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 6 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 182 181
Rank change year-on-year +36 -1 -25
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,092 783 1,326
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.51% 1.71% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.93% 1.83% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 566 319 778
10th Percentile £36,000 £37,700 £34,750
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,625 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +3.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,433
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,750 £55,000 £51,528
% change year-on-year -0.45% +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 56,699 42,799 69,454
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.53% 93.38% 87.82%
Number of salaries quoted 34,103 21,982 53,104
10th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £29,288
25th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,350 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.86% +9.73% -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 6 March 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 6 March 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 +30 944 £60,000 +5.26% 861
UK excluding London +12 669 £54,750 -0.45% 675
London +64 320 £75,000 +1.69% 287
Work from Home +99 313 £60,000 +5.26% 382
South East +38 202 £53,500 +1.90% 233
North of England -8 137 £60,000 +26.32% 127
Midlands -2 113 £37,500 -31.82% 122
North West +10 94 £58,000 +21.64% 63
East of England 0 89 £58,750 +6.82% 86
South West -11 70 £60,000 +9.09% 87
West Midlands -1 68 £42,215 -35.05% 85
East Midlands -15 44 £35,000 -32.69% 36
Scotland -12 43 £42,000 -27.63% 25
Yorkshire -36 30 £65,000 +42.94% 43
Wales -5 13 £65,000 +32.37% 11
North East -9 13 £48,000 +15.66% 22
Northern Ireland -33 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 38 (3.48%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.47%) Apache Spark
3 22 (2.01%) Apache
4 21 (1.92%) ArcGIS
5 20 (1.83%) Confluence
6 13 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
7 12 (1.10%) Appian
7 12 (1.10%) SharePoint
8 10 (0.92%) CMS
9 4 (0.37%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.27%) Kinematics
11 2 (0.18%) WordPress
12 1 (0.092%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.092%) FileNet
12 1 (0.092%) IIS
12 1 (0.092%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.092%) SAS
Applications
1 93 (8.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (5.40%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (1.74%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.64%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (0.46%) Simulink
6 4 (0.37%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.18%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
7 2 (0.18%) Elementor
7 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.18%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.18%) Weka
8 1 (0.092%) CATIA
8 1 (0.092%) GNU Octave
8 1 (0.092%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 28 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.19%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.73%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.64%) Workday HCM
5 5 (0.46%) SAP ERP
6 4 (0.37%) Markit EDM
6 4 (0.37%) SAP BPC
7 3 (0.27%) Elite 3E
7 3 (0.27%) Loan IQ
7 3 (0.27%) SAP CX
7 3 (0.27%) SAP MDG
8 2 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 2 (0.18%) Primavera
8 2 (0.18%) SAP FSCM
9 1 (0.092%) Endur
9 1 (0.092%) Magento
9 1 (0.092%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.092%) Oracle Financials
9 1 (0.092%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 175 (16.03%) Azure
2 104 (9.52%) AWS
3 102 (9.34%) Power Platform
4 55 (5.04%) SaaS
5 44 (4.03%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (3.39%) GCP
7 29 (2.66%) Snowflake
8 27 (2.47%) dbt
8 27 (2.47%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (2.38%) Azure Data Factory
10 25 (2.29%) Amazon S3
11 24 (2.20%) Power Automate
12 20 (1.83%) GitHub
13 19 (1.74%) Entra ID
14 16 (1.47%) Microsoft 365
15 15 (1.37%) OpenShift
16 14 (1.28%) Datadog
17 12 (1.10%) Anthropic Claude
17 12 (1.10%) Azure AI
