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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 187 178
Rank change year-on-year +36 -9 -24
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,021 791 1,260
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.50% 1.61% 1.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 1.74% 1.91%
Number of salaries quoted 535 299 744
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -13.39%
75th Percentile £78,750 £71,250 £72,450
90th Percentile £90,750 £100,000 £84,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £51,528
% change year-on-year +4.56% +2.08% -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 53,894 45,456 65,928
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 79.39% 92.40% 88.33%
Number of salaries quoted 32,246 22,087 51,057
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,750 £29,440
25th Percentile £38,296 £46,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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% -8.90%

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 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 18 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 +52 896 £60,000 +9.09% 705
UK excluding London +23 630 £55,000 +4.56% 600
London +68 303 £75,000 +11.11% 193
Work from Home +114 292 £60,000 +7.14% 295
South East +42 195 £54,250 +3.33% 193
North of England -11 126 £59,500 +24.78% 118
Midlands +16 105 £37,500 -28.57% 120
North West +16 87 £55,000 +15.35% 79
East of England +15 84 £59,000 +7.27% 81
South West +18 69 £65,000 +23.57% 77
West Midlands +12 66 £41,108 -28.51% 85
Scotland -13 39 £42,000 -27.63% 22
East Midlands -1 38 £35,000 -32.69% 34
Yorkshire -20 29 £65,000 +49.61% 33
Wales +2 10 £65,000 +32.37% 7
North East -9 10 £43,499 +4.82% 6
Northern Ireland -28 3 - -

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 22 (2.15%) Apache Airflow
1 22 (2.15%) Confluence
2 13 (1.27%) Apache Spark
2 13 (1.27%) ArcGIS
2 13 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.18%) Appian
3 12 (1.18%) SharePoint
4 9 (0.88%) CMS
5 8 (0.78%) Apache
6 4 (0.39%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.20%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.20%) Kinematics
7 2 (0.20%) WordPress
8 1 (0.098%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.098%) FileNet
8 1 (0.098%) SAS
8 1 (0.098%) SugarCRM
Applications
1 87 (8.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 63 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.18%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.69%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 4 (0.39%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.39%) Simulink
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.20%) Elementor
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.20%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.20%) Revit
8 2 (0.20%) Weka
9 1 (0.098%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.098%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 23 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.69%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.39%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.39%) SAP BPC
6 3 (0.29%) SAP CX
6 3 (0.29%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.20%) Elite 3E
7 2 (0.20%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.20%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.20%) Primavera
7 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.20%) SAP FSCM
8 1 (0.098%) Endur
8 1 (0.098%) Loan IQ
8 1 (0.098%) Magento
8 1 (0.098%) Oracle Financials
8 1 (0.098%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.098%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 167 (16.36%) Azure
2 95 (9.30%) Power Platform
3 78 (7.64%) AWS
4 50 (4.90%) SaaS
5 44 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
6 33 (3.23%) GCP
7 27 (2.64%) Snowflake
8 26 (2.55%) Azure Data Factory
9 24 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
10 23 (2.25%) dbt
11 21 (2.06%) Power Automate
12 20 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
13 19 (1.86%) Entra ID
14 18 (1.76%) GitHub
15 13 (1.27%) Amazon S3
16 12 (1.18%) Anthropic Claude
16 12 (1.18%) Azure AI
17 11 (1.08%) Datadog
17 11 (1.08%) Figma
18 10 (0.98%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.96%) CHAP
