Test Engineer Contract Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer daily rate in the UK is £415, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 April 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 295 323 315
Rank change year-on-year +28 -8 +68
Contract jobs requiring a Test Engineer 366 215 291
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 0.73% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.86% 0.79% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 212 145 207
10th Percentile £303 £306 £300
25th Percentile £368 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £431 £425
Median % change year-on-year -3.60% +1.29% -15.00%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £517
90th Percentile £619 £629 £577
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £450 £425
% change year-on-year -8.33% +5.88% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 16 30
10th Percentile £28.25 £36.97 £28.56
25th Percentile £32.13 £50.00 £35.19
Median hourly rate £57.50 £56.25 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.22% +32.35% -24.44%
75th Percentile £61.84 £62.50 £59.44
90th Percentile £70.00 £63.13 £62.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £56.25 £42.50
% change year-on-year +2.22% +32.35% -24.44%

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 42,785 27,291 40,291
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.62% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,469 17,875 26,294
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £748
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,747 1,005 2,616
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.41 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.87 £16.25
Median hourly rate £42.25 £30.20 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.90% -13.71% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.74 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.10 £75.40 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.85 £29.23 £36.50
% change year-on-year +50.00% -19.92% -15.12%

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 22 April 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 22 April 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 22 April 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 -19 304 £415 -5.14% 174
UK excluding London +10 241 £413 -8.33% 189
London -43 89 £425 - 15
North of England -17 75 £400 +10.34% 46
Work from Home -19 61 £398 -10.42% 30
Midlands -14 60 £525 +20.00% 13
West Midlands -4 55 £550 +53.85% 10
South East -59 41 £400 -23.81% 48
East of England -13 29 £338 -10.00% 44
Yorkshire -32 29 £500 +33.33% 9
North East -2 25 £400 +29.03% 7
North West -27 24 £378 +0.67% 30
South West -33 16 £400 -23.81% 18
Scotland +7 14 £313 -33.93% 17
Wales -2 10 £440 +36.82% 6
East Midlands -37 5 £400 -8.57% 3
Northern Ireland - 4 £450 - 3

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

For the 6 months to 22 April 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.

1 210 (57.38%) Test Automation
2 112 (30.60%) CI/CD
3 110 (30.05%) Security Cleared
4 89 (24.32%) Agile
5 88 (24.04%) SC Cleared
6 78 (21.31%) Azure
7 72 (19.67%) Selenium
8 70 (19.13%) DevOps
8 70 (19.13%) QA
9 69 (18.85%) Java
10 65 (17.76%) Python
11 64 (17.49%) JIRA
12 60 (16.39%) API Testing
13 59 (16.12%) AWS
14 56 (15.30%) Playwright
15 54 (14.75%) Manual Testing
16 52 (14.21%) Cucumber
16 52 (14.21%) Postman
17 49 (13.39%) Performance Testing
17 49 (13.39%) Test Strategy
18 48 (13.11%) Test Scripting
19 47 (12.84%) Software Testing
20 46 (12.57%) JavaScript
20 46 (12.57%) Jenkins
21 44 (12.02%) BDD
21 44 (12.02%) Regression Testing
22 43 (11.75%) Validation
23 41 (11.20%) Azure DevOps
24 39 (10.66%) Accessibility
24 39 (10.66%) Functional Testing

