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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 260 290
Rank change year-on-year -69 +30 -154
Contract jobs citing BDD 270 300 345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 0.93% 0.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.83% 1.05% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 173 238
10th Percentile £375 £355 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -14.68%
75th Percentile £575 £615 £600
90th Percentile £675 £810 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +8.61% -10.00% -8.59%
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 32,455 28,477 37,352
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.94% 88.47% 87.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,517 17,306 24,837
10th Percentile £304 £308 £305
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,999 921 1,524
10th Percentile £14.73 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.92
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £55.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.76% -32.33% +50.00%

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 6 January 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 17 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 6 January 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 -67 228 £500 -0.74% 123
UK excluding London -63 127 £489 +8.61% 100
London -41 105 £520 -8.37% 34
North of England -22 99 £500 +11.11% 25
Work from Home -22 72 £475 -5.38% 111
Yorkshire -42 49 £550 +15.79% 10
North West -22 29 £418 +4.38% 13
North East +5 23 £460 +26.90% 2
South East -30 8 £550 +10.00% 35
Scotland -1 5 £545 +28.24% 2
Midlands -38 5 £394 -22.41% 10
Wales +2 4 £375 - 5
South West -26 3 £400 -25.58% 10
West Midlands -37 3 £488 -3.94% 7
East Midlands - 2 £310 - 3
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 2
East of England -17 1 £375 +20.00% 13

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 22 (8.15%) Confluence
2 4 (1.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 2 (0.74%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.74%) nginx
4 1 (0.37%) Cloud Foundry
4 1 (0.37%) CMS
Applications
1 6 (2.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (2.22%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 84 (31.11%) AWS
2 67 (24.81%) Azure
3 38 (14.07%) GitHub
4 22 (8.15%) Azure DevOps
4 22 (8.15%) Serverless
5 21 (7.78%) GCP
6 16 (5.93%) AWS Lambda
6 16 (5.93%) GitHub Actions
7 11 (4.07%) SaaS
8 9 (3.33%) Amazon ECS
8 9 (3.33%) Amazon S3
9 8 (2.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 8 (2.96%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (2.96%) Amazon SQS
10 7 (2.59%) Amazon EventBridge
10 7 (2.59%) Apigee
10 7 (2.59%) AWS Step Functions
10 7 (2.59%) BrowserStack
10 7 (2.59%) Datadog
11 6 (2.22%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.85%) Cisco IPT
2 3 (1.11%) HTTP
3 2 (0.74%) MQTT
4 1 (0.37%) DSL
4 1 (0.37%) FTP
4 1 (0.37%) Internet
4 1 (0.37%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (14.07%) MongoDB
2 32 (11.85%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (7.41%) MySQL
4 19 (7.04%) NoSQL
5 17 (6.30%) SQL Server
6 12 (4.44%) Redis
7 11 (4.07%) Amazon RDS
7 11 (4.07%) Relational Database
8 8 (2.96%) DynamoDB
9 7 (2.59%) RDBMS
10 6 (2.22%) BigQuery
11 5 (1.85%) Amazon Aurora
12 3 (1.11%) Apache Cassandra
12 3 (1.11%) Big Data
12 3 (1.11%) DB2
13 2 (0.74%) Elasticsearch
14 1 (0.37%) Amazon Athena
14 1 (0.37%) Data Lake
14 1 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
14 1 (0.37%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 89 (32.96%) Cucumber
2 67 (24.81%) Git
2 67 (24.81%) Jenkins
3 61 (22.59%) Selenium
4 47 (17.41%) JIRA
5 44 (16.30%) GitLab
6 37 (13.70%) Postman
7 26 (9.63%) Mockito
7 26 (9.63%) REST Assured
8 23 (8.52%) Cypress.io
9 17 (6.30%) JMeter
10 16 (5.93%) Bitbucket
11 15 (5.56%) Gradle
11 15 (5.56%) JUnit
12 13 (4.81%) Maven
13 12 (4.44%) SonarQube
14 11 (4.07%) WebDriver
15 9 (3.33%) TestRail
16 7 (2.59%) SpecFlow
17 6 (2.22%) Zephyr
General
1 71 (26.30%) Social Skills
2 55 (20.37%) Public Sector
3 33 (12.22%) Finance
4 29 (10.74%) Banking
5 13 (4.81%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (3.33%) Investment Banking
7 7 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.22%) Front Office
9 5 (1.85%) Legal
9 5 (1.85%) Military
10 4 (1.48%) Electronics
11 1 (0.37%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.37%) Marketing
11 1 (0.37%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.37%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.37%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 107 (39.63%) Developer
