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 20 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 240 252 206
Rank change year-on-year +12 -46 -45
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 508 298 398
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.10% 1.07% 1.21%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.30% 1.18% 1.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 195 261
10th Percentile £264 £313 £325
25th Percentile £400 £358 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £435 £463
Median % change year-on-year +9.20% -5.95% -11.06%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £588
90th Percentile £675 £610 £659
UK median daily rate £463 £440 £463
% change year-on-year +5.11% -4.86% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 28 21
10th Percentile £26.00 £26.25 £37.55
25th Percentile £55.00 £49.38 £54.63
Median hourly rate £62.50 £54.85 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.95% -12.24% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.63 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.90 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £62.75 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +14.09% -4.35% -8.37%

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 39,208 25,244 28,362
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.66% 90.88% 86.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,936 16,028 17,611
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £421
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £645
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,812 1,512 1,298
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.74 £17.77 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.41 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.61% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £68.00 £49.56 £66.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 -26 168 £513 +17.14% 341
South East -30 93 £438 +4.17% 135
Midlands +9 82 £460 +8.24% 114
West Midlands +11 78 £460 -2.65% 67
North of England -46 64 £464 +6.67% 112
East of England +7 53 £77 -85.47% 94
South West -22 43 £410 -8.39% 83
North East -20 29 £500 +37.93% 10
North West -39 19 £464 +30.70% 64
Yorkshire -54 18 £431 -6.25% 38
East Midlands -19 4 £575 +69.12% 46
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 (2.95%) Confluence
2 11 (2.17%) Apache Airflow
3 10 (1.97%) SAS
3 10 (1.97%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.18%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.59%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.20%) Apache
6 1 (0.20%) IIS
6 1 (0.20%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 12 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.79%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.79%) Trello
4 2 (0.39%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 6 (1.18%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.59%) Findur
2 3 (0.59%) Primavera
3 2 (0.39%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 2 (0.39%) Eikon
4 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.20%) Misys Equation
4 1 (0.20%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.20%) Shopify
4 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 133 (26.18%) AWS
2 110 (21.65%) Azure
3 55 (10.83%) GitHub
4 49 (9.65%) Azure DevOps
5 27 (5.31%) GCP
6 23 (4.53%) GitHub Actions
6 23 (4.53%) GitHub Copilot
7 15 (2.95%) Serverless
8 13 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
9 12 (2.36%) Amazon S3
10 10 (1.97%) PaaS
10 10 (1.97%) SaaS
11 9 (1.77%) Power Platform
12 8 (1.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 8 (1.57%) Amazon EC2
13 7 (1.38%) Snowflake
14 6 (1.18%) Anthropic Claude
14 6 (1.18%) OpenShift
15 5 (0.98%) Cloud Computing
16 4 (0.79%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.97%) Ethernet
2 5 (0.98%) DNS
2 5 (0.98%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (0.98%) Wireless
3 4 (0.79%) DHCP
3 4 (0.79%) Firewall
3 4 (0.79%) Internet
