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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 167 184
Rank change year-on-year +11 +17 -30
Permanent jobs citing Validation 974 900 1,240
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.49% 1.78% 1.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 1.93% 1.89%
Number of salaries quoted 515 312 732
10th Percentile £36,250 £37,825 £35,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £47,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £78,125 £71,563 £72,500
90th Percentile £91,250 £99,750 £83,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,600 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.56% +0.19% -4.55%

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 52,183 46,628 65,707
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 79.83% 91.97% 88.39%
Number of salaries quoted 30,949 22,565 51,052
10th Percentile £28,750 £35,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £46,000 £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 £76,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £101,000 £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 8 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 8 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 +24 868 £60,000 +9.09% 819
UK excluding London +3 605 £55,000 +4.56% 628
London +57 301 £75,000 +7.14% 267
Work from Home +97 266 £60,000 +7.14% 367
South East +19 189 £53,500 -2.73% 189
North of England -22 126 £60,000 +25.83% 137
Midlands +1 88 £35,000 -33.33% 125
North West +5 86 £55,000 +15.35% 86
East of England +18 82 £57,500 +4.55% 84
South West +20 69 £60,000 +14.07% 75
West Midlands -2 57 £38,750 -29.55% 86
Scotland -21 39 £42,000 -27.63% 30
Yorkshire -29 32 £63,150 +56.03% 41
East Midlands -9 30 £35,000 -32.69% 39
Wales +6 9 £65,000 +32.37% 6
North East -13 8 £43,249 +4.21% 10
Northern Ireland -28 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 23 (2.36%) Confluence
2 19 (1.95%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.23%) Appian
4 11 (1.13%) Apache Spark
4 11 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 11 (1.13%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.92%) CMS
6 6 (0.62%) Apache
7 4 (0.41%) Headless CMS
8 3 (0.31%) Jupyter
8 3 (0.31%) SugarCRM
9 2 (0.21%) Kinematics
9 2 (0.21%) SAS
9 2 (0.21%) WordPress
10 1 (0.10%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.10%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.10%) FileNet
Applications
1 77 (7.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (6.37%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.33%) MS Visio
4 12 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.92%) Simulink
6 7 (0.72%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.41%) Fusion 360
7 4 (0.41%) Mathcad
8 3 (0.31%) Revit
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Captivate
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.21%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.21%) Elementor
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Smart View
9 2 (0.21%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.21%) Weka
10 1 (0.10%) Navisworks
10 1 (0.10%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 18 (1.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.72%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.41%) Markit EDM
4 4 (0.41%) SAP BPC
5 3 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
5 3 (0.31%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.21%) Endur
6 2 (0.21%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.21%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.21%) Primavera
6 2 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.10%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.10%) Magento
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.10%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.10%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.10%) SAP FSCM
7 1 (0.10%) SAP MDG
7 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 150 (15.40%) Azure
2 82 (8.42%) Power Platform
3 66 (6.78%) AWS
4 47 (4.83%) SaaS
5 42 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (3.08%) GCP
7 28 (2.87%) Snowflake
8 26 (2.67%) Azure Data Factory
9 22 (2.26%) dbt
9 22 (2.26%) Dynamics 365
10 19 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
