User Acceptance Testing Contract Job Trends

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring User Acceptance Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 92 127
Rank change year-on-year +16 +35 -21
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,817 940 730
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.31% 2.85% 1.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.92% 3.15% 2.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,081 638 482
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £415 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year - -3.61% -1.19%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £732
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 13 3
10th Percentile £16.95 £30.01 £39.50
25th Percentile £21.03 £30.25 £46.25
Median hourly rate £50.24 £40.49 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.09% -32.52% +34.74%
75th Percentile £65.98 £60.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £64.75 £64.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.01 £32.36 £47.50
% change year-on-year -19.61% -31.88% +37.68%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

User Acceptance Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 46,295 29,870 32,935
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.37% 90.52% 85.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,040 18,573 20,019
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £627 £625 £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 3,185 1,844 1,407
10th Percentile £13.72 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.33 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.03 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.91% -47.67% +1.18%

User Acceptance Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Acceptance Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

User Acceptance Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

User Acceptance Testing
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Acceptance Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Acceptance Testing over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Acceptance Testing in the UK

User Acceptance Testing
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Acceptance Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Acceptance Testing over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Acceptance Testing in the UK

User Acceptance Testing
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing User Acceptance Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 25 September 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 +16 1,535 £513 +2.50% 1,125
London +16 864 £525 - 595
UK excluding London +22 706 £475 +5.56% 628
Work from Home +13 580 £500 - 436
South East +1 171 £500 +6.67% 192
Midlands +38 166 £475 +7.34% 101
North of England -6 165 £463 - 142
West Midlands +29 116 £475 - 72
North West -22 103 £475 +4.86% 86
South West +6 75 £500 +17.65% 53
Scotland +9 63 £450 +12.50% 56
East Midlands +16 47 £467 +12.41% 28
Yorkshire -19 44 £450 -10.00% 43
East of England -33 32 £550 +10.00% 59
Wales -2 22 £488 +35.42% 16
North East -26 18 £375 - 13
Northern Ireland +1 14 £450 -12.83% 19
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

