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

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 187 174
Rank change year-on-year +42 -13 -16
Permanent jobs citing Validation 1,061 777 1,328
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.51% 1.68% 1.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.92% 1.80% 1.92%
Number of salaries quoted 544 310 782
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,500 £34,750
25th Percentile £44,972 £46,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +1.82% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £71,250 £72,483
90th Percentile £94,250 £97,500 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year - +5.77% -5.45%

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 55,211 43,138 69,101
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.63% 93.12% 88.00%
Number of salaries quoted 33,095 21,773 52,985
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,000 £29,375
25th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £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 £76,250 £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 2 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 2 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 +40 916 £60,000 +7.14% 1,042
UK excluding London +13 652 £55,000 - 883
London +71 308 £75,000 +7.14% 266
Work from Home +88 302 £60,000 +7.14% 437
South East +46 200 £53,500 +1.90% 267
North of England +1 130 £60,000 +26.32% 166
Midlands +3 111 £37,500 -30.23% 162
North West +18 90 £58,000 +21.64% 86
East of England -5 86 £58,750 +6.82% 135
South West -7 68 £62,500 +16.17% 118
West Midlands +4 67 £42,215 -35.05% 104
East Midlands -15 43 £35,000 -32.69% 57
Scotland -20 42 £42,000 -27.63% 34
Yorkshire -35 29 £65,000 +42.94% 59
Wales -5 13 £65,000 +32.37% 22
North East -7 11 £46,999 +13.25% 22
Northern Ireland -28 3 - - 8

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 37 (3.49%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (2.54%) Apache Spark
3 21 (1.98%) Apache
3 21 (1.98%) ArcGIS
4 19 (1.79%) Confluence
5 13 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 12 (1.13%) Appian
6 12 (1.13%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.94%) CMS
8 4 (0.38%) Headless CMS
9 2 (0.19%) Kinematics
9 2 (0.19%) WordPress
10 1 (0.094%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.094%) FileNet
10 1 (0.094%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.094%) SAS
Applications
1 91 (8.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (5.47%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (1.79%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.66%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (0.47%) Simulink
6 4 (0.38%) Fusion 360
6 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
7 2 (0.19%) Elementor
7 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.19%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.19%) Weka
8 1 (0.094%) CATIA
8 1 (0.094%) GNU Octave
8 1 (0.094%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 27 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.75%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.66%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.38%) Markit EDM
5 4 (0.38%) SAP BPC
5 4 (0.38%) SAP ERP
6 3 (0.28%) Elite 3E
6 3 (0.28%) SAP CX
6 3 (0.28%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
7 2 (0.19%) Loan IQ
7 2 (0.19%) Primavera
7 2 (0.19%) SAP FSCM
8 1 (0.094%) Magento
8 1 (0.094%) NetSuite
8 1 (0.094%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.094%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.094%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.094%) SAP Business ByDesign
Cloud Services
1 173 (16.31%) Azure
2 102 (9.61%) AWS
3 98 (9.24%) Power Platform
4 52 (4.90%) SaaS
5 44 (4.15%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (3.39%) GCP
7 29 (2.73%) Snowflake
8 27 (2.54%) dbt
9 26 (2.45%) Azure Data Factory
9 26 (2.45%) Dynamics 365
10 25 (2.36%) Amazon S3
11 22 (2.07%) Power Automate
12 19 (1.79%) Entra ID
12 19 (1.79%) GitHub
13 16 (1.51%) Microsoft 365
14 15 (1.41%) OpenShift
15 13 (1.23%) Datadog
16 12 (1.13%) Anthropic Claude
16 12 (1.13%) Azure AI
