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 12 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 259 175
Rank change year-on-year -4 -84 +14
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 399 245 477
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.94% 1.00% 1.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.10% 1.09% 1.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 211 163 329
10th Percentile £331 £313 £309
25th Percentile £396 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £438 £457
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% -4.27% -8.60%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £588
90th Percentile £638 £685 £676
UK median daily rate £475 £438 £465
% change year-on-year +8.57% -5.91% -7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 18 60
10th Percentile £20.52 £42.81 £37.55
25th Percentile £55.13 £50.27 £56.25
Median hourly rate £68.00 £57.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.26% -8.00% +19.05%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £87.50 -
UK median hourly rate £68.00 £57.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +18.26% -8.00% +13.64%

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 36,315 22,393 32,018
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.15% 91.34% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,987 14,479 20,805
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £414 £407 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,273 1,020 2,369
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.80
25th Percentile £20.82 £18.10 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +69.64% -25.33% +5.63%
75th Percentile £68.00 £58.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £27.21 £36.50
% change year-on-year +61.56% -25.45% +4.20%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -24 151 £475 +8.57% 25
South East -57 60 £490 +22.50% 66
North of England -40 53 £488 +2.63% 29
Midlands -28 50 £513 +44.07% 22
South West -5 44 £409 -18.20% 33
West Midlands -23 44 £513 +21.30% 13
East of England -2 39 £554 +16.58% 49
North East -11 25 £450 - 10
Yorkshire -41 17 £500 -3.80% 3
North West -32 13 £500 +17.65% 17
East Midlands -22 6 £575 +69.12% 9
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 (3.51%) Confluence
2 12 (3.01%) Apache Airflow
2 12 (3.01%) SAS
3 8 (2.01%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.75%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.50%) IIS
6 1 (0.25%) Apache
6 1 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
6 1 (0.25%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.25%) WebSphere
Applications
1 12 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.00%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.25%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.25%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 6 (1.50%) Findur
1 6 (1.50%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (1.00%) Aladdin
2 4 (1.00%) Maximo
3 3 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.50%) LabWindows
4 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.50%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.25%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.25%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 103 (25.81%) Azure
2 76 (19.05%) AWS
3 66 (16.54%) Azure DevOps
4 30 (7.52%) GitHub
5 22 (5.51%) Serverless
6 21 (5.26%) AWS Lambda
7 20 (5.01%) Amazon S3
8 19 (4.76%) GCP
9 11 (2.76%) PaaS
10 10 (2.51%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (2.26%) Snowflake
12 8 (2.01%) Entra ID
12 8 (2.01%) OpenShift
12 8 (2.01%) Power Platform
13 6 (1.50%) Amazon EC2
13 6 (1.50%) Amazon ECS
13 6 (1.50%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (1.50%) SaaS
13 6 (1.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 5 (1.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.01%) Ethernet