User Acceptance Testing
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
1 126 (6.93%) Confluence
2 54 (2.97%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.72%) CMS
4 9 (0.50%) Camunda
5 7 (0.39%) SAS
6 6 (0.33%) Tuxedo
7 5 (0.28%) Apache
8 4 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.17%) JBoss
9 3 (0.17%) Kentico
9 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
9 3 (0.17%) SugarCRM
9 3 (0.17%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.11%) IIS
10 2 (0.11%) OpenROAD
10 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
Applications
1 87 (4.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (2.26%) MS Visio
4 21 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
7 7 (0.39%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe Premiere
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.055%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.055%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.055%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 182 (10.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 46 (2.53%) Dynamics CRM
3 37 (2.04%) Oracle EBS
4 32 (1.76%) SAP Payroll
5 27 (1.49%) Oracle Payables
5 27 (1.49%) SAP GRC
6 26 (1.43%) Workday HCM
7 22 (1.21%) SAP HCM
8 21 (1.16%) Oracle Payroll
9 18 (0.99%) SAP SD
10 17 (0.94%) Oracle Receivables
10 17 (0.94%) SAP FI
11 15 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 14 (0.77%) Aladdin
12 14 (0.77%) Oracle ERP
12 14 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
13 13 (0.72%) NetSuite
13 13 (0.72%) SAP CO
13 13 (0.72%) SAP MM
13 13 (0.72%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 317 (17.45%) Azure
2 188 (10.35%) Azure DevOps
3 156 (8.59%) Power Platform
4 110 (6.05%) Dynamics 365
5 84 (4.62%) AWS
6 60 (3.30%) OCI
6 60 (3.30%) SuccessFactors
7 39 (2.15%) SaaS
8 34 (1.87%) GitHub
9 32 (1.76%) Power Automate
10 31 (1.71%) GCP
11 30 (1.65%) Snowflake
12 28 (1.54%) PowerApps
13 27 (1.49%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 26 (1.43%) Entra ID
15 23 (1.27%) Microsoft 365
16 21 (1.16%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
17 19 (1.05%) Boomi
18 17 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
19 16 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 16 (0.88%) SSL
2 10 (0.55%) WAN
3 8 (0.44%) Firewall
4 6 (0.33%) DNS
4 6 (0.33%) LAN
5 5 (0.28%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.22%) Fibre Channel
6 4 (0.22%) Internet
6 4 (0.22%) Intrusion Detection
6 4 (0.22%) SAN
6 4 (0.22%) VPN
6 4 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.17%) DHCP
7 3 (0.17%) FTP
7 3 (0.17%) HTTP
7 3 (0.17%) Network Security
7 3 (0.17%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.17%) VLAN
8 2 (0.11%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.11%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (6.22%) Power BI
2 66 (3.63%) SQL Server
3 48 (2.64%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.76%) Relational Database
5 30 (1.65%) Oracle Database
6 27 (1.49%) Oracle Reports
7 21 (1.16%) Data Lake
7 21 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
8 19 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (0.99%) Metadata
10 17 (0.94%) RDBMS
11 16 (0.88%) SAP HANA
12 15 (0.83%) Tableau
13 14 (0.77%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 12 (0.66%) Ingres
15 10 (0.55%) MySQL
16 9 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
17 8 (0.44%) Big Data
18 7 (0.39%) SAP BW
19 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 293 (16.13%) JIRA
2 50 (2.75%) Git
3 38 (2.09%) Selenium
4 31 (1.71%) Jenkins
5 28 (1.54%) Postman
6 25 (1.38%) REST Assured
7 21 (1.16%) Zephyr
8 20 (1.10%) GitLab
9 16 (0.88%) Cypress.io
10 12 (0.66%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.61%) JUnit
11 11 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
12 10 (0.55%) Maven
13 9 (0.50%) Bitbucket Server
13 9 (0.50%) Gradle
13 9 (0.50%) Mockito
13 9 (0.50%) SonarQube
13 9 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
14 8 (0.44%) Gatling
14 8 (0.44%) Visual Studio
General
1 750 (41.28%) Finance
2 703 (38.69%) Social Skills
3 333 (18.33%) Analytical Skills
4 219 (12.05%) Banking
5 170 (9.36%) Public Sector
6 117 (6.44%) Documentation Skills
7 101 (5.56%) Retail
8 72 (3.96%) Manufacturing
9 67 (3.69%) Legal
10 58 (3.19%) Front Office
11 53 (2.92%) General Ledger
12 46 (2.53%) Organisational Skills
13 45 (2.48%) Billing
14 40 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 37 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
15 37 (2.04%) Investment Banking
16 32 (1.76%) Back Office
17 30 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
18 29 (1.60%) Local Government
19 25 (1.38%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 504 (27.74%) Analyst
2 390 (21.46%) Business Analyst
3 289 (15.91%) Consultant
4 227 (12.49%) Lead
5 130 (7.15%) Senior
6 103 (5.67%) Developer
7 102 (5.61%) Test Manager
8 84 (4.62%) Functional Consultant
9 82 (4.51%) SAP Consultant
10 67 (3.69%) Test Leader
11 63 (3.47%) Oracle Consultant
12 59 (3.25%) Project Manager
13 56 (3.08%) Architect
13 56 (3.08%) Test Analyst
14 50 (2.75%) Tester
15 46 (2.53%) Financial Analyst
16 44 (2.42%) Finance Business Analyst
16 44 (2.42%) Senior Analyst
17 39 (2.15%) Senior Business Analyst
17 39 (2.15%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (4.90%) Oracle Fusion
2 84 (4.62%) REST
3 78 (4.29%) Middleware
4 50 (2.75%) SOAP
5 40 (2.20%) XML
6 39 (2.15%) JSON
7 37 (2.04%) .NET
7 37 (2.04%) SAP Fiori
8 32 (1.76%) Web Services
