ISTQB Contracts

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 17 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 419 455 476
Rank change year-on-year +36 +21 -34
Contract jobs citing ISTQB 104 124 209
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.35% 0.29% 0.37%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.14% 0.97% 1.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 94 157
10th Percentile £313 £350 £346
25th Percentile £381 £400 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £506 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +1.25% +11.11%
75th Percentile £513 £575 £575
90th Percentile £600 £650 £619
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 2
10th Percentile - - £53.55
25th Percentile £81.75 £19.25 £55.88
Median hourly rate £83.50 £20.50 £63.50
Median % change year-on-year +307.32% -67.72% +81.56%
75th Percentile £85.25 £21.75 £74.88
90th Percentile - - £79.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.50 £20.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year +307.32% -72.67% +51.52%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISTQB falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 9,140 12,835 15,487
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.05% 30.16% 27.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,742 7,956 10,343
10th Percentile £281 £308 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £533 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.50% -3.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £619 £646 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 512 1,055 780
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.69 £15.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.72 £20.47
Median hourly rate £37.25 £40.00 £54.56
Median % change year-on-year -6.88% -26.69% +24.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £79.87 £75.85 £79.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £40.30 £50.00
% change year-on-year -6.95% -19.40% +42.86%

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing ISTQB as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing ISTQB.

Daily rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISTQB over the 6 months to 17 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing ISTQB.

Hourly rate trend for ISTQB in the UK

ISTQB
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the UK over the 6 months to 17 May 2025. 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 +49 93 £450 -14.29% 101
UK excluding London +43 74 £450 -10.00% 78
South East +44 38 £450 -18.18% 27
Work from Home +10 25 £400 -20.00% 50
London +22 23 £400 -27.27% 27
North of England +30 14 £475 +15.85% 11
North West - 12 £475 - 7
Midlands +12 8 £455 +13.64% 12
West Midlands +7 8 £455 +13.64% 9
South West +40 6 £463 +8.82% 15
Scotland +5 4 £400 -5.88% 1
East of England +26 2 £755 +72.57% 11
Wales +2 2 £394 +87.50% 1
North East -5 1 £363 -11.59% 1
Yorkshire - 1 £450 - 3

