Software Testing Contracts

Software Testing
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Software Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Software Testing over the 6 months to 5 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
5 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 184 197 190
Rank change year-on-year +13 -7 +5
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 567 824 1,350
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.31% 1.39% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.52% 1.55% 1.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 369 548 866
10th Percentile £298 £285 £331
25th Percentile £388 £399 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £457 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.60% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £688 £700 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £453
% change year-on-year - -0.55% +6.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 78 79
10th Percentile £37.27 - £17.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.50 £30.25
Median hourly rate £62.50 £52.50 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.05% +7.14% +7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.96 £58.75
90th Percentile - £72.50 £65.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £52.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +20.19% +6.12% +7.69%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Software Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,268 53,074 80,383
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.35% 89.85% 90.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,016 36,805 56,451
10th Percentile £300 £325 £340
25th Percentile £413 £438 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +3.77% +8.72%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,439 1,749 1,911
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.25 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.95 £35.80 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.42% +43.20% +2.04%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £49.25
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +7.14% +75.00% -6.98%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Top 17 Contract 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 5 May 2024. 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 +18 507 £450 -10.00% 442
UK excluding London +8 298 £450 - 391
London +16 216 £465 -15.45% 75
Work from Home +28 200 £463 -2.63% 171
South East +29 101 £425 +6.25% 104
North of England +23 61 £431 +1.47% 76
East of England +12 48 £430 -4.44% 64
Midlands +14 43 £475 - 70
Yorkshire +43 41 £430 -9.47% 31
West Midlands +1 27 £475 -10.63% 42
South West +4 26 £550 +4.76% 53
North West -1 20 £475 +15.15% 41
East Midlands +26 16 £460 +22.53% 28
Scotland -17 12 £498 +4.84% 25
Northern Ireland +10 4 £550 - 4
Isle of Man - 2 - -
Wales +12 1 £210 -73.75% 7

Software Testing
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 16 (2.82%) Confluence
2 6 (1.06%) CMS
2 6 (1.06%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.71%) Apache
3 4 (0.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.71%) OpenStack
3 4 (0.71%) WebLogic
4 3 (0.53%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.53%) Headless CMS
4 3 (0.53%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.18%) Appian
5 1 (0.18%) JBoss
5 1 (0.18%) MTS
5 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.18%) Tornado
Applications
1 27 (4.76%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.59%) Simulink
3 7 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.88%) Stateflow
4 5 (0.88%) TargetLink
5 3 (0.53%) Windchill
6 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (1.76%) Endur
2 5 (0.88%) FLEXCUBE
3 4 (0.71%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.53%) ENOVIA
4 3 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.53%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.35%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.35%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.35%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.35%) SAP FSCM
5 2 (0.35%) WebTrends
6 1 (0.18%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP APO
