Software Testing Contracts

Software Testing
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Software Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Software Testing over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 186 190 199
Rank change year-on-year +4 +9 -3
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 553 840 1,326
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.28% 1.40% 1.49%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.48% 1.56% 1.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 358 553 848
10th Percentile £271 £285 £340
25th Percentile £380 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £688 £700 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -1.11% - +4.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 82 76
10th Percentile £38.05 - £17.63
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.50 £34.58
Median hourly rate £62.50 £52.74 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.52% +7.62% +8.89%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.75 £60.00
90th Percentile - £72.50 £65.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £52.50 £49.00
% change year-on-year +19.05% +7.14% +7.69%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Software Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,374 53,774 80,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.31% 89.91% 90.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,095 37,304 56,474
10th Percentile £300 £325 £340
25th Percentile £413 £438 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +8.25%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +9.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,422 1,763 1,928
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.25 £15.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.34 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.27% +49.36% -
75th Percentile £59.44 £65.00 £49.25
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £63.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £36.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year - +80.00% -8.17%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Software Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Testing.

Daily rate trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Testing.

Hourly rate trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +17 496 £450 -11.76% 463
UK excluding London +1 287 £445 -1.11% 426
London +3 215 £457 -16.91% 71
Work from Home +17 192 £459 -3.42% 149
South East +28 95 £425 - 104
North of England +15 58 £430 +1.18% 105
East of England +6 49 £420 -6.67% 71
Midlands +4 43 £475 -5.09% 60
Yorkshire +41 39 £428 -10.00% 25
West Midlands +3 27 £475 -11.71% 38
South West +3 24 £550 +4.76% 52
North West -18 19 £475 +15.85% 76
East Midlands +25 16 £460 +22.53% 22
Scotland -21 12 £498 +4.84% 31
Northern Ireland +10 3 £550 - 5
Isle of Man - 2 - - 1
Wales +12 1 £210 -73.75% 8

Software Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 16 (2.89%) Confluence
2 5 (0.90%) CMS
2 5 (0.90%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.72%) Apache
3 4 (0.72%) OpenStack
3 4 (0.72%) WebLogic
4 3 (0.54%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.54%) WebSphere
5 2 (0.36%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.18%) Appian
6 1 (0.18%) MTS
6 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.18%) Tornado
Applications
1 28 (5.06%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.63%) Simulink
3 7 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.90%) Stateflow
4 5 (0.90%) TargetLink
5 3 (0.54%) Windchill
6 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (1.63%) Endur
2 5 (0.90%) FLEXCUBE
3 4 (0.72%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.54%) ENOVIA
4 3 (0.54%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.36%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.36%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FSCM
5 2 (0.36%) WebTrends
5 2 (0.36%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP APO
6 1 (0.18%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 87 (15.73%) Azure
2 74 (13.38%) AWS
