Test Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £420, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 May 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
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 232 219 276
Rank change year-on-year -13 +57 -5
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 111 188 159
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.85% 0.91% 0.70%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.93% 0.98% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 124 95
10th Percentile £285 £255 £318
25th Percentile £319 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £490 £556 £541
90th Percentile £575 £598 £583
UK median daily rate £425 £450 £500
% change year-on-year -5.56% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 30 11
10th Percentile £34.75 £26.88 £48.75
25th Percentile £50.00 £35.75 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £43.64 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.04% -16.88% +3.24%
75th Percentile £62.50 £61.81 £64.38
90th Percentile £65.00 £65.75 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £44.78 £52.50
% change year-on-year +22.84% -14.71% +9.55%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,956 19,149 21,481
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.73% 92.41% 94.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,594 11,598 14,941
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £505 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 855 2,392 1,083
10th Percentile £13.78 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.95 £15.75 £17.95
Median hourly rate £26.28 £40.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.30% -6.98% +115.00%
75th Percentile £62.24 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.00 £75.40
UK median hourly rate £28.17 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -24.89% -16.67% +87.50%

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Test Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Test Engineer in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Test Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Test Engineer in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Engineer in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Test Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Test Engineer in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Engineer in the UK excluding London

Test Engineer
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 Test Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 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
South East +27 40 £450 +5.57% 85
North of England -1 28 £410 -8.89% 70
East of England +17 13 £375 -10.71% 52
Yorkshire +10 11 £423 -0.59% 18
Midlands +6 11 £414 +62.45% 74
North West -11 11 £400 -11.11% 39
North East +7 7 £381 - 13
Scotland +7 7 £474 -0.26% 22
West Midlands +18 6 £450 -14.29% 49
South West +15 6 £550 +2.33% 75
Wales +4 5 £322 -14.24% 18
East Midlands -3 5 £391 +53.33% 25
Channel Islands - 1 - - 1
Test Engineer
UK

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 31 May 2025, Test Engineer 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 UK excluding London region featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 52 (46.85%) Test Automation
2 45 (40.54%) Agile
3 36 (32.43%) Java
4 35 (31.53%) Security Cleared
5 32 (28.83%) Social Skills
6 29 (26.13%) Problem-Solving
7 28 (25.23%) Linux
8 27 (24.32%) SC Cleared
8 27 (24.32%) Test Scripting
9 26 (23.42%) Telecoms
10 24 (21.62%) Test Strategy
11 23 (20.72%) Selenium
11 23 (20.72%) ISTQB
11 23 (20.72%) Cisco
12 21 (18.92%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 20 (18.02%) Microsoft
13 20 (18.02%) API Testing
13 20 (18.02%) CI/CD
14 19 (17.12%) Regression Testing
14 19 (17.12%) JIRA
15 18 (16.22%) LAN
15 18 (16.22%) WAN
15 18 (16.22%) Self-Motivation
16 17 (15.32%) Unix
16 17 (15.32%) Validation
16 17 (15.32%) LTE
16 17 (15.32%) Cucumber
17 16 (14.41%) Jenkins
17 16 (14.41%) Wireshark
18 15 (13.51%) GSM

