Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £425, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 March 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 316 324 306
Rank change year-on-year +8 -18 +80
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 343 205 315
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 0.69% 0.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.86% 0.75% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 222 137 224
10th Percentile £300 £306 £350
25th Percentile £368 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £448 £425
Median % change year-on-year -5.03% +5.29% -11.68%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £513
90th Percentile £637 £617 £573
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £470 £425
% change year-on-year -12.23% +10.59% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 13 34
10th Percentile £28.25 £30.60 £29.50
25th Percentile £31.25 £51.06 £35.75
Median hourly rate £36.00 £62.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -42.40% +47.06% -29.75%
75th Percentile £61.84 - £59.44
90th Percentile £66.40 £63.50 £62.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £62.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -42.40% +47.06% -29.75%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 39,662 27,424 41,343
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.92% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,771 17,715 27,123
10th Percentile £313 £296 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 874 2,496
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.36 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.06 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +1.71% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Test Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Test Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Test Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Test Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Engineer in the UK

Test Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Test Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Engineer over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Engineer in the UK

Test Engineer
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 Test Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 14 March 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 -5 293 £425 -2.86% 148
UK excluding London +13 217 £413 -12.23% 159
London -39 93 £435 +0.23% 17
North of England -14 81 £413 +14.58% 35
Work from Home -22 60 £400 -15.34% 32
Midlands -18 49 £550 +34.80% 19
West Midlands -24 44 £628 +104.07% 16
Yorkshire -25 37 £475 +26.67% 9
South East -66 31 £386 -29.82% 32
East of England -10 25 £350 -12.50% 29
North East 0 24 £413 +29.92% 1
North West -22 23 £390 +6.12% 25
South West -26 14 £413 -21.43% 24
Scotland +16 9 £70 -85.22% 22
Wales -1 9 £475 - 2
East Midlands -31 5 £400 -6.81% 3
Northern Ireland - 3 £450 -

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 March 2026, Test Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 214 (62.39%) Test Automation
2 125 (36.44%) CI/CD
3 100 (29.15%) Security Cleared
4 98 (28.57%) Agile
5 84 (24.49%) QA
6 79 (23.03%) Azure
7 76 (22.16%) SC Cleared
7 76 (22.16%) Selenium
8 74 (21.57%) Java
9 70 (20.41%) API Testing
9 70 (20.41%) AWS
9 70 (20.41%) DevOps
10 67 (19.53%) Python
11 62 (18.08%) Cucumber
12 61 (17.78%) JIRA
12 61 (17.78%) Playwright
13 55 (16.03%) Test Strategy
14 54 (15.74%) Test Scripting
15 53 (15.45%) JavaScript
15 53 (15.45%) Performance Testing
16 52 (15.16%) Postman
17 51 (14.87%) Manual Testing
18 50 (14.58%) BDD
19 49 (14.29%) GitLab
20 48 (13.99%) Jenkins
21 47 (13.70%) Docker
21 47 (13.70%) Software Testing
22 46 (13.41%) Microservices
23 45 (13.12%) Accessibility
23 45 (13.12%) Functional Testing

