SDET Contracts

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring SDET skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SDET over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 477 506 571
Rank change year-on-year +29 +65 -7
Contract jobs citing SDET 43 76 147
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.15% 0.17% 0.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.16% 0.20% 0.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 55 112
10th Percentile £313 £413 £431
25th Percentile £380 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -13.75% -9.09% +10.00%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £671
90th Percentile £650 £625 £695
UK excluding London median daily rate £238 £498 £475
% change year-on-year -52.31% +4.84% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

SDET 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

SDET
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for SDET in the UK

SDET
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for SDET in the UK

SDET
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDET over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDET in the UK

SDET
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for SDET in the UK

SDET
Top 8 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDET within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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 +35 42 £438 -12.50% 39
London +29 35 £438 -12.50% 28
Work from Home +22 17 £438 -2.78% 24
UK excluding London +42 4 £238 -52.31% 23
South West - 2 £230 - 3
Midlands +21 1 £413 - 1
West Midlands +13 1 £413 -
Scotland +11 1 £245 -50.80% 4

SDET
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 4 (9.30%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 10 (23.26%) AWS
1 10 (23.26%) Azure
2 7 (16.28%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (4.65%) GitHub
4 1 (2.33%) BlazeMeter
4 1 (2.33%) BrowserStack
4 1 (2.33%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (2.33%) GCP
4 1 (2.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.33%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.33%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 23 (53.49%) Selenium
2 19 (44.19%) Jenkins
3 9 (20.93%) Cucumber
4 8 (18.60%) Git
5 7 (16.28%) JMeter
5 7 (16.28%) REST Assured
6 6 (13.95%) Appium
6 6 (13.95%) GitLab
6 6 (13.95%) JIRA
6 6 (13.95%) Postman
6 6 (13.95%) SpecFlow
7 5 (11.63%) WebDriver
8 4 (9.30%) CircleCI
8 4 (9.30%) Cypress.io
8 4 (9.30%) Gatling
8 4 (9.30%) NeoLoad
9 2 (4.65%) SoapUI
9 2 (4.65%) TestRail
10 1 (2.33%) TestComplete
10 1 (2.33%) WebStorm
General
1 13 (30.23%) Social Skills
2 9 (20.93%) Public Sector
3 8 (18.60%) Finance
4 5 (11.63%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (6.98%) Manufacturing
6 2 (4.65%) Electronics
6 2 (4.65%) Marketing
6 2 (4.65%) Telecoms
7 1 (2.33%) Automotive
7 1 (2.33%) Banking
7 1 (2.33%) Games
7 1 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (2.33%) Retail
Job Titles
1 16 (37.21%) Test Engineer
2 13 (30.23%) Developer
2 13 (30.23%) Software Developer
3 11 (25.58%) Developer in Test
4 7 (16.28%) Software Engineer
5 6 (13.95%) Development Engineer
5 6 (13.95%) Software Development Engineer
5 6 (13.95%) Test Development Engineer
6 5 (11.63%) Test Automation Engineer
7 4 (9.30%) Python Engineer
7 4 (9.30%) Senior
7 4 (9.30%) Senior Test Engineer
7 4 (9.30%) Software Test Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Automation Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Developer/Software Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Implementation Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Python Developer
8 1 (2.33%) QA Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Senior Implementation Engineer
8 1 (2.33%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (27.91%) REST
2 11 (25.58%) Playwright
3 6 (13.95%) pytest
4 5 (11.63%) Gherkin
5 4 (9.30%) CSS
5 4 (9.30%) HTML
5 4 (9.30%) Play Framework
6 3 (6.98%) .NET
6 3 (6.98%) JSON
7 2 (4.65%) Kafka
7 2 (4.65%) Web Services
8 1 (2.33%) Node.js
8 1 (2.33%) Pandas
8 1 (2.33%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 2 (4.65%) Data Structures
2 1 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (2.33%) Life Science
2 1 (2.33%) Mobile App
2 1 (2.33%) Sports Betting
2 1 (2.33%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 3 (6.98%) Linux
2 2 (4.65%) Windows
3 1 (2.33%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (93.02%) Test Automation
2 28 (65.12%) CI/CD
3 23 (53.49%) Software Testing
4 15 (34.88%) Agile
5 12 (27.91%) Test Scripting
6 10 (23.26%) API Testing
6 10 (23.26%) Performance Testing
7 9 (20.93%) BDD
7 9 (20.93%) Scrum
8 8 (18.60%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (16.28%) DevOps
10 6 (13.95%) Integration Testing
10 6 (13.95%) SDLC
10 6 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
11 5 (11.63%) Continuous Improvement
11 5 (11.63%) Microservices
11 5 (11.63%) TDD
12 4 (9.30%) Defect Management
12 4 (9.30%) Kanban
12 4 (9.30%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 17 (39.53%) Python
2 15 (34.88%) Java
3 11 (25.58%) JavaScript
4 8 (18.60%) C#
4 8 (18.60%) TypeScript
5 6 (13.95%) C++
6 4 (9.30%) PHP
6 4 (9.30%) Ruby
6 4 (9.30%) Scala
7 3 (6.98%) SQL
8 2 (4.65%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 11 (25.58%) Security Cleared
2 10 (23.26%) SC Cleared
3 1 (2.33%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (2.33%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (41.86%) QA
2 2 (4.65%) Accessibility
3 1 (2.33%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 2 (4.65%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (4.65%) Ansible
1 2 (4.65%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 2 (4.65%) Microsoft
1 2 (4.65%) SAP
2 1 (2.33%) Hitachi