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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 338 281 304
Rank change year-on-year -57 +23 -168
Contract jobs citing BDD 273 276 321
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.88% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.81% 0.99% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 155 222
10th Percentile £375 £356 £340
25th Percentile £406 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £502 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.89% +0.40% -14.68%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £595
90th Percentile £675 £813 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -2.00% +2.56% -9.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £82.50 - -
Median hourly rate £85.00 - £90.00
75th Percentile £87.50 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

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 33,610 27,994 39,212
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.22% 89.12% 87.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,285 16,989 25,814
10th Percentile £305 £307 £300
25th Percentile £406 £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 £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.35% -0.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,025 871 2,057
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.70
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +7.69%
75th Percentile £58.65 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.78 £36.00
% change year-on-year -19.72% -14.50% +24.57%

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 1 February 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 1 February 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 -69 234 £500 -4.76% 111
UK excluding London -44 140 £490 -2.00% 81
London -41 107 £513 -11.64% 42
North of England -28 104 £500 +11.11% 23
Work from Home -21 71 £475 -9.52% 71
Yorkshire -42 51 £563 +12.50% 5
North West -16 33 £428 +7.00% 18
North East +2 24 £460 +26.90%
Midlands -48 10 £394 -23.73% 12
Scotland +7 8 £400 -5.88% 2
West Midlands -37 8 £488 -5.57% 9
South West -33 7 £425 -19.05% 14
South East -32 5 £550 +10.00% 25
Wales +1 4 £375 - 1
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 1
East Midlands - 2 £310 - 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 24 (8.79%) Confluence
2 4 (1.47%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 2 (0.73%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.73%) nginx
3 2 (0.73%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.37%) Cloud Foundry
4 1 (0.37%) CMS
4 1 (0.37%) Tomcat
Applications
1 5 (1.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 5 (1.83%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.73%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.37%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 84 (30.77%) AWS
2 55 (20.15%) Azure
3 34 (12.45%) GitHub
4 27 (9.89%) Serverless
5 21 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (7.33%) AWS Lambda
7 19 (6.96%) GCP
8 12 (4.40%) Amazon S3
8 12 (4.40%) SaaS
9 11 (4.03%) BrowserStack
10 10 (3.66%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (3.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 9 (3.30%) Amazon ECS
11 9 (3.30%) AWS Step Functions
12 8 (2.93%) Amazon SQS
13 7 (2.56%) Amazon EventBridge
13 7 (2.56%) Apigee
13 7 (2.56%) PaaS
14 6 (2.20%) Amazon EKS
14 6 (2.20%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.83%) Cisco IPT
2 3 (1.10%) HTTP
3 1 (0.37%) FTP
3 1 (0.37%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (14.29%) MongoDB
2 25 (9.16%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (6.96%) MySQL
4 15 (5.49%) NoSQL
5 14 (5.13%) Relational Database
6 13 (4.76%) SQL Server
7 12 (4.40%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (3.30%) DynamoDB
8 9 (3.30%) Oracle Database
8 9 (3.30%) Redis
9 7 (2.56%) Data Lake
10 6 (2.20%) BigQuery
10 6 (2.20%) RDBMS
11 5 (1.83%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (1.10%) Apache Cassandra
12 3 (1.10%) Delta Lake
13 2 (0.73%) Amazon Athena
13 2 (0.73%) Big Data
13 2 (0.73%) DB2
14 1 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 94 (34.43%) Cucumber
2 67 (24.54%) Jenkins
3 63 (23.08%) Selenium
4 55 (20.15%) Git
4 55 (20.15%) GitLab
5 51 (18.68%) JIRA
6 39 (14.29%) Postman
7 30 (10.99%) REST Assured
8 29 (10.62%) Mockito
9 22 (8.06%) Cypress.io
10 17 (6.23%) JUnit
10 17 (6.23%) SonarQube
11 15 (5.49%) JMeter
12 13 (4.76%) Bitbucket
13 12 (4.40%) Gradle
13 12 (4.40%) WebDriver
14 11 (4.03%) Maven
15 10 (3.66%) Gatling
16 9 (3.30%) TestRail
17 6 (2.20%) Serenity BDD
General
1 68 (24.91%) Social Skills
2 56 (20.51%) Public Sector
3 41 (15.02%) Finance
4 25 (9.16%) Banking
5 16 (5.86%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (1.83%) Front Office
6 5 (1.83%) Legal
6 5 (1.83%) Military
7 4 (1.47%) Electronics