3 4 (0.79%) Network Security
4 2 (0.39%) BGP
4 2 (0.39%) MPLS
4 2 (0.39%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.39%) SSL
4 2 (0.39%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.20%) GSM
5 1 (0.20%) HTTP
5 1 (0.20%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.20%) IPv4
5 1 (0.20%) IPv6
5 1 (0.20%) UMTS
5 1 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (6.10%) Relational Database
2 21 (4.13%) MongoDB
3 19 (3.74%) SQL Server
4 14 (2.76%) NoSQL
5 13 (2.56%) Oracle Database
6 10 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (1.97%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 10 (1.97%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 9 (1.77%) MySQL
8 7 (1.38%) DynamoDB
9 6 (1.18%) Big Data
9 6 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (1.18%) Power BI
10 4 (0.79%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.79%) Redis
11 3 (0.59%) Amazon Athena
11 3 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.59%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.59%) ZAP BI
Development Applications
1 93 (18.31%) Git
1 93 (18.31%) Selenium
2 71 (13.98%) JIRA
3 54 (10.63%) Cucumber
4 53 (10.43%) GitLab
5 40 (7.87%) JUnit
6 39 (7.68%) Postman
7 36 (7.09%) Jenkins
8 30 (5.91%) Gatling
9 24 (4.72%) REST Assured
10 17 (3.35%) SonarQube
11 16 (3.15%) JMeter
11 16 (3.15%) Rational DOORS
12 15 (2.95%) Cypress.io
13 12 (2.36%) WebDriver
14 11 (2.17%) Visual Studio
15 10 (1.97%) Zephyr
16 9 (1.77%) Maven
16 9 (1.77%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
17 8 (1.57%) SoapUI
General
1 164 (32.28%) Social Skills
2 91 (17.91%) Finance
3 74 (14.57%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (12.40%) Public Sector
5 54 (10.63%) Banking
6 32 (6.30%) Automotive
7 27 (5.31%) Aerospace
8 15 (2.95%) Manufacturing
9 12 (2.36%) Front Office
10 11 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.97%) Retail
12 9 (1.77%) Electronics
12 9 (1.77%) Law
12 9 (1.77%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.57%) Back Office
13 8 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
14 7 (1.38%) Military
15 5 (0.98%) Avionics
15 5 (0.98%) Legal
Job Titles
1 76 (14.96%) Developer
2 74 (14.57%) Senior
2 74 (14.57%) Test Engineer
3 72 (14.17%) Software Engineer
4 37 (7.28%) Analyst
5 30 (5.91%) Tester
6 29 (5.71%) Test Manager
7 28 (5.51%) Java Developer
8 27 (5.31%) Lead
9 26 (5.12%) Software Test Engineer
10 25 (4.92%) Software Developer
11 24 (4.72%) Architect
12 22 (4.33%) Quality Engineer
13 21 (4.13%) Test Automation Engineer
14 19 (3.74%) Principal Engineer
15 18 (3.54%) Test Analyst
16 17 (3.35%) QA Engineer
17 15 (2.95%) Principal Software Engineer
17 15 (2.95%) Senior Developer
18 14 (2.76%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (11.42%) Spring
2 57 (11.22%) Playwright
3 45 (8.86%) REST
4 44 (8.66%) .NET
5 43 (8.46%) React
6 34 (6.69%) Kafka
6 34 (6.69%) Spring Boot
7 33 (6.50%) Terraform
8 29 (5.71%) RESTful
9 19 (3.74%) Node.js
10 15 (2.95%) HTML
10 15 (2.95%) WireMock
11 14 (2.76%) AngularJS
11 14 (2.76%) Gherkin
12 13 (2.56%) JSON
13 12 (2.36%) XML
14 11 (2.17%) SOAP
15 10 (1.97%) CSS
15 10 (1.97%) Redux
15 10 (1.97%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 46 (9.06%) Product Ownership
2 38 (7.48%) Cloud Native
2 38 (7.48%) Enterprise Software
3 24 (4.72%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (4.53%) Embedded Systems
5 20 (3.94%) Self-Motivation
6 9 (1.77%) Data Structures
6 9 (1.77%) Management Information System
6 9 (1.77%) Onboarding
7 8 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.57%) Distributed Architecture
8 7 (1.38%) Algorithms
8 7 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.18%) AI Agents
9 6 (1.18%) Public Cloud
10 5 (0.98%) Derivative
10 5 (0.98%) Equity Derivative
10 5 (0.98%) FPGA
10 5 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (0.98%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 37 (7.28%) Linux
2 29 (5.71%) Windows
3 9 (1.77%) Unix
