Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £445, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 356 337
Rank change year-on-year +92 -19 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 567 215 238
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.03% 0.65% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.12% 0.71% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 137 146
10th Percentile £302 £271 £319
25th Percentile £350 £320 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £425 £463
Median % change year-on-year +4.71% -8.11% +0.54%
75th Percentile £537 £500 £550
90th Percentile £588 £600 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £418 £400 £450
% change year-on-year +4.38% -11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 19 19
10th Percentile £28.23 £26.44 £25.00
25th Percentile £33.00 £34.75 £38.40
Median hourly rate £44.46 £47.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.41% -13.64% +7.32%
75th Percentile £63.75 £50.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £82.50 £63.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.46 £48.75 £49.08
% change year-on-year -8.81% -0.66% -4.24%

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 50,844 30,247 34,978
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 90.91% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,853 19,090 21,121
10th Percentile £325 £277 £300
25th Percentile £425 £401 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,177 1,669 1,428
10th Percentile £14.25 £13.80 £15.05
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.30 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £41.08
Median % change year-on-year +63.24% -38.77% -8.72%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.32 £25.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year +61.28% -39.76% -6.74%

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 16 October 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 16 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Engineer in the UK

Test Engineer
Top 16 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 16 October 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 +67 491 £438 +2.94% 121
UK excluding London +73 416 £418 +4.38% 121
North of England -11 116 £410 -5.64% 25
London -41 100 £473 +6.78% 8
Work from Home -44 90 £438 +7.33% 35
East of England +35 79 £350 - 21
South West +31 79 £550 -2.22% 22
North West 0 65 £575 +45.57% 12
Midlands -13 58 £413 +8.16% 25
South East -40 54 £400 +35.59% 22
West Midlands -17 42 £445 -1.11% 16
North East -17 35 £328 -24.71% 7
Scotland -1 31 £525 +707.69% 6
Yorkshire -36 23 £450 +3.45% 6
East Midlands +2 16 £300 -16.67% 9
Wales -12 4 £300 -11.76% 1

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

For the 6 months to 16 October 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.

1 249 (43.92%) Test Automation
2 175 (30.86%) Security Cleared
3 165 (29.10%) CI/CD
4 127 (22.40%) Agile
5 124 (21.87%) QA
5 124 (21.87%) SC Cleared
6 116 (20.46%) Validation
7 92 (16.23%) Playwright
7 92 (16.23%) Software Testing
7 92 (16.23%) Test Strategy
8 90 (15.87%) DevOps
8 90 (15.87%) Java
9 84 (14.81%) AWS
9 84 (14.81%) Test Scripting
10 82 (14.46%) API Testing
11 80 (14.11%) Python
12 77 (13.58%) Non-Functional Testing
13 75 (13.23%) Selenium
14 72 (12.70%) Azure
15 71 (12.52%) Performance Testing
16 69 (12.17%) End-to-End Testing
16 69 (12.17%) Jenkins
17 64 (11.29%) GitHub
18 60 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
19 58 (10.23%) Cucumber
20 57 (10.05%) BDD
20 57 (10.05%) Problem-Solving
21 56 (9.88%) GitLab
22 53 (9.35%) JavaScript
23 51 (8.99%) SQL