17 11 (1.04%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (2.07%) CHAP
2 14 (1.32%) WAN
3 12 (1.13%) 5G
3 12 (1.13%) Firewall
3 12 (1.13%) SD-WAN
3 12 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 8 (0.75%) Broadband
4 8 (0.75%) DNS
4 8 (0.75%) HTTP
4 8 (0.75%) MQTT
4 8 (0.75%) Wireless
5 7 (0.66%) Modbus
6 6 (0.57%) LAN
6 6 (0.57%) Multicast
7 5 (0.47%) Cisco IOS
7 5 (0.47%) VoIP
7 5 (0.47%) WAAS
8 4 (0.38%) Internet
8 4 (0.38%) tcpdump
8 4 (0.38%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (8.58%) Power BI
2 41 (3.86%) SQL Server
3 36 (3.39%) Tableau
4 33 (3.11%) Data Warehouse
5 29 (2.73%) Metadata
6 28 (2.64%) GIS
7 26 (2.45%) Relational Database
8 20 (1.89%) QGIS
8 20 (1.89%) Spatial Data
9 15 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
9 15 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (1.23%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (1.23%) Parquet
10 13 (1.23%) Spark SQL
11 12 (1.13%) Apache Hive
11 12 (1.13%) Data Lake
11 12 (1.13%) Impala
11 12 (1.13%) Oracle Database
11 12 (1.13%) Pinecone
12 11 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 62 (5.84%) JIRA
2 59 (5.56%) Git
3 46 (4.34%) Rational DOORS
4 21 (1.98%) Jenkins
5 19 (1.79%) Postman
6 16 (1.51%) Cucumber
6 16 (1.51%) LabVIEW
7 15 (1.41%) GitLab
8 14 (1.32%) JMeter
8 14 (1.32%) MLflow
9 13 (1.23%) TestRail
10 12 (1.13%) IBM UrbanCode
11 11 (1.04%) Eclipse
12 10 (0.94%) Locust
13 9 (0.85%) Selenium
14 8 (0.75%) SoapUI
15 6 (0.57%) LoadRunner
15 6 (0.57%) Subversion
16 5 (0.47%) SpecFlow
16 5 (0.47%) Visual Studio
General
1 389 (36.66%) Social Skills
2 305 (28.75%) Finance
3 253 (23.85%) Analytical Skills
4 86 (8.11%) Banking
5 57 (5.37%) Manufacturing
6 51 (4.81%) Financial Institution
7 50 (4.71%) Aerospace
7 50 (4.71%) Electronics
8 45 (4.24%) Marketing
8 45 (4.24%) Presentation Skills
9 43 (4.05%) Legal
10 37 (3.49%) Law
10 37 (3.49%) Public Sector
11 33 (3.11%) Organisational Skills
11 33 (3.11%) Retail
12 32 (3.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 29 (2.73%) Telecoms
14 20 (1.89%) Billing
15 19 (1.79%) Aviation
15 19 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 180 (16.97%) Analyst
2 157 (14.80%) Senior
3 128 (12.06%) Systems Engineer
4 82 (7.73%) Lead
5 69 (6.50%) Business Analyst
6 64 (6.03%) Architect
7 55 (5.18%) Validation Engineer
8 52 (4.90%) Test Engineer
9 50 (4.71%) Consultant
10 48 (4.52%) Integration Engineer
11 44 (4.15%) Data Analyst
12 40 (3.77%) Junior
13 39 (3.68%) Senior Systems Engineer
14 35 (3.30%) Systems Integration Engineer
15 33 (3.11%) Principal Engineer
16 32 (3.02%) Data Engineer
17 29 (2.73%) Verification Engineer
18 28 (2.64%) Developer
19 27 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
20 26 (2.45%) Principal Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (4.71%) REST
2 40 (3.77%) PyTorch
3 37 (3.49%) Pandas
4 29 (2.73%) JSON
5 26 (2.45%) Middleware
6 24 (2.26%) pytest
7 23 (2.17%) XML
8 19 (1.79%) TensorFlow
9 17 (1.60%) NumPy
9 17 (1.60%) OAuth
9 17 (1.60%) PySpark
10 16 (1.51%) JWT
10 16 (1.51%) scikit-learn
10 16 (1.51%) Swagger
10 16 (1.51%) Web Services
11 14 (1.32%) .NET
11 14 (1.32%) React
12 13 (1.23%) FastAPI
12 13 (1.23%) Hugging Face
12 13 (1.23%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 67 (6.31%) Management Information System
2 50 (4.71%) Onboarding
3 38 (3.58%) Data Structures
4 33 (3.11%) Product Ownership
5 31 (2.92%) Algorithms
6 30 (2.83%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
8 24 (2.26%) Low-Code
9 22 (2.07%) Life Science
10 18 (1.70%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (1.70%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 16 (1.51%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 15 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.23%) Blockchain
13 13 (1.23%) FPGA
13 13 (1.23%) Reinsurance
14 12 (1.13%) SCADA
15 11 (1.04%) Data Centre
15 11 (1.04%) Embedded Systems
15 11 (1.04%) Self-Driving Car
Operating Systems
1 50 (4.71%) Windows
2 48 (4.52%) Linux
3 15 (1.41%) Unix
4 12 (1.13%) Android
5 9 (0.85%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.38%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.38%) CentOS
8 3 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
