Software Testing Contract Job Trends

Software Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Software Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 256 200
Rank change year-on-year -12 -56 -36
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 492 335 479
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.01% 1.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.08% 1.12% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 224 323
10th Percentile £264 £313 £313
25th Percentile £394 £357 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £438 £463
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% -5.41% -6.75%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £588
90th Percentile £688 £610 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £450
% change year-on-year +2.86% -2.78% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 29 34
10th Percentile £25.33 £42.25 £23.22
25th Percentile £56.25 £50.00 £37.55
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% -8.00% +5.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +13.04% -8.00% +8.70%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Software Testing 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 45,350 29,954 33,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.75% 90.50% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,857 18,668 21,203
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £424 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.31%
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 2,845 1,726 1,796
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.03
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.31 £18.23
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.97
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.61% -1.28%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +13.33%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Software Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Testing
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Software Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Software Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
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 Software Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 17 August 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 -4 439 £478 +12.35% 312
UK excluding London -18 293 £450 +2.86% 289
London -31 155 £545 +36.13% 64
Work from Home -28 144 £475 +11.76% 137
South East -54 68 £402 +0.38% 75
Midlands -2 62 £500 +18.34% 57
West Midlands -8 57 £480 -6.80% 41
North of England -48 57 £475 +7.34% 66
East of England +8 48 £74 -84.42% 39
South West -24 42 £410 -3.53% 30
North East -17 27 £500 - 23
Scotland -12 19 £403 -10.56% 14
North West -31 17 £475 +28.38% 34
Yorkshire -43 15 £450 -4.26% 11
East Midlands -16 5 £575 +69.12% 16
Northern Ireland +6 2 £500 -20.00% 10
Wales -18 1 £288 -30.30% 7

Software Testing
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 20 (4.07%) Confluence
2 12 (2.44%) Apache Airflow
3 11 (2.24%) SAS
4 6 (1.22%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.22%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.61%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.41%) IIS
7 1 (0.20%) Apache
7 1 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
7 1 (0.20%) Jupyter
Applications
1 13 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.02%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.81%) Trello
5 3 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.41%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.41%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 6 (1.22%) Findur
1 6 (1.22%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (0.81%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.61%) LabWindows
3 3 (0.61%) Primavera
4 2 (0.41%) Maximo
5 1 (0.20%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.20%) Eikon
5 1 (0.20%) Misys Equation
5 1 (0.20%) Misys Midas
5 1 (0.20%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.20%) Shopify
5 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.20%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 108 (21.95%) Azure
2 107 (21.75%) AWS
3 53 (10.77%) GitHub
4 49 (9.96%) Azure DevOps
5 26 (5.28%) GCP