4 8 (1.57%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.18%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.79%) Android
6 4 (0.79%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.59%) Embedded Linux
8 2 (0.39%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 254 (50.00%) Test Automation
2 246 (48.43%) Agile
3 231 (45.47%) CI/CD
4 155 (30.51%) Software Engineering
5 143 (28.15%) DevOps
6 126 (24.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 122 (24.02%) SDLC
8 106 (20.87%) Scrum
9 104 (20.47%) Problem-Solving
10 95 (18.70%) Validation
11 81 (15.94%) Test Strategy
12 78 (15.35%) Defect Management
13 77 (15.16%) Microservices
14 70 (13.78%) Test Scripting
15 68 (13.39%) Stakeholder Management
16 67 (13.19%) AI
17 65 (12.80%) Mentoring
18 63 (12.40%) API Testing
19 61 (12.01%) End-to-End Testing
19 61 (12.01%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 132 (25.98%) Java
2 99 (19.49%) Python
3 93 (18.31%) SQL
4 56 (11.02%) JavaScript
5 43 (8.46%) C#
6 33 (6.50%) TypeScript
7 27 (5.31%) C++
8 16 (3.15%) C
9 15 (2.95%) PowerShell
10 9 (1.77%) Bash
11 8 (1.57%) Kotlin
12 7 (1.38%) Go
13 5 (0.98%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.98%) Korn
13 5 (0.98%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.79%) Ruby
14 4 (0.79%) Scala
15 3 (0.59%) Ada
15 3 (0.59%) Rust
15 3 (0.59%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 177 (34.84%) Security Cleared
2 141 (27.76%) SC Cleared
3 67 (13.19%) Degree
4 52 (10.24%) ISTQB
5 32 (6.30%) DV Cleared
6 26 (5.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 20 (3.94%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 17 (3.35%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 15 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (2.36%) ISEB
11 4 (0.79%) CEH
11 4 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.79%) CISSP
11 4 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.59%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.59%) CCNA
13 2 (0.39%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.39%) Network+ Certification
13 2 (0.39%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.39%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (22.83%) QA
2 44 (8.66%) Accessibility
3 26 (5.12%) WCAG
4 7 (1.38%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.18%) ISO 20022
6 5 (0.98%) NIST
6 5 (0.98%) Software Quality Assurance
7 3 (0.59%) AUTOSAR
7 3 (0.59%) GRC
7 3 (0.59%) ISO 26262
8 2 (0.39%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.39%) MISRA
9 1 (0.20%) HL7
9 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.20%) JTAG
9 1 (0.20%) MiFID
9 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
9 1 (0.20%) PMO
9 1 (0.20%) SEPA
9 1 (0.20%) SLA
System Software
1 72 (14.17%) Docker
2 11 (2.17%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.18%) Firmware
3 6 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.98%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.59%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.39%) NFS
7 2 (0.39%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 82 (16.14%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.15%) Ansible
3 13 (2.56%) Prometheus
4 10 (1.97%) Grafana
5 8 (1.57%) HP ALM
6 6 (1.18%) Packer
7 4 (0.79%) Puppet
8 3 (0.59%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.39%) Argo
9 2 (0.39%) HP Fortify
9 2 (0.39%) Kibana
9 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.39%) Salt
9 2 (0.39%) SCCM
9 2 (0.39%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 1 (0.20%) Control-M
10 1 (0.20%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.20%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 38 (7.48%) Oracle
2 34 (6.69%) Microsoft
3 20 (3.94%) IBM
4 17 (3.35%) Salesforce
5 10 (1.97%) SAP
6 9 (1.77%) Splunk
7 8 (1.57%) Google
7 8 (1.57%) HP
8 7 (1.38%) VMware
9 6 (1.18%) Conga
9 6 (1.18%) Databricks
9 6 (1.18%) GoCardless
10 5 (0.98%) ServiceNow
11 4 (0.79%) Red Hat
12 3 (0.59%) Checkmarx
12 3 (0.59%) Dynatrace
12 3 (0.59%) OpenLink
12 3 (0.59%) UiPath
13 2 (0.39%) FXall
13 2 (0.39%) OpenAI