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 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 239 241 209
Rank change year-on-year +2 -32 -43
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 527 302 380
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.14% 1.10% 1.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.34% 1.20% 1.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 278 198 247
10th Percentile £269 £313 £324
25th Percentile £400 £358 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £436 £463
Median % change year-on-year +6.65% -5.68% -11.90%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £588
90th Percentile £662 £607 £642
UK median daily rate £460 £440 £463
% change year-on-year +4.55% -4.86% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 27 19
10th Percentile £26.00 £26.25 £34.74
25th Percentile £53.90 £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 £60.57 £54.85 £57.50
% change year-on-year +10.43% -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 39,188 25,068 27,886
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.60% 90.98% 86.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,853 15,921 17,051
10th Percentile £325 £298 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -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 2,855 1,537 1,209
10th Percentile £13.91 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.60 £17.87 £20.19
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £47.00 £67.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.35 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -21 180 £525 +17.98% 286
South East -44 90 £425 +6.25% 142
Midlands +26 89 £459 +6.87% 129
West Midlands +23 85 £458 -9.70% 80
North of England -57 60 £463 +6.32% 143
East of England +8 55 £77 -84.29% 87
South West -26 44 £410 -8.58% 84
North East -20 26 £500 +37.93% 20
North West -41 19 £463 +36.03% 79
Yorkshire -50 17 £450 -2.17% 44
East Midlands -17 4 £575 +69.12% 49
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 (3.23%) Confluence
2 10 (1.90%) Apache Airflow
2 10 (1.90%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.71%) SAS
4 6 (1.14%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
6 1 (0.19%) FactoryTalk
6 1 (0.19%) IIS
6 1 (0.19%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.19%) WinCC
Applications
1 12 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.09%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.95%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.76%) Trello
5 3 (0.57%) Simulink
6 1 (0.19%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 6 (1.14%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.57%) Findur
2 3 (0.57%) 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
1 141 (26.76%) AWS
2 115 (21.82%) Azure
3 59 (11.20%) GitHub
4 53 (10.06%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (5.69%) GCP
6 25 (4.74%) GitHub Copilot
7 23 (4.36%) GitHub Actions
8 16 (3.04%) Serverless
9 14 (2.66%) AWS Lambda
10 12 (2.28%) Amazon S3
11 10 (1.90%) SaaS
12 9 (1.71%) PaaS
12 9 (1.71%) Power Platform
13 8 (1.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 8 (1.52%) Amazon EC2
14 7 (1.33%) OpenShift
14 7 (1.33%) Snowflake
15 6 (1.14%) Anthropic Claude
16 5 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
17 4 (0.76%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.09%) Ethernet
2 5 (0.95%) DNS
2 5 (0.95%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (0.95%) Wireless
3 4 (0.76%) DHCP
3 4 (0.76%) Firewall
3 4 (0.76%) Internet
3 4 (0.76%) 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%) GSM
5 1 (0.19%) HTTP
5 1 (0.19%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.19%) IPv4
5 1 (0.19%) IPv6
5 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.19%) UMTS
5 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (5.88%) Relational Database
2 23 (4.36%) MongoDB
3 19 (3.61%) SQL Server
4 15 (2.85%) NoSQL
5 12 (2.28%) Oracle Database
6 10 (1.90%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (1.71%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 9 (1.71%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 8 (1.52%) DynamoDB
9 6 (1.14%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (1.14%) Power BI
10 5 (0.95%) Big Data
10 5 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.95%) MySQL
11 4 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
11 4 (0.76%) Pinecone
11 4 (0.76%) Redis
12 3 (0.57%) Chroma
12 3 (0.57%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 105 (19.92%) Selenium
2 104 (19.73%) Git
3 74 (14.04%) JIRA
4 64 (12.14%) Cucumber
4 64 (12.14%) GitLab
5 49 (9.30%) JUnit
6 39 (7.40%) Jenkins
7 38 (7.21%) Gatling
8 35 (6.64%) Postman
9 26 (4.93%) REST Assured
10 23 (4.36%) SonarQube
11 18 (3.42%) JMeter
12 17 (3.23%) Rational DOORS
13 16 (3.04%) Cypress.io
14 12 (2.28%) WebDriver
15 11 (2.09%) Visual Studio
15 11 (2.09%) Zephyr
16 10 (1.90%) TestNG
16 10 (1.90%) TestRail
17 9 (1.71%) SoapUI
General
1 183 (34.72%) Social Skills
2 97 (18.41%) Finance
3 77 (14.61%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (13.28%) Public Sector
5 57 (10.82%) Banking
6 33 (6.26%) Automotive
7 27 (5.12%) Aerospace
8 19 (3.61%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.47%) Front Office
10 11 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.90%) Electronics
11 10 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.90%) Retail
12 9 (1.71%) Law
12 9 (1.71%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (1.52%) Military