18 11 (1.01%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (2.01%) CHAP
2 14 (1.28%) TCP/IP
2 14 (1.28%) WAN
3 12 (1.10%) 5G
3 12 (1.10%) Firewall
3 12 (1.10%) SD-WAN
4 10 (0.92%) Broadband
5 9 (0.82%) HTTP
6 8 (0.73%) DNS
6 8 (0.73%) MQTT
6 8 (0.73%) Wireless
7 7 (0.64%) Modbus
7 7 (0.64%) Multicast
8 6 (0.55%) LAN
9 5 (0.46%) ATM
9 5 (0.46%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (0.46%) tcpdump
9 5 (0.46%) VoIP
9 5 (0.46%) WAAS
9 5 (0.46%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (8.70%) Power BI
2 42 (3.85%) SQL Server
3 36 (3.30%) Tableau
4 32 (2.93%) Data Warehouse
5 31 (2.84%) Metadata
6 28 (2.56%) GIS
7 26 (2.38%) Relational Database
8 20 (1.83%) QGIS
8 20 (1.83%) Spatial Data
9 16 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
10 15 (1.37%) Oracle Reports
11 13 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (1.19%) Parquet
11 13 (1.19%) Spark SQL
12 12 (1.10%) Apache Hive
12 12 (1.10%) Impala
12 12 (1.10%) Oracle Database
12 12 (1.10%) Pinecone
13 11 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
13 11 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 63 (5.77%) JIRA
2 60 (5.49%) Git
3 46 (4.21%) Rational DOORS
4 21 (1.92%) Jenkins
5 19 (1.74%) Postman
6 16 (1.47%) Cucumber
6 16 (1.47%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.37%) GitLab
7 15 (1.37%) JMeter
8 14 (1.28%) MLflow
9 13 (1.19%) TestRail
10 12 (1.10%) IBM UrbanCode
11 11 (1.01%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.92%) Locust
12 10 (0.92%) Selenium
13 8 (0.73%) SoapUI
14 7 (0.64%) LoadRunner
15 6 (0.55%) Subversion
16 5 (0.46%) Robot Framework
16 5 (0.46%) SpecFlow
General
1 403 (36.90%) Social Skills
2 312 (28.57%) Finance
3 261 (23.90%) Analytical Skills
4 87 (7.97%) Banking
5 59 (5.40%) Manufacturing
6 51 (4.67%) Aerospace
6 51 (4.67%) Financial Institution
7 50 (4.58%) Electronics
8 46 (4.21%) Marketing
9 45 (4.12%) Legal
10 44 (4.03%) Presentation Skills
11 38 (3.48%) Public Sector
12 37 (3.39%) Law
13 34 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 34 (3.11%) Organisational Skills
13 34 (3.11%) Retail
14 30 (2.75%) Telecoms
15 20 (1.83%) Billing
16 19 (1.74%) Aviation
16 19 (1.74%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 184 (16.85%) Analyst
2 161 (14.74%) Senior
3 131 (12.00%) Systems Engineer
4 85 (7.78%) Lead
5 70 (6.41%) Business Analyst
6 64 (5.86%) Architect
7 55 (5.04%) Validation Engineer
8 54 (4.95%) Test Engineer
9 50 (4.58%) Consultant
10 49 (4.49%) Integration Engineer
11 45 (4.12%) Data Analyst
12 41 (3.75%) Junior
13 39 (3.57%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 35 (3.21%) Principal Engineer
14 35 (3.21%) Systems Integration Engineer
15 34 (3.11%) Data Engineer
16 31 (2.84%) Developer
17 29 (2.66%) Verification Engineer
18 27 (2.47%) Principal Systems Engineer
18 27 (2.47%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (4.76%) REST
2 40 (3.66%) PyTorch
3 37 (3.39%) Pandas
4 29 (2.66%) JSON
5 27 (2.47%) Middleware
6 24 (2.20%) pytest
7 23 (2.11%) XML
8 19 (1.74%) TensorFlow
9 17 (1.56%) NumPy
9 17 (1.56%) OAuth
9 17 (1.56%) PySpark
10 16 (1.47%) JWT
10 16 (1.47%) scikit-learn
10 16 (1.47%) Swagger
10 16 (1.47%) Web Services
11 15 (1.37%) .NET
12 14 (1.28%) React
13 13 (1.19%) FastAPI
13 13 (1.19%) Hugging Face
13 13 (1.19%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 69 (6.32%) Management Information System
2 53 (4.85%) Onboarding
3 39 (3.57%) Data Structures
4 34 (3.11%) Product Ownership
5 32 (2.93%) Algorithms
6 30 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
7 28 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
8 26 (2.38%) Low-Code
9 23 (2.11%) Life Science
10 18 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (1.65%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
11 16 (1.47%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 13 (1.19%) Blockchain
12 13 (1.19%) FPGA
12 13 (1.19%) Reinsurance
12 13 (1.19%) SCADA
13 11 (1.01%) Data Centre
13 11 (1.01%) Embedded Systems
13 11 (1.01%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 51 (4.67%) Windows
2 50 (4.58%) Linux
3 15 (1.37%) Unix
4 12 (1.10%) Android
5 9 (0.82%) Windows Server
6 8 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.37%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.37%) CentOS
