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 2 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 234 240 212
Rank change year-on-year +6 -28 -38
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 532 312 386
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.14% 1.11% 1.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.35% 1.23% 1.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 279 205 252
10th Percentile £269 £313 £326
25th Percentile £400 £359 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £438 £464
Median % change year-on-year +6.40% -5.66% -11.67%
75th Percentile £575 £528 £588
90th Percentile £675 £603 £644
UK median daily rate £460 £440 £465
% change year-on-year +4.55% -5.38% -7.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 27 19
10th Percentile £26.00 £26.25 £34.74
25th Percentile £54.18 £48.75 £46.09
Median hourly rate £60.57 £54.70 £61.43
Median % change year-on-year +10.73% -10.96% -5.49%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.88 £64.38
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £60.33 £54.85 £57.50
% change year-on-year +9.99% -4.61% -11.54%

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 39,430 25,460 28,039
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.71% 90.97% 86.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,919 16,157 17,165
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £512 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.64% -2.57% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £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 2,918 1,560 1,201
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.42 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.60 £17.87 £20.25
Median hourly rate £40.08 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.36% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £47.00 £67.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.28 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +53.96% -40.82% -

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 2 October 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 2 October 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 2 October 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 -23 184 £535 +21.25% 397
South East -42 91 £401 -4.58% 179
Midlands +13 87 £458 +6.69% 139
West Midlands +24 83 £458 -9.85% 89
North of England -54 63 £463 +6.32% 161
East of England +9 56 £77 -86.49% 110
South West -24 42 £410 -8.58% 112
North East -22 26 £500 +37.93% 20
Yorkshire -41 20 £450 -3.23% 52
North West -42 19 £463 +36.03% 89
East Midlands -14 4 £575 +69.12% 50
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 18 (3.38%) Confluence
2 10 (1.88%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.50%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.13%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.13%) SAS
5 3 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.38%) Apache
7 1 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
7 1 (0.19%) IIS
7 1 (0.19%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.19%) WinCC
Applications
1 12 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.07%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.94%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.75%) Trello
5 3 (0.56%) Simulink
6 1 (0.19%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (1.13%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.56%) Findur
2 3 (0.56%) Primavera
3 2 (0.38%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 2 (0.38%) Eikon
4 1 (0.19%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.19%) Misys Equation
4 1 (0.19%) Misys Midas
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.19%) Shopify
4 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 133 (25.00%) AWS
2 118 (22.18%) Azure
3 62 (11.65%) GitHub
4 56 (10.53%) Azure DevOps
5 32 (6.02%) GCP
6 26 (4.89%) GitHub Copilot
7 25 (4.70%) GitHub Actions
8 15 (2.82%) Serverless
9 13 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
10 11 (2.07%) Amazon S3
11 10 (1.88%) Power Platform
11 10 (1.88%) SaaS
12 8 (1.50%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 8 (1.50%) Amazon EC2
