Physics Job Trends

Physics
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Physics skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 362 336 369
Rank change year-on-year -26 +33 +42
Permanent jobs citing Physics 323 436 431
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.53% 0.82% 0.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 0.90% 0.81%
Number of salaries quoted 109 224 305
10th Percentile £35,000 £35,750 £31,350
25th Percentile £40,138 £43,650 £45,784
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,430 £57,750 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.29% +5.00% -4.73%
75th Percentile £76,975 £77,813 £73,750
90th Percentile £87,750 £111,250 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,500 £51,621 £52,000
% change year-on-year +5.58% -0.73% +17.26%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Physics 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 49,261 48,421 52,980
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.81% 90.77% 89.63%
Number of salaries quoted 29,011 23,517 40,505
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,439
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +3.45% -7.20%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%

Physics
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Physics relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Physics job vacancy trend in the UK

Physics
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Physics.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Physics

Physics
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Physics over the 6 months to 17 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Physics in the UK

Physics
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Physics within the UK over the 6 months to 17 January 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 -1 301 £56,430 -4.36% 197
UK excluding London -16 238 £54,500 +5.58% 175
Work from Home +121 139 £42,255 -23.17% 60
North of England +59 81 £54,500 +30.38% 19
London +13 63 £57,661 -30.11% 35
South East -47 61 £56,430 +2.60% 73
Yorkshire +28 48 - - 6
East of England +19 40 £67,500 -6.90% 37
South West -4 33 £40,792 -14.50% 26
North West +19 26 £54,500 +35.91% 10
Midlands +15 23 £45,000 +20.03% 21
West Midlands +24 12 £35,000 +12.90% 9
East Midlands -5 11 £75,000 +100.00% 11
North East +11 7 - - 3

