Software Testing Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Software Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Software Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
20 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 177 154 129
Rank change year-on-year -23 -25 -5
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 248 225 383
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.36% 1.51% 1.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.59% 1.73% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 122 218
10th Percentile £325 £276 £205
25th Percentile £403 £359 £351
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £420 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -6.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £534 £598 £600
90th Percentile £575 £663 £663
UK median daily rate £438 £440 £500
% change year-on-year -0.57% -12.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 18 78
10th Percentile £50.00 £25.45 £43.59
25th Percentile £58.13 £44.59 £50.31
Median hourly rate £66.00 £61.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -5.38% +30.00%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 -
90th Percentile £68.75 £67.16 £69.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +30.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,635 13,009 17,346
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.98% 87.13% 88.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,537 7,651 11,208
10th Percentile £220 £238 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.80% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,774 755 1,215
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.02 £31.52 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.98% -29.17% +42.58%
75th Percentile £48.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -25.29% +24.29%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Software Testing job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Software Testing
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Software Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK excluding London

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Software Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK excluding London

Software Testing
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 20 December 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
North of England -39 63 £409 +2.25% 48
South East -48 54 £431 -28.13% 90
Yorkshire -26 42 £450 +10.43% 16
Midlands -26 37 £515 +28.75% 17
South West +4 35 £463 - 28
West Midlands -20 30 £515 +28.75% 8
East of England -5 26 £598 +51.75% 37
Scotland +19 25 £413 -12.70% 18
North West -43 16 £405 +1.25% 30
East Midlands -18 7 £313 - 9
North East - 5 £350 - 2
Wales -3 4 £405 +149.31% 2
Northern Ireland -4 4 £405 -
Software Testing
UK

