Tester Contract Job Trends in the South East

Tester
England > South East

The median Tester daily rate in the South East is £410, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 September 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
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 119 157 177
Rank change year-on-year +38 +20 +38
Contract jobs requiring a Tester 43 25 32
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.23% 0.54% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.37% 0.59% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 13 17
10th Percentile £344 £213 £282
25th Percentile £375 £255 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £410 £425 £415
Median % change year-on-year -3.53% +2.41% +14.48%
75th Percentile £525 £488 £588
90th Percentile £563 £586 £613
England median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile £34.56 - -
25th Percentile £37.35 - £16.50
Median hourly rate £42.61 - £17.00
75th Percentile £48.49 - £17.50
90th Percentile £51.65 - -
England median hourly rate £42.61 £50.00 £53.50
% change year-on-year -14.79% -6.54% +224.24%

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 3,142 4,271 5,267
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 92.37% 94.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,034 2,548 3,570
10th Percentile £204 £245 £213
25th Percentile £363 £400 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £598 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 317 246
10th Percentile £13.43 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.41 £21.01
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.50 £50.71
Median % change year-on-year -56.26% +13.39% +111.29%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £71.95 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Tester 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 18 September 2025.

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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Tester in the South East over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Tester 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 18 September 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 +32 28 £475 -7.32%
Thames Valley +15 13 £400 +64.95% 7
Berkshire +15 11 £405 -4.71% 6
Buckinghamshire +8 2 £312 - 1
Surrey +7 1 - - 1
East Sussex - 1 - - 1
Tester
England

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

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Tester 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 Tester in the job title.

1 22 (51.16%) Test Automation
2 17 (39.53%) Test Scripting
3 15 (34.88%) Agile
3 15 (34.88%) JIRA
4 13 (30.23%) SOAP
4 13 (30.23%) Security Cleared
4 13 (30.23%) Jenkins
5 12 (27.91%) Test Strategy
5 12 (27.91%) Software Testing
6 10 (23.26%) Social Skills
7 9 (20.93%) Mentoring
7 9 (20.93%) Waterfall
7 9 (20.93%) SoapUI
7 9 (20.93%) DV Cleared
7 9 (20.93%) V-Model
7 9 (20.93%) XML
8 8 (18.60%) QA
8 8 (18.60%) Azure
8 8 (18.60%) Root Cause Analysis
8 8 (18.60%) DevOps
8 8 (18.60%) Programme Delivery
8 8 (18.60%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (16.28%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (16.28%) Scenario Testing
9 7 (16.28%) C#
9 7 (16.28%) .NET
9 7 (16.28%) Python
10 6 (13.95%) SQL
10 6 (13.95%) Regression Testing
10 6 (13.95%) Validation

Tester 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 5 (11.63%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (9.30%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 8 (18.60%) Azure
2 7 (16.28%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 3 (6.98%) BGP
1 3 (6.98%) Cisco ASA
1 3 (6.98%) Firewall
1 3 (6.98%) MPLS
1 3 (6.98%) Multicast
1 3 (6.98%) OSPF
1 3 (6.98%) TCP/IP
1 3 (6.98%) VLAN
1 3 (6.98%) VPN
1 3 (6.98%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 15 (34.88%) JIRA
2 13 (30.23%) Jenkins
3 9 (20.93%) SoapUI
4 6 (13.95%) Selenium
5 4 (9.30%) Bitbucket
5 4 (9.30%) Cucumber
5 4 (9.30%) REST Assured
6 3 (6.98%) Cypress.io
6 3 (6.98%) NUnit
7 1 (2.33%) TestRail
7 1 (2.33%) Toad
7 1 (2.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 10 (23.26%) Social Skills
2 5 (11.63%) Finance
3 3 (6.98%) Aerospace
3 3 (6.98%) Automotive
3 3 (6.98%) Telecoms
4 2 (4.65%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (4.65%) Organisational Skills
4 2 (4.65%) Public Sector
5 1 (2.33%) Aviation
5 1 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (30.23%) SOAP
2 9 (20.93%) XML
3 7 (16.28%) .NET
4 4 (9.30%) REST
4 4 (9.30%) RESTful
5 2 (4.65%) Playwright
5 2 (4.65%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 8 (18.60%) Self-Motivation
2 1 (2.33%) Client/Server
2 1 (2.33%) LIMS
2 1 (2.33%) NHS
2 1 (2.33%) Onboarding
2 1 (2.33%) Product Ownership
2 1 (2.33%) SCADA
2 1 (2.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 4 (9.30%) Windows
2 1 (2.33%) Linux
2 1 (2.33%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (51.16%) Test Automation
2 17 (39.53%) Test Scripting
3 15 (34.88%) Agile
4 12 (27.91%) Software Testing
4 12 (27.91%) Test Strategy
5 9 (20.93%) Mentoring
5 9 (20.93%) V-Model
5 9 (20.93%) Waterfall
6 8 (18.60%) DevOps
6 8 (18.60%) Programme Delivery
6 8 (18.60%) Root Cause Analysis
7 7 (16.28%) Scenario Testing
8 6 (13.95%) End-to-End Testing
8 6 (13.95%) Regression Testing
8 6 (13.95%) Validation
9 5 (11.63%) API Testing
9 5 (11.63%) CI/CD
10 4 (9.30%) Acceptance Criteria
10 4 (9.30%) Problem-Solving
10 4 (9.30%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 7 (16.28%) C#
1 7 (16.28%) Python
2 6 (13.95%) SQL
3 3 (6.98%) Bash
4 1 (2.33%) Korn
4 1 (2.33%) Perl
4 1 (2.33%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 13 (30.23%) Security Cleared
2 9 (20.93%) DV Cleared
3 3 (6.98%) CCIE
3 3 (6.98%) CCNP
3 3 (6.98%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (4.65%) Degree
5 1 (2.33%) CCDE
5 1 (2.33%) CCDP
5 1 (2.33%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (18.60%) QA
2 2 (4.65%) Data Quality
System Software
1 1 (2.33%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (6.98%) Ansible
1 3 (6.98%) Iperf
1 3 (6.98%) Nmap
Vendors
1 4 (9.30%) CheckPoint
1 4 (9.30%) Cisco
2 3 (6.98%) EMC
2 3 (6.98%) Fortinet
2 3 (6.98%) Palo Alto
2 3 (6.98%) SolarWinds
3 2 (4.65%) Oracle
4 1 (2.33%) Microsoft
4 1 (2.33%) Virgin Media