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

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 248 215 173
Rank change year-on-year -33 -42 +21
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 403 294 509
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.04% 1.21% 1.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.21% 1.33% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 191 343
10th Percentile £337 £313 £250
25th Percentile £403 £363 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £464 £469 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.12% +4.22% -12.20%
75th Percentile £539 £621 £600
90th Percentile £625 £713 £688
UK median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 19 69
10th Percentile £51.13 £26.21 £37.42
25th Percentile £65.00 £57.44 £56.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% - +25.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £77.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.50 £87.50 -
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +8.00% - +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 33,286 22,141 32,539
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.92% 90.87% 86.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,341 14,591 21,484
10th Percentile £313 £311 £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 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,040 863 2,161
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.45 £19.00 £15.89
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -1.71% -11.83%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.70
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.10 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £35.71 £31.52 £33.00
% change year-on-year +13.29% -4.48% -11.53%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -27 169 £450 +2.86% 55
South East -27 65 £490 -18.33% 76
Midlands -33 51 £513 +14.56% 43
North of England -60 46 £405 -10.00% 48
South West -7 43 £409 +2.25% 36
West Midlands -31 40 £513 +14.14% 24
Yorkshire -42 24 £413 +1.85% 10
East of England -27 23 £613 +28.95% 30
North West -54 13 £405 -25.00% 31
East Midlands -25 11 £575 +400.00% 19
North East - 9 £350 - 8
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 17 (4.22%) Confluence
2 16 (3.97%) SAS
3 7 (1.74%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.49%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.74%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.50%) IIS
7 1 (0.25%) CMS
7 1 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.25%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.25%) WebSphere
Applications
1 12 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.99%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.50%) Simulink
6 1 (0.25%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (1.24%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.99%) Findur
2 4 (0.99%) Maximo
3 2 (0.50%) LabWindows
3 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS R12
3 2 (0.50%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.25%) Algo Collateral
4 1 (0.25%) CODA-Financials
4 1 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.25%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 127 (31.51%) Azure
2 89 (22.08%) Azure DevOps
3 77 (19.11%) AWS
4 31 (7.69%) GCP
5 28 (6.95%) GitHub
6 25 (6.20%) AWS Lambda
6 25 (6.20%) Serverless
7 24 (5.96%) Amazon S3
8 13 (3.23%) GitHub Actions
9 12 (2.98%) Amazon ECS
9 12 (2.98%) AWS CloudFormation
10 11 (2.73%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.99%) OpenShift
12 7 (1.74%) Entra ID
13 6 (1.49%) PaaS
14 5 (1.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 4 (0.99%) Amazon EC2
15 4 (0.99%) Power Platform
15 4 (0.99%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 3 (0.74%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.48%) Ethernet
2 4 (0.99%) Firewall
2 4 (0.99%) Wireless
3 3 (0.74%) DNS
