Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £436, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 August 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 262 337 344
Rank change year-on-year +75 +7 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 507 226 233
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 0.69% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.03% 0.75% 0.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 131 151
10th Percentile £305 £270 £330
25th Percentile £350 £319 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £436 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +9.06% -15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £534 £475 £574
90th Percentile £600 £575 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £414 £375 £513
% change year-on-year +10.33% -26.83% +7.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 28 18
10th Percentile £27.92 £28.33 £25.00
25th Percentile £33.00 £35.69 £27.34
Median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year - +21.17% -21.40%
75th Percentile £64.69 £58.70 £69.34
90th Percentile £72.54 £63.25 £72.50
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 49,387 30,089 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.36% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,655 19,063 23,293
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% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,474 1,522 2,032
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.18
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.26 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.31 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.21% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.66% -44.20% +25.00%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 +60 439 £428 +6.88% 197
UK excluding London +44 382 £414 +10.33% 178
North of England -2 96 £400 -5.88% 18
London -59 92 £450 +12.50% 33
Work from Home -27 77 £400 +5.26% 51
Midlands -1 74 £488 +21.04% 29
South East -42 66 £414 +37.92% 50
West Midlands +6 62 £525 +16.67% 19
East of England +20 58 £350 -6.67% 44
South West +10 58 £500 +12.68% 36
North West -14 45 £475 +6.74% 9
Scotland +17 32 £525 +707.69% 7
North East -16 30 £325 -22.62% 8
Yorkshire -32 25 £450 +5.88% 2
East Midlands -12 12 £300 -21.34% 10
Wales -11 6 £300 -3.85% 4
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 13 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 (44.58%) Test Automation
2 150 (29.59%) Security Cleared
3 139 (27.42%) CI/CD
4 111 (21.89%) SC Cleared
5 106 (20.91%) Validation
6 102 (20.12%) Agile
7 88 (17.36%) DevOps
8 82 (16.17%) QA
9 81 (15.98%) Python
10 77 (15.19%) Java
10 77 (15.19%) Software Testing
11 76 (14.99%) Test Strategy
12 75 (14.79%) API Testing
13 74 (14.60%) Playwright
13 74 (14.60%) Selenium
14 69 (13.61%) Azure
15 64 (12.62%) AWS
16 63 (12.43%) Performance Testing
17 59 (11.64%) GitHub
17 59 (11.64%) Test Scripting
18 58 (11.44%) BDD
19 54 (10.65%) Continuous Improvement
20 51 (10.06%) End-to-End Testing
21 49 (9.66%) Cucumber
22 48 (9.47%) JavaScript
22 48 (9.47%) Jenkins
22 48 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
23 47 (9.27%) Integration Testing
24 46 (9.07%) Non-Functional Testing
24 46 (9.07%) Postman

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 (1.58%) Confluence
2 5 (0.99%) Apache
2 5 (0.99%) Apache Airflow
2 5 (0.99%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.99%) Jupyter
3 3 (0.59%) SAS
4 2 (0.39%) Mule
4 2 (0.39%) Mule ESB
4 2 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.39%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 2 (0.39%) Chatbot
1 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.20%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 8 (1.58%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.59%) Findur
2 3 (0.59%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.39%) Lorenzo
4 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 69 (13.61%) Azure
2 64 (12.62%) AWS
3 59 (11.64%) GitHub
4 41 (8.09%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (5.92%) GitHub Actions
6 26 (5.13%) GCP
7 9 (1.78%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 6 (1.18%) Amazon EMR
10 4 (0.79%) BrowserStack
10 4 (0.79%) PowerApps
11 3 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (0.59%) Entra ID
11 3 (0.59%) GitHub Copilot
11 3 (0.59%) Microsoft 365
11 3 (0.59%) OpenShift
11 3 (0.59%) Serverless
12 2 (0.39%) Amazon EC2
12 2 (0.39%) Amazon S3
12 2 (0.39%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.96%) DNS
2 13 (2.56%) LAN
3 11 (2.17%) DHCP
3 11 (2.17%) Firewall
4 10 (1.97%) TCP/IP
5 8 (1.58%) VLAN
5 8 (1.58%) WAN
6 5 (0.99%) SD-WAN
6 5 (0.99%) VPN
7 4 (0.79%) Broadband
7 4 (0.79%) Internet
7 4 (0.79%) MPLS
7 4 (0.79%) Network Security
7 4 (0.79%) Wireshark
8 3 (0.59%) 4G
8 3 (0.59%) HTTP
8 3 (0.59%) LTE
8 3 (0.59%) SSL
8 3 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.39%) 2G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.55%) MongoDB
2 8 (1.58%) Big Data
3 7 (1.38%) Relational Database
4 6 (1.18%) Tableau
5 5 (0.99%) Amazon Athena
5 5 (0.99%) Neo4j
5 5 (0.99%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.79%) Electronic Patient Records
6 4 (0.79%) Power BI
7 3 (0.59%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.39%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.39%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.20%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.20%) Flink
9 1 (0.20%) MySQL
9 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 74 (14.60%) Selenium
2 49 (9.66%) Cucumber
3 48 (9.47%) Jenkins
