Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £430, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 272 335 337
Rank change year-on-year +63 +2 +48
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 489 222 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 0.68% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.00% 0.74% 0.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 132 163
10th Percentile £300 £270 £326
25th Percentile £363 £320 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £416 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.30% -12.37% -7.32%
75th Percentile £538 £488 £556
90th Percentile £604 £638 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £420 £390 £500
% change year-on-year +7.83% -22.10% +1.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 27 18
10th Percentile £27.93 £28.28 £25.00
25th Percentile £33.00 £35.38 £27.34
Median hourly rate £51.25 £50.00 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +21.17% -21.40%
75th Percentile £61.84 £58.72 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.54 £63.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.25 £50.00 £41.27
% change year-on-year +2.50% +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 49,068 30,025 37,043
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 91.50% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,609 19,114 23,981
10th Percentile £331 £282 £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 £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 3,359 1,460 2,193
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.69 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.09
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 30 July 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 +45 417 £425 +0.59% 136
UK excluding London +66 367 £420 +7.83% 132
London -59 88 £450 +5.88% 15
North of England -18 86 £400 -6.98% 17
Work from Home -26 79 £400 +5.26% 30
Midlands -2 73 £525 +18.31% 20
West Midlands -11 66 £525 +16.67% 11
South East -47 65 £411 +21.13% 33
South West +11 56 £438 -20.45% 28
East of England +21 55 £350 -6.67% 31
North West -21 43 £450 -8.16% 7
Scotland +15 34 £525 +707.69% 5
North East -21 28 £325 -22.62% 7
Yorkshire -45 19 £500 +17.65% 3
East Midlands -7 7 - - 9
Wales -14 6 £300 -3.85% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 30 July 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
2 143 (29.24%) Security Cleared
3 133 (27.20%) CI/CD
4 104 (21.27%) SC Cleared
5 99 (20.25%) Agile
6 97 (19.84%) Validation
7 86 (17.59%) DevOps
8 77 (15.75%) Python
8 77 (15.75%) QA
9 76 (15.54%) Java
10 75 (15.34%) Playwright
10 75 (15.34%) Selenium
11 74 (15.13%) Software Testing
12 73 (14.93%) API Testing
13 66 (13.50%) Test Strategy
14 63 (12.88%) Azure
15 57 (11.66%) Test Scripting
16 56 (11.45%) AWS
16 56 (11.45%) BDD
17 53 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
17 53 (10.84%) GitHub
18 52 (10.63%) Performance Testing
19 49 (10.02%) Cucumber
20 46 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
21 45 (9.20%) End-to-End Testing
21 45 (9.20%) Integration Testing
21 45 (9.20%) JIRA
21 45 (9.20%) Non-Functional Testing
22 43 (8.79%) JavaScript
23 42 (8.59%) REST Assured

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 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.20%) Simulink
2 1 (0.20%) SOLIDWORKS
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 63 (12.88%) Azure
2 56 (11.45%) AWS
3 53 (10.84%) GitHub
4 41 (8.38%) Azure DevOps
5 24 (4.91%) 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 5 (1.02%) BrowserStack
11 4 (0.82%) Entra ID
11 4 (0.82%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (0.82%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
12 3 (0.61%) GitHub Copilot
12 3 (0.61%) Power Automate
12 3 (0.61%) Serverless
13 2 (0.41%) Amazon SQS
13 2 (0.41%) BlazeMeter
13 2 (0.41%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 15 (3.07%) LAN
2 13 (2.66%) DNS
3 12 (2.45%) Firewall
4 10 (2.04%) WAN
5 9 (1.84%) DHCP
5 9 (1.84%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.64%) VLAN
6 8 (1.64%) VPN
7 7 (1.43%) MPLS
8 5 (1.02%) Broadband
8 5 (1.02%) Network Security
8 5 (1.02%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.82%) BGP
9 4 (0.82%) HTTP
9 4 (0.82%) Internet
9 4 (0.82%) OSPF
9 4 (0.82%) SSL
9 4 (0.82%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
11 2 (0.41%) LTE
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%) Power BI
5 3 (0.61%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.41%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.41%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.41%) Tableau
7 1 (0.20%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.20%) Flink
