BDD Contract Job Trends

Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring BDD skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 314 260 276
Rank change year-on-year -54 +16 -150
Contract jobs citing BDD 285 335 392
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 0.94% 0.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.88% 1.07% 0.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 200 250
10th Percentile £363 £362 £359
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £523
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.31% -11.06%
75th Percentile £588 £620 £647
90th Percentile £680 £801 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £463 £500
% change year-on-year +5.41% -7.50% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 8
10th Percentile - - £62.88
25th Percentile £82.50 - £69.06
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £73.75
75th Percentile £87.50 - £80.70
90th Percentile - - £87.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £68.75
% change year-on-year - - -1.79%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

BDD 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 32,247 31,236 40,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.88% 87.47% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,285 18,990 26,947
10th Percentile £300 £308 £310
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,090 1,084 1,559
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.25 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.19 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.13 £33.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.86% -22.35% +21.43%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -30.37% -23.53% +30.77%

BDD
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BDD relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

BDD job vacancy trend in the UK

BDD
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BDD.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BDD

BDD
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BDD over the 6 months to 9 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for BDD in the UK

BDD
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BDD.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BDD

BDD
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BDD within the UK over the 6 months to 9 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
England -69 239 £520 -0.48% 135
UK excluding London -41 137 £488 +5.41% 106
London -56 107 £525 -7.49% 49
North of England -26 94 £525 +16.67% 36
Work from Home -16 78 £481 -4.13% 73
Yorkshire -36 44 £575 +27.78% 19
North West -16 29 £488 +21.88% 17
North East +14 23 £460 +48.39%
South East -22 15 £309 -38.25% 40
Scotland +6 9 £470 +10.59% 3
South West -31 7 £450 -14.29% 9
Midlands -28 6 £313 -38.57% 10
Wales +4 4 £375 - 3
West Midlands -24 4 £475 -6.63% 8
East Midlands - 2 £310 - 2
East of England -15 1 £375 +20.00% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3

