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 9 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 241 195
Rank change year-on-year -23 -46 -20
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 431 292 463
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.96% 1.08% 1.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.13% 1.19% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 226 196 322
10th Percentile £302 £313 £307
25th Percentile £400 £359 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £438 £450
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% -2.78% -10.00%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £575
90th Percentile £650 £663 £674
UK median daily rate £475 £438 £452
% change year-on-year +8.57% -3.21% -9.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 26 51
10th Percentile £17.50 £48.13 £37.55
25th Percentile £53.90 £50.27 £56.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.63 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.80% -7.80% +11.11%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £82.50 -
UK median hourly rate £66.25 £57.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.72% -7.60% +8.70%

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 38,237 24,502 31,943
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.52% 90.81% 85.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,096 15,746 20,754
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £733 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £518 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,381 1,253 2,276
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.98 £16.06
Median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% -6.07%
75th Percentile £68.75 £54.01 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.37 £70.16 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% -6.25%

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 9 July 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 9 July 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 9 July 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 -44 154 £475 +10.14% 72
South East -47 67 £470 +17.50% 68
Midlands -18 57 £513 +43.86% 33
North of England -59 53 £470 -0.48% 58
West Midlands -22 51 £511 +21.01% 23
East of England -1 49 £525 +10.53% 42
South West -15 47 £410 -13.68% 51
North East -11 23 £450 - 17
Yorkshire -50 17 £475 +0.53% 10
North West -40 15 £500 +11.11% 31
East Midlands -13 6 £575 +69.12% 10
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 15 (3.48%) Confluence
2 12 (2.78%) Apache Airflow
3 11 (2.55%) SAS
4 9 (2.09%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.46%) IIS
5 2 (0.46%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.23%) Apache
6 1 (0.23%) IBM HTTP Server
6 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.23%) WebSphere
Applications
1 11 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.93%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.46%) Simulink
5 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (1.39%) Findur
1 6 (1.39%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (0.93%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.93%) Maximo
3 3 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.46%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.46%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.23%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.23%) Eikon
5 1 (0.23%) Misys Equation
5 1 (0.23%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.23%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.23%) Primavera
5 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.23%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 98 (22.74%) Azure
2 82 (19.03%) AWS
3 56 (12.99%) Azure DevOps
4 29 (6.73%) GitHub
5 26 (6.03%) Serverless
6 24 (5.57%) AWS Lambda
7 23 (5.34%) Amazon S3
8 20 (4.64%) GCP
9 11 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
9 11 (2.55%) PaaS
10 9 (2.09%) Entra ID
10 9 (2.09%) OpenShift
10 9 (2.09%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.86%) Amazon EC2
11 8 (1.86%) Power Platform
12 7 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 6 (1.39%) Amazon ECS
