Software Testing Contract Job Trends in England

Software Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Software Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 230 245 207
Rank change year-on-year +15 -38 -35
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 525 308 394
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.13% 1.10% 1.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.34% 1.21% 1.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 208 252
10th Percentile £267 £313 £313
25th Percentile £400 £359 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £441 £459
Median % change year-on-year +4.82% -3.81% -12.62%
75th Percentile £571 £532 £586
90th Percentile £649 £602 £639
UK median daily rate £459 £445 £463
% change year-on-year +3.15% -3.78% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 27 21
10th Percentile £26.00 £26.25 £37.55
25th Percentile £53.90 £48.75 £54.63
Median hourly rate £60.17 £54.70 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.99% -12.48% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £67.02
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £54.70 £61.43
% change year-on-year +9.69% -10.96% -5.49%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Software Testing 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 39,226 25,436 27,906
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.80% 90.90% 86.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,709 16,124 17,045
10th Percentile £325 £294 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £641
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,969 1,568 1,160
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.43 £17.87 £20.28
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.69
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.09% -4.07%
75th Percentile £67.25 £45.80 £67.14
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.63% -7.56%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Software Testing job vacancy trend in England

Software Testing
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in England over the 6 months to 8 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in England

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Testing in England over the 6 months to 8 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Testing in England

Software Testing
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 Software Testing within the England region over the 6 months to 8 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 -16 186 £535 +19.55% 357
Midlands +17 87 £450 +4.81% 135
South East -42 87 £400 -3.90% 175
West Midlands +21 84 £450 -11.29% 81
North of England -43 64 £456 +3.69% 143
East of England -2 52 £76 -86.75% 118
South West -28 40 £410 -8.58% 88
North East -19 26 £500 +37.93% 25
Yorkshire -45 21 £450 -5.26% 45
North West -34 19 £463 +36.03% 73
East Midlands -13 3 - - 53
Software Testing
UK

