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

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 168 177 197
Rank change year-on-year +9 +20 -60
Permanent jobs citing Validation 854 1,067 903
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.59% 1.59% 1.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 1.87% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 468 417 512
10th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £36,875
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,750 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year +0.29% -4.36% +10.00%

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 45,560 57,007 47,921
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 84.92% 84.85% 93.78%
Number of salaries quoted 27,788 29,760 36,892
10th Percentile £28,250 £34,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £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 £54,439 £52,500
% change year-on-year -12.75% +3.69% -0.19%

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 26 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 26 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 +10 778 £60,000 +9.09% 755
UK excluding London +1 559 £52,750 +0.29% 675
London +18 247 £80,000 +18.52% 212
South East +16 200 £52,500 -8.70% 284
Work from Home +51 196 £62,000 +3.33% 385
North of England -10 113 £52,500 +15.38% 71
Midlands +49 81 £42,500 -15.00% 94
South West +21 70 £50,000 -16.67% 101
North West -7 68 £53,000 +14.69% 43
East of England -10 57 £57,500 +4.55% 125
West Midlands +49 51 £47,500 -5.00% 64
Yorkshire 0 32 £60,000 +50.00% 21
East Midlands +36 30 £42,500 -10.53% 29
Scotland -2 28 £60,000 +6.18% 30
North East +11 13 £35,000 -26.70% 8
Wales +18 10 £61,250 +24.74% 9
Northern Ireland -4 2 - - 7

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 (2.81%) Confluence
2 18 (2.11%) Apache Airflow
3 16 (1.87%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.17%) Apache
4 10 (1.17%) SugarCRM
5 8 (0.94%) CMS
5 8 (0.94%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.59%) SAS
7 4 (0.47%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.35%) Appian
8 3 (0.35%) Jupyter
8 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.23%) WordPress
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.12%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.12%) FileNet
10 1 (0.12%) Luigi
Applications
1 56 (6.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 49 (5.74%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (2.46%) Simulink
4 18 (2.11%) MS Visio
5 11 (1.29%) Mathcad
6 9 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 6 (0.70%) AutoCAD
8 4 (0.47%) Blender
8 4 (0.47%) Revit
9 3 (0.35%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.35%) Oracle Smart View
9 3 (0.35%) Photoshop
10 2 (0.23%) Adobe After Effects
10 2 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.23%) Adobe Premiere
10 2 (0.23%) Elementor
10 2 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
10 2 (0.23%) Weka
11 1 (0.12%) CANalyzer
Business Applications
1 28 (3.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.70%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 6 (0.70%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle Cash Management
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle General Ledger
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle Receivables
4 4 (0.47%) SAP BPC
5 3 (0.35%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
5 3 (0.35%) SAP CX
5 3 (0.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 2 (0.23%) Aladdin
6 2 (0.23%) Endur
6 2 (0.23%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.23%) Primavera
6 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.23%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 115 (13.47%) Azure
2 86 (10.07%) Power Platform
3 79 (9.25%) AWS
4 42 (4.92%) SaaS
5 29 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
6 23 (2.69%) GCP
7 20 (2.34%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (1.99%) Amazon S3
8 17 (1.99%) GitHub
8 17 (1.99%) Snowflake
9 15 (1.76%) Serverless
10 13 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
10 13 (1.52%) Datadog
10 13 (1.52%) dbt
11 11 (1.29%) Power Automate
12 10 (1.17%) Amazon SageMaker
