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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 254 263 198
Rank change year-on-year +9 -65 -17
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 421 252 457
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.96% 0.99% 1.23%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.13% 1.08% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 218 168 316
10th Percentile £311 £313 £303
25th Percentile £400 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £438 £450
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% -2.78% -10.00%
75th Percentile £575 £520 £588
90th Percentile £650 £645 £678
UK median daily rate £475 £438 £463
% change year-on-year +8.57% -5.41% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 20 52
10th Percentile £17.50 £44.23 £37.55
25th Percentile £53.95 £50.00 £56.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.56% -10.00% +15.77%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £87.50 -
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +17.39% -8.00% +11.11%

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 37,351 23,260 31,773
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.35% 91.20% 85.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,546 14,980 20,587
10th Percentile £325 £300 £305
25th Percentile £418 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £730 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +2.18% -4.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,338 1,158 2,330
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.87 £16.06
Median hourly rate £47.00 £25.23 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +86.32% -33.83% +1.65%
75th Percentile £68.38 £55.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.25 £72.50 £72.93
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +4.17%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -43 154 £475 +10.14% 44
South East -56 61 £490 +22.50% 71
Midlands -21 54 £513 +44.07% 29
North of England -44 54 £470 -1.00% 33
South West -7 48 £409 -13.89% 23
West Midlands -16 48 £513 +21.30% 19
East of England 0 46 £531 +11.84% 39
North East -12 24 £450 - 11
Yorkshire -42 17 £475 -8.61% 7
North West -44 15 £500 +17.65% 15
East Midlands -16 6 £575 +69.12% 10
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 (3.33%) Confluence
2 12 (2.85%) Apache Airflow
2 12 (2.85%) SAS
3 9 (2.14%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.71%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.48%) IIS
6 1 (0.24%) Apache
6 1 (0.24%) IBM HTTP Server
6 1 (0.24%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
Applications
1 11 (2.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.95%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.24%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.24%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 6 (1.43%) Findur
1 6 (1.43%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (0.95%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.95%) Maximo
3 3 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.48%) Oracle EBS R12
4 2 (0.48%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.24%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.24%) Eikon
5 1 (0.24%) LabWindows
5 1 (0.24%) Misys Equation
5 1 (0.24%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.24%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.24%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 98 (23.28%) Azure
2 80 (19.00%) AWS
3 56 (13.30%) Azure DevOps
4 28 (6.65%) GitHub
5 25 (5.94%) Serverless
6 23 (5.46%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (5.23%) Amazon S3
8 19 (4.51%) GCP
9 11 (2.61%) PaaS
10 10 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (2.14%) Entra ID
11 9 (2.14%) OpenShift
11 9 (2.14%) Snowflake
12 8 (1.90%) Amazon EC2
12 8 (1.90%) Power Platform
13 7 (1.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 6 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
14 6 (1.43%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (1.43%) SaaS