14 7 (1.33%) Back Office
15 5 (0.95%) Avionics
15 5 (0.95%) Legal
Job Titles
1 79 (14.99%) Senior
2 76 (14.42%) Developer
3 73 (13.85%) Test Engineer
4 70 (13.28%) Software Engineer
5 38 (7.21%) Analyst
6 33 (6.26%) Tester
7 30 (5.69%) Test Manager
8 29 (5.50%) Lead
8 29 (5.50%) Quality Engineer
9 26 (4.93%) Architect
9 26 (4.93%) Java Developer
9 26 (4.93%) Software Developer
10 23 (4.36%) Test Automation Engineer
11 21 (3.98%) Software Test Engineer
12 19 (3.61%) Principal Engineer
13 18 (3.42%) QA Engineer
14 17 (3.23%) Test Analyst
15 16 (3.04%) Automation Engineer
15 16 (3.04%) Java Engineer
16 15 (2.85%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (12.71%) Playwright
2 61 (11.57%) Spring
3 45 (8.54%) .NET
4 41 (7.78%) React
5 38 (7.21%) REST
6 36 (6.83%) Kafka
7 34 (6.45%) Terraform
8 32 (6.07%) Spring Boot
9 25 (4.74%) RESTful
10 21 (3.98%) Node.js
11 20 (3.80%) WireMock
12 19 (3.61%) Gherkin
13 15 (2.85%) JSON
14 14 (2.66%) AngularJS
15 13 (2.47%) XML
16 12 (2.28%) HTML
17 11 (2.09%) SOAP
18 10 (1.90%) Web Services
19 9 (1.71%) OpenAPI
19 9 (1.71%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 44 (8.35%) Product Ownership
2 40 (7.59%) Cloud Native
3 36 (6.83%) Enterprise Software
4 23 (4.36%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (4.36%) Embedded Systems
5 16 (3.04%) Self-Motivation
6 11 (2.09%) Onboarding
7 9 (1.71%) Data Structures
7 9 (1.71%) Distributed Architecture
7 9 (1.71%) Management Information System
8 8 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.33%) AI Agents
9 7 (1.33%) Algorithms
9 7 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.14%) Public Cloud
11 5 (0.95%) Derivative
11 5 (0.95%) Equity Derivative
11 5 (0.95%) FPGA
11 5 (0.95%) PCIe
Operating Systems
1 39 (7.40%) Linux
2 28 (5.31%) Windows
3 10 (1.90%) Unix
4 8 (1.52%) Windows Server
5 6 (1.14%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.76%) Android
6 4 (0.76%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.76%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.38%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 264 (50.09%) Test Automation
2 260 (49.34%) Agile
3 247 (46.87%) CI/CD
4 160 (30.36%) Software Engineering
5 148 (28.08%) DevOps
6 131 (24.86%) Continuous Improvement
7 119 (22.58%) SDLC
8 113 (21.44%) Scrum
9 110 (20.87%) Problem-Solving
10 99 (18.79%) Validation
11 87 (16.51%) Microservices
12 86 (16.32%) Test Strategy
13 81 (15.37%) Stakeholder Management
14 80 (15.18%) Defect Management
14 80 (15.18%) Test Scripting
15 71 (13.47%) Mentoring
16 70 (13.28%) AI
17 66 (12.52%) API Testing
17 66 (12.52%) End-to-End Testing
18 65 (12.33%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 141 (26.76%) Java
2 105 (19.92%) Python
3 92 (17.46%) SQL
4 58 (11.01%) JavaScript
5 43 (8.16%) C#
6 36 (6.83%) TypeScript
7 27 (5.12%) C++
8 17 (3.23%) C
9 15 (2.85%) PowerShell
10 9 (1.71%) Bash
11 8 (1.52%) Kotlin
12 7 (1.33%) Go
13 5 (0.95%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.95%) Korn
13 5 (0.95%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.76%) Ruby
14 4 (0.76%) Scala
15 3 (0.57%) COBOL
15 3 (0.57%) RPG
15 3 (0.57%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 177 (33.59%) Security Cleared
2 139 (26.38%) SC Cleared
3 73 (13.85%) Degree
4 54 (10.25%) ISTQB
5 33 (6.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (6.26%) DV Cleared
6 20 (3.80%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 18 (3.42%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 17 (3.23%) Computer Science Degree
9 12 (2.28%) ISEB
10 4 (0.76%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.76%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.57%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.57%) CCNA
11 3 (0.57%) CEH
11 3 (0.57%) CISSP
11 3 (0.57%) CompTIA Security+
11 3 (0.57%) PMP
12 2 (0.38%) ISEB Practitioner
12 2 (0.38%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 129 (24.48%) QA
2 53 (10.06%) Accessibility
3 33 (6.26%) WCAG
4 7 (1.33%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.14%) ISO 20022
6 5 (0.95%) NIST
6 5 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
7 4 (0.76%) AUTOSAR
7 4 (0.76%) ISO 26262
8 3 (0.57%) GRC
9 2 (0.38%) ISO 15022
9 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.38%) MISRA
9 2 (0.38%) SLA
10 1 (0.19%) HL7
10 1 (0.19%) IEC 61508
10 1 (0.19%) JTAG
10 1 (0.19%) MiFID
10 1 (0.19%) MIL-STD-1553
10 1 (0.19%) SEPA
System Software
1 84 (15.94%) Docker
2 11 (2.09%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.95%) Firmware
5 4 (0.76%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.57%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.38%) NFS
7 2 (0.38%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.38%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 92 (17.46%) Kubernetes
2 17 (3.23%) Ansible
3 13 (2.47%) Prometheus
4 11 (2.09%) Grafana
5 8 (1.52%) HP ALM
6 6 (1.14%) Packer
7 5 (0.95%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.76%) Puppet
9 3 (0.57%) Argo
9 3 (0.57%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.57%) 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 37 (7.02%) Oracle
2 36 (6.83%) Microsoft
3 22 (4.17%) IBM
4 18 (3.42%) Salesforce
5 10 (1.90%) Google
5 10 (1.90%) SAP
5 10 (1.90%) Splunk
6 8 (1.52%) HP
7 7 (1.33%) VMware
8 6 (1.14%) Conga
8 6 (1.14%) Databricks
8 6 (1.14%) GoCardless
9 5 (0.95%) ServiceNow
10 4 (0.76%) Red Hat
11 3 (0.57%) Checkmarx
11 3 (0.57%) Dynatrace
11 3 (0.57%) OpenLink
11 3 (0.57%) Siemens
11 3 (0.57%) UiPath
12 2 (0.38%) OpenAI