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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 373 286 271
Rank change year-on-year -87 -15 -24
Contract jobs citing BDD 326 301 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.93% 0.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.72% 1.02% 1.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 201 244
10th Percentile £306 £363 £357
25th Percentile £400 £422 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £500 £529
Median % change year-on-year -8.20% -5.48% -8.00%
75th Percentile £544 £638 £650
90th Percentile £671 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £498
% change year-on-year -5.26% -4.62% -4.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £82.50 -
Median hourly rate £45.00 £85.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -47.06% - -
75th Percentile £46.88 £87.50 -
90th Percentile £48.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.25 - -

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 45,329 29,411 32,997
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.42% 85.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,714 18,306 20,733
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.54%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,913 1,754 1,602
10th Percentile £14.07 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.30 £18.79
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 -82 270 £459 -11.69% 211
UK excluding London -62 179 £450 -5.26% 122
London -67 115 £500 -9.42% 122
Work from Home -55 97 £475 -5.00% 120
North of England -68 75 £450 -14.29% 38
Midlands -24 42 £425 -15.00% 16
West Midlands -16 41 £425 -15.00% 10
North West -40 34 £441 +4.56% 21
Scotland -17 25 £465 +0.54% 12
Yorkshire -49 25 £606 +10.23% 10
North East -33 20 £450 -2.17% 7
South East -73 16 £275 -12.42% 26
South West -42 12 £525 +27.27% 10
East of England -17 8 £510 +36.00% 8
Wales - 4 £531 - 4
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 11

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 32 (9.82%) Confluence
2 4 (1.23%) Apache
2 4 (1.23%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.92%) CMS
3 3 (0.92%) Headless CMS
3 3 (0.92%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.31%) Camunda
Applications
1 3 (0.92%) Notion
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.61%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 9 (2.76%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.45%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.92%) Findur
3 3 (0.92%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 112 (34.36%) AWS
2 99 (30.37%) Azure
3 90 (27.61%) GitHub
4 48 (14.72%) Azure DevOps
5 43 (13.19%) GCP
5 43 (13.19%) GitHub Actions
6 25 (7.67%) Serverless
7 21 (6.44%) GitHub Copilot
8 18 (5.52%) Amazon S3
9 17 (5.21%) Amazon SQS
10 16 (4.91%) AWS Lambda
11 15 (4.60%) Amazon EC2
12 14 (4.29%) ChatGPT
13 13 (3.99%) Anthropic Claude
14 12 (3.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 10 (3.07%) Power Automate
16 9 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
16 9 (2.76%) Power Platform
17 8 (2.45%) AWS KMS
17 8 (2.45%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.15%) RTP
1 7 (2.15%) Wireshark
2 6 (1.84%) 3GPP
3 3 (0.92%) Internet
4 2 (0.61%) DSL
4 2 (0.61%) Firewall
4 2 (0.61%) HTTP
5 1 (0.31%) NaaS
5 1 (0.31%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (15.95%) MongoDB
2 30 (9.20%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (7.06%) NoSQL
4 21 (6.44%) Relational Database
5 15 (4.60%) Db2
5 15 (4.60%) SQL Server
6 13 (3.99%) DynamoDB
7 12 (3.68%) Amazon RDS
8 11 (3.37%) Amazon Aurora
8 11 (3.37%) Metadata
9 7 (2.15%) MySQL
9 7 (2.15%) Power BI
10 6 (1.84%) BigQuery
10 6 (1.84%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (1.53%) Couchbase
11 5 (1.53%) Data Lake
11 5 (1.53%) Tableau
12 3 (0.92%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.92%) Apache Iceberg
12 3 (0.92%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 114 (34.97%) Cucumber
2 91 (27.91%) Selenium
3 90 (27.61%) Git
4 72 (22.09%) Jenkins
5 60 (18.40%) GitLab
6 59 (18.10%) JUnit
7 47 (14.42%) JIRA
8 43 (13.19%) Postman
8 43 (13.19%) REST Assured
9 35 (10.74%) WebDriver
10 29 (8.90%) Mockito
11 28 (8.59%) SonarQube
12 26 (7.98%) Cypress.io
13 23 (7.06%) Gatling
14 20 (6.13%) SpecFlow
15 18 (5.52%) Maven
16 17 (5.21%) JMeter
17 13 (3.99%) TeamCity
18 8 (2.45%) Gradle
18 8 (2.45%) IntelliJ
General
1 110 (33.74%) Social Skills
2 73 (22.39%) Finance
3 61 (18.71%) Public Sector
4 53 (16.26%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (13.19%) Banking
6 16 (4.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (3.68%) Front Office
8 9 (2.76%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.15%) Retail
10 6 (1.84%) Military
11 5 (1.53%) Aviation
11 5 (1.53%) Fire and Rescue
11 5 (1.53%) Police
12 3 (0.92%) Automotive
12 3 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.92%) Legal Technology
12 3 (0.92%) Marketing
12 3 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.61%) Law
Job Titles
