Acceptance Criteria Contracts

Acceptance Criteria
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Acceptance Criteria skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months leading up to 14 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 291 245 235
Rank change year-on-year -46 -10 -20
Contract jobs citing Acceptance Criteria 274 418 625
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.84% 0.98% 1.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.93% 1.15% 1.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 288 418
10th Percentile £340 £350 £400
25th Percentile £379 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £520 £533
Median % change year-on-year -8.65% -2.35% +6.50%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £643 £638 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £437 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -12.60% -4.76% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 9 10
10th Percentile £31.29 £29.92 £56.15
25th Percentile £48.83 £31.71 £61.00
Median hourly rate £61.79 £33.07 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +86.85% -54.39% +14.62%
75th Percentile £65.94 £63.75 £80.00
90th Percentile £67.63 £65.20 £80.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.58 £62.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year -6.27% -16.67% +16.96%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Acceptance Criteria 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 29,377 36,488 50,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.44% 85.32% 89.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,476 23,282 34,591
10th Percentile £300 £304 £325
25th Percentile £405 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% -4.55% +0.09%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,510 2,447 1,697
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.79 £13.16
25th Percentile £17.44 £16.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.12 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.02% -4.70% +53.05%
75th Percentile £52.12 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £76.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.34 £38.12 £38.35
% change year-on-year -36.15% -0.60% +78.37%

Acceptance Criteria
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Acceptance Criteria as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Acceptance Criteria.

Daily rate trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months to 14 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Acceptance Criteria.

Hourly rate trend for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Acceptance Criteria over the 6 months to 14 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Acceptance Criteria in the UK

Acceptance Criteria
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Acceptance Criteria within the UK over the 6 months to 14 July 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
England -58 230 £488 -6.25% 249
London -48 126 £531 -0.33% 138
UK excluding London -8 111 £437 -12.60% 139
Work from Home -23 94 £439 -13.51% 139
South East +32 33 £475 +11.76% 59
North of England -3 29 £455 -7.24% 31
Midlands +17 23 £358 -26.56% 16
North West +16 21 £459 -8.30% 14
East Midlands +12 14 £350 -30.00% 1
Scotland -7 12 £419 -9.46% 6
West Midlands +9 9 £483 +3.59% 15
South West +12 8 £409 -25.68% 10
East of England +9 7 £400 +6.67% 7
North East 0 4 £440 - 4
Yorkshire -18 4 £483 -5.39% 13
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5

