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

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 157 196
Rank change year-on-year +2 +39 -55
Permanent jobs citing Validation 899 974 934
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.82% 1.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 2.01% 1.85%
Number of salaries quoted 478 355 523
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,600 £36,980
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 £78,438 £71,250 £74,375
90th Percentile £91,250 £99,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,250 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +1.43% - -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 48,033 48,451 50,427
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.00% 90.60% 89.96%
Number of salaries quoted 28,230 23,579 38,463
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 £78,479
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 12 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 12 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 +7 815 £60,000 +9.09% 1,080
UK excluding London 0 585 £53,250 +1.43% 1,019
London +31 260 £75,000 +20.00% 196
Work from Home +74 229 £60,000 +9.09% 482
South East +22 198 £49,500 -10.00% 354
North of England -16 121 £55,233 +19.79% 167
Midlands +7 81 £40,000 -23.08% 123
North West +4 76 £54,500 +14.30% 63
East of England +3 75 £60,000 +9.09% 160
South West +24 67 £55,000 +4.56% 159
West Midlands -2 49 £37,500 -28.57% 50
Yorkshire -8 35 £62,500 +54.42% 79
East Midlands +3 32 £42,500 -5.56% 71
Scotland -14 32 £60,000 +3.39% 37
North East -3 10 £31,000 -25.30% 27
Wales +2 8 £65,000 +32.37% 46
Northern Ireland -20 3 - - 18

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 (2.67%) Confluence
2 18 (2.00%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.33%) Apache Spark
4 11 (1.22%) SharePoint
5 9 (1.00%) Appian
5 9 (1.00%) CMS
6 8 (0.89%) SugarCRM
7 7 (0.78%) Apache
8 5 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (0.44%) Headless CMS
10 3 (0.33%) Jupyter
10 3 (0.33%) SAS
11 2 (0.22%) Kinematics
11 2 (0.22%) WordPress
12 1 (0.11%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.11%) Apache Superset
12 1 (0.11%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.11%) FileNet
Applications
1 63 (7.01%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (6.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.67%) MS Visio
4 14 (1.56%) Simulink
5 8 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.78%) 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 (2.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.78%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.56%) 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 MDG
Cloud Services
1 132 (14.68%) Azure
2 72 (8.01%) Power Platform
3 65 (7.23%) AWS
4 44 (4.89%) SaaS
5 36 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (2.89%) GCP
7 25 (2.78%) Snowflake
8 20 (2.22%) dbt
8 20 (2.22%) Dynamics 365
9 19 (2.11%) Azure Data Factory
10 17 (1.89%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.78%) GitHub
12 14 (1.56%) Microsoft 365
13 12 (1.33%) Amazon S3
14 11 (1.22%) Datadog
14 11 (1.22%) Entra ID
15 10 (1.11%) Azure AI
15 10 (1.11%) Figma
16 9 (1.00%) Anthropic Claude
16 9 (1.00%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.56%) CHAP
2 13 (1.45%) LAN
3 12 (1.33%) Firewall
4 11 (1.22%) DNS
5 9 (1.00%) 5G
5 9 (1.00%) WAN
6 8 (0.89%) HTTP
7 7 (0.78%) MQTT
7 7 (0.78%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.67%) Modbus
8 6 (0.67%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (0.56%) Ethernet VPN
9 5 (0.56%) SMTP
9 5 (0.56%) WAAS
10 4 (0.44%) BGP
10 4 (0.44%) Internet