9 2 (0.19%) AIX
9 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.19%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.094%) Rocky
10 1 (0.094%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.094%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 288 (27.14%) Agile
2 243 (22.90%) Problem-Solving
3 177 (16.68%) Verification and Validation
4 170 (16.02%) Continuous Improvement
5 163 (15.36%) Analytics
6 139 (13.10%) Data Validation
7 136 (12.82%) AI
8 130 (12.25%) Migration
9 126 (11.88%) CI/CD
10 122 (11.50%) Test Automation
11 121 (11.40%) Systems Engineering
12 117 (11.03%) Business Intelligence
13 116 (10.93%) DevOps
14 115 (10.84%) Stakeholder Management
15 106 (9.99%) Mentoring
16 104 (9.80%) ETL
17 102 (9.61%) User Acceptance Testing
18 100 (9.43%) Decision-Making
19 99 (9.33%) Data Analysis
19 99 (9.33%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 234 (22.05%) SQL
2 232 (21.87%) Python
3 44 (4.15%) Java
4 37 (3.49%) PowerShell
5 35 (3.30%) C
5 35 (3.30%) C++
6 24 (2.26%) JavaScript
7 21 (1.98%) Bash
8 19 (1.79%) MATLAB
9 17 (1.60%) T-SQL
10 13 (1.23%) C#
10 13 (1.23%) TypeScript
11 12 (1.13%) R
12 10 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 8 (0.75%) VBA
14 7 (0.66%) Go
14 7 (0.66%) VB
15 5 (0.47%) PHP
15 5 (0.47%) PL/SQL
16 4 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 258 (24.32%) Degree
2 145 (13.67%) Security Cleared
3 129 (12.16%) BPSS Clearance
4 57 (5.37%) SC Cleared
5 50 (4.71%) Master's Degree
6 41 (3.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 25 (2.36%) CISA
7 25 (2.36%) CISSP
8 24 (2.26%) CISM
9 23 (2.17%) DV Cleared
10 22 (2.07%) CGEIT
10 22 (2.07%) FFIEC
10 22 (2.07%) PMI Certification
10 22 (2.07%) PMP
10 22 (2.07%) SANS
11 19 (1.79%) Chartered Engineer
12 16 (1.51%) HNC
12 16 (1.51%) ISTQB
13 12 (1.13%) HND
14 9 (0.85%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 136 (12.82%) Data Quality
2 121 (11.40%) QA
3 56 (5.28%) Accessibility
3 56 (5.28%) GDPR
4 45 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 22 (2.07%) COBIT
5 22 (2.07%) NIST
6 17 (1.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 17 (1.60%) SLA
7 16 (1.51%) ISO 20022
8 15 (1.41%) WCAG
9 14 (1.32%) GRC
10 13 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 13 (1.23%) SEPA
11 10 (0.94%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 10 (0.94%) Good Clinical Practice
12 9 (0.85%) IFRS
12 9 (0.85%) ISO 9001
12 9 (0.85%) TARGET2
13 8 (0.75%) GxP
System Software
1 64 (6.03%) Docker
2 26 (2.45%) Firmware
3 19 (1.79%) Active Directory
4 11 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.57%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.38%) KVM
7 4 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.38%) vSphere
8 2 (0.19%) Ceph
8 2 (0.19%) Lustre
8 2 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.094%) iptables
9 1 (0.094%) OpenAM
9 1 (0.094%) OpenDJ
9 1 (0.094%) OpenIDM
9 1 (0.094%) pfSense
9 1 (0.094%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.094%) vCloud
9 1 (0.094%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 57 (5.37%) Kubernetes
2 40 (3.77%) Terraform
3 24 (2.26%) Grafana
4 22 (2.07%) Ansible
5 13 (1.23%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.85%) SCCM
7 8 (0.75%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 7 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.57%) Puppet
10 5 (0.47%) Argo
10 5 (0.47%) Rancher
10 5 (0.47%) yum
11 2 (0.19%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.19%) Nessus
11 2 (0.19%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.094%) Control-M
12 1 (0.094%) Docker Swarm
12 1 (0.094%) Kibana
12 1 (0.094%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.094%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 136 (12.82%) Microsoft
2 62 (5.84%) SAP
3 55 (5.18%) Oracle
4 36 (3.39%) Salesforce
5 25 (2.36%) IBM
6 19 (1.79%) Cisco
6 19 (1.79%) Foundry
7 17 (1.60%) OpenAI
8 16 (1.51%) Red Hat
9 14 (1.32%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.32%) Software AG
9 14 (1.32%) VMware
10 13 (1.23%) Adobe
11 12 (1.13%) Automation Anywhere
11 12 (1.13%) Databricks
11 12 (1.13%) Google
11 12 (1.13%) UiPath
12 10 (0.94%) Workday
13 9 (0.85%) Siemens
14 8 (0.75%) Splunk