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

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 188 180
Rank change year-on-year +36 -8 -26
Permanent jobs citing Validation 995 811 1,258
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.48% 1.63% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.86% 1.77% 1.90%
Number of salaries quoted 525 299 740
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,625 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -14.90%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £91,250 £100,000 £83,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £52,293
% change year-on-year +4.56% +0.59% -4.92%

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 53,424 45,785 66,046
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 79.46% 92.29% 88.34%
Number of salaries quoted 31,947 22,286 51,175
10th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £46,250 £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 £76,000 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £96,375 £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 15 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 15 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 +51 880 £60,000 +9.09% 669
UK excluding London +17 614 £55,000 +4.56% 556
London +57 302 £75,000 +11.11% 172
Work from Home +100 282 £60,000 +7.14% 284
South East +28 192 £54,250 +3.33% 185
North of England -2 124 £60,000 +25.83% 113
Midlands +11 98 £36,250 -30.95% 115
North West +12 86 £55,000 +15.35% 74
East of England +16 82 £57,500 +4.55% 74
South West +11 68 £62,500 +18.82% 58
West Midlands +9 62 £41,108 -26.92% 76
Scotland -21 38 £42,000 -27.63% 20
East Midlands +1 35 £35,000 -32.69% 38
Yorkshire -18 29 £65,000 +60.60% 32
Wales +3 9 £65,000 +32.37% 8
North East -8 9 £45,497 +9.63% 7
Northern Ireland -25 3 - - 1

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 21 (2.11%) Confluence
2 20 (2.01%) Apache Airflow
3 13 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (1.21%) Appian
4 12 (1.21%) SharePoint
5 11 (1.11%) Apache Spark
6 10 (1.01%) ArcGIS
7 9 (0.90%) CMS
8 6 (0.60%) Apache
9 4 (0.40%) Headless CMS
10 2 (0.20%) Jupyter
10 2 (0.20%) Kinematics
10 2 (0.20%) SugarCRM
10 2 (0.20%) WordPress
11 1 (0.10%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.10%) FileNet
11 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 84 (8.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (6.03%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.11%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.70%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 4 (0.40%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.40%) Simulink
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
7 2 (0.20%) Elementor
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.20%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.20%) Revit
7 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Weka
8 1 (0.10%) GNU Octave
8 1 (0.10%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.10%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 19 (1.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.70%) Workday HCM
4 6 (0.60%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.40%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.40%) SAP BPC
6 3 (0.30%) SAP CX
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
8 1 (0.10%) Loan IQ
8 1 (0.10%) Magento
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.10%) Raiser’s Edge
8 1 (0.10%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.10%) SAP Business ByDesign
8 1 (0.10%) SAP FSCM
8 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 159 (15.98%) Azure
2 93 (9.35%) Power Platform
3 74 (7.44%) AWS
4 50 (5.03%) SaaS
5 43 (4.32%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (3.02%) GCP
7 28 (2.81%) Snowflake
8 26 (2.61%) Azure Data Factory
9 23 (2.31%) dbt
9 23 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
10 20 (2.01%) Power Automate
11 19 (1.91%) Entra ID
12 17 (1.71%) GitHub
13 12 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
13 12 (1.21%) Azure AI
13 12 (1.21%) Datadog
14 11 (1.11%) Amazon S3
14 11 (1.11%) Figma
15 9 (0.90%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.01%) CHAP
2 13 (1.31%) WAN
