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 6 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 168 164 201
Rank change year-on-year -4 +37 -68
Permanent jobs citing Validation 866 1,055 887
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.55% 1.68% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.85% 1.94% 1.88%
Number of salaries quoted 475 408 509
10th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £37,297
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,250 £48,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £80,000 £74,914 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,625 £92,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,600 £55,000
% change year-on-year -0.19% -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 46,878 54,401 47,138
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 83.98% 86.62% 93.72%
Number of salaries quoted 28,142 28,251 36,353
10th Percentile £28,250 £35,000 £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 £98,750 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -1.70%

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 6 December 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 6 December 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 +6 783 £60,000 +9.09% 792
UK excluding London +10 564 £52,500 -0.19% 733
London +23 246 £80,000 +20.75% 163
Work from Home +58 202 £60,625 +8.26% 1,041
South East +16 196 £52,500 -12.50% 275
North of England -17 119 £53,000 +15.85% 134
Midlands +34 82 £42,500 -15.00% 104
South West +32 72 £50,000 -16.67% 104
North West -5 72 £52,750 +14.15% 79
East of England -7 58 £59,500 +8.18% 134
West Midlands +27 51 £42,500 -15.00% 67
Yorkshire -4 35 £60,000 +50.00% 41
East Midlands +27 31 £42,500 -10.53% 35
Scotland -11 26 £70,079 +24.01% 21
North East +2 12 £33,000 -30.89% 15
Wales +11 10 £61,250 +24.74% 11
Northern Ireland -14 2 - - 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 26 (3.00%) Confluence
2 21 (2.42%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (1.96%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.15%) Apache
4 10 (1.15%) CMS
4 10 (1.15%) SugarCRM
5 9 (1.04%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.58%) SAS
7 4 (0.46%) Appian
7 4 (0.46%) Headless CMS
7 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.35%) Jupyter
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%) Kinematics
10 1 (0.12%) Luigi
Applications
1 55 (6.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 50 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (2.19%) Simulink
4 18 (2.08%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.81%) Mathcad
5 7 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.46%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.46%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.46%) Revit
7 3 (0.35%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.35%) Blender
7 3 (0.35%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.23%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
8 2 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.23%) Adobe Premiere
8 2 (0.23%) Elementor
8 2 (0.23%) Weka
9 1 (0.12%) Civil 3D
9 1 (0.12%) Navisworks
Business Applications
1 26 (3.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.81%) Workday HCM
4 5 (0.58%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.46%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.46%) SAP BPC
6 3 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.35%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.35%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.35%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.35%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.23%) Aladdin
7 2 (0.23%) Endur
7 2 (0.23%) Markit EDM
7 2 (0.23%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.23%) Primavera
7 2 (0.23%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.23%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 121 (13.97%) Azure
2 83 (9.58%) Power Platform
3 75 (8.66%) AWS
4 41 (4.73%) SaaS
5 30 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
6 24 (2.77%) GCP
7 21 (2.42%) Dynamics 365
7 21 (2.42%) Snowflake
8 17 (1.96%) dbt
9 16 (1.85%) GitHub
10 14 (1.62%) Amazon S3
11 12 (1.39%) Azure Data Factory
11 12 (1.39%) Datadog
11 12 (1.39%) Power Automate
11 12 (1.39%) Serverless