Test Engineer Skill Set
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 11 (3.21%) Confluence
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (0.58%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.29%) SAS
Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.29%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 2 (0.58%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.29%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.29%) CODA-Financials
2 1 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.29%) Findur
2 1 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 79 (23.03%) Azure
2 70 (20.41%) AWS
3 38 (11.08%) Azure DevOps
4 34 (9.91%) GitHub
5 19 (5.54%) GCP
5 19 (5.54%) GitHub Actions
6 12 (3.50%) BrowserStack
7 9 (2.62%) Serverless
8 8 (2.33%) BlazeMeter
9 6 (1.75%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (1.46%) SaaS
10 5 (1.46%) Tricentis Tosca
11 4 (1.17%) Amazon SQS
11 4 (1.17%) Entra ID
11 4 (1.17%) Power Platform
12 3 (0.87%) Power Automate
13 2 (0.58%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.58%) Azure Sentinel
13 2 (0.58%) PowerApps
13 2 (0.58%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.33%) Firewall
2 7 (2.04%) WAN
3 6 (1.75%) DHCP
3 6 (1.75%) DNS
3 6 (1.75%) LAN
3 6 (1.75%) SD-WAN
4 5 (1.46%) Broadband
4 5 (1.46%) TCP/IP
4 5 (1.46%) VPN
5 4 (1.17%) BGP
5 4 (1.17%) MPLS
5 4 (1.17%) OSPF
5 4 (1.17%) VLAN
5 4 (1.17%) Wireshark
6 3 (0.87%) Cisco IOS
6 3 (0.87%) Network Security
6 3 (0.87%) SSH
6 3 (0.87%) SSL
6 3 (0.87%) TACACS
6 3 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (3.21%) MongoDB
2 6 (1.75%) SQL Server
3 5 (1.46%) MySQL
3 5 (1.46%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.58%) Neo4j
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.29%) MS Access
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.29%) Power BI
5 1 (0.29%) Power Query
5 1 (0.29%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 76 (22.16%) Selenium
2 62 (18.08%) Cucumber
3 61 (17.78%) JIRA
4 52 (15.16%) Postman
5 49 (14.29%) GitLab
6 48 (13.99%) Jenkins
7 37 (10.79%) REST Assured
8 35 (10.20%) Git
9 32 (9.33%) JMeter
10 23 (6.71%) Cypress.io
11 17 (4.96%) Gatling
12 11 (3.21%) Zephyr
13 8 (2.33%) JUnit
13 8 (2.33%) Serenity BDD
13 8 (2.33%) TestRail
14 7 (2.04%) Appium
14 7 (2.04%) HP UFT
14 7 (2.04%) WebDriver
15 6 (1.75%) Browser DevTools
16 5 (1.46%) MSTest
General
1 61 (17.78%) Public Sector
2 49 (14.29%) Social Skills
3 34 (9.91%) Finance
4 27 (7.87%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (4.37%) Automotive
6 13 (3.79%) Military
7 12 (3.50%) Telecoms
8 10 (2.92%) Aerospace
8 10 (2.92%) Banking
9 7 (2.04%) Electronics
10 4 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.17%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.87%) Back Office
11 3 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (0.58%) Front Office
12 2 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.29%) Avionics
13 1 (0.29%) Law
13 1 (0.29%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.29%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (17.78%) Playwright
2 39 (11.37%) REST
3 17 (4.96%) Node.js
4 14 (4.08%) Kafka
5 13 (3.79%) .NET
6 11 (3.21%) Spring Boot
6 11 (3.21%) WireMock
7 10 (2.92%) Spring
8 9 (2.62%) Gherkin
8 9 (2.62%) LDAP
8 9 (2.62%) OpenID
8 9 (2.62%) pytest
8 9 (2.62%) SailPoint
9 7 (2.04%) React
9 7 (2.04%) Swagger
10 6 (1.75%) Middleware
10 6 (1.75%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.75%) Spring Cloud
10 6 (1.75%) WebdriverIO
11 5 (1.46%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.54%) Product Ownership
2 15 (4.37%) Cloud Native
3 8 (2.33%) Infotainment
4 7 (2.04%) Mobile App
5 6 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (1.46%) Data Centre
6 5 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (1.46%) Fibre Optics
6 5 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.17%) Hedge funds
7 4 (1.17%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.87%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (0.87%) Low-Code
8 3 (0.87%) Onboarding
8 3 (0.87%) PKI
9 2 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.58%) Embedded Systems
10 1 (0.29%) CMDB
10 1 (0.29%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 14 (4.08%) Windows
2 6 (1.75%) Android
3 5 (1.46%) Apple iOS
3 5 (1.46%) Linux
4 4 (1.17%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.87%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (62.39%) Test Automation
2 125 (36.44%) CI/CD
3 98 (28.57%) Agile
4 70 (20.41%) API Testing
4 70 (20.41%) DevOps
5 55 (16.03%) Test Strategy
6 54 (15.74%) Test Scripting
7 53 (15.45%) Performance Testing
8 51 (14.87%) Manual Testing
9 50 (14.58%) BDD
10 47 (13.70%) Software Testing
11 46 (13.41%) Microservices
12 45 (13.12%) Functional Testing
12 45 (13.12%) Regression Testing
13 38 (11.08%) Validation
14 37 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
14 37 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
15 36 (10.50%) Non-Functional Testing
16 32 (9.33%) Integration Testing
16 32 (9.33%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 74 (21.57%) Java
2 67 (19.53%) Python
3 53 (15.45%) JavaScript
4 37 (10.79%) TypeScript
5 25 (7.29%) SQL
6 22 (6.41%) C#
7 12 (3.50%) Bash
7 12 (3.50%) Ruby
8 9 (2.62%) PowerShell
9 7 (2.04%) VBScript
10 6 (1.75%) C++
11 5 (1.46%) C
11 5 (1.46%) PHP
12 3 (0.87%) Scala
12 3 (0.87%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.58%) AppleScript
13 2 (0.58%) Bicep
13 2 (0.58%) Cypher
13 2 (0.58%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.58%) Swift
Qualifications
1 100 (29.15%) Security Cleared
2 76 (22.16%) SC Cleared
3 24 (7.00%) ISTQB
4 16 (4.66%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.92%) DV Cleared
6 7 (2.04%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 6 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (1.75%) Degree
8 3 (0.87%) CCNP
8 3 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (0.87%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.58%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.58%) CCNA
9 2 (0.58%) CEH
9 2 (0.58%) CREST Certified
9 2 (0.58%) MCSA
9 2 (0.58%) MCSE
9 2 (0.58%) OSCP
9 2 (0.58%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (24.49%) QA
2 45 (13.12%) Accessibility
3 9 (2.62%) WCAG
4 6 (1.75%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.46%) NIST
6 3 (0.87%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 2 (0.58%) EU AI Act
7 2 (0.58%) NCSC
7 2 (0.58%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.29%) HL7
8 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.29%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 47 (13.70%) Docker
2 6 (1.75%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (0.58%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 2 (0.58%) Firmware
4 2 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.29%) Squid
Systems Management
1 21 (6.12%) Kubernetes
2 18 (5.25%) Grafana
3 13 (3.79%) Prometheus
4 11 (3.21%) Terraform
5 5 (1.46%) HP ALM
6 4 (1.17%) Ansible
7 3 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 21 (6.12%) Microsoft
2 10 (2.92%) Citrix
2 10 (2.92%) ServiceNow
2 10 (2.92%) Splunk
3 9 (2.62%) Cisco
4 6 (1.75%) HP
5 5 (1.46%) UiPath
6 4 (1.17%) Salesforce
7 3 (0.87%) Databricks
7 3 (0.87%) Google
7 3 (0.87%) Meraki
7 3 (0.87%) Oracle
7 3 (0.87%) SAP
8 2 (0.58%) Dynatrace
8 2 (0.58%) Okta
8 2 (0.58%) Optimizely
8 2 (0.58%) Siemens
8 2 (0.58%) Virgin Media
8 2 (0.58%) Workday
8 2 (0.58%) Zscaler