5 26 (5.28%) GitHub Actions
6 18 (3.66%) GitHub Copilot
7 16 (3.25%) Serverless
8 14 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (2.64%) PaaS
10 10 (2.03%) Amazon S3
11 9 (1.83%) Power Platform
11 9 (1.83%) SaaS
12 8 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 7 (1.42%) Entra ID
13 7 (1.42%) OpenShift
14 6 (1.22%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (1.22%) Anthropic Claude
15 5 (1.02%) Google Gemini
15 5 (1.02%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.22%) DNS
1 6 (1.22%) Ethernet
2 5 (1.02%) Firewall
2 5 (1.02%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (1.02%) Wireless
3 4 (0.81%) Network Security
4 3 (0.61%) DHCP
4 3 (0.61%) Internet
4 3 (0.61%) Reverse Proxy
5 2 (0.41%) Broadband
5 2 (0.41%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.20%) BGP
6 1 (0.20%) FTP
6 1 (0.20%) GSM
6 1 (0.20%) LTE
6 1 (0.20%) MPLS
6 1 (0.20%) SMS
6 1 (0.20%) SSL
6 1 (0.20%) UMTS
6 1 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.66%) Relational Database
2 16 (3.25%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.85%) MySQL
4 13 (2.64%) Oracle Database
5 12 (2.44%) MongoDB
5 12 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (2.24%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 11 (2.24%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 9 (1.83%) NoSQL
8 8 (1.63%) DynamoDB
9 7 (1.42%) Big Data
9 7 (1.42%) Elasticsearch
10 6 (1.22%) Power BI
11 5 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (1.02%) Redis
12 4 (0.81%) Amazon Athena
12 4 (0.81%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.61%) Amazon Aurora
13 3 (0.61%) Amazon QuickSight
13 3 (0.61%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 83 (16.87%) JIRA
2 69 (14.02%) Git
3 66 (13.41%) Selenium
4 42 (8.54%) Postman
5 38 (7.72%) GitLab
6 37 (7.52%) Cucumber
7 34 (6.91%) Jenkins
8 29 (5.89%) JUnit
9 24 (4.88%) REST Assured
10 15 (3.05%) Cypress.io
10 15 (3.05%) Gatling
11 14 (2.85%) WebDriver
12 13 (2.64%) Rational DOORS
13 12 (2.44%) JMeter
13 12 (2.44%) Zephyr
14 11 (2.24%) TestRail
15 9 (1.83%) Visual Studio
16 8 (1.63%) Appium
16 8 (1.63%) Maven
16 8 (1.63%) SoapUI
General
1 141 (28.66%) Social Skills
2 97 (19.72%) Finance
3 82 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (13.01%) Public Sector
5 48 (9.76%) Banking
6 27 (5.49%) Automotive
7 26 (5.28%) Aerospace
8 13 (2.64%) Back Office
8 13 (2.64%) Front Office
9 10 (2.03%) Law
9 10 (2.03%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (2.03%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.63%) Retail
12 7 (1.42%) Electronics
13 5 (1.02%) Avionics
13 5 (1.02%) Legal
13 5 (1.02%) Military
Job Titles
1 78 (15.85%) Test Engineer
2 75 (15.24%) Software Engineer
3 72 (14.63%) Developer
3 72 (14.63%) Senior
4 35 (7.11%) Analyst
4 35 (7.11%) Lead
5 30 (6.10%) Software Test Engineer
6 27 (5.49%) Tester
7 25 (5.08%) Software Developer
8 24 (4.88%) Test Manager
9 22 (4.47%) QA Engineer
10 21 (4.27%) Java Developer
10 21 (4.27%) Principal Engineer
11 20 (4.07%) Test Automation Engineer
12 19 (3.86%) Senior Developer
13 18 (3.66%) Principal Software Engineer
14 17 (3.46%) Architect
15 15 (3.05%) Automation Engineer
15 15 (3.05%) Test Analyst
15 15 (3.05%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (10.16%) REST
2 49 (9.96%) Playwright
3 45 (9.15%) React
4 38 (7.72%) .NET
5 35 (7.11%) Spring
6 30 (6.10%) Kafka
7 27 (5.49%) RESTful
8 21 (4.27%) Spring Boot
9 19 (3.86%) Node.js
10 15 (3.05%) HTML
11 14 (2.85%) AngularJS
12 13 (2.64%) XML
13 12 (2.44%) Redux
13 12 (2.44%) SOAP
14 11 (2.24%) CSS
14 11 (2.24%) Jest
14 11 (2.24%) JSON
15 10 (2.03%) pytest
16 9 (1.83%) CSS3
16 9 (1.83%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 50 (10.16%) Product Ownership
2 41 (8.33%) Enterprise Software
3 33 (6.71%) Cloud Native
4 27 (5.49%) Embedded Systems
5 22 (4.47%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (4.07%) Distributed Systems
7 14 (2.85%) Management Information System
8 10 (2.03%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (1.83%) Data Centre
9 9 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.63%) Onboarding
11 6 (1.22%) Data Structures
11 6 (1.22%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.02%) AI Agents
