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 22 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 343 287 280
Rank change year-on-year -56 -7 -91
Contract jobs citing BDD 304 251 337
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.87% 0.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.75% 0.96% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 161 257
10th Percentile £350 £363 £350
25th Percentile £400 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £556 £588 £638
90th Percentile £691 £750 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £460 £500
% change year-on-year +1.41% -8.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £46.25 - -
Median hourly rate £47.50 - £56.25
75th Percentile £48.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 - £56.25
% change year-on-year - - -22.41%

All Process & 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 40,767 26,234 36,547
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.37% 91.05% 86.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,562 16,839 23,562
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £497 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.66% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,395 1,067 2,440
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.36 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.96 £18.30 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year +50.82% -21.82% +0.13%
75th Percentile £67.50 £59.95 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -33.82% +8.57%

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 22 May 2026.

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 16 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 22 May 2026. 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 -73 255 £475 -6.17% 68
UK excluding London -37 181 £467 +1.41% 56
London -72 102 £494 -10.55% 18
Work from Home -25 89 £448 -10.50% 53
North of England -34 83 £450 +2.86% 17
North West -16 43 £431 +8.70% 10
Midlands -42 38 £425 -7.61% 9
West Midlands -30 37 £425 -7.86% 4
Yorkshire -44 31 £620 +19.29% 4
Scotland +10 24 £438 +12.90% 1
South West -19 17 £525 - 5
North East -24 13 £426 +1.31% 4
South East -64 12 £358 -28.40% 16
East of England -21 8 £510 - 4
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 1
Wales -15 1 £650 - 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 39 (12.83%) Confluence
2 3 (0.99%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 3 (0.99%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.66%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.33%) Camunda
4 1 (0.33%) nginx
4 1 (0.33%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.33%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (0.99%) Notion
2 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.33%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.33%) Mingle
3 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.63%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.99%) Findur
3 2 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.66%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.33%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 110 (36.18%) AWS
2 86 (28.29%) Azure
3 73 (24.01%) GitHub
4 44 (14.47%) GCP
5 34 (11.18%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (9.87%) GitHub Actions
7 26 (8.55%) Serverless
8 23 (7.57%) Amazon S3
9 21 (6.91%) Amazon EC2
9 21 (6.91%) Amazon SQS
10 20 (6.58%) AWS Lambda
11 18 (5.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 14 (4.61%) BrowserStack
13 12 (3.95%) AWS KMS
13 12 (3.95%) Route 53
14 10 (3.29%) ChatGPT
14 10 (3.29%) SaaS
15 9 (2.96%) GitHub Copilot
16 8 (2.63%) Anthropic Claude
17 7 (2.30%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.64%) 3GPP
1 5 (1.64%) RTP
1 5 (1.64%) Wireshark
2 3 (0.99%) WAN
3 2 (0.66%) NaaS
4 1 (0.33%) DSL
4 1 (0.33%) Fibre Channel
4 1 (0.33%) Firewall
4 1 (0.33%) HTTP
4 1 (0.33%) iSCSI
4 1 (0.33%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (14.80%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (13.82%) MongoDB
3 21 (6.91%) Relational Database
4 19 (6.25%) DynamoDB
5 18 (5.92%) SQL Server
6 17 (5.59%) Amazon RDS
7 16 (5.26%) Amazon Aurora
8 15 (4.93%) MySQL
9 11 (3.62%) DB2
10 10 (3.29%) Metadata
10 10 (3.29%) Oracle Database
11 8 (2.63%) NoSQL
12 7 (2.30%) Data Lake
13 4 (1.32%) Amazon Athena
13 4 (1.32%) Power BI
14 3 (0.99%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.99%) MariaDB
15 2 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
15 2 (0.66%) Flink
15 2 (0.66%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 103 (33.88%) Cucumber
2 85 (27.96%) Jenkins
3 83 (27.30%) Git
3 83 (27.30%) Selenium
4 63 (20.72%) JIRA
5 61 (20.07%) GitLab
6 57 (18.75%) JUnit
7 42 (13.82%) Postman
8 41 (13.49%) REST Assured
9 34 (11.18%) Mockito
10 31 (10.20%) SonarQube
10 31 (10.20%) WebDriver
11 25 (8.22%) JMeter
12 18 (5.92%) Maven
13 14 (4.61%) Cypress.io
13 14 (4.61%) SpecFlow
13 14 (4.61%) TeamCity
14 13 (4.28%) Gatling
15 12 (3.95%) DbUnit
15 12 (3.95%) Serenity BDD
General
1 80 (26.32%) Social Skills
2 70 (23.03%) Finance
3 58 (19.08%) Public Sector