4 46 (9.07%) Postman
5 43 (8.48%) JMeter
6 42 (8.28%) JIRA
7 41 (8.09%) GitLab
8 40 (7.89%) REST Assured
9 30 (5.92%) Gatling
10 23 (4.54%) Git
11 18 (3.55%) Cypress.io
12 14 (2.76%) WebDriver
13 13 (2.56%) LabVIEW
13 13 (2.56%) LoadRunner
13 13 (2.56%) Zephyr
14 10 (1.97%) JUnit
15 9 (1.78%) Serenity BDD
15 9 (1.78%) SpecFlow
16 8 (1.58%) SoapUI
17 6 (1.18%) NeoLoad
General
1 68 (13.41%) Social Skills
2 48 (9.47%) Public Sector
3 43 (8.48%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (6.71%) Aerospace
5 33 (6.51%) Finance
6 30 (5.92%) Automotive
7 29 (5.72%) Electronics
8 18 (3.55%) Manufacturing
9 16 (3.16%) Banking
10 11 (2.17%) Military
11 10 (1.97%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (0.79%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.79%) Law
13 3 (0.59%) Marketing
14 2 (0.39%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.39%) German Language
14 2 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.20%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (14.60%) Playwright
2 37 (7.30%) REST
3 28 (5.52%) Kafka
4 16 (3.16%) RESTful
5 14 (2.76%) Spring Boot
6 13 (2.56%) .NET
6 13 (2.56%) Spring
7 12 (2.37%) React
8 11 (2.17%) pytest
8 11 (2.17%) SOAP
9 9 (1.78%) Node.js
10 8 (1.58%) Web Services
11 6 (1.18%) Gherkin
11 6 (1.18%) Model Context Protocol
11 6 (1.18%) OpenTelemetry
11 6 (1.18%) Spring Cloud
12 5 (0.99%) HTML
12 5 (0.99%) XML
13 4 (0.79%) ADO
13 4 (0.79%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.94%) Product Ownership
2 19 (3.75%) Enterprise Software
3 17 (3.35%) Cloud Native
4 14 (2.76%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (1.38%) AI Agents
6 7 (1.38%) NHS
7 6 (1.18%) Distributed Architecture
8 5 (0.99%) Embedded Systems
8 5 (0.99%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (0.99%) Virtual Team
9 4 (0.79%) Linux Command Line
9 4 (0.79%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 3 (0.59%) Analogue Electronics
10 3 (0.59%) Infotainment
11 2 (0.39%) Driving Licence
11 2 (0.39%) Hedge funds
11 2 (0.39%) Synthetic Data
12 1 (0.20%) Onboarding
12 1 (0.20%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.75%) Windows
2 16 (3.16%) Linux
3 10 (1.97%) Unix
4 4 (0.79%) Mac OS
4 4 (0.79%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.39%) Android
5 2 (0.39%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 226 (44.58%) Test Automation
2 139 (27.42%) CI/CD
3 106 (20.91%) Validation
4 102 (20.12%) Agile
5 88 (17.36%) DevOps
6 77 (15.19%) Software Testing
7 76 (14.99%) Test Strategy
8 75 (14.79%) API Testing
9 63 (12.43%) Performance Testing
10 59 (11.64%) Test Scripting
11 58 (11.44%) BDD
12 54 (10.65%) Continuous Improvement
13 51 (10.06%) End-to-End Testing
14 48 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
15 47 (9.27%) Integration Testing
16 46 (9.07%) Non-Functional Testing
17 43 (8.48%) Microservices
17 43 (8.48%) Regression Testing
18 39 (7.69%) User Acceptance Testing
19 38 (7.50%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 81 (15.98%) Python
2 77 (15.19%) Java
3 48 (9.47%) JavaScript
4 43 (8.48%) SQL
5 32 (6.31%) C#
6 26 (5.13%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.97%) Bash
8 8 (1.58%) Kotlin
9 7 (1.38%) Apex Code
9 7 (1.38%) C++
9 7 (1.38%) PowerShell
10 6 (1.18%) C
10 6 (1.18%) Ruby
11 4 (0.79%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.39%) Cypher
12 2 (0.39%) Groovy
12 2 (0.39%) Scala
12 2 (0.39%) Swift
13 1 (0.20%) Objective-C
13 1 (0.20%) R
Qualifications
1 150 (29.59%) Security Cleared
2 111 (21.89%) SC Cleared
3 21 (4.14%) ISTQB
4 18 (3.55%) DV Cleared
5 14 (2.76%) Degree
6 10 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.97%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 8 (1.58%) HNC
8 7 (1.38%) HND
9 3 (0.59%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.39%) ISEB
11 1 (0.20%) CCNP
11 1 (0.20%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Black Belt
11 1 (0.20%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (16.17%) QA
2 28 (5.52%) Accessibility
3 12 (2.37%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.79%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 4 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (0.79%) WCAG
5 3 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.39%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.20%) GDPR
7 1 (0.20%) IEC 62304
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 13485
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.20%) MIL-STD-1553
7 1 (0.20%) NIST
7 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (7.30%) Docker
2 8 (1.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (1.38%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.79%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.79%) vSphere
5 3 (0.59%) Firmware
5 3 (0.59%) VirtualBox
Systems Management
1 26 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 25 (4.93%) Grafana
3 15 (2.96%) Prometheus
3 15 (2.96%) Terraform
4 7 (1.38%) Kibana
5 4 (0.79%) Ansible
6 3 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.39%) Control-M
7 2 (0.39%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.39%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.20%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.20%) Iperf
Vendors
1 27 (5.33%) Salesforce
2 19 (3.75%) Splunk
3 15 (2.96%) Dynatrace
4 13 (2.56%) Microsoft
5 11 (2.17%) IBM
6 10 (1.97%) EMC
7 8 (1.58%) Conga
7 8 (1.58%) GoCardless
7 8 (1.58%) VMware
8 7 (1.38%) Citrix
9 6 (1.18%) Databricks
9 6 (1.18%) Google
9 6 (1.18%) Oracle
10 5 (0.99%) New Relic
11 4 (0.79%) Cisco
11 4 (0.79%) SAP
12 3 (0.59%) HP
12 3 (0.59%) Juniper
12 3 (0.59%) OpenLink
12 3 (0.59%) Zscaler