Software Testing Contracts in the Thames Valley

Software Testing
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Software Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Software Testing over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 84 122
Rank change year-on-year +3 +38 +5
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 21 62 29
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 1.39% 2.31% 0.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.50% 2.65% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 52 16
10th Percentile £340 - £334
25th Percentile £427 £205 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £519 £431
Median % change year-on-year +15.66% +20.29% -4.70%
75th Percentile £661 £669 £514
90th Percentile £671 £688 £588
South East median daily rate £550 £425 £425
% change year-on-year +29.41% - -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 2
10th Percentile - - £16.83
25th Percentile - £10.24 £22.56
Median hourly rate - £10.30 £32.75
Median % change year-on-year - -68.55% -
75th Percentile - £10.36 £43.56
90th Percentile - - £49.68
South East median hourly rate £57.75 £60.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -4.55% +34.44% +23.29%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Software Testing 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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,403 2,340 2,682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 92.85% 87.12% 91.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 851 1,306 1,860
10th Percentile £300 £213 £320
25th Percentile £413 £369 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.26%
75th Percentile £605 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £508
% change year-on-year - -1.53% +1.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 170 62
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.30 £18.60
25th Percentile £14.54 £19.48 £24.86
Median hourly rate £32.05 £45.00 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.78% -12.20% +192.86%
75th Percentile £62.44 £64.57 £66.21
90th Percentile £78.03 £85.65 £79.19
South East median hourly rate £28.00 £47.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -41.05% -5.00% +122.22%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing Software Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for Software Testing in the Thames Valley

Software Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Testing in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for Software Testing in the Thames Valley

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the Thames Valley

Software Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Testing in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend for Software Testing in the Thames Valley

Software Testing
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Testing within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Berkshire -12 15 £619 +19.28% 38
Buckinghamshire +16 4 £350 -28.57% 32
Oxfordshire - 2 - - 16
Software Testing
South East

Software Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Applications
1 1 (4.76%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 10 (47.62%) Azure
2 9 (42.86%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (28.57%) AWS
4 2 (9.52%) Azure Machine Learning
4 2 (9.52%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 2 (9.52%) 5G
1 2 (9.52%) Diameter Protocol
1 2 (9.52%) SIGTRAN
1 2 (9.52%) SMS
1 2 (9.52%) SS7
1 2 (9.52%) VoLTE
1 2 (9.52%) VoWiFi
1 2 (9.52%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (28.57%) Oracle Database
1 6 (28.57%) Oracle Database 11g
1 6 (28.57%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (9.52%) MS Access
2 2 (9.52%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (33.33%) Git
2 2 (9.52%) JIRA
2 2 (9.52%) QARun
2 2 (9.52%) WinRunner
3 1 (4.76%) Rational DOORS
3 1 (4.76%) Selenium
3 1 (4.76%) VectorCAST
3 1 (4.76%) WebDriver
General
1 4 (19.05%) Social Skills
2 3 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (9.52%) Aerospace
3 2 (9.52%) Public Sector
3 2 (9.52%) Telecoms
4 1 (4.76%) Finance
Job Titles
1 6 (28.57%) Analyst
1 6 (28.57%) Developer
1 6 (28.57%) Software Engineer
1 6 (28.57%) Test Analyst
2 4 (19.05%) Senior
2 4 (19.05%) Senior Analyst
2 4 (19.05%) Senior Test Analyst
3 2 (9.52%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
3 2 (9.52%) Automation Developer
3 2 (9.52%) Network Analyst
3 2 (9.52%) Senior Network Analyst
3 2 (9.52%) Software Developer
3 2 (9.52%) Verification Engineer
4 1 (4.76%) Automation Tester
4 1 (4.76%) Azure Developer
4 1 (4.76%) C# Developer
4 1 (4.76%) Lead
4 1 (4.76%) Lead Software Engineer
4 1 (4.76%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
4 1 (4.76%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (28.57%) .NET
1 6 (28.57%) CSS
1 6 (28.57%) HTML
2 2 (9.52%) Middleware
2 2 (9.52%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 1 (4.76%) Cyberattack
Operating Systems
1 4 (19.05%) Windows
2 2 (9.52%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (80.95%) DevOps
2 14 (66.67%) Unit Testing
3 13 (61.90%) Agile
4 10 (47.62%) Integration Testing
5 8 (38.10%) Data Migration
5 8 (38.10%) Migration
6 7 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
6 7 (33.33%) SDLC
6 7 (33.33%) Software Engineering
7 6 (28.57%) Artificial Intelligence
7 6 (28.57%) Clean Code
7 6 (28.57%) CRUD
7 6 (28.57%) LLM
7 6 (28.57%) Performance Tuning
7 6 (28.57%) Prototyping
7 6 (28.57%) Secure Coding
7 6 (28.57%) System Testing
7 6 (28.57%) Validation
8 5 (23.81%) Test Automation
9 4 (19.05%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 13 (61.90%) SQL
2 9 (42.86%) C#
3 7 (33.33%) Python
4 6 (28.57%) JavaScript
4 6 (28.57%) PL/SQL
5 2 (9.52%) C
5 2 (9.52%) MATLAB
5 2 (9.52%) VB
Qualifications
1 6 (28.57%) SC Cleared
1 6 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 3 (14.29%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (14.29%) QA
2 2 (9.52%) ISO 26262
3 1 (4.76%) DO-178B
Vendors
1 6 (28.57%) OpenAI
1 6 (28.57%) Oracle
2 4 (19.05%) Microsoft
3 2 (9.52%) Citrix