Tester Contract Job Trends in the South East

Tester
England > South East

The median Tester daily rate in the South East is £403, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 114 162
Rank change year-on-year -25 +48 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Tester 72 32 27
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.21% 1.07% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.32% 1.17% 0.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 19 17
10th Percentile £281 £347 £193
25th Percentile £350 £388 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £403 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year -15.26% +11.76% +1.19%
75th Percentile £438 £500 £488
90th Percentile £500 - £519
England median daily rate £405 £438 £465
% change year-on-year -7.43% -5.91% -7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £66.25 £51.25 £10.24
Median hourly rate £67.50 £52.50 £10.30
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% +409.71% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £53.75 £10.36
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.38 £32.63 £30.15
% change year-on-year -22.22% +8.23% -58.13%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 5,450 2,731 5,037
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 91.43% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,391 1,815 3,028
10th Percentile £300 £227 £213
25th Percentile £413 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% - -
75th Percentile £613 £600 £619
90th Percentile £700 £661 £688
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 510 165 484
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £24.25 £18.50 £18.20
Median hourly rate £50.00 £32.05 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +56.01% -32.53% -2.46%
75th Percentile £78.75 £63.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £87.83 £75.00 £77.35
England median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £36.92
% change year-on-year +50.00% -18.73% -17.97%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Tester' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Tester job vacancy trend in the South East

Tester
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East

Tester
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Tester in the South East over the 6 months to 20 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Tester in the South East

Tester
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East

Tester
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 Tester within the South East region over the 6 months to 20 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
Thames Valley -24 36 £403 -19.50% 4
Berkshire -10 31 £403 -19.50% 1
Hampshire -17 25 £363 -9.83% 6
Surrey -9 8 £313 -
Buckinghamshire - 5 £363 - 1
Kent - 2 £300 - 3
West Sussex - 1 - - 4
Tester
England

Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 20 May 2026, Tester contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Tester in the job title.

1 52 (72.22%) Security Cleared
2 28 (38.89%) DV Cleared
3 24 (33.33%) Windows
4 22 (30.56%) SC Cleared
5 18 (25.00%) QA
6 17 (23.61%) Nmap
6 17 (23.61%) Test Automation
7 16 (22.22%) AWS
7 16 (22.22%) Burp Suite
7 16 (22.22%) Penetration Testing
8 15 (20.83%) CI/CD
8 15 (20.83%) Firewall
8 15 (20.83%) Metasploit
8 15 (20.83%) Wireless
9 14 (19.44%) CHECK Team Member
9 14 (19.44%) GDPR
9 14 (19.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (19.44%) Microsoft Office
9 14 (19.44%) PCI DSS
9 14 (19.44%) Regulatory Compliance
10 13 (18.06%) Agile
10 13 (18.06%) Azure
10 13 (18.06%) Microsoft Excel
10 13 (18.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 13 (18.06%) Test Strategy
11 12 (16.67%) Cloud Security
11 12 (16.67%) CREST Certified
11 12 (16.67%) Cyber Scheme
11 12 (16.67%) Linux
12 11 (15.28%) Commercial Awareness

