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 14 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 355 284 298
Rank change year-on-year -71 +14 -125
Contract jobs citing BDD 288 249 322
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.85% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.74% 0.94% 0.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 160 240
10th Percentile £350 £363 £325
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £575 £632 £628
90th Percentile £700 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
Median hourly rate - - £56.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £56.25
% change year-on-year - - -19.64%

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 38,904 26,533 37,594
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.62% 86.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,602 17,197 24,340
10th Percentile £315 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £635 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,316 1,022 2,384
10th Percentile £14.98 £14.99 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.38 £18.86 £15.88
Median hourly rate £37.00 £30.79 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +20.16% -6.87% -8.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.88 £57.50
90th Percentile £78.13 £75.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.00 £29.00 £33.03
% change year-on-year +27.59% -12.21% -8.24%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -64 247 £475 -9.52% 114
UK excluding London -52 148 £475 -5.00% 92
London -62 114 £475 -18.10% 37
Work from Home -45 82 £425 -19.05% 81
North of England -54 76 £481 +4.62% 26
North West -10 38 £453 +12.69% 14
West Midlands -42 30 £425 -8.11% 6
Midlands -47 30 £425 -8.11% 11
Yorkshire -62 29 £598 +14.38% 6
Scotland +9 13 £350 -12.50% 7
North East -18 11 £406 +4.17% 7
South West -31 9 £525 -2.33% 5
South East -58 9 £359 -28.20% 33
East of England -22 8 £510 - 6
Wales -12 2 £525 - 2
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 2

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 (13.54%) Confluence
2 4 (1.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 4 (1.39%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.69%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.35%) Camunda
4 1 (0.35%) CMS
4 1 (0.35%) nginx
4 1 (0.35%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.69%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.35%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.35%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 3 (1.04%) Findur
2 2 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.69%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.69%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.35%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 102 (35.42%) AWS
2 83 (28.82%) Azure
3 63 (21.88%) GitHub
4 43 (14.93%) GCP
5 36 (12.50%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (10.42%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (7.99%) Serverless
8 19 (6.60%) Amazon S3
9 18 (6.25%) AWS Lambda
10 13 (4.51%) Amazon EC2
10 13 (4.51%) Amazon SQS
10 13 (4.51%) BrowserStack
11 12 (4.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 11 (3.82%) SaaS
13 7 (2.43%) AWS KMS
13 7 (2.43%) Route 53
14 6 (2.08%) AWS Step Functions
15 5 (1.74%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 4 (1.39%) Azure AKS
16 4 (1.39%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.74%) Cisco IPT
2 3 (1.04%) WAN
3 2 (0.69%) 3GPP
3 2 (0.69%) HTTP
3 2 (0.69%) NaaS
3 2 (0.69%) RTP
3 2 (0.69%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.35%) DSL
4 1 (0.35%) Fibre Channel
4 1 (0.35%) FTP
4 1 (0.35%) iSCSI
4 1 (0.35%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (13.89%) PostgreSQL
2 33 (11.46%) MongoDB
3 16 (5.56%) SQL Server
4 15 (5.21%) MySQL
4 15 (5.21%) Relational Database
5 13 (4.51%) Amazon RDS
6 12 (4.17%) DynamoDB
7 10 (3.47%) Oracle Database
8 9 (3.13%) Amazon Aurora
9 7 (2.43%) Data Lake
10 6 (2.08%) NoSQL
11 4 (1.39%) Amazon Athena
11 4 (1.39%) DB2
12 3 (1.04%) Delta Lake
12 3 (1.04%) Metadata
13 2 (0.69%) Apache Cassandra
13 2 (0.69%) Flink
13 2 (0.69%) InfluxDB
13 2 (0.69%) Power BI
13 2 (0.69%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 102 (35.42%) Cucumber
2 79 (27.43%) Git
2 79 (27.43%) Jenkins
3 77 (26.74%) Selenium
4 68 (23.61%) JIRA
5 61 (21.18%) GitLab
6 54 (18.75%) JUnit
7 41 (14.24%) Postman
8 30 (10.42%) WebDriver
9 29 (10.07%) Mockito
10 28 (9.72%) REST Assured
11 26 (9.03%) JMeter
11 26 (9.03%) SonarQube
12 16 (5.56%) Cypress.io
13 14 (4.86%) Maven
14 10 (3.47%) Bitbucket
14 10 (3.47%) Gatling
15 9 (3.13%) IntelliJ
15 9 (3.13%) TeamCity
15 9 (3.13%) TestNG
General
1 73 (25.35%) Social Skills
2 58 (20.14%) Finance
3 51 (17.71%) Public Sector
4 29 (10.07%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (8.68%) Banking
6 8 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (2.08%) Front Office
8 5 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (1.74%) Legal
9 4 (1.39%) Electronics
