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 16 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
16 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 228 192 174
Rank change year-on-year -36 -18 +8
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 376 379 553
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.20% 1.31% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.35% 1.48% 1.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 228 355
10th Percentile £325 £313 £285
25th Percentile £383 £379 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £445 £515
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% -13.59% -
75th Percentile £538 £600 £625
90th Percentile £600 £672 £663
UK median daily rate £450 £445 £500
% change year-on-year +1.12% -11.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 19 83
10th Percentile £26.25 £48.95 £40.82
25th Percentile £50.00 £57.88 £48.39
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +30.00%
75th Percentile £67.06 £71.25 -
90th Percentile £68.75 £80.75 £68.22
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +30.00%

All Process and 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 27,858 25,665 33,182
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.92% 88.40% 88.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,750 15,857 22,569
10th Percentile £300 £310 £313
25th Percentile £406 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.49% -1.09%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,813 863 1,402
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.30%
75th Percentile £53.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.34 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.85
% change year-on-year -22.62% -25.88% +25.29%

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 16 December 2025.

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 16 December 2025.

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 16 December 2025. 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 -22 135 £455 -0.60% 41
North of England -34 64 £409 +2.25% 56
South East -44 57 £446 -25.63% 88
Yorkshire -20 43 £450 +10.43% 14
Midlands -26 38 £515 +28.75% 25
South West +1 36 £450 -3.49% 33
West Midlands -20 31 £515 +28.75% 17
East of England -5 27 £575 +46.03% 43
North West -52 16 £405 +1.25% 36
East Midlands -14 7 £313 - 8
North East - 5 £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 17 (4.52%) Confluence
2 15 (3.99%) SAS
3 7 (1.86%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.60%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (1.60%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.80%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (0.53%) Apache
6 2 (0.53%) CMS
6 2 (0.53%) JBoss
6 2 (0.53%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.27%) CICS
7 1 (0.27%) EPiServer
Applications
1 12 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.80%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.27%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.53%) Aladdin
1 2 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.53%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.27%) Algo Collateral
2 1 (0.27%) Cerner Millennium
2 1 (0.27%) CODA-Financials
2 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.27%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.27%) SimCorp Dimension
2 1 (0.27%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 112 (29.79%) Azure
2 70 (18.62%) AWS
3 54 (14.36%) Azure DevOps
4 37 (9.84%) GCP
5 26 (6.91%) GitHub
6 19 (5.05%) GitHub Actions
7 12 (3.19%) Amazon S3
8 10 (2.66%) AWS Lambda
8 10 (2.66%) Power Platform
8 10 (2.66%) Serverless
9 9 (2.39%) Amazon ECS
9 9 (2.39%) npm
10 7 (1.86%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (1.60%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (1.60%) Entra ID
11 6 (1.60%) PaaS
11 6 (1.60%) Snowflake
12 4 (1.06%) Amazon Bedrock
12 4 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
12 4 (1.06%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.66%) Ethernet
