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 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 308 276 267
Rank change year-on-year -32 -9 -139
Contract jobs citing BDD 293 325 402
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 0.91% 0.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 1.04% 1.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 193 193 260
10th Percentile £363 £357 £359
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £502 £518
Median % change year-on-year -0.40% -3.00% -11.91%
75th Percentile £588 £623 £650
90th Percentile £685 £810 £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 9
10th Percentile - - £64.00
25th Percentile £82.50 - -
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £70.00
75th Percentile £87.50 - £78.75
90th Percentile - - £87.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £70.00

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 32,041 31,135 40,262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.06% 87.25% 88.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,133 18,828 26,941
10th Percentile £300 £310 £310
25th Percentile £404 £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 £744 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,077 1,103 1,555
10th Percentile £14.58 £15.22 £14.38
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.79% -24.14% +24.29%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £43.83
% change year-on-year -29.69% -25.84% +37.15%

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 2 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 2 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 -60 243 £514 -2.14% 129
UK excluding London -40 141 £488 +5.41% 102
London -31 109 £525 -8.70% 51
North of England -35 92 £525 +16.67% 23
Work from Home 0 82 £494 -3.85% 89
Yorkshire -30 44 £575 +27.78% 5
North West -27 27 £550 +37.50% 17
North East +12 23 £460 +48.39% 1
South East -9 15 £309 -38.25% 45
Scotland +8 11 £470 +7.43% 3
South West -18 10 £425 -19.05% 11
Midlands -23 7 £394 -22.60% 11
West Midlands -25 5 £488 -4.17% 6
Wales +1 4 £375 - 5
East Midlands - 2 £310 - 5
East of England -15 1 £375 +20.00% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

