Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £439, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 337 341
Rank change year-on-year +74 +4 +56
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 514 222 231
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 0.68% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.04% 0.74% 0.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 130 150
10th Percentile £300 £270 £348
25th Percentile £350 £319 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £439 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.69% -15.79% -2.56%
75th Percentile £538 £479 £572
90th Percentile £594 £575 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £411 £377 £506
% change year-on-year +9.08% -25.53% +6.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 99 27 18
10th Percentile £27.98 £28.28 £25.00
25th Percentile £33.00 £35.38 £27.34
Median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year - +21.17% -13.13%
75th Percentile £62.63 £58.09 £69.34
90th Percentile £72.83 £62.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £41.27
% change year-on-year - +21.17% -13.13%

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 49,489 29,958 36,053
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.24% 92.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,934 23,125
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,498 1,546 1,979
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +37 442 £430 +7.13% 280
UK excluding London +47 384 £411 +9.08% 285
North of England +3 95 £388 -8.82% 41
London -48 93 £463 +15.63% 35
Work from Home -34 81 £400 +5.26% 93
Midlands -1 77 £481 +14.55% 33
West Midlands -3 64 £525 +7.69% 24
South East -40 64 £415 +38.33% 73
South West +14 61 £508 -3.33% 43
East of England +21 57 £350 -6.67% 66
North West -6 45 £475 +6.74% 24
Scotland +12 32 £525 +707.69% 23
North East -11 31 £325 -22.62% 11
Yorkshire -34 23 £400 -5.88% 7
East Midlands -13 13 £300 -21.34% 9
Wales -14 6 £300 -3.85% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 9

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 226 (43.97%) Test Automation
2 152 (29.57%) Security Cleared
3 141 (27.43%) CI/CD
4 115 (22.37%) SC Cleared
5 108 (21.01%) Validation
6 98 (19.07%) Agile
7 89 (17.32%) DevOps
8 87 (16.93%) QA
9 83 (16.15%) Python
10 79 (15.37%) Test Strategy
11 77 (14.98%) Playwright
12 76 (14.79%) Software Testing
13 75 (14.59%) API Testing
14 74 (14.40%) Java
15 72 (14.01%) Selenium
16 71 (13.81%) Azure
17 67 (13.04%) Performance Testing
18 66 (12.84%) AWS
19 62 (12.06%) Test Scripting
20 58 (11.28%) GitHub
21 56 (10.89%) BDD
22 54 (10.51%) Continuous Improvement
23 53 (10.31%) End-to-End Testing
24 49 (9.53%) Non-Functional Testing
25 48 (9.34%) Cucumber
25 48 (9.34%) Integration Testing
25 48 (9.34%) JavaScript
25 48 (9.34%) Postman
26 47 (9.14%) Jenkins
26 47 (9.14%) Problem-Solving