12 10 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
12 10 (1.15%) Microsoft 365
13 8 (0.92%) AWS Step Functions
14 7 (0.81%) Amazon SageMaker
14 7 (0.81%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.96%) LAN
2 13 (1.50%) Firewall
3 11 (1.27%) Modbus
4 10 (1.15%) DNS
4 10 (1.15%) WAN
5 9 (1.04%) Ethernet
5 9 (1.04%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.92%) 5G
6 8 (0.92%) HTTP
7 7 (0.81%) Ethernet VPN
8 6 (0.69%) BGP
8 6 (0.69%) CHAP
8 6 (0.69%) OSPF
8 6 (0.69%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.58%) DHCP
9 5 (0.58%) MQTT
9 5 (0.58%) NX-OS
9 5 (0.58%) Profibus
9 5 (0.58%) SMTP
9 5 (0.58%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (8.89%) Power BI
2 40 (4.62%) Tableau
3 36 (4.16%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (3.12%) SQL Server
5 25 (2.89%) Metadata
6 21 (2.42%) BigQuery
7 19 (2.19%) Relational Database
8 13 (1.50%) Big Data
9 12 (1.39%) Data Lake
10 11 (1.27%) NoSQL
11 10 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
12 9 (1.04%) Oracle Reports
13 8 (0.92%) Amazon Redshift
14 7 (0.81%) Looker
15 6 (0.69%) BusinessObjects
15 6 (0.69%) GIS
15 6 (0.69%) MySQL
15 6 (0.69%) SAP HANA
16 5 (0.58%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
16 5 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 80 (9.24%) JIRA
2 50 (5.77%) Git
3 43 (4.97%) Rational DOORS
4 22 (2.54%) Jenkins
4 22 (2.54%) Postman
5 16 (1.85%) Selenium
6 12 (1.39%) Cucumber
6 12 (1.39%) GitLab
6 12 (1.39%) JMeter
7 11 (1.27%) TestRail
8 10 (1.15%) SoapUI
9 9 (1.04%) MLflow
10 7 (0.81%) LoadRunner
10 7 (0.81%) Locust
11 5 (0.58%) Charles Proxy
11 5 (0.58%) Fiddler
11 5 (0.58%) TestNG
11 5 (0.58%) Zephyr
12 4 (0.46%) Browser DevTools
12 4 (0.46%) SonarQube
General
1 320 (36.95%) Social Skills
2 243 (28.06%) Finance
3 179 (20.67%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (6.47%) Law
5 55 (6.35%) Manufacturing
6 51 (5.89%) Electronics
7 48 (5.54%) Documentation Skills
8 47 (5.43%) Marketing
9 43 (4.97%) Banking
10 40 (4.62%) Presentation Skills
11 38 (4.39%) Aerospace
12 32 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
12 32 (3.70%) Retail
13 30 (3.46%) Financial Institution
13 30 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 29 (3.35%) Telecoms
15 27 (3.12%) Public Sector
16 25 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (2.77%) Pharmaceutical
18 19 (2.19%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 127 (14.67%) Analyst
2 121 (13.97%) Senior
3 102 (11.78%) Lead
4 68 (7.85%) Systems Engineer
5 43 (4.97%) Data Analyst
6 41 (4.73%) Business Analyst
7 39 (4.50%) Architect
8 36 (4.16%) Test Engineer
9 32 (3.70%) Data Engineer
10 30 (3.46%) Applications Engineer
10 30 (3.46%) Support Engineer
11 29 (3.35%) Applications Support
12 27 (3.12%) Developer
12 27 (3.12%) Principal Engineer
13 24 (2.77%) Administrator
13 24 (2.77%) Applications Support Engineer
14 23 (2.66%) Team Leader
15 22 (2.54%) Data Quality Analyst
15 22 (2.54%) Quality Analyst
16 20 (2.31%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.70%) REST
2 25 (2.89%) Middleware
3 21 (2.42%) JSON
4 20 (2.31%) XML
5 19 (2.19%) scikit-learn
6 18 (2.08%) Pandas
7 17 (1.96%) PyTorch
7 17 (1.96%) TensorFlow
8 12 (1.39%) Kafka
8 12 (1.39%) React
9 10 (1.15%) pytest
10 9 (1.04%) HTML
10 9 (1.04%) NumPy
10 9 (1.04%) Web Services
11 8 (0.92%) FastAPI
11 8 (0.92%) Hugging Face
11 8 (0.92%) PySpark
12 7 (0.81%) Gherkin
12 7 (0.81%) Playwright
12 7 (0.81%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 72 (8.31%) Management Information System
2 41 (4.73%) Onboarding
3 39 (4.50%) Life Science
4 34 (3.93%) Self-Motivation
5 33 (3.81%) Product Ownership
6 27 (3.12%) Algorithms
6 27 (3.12%) Operational Technology
7 19 (2.19%) SCADA
8 16 (1.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 15 (1.73%) Data Structures
10 14 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
11 13 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (1.50%) Data Centre
12 12 (1.39%) FPGA
13 11 (1.27%) Credit Risk
13 11 (1.27%) Embedded Systems
13 11 (1.27%) SWIFT Messaging Network
14 10 (1.15%) Low-Code
15 9 (1.04%) Cloud Native
15 9 (1.04%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.73%) Windows
2 39 (4.50%) Linux
3 16 (1.85%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (0.58%) Windows 10