11 18 (1.85%) Entra ID
11 18 (1.85%) Power Automate
12 16 (1.64%) GitHub
13 13 (1.33%) Datadog
14 12 (1.23%) Anthropic Claude
14 12 (1.23%) Azure AI
15 11 (1.13%) Amazon S3
15 11 (1.13%) Figma
16 9 (0.92%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.95%) CHAP
2 14 (1.44%) Firewall
2 14 (1.44%) WAN
3 11 (1.13%) 5G
3 11 (1.13%) LAN
3 11 (1.13%) SD-WAN
4 9 (0.92%) DNS
5 8 (0.82%) HTTP
5 8 (0.82%) MQTT
5 8 (0.82%) TCP/IP
5 8 (0.82%) Wireless
6 7 (0.72%) Modbus
7 6 (0.62%) Ethernet VPN
8 5 (0.51%) BGP
8 5 (0.51%) Cisco IOS
8 5 (0.51%) OSPF
8 5 (0.51%) VoIP
8 5 (0.51%) WAAS
9 4 (0.41%) Internet
9 4 (0.41%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (7.91%) Power BI
2 36 (3.70%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.18%) Data Warehouse
4 26 (2.67%) Metadata
5 23 (2.36%) Relational Database
6 17 (1.75%) Tableau
7 13 (1.33%) Oracle Reports
8 12 (1.23%) Pinecone
8 12 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (1.13%) Azure SQL Database
10 10 (1.03%) Spotfire
11 9 (0.92%) Data Lake
11 9 (0.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 8 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
12 8 (0.82%) GIS
13 7 (0.72%) Big Data
13 7 (0.72%) BigQuery
13 7 (0.72%) Data Vault
13 7 (0.72%) MySQL
14 6 (0.62%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 70 (7.19%) JIRA
2 49 (5.03%) Rational DOORS
3 47 (4.83%) Git
4 24 (2.46%) Postman
5 22 (2.26%) Jenkins
6 14 (1.44%) GitLab
6 14 (1.44%) LabVIEW
6 14 (1.44%) MLflow
7 13 (1.33%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.33%) Selenium
7 13 (1.33%) TestRail
8 12 (1.23%) JMeter
9 11 (1.13%) Eclipse
10 9 (0.92%) SoapUI
11 7 (0.72%) LoadRunner
11 7 (0.72%) Locust
12 6 (0.62%) Zephyr
13 5 (0.51%) Fiddler
13 5 (0.51%) SpecFlow
13 5 (0.51%) TestNG
General
1 351 (36.04%) Social Skills
2 283 (29.06%) Finance
3 223 (22.90%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (6.98%) Banking
5 59 (6.06%) Electronics
6 50 (5.13%) Financial Institution
7 49 (5.03%) Marketing
8 48 (4.93%) Manufacturing
9 46 (4.72%) Presentation Skills
10 42 (4.31%) Aerospace
11 35 (3.59%) Law
11 35 (3.59%) Public Sector
12 33 (3.39%) Legal
13 30 (3.08%) Organisational Skills
13 30 (3.08%) Retail
13 30 (3.08%) Telecoms
14 24 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
14 24 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (2.05%) Pharmaceutical
16 18 (1.85%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 152 (15.61%) Analyst
2 146 (14.99%) Senior
3 108 (11.09%) Systems Engineer
4 77 (7.91%) Lead
5 62 (6.37%) Architect
6 61 (6.26%) Business Analyst
7 51 (5.24%) Test Engineer
8 48 (4.93%) Validation Engineer
9 43 (4.41%) Integration Engineer
10 36 (3.70%) Data Analyst
10 36 (3.70%) Junior
11 33 (3.39%) Developer
11 33 (3.39%) Principal Engineer
11 33 (3.39%) Systems Integration Engineer
12 30 (3.08%) Data Engineer
13 28 (2.87%) Solutions Architect
14 27 (2.77%) Senior Systems Engineer
15 25 (2.57%) Verification Engineer
16 24 (2.46%) Principal Systems Engineer
17 22 (2.26%) Auditor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (5.13%) REST
2 31 (3.18%) JSON
2 31 (3.18%) Middleware
3 27 (2.77%) pytest
4 26 (2.67%) Pandas
5 23 (2.36%) XML
6 21 (2.16%) PyTorch
7 20 (2.05%) scikit-learn
7 20 (2.05%) TensorFlow
8 19 (1.95%) NumPy
9 17 (1.75%) OAuth
10 16 (1.64%) FastAPI
10 16 (1.64%) JWT
10 16 (1.64%) Swagger
10 16 (1.64%) Web Services
11 15 (1.54%) Flask
12 14 (1.44%) CSS
12 14 (1.44%) RESTful
13 13 (1.33%) HTML
13 13 (1.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 63 (6.47%) Management Information System
2 42 (4.31%) Onboarding
3 36 (3.70%) Product Ownership
4 32 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
5 30 (3.08%) Data Structures
6 26 (2.67%) Legacy Systems
7 23 (2.36%) Low-Code
8 21 (2.16%) Life Science
9 17 (1.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 15 (1.54%) Algorithms
11 14 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
11 14 (1.44%) Data Centre
11 14 (1.44%) Embedded Systems
11 14 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (1.33%) Reinsurance
12 13 (1.33%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 12 (1.23%) Blockchain
14 11 (1.13%) FPGA
14 11 (1.13%) Self-Driving Car
15 10 (1.03%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 52 (5.34%) Windows
2 42 (4.31%) Linux
3 12 (1.23%) Android
3 12 (1.23%) Unix
