Tester Contract Job Trends in the South East

Tester
England > South East

The median Tester daily rate in the South East is £405, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 March 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 125 91
Rank change year-on-year -3 -34 +75
Contract jobs requiring a Tester 80 30 130
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.48% 1.01% 2.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.63% 1.09% 2.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 13 30
10th Percentile £300 £375 £205
25th Percentile £387 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £405 £500 £413
Median % change year-on-year -19.00% +21.21% -3.79%
75th Percentile £434 - £511
90th Percentile £519 - £541
England median daily rate £413 £460 £450
% change year-on-year -10.33% +2.22% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £10.24
Median hourly rate - - £10.30
75th Percentile - - £10.36
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.38 £45.13 £42.65
% change year-on-year -43.76% +5.81% -21.02%

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 4,913 2,751 5,215
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.15% 92.88% 92.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,120 1,799 3,173
10th Percentile £281 £246 £213
25th Percentile £411 £400 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% - -
75th Percentile £606 £613 £610
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 140 434
10th Percentile £15.14 £16.95 £12.83
25th Percentile £19.00 £23.50 £18.20
Median hourly rate £39.32 £43.75 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.14% +2.94% -5.56%
75th Percentile £81.75 £63.75 £62.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £75.11
England median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -23.53%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 -11 47 £405 -19.00% 5
Berkshire -9 43 £405 -19.00% 3
Hampshire -9 23 £725 +81.25% 3
Surrey -7 7 £313 -
Buckinghamshire - 4 £363 - 1
Kent - 2 £300 - 1
West Sussex - 1 £375 - 1
Tester
England

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

For the 6 months to 21 March 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 56 (70.00%) Security Cleared
2 29 (36.25%) DV Cleared
3 28 (35.00%) Penetration Testing
4 25 (31.25%) Nmap
4 25 (31.25%) SC Cleared
4 25 (31.25%) Test Automation
5 24 (30.00%) Burp Suite
6 23 (28.75%) Windows
7 22 (27.50%) Metasploit
8 19 (23.75%) Linux
8 19 (23.75%) Wireless
9 16 (20.00%) Azure
10 15 (18.75%) AWS
10 15 (18.75%) Firewall
10 15 (18.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 15 (18.75%) JIRA
10 15 (18.75%) QA
11 14 (17.50%) CHECK Team Member
11 14 (17.50%) Cybersecurity
11 14 (17.50%) GDPR
11 14 (17.50%) Microsoft Office
11 14 (17.50%) PCI DSS
11 14 (17.50%) Python
11 14 (17.50%) Regulatory Compliance
11 14 (17.50%) Test Strategy
12 13 (16.25%) Cloud Security
12 13 (16.25%) Degree
12 13 (16.25%) Microsoft Excel
12 13 (16.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
13 12 (15.00%) CI/CD

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 2 (2.50%) Apache
1 2 (2.50%) Confluence
Applications
1 14 (17.50%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (16.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (16.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.25%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 16 (20.00%) Azure
2 15 (18.75%) AWS
3 1 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (1.25%) GCP
3 1 (1.25%) OCI
3 1 (1.25%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 19 (23.75%) Wireless
2 15 (18.75%) Firewall
3 9 (11.25%) Wireshark
4 4 (5.00%) Internet
4 4 (5.00%) Intranet
5 3 (3.75%) HTTP
6 1 (1.25%) BGP
6 1 (1.25%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (1.25%) MPLS
6 1 (1.25%) Multicast
6 1 (1.25%) OSPF
6 1 (1.25%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.25%) VLAN
6 1 (1.25%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.75%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (3.75%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.25%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 24 (30.00%) Burp Suite
2 22 (27.50%) Metasploit
3 15 (18.75%) JIRA
4 4 (5.00%) JMeter
5 3 (3.75%) Cypress.io
5 3 (3.75%) Gatling
5 3 (3.75%) LoadRunner
6 2 (2.50%) Postman
6 2 (2.50%) Selenium
6 2 (2.50%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (1.25%) Cucumber
7 1 (1.25%) Git
7 1 (1.25%) Toad
7 1 (1.25%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (1.25%) WebDriver
General
1 38 (47.50%) Social Skills
2 19 (23.75%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (11.25%) Military
4 8 (10.00%) Public Sector
5 3 (3.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (2.50%) Electronics
6 2 (2.50%) Finance
6 2 (2.50%) French Language
7 1 (1.25%) Aviation
7 1 (1.25%) Billing
7 1 (1.25%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.25%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.50%) Apache NiFi
2 1 (1.25%) .NET
2 1 (1.25%) Playwright
2 1 (1.25%) WebdriverIO
2 1 (1.25%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (16.25%) Security Posture
2 3 (3.75%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (1.25%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.25%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 23 (28.75%) Windows
2 19 (23.75%) Linux
3 10 (12.50%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (35.00%) Penetration Testing
2 25 (31.25%) Test Automation
3 14 (17.50%) Cybersecurity
3 14 (17.50%) Regulatory Compliance
3 14 (17.50%) Test Strategy
4 13 (16.25%) Cloud Security
5 12 (15.00%) CI/CD
5 12 (15.00%) Information Security
6 11 (13.75%) Commercial Awareness
6 11 (13.75%) Red Team
6 11 (13.75%) Security Management
7 10 (12.50%) Agile
7 10 (12.50%) Business Development
7 10 (12.50%) Line Management
7 10 (12.50%) OWASP
8 9 (11.25%) Customer Service
9 8 (10.00%) Ethical Hacking
9 8 (10.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
9 8 (10.00%) Regression Testing
10 7 (8.75%) Functional Testing
Programming Languages
1 14 (17.50%) Python
2 9 (11.25%) Bash
3 8 (10.00%) PowerShell
4 7 (8.75%) JavaScript
5 5 (6.25%) Java
6 4 (5.00%) SQL
7 1 (1.25%) C#
7 1 (1.25%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 56 (70.00%) Security Cleared
2 29 (36.25%) DV Cleared
3 25 (31.25%) SC Cleared
4 14 (17.50%) CHECK Team Member
5 13 (16.25%) Degree
6 12 (15.00%) CREST Certified
6 12 (15.00%) Cyber Scheme
7 11 (13.75%) Postgraduate
8 9 (11.25%) OSCP
9 8 (10.00%) CEH
9 8 (10.00%) GPEN
10 3 (3.75%) ISTQB
11 2 (2.50%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (2.50%) CISSP
11 2 (2.50%) SANS
12 1 (1.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (1.25%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 1 (1.25%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (18.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 15 (18.75%) QA
2 14 (17.50%) GDPR
2 14 (17.50%) PCI DSS
3 11 (13.75%) PMO
4 1 (1.25%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.25%) NCSC
4 1 (1.25%) NIST
4 1 (1.25%) SLA
Systems Management
1 25 (31.25%) Nmap
2 3 (3.75%) Grafana
2 3 (3.75%) Kibana
2 3 (3.75%) Nessus
3 1 (1.25%) Ansible
3 1 (1.25%) Cisco Prime
3 1 (1.25%) HP Quality Center
3 1 (1.25%) Iperf
Vendors
1 3 (3.75%) AppDynamics
1 3 (3.75%) Dynatrace
1 3 (3.75%) ServiceNow
2 1 (1.25%) CheckPoint
2 1 (1.25%) Cisco
2 1 (1.25%) Fortinet
2 1 (1.25%) Oracle
2 1 (1.25%) Palo Alto
2 1 (1.25%) SAP
2 1 (1.25%) SolarWinds
2 1 (1.25%) Tufin
2 1 (1.25%) webMethods