3 50 (9.04%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (4.34%) GitHub
5 14 (2.53%) Serverless
6 12 (2.17%) AWS Lambda
6 12 (2.17%) SaaS
7 9 (1.63%) Amazon EC2
7 9 (1.63%) Amazon S3
7 9 (1.63%) Power Platform
8 8 (1.45%) PaaS
9 7 (1.27%) Dynamics 365
9 7 (1.27%) Entra ID
9 7 (1.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (1.08%) IaaS
11 5 (0.90%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (0.90%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (0.90%) GCP
11 5 (0.90%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 36 (6.51%) Modbus
1 36 (6.51%) RS-422
1 36 (6.51%) RS-485
2 18 (3.25%) LAN
3 7 (1.27%) DNS
4 6 (1.08%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.90%) DHCP
5 5 (0.90%) HTTP
5 5 (0.90%) SNMP
5 5 (0.90%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (0.90%) Wireless
6 4 (0.72%) Firewall
6 4 (0.72%) Internet
6 4 (0.72%) SMS
6 4 (0.72%) Software-Defined Radio
7 3 (0.54%) 5G
7 3 (0.54%) FTP
7 3 (0.54%) SSL
7 3 (0.54%) VLAN
7 3 (0.54%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (5.06%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.98%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.80%) Oracle Database
4 17 (3.07%) Oracle Database 11g
5 13 (2.35%) Relational Database
6 12 (2.17%) MySQL
7 11 (1.99%) NoSQL
8 10 (1.81%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (1.08%) Apache Cassandra
10 6 (1.08%) Power BI
11 5 (0.90%) MongoDB
11 5 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 4 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.72%) Couchbase
12 4 (0.72%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.54%) Big Data
13 3 (0.54%) MariaDB
14 2 (0.36%) DynamoDB
14 2 (0.36%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 85 (15.37%) Git
2 74 (13.38%) Selenium
3 59 (10.67%) JIRA
4 50 (9.04%) Jenkins
5 36 (6.51%) Cucumber
6 28 (5.06%) WebDriver
7 27 (4.88%) Postman
8 26 (4.70%) JUnit
9 22 (3.98%) TestNG
10 21 (3.80%) REST Assured
11 19 (3.44%) Visual Studio
12 18 (3.25%) Bitbucket
13 16 (2.89%) Appium
13 16 (2.89%) GitLab
14 14 (2.53%) JMeter
15 12 (2.17%) Cypress.io
16 11 (1.99%) SoapUI
16 11 (1.99%) SpecFlow
16 11 (1.99%) Subversion
17 10 (1.81%) eggPlant
General
1 190 (34.36%) Social Skills
2 83 (15.01%) Finance
3 68 (12.30%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (9.40%) Electronics
5 41 (7.41%) Public Sector
6 36 (6.51%) Banking
7 26 (4.70%) Back Office
8 23 (4.16%) Telecoms
9 21 (3.80%) Organisational Skills
10 13 (2.35%) Investment Banking
11 11 (1.99%) Manufacturing
12 10 (1.81%) Automotive
12 10 (1.81%) Retail
13 9 (1.63%) Aerospace
13 9 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (1.63%) Marketing
14 7 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (1.08%) Games
16 5 (0.90%) Front Office
16 5 (0.90%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 82 (14.83%) Developer
2 74 (13.38%) Analyst
3 64 (11.57%) Software Engineer
4 54 (9.76%) Test Engineer
5 53 (9.58%) Senior
6 50 (9.04%) Tester
7 48 (8.68%) Lead
8 43 (7.78%) Test Analyst
9 29 (5.24%) C++ Software Engineer
10 26 (4.70%) Test Manager
11 23 (4.16%) Software Developer
12 22 (3.98%) Storage Manager
13 21 (3.80%) Hardware Engineer
14 17 (3.07%) Senior Analyst
15 16 (2.89%) Software Test Engineer
16 15 (2.71%) Business Analyst
16 15 (2.71%) PostgreSQL Developer
16 15 (2.71%) QA Engineer
16 15 (2.71%) Senior Test Analyst
16 15 (2.71%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (7.23%) .NET
2 29 (5.24%) React
3 26 (4.70%) AngularJS
4 25 (4.52%) HTML
5 24 (4.34%) .NET Framework
6 21 (3.80%) CSS
7 20 (3.62%) REST
8 19 (3.44%) RESTful
9 17 (3.07%) Node.js
9 17 (3.07%) Web Services
10 14 (2.53%) Redux
10 14 (2.53%) XML
11 12 (2.17%) SOAP
11 12 (2.17%) YAML
12 11 (1.99%) Spring
13 10 (1.81%) GraphQL
14 9 (1.63%) jQuery
14 9 (1.63%) Spring Boot
15 7 (1.27%) ADO
15 7 (1.27%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.23%) Self-Motivation
2 21 (3.80%) Product Ownership
3 18 (3.25%) Driving Licence
4 15 (2.71%) Algorithms
5 14 (2.53%) Data Centre
5 14 (2.53%) Management Information System
5 14 (2.53%) Mobile App
6 9 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.45%) Renewable Energy
8 7 (1.27%) Client/Server
