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 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
14 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 235 197 168
Rank change year-on-year -38 -29 +10
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 359 349 532
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.13% 1.30% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.28% 1.46% 1.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 200 350
10th Percentile £325 £313 £284
25th Percentile £375 £394 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £453 £504
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% -10.13% -4.10%
75th Percentile £538 £618 £625
90th Percentile £600 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £435 £450 £500
% change year-on-year -3.39% -10.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 18 83
10th Percentile £26.25 £46.11 £41.66
25th Percentile £47.50 £59.94 £49.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +30.00%
75th Percentile £67.25 £73.13 -
90th Percentile £68.75 £80.75 £68.60
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +30.00%

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 27,954 23,866 31,707
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.33% 89.11% 87.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,831 14,651 21,413
10th Percentile £304 £310 £305
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,737 769 1,474
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.60 £14.23
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -27.10% -18.82% +21.43%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.79 £75.00 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +15.71%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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 14 January 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 -34 142 £445 -9.18% 56
North of England -56 52 £409 +2.25% 65
South East -43 49 £446 -25.63% 128
South West -4 40 £450 +12.50% 59
Midlands -27 40 £515 +28.75% 51
West Midlands -22 33 £515 +28.75% 19
Yorkshire -33 32 £460 +12.88% 27
East of England -3 19 £598 +51.75% 53
North West -47 13 £405 +1.25% 32
East Midlands -22 7 £313 - 32
North East - 7 £350 - 6
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 19 (5.29%) Confluence
2 17 (4.74%) SAS
3 7 (1.95%) Apache Airflow
3 7 (1.95%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.67%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.84%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (0.56%) Apache
6 2 (0.56%) JBoss
6 2 (0.56%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.28%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.28%) CICS
7 1 (0.28%) CMS
Applications
1 11 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.28%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.56%) Aladdin
1 2 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.56%) Dynamics NAV
1 2 (0.56%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.28%) Algo Collateral
2 1 (0.28%) CODA-Financials
2 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 110 (30.64%) Azure
2 64 (17.83%) AWS
3 62 (17.27%) Azure DevOps
4 32 (8.91%) GitHub
5 27 (7.52%) GCP
6 20 (5.57%) GitHub Actions
7 13 (3.62%) Amazon S3
8 11 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
8 11 (3.06%) Power Platform
8 11 (3.06%) Serverless
9 10 (2.79%) Amazon ECS
10 7 (1.95%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (1.95%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (1.67%) Entra ID
11 6 (1.67%) PaaS
11 6 (1.67%) Snowflake
12 4 (1.11%) Amazon Bedrock
12 4 (1.11%) Cloud Computing
12 4 (1.11%) Microsoft 365
13 3 (0.84%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.51%) Ethernet
2 6 (1.67%) Wireshark
3 5 (1.39%) SD-WAN
4 4 (1.11%) DNS
4 4 (1.11%) Internet
5 3 (0.84%) Firewall
5 3 (0.84%) Skype
5 3 (0.84%) SNMP
6 2 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (0.56%) FTP
6 2 (0.56%) Intranet
6 2 (0.56%) IOS XR
6 2 (0.56%) Spanning Tree
6 2 (0.56%) SSH
6 2 (0.56%) SSL
6 2 (0.56%) TACACS
6 2 (0.56%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.56%) Wireless
7 1 (0.28%) LAN
7 1 (0.28%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (6.96%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (5.29%) SQL Server
3 17 (4.74%) NoSQL
3 17 (4.74%) SAS Enterprise Guide
4 14 (3.90%) MongoDB
4 14 (3.90%) Oracle Database
5 11 (3.06%) BigQuery
6 9 (2.51%) MySQL
7 8 (2.23%) Relational Database
8 7 (1.95%) Power BI
9 6 (1.67%) Apache Cassandra
9 6 (1.67%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 5 (1.39%) Couchbase
11 4 (1.11%) Pinecone
12 3 (0.84%) Metadata
12 3 (0.84%) Redis
13 2 (0.56%) Big Data
13 2 (0.56%) DynamoDB
14 1 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
14 1 (0.28%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 57 (15.88%) Selenium
2 52 (14.48%) JIRA
3 40 (11.14%) Git
4 39 (10.86%) Postman
5 36 (10.03%) Jenkins
6 35 (9.75%) Cucumber
7 28 (7.80%) Cypress.io
8 24 (6.69%) REST Assured
9 21 (5.85%) GitLab
10 15 (4.18%) JUnit
11 10 (2.79%) JMeter
12 7 (1.95%) TestRail
13 6 (1.67%) Rational DOORS
13 6 (1.67%) Rational Rhapsody
13 6 (1.67%) WebDriver
14 5 (1.39%) Bitbucket
14 5 (1.39%) Gatling
14 5 (1.39%) Maven
14 5 (1.39%) SonarQube
14 5 (1.39%) Subversion
General
1 114 (31.75%) Social Skills
2 53 (14.76%) Finance
3 47 (13.09%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (12.81%) Public Sector
5 23 (6.41%) Banking
6 11 (3.06%) Aerospace
7 10 (2.79%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.51%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.23%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.95%) Military
10 7 (1.95%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.67%) Automotive