12 5 (1.02%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 5 (1.02%) FPGA
12 5 (1.02%) PCIe
13 4 (0.81%) Derivative
13 4 (0.81%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 34 (6.91%) Linux
2 23 (4.67%) Windows
3 10 (2.03%) Unix
4 6 (1.22%) FreeRTOS
4 6 (1.22%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.61%) Android
5 3 (0.61%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.61%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.41%) zOS
7 1 (0.20%) Solaris
7 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (47.76%) Test Automation
2 226 (45.93%) Agile
3 188 (38.21%) CI/CD
4 147 (29.88%) Software Engineering
5 138 (28.05%) DevOps
6 112 (22.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (21.95%) Problem-Solving
8 96 (19.51%) SDLC
9 85 (17.28%) Scrum
10 82 (16.67%) Test Strategy
11 69 (14.02%) Validation
12 67 (13.62%) Test Scripting
13 63 (12.80%) Defect Management
13 63 (12.80%) User Acceptance Testing
14 62 (12.60%) AI
15 59 (11.99%) Regression Testing
16 56 (11.38%) Mentoring
16 56 (11.38%) Stakeholder Management
17 53 (10.77%) Microservices
18 52 (10.57%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 104 (21.14%) Java
2 89 (18.09%) Python
3 75 (15.24%) SQL
4 59 (11.99%) JavaScript
5 41 (8.33%) C#
6 32 (6.50%) TypeScript
7 29 (5.89%) C++
8 16 (3.25%) C
9 13 (2.64%) PowerShell
10 8 (1.63%) Kotlin
11 6 (1.22%) PL/SQL
12 5 (1.02%) Apex Code
12 5 (1.02%) Bash
13 4 (0.81%) Korn
13 4 (0.81%) Scala
14 3 (0.61%) Ada
14 3 (0.61%) Groovy
14 3 (0.61%) MATLAB
14 3 (0.61%) Rust
14 3 (0.61%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 162 (32.93%) Security Cleared
2 133 (27.03%) SC Cleared
3 54 (10.98%) Degree
4 47 (9.55%) ISTQB
5 24 (4.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 18 (3.66%) BPSS Clearance
7 15 (3.05%) ISEB
8 14 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (2.24%) DV Cleared
10 10 (2.03%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 4 (0.81%) CEH
11 4 (0.81%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.81%) CISSP
11 4 (0.81%) CompTIA Security+
12 3 (0.61%) CCNA
13 2 (0.41%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.41%) ISEB Practitioner
13 2 (0.41%) Network+ Certification
13 2 (0.41%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.41%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (22.97%) QA
2 29 (5.89%) Accessibility
3 16 (3.25%) WCAG
4 10 (2.03%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.02%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.02%) NIST
5 5 (1.02%) PMO
5 5 (1.02%) Software Quality Assurance
6 3 (0.61%) GRC
7 2 (0.41%) ISO 15022
7 2 (0.41%) MiFID
7 2 (0.41%) MISRA
8 1 (0.20%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 1 (0.20%) GMP
8 1 (0.20%) HL7
8 1 (0.20%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.20%) ISO 13485
8 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 1 (0.20%) JTAG
8 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 50 (10.16%) Docker
2 11 (2.24%) Active Directory
3 6 (1.22%) Firmware
3 6 (1.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.02%) Embedded Firmware
5 4 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.61%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.61%) VMware Workstation
7 2 (0.41%) NFS
7 2 (0.41%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 59 (11.99%) Kubernetes
2 29 (5.89%) Terraform
3 17 (3.46%) Ansible
4 13 (2.64%) Prometheus
5 11 (2.24%) Grafana
6 6 (1.22%) Packer
7 5 (1.02%) HP ALM
8 4 (0.81%) Puppet
9 3 (0.61%) Salt
10 2 (0.41%) Argo
10 2 (0.41%) HP Fortify
10 2 (0.41%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.41%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 1 (0.20%) Control-M
11 1 (0.20%) Kibana
11 1 (0.20%) Oracle ZFS
11 1 (0.20%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.20%) PTC Integrity
11 1 (0.20%) SCCM
Vendors
1 41 (8.33%) Oracle
2 35 (7.11%) Microsoft
3 19 (3.86%) IBM
3 19 (3.86%) Salesforce
4 14 (2.85%) SAP
5 8 (1.63%) Splunk
5 8 (1.63%) VMware
6 7 (1.42%) Google
7 6 (1.22%) Conga
7 6 (1.22%) Dell
7 6 (1.22%) GoCardless
7 6 (1.22%) OpenLink
8 5 (1.02%) Atlassian
8 5 (1.02%) HP
8 5 (1.02%) ServiceNow
9 4 (0.81%) Citrix
9 4 (0.81%) OpenAI
10 3 (0.61%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.61%) Databricks
10 3 (0.61%) Fortinet