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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 381 278 255
Rank change year-on-year -103 -23 -8
Contract jobs citing BDD 329 304 351
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.93% 0.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.71% 1.03% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 210 202 237
10th Percentile £306 £363 £357
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.35% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £538 £603 £650
90th Percentile £669 £700 £755
UK excluding London median daily rate £448 £470 £496
% change year-on-year -4.79% -5.24% -3.22%
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 46,106 29,609 32,588
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.64% 90.43% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,135 18,363 20,196
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
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 2,994 1,772 1,501
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.23 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.60 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £40.03 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.17% -41.51% +1.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.86 £22.60 £43.00
% change year-on-year +85.18% -47.44% +7.50%

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 9 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 9 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 -79 271 £455 -12.01% 187
UK excluding London -70 178 £448 -4.79% 100
London -81 117 £500 -9.09% 108
Work from Home -66 98 £475 -5.00% 106
North of England -62 74 £450 -14.29% 32
Midlands -19 42 £425 -15.00% 15
West Midlands -15 41 £425 -15.00% 11
North West -42 33 £438 +3.67% 19
Yorkshire -46 26 £550 - 9
Scotland -21 25 £465 +0.54% 11
North East -35 19 £450 -2.17% 4
South East -74 16 £275 -4.51% 25
South West -48 12 £525 +27.27% 7
East of England -17 8 £510 +36.00% 7
Wales -13 4 £531 +41.67% 2
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 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 32 (9.73%) Confluence
2 5 (1.52%) Apache Spark
3 4 (1.22%) Apache
4 3 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.91%) CMS
4 3 (0.91%) Headless CMS
4 3 (0.91%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.30%) Camunda
Applications
1 3 (0.91%) Notion
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.61%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 9 (2.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.43%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.91%) Findur
3 3 (0.91%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 114 (34.65%) AWS
2 99 (30.09%) Azure
3 92 (27.96%) GitHub
4 47 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
5 45 (13.68%) GitHub Actions
6 41 (12.46%) GCP
7 25 (7.60%) Serverless
8 21 (6.38%) GitHub Copilot
9 19 (5.78%) Amazon S3
10 17 (5.17%) Amazon SQS
10 17 (5.17%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (4.86%) Amazon EC2
12 14 (4.26%) Anthropic Claude
12 14 (4.26%) ChatGPT
13 12 (3.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 10 (3.04%) Power Automate
15 9 (2.74%) Dynamics 365
15 9 (2.74%) Power Platform
16 8 (2.43%) AWS KMS
16 8 (2.43%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.13%) RTP
1 7 (2.13%) Wireshark
2 6 (1.82%) 3GPP
3 3 (0.91%) Internet
4 2 (0.61%) DSL
4 2 (0.61%) Firewall
4 2 (0.61%) HTTP
5 1 (0.30%) DNS
5 1 (0.30%) NaaS
5 1 (0.30%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (15.81%) MongoDB
2 31 (9.42%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (7.29%) NoSQL
4 20 (6.08%) Relational Database
5 15 (4.56%) Db2
5 15 (4.56%) SQL Server
6 13 (3.95%) Amazon RDS
6 13 (3.95%) DynamoDB
7 12 (3.65%) Metadata
8 11 (3.34%) Amazon Aurora
9 8 (2.43%) MySQL
10 7 (2.13%) Power BI
11 6 (1.82%) BigQuery
11 6 (1.82%) Data Lake
11 6 (1.82%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (1.52%) Couchbase
12 5 (1.52%) Tableau
13 3 (0.91%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.91%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 116 (35.26%) Cucumber
2 96 (29.18%) Git
3 93 (28.27%) Selenium
4 73 (22.19%) Jenkins
5 62 (18.84%) JUnit
6 60 (18.24%) GitLab
7 49 (14.89%) JIRA
8 45 (13.68%) REST Assured
9 44 (13.37%) Postman
10 35 (10.64%) WebDriver
11 30 (9.12%) Mockito
12 28 (8.51%) SonarQube
13 26 (7.90%) Cypress.io
14 23 (6.99%) Gatling
15 20 (6.08%) SpecFlow
16 19 (5.78%) Maven
17 17 (5.17%) JMeter
18 13 (3.95%) TeamCity
19 9 (2.74%) Gradle
19 9 (2.74%) TestNG
General
1 113 (34.35%) Social Skills
2 74 (22.49%) Finance
3 62 (18.84%) Public Sector
4 55 (16.72%) Analytical Skills
5 44 (13.37%) Banking
6 17 (5.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 13 (3.95%) Front Office
8 9 (2.74%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.13%) Retail
10 6 (1.82%) Military
11 5 (1.52%) Aviation
11 5 (1.52%) Fire and Rescue
11 5 (1.52%) Police
12 3 (0.91%) Automotive
12 3 (0.91%) Legal Technology
12 3 (0.91%) Marketing
12 3 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.61%) Law
13 2 (0.61%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 100 (30.40%) Developer
