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 18 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 249 202
Rank change year-on-year -14 -47 -40
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 443 276 413
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.97% 1.00% 1.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.14% 1.10% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 184 281
10th Percentile £263 £313 £320
25th Percentile £400 £355 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £425 £463
Median % change year-on-year +12.35% -8.11% -7.50%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £595
90th Percentile £688 £625 £671
UK median daily rate £475 £438 £463
% change year-on-year +8.57% -5.41% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 28 31
10th Percentile £25.14 £40.25 £26.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £50.00 £46.09
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.56% -10.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £64.38
90th Percentile £74.00 £80.50 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +13.04% -8.00% +5.88%

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 38,860 25,068 28,450
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.96% 90.79% 85.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,105 15,945 18,530
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £627 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,559 1,442 1,597
10th Percentile £14.28 £14.20 £14.15
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.87 £18.16
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +5.94%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% +0.86%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -27 158 £545 +36.13% 40
South East -64 69 £402 +0.38% 68
Midlands -8 62 £500 +18.34% 46
West Midlands -2 57 £480 -6.80% 31
North of England -57 57 £475 +7.34% 50
East of England +5 48 £74 -84.42% 31
South West -24 42 £410 -3.53% 26
North East -14 27 £500 - 16
North West -39 17 £475 +28.38% 27
Yorkshire -53 15 £450 -4.26% 8
East Midlands -18 5 £575 +69.12% 15
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 16 (3.61%) Confluence
2 11 (2.48%) Apache Airflow
3 10 (2.26%) SAS
4 6 (1.35%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.35%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.68%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.45%) IIS
7 1 (0.23%) Apache
7 1 (0.23%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
Applications
1 14 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.13%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.90%) Trello
5 2 (0.45%) Simulink
6 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (1.35%) Findur
1 6 (1.35%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (0.90%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.68%) Primavera
4 2 (0.45%) Maximo
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 R12
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.23%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.23%) Shopify
5 1 (0.23%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 101 (22.80%) Azure
2 95 (21.44%) AWS
3 47 (10.61%) Azure DevOps
4 42 (9.48%) GitHub
5 25 (5.64%) GCP
6 18 (4.06%) GitHub Actions
7 16 (3.61%) GitHub Copilot
7 16 (3.61%) Serverless
8 14 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (2.48%) PaaS
10 10 (2.26%) Amazon S3
11 9 (2.03%) Power Platform
12 8 (1.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 8 (1.81%) SaaS
13 7 (1.58%) Entra ID
13 7 (1.58%) OpenShift
14 6 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
15 5 (1.13%) Anthropic Claude
15 5 (1.13%) Google Gemini
15 5 (1.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.35%) DNS
1 6 (1.35%) Ethernet
2 5 (1.13%) Firewall
2 5 (1.13%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (1.13%) Wireless
3 4 (0.90%) Network Security
4 3 (0.68%) DHCP