13 6 (1.13%) Anthropic Claude
13 6 (1.13%) OpenShift
13 6 (1.13%) PaaS
13 6 (1.13%) Snowflake
14 5 (0.94%) Cloud Computing
15 4 (0.75%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.07%) Ethernet
2 5 (0.94%) DNS
2 5 (0.94%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (0.94%) Wireless
3 4 (0.75%) DHCP
3 4 (0.75%) Firewall
3 4 (0.75%) Internet
3 4 (0.75%) Network Security
4 2 (0.38%) BGP
4 2 (0.38%) MPLS
4 2 (0.38%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.38%) SSL
5 1 (0.19%) 4G
5 1 (0.19%) LTE
5 1 (0.19%) Radio Access Network
5 1 (0.19%) RS-232
5 1 (0.19%) RS-422
5 1 (0.19%) SSH
5 1 (0.19%) VoLTE
5 1 (0.19%) VoWiFi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (5.64%) Relational Database
2 23 (4.32%) MongoDB
3 19 (3.57%) SQL Server
4 14 (2.63%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.69%) Oracle Database
5 9 (1.69%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.32%) DynamoDB
6 7 (1.32%) Power BI
7 6 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.13%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 6 (1.13%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 5 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (0.75%) Big Data
9 4 (0.75%) Pinecone
9 4 (0.75%) Redis
9 4 (0.75%) ZAP BI
10 3 (0.56%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.56%) Chroma
10 3 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 108 (20.30%) Selenium
2 104 (19.55%) Git
3 77 (14.47%) JIRA
4 68 (12.78%) Cucumber
5 66 (12.41%) GitLab
6 52 (9.77%) JUnit
7 43 (8.08%) Jenkins
8 39 (7.33%) Postman
9 38 (7.14%) Gatling
10 29 (5.45%) REST Assured
11 23 (4.32%) SonarQube
12 19 (3.57%) JMeter
13 17 (3.20%) Rational DOORS
14 16 (3.01%) Cypress.io
15 12 (2.26%) TestNG
15 12 (2.26%) TestRail
15 12 (2.26%) WebDriver
15 12 (2.26%) Zephyr
16 11 (2.07%) Appium
16 11 (2.07%) Visual Studio
General
1 185 (34.77%) Social Skills
2 99 (18.61%) Finance
3 82 (15.41%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (12.78%) Public Sector
5 59 (11.09%) Banking
6 33 (6.20%) Automotive
7 27 (5.08%) Aerospace
8 19 (3.57%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.44%) Front Office
10 11 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.88%) Electronics
11 10 (1.88%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.88%) Retail
11 10 (1.88%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.69%) Law
13 8 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (1.50%) Military
14 7 (1.32%) Back Office
15 5 (0.94%) Investment Banking
15 5 (0.94%) Legal
Job Titles
1 80 (15.04%) Senior
2 78 (14.66%) Test Engineer
3 72 (13.53%) Developer
4 71 (13.35%) Software Engineer
5 39 (7.33%) Analyst
6 33 (6.20%) Lead
6 33 (6.20%) Tester
7 30 (5.64%) Quality Engineer
7 30 (5.64%) Test Manager
8 27 (5.08%) Architect
8 27 (5.08%) Software Developer
9 24 (4.51%) Test Automation Engineer
10 23 (4.32%) Java Developer
11 21 (3.95%) Software Test Engineer
12 19 (3.57%) Principal Engineer
13 18 (3.38%) QA Engineer
13 18 (3.38%) Test Analyst
14 17 (3.20%) Automation Engineer
14 17 (3.20%) Java Engineer
15 16 (3.01%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (12.97%) Playwright
2 57 (10.71%) Spring
3 44 (8.27%) .NET
4 42 (7.89%) REST
5 38 (7.14%) React
6 36 (6.77%) Kafka
7 33 (6.20%) Terraform
8 29 (5.45%) Spring Boot
9 25 (4.70%) RESTful
10 21 (3.95%) Node.js
11 20 (3.76%) WireMock
12 19 (3.57%) Gherkin
13 15 (2.82%) JSON
14 13 (2.44%) AngularJS
14 13 (2.44%) XML
15 11 (2.07%) SOAP
16 10 (1.88%) HTML
16 10 (1.88%) Web Services
17 9 (1.69%) OpenAPI
17 9 (1.69%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 47 (8.83%) Product Ownership
2 42 (7.89%) Cloud Native
3 35 (6.58%) Enterprise Software
4 23 (4.32%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (4.32%) Embedded Systems
5 16 (3.01%) Self-Motivation
6 11 (2.07%) Onboarding
7 9 (1.69%) Data Structures
7 9 (1.69%) Distributed Architecture
8 8 (1.50%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (1.50%) Management Information System
9 7 (1.32%) Algorithms
10 6 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.13%) Public Cloud
11 5 (0.94%) Derivative
11 5 (0.94%) Equities
11 5 (0.94%) Equity Derivative