2 71 (21.58%) Senior
3 60 (18.24%) Java Developer
4 57 (17.33%) Test Engineer
5 36 (10.94%) Software Engineer
6 33 (10.03%) Test Automation Engineer
7 27 (8.21%) Lead
8 25 (7.60%) Senior Developer
9 22 (6.69%) Analyst
10 20 (6.08%) Java Engineer
11 18 (5.47%) Senior Java Developer
11 18 (5.47%) Tester
12 16 (4.86%) Automation Tester
13 14 (4.26%) QA Engineer
13 14 (4.26%) Test Leader
14 12 (3.65%) Python Developer
14 12 (3.65%) Quality Engineer
14 12 (3.65%) Senior Software Engineer
15 11 (3.34%) Senior Test Engineer
15 11 (3.34%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (22.80%) Spring
2 67 (20.36%) Playwright
3 63 (19.15%) REST
3 63 (19.15%) Spring Boot
4 56 (17.02%) Gherkin
5 55 (16.72%) Kafka
6 38 (11.55%) RESTful
7 30 (9.12%) .NET
8 25 (7.60%) Terraform
8 25 (7.60%) WireMock
9 23 (6.99%) Node.js
10 22 (6.69%) React
11 21 (6.38%) AngularJS
12 19 (5.78%) ActiveMQ
13 18 (5.47%) SOAP
14 15 (4.56%) HTML
15 14 (4.26%) JAX-RS
15 14 (4.26%) JSON
15 14 (4.26%) pytest
16 13 (3.95%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 36 (10.94%) Product Ownership
2 31 (9.42%) Distributed Systems
3 27 (8.21%) Cloud Native
4 18 (5.47%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (4.26%) Equity Derivative
6 13 (3.95%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (3.04%) Derivative
8 8 (2.43%) Distributed Architecture
8 8 (2.43%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.82%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.82%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.52%) NHS
10 5 (1.52%) Robotics
10 5 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.52%) Taxonomies
11 4 (1.22%) AI Agents
11 4 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.22%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.22%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 3 (0.91%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 43 (13.07%) Linux
2 21 (6.38%) Unix
3 5 (1.52%) Android
3 5 (1.52%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.22%) Mac OS X
5 3 (0.91%) Windows
6 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.30%) AIX
7 1 (0.30%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (66.87%) Agile
2 215 (65.35%) CI/CD
3 211 (64.13%) TDD
4 199 (60.49%) Test Automation
5 112 (34.04%) DevOps
6 111 (33.74%) Microservices
7 77 (23.40%) Scrum
8 71 (21.58%) Problem-Solving
9 70 (21.28%) AI
10 69 (20.97%) Continuous Improvement
11 65 (19.76%) Software Engineering
12 64 (19.45%) Test Strategy
13 61 (18.54%) API Testing
14 48 (14.59%) Software Testing
15 46 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
16 42 (12.77%) Continuous Integration
16 42 (12.77%) SDLC
17 41 (12.46%) Mentoring
18 35 (10.64%) Pair Programming
19 34 (10.33%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 201 (61.09%) Java
2 88 (26.75%) SQL
3 82 (24.92%) Python
4 60 (18.24%) JavaScript
5 51 (15.50%) C#
6 30 (9.12%) TypeScript
7 12 (3.65%) Bash
7 12 (3.65%) Ruby
8 11 (3.34%) C++
9 8 (2.43%) Kotlin
10 7 (2.13%) Apex Code
10 7 (2.13%) Groovy
11 6 (1.82%) R
12 5 (1.52%) Scala
13 4 (1.22%) Go
13 4 (1.22%) Perl
14 3 (0.91%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.91%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.61%) Cypher
15 2 (0.61%) SHACL
Qualifications
1 81 (24.62%) Security Cleared
2 66 (20.06%) SC Cleared
3 24 (7.29%) BPSS Clearance
4 21 (6.38%) Degree
5 19 (5.78%) ISTQB
6 15 (4.56%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (2.74%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.74%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (1.82%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (0.91%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.91%) CSPO
11 2 (0.61%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.61%) ISEB
12 1 (0.30%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.30%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.30%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (23.10%) QA
2 53 (16.11%) Accessibility
3 33 (10.03%) WCAG
4 16 (4.86%) Data Quality
5 14 (4.26%) GDPR
6 3 (0.91%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.30%) EMIR
7 1 (0.30%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.30%) MiFID
7 1 (0.30%) SEPA
7 1 (0.30%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 80 (24.32%) Docker
2 5 (1.52%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 66 (20.06%) Kubernetes
2 24 (7.29%) Grafana
3 19 (5.78%) Prometheus
4 6 (1.82%) Ansible
5 4 (1.22%) Kibana
6 3 (0.91%) Istio
7 2 (0.61%) Argo
7 2 (0.61%) Consul
7 2 (0.61%) Zipkin
8 1 (0.30%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.30%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.30%) Rancher
8 1 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (7.29%) Microsoft
2 16 (4.86%) Salesforce
2 16 (4.86%) Sybase
3 15 (4.56%) IBM
4 14 (4.26%) Google
4 14 (4.26%) Oracle
5 8 (2.43%) Checkmarx
5 8 (2.43%) Conga
5 8 (2.43%) GoCardless
6 7 (2.13%) Atlassian
6 7 (2.13%) Databricks
7 6 (1.82%) Jaspersoft
8 4 (1.22%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.91%) CA Agile Central
9 3 (0.91%) Dynatrace
9 3 (0.91%) Guidewire
9 3 (0.91%) OpenLink
9 3 (0.91%) Splunk
10 2 (0.61%) FactSet
10 2 (0.61%) Solace