7 1 (0.20%) MySQL
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.20%) Power Query
7 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 75 (15.34%) Selenium
2 49 (10.02%) Cucumber
3 45 (9.20%) JIRA
4 42 (8.59%) REST Assured
5 41 (8.38%) Postman
6 40 (8.18%) GitLab
6 40 (8.18%) Jenkins
7 34 (6.95%) JMeter
8 25 (5.11%) Gatling
9 22 (4.50%) Git
10 21 (4.29%) Cypress.io
11 14 (2.86%) LabVIEW
11 14 (2.86%) WebDriver
12 13 (2.66%) JUnit
13 12 (2.45%) Zephyr
14 10 (2.04%) SpecFlow
15 8 (1.64%) Serenity BDD
16 6 (1.23%) Browser DevTools
16 6 (1.23%) MSTest
16 6 (1.23%) TestNG
General
1 65 (13.29%) Social Skills
2 50 (10.22%) Public Sector
3 35 (7.16%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (6.54%) Aerospace
4 32 (6.54%) Automotive
5 31 (6.34%) Finance
6 27 (5.52%) Electronics
7 17 (3.48%) Manufacturing
8 14 (2.86%) Banking
9 12 (2.45%) Military
9 12 (2.45%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (0.82%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.61%) Law
12 3 (0.61%) Marketing
13 2 (0.41%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.20%) Influencing Skills
14 1 (0.20%) Legal Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (15.34%) Playwright
2 38 (7.77%) REST
3 19 (3.89%) Kafka
4 16 (3.27%) RESTful
5 14 (2.86%) Spring Boot
6 13 (2.66%) Spring
7 12 (2.45%) pytest
7 12 (2.45%) React
8 11 (2.25%) .NET
9 10 (2.04%) Node.js
10 7 (1.43%) SOAP
11 6 (1.23%) Gherkin
11 6 (1.23%) HTML
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%) Swagger
13 4 (0.82%) ADO
13 4 (0.82%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.29%) Product Ownership
2 18 (3.68%) Enterprise Software
3 17 (3.48%) Cloud Native
4 14 (2.86%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.43%) AI Agents
7 6 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
7 6 (1.23%) Infotainment
8 5 (1.02%) Embedded Systems
8 5 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.02%) Linux Command Line
8 5 (1.02%) NHS
9 4 (0.82%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.61%) Analogue Electronics
10 3 (0.61%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 2 (0.41%) Data Centre
11 2 (0.41%) Fibre Optics
11 2 (0.41%) Hedge funds
11 2 (0.41%) Synthetic Data
12 1 (0.20%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 18 (3.68%) Windows
2 11 (2.25%) Linux
3 6 (1.23%) Mac OS
4 4 (0.82%) Unix
4 4 (0.82%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.41%) Android
5 2 (0.41%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.41%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (45.40%) Test Automation
2 133 (27.20%) CI/CD
3 99 (20.25%) Agile
4 97 (19.84%) Validation
5 86 (17.59%) DevOps
6 74 (15.13%) Software Testing
7 73 (14.93%) API Testing
8 66 (13.50%) Test Strategy
9 57 (11.66%) Test Scripting
10 56 (11.45%) BDD
11 53 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
12 52 (10.63%) Performance Testing
13 46 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
14 45 (9.20%) End-to-End Testing
14 45 (9.20%) Integration Testing
14 45 (9.20%) Non-Functional Testing
15 41 (8.38%) Regression Testing
16 40 (8.18%) Microservices
17 38 (7.77%) User Acceptance Testing
18 35 (7.16%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 77 (15.75%) Python
2 76 (15.54%) Java
3 43 (8.79%) JavaScript
4 37 (7.57%) SQL
5 33 (6.75%) C#
6 25 (5.11%) TypeScript
7 13 (2.66%) 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%) Scala
13 2 (0.41%) Swift
13 2 (0.41%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 143 (29.24%) Security Cleared
2 104 (21.27%) SC Cleared
3 21 (4.29%) ISTQB
4 18 (3.68%) DV Cleared
5 14 (2.86%) Degree
6 12 (2.45%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (2.25%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.64%) HNC
9 7 (1.43%) HND
10 4 (0.82%) CCNP
10 4 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.61%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.41%) CCNA
12 2 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
13 1 (0.20%) CCIP
13 1 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Black Belt
13 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (15.75%) QA
2 31 (6.34%) Accessibility
3 12 (2.45%) 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%) NCSC
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%) NIST
6 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 32 (6.54%) 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 2 (0.41%) Firmware
6 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%) Cisco
6 7 (1.43%) Citrix
7 6 (1.23%) Google
7 6 (1.23%) VMware
8 4 (0.82%) Juniper
8 4 (0.82%) Pega
8 4 (0.82%) Zscaler
9 3 (0.61%) AppDynamics
9 3 (0.61%) Databricks
9 3 (0.61%) HP
9 3 (0.61%) IBM
9 3 (0.61%) MuleSoft
9 3 (0.61%) UiPath