2 67 (24.81%) Java Developer
3 52 (19.26%) Senior
4 43 (15.93%) Test Engineer
5 30 (11.11%) Senior Developer
6 24 (8.89%) Lead
6 24 (8.89%) Senior Java Developer
7 21 (7.78%) Software Engineer
8 20 (7.41%) Test Automation Engineer
9 15 (5.56%) QA Engineer
10 13 (4.81%) Java Engineer
10 13 (4.81%) Tester
11 12 (4.44%) Analyst
12 10 (3.70%) Angular Developer
12 10 (3.70%) Automation Tester
13 9 (3.33%) Automation Engineer
13 9 (3.33%) Senior Test Engineer
14 8 (2.96%) Architect
14 8 (2.96%) Lead Test Engineer
14 8 (2.96%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (21.48%) REST
2 56 (20.74%) Spring Boot
3 48 (17.78%) RESTful
4 44 (16.30%) Kafka
5 41 (15.19%) Node.js
6 39 (14.44%) React
7 36 (13.33%) Spring
8 30 (11.11%) Playwright
9 28 (10.37%) Gherkin
10 26 (9.63%) .NET
10 26 (9.63%) ActiveMQ
11 24 (8.89%) JAX-RS
12 23 (8.52%) CSS
13 21 (7.78%) AngularJS
14 17 (6.30%) HTML
15 14 (5.19%) Jest
15 14 (5.19%) JSON
16 13 (4.81%) WireMock
17 12 (4.44%) Web Services
18 11 (4.07%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 38 (14.07%) Product Ownership
2 16 (5.93%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.70%) Mobile App
4 7 (2.59%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.22%) Distributed Architecture
5 6 (2.22%) Equities
5 6 (2.22%) N-Tier
5 6 (2.22%) Onboarding
6 5 (1.85%) Client/Server
6 5 (1.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 5 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
6 5 (1.85%) NHS
7 4 (1.48%) Algorithms
8 3 (1.11%) AI Agents
8 3 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.11%) Educational Technology
8 3 (1.11%) Mobile Banking
8 3 (1.11%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.11%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 36 (13.33%) Linux
2 29 (10.74%) Unix
3 20 (7.41%) Mac OS X
4 4 (1.48%) Android
5 3 (1.11%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.74%) Windows
7 1 (0.37%) VMS
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (71.85%) Agile
2 184 (68.15%) TDD
3 164 (60.74%) Test Automation
4 145 (53.70%) CI/CD
5 135 (50.00%) Microservices
6 72 (26.67%) Scrum
7 70 (25.93%) DevOps
8 54 (20.00%) API Testing
8 54 (20.00%) Software Engineering
9 53 (19.63%) Problem-Solving
10 52 (19.26%) Containerisation
11 41 (15.19%) Continuous Improvement
12 36 (13.33%) Non-Functional Testing
13 35 (12.96%) Continuous Deployment
14 34 (12.59%) Kanban
14 34 (12.59%) Test Strategy
15 33 (12.22%) Mentoring
16 32 (11.85%) Functional Testing
17 31 (11.48%) Continuous Integration
17 31 (11.48%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 172 (63.70%) Java
2 57 (21.11%) JavaScript
3 51 (18.89%) SQL
4 48 (17.78%) Python
5 38 (14.07%) TypeScript
6 22 (8.15%) C#
7 13 (4.81%) Scala
8 11 (4.07%) Ruby
9 9 (3.33%) C++
10 8 (2.96%) Kotlin
11 7 (2.59%) PHP
12 6 (2.22%) JSX
13 5 (1.85%) Go
14 4 (1.48%) Bash
14 4 (1.48%) C
15 3 (1.11%) Objective-C
15 3 (1.11%) Swift
16 2 (0.74%) PL/SQL
17 1 (0.37%) T-SQL
17 1 (0.37%) XPath
Qualifications
1 69 (25.56%) Security Cleared
2 54 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 17 (6.30%) BPSS Clearance
4 14 (5.19%) ISTQB
5 13 (4.81%) Degree
6 7 (2.59%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.85%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (1.11%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.11%) ISEB
9 2 (0.74%) AWS Certified Developer
9 2 (0.74%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 2 (0.74%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.37%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.37%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (24.07%) QA
2 37 (13.70%) Accessibility
3 11 (4.07%) WCAG
4 8 (2.96%) GDPR
5 5 (1.85%) PERC
6 3 (1.11%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.74%) HL7
8 1 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
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 68 (25.19%) Docker
Systems Management
1 48 (17.78%) Kubernetes
2 24 (8.89%) Terraform
3 12 (4.44%) Grafana
4 9 (3.33%) Ansible
5 8 (2.96%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.11%) Kustomize
7 2 (0.74%) HP Fortify
7 2 (0.74%) Kibana
8 1 (0.37%) HAProxy
8 1 (0.37%) logstash
8 1 (0.37%) Rancher
8 1 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (4.81%) Oracle
2 7 (2.59%) Atlassian
2 7 (2.59%) Microsoft
3 6 (2.22%) Splunk
4 5 (1.85%) Gigya
4 5 (1.85%) ServiceNow
5 4 (1.48%) Adobe
5 4 (1.48%) Red Hat
6 3 (1.11%) Salesforce
7 2 (0.74%) CA Agile Central
7 2 (0.74%) Databricks
7 2 (0.74%) IBM
8 1 (0.37%) Bloomberg
8 1 (0.37%) Marketo
8 1 (0.37%) MuleSoft
8 1 (0.37%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.37%) Reuters
8 1 (0.37%) UiPath
8 1 (0.37%) VMware
8 1 (0.37%) Xamarin