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 23 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 218 179
Rank change year-on-year -46 -39 +5
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 375 301 494
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.94% 1.22% 1.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.11% 1.34% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 193 335
10th Percentile £338 £313 £250
25th Percentile £400 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% - -11.98%
75th Percentile £575 £610 £596
90th Percentile £635 £710 £688
UK median daily rate £470 £440 £450
% change year-on-year +6.70% -2.22% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 22 64
10th Percentile £16.65 £50.11 £38.05
25th Percentile £57.75 £53.22 £56.25
Median hourly rate £67.75 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.40% - +19.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £73.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.40 £86.83 -
UK median hourly rate £68.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +8.80% - +19.05%

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 33,832 22,384 32,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.21% 91.08% 86.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,627 14,686 21,247
10th Percentile £315 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £521 £525
% change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,111 905 2,227
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.79 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £15.91
Median hourly rate £42.50 £31.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.10% -11.43% -6.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.47
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £29.90 £35.00
% change year-on-year +32.11% -14.57% -6.67%

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 23 April 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 23 April 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 23 April 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 -26 170 £475 +8.57% 36
South East -44 61 £500 -9.09% 77
Midlands -33 44 £511 +17.12% 36
North of England -46 42 £438 -7.89% 51
West Midlands -40 33 £510 +13.84% 23
South West -28 31 £409 +2.25% 26
East of England -22 24 £600 +26.32% 45
Yorkshire -39 22 £438 +5.68% 12
North East -8 12 £469 - 8
East Midlands -25 11 £575 +400.00% 13
North West -41 10 £465 -8.37% 31
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 14 (3.73%) Confluence
2 9 (2.40%) SAS
3 7 (1.87%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.60%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.53%) IIS
5 2 (0.53%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.27%) CMS
6 1 (0.27%) IBM HTTP Server
6 1 (0.27%) WebSphere
Applications
1 13 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.07%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.53%) Simulink
6 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (1.33%) Aladdin
1 5 (1.33%) Findur
2 4 (1.07%) Maximo
3 3 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.53%) LabWindows
4 2 (0.53%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.53%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.27%) Algo Collateral
5 1 (0.27%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 121 (32.27%) Azure
2 83 (22.13%) Azure DevOps
3 82 (21.87%) AWS
4 31 (8.27%) GitHub
5 28 (7.47%) Serverless
6 27 (7.20%) AWS Lambda
7 26 (6.93%) Amazon S3
7 26 (6.93%) GCP
8 13 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
9 12 (3.20%) Amazon ECS
9 12 (3.20%) AWS CloudFormation
10 10 (2.67%) Snowflake
11 9 (2.40%) Entra ID
12 8 (2.13%) OpenShift
13 7 (1.87%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 6 (1.60%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (1.60%) PaaS
15 5 (1.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 4 (1.07%) AWS Control Tower
16 4 (1.07%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.13%) Ethernet
2 5 (1.33%) Firewall
3 4 (1.07%) Reverse Proxy
3 4 (1.07%) Software-Defined Radio
3 4 (1.07%) Wireless
4 3 (0.80%) DNS
4 3 (0.80%) FTP
4 3 (0.80%) Modbus
4 3 (0.80%) RS-232
4 3 (0.80%) RS-422
4 3 (0.80%) RS-485
5 2 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
5 2 (0.53%) IOS XR
5 2 (0.53%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.53%) SNMP
5 2 (0.53%) Spanning Tree
5 2 (0.53%) SSH
5 2 (0.53%) TACACS
5 2 (0.53%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.27%) 5G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (7.47%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (5.33%) Relational Database
3 18 (4.80%) MySQL
4 14 (3.73%) Oracle Database
4 14 (3.73%) SQL Server
5 12 (3.20%) Big Data
6 10 (2.67%) NoSQL
7 9 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (2.40%) SAS Enterprise Guide
8 8 (2.13%) MongoDB
9 7 (1.87%) Amazon Redshift
9 7 (1.87%) DynamoDB
10 5 (1.33%) BigQuery
10 5 (1.33%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 4 (1.07%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (1.07%) Amazon QuickSight
12 3 (0.80%) Parquet
12 3 (0.80%) Redis
13 2 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
13 2 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 74 (19.73%) JIRA
2 46 (12.27%) Git
3 41 (10.93%) Selenium
4 34 (9.07%) Jenkins
5 27 (7.20%) Postman
6 23 (6.13%) JUnit
7 21 (5.60%) Cucumber
8 18 (4.80%) Cypress.io
9 17 (4.53%) GitLab
10 14 (3.73%) TestRail
11 13 (3.47%) REST Assured
12 10 (2.67%) Rational DOORS
13 9 (2.40%) Zephyr
14 8 (2.13%) SonarQube
14 8 (2.13%) WebDriver
15 6 (1.60%) HP UFT
15 6 (1.60%) JMeter
16 5 (1.33%) Gradle
16 5 (1.33%) Maven
17 4 (1.07%) Artifactory
General
1 112 (29.87%) Social Skills
2 72 (19.20%) Finance
3 68 (18.13%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (11.47%) Public Sector
5 20 (5.33%) Banking
6 18 (4.80%) Aerospace
7 12 (3.20%) Back Office
7 12 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.13%) Front Office
