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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 378 273 275
Rank change year-on-year -105 +2 -20
Contract jobs citing BDD 349 324 322
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.98% 0.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.74% 1.08% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 213 199
10th Percentile £306 £363 £367
25th Percentile £400 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £538 £588 £600
90th Percentile £644 £700 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -7.89% +5.56% -11.76%
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 46,870 30,047 32,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 90.49% 86.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,156 18,700 19,515
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,444 1,888 1,247
10th Percentile £13.53 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.94 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.18 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 -86 297 £453 -11.18% 48
UK excluding London -89 172 £438 -7.89% 44
London -56 139 £500 -7.41% 13
Work from Home -71 94 £475 -5.00% 42
North of England -86 73 £450 -13.85% 14
Midlands -8 53 £438 -7.89% 10
West Midlands -3 51 £438 -12.50% 9
Yorkshire -51 34 £475 -11.63% 3
North West -49 26 £438 +3.67% 8
North East -40 17 £450 -5.26% 3
Scotland -25 16 £470 +1.62% 6
South East -73 15 £275 -4.51% 8
South West -40 12 £500 +17.65% 4
Wales -8 6 £419 +11.67% 1
Northern Ireland +3 1 - -
East Midlands -13 1 £402 +30.73% 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 33 (9.46%) Confluence
2 4 (1.15%) Apache
2 4 (1.15%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (0.86%) CMS
3 3 (0.86%) Headless CMS
3 3 (0.86%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.86%) Mingle
1 3 (0.86%) Notion
2 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 12 (3.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.01%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.86%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 138 (39.54%) AWS
2 117 (33.52%) Azure
3 98 (28.08%) GitHub
4 49 (14.04%) Azure DevOps
5 47 (13.47%) GitHub Actions
6 37 (10.60%) GCP
7 29 (8.31%) GitHub Copilot
7 29 (8.31%) Serverless
8 18 (5.16%) Amazon S3
8 18 (5.16%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (4.58%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.30%) Amazon SQS
11 13 (3.72%) Amazon EC2
11 13 (3.72%) Power Automate
11 13 (3.72%) Power Platform
12 10 (2.87%) Anthropic Claude
12 10 (2.87%) Snowflake
13 9 (2.58%) Azure Functions
14 8 (2.29%) Amazon EKS
14 8 (2.29%) ChatGPT
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.01%) Internet
2 5 (1.43%) DNS
2 5 (1.43%) RTP
2 5 (1.43%) Wireshark
3 4 (1.15%) 3GPP
3 4 (1.15%) Firewall
4 2 (0.57%) BGP
4 2 (0.57%) DSL
4 2 (0.57%) HTTP
4 2 (0.57%) Intrusion Detection
4 2 (0.57%) Network Security
4 2 (0.57%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.57%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.57%) VPN
4 2 (0.57%) WAN
5 1 (0.29%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (15.76%) MongoDB
2 29 (8.31%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (7.45%) NoSQL
4 20 (5.73%) SQL Server
5 18 (5.16%) Relational Database
6 11 (3.15%) Data Lake
7 10 (2.87%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (2.58%) Db2
8 9 (2.58%) DynamoDB
8 9 (2.58%) MySQL
9 8 (2.29%) Power BI
10 7 (2.01%) BigQuery
10 7 (2.01%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (1.72%) Amazon Aurora
11 6 (1.72%) Metadata
12 5 (1.43%) Couchbase
12 5 (1.43%) Tableau
12 5 (1.43%) ZAP BI
13 4 (1.15%) Big Data
13 4 (1.15%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 150 (42.98%) Cucumber
2 112 (32.09%) Selenium
3 108 (30.95%) Git
4 84 (24.07%) Jenkins
5 73 (20.92%) GitLab
6 66 (18.91%) JUnit
7 53 (15.19%) JIRA
8 51 (14.61%) REST Assured
9 50 (14.33%) Postman
10 37 (10.60%) Gatling
11 33 (9.46%) Cypress.io
12 31 (8.88%) SonarQube
13 30 (8.60%) WebDriver
14 28 (8.02%) Mockito
15 23 (6.59%) SpecFlow
16 22 (6.30%) Maven
17 15 (4.30%) Gradle
17 15 (4.30%) JMeter
18 10 (2.87%) Serenity BDD
18 10 (2.87%) SoapUI
General
1 136 (38.97%) Social Skills
2 80 (22.92%) Finance
3 70 (20.06%) Public Sector
4 59 (16.91%) Analytical Skills
5 49 (14.04%) Banking
6 22 (6.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (3.15%) Front Office
8 8 (2.29%) Military
9 7 (2.01%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.01%) Retail
10 4 (1.15%) Marketing
10 4 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.86%) Aviation
11 3 (0.86%) Fire and Rescue
11 3 (0.86%) Legal Technology
11 3 (0.86%) Local Government
11 3 (0.86%) Police
12 2 (0.57%) Law
12 2 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.29%) Legal
Job Titles
1 91 (26.07%) Developer
2 79 (22.64%) Senior
3 57 (16.33%) Test Engineer
4 48 (13.75%) Java Developer
5 34 (9.74%) Software Engineer
