Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £438, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 August 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 271 336 344
Rank change year-on-year +65 +8 +46
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 489 224 230
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 0.68% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.99% 0.74% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 133 151
10th Percentile £306 £270 £330
25th Percentile £363 £320 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £536 £480 £571
90th Percentile £603 £585 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £377 £506
% change year-on-year +12.73% -25.53% +6.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 27 17
10th Percentile £27.77 £28.28 £25.00
25th Percentile £33.00 £35.38 £26.88
Median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year - +21.17% -21.40%
75th Percentile £61.84 £58.72 £72.50
90th Percentile £72.54 £63.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £41.27
% change year-on-year - +21.17% -21.40%

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 49,373 30,106 36,347
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 91.47% 92.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,709 19,120 23,460
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,448 1,496 2,067
10th Percentile £15.13 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.89 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +73.20% -42.71% +17.07%

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 6 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 +56 418 £430 +4.24% 181
UK excluding London +52 366 £425 +12.73% 165
North of England -17 88 £400 -7.94% 18
London -48 88 £450 +9.09% 29
Work from Home -32 78 £400 +5.26% 44
Midlands 0 72 £525 +31.66% 26
South East -36 65 £414 +21.87% 35
West Midlands -5 64 £525 +16.67% 18
East of England +19 56 £350 -6.67% 38
South West +1 54 £475 +7.04% 41
North West -19 45 £463 -5.61% 8
Scotland +23 33 £525 +707.69% 9
North East -17 27 £325 -22.62% 8
Yorkshire -45 20 £500 +16.35% 2
East Midlands -5 8 - - 8
Wales -9 6 £300 -3.85% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 6 August 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.

1 222 (45.40%) Test Automation
2 141 (28.83%) Security Cleared
3 133 (27.20%) CI/CD
4 104 (21.27%) SC Cleared
5 101 (20.65%) Validation
6 99 (20.25%) Agile
7 86 (17.59%) DevOps
8 78 (15.95%) QA
9 76 (15.54%) Python
10 75 (15.34%) Java
10 75 (15.34%) Playwright
10 75 (15.34%) Software Testing
11 74 (15.13%) Selenium
12 72 (14.72%) API Testing
13 69 (14.11%) Test Strategy
14 62 (12.68%) Azure
15 58 (11.86%) Test Scripting
16 57 (11.66%) AWS
17 56 (11.45%) BDD
18 54 (11.04%) Performance Testing
19 53 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
20 52 (10.63%) GitHub
21 49 (10.02%) End-to-End Testing
22 48 (9.82%) Cucumber
23 47 (9.61%) Integration Testing
23 47 (9.61%) Problem-Solving
24 45 (9.20%) JIRA
24 45 (9.20%) Non-Functional Testing
25 44 (9.00%) Postman
26 43 (8.79%) Microservices