8 3 (0.27%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.18%) AIX
9 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.18%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.092%) Rocky
10 1 (0.092%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 293 (26.83%) Agile
2 251 (22.99%) Problem-Solving
3 182 (16.67%) Verification and Validation
4 181 (16.58%) Continuous Improvement
5 166 (15.20%) Analytics
6 145 (13.28%) Data Validation
7 138 (12.64%) AI
8 134 (12.27%) Migration
9 129 (11.81%) Test Automation
10 127 (11.63%) CI/CD
11 125 (11.45%) Systems Engineering
12 121 (11.08%) Business Intelligence
13 117 (10.71%) DevOps
14 115 (10.53%) Stakeholder Management
15 107 (9.80%) Mentoring
15 107 (9.80%) User Acceptance Testing
16 106 (9.71%) ETL
17 105 (9.62%) Decision-Making
18 103 (9.43%) Data Modelling
19 100 (9.16%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 239 (21.89%) SQL
2 237 (21.70%) Python
3 45 (4.12%) Java
4 39 (3.57%) PowerShell
5 36 (3.30%) C++
6 35 (3.21%) C
7 25 (2.29%) JavaScript
8 21 (1.92%) Bash
9 19 (1.74%) MATLAB
10 17 (1.56%) T-SQL
11 14 (1.28%) C#
12 13 (1.19%) TypeScript
13 12 (1.10%) R
14 11 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 8 (0.73%) Go
15 8 (0.73%) VBA
16 7 (0.64%) VB
17 6 (0.55%) Apex Code
18 5 (0.46%) PHP
18 5 (0.46%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 264 (24.18%) Degree
2 151 (13.83%) Security Cleared
3 135 (12.36%) BPSS Clearance
4 60 (5.49%) SC Cleared
5 51 (4.67%) Master's Degree
6 40 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 26 (2.38%) CISA
7 26 (2.38%) CISSP
8 25 (2.29%) CISM
9 23 (2.11%) DV Cleared
9 23 (2.11%) PMI Certification
9 23 (2.11%) PMP
10 22 (2.01%) CGEIT
10 22 (2.01%) FFIEC
10 22 (2.01%) SANS
11 21 (1.92%) Chartered Engineer
12 17 (1.56%) HNC
13 16 (1.47%) ISTQB
14 12 (1.10%) HND
15 10 (0.92%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 140 (12.82%) Data Quality
2 126 (11.54%) QA
3 57 (5.22%) Accessibility
4 56 (5.13%) GDPR
5 44 (4.03%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 23 (2.11%) NIST
7 22 (2.01%) COBIT
8 19 (1.74%) SLA
9 18 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 16 (1.47%) ISO 20022
11 15 (1.37%) GRC
11 15 (1.37%) WCAG
12 13 (1.19%) SEPA
13 12 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 12207
14 11 (1.01%) IFRS
15 10 (0.92%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 10 (0.92%) Good Clinical Practice
16 9 (0.82%) ISO 9001
16 9 (0.82%) TARGET2
17 8 (0.73%) GxP
System Software
1 65 (5.95%) Docker
2 26 (2.38%) Firmware
3 19 (1.74%) Active Directory
4 12 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.55%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
6 5 (0.46%) KVM
7 4 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.37%) vSphere
8 2 (0.18%) Ceph
8 2 (0.18%) Lustre
8 2 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.092%) iptables
9 1 (0.092%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.092%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.092%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.092%) pfSense
9 1 (0.092%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.092%) vCloud
9 1 (0.092%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 58 (5.31%) Kubernetes
2 41 (3.75%) Terraform
3 26 (2.38%) Grafana
4 23 (2.11%) Ansible
5 13 (1.19%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 9 (0.82%) SCCM
7 7 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.64%) Puppet
8 5 (0.46%) Argo
8 5 (0.46%) Rancher
8 5 (0.46%) yum
9 2 (0.18%) BMC PATROL
9 2 (0.18%) Nessus
9 2 (0.18%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.092%) Control-M
10 1 (0.092%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.092%) Kibana
10 1 (0.092%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.092%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 143 (13.10%) Microsoft
2 63 (5.77%) SAP
3 56 (5.13%) Oracle
4 38 (3.48%) Salesforce
5 24 (2.20%) IBM
6 19 (1.74%) Cisco
6 19 (1.74%) Foundry
7 17 (1.56%) OpenAI
8 16 (1.47%) Red Hat
9 15 (1.37%) VMware
10 14 (1.28%) ServiceNow
10 14 (1.28%) Software AG
11 13 (1.19%) Adobe
11 13 (1.19%) Google
12 12 (1.10%) Automation Anywhere
12 12 (1.10%) Databricks
12 12 (1.10%) UiPath
13 11 (1.01%) Workday
14 9 (0.82%) Intapp
14 9 (0.82%) Siemens