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 9 (2.46%) Confluence
2 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.27%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.27%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 3 (0.82%) Findur
2 2 (0.55%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 78 (21.31%) Azure
2 59 (16.12%) AWS
3 41 (11.20%) Azure DevOps
4 37 (10.11%) GitHub
5 21 (5.74%) GitHub Actions
6 18 (4.92%) GCP
7 12 (3.28%) BrowserStack
8 7 (1.91%) BlazeMeter
9 6 (1.64%) Entra ID
9 6 (1.64%) Serverless
10 5 (1.37%) Power Platform
10 5 (1.37%) Tricentis Tosca
11 4 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
11 4 (1.09%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (1.09%) SaaS
12 3 (0.82%) Power Automate
12 3 (0.82%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 2 (0.55%) Amazon EventBridge
13 2 (0.55%) AWS CodePipeline
13 2 (0.55%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.73%) Firewall
1 10 (2.73%) LAN
1 10 (2.73%) WAN
2 8 (2.19%) DHCP
2 8 (2.19%) DNS
2 8 (2.19%) SD-WAN
3 7 (1.91%) TCP/IP
3 7 (1.91%) VPN
4 6 (1.64%) VLAN
5 5 (1.37%) Broadband
5 5 (1.37%) Network Security
5 5 (1.37%) SSL
6 4 (1.09%) BGP
6 4 (1.09%) Internet
6 4 (1.09%) MPLS
6 4 (1.09%) OSPF
6 4 (1.09%) Spanning Tree
6 4 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (1.09%) Wireshark
7 3 (0.82%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.46%) MongoDB
2 7 (1.91%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.64%) Relational Database
4 5 (1.37%) MySQL
5 3 (0.82%) Big Data
6 2 (0.55%) Neo4j
6 2 (0.55%) Power BI
6 2 (0.55%) Tableau
7 1 (0.27%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.27%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.27%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (0.27%) MS Access
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.27%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 72 (19.67%) Selenium
2 64 (17.49%) JIRA
3 52 (14.21%) Cucumber
3 52 (14.21%) Postman
4 46 (12.57%) Jenkins
5 39 (10.66%) GitLab
6 34 (9.29%) REST Assured
7 30 (8.20%) JMeter
8 29 (7.92%) Git
9 15 (4.10%) Cypress.io
10 13 (3.55%) Gatling
10 13 (3.55%) Zephyr
11 9 (2.46%) JUnit
11 9 (2.46%) LabVIEW
12 8 (2.19%) Browser DevTools
12 8 (2.19%) Serenity BDD
12 8 (2.19%) TestRail
12 8 (2.19%) WebDriver
13 7 (1.91%) Appium
13 7 (1.91%) HP UFT
General
1 54 (14.75%) Public Sector
2 42 (11.48%) Social Skills
3 36 (9.84%) Finance
4 27 (7.38%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (5.46%) Automotive
6 18 (4.92%) Aerospace
7 13 (3.55%) Electronics
8 11 (3.01%) Military
8 11 (3.01%) Telecoms
9 10 (2.73%) Banking
10 5 (1.37%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.82%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.82%) Marketing
13 1 (0.27%) Avionics
13 1 (0.27%) Front Office
13 1 (0.27%) German Language
13 1 (0.27%) Law
13 1 (0.27%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (15.30%) Playwright
2 34 (9.29%) REST
3 10 (2.73%) Gherkin
3 10 (2.73%) Kafka
3 10 (2.73%) RESTful
4 9 (2.46%) .NET
4 9 (2.46%) LDAP
4 9 (2.46%) Node.js
4 9 (2.46%) OpenID
4 9 (2.46%) SailPoint
5 7 (1.91%) Spring
5 7 (1.91%) Spring Boot
6 6 (1.64%) HTML
6 6 (1.64%) Spring Cloud
6 6 (1.64%) WebdriverIO
6 6 (1.64%) WireMock
7 5 (1.37%) pytest
7 5 (1.37%) React
7 5 (1.37%) SAML
7 5 (1.37%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.10%) Product Ownership
2 10 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (2.46%) Cloud Native
4 8 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
4 8 (2.19%) Infotainment
5 7 (1.91%) Mobile App
6 5 (1.37%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (1.09%) Hedge funds
7 4 (1.09%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 3 (0.82%) Fibre Optics