2 13 (1.27%) WAN
3 12 (1.18%) 5G
3 12 (1.18%) Firewall
4 11 (1.08%) SD-WAN
5 10 (0.98%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.78%) DNS
6 8 (0.78%) HTTP
6 8 (0.78%) LAN
6 8 (0.78%) MQTT
6 8 (0.78%) Wireless
7 7 (0.69%) Modbus
8 5 (0.49%) Broadband
8 5 (0.49%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (0.49%) Ethernet VPN
8 5 (0.49%) Multicast
8 5 (0.49%) VoIP
8 5 (0.49%) WAAS
9 4 (0.39%) Internet
9 4 (0.39%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (8.72%) Power BI
2 38 (3.72%) SQL Server
3 32 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
4 28 (2.74%) Metadata
5 24 (2.35%) Relational Database
6 21 (2.06%) GIS
7 20 (1.96%) Tableau
8 14 (1.37%) Oracle Reports
9 13 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
10 12 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
10 12 (1.18%) Pinecone
10 12 (1.18%) QGIS
10 12 (1.18%) Spatial Data
11 11 (1.08%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.98%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.98%) Spotfire
13 9 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
14 8 (0.78%) BigQuery
14 8 (0.78%) MySQL
15 7 (0.69%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 66 (6.46%) JIRA
2 49 (4.80%) Git
3 48 (4.70%) Rational DOORS
4 22 (2.15%) Postman
5 21 (2.06%) Jenkins
6 16 (1.57%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.47%) GitLab
8 14 (1.37%) MLflow
9 13 (1.27%) Cucumber
9 13 (1.27%) TestRail
10 12 (1.18%) JMeter
11 11 (1.08%) Eclipse
11 11 (1.08%) Selenium
12 9 (0.88%) SoapUI
13 7 (0.69%) LoadRunner
13 7 (0.69%) Locust
14 6 (0.59%) Subversion
15 5 (0.49%) Robot Framework
15 5 (0.49%) SpecFlow
15 5 (0.49%) Visual Studio
General
1 373 (36.53%) Social Skills
2 291 (28.50%) Finance
3 238 (23.31%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (6.86%) Banking
5 56 (5.48%) Electronics
6 52 (5.09%) Manufacturing
7 50 (4.90%) Financial Institution
8 48 (4.70%) Aerospace
8 48 (4.70%) Marketing
9 45 (4.41%) Presentation Skills
10 39 (3.82%) Legal
11 38 (3.72%) Law
12 37 (3.62%) Public Sector
13 34 (3.33%) Organisational Skills
14 31 (3.04%) Retail
15 30 (2.94%) Telecoms
16 26 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 22 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
18 20 (1.96%) Billing
19 19 (1.86%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 164 (16.06%) Analyst
2 152 (14.89%) Senior
3 119 (11.66%) Systems Engineer
4 80 (7.84%) Lead
5 65 (6.37%) Architect
6 63 (6.17%) Business Analyst
7 52 (5.09%) Test Engineer
8 50 (4.90%) Validation Engineer
9 45 (4.41%) Integration Engineer
10 42 (4.11%) Data Analyst
11 39 (3.82%) Junior
12 35 (3.43%) Consultant
13 34 (3.33%) Principal Engineer
14 33 (3.23%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 33 (3.23%) Systems Integration Engineer
15 31 (3.04%) Data Engineer
15 31 (3.04%) Developer
16 29 (2.84%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (2.64%) Verification Engineer
18 26 (2.55%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.90%) REST
2 32 (3.13%) JSON
2 32 (3.13%) PyTorch
3 31 (3.04%) Middleware
4 28 (2.74%) Pandas
5 26 (2.55%) pytest
6 25 (2.45%) XML
7 19 (1.86%) TensorFlow
8 18 (1.76%) NumPy
8 18 (1.76%) scikit-learn
9 17 (1.67%) OAuth
10 16 (1.57%) JWT
10 16 (1.57%) Swagger
10 16 (1.57%) Web Services
11 15 (1.47%) FastAPI
12 14 (1.37%) CSS
12 14 (1.37%) Flask
12 14 (1.37%) RESTful
13 13 (1.27%) .NET
13 13 (1.27%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (6.27%) Management Information System
2 44 (4.31%) Onboarding
3 34 (3.33%) Data Structures
3 34 (3.33%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
5 27 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
6 24 (2.35%) Algorithms
6 24 (2.35%) Low-Code
7 22 (2.15%) Life Science
8 18 (1.76%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 17 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
10 15 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.37%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 13 (1.27%) Reinsurance
13 12 (1.18%) Blockchain
13 12 (1.18%) Data Centre
13 12 (1.18%) FPGA
14 11 (1.08%) Embedded Systems
14 11 (1.08%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (0.98%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 50 (4.90%) Windows
2 46 (4.51%) Linux
3 13 (1.27%) Unix
4 12 (1.18%) Android