6 30 (8.60%) Lead
6 30 (8.60%) Senior Developer
6 30 (8.60%) Test Automation Engineer
7 26 (7.45%) Quality Engineer
8 24 (6.88%) Java Engineer
9 22 (6.30%) Analyst
10 19 (5.44%) QA Engineer
11 15 (4.30%) Automation Engineer
11 15 (4.30%) Senior Java Developer
12 14 (4.01%) Senior Test Engineer
12 14 (4.01%) Test Leader
13 13 (3.72%) Architect
13 13 (3.72%) Test Analyst
14 12 (3.44%) Senior Software Engineer
14 12 (3.44%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (25.50%) Playwright
2 76 (21.78%) Spring
3 69 (19.77%) REST
4 64 (18.34%) Gherkin
5 62 (17.77%) Spring Boot
6 60 (17.19%) Kafka
7 46 (13.18%) RESTful
8 35 (10.03%) React
9 34 (9.74%) .NET
10 31 (8.88%) WireMock
11 29 (8.31%) Terraform
12 27 (7.74%) Node.js
13 21 (6.02%) AngularJS
13 21 (6.02%) HTML
14 20 (5.73%) pytest
15 19 (5.44%) RabbitMQ
16 17 (4.87%) ActiveMQ
16 17 (4.87%) SOAP
17 16 (4.58%) JSON
18 15 (4.30%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 38 (10.89%) Product Ownership
2 34 (9.74%) Cloud Native
3 27 (7.74%) Distributed Systems
4 22 (6.30%) Enterprise Software
5 15 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (3.72%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.87%) AI Agents
8 9 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (2.29%) Equity Derivative
9 8 (2.29%) Management Information System
10 7 (2.01%) Virtual Team
11 5 (1.43%) Derivative
11 5 (1.43%) Distributed Architecture
11 5 (1.43%) NHS
11 5 (1.43%) Taxonomies
12 4 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.15%) Mainframe
12 4 (1.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 3 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
13 3 (0.86%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 41 (11.75%) Linux
2 23 (6.59%) Unix
3 7 (2.01%) macOS
4 5 (1.43%) Android
4 5 (1.43%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.86%) AIX
6 3 (0.86%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (73.07%) Agile
2 249 (71.35%) CI/CD
3 230 (65.90%) Test Automation
4 229 (65.62%) TDD
5 134 (38.40%) Microservices
6 126 (36.10%) DevOps
7 95 (27.22%) Scrum
8 79 (22.64%) Software Engineering
9 77 (22.06%) Problem-Solving
9 77 (22.06%) Software Testing
10 75 (21.49%) Continuous Improvement
11 74 (21.20%) AI
12 73 (20.92%) API Testing
13 72 (20.63%) Test Strategy
14 65 (18.62%) Stakeholder Management
15 51 (14.61%) SDLC
16 50 (14.33%) Integration Testing
17 48 (13.75%) Coaching
18 45 (12.89%) Continuous Integration
18 45 (12.89%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 214 (61.32%) Java
2 86 (24.64%) Python
3 85 (24.36%) JavaScript
4 81 (23.21%) SQL
5 66 (18.91%) C#
6 49 (14.04%) TypeScript
7 16 (4.58%) Bash
8 14 (4.01%) Ruby
9 7 (2.01%) Apex Code
9 7 (2.01%) Groovy
9 7 (2.01%) Scala
10 6 (1.72%) R
11 5 (1.43%) C++
11 5 (1.43%) Go
11 5 (1.43%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.86%) Bicep
12 3 (0.86%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.86%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.57%) Cypher
13 2 (0.57%) PromQL
Qualifications
1 89 (25.50%) Security Cleared
2 73 (20.92%) SC Cleared
3 34 (9.74%) BPSS Clearance
4 25 (7.16%) Degree
5 22 (6.30%) ISTQB
6 19 (5.44%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (3.72%) DV Cleared
8 9 (2.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (2.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.72%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 5 (1.43%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.86%) CSPO
13 2 (0.57%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.57%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.57%) ISEB
13 2 (0.57%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.29%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (28.08%) QA
2 79 (22.64%) Accessibility
3 50 (14.33%) WCAG
4 16 (4.58%) GDPR
5 12 (3.44%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.86%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.57%) SEPA
7 2 (0.57%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.29%) EMIR
8 1 (0.29%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.29%) MiFID
8 1 (0.29%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 100 (28.65%) Docker
2 2 (0.57%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 88 (25.21%) Kubernetes
2 19 (5.44%) Grafana
3 13 (3.72%) Prometheus
4 6 (1.72%) Ansible
5 5 (1.43%) Kibana
6 3 (0.86%) Istio
7 2 (0.57%) Argo
7 2 (0.57%) Consul
7 2 (0.57%) Zipkin
8 1 (0.29%) Control-M
8 1 (0.29%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 35 (10.03%) Microsoft
2 19 (5.44%) Oracle
3 18 (5.16%) Databricks
4 16 (4.58%) Salesforce
5 14 (4.01%) IBM
6 13 (3.72%) Google
7 10 (2.87%) Sybase
8 8 (2.29%) Conga
8 8 (2.29%) GoCardless
9 6 (1.72%) OpenAI
10 5 (1.43%) Atlassian
10 5 (1.43%) Splunk
11 4 (1.15%) CA Agile Central
11 4 (1.15%) ION Trading
11 4 (1.15%) OutSystems
12 3 (0.86%) Guidewire
12 3 (0.86%) Jaspersoft
12 3 (0.86%) OneLogin
13 2 (0.57%) FactSet
13 2 (0.57%) HP