10 4 (0.44%) OSPF
10 4 (0.44%) VoIP
10 4 (0.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (7.68%) Power BI
2 31 (3.45%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (3.23%) SQL Server
4 24 (2.67%) Metadata
4 24 (2.67%) Tableau
5 20 (2.22%) Relational Database
6 14 (1.56%) Oracle Reports
7 13 (1.45%) BigQuery
8 10 (1.11%) Data Lake
8 10 (1.11%) Spotfire
9 9 (1.00%) Pinecone
10 8 (0.89%) Big Data
10 8 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
11 7 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
11 7 (0.78%) Looker
12 6 (0.67%) GIS
13 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.56%) NoSQL
13 5 (0.56%) SAP HANA
13 5 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 73 (8.12%) JIRA
2 48 (5.34%) Rational DOORS
3 42 (4.67%) Git
4 24 (2.67%) Postman
5 17 (1.89%) Jenkins
6 14 (1.56%) Selenium
7 12 (1.33%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.33%) JMeter
7 12 (1.33%) TestRail
8 11 (1.22%) MLflow
9 10 (1.11%) GitLab
9 10 (1.11%) SoapUI
10 9 (1.00%) LabVIEW
11 7 (0.78%) Eclipse
11 7 (0.78%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.78%) Locust
12 5 (0.56%) Charles Proxy
12 5 (0.56%) Fiddler
12 5 (0.56%) TestNG
12 5 (0.56%) Zephyr
General
1 331 (36.82%) Social Skills
2 249 (27.70%) Finance
3 192 (21.36%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (6.56%) Electronics
5 55 (6.12%) Banking
6 45 (5.01%) Law
6 45 (5.01%) Manufacturing
6 45 (5.01%) Presentation Skills
7 44 (4.89%) Marketing
8 38 (4.23%) Financial Institution
9 36 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
10 35 (3.89%) Aerospace
11 33 (3.67%) Organisational Skills
12 32 (3.56%) Public Sector
13 29 (3.23%) Telecoms
14 28 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 27 (3.00%) Retail
16 24 (2.67%) Pharmaceutical
17 23 (2.56%) Legal
18 19 (2.11%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 138 (15.35%) Analyst
2 129 (14.35%) Senior
3 91 (10.12%) Systems Engineer
4 87 (9.68%) Lead
5 49 (5.45%) Architect
6 48 (5.34%) Business Analyst
7 42 (4.67%) Test Engineer
8 34 (3.78%) Validation Engineer
9 33 (3.67%) Data Analyst
9 33 (3.67%) Junior
10 32 (3.56%) Applications Engineer
10 32 (3.56%) Developer
11 31 (3.45%) Applications Support
11 31 (3.45%) Data Engineer
12 30 (3.34%) Integration Engineer
12 30 (3.34%) Principal Engineer
13 28 (3.11%) Support Engineer
14 26 (2.89%) Applications Support Engineer
15 24 (2.67%) Solutions Architect
16 22 (2.45%) Systems Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.89%) REST
2 28 (3.11%) Middleware
3 25 (2.78%) JSON
4 24 (2.67%) Pandas
5 20 (2.22%) pytest
5 20 (2.22%) scikit-learn
5 20 (2.22%) XML
6 17 (1.89%) PyTorch
6 17 (1.89%) TensorFlow
7 15 (1.67%) NumPy
8 14 (1.56%) CSS
8 14 (1.56%) FastAPI
8 14 (1.56%) OAuth
9 13 (1.45%) HTML
9 13 (1.45%) JWT
9 13 (1.45%) Swagger
9 13 (1.45%) Web Services
10 12 (1.33%) Flask
11 11 (1.22%) React
12 10 (1.11%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 73 (8.12%) Management Information System
2 38 (4.23%) Onboarding
3 34 (3.78%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.56%) Life Science
5 26 (2.89%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (2.00%) Legacy Systems
6 18 (2.00%) Low-Code
6 18 (2.00%) Operational Technology
7 17 (1.89%) Algorithms
8 15 (1.67%) Data Structures
8 15 (1.67%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 14 (1.56%) SCADA
10 12 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
10 12 (1.33%) Data Centre
10 12 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.22%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 10 (1.11%) Cloud Native
12 10 (1.11%) Embedded Systems
12 10 (1.11%) FPGA
13 9 (1.00%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (5.78%) Windows
