BDD Contract Job Trends in England

Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring BDD skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 370 280 272
Rank change year-on-year -90 -8 +10
Contract jobs citing BDD 294 261 279
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.63% 0.93% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.74% 1.02% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 180 181
10th Percentile £306 £356 £380
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -11.75% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £638 £625
90th Percentile £650 £726 £763
UK median daily rate £450 £500 £509
% change year-on-year -10.00% -1.72% -3.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £45.00 - -
75th Percentile £46.88 - -
90th Percentile £48.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £85.00 -
% change year-on-year -47.06% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

BDD falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,775 25,570 27,639
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.94% 90.90% 86.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,015 16,235 16,841
10th Percentile £325 £294 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,044 1,594 1,106
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.41 £17.87 £20.30
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -5.56%
75th Percentile £67.47 £44.80 £66.90
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.25 £74.22
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%

BDD
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BDD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

BDD job vacancy trend in England

BDD
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BDD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BDD

BDD
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BDD in England over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BDD in England

BDD
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BDD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing BDD

BDD
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BDD within the England region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -77 138 £500 -7.41% 81
North of England -89 70 £448 -14.76% 33
Midlands -11 54 £438 -7.89% 25
West Midlands -5 52 £438 -12.50% 18
Yorkshire -47 31 £438 -18.60% 9
North West -50 26 £438 +3.67% 14
North East -44 17 £450 -6.49% 10
South East -68 15 £275 -4.51% 24
South West -37 12 £500 +17.65% 10
East Midlands -19 1 £402 +30.73% 7
BDD
UK