15 5 (1.19%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.14%) Ethernet
2 6 (1.43%) DNS
2 6 (1.43%) Firewall
3 5 (1.19%) Software-Defined Radio
3 5 (1.19%) Wireless
4 4 (0.95%) Reverse Proxy
4 4 (0.95%) RS-232
4 4 (0.95%) RS-422
5 3 (0.71%) DHCP
5 3 (0.71%) Internet
5 3 (0.71%) Modbus
5 3 (0.71%) Network Security
5 3 (0.71%) RS-485
6 2 (0.48%) 4G
6 2 (0.48%) 5G
6 2 (0.48%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.24%) Broadband
7 1 (0.24%) FTP
7 1 (0.24%) GSM
7 1 (0.24%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (5.23%) Relational Database
2 19 (4.51%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (4.28%) Oracle Database
4 15 (3.56%) SQL Server
5 14 (3.33%) MySQL
6 12 (2.85%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 11 (2.61%) Big Data
8 10 (2.38%) DynamoDB
8 10 (2.38%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 8 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (1.90%) NoSQL
10 7 (1.66%) Amazon Redshift
11 6 (1.43%) MongoDB
11 6 (1.43%) Power BI
12 5 (1.19%) Amazon Athena
13 4 (0.95%) Amazon QuickSight
14 3 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
14 3 (0.71%) Parquet
14 3 (0.71%) Redis
14 3 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 71 (16.86%) JIRA
2 47 (11.16%) Selenium
3 43 (10.21%) Git
4 32 (7.60%) Postman
5 30 (7.13%) Jenkins
6 28 (6.65%) Cucumber
7 27 (6.41%) GitLab
8 26 (6.18%) JUnit
8 26 (6.18%) REST Assured
9 16 (3.80%) Cypress.io
10 13 (3.09%) WebDriver
11 12 (2.85%) Rational DOORS
11 12 (2.85%) TestRail
12 11 (2.61%) Zephyr
13 8 (1.90%) JMeter
14 7 (1.66%) Gatling
14 7 (1.66%) Maven
15 6 (1.43%) Gradle
15 6 (1.43%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
15 6 (1.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 120 (28.50%) Social Skills
2 78 (18.53%) Finance
3 68 (16.15%) Analytical Skills
4 49 (11.64%) Public Sector
5 30 (7.13%) Banking
6 18 (4.28%) Aerospace
7 17 (4.04%) Automotive
8 13 (3.09%) Back Office
9 11 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (2.14%) Law
11 8 (1.90%) Electronics
11 8 (1.90%) Front Office
11 8 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.66%) Military
13 6 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (1.19%) Legal
14 5 (1.19%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.95%) Avionics
16 3 (0.71%) Investment Banking
16 3 (0.71%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 64 (15.20%) Software Engineer
2 63 (14.96%) Test Engineer
3 62 (14.73%) Senior
4 59 (14.01%) Developer
5 34 (8.08%) Analyst
6 30 (7.13%) Tester
7 29 (6.89%) Lead
8 27 (6.41%) Java Developer
9 23 (5.46%) Software Test Engineer
10 20 (4.75%) Architect
11 19 (4.51%) Test Analyst
12 16 (3.80%) QA Engineer
12 16 (3.80%) Software Developer
12 16 (3.80%) Test Manager
13 14 (3.33%) Salesforce Engineer
14 13 (3.09%) Senior Developer
14 13 (3.09%) Software Architect
15 12 (2.85%) Principal Engineer
15 12 (2.85%) Principal Software Engineer
15 12 (2.85%) Release Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (9.26%) Playwright
1 39 (9.26%) React
1 39 (9.26%) Spring
2 35 (8.31%) REST
3 27 (6.41%) Spring Boot
4 26 (6.18%) .NET
5 23 (5.46%) RESTful
6 20 (4.75%) Kafka
7 14 (3.33%) CSS
7 14 (3.33%) HTML
8 12 (2.85%) Node.js
8 12 (2.85%) Redux
9 9 (2.14%) AngularJS
9 9 (2.14%) CSS3
9 9 (2.14%) HTML5
9 9 (2.14%) Jest
9 9 (2.14%) Spring MVC
10 7 (1.66%) Software Packaging
11 6 (1.43%) .NET Framework
11 6 (1.43%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 43 (10.21%) Product Ownership
2 28 (6.65%) Enterprise Software
3 25 (5.94%) Cloud Native
4 24 (5.70%) Embedded Systems
5 22 (5.23%) Self-Motivation
6 21 (4.99%) Distributed Systems
7 15 (3.56%) Management Information System
8 11 (2.61%) Data Centre
8 11 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.43%) Virtual Team
11 5 (1.19%) FPGA
11 5 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (1.19%) Mobile App
11 5 (1.19%) PCIe
12 4 (0.95%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.95%) Public Cloud
13 3 (0.71%) AI Agents
13 3 (0.71%) Onboarding
13 3 (0.71%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 30 (7.13%) Windows