4 41 (13.49%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (10.53%) Banking
6 9 (2.96%) Front Office
7 8 (2.63%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.32%) Aviation
8 4 (1.32%) Fire and Rescue
8 4 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.32%) Police
8 4 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (0.99%) Billing
9 3 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.99%) Military
9 3 (0.99%) Retail
10 2 (0.66%) Automotive
10 2 (0.66%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.66%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 96 (31.58%) Developer
2 63 (20.72%) Java Developer
3 55 (18.09%) Test Engineer
4 50 (16.45%) Senior
5 44 (14.47%) Lead
6 31 (10.20%) Software Engineer
6 31 (10.20%) Test Automation Engineer
7 22 (7.24%) Tester
8 19 (6.25%) Senior Developer
8 19 (6.25%) Test Leader
9 18 (5.92%) Automation Tester
9 18 (5.92%) Senior Java Developer
10 15 (4.93%) Automation Test Lead
11 14 (4.61%) Java Engineer
12 13 (4.28%) Analyst
12 13 (4.28%) Lead Test Engineer
13 12 (3.95%) QA Engineer
14 10 (3.29%) Business Analyst
14 10 (3.29%) Senior Automation Tester
14 10 (3.29%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (27.96%) Spring
2 68 (22.37%) Spring Boot
3 56 (18.42%) REST
4 52 (17.11%) Playwright
5 44 (14.47%) Gherkin
6 43 (14.14%) RESTful
7 40 (13.16%) Kafka
8 32 (10.53%) AngularJS
9 31 (10.20%) .NET
10 26 (8.55%) React
11 25 (8.22%) Node.js
12 22 (7.24%) ActiveMQ
12 22 (7.24%) Spring Cloud
12 22 (7.24%) WireMock
13 18 (5.92%) SOAP
13 18 (5.92%) Web Services
14 16 (5.26%) Hibernate
14 16 (5.26%) JPA
15 14 (4.61%) Spring Batch
16 13 (4.28%) JAX-RS
Miscellaneous
1 32 (10.53%) Distributed Systems
2 29 (9.54%) Cloud Native
3 26 (8.55%) Product Ownership
4 14 (4.61%) Distributed Architecture
5 11 (3.62%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (3.62%) Mobile App
6 10 (3.29%) Equity Derivative
7 9 (2.96%) Derivative
8 4 (1.32%) Distributed Applications
8 4 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.32%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.32%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.32%) Robotics
8 4 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.66%) AS400
9 2 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (0.66%) iSeries
9 2 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 43 (14.14%) Linux
2 16 (5.26%) Unix
3 10 (3.29%) Mac OS X
4 5 (1.64%) Android
4 5 (1.64%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.66%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.66%) VMS
5 2 (0.66%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (61.18%) TDD
2 182 (59.87%) Test Automation
3 175 (57.57%) CI/CD
4 174 (57.24%) Agile
5 120 (39.47%) Microservices
6 107 (35.20%) DevOps
7 65 (21.38%) API Testing
8 64 (21.05%) Test Strategy
9 61 (20.07%) Problem-Solving
10 60 (19.74%) Continuous Improvement
11 58 (19.08%) Scrum
12 52 (17.11%) Software Engineering
13 43 (14.14%) AI
14 39 (12.83%) Containerisation
14 39 (12.83%) Mentoring
15 38 (12.50%) Observability
15 38 (12.50%) SDLC
16 32 (10.53%) Continuous Integration
17 31 (10.20%) Performance Testing
18 30 (9.87%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 191 (62.83%) Java
2 84 (27.63%) SQL
3 71 (23.36%) Python
4 51 (16.78%) JavaScript
5 42 (13.82%) C#
6 27 (8.88%) TypeScript
7 14 (4.61%) C++
8 11 (3.62%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.30%) Apex Code
9 7 (2.30%) PHP
9 7 (2.30%) Ruby
10 5 (1.64%) Go
10 5 (1.64%) T-SQL
11 4 (1.32%) Perl
12 3 (0.99%) Groovy
13 2 (0.66%) Bash
13 2 (0.66%) PromQL
13 2 (0.66%) Scala
13 2 (0.66%) VBA
14 1 (0.33%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 72 (23.68%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.07%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.24%) Degree
4 13 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (2.96%) ISTQB
7 6 (1.97%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.64%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.99%) DV Cleared
11 1 (0.33%) ISEB
11 1 (0.33%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (20.72%) QA
2 30 (9.87%) Accessibility
3 11 (3.62%) Data Quality
4 6 (1.97%) WCAG
5 1 (0.33%) HL7
5 1 (0.33%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 86 (28.29%) Docker
2 9 (2.96%) Postfix
3 1 (0.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 65 (21.38%) Kubernetes
2 42 (13.82%) Grafana
3 35 (11.51%) Prometheus
4 21 (6.91%) Terraform
5 6 (1.97%) Ansible
6 3 (0.99%) Kibana
7 2 (0.66%) Amdocs OSS
7 2 (0.66%) Consul
7 2 (0.66%) HP Fortify
7 2 (0.66%) Istio
7 2 (0.66%) Rancher
7 2 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.66%) Zipkin
8 1 (0.33%) EMC VPLEX
8 1 (0.33%) HAProxy
8 1 (0.33%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 22 (7.24%) Oracle
2 15 (4.93%) Atlassian
2 15 (4.93%) Salesforce
3 12 (3.95%) Google
3 12 (3.95%) Sybase
4 11 (3.62%) Jaspersoft
4 11 (3.62%) Splunk
5 10 (3.29%) ServiceNow
6 9 (2.96%) IBM
7 8 (2.63%) Checkmarx
7 8 (2.63%) Conga
7 8 (2.63%) GoCardless
8 7 (2.30%) Databricks
9 5 (1.64%) Dynatrace
10 4 (1.32%) Veracode
11 3 (0.99%) Adobe
11 3 (0.99%) Microsoft
11 3 (0.99%) OpenLink
12 2 (0.66%) Bloomberg
12 2 (0.66%) SAP