BDD
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 23 (8.07%) Confluence
2 1 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.35%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.35%) Cloud Foundry
2 1 (0.35%) CMS
2 1 (0.35%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (2.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (2.11%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 89 (31.23%) AWS
2 69 (24.21%) Azure
3 44 (15.44%) GitHub
4 28 (9.82%) Azure DevOps
5 24 (8.42%) Serverless
6 21 (7.37%) GitHub Actions
7 16 (5.61%) AWS Lambda
7 16 (5.61%) GCP
8 9 (3.16%) Amazon S3
9 8 (2.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 8 (2.81%) Amazon ECS
9 8 (2.81%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (2.81%) Amazon SQS
9 8 (2.81%) Datadog
10 7 (2.46%) Apigee
11 6 (2.11%) Amazon EventBridge
11 6 (2.11%) AWS Step Functions
11 6 (2.11%) PaaS
12 5 (1.75%) Azure AKS
12 5 (1.75%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.75%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (1.40%) HTTP
3 2 (0.70%) MQTT
3 2 (0.70%) X.509
4 1 (0.35%) DSL
4 1 (0.35%) FTP
4 1 (0.35%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (13.68%) MongoDB
1 39 (13.68%) PostgreSQL
2 22 (7.72%) NoSQL
3 16 (5.61%) Redis
4 14 (4.91%) MySQL
5 13 (4.56%) Relational Database
6 11 (3.86%) Amazon RDS
6 11 (3.86%) SQL Server
7 8 (2.81%) DynamoDB
8 7 (2.46%) RDBMS
9 6 (2.11%) Amazon Aurora
9 6 (2.11%) BigQuery
10 4 (1.40%) Apache Cassandra
11 3 (1.05%) Big Data
11 3 (1.05%) DB2
12 2 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
12 2 (0.70%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.70%) Delta Lake
12 2 (0.70%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.70%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 82 (28.77%) Cucumber
2 69 (24.21%) Git
3 67 (23.51%) Jenkins
4 52 (18.25%) Selenium
5 49 (17.19%) JIRA
6 34 (11.93%) GitLab
7 27 (9.47%) Cypress.io
7 27 (9.47%) Mockito
8 25 (8.77%) Postman
9 18 (6.32%) REST Assured
10 17 (5.96%) Bitbucket
11 15 (5.26%) Gradle
12 14 (4.91%) JUnit
12 14 (4.91%) Maven
13 13 (4.56%) JMeter
14 12 (4.21%) SonarQube
15 9 (3.16%) SpecFlow
15 9 (3.16%) WebDriver
16 7 (2.46%) Subversion
17 6 (2.11%) Artifactory
General
1 78 (27.37%) Social Skills
2 55 (19.30%) Public Sector
3 34 (11.93%) Banking
4 32 (11.23%) Finance
5 17 (5.96%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (4.91%) Investment Banking
7 9 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.46%) Front Office
9 6 (2.11%) Military
10 5 (1.75%) Legal
11 4 (1.40%) Electronics
12 1 (0.35%) Back Office
12 1 (0.35%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.35%) Marketing
12 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.35%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 117 (41.05%) Developer
2 70 (24.56%) Java Developer
3 50 (17.54%) Senior
4 36 (12.63%) Test Engineer
5 29 (10.18%) Senior Developer
6 24 (8.42%) Senior Java Developer
7 23 (8.07%) Lead
8 21 (7.37%) Software Engineer
9 16 (5.61%) Test Automation Engineer
10 15 (5.26%) Analyst
10 15 (5.26%) QA Engineer
10 15 (5.26%) Tester
11 13 (4.56%) Java Engineer
12 11 (3.86%) Automation Tester
13 10 (3.51%) Angular Developer
13 10 (3.51%) Lead Developer
13 10 (3.51%) Scala Developer
14 9 (3.16%) Architect
14 9 (3.16%) Automation Engineer
14 9 (3.16%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (19.65%) Kafka
1 56 (19.65%) Spring Boot
2 54 (18.95%) REST
3 49 (17.19%) RESTful
4 42 (14.74%) Node.js
5 38 (13.33%) Spring
6 34 (11.93%) React
7 33 (11.58%) Playwright
8 30 (10.53%) ActiveMQ
9 25 (8.77%) CSS
9 25 (8.77%) Gherkin
9 25 (8.77%) JAX-RS
10 22 (7.72%) AngularJS
11 21 (7.37%) .NET
12 19 (6.67%) HTML
13 17 (5.96%) JSON
14 15 (5.26%) Jest
15 13 (4.56%) WireMock
15 13 (4.56%) XML
16 12 (4.21%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 41 (14.39%) Product Ownership
2 14 (4.91%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.86%) Mobile App
4 7 (2.46%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.11%) Distributed Architecture
5 6 (2.11%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.11%) Equities
5 6 (2.11%) N-Tier
6 5 (1.75%) Client/Server
6 5 (1.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 5 (1.75%) Greenfield Project
6 5 (1.75%) NHS
6 5 (1.75%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.40%) AI Agents
8 3 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.05%) Educational Technology
8 3 (1.05%) Mobile Banking
8 3 (1.05%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.70%) AS400
Operating Systems
1 38 (13.33%) Linux
2 30 (10.53%) Unix
3 20 (7.02%) Mac OS X
4 5 (1.75%) Android
5 4 (1.40%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.70%) Windows
8 1 (0.35%) VMS
8 1 (0.35%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (76.14%) Agile
2 195 (68.42%) TDD
3 165 (57.89%) Test Automation
4 153 (53.68%) CI/CD
5 143 (50.18%) Microservices
6 87 (30.53%) Scrum
7 73 (25.61%) DevOps
8 61 (21.40%) Software Engineering
9 60 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
10 51 (17.89%) Containerisation
11 41 (14.39%) API Testing
11 41 (14.39%) Kanban
12 40 (14.04%) Continuous Improvement
13 37 (12.98%) Continuous Deployment
14 35 (12.28%) Non-Functional Testing
15 34 (11.93%) Continuous Integration
15 34 (11.93%) Design Patterns
15 34 (11.93%) Test Strategy
16 33 (11.58%) Mentoring
17 32 (11.23%) Pair Programming
Programming Languages
1 177 (62.11%) Java
2 56 (19.65%) JavaScript
3 47 (16.49%) SQL
4 40 (14.04%) Python
5 37 (12.98%) TypeScript
6 25 (8.77%) C#
7 17 (5.96%) Scala
8 9 (3.16%) C++
9 8 (2.81%) Go
9 8 (2.81%) Kotlin
10 6 (2.11%) JSX
10 6 (2.11%) Ruby
11 4 (1.40%) Bash
11 4 (1.40%) C
11 4 (1.40%) Objective-C
11 4 (1.40%) Swift
12 2 (0.70%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.35%) Groovy
13 1 (0.35%) PHP
13 1 (0.35%) XPath
Qualifications
1 74 (25.96%) Security Cleared
2 59 (20.70%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.67%) BPSS Clearance
4 17 (5.96%) Degree
5 14 (4.91%) ISTQB
6 8 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (1.40%) Numerate Degree
9 3 (1.05%) ISEB
9 3 (1.05%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.70%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.70%) AWS Certified Developer
10 2 (0.70%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 1 (0.35%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (20.00%) QA
2 35 (12.28%) Accessibility
3 11 (3.86%) WCAG
4 8 (2.81%) GDPR
5 5 (1.75%) PERC
6 3 (1.05%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.70%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.70%) HL7
8 1 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (26.67%) Docker
Systems Management
1 54 (18.95%) Kubernetes
2 27 (9.47%) Terraform
3 13 (4.56%) Grafana
4 11 (3.86%) Ansible
5 9 (3.16%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.40%) Kustomize
7 2 (0.70%) HP Fortify
7 2 (0.70%) Kibana
8 1 (0.35%) logstash
8 1 (0.35%) Rancher
Vendors
1 13 (4.56%) Oracle
2 8 (2.81%) Atlassian
2 8 (2.81%) Microsoft
3 6 (2.11%) Splunk
4 5 (1.75%) Gigya
5 4 (1.40%) CA Agile Central
5 4 (1.40%) Databricks
6 3 (1.05%) Red Hat
6 3 (1.05%) Salesforce
7 2 (0.70%) IBM
7 2 (0.70%) MuleSoft
8 1 (0.35%) Adobe
8 1 (0.35%) Bloomberg
8 1 (0.35%) Charles River
8 1 (0.35%) Marketo
8 1 (0.35%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.35%) Reuters
8 1 (0.35%) Typelevel
8 1 (0.35%) UiPath
8 1 (0.35%) Xamarin