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 13 (2.29%) Confluence
2 6 (1.06%) Apache
2 6 (1.06%) Apache Airflow
2 6 (1.06%) Jupyter
2 6 (1.06%) SAS
2 6 (1.06%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.71%) Mule
4 4 (0.71%) Mule ESB
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.18%) Simulink
2 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (1.23%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.53%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.35%) Lorenzo
4 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.18%) Maximo
4 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.18%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 84 (14.81%) AWS
2 72 (12.70%) Azure
3 64 (11.29%) GitHub
4 35 (6.17%) Azure DevOps
4 35 (6.17%) GitHub Actions
5 29 (5.11%) GCP
6 9 (1.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 9 (1.59%) OpenShift
6 9 (1.59%) Power Platform
7 8 (1.41%) Serverless
8 7 (1.23%) Amazon EMR
8 7 (1.23%) AWS Lambda
9 6 (1.06%) Amazon S3
10 5 (0.88%) Amazon EC2
10 5 (0.88%) Amazon SQS
11 4 (0.71%) Amazon EventBridge
11 4 (0.71%) Azure Pipelines
11 4 (0.71%) BlazeMeter
11 4 (0.71%) BrowserStack
11 4 (0.71%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.65%) Wi-Fi
2 14 (2.47%) Broadband
3 10 (1.76%) DNS
4 9 (1.59%) Firewall
5 8 (1.41%) 4G
5 8 (1.41%) LAN
6 7 (1.23%) HTTP
7 6 (1.06%) 5G
7 6 (1.06%) DHCP
7 6 (1.06%) IPv4
7 6 (1.06%) IPv6
7 6 (1.06%) PPP
7 6 (1.06%) TCP/IP
7 6 (1.06%) UPnP
7 6 (1.06%) VLAN
7 6 (1.06%) xDSL
8 5 (0.88%) Wireless
8 5 (0.88%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.71%) WAN
10 3 (0.53%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.88%) MongoDB
2 8 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.06%) Amazon Athena
3 6 (1.06%) Big Data
4 5 (0.88%) MySQL
4 5 (0.88%) Neo4j
4 5 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.88%) Power BI
4 5 (0.88%) Relational Database
4 5 (0.88%) Tableau
5 4 (0.71%) DynamoDB
5 4 (0.71%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (0.71%) PowerCenter
6 3 (0.53%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.35%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.35%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.18%) Apache Iceberg
8 1 (0.18%) Flink
8 1 (0.18%) Redis
Development Applications
1 75 (13.23%) Selenium
2 69 (12.17%) Jenkins
3 58 (10.23%) Cucumber
4 56 (9.88%) GitLab
5 47 (8.29%) JMeter
6 46 (8.11%) JIRA
7 44 (7.76%) Postman
8 40 (7.05%) REST Assured
9 36 (6.35%) Git
10 31 (5.47%) Gatling
11 28 (4.94%) Cypress.io
12 19 (3.35%) LoadRunner
13 15 (2.65%) LabVIEW
14 14 (2.47%) JUnit
15 11 (1.94%) Serenity BDD
15 11 (1.94%) TestNG
15 11 (1.94%) WebDriver
16 10 (1.76%) SpecFlow
16 10 (1.76%) Zephyr
17 8 (1.41%) Robot Framework
General
1 82 (14.46%) Social Skills
2 61 (10.76%) Public Sector
3 43 (7.58%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.05%) Electronics
5 35 (6.17%) Finance
6 34 (6.00%) Manufacturing
7 33 (5.82%) Aerospace
8 25 (4.41%) Telecoms
9 22 (3.88%) Automotive
10 20 (3.53%) Banking
11 17 (3.00%) Military
12 5 (0.88%) Law
13 3 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.53%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
14 2 (0.35%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.35%) Legal
14 2 (0.35%) Police
15 1 (0.18%) Influencing Skills
15 1 (0.18%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (16.23%) Playwright
2 36 (6.35%) Kafka
3 35 (6.17%) REST
4 22 (3.88%) Terraform
5 18 (3.17%) RESTful
6 17 (3.00%) Spring Boot
7 16 (2.82%) Node.js
8 15 (2.65%) pytest
8 15 (2.65%) Spring
9 13 (2.29%) .NET
9 13 (2.29%) React
10 10 (1.76%) SOAP
11 9 (1.59%) Web Services
12 8 (1.41%) HTML
13 7 (1.23%) ADO
13 7 (1.23%) WebdriverIO
14 6 (1.06%) Model Context Protocol
14 6 (1.06%) OpenTelemetry
15 5 (0.88%) Spring Cloud
16 4 (0.71%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.53%) Distributed Systems
2 19 (3.35%) Product Ownership
3 17 (3.00%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (2.47%) Cloud Native