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 (7.85%) Confluence
2 1 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.34%) Cloud Foundry
2 1 (0.34%) CMS
2 1 (0.34%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (2.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (2.05%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 92 (31.40%) AWS
2 72 (24.57%) Azure
3 44 (15.02%) GitHub
4 29 (9.90%) Azure DevOps
5 25 (8.53%) Serverless
6 21 (7.17%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (5.80%) AWS Lambda
8 15 (5.12%) GCP
9 11 (3.75%) Amazon S3
10 10 (3.41%) Amazon SQS
11 9 (3.07%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 9 (3.07%) Amazon ECS
12 8 (2.73%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (2.73%) Datadog
13 7 (2.39%) Apigee
14 6 (2.05%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (2.05%) Amazon EventBridge
14 6 (2.05%) AWS Step Functions
14 6 (2.05%) PaaS
14 6 (2.05%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.71%) Cisco IPT
2 4 (1.37%) HTTP
3 2 (0.68%) MQTT
3 2 (0.68%) X.509
4 1 (0.34%) DSL
4 1 (0.34%) FTP
4 1 (0.34%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (13.99%) PostgreSQL
2 39 (13.31%) MongoDB
3 23 (7.85%) NoSQL
4 18 (6.14%) Redis
5 14 (4.78%) MySQL
6 13 (4.44%) Relational Database
7 12 (4.10%) Amazon RDS
8 11 (3.75%) SQL Server
9 9 (3.07%) DynamoDB
10 7 (2.39%) Amazon Aurora
10 7 (2.39%) RDBMS
11 6 (2.05%) BigQuery
12 4 (1.37%) Apache Cassandra
12 4 (1.37%) Big Data
13 3 (1.02%) DB2
14 2 (0.68%) Amazon Athena
14 2 (0.68%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.68%) Delta Lake
14 2 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
14 2 (0.68%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 82 (27.99%) Cucumber
2 71 (24.23%) Git
3 68 (23.21%) Jenkins
4 53 (18.09%) Selenium
5 48 (16.38%) JIRA
6 34 (11.60%) GitLab
7 28 (9.56%) Mockito
8 27 (9.22%) Cypress.io
9 23 (7.85%) Postman
10 18 (6.14%) REST Assured
11 17 (5.80%) Bitbucket
12 15 (5.12%) Gradle
12 15 (5.12%) JUnit
12 15 (5.12%) Maven
13 14 (4.78%) JMeter
14 13 (4.44%) SonarQube
15 10 (3.41%) WebDriver
16 9 (3.07%) SpecFlow
17 7 (2.39%) Artifactory
18 6 (2.05%) Zephyr
General
1 82 (27.99%) Social Skills
2 55 (18.77%) Public Sector
3 36 (12.29%) Banking
4 33 (11.26%) Finance
5 19 (6.48%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (5.46%) Investment Banking
7 10 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.39%) Front Office
9 6 (2.05%) Military
10 5 (1.71%) Legal
11 4 (1.37%) Electronics
12 1 (0.34%) Back Office
12 1 (0.34%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.34%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.34%) Marketing
12 1 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.34%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 121 (41.30%) Developer
2 73 (24.91%) Java Developer
3 50 (17.06%) Senior
4 35 (11.95%) Test Engineer
5 29 (9.90%) Senior Developer
6 25 (8.53%) Lead
7 24 (8.19%) Senior Java Developer
8 21 (7.17%) Software Engineer
9 16 (5.46%) Test Automation Engineer
10 15 (5.12%) Analyst
10 15 (5.12%) QA Engineer
11 14 (4.78%) Tester
12 13 (4.44%) Java Engineer
13 11 (3.75%) Lead Developer
13 11 (3.75%) Scala Developer
14 10 (3.41%) Angular Developer
14 10 (3.41%) Automation Tester
15 9 (3.07%) Architect
15 9 (3.07%) Automation Engineer
15 9 (3.07%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (19.80%) Kafka
2 57 (19.45%) Spring Boot
3 55 (18.77%) REST
4 54 (18.43%) RESTful
5 45 (15.36%) Node.js
6 39 (13.31%) Spring
7 36 (12.29%) React
8 32 (10.92%) ActiveMQ
8 32 (10.92%) Playwright
9 26 (8.87%) CSS
10 25 (8.53%) Gherkin
10 25 (8.53%) JAX-RS
11 23 (7.85%) AngularJS
12 22 (7.51%) .NET
13 20 (6.83%) HTML
14 18 (6.14%) JSON
15 15 (5.12%) Jest
16 13 (4.44%) Web Services
16 13 (4.44%) WireMock
16 13 (4.44%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.65%) Product Ownership
2 14 (4.78%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.44%) Mobile App
4 8 (2.73%) Algorithms
5 7 (2.39%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.05%) Distributed Architecture
6 6 (2.05%) Equities
6 6 (2.05%) N-Tier
7 5 (1.71%) AI Agents
7 5 (1.71%) Client/Server
7 5 (1.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 5 (1.71%) Greenfield Project
7 5 (1.71%) NHS
7 5 (1.71%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.37%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.02%) Data Structures
9 3 (1.02%) Educational Technology
9 3 (1.02%) Mobile Banking
Operating Systems
1 39 (13.31%) Linux
2 30 (10.24%) Unix
3 20 (6.83%) Mac OS X
4 8 (2.73%) Android
5 5 (1.71%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.68%) Windows
8 1 (0.34%) VMS
8 1 (0.34%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (76.11%) Agile
2 203 (69.28%) TDD
3 166 (56.66%) Test Automation
4 157 (53.58%) CI/CD
5 148 (50.51%) Microservices
6 91 (31.06%) Scrum
7 76 (25.94%) DevOps
8 65 (22.18%) Software Engineering
9 61 (20.82%) Problem-Solving
10 52 (17.75%) Containerisation
11 42 (14.33%) Kanban
12 40 (13.65%) Continuous Improvement
13 38 (12.97%) API Testing
14 37 (12.63%) Continuous Deployment
14 37 (12.63%) Continuous Integration
14 37 (12.63%) Design Patterns
15 36 (12.29%) Clean Code
15 36 (12.29%) Mentoring
16 35 (11.95%) Non-Functional Testing
17 34 (11.60%) SOLID
Programming Languages
1 181 (61.77%) Java
2 56 (19.11%) JavaScript
3 48 (16.38%) SQL
4 39 (13.31%) Python
4 39 (13.31%) TypeScript
5 25 (8.53%) C#
6 18 (6.14%) Scala
7 10 (3.41%) Kotlin
8 9 (3.07%) C++
9 7 (2.39%) Go
10 6 (2.05%) JSX
11 5 (1.71%) Objective-C
11 5 (1.71%) Ruby
11 5 (1.71%) Swift
12 4 (1.37%) Bash
12 4 (1.37%) C
13 2 (0.68%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.34%) PHP
14 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.34%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 74 (25.26%) Security Cleared
2 59 (20.14%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.48%) BPSS Clearance
3 19 (6.48%) Degree
4 13 (4.44%) ISTQB
5 9 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.71%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 5 (1.71%) Numerate Degree
7 4 (1.37%) Master's Degree
8 3 (1.02%) ISEB
9 2 (0.68%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.68%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.68%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.34%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (19.80%) QA
2 37 (12.63%) Accessibility
3 12 (4.10%) WCAG
4 8 (2.73%) GDPR
5 5 (1.71%) PERC
6 3 (1.02%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.68%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.68%) HL7
8 1 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 77 (26.28%) Docker
2 1 (0.34%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 54 (18.43%) Kubernetes
2 27 (9.22%) Terraform
3 15 (5.12%) Grafana
4 12 (4.10%) Ansible
5 11 (3.75%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.71%) Kustomize
7 2 (0.68%) HP Fortify
7 2 (0.68%) Kibana
8 1 (0.34%) logstash
8 1 (0.34%) Rancher
Vendors
1 13 (4.44%) Oracle
2 9 (3.07%) Atlassian
3 8 (2.73%) Microsoft
4 6 (2.05%) Splunk
5 5 (1.71%) Gigya
6 4 (1.37%) CA Agile Central
6 4 (1.37%) Databricks
7 3 (1.02%) Red Hat
7 3 (1.02%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.68%) IBM
8 2 (0.68%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.34%) Adobe
9 1 (0.34%) Bloomberg
9 1 (0.34%) Charles River
9 1 (0.34%) Google
9 1 (0.34%) Jaspersoft
9 1 (0.34%) Marketo
9 1 (0.34%) Reuters
9 1 (0.34%) UiPath
9 1 (0.34%) Xamarin