8 8 (2.13%) Military
8 8 (2.13%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.87%) Automotive
9 7 (1.87%) Electronics
9 7 (1.87%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.33%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.33%) Law
11 4 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.80%) Police
Job Titles
1 58 (15.47%) Developer
2 56 (14.93%) Senior
3 40 (10.67%) Test Engineer
4 37 (9.87%) Software Engineer
5 36 (9.60%) Analyst
6 35 (9.33%) Lead
7 33 (8.80%) Tester
8 26 (6.93%) Test Analyst
9 22 (5.87%) Java Developer
10 20 (5.33%) QA Engineer
11 19 (5.07%) Test Manager
12 18 (4.80%) Java Engineer
13 17 (4.53%) Senior Developer
14 14 (3.73%) Consultant
14 14 (3.73%) Software Developer
15 13 (3.47%) Software Test Engineer
16 12 (3.20%) Automation Engineer
17 11 (2.93%) QA Automation Engineer
17 11 (2.93%) Senior Analyst
17 11 (2.93%) Senior Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (12.00%) Spring
2 36 (9.60%) React
2 36 (9.60%) Spring Boot
3 34 (9.07%) Playwright
4 32 (8.53%) REST
5 31 (8.27%) RESTful
6 25 (6.67%) .NET
7 21 (5.60%) CSS
7 21 (5.60%) HTML
8 20 (5.33%) Node.js
9 15 (4.00%) Kafka
10 12 (3.20%) Redux
11 11 (2.93%) HTML5
12 10 (2.67%) AngularJS
12 10 (2.67%) CSS3
12 10 (2.67%) Gherkin
12 10 (2.67%) Jest
12 10 (2.67%) Spring MVC
13 8 (2.13%) Middleware
14 7 (1.87%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 36 (9.60%) Product Ownership
2 27 (7.20%) Cloud Native
3 15 (4.00%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.73%) Self-Motivation
5 13 (3.47%) Embedded Systems
6 12 (3.20%) Distributed Systems
6 12 (3.20%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (3.20%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.13%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.60%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.33%) FPGA
9 5 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
10 4 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.07%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.07%) PCIe
11 3 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.80%) CUDA
11 3 (0.80%) Data Structures
11 3 (0.80%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.80%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 25 (6.67%) Windows
2 19 (5.07%) Linux
3 9 (2.40%) Unix
4 5 (1.33%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (1.07%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.53%) Android
6 2 (0.53%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.27%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (45.07%) Test Automation
2 144 (38.40%) DevOps
3 141 (37.60%) Agile
4 131 (34.93%) CI/CD
5 91 (24.27%) Continuous Improvement
5 91 (24.27%) Problem-Solving
6 74 (19.73%) Software Engineering
7 67 (17.87%) Test Scripting
8 60 (16.00%) Validation
9 59 (15.73%) Test Management
10 54 (14.40%) Microservices
11 52 (13.87%) Test Strategy
12 50 (13.33%) SDLC
13 49 (13.07%) Regression Testing
14 48 (12.80%) Defect Tracking
15 42 (11.20%) Defect Management
16 41 (10.93%) API Testing
16 41 (10.93%) Scrum
17 40 (10.67%) Containerisation
17 40 (10.67%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 82 (21.87%) Java
2 75 (20.00%) Python
3 72 (19.20%) SQL
4 45 (12.00%) JavaScript
5 38 (10.13%) C#
5 38 (10.13%) TypeScript
6 14 (3.73%) C++
7 11 (2.93%) C
8 9 (2.40%) Bash
9 7 (1.87%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.60%) PowerShell
11 5 (1.33%) VBScript
12 4 (1.07%) Go
13 3 (0.80%) Groovy
13 3 (0.80%) Ruby
13 3 (0.80%) Rust
13 3 (0.80%) VB
14 2 (0.53%) Ada
14 2 (0.53%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.53%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 109 (29.07%) Security Cleared
2 88 (23.47%) SC Cleared
3 36 (9.60%) ISTQB
4 33 (8.80%) Degree
5 13 (3.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 11 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (2.13%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 5 (1.33%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.33%) ISEB
9 4 (1.07%) CEH
9 4 (1.07%) CISSP
9 4 (1.07%) CompTIA Security+
10 3 (0.80%) Master's Degree
10 3 (0.80%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.80%) PMP
11 2 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 1 (0.27%) CFA
12 1 (0.27%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (26.67%) QA
2 14 (3.73%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.93%) Data Quality
4 7 (1.87%) PMO
4 7 (1.87%) WCAG
5 4 (1.07%) NIST
5 4 (1.07%) SLA
6 3 (0.80%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.27%) GRC
7 1 (0.27%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.27%) MiFID
7 1 (0.27%) SEPA
System Software
1 33 (8.80%) Docker
2 8 (2.13%) Firmware
3 7 (1.87%) Active Directory
4 6 (1.60%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (1.07%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (1.07%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.27%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
6 1 (0.27%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 47 (12.53%) Kubernetes
2 23 (6.13%) Terraform
3 11 (2.93%) Ansible
3 11 (2.93%) HP ALM
4 10 (2.67%) Grafana
4 10 (2.67%) Prometheus
5 7 (1.87%) Puppet
6 5 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (1.07%) HP Quality Center
7 4 (1.07%) Salt
7 4 (1.07%) SCCM
8 1 (0.27%) Kibana
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle ZFS
8 1 (0.27%) Packer
8 1 (0.27%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.27%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 38 (10.13%) Oracle
2 37 (9.87%) Microsoft
3 11 (2.93%) HP
3 11 (2.93%) ServiceNow
4 9 (2.40%) SAP
5 7 (1.87%) Citrix
5 7 (1.87%) Dell
5 7 (1.87%) IBM
6 6 (1.60%) Splunk
6 6 (1.60%) VMware
7 5 (1.33%) Ab Initio
7 5 (1.33%) Google
7 5 (1.33%) OpenLink
7 5 (1.33%) Teradata
8 4 (1.07%) Databricks
8 4 (1.07%) Fortinet
8 4 (1.07%) Remedy
8 4 (1.07%) Salesforce
9 3 (0.80%) Checkmarx
9 3 (0.80%) Palo Alto