2 6 (1.60%) Wireshark
3 5 (1.33%) SD-WAN
4 4 (1.06%) DNS
4 4 (1.06%) Internet
5 3 (0.80%) Firewall
5 3 (0.80%) Network Security
5 3 (0.80%) Skype
5 3 (0.80%) SNMP
6 2 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (0.53%) FTP
6 2 (0.53%) Intranet
6 2 (0.53%) IOS XR
6 2 (0.53%) Spanning Tree
6 2 (0.53%) SSH
6 2 (0.53%) SSL
6 2 (0.53%) TACACS
6 2 (0.53%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.53%) Wireless
7 1 (0.27%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (5.32%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (4.79%) SQL Server
3 16 (4.26%) NoSQL
4 15 (3.99%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 14 (3.72%) MongoDB
5 14 (3.72%) Oracle Database
6 9 (2.39%) BigQuery
7 8 (2.13%) Power BI
8 6 (1.60%) Apache Cassandra
8 6 (1.60%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 5 (1.33%) Couchbase
9 5 (1.33%) MySQL
9 5 (1.33%) Redis
10 4 (1.06%) Pinecone
10 4 (1.06%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.80%) Metadata
12 2 (0.53%) Big Data
12 2 (0.53%) DynamoDB
13 1 (0.27%) Amazon RDS
13 1 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 75 (19.95%) JIRA
2 62 (16.49%) Selenium
3 49 (13.03%) Postman
4 42 (11.17%) Git
4 42 (11.17%) Jenkins
5 38 (10.11%) Cucumber
6 34 (9.04%) GitLab
7 28 (7.45%) Cypress.io
8 24 (6.38%) REST Assured
9 18 (4.79%) SoapUI
10 16 (4.26%) JUnit
11 12 (3.19%) JMeter
12 9 (2.39%) Artifactory
12 9 (2.39%) Visual Studio
13 7 (1.86%) SonarQube
13 7 (1.86%) Subversion
13 7 (1.86%) Zephyr
14 6 (1.60%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 6 (1.60%) Rational DOORS
14 6 (1.60%) WebDriver
General
1 135 (35.90%) Social Skills
2 62 (16.49%) Finance
3 44 (11.70%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (10.90%) Public Sector
5 21 (5.59%) Banking
6 11 (2.93%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (2.93%) Manufacturing
7 10 (2.66%) Aerospace
8 8 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.86%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.60%) Automotive
10 6 (1.60%) Electronics
10 6 (1.60%) Investment Banking
10 6 (1.60%) Military
11 5 (1.33%) Front Office
11 5 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.06%) Law
12 4 (1.06%) Multimedia
12 4 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.80%) Billing
Job Titles
1 55 (14.63%) Senior
2 45 (11.97%) Software Engineer
3 44 (11.70%) Analyst
4 39 (10.37%) Developer
5 37 (9.84%) Test Analyst
6 36 (9.57%) Tester
7 35 (9.31%) Test Engineer
8 33 (8.78%) Lead
9 26 (6.91%) Consultant
10 15 (3.99%) Release Manager
11 14 (3.72%) QA Engineer
11 14 (3.72%) QA Leader
11 14 (3.72%) Test Manager
12 13 (3.46%) Software Developer
12 13 (3.46%) Test Leader
13 12 (3.19%) Java Engineer
13 12 (3.19%) Senior Analyst
13 12 (3.19%) Senior Test Engineer
14 11 (2.93%) Python Engineer
14 11 (2.93%) Senior Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (9.84%) .NET
2 33 (8.78%) Playwright
3 32 (8.51%) React
4 31 (8.24%) Node.js
5 27 (7.18%) HTML
5 27 (7.18%) RESTful
6 25 (6.65%) REST
6 25 (6.65%) Spring
6 25 (6.65%) Spring Boot
7 24 (6.38%) CSS
8 18 (4.79%) AngularJS
9 16 (4.26%) Kafka
10 15 (3.99%) SOAP
11 14 (3.72%) .NET Framework
12 10 (2.66%) Gherkin
12 10 (2.66%) Vue
13 9 (2.39%) Svelte
13 9 (2.39%) Swagger
14 8 (2.13%) FastAPI
14 8 (2.13%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.12%) Self-Motivation
2 22 (5.85%) Product Ownership
3 18 (4.79%) Cloud Native
3 18 (4.79%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (3.19%) Algorithms
4 12 (3.19%) Data Structures
5 8 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.33%) CUDA
7 5 (1.33%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.06%) Derivative
8 4 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.06%) PCIe
9 3 (0.80%) AI Agents
9 3 (0.80%) Distributed Computing
9 3 (0.80%) FPGA
9 3 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (0.80%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.80%) PKI
9 3 (0.80%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 32 (8.51%) Windows
2 30 (7.98%) Linux