2 6 (1.50%) DNS
3 5 (1.25%) Firewall
3 5 (1.25%) Software-Defined Radio
3 5 (1.25%) Wireless
4 4 (1.00%) Reverse Proxy
5 3 (0.75%) DHCP
5 3 (0.75%) Modbus
5 3 (0.75%) Network Security
5 3 (0.75%) RS-232
5 3 (0.75%) RS-422
5 3 (0.75%) RS-485
6 2 (0.50%) 4G
6 2 (0.50%) 5G
6 2 (0.50%) Internet
6 2 (0.50%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.25%) BGP
7 1 (0.25%) FTP
7 1 (0.25%) LTE
7 1 (0.25%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (5.01%) Relational Database
3 18 (4.51%) Oracle Database
4 17 (4.26%) SQL Server
5 15 (3.76%) MySQL
6 12 (3.01%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 11 (2.76%) Big Data
8 10 (2.51%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 9 (2.26%) DynamoDB
9 9 (2.26%) NoSQL
10 8 (2.01%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (1.50%) Amazon Redshift
12 5 (1.25%) Amazon Athena
13 4 (1.00%) Amazon QuickSight
13 4 (1.00%) MongoDB
13 4 (1.00%) Power BI
14 3 (0.75%) BigQuery
14 3 (0.75%) Parquet
14 3 (0.75%) Redis
15 2 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 71 (17.79%) JIRA
2 45 (11.28%) Selenium
3 39 (9.77%) Git
4 30 (7.52%) Postman
5 29 (7.27%) Jenkins
6 25 (6.27%) Cucumber
6 25 (6.27%) REST Assured
7 24 (6.02%) GitLab
8 22 (5.51%) JUnit
9 17 (4.26%) Cypress.io
10 13 (3.26%) TestRail
11 11 (2.76%) Rational DOORS
11 11 (2.76%) WebDriver
12 9 (2.26%) Zephyr
13 7 (1.75%) JMeter
14 6 (1.50%) Gatling
14 6 (1.50%) HP UFT
15 5 (1.25%) Appium
15 5 (1.25%) SonarQube
15 5 (1.25%) Visual Studio
General
1 112 (28.07%) Social Skills
2 73 (18.30%) Finance
3 65 (16.29%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (12.53%) Public Sector
5 27 (6.77%) Banking
6 18 (4.51%) Aerospace
7 15 (3.76%) Automotive
8 13 (3.26%) Back Office
9 12 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
10 8 (2.01%) Military
11 7 (1.75%) Law
11 7 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.50%) Front Office
12 6 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.25%) Legal
13 5 (1.25%) Manufacturing
14 4 (1.00%) Electronics
15 3 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.75%) Investment Banking
15 3 (0.75%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 66 (16.54%) Senior
2 62 (15.54%) Test Engineer
3 54 (13.53%) Developer
3 54 (13.53%) Software Engineer
4 35 (8.77%) Analyst
5 29 (7.27%) Tester
6 25 (6.27%) Lead
7 21 (5.26%) Java Developer
7 21 (5.26%) Software Test Engineer
7 21 (5.26%) Test Analyst
8 20 (5.01%) Architect
9 18 (4.51%) Senior Developer
10 16 (4.01%) QA Engineer
10 16 (4.01%) Test Manager
11 14 (3.51%) Software Developer
12 13 (3.26%) Software Architect
13 12 (3.01%) Release Manager
13 12 (3.01%) Salesforce Engineer
14 11 (2.76%) Business Analyst
15 10 (2.51%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (9.27%) Playwright
2 35 (8.77%) React
2 35 (8.77%) Spring
3 33 (8.27%) REST
4 27 (6.77%) Spring Boot
5 24 (6.02%) .NET
6 23 (5.76%) RESTful
7 17 (4.26%) Kafka
8 14 (3.51%) CSS
8 14 (3.51%) HTML
9 12 (3.01%) Node.js
9 12 (3.01%) Redux
10 10 (2.51%) Spring MVC
11 9 (2.26%) AngularJS
11 9 (2.26%) CSS3
11 9 (2.26%) HTML5
11 9 (2.26%) Jest
12 6 (1.50%) .NET Framework
12 6 (1.50%) Software Packaging
13 5 (1.25%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 43 (10.78%) Product Ownership
2 22 (5.51%) Embedded Systems
2 22 (5.51%) Enterprise Software
3 21 (5.26%) Cloud Native
3 21 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
4 17 (4.26%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (3.51%) Management Information System
6 12 (3.01%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.76%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.50%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.25%) FPGA
9 5 (1.25%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (1.25%) Mobile App
9 5 (1.25%) PCIe
10 4 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.00%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 3 (0.75%) NHS