12 10 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
12 10 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (1.05%) Microsoft 365
14 8 (0.94%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.99%) LAN
2 13 (1.52%) Firewall
3 12 (1.41%) Ethernet
4 11 (1.29%) Modbus
5 9 (1.05%) DNS
5 9 (1.05%) WAN
6 8 (0.94%) Internet
7 7 (0.82%) 5G
7 7 (0.82%) Profibus
7 7 (0.82%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.70%) CHAP
8 6 (0.70%) Ethernet VPN
8 6 (0.70%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.59%) BGP
9 5 (0.59%) DHCP
9 5 (0.59%) Network Security
9 5 (0.59%) NX-OS
9 5 (0.59%) OSPF
10 4 (0.47%) 3GPP
10 4 (0.47%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (9.37%) Power BI
2 43 (5.04%) Tableau
3 33 (3.86%) Data Warehouse
4 25 (2.93%) SQL Server
5 24 (2.81%) Metadata
6 19 (2.22%) BigQuery
7 15 (1.76%) Relational Database
8 13 (1.52%) Big Data
9 11 (1.29%) Data Lake
9 11 (1.29%) NoSQL
9 11 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.82%) Amazon Athena
10 7 (0.82%) Amazon Aurora
10 7 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
10 7 (0.82%) MongoDB
11 6 (0.70%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.70%) GIS
11 6 (0.70%) MySQL
11 6 (0.70%) Oracle Reports
11 6 (0.70%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 76 (8.90%) JIRA
2 47 (5.50%) Git
3 39 (4.57%) Rational DOORS
4 25 (2.93%) Jenkins
5 20 (2.34%) Postman
6 15 (1.76%) Selenium
7 12 (1.41%) GitLab
7 12 (1.41%) JMeter
8 11 (1.29%) Cucumber
9 10 (1.17%) SoapUI
10 8 (0.94%) MLflow
11 7 (0.82%) Cypress.io
11 7 (0.82%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.82%) Locust
12 6 (0.70%) TestRail
13 5 (0.59%) TestNG
13 5 (0.59%) Zephyr
14 4 (0.47%) SonarQube
14 4 (0.47%) WebDriver
14 4 (0.47%) webpack
General
1 326 (38.17%) Social Skills
2 251 (29.39%) Finance
3 169 (19.79%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (7.03%) Law
5 57 (6.67%) Manufacturing
6 54 (6.32%) Electronics
7 50 (5.85%) Documentation Skills
8 48 (5.62%) Marketing
9 42 (4.92%) Banking
10 39 (4.57%) Presentation Skills
11 36 (4.22%) Aerospace
12 35 (4.10%) Retail
13 34 (3.98%) Organisational Skills
14 31 (3.63%) Financial Institution
14 31 (3.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 28 (3.28%) Telecoms
16 26 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
17 25 (2.93%) Public Sector
18 23 (2.69%) Pharmaceutical
19 22 (2.58%) Billing
Job Titles
1 123 (14.40%) Analyst
2 122 (14.29%) Senior
3 102 (11.94%) Lead
4 67 (7.85%) Systems Engineer
5 43 (5.04%) Data Analyst
6 40 (4.68%) Business Analyst
7 34 (3.98%) Architect
7 34 (3.98%) Data Engineer
8 32 (3.75%) Test Engineer
9 30 (3.51%) Support Engineer
10 29 (3.40%) Developer
11 28 (3.28%) Applications Engineer
12 26 (3.04%) Administrator
12 26 (3.04%) Applications Support
12 26 (3.04%) Principal Engineer
13 23 (2.69%) Data Quality Analyst
13 23 (2.69%) Quality Analyst
13 23 (2.69%) Team Leader
14 22 (2.58%) Applications Support Engineer
15 20 (2.34%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.40%) REST
2 23 (2.69%) Middleware
3 22 (2.58%) JSON
4 21 (2.46%) XML
5 18 (2.11%) scikit-learn
6 17 (1.99%) Pandas
7 16 (1.87%) PyTorch
7 16 (1.87%) TensorFlow
8 15 (1.76%) Kafka
9 14 (1.64%) React
10 12 (1.41%) HTML
11 9 (1.05%) CSS
11 9 (1.05%) PySpark
11 9 (1.05%) Web Services
12 8 (0.94%) NumPy
12 8 (0.94%) Playwright
12 8 (0.94%) pytest
13 7 (0.82%) FastAPI
13 7 (0.82%) Gherkin
13 7 (0.82%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 71 (8.31%) Management Information System
2 41 (4.80%) Life Science
3 39 (4.57%) Onboarding
4 36 (4.22%) Self-Motivation
5 33 (3.86%) Product Ownership
6 28 (3.28%) Algorithms
7 27 (3.16%) Operational Technology
8 19 (2.22%) SCADA
9 16 (1.87%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 13 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
11 12 (1.41%) Credit Risk
11 12 (1.41%) Data Centre
11 12 (1.41%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.41%) FPGA
12 11 (1.29%) Embedded Systems
12 11 (1.29%) Low-Code
12 11 (1.29%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 9 (1.05%) Virtual Team
14 8 (0.94%) GNSS
Operating Systems
1 36 (4.22%) Linux
2 34 (3.98%) Windows
3 13 (1.52%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (0.59%) Windows 10