5 5 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (0.46%) Android
6 4 (0.46%) Unix
7 3 (0.35%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.23%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.23%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.12%) AIX
9 1 (0.12%) CentOS
9 1 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.12%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (26.33%) Agile
2 209 (24.13%) Problem-Solving
3 127 (14.67%) Verification and Validation
4 126 (14.55%) Data Validation
5 124 (14.32%) Continuous Improvement
5 124 (14.32%) Migration
6 108 (12.47%) Analytics
7 97 (11.20%) Test Automation
8 90 (10.39%) Systems Engineering
9 88 (10.16%) Decision-Making
10 87 (10.05%) Business Intelligence
11 85 (9.82%) ETL
11 85 (9.82%) Mentoring
12 84 (9.70%) CI/CD
13 83 (9.58%) Data Analysis
14 82 (9.47%) DevOps
14 82 (9.47%) Software Engineering
15 81 (9.35%) Data Management
16 76 (8.78%) Roadmaps
17 74 (8.55%) AI
Programming Languages
1 185 (21.36%) SQL
2 175 (20.21%) Python
3 38 (4.39%) C++
4 36 (4.16%) C
5 34 (3.93%) Java
6 31 (3.58%) MATLAB
7 21 (2.42%) PowerShell
8 18 (2.08%) JavaScript
9 13 (1.50%) R
10 12 (1.39%) Bash
11 10 (1.15%) T-SQL
11 10 (1.15%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.81%) C#
13 5 (0.58%) Ladder Logic
14 4 (0.46%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.35%) Embedded C
15 3 (0.35%) Google Apps Script
15 3 (0.35%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.35%) Tcl
15 3 (0.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 277 (31.99%) Degree
2 93 (10.74%) BPSS Clearance
2 93 (10.74%) Security Cleared
3 57 (6.58%) Master's Degree
4 50 (5.77%) SC Cleared
5 39 (4.50%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (3.00%) Cisco Certification
7 20 (2.31%) HNC
8 17 (1.96%) DV Cleared
9 16 (1.85%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (1.62%) CCNA
10 14 (1.62%) CCNP
10 14 (1.62%) ISTQB
11 12 (1.39%) CCIE
11 12 (1.39%) Numerate Degree
12 11 (1.27%) ACCA
13 10 (1.15%) Network+ Certification
14 9 (1.04%) Chartered Engineer
14 9 (1.04%) PhD
15 8 (0.92%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 117 (13.51%) Data Quality
1 117 (13.51%) QA
2 39 (4.50%) GxP
3 34 (3.93%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 32 (3.70%) SLA
5 27 (3.12%) GDPR
6 25 (2.89%) Accessibility
7 16 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 11 (1.27%) ISO 20022
8 11 (1.27%) NIST
8 11 (1.27%) SEPA
9 9 (1.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 8 (0.92%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 7 (0.81%) COBIT
11 7 (0.81%) TARGET2
11 7 (0.81%) WCAG
12 6 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 5 (0.58%) ARP4761
14 4 (0.46%) NCSC
14 4 (0.46%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 40 (4.62%) Docker
2 31 (3.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (3.00%) Firmware
4 15 (1.73%) Active Directory
5 11 (1.27%) Embedded Firmware
6 7 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.81%) vSphere
7 6 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.58%) vCloud
9 2 (0.23%) Apache Flume
9 2 (0.23%) Ceph
9 2 (0.23%) HDFS
9 2 (0.23%) Lustre
9 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.12%) Dovecot
10 1 (0.12%) iptables
10 1 (0.12%) pfSense
10 1 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 30 (3.46%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.96%) Grafana
2 17 (1.96%) Terraform
3 16 (1.85%) Ansible
4 8 (0.92%) Prometheus
5 5 (0.58%) Docker Swarm
5 5 (0.58%) Kubeflow
5 5 (0.58%) vCenter Server
6 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.46%) Rundeck
7 3 (0.35%) Kibana
8 2 (0.23%) Argo
8 2 (0.23%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 2 (0.23%) Functional Safety
8 2 (0.23%) logstash
8 2 (0.23%) Nessus
8 2 (0.23%) Oozie
8 2 (0.23%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.23%) Rancher
8 2 (0.23%) yum
Vendors
1 98 (11.32%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.47%) SAP
3 37 (4.27%) VMware
4 30 (3.46%) Cisco
5 27 (3.12%) Oracle
6 24 (2.77%) Salesforce
7 23 (2.66%) IBM
8 15 (1.73%) Foundry
9 13 (1.50%) CheckPoint
9 13 (1.50%) F5
10 11 (1.27%) Siemens
11 10 (1.15%) Workday
12 9 (1.04%) Databricks
12 9 (1.04%) Software AG
13 8 (0.92%) Allen-Bradley
13 8 (0.92%) Intapp
14 7 (0.81%) MathWorks
15 6 (0.69%) EMC
15 6 (0.69%) Informatica
15 6 (0.69%) Splunk