Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for SDET skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited SDET over the 6 months to 9 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 692 595 610
Rank change year-on-year -97 +15 -169
Permanent jobs citing SDET 213 419 782
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.21% 0.41% 0.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.25% 0.43% 0.52%
Number of salaries quoted 175 350 406
10th Percentile £43,750 £55,000 £46,625
25th Percentile £50,625 £65,000 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £75,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year - +11.11% +3.85%
75th Percentile £107,500 £95,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £112,500 £105,125 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -23.08% +8.33% +14.29%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

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

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 84,809 96,894 150,102
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 85.57% 95.61% 95.67%
Number of salaries quoted 59,843 56,945 82,179
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,000 £33,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,180 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.10% +1.97% +9.09%
75th Percentile £72,500 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £100,000 £96,550
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +9.38%

SDET
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for SDET in the UK

SDET
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing SDET.

Salary trend for SDET in the UK

SDET
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing SDET over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Salary histogram for SDET in the UK

SDET
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SDET within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -55 205 £77,500 - 23
London -31 146 £95,000 +18.75% 10
Work from Home -53 119 £90,000 +20.00% 20
UK excluding London -18 66 £50,000 -23.08% 15
South East +26 52 £47,500 -32.14% 5
Yorkshire +83 5 £65,000 - 5
North of England +34 5 £65,000 - 5
East of England +21 4 £78,750 +36.96%
Scotland -63 3 £45,000 +73.08% 1
South West -30 2 £52,500 +16.67% 2

SDET
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 12 (5.63%) Apache
2 6 (2.82%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 53 (24.88%) SaaS
2 38 (17.84%) Azure
3 23 (10.80%) GitHub
4 22 (10.33%) AWS
5 20 (9.39%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (2.82%) IaaS
7 1 (0.47%) GCP
7 1 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.47%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.41%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.63%) Relational Database
2 4 (1.88%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.47%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.47%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 111 (52.11%) Selenium
2 92 (43.19%) Jenkins
3 89 (41.78%) Cucumber
4 70 (32.86%) Postman
5 43 (20.19%) Cypress.io
6 38 (17.84%) JUnit
7 34 (15.96%) JMeter
8 33 (15.49%) WebDriver
9 27 (12.68%) REST Assured
10 16 (7.51%) TestNG
11 13 (6.10%) JIRA
12 11 (5.16%) Appium
13 10 (4.69%) Git
13 10 (4.69%) NUnit
13 10 (4.69%) SoapUI
13 10 (4.69%) Visual Studio
14 9 (4.23%) Maven
15 8 (3.76%) SpecFlow
16 7 (3.29%) Bitbucket Server
16 7 (3.29%) Serenity BDD
General
1 12 (5.63%) Finance
2 7 (3.29%) Financial Institution
3 6 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 5 (2.35%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (2.35%) Pharmaceutical
4 5 (2.35%) Public Sector
5 4 (1.88%) Electronics
5 4 (1.88%) Health Technology
5 4 (1.88%) Social Skills
5 4 (1.88%) Tech for Good
6 3 (1.41%) Banking
7 2 (0.94%) Marketing
8 1 (0.47%) Games
8 1 (0.47%) Law
Job Titles
1 89 (41.78%) Lead
2 37 (17.37%) Senior
3 22 (10.33%) Tester
4 21 (9.86%) Automation Tester
5 16 (7.51%) Developer
5 16 (7.51%) Developer in Test
6 15 (7.04%) QA Engineer
7 14 (6.57%) Software Engineer
8 13 (6.10%) Software Developer
9 10 (4.69%) Development Engineer
9 10 (4.69%) Software Development Engineer
9 10 (4.69%) Test Development Engineer
10 8 (3.76%) Test Engineer
11 6 (2.82%) JavaScript Developer
12 5 (2.35%) Python Engineer
12 5 (2.35%) QA Automation Engineer
13 4 (1.88%) Automation Engineer
13 4 (1.88%) Java Automation Tester
13 4 (1.88%) QA Leader
13 4 (1.88%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (40.38%) REST
2 24 (11.27%) Web Services
3 23 (10.80%) .NET
4 22 (10.33%) JSON
4 22 (10.33%) Playwright
5 19 (8.92%) WireMock
6 13 (6.10%) React
7 12 (5.63%) .NET Core
7 12 (5.63%) Apache Commons
7 12 (5.63%) Guava
7 12 (5.63%) Java Concurrency
8 11 (5.16%) WebdriverIO
9 10 (4.69%) Kafka
9 10 (4.69%) XML
10 8 (3.76%) .NET Framework
10 8 (3.76%) RESTful
10 8 (3.76%) Spring
11 7 (3.29%) Apache Thrift
11 7 (3.29%) Gherkin
11 7 (3.29%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 7 (3.29%) Greenfield Project
2 6 (2.82%) Client/Server
2 6 (2.82%) Life Science
3 5 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (1.88%) Product Ownership
5 2 (0.94%) Hackathon
5 2 (0.94%) Onboarding
5 2 (0.94%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.47%) Bitcoin
6 1 (0.47%) Derivative
6 1 (0.47%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (0.47%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (0.47%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.47%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 7 (3.29%) Linux
2 3 (1.41%) Android
3 1 (0.47%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (54.93%) Test Automation
2 101 (47.42%) Software Testing
3 98 (46.01%) CI/CD
4 92 (43.19%) API Testing
5 87 (40.85%) Agile
6 74 (34.74%) BDD
7 70 (32.86%) Test Strategy
8 65 (30.52%) Clean Code
9 38 (17.84%) Fintech
10 34 (15.96%) DevOps
11 28 (13.15%) Microservices
11 28 (13.15%) OO
11 28 (13.15%) Test Planning
12 27 (12.68%) Code Quality
12 27 (12.68%) Unit Testing
13 25 (11.74%) Mentoring
14 24 (11.27%) Line Management
15 23 (10.80%) Scrum
16 21 (9.86%) Continuous Integration
17 19 (8.92%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 119 (55.87%) Java
2 57 (26.76%) JavaScript
3 33 (15.49%) C#
4 32 (15.02%) SQL
5 21 (9.86%) Python
6 12 (5.63%) TypeScript
7 7 (3.29%) PHP
8 6 (2.82%) Bash
8 6 (2.82%) Ruby
9 4 (1.88%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.41%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.41%) Swift
11 1 (0.47%) C++
11 1 (0.47%) Go
Qualifications
1 17 (7.98%) SC Cleared
1 17 (7.98%) Security Cleared
2 13 (6.10%) Degree
3 2 (0.94%) ISTQB
4 1 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.47%) ISEB
4 1 (0.47%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (38.97%) QA
2 6 (2.82%) Accessibility
System Software
1 24 (11.27%) Docker
2 4 (1.88%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 22 (10.33%) Kubernetes
2 5 (2.35%) HP Quality Center
2 5 (2.35%) Terraform
3 3 (1.41%) Ansible
4 2 (0.94%) Consul
Vendors
1 13 (6.10%) Microsoft
2 5 (2.35%) HP
3 3 (1.41%) Oracle
4 1 (0.47%) CA Agile Central