5 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.35%) Unix
7 2 (0.23%) FreeRTOS
7 2 (0.23%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.12%) AIX
8 1 (0.12%) Android
8 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.12%) VMS
8 1 (0.12%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (26.81%) Agile
2 218 (25.53%) Problem-Solving
3 125 (14.64%) Verification and Validation
4 124 (14.52%) Data Validation
5 119 (13.93%) Migration
6 117 (13.70%) Continuous Improvement
7 105 (12.30%) Analytics
8 99 (11.59%) Test Automation
9 95 (11.12%) Decision-Making
10 90 (10.54%) Business Intelligence
11 88 (10.30%) Systems Engineering
12 87 (10.19%) Data Analysis
12 87 (10.19%) Mentoring
13 85 (9.95%) Software Engineering
14 84 (9.84%) DevOps
15 83 (9.72%) CI/CD
16 82 (9.60%) Data Management
17 81 (9.48%) ETL
18 76 (8.90%) Stakeholder Management
19 73 (8.55%) AI
Programming Languages
1 184 (21.55%) Python
2 179 (20.96%) SQL
3 37 (4.33%) Java
4 36 (4.22%) C++
5 35 (4.10%) C
6 33 (3.86%) MATLAB
7 23 (2.69%) JavaScript
8 17 (1.99%) PowerShell
9 14 (1.64%) R
10 12 (1.41%) Bash
10 12 (1.41%) TypeScript
11 11 (1.29%) T-SQL
12 7 (0.82%) Ladder Logic
13 6 (0.70%) C#
14 3 (0.35%) Embedded C
14 3 (0.35%) Go
14 3 (0.35%) Google Apps Script
14 3 (0.35%) PL/SQL
14 3 (0.35%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.35%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 275 (32.20%) Degree
2 86 (10.07%) BPSS Clearance
3 82 (9.60%) Security Cleared
4 61 (7.14%) Master's Degree
5 50 (5.85%) SC Cleared
6 39 (4.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 26 (3.04%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (2.34%) HNC
9 15 (1.76%) DV Cleared
9 15 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (1.64%) CCNA
10 14 (1.64%) CCNP
11 12 (1.41%) ACCA
11 12 (1.41%) CCIE
11 12 (1.41%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.41%) Numerate Degree
11 12 (1.41%) PhD
12 10 (1.17%) Network+ Certification
13 9 (1.05%) CISA
14 8 (0.94%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (13.47%) Data Quality
2 110 (12.88%) QA
3 40 (4.68%) GxP
4 36 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 30 (3.51%) SLA
6 27 (3.16%) Accessibility
7 26 (3.04%) GDPR
8 14 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 11 (1.29%) ISO 20022
9 11 (1.29%) NIST
9 11 (1.29%) SEPA
10 9 (1.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 8 (0.94%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 7 (0.82%) COBIT
12 7 (0.82%) TARGET2
12 7 (0.82%) WCAG
13 5 (0.59%) ARP4761
13 5 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 4 (0.47%) NCSC
15 3 (0.35%) AUTOSAR
System Software
1 43 (5.04%) Docker
2 30 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (3.04%) Firmware
4 13 (1.52%) Active Directory
5 12 (1.41%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.70%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.70%) vSphere
7 5 (0.59%) vCloud
8 2 (0.23%) Apache Flume
8 2 (0.23%) Ceph
8 2 (0.23%) HDFS
8 2 (0.23%) Lustre
8 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 2 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.12%) Dovecot
9 1 (0.12%) iptables
9 1 (0.12%) pfSense
9 1 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 31 (3.63%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.58%) Terraform
3 21 (2.46%) Grafana
4 17 (1.99%) Ansible
5 11 (1.29%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.59%) Docker Swarm
6 5 (0.59%) Kubeflow
6 5 (0.59%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.47%) Rundeck
8 3 (0.35%) Kibana
9 2 (0.23%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.23%) logstash
9 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.23%) Nessus
9 2 (0.23%) Oozie
9 2 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.12%) Argo
10 1 (0.12%) Control-M
10 1 (0.12%) Puppet
10 1 (0.12%) Rancher
Vendors
1 94 (11.01%) Microsoft
2 59 (6.91%) SAP
3 36 (4.22%) VMware
4 27 (3.16%) Cisco
4 27 (3.16%) Oracle
5 22 (2.58%) Salesforce
6 19 (2.22%) IBM
7 14 (1.64%) Foundry
8 13 (1.52%) CheckPoint
8 13 (1.52%) F5
8 13 (1.52%) Siemens
9 11 (1.29%) MathWorks
10 10 (1.17%) Allen-Bradley
10 10 (1.17%) Workday
11 9 (1.05%) Databricks
11 9 (1.05%) Software AG
12 8 (0.94%) Intapp
13 7 (0.82%) EMC
13 7 (0.82%) Rockwell
13 7 (0.82%) Splunk