Software Testing Contracts in the South East

Software Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring Software Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Software Testing over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 107 108 131
Rank change year-on-year +1 +23 -22
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 52 99 92
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.73% 1.78% 1.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 2.10% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 71 44
10th Percentile £350 - £243
25th Percentile £381 £205 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +29.41% - -5.56%
75th Percentile £661 £638 £530
90th Percentile £713 £688 £588
England median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 12 30
10th Percentile £51.06 £19.25 -
25th Percentile £53.94 £28.25 £42.50
Median hourly rate £57.75 £60.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +34.44% +23.29%
75th Percentile £62.50 £62.13 £54.69
90th Percentile - £64.75 £65.78
England median hourly rate £62.50 £62.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year - +19.05% +7.14%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Software 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 2,757 4,716 5,181
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 91.59% 84.85% 89.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,756 2,743 3,594
10th Percentile £256 £243 £250
25th Percentile £400 £400 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year - -1.53% +1.55%
75th Percentile £600 £621 £619
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 434 219
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.00 £18.25
25th Percentile £15.79 £18.23 £23.83
Median hourly rate £28.00 £47.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.05% -5.00% +122.22%
75th Percentile £62.50 £62.49 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.86 £74.83
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Software Testing in the South East

Software Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

Daily rate trend for Software Testing in the South East

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in the South East over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the South East

Software Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

Hourly rate trend for Software Testing in the South East

Software 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 Software Testing within the South East region over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +35 25 £400 - 55
Thames Valley +3 21 £600 +15.66% 52
Berkshire -12 15 £619 +19.28% 26
Buckinghamshire +16 4 £350 -28.57% 20
West Sussex +10 3 £725 +81.25% 6
Surrey +7 2 - - 10
Oxfordshire - 2 - - 10
East Sussex -2 1 - - 4
Software Testing
England

Software 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:

Application Platforms
1 7 (13.46%) Confluence
2 1 (1.92%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.92%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 11 (21.15%) Azure
2 10 (19.23%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (13.46%) AWS
4 2 (3.85%) Azure Machine Learning
4 2 (3.85%) Power Automate
5 1 (1.92%) GCP
5 1 (1.92%) npm
5 1 (1.92%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (19.23%) Software-Defined Radio
2 9 (17.31%) SNMP
3 3 (5.77%) HTTP
4 2 (3.85%) 5G
4 2 (3.85%) Diameter Protocol
4 2 (3.85%) SIGTRAN
4 2 (3.85%) SMS
4 2 (3.85%) SS7
4 2 (3.85%) VoLTE
4 2 (3.85%) VoWiFi
4 2 (3.85%) Wireshark
5 1 (1.92%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (11.54%) Oracle Database
1 6 (11.54%) Oracle Database 11g
1 6 (11.54%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (5.77%) Big Data
2 3 (5.77%) MongoDB
3 2 (3.85%) MS Access
3 2 (3.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (38.46%) JIRA
2 17 (32.69%) Git
3 10 (19.23%) Robot Framework
4 9 (17.31%) GoogleTest
5 8 (15.38%) Jenkins
6 7 (13.46%) Bitbucket
7 6 (11.54%) Eclipse
8 5 (9.62%) SoapUI
9 2 (3.85%) Cucumber
9 2 (3.85%) QARun
9 2 (3.85%) Selenium
9 2 (3.85%) WebDriver
9 2 (3.85%) WinRunner
10 1 (1.92%) Cypress.io
10 1 (1.92%) JMeter
10 1 (1.92%) Mocha
10 1 (1.92%) Postman
10 1 (1.92%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (1.92%) SpecFlow
10 1 (1.92%) VectorCAST
General
1 11 (21.15%) Social Skills
2 8 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
2 8 (15.38%) Public Sector
3 4 (7.69%) Aerospace
4 3 (5.77%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (3.85%) Finance
5 2 (3.85%) Telecoms
6 1 (1.92%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 12 (23.08%) Test Engineer
2 9 (17.31%) Analyst
2 9 (17.31%) Software Test Engineer
2 9 (17.31%) Test Analyst
3 7 (13.46%) Senior
3 7 (13.46%) Software Engineer
3 7 (13.46%) Tester
4 6 (11.54%) Developer
5 5 (9.62%) Senior Analyst
5 5 (9.62%) Senior Test Analyst
6 4 (7.69%) Lead
6 4 (7.69%) Systems Engineer
7 3 (5.77%) Project Engineer
7 3 (5.77%) Project Leader
7 3 (5.77%) Project Manager
7 3 (5.77%) Systems Test Engineer
8 2 (3.85%) QA Tester
8 2 (3.85%) Senior Network Analyst
8 2 (3.85%) Senior Tester
8 2 (3.85%) Verification Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (28.85%) CSS
1 15 (28.85%) HTML
2 6 (11.54%) .NET
3 5 (9.62%) SOAP
3 5 (9.62%) XML
4 3 (5.77%) Kafka
4 3 (5.77%) Node.js
5 2 (3.85%) Middleware
5 2 (3.85%) Web Services
6 1 (1.92%) Playwright
6 1 (1.92%) REST
6 1 (1.92%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 3 (5.77%) IoT
1 3 (5.77%) Self-Motivation
2 2 (3.85%) Linux Command Line
3 1 (1.92%) Cyberattack
3 1 (1.92%) Driving Licence
3 1 (1.92%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (1.92%) Onboarding
3 1 (1.92%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 13 (25.00%) Linux
2 7 (13.46%) Windows
3 2 (3.85%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (71.15%) Agile
2 21 (40.38%) DevOps
2 21 (40.38%) Test Automation
3 18 (34.62%) Integration Testing
3 18 (34.62%) Validation
4 17 (32.69%) Unit Testing
5 15 (28.85%) Software Engineering
6 14 (26.92%) Problem-Solving
7 13 (25.00%) Prototyping
8 12 (23.08%) Verification and Validation
9 10 (19.23%) Scrum
9 10 (19.23%) Waterfall
10 9 (17.31%) Artificial Intelligence
10 9 (17.31%) SDLC
10 9 (17.31%) SysML
10 9 (17.31%) UML
11 8 (15.38%) Data Migration
11 8 (15.38%) Migration
12 7 (13.46%) Defect Management
13 6 (11.54%) System Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 14 (26.92%) JavaScript
2 13 (25.00%) SQL
3 10 (19.23%) C#
3 10 (19.23%) Python
4 8 (15.38%) C++
5 6 (11.54%) PL/SQL
6 2 (3.85%) C
6 2 (3.85%) MATLAB
6 2 (3.85%) VB
7 1 (1.92%) Java
7 1 (1.92%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 29 (55.77%) Security Cleared
2 21 (40.38%) SC Cleared
3 7 (13.46%) DV Cleared
4 5 (9.62%) Degree
5 2 (3.85%) ISTQB
6 1 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.92%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (11.54%) QA
2 3 (5.77%) Def Stans
3 2 (3.85%) ISO 26262
4 1 (1.92%) DO-178B
4 1 (1.92%) PMO
System Software
1 5 (9.62%) Firmware
2 3 (5.77%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 7 (13.46%) Atlassian
1 7 (13.46%) Google
2 6 (11.54%) OpenAI
2 6 (11.54%) Oracle
3 4 (7.69%) Microsoft
4 3 (5.77%) VMware
5 2 (3.85%) Citrix
6 1 (1.92%) Openreach
6 1 (1.92%) Twitter