4 3 (0.68%) Internet
4 3 (0.68%) Reverse Proxy
5 2 (0.45%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.23%) 4G
6 1 (0.23%) BGP
6 1 (0.23%) FTP
6 1 (0.23%) GSM
6 1 (0.23%) LTE
6 1 (0.23%) MPLS
6 1 (0.23%) SSL
6 1 (0.23%) UMTS
6 1 (0.23%) VoLTE
6 1 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.61%) Relational Database
2 15 (3.39%) SQL Server
3 12 (2.71%) Oracle Database
4 11 (2.48%) MongoDB
5 10 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (2.26%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 10 (2.26%) SAS Visual Analytics
6 9 (2.03%) MySQL
6 9 (2.03%) NoSQL
7 8 (1.81%) DynamoDB
8 7 (1.58%) Big Data
8 7 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (1.35%) Power BI
10 5 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
11 4 (0.90%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (0.90%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.90%) Redis
12 3 (0.68%) Amazon QuickSight
12 3 (0.68%) Parquet
12 3 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 71 (16.03%) JIRA
2 64 (14.45%) Git
3 58 (13.09%) Selenium
4 37 (8.35%) GitLab
5 36 (8.13%) Postman
6 33 (7.45%) Cucumber
7 31 (7.00%) Jenkins
8 27 (6.09%) JUnit
9 22 (4.97%) REST Assured
10 15 (3.39%) Gatling
11 13 (2.93%) Rational DOORS
12 12 (2.71%) Cypress.io
12 12 (2.71%) WebDriver
13 11 (2.48%) JMeter
13 11 (2.48%) Zephyr
14 9 (2.03%) TestRail
14 9 (2.03%) Visual Studio
15 8 (1.81%) Maven
15 8 (1.81%) SonarQube
15 8 (1.81%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 131 (29.57%) Social Skills
2 96 (21.67%) Finance
3 76 (17.16%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (12.19%) Public Sector
5 49 (11.06%) Banking
6 26 (5.87%) Aerospace
6 26 (5.87%) Automotive
7 14 (3.16%) Front Office
8 13 (2.93%) Back Office
9 10 (2.26%) Law
9 10 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.81%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.81%) Retail
11 8 (1.81%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.58%) Electronics
13 5 (1.13%) Avionics
13 5 (1.13%) Legal
13 5 (1.13%) Military
Job Titles
1 70 (15.80%) Test Engineer
2 69 (15.58%) Software Engineer
3 64 (14.45%) Developer
4 63 (14.22%) Senior
5 33 (7.45%) Analyst
6 28 (6.32%) Lead
6 28 (6.32%) Software Test Engineer
7 25 (5.64%) Tester
8 22 (4.97%) Software Developer
8 22 (4.97%) Test Manager
9 20 (4.51%) QA Engineer
10 18 (4.06%) Java Developer
10 18 (4.06%) Test Automation Engineer
11 17 (3.84%) Principal Engineer
12 15 (3.39%) Architect
12 15 (3.39%) Automation Engineer
12 15 (3.39%) Principal Software Engineer
12 15 (3.39%) Senior Developer
13 14 (3.16%) Test Analyst
14 13 (2.93%) Software Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (9.93%) REST
2 42 (9.48%) React
3 41 (9.26%) Playwright
4 34 (7.67%) .NET
5 33 (7.45%) Spring
6 29 (6.55%) Kafka
7 24 (5.42%) RESTful
8 19 (4.29%) Spring Boot
9 17 (3.84%) Node.js
10 14 (3.16%) AngularJS
10 14 (3.16%) HTML
11 12 (2.71%) XML
12 10 (2.26%) CSS
12 10 (2.26%) JSON
12 10 (2.26%) Redux
12 10 (2.26%) SOAP
13 8 (1.81%) Web Services
14 7 (1.58%) CSS3
14 7 (1.58%) HTML5
14 7 (1.58%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 43 (9.71%) Product Ownership
2 38 (8.58%) Enterprise Software
3 31 (7.00%) Cloud Native
4 27 (6.09%) Embedded Systems
5 22 (4.97%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (4.29%) Distributed Systems
7 14 (3.16%) Management Information System
8 10 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.81%) Data Centre
11 7 (1.58%) Data Structures
12 6 (1.35%) Public Cloud
13 5 (1.13%) Algorithms
13 5 (1.13%) Derivative
13 5 (1.13%) Equities
13 5 (1.13%) Equity Derivative
13 5 (1.13%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 5 (1.13%) FPGA
13 5 (1.13%) Onboarding
13 5 (1.13%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 30 (6.77%) Linux
2 21 (4.74%) Windows
3 10 (2.26%) Unix
4 6 (1.35%) FreeRTOS
4 6 (1.35%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.68%) Android