6 1 (0.18%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 90 (15.87%) Azure
2 72 (12.70%) AWS
3 53 (9.35%) Azure DevOps
4 28 (4.94%) GitHub
5 14 (2.47%) Serverless
6 12 (2.12%) AWS Lambda
6 12 (2.12%) SaaS
7 9 (1.59%) Amazon EC2
7 9 (1.59%) Amazon S3
7 9 (1.59%) Power Platform
8 8 (1.41%) PaaS
9 7 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
9 7 (1.23%) Entra ID
9 7 (1.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
10 6 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (1.06%) IaaS
11 5 (0.88%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 5 (0.88%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (0.88%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 36 (6.35%) Modbus
1 36 (6.35%) RS-422
1 36 (6.35%) RS-485
2 17 (3.00%) LAN
3 6 (1.06%) DNS
3 6 (1.06%) TCP/IP
4 5 (0.88%) DHCP
4 5 (0.88%) HTTP
4 5 (0.88%) SNMP
4 5 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (0.71%) Firewall
5 4 (0.71%) SMS
5 4 (0.71%) Software-Defined Radio
5 4 (0.71%) Wireless
6 3 (0.53%) 5G
6 3 (0.53%) FTP
6 3 (0.53%) Internet
6 3 (0.53%) SSL
6 3 (0.53%) VLAN
6 3 (0.53%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (4.94%) SQL Server
2 23 (4.06%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.70%) Oracle Database
4 17 (3.00%) Oracle Database 11g
5 12 (2.12%) MySQL
5 12 (2.12%) NoSQL
6 11 (1.94%) Relational Database
7 10 (1.76%) Amazon Redshift
8 8 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (1.23%) Apache Cassandra
10 6 (1.06%) Power BI
11 5 (0.88%) Couchbase
11 5 (0.88%) MongoDB
11 5 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 4 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.71%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.53%) Big Data
13 3 (0.53%) MariaDB
14 2 (0.35%) DynamoDB
14 2 (0.35%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 89 (15.70%) Git
2 70 (12.35%) Selenium
3 59 (10.41%) JIRA
4 47 (8.29%) Jenkins
5 37 (6.53%) Cucumber
6 30 (5.29%) Postman
7 28 (4.94%) WebDriver
8 26 (4.59%) JUnit
9 20 (3.53%) REST Assured
9 20 (3.53%) TestNG
10 19 (3.35%) Visual Studio
11 18 (3.17%) Bitbucket
12 16 (2.82%) Appium
12 16 (2.82%) GitLab
13 15 (2.65%) JMeter
14 12 (2.12%) Cypress.io
14 12 (2.12%) SpecFlow
14 12 (2.12%) Subversion
15 11 (1.94%) SoapUI
16 10 (1.76%) eggPlant
General
1 195 (34.39%) Social Skills
2 84 (14.81%) Finance
3 69 (12.17%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (8.99%) Electronics
5 42 (7.41%) Public Sector
6 37 (6.53%) Banking
7 30 (5.29%) Back Office
8 22 (3.88%) Telecoms
9 20 (3.53%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (2.65%) Investment Banking
11 11 (1.94%) Automotive
11 11 (1.94%) Retail
12 10 (1.76%) Aerospace
12 10 (1.76%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.41%) Marketing
15 6 (1.06%) Front Office
15 6 (1.06%) Retail Banking
16 5 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
16 5 (0.88%) Games
Job Titles
1 84 (14.81%) Developer
2 75 (13.23%) Analyst
3 67 (11.82%) Software Engineer
4 57 (10.05%) Test Engineer
5 55 (9.70%) Senior
6 51 (8.99%) Tester
7 47 (8.29%) Lead
8 44 (7.76%) Test Analyst
9 33 (5.82%) Test Manager
10 29 (5.11%) C++ Software Engineer
11 22 (3.88%) Software Developer
11 22 (3.88%) Storage Manager
12 20 (3.53%) Hardware Engineer
13 18 (3.17%) Senior Analyst
14 16 (2.82%) Senior Test Analyst
14 16 (2.82%) Software Test Engineer
15 15 (2.65%) Business Analyst
15 15 (2.65%) PostgreSQL Developer
15 15 (2.65%) SQL Developer
16 14 (2.47%) QA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (7.23%) .NET
2 30 (5.29%) React
3 26 (4.59%) AngularJS
4 25 (4.41%) HTML
4 25 (4.41%) Web Services
5 24 (4.23%) .NET Framework
6 21 (3.70%) CSS
6 21 (3.70%) REST
7 18 (3.17%) RESTful
8 17 (3.00%) Node.js
9 14 (2.47%) Redux
9 14 (2.47%) XML
10 13 (2.29%) SOAP
10 13 (2.29%) YAML
11 12 (2.12%) Spring
12 11 (1.94%) GraphQL
12 11 (1.94%) Spring Boot
13 9 (1.59%) Gherkin
13 9 (1.59%) jQuery
14 7 (1.23%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.05%) Self-Motivation
2 24 (4.23%) Product Ownership
3 18 (3.17%) Mobile App
4 17 (3.00%) Driving Licence
5 15 (2.65%) Algorithms
6 14 (2.47%) Data Centre
6 14 (2.47%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (1.41%) NHS
8 8 (1.41%) Onboarding
8 8 (1.41%) Renewable Energy