3 11 (2.93%) Unix
4 4 (1.06%) FreeRTOS
5 3 (0.80%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.80%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.27%) Android
6 1 (0.27%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.27%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.27%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.27%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.27%) Robot Operating System
6 1 (0.27%) Solaris
6 1 (0.27%) VMS
6 1 (0.27%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (43.09%) Agile
2 154 (40.96%) Test Automation
3 137 (36.44%) CI/CD
4 111 (29.52%) DevOps
5 106 (28.19%) Problem-Solving
6 71 (18.88%) Test Scripting
7 68 (18.09%) Software Engineering
8 64 (17.02%) Continuous Improvement
9 63 (16.76%) Scrum
9 63 (16.76%) Test Strategy
10 59 (15.69%) Validation
11 56 (14.89%) Microservices
12 52 (13.83%) Test Management
13 51 (13.56%) API Testing
14 46 (12.23%) Containerisation
15 45 (11.97%) TDD
16 43 (11.44%) SDLC
17 37 (9.84%) Integration Testing
18 35 (9.31%) Computer Science
19 34 (9.04%) AI
Programming Languages
1 70 (18.62%) Python
2 64 (17.02%) Java
3 61 (16.22%) JavaScript
4 57 (15.16%) SQL
5 42 (11.17%) C#
6 32 (8.51%) TypeScript
7 23 (6.12%) C++
8 13 (3.46%) Bash
9 12 (3.19%) C
9 12 (3.19%) Shell Script
10 8 (2.13%) Ada
10 8 (2.13%) Go
11 6 (1.60%) Groovy
11 6 (1.60%) Scala
12 5 (1.33%) Ruby
12 5 (1.33%) VB
13 4 (1.06%) PowerShell
14 3 (0.80%) Embedded C
14 3 (0.80%) PL/SQL
14 3 (0.80%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 104 (27.66%) Security Cleared
2 90 (23.94%) SC Cleared
3 43 (11.44%) Degree
4 33 (8.78%) ISTQB
5 21 (5.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (2.66%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (2.66%) CISSP
7 9 (2.39%) CISM
8 8 (2.13%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 7 (1.86%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.33%) ISEB
11 4 (1.06%) HNC
11 4 (1.06%) HND
11 4 (1.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 3 (0.80%) EMC Certification
12 3 (0.80%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.80%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.53%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (26.86%) QA
2 26 (6.91%) Accessibility
3 13 (3.46%) NIST
4 10 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (2.66%) WCAG
5 7 (1.86%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.60%) EU AI Act
6 6 (1.60%) GDPR
7 4 (1.06%) SLA
8 3 (0.80%) Def Stans
8 3 (0.80%) IEC 61508
8 3 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 2 (0.53%) GRC
9 2 (0.53%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.27%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.27%) HL7
10 1 (0.27%) IEC 61131
10 1 (0.27%) PMO
10 1 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 54 (14.36%) Docker
2 5 (1.33%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.80%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.27%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 51 (13.56%) Kubernetes
2 15 (3.99%) Ansible
2 15 (3.99%) Terraform
3 9 (2.39%) Grafana
4 5 (1.33%) Puppet
5 4 (1.06%) Functional Safety
5 4 (1.06%) HP ALM
5 4 (1.06%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.80%) vCenter Server
6 3 (0.80%) WSUS
7 2 (0.53%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (0.53%) Nessus
8 1 (0.27%) Control-M
8 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.27%) Nmap
8 1 (0.27%) Packer
8 1 (0.27%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.27%) Rsyslog
8 1 (0.27%) SCOM
Vendors
1 55 (14.63%) Microsoft
2 32 (8.51%) Oracle
3 11 (2.93%) Google
4 10 (2.66%) Cisco
4 10 (2.66%) CyberArk
5 9 (2.39%) BeyondTrust
5 9 (2.39%) Splunk
5 9 (2.39%) Thycotic
6 8 (2.13%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.60%) Atlassian
7 6 (1.60%) Meraki
7 6 (1.60%) VMware
8 5 (1.33%) HP
8 5 (1.33%) Juniper
8 5 (1.33%) Salesforce
8 5 (1.33%) Workday
9 4 (1.06%) CA Agile Central
9 4 (1.06%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.06%) Nokia
9 4 (1.06%) SAP
255 Software Testing jobs in England