ISTQB Contract Job Trends in London

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in London with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 316 340 363
Rank change year-on-year +24 +23 +99
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 56 23 32
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.39% 0.16% 0.18%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.33% 0.64% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 15 24
10th Percentile £350 £213 £408
25th Percentile £390 £272 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £495
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +3.13%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £581
90th Percentile £700 £705 £650
England median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +11.11%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
London

ISTQB falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 4,224 3,616 4,441
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 29.45% 25.82% 24.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,951 2,249 2,976
10th Percentile £363 £353 £331
25th Percentile £431 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £644 £650 £657
90th Percentile £750 £775 £771
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 61 103
10th Percentile £19.54 £21.50 £17.60
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.66 £19.99
Median hourly rate £27.50 £39.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.49% -2.50% -0.62%
75th Percentile £65.00 £56.25 £65.38
90th Percentile £76.58 £83.20 £85.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £50.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% -7.64% +11.11%

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing ISTQB relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

ISTQB job vacancy trend in London

ISTQB
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing ISTQB.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing ISTQB

ISTQB
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB in London over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in London

ISTQB
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing ISTQB.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing ISTQB

ISTQB
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the London region over the 6 months to 18 January 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
Central London +8 7 £500 - 3
East London - 6 £448 -
South London -5 1 £363 +64.77% 5
ISTQB
England