11 3 (0.75%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 29 (7.27%) Windows
2 23 (5.76%) Linux
3 8 (2.01%) Unix
4 6 (1.50%) FreeRTOS
4 6 (1.50%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.00%) Android
5 4 (1.00%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.50%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.50%) zOS
7 1 (0.25%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (46.37%) Test Automation
2 154 (38.60%) Agile
3 133 (33.33%) CI/CD
4 129 (32.33%) DevOps
5 103 (25.81%) Software Engineering
6 87 (21.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 79 (19.80%) Problem-Solving
8 69 (17.29%) Test Scripting
9 66 (16.54%) Validation
10 60 (15.04%) SDLC
10 60 (15.04%) Test Strategy
11 59 (14.79%) Scrum
12 49 (12.28%) Regression Testing
12 49 (12.28%) User Acceptance Testing
13 47 (11.78%) Test Management
14 44 (11.03%) Code Quality
14 44 (11.03%) Defect Management
14 44 (11.03%) Mentoring
15 42 (10.53%) Defect Tracking
16 41 (10.28%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 74 (18.55%) Java
2 68 (17.04%) Python
3 60 (15.04%) SQL
4 37 (9.27%) C#
4 37 (9.27%) JavaScript
5 27 (6.77%) TypeScript
6 13 (3.26%) C++
7 11 (2.76%) C
8 9 (2.26%) PowerShell
9 8 (2.01%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.50%) Bash
11 5 (1.25%) Apex Code
11 5 (1.25%) VBScript
12 4 (1.00%) Go
13 3 (0.75%) Rust
13 3 (0.75%) VB
14 2 (0.50%) Groovy
14 2 (0.50%) JCL
14 2 (0.50%) MATLAB
14 2 (0.50%) REXX
Qualifications
1 126 (31.58%) Security Cleared
2 100 (25.06%) SC Cleared
3 42 (10.53%) Degree
4 35 (8.77%) ISTQB
5 21 (5.26%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 11 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (1.75%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.75%) ISEB
9 4 (1.00%) CEH
9 4 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.00%) CISSP
9 4 (1.00%) CompTIA Security+
10 3 (0.75%) CCNA
10 3 (0.75%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 2 (0.50%) A+ Certification
11 2 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (0.50%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.50%) PMP
11 2 (0.50%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (22.81%) QA
2 16 (4.01%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.76%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.01%) WCAG
5 7 (1.75%) PMO
6 5 (1.25%) Software Quality Assurance
7 4 (1.00%) NIST
8 3 (0.75%) ISO 20022
8 3 (0.75%) SLA
9 2 (0.50%) GRC
9 2 (0.50%) ISO 15022
9 2 (0.50%) MiFID
10 1 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 35 (8.77%) Docker
2 12 (3.01%) Active Directory
3 10 (2.51%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.01%) Firmware
5 6 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (1.00%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.75%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.75%) VMware Workstation
8 2 (0.50%) NFS
8 2 (0.50%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.25%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 42 (10.53%) Kubernetes
2 22 (5.51%) Terraform
3 13 (3.26%) Ansible
4 10 (2.51%) HP ALM
5 9 (2.26%) Prometheus
6 8 (2.01%) Grafana
7 6 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (1.25%) Puppet
9 4 (1.00%) HP Quality Center
9 4 (1.00%) Salt
9 4 (1.00%) SCCM
10 3 (0.75%) Packer
11 2 (0.50%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 1 (0.25%) Kibana
12 1 (0.25%) Oracle ZFS
12 1 (0.25%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 39 (9.77%) Oracle
2 33 (8.27%) Microsoft
3 16 (4.01%) Salesforce
4 12 (3.01%) IBM
5 11 (2.76%) VMware
6 10 (2.51%) HP
7 9 (2.26%) Dell
8 7 (1.75%) Citrix
8 7 (1.75%) SAP
9 6 (1.50%) Conga
9 6 (1.50%) GoCardless
9 6 (1.50%) OpenLink
9 6 (1.50%) ServiceNow
10 5 (1.25%) Ab Initio
10 5 (1.25%) Google
10 5 (1.25%) Splunk
10 5 (1.25%) Teradata
11 4 (1.00%) Fortinet
12 3 (0.75%) Atlassian
12 3 (0.75%) Remedy