2 22 (5.23%) Linux
3 9 (2.14%) Unix
4 6 (1.43%) FreeRTOS
4 6 (1.43%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.95%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.71%) Android
7 2 (0.48%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.48%) zOS
8 1 (0.24%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (45.37%) Test Automation
2 166 (39.43%) Agile
3 146 (34.68%) CI/CD
4 136 (32.30%) DevOps
5 114 (27.08%) Software Engineering
6 85 (20.19%) Continuous Improvement
7 82 (19.48%) Problem-Solving
8 70 (16.63%) Test Scripting
9 65 (15.44%) Scrum
9 65 (15.44%) Validation
10 63 (14.96%) SDLC
11 61 (14.49%) Test Strategy
12 54 (12.83%) User Acceptance Testing
13 50 (11.88%) Regression Testing
14 48 (11.40%) Code Quality
15 46 (10.93%) Test Management
16 45 (10.69%) Mentoring
16 45 (10.69%) Microservices
17 44 (10.45%) Defect Management
18 40 (9.50%) Defect Tracking
Programming Languages
1 81 (19.24%) Java
2 69 (16.39%) Python
3 60 (14.25%) SQL
4 41 (9.74%) C#
5 39 (9.26%) JavaScript
6 30 (7.13%) TypeScript
7 19 (4.51%) C++
8 15 (3.56%) C
9 11 (2.61%) PowerShell
10 7 (1.66%) Bash
11 6 (1.43%) PL/SQL
12 5 (1.19%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.95%) Go
14 3 (0.71%) Rust
14 3 (0.71%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.71%) VB
14 3 (0.71%) VBScript
15 2 (0.48%) Ada
15 2 (0.48%) COBOL
15 2 (0.48%) RPG
Qualifications
1 135 (32.07%) Security Cleared
2 109 (25.89%) SC Cleared
3 47 (11.16%) Degree
4 36 (8.55%) ISTQB
5 21 (4.99%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 12 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.90%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (1.66%) ISEB
9 4 (0.95%) CEH
9 4 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (0.95%) CISSP
9 4 (0.95%) CompTIA Security+
10 3 (0.71%) CCNA
10 3 (0.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 3 (0.71%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.71%) PMP
10 3 (0.71%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 2 (0.48%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.48%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (21.62%) QA
2 15 (3.56%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.61%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.90%) PMO
4 8 (1.90%) WCAG
5 4 (0.95%) NIST
5 4 (0.95%) SLA
5 4 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
6 3 (0.71%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.48%) GRC
7 2 (0.48%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.48%) MiFID
8 1 (0.24%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.24%) SEPA
System Software
1 38 (9.03%) Docker
2 13 (3.09%) Active Directory
3 10 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (1.66%) Firmware
5 6 (1.43%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.95%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.71%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.71%) VMware Workstation
8 2 (0.48%) NFS
8 2 (0.48%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.24%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
Systems Management
1 48 (11.40%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.46%) Terraform
3 14 (3.33%) Ansible
4 10 (2.38%) Grafana
4 10 (2.38%) HP ALM
4 10 (2.38%) Prometheus
5 7 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (1.19%) HP Quality Center
6 5 (1.19%) Puppet
6 5 (1.19%) SCCM
7 4 (0.95%) Salt
8 3 (0.71%) Packer
9 2 (0.48%) Kibana
9 2 (0.48%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 1 (0.24%) Oracle ZFS
10 1 (0.24%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.24%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 36 (8.55%) Oracle
2 35 (8.31%) Microsoft
3 18 (4.28%) Salesforce
4 15 (3.56%) IBM
5 11 (2.61%) VMware
6 10 (2.38%) HP
7 9 (2.14%) Dell
8 8 (1.90%) Citrix
8 8 (1.90%) SAP
9 7 (1.66%) Splunk
10 6 (1.43%) Conga
10 6 (1.43%) GoCardless
10 6 (1.43%) OpenLink
11 5 (1.19%) Ab Initio
11 5 (1.19%) Google
11 5 (1.19%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.19%) Teradata
12 4 (0.95%) Fortinet
13 3 (0.71%) Palo Alto
13 3 (0.71%) Siemens