3 12 (1.21%) Firewall
4 11 (1.11%) 5G
4 11 (1.11%) SD-WAN
5 9 (0.90%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.80%) DNS
6 8 (0.80%) HTTP
6 8 (0.80%) LAN
6 8 (0.80%) MQTT
6 8 (0.80%) Wireless
7 7 (0.70%) Modbus
8 5 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (0.50%) Ethernet VPN
8 5 (0.50%) VoIP
8 5 (0.50%) WAAS
9 4 (0.40%) BGP
9 4 (0.40%) Internet
9 4 (0.40%) OSPF
9 4 (0.40%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (8.84%) Power BI
2 37 (3.72%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.12%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (2.71%) Metadata
5 24 (2.41%) Relational Database
6 19 (1.91%) Tableau
7 17 (1.71%) GIS
8 14 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
9 13 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
10 12 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
10 12 (1.21%) Pinecone
11 11 (1.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (1.01%) Spotfire
13 9 (0.90%) Data Lake
13 9 (0.90%) QGIS
13 9 (0.90%) Spatial Data
14 8 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
14 8 (0.80%) MySQL
15 7 (0.70%) BigQuery
15 7 (0.70%) DB2
Development Applications
1 66 (6.63%) JIRA
2 47 (4.72%) Git
3 46 (4.62%) Rational DOORS
4 23 (2.31%) Postman
5 21 (2.11%) Jenkins
6 15 (1.51%) GitLab
6 15 (1.51%) LabVIEW
7 14 (1.41%) MLflow
8 13 (1.31%) Cucumber
8 13 (1.31%) TestRail
9 12 (1.21%) JMeter
9 12 (1.21%) Selenium
10 11 (1.11%) Eclipse
11 9 (0.90%) SoapUI
12 7 (0.70%) LoadRunner
12 7 (0.70%) Locust
13 6 (0.60%) Subversion
14 5 (0.50%) Robot Framework
14 5 (0.50%) SpecFlow
14 5 (0.50%) Zephyr
General
1 365 (36.68%) Social Skills
2 286 (28.74%) Finance
3 232 (23.32%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (6.93%) Banking
5 57 (5.73%) Electronics
6 51 (5.13%) Financial Institution
7 48 (4.82%) Marketing
8 47 (4.72%) Manufacturing
9 46 (4.62%) Aerospace
10 45 (4.52%) Presentation Skills
11 39 (3.92%) Legal
12 38 (3.82%) Law
13 36 (3.62%) Public Sector
14 30 (3.02%) Organisational Skills
14 30 (3.02%) Retail
15 29 (2.91%) Telecoms
16 25 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 22 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
18 19 (1.91%) Aviation
19 18 (1.81%) Billing
Job Titles
1 160 (16.08%) Analyst
2 145 (14.57%) Senior
3 112 (11.26%) Systems Engineer
4 79 (7.94%) Lead
5 64 (6.43%) Architect
6 62 (6.23%) Business Analyst
7 52 (5.23%) Test Engineer
8 49 (4.92%) Validation Engineer
9 44 (4.42%) Integration Engineer
10 41 (4.12%) Data Analyst
11 38 (3.82%) Junior
12 33 (3.32%) Systems Integration Engineer
13 32 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
14 31 (3.12%) Consultant
14 31 (3.12%) Developer
15 30 (3.02%) Data Engineer
16 28 (2.81%) Senior Systems Engineer
16 28 (2.81%) Solutions Architect
17 26 (2.61%) Verification Engineer
18 24 (2.41%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (5.03%) REST
2 32 (3.22%) JSON
2 32 (3.22%) Middleware
3 29 (2.91%) PyTorch
4 27 (2.71%) Pandas
5 26 (2.61%) pytest
6 24 (2.41%) XML
7 19 (1.91%) TensorFlow
8 18 (1.81%) NumPy
8 18 (1.81%) scikit-learn
9 17 (1.71%) OAuth
10 16 (1.61%) JWT
10 16 (1.61%) Swagger
10 16 (1.61%) Web Services
11 15 (1.51%) FastAPI
12 14 (1.41%) CSS
12 14 (1.41%) Flask
12 14 (1.41%) RESTful
13 13 (1.31%) .NET
13 13 (1.31%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (6.43%) Management Information System
2 43 (4.32%) Onboarding
3 35 (3.52%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.42%) Data Structures
5 32 (3.22%) Self-Motivation
6 26 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
7 23 (2.31%) Low-Code
8 21 (2.11%) Algorithms
8 21 (2.11%) Life Science
9 18 (1.81%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 17 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 15 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (1.31%) Blockchain
12 13 (1.31%) Reinsurance
12 13 (1.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 12 (1.21%) Data Centre
13 12 (1.21%) Embedded Systems
14 11 (1.11%) FPGA
14 11 (1.11%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (1.01%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 51 (5.13%) Windows
2 45 (4.52%) Linux
3 14 (1.41%) Unix
4 12 (1.21%) Android
5 9 (0.90%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.40%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.40%) CentOS