3 3 (0.74%) FTP
3 3 (0.74%) Modbus
3 3 (0.74%) RS-232
3 3 (0.74%) RS-422
3 3 (0.74%) RS-485
3 3 (0.74%) SNMP
4 2 (0.50%) Internet
4 2 (0.50%) Intranet
4 2 (0.50%) IOS XR
4 2 (0.50%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.50%) Software-Defined Radio
4 2 (0.50%) Spanning Tree
4 2 (0.50%) SSH
4 2 (0.50%) SSL
4 2 (0.50%) TACACS
4 2 (0.50%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (7.20%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (4.96%) Relational Database
3 18 (4.47%) MySQL
4 16 (3.97%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 15 (3.72%) Oracle Database
5 15 (3.72%) SQL Server
6 12 (2.98%) NoSQL
7 11 (2.73%) Big Data
8 10 (2.48%) BigQuery
9 9 (2.23%) Data Warehouse
10 8 (1.99%) MongoDB
11 7 (1.74%) DynamoDB
12 5 (1.24%) Amazon Redshift
12 5 (1.24%) SAS Visual Analytics
13 3 (0.74%) Parquet
13 3 (0.74%) Redis
14 2 (0.50%) Amazon Athena
14 2 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
14 2 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
14 2 (0.50%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 69 (17.12%) JIRA
2 51 (12.66%) Selenium
3 42 (10.42%) Git
4 34 (8.44%) Jenkins
4 34 (8.44%) Postman
5 25 (6.20%) Cucumber
6 24 (5.96%) Cypress.io
7 20 (4.96%) JUnit
7 20 (4.96%) REST Assured
8 14 (3.47%) GitLab
9 13 (3.23%) TestRail
10 12 (2.98%) Rational DOORS
11 9 (2.23%) Zephyr
12 8 (1.99%) WebDriver
13 7 (1.74%) Rational Rhapsody
14 6 (1.49%) HP UFT
14 6 (1.49%) JMeter
15 5 (1.24%) Gradle
15 5 (1.24%) Maven
15 5 (1.24%) SpecFlow
General
1 109 (27.05%) Social Skills
2 68 (16.87%) Finance
3 64 (15.88%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (11.17%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.22%) Banking
6 15 (3.72%) Aerospace
7 10 (2.48%) Back Office
7 10 (2.48%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.99%) Electronics
8 8 (1.99%) Front Office
8 8 (1.99%) Manufacturing
9 6 (1.49%) Investment Banking
9 6 (1.49%) Military
9 6 (1.49%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.24%) Law
11 4 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.74%) Marketing
13 2 (0.50%) Police
Job Titles
1 61 (15.14%) Senior
2 59 (14.64%) Developer
3 45 (11.17%) Analyst
4 42 (10.42%) Software Engineer
5 39 (9.68%) Test Engineer
6 37 (9.18%) Lead
7 35 (8.68%) Test Analyst
8 30 (7.44%) Consultant
9 29 (7.20%) Tester
10 21 (5.21%) Java Developer
10 21 (5.21%) QA Engineer
11 19 (4.71%) Test Manager
12 18 (4.47%) Senior Developer
13 17 (4.22%) Java Engineer
14 16 (3.97%) Release Manager
14 16 (3.97%) Senior Analyst
14 16 (3.97%) Senior Test Analyst
15 15 (3.72%) Software Developer
16 14 (3.47%) Software Test Engineer
17 12 (2.98%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (10.42%) Spring
2 38 (9.43%) React
3 36 (8.93%) Playwright
4 34 (8.44%) REST
4 34 (8.44%) RESTful
5 33 (8.19%) Spring Boot
6 26 (6.45%) .NET
7 22 (5.46%) CSS
7 22 (5.46%) HTML
8 21 (5.21%) Node.js
9 17 (4.22%) Kafka
10 12 (2.98%) Redux
11 11 (2.73%) HTML5
12 10 (2.48%) CSS3
12 10 (2.48%) Gherkin
12 10 (2.48%) Jest
12 10 (2.48%) Middleware
12 10 (2.48%) Spring MVC
13 9 (2.23%) AngularJS
14 7 (1.74%) Apache NiFi
Miscellaneous
1 33 (8.19%) Product Ownership
2 21 (5.21%) Cloud Native
3 19 (4.71%) Self-Motivation
4 13 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
5 12 (2.98%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (2.73%) Management Information System
7 10 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (2.23%) Embedded Systems
9 7 (1.74%) Data Centre
10 6 (1.49%) CUDA
10 6 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.49%) PCIe
10 6 (1.49%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (0.99%) Fixed Income
11 4 (0.99%) Mobile App
12 3 (0.74%) Data Structures
12 3 (0.74%) Equities
12 3 (0.74%) FPGA
12 3 (0.74%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 33 (8.19%) Windows
2 22 (5.46%) Linux
3 9 (2.23%) Unix
4 7 (1.74%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (0.99%) Mac OS
