Test Engineer Contracts in the South East

Test Engineer
England > South East

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the South East is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 June 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 114 146 183
Rank change year-on-year +32 +37 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 40 58 35
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.35% 1.03% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.48% 1.12% 0.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 32 14
10th Percentile £290 £300 £278
25th Percentile £300 £350 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £426 £469
Median % change year-on-year +5.57% -9.07% +10.29%
75th Percentile £538 £556 £514
90th Percentile £575 £637 £523
England median daily rate £425 £450 £525
% change year-on-year -5.56% -14.29% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 8 4
10th Percentile £50.11 £59.31 -
25th Percentile £52.14 £59.44 £51.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £60.72 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.30% +15.66% +61.54%
75th Percentile £62.50 £62.00 £54.06
90th Percentile - £62.90 £54.63
England median hourly rate £55.00 £44.78 £52.50
% change year-on-year +22.84% -14.71% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 2,701 5,190 5,331
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 92.15% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,812 3,078 3,698
10th Percentile £226 £234 £220
25th Percentile £375 £400 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £625 £604
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £518 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -1.43% -4.55% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 167 519 232
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.87 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £18.34 £22.16
Median hourly rate £33.05 £48.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.15% -4.00% +150.00%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £75.20 £80.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £29.57 £37.63 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.42% -16.39% +88.21%

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured Test Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Test Engineer in the South East

Test Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Test Engineer in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Test Engineer in the South East

Test Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 1 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Engineer in the South East

Test Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Test Engineer in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Test Engineer in the South East

Test Engineer
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 Test Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 1 June 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
Thames Valley +32 24 £300 -25.00% 82
Berkshire +32 22 £300 -25.00% 41
Hampshire +14 15 £538 - 56
Buckinghamshire +13 2 - - 28
Test Engineer
England

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 1 June 2025, Test Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 23 (57.50%) Linux
2 20 (50.00%) Cisco
2 20 (50.00%) ISTQB
2 20 (50.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 18 (45.00%) Telecoms
4 16 (40.00%) Java
4 16 (40.00%) Test Strategy
4 16 (40.00%) Security Cleared
4 16 (40.00%) Self-Motivation
5 15 (37.50%) LAN
5 15 (37.50%) CCNP
5 15 (37.50%) WAN
5 15 (37.50%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (35.00%) Juniper
6 14 (35.00%) SAN
6 14 (35.00%) VPN
6 14 (35.00%) ISEB
6 14 (35.00%) MPLS
6 14 (35.00%) Ethernet
6 14 (35.00%) Microsoft
6 14 (35.00%) SDH
6 14 (35.00%) UMTS
6 14 (35.00%) ATM
6 14 (35.00%) GPRS
6 14 (35.00%) GSM
6 14 (35.00%) Unix
6 14 (35.00%) Project Management
6 14 (35.00%) Regression Testing
6 14 (35.00%) Frame Relay
6 14 (35.00%) Wireshark

Test Engineer Skill Set
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 4 (10.00%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 1 (2.50%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 15 (37.50%) LAN
1 15 (37.50%) WAN
2 14 (35.00%) ATM
2 14 (35.00%) Ethernet
2 14 (35.00%) Frame Relay
2 14 (35.00%) GPRS
2 14 (35.00%) GSM
2 14 (35.00%) LTE
2 14 (35.00%) MPLS
2 14 (35.00%) SAN
2 14 (35.00%) SDH
2 14 (35.00%) UMTS
2 14 (35.00%) VPN
2 14 (35.00%) Wireshark
3 7 (17.50%) Software-Defined Radio
4 6 (15.00%) Firewall
4 6 (15.00%) SNMP
5 3 (7.50%) HTTP
Development Applications
1 8 (20.00%) Git
1 8 (20.00%) JIRA
2 7 (17.50%) Robot Framework
3 6 (15.00%) GoogleTest
3 6 (15.00%) TestRail
4 4 (10.00%) Bitbucket
5 3 (7.50%) Eclipse
5 3 (7.50%) Jenkins
6 2 (5.00%) Cucumber
6 2 (5.00%) Postman
6 2 (5.00%) Selenium
6 2 (5.00%) WebDriver
7 1 (2.50%) LabVIEW
General
1 18 (45.00%) Telecoms
2 14 (35.00%) Social Skills
3 3 (7.50%) Aerospace
4 2 (5.00%) Avionics
4 2 (5.00%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.50%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (2.50%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (15.00%) CSS
1 6 (15.00%) HTML
1 6 (15.00%) RFC 2544
2 3 (7.50%) Node.js
3 2 (5.00%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 16 (40.00%) Self-Motivation
2 5 (12.50%) Data Centre
3 4 (10.00%) Fibre Optics
4 2 (5.00%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (5.00%) Operational Technology
4 2 (5.00%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 23 (57.50%) Linux
2 14 (35.00%) Unix
3 2 (5.00%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (40.00%) Test Strategy
2 14 (35.00%) Agile
2 14 (35.00%) Fault Management
2 14 (35.00%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (35.00%) Project Management
2 14 (35.00%) Regression Testing
3 9 (22.50%) Software Testing
3 9 (22.50%) Test Management
4 8 (20.00%) Scrum
4 8 (20.00%) Test Automation
4 8 (20.00%) Validation
4 8 (20.00%) Verification and Validation
5 7 (17.50%) Test Scripting
6 6 (15.00%) Requirements Analysis
6 6 (15.00%) Scaled Agile Framework
6 6 (15.00%) SysML
6 6 (15.00%) UML
7 5 (12.50%) Defect Management
7 5 (12.50%) Service Management
8 4 (10.00%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 16 (40.00%) Java
2 5 (12.50%) C++
3 4 (10.00%) JavaScript
4 3 (7.50%) Python
5 2 (5.00%) Perl
5 2 (5.00%) PL/SQL
5 2 (5.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 20 (50.00%) ISTQB
1 20 (50.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 16 (40.00%) Security Cleared
3 15 (37.50%) CCNP
3 15 (37.50%) Cisco Certification
4 14 (35.00%) ISEB
5 9 (22.50%) SC Cleared
6 6 (15.00%) DV Cleared
7 2 (5.00%) Degree
8 1 (2.50%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.50%) QA
System Software
1 4 (10.00%) Firmware
Vendors
1 20 (50.00%) Cisco
2 14 (35.00%) Juniper
2 14 (35.00%) Microsoft
3 4 (10.00%) Atlassian
3 4 (10.00%) Google