Software Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 15 (6.05%) SAS
2 9 (3.63%) Confluence
3 6 (2.42%) SharePoint
4 5 (2.02%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (2.02%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (1.21%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (0.81%) Apache
6 2 (0.81%) JBoss
6 2 (0.81%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.40%) CMS
7 1 (0.40%) EPiServer
Applications
1 4 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.81%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.40%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.40%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.81%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.40%) LabWindows
2 1 (0.40%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 59 (23.79%) Azure
2 44 (17.74%) AWS
3 24 (9.68%) GCP
4 20 (8.06%) Azure DevOps
5 17 (6.85%) GitHub
6 11 (4.44%) GitHub Actions
7 9 (3.63%) npm
8 5 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
8 5 (2.02%) Entra ID
8 5 (2.02%) PaaS
8 5 (2.02%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.61%) Amazon S3
9 4 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.21%) Serverless
11 2 (0.81%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
11 2 (0.81%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.81%) OpenShift
11 2 (0.81%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.81%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.23%) Ethernet
2 4 (1.61%) DNS
2 4 (1.61%) Network Security
2 4 (1.61%) SD-WAN
2 4 (1.61%) Wireshark
3 3 (1.21%) Internet
3 3 (1.21%) Skype
4 2 (0.81%) Firewall
4 2 (0.81%) Intranet
4 2 (0.81%) SNMP
4 2 (0.81%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.81%) Wireless
5 1 (0.40%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.40%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.40%) IOS XR
5 1 (0.40%) Spanning Tree
5 1 (0.40%) SSH
5 1 (0.40%) SSL
5 1 (0.40%) VPN
5 1 (0.40%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (6.05%) NoSQL
1 15 (6.05%) SAS Enterprise Guide
2 13 (5.24%) MongoDB
3 12 (4.84%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (4.03%) Oracle Database
5 9 (3.63%) SQL Server
6 6 (2.42%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 5 (2.02%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (2.02%) Couchbase
8 4 (1.61%) Power BI
9 3 (1.21%) MySQL
10 1 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.40%) Big Data
10 1 (0.40%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.40%) Redis
Development Applications
1 42 (16.94%) JIRA
2 32 (12.90%) Postman
3 31 (12.50%) Selenium
4 26 (10.48%) GitLab
5 23 (9.27%) Git
6 22 (8.87%) Jenkins
7 21 (8.47%) Cucumber
8 18 (7.26%) Cypress.io
9 13 (5.24%) REST Assured
10 12 (4.84%) SoapUI
11 9 (3.63%) Artifactory
11 9 (3.63%) Visual Studio
12 7 (2.82%) JUnit
13 6 (2.42%) Rational DOORS
14 5 (2.02%) Rational Rhapsody
15 4 (1.61%) JMeter
15 4 (1.61%) WebDriver
16 3 (1.21%) Gatling
16 3 (1.21%) Storybook
17 2 (0.81%) TestRail
General
1 72 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 24 (9.68%) Public Sector
3 21 (8.47%) Finance
4 20 (8.06%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (6.05%) Aerospace
6 8 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.23%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (3.23%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.82%) Electronics
8 6 (2.42%) Automotive
8 6 (2.42%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.61%) Law
10 3 (1.21%) Billing
10 3 (1.21%) Local Government
10 3 (1.21%) Marketing
10 3 (1.21%) Military
10 3 (1.21%) Multimedia
11 2 (0.81%) Banking
11 2 (0.81%) General Ledger
11 2 (0.81%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 38 (15.32%) Senior
2 37 (14.92%) Software Engineer
3 31 (12.50%) Consultant
4 23 (9.27%) Analyst
4 23 (9.27%) Developer
5 22 (8.87%) Lead
5 22 (8.87%) Test Engineer
6 20 (8.06%) Test Analyst
7 16 (6.45%) Tester
8 15 (6.05%) Release Manager
9 11 (4.44%) QA Leader
10 10 (4.03%) Senior Test Engineer
11 8 (3.23%) Software Developer
12 7 (2.82%) Full-Stack Developer
12 7 (2.82%) Java Engineer
12 7 (2.82%) Senior Software Engineer
12 7 (2.82%) Test Manager
13 6 (2.42%) Embedded Engineer
13 6 (2.42%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 6 (2.42%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (9.68%) .NET
2 23 (9.27%) React
3 20 (8.06%) Node.js
4 16 (6.45%) HTML
5 14 (5.65%) RESTful
5 14 (5.65%) Spring
6 13 (5.24%) CSS
6 13 (5.24%) Playwright
6 13 (5.24%) REST
6 13 (5.24%) Spring Boot
7 10 (4.03%) AngularJS
7 10 (4.03%) Vue
8 9 (3.63%) .NET Framework
8 9 (3.63%) Svelte
9 8 (3.23%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (2.42%) Kafka
10 6 (2.42%) SOAP
11 5 (2.02%) FastAPI
11 5 (2.02%) XML
12 4 (1.61%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 21 (8.47%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (4.03%) Algorithms
2 10 (4.03%) Data Structures
2 10 (4.03%) Distributed Systems
3 7 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (2.42%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.02%) CUDA
5 5 (2.02%) Product Ownership
6 4 (1.61%) Management Information System
6 4 (1.61%) PCIe
7 3 (1.21%) FPGA
7 3 (1.21%) PKI
8 2 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.81%) Driving Licence
8 2 (0.81%) NHS
8 2 (0.81%) SCADA
8 2 (0.81%) Synthetic Data
9 1 (0.40%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.40%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.40%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (10.08%) Linux
2 19 (7.66%) Windows
3 4 (1.61%) FreeRTOS
3 4 (1.61%) Unix
4 3 (1.21%) Windows 10
4 3 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
5 2 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.81%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.40%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.40%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.40%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (35.48%) Agile
2 80 (32.26%) CI/CD
3 72 (29.03%) Test Automation
4 52 (20.97%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (20.16%) DevOps
6 46 (18.55%) Software Engineering
7 39 (15.73%) Test Strategy
8 38 (15.32%) Continuous Improvement
8 38 (15.32%) Test Scripting
9 37 (14.92%) Scrum
10 36 (14.52%) Microservices
11 35 (14.11%) Validation
12 29 (11.69%) API Testing
12 29 (11.69%) Containerisation
13 25 (10.08%) Test Management
14 23 (9.27%) Migration
14 23 (9.27%) SDLC
15 22 (8.87%) Configuration Management
16 20 (8.06%) Continuous Integration
16 20 (8.06%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 33 (13.31%) Java
2 30 (12.10%) Python
3 29 (11.69%) JavaScript
4 25 (10.08%) SQL
5 22 (8.87%) C#
6 21 (8.47%) C++
6 21 (8.47%) TypeScript
7 14 (5.65%) C
8 11 (4.44%) Bash
9 8 (3.23%) Ada
10 7 (2.82%) Go
11 6 (2.42%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.61%) PowerShell
13 3 (1.21%) Embedded C
13 3 (1.21%) Scala
14 2 (0.81%) SystemVerilog
15 1 (0.40%) Bourne shell
15 1 (0.40%) VB
15 1 (0.40%) X++
15 1 (0.40%) XPath
Qualifications
1 78 (31.45%) Security Cleared
2 65 (26.21%) SC Cleared
3 20 (8.06%) Degree
4 19 (7.66%) ISTQB
5 10 (4.03%) CISSP
6 9 (3.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (3.63%) CISM
6 9 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (2.82%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 5 (2.02%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.81%) ACCA
9 2 (0.81%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.81%) CIMA
9 2 (0.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.81%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.81%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.40%) CEH
10 1 (0.40%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.40%) ISEB Practitioner
10 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (15.32%) QA
2 13 (5.24%) Accessibility
2 13 (5.24%) NIST
3 10 (4.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.82%) PCI DSS
5 6 (2.42%) GDPR
6 5 (2.02%) EU AI Act
7 3 (1.21%) WCAG
8 2 (0.81%) GRC
9 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.40%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.40%) SLA
9 1 (0.40%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 28 (11.29%) Docker
2 5 (2.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.21%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.21%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.40%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (0.40%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 32 (12.90%) Kubernetes
2 11 (4.44%) Ansible
3 8 (3.23%) Grafana
4 5 (2.02%) Terraform
5 3 (1.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (1.21%) Puppet
5 3 (1.21%) vCenter Server
5 3 (1.21%) WSUS
6 2 (0.81%) Nessus
6 2 (0.81%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.40%) Nmap
7 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.40%) Rsyslog
7 1 (0.40%) SCOM
Vendors
1 41 (16.53%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.47%) Oracle
3 10 (4.03%) CyberArk
4 9 (3.63%) BeyondTrust
4 9 (3.63%) Thycotic
5 8 (3.23%) Cisco
5 8 (3.23%) Google
6 7 (2.82%) Atlassian
7 6 (2.42%) ServiceNow
7 6 (2.42%) VMware
7 6 (2.42%) Workday
8 5 (2.02%) Splunk
9 4 (1.61%) Juniper
9 4 (1.61%) Meraki
9 4 (1.61%) SAP
10 3 (1.21%) Nokia
10 3 (1.21%) SolarWinds
10 3 (1.21%) Veeam
10 3 (1.21%) webMethods
11 2 (0.81%) Siemens
227 Software Testing jobs in the UK excluding London