5 4 (0.99%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.50%) Android
7 1 (0.25%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.25%) Solaris
7 1 (0.25%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (43.67%) Test Automation
2 148 (36.72%) Agile
3 141 (34.99%) DevOps
4 135 (33.50%) CI/CD
5 97 (24.07%) Problem-Solving
6 94 (23.33%) Continuous Improvement
7 81 (20.10%) Test Scripting
8 72 (17.87%) Software Engineering
9 66 (16.38%) Validation
10 57 (14.14%) Test Management
10 57 (14.14%) Test Strategy
11 55 (13.65%) Microservices
12 49 (12.16%) SDLC
13 47 (11.66%) Defect Tracking
13 47 (11.66%) Regression Testing
14 46 (11.41%) API Testing
15 44 (10.92%) Scrum
16 43 (10.67%) Containerisation
17 42 (10.42%) Defect Management
18 41 (10.17%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 81 (20.10%) Java
2 77 (19.11%) Python
3 75 (18.61%) SQL
4 50 (12.41%) JavaScript
5 41 (10.17%) C#
6 40 (9.93%) TypeScript
7 18 (4.47%) C++
8 15 (3.72%) C
9 8 (1.99%) Bash
10 7 (1.74%) PL/SQL
10 7 (1.74%) PowerShell
11 6 (1.49%) Go
12 5 (1.24%) VBScript
13 4 (0.99%) Groovy
13 4 (0.99%) Rust
14 3 (0.74%) Ada
14 3 (0.74%) Embedded C
14 3 (0.74%) Ruby
14 3 (0.74%) VB
15 2 (0.50%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 127 (31.51%) Security Cleared
2 105 (26.05%) SC Cleared
3 36 (8.93%) ISTQB
4 34 (8.44%) Degree
5 14 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (3.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 8 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (1.74%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 5 (1.24%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.24%) ISEB
10 4 (0.99%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.74%) CISSP
11 3 (0.74%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.74%) PMP
12 2 (0.50%) CEH
12 2 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.50%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.50%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 1 (0.25%) A+ Certification
13 1 (0.25%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (25.06%) QA
2 16 (3.97%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.73%) Data Quality
4 7 (1.74%) PMO
4 7 (1.74%) WCAG
5 4 (0.99%) NIST
5 4 (0.99%) SLA
6 3 (0.74%) Software Quality Assurance
7 2 (0.50%) EU AI Act
8 1 (0.25%) GRC
8 1 (0.25%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.25%) MiFID
8 1 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 36 (8.93%) Docker
2 6 (1.49%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.49%) Firmware
2 6 (1.49%) Virtual Desktop
2 6 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.50%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.25%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
4 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.25%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 48 (11.91%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.97%) Terraform
3 11 (2.73%) HP ALM
4 9 (2.23%) Ansible
5 8 (1.99%) Grafana
6 7 (1.74%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.24%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (1.24%) Puppet
8 4 (0.99%) HP Quality Center
8 4 (0.99%) SCCM
9 2 (0.50%) Nessus
9 2 (0.50%) Salt
10 1 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 1 (0.25%) Kibana
10 1 (0.25%) Nmap
10 1 (0.25%) Oracle ZFS
10 1 (0.25%) Packer
10 1 (0.25%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.25%) WSUS
Vendors
1 44 (10.92%) Oracle
2 38 (9.43%) Microsoft
3 11 (2.73%) HP
4 9 (2.23%) SAP
5 8 (1.99%) VMware
6 7 (1.74%) Citrix
6 7 (1.74%) Dell
6 7 (1.74%) IBM
6 7 (1.74%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.49%) Splunk
8 5 (1.24%) Ab Initio
8 5 (1.24%) Databricks
8 5 (1.24%) Teradata
9 4 (0.99%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.99%) Cisco
9 4 (0.99%) OpenLink
9 4 (0.99%) Remedy
9 4 (0.99%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.74%) Charles River
10 3 (0.74%) Palo Alto