BDD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 (8.84%) Confluence
2 3 (1.02%) CMS
2 3 (1.02%) Headless CMS
2 3 (1.02%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.34%) Apache
3 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (1.02%) Mingle
1 3 (1.02%) Notion
2 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 12 (4.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.38%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (1.02%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 109 (37.07%) AWS
2 104 (35.37%) Azure
3 75 (25.51%) GitHub
4 43 (14.63%) Azure DevOps
5 34 (11.56%) GitHub Actions
6 25 (8.50%) Serverless
7 23 (7.82%) GCP
8 21 (7.14%) GitHub Copilot
9 15 (5.10%) Dynamics 365
10 14 (4.76%) Amazon S3
10 14 (4.76%) Amazon SQS
10 14 (4.76%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (4.42%) Amazon EC2
11 13 (4.42%) Power Automate
12 9 (3.06%) Azure Functions
12 9 (3.06%) Power Platform
13 8 (2.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 8 (2.72%) Amazon EKS
14 7 (2.38%) OpenShift
14 7 (2.38%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.38%) Internet
2 5 (1.70%) DNS
2 5 (1.70%) RTP
2 5 (1.70%) Wireshark
3 4 (1.36%) 3GPP
3 4 (1.36%) Firewall
4 2 (0.68%) BGP
4 2 (0.68%) DSL
4 2 (0.68%) HTTP
4 2 (0.68%) Intrusion Detection
4 2 (0.68%) Network Security
4 2 (0.68%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.68%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.68%) VPN
4 2 (0.68%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (13.95%) MongoDB
2 29 (9.86%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (6.46%) SQL Server
4 17 (5.78%) NoSQL
5 11 (3.74%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (3.40%) DynamoDB
7 9 (3.06%) Relational Database
8 8 (2.72%) Data Lake
9 7 (2.38%) MySQL
10 5 (1.70%) Amazon Aurora
10 5 (1.70%) Couchbase
11 4 (1.36%) Apache Iceberg
11 4 (1.36%) Big Data
11 4 (1.36%) BigQuery
11 4 (1.36%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (1.36%) Neo4j
11 4 (1.36%) Power BI
11 4 (1.36%) ZAP BI
12 3 (1.02%) Pinecone
12 3 (1.02%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 136 (46.26%) Cucumber
2 102 (34.69%) Git
3 99 (33.67%) Selenium
4 67 (22.79%) Jenkins
4 67 (22.79%) JUnit
5 62 (21.09%) GitLab
6 46 (15.65%) JIRA
7 44 (14.97%) REST Assured
8 41 (13.95%) Postman
9 34 (11.56%) Gatling
10 32 (10.88%) SonarQube
11 29 (9.86%) WebDriver
12 27 (9.18%) Mockito
13 26 (8.84%) Cypress.io
14 20 (6.80%) Maven
15 19 (6.46%) SpecFlow
16 14 (4.76%) Gradle
17 10 (3.40%) JMeter
17 10 (3.40%) SoapUI
17 10 (3.40%) TeamCity
General
1 115 (39.12%) Social Skills
2 64 (21.77%) Finance
3 57 (19.39%) Public Sector
4 52 (17.69%) Analytical Skills
5 42 (14.29%) Banking
6 16 (5.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.38%) Front Office
7 7 (2.38%) Military
7 7 (2.38%) Retail
8 4 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.02%) Aviation
9 3 (1.02%) Fire and Rescue
9 3 (1.02%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.02%) Legal Technology
9 3 (1.02%) Local Government
9 3 (1.02%) Police
10 2 (0.68%) Law
10 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.34%) Corporate Banking
11 1 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 67 (22.79%) Senior
2 65 (22.11%) Developer
3 51 (17.35%) Test Engineer
4 40 (13.61%) Java Developer
5 31 (10.54%) Software Engineer
6 28 (9.52%) Lead
6 28 (9.52%) Test Automation Engineer
7 26 (8.84%) Quality Engineer
8 23 (7.82%) Senior Developer
9 20 (6.80%) Analyst
9 20 (6.80%) Java Engineer
10 19 (6.46%) QA Engineer
11 15 (5.10%) Automation Engineer
12 14 (4.76%) Senior Java Developer
12 14 (4.76%) Test Leader
13 13 (4.42%) Senior Test Engineer
13 13 (4.42%) Test Analyst
14 10 (3.40%) Senior Software Engineer
15 9 (3.06%) Architect
15 9 (3.06%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (25.51%) Playwright
2 61 (20.75%) REST
3 60 (20.41%) Spring
4 55 (18.71%) Gherkin
5 54 (18.37%) Kafka
6 48 (16.33%) Spring Boot
7 34 (11.56%) RESTful
8 31 (10.54%) .NET
9 30 (10.20%) React
10 29 (9.86%) Terraform
10 29 (9.86%) WireMock
11 25 (8.50%) Node.js
12 22 (7.48%) AngularJS
13 20 (6.80%) HTML
14 18 (6.12%) pytest
14 18 (6.12%) RabbitMQ
14 18 (6.12%) SOAP
15 16 (5.44%) ActiveMQ
15 16 (5.44%) JSON
16 15 (5.10%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 28 (9.52%) Product Ownership
2 27 (9.18%) Cloud Native
3 26 (8.84%) Distributed Systems
4 21 (7.14%) Enterprise Software
5 13 (4.42%) Onboarding
6 11 (3.74%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (3.06%) AI Agents
7 9 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (2.72%) Management Information System
9 7 (2.38%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.70%) Distributed Architecture
10 5 (1.70%) Taxonomies
11 4 (1.36%) NHS
11 4 (1.36%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 3 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (1.02%) Legacy Applications
12 3 (1.02%) Robotics
13 2 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 2 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 39 (13.27%) Linux
2 19 (6.46%) Unix
3 6 (2.04%) macOS
4 5 (1.70%) Android
4 5 (1.70%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.02%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (73.47%) Agile
2 206 (70.07%) CI/CD
3 198 (67.35%) Test Automation
4 188 (63.95%) TDD
5 113 (38.44%) Microservices
6 110 (37.41%) DevOps
7 75 (25.51%) Scrum
8 70 (23.81%) Software Testing
9 69 (23.47%) Continuous Improvement
10 68 (23.13%) AI
11 66 (22.45%) API Testing
11 66 (22.45%) Test Strategy
12 64 (21.77%) Problem-Solving
13 62 (21.09%) Software Engineering
13 62 (21.09%) Stakeholder Management
14 47 (15.99%) Integration Testing
15 46 (15.65%) Coaching
15 46 (15.65%) SDLC
16 41 (13.95%) Continuous Integration
17 40 (13.61%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 180 (61.22%) Java
2 71 (24.15%) JavaScript
2 71 (24.15%) Python
3 67 (22.79%) SQL
4 59 (20.07%) C#
5 38 (12.93%) TypeScript
6 15 (5.10%) Bash
7 8 (2.72%) Ruby
8 7 (2.38%) Groovy
9 6 (2.04%) Apex Code
9 6 (2.04%) R
9 6 (2.04%) Scala
10 5 (1.70%) Go
10 5 (1.70%) Kotlin
11 3 (1.02%) Bicep
11 3 (1.02%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.68%) Cypher
12 2 (0.68%) PromQL
12 2 (0.68%) SHACL
13 1 (0.34%) Korn
Qualifications
1 71 (24.15%) Security Cleared
2 56 (19.05%) SC Cleared
3 23 (7.82%) BPSS Clearance
4 22 (7.48%) Degree
5 18 (6.12%) ISTQB
6 17 (5.78%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (3.40%) DV Cleared
8 9 (3.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (2.72%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (2.04%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 5 (1.70%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.68%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 2 (0.68%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.68%) ISEB
12 2 (0.68%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (31.29%) QA
2 66 (22.45%) Accessibility
3 45 (15.31%) WCAG
4 13 (4.42%) GDPR
5 4 (1.36%) Data Quality
6 3 (1.02%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.68%) SEPA
7 2 (0.68%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.34%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 90 (30.61%) Docker
2 3 (1.02%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 78 (26.53%) Kubernetes
2 18 (6.12%) Grafana
3 12 (4.08%) Prometheus
4 6 (2.04%) Ansible
5 4 (1.36%) Kibana
6 3 (1.02%) Istio
7 2 (0.68%) Argo
7 2 (0.68%) Consul
7 2 (0.68%) Zipkin
8 1 (0.34%) Control-M
8 1 (0.34%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 34 (11.56%) Microsoft
2 17 (5.78%) Databricks
3 15 (5.10%) Salesforce
4 14 (4.76%) Oracle
5 10 (3.40%) Google
6 7 (2.38%) Conga
6 7 (2.38%) GoCardless
6 7 (2.38%) IBM
7 6 (2.04%) OpenAI
8 5 (1.70%) Atlassian
8 5 (1.70%) Splunk
9 4 (1.36%) CA Agile Central
9 4 (1.36%) ION Trading
9 4 (1.36%) Jaspersoft
10 3 (1.02%) Guidewire
10 3 (1.02%) OutSystems
11 2 (0.68%) Dynatrace
11 2 (0.68%) FactSet
11 2 (0.68%) HP
11 2 (0.68%) Solace