8 3 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (0.73%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.37%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.37%) Marketing
10 1 (0.37%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.37%) Retail
10 1 (0.37%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 95 (34.80%) Developer
2 62 (22.71%) Java Developer
3 51 (18.68%) Senior
4 48 (17.58%) Test Engineer
5 29 (10.62%) Senior Developer
6 26 (9.52%) Lead
7 25 (9.16%) Senior Java Developer
8 22 (8.06%) Software Engineer
9 21 (7.69%) Test Automation Engineer
10 17 (6.23%) QA Engineer
11 15 (5.49%) Java Engineer
12 13 (4.76%) Tester
13 12 (4.40%) Lead Test Engineer
14 10 (3.66%) Automation Engineer
15 9 (3.30%) Analyst
15 9 (3.30%) Automation Tester
15 9 (3.30%) Senior Test Engineer
16 8 (2.93%) Architect
16 8 (2.93%) Technical Architect
17 7 (2.56%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (22.34%) Spring Boot
2 53 (19.41%) REST
3 43 (15.75%) Spring
4 39 (14.29%) Kafka
4 39 (14.29%) RESTful
5 38 (13.92%) Playwright
6 36 (13.19%) Node.js
6 36 (13.19%) React
7 27 (9.89%) Gherkin
8 23 (8.42%) ActiveMQ
8 23 (8.42%) JAX-RS
9 19 (6.96%) .NET
10 18 (6.59%) CSS
11 16 (5.86%) AngularJS
11 16 (5.86%) Jest
12 14 (5.13%) WireMock
13 12 (4.40%) HTML
13 12 (4.40%) JSON
14 11 (4.03%) SOAP
14 11 (4.03%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.99%) Product Ownership
2 17 (6.23%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.66%) Mobile App
4 7 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
4 7 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 6 (2.20%) Client/Server
5 6 (2.20%) Distributed Architecture
5 6 (2.20%) N-Tier
6 5 (1.83%) Equities
6 5 (1.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 5 (1.83%) NHS
7 4 (1.47%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.10%) Educational Technology
8 3 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (1.10%) Mobile Banking
8 3 (1.10%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.73%) AS400
9 2 (0.73%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 38 (13.92%) Linux
2 29 (10.62%) Unix
3 20 (7.33%) Mac OS X
4 4 (1.47%) Android
5 3 (1.10%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.73%) Windows
7 1 (0.37%) VMS
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (67.03%) Agile
2 172 (63.00%) TDD
3 166 (60.81%) Test Automation
4 139 (50.92%) CI/CD
5 126 (46.15%) Microservices
6 65 (23.81%) DevOps
7 61 (22.34%) Problem-Solving
8 58 (21.25%) Scrum
9 54 (19.78%) API Testing
10 48 (17.58%) Containerisation
10 48 (17.58%) Software Engineering
11 42 (15.38%) Test Strategy
12 41 (15.02%) Continuous Improvement
13 39 (14.29%) SDLC
14 36 (13.19%) Non-Functional Testing
15 35 (12.82%) Functional Testing
16 34 (12.45%) Performance Testing
17 33 (12.09%) Mentoring
18 32 (11.72%) Continuous Deployment
19 31 (11.36%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 185 (67.77%) Java
2 58 (21.25%) JavaScript
3 49 (17.95%) SQL
4 48 (17.58%) Python
5 39 (14.29%) TypeScript
6 18 (6.59%) C#
7 11 (4.03%) C++
7 11 (4.03%) Ruby
8 8 (2.93%) Kotlin
8 8 (2.93%) Scala
9 7 (2.56%) PHP
10 6 (2.20%) JSX
11 4 (1.47%) Bash
11 4 (1.47%) C
12 3 (1.10%) Go
12 3 (1.10%) Objective-C
12 3 (1.10%) Swift
13 2 (0.73%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.37%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.37%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 75 (27.47%) Security Cleared
2 59 (21.61%) SC Cleared
3 14 (5.13%) BPSS Clearance
3 14 (5.13%) ISTQB
4 10 (3.66%) Degree
5 5 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (1.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (1.10%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.10%) ISEB
7 2 (0.73%) AWS Certified Developer
7 2 (0.73%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 1 (0.37%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.37%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (21.98%) QA
2 35 (12.82%) Accessibility
3 11 (4.03%) WCAG
4 8 (2.93%) GDPR
5 5 (1.83%) PERC
6 3 (1.10%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.73%) HL7
8 1 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.37%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 64 (23.44%) Docker
Systems Management
1 48 (17.58%) Kubernetes
2 30 (10.99%) Terraform
3 12 (4.40%) Grafana
4 8 (2.93%) Prometheus
5 7 (2.56%) Ansible
6 2 (0.73%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.37%) HAProxy
7 1 (0.37%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.37%) Kibana
7 1 (0.37%) Kustomize
7 1 (0.37%) Rancher
Vendors
1 21 (7.69%) Oracle
2 11 (4.03%) Splunk
3 7 (2.56%) Databricks
3 7 (2.56%) Microsoft
3 7 (2.56%) Salesforce
4 6 (2.20%) Atlassian
5 5 (1.83%) Gigya
5 5 (1.83%) Red Hat
5 5 (1.83%) ServiceNow
6 4 (1.47%) Adobe
6 4 (1.47%) Veracode
7 2 (0.73%) Google
7 2 (0.73%) IBM
7 2 (0.73%) SAP
7 2 (0.73%) Workday
8 1 (0.37%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.37%) Thales
8 1 (0.37%) TOWER Software
8 1 (0.37%) VMware
8 1 (0.37%) Xamarin