Software Testing
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 18 (3.43%) Confluence
2 10 (1.90%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.14%) SAS
5 4 (0.76%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.38%) Apache
8 1 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.19%) IIS
8 1 (0.19%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.19%) WinCC
Applications
1 12 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.71%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.95%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.76%) Trello
5 2 (0.38%) Simulink
6 1 (0.19%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (1.14%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.57%) Primavera
3 2 (0.38%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 2 (0.38%) Eikon
4 1 (0.19%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.19%) Findur
4 1 (0.19%) Misys Equation
4 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 135 (25.71%) AWS
2 120 (22.86%) Azure
3 65 (12.38%) GitHub
4 58 (11.05%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (5.71%) GCP
6 27 (5.14%) GitHub Actions
6 27 (5.14%) GitHub Copilot
7 13 (2.48%) Serverless
8 11 (2.10%) AWS Lambda
9 10 (1.90%) Power Platform
9 10 (1.90%) SaaS
10 9 (1.71%) Amazon S3
11 8 (1.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 8 (1.52%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (1.33%) Anthropic Claude
13 6 (1.14%) PaaS
14 5 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
15 4 (0.76%) Amazon EMR
15 4 (0.76%) Entra ID
15 4 (0.76%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.71%) Ethernet
2 5 (0.95%) DNS
3 4 (0.76%) DHCP
3 4 (0.76%) Firewall
3 4 (0.76%) Internet
3 4 (0.76%) Network Security
4 3 (0.57%) Software-Defined Radio
4 3 (0.57%) Wireless
5 2 (0.38%) BGP
5 2 (0.38%) MPLS
5 2 (0.38%) Reverse Proxy
5 2 (0.38%) SSL
6 1 (0.19%) GSM
6 1 (0.19%) HTTP
6 1 (0.19%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.19%) IPv4
6 1 (0.19%) IPv6
6 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.19%) UMTS
6 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (5.52%) Relational Database
2 23 (4.38%) MongoDB
3 19 (3.62%) SQL Server
4 12 (2.29%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.71%) Oracle Database
6 7 (1.33%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.33%) Power BI
7 6 (1.14%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 6 (1.14%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 5 (0.95%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.76%) Pinecone
9 4 (0.76%) Redis
9 4 (0.76%) ZAP BI
10 3 (0.57%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.57%) Chroma
10 3 (0.57%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 110 (20.95%) Selenium
2 108 (20.57%) Git
3 75 (14.29%) JIRA
4 70 (13.33%) Cucumber
5 66 (12.57%) GitLab
6 54 (10.29%) JUnit
7 46 (8.76%) Jenkins
8 39 (7.43%) Gatling
8 39 (7.43%) Postman
9 29 (5.52%) REST Assured
10 23 (4.38%) SonarQube
11 20 (3.81%) JMeter
12 16 (3.05%) Cypress.io
13 14 (2.67%) Rational DOORS
13 14 (2.67%) TestNG
14 12 (2.29%) TestRail
14 12 (2.29%) WebDriver
14 12 (2.29%) Zephyr
15 11 (2.10%) Appium
15 11 (2.10%) Visual Studio
General
1 184 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 94 (17.90%) Finance
3 81 (15.43%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (13.33%) Public Sector
5 59 (11.24%) Banking
6 32 (6.10%) Automotive
7 24 (4.57%) Aerospace
8 19 (3.62%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.48%) Front Office
10 11 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.90%) Electronics
11 10 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.90%) Retail
11 10 (1.90%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.71%) Law
13 8 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (1.52%) Military
14 5 (0.95%) Avionics
14 5 (0.95%) Investment Banking
14 5 (0.95%) Legal
Job Titles
1 80 (15.24%) Senior
2 77 (14.67%) Test Engineer
3 70 (13.33%) Developer
4 67 (12.76%) Software Engineer
5 36 (6.86%) Analyst
6 33 (6.29%) Lead
6 33 (6.29%) Tester
7 31 (5.90%) Test Manager
8 30 (5.71%) Quality Engineer
9 27 (5.14%) Architect
9 27 (5.14%) Software Developer
10 24 (4.57%) Test Automation Engineer
11 22 (4.19%) Java Developer
12 21 (4.00%) Software Test Engineer
13 19 (3.62%) Principal Engineer
13 19 (3.62%) QA Engineer
14 18 (3.43%) Test Analyst
15 17 (3.24%) Automation Engineer
15 17 (3.24%) Java Engineer
15 17 (3.24%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (13.52%) Playwright
2 55 (10.48%) Spring
3 43 (8.19%) .NET
3 43 (8.19%) REST
4 39 (7.43%) React
5 34 (6.48%) Kafka
6 33 (6.29%) Terraform
7 27 (5.14%) Spring Boot
8 26 (4.95%) RESTful
9 23 (4.38%) Node.js
10 20 (3.81%) WireMock
11 19 (3.62%) Gherkin
12 15 (2.86%) JSON
13 14 (2.67%) AngularJS
14 13 (2.48%) XML
15 11 (2.10%) SOAP
16 10 (1.90%) HTML
16 10 (1.90%) Web Services
17 9 (1.71%) OpenAPI
