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 15 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 335 359
Rank change year-on-year +12 +24 +102
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 57 23 32
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.40% 0.16% 0.18%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.35% 0.63% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 15 24
10th Percentile £350 £213 £408
25th Percentile £360 £272 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £495
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +1.01% +4.21%
75th Percentile £534 £675 £581
90th Percentile £693 £715 £650
England median daily rate £445 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -11.00% - +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 4,219 3,638 4,334
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 29.37% 25.91% 24.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,948 2,272 2,895
10th Percentile £363 £350 £336
25th Percentile £438 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.13%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £658
90th Percentile £750 £775 £771
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 58 95
10th Percentile £19.84 £21.43 £18.13
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.66 £19.99
Median hourly rate £27.50 £38.25 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.10% -12.75% +8.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.00 £65.38
90th Percentile £76.58 £83.20 £86.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.71 £50.00
% change year-on-year -46.16% -6.58% +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 15 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 15 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 - 7 £510 - 3
East London - 6 £448 -
South London -5 1 £363 +64.77% 3
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 (12.28%) Confluence
2 1 (1.75%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (5.26%) Algo Collateral
2 2 (3.51%) Aladdin
2 2 (3.51%) Eagle PACE
2 2 (3.51%) Markit EDM
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (1.75%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (1.75%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 21 (36.84%) Azure
2 12 (21.05%) Azure DevOps
3 8 (14.04%) AWS
4 7 (12.28%) GitHub
5 4 (7.02%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (5.26%) Azure Data Factory
6 3 (5.26%) GitHub Actions
6 3 (5.26%) Power Platform
6 3 (5.26%) Tricentis Tosca
7 2 (3.51%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 2 (3.51%) Azure Functions
7 2 (3.51%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (3.51%) Azure Service Bus
7 2 (3.51%) PaaS
7 2 (3.51%) SaaS
7 2 (3.51%) Serverless
7 2 (3.51%) Snowflake
8 1 (1.75%) BrowserStack
8 1 (1.75%) GCP
8 1 (1.75%) Google Play
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.75%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.26%) Data Lake
1 3 (5.26%) NoSQL
1 3 (5.26%) Star Schema
2 1 (1.75%) Big Data
2 1 (1.75%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
2 1 (1.75%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.75%) Oracle Database
2 1 (1.75%) Relational Database
2 1 (1.75%) SAP BW
2 1 (1.75%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (54.39%) JIRA
2 18 (31.58%) Selenium
3 10 (17.54%) JMeter
4 8 (14.04%) TestRail
5 7 (12.28%) Jenkins
6 6 (10.53%) Cucumber
6 6 (10.53%) Cypress.io
6 6 (10.53%) Postman
7 4 (7.02%) JUnit
8 3 (5.26%) Git
8 3 (5.26%) GitLab
8 3 (5.26%) Locust
8 3 (5.26%) MSTest
9 2 (3.51%) Appium
9 2 (3.51%) Robot Framework
9 2 (3.51%) TestNG
10 1 (1.75%) Android Studio
10 1 (1.75%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (1.75%) TestComplete
10 1 (1.75%) Zephyr
General
1 26 (45.61%) Social Skills
2 17 (29.82%) Finance
3 11 (19.30%) Banking
4 9 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (12.28%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.51%) Front Office
6 2 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (3.51%) Legal
6 2 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.75%) Billing
7 1 (1.75%) Corporate Banking
7 1 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.75%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.75%) General Ledger
7 1 (1.75%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.75%) Law
7 1 (1.75%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.75%) Military
7 1 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 15 (26.32%) Tester
2 13 (22.81%) Lead
3 10 (17.54%) Senior
4 9 (15.79%) Test Leader
5 8 (14.04%) Analyst
5 8 (14.04%) QA Engineer
6 7 (12.28%) Automation Tester
6 7 (12.28%) Test Analyst
6 7 (12.28%) Test Manager
7 6 (10.53%) Senior Automation Tester
7 6 (10.53%) Senior Tester
8 5 (8.77%) Test Engineer
9 3 (5.26%) QA Leader
9 3 (5.26%) QA Tester
10 2 (3.51%) Integration Tester
10 2 (3.51%) Salesforce Tester
10 2 (3.51%) Senior Analyst
10 2 (3.51%) Senior Test Analyst
10 2 (3.51%) Test Specialist
11 1 (1.75%) Functional Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (15.79%) REST
2 7 (12.28%) XML
3 6 (10.53%) Playwright
4 5 (8.77%) JSON
4 5 (8.77%) SOAP
5 4 (7.02%) Web Services
6 3 (5.26%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (3.51%) .NET
7 2 (3.51%) OpenAPI
7 2 (3.51%) Swagger
8 1 (1.75%) CSS
8 1 (1.75%) EDI
8 1 (1.75%) HTML
8 1 (1.75%) pytest
8 1 (1.75%) React Native
8 1 (1.75%) RESTful
8 1 (1.75%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 3 (5.26%) Mobile App
2 2 (3.51%) Derivative
2 2 (3.51%) Distributed Systems
2 2 (3.51%) Product Ownership
2 2 (3.51%) Virtual Team
3 1 (1.75%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (1.75%) AS400
3 1 (1.75%) Data Structures
3 1 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (1.75%) iSeries
3 1 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (1.75%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.75%) Onboarding
3 1 (1.75%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 5 (8.77%) Linux
2 4 (7.02%) Unix
3 2 (3.51%) Android
3 2 (3.51%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.75%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (63.16%) Test Automation
2 35 (61.40%) Agile
3 25 (43.86%) DevOps
4 18 (31.58%) CI/CD
5 15 (26.32%) Test Strategy
6 14 (24.56%) Defect Management
6 14 (24.56%) Test Management
6 14 (24.56%) User Acceptance Testing
7 13 (22.81%) End-to-End Testing
7 13 (22.81%) Stakeholder Management
7 13 (22.81%) Validation
8 12 (21.05%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (19.30%) Problem-Solving
9 11 (19.30%) Test Scripting
10 10 (17.54%) Regression Testing
10 10 (17.54%) Software Testing
11 9 (15.79%) API Testing
11 9 (15.79%) Integration Testing
11 9 (15.79%) Non-Functional Testing
11 9 (15.79%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 25 (43.86%) SQL
2 10 (17.54%) Python
3 7 (12.28%) Java
4 6 (10.53%) JavaScript
5 5 (8.77%) C#
6 2 (3.51%) C
7 1 (1.75%) Bash
7 1 (1.75%) C++
7 1 (1.75%) PL/SQL
7 1 (1.75%) Rust
7 1 (1.75%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.75%) VB
Qualifications
1 16 (28.07%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 10 (17.54%) Security Cleared
3 8 (14.04%) ISEB
3 8 (14.04%) SC Cleared
4 6 (10.53%) Degree
4 6 (10.53%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 2 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.75%) CBAP
6 1 (1.75%) CFA
6 1 (1.75%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (52.63%) QA
2 3 (5.26%) GDPR
2 3 (5.26%) NIST
3 2 (3.51%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.75%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.75%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (1.75%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (1.75%) WCAG
System Software
1 6 (10.53%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (12.28%) HP ALM
2 3 (5.26%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.75%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 7 (12.28%) HP
1 7 (12.28%) Microsoft
2 6 (10.53%) Oracle
3 3 (5.26%) Salesforce
3 3 (5.26%) SmartStream
4 2 (3.51%) GoldenSource
4 2 (3.51%) IBM
4 2 (3.51%) SAP
5 1 (1.75%) Apple
5 1 (1.75%) Google
5 1 (1.75%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.75%) webMethods
5 1 (1.75%) Workday