Acceptance Criteria
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 63 (22.99%) Confluence
2 6 (2.19%) CMS
3 3 (1.09%) CICS
4 2 (0.73%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.73%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.36%) Apache
5 1 (0.36%) JBoss
5 1 (0.36%) Smallworld
Applications
1 16 (5.84%) MS Visio
2 15 (5.47%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (4.01%) Trello
4 4 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.46%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (1.09%) Simulink
5 3 (1.09%) Windchill
6 2 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (2.19%) Endur
2 4 (1.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (1.09%) SAP PLM
3 3 (1.09%) Shopify
4 2 (0.73%) MultiFonds
4 2 (0.73%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.36%) Advent Portfolio Exchange
5 1 (0.36%) Aligne
5 1 (0.36%) HFM
5 1 (0.36%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.36%) Orchestrade
5 1 (0.36%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.36%) SAP CX
5 1 (0.36%) SAP Hybris
5 1 (0.36%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.36%) SAP MDM
5 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.36%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 33 (12.04%) Azure
2 23 (8.39%) Azure DevOps
3 20 (7.30%) SaaS
4 15 (5.47%) AWS
5 9 (3.28%) Miro
5 9 (3.28%) Power Platform
6 7 (2.55%) GitHub
7 6 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (2.19%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.09%) BigCommerce
8 3 (1.09%) GCP
8 3 (1.09%) PaaS
9 2 (0.73%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (0.73%) Figma
9 2 (0.73%) IaaS
9 2 (0.73%) iPaaS
9 2 (0.73%) Microsoft 365
9 2 (0.73%) Slack
9 2 (0.73%) Snowflake
10 1 (0.36%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.46%) DNS
2 3 (1.09%) DHCP
2 3 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (0.73%) LAN
3 2 (0.73%) VoIP
3 2 (0.73%) Wireless
4 1 (0.36%) 802.11
4 1 (0.36%) BGP
4 1 (0.36%) Broadband
4 1 (0.36%) Firewall
4 1 (0.36%) Intranet
4 1 (0.36%) IP Telephony
4 1 (0.36%) MQTT
4 1 (0.36%) Network Security
4 1 (0.36%) OSPF
4 1 (0.36%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.36%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.36%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.55%) Power BI
2 4 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
2 4 (1.46%) Relational Database
2 4 (1.46%) SQL Server
2 4 (1.46%) Star Schema
3 3 (1.09%) DB2
4 2 (0.73%) Delta Lake
4 2 (0.73%) GIS
4 2 (0.73%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (0.73%) Tableau
5 1 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.36%) Flink
5 1 (0.36%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.36%) SAP Data Services
5 1 (0.36%) Spatial Data
5 1 (0.36%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 84 (30.66%) JIRA
2 15 (5.47%) Git
3 13 (4.74%) Cucumber
4 12 (4.38%) Jenkins
4 12 (4.38%) Postman
4 12 (4.38%) Selenium
5 6 (2.19%) GitLab
6 5 (1.82%) JMeter
6 5 (1.82%) JUnit
6 5 (1.82%) REST Assured
7 4 (1.46%) Eclipse
8 3 (1.09%) Gatling
8 3 (1.09%) IntelliJ
8 3 (1.09%) Maven
8 3 (1.09%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (1.09%) Rational Rhapsody
8 3 (1.09%) Toad
9 2 (0.73%) TestCafe
9 2 (0.73%) TestRail
9 2 (0.73%) Zephyr
General
1 132 (48.18%) Social Skills
2 72 (26.28%) Finance
3 60 (21.90%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (13.87%) Public Sector
5 33 (12.04%) Presentation Skills
6 21 (7.66%) Banking
7 15 (5.47%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (4.01%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (3.65%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (3.28%) Retail
10 9 (3.28%) Telecoms
11 8 (2.92%) Marketing
12 5 (1.82%) Front Office
12 5 (1.82%) Law
13 4 (1.46%) Back Office
13 4 (1.46%) Legal
13 4 (1.46%) Publishing
14 3 (1.09%) Advertising
14 3 (1.09%) Electronics
15 2 (0.73%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 141 (51.46%) Analyst
2 117 (42.70%) Business Analyst
3 27 (9.85%) Product Owner
4 25 (9.12%) Senior
5 18 (6.57%) Senior Analyst
5 18 (6.57%) Technical Analyst
6 17 (6.20%) Service Manager
7 16 (5.84%) Service Transition Manager
7 16 (5.84%) Tester
7 16 (5.84%) Transition Manager
8 13 (4.74%) Senior Business Analyst
8 13 (4.74%) Technical Business Analyst
9 12 (4.38%) Agile Business Analyst
10 11 (4.01%) Developer
11 10 (3.65%) Automation Tester
11 10 (3.65%) Data Analyst
12 9 (3.28%) Digital Product Owner
12 9 (3.28%) Project Manager
13 8 (2.92%) Architect