9 7 (1.23%) Client/Server
9 7 (1.23%) Data Structures
9 7 (1.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 7 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
9 7 (1.23%) Life Science
10 6 (1.06%) Replication
11 5 (0.88%) Clustering
11 5 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (0.88%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 55 (9.70%) Linux
2 53 (9.35%) Windows
3 28 (4.94%) Unix
4 22 (3.88%) Android
5 20 (3.53%) Windows 10
6 17 (3.00%) Windows 7
7 14 (2.47%) zOS
8 4 (0.71%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.71%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.35%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.35%) Windows Server
10 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 269 (47.44%) Agile
2 206 (36.33%) Test Automation
3 165 (29.10%) DevOps
4 150 (26.46%) Software Engineering
5 100 (17.64%) Problem-Solving
6 94 (16.58%) Continuous Integration
7 88 (15.52%) CI/CD
7 88 (15.52%) Unit Testing
8 81 (14.29%) Scrum
9 75 (13.23%) Test Strategy
10 71 (12.52%) TDD
11 69 (12.17%) Continuous Improvement
12 66 (11.64%) Test Scripting
13 59 (10.41%) Customer Requirements
14 55 (9.70%) SDLC
15 47 (8.29%) User Acceptance Testing
16 46 (8.11%) Computer Science
17 44 (7.76%) End-to-End Testing
17 44 (7.76%) Project Management
18 41 (7.23%) Pair Programming
Programming Languages
1 108 (19.05%) SQL
2 97 (17.11%) C#
3 88 (15.52%) Java
4 82 (14.46%) Python
5 61 (10.76%) JavaScript
6 58 (10.23%) C
7 57 (10.05%) C++
8 33 (5.82%) TypeScript
9 27 (4.76%) Bash
10 26 (4.59%) PL/SQL
11 19 (3.35%) PowerShell
12 14 (2.47%) Kotlin
13 13 (2.29%) JCL
14 11 (1.94%) Go
15 10 (1.76%) MATLAB
15 10 (1.76%) REXX
16 9 (1.59%) Bourne shell
16 9 (1.59%) Korn
17 6 (1.06%) PHP
18 5 (0.88%) Perl
Qualifications
1 121 (21.34%) Security Cleared
2 104 (18.34%) Degree
3 83 (14.64%) SC Cleared
4 51 (8.99%) ISTQB
5 34 (6.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 30 (5.29%) DV Cleared
7 14 (2.47%) ISEB
8 12 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 8 (1.41%) Master's Degree
11 7 (1.23%) Numerate Degree
12 5 (0.88%) Chartered Engineer
13 4 (0.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 2 (0.35%) A+ Certification
14 2 (0.35%) ISEB Practitioner
14 2 (0.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 2 (0.35%) MCSE
14 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.35%) Network+ Certification
15 1 (0.18%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (14.64%) QA
2 12 (2.12%) Accessibility
3 7 (1.23%) AUTOSAR
4 6 (1.06%) ISO 9001
4 6 (1.06%) MISRA
4 6 (1.06%) MISRA C
4 6 (1.06%) PCI DSS
5 5 (0.88%) HL7
5 5 (0.88%) ISO 26262
5 5 (0.88%) Software Quality Assurance
6 4 (0.71%) WCAG
7 3 (0.53%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.35%) Automotive SPICE
8 2 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.35%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.35%) GDPR
8 2 (0.35%) PMO
8 2 (0.35%) SLA
9 1 (0.18%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 22 (3.88%) Firmware
2 18 (3.17%) Docker
3 13 (2.29%) NFS
3 13 (2.29%) Time Sharing Option
4 7 (1.23%) Active Directory
4 7 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.71%) VirtualBox
5 4 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 27 (4.76%) Kubernetes
2 26 (4.59%) SCCM
3 24 (4.23%) Ansible
4 23 (4.06%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 13 (2.29%) Terraform
6 6 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.71%) WSUS
8 3 (0.53%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.53%) HP Quality Center
8 3 (0.53%) Puppet
9 2 (0.35%) Grafana
9 2 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.35%) Kibana
9 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (0.35%) Opsgenie
10 1 (0.18%) Iperf
10 1 (0.18%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 75 (13.23%) Microsoft
2 71 (12.52%) Oracle
3 29 (5.11%) IBM
4 24 (4.23%) HP
5 18 (3.17%) Broadcom
5 18 (3.17%) Dell
6 13 (2.29%) Brocade
6 13 (2.29%) CA
7 12 (2.12%) SAP
8 10 (1.76%) OpenLink
9 8 (1.41%) Google
10 7 (1.23%) Adobe
11 5 (0.88%) Databricks
11 5 (0.88%) Red Hat
11 5 (0.88%) Siemens
11 5 (0.88%) Splunk
11 5 (0.88%) Xilinx
12 4 (0.71%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.71%) Optimizely
12 4 (0.71%) VMware