5 9 (0.88%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.39%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.39%) CentOS
8 3 (0.29%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.20%) AIX
9 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.20%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.098%) Rocky
10 1 (0.098%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 272 (26.64%) Agile
2 233 (22.82%) Problem-Solving
3 173 (16.94%) Verification and Validation
4 160 (15.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 137 (13.42%) Analytics
6 130 (12.73%) Data Validation
7 126 (12.34%) Migration
8 117 (11.46%) DevOps
8 117 (11.46%) Systems Engineering
8 117 (11.46%) Test Automation
9 115 (11.26%) AI
10 112 (10.97%) CI/CD
11 110 (10.77%) Business Intelligence
12 103 (10.09%) Mentoring
13 102 (9.99%) Stakeholder Management
14 92 (9.01%) Data Modelling
15 90 (8.81%) Decision-Making
15 90 (8.81%) ETL
16 89 (8.72%) Project Management
16 89 (8.72%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 218 (21.35%) SQL
2 204 (19.98%) Python
3 39 (3.82%) Java
4 37 (3.62%) C
4 37 (3.62%) C++
4 37 (3.62%) PowerShell
5 24 (2.35%) JavaScript
6 21 (2.06%) Bash
7 19 (1.86%) MATLAB
8 16 (1.57%) T-SQL
9 12 (1.18%) C#
9 12 (1.18%) R
9 12 (1.18%) TypeScript
10 9 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (0.69%) Go
12 5 (0.49%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.49%) Bicep
12 5 (0.49%) PHP
12 5 (0.49%) VB
12 5 (0.49%) VBA
Qualifications
1 266 (26.05%) Degree
2 140 (13.71%) Security Cleared
3 123 (12.05%) BPSS Clearance
4 56 (5.48%) SC Cleared
5 54 (5.29%) Master's Degree
6 43 (4.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 24 (2.35%) CISA
7 24 (2.35%) CISSP
8 23 (2.25%) CISM
9 22 (2.15%) DV Cleared
10 21 (2.06%) CGEIT
10 21 (2.06%) PMI Certification
10 21 (2.06%) PMP
10 21 (2.06%) SANS
11 20 (1.96%) FFIEC
12 19 (1.86%) Chartered Engineer
13 16 (1.57%) ISTQB
14 15 (1.47%) HNC
15 12 (1.18%) HND
16 9 (0.88%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (11.56%) Data Quality
2 113 (11.07%) QA
3 51 (5.00%) GDPR
4 45 (4.41%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 44 (4.31%) Accessibility
6 20 (1.96%) COBIT
6 20 (1.96%) NIST
7 17 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (1.67%) SLA
8 15 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 14 (1.37%) ISO 20022
10 13 (1.27%) GRC
10 13 (1.27%) SEPA
11 12 (1.18%) WCAG
12 10 (0.98%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 10 (0.98%) Good Clinical Practice
13 9 (0.88%) ISO 9001
13 9 (0.88%) TARGET2
14 8 (0.78%) GxP
15 7 (0.69%) IFRS
System Software
1 57 (5.58%) Docker
2 23 (2.25%) Firmware
3 19 (1.86%) Active Directory
4 8 (0.78%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.59%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.49%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.39%) vSphere
8 3 (0.29%) KVM
9 2 (0.20%) Ceph
9 2 (0.20%) Lustre
9 2 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.098%) iptables
10 1 (0.098%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.098%) OpenDJ
10 1 (0.098%) OpenIDM
10 1 (0.098%) pfSense
10 1 (0.098%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.098%) vCloud
10 1 (0.098%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 50 (4.90%) Kubernetes
2 34 (3.33%) Terraform
3 21 (2.06%) Ansible
4 20 (1.96%) Grafana
5 11 (1.08%) Prometheus
6 7 (0.69%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (0.69%) SCCM
7 5 (0.49%) Argo
7 5 (0.49%) Puppet
7 5 (0.49%) Rancher
7 5 (0.49%) yum
8 2 (0.20%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.20%) Nessus
8 2 (0.20%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.098%) Control-M
9 1 (0.098%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.098%) Kibana
9 1 (0.098%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.098%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 133 (13.03%) Microsoft
2 59 (5.78%) SAP
3 39 (3.82%) Oracle
4 36 (3.53%) Salesforce
5 25 (2.45%) IBM
6 22 (2.15%) Cisco
7 19 (1.86%) Foundry
8 17 (1.67%) OpenAI
9 14 (1.37%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.37%) Software AG
10 12 (1.18%) Adobe
10 12 (1.18%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.18%) Databricks
10 12 (1.18%) UiPath
11 11 (1.08%) VMware
12 10 (0.98%) Google
13 9 (0.88%) Workday
14 8 (0.78%) F5
14 8 (0.78%) Intapp
14 8 (0.78%) Splunk