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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 342 285 293
Rank change year-on-year -57 +8 -150
Contract jobs citing BDD 279 260 314
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.86% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.78% 0.96% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 150 219
10th Percentile £357 £356 £348
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -14.68%
75th Percentile £559 £622 £591
90th Percentile £675 £800 £695
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -7.14%

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 35,552 27,150 38,650
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.77% 89.86% 87.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,564 16,816 25,267
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £410 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.38% -1.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,120 854 2,192
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £33.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.91% -2.94% -2.86%
75th Percentile £60.90 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.43 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -9.26% -

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 24 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 24 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 -53 244 £475 -9.52% 113
UK excluding London -45 145 £475 -5.00% 94
London -41 110 £513 -15.64% 30
North of England -38 93 £489 +11.71% 28
Work from Home -23 71 £475 -9.52% 75
Yorkshire -45 47 £525 +2.44% 7
North West -24 28 £431 +19.56% 19
Midlands -40 24 £450 -12.83% 17
West Midlands -40 22 £475 -7.99% 16
North East -3 21 £445 +14.10% 2
South West -27 8 £425 -19.05% 18
South East -45 8 £367 -26.60% 24
Scotland +11 6 £400 -11.11% 3
Wales -1 4 £375 - 2
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 2
East Midlands - 2 £310 - 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 37 (13.26%) Confluence
2 4 (1.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 2 (0.72%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.72%) nginx
3 2 (0.72%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.36%) CMS
4 1 (0.36%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.36%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 4 (1.43%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.36%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.72%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.36%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 95 (34.05%) AWS
2 65 (23.30%) Azure
3 39 (13.98%) GitHub
4 26 (9.32%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (7.89%) GCP
5 22 (7.89%) Serverless
6 18 (6.45%) GitHub Actions
7 16 (5.73%) Amazon S3
7 16 (5.73%) AWS Lambda
8 13 (4.66%) BrowserStack
9 8 (2.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 8 (2.87%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (2.87%) Amazon SQS
9 8 (2.87%) SaaS
10 7 (2.51%) Amazon EC2
11 5 (1.79%) Amazon Cognito
11 5 (1.79%) AWS Step Functions
12 4 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (1.43%) Amazon SageMaker
12 4 (1.43%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.79%) Cisco IPT
2 2 (0.72%) HTTP
3 1 (0.36%) Fibre Channel
3 1 (0.36%) FTP
3 1 (0.36%) Internet
3 1 (0.36%) iSCSI
3 1 (0.36%) LAN
3 1 (0.36%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (12.19%) MongoDB
2 30 (10.75%) PostgreSQL
3 15 (5.38%) SQL Server
4 11 (3.94%) MySQL
4 11 (3.94%) Relational Database
5 10 (3.58%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (3.58%) Oracle Database
6 8 (2.87%) NoSQL
7 7 (2.51%) Data Lake
7 7 (2.51%) DynamoDB
8 4 (1.43%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (1.08%) Delta Lake
9 3 (1.08%) Redis
10 2 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
11 1 (0.36%) Apache Cassandra
11 1 (0.36%) Big Data
11 1 (0.36%) BigQuery
11 1 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.36%) DB2
11 1 (0.36%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 103 (36.92%) Cucumber
2 73 (26.16%) Selenium
3 70 (25.09%) Jenkins
4 66 (23.66%) JIRA
5 60 (21.51%) GitLab
6 59 (21.15%) Git
7 42 (15.05%) Postman
8 32 (11.47%) JUnit
8 32 (11.47%) REST Assured
9 29 (10.39%) Mockito
10 23 (8.24%) Cypress.io
11 22 (7.89%) JMeter
12 21 (7.53%) WebDriver
13 17 (6.09%) SonarQube
14 11 (3.94%) Bitbucket
14 11 (3.94%) Gatling
14 11 (3.94%) Maven
15 8 (2.87%) Serenity BDD
15 8 (2.87%) TestRail
16 7 (2.51%) SpecFlow
General
1 69 (24.73%) Social Skills
2 63 (22.58%) Public Sector
3 43 (15.41%) Finance
4 23 (8.24%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (7.17%) Banking
6 7 (2.51%) Military
6 7 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (1.79%) Front Office
7 5 (1.79%) Legal
8 4 (1.43%) Electronics
9 3 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.72%) Retail