13 6 (1.39%) Amazon SQS
13 6 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (1.39%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.09%) Ethernet
2 6 (1.39%) DNS
2 6 (1.39%) Firewall
3 5 (1.16%) Software-Defined Radio
3 5 (1.16%) Wireless
4 4 (0.93%) Reverse Proxy
4 4 (0.93%) RS-232
4 4 (0.93%) RS-422
5 3 (0.70%) DHCP
5 3 (0.70%) Internet
5 3 (0.70%) Modbus
5 3 (0.70%) Network Security
5 3 (0.70%) RS-485
6 2 (0.46%) 4G
6 2 (0.46%) 5G
6 2 (0.46%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.23%) BGP
7 1 (0.23%) MPLS
7 1 (0.23%) VoLTE
7 1 (0.23%) VoWiFi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (5.34%) Relational Database
2 19 (4.41%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (3.94%) Oracle Database
4 14 (3.25%) SQL Server
5 13 (3.02%) MySQL
6 11 (2.55%) Big Data
6 11 (2.55%) DynamoDB
6 11 (2.55%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 10 (2.32%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 8 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (1.62%) Amazon Redshift
9 7 (1.62%) NoSQL
10 6 (1.39%) MongoDB
10 6 (1.39%) Power BI
11 5 (1.16%) Amazon Athena
12 4 (0.93%) Amazon QuickSight
13 3 (0.70%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.70%) Parquet
13 3 (0.70%) Redis
13 3 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 76 (17.63%) JIRA
2 50 (11.60%) Selenium
3 47 (10.90%) Git
4 34 (7.89%) Postman
5 30 (6.96%) Jenkins
6 28 (6.50%) Cucumber
6 28 (6.50%) GitLab
7 27 (6.26%) JUnit
7 27 (6.26%) REST Assured
8 17 (3.94%) Cypress.io
9 14 (3.25%) WebDriver
10 13 (3.02%) Rational DOORS
11 12 (2.78%) TestRail
12 11 (2.55%) Zephyr
13 9 (2.09%) JMeter
14 8 (1.86%) Gatling
15 7 (1.62%) Maven
16 6 (1.39%) Gradle
16 6 (1.39%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
17 5 (1.16%) SonarQube
General
1 123 (28.54%) Social Skills
2 83 (19.26%) Finance
3 69 (16.01%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (11.14%) Public Sector
5 30 (6.96%) Banking
6 21 (4.87%) Aerospace
7 20 (4.64%) Automotive
8 13 (3.02%) Back Office
9 11 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (2.32%) Electronics
10 10 (2.32%) Law
11 8 (1.86%) Front Office
11 8 (1.86%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.62%) Military
13 5 (1.16%) Avionics
13 5 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.16%) Legal
13 5 (1.16%) Manufacturing
14 4 (0.93%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 68 (15.78%) Software Engineer
2 66 (15.31%) Test Engineer
3 60 (13.92%) Developer
4 59 (13.69%) Senior
5 32 (7.42%) Analyst
5 32 (7.42%) Tester
6 30 (6.96%) Lead
7 26 (6.03%) Java Developer
8 25 (5.80%) Software Test Engineer
9 19 (4.41%) Architect
10 17 (3.94%) QA Engineer
10 17 (3.94%) Software Developer
10 17 (3.94%) Test Analyst
11 16 (3.71%) Test Manager
12 15 (3.48%) Principal Engineer
13 14 (3.25%) Principal Software Engineer
13 14 (3.25%) Salesforce Engineer
14 13 (3.02%) Software Architect
14 13 (3.02%) Test Automation Engineer
15 12 (2.78%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (9.74%) Playwright
2 39 (9.05%) React
3 38 (8.82%) REST
3 38 (8.82%) Spring
4 26 (6.03%) Spring Boot
5 25 (5.80%) .NET
5 25 (5.80%) RESTful
6 20 (4.64%) Kafka
7 14 (3.25%) CSS
7 14 (3.25%) HTML
7 14 (3.25%) Node.js
8 12 (2.78%) Redux
9 10 (2.32%) Jest
10 9 (2.09%) CSS3
10 9 (2.09%) HTML5
11 8 (1.86%) AngularJS
11 8 (1.86%) Spring MVC
12 7 (1.62%) Software Packaging
13 6 (1.39%) .NET Framework
13 6 (1.39%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.21%) Product Ownership
2 28 (6.50%) Enterprise Software
3 25 (5.80%) Cloud Native
3 25 (5.80%) Embedded Systems
4 22 (5.10%) Self-Motivation
5 21 (4.87%) Distributed Systems
6 15 (3.48%) Management Information System
7 12 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
8 11 (2.55%) Data Centre
9 9 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.16%) FPGA
10 5 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (1.16%) Mobile App
10 5 (1.16%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.16%) PCIe