9 28 (1.54%) Playwright
9 28 (1.54%) Terraform
10 19 (1.05%) React
11 18 (0.99%) ADO
12 16 (0.88%) Kafka
13 15 (0.83%) HTML
14 13 (0.72%) CSS
14 13 (0.72%) Spring Boot
15 12 (0.66%) ARM Templates
15 12 (0.66%) EDI
16 11 (0.61%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 146 (8.04%) Product Ownership
2 92 (5.06%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.57%) Legacy Systems
4 62 (3.41%) Data Structures
5 60 (3.30%) Enterprise Software
6 53 (2.92%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.87%) Derivative
8 32 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
9 31 (1.71%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 21 (1.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 21 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (1.10%) FMCG
11 20 (1.10%) Low-Code
11 20 (1.10%) Replication
11 20 (1.10%) Virtual Team
12 19 (1.05%) Fixed Income
12 19 (1.05%) SCADA
13 18 (0.99%) CMDB
14 17 (0.94%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.63%) Windows
2 31 (1.71%) Linux
3 17 (0.94%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.77%) Unix
5 7 (0.39%) VMS
6 3 (0.17%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.11%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.055%) Android
8 1 (0.055%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.055%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.055%) Solaris
8 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.055%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 714 (39.30%) Stakeholder Management
2 567 (31.21%) Agile
3 517 (28.45%) Migration
4 511 (28.12%) System Integration Testing
5 492 (27.08%) Validation
6 366 (20.14%) Data Migration
7 350 (19.26%) Requirements Gathering
8 345 (18.99%) Problem-Solving
9 301 (16.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 287 (15.80%) ERP
11 283 (15.58%) User Stories
12 271 (14.91%) DevOps
12 271 (14.91%) Workshop Facilitation
13 266 (14.64%) Defect Management
14 259 (14.25%) Continuous Improvement
15 235 (12.93%) Business Analysis
15 235 (12.93%) Integration Testing
16 223 (12.27%) Acceptance Criteria
17 209 (11.50%) Scenario Testing
18 205 (11.28%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 306 (16.84%) SQL
2 65 (3.58%) Python
3 54 (2.97%) JavaScript
4 50 (2.75%) Java
5 46 (2.53%) C#
6 41 (2.26%) ABAP
7 35 (1.93%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.10%) Bash
9 19 (1.05%) T-SQL
10 15 (0.83%) PL/SQL
11 13 (0.72%) Apex Code
12 12 (0.66%) Bicep
12 12 (0.66%) TypeScript
12 12 (0.66%) VB
13 9 (0.50%) C
13 9 (0.50%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.50%) VB6
14 8 (0.44%) VBA
15 7 (0.39%) Korn
16 6 (0.33%) R
Qualifications
1 251 (13.81%) Security Cleared
2 198 (10.90%) SC Cleared
3 163 (8.97%) Degree
4 50 (2.75%) ACCA
5 45 (2.48%) CIMA
5 45 (2.48%) ISTQB
6 35 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
7 24 (1.32%) PMI Certification
8 22 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
9 21 (1.16%) PMP
10 20 (1.10%) DV Cleared
10 20 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (0.94%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.83%) CBAP
13 14 (0.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 13 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 12 (0.66%) IIBA
16 11 (0.61%) Master's Degree
17 10 (0.55%) FFIEC
18 9 (0.50%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 275 (15.13%) QA
2 166 (9.14%) Data Quality
3 43 (2.37%) GDPR
4 34 (1.87%) GRC
5 29 (1.60%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.38%) PMO
7 17 (0.94%) NIST
8 16 (0.88%) ISO 20022
9 13 (0.72%) IFRS
9 13 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 12 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
11 10 (0.55%) SLA
12 9 (0.50%) COBIT
12 9 (0.50%) SEPA
13 7 (0.39%) EMIR
13 7 (0.39%) MiFID
13 7 (0.39%) Solvency II
14 6 (0.33%) HL7
15 5 (0.28%) GAAP
16 4 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 34 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.21%) Docker
3 12 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.17%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.055%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.055%) NFS
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.055%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.055%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.055%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (1.43%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.83%) HP ALM
3 10 (0.55%) SCOM
3 10 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (0.50%) Grafana
5 7 (0.39%) Ansible
5 7 (0.39%) HP Quality Center
6 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.28%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.22%) Argo
8 3 (0.17%) Control-M
8 3 (0.17%) ITRS Geneos
8 3 (0.17%) SCCM
9 1 (0.055%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.055%) Iperf
9 1 (0.055%) Istio
9 1 (0.055%) Network Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.055%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.055%) SnapMirror
9 1 (0.055%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 353 (19.43%) SAP
2 280 (15.41%) Oracle
3 263 (14.47%) Microsoft
4 106 (5.83%) Salesforce
5 79 (4.35%) ServiceNow
6 64 (3.52%) Workday
7 25 (1.38%) Ariba
8 20 (1.10%) Murex
9 19 (1.05%) MuleSoft
9 19 (1.05%) UiPath
10 18 (0.99%) Databricks
11 16 (0.88%) CyberArk
11 16 (0.88%) HP
11 16 (0.88%) IBM
12 15 (0.83%) Bloomberg
13 13 (0.72%) Informatica
13 13 (0.72%) Kronos
14 12 (0.66%) IFS
14 12 (0.66%) Tagetik
15 11 (0.61%) Blue Prism