14 7 (2.55%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.92%) Gherkin
1 8 (2.92%) Kafka
1 8 (2.92%) RESTful
2 6 (2.19%) ADO
2 6 (2.19%) Spring
3 5 (1.82%) React
3 5 (1.82%) REST
3 5 (1.82%) Spring Boot
4 4 (1.46%) .NET
4 4 (1.46%) SOAP
5 3 (1.09%) SailPoint
5 3 (1.09%) VML
6 2 (0.73%) CSS
6 2 (0.73%) LDAP
6 2 (0.73%) WireMock
7 1 (0.36%) ASP.NET Core
7 1 (0.36%) Jest
7 1 (0.36%) Next.js
7 1 (0.36%) PySpark
7 1 (0.36%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 78 (28.47%) Product Ownership
2 11 (4.01%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.92%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.92%) PMI
4 6 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
4 6 (2.19%) Data Structures
4 6 (2.19%) Greenfield Project
5 5 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (1.46%) Reinsurance
7 3 (1.09%) Algorithms
7 3 (1.09%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.09%) CMDB
7 3 (1.09%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (1.09%) Mainframe
7 3 (1.09%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.09%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 3 (1.09%) Virtual Team
7 3 (1.09%) VSAM
8 2 (0.73%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 5 (1.82%) Linux
1 5 (1.82%) Windows
2 2 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 2 (0.73%) Rocky
3 1 (0.36%) Android
3 1 (0.36%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.36%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (66.06%) Agile
2 155 (56.57%) User Stories
3 72 (26.28%) Scrum
4 66 (24.09%) Problem-Solving
5 63 (22.99%) Business Analysis
6 60 (21.90%) Stakeholder Management
7 55 (20.07%) DevOps
8 53 (19.34%) Workshop Facilitation
9 50 (18.25%) Sprint Planning
10 47 (17.15%) User Acceptance Testing
11 42 (15.33%) User Experience
12 41 (14.96%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (14.60%) Requirements Gathering
14 37 (13.50%) Backlog Refinement
15 36 (13.14%) Product Backlog
15 36 (13.14%) Roadmaps
15 36 (13.14%) Sprint Retrospective
16 33 (12.04%) Backlog Prioritisation
17 31 (11.31%) Epics
18 30 (10.95%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 24 (8.76%) SQL
2 18 (6.57%) Java
3 10 (3.65%) Python
4 7 (2.55%) JavaScript
5 5 (1.82%) C#
6 3 (1.09%) COBOL
6 3 (1.09%) JCL
6 3 (1.09%) MATLAB
7 2 (0.73%) Elm
7 2 (0.73%) F#
7 2 (0.73%) Haskell
7 2 (0.73%) Korn
7 2 (0.73%) OCaml
7 2 (0.73%) PL/SQL
7 2 (0.73%) PureScript
7 2 (0.73%) RPG
7 2 (0.73%) Ruby
7 2 (0.73%) Rust
7 2 (0.73%) Scala
7 2 (0.73%) VBA
Qualifications
1 40 (14.60%) Security Cleared
2 37 (13.50%) Degree
3 23 (8.39%) SC Cleared
4 10 (3.65%) DV Cleared
5 9 (3.28%) CBAP
5 9 (3.28%) PMI Certification
6 7 (2.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.82%) CSPO
7 5 (1.82%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (1.46%) ISTQB
9 3 (1.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (1.09%) IIBA
10 2 (0.73%) CCNP
10 2 (0.73%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.73%) CWNA
10 2 (0.73%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (0.73%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.36%) CCNA
11 1 (0.36%) ISEB
11 1 (0.36%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (12.04%) QA
2 9 (3.28%) Accessibility
3 8 (2.92%) SLA
4 5 (1.82%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.46%) GDPR
5 4 (1.46%) PMO
6 3 (1.09%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.73%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.36%) COPPA
8 1 (0.36%) EMIR
8 1 (0.36%) GxP
8 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.36%) MiFID
8 1 (0.36%) NIST
8 1 (0.36%) SEPA
8 1 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 3 (1.09%) Active Directory
1 3 (1.09%) Docker
1 3 (1.09%) Firmware
2 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
2 1 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (1.46%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.73%) SCCM
2 2 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.36%) Ansible
3 1 (0.36%) Graphite
3 1 (0.36%) HP ALM
3 1 (0.36%) HP Quality Center
3 1 (0.36%) Kibana
3 1 (0.36%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 31 (11.31%) Microsoft
2 17 (6.20%) SAP
3 12 (4.38%) ServiceNow
4 10 (3.65%) Oracle
5 7 (2.55%) Salesforce
6 3 (1.09%) Adobe
6 3 (1.09%) CyberArk
6 3 (1.09%) Databricks
6 3 (1.09%) Guidewire
6 3 (1.09%) Palantir
6 3 (1.09%) Sitecore
7 2 (0.73%) Cisco
7 2 (0.73%) Citrix
7 2 (0.73%) Conga
7 2 (0.73%) DocuSign
7 2 (0.73%) Ekahau
7 2 (0.73%) Okta
7 2 (0.73%) Splunk
7 2 (0.73%) Temenos
7 2 (0.73%) Virgin Media