5 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.68%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.45%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (47.63%) Test Automation
2 204 (46.05%) Agile
3 172 (38.83%) CI/CD
4 134 (30.25%) Software Engineering
5 130 (29.35%) DevOps
6 106 (23.93%) Continuous Improvement
7 104 (23.48%) Problem-Solving
8 84 (18.96%) SDLC
9 83 (18.74%) Scrum
10 66 (14.90%) Test Scripting
10 66 (14.90%) Test Strategy
11 62 (14.00%) Validation
12 57 (12.87%) AI
13 56 (12.64%) Defect Management
13 56 (12.64%) User Acceptance Testing
14 55 (12.42%) Regression Testing
15 52 (11.74%) Mentoring
15 52 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
16 51 (11.51%) Microservices
17 46 (10.38%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 91 (20.54%) Java
2 80 (18.06%) Python
3 64 (14.45%) SQL
4 50 (11.29%) JavaScript
5 35 (7.90%) C#
6 30 (6.77%) TypeScript
7 25 (5.64%) C++
8 15 (3.39%) C
9 13 (2.93%) PowerShell
10 8 (1.81%) Kotlin
11 5 (1.13%) Apex Code
11 5 (1.13%) Bash
11 5 (1.13%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.90%) Korn
12 4 (0.90%) Scala
13 3 (0.68%) Ada
13 3 (0.68%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.68%) Rust
13 3 (0.68%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.45%) Go
Qualifications
1 147 (33.18%) Security Cleared
2 122 (27.54%) SC Cleared
3 53 (11.96%) Degree
4 44 (9.93%) ISTQB
5 23 (5.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 16 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (2.93%) ISEB
8 12 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.48%) DV Cleared
10 10 (2.26%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 4 (0.90%) CEH
11 4 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.90%) CISSP
11 4 (0.90%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.68%) CCNA
13 2 (0.45%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.45%) ISEB Practitioner
13 2 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
13 2 (0.45%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.45%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (22.12%) QA
2 24 (5.42%) Accessibility
3 15 (3.39%) WCAG
4 8 (1.81%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.13%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.13%) NIST
5 5 (1.13%) PMO
5 5 (1.13%) Software Quality Assurance
6 3 (0.68%) GRC
7 2 (0.45%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.45%) MiFID
7 2 (0.45%) MISRA
8 1 (0.23%) HL7
8 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.23%) JTAG
8 1 (0.23%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.23%) SLA
System Software
1 49 (11.06%) Docker
2 11 (2.48%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.35%) Firmware
3 6 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.13%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.68%) VMware Workstation
7 2 (0.45%) NFS
7 2 (0.45%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 58 (13.09%) Kubernetes
2 29 (6.55%) Terraform
3 17 (3.84%) Ansible
4 13 (2.93%) Prometheus
5 10 (2.26%) Grafana
6 6 (1.35%) Packer
7 4 (0.90%) HP ALM
7 4 (0.90%) Puppet
8 3 (0.68%) Salt
9 2 (0.45%) Argo
9 2 (0.45%) HP Fortify
9 2 (0.45%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.45%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 1 (0.23%) Control-M
10 1 (0.23%) Kibana
10 1 (0.23%) Oracle ZFS
10 1 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.23%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.23%) SCCM
Vendors
1 34 (7.67%) Oracle
2 33 (7.45%) Microsoft
3 19 (4.29%) IBM
4 17 (3.84%) Salesforce
5 11 (2.48%) SAP
6 8 (1.81%) VMware
7 7 (1.58%) Splunk
8 6 (1.35%) Conga
8 6 (1.35%) Dell
8 6 (1.35%) GoCardless
8 6 (1.35%) Google
8 6 (1.35%) OpenLink
9 4 (0.90%) Citrix
9 4 (0.90%) HP
9 4 (0.90%) ServiceNow
10 3 (0.68%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.68%) Databricks
10 3 (0.68%) Fortinet
10 3 (0.68%) Palo Alto
11 2 (0.45%) OpenAI