ISTQB
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (7.69%) Confluence
2 4 (3.85%) WebLogic
3 2 (1.92%) Apache
4 1 (0.96%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.96%) OpenStack
Applications
1 2 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.92%) Unit4 Business World
2 1 (0.96%) Cerner Millennium
2 1 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.96%) Magento
2 1 (0.96%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.96%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.96%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.96%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 13 (12.50%) Azure
2 8 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
3 6 (5.77%) AWS
3 6 (5.77%) SaaS
4 5 (4.81%) GitHub
5 4 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
6 3 (2.88%) IaaS
6 3 (2.88%) PaaS
6 3 (2.88%) Power Platform
6 3 (2.88%) PowerApps
7 2 (1.92%) Asana
7 2 (1.92%) Azure Stack
7 2 (1.92%) GCP
7 2 (1.92%) OpenShift
7 2 (1.92%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.96%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 1 (0.96%) BrowserStack
8 1 (0.96%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.96%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 17 (16.35%) LAN
1 17 (16.35%) LTE
1 17 (16.35%) WAN
2 16 (15.38%) ATM
2 16 (15.38%) Ethernet
2 16 (15.38%) Frame Relay
2 16 (15.38%) GPRS
2 16 (15.38%) GSM
2 16 (15.38%) MPLS
2 16 (15.38%) SAN
2 16 (15.38%) SDH
2 16 (15.38%) UMTS
2 16 (15.38%) VPN
2 16 (15.38%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.96%) 3G
3 1 (0.96%) 4G
3 1 (0.96%) Firewall
3 1 (0.96%) Internet
3 1 (0.96%) RTP
3 1 (0.96%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.88%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (1.92%) IDMS
3 1 (0.96%) Big Data
3 1 (0.96%) Data Mart
3 1 (0.96%) Delta Lake
3 1 (0.96%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 32 (30.77%) JIRA
2 30 (28.85%) Selenium
3 16 (15.38%) TestRail
4 12 (11.54%) JMeter
5 11 (10.58%) Jenkins
5 11 (10.58%) Postman
6 10 (9.62%) Cucumber
6 10 (9.62%) Git
6 10 (9.62%) JUnit
7 6 (5.77%) Cypress.io
7 6 (5.77%) REST Assured
8 5 (4.81%) Appium
8 5 (4.81%) GitLab
8 5 (4.81%) LoadRunner
8 5 (4.81%) Zephyr
9 4 (3.85%) Toad
9 4 (3.85%) WebDriver
10 3 (2.88%) Subversion
10 3 (2.88%) TeamCity
10 3 (2.88%) TestNG
General
1 60 (57.69%) Social Skills
2 34 (32.69%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (17.31%) Telecoms
4 17 (16.35%) Finance
5 10 (9.62%) Public Sector
6 7 (6.73%) Banking
7 2 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.92%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.96%) Advertising
8 1 (0.96%) Automotive
8 1 (0.96%) Back Office
8 1 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.96%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.96%) Front Office
8 1 (0.96%) Military
8 1 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.96%) Retail
8 1 (0.96%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 28 (26.92%) Analyst
2 27 (25.96%) Test Engineer
3 25 (24.04%) Test Analyst
4 15 (14.42%) IP Engineer
5 14 (13.46%) Lead
5 14 (13.46%) Test Manager
6 12 (11.54%) QA Engineer
7 11 (10.58%) Tester
8 8 (7.69%) Senior
9 6 (5.77%) Test Leader
10 5 (4.81%) IP Network Engineer
10 5 (4.81%) Network Engineer
10 5 (4.81%) QA Leader
10 5 (4.81%) SAP Analyst
10 5 (4.81%) SAP Test Analyst
11 4 (3.85%) Software Tester
12 3 (2.88%) QA Analyst
12 3 (2.88%) Senior Tester
13 2 (1.92%) SAP Manager
13 2 (1.92%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (6.73%) Playwright
2 5 (4.81%) .NET
2 5 (4.81%) XML
3 4 (3.85%) REST
4 2 (1.92%) Apache POI
4 2 (1.92%) GraphQL
4 2 (1.92%) JDBC
5 1 (0.96%) Gherkin
5 1 (0.96%) JSON
5 1 (0.96%) Kafka
5 1 (0.96%) Murex MxML
5 1 (0.96%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.96%) pytest
5 1 (0.96%) RESTful
5 1 (0.96%) SAP PI
5 1 (0.96%) SOAP
5 1 (0.96%) Web Services
5 1 (0.96%) XML Messaging
5 1 (0.96%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (16.35%) Self-Motivation
2 5 (4.81%) Mobile App
3 3 (2.88%) Client/Server
3 3 (2.88%) Onboarding
4 2 (1.92%) EPoS
4 2 (1.92%) Management Information System
4 2 (1.92%) NHS
4 2 (1.92%) Product Ownership
4 2 (1.92%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 1 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (0.96%) Data Centre
5 1 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (0.96%) Derivative
5 1 (0.96%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (0.96%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.96%) Mainframe
5 1 (0.96%) N-Tier
5 1 (0.96%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 22 (21.15%) Unix
2 16 (15.38%) Linux
3 4 (3.85%) Windows
4 2 (1.92%) Android
4 2 (1.92%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (51.92%) Agile
2 50 (48.08%) Test Automation
3 46 (44.23%) Test Strategy
4 41 (39.42%) Problem-Solving
5 33 (31.73%) Regression Testing
6 29 (27.88%) Test Management
7 26 (25.00%) CI/CD
8 25 (24.04%) Manual Testing
9 23 (22.12%) Project Management
10 22 (21.15%) User Acceptance Testing
11 21 (20.19%) DevOps
12 20 (19.23%) Software Testing
12 20 (19.23%) Test Scripting
13 18 (17.31%) Performance Testing
14 16 (15.38%) Fault Management
14 16 (15.38%) Validation
15 15 (14.42%) Integration Testing
15 15 (14.42%) Security Testing
15 15 (14.42%) Waterfall
16 14 (13.46%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 34 (32.69%) Java
2 23 (22.12%) SQL
3 12 (11.54%) Python
4 6 (5.77%) C#
5 4 (3.85%) Bash
6 3 (2.88%) C++
6 3 (2.88%) JavaScript
6 3 (2.88%) Shell Script
6 3 (2.88%) VBA
6 3 (2.88%) VBScript
7 2 (1.92%) COBOL
7 2 (1.92%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.96%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 48 (46.15%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 36 (34.62%) ISEB
3 21 (20.19%) Security Cleared
4 19 (18.27%) Degree
5 16 (15.38%) CCNP
5 16 (15.38%) Cisco Certification
6 12 (11.54%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (10.58%) SC Cleared
8 10 (9.62%) DV Cleared
9 8 (7.69%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 3 (2.88%) CEH
10 3 (2.88%) CISSP
11 2 (1.92%) PMI Certification
11 2 (1.92%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (35.58%) QA
2 4 (3.85%) Software Quality Assurance
3 1 (0.96%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.96%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.96%) EMIR
3 1 (0.96%) GDPR
3 1 (0.96%) IFRS
3 1 (0.96%) IFRS 17
3 1 (0.96%) IFRS 9
3 1 (0.96%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.96%) MiFID
3 1 (0.96%) NIST
3 1 (0.96%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.96%) SEPA
System Software
1 6 (5.77%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (5.77%) Kubernetes
2 3 (2.88%) Kibana
3 2 (1.92%) Grafana
3 2 (1.92%) HP ALM
3 2 (1.92%) Terraform
4 1 (0.96%) Ansible
4 1 (0.96%) HP Quality Center
4 1 (0.96%) OPNET
4 1 (0.96%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 21 (20.19%) Microsoft
2 18 (17.31%) Cisco
3 17 (16.35%) Juniper
4 8 (7.69%) SAP
5 5 (4.81%) Oracle
6 4 (3.85%) webMethods
7 3 (2.88%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.92%) HP
9 1 (0.96%) Bloomberg
9 1 (0.96%) Concur
9 1 (0.96%) Dell
9 1 (0.96%) Mavenir
9 1 (0.96%) Micro Focus
9 1 (0.96%) Mitel
9 1 (0.96%) Murex
9 1 (0.96%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.96%) Tradeweb
9 1 (0.96%) Virgin Media
9 1 (0.96%) VMware
9 1 (0.96%) Workday