8 7 (1.27%) Data Structures
8 7 (1.27%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 6 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
9 6 (1.08%) Replication
10 5 (0.90%) Clustering
10 5 (0.90%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (0.90%) NHS
11 4 (0.72%) FPGA
11 4 (0.72%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 55 (9.95%) Linux
2 53 (9.58%) Windows
3 27 (4.88%) Unix
4 21 (3.80%) Windows 10
5 18 (3.25%) Android
5 18 (3.25%) Windows 7
6 14 (2.53%) zOS
7 4 (0.72%) Embedded Linux
8 3 (0.54%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.36%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.36%) Windows Server
10 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (46.47%) Agile
2 194 (35.08%) Test Automation
3 162 (29.29%) DevOps
4 145 (26.22%) Software Engineering
5 93 (16.82%) Problem-Solving
6 90 (16.27%) CI/CD
7 88 (15.91%) Continuous Integration
8 84 (15.19%) Unit Testing
9 80 (14.47%) Scrum
10 67 (12.12%) Continuous Improvement
10 67 (12.12%) Test Scripting
11 66 (11.93%) TDD
12 63 (11.39%) Test Strategy
13 60 (10.85%) Customer Requirements
14 53 (9.58%) SDLC
15 49 (8.86%) User Acceptance Testing
16 46 (8.32%) End-to-End Testing
17 43 (7.78%) Project Management
18 42 (7.59%) Computer Science
19 41 (7.41%) Pair Programming
Programming Languages
1 106 (19.17%) SQL
2 99 (17.90%) C#
3 87 (15.73%) Java
3 87 (15.73%) Python
4 61 (11.03%) JavaScript
5 57 (10.31%) C
6 54 (9.76%) C++
7 30 (5.42%) TypeScript
8 26 (4.70%) Bash
8 26 (4.70%) PL/SQL
9 19 (3.44%) PowerShell
10 13 (2.35%) JCL
11 11 (1.99%) Go
12 10 (1.81%) Kotlin
12 10 (1.81%) MATLAB
12 10 (1.81%) REXX
13 9 (1.63%) Bourne shell
13 9 (1.63%) Korn
14 6 (1.08%) PHP
15 5 (0.90%) Perl
Qualifications
1 122 (22.06%) Security Cleared
2 100 (18.08%) Degree
3 84 (15.19%) SC Cleared
4 48 (8.68%) ISTQB
5 30 (5.42%) Computer Science Degree
5 30 (5.42%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.53%) ISEB
7 12 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
8 10 (1.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (1.45%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.27%) Numerate Degree
11 5 (0.90%) Chartered Engineer
12 4 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 2 (0.36%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.36%) ISEB Practitioner
13 2 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.36%) MCSE
13 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.36%) Network+ Certification
14 1 (0.18%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (14.65%) QA
2 12 (2.17%) Accessibility
3 7 (1.27%) AUTOSAR
4 6 (1.08%) ISO 9001
4 6 (1.08%) PCI DSS
5 5 (0.90%) ISO 26262
5 5 (0.90%) MISRA
5 5 (0.90%) MISRA C
5 5 (0.90%) Software Quality Assurance
6 4 (0.72%) WCAG
7 3 (0.54%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.36%) Automotive SPICE
8 2 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.36%) GDPR
8 2 (0.36%) PMO
8 2 (0.36%) SLA
9 1 (0.18%) HL7
9 1 (0.18%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 23 (4.16%) Firmware
2 18 (3.25%) Docker
3 13 (2.35%) NFS
3 13 (2.35%) Time Sharing Option
4 7 (1.27%) Active Directory
4 7 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.72%) VirtualBox
5 4 (0.72%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 27 (4.88%) Kubernetes
1 27 (4.88%) SCCM
2 24 (4.34%) Ansible
3 23 (4.16%) Tivoli Storage Manager
4 13 (2.35%) Terraform
5 6 (1.08%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.90%) HP ALM
7 4 (0.72%) WSUS
8 3 (0.54%) HP Quality Center
8 3 (0.54%) Puppet
9 2 (0.36%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.36%) Kibana
9 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.36%) Opsgenie
10 1 (0.18%) Grafana
10 1 (0.18%) Iperf
10 1 (0.18%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 72 (13.02%) Microsoft
2 70 (12.66%) Oracle
3 29 (5.24%) IBM
4 27 (4.88%) HP
5 18 (3.25%) Broadcom
5 18 (3.25%) Dell
6 13 (2.35%) Brocade
6 13 (2.35%) CA
6 13 (2.35%) SAP
7 9 (1.63%) OpenLink
8 8 (1.45%) Google
9 7 (1.27%) Adobe
10 5 (0.90%) Databricks
10 5 (0.90%) Siemens
11 4 (0.72%) Optimizely
11 4 (0.72%) Red Hat
11 4 (0.72%) Splunk
11 4 (0.72%) VMware
11 4 (0.72%) Xilinx
12 3 (0.54%) Atlassian