Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £423, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 November 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 364 330 352
Rank change year-on-year -34 +22 +76
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 228 232 301
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.65% 0.63% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.72% 0.68% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 146 144 210
10th Percentile £283 £320 £368
25th Percentile £350 £364 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £423 £465 £440
Median % change year-on-year -9.14% +5.68% -2.22%
75th Percentile £500 £550 £538
90th Percentile £600 £600 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £385 £450 £438
% change year-on-year -14.56% +2.86% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 17 17
10th Percentile £23.35 £32.20 £31.35
25th Percentile £33.00 £38.40 £35.00
Median hourly rate £36.75 £55.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.96% +39.13% -33.33%
75th Percentile £49.06 £62.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £50.00 £72.50 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £55.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year -35.31% +39.13% -33.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 31,779 34,114 43,832
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 92.88% 93.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,168 20,586 29,825
10th Percentile £278 £300 £298
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,814 1,278 1,528
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.09 £14.98
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.20 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.00 £44.75
Median % change year-on-year -32.03% -17.32% +54.84%
75th Percentile £51.19 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +85.42%

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 7 November 2025.

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 7 November 2025.

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 7 November 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 -21 205 £425 -7.86% 294
UK excluding London -22 151 £385 -14.56% 267
Work from Home +9 63 £408 -18.48% 94
North of England -10 63 £425 +6.25% 53
London -4 58 £475 +1.33% 69
South East -2 30 £293 -40.00% 86
Yorkshire -22 27 £435 +5.71% 7
Midlands -11 23 £403 -9.75% 26
North East +4 18 £425 +37.10% 6
North West -21 18 £390 -2.50% 40
East of England -8 15 £425 +6.25% 62
West Midlands -24 15 £450 +5.88% 22
South West -19 9 £500 -4.76% 28
East Midlands -14 8 £360 -22.99% 4
Scotland +11 5 £65 -86.32% 10
Wales +9 5 £375 - 8
Northern Ireland -5 1 £450 -

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

For the 6 months to 7 November 2025, 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.

1 148 (64.91%) Test Automation
2 85 (37.28%) CI/CD
3 82 (35.96%) Agile
4 67 (29.39%) Selenium
5 66 (28.95%) Security Cleared
6 63 (27.63%) Java
7 53 (23.25%) Test Scripting
8 52 (22.81%) Cucumber
8 52 (22.81%) QA
9 51 (22.37%) Azure
9 51 (22.37%) DevOps
9 51 (22.37%) SC Cleared
10 48 (21.05%) API Testing
11 42 (18.42%) Test Strategy
12 40 (17.54%) AWS
12 40 (17.54%) BDD
12 40 (17.54%) Software Testing
13 39 (17.11%) Postman
14 38 (16.67%) Python
15 37 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
16 33 (14.47%) GitLab
16 33 (14.47%) Playwright
17 32 (14.04%) JIRA
17 32 (14.04%) REST
18 31 (13.60%) Performance Testing
19 30 (13.16%) Cisco
19 30 (13.16%) Defect Management
19 30 (13.16%) Git
20 29 (12.72%) Accessibility
21 28 (12.28%) JavaScript

