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 28 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 353 290 294
Rank change year-on-year -63 +4 -136
Contract jobs citing BDD 294 247 327
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.66% 0.85% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.77% 0.94% 0.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 154 234
10th Percentile £350 £363 £350
25th Percentile £400 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.67% +5.00% -15.25%
75th Percentile £550 £636 £625
90th Percentile £700 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -6.95% +2.56% -7.14%
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 38,117 26,296 38,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.75% 90.49% 86.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,146 17,083 24,839
10th Percentile £313 £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 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £748
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,236 956 2,346
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.12 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.47 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.94 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.35 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.25 £31.64 £31.80
% change year-on-year -1.23% -0.50% -11.67%

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 28 March 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 28 March 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 -77 254 £475 -9.52% 104
UK excluding London -64 146 £465 -6.95% 86
London -37 120 £475 -17.39% 32
Work from Home -22 86 £425 -19.05% 72
North of England -45 79 £475 -5.00% 31
North West -13 39 £431 -4.22% 15
Yorkshire -56 31 £525 - 7
West Midlands -38 30 £425 -8.11% 7
Midlands -56 30 £425 -8.11% 11
North East -8 12 £413 +5.77% 9
South West -25 11 £494 -8.14% 5
Scotland +4 10 £350 -20.00% 7
South East -61 9 £359 -28.20% 24
East of England -28 4 £505 +61.60% 3
Wales -13 2 £525 - 2
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 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 42 (14.29%) Confluence
2 4 (1.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 4 (1.36%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.68%) nginx
3 2 (0.68%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.34%) Camunda
4 1 (0.34%) CMS
4 1 (0.34%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 4 (1.36%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.34%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.34%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 3 (1.02%) Findur
2 2 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.68%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.68%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.34%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 109 (37.07%) AWS
2 89 (30.27%) Azure
3 59 (20.07%) GitHub
4 39 (13.27%) GCP
5 36 (12.24%) Azure DevOps
6 32 (10.88%) GitHub Actions
7 26 (8.84%) Serverless
8 19 (6.46%) Amazon S3
8 19 (6.46%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (4.42%) BrowserStack
10 12 (4.08%) Amazon EC2
10 12 (4.08%) Amazon SQS
11 11 (3.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 11 (3.74%) SaaS
12 6 (2.04%) AWS KMS
12 6 (2.04%) AWS Step Functions
12 6 (2.04%) Route 53
13 5 (1.70%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 4 (1.36%) Amazon SageMaker
14 4 (1.36%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.70%) Cisco IPT
2 3 (1.02%) WAN
3 2 (0.68%) HTTP
3 2 (0.68%) NaaS
4 1 (0.34%) DSL
4 1 (0.34%) Fibre Channel
4 1 (0.34%) FTP
4 1 (0.34%) Internet
4 1 (0.34%) iSCSI
4 1 (0.34%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (13.95%) PostgreSQL
2 31 (10.54%) MongoDB
3 17 (5.78%) SQL Server
4 14 (4.76%) MySQL
5 13 (4.42%) Amazon RDS
5 13 (4.42%) Relational Database
6 11 (3.74%) DynamoDB
7 10 (3.40%) Oracle Database
8 9 (3.06%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.38%) Amazon Aurora
9 7 (2.38%) Data Lake
10 4 (1.36%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (1.36%) Redis
11 3 (1.02%) Delta Lake
12 2 (0.68%) Apache Cassandra
12 2 (0.68%) DB2
12 2 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.68%) Flink
12 2 (0.68%) InfluxDB
12 2 (0.68%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 110 (37.41%) Cucumber
2 82 (27.89%) Jenkins
3 75 (25.51%) Selenium
4 73 (24.83%) Git
5 72 (24.49%) JIRA
6 62 (21.09%) GitLab
7 50 (17.01%) JUnit
8 43 (14.63%) Postman
9 29 (9.86%) WebDriver
10 28 (9.52%) REST Assured
11 27 (9.18%) Mockito
12 26 (8.84%) JMeter
13 22 (7.48%) SonarQube
14 20 (6.80%) Cypress.io
15 12 (4.08%) Maven
16 11 (3.74%) Bitbucket
17 9 (3.06%) Gatling
17 9 (3.06%) SpecFlow
18 8 (2.72%) TestNG
18 8 (2.72%) TestRail
General
1 77 (26.19%) Social Skills
2 56 (19.05%) Finance
3 53 (18.03%) Public Sector
4 29 (9.86%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (8.16%) Banking
6 8 (2.72%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (2.04%) Front Office
8 5 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (1.70%) Legal
8 5 (1.70%) Military
9 4 (1.36%) Electronics
