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 31 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 368 318 357
Rank change year-on-year -50 +39 +67
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 47 24 36
As % of all contract jobs in London 0.25% 0.20% 0.21%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.91% 0.76% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 22 26
10th Percentile £315 £320 £406
25th Percentile £363 £384 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £400 £550
Median % change year-on-year +11.25% -27.27% +4.76%
75th Percentile £488 £500 £650
90th Percentile £615 £581 £738
England median daily rate £411 £450 £525
% change year-on-year -8.61% -14.29% +5.00%

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 5,190 3,175 4,119
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 28.10% 25.90% 23.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,714 2,128 2,817
10th Percentile £372 £363 £325
25th Percentile £450 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +0.95% -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £661 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 62 112
10th Percentile £19.19 £20.02 £14.37
25th Percentile £27.00 £24.66 £20.22
Median hourly rate £55.00 £28.51 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year +92.95% +12.89% -50.25%
75th Percentile £76.58 £55.25 £42.75
90th Percentile £88.75 £68.63 £67.70
England median hourly rate £47.50 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.15% -18.75% -27.27%

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 31 May 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 31 May 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
East London - 5 £450 -
West London -30 3 - -
Central London -16 2 £469 +18.67%
South London - 1 £363 - 1
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 3 (6.38%) Confluence
2 1 (2.13%) Appian
Business Applications
1 2 (4.26%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (4.26%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (2.13%) Aladdin
2 1 (2.13%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 21 (44.68%) Azure
2 14 (29.79%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (12.77%) AWS
3 6 (12.77%) GitHub
4 4 (8.51%) Azure Data Factory
4 4 (8.51%) GitHub Actions
5 3 (6.38%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (4.26%) GCP
7 1 (2.13%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 1 (2.13%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (2.13%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (2.13%) Entra ID
7 1 (2.13%) Power Automate
7 1 (2.13%) Power Platform
7 1 (2.13%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 3 (6.38%) Network Security
2 1 (2.13%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.38%) Data Lake
1 3 (6.38%) Star Schema
2 2 (4.26%) NoSQL
2 2 (4.26%) SQL Server
3 1 (2.13%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (2.13%) Big Data
3 1 (2.13%) BigQuery
3 1 (2.13%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (2.13%) SQL Server Analysis Services
3 1 (2.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (2.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 23 (48.94%) JIRA
2 12 (25.53%) Selenium
3 9 (19.15%) Zephyr
4 8 (17.02%) JMeter
5 6 (12.77%) Cypress.io
6 4 (8.51%) Jenkins
6 4 (8.51%) Postman
6 4 (8.51%) TestRail
7 3 (6.38%) GitLab
8 2 (4.26%) Cucumber
8 2 (4.26%) Git
8 2 (4.26%) LoadRunner
8 2 (4.26%) MSTest
8 2 (4.26%) REST Assured
8 2 (4.26%) Robot Framework
9 1 (2.13%) QADirector
9 1 (2.13%) Subversion
9 1 (2.13%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (2.13%) TestDirector
9 1 (2.13%) TestNG
General
1 27 (57.45%) Social Skills
2 18 (38.30%) Finance
3 15 (31.91%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (27.66%) Banking
5 7 (14.89%) Public Sector
6 3 (6.38%) Legal
7 2 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (4.26%) Manufacturing
7 2 (4.26%) Military
8 1 (2.13%) Back Office
8 1 (2.13%) Corporate Banking
8 1 (2.13%) Front Office
8 1 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (2.13%) Investment Banking
8 1 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (2.13%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 12 (25.53%) Test Manager
2 9 (19.15%) Analyst
2 9 (19.15%) Senior
3 8 (17.02%) Tester
4 6 (12.77%) Lead
4 6 (12.77%) Test Engineer
5 5 (10.64%) Test Analyst
6 3 (6.38%) Automation Tester
6 3 (6.38%) Business Analyst
6 3 (6.38%) Network Manager
6 3 (6.38%) QA Leader
6 3 (6.38%) Senior Analyst
7 2 (4.26%) Applications Engineer
7 2 (4.26%) QA Tester
7 2 (4.26%) Senior Automation Tester
7 2 (4.26%) Senior Test Automation Engineer
7 2 (4.26%) Senior Test Engineer
7 2 (4.26%) Senior Test Manager
7 2 (4.26%) Test Automation Engineer
7 2 (4.26%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (17.02%) Playwright
2 3 (6.38%) REST
3 2 (4.26%) ADO
3 2 (4.26%) SailPoint
3 2 (4.26%) XML
4 1 (2.13%) .NET
4 1 (2.13%) CSS
4 1 (2.13%) ebXML
4 1 (2.13%) HTML
4 1 (2.13%) JSON
4 1 (2.13%) Lightning Web Components
4 1 (2.13%) Next.js
4 1 (2.13%) pytest
4 1 (2.13%) React
4 1 (2.13%) RESTful
4 1 (2.13%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (6.38%) Legacy Systems
1 3 (6.38%) Management Information System
2 2 (4.26%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (4.26%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.13%) Derivative
3 1 (2.13%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (2.13%) Low-Code
3 1 (2.13%) Product Ownership
3 1 (2.13%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 1 (2.13%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 2 (4.26%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (61.70%) Test Automation
2 27 (57.45%) Agile
3 20 (42.55%) DevOps
3 20 (42.55%) Test Strategy
4 18 (38.30%) Defect Management
5 17 (36.17%) User Acceptance Testing
6 15 (31.91%) CI/CD
6 15 (31.91%) Software Testing
7 13 (27.66%) Manual Testing
7 13 (27.66%) Stakeholder Management
8 12 (25.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 12 (25.53%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (25.53%) Test Management
9 11 (23.40%) End-to-End Testing
9 11 (23.40%) Scenario Testing
9 11 (23.40%) Scrum
9 11 (23.40%) Waterfall
10 10 (21.28%) Acceptance Criteria
10 10 (21.28%) Non-Functional Testing
10 10 (21.28%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 12 (25.53%) SQL
2 9 (19.15%) Python
3 5 (10.64%) JavaScript
4 4 (8.51%) C#
5 2 (4.26%) Java
6 1 (2.13%) Bash
6 1 (2.13%) C
6 1 (2.13%) C++
6 1 (2.13%) Rust
6 1 (2.13%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 11 (23.40%) Security Cleared
2 9 (19.15%) Degree
2 9 (19.15%) SC Cleared
3 7 (14.89%) ISEB
4 6 (12.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 5 (10.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 2 (4.26%) IIBA
7 1 (2.13%) AWS Certification
7 1 (2.13%) Azure Certification
7 1 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.13%) CFA
7 1 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (55.32%) QA
2 6 (12.77%) Accessibility
3 5 (10.64%) Data Quality
4 4 (8.51%) NIST
5 3 (6.38%) GDPR
6 2 (4.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 2 (4.26%) ISO 15022
6 2 (4.26%) ISO 20022
6 2 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (4.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (4.26%) WCAG
7 1 (2.13%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 7 (14.89%) Docker
2 1 (2.13%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (10.64%) Kubernetes
2 3 (6.38%) HP ALM
3 1 (2.13%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 14 (29.79%) Microsoft
2 5 (10.64%) Oracle
3 4 (8.51%) Citrix
4 3 (6.38%) HP
5 2 (4.26%) ServiceNow
6 1 (2.13%) CyberArk
6 1 (2.13%) Informatica
6 1 (2.13%) Salesforce