2 37 (4.12%) Linux
3 13 (1.45%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.11%) Android
5 7 (0.78%) Unix
6 5 (0.56%) 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
1 234 (26.03%) Agile
2 211 (23.47%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (16.13%) Verification and Validation
4 128 (14.24%) Continuous Improvement
5 117 (13.01%) Data Validation
6 115 (12.79%) Analytics
7 111 (12.35%) Migration
8 100 (11.12%) Systems Engineering
8 100 (11.12%) Test Automation
9 95 (10.57%) DevOps
10 91 (10.12%) CI/CD
11 87 (9.68%) ETL
12 85 (9.45%) Decision-Making
12 85 (9.45%) Mentoring
13 83 (9.23%) Business Intelligence
14 79 (8.79%) Data Analysis
15 77 (8.57%) Data Management
16 76 (8.45%) Roadmaps
16 76 (8.45%) Software Engineering
17 75 (8.34%) AI
Programming Languages
1 192 (21.36%) SQL
2 165 (18.35%) Python
3 34 (3.78%) C
4 32 (3.56%) C++
5 29 (3.23%) Java
6 28 (3.11%) MATLAB
7 27 (3.00%) PowerShell
8 23 (2.56%) JavaScript
9 16 (1.78%) Bash
10 12 (1.33%) TypeScript
11 9 (1.00%) C#
11 9 (1.00%) R
12 6 (0.67%) Bicep
12 6 (0.67%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.56%) PHP
13 5 (0.56%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.44%) Apex Code
15 3 (0.33%) GLSL
15 3 (0.33%) Go
15 3 (0.33%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 272 (30.26%) Degree
2 120 (13.35%) Security Cleared
3 107 (11.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 56 (6.23%) SC Cleared
5 49 (5.45%) Master's Degree
6 40 (4.45%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
7 19 (2.11%) HNC
8 16 (1.78%) CISA
8 16 (1.78%) CISSP
8 16 (1.78%) DV Cleared
8 16 (1.78%) ISTQB
9 15 (1.67%) CGEIT
9 15 (1.67%) CISM
9 15 (1.67%) FFIEC
9 15 (1.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 15 (1.67%) SANS
10 14 (1.56%) PMI Certification
10 14 (1.56%) PMP
11 13 (1.45%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (12.12%) QA
2 102 (11.35%) Data Quality
3 41 (4.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 35 (3.89%) SLA
5 34 (3.78%) GDPR
6 31 (3.45%) Accessibility
7 21 (2.34%) GxP
8 18 (2.00%) NIST
9 17 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 15 (1.67%) COBIT
11 12 (1.33%) WCAG
12 11 (1.22%) ISO 20022
12 11 (1.22%) SEPA
13 10 (1.11%) Good Clinical Practice
14 9 (1.00%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 9 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
15 8 (0.89%) GRC
16 7 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 7 (0.78%) TARGET2
17 5 (0.56%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 47 (5.23%) Docker
2 25 (2.78%) Firmware
3 15 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (1.56%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.78%) 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 (4.23%) Kubernetes
2 19 (2.11%) Terraform
3 16 (1.78%) Ansible
3 16 (1.78%) Grafana
4 9 (1.00%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.78%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 7 (0.78%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.56%) 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%) Kibana
9 1 (0.11%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.11%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.11%) Puppet
Vendors
1 115 (12.79%) Microsoft
2 52 (5.78%) SAP
3 35 (3.89%) Oracle
4 27 (3.00%) Salesforce
5 26 (2.89%) Cisco
6 24 (2.67%) IBM
7 20 (2.22%) VMware
8 15 (1.67%) Foundry
9 13 (1.45%) Software AG
10 11 (1.22%) CheckPoint
10 11 (1.22%) F5
11 10 (1.11%) Adobe
11 10 (1.11%) OpenAI
12 9 (1.00%) Automation Anywhere
12 9 (1.00%) ServiceNow
12 9 (1.00%) UiPath
12 9 (1.00%) Workday
13 8 (0.89%) Databricks
13 8 (0.89%) Intapp
13 8 (0.89%) Splunk