ISTQB
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 7 (12.50%) Confluence
2 1 (1.79%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (1.79%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (5.36%) Algo Collateral
2 2 (3.57%) Aladdin
2 2 (3.57%) Eagle PACE
2 2 (3.57%) Markit EDM
2 2 (3.57%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (3.57%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (1.79%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (1.79%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 21 (37.50%) Azure
2 12 (21.43%) Azure DevOps
3 8 (14.29%) AWS
4 7 (12.50%) GitHub
5 4 (7.14%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (5.36%) Azure Data Factory
6 3 (5.36%) GitHub Actions
6 3 (5.36%) Power Platform
6 3 (5.36%) Tricentis Tosca
7 2 (3.57%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 2 (3.57%) Azure Functions
7 2 (3.57%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (3.57%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (3.57%) PaaS
7 2 (3.57%) SaaS
7 2 (3.57%) Serverless
7 2 (3.57%) Snowflake
8 1 (1.79%) BrowserStack
8 1 (1.79%) GCP
8 1 (1.79%) Google Play
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.79%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.36%) Data Lake
1 3 (5.36%) NoSQL
1 3 (5.36%) Star Schema
2 1 (1.79%) Big Data
2 1 (1.79%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
2 1 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.79%) Oracle Database
2 1 (1.79%) Relational Database
2 1 (1.79%) SAP BW
2 1 (1.79%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 33 (58.93%) JIRA
2 18 (32.14%) Selenium
3 10 (17.86%) JMeter
4 8 (14.29%) TestRail
5 7 (12.50%) Cypress.io
5 7 (12.50%) Jenkins
6 6 (10.71%) Cucumber
6 6 (10.71%) Postman
7 4 (7.14%) JUnit
8 3 (5.36%) Git
8 3 (5.36%) GitLab
8 3 (5.36%) Locust
8 3 (5.36%) MSTest
9 2 (3.57%) Appium
9 2 (3.57%) Robot Framework
10 1 (1.79%) Android Studio
10 1 (1.79%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (1.79%) TestComplete
10 1 (1.79%) TestNG
10 1 (1.79%) Zephyr
General
1 26 (46.43%) Social Skills
2 17 (30.36%) Finance
3 10 (17.86%) Banking
4 9 (16.07%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (14.29%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.57%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (3.57%) Front Office
6 2 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (3.57%) Legal
6 2 (3.57%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.79%) Billing
7 1 (1.79%) Corporate Banking
7 1 (1.79%) General Ledger
7 1 (1.79%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.79%) Law
7 1 (1.79%) Military
7 1 (1.79%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 15 (26.79%) Tester
2 13 (23.21%) Lead
3 11 (19.64%) Senior
4 9 (16.07%) Test Leader
5 8 (14.29%) Analyst
5 8 (14.29%) QA Engineer
6 7 (12.50%) Automation Tester
6 7 (12.50%) Test Analyst
7 6 (10.71%) Senior Automation Tester
7 6 (10.71%) Senior Tester
7 6 (10.71%) Test Manager
8 5 (8.93%) Test Engineer
9 3 (5.36%) Integration Tester
9 3 (5.36%) QA Leader
9 3 (5.36%) Senior Analyst
10 2 (3.57%) QA Tester
10 2 (3.57%) Senior Test Analyst
10 2 (3.57%) Test Specialist
11 1 (1.79%) Senior Test Engineer
11 1 (1.79%) Test Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (16.07%) REST
2 7 (12.50%) Playwright
2 7 (12.50%) XML
3 5 (8.93%) JSON
3 5 (8.93%) SOAP
4 4 (7.14%) Web Services
5 3 (5.36%) Oracle Fusion
6 2 (3.57%) .NET
6 2 (3.57%) OpenAPI
6 2 (3.57%) Swagger
7 1 (1.79%) CSS
7 1 (1.79%) EDI
7 1 (1.79%) HTML
7 1 (1.79%) pytest
7 1 (1.79%) React Native
7 1 (1.79%) RESTful
7 1 (1.79%) SailPoint
7 1 (1.79%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 2 (3.57%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (3.57%) Derivative
1 2 (3.57%) Distributed Systems
1 2 (3.57%) Mobile App
1 2 (3.57%) Onboarding
1 2 (3.57%) Product Ownership
2 1 (1.79%) AS400
2 1 (1.79%) Data Structures
2 1 (1.79%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (1.79%) iSeries
2 1 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
2 1 (1.79%) Tandem
2 1 (1.79%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 5 (8.93%) Linux
2 4 (7.14%) Unix
3 2 (3.57%) Android
3 2 (3.57%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.79%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (64.29%) Test Automation
2 35 (62.50%) Agile
3 25 (44.64%) DevOps
4 18 (32.14%) CI/CD
5 15 (26.79%) Defect Management
5 15 (26.79%) Test Management
5 15 (26.79%) User Acceptance Testing
6 14 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 14 (25.00%) Test Strategy
7 12 (21.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 12 (21.43%) Validation
8 11 (19.64%) End-to-End Testing
8 11 (19.64%) Software Testing
9 10 (17.86%) Non-Functional Testing
9 10 (17.86%) Regression Testing
9 10 (17.86%) Test Scripting
10 9 (16.07%) API Testing
10 9 (16.07%) Integration Testing
10 9 (16.07%) Scenario Testing
10 9 (16.07%) System Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 25 (44.64%) SQL
2 11 (19.64%) Python
3 8 (14.29%) Java
4 6 (10.71%) JavaScript
5 5 (8.93%) C#
6 2 (3.57%) C
7 1 (1.79%) Bash
7 1 (1.79%) C++
7 1 (1.79%) PL/SQL
7 1 (1.79%) Rust
7 1 (1.79%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.79%) VB
Qualifications
1 16 (28.57%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 11 (19.64%) Security Cleared
3 9 (16.07%) ISEB
3 9 (16.07%) SC Cleared
4 6 (10.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 5 (8.93%) Degree
6 2 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (1.79%) CFA
7 1 (1.79%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (53.57%) QA
2 3 (5.36%) Accessibility
2 3 (5.36%) GDPR
2 3 (5.36%) NIST
3 1 (1.79%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.79%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 1 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 1 (1.79%) Software Quality Assurance
3 1 (1.79%) WCAG
System Software
1 6 (10.71%) Docker
2 1 (1.79%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (12.50%) HP ALM
2 3 (5.36%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.79%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 7 (12.50%) HP
1 7 (12.50%) Microsoft
1 7 (12.50%) Oracle
2 3 (5.36%) SmartStream
3 2 (3.57%) GoldenSource
3 2 (3.57%) IBM
3 2 (3.57%) Salesforce
3 2 (3.57%) SAP
3 2 (3.57%) ServiceNow
4 1 (1.79%) Apple
4 1 (1.79%) Google
4 1 (1.79%) webMethods
4 1 (1.79%) Workday