8 3 (0.82%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.55%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.55%) Embedded Systems
9 2 (0.55%) NHS
9 2 (0.55%) Onboarding
9 2 (0.55%) PKI
9 2 (0.55%) Synthetic Data
10 1 (0.27%) CMDB
10 1 (0.27%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 17 (4.64%) Windows
2 6 (1.64%) Android
2 6 (1.64%) Mac OS
3 5 (1.37%) Apple iOS
3 5 (1.37%) Linux
4 2 (0.55%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.27%) Unix
5 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (57.38%) Test Automation
2 112 (30.60%) CI/CD
3 89 (24.32%) Agile
4 70 (19.13%) DevOps
5 60 (16.39%) API Testing
6 54 (14.75%) Manual Testing
7 49 (13.39%) Performance Testing
7 49 (13.39%) Test Strategy
8 48 (13.11%) Test Scripting
9 47 (12.84%) Software Testing
10 44 (12.02%) BDD
10 44 (12.02%) Regression Testing
11 43 (11.75%) Validation
12 39 (10.66%) Functional Testing
13 38 (10.38%) Microservices
14 35 (9.56%) Scenario Testing
15 34 (9.29%) Continuous Improvement
16 33 (9.02%) Problem-Solving
17 31 (8.47%) Non-Functional Testing
18 29 (7.92%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 69 (18.85%) Java
2 65 (17.76%) Python
3 46 (12.57%) JavaScript
4 32 (8.74%) TypeScript
5 27 (7.38%) SQL
6 21 (5.74%) C#
7 12 (3.28%) Ruby
8 11 (3.01%) Bash
9 9 (2.46%) PowerShell
10 7 (1.91%) VBScript
11 5 (1.37%) C
11 5 (1.37%) C++
11 5 (1.37%) PHP
12 3 (0.82%) Scala
13 2 (0.55%) AppleScript
13 2 (0.55%) Bicep
13 2 (0.55%) Cypher
13 2 (0.55%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.55%) Swift
Qualifications
1 110 (30.05%) Security Cleared
2 88 (24.04%) SC Cleared
3 24 (6.56%) ISTQB
4 17 (4.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.46%) DV Cleared
6 7 (1.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 6 (1.64%) Degree
8 5 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (1.09%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.82%) CCNP
10 3 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.55%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.55%) CCNA
11 2 (0.55%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.27%) CREST Certified
12 1 (0.27%) OSCP
12 1 (0.27%) Six Sigma Black Belt
12 1 (0.27%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (19.13%) QA
2 39 (10.66%) Accessibility
3 10 (2.73%) Data Quality
4 6 (1.64%) WCAG
5 5 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.09%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 2 (0.55%) NCSC
7 2 (0.55%) NIST
8 1 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.27%) GDPR
8 1 (0.27%) HL7
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.27%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.27%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.27%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 36 (9.84%) Docker
2 7 (1.91%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (0.55%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 2 (0.55%) Firmware
5 1 (0.27%) Squid
5 1 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (3.28%) Grafana
1 12 (3.28%) Kubernetes
2 11 (3.01%) Prometheus
3 7 (1.91%) Terraform
4 5 (1.37%) HP ALM
4 5 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.55%) HP Quality Center
5 2 (0.55%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.27%) Ansible
6 1 (0.27%) Iperf
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 22 (6.01%) Microsoft
2 12 (3.28%) Citrix
3 10 (2.73%) ServiceNow
4 8 (2.19%) Salesforce
4 8 (2.19%) Splunk
5 7 (1.91%) Cisco
5 7 (1.91%) Dynatrace
6 6 (1.64%) HP
7 4 (1.09%) Zscaler
8 3 (0.82%) Databricks
8 3 (0.82%) Google
8 3 (0.82%) Meraki
8 3 (0.82%) OpenLink
8 3 (0.82%) Pega
8 3 (0.82%) UiPath
9 2 (0.55%) Bloomberg
9 2 (0.55%) Ciena
9 2 (0.55%) Fortinet
9 2 (0.55%) Optimizely
9 2 (0.55%) Workday