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 (3.51%) Confluence
2 3 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle Application Server
4 1 (0.44%) Drupal
4 1 (0.44%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.44%) SAS
Applications
1 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.44%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.88%) Aladdin
1 2 (0.88%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.44%) Cerner Millennium
2 1 (0.44%) CODA-Financials
2 1 (0.44%) ProductWriter
2 1 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 51 (22.37%) Azure
2 40 (17.54%) AWS
3 27 (11.84%) Azure DevOps
4 12 (5.26%) GCP
5 10 (4.39%) Serverless
6 8 (3.51%) AWS Lambda
7 7 (3.07%) GitHub
7 7 (3.07%) Power Platform
8 5 (2.19%) Amazon SQS
8 5 (2.19%) BrowserStack
9 3 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (1.32%) PowerApps
9 3 (1.32%) Snowflake
10 2 (0.88%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.88%) Tricentis Tosca
11 1 (0.44%) Amazon SageMaker
11 1 (0.44%) AWS CodePipeline
11 1 (0.44%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.44%) AWS Step Functions
11 1 (0.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 19 (8.33%) Firewall
2 9 (3.95%) WAN
3 8 (3.51%) Wireshark
4 7 (3.07%) LAN
5 6 (2.63%) 5G
5 6 (2.63%) Ethernet
5 6 (2.63%) HTTP
6 5 (2.19%) 4G
6 5 (2.19%) SD-WAN
7 4 (1.75%) VoIP
8 3 (1.32%) 3G
9 2 (0.88%) DHCP
9 2 (0.88%) DNS
9 2 (0.88%) LTE
10 1 (0.44%) 3GPP
10 1 (0.44%) FCAPS
10 1 (0.44%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.75%) MongoDB
2 3 (1.32%) Data Warehouse
2 3 (1.32%) Power BI
2 3 (1.32%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle ODI
3 2 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
3 2 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.88%) Star Schema
4 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.44%) Delta Lake
4 1 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
4 1 (0.44%) Parquet
4 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 67 (29.39%) Selenium
2 52 (22.81%) Cucumber
3 39 (17.11%) Postman
4 33 (14.47%) GitLab
5 32 (14.04%) JIRA
6 30 (13.16%) Git
7 27 (11.84%) REST Assured
8 26 (11.40%) Jenkins
9 24 (10.53%) Cypress.io
10 21 (9.21%) JMeter
11 10 (4.39%) WebDriver
12 9 (3.95%) Bitbucket
12 9 (3.95%) Gatling
12 9 (3.95%) SpecFlow
13 7 (3.07%) TestNG
14 6 (2.63%) LoadRunner
15 5 (2.19%) Maven
16 4 (1.75%) Appium
16 4 (1.75%) TestRail
16 4 (1.75%) Zephyr
General
1 51 (22.37%) Social Skills
2 46 (20.18%) Public Sector
3 22 (9.65%) Telecoms
4 20 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.02%) Finance
6 12 (5.26%) Banking
7 7 (3.07%) Investment Banking
8 6 (2.63%) Aerospace
8 6 (2.63%) Electronics
8 6 (2.63%) Military
9 4 (1.75%) Back Office
9 4 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.75%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.32%) Front Office
11 2 (0.88%) Automotive
11 2 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.44%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.44%) Health Technology
12 1 (0.44%) Law
12 1 (0.44%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (14.47%) Playwright
2 32 (14.04%) REST
3 18 (7.89%) RFC 2544
4 16 (7.02%) Node.js
5 11 (4.82%) WireMock
6 9 (3.95%) .NET
7 7 (3.07%) Kafka
7 7 (3.07%) Swagger
8 6 (2.63%) Middleware
8 6 (2.63%) pytest
8 6 (2.63%) RabbitMQ
8 6 (2.63%) React
8 6 (2.63%) Spring Boot
9 5 (2.19%) Gherkin
9 5 (2.19%) gRPC
9 5 (2.19%) JMS
9 5 (2.19%) WebSockets
10 4 (1.75%) JSON
11 3 (1.32%) TensorFlow
11 3 (1.32%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 17 (7.46%) Data Centre
1 17 (7.46%) Fibre Optics
2 15 (6.58%) Cloud Native
3 9 (3.95%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
4 4 (1.75%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.32%) Analogue Electronics
5 3 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (1.32%) Low-Code
5 3 (1.32%) NHS
5 3 (1.32%) Onboarding
6 2 (0.88%) PKI
6 2 (0.88%) Replication
7 1 (0.44%) Algorithms
7 1 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.44%) Mainframe
7 1 (0.44%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.19%) Windows
2 2 (0.88%) Android
2 2 (0.88%) Apple iOS
2 2 (0.88%) Linux
3 1 (0.44%) Unix
3 1 (0.44%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (64.91%) Test Automation
2 85 (37.28%) CI/CD
3 82 (35.96%) Agile
4 53 (23.25%) Test Scripting
5 51 (22.37%) DevOps
6 48 (21.05%) API Testing
7 42 (18.42%) Test Strategy
8 40 (17.54%) BDD
8 40 (17.54%) Software Testing
9 37 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
10 31 (13.60%) Performance Testing
11 30 (13.16%) Defect Management
12 28 (12.28%) Non-Functional Testing
12 28 (12.28%) Scrum
12 28 (12.28%) TDD
13 27 (11.84%) End-to-End Testing
14 25 (10.96%) Microservices
14 25 (10.96%) Validation
15 22 (9.65%) Manual Testing
16 21 (9.21%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 63 (27.63%) Java
2 38 (16.67%) Python
3 28 (12.28%) JavaScript
4 24 (10.53%) C#
5 21 (9.21%) SQL
6 16 (7.02%) TypeScript
7 9 (3.95%) Bash
8 6 (2.63%) VB.NET
9 4 (1.75%) C
9 4 (1.75%) C++
10 2 (0.88%) VB
11 1 (0.44%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.44%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.44%) Perl
11 1 (0.44%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.44%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 66 (28.95%) Security Cleared
2 51 (22.37%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.82%) Degree
3 11 (4.82%) ISTQB
4 5 (2.19%) CCNA
4 5 (2.19%) Cisco Certification
4 5 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
4 5 (2.19%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.75%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 4 (1.75%) Master's Degree
6 3 (1.32%) CCNP
7 2 (0.88%) CEH
7 2 (0.88%) CREST Certified
7 2 (0.88%) HNC
7 2 (0.88%) HND
7 2 (0.88%) OSCP
7 2 (0.88%) SANS
8 1 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (22.81%) QA
2 29 (12.72%) Accessibility
3 19 (8.33%) WCAG
4 4 (1.75%) Data Quality
4 4 (1.75%) NIST
5 2 (0.88%) EU AI Act
5 2 (0.88%) HL7
5 2 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.88%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.44%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.44%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 27 (11.84%) Docker
2 1 (0.44%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (5.70%) Kubernetes
2 7 (3.07%) Ansible
2 7 (3.07%) Grafana
2 7 (3.07%) HP ALM
3 6 (2.63%) Terraform
4 4 (1.75%) Kibana
5 2 (0.88%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 30 (13.16%) Cisco
2 19 (8.33%) Microsoft
3 8 (3.51%) HP
3 8 (3.51%) Splunk
4 7 (3.07%) Nokia
5 6 (2.63%) Juniper
5 6 (2.63%) Progress
5 6 (2.63%) UiPath
6 5 (2.19%) Micro Focus
7 4 (1.75%) AppDynamics
7 4 (1.75%) Databricks
7 4 (1.75%) Dynatrace
7 4 (1.75%) Meraki
7 4 (1.75%) New Relic
7 4 (1.75%) Oracle
7 4 (1.75%) Salesforce
8 2 (0.88%) Cerner
8 2 (0.88%) SAP
8 2 (0.88%) Virgin Media
8 2 (0.88%) Workday