11 1 (0.36%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.36%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.36%) Marketing
11 1 (0.36%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 92 (32.97%) Developer
2 61 (21.86%) Java Developer
3 55 (19.71%) Senior
4 51 (18.28%) Test Engineer
5 34 (12.19%) Lead
6 26 (9.32%) Senior Developer
7 23 (8.24%) Software Engineer
8 22 (7.89%) Senior Java Developer
8 22 (7.89%) Test Automation Engineer
9 18 (6.45%) Tester
10 16 (5.73%) QA Engineer
11 15 (5.38%) Java Engineer
12 13 (4.66%) Automation Tester
12 13 (4.66%) Lead Test Engineer
13 12 (4.30%) Analyst
14 11 (3.94%) Test Leader
15 10 (3.58%) Senior Test Engineer
16 9 (3.23%) Automation Engineer
16 9 (3.23%) Business Analyst
17 8 (2.87%) React Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (20.07%) Spring Boot
2 55 (19.71%) Spring
3 54 (19.35%) REST
4 42 (15.05%) Playwright
5 37 (13.26%) Node.js
6 36 (12.90%) Kafka
7 35 (12.54%) React
7 35 (12.54%) RESTful
8 28 (10.04%) Gherkin
9 25 (8.96%) .NET
10 23 (8.24%) WireMock
11 21 (7.53%) ActiveMQ
11 21 (7.53%) AngularJS
12 18 (6.45%) JAX-RS
13 17 (6.09%) CSS
14 16 (5.73%) Jest
15 14 (5.02%) SOAP
15 14 (5.02%) Web Services
16 12 (4.30%) Spring Cloud
17 10 (3.58%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.96%) Product Ownership
2 15 (5.38%) Distributed Systems
3 13 (4.66%) Cloud Native
4 12 (4.30%) Distributed Architecture
5 6 (2.15%) Client/Server
5 6 (2.15%) Equities
5 6 (2.15%) Mobile App
5 6 (2.15%) Onboarding
6 5 (1.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 5 (1.79%) NHS
7 4 (1.43%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.08%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.08%) Distributed Applications
8 3 (1.08%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.72%) AS400
9 2 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (0.72%) iSeries
9 2 (0.72%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.36%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 42 (15.05%) Linux
2 30 (10.75%) Unix
3 19 (6.81%) Mac OS X
4 2 (0.72%) Android
4 2 (0.72%) Windows
5 1 (0.36%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.36%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.36%) VMS
5 1 (0.36%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (65.95%) Agile
2 174 (62.37%) Test Automation
3 173 (62.01%) TDD
4 153 (54.84%) CI/CD
5 133 (47.67%) Microservices
6 76 (27.24%) DevOps
7 63 (22.58%) API Testing
8 61 (21.86%) Problem-Solving
9 58 (20.79%) Scrum
10 55 (19.71%) Continuous Improvement
11 53 (19.00%) Test Strategy
12 49 (17.56%) Containerisation
13 47 (16.85%) Software Engineering
14 36 (12.90%) Mentoring
14 36 (12.90%) Performance Testing
15 35 (12.54%) Functional Testing
15 35 (12.54%) Non-Functional Testing
15 35 (12.54%) SDLC
16 31 (11.11%) Kanban
17 29 (10.39%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 177 (63.44%) Java
2 56 (20.07%) JavaScript
3 47 (16.85%) SQL
4 40 (14.34%) Python
5 36 (12.90%) TypeScript
6 25 (8.96%) C#
7 8 (2.87%) C++
7 8 (2.87%) Ruby
8 7 (2.51%) PHP
9 6 (2.15%) JSX
9 6 (2.15%) Kotlin
10 4 (1.43%) Go
10 4 (1.43%) Scala
11 3 (1.08%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.72%) Bash
12 2 (0.72%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.36%) Groovy
13 1 (0.36%) Swift
13 1 (0.36%) VBScript
13 1 (0.36%) XPath
Qualifications
1 82 (29.39%) Security Cleared
2 68 (24.37%) SC Cleared
3 15 (5.38%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (4.30%) Degree
4 12 (4.30%) ISTQB
5 6 (2.15%) AWS Certification
6 5 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.43%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (1.08%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.08%) ISEB
9 2 (0.72%) AWS Certified Developer
10 1 (0.36%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (22.94%) QA
2 39 (13.98%) Accessibility
3 13 (4.66%) WCAG
4 8 (2.87%) GDPR
5 5 (1.79%) PERC
6 2 (0.72%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.72%) HL7
7 1 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 72 (25.81%) Docker
2 3 (1.08%) Postfix
3 1 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 50 (17.92%) Kubernetes
2 24 (8.60%) Grafana
2 24 (8.60%) Terraform
3 17 (6.09%) Prometheus
4 4 (1.43%) Ansible
5 2 (0.72%) HP Fortify
5 2 (0.72%) Kibana
5 2 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.36%) EMC VPLEX
6 1 (0.36%) HAProxy
6 1 (0.36%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.36%) Rancher
Vendors
1 22 (7.89%) Oracle
2 13 (4.66%) Splunk
3 9 (3.23%) Atlassian
4 8 (2.87%) Salesforce
5 7 (2.51%) Databricks
6 6 (2.15%) Microsoft
6 6 (2.15%) ServiceNow
7 4 (1.43%) Adobe
7 4 (1.43%) Jaspersoft
7 4 (1.43%) Veracode
8 3 (1.08%) Google
8 3 (1.08%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.72%) CA Agile Central
9 2 (0.72%) IBM
9 2 (0.72%) SAP
9 2 (0.72%) VMware
9 2 (0.72%) Workday
10 1 (0.36%) Marketo
10 1 (0.36%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.36%) Xamarin