10 5 (1.16%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.16%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.93%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (0.70%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 3 (0.70%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 29 (6.73%) Windows
2 25 (5.80%) Linux
3 9 (2.09%) Unix
4 6 (1.39%) FreeRTOS
4 6 (1.39%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.93%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.70%) Android
7 2 (0.46%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.46%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.46%) zOS
8 1 (0.23%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (46.64%) Test Automation
2 172 (39.91%) Agile
3 155 (35.96%) CI/CD
4 140 (32.48%) DevOps
5 122 (28.31%) Software Engineering
6 87 (20.19%) Continuous Improvement
7 84 (19.49%) Problem-Solving
8 74 (17.17%) Test Scripting
9 67 (15.55%) Validation
10 66 (15.31%) Scrum
11 65 (15.08%) SDLC
12 64 (14.85%) Test Strategy
13 56 (12.99%) User Acceptance Testing
14 51 (11.83%) Code Quality
14 51 (11.83%) Regression Testing
15 47 (10.90%) Defect Management
16 46 (10.67%) Mentoring
17 45 (10.44%) Microservices
18 43 (9.98%) Test Management
19 40 (9.28%) API Testing
Programming Languages
1 81 (18.79%) Java
2 79 (18.33%) Python
3 57 (13.23%) SQL
4 42 (9.74%) C#
4 42 (9.74%) JavaScript
5 34 (7.89%) TypeScript
6 24 (5.57%) C++
7 19 (4.41%) C
8 12 (2.78%) PowerShell
9 7 (1.62%) Bash
10 6 (1.39%) PL/SQL
11 5 (1.16%) Apex Code
11 5 (1.16%) Go
12 3 (0.70%) Ada
12 3 (0.70%) MATLAB
12 3 (0.70%) Rust
12 3 (0.70%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.70%) VB
13 2 (0.46%) RPG
13 2 (0.46%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 135 (31.32%) Security Cleared
2 108 (25.06%) SC Cleared
3 46 (10.67%) Degree
4 36 (8.35%) ISTQB
5 21 (4.87%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 11 (2.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (2.09%) DV Cleared
9 7 (1.62%) ISEB
10 4 (0.93%) CEH
10 4 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.93%) CISSP
10 4 (0.93%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (0.93%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 3 (0.70%) CCNA
12 2 (0.46%) A+ Certification
12 2 (0.46%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.46%) IIBA
12 2 (0.46%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 2 (0.46%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (21.81%) QA
2 16 (3.71%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.55%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.86%) PMO
4 8 (1.86%) WCAG
5 5 (1.16%) Software Quality Assurance
6 4 (0.93%) NIST
6 4 (0.93%) SLA
7 3 (0.70%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.46%) GRC
8 2 (0.46%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.46%) MiFID
9 1 (0.23%) MIL-STD-1553
9 1 (0.23%) SEPA
System Software
1 38 (8.82%) Docker
2 13 (3.02%) Active Directory
3 10 (2.32%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.39%) Firmware
4 6 (1.39%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.93%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.70%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.70%) VMware Workstation
7 2 (0.46%) NFS
7 2 (0.46%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.23%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 48 (11.14%) Kubernetes
2 24 (5.57%) Terraform
3 15 (3.48%) Ansible
4 10 (2.32%) Grafana
4 10 (2.32%) HP ALM
4 10 (2.32%) Prometheus
5 7 (1.62%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (1.39%) HP Quality Center
7 5 (1.16%) Puppet
7 5 (1.16%) SCCM
8 4 (0.93%) Packer
8 4 (0.93%) Salt
9 2 (0.46%) Kibana
9 2 (0.46%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 1 (0.23%) Oracle ZFS
10 1 (0.23%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.23%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 35 (8.12%) Microsoft
2 34 (7.89%) Oracle
3 19 (4.41%) Salesforce
4 16 (3.71%) IBM
5 11 (2.55%) VMware
6 10 (2.32%) HP
7 9 (2.09%) Dell
7 9 (2.09%) SAP
8 8 (1.86%) Citrix
9 7 (1.62%) Splunk
10 6 (1.39%) Conga
10 6 (1.39%) GoCardless
10 6 (1.39%) OpenLink
11 5 (1.16%) Ab Initio
11 5 (1.16%) Google
11 5 (1.16%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.16%) Teradata
12 4 (0.93%) Fortinet
13 3 (0.70%) Checkmarx
13 3 (0.70%) Palo Alto