ISTQB Contract Job Trends in the South East

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 10 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 183 145 148
Rank change year-on-year -38 +3 +39
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 44 17 38
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.66% 0.49% 0.82%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.51% 1.23% 1.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 12 31
10th Percentile £358 - £350
25th Percentile £415 - £429
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +14.22% -14.29% -
75th Percentile £558 £538 £575
90th Percentile £586 - £603
England median daily rate £433 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +1.76% -10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 0 0
10th Percentile £59.78 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £60.00 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile £62.93 - -
England median hourly rate £60.00 £45.00 -
% change year-on-year +33.33% - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,918 1,380 2,009
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.97% 39.46% 43.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,970 887 1,258
10th Percentile £350 £234 £350
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £731 £650 £723
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 310 125 163
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.80
25th Percentile £35.22 £18.87 £48.18
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £83.00 £68.50 £71.82
90th Percentile £100.94 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.52 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.82% -54.27% -

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

ISTQB job vacancy trend in the South East

ISTQB
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB

ISTQB
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB in the South East over the 6 months to 10 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in the South East

ISTQB
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB

ISTQB
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 ISTQB within the South East region over the 6 months to 10 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
Hampshire -17 22 £575 +9.52% 3
Thames Valley -33 13 £502 +11.56% 6
Buckinghamshire - 12 £502 - 2
West Sussex - 9 £379 -
Berkshire -32 1 - - 3
ISTQB
England

ISTQB
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 1 (2.27%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (2.27%) Infor SunSystems
1 1 (2.27%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 13 (29.55%) AWS
2 12 (27.27%) Azure
3 3 (6.82%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (4.55%) Tricentis Tosca
5 1 (2.27%) SaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.82%) Data Warehouse
1 3 (6.82%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 11 (25.00%) JIRA
2 4 (9.09%) Jenkins
3 3 (6.82%) GitLab
3 3 (6.82%) Zephyr
4 2 (4.55%) Git
4 2 (4.55%) Selenium
4 2 (4.55%) TestRail
5 1 (2.27%) JUnit
5 1 (2.27%) NUnit
5 1 (2.27%) Postman
5 1 (2.27%) SoapUI
5 1 (2.27%) Toad
General
1 9 (20.45%) Social Skills
2 6 (13.64%) Public Sector
3 4 (9.09%) Aerospace
4 3 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (6.82%) Finance
5 1 (2.27%) Billing
Job Titles
1 21 (47.73%) Test Manager
2 12 (27.27%) Analyst
3 8 (18.18%) Test Analyst
4 6 (13.64%) Senior
4 6 (13.64%) Tester
5 4 (9.09%) Business Analyst
5 4 (9.09%) Lead
5 4 (9.09%) Systems Manager
5 4 (9.09%) Test Leader
6 3 (6.82%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
6 3 (6.82%) Infrastructure Analyst
6 3 (6.82%) Infrastructure Test Analyst
6 3 (6.82%) Infrastructure Tester
6 3 (6.82%) QA Manager
6 3 (6.82%) QA Test Manager
6 3 (6.82%) Senior Analyst
6 3 (6.82%) Senior Business Analyst
7 2 (4.55%) SAP Analyst
7 2 (4.55%) SAP Test Analyst
7 2 (4.55%) SDLC Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (6.82%) XML
2 1 (2.27%) ADO
2 1 (2.27%) Flask
2 1 (2.27%) pytest
2 1 (2.27%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 5 (11.36%) PKI
2 1 (2.27%) Legacy Applications
2 1 (2.27%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 9 (20.45%) Windows
2 7 (15.91%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (61.36%) Defect Management
2 25 (56.82%) End-to-End Testing
3 21 (47.73%) Test Management
4 19 (43.18%) Software Testing
5 16 (36.36%) PRINCE2
6 15 (34.09%) Agile
6 15 (34.09%) Test Automation
7 14 (31.82%) CI/CD
8 12 (27.27%) Project Management
8 12 (27.27%) Project Planning
9 11 (25.00%) Integration Testing
10 10 (22.73%) Continuous Integration
11 8 (18.18%) Non-Functional Testing
11 8 (18.18%) SDLC
12 7 (15.91%) Customer Requirements
12 7 (15.91%) Scaled Agile Framework
13 6 (13.64%) Manual Testing
13 6 (13.64%) System Testing
13 6 (13.64%) Test Scripting
13 6 (13.64%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 14 (31.82%) SQL
2 3 (6.82%) Python
3 1 (2.27%) Java
Qualifications
1 35 (79.55%) Security Cleared
2 25 (56.82%) SC Cleared
3 18 (40.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 13 (29.55%) Degree
4 13 (29.55%) DV Cleared
4 13 (29.55%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 8 (18.18%) ISEB
5 8 (18.18%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 1 (2.27%) CBAP
6 1 (2.27%) ISEB Practitioner
6 1 (2.27%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (18.18%) QA
2 1 (2.27%) PMO
System Software
1 7 (15.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (11.36%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (2.27%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (2.27%) HP ALM
1 1 (2.27%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 8 (18.18%) VMware
2 7 (15.91%) Cisco
3 5 (11.36%) Oracle
3 5 (11.36%) SAP
4 1 (2.27%) HP
4 1 (2.27%) Microsoft
4 1 (2.27%) webMethods