SDET Contract Job Trends in the South West

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring SDET skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 122 140 150
Rank change year-on-year +18 +10 +21
Contract jobs citing SDET 1 1 2
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.051% 0.039% 0.062%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.056% 0.047% 0.072%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 1 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £413 £456 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year -8.11% -2.63% -29.63%
75th Percentile £438 £469 £488
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £450 £559 £538
% change year-on-year -19.46% +3.95% -2.27%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South West

SDET 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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,788 2,125 2,795
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 90.76% 83.83% 87.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,025 1,229 1,930
10th Percentile £213 £300 £313
25th Percentile £363 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £715 £724 £725
England median daily rate £512 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.57% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 204 258
10th Percentile £15.10 £22.50 £21.90
25th Percentile £18.87 £48.00 £47.56
Median hourly rate £25.15 £67.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -62.74% +8.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £63.75 £72.50 £73.75
90th Percentile £68.00 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +41.67%

SDET
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SDET relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

SDET job vacancy trend in the South West

SDET
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing SDET.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing SDET

SDET
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing SDET.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing SDET

SDET
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDET within the South West region over the 6 months to 1 October 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
Bristol +8 1 £425 -8.11%
SDET
England

SDET
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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:

General
1 1 (100.00%) Banking
1 1 (100.00%) Finance
Job Titles
1 1 (100.00%) Development Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Lead
1 1 (100.00%) Lead Software Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Senior
1 1 (100.00%) Senior Development Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Senior Software Development Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Senior Software Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Software Development Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Software Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Test Development Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (100.00%) PySpark
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (100.00%) Collaborative Working
1 1 (100.00%) Data Validation
1 1 (100.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
1 1 (100.00%) ETL
1 1 (100.00%) Integration Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Mentoring
1 1 (100.00%) Software Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Test Automation
1 1 (100.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1 (100.00%) Python
1 1 (100.00%) SQL