Test Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 11 (9.91%) Confluence
2 3 (2.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.80%) Tomcat
4 1 (0.90%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.90%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.90%) CANalyzer
2 1 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.90%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 12 (10.81%) AWS
2 6 (5.41%) Azure
3 4 (3.60%) AWS Lambda
3 4 (3.60%) Serverless
4 3 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.70%) GCP
5 2 (1.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 2 (1.80%) GitHub
5 2 (1.80%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.90%) Amazon S3
6 1 (0.90%) Amazon SQS
6 1 (0.90%) BrowserStack
6 1 (0.90%) Datadog
6 1 (0.90%) npm
6 1 (0.90%) Sauce Labs
6 1 (0.90%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 18 (16.22%) LAN
1 18 (16.22%) WAN
2 17 (15.32%) LTE
3 16 (14.41%) Wireshark
4 15 (13.51%) Ethernet
4 15 (13.51%) GSM
5 14 (12.61%) ATM
5 14 (12.61%) Frame Relay
5 14 (12.61%) GPRS
5 14 (12.61%) MPLS
5 14 (12.61%) SAN
5 14 (12.61%) SDH
5 14 (12.61%) UMTS
5 14 (12.61%) VPN
6 8 (7.21%) Firewall
7 7 (6.31%) Software-Defined Radio
8 6 (5.41%) HTTP
8 6 (5.41%) SNMP
9 3 (2.70%) DHCP
9 3 (2.70%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.80%) Amazon Redshift
1 2 (1.80%) MariaDB
1 2 (1.80%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.80%) MySQL
1 2 (1.80%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.90%) Amazon Athena
2 1 (0.90%) Delta Lake
2 1 (0.90%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.90%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.90%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (20.72%) Selenium
2 19 (17.12%) JIRA
3 17 (15.32%) Cucumber
4 16 (14.41%) Jenkins
5 15 (13.51%) Postman
6 14 (12.61%) Git
7 11 (9.91%) REST Assured
8 10 (9.01%) GitLab
9 9 (8.11%) Cypress.io
10 8 (7.21%) JMeter
11 7 (6.31%) Robot Framework
11 7 (6.31%) TestNG
12 6 (5.41%) GoogleTest
12 6 (5.41%) LabVIEW
12 6 (5.41%) TestRail
13 5 (4.50%) JUnit
13 5 (4.50%) Maven
13 5 (4.50%) WebDriver
14 4 (3.60%) Bitbucket
14 4 (3.60%) SpecFlow
General
1 32 (28.83%) Social Skills
2 26 (23.42%) Telecoms
3 13 (11.71%) Electronics
3 13 (11.71%) Public Sector
4 11 (9.91%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (8.11%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.50%) Aerospace
6 5 (4.50%) Banking
7 4 (3.60%) Finance
8 2 (1.80%) Automotive
8 2 (1.80%) Avionics
8 2 (1.80%) Health Technology
8 2 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.80%) Military
8 2 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.90%) Aviation
9 1 (0.90%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.90%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.90%) Welsh Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (11.71%) Playwright
2 12 (10.81%) HTML
3 9 (8.11%) CSS
4 6 (5.41%) RFC 2544
5 5 (4.50%) .NET
6 4 (3.60%) Node.js
6 4 (3.60%) Web Services
7 3 (2.70%) REST
7 3 (2.70%) RESTful
8 2 (1.80%) Blazor
8 2 (1.80%) GWT
8 2 (1.80%) J2EE
8 2 (1.80%) Kafka
9 1 (0.90%) DOM
9 1 (0.90%) jQuery
9 1 (0.90%) JSON
9 1 (0.90%) SOAP
9 1 (0.90%) XML
9 1 (0.90%) XSD
9 1 (0.90%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (16.22%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (5.41%) Analogue Electronics
3 5 (4.50%) Data Centre
3 5 (4.50%) NHS
4 4 (3.60%) Fibre Optics
4 4 (3.60%) Onboarding
5 3 (2.70%) Cloud Native
5 3 (2.70%) PKI
5 3 (2.70%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.80%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.80%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.80%) SCADA
7 1 (0.90%) IBM Mainframe
7 1 (0.90%) Infotainment
7 1 (0.90%) Mainframe
7 1 (0.90%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 28 (25.23%) Linux
2 17 (15.32%) Unix
3 7 (6.31%) Windows
4 3 (2.70%) AIX
4 3 (2.70%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (1.80%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.90%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (46.85%) Test Automation
2 45 (40.54%) Agile
3 29 (26.13%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (24.32%) Test Scripting
5 24 (21.62%) Test Strategy
6 20 (18.02%) API Testing
6 20 (18.02%) CI/CD
7 19 (17.12%) Regression Testing
8 17 (15.32%) Validation
9 14 (12.61%) Fault Management
9 14 (12.61%) Project Management
10 12 (10.81%) Performance Testing
11 11 (9.91%) Scrum
11 11 (9.91%) Test Management
12 9 (8.11%) Non-Functional Testing
12 9 (8.11%) Software Testing
12 9 (8.11%) Verification and Validation
13 8 (7.21%) Continuous Improvement
13 8 (7.21%) Defect Management
13 8 (7.21%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 36 (32.43%) Java
2 14 (12.61%) JavaScript
3 13 (11.71%) Python
4 9 (8.11%) C#
4 9 (8.11%) SQL
5 5 (4.50%) C++
6 3 (2.70%) PowerShell
6 3 (2.70%) TypeScript
7 2 (1.80%) C
7 2 (1.80%) MATLAB
7 2 (1.80%) Perl
7 2 (1.80%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.90%) Bash
8 1 (0.90%) JCL
8 1 (0.90%) REXX
8 1 (0.90%) Scala
8 1 (0.90%) XPath
Qualifications
1 35 (31.53%) Security Cleared
2 27 (24.32%) SC Cleared
3 23 (20.72%) ISTQB
4 21 (18.92%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 15 (13.51%) CCNP
5 15 (13.51%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (13.51%) ISEB
6 13 (11.71%) Degree
7 7 (6.31%) DV Cleared
8 4 (3.60%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.80%) MCSA
9 2 (1.80%) MCSE
9 2 (1.80%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.90%) CCNA
10 1 (0.90%) CEH
10 1 (0.90%) CISSP
10 1 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.90%) HNC
10 1 (0.90%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (9.91%) QA
2 7 (6.31%) Accessibility
3 6 (5.41%) WCAG
4 1 (0.90%) Data Quality
System Software
1 7 (6.31%) Docker
2 4 (3.60%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.60%) Firmware
2 4 (3.60%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (3.60%) Grafana
1 4 (3.60%) HP ALM
2 2 (1.80%) CA Wily
2 2 (1.80%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.80%) Terraform
3 1 (0.90%) Ansible
3 1 (0.90%) Control-M
3 1 (0.90%) Kibana
3 1 (0.90%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 23 (20.72%) Cisco
2 20 (18.02%) Microsoft
3 14 (12.61%) Juniper
4 7 (6.31%) Google
5 5 (4.50%) Atlassian
5 5 (4.50%) HP
5 5 (4.50%) VMware
6 4 (3.60%) EMC
6 4 (3.60%) Mentor Graphics
7 3 (2.70%) Micro Focus
7 3 (2.70%) Oracle
7 3 (2.70%) Progress
7 3 (2.70%) Splunk
8 2 (1.80%) AppDynamics
8 2 (1.80%) Brio
8 2 (1.80%) Virgin Media
9 1 (0.90%) IBM
9 1 (0.90%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.90%) Perfecto Mobile
9 1 (0.90%) ServiceNow