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 (1.56%) Confluence
2 6 (1.17%) Apache
2 6 (1.17%) Apache Airflow
2 6 (1.17%) Apache Spark
2 6 (1.17%) Jupyter
3 5 (0.97%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.58%) SAS
5 2 (0.39%) Mule
5 2 (0.39%) Mule ESB
5 2 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 5 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.19%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 8 (1.56%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.58%) Findur
2 3 (0.58%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.39%) Lorenzo
4 1 (0.19%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 71 (13.81%) Azure
2 66 (12.84%) AWS
3 58 (11.28%) GitHub
4 42 (8.17%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (5.84%) GitHub Actions
6 27 (5.25%) GCP
7 10 (1.95%) Power Platform
8 9 (1.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 7 (1.36%) Amazon EMR
10 5 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (0.97%) PowerApps
10 5 (0.97%) Serverless
11 4 (0.78%) Amazon EC2
11 4 (0.78%) Amazon S3
11 4 (0.78%) Amazon SQS
11 4 (0.78%) BrowserStack
11 4 (0.78%) GitHub Copilot
11 4 (0.78%) OpenShift
12 3 (0.58%) Entra ID
12 3 (0.58%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 16 (3.11%) LAN
2 15 (2.92%) DNS
3 14 (2.72%) Firewall
4 11 (2.14%) DHCP
4 11 (2.14%) WAN
5 10 (1.95%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.56%) SD-WAN
6 8 (1.56%) VLAN
7 6 (1.17%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.97%) VPN
9 4 (0.78%) Internet
9 4 (0.78%) MPLS
9 4 (0.78%) Network Security
9 4 (0.78%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.58%) 4G
10 3 (0.58%) HTTP
10 3 (0.58%) LTE
10 3 (0.58%) SSL
11 2 (0.39%) 3G
11 2 (0.39%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.31%) MongoDB
2 9 (1.75%) Big Data
3 6 (1.17%) Amazon Athena
3 6 (1.17%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.17%) Tableau
4 5 (0.97%) Neo4j
4 5 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.97%) Power BI
5 4 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (0.78%) DynamoDB
5 4 (0.78%) Electronic Patient Records
6 3 (0.58%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.39%) MySQL
7 2 (0.39%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.19%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.19%) Flink
8 1 (0.19%) Redis
8 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 72 (14.01%) Selenium
2 48 (9.34%) Cucumber
2 48 (9.34%) Postman
3 47 (9.14%) Jenkins
4 44 (8.56%) JMeter
5 43 (8.37%) GitLab
6 41 (7.98%) JIRA
7 39 (7.59%) REST Assured
8 30 (5.84%) Gatling
9 24 (4.67%) Git
10 21 (4.09%) Cypress.io
11 14 (2.72%) LabVIEW
12 13 (2.53%) LoadRunner
13 12 (2.33%) WebDriver
13 12 (2.33%) Zephyr
14 10 (1.95%) SpecFlow
15 9 (1.75%) JUnit
16 8 (1.56%) Serenity BDD
16 8 (1.56%) SoapUI
17 6 (1.17%) Browser DevTools
General
1 70 (13.62%) Social Skills
2 51 (9.92%) Public Sector
3 44 (8.56%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (7.00%) Aerospace
5 33 (6.42%) Finance
6 30 (5.84%) Automotive
6 30 (5.84%) Electronics
7 19 (3.70%) Manufacturing
8 16 (3.11%) Banking
9 11 (2.14%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.95%) Military
11 4 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.78%) Investment Banking
11 4 (0.78%) Law
12 3 (0.58%) Marketing
13 2 (0.39%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.39%) German Language
13 2 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.19%) Aviation
14 1 (0.19%) Legal Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (14.98%) Playwright
2 38 (7.39%) REST
3 29 (5.64%) Kafka
4 17 (3.31%) Terraform
5 16 (3.11%) RESTful
6 13 (2.53%) .NET
6 13 (2.53%) pytest
6 13 (2.53%) React
7 12 (2.33%) Spring Boot
8 11 (2.14%) SOAP
8 11 (2.14%) Spring
9 8 (1.56%) Node.js
9 8 (1.56%) Web Services
10 6 (1.17%) Gherkin
10 6 (1.17%) Model Context Protocol
10 6 (1.17%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.97%) HTML
11 5 (0.97%) Spring Cloud
11 5 (0.97%) XML
12 4 (0.78%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.89%) Product Ownership
2 19 (3.70%) Enterprise Software
3 18 (3.50%) Cloud Native
4 15 (2.92%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.36%) AI Agents
6 7 (1.36%) NHS
7 5 (0.97%) Distributed Architecture
7 5 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (0.97%) Virtual Team
8 4 (0.78%) Embedded Systems
8 4 (0.78%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (0.78%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.78%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 3 (0.58%) Analogue Electronics
9 3 (0.58%) Data Centre
9 3 (0.58%) Infotainment
9 3 (0.58%) IoT
10 2 (0.39%) Driving Licence
10 2 (0.39%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.70%) Windows
2 15 (2.92%) Linux
3 10 (1.95%) Unix
4 4 (0.78%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.58%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.19%) Android
7 1 (0.19%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 226 (43.97%) Test Automation
2 141 (27.43%) CI/CD
3 108 (21.01%) Validation
4 98 (19.07%) Agile
5 89 (17.32%) DevOps
6 79 (15.37%) Test Strategy
7 76 (14.79%) Software Testing
8 75 (14.59%) API Testing
9 67 (13.04%) Performance Testing
10 62 (12.06%) Test Scripting
11 56 (10.89%) BDD
12 54 (10.51%) Continuous Improvement
13 53 (10.31%) End-to-End Testing
14 49 (9.53%) Non-Functional Testing
15 48 (9.34%) Integration Testing
16 47 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
17 41 (7.98%) Microservices
17 41 (7.98%) Regression Testing
18 40 (7.78%) User Acceptance Testing
19 39 (7.59%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 83 (16.15%) Python
2 74 (14.40%) Java
3 48 (9.34%) JavaScript
4 43 (8.37%) SQL
5 29 (5.64%) C#
6 28 (5.45%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.95%) Bash
8 7 (1.36%) Apex Code
8 7 (1.36%) Kotlin
8 7 (1.36%) PowerShell
9 6 (1.17%) C++
9 6 (1.17%) Ruby
10 5 (0.97%) C
11 4 (0.78%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.39%) Cypher
12 2 (0.39%) Groovy
12 2 (0.39%) R
12 2 (0.39%) Scala
13 1 (0.19%) Swift
13 1 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 152 (29.57%) Security Cleared
2 115 (22.37%) SC Cleared
3 22 (4.28%) ISTQB
4 19 (3.70%) DV Cleared
5 14 (2.72%) Degree
6 10 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.95%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 8 (1.56%) HNC
8 7 (1.36%) HND
9 3 (0.58%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.58%) ISEB
10 2 (0.39%) CCNA
10 2 (0.39%) CCNP
10 2 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.19%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.19%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.19%) Six Sigma Black Belt
11 1 (0.19%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (16.93%) QA
2 28 (5.45%) Accessibility
3 12 (2.33%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (0.78%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 4 (0.78%) WCAG
6 3 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.39%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.39%) NIST
7 2 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.19%) GDPR
8 1 (0.19%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 13485
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.19%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (7.20%) Docker
2 8 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.78%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.78%) vSphere
5 3 (0.58%) Firmware
5 3 (0.58%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 26 (5.06%) Kubernetes
2 23 (4.47%) Grafana
3 13 (2.53%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.36%) Kibana
5 6 (1.17%) Ansible
6 3 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.39%) Control-M
7 2 (0.39%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.39%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.19%) Argo
8 1 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.19%) Iperf
Vendors
1 27 (5.25%) Salesforce
2 19 (3.70%) Splunk
3 17 (3.31%) Microsoft
4 15 (2.92%) Dynatrace
5 11 (2.14%) EMC
5 11 (2.14%) IBM
6 8 (1.56%) Conga
6 8 (1.56%) GoCardless
6 8 (1.56%) Google
6 8 (1.56%) VMware
7 7 (1.36%) Cisco
7 7 (1.36%) Citrix
8 6 (1.17%) Databricks
8 6 (1.17%) Oracle
9 5 (0.97%) New Relic
10 4 (0.78%) SAP
11 3 (0.58%) HP
11 3 (0.58%) Juniper
11 3 (0.58%) OpenLink
11 3 (0.58%) Zscaler