Tester Skill Set
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 (1.39%) Confluence
Applications
1 14 (19.44%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (18.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (18.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 16 (22.22%) AWS
2 13 (18.06%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 15 (20.83%) Firewall
1 15 (20.83%) Wireless
2 3 (4.17%) HTTP
2 3 (4.17%) Wireshark
3 2 (2.78%) MPLS
3 2 (2.78%) VPN
4 1 (1.39%) BGP
4 1 (1.39%) Cisco ASA
4 1 (1.39%) GPRS
4 1 (1.39%) GSM
4 1 (1.39%) LAN
4 1 (1.39%) LTE
4 1 (1.39%) Multicast
4 1 (1.39%) NGN
4 1 (1.39%) OSPF
4 1 (1.39%) TCP/IP
4 1 (1.39%) UMTS
4 1 (1.39%) VLAN
4 1 (1.39%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.17%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (2.78%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (22.22%) Burp Suite
2 15 (20.83%) Metasploit
3 11 (15.28%) JIRA
4 3 (4.17%) Gatling
4 3 (4.17%) JMeter
4 3 (4.17%) LoadRunner
4 3 (4.17%) Postman
5 2 (2.78%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (1.39%) Cypress.io
6 1 (1.39%) Selenium
6 1 (1.39%) SpecFlow
6 1 (1.39%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (1.39%) WebDriver
General
1 28 (38.89%) Social Skills
2 13 (18.06%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (12.50%) Military
4 7 (9.72%) Public Sector
5 4 (5.56%) Electronics
6 3 (4.17%) Finance
6 3 (4.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (2.78%) French Language
7 2 (2.78%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.39%) Aviation
8 1 (1.39%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.78%) Playwright
2 1 (1.39%) Kafka
2 1 (1.39%) REST
2 1 (1.39%) RESTful
2 1 (1.39%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.67%) Security Posture
2 3 (4.17%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (1.39%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (1.39%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.39%) PKI
3 1 (1.39%) Product Ownership
3 1 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.39%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 24 (33.33%) Windows
2 12 (16.67%) Linux
3 2 (2.78%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (23.61%) Test Automation
2 16 (22.22%) Penetration Testing
3 15 (20.83%) CI/CD
4 14 (19.44%) Regulatory Compliance
5 13 (18.06%) Agile
5 13 (18.06%) Test Strategy
6 12 (16.67%) Cloud Security
7 11 (15.28%) Commercial Awareness
7 11 (15.28%) Cybersecurity
7 11 (15.28%) Information Security
7 11 (15.28%) Security Management
8 10 (13.89%) Business Development
8 10 (13.89%) Line Management
9 9 (12.50%) Customer Service
9 9 (12.50%) Regression Testing
10 7 (9.72%) Acceptance Criteria
11 6 (8.33%) AI
11 6 (8.33%) Functional Testing
11 6 (8.33%) Performance Testing
11 6 (8.33%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 7 (9.72%) Python
2 6 (8.33%) JavaScript
3 3 (4.17%) SQL
4 2 (2.78%) Bash
4 2 (2.78%) C#
4 2 (2.78%) Java
4 2 (2.78%) TypeScript
5 1 (1.39%) Kotlin
5 1 (1.39%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 52 (72.22%) Security Cleared
2 28 (38.89%) DV Cleared
3 22 (30.56%) SC Cleared
4 14 (19.44%) CHECK Team Member
5 12 (16.67%) CREST Certified
5 12 (16.67%) Cyber Scheme
6 11 (15.28%) Degree
6 11 (15.28%) Postgraduate
7 3 (4.17%) ISTQB
8 2 (2.78%) CCNP
8 2 (2.78%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (1.39%) BC Cleared
9 1 (1.39%) CCIE
9 1 (1.39%) CEH
9 1 (1.39%) GPEN
9 1 (1.39%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 1 (1.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (1.39%) OSCP
9 1 (1.39%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (25.00%) QA
2 14 (19.44%) GDPR
2 14 (19.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (19.44%) PCI DSS
3 10 (13.89%) PMO
4 2 (2.78%) Accessibility
5 1 (1.39%) Data Quality
5 1 (1.39%) NCSC
System Software
1 1 (1.39%) Virtual Machines
1 1 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 17 (23.61%) Nmap
2 3 (4.17%) Grafana
2 3 (4.17%) Kibana
3 1 (1.39%) Ansible
3 1 (1.39%) Cisco Prime
3 1 (1.39%) HP Quality Center
3 1 (1.39%) Iperf
3 1 (1.39%) Nessus
Vendors
1 3 (4.17%) AppDynamics
1 3 (4.17%) Cisco
1 3 (4.17%) Dynatrace
2 2 (2.78%) CheckPoint
2 2 (2.78%) Fortinet
2 2 (2.78%) ServiceNow
3 1 (1.39%) Arista
3 1 (1.39%) F5
3 1 (1.39%) Juniper
3 1 (1.39%) Microsoft
3 1 (1.39%) Palo Alto
3 1 (1.39%) SolarWinds
3 1 (1.39%) Tagetik
3 1 (1.39%) Tufin
3 1 (1.39%) VMware