Exploratory Testing Contracts in the South East

Exploratory Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring Exploratory Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Exploratory Testing over the 6 months leading up to 21 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 142 192 209
Rank change year-on-year +50 +17 +47
Contract jobs citing Exploratory Testing 14 4 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.41% 0.074% 0.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.46% 0.090% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 4 4
10th Percentile - - £343
25th Percentile £375 - £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £350 £388
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -9.68% +12.73%
75th Percentile £491 £372 £425
90th Percentile £496 £411 £470
England median daily rate £488 £443 £450
% change year-on-year +10.05% -1.56% +9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 2
10th Percentile £47.75 - £51.63
25th Percentile - - £52.19
Median hourly rate £50.00 - £53.75
75th Percentile - - £54.69
90th Percentile - - £54.88
England median hourly rate £50.00 £62.50 £53.75
% change year-on-year -20.00% +16.28% -10.42%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Exploratory 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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,065 4,447 5,157
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 89.99% 82.75% 89.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,906 2,643 3,518
10th Percentile £250 £263 £260
25th Percentile £400 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £515
Median % change year-on-year -3.39% +0.49% +3.00%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £619
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 385 244
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.25 £15.50
25th Percentile £15.13 £19.25 £21.89
Median hourly rate £21.99 £54.88 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.94% +9.75% +112.77%
75th Percentile £52.90 £70.00 £64.72
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.30 £75.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -37.13% -5.88% +63.46%

Exploratory Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Exploratory Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Exploratory Testing in the South East

Exploratory Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Exploratory Testing in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Exploratory Testing in the South East

Exploratory Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Exploratory Testing in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Exploratory Testing in the South East

Exploratory Testing
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Exploratory Testing within the South East region over the 6 months to 21 July 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
Hampshire - 8 £400 - 3
Berkshire +27 6 £500 +17.65% 3
Thames Valley +24 6 £500 +17.65% 7
Exploratory Testing
England

Exploratory Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (7.14%) 3GPP
1 1 (7.14%) 5G
Development Applications
1 10 (71.43%) Selenium
2 5 (35.71%) Cucumber
2 5 (35.71%) Git
2 5 (35.71%) JIRA
2 5 (35.71%) Postman
2 5 (35.71%) WebDriver
General
1 3 (21.43%) Documentation Skills
1 3 (21.43%) Social Skills
2 2 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (7.14%) Aerospace
3 1 (7.14%) Public Sector
3 1 (7.14%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 6 (42.86%) Test Engineer
2 5 (35.71%) Software Test Engineer
3 3 (21.43%) Tester
4 2 (14.29%) QA Tester
5 1 (7.14%) Consultant
5 1 (7.14%) DevOps Engineer
5 1 (7.14%) Functional Consultant
5 1 (7.14%) Test Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (35.71%) REST
2 1 (7.14%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 5 (35.71%) Algorithms
2 4 (28.57%) Cloud Native
2 4 (28.57%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 11 (78.57%) Agile
3 7 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (50.00%) Software Testing
4 5 (35.71%) Data Modelling
4 5 (35.71%) Functional Testing
4 5 (35.71%) Mathematics
4 5 (35.71%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
4 5 (35.71%) Optimization Problems
4 5 (35.71%) Scenario Testing
4 5 (35.71%) Scrum
4 5 (35.71%) Sprint Planning
5 4 (28.57%) Code Quality
5 4 (28.57%) Data Collection
5 4 (28.57%) Manual Testing
5 4 (28.57%) SDLC
6 3 (21.43%) Acceptance Criteria
6 3 (21.43%) GAP Analysis
6 3 (21.43%) Performance Testing
6 3 (21.43%) Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (71.43%) Java
2 5 (35.71%) Python
Qualifications
1 5 (35.71%) Security Cleared
2 3 (21.43%) DV Cleared
3 2 (14.29%) Degree
3 2 (14.29%) Master's Degree
3 2 (14.29%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (64.29%) QA
Vendors
1 1 (7.14%) Ericsson