9 4 (1.39%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.39%) Military
10 3 (1.04%) Billing
10 3 (1.04%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.69%) Automotive
11 2 (0.69%) Aviation
11 2 (0.69%) Fire and Rescue
11 2 (0.69%) Police
11 2 (0.69%) Retail
11 2 (0.69%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 95 (32.99%) Developer
2 61 (21.18%) Java Developer
3 47 (16.32%) Senior
4 45 (15.63%) Test Engineer
5 34 (11.81%) Lead
6 27 (9.38%) Software Engineer
7 26 (9.03%) Test Automation Engineer
7 26 (9.03%) Tester
8 21 (7.29%) Automation Tester
9 17 (5.90%) Senior Developer
10 16 (5.56%) Senior Java Developer
11 13 (4.51%) Test Leader
12 12 (4.17%) Automation Engineer
12 12 (4.17%) Java Engineer
12 12 (4.17%) QA Engineer
13 10 (3.47%) Automation Test Lead
13 10 (3.47%) Lead Test Engineer
13 10 (3.47%) Senior Automation Tester
13 10 (3.47%) Senior Tester
14 9 (3.13%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (26.04%) Spring
2 59 (20.49%) Spring Boot
3 53 (18.40%) REST
4 39 (13.54%) Playwright
5 38 (13.19%) RESTful
6 36 (12.50%) Gherkin
6 36 (12.50%) Kafka
7 32 (11.11%) Node.js
8 29 (10.07%) React
9 28 (9.72%) AngularJS
10 26 (9.03%) .NET
11 24 (8.33%) WireMock
12 19 (6.60%) ActiveMQ
13 15 (5.21%) JAX-RS
13 15 (5.21%) SOAP
13 15 (5.21%) Spring Cloud
14 14 (4.86%) Web Services
15 12 (4.17%) CSS
15 12 (4.17%) Jest
16 11 (3.82%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.07%) Product Ownership
2 25 (8.68%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (8.33%) Cloud Native
4 14 (4.86%) Distributed Architecture
5 10 (3.47%) Mobile App
6 5 (1.74%) Client/Server
6 5 (1.74%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.39%) Distributed Applications
7 4 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.39%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.04%) Derivative
8 3 (1.04%) Equities
8 3 (1.04%) Equity Derivative
8 3 (1.04%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.69%) AS400
9 2 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (0.69%) NHS
9 2 (0.69%) Robotics
9 2 (0.69%) Synthetic Data
Operating Systems
1 39 (13.54%) Linux
2 18 (6.25%) Unix
3 11 (3.82%) Mac OS X
4 3 (1.04%) VMS
5 2 (0.69%) Android
5 2 (0.69%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.69%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.69%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (62.15%) TDD
2 175 (60.76%) Test Automation
3 173 (60.07%) Agile
4 161 (55.90%) CI/CD
5 117 (40.63%) Microservices
6 97 (33.68%) DevOps
7 63 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
8 61 (21.18%) API Testing
9 59 (20.49%) Continuous Improvement
9 59 (20.49%) Test Strategy
10 51 (17.71%) Scrum
11 46 (15.97%) Software Engineering
12 42 (14.58%) SDLC
13 40 (13.89%) Containerisation
14 34 (11.81%) Mentoring
15 31 (10.76%) Kanban
15 31 (10.76%) Performance Testing
16 30 (10.42%) End-to-End Testing
16 30 (10.42%) Observability
17 29 (10.07%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 178 (61.81%) Java
2 63 (21.88%) Python
3 61 (21.18%) SQL
4 50 (17.36%) JavaScript
5 32 (11.11%) C#
6 30 (10.42%) TypeScript
7 11 (3.82%) C++
7 11 (3.82%) Kotlin
8 8 (2.78%) Ruby
9 7 (2.43%) PHP
10 6 (2.08%) Go
11 4 (1.39%) Scala
12 3 (1.04%) JSX
12 3 (1.04%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.69%) Groovy
14 1 (0.35%) Bash
14 1 (0.35%) Swift
14 1 (0.35%) VBA
14 1 (0.35%) VBScript
14 1 (0.35%) XPath
Qualifications
1 71 (24.65%) Security Cleared
2 61 (21.18%) SC Cleared
3 14 (4.86%) Degree
4 11 (3.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.43%) ISTQB
7 5 (1.74%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.04%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.69%) ISEB
10 1 (0.35%) AWS Certified Developer
10 1 (0.35%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (21.18%) QA
2 27 (9.38%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.08%) Data Quality
3 6 (2.08%) GDPR
4 5 (1.74%) PERC
5 4 (1.39%) WCAG
6 2 (0.69%) HL7
7 1 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.35%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 74 (25.69%) Docker
2 6 (2.08%) Postfix
3 1 (0.35%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 60 (20.83%) Kubernetes
2 33 (11.46%) Grafana
3 28 (9.72%) Prometheus
4 23 (7.99%) Terraform
5 3 (1.04%) Ansible
5 3 (1.04%) Rancher
6 2 (0.69%) Amdocs OSS
6 2 (0.69%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.69%) Kibana
6 2 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.35%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.35%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.35%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 19 (6.60%) Oracle
2 12 (4.17%) Google
3 11 (3.82%) Atlassian
4 10 (3.47%) ServiceNow
4 10 (3.47%) Splunk
5 8 (2.78%) Checkmarx
5 8 (2.78%) Salesforce
6 7 (2.43%) Databricks
6 7 (2.43%) Jaspersoft
7 5 (1.74%) IBM
7 5 (1.74%) Microsoft
8 4 (1.39%) Adobe
8 4 (1.39%) Dynatrace
8 4 (1.39%) Sybase
8 4 (1.39%) Veracode
9 3 (1.04%) OpenLink
10 2 (0.69%) Amdocs
10 2 (0.69%) Bloomberg
10 2 (0.69%) Red Hat
10 2 (0.69%) VMware