13 114 (10.82%) Stakeholder Management
14 105 (9.96%) Mentoring
15 100 (9.49%) ETL
15 100 (9.49%) User Acceptance Testing
16 97 (9.20%) Data Analysis
16 97 (9.20%) Project Management
17 95 (9.01%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 229 (21.73%) SQL
2 223 (21.16%) Python
3 40 (3.80%) Java
4 37 (3.51%) C
4 37 (3.51%) C++
4 37 (3.51%) PowerShell
5 24 (2.28%) JavaScript
6 21 (1.99%) Bash
7 20 (1.90%) MATLAB
8 15 (1.42%) T-SQL
9 13 (1.23%) C#
9 13 (1.23%) TypeScript
10 12 (1.14%) R
11 9 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (0.76%) VBA
13 7 (0.66%) Go
13 7 (0.66%) VB
14 5 (0.47%) PHP
15 4 (0.38%) PL/SQL
15 4 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 263 (24.95%) Degree
2 146 (13.85%) Security Cleared
3 126 (11.95%) BPSS Clearance
4 58 (5.50%) SC Cleared
5 53 (5.03%) Master's Degree
6 42 (3.98%) Computer Science Degree
7 24 (2.28%) CISA
7 24 (2.28%) CISSP
8 23 (2.18%) CISM
8 23 (2.18%) DV Cleared
9 22 (2.09%) PMI Certification
9 22 (2.09%) PMP
10 21 (1.99%) CGEIT
10 21 (1.99%) SANS
11 20 (1.90%) FFIEC
12 19 (1.80%) Chartered Engineer
13 17 (1.61%) HNC
14 16 (1.52%) ISTQB
15 12 (1.14%) HND
16 9 (0.85%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 132 (12.52%) Data Quality
2 116 (11.01%) QA
3 53 (5.03%) GDPR
4 52 (4.93%) Accessibility
5 44 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 20 (1.90%) COBIT
6 20 (1.90%) NIST
7 17 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (1.61%) SLA
8 16 (1.52%) ISO 20022
9 14 (1.33%) GRC
10 13 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 13 (1.23%) SEPA
11 12 (1.14%) WCAG
12 10 (0.95%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 10 (0.95%) Good Clinical Practice
13 9 (0.85%) ISO 9001
13 9 (0.85%) TARGET2
14 8 (0.76%) GxP
14 8 (0.76%) IFRS
System Software
1 60 (5.69%) Docker
2 25 (2.37%) Firmware
3 19 (1.80%) Active Directory
4 11 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.57%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.38%) KVM
7 4 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.38%) vSphere
8 2 (0.19%) Ceph
8 2 (0.19%) Lustre
8 2 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.095%) iptables
9 1 (0.095%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.095%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.095%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.095%) pfSense
9 1 (0.095%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.095%) vCloud
9 1 (0.095%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 53 (5.03%) Kubernetes
2 36 (3.42%) Terraform
3 22 (2.09%) Ansible
4 21 (1.99%) Grafana
5 12 (1.14%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.85%) SCCM
7 7 (0.66%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 7 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (0.57%) Puppet
9 5 (0.47%) Argo
9 5 (0.47%) Rancher
9 5 (0.47%) yum
10 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
10 2 (0.19%) Nessus
10 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.095%) Control-M
11 1 (0.095%) Docker Swarm
11 1 (0.095%) Kibana
11 1 (0.095%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.095%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 139 (13.19%) Microsoft
2 61 (5.79%) SAP
3 51 (4.84%) Oracle
4 36 (3.42%) Salesforce
5 25 (2.37%) IBM
6 20 (1.90%) Cisco
7 19 (1.80%) Foundry
8 17 (1.61%) OpenAI
9 14 (1.33%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.33%) Software AG
9 14 (1.33%) VMware
10 13 (1.23%) Adobe
10 13 (1.23%) Red Hat
11 12 (1.14%) Automation Anywhere
11 12 (1.14%) Databricks
11 12 (1.14%) Google
11 12 (1.14%) UiPath
12 9 (0.85%) Workday
13 8 (0.76%) Intapp
13 8 (0.76%) Splunk