5 8 (1.41%) AI Agents
5 8 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.23%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.06%) NHS
7 6 (1.06%) Virtual Team
7 6 (1.06%) Wiki
8 5 (0.88%) Analogue Electronics
8 5 (0.88%) Distributed Architecture
8 5 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (0.88%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (0.71%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (0.53%) Data Centre
10 3 (0.53%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.53%) IoT
11 2 (0.35%) Driving Licence
11 2 (0.35%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 25 (4.41%) Linux
2 13 (2.29%) Unix
3 12 (2.12%) Windows
4 5 (0.88%) VMS
5 4 (0.71%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.35%) CentOS
6 2 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.18%) Android
7 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (43.92%) Test Automation
2 165 (29.10%) CI/CD
3 127 (22.40%) Agile
4 116 (20.46%) Validation
5 92 (16.23%) Software Testing
5 92 (16.23%) Test Strategy
6 90 (15.87%) DevOps
7 84 (14.81%) Test Scripting
8 82 (14.46%) API Testing
9 77 (13.58%) Non-Functional Testing
10 71 (12.52%) Performance Testing
11 69 (12.17%) End-to-End Testing
12 60 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
13 57 (10.05%) BDD
13 57 (10.05%) Problem-Solving
14 49 (8.64%) Microservices
15 45 (7.94%) Defect Management
15 45 (7.94%) Integration Testing
16 43 (7.58%) Regression Testing
17 40 (7.05%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 90 (15.87%) Java
2 80 (14.11%) Python
3 53 (9.35%) JavaScript
4 51 (8.99%) SQL
5 31 (5.47%) TypeScript
6 23 (4.06%) C#
7 7 (1.23%) Apex Code
8 6 (1.06%) Bash
8 6 (1.06%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.88%) Scala
10 4 (0.71%) MATLAB
10 4 (0.71%) Ruby
11 3 (0.53%) C++
11 3 (0.53%) Perl
11 3 (0.53%) PowerShell
11 3 (0.53%) VBScript
12 2 (0.35%) Cypher
12 2 (0.35%) Groovy
12 2 (0.35%) R
13 1 (0.18%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 175 (30.86%) Security Cleared
2 124 (21.87%) SC Cleared
3 34 (6.00%) DV Cleared
4 22 (3.88%) ISTQB
5 16 (2.82%) Degree
5 16 (2.82%) HNC
6 11 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.41%) HND
7 8 (1.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (0.71%) ISEB
9 3 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.35%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.35%) CCNA
10 2 (0.35%) CCNP
10 2 (0.35%) MOS
11 1 (0.18%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (21.87%) QA
2 45 (7.94%) Accessibility
3 12 (2.12%) Data Quality
4 6 (1.06%) WCAG
5 3 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (0.53%) ISO 20022
5 3 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.53%) NIST
6 2 (0.35%) SEPA
6 2 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.18%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.18%) ISO 13485
7 1 (0.18%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.18%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 48 (8.47%) Docker
2 10 (1.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (0.71%) VirtualBox
3 4 (0.71%) vSphere
4 3 (0.53%) Firmware
5 1 (0.18%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 39 (6.88%) Kubernetes
2 26 (4.59%) Grafana
3 12 (2.12%) Ansible
3 12 (2.12%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.23%) Kibana
5 3 (0.53%) Argo
5 3 (0.53%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.35%) Control-M
6 2 (0.35%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.35%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.18%) Functional Safety
7 1 (0.18%) OPNET
Vendors
1 24 (4.23%) Salesforce
2 23 (4.06%) Splunk
3 16 (2.82%) Oracle
4 14 (2.47%) Informatica
5 13 (2.29%) Dynatrace
5 13 (2.29%) IBM
5 13 (2.29%) Microsoft
6 10 (1.76%) VMware
7 9 (1.59%) EMC
7 9 (1.59%) Google
8 8 (1.41%) Conga
8 8 (1.41%) GoCardless
9 6 (1.06%) AppDynamics
9 6 (1.06%) Cisco
9 6 (1.06%) New Relic
10 5 (0.88%) Databricks
10 5 (0.88%) HP
11 4 (0.71%) MuleSoft
11 4 (0.71%) TIBCO
12 3 (0.53%) Juniper