Physics
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 7 (2.17%) Jupyter
2 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.93%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.62%) SAS
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.31%) Confluence
Applications
1 77 (23.84%) Chatbot
2 40 (12.38%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (5.57%) Simulink
4 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.31%) Abaqus
6 1 (0.31%) GNU Octave
6 1 (0.31%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 16 (4.95%) GitHub
2 12 (3.72%) AWS
3 11 (3.41%) Azure
3 11 (3.41%) SaaS
4 3 (0.93%) GCP
4 3 (0.93%) Power Platform
5 2 (0.62%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.31%) Amazon S3
6 1 (0.31%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.31%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.17%) 5G
1 7 (2.17%) SD-WAN
1 7 (2.17%) Software-Defined Radio
1 7 (2.17%) WAN
2 6 (1.86%) Wireless
3 3 (0.93%) LAN
4 1 (0.31%) Firewall
4 1 (0.31%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.31%) VPN
4 1 (0.31%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.48%) Redis
2 7 (2.17%) PostgreSQL
2 7 (2.17%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.86%) MongoDB
4 4 (1.24%) GIS
5 3 (0.93%) Apache Hive
5 3 (0.93%) Big Data
5 3 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.93%) Geospatial Data
5 3 (0.93%) Hadoop
5 3 (0.93%) Power BI
6 2 (0.62%) Impala
6 2 (0.62%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.62%) Tableau
7 1 (0.31%) ClickHouse
7 1 (0.31%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.31%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 16 (4.95%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (4.02%) Git
3 9 (2.79%) LabVIEW
4 3 (0.93%) Rational Rhapsody
5 2 (0.62%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.62%) JIRA
6 1 (0.31%) GitLab
6 1 (0.31%) MLflow
6 1 (0.31%) Selenium
6 1 (0.31%) TestRail
6 1 (0.31%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.31%) WebDriver
General
1 67 (20.74%) Electronics
2 66 (20.43%) Social Skills
3 39 (12.07%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (9.60%) Marketing
5 30 (9.29%) Finance
6 25 (7.74%) Spanish Language
7 19 (5.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 18 (5.57%) Aerospace
9 13 (4.02%) Agriculture
10 12 (3.72%) Games
10 12 (3.72%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (3.41%) Manufacturing
11 11 (3.41%) Military
12 9 (2.79%) Legal
13 7 (2.17%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.86%) Retail
15 5 (1.55%) Banking
16 4 (1.24%) Automotive
16 4 (1.24%) German Language
17 3 (0.93%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 77 (23.84%) Trainer
2 53 (16.41%) Senior
3 39 (12.07%) Consultant
4 32 (9.91%) Systems Engineer
5 27 (8.36%) Solutions Consultant
5 27 (8.36%) Technical Consultant
6 22 (6.81%) Developer
7 21 (6.50%) Software Engineer
8 17 (5.26%) Graduate
9 14 (4.33%) Research Scientist
10 13 (4.02%) Senior Systems Engineer
11 12 (3.72%) Lead
12 11 (3.41%) Test Engineer
13 10 (3.10%) Principal Engineer
14 9 (2.79%) Verification Engineer
15 8 (2.48%) C# Developer
15 8 (2.48%) Physicist
16 7 (2.17%) Machine Learning Consultant
16 7 (2.17%) Senior Developer
16 7 (2.17%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.95%) PyTorch
2 13 (4.02%) .NET
3 9 (2.79%) OpenGL
3 9 (2.79%) TensorFlow
4 8 (2.48%) Google JAX
4 8 (2.48%) JAX
4 8 (2.48%) Node.js
5 7 (2.17%) pytest
5 7 (2.17%) React
6 6 (1.86%) .NET Core
6 6 (1.86%) DirectX
7 5 (1.55%) NestJS
8 3 (0.93%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.93%) Leaflet
8 3 (0.93%) MapLibre
8 3 (0.93%) OpenLayers
8 3 (0.93%) PostGIS
8 3 (0.93%) Vue
8 3 (0.93%) Vulkan
9 2 (0.62%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 30 (9.29%) Algorithms
2 17 (5.26%) e-Learning
3 12 (3.72%) Embedded Systems
4 11 (3.41%) Management Information System
5 10 (3.10%) 3D Graphics
5 10 (3.10%) CUDA
6 8 (2.48%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (2.48%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.17%) Self-Driving Car
7 7 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.55%) Derivative
8 5 (1.55%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 5 (1.55%) IoT
9 4 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.24%) RISC-V
10 3 (0.93%) Arduino
10 3 (0.93%) Fixed Income
10 3 (0.93%) FPGA
10 3 (0.93%) Verilog
10 3 (0.93%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 25 (7.74%) Linux
2 16 (4.95%) Unix
3 12 (3.72%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (64.40%) Mathematics
2 140 (43.34%) AI
3 85 (26.32%) Problem-Solving
4 77 (23.84%) Computer Science
4 77 (23.84%) Conversational UI
5 47 (14.55%) Software Engineering
6 41 (12.69%) Systems Engineering
7 40 (12.38%) Machine Learning
8 38 (11.76%) Validation
9 28 (8.67%) Data Science
9 28 (8.67%) Innovative Thinking
10 27 (8.36%) Chemistry
11 26 (8.05%) Agile
12 23 (7.12%) Signal Processing
13 19 (5.88%) Mentoring
14 18 (5.57%) Coaching
14 18 (5.57%) Economics
15 17 (5.26%) Computer Vision
15 17 (5.26%) Verification and Validation
16 16 (4.95%) Requirements Management
Programming Languages
1 87 (26.93%) Python
2 43 (13.31%) MATLAB
3 35 (10.84%) C++
4 23 (7.12%) C#
5 20 (6.19%) C
6 15 (4.64%) Java
6 15 (4.64%) SQL
7 13 (4.02%) JavaScript
8 7 (2.17%) Bash
9 6 (1.86%) T-SQL
10 5 (1.55%) R
10 5 (1.55%) Rust
11 4 (1.24%) Fortran
12 3 (0.93%) Assembly Language
12 3 (0.93%) GLSL
12 3 (0.93%) Objective-C
12 3 (0.93%) Swift
12 3 (0.93%) Tcl
13 2 (0.62%) Embedded C
13 2 (0.62%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 275 (85.14%) Degree
2 107 (33.13%) PhD
3 104 (32.20%) Master's Degree
4 64 (19.81%) BPSS Clearance
5 60 (18.58%) Security Cleared
6 43 (13.31%) SC Cleared
7 19 (5.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 15 (4.64%) DV Cleared
9 12 (3.72%) Numerate Degree
10 8 (2.48%) HND
11 7 (2.17%) RIBA
12 3 (0.93%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.93%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (0.62%) ISO 9000
1 2 (0.62%) JTAG
2 1 (0.31%) Def Stans
2 1 (0.31%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 9 (2.79%) Firmware
2 4 (1.24%) Docker
3 2 (0.62%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 4 (1.24%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.93%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 77 (23.84%) PayPal
2 13 (4.02%) Siemens
3 6 (1.86%) Google
4 4 (1.24%) HubSpot
5 3 (0.93%) ANSYS
5 3 (0.93%) Arista
5 3 (0.93%) ESRI
5 3 (0.93%) Extreme Networks
5 3 (0.93%) Microsoft
5 3 (0.93%) Palo Alto
6 1 (0.31%) Keysight
6 1 (0.31%) YouTube