1 100 (30.67%) Developer
2 68 (20.86%) Senior
3 62 (19.02%) Java Developer
4 55 (16.87%) Test Engineer
5 35 (10.74%) Software Engineer
6 32 (9.82%) Test Automation Engineer
7 28 (8.59%) Lead
8 23 (7.06%) Senior Developer
9 22 (6.75%) Analyst
10 20 (6.13%) Java Engineer
11 18 (5.52%) Senior Java Developer
11 18 (5.52%) Tester
12 16 (4.91%) Automation Tester
13 14 (4.29%) Test Leader
14 13 (3.99%) QA Engineer
15 12 (3.68%) Quality Engineer
15 12 (3.68%) Senior Software Engineer
16 11 (3.37%) Automation Engineer
16 11 (3.37%) Python Developer
16 11 (3.37%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (22.70%) Spring
2 65 (19.94%) Playwright
3 63 (19.33%) REST
4 61 (18.71%) Spring Boot
5 56 (17.18%) Gherkin
6 54 (16.56%) Kafka
7 38 (11.66%) RESTful
8 29 (8.90%) .NET
9 25 (7.67%) Node.js
9 25 (7.67%) Terraform
9 25 (7.67%) WireMock
10 23 (7.06%) React
11 22 (6.75%) AngularJS
12 19 (5.83%) ActiveMQ
13 18 (5.52%) SOAP
14 15 (4.60%) HTML
15 14 (4.29%) JAX-RS
15 14 (4.29%) JSON
16 13 (3.99%) XML
17 12 (3.68%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 35 (10.74%) Product Ownership
2 31 (9.51%) Distributed Systems
3 28 (8.59%) Cloud Native
4 18 (5.52%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (4.29%) Equity Derivative
6 13 (3.99%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (3.07%) Derivative
8 8 (2.45%) Distributed Architecture
9 7 (2.15%) Onboarding
10 6 (1.84%) Management Information System
11 5 (1.53%) NHS
11 5 (1.53%) Robotics
11 5 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.53%) Taxonomies
11 5 (1.53%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.23%) AI Agents
12 4 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.23%) Mobile App
12 4 (1.23%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 3 (0.92%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 42 (12.88%) Linux
2 21 (6.44%) Unix
3 5 (1.53%) Android
3 5 (1.53%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.23%) Mac OS X
5 3 (0.92%) Windows
6 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.61%) VMS
7 1 (0.31%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 218 (66.87%) Agile
2 213 (65.34%) CI/CD
3 211 (64.72%) TDD
4 197 (60.43%) Test Automation
5 113 (34.66%) DevOps
6 112 (34.36%) Microservices
7 79 (24.23%) Scrum
8 69 (21.17%) Problem-Solving
9 67 (20.55%) AI
9 67 (20.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 63 (19.33%) Software Engineering
10 63 (19.33%) Test Strategy
11 59 (18.10%) API Testing
12 45 (13.80%) Software Testing
12 45 (13.80%) Stakeholder Management
13 41 (12.58%) Continuous Integration
13 41 (12.58%) Mentoring
14 40 (12.27%) SDLC
15 35 (10.74%) Pair Programming
16 34 (10.43%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 200 (61.35%) Java
2 87 (26.69%) SQL
3 78 (23.93%) Python
4 58 (17.79%) JavaScript
5 49 (15.03%) C#
6 29 (8.90%) TypeScript
7 11 (3.37%) C++
7 11 (3.37%) Ruby
8 9 (2.76%) Bash
9 7 (2.15%) Apex Code
9 7 (2.15%) Groovy
9 7 (2.15%) Kotlin
10 6 (1.84%) R
11 4 (1.23%) Go
11 4 (1.23%) Perl
11 4 (1.23%) Scala
12 3 (0.92%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.92%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.61%) Cypher
13 2 (0.61%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 77 (23.62%) Security Cleared
2 62 (19.02%) SC Cleared
3 24 (7.36%) BPSS Clearance
4 21 (6.44%) Degree
5 19 (5.83%) ISTQB
6 15 (4.60%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.76%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (1.84%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (1.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (0.92%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.92%) CSPO
11 2 (0.61%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.61%) ISEB
12 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.31%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (22.39%) QA
2 51 (15.64%) Accessibility
3 33 (10.12%) WCAG
4 16 (4.91%) Data Quality
5 14 (4.29%) GDPR
6 3 (0.92%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.31%) EMIR
7 1 (0.31%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.31%) MiFID
7 1 (0.31%) SEPA
7 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.31%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 80 (24.54%) Docker
2 5 (1.53%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 66 (20.25%) Kubernetes
2 23 (7.06%) Grafana
3 18 (5.52%) Prometheus
4 7 (2.15%) Ansible
5 4 (1.23%) Kibana
6 3 (0.92%) Istio
7 2 (0.61%) Argo
7 2 (0.61%) Consul
7 2 (0.61%) Rancher
7 2 (0.61%) Zipkin
8 1 (0.31%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.31%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (7.36%) Microsoft
2 16 (4.91%) Salesforce
2 16 (4.91%) Sybase
3 15 (4.60%) Google
3 15 (4.60%) IBM
4 14 (4.29%) Oracle
5 8 (2.45%) Checkmarx
5 8 (2.45%) Conga
5 8 (2.45%) GoCardless
6 7 (2.15%) Atlassian
7 6 (1.84%) Databricks
7 6 (1.84%) Jaspersoft
8 4 (1.23%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.92%) CA Agile Central
9 3 (0.92%) Dynatrace
9 3 (0.92%) Guidewire
9 3 (0.92%) OpenLink
9 3 (0.92%) Splunk
10 2 (0.61%) Bloomberg
10 2 (0.61%) Solace