4 11 (1.13%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.41%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.41%) CentOS
5 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.31%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.21%) AIX
7 2 (0.21%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.21%) VxWorks
8 1 (0.10%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.10%) Rocky
8 1 (0.10%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.10%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (26.59%) Agile
2 229 (23.51%) Problem-Solving
3 167 (17.15%) Verification and Validation
4 140 (14.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 126 (12.94%) Data Validation
6 122 (12.53%) Analytics
7 119 (12.22%) Migration
8 118 (12.11%) Test Automation
9 114 (11.70%) Systems Engineering
10 112 (11.50%) DevOps
11 110 (11.29%) CI/CD
12 98 (10.06%) AI
13 96 (9.86%) Business Intelligence
14 95 (9.75%) Mentoring
15 89 (9.14%) ETL
16 87 (8.93%) Software Engineering
17 85 (8.73%) Roadmaps
18 84 (8.62%) Decision-Making
19 82 (8.42%) Data Modelling
19 82 (8.42%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 208 (21.36%) SQL
2 185 (18.99%) Python
3 39 (4.00%) C
4 37 (3.80%) C++
4 37 (3.80%) Java
5 34 (3.49%) PowerShell
6 25 (2.57%) MATLAB
7 24 (2.46%) JavaScript
8 19 (1.95%) Bash
9 12 (1.23%) C#
9 12 (1.23%) R
9 12 (1.23%) TypeScript
10 11 (1.13%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.62%) Bicep
12 5 (0.51%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (0.51%) Go
12 5 (0.51%) PHP
13 4 (0.41%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.41%) VB
Qualifications
1 270 (27.72%) Degree
2 134 (13.76%) Security Cleared
3 120 (12.32%) BPSS Clearance
4 55 (5.65%) SC Cleared
5 54 (5.54%) Master's Degree
6 42 (4.31%) Computer Science Degree
7 23 (2.36%) CISA
7 23 (2.36%) CISSP
8 21 (2.16%) CISM
8 21 (2.16%) DV Cleared
9 20 (2.05%) CGEIT
9 20 (2.05%) FFIEC
9 20 (2.05%) SANS
10 17 (1.75%) Chartered Engineer
10 17 (1.75%) HNC
10 17 (1.75%) PMI Certification
10 17 (1.75%) PMP
11 16 (1.64%) ISTQB
12 12 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
12 12 (1.23%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (10.78%) Data Quality
2 102 (10.47%) QA
3 49 (5.03%) ISO/IEC 15288
4 45 (4.62%) GDPR
5 30 (3.08%) Accessibility
6 21 (2.16%) SLA
7 20 (2.05%) COBIT
7 20 (2.05%) NIST
8 17 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 15 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 13 (1.33%) GRC
10 13 (1.33%) ISO 20022
10 13 (1.33%) SEPA
11 12 (1.23%) WCAG
12 10 (1.03%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 10 (1.03%) Good Clinical Practice
13 9 (0.92%) GxP
13 9 (0.92%) TARGET2
14 8 (0.82%) ISO 9001
15 7 (0.72%) IFRS
System Software
1 54 (5.54%) Docker
2 23 (2.36%) Firmware
3 18 (1.85%) Active Directory
4 5 (0.51%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (0.51%) Hyper-V
4 5 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.31%) vSphere
6 2 (0.21%) Ceph
6 2 (0.21%) Lustre
6 2 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.10%) iptables
7 1 (0.10%) KVM
7 1 (0.10%) OpenAM
7 1 (0.10%) OpenDJ
7 1 (0.10%) OpenIDM
7 1 (0.10%) pfSense
7 1 (0.10%) vCloud
7 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.10%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 46 (4.72%) Kubernetes
2 29 (2.98%) Terraform
3 19 (1.95%) Grafana
4 16 (1.64%) Ansible
5 10 (1.03%) Prometheus
6 8 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.72%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 6 (0.62%) SCCM
9 4 (0.41%) Argo
9 4 (0.41%) Rancher
9 4 (0.41%) yum
10 3 (0.31%) Puppet
11 2 (0.21%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.21%) Nessus
12 1 (0.10%) Control-M
12 1 (0.10%) Functional Safety
12 1 (0.10%) Kibana
12 1 (0.10%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.10%) PowerCLI
12 1 (0.10%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 123 (12.63%) Microsoft
2 53 (5.44%) SAP
3 34 (3.49%) Oracle
4 32 (3.29%) Salesforce
5 28 (2.87%) IBM
6 25 (2.57%) Cisco
7 17 (1.75%) Foundry
7 17 (1.75%) OpenAI
8 14 (1.44%) ServiceNow
8 14 (1.44%) Software AG
9 13 (1.33%) Adobe
10 12 (1.23%) Automation Anywhere
10 12 (1.23%) UiPath
11 10 (1.03%) Databricks
11 10 (1.03%) F5
12 9 (0.92%) CheckPoint
12 9 (0.92%) Workday
13 8 (0.82%) Intapp
13 8 (0.82%) Splunk
13 8 (0.82%) VMware