10 3 (1.02%) Billing
10 3 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.68%) Automotive
11 2 (0.68%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.68%) Retail
11 2 (0.68%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.34%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 94 (31.97%) Developer
2 54 (18.37%) Java Developer
3 51 (17.35%) Senior
4 50 (17.01%) Test Engineer
5 35 (11.90%) Lead
6 26 (8.84%) Tester
7 25 (8.50%) Test Automation Engineer
8 24 (8.16%) Software Engineer
9 20 (6.80%) Automation Tester
10 17 (5.78%) Senior Developer
11 16 (5.44%) QA Engineer
12 14 (4.76%) Test Leader
13 13 (4.42%) Java Engineer
13 13 (4.42%) Senior Java Developer
14 12 (4.08%) Automation Engineer
15 11 (3.74%) Analyst
15 11 (3.74%) Lead Test Engineer
16 10 (3.40%) Automation Test Lead
16 10 (3.40%) Senior Automation Tester
16 10 (3.40%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (24.15%) Spring
2 56 (19.05%) Spring Boot
3 54 (18.37%) REST
4 43 (14.63%) Playwright
5 41 (13.95%) RESTful
6 40 (13.61%) Node.js
7 35 (11.90%) Gherkin
8 34 (11.56%) React
9 33 (11.22%) Kafka
10 28 (9.52%) .NET
11 27 (9.18%) AngularJS
12 26 (8.84%) WireMock
13 17 (5.78%) CSS
13 17 (5.78%) Jest
14 16 (5.44%) ActiveMQ
15 15 (5.10%) SOAP
16 14 (4.76%) Spring Cloud
17 13 (4.42%) JAX-RS
17 13 (4.42%) Web Services
18 12 (4.08%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (9.86%) Product Ownership
2 26 (8.84%) Distributed Systems
3 20 (6.80%) Cloud Native
4 16 (5.44%) Distributed Architecture
5 10 (3.40%) Mobile App
6 7 (2.38%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.04%) Client/Server
7 6 (2.04%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.70%) Equities
9 4 (1.36%) Distributed Applications
9 4 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.36%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 3 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.02%) Educational Technology
10 3 (1.02%) NHS
11 2 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
11 2 (0.68%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.68%) iSeries
11 2 (0.68%) Private Cloud
11 2 (0.68%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 35 (11.90%) Linux
2 16 (5.44%) Unix
3 9 (3.06%) Mac OS X
4 4 (1.36%) Windows
5 3 (1.02%) Android
5 3 (1.02%) VMS
6 2 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.68%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.34%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (61.90%) Agile
2 177 (60.20%) TDD
2 177 (60.20%) Test Automation
3 165 (56.12%) CI/CD
4 122 (41.50%) Microservices
5 94 (31.97%) DevOps
6 68 (23.13%) Problem-Solving
7 65 (22.11%) API Testing
7 65 (22.11%) Continuous Improvement
8 63 (21.43%) Test Strategy
9 56 (19.05%) Scrum
10 43 (14.63%) Software Engineering
11 41 (13.95%) SDLC
12 40 (13.61%) Containerisation
13 39 (13.27%) Mentoring
14 33 (11.22%) End-to-End Testing
15 32 (10.88%) Performance Testing
16 31 (10.54%) Continuous Integration
16 31 (10.54%) Kanban
17 30 (10.20%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 174 (59.18%) Java
2 61 (20.75%) SQL
3 59 (20.07%) JavaScript
3 59 (20.07%) Python
4 38 (12.93%) TypeScript
5 34 (11.56%) C#
6 12 (4.08%) C++
7 10 (3.40%) Kotlin
8 8 (2.72%) Ruby
9 7 (2.38%) PHP
10 5 (1.70%) Go
10 5 (1.70%) JSX
11 4 (1.36%) Scala
11 4 (1.36%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.68%) Groovy
12 2 (0.68%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.34%) Bash
13 1 (0.34%) Swift
13 1 (0.34%) VBScript
13 1 (0.34%) XPath
Qualifications
1 74 (25.17%) Security Cleared
2 63 (21.43%) SC Cleared
3 15 (5.10%) Degree
4 13 (4.42%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (2.72%) ISTQB
6 7 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.70%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.02%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.68%) ISEB
9 2 (0.68%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.34%) AWS Certified Developer
10 1 (0.34%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (21.77%) QA
2 35 (11.90%) Accessibility
3 8 (2.72%) GDPR
4 7 (2.38%) WCAG
5 5 (1.70%) PERC
6 3 (1.02%) Data Quality
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 75 (25.51%) Docker
2 5 (1.70%) Postfix
3 1 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 60 (20.41%) Kubernetes
2 35 (11.90%) Grafana
3 28 (9.52%) Prometheus
4 24 (8.16%) Terraform
5 3 (1.02%) Ansible
5 3 (1.02%) Rancher
6 2 (0.68%) Amdocs OSS
6 2 (0.68%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.68%) Kibana
6 2 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.34%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.34%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.34%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 18 (6.12%) Oracle
2 12 (4.08%) Atlassian
2 12 (4.08%) Splunk
3 10 (3.40%) ServiceNow
4 8 (2.72%) Google
4 8 (2.72%) Salesforce
5 7 (2.38%) Databricks
6 6 (2.04%) Jaspersoft
7 5 (1.70%) Microsoft
8 4 (1.36%) Adobe
8 4 (1.36%) Checkmarx
8 4 (1.36%) Dynatrace
8 4 (1.36%) Veracode
9 3 (1.02%) IBM
9 3 (1.02%) OpenLink
10 2 (0.68%) Amdocs
10 2 (0.68%) Bloomberg
10 2 (0.68%) SAP
10 2 (0.68%) Sybase
10 2 (0.68%) VMware