11 5 (0.94%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 39 (7.33%) Linux
2 28 (5.26%) Windows
3 10 (1.88%) Unix
4 8 (1.50%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.13%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.75%) Android
6 4 (0.75%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.75%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.38%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 273 (51.32%) Test Automation
2 268 (50.38%) Agile
3 252 (47.37%) CI/CD
4 161 (30.26%) Software Engineering
5 151 (28.38%) DevOps
6 128 (24.06%) Continuous Improvement
7 119 (22.37%) SDLC
8 118 (22.18%) Scrum
9 114 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
10 98 (18.42%) Validation
11 86 (16.17%) Test Strategy
12 85 (15.98%) Microservices
13 83 (15.60%) Stakeholder Management
14 82 (15.41%) Test Scripting
15 77 (14.47%) Defect Management
16 72 (13.53%) Mentoring
17 69 (12.97%) AI
17 69 (12.97%) API Testing
17 69 (12.97%) End-to-End Testing
18 66 (12.41%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 144 (27.07%) Java
2 109 (20.49%) Python
3 91 (17.11%) SQL
4 58 (10.90%) JavaScript
5 43 (8.08%) C#
6 37 (6.95%) TypeScript
7 27 (5.08%) C++
8 17 (3.20%) C
9 15 (2.82%) PowerShell
10 9 (1.69%) Bash
11 8 (1.50%) Kotlin
12 7 (1.32%) Go
13 5 (0.94%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.94%) Korn
13 5 (0.94%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.75%) Ruby
14 4 (0.75%) Scala
15 3 (0.56%) Ada
15 3 (0.56%) MATLAB
15 3 (0.56%) RPG
Qualifications
1 178 (33.46%) Security Cleared
2 141 (26.50%) SC Cleared
3 74 (13.91%) Degree
4 54 (10.15%) ISTQB
5 34 (6.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 32 (6.02%) DV Cleared
7 20 (3.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 19 (3.57%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 17 (3.20%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (2.26%) ISEB
11 4 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.75%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.56%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.56%) CCNA
12 3 (0.56%) CEH
12 3 (0.56%) CISSP
12 3 (0.56%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.56%) PMP
13 2 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.38%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 134 (25.19%) QA
2 54 (10.15%) Accessibility
3 33 (6.20%) WCAG
4 8 (1.50%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.13%) ISO 20022
6 5 (0.94%) NIST
6 5 (0.94%) Software Quality Assurance
7 4 (0.75%) AUTOSAR
7 4 (0.75%) ISO 26262
8 2 (0.38%) GRC
8 2 (0.38%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.38%) MISRA
8 2 (0.38%) SLA
9 1 (0.19%) HL7
9 1 (0.19%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.19%) JTAG
9 1 (0.19%) MiFID
9 1 (0.19%) PMO
9 1 (0.19%) SEPA
System Software
1 85 (15.98%) Docker
2 11 (2.07%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.94%) Firmware
5 4 (0.75%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.56%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.38%) NFS
7 2 (0.38%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.38%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 92 (17.29%) Kubernetes
2 17 (3.20%) Ansible
3 13 (2.44%) Prometheus
4 11 (2.07%) Grafana
5 7 (1.32%) HP ALM
6 6 (1.13%) Packer
7 5 (0.94%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.75%) Puppet
9 3 (0.56%) Argo
9 3 (0.56%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.56%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.38%) Kibana
10 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.38%) Salt
10 2 (0.38%) SCCM
10 2 (0.38%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 1 (0.19%) Control-M
11 1 (0.19%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.19%) PTC Integrity
Vendors
1 36 (6.77%) Microsoft
2 33 (6.20%) Oracle
3 23 (4.32%) IBM
4 18 (3.38%) Salesforce
5 10 (1.88%) Databricks
5 10 (1.88%) Google
5 10 (1.88%) SAP
5 10 (1.88%) Splunk
6 7 (1.32%) HP
6 7 (1.32%) VMware
7 6 (1.13%) Conga
7 6 (1.13%) GoCardless
8 5 (0.94%) ServiceNow
9 4 (0.75%) Red Hat
10 3 (0.56%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.56%) Dynatrace
10 3 (0.56%) OpenLink
10 3 (0.56%) Siemens
10 3 (0.56%) UiPath
11 2 (0.38%) OutSystems