17 9 (1.71%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 49 (9.33%) Product Ownership
2 43 (8.19%) Cloud Native
3 35 (6.67%) Enterprise Software
4 22 (4.19%) Distributed Systems
5 20 (3.81%) Embedded Systems
6 15 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (2.10%) Onboarding
8 10 (1.90%) Data Structures
9 9 (1.71%) AI Agents
9 9 (1.71%) Distributed Architecture
9 9 (1.71%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.33%) Algorithms
11 7 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (1.14%) Public Cloud
13 5 (0.95%) Derivative
13 5 (0.95%) Equities
13 5 (0.95%) Equity Derivative
14 4 (0.76%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 37 (7.05%) Linux
2 27 (5.14%) Windows
3 8 (1.52%) Unix
3 8 (1.52%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.76%) Android
5 4 (0.76%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.76%) Embedded Linux
6 3 (0.57%) FreeRTOS
7 2 (0.38%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (52.19%) Test Automation
2 272 (51.81%) Agile
3 254 (48.38%) CI/CD
4 162 (30.86%) Software Engineering
5 154 (29.33%) DevOps
6 128 (24.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 121 (23.05%) SDLC
8 117 (22.29%) Scrum
9 115 (21.90%) Problem-Solving
10 97 (18.48%) Validation
11 88 (16.76%) Test Strategy
12 85 (16.19%) Microservices
13 84 (16.00%) Stakeholder Management
14 82 (15.62%) Test Scripting
15 76 (14.48%) Defect Management
16 73 (13.90%) Mentoring
17 72 (13.71%) API Testing
18 70 (13.33%) AI
19 68 (12.95%) BDD
19 68 (12.95%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 144 (27.43%) Java
2 106 (20.19%) Python
3 90 (17.14%) SQL
4 59 (11.24%) JavaScript
5 42 (8.00%) C#
6 39 (7.43%) TypeScript
7 26 (4.95%) C++
8 15 (2.86%) PowerShell
9 14 (2.67%) C
10 9 (1.71%) Bash
11 8 (1.52%) Kotlin
12 7 (1.33%) Go
13 5 (0.95%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.95%) Korn
13 5 (0.95%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.76%) Ruby
14 4 (0.76%) Scala
15 3 (0.57%) RPG
15 3 (0.57%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.57%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 178 (33.90%) Security Cleared
2 140 (26.67%) SC Cleared
3 74 (14.10%) Degree
4 55 (10.48%) ISTQB
5 35 (6.67%) DV Cleared
6 34 (6.48%) BPSS Clearance
7 21 (4.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 19 (3.62%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 18 (3.43%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (2.29%) ISEB
11 4 (0.76%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.76%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.57%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.57%) CCNA
12 3 (0.57%) PMP
13 2 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.38%) CEH
13 2 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.38%) ISEB Practitioner
13 2 (0.38%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 137 (26.10%) QA
2 57 (10.86%) Accessibility
3 33 (6.29%) WCAG
4 9 (1.71%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.14%) ISO 20022
6 5 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
7 4 (0.76%) AUTOSAR
7 4 (0.76%) ISO 26262
7 4 (0.76%) NIST
8 2 (0.38%) GRC
8 2 (0.38%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.38%) MISRA
8 2 (0.38%) SLA
9 1 (0.19%) HL7
9 1 (0.19%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.19%) JTAG
9 1 (0.19%) MiFID
9 1 (0.19%) PMO
9 1 (0.19%) SEPA
System Software
1 86 (16.38%) Docker
2 11 (2.10%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.76%) Firmware
4 4 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.57%) Embedded Firmware
5 3 (0.57%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.38%) NFS
6 2 (0.38%) Time Sharing Option
6 2 (0.38%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 91 (17.33%) Kubernetes
2 17 (3.24%) Ansible
3 13 (2.48%) Prometheus
4 11 (2.10%) Grafana
5 7 (1.33%) HP ALM
6 6 (1.14%) Packer
7 5 (0.95%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.76%) Puppet
9 3 (0.57%) Argo
9 3 (0.57%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.57%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.38%) Kibana
10 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.38%) Salt
10 2 (0.38%) SCCM
10 2 (0.38%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 1 (0.19%) Control-M
11 1 (0.19%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.19%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 37 (7.05%) Microsoft
2 31 (5.90%) Oracle
3 23 (4.38%) IBM
4 18 (3.43%) Salesforce
5 10 (1.90%) Databricks
5 10 (1.90%) Google
5 10 (1.90%) SAP
5 10 (1.90%) Splunk
6 7 (1.33%) HP
6 7 (1.33%) VMware
7 6 (1.14%) Conga
7 6 (1.14%) GoCardless
8 5 (0.95%) ServiceNow
9 4 (0.76%) Red Hat
10 3 (0.57%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.57%) Dynatrace
10 3 (0.57%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.57%) Siemens
10 3 (0.57%) UiPath
11 2 (0.38%) FXall