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 8 (1.64%) Confluence
2 5 (1.02%) Apache
2 5 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
2 5 (1.02%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.02%) Jupyter
3 3 (0.61%) SAS
4 2 (0.41%) Mule
4 2 (0.41%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 2 (0.41%) Chatbot
1 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.20%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 8 (1.64%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.61%) Findur
2 3 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 62 (12.68%) Azure
2 57 (11.66%) AWS
3 52 (10.63%) GitHub
4 41 (8.38%) Azure DevOps
5 23 (4.70%) GitHub Actions
6 20 (4.09%) GCP
7 9 (1.84%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.43%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 6 (1.23%) Amazon EMR
10 4 (0.82%) BrowserStack
10 4 (0.82%) Entra ID
10 4 (0.82%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (0.82%) PowerApps
11 3 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (0.61%) GitHub Copilot
11 3 (0.61%) Power Automate
11 3 (0.61%) Serverless
12 2 (0.41%) Amazon ECR
12 2 (0.41%) Amazon EventBridge
12 2 (0.41%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.86%) LAN
2 13 (2.66%) DNS
3 10 (2.04%) Firewall
4 9 (1.84%) DHCP
4 9 (1.84%) WAN
5 8 (1.64%) TCP/IP
6 7 (1.43%) VLAN
7 6 (1.23%) VPN
8 5 (1.02%) MPLS
8 5 (1.02%) Network Security
8 5 (1.02%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.82%) Broadband
9 4 (0.82%) HTTP
9 4 (0.82%) Internet
9 4 (0.82%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.61%) 4G
10 3 (0.61%) LTE
10 3 (0.61%) SSL
10 3 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
11 2 (0.41%) 2G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.68%) MongoDB
2 7 (1.43%) Big Data
2 7 (1.43%) Relational Database
3 5 (1.02%) Amazon Athena
3 5 (1.02%) Neo4j
3 5 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (0.82%) Power BI
5 3 (0.61%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.41%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.41%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.20%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.20%) Flink
7 1 (0.20%) MySQL
7 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
7 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 74 (15.13%) Selenium
2 48 (9.82%) Cucumber
3 45 (9.20%) JIRA
4 44 (9.00%) Postman
5 41 (8.38%) REST Assured
6 40 (8.18%) Jenkins
7 39 (7.98%) GitLab
8 35 (7.16%) JMeter
9 26 (5.32%) Gatling
10 22 (4.50%) Git
11 20 (4.09%) Cypress.io
12 14 (2.86%) WebDriver
12 14 (2.86%) Zephyr
13 13 (2.66%) LabVIEW
14 12 (2.45%) JUnit
15 9 (1.84%) Serenity BDD
15 9 (1.84%) SpecFlow
16 6 (1.23%) Browser DevTools
16 6 (1.23%) MSTest
16 6 (1.23%) TestNG
General
1 66 (13.50%) Social Skills
2 49 (10.02%) Public Sector
3 38 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (6.54%) Aerospace
5 30 (6.13%) Automotive
6 29 (5.93%) Finance
7 28 (5.73%) Electronics
8 17 (3.48%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.66%) Banking
10 11 (2.25%) Military
10 11 (2.25%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.82%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.82%) Law
13 3 (0.61%) Marketing
14 2 (0.41%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.41%) German Language
14 2 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.20%) Legal Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (15.34%) Playwright
2 40 (8.18%) REST
3 19 (3.89%) Kafka
4 16 (3.27%) RESTful
5 14 (2.86%) Spring Boot
6 13 (2.66%) pytest
6 13 (2.66%) Spring
7 12 (2.45%) React
8 11 (2.25%) .NET
9 9 (1.84%) Node.js
10 8 (1.64%) SOAP
11 6 (1.23%) Gherkin
11 6 (1.23%) Model Context Protocol
11 6 (1.23%) OpenTelemetry
11 6 (1.23%) Spring Cloud
11 6 (1.23%) Web Services
12 5 (1.02%) HTML
13 4 (0.82%) ADO
13 4 (0.82%) Swagger
13 4 (0.82%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 20 (4.09%) Product Ownership
2 17 (3.48%) Cloud Native
2 17 (3.48%) Enterprise Software
3 14 (2.86%) Distributed Systems
4 13 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (1.43%) AI Agents
6 6 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
7 5 (1.02%) Embedded Systems
7 5 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.02%) Linux Command Line
7 5 (1.02%) NHS
8 4 (0.82%) Infotainment
8 4 (0.82%) Virtual Team
9 3 (0.61%) Analogue Electronics
9 3 (0.61%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 2 (0.41%) Hedge funds
10 2 (0.41%) Synthetic Data
11 1 (0.20%) Hybrid Cloud
11 1 (0.20%) Mobile App
11 1 (0.20%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 18 (3.68%) Windows
2 12 (2.45%) Linux
3 6 (1.23%) Mac OS
4 5 (1.02%) Unix
5 4 (0.82%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.41%) Android
6 2 (0.41%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.41%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (45.40%) Test Automation
2 133 (27.20%) CI/CD
3 101 (20.65%) Validation
4 99 (20.25%) Agile
5 86 (17.59%) DevOps
6 75 (15.34%) Software Testing
7 72 (14.72%) API Testing
8 69 (14.11%) Test Strategy
9 58 (11.86%) Test Scripting
10 56 (11.45%) BDD
11 54 (11.04%) Performance Testing
12 53 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
13 49 (10.02%) End-to-End Testing
14 47 (9.61%) Integration Testing
14 47 (9.61%) Problem-Solving
15 45 (9.20%) Non-Functional Testing
16 43 (8.79%) Microservices
17 41 (8.38%) Regression Testing
18 39 (7.98%) User Acceptance Testing
19 36 (7.36%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 76 (15.54%) Python
2 75 (15.34%) Java
3 42 (8.59%) JavaScript
4 39 (7.98%) SQL
5 33 (6.75%) C#
6 26 (5.32%) TypeScript
7 12 (2.45%) Bash
8 9 (1.84%) PowerShell
9 8 (1.64%) Kotlin
10 7 (1.43%) Apex Code
10 7 (1.43%) C++
11 6 (1.23%) C
11 6 (1.23%) Ruby
12 4 (0.82%) MATLAB
13 2 (0.41%) AppleScript
13 2 (0.41%) Cypher
13 2 (0.41%) Groovy
13 2 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.41%) Scala
13 2 (0.41%) Swift
Qualifications
1 141 (28.83%) Security Cleared
2 104 (21.27%) SC Cleared
3 22 (4.50%) ISTQB
4 17 (3.48%) DV Cleared
5 14 (2.86%) Degree
6 11 (2.25%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 10 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.64%) HNC
9 7 (1.43%) HND
10 3 (0.61%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.41%) CCNP
11 2 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.20%) CCNA
12 1 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Black Belt
12 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (15.95%) QA
2 28 (5.73%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.25%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.82%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 4 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.82%) WCAG
5 2 (0.41%) Software Quality Assurance
6 1 (0.20%) GDPR
6 1 (0.20%) IEC 62304
6 1 (0.20%) ISO 13485
6 1 (0.20%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.20%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.20%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
6 1 (0.20%) NCSC
6 1 (0.20%) NIST
6 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 31 (6.34%) Docker
2 7 (1.43%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.02%) Active Directory
5 4 (0.82%) vSphere
6 3 (0.61%) Firmware
7 2 (0.41%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 20 (4.09%) Grafana
2 18 (3.68%) Kubernetes
3 15 (3.07%) Prometheus
4 13 (2.66%) Terraform
5 7 (1.43%) Kibana
6 4 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.41%) Ansible
7 2 (0.41%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.20%) Iperf
8 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 27 (5.52%) Salesforce
2 15 (3.07%) Microsoft
3 14 (2.86%) Splunk
4 10 (2.04%) Dynatrace
5 8 (1.64%) Conga
5 8 (1.64%) EMC
5 8 (1.64%) GoCardless
6 7 (1.43%) Citrix
7 6 (1.23%) Google
7 6 (1.23%) VMware
8 5 (1.02%) Cisco
9 4 (0.82%) Oracle
9 4 (0.82%) Zscaler
10 3 (0.61%) AppDynamics
10 3 (0.61%) Databricks
10 3 (0.61%) HP
10 3 (0.61%) IBM
10 3 (0.61%) Juniper
10 3 (0.61%) OpenLink
10 3 (0.61%) UiPath