8 3 (0.30%) AIX
8 3 (0.30%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.20%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.10%) Rocky
10 1 (0.10%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 263 (26.43%) Agile
2 227 (22.81%) Problem-Solving
3 167 (16.78%) Verification and Validation
4 149 (14.97%) Continuous Improvement
5 132 (13.27%) Analytics
6 128 (12.86%) Data Validation
7 123 (12.36%) Migration
8 118 (11.86%) Test Automation
9 115 (11.56%) DevOps
10 111 (11.16%) CI/CD
11 109 (10.95%) Business Intelligence
11 109 (10.95%) Systems Engineering
12 107 (10.75%) AI
13 98 (9.85%) Mentoring
14 96 (9.65%) Stakeholder Management
15 89 (8.94%) Data Modelling
15 89 (8.94%) Decision-Making
15 89 (8.94%) ETL
16 86 (8.64%) Project Management
17 85 (8.54%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 215 (21.61%) SQL
2 195 (19.60%) Python
3 38 (3.82%) C
3 38 (3.82%) Java
4 37 (3.72%) C++
4 37 (3.72%) PowerShell
5 24 (2.41%) JavaScript
6 21 (2.11%) Bash
7 19 (1.91%) MATLAB
8 15 (1.51%) T-SQL
9 12 (1.21%) C#
9 12 (1.21%) R
9 12 (1.21%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (0.70%) Go
12 5 (0.50%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.50%) Bicep
12 5 (0.50%) PHP
12 5 (0.50%) VB
13 4 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 263 (26.43%) Degree
2 138 (13.87%) Security Cleared
3 116 (11.66%) BPSS Clearance
4 54 (5.43%) SC Cleared
5 52 (5.23%) Master's Degree
6 43 (4.32%) Computer Science Degree
7 25 (2.51%) CISA
7 25 (2.51%) CISSP
8 23 (2.31%) CISM
9 22 (2.21%) DV Cleared
10 21 (2.11%) CGEIT
10 21 (2.11%) FFIEC
10 21 (2.11%) SANS
11 20 (2.01%) PMI Certification
11 20 (2.01%) PMP
12 17 (1.71%) Chartered Engineer
13 16 (1.61%) HNC
13 16 (1.61%) ISTQB
14 12 (1.21%) HND
15 8 (0.80%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (11.36%) Data Quality
2 109 (10.95%) QA
3 51 (5.13%) GDPR
4 44 (4.42%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 39 (3.92%) Accessibility
6 21 (2.11%) COBIT
6 21 (2.11%) NIST
7 17 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (1.71%) SLA
8 15 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 13 (1.31%) GRC
9 13 (1.31%) ISO 20022
9 13 (1.31%) SEPA
10 12 (1.21%) WCAG
11 10 (1.01%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 10 (1.01%) Good Clinical Practice
12 9 (0.90%) ISO 9001
12 9 (0.90%) TARGET2
13 8 (0.80%) GxP
14 7 (0.70%) IFRS
System Software
1 56 (5.63%) Docker
2 23 (2.31%) Firmware
3 19 (1.91%) Active Directory
4 7 (0.70%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.60%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.50%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.40%) vSphere
8 2 (0.20%) Ceph
8 2 (0.20%) KVM
8 2 (0.20%) Lustre
8 2 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.10%) iptables
9 1 (0.10%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.10%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.10%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.10%) pfSense
9 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.10%) vCloud
9 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 49 (4.92%) Kubernetes
2 33 (3.32%) Terraform
3 20 (2.01%) Ansible
3 20 (2.01%) Grafana
4 11 (1.11%) Prometheus
5 7 (0.70%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 7 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.70%) SCCM
6 5 (0.50%) Argo
6 5 (0.50%) Rancher
6 5 (0.50%) yum
7 4 (0.40%) Puppet
8 2 (0.20%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.20%) Nessus
8 2 (0.20%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.10%) Control-M
9 1 (0.10%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.10%) Kibana
9 1 (0.10%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.10%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 127 (12.76%) Microsoft
2 55 (5.53%) SAP
3 38 (3.82%) Oracle
4 35 (3.52%) Salesforce
5 25 (2.51%) IBM
6 22 (2.21%) Cisco
7 17 (1.71%) Foundry
7 17 (1.71%) OpenAI
8 14 (1.41%) ServiceNow
8 14 (1.41%) Software AG
9 13 (1.31%) Adobe
10 12 (1.21%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.21%) Databricks
10 12 (1.21%) UiPath
11 10 (1.01%) VMware
12 9 (0.90%) Workday
13 8 (0.80%) Citrix
13 8 (0.80%) F5
13 8 (0.80%) Intapp
13 8 (0.80%) Splunk