11 6 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.39%) Electronics
12 5 (1.39%) Front Office
13 4 (1.11%) Multimedia
13 4 (1.11%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.84%) Back Office
14 3 (0.84%) Billing
Job Titles
1 59 (16.43%) Senior
2 48 (13.37%) Software Engineer
3 41 (11.42%) Developer
4 40 (11.14%) Analyst
5 35 (9.75%) Test Engineer
6 33 (9.19%) Test Analyst
7 31 (8.64%) Lead
8 28 (7.80%) Tester
9 25 (6.96%) Consultant
10 17 (4.74%) Release Manager
11 16 (4.46%) Senior Analyst
12 15 (4.18%) Senior Test Analyst
13 14 (3.90%) QA Engineer
13 14 (3.90%) QA Leader
13 14 (3.90%) Test Manager
14 13 (3.62%) Java Engineer
15 12 (3.34%) Senior Test Engineer
16 11 (3.06%) Senior Developer
16 11 (3.06%) Test Automation Engineer
17 10 (2.79%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (9.75%) .NET
2 32 (8.91%) Playwright
3 28 (7.80%) React
3 28 (7.80%) RESTful
4 26 (7.24%) Spring
4 26 (7.24%) Spring Boot
5 24 (6.69%) Node.js
5 24 (6.69%) REST
6 18 (5.01%) HTML
7 15 (4.18%) CSS
8 14 (3.90%) Kafka
9 10 (2.79%) AngularJS
9 10 (2.79%) Middleware
10 8 (2.23%) FastAPI
10 8 (2.23%) Gherkin
10 8 (2.23%) RabbitMQ
11 7 (1.95%) Apache NiFi
11 7 (1.95%) JSON
11 7 (1.95%) pytest
11 7 (1.95%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 22 (6.13%) Product Ownership
2 21 (5.85%) Cloud Native
3 18 (5.01%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (2.79%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.51%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (1.67%) CUDA
7 5 (1.39%) Data Structures
8 4 (1.11%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.11%) Mobile App
8 4 (1.11%) NHS
8 4 (1.11%) PCIe
8 4 (1.11%) Virtual Reality
8 4 (1.11%) Virtual Team
9 3 (0.84%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.84%) Derivative
9 3 (0.84%) Distributed Computing
9 3 (0.84%) Fixed Income
9 3 (0.84%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 30 (8.36%) Windows
2 29 (8.08%) Linux
3 8 (2.23%) Unix
4 4 (1.11%) FreeRTOS
5 3 (0.84%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.84%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.84%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.56%) Android
7 1 (0.28%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.28%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.28%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (41.78%) Test Automation
2 142 (39.55%) Agile
3 129 (35.93%) CI/CD
4 111 (30.92%) DevOps
5 98 (27.30%) Problem-Solving
6 70 (19.50%) Continuous Improvement
6 70 (19.50%) Test Scripting
7 68 (18.94%) Software Engineering
8 59 (16.43%) Validation
9 55 (15.32%) Test Strategy
10 54 (15.04%) Microservices
11 48 (13.37%) Scrum
12 44 (12.26%) Containerisation
12 44 (12.26%) TDD
13 40 (11.14%) API Testing
13 40 (11.14%) Test Management
14 37 (10.31%) Integration Testing
15 36 (10.03%) AI
16 32 (8.91%) Manual Testing
17 30 (8.36%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 74 (20.61%) Python
2 68 (18.94%) Java
3 63 (17.55%) SQL
4 54 (15.04%) JavaScript
5 28 (7.80%) C#
6 27 (7.52%) TypeScript
7 19 (5.29%) C++
8 12 (3.34%) Bash
9 11 (3.06%) C
9 11 (3.06%) Shell Script
10 8 (2.23%) Go
11 6 (1.67%) Ada
11 6 (1.67%) PL/SQL
12 5 (1.39%) Scala
13 4 (1.11%) Groovy
13 4 (1.11%) PowerShell
14 3 (0.84%) Embedded C
14 3 (0.84%) Ruby
14 3 (0.84%) VB.NET
14 3 (0.84%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 101 (28.13%) Security Cleared
2 88 (24.51%) SC Cleared
3 39 (10.86%) Degree
4 25 (6.96%) ISTQB
5 21 (5.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (2.51%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 5 (1.39%) ISEB
9 4 (1.11%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 4 (1.11%) PMI Certification
9 4 (1.11%) PMP
10 3 (0.84%) DV Cleared
10 3 (0.84%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.56%) ACCA
11 2 (0.56%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.56%) CIMA
11 2 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.56%) CISSP
12 1 (0.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (0.28%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (26.18%) QA
2 27 (7.52%) Accessibility
3 11 (3.06%) WCAG
4 7 (1.95%) NIST
5 6 (1.67%) EU AI Act
6 4 (1.11%) Software Quality Assurance
7 3 (0.84%) SLA
8 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.28%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.28%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.28%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.28%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 53 (14.76%) Docker
2 5 (1.39%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.84%) Firmware
4 3 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.84%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 49 (13.65%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.62%) Terraform
3 9 (2.51%) Grafana
4 8 (2.23%) Ansible
5 5 (1.39%) Puppet
6 4 (1.11%) HP ALM
6 4 (1.11%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.84%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.84%) WSUS
8 2 (0.56%) Nessus
9 1 (0.28%) Control-M
9 1 (0.28%) Functional Safety
9 1 (0.28%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.28%) Nmap
9 1 (0.28%) Packer
9 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 44 (12.26%) Microsoft
2 36 (10.03%) Oracle
3 10 (2.79%) Cisco
4 9 (2.51%) ServiceNow
5 8 (2.23%) Atlassian
5 8 (2.23%) Splunk
6 6 (1.67%) Meraki
7 5 (1.39%) Juniper
7 5 (1.39%) VMware
7 5 (1.39%) Workday
8 4 (1.11%) HP
8 4 (1.11%) Nokia
8 4 (1.11%) Salesforce
8 4 (1.11%) SAP
9 3 (0.84%) Databricks
9 3 (0.84%) Google
9 3 (0.84%) Micro Focus
9 3 (0.84%) Remedy
9 3 (0.84%) SolarWinds
9 3 (0.84%) Veeam
397 Software Testing jobs in England