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 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 94 132
Rank change year-on-year +22 +38 -28
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,825 931 714
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.34% 2.86% 1.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.96% 3.15% 2.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,092 633 471
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £416 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +0.05% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £601 £600 £636
90th Percentile £715 £700 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £452 £475
% change year-on-year +5.20% -4.95% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 14 3
10th Percentile £16.95 £20.02 £39.50
25th Percentile £21.03 £30.10 £46.25
Median hourly rate £50.24 £39.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.02% -34.59% +20.00%
75th Percentile £65.98 £59.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £62.63 £64.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.01 £32.36 £47.50
% change year-on-year -19.61% -31.88% +12.43%

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 46,073 29,551 32,512
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.64% 85.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,867 18,364 19,652
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,200 1,847 1,359
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.25 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.06
Median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%
75th Percentile £65.88 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +21 1,545 £513 +2.50% 946
London +20 866 £525 - 482
UK excluding London +21 715 £475 +5.20% 520
Work from Home +13 585 £500 - 363
South East -3 172 £490 +1.34% 148
Midlands +42 169 £475 +10.47% 85
North of England -22 169 £463 -2.53% 117
West Midlands +30 119 £475 - 56
North West -16 106 £475 +4.51% 68
South West +6 77 £500 +17.65% 46
Scotland +7 62 £450 +12.50% 51
East Midlands +11 46 £467 +13.78% 29
Yorkshire -22 45 £450 -14.29% 37
East of England -28 31 £550 +10.00% 50
Wales -1 23 £488 +35.42% 14
North East -23 18 £375 - 12
Northern Ireland 0 14 £450 -12.20% 20
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
1 128 (7.01%) Confluence
2 55 (3.01%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.71%) CMS
4 9 (0.49%) Camunda
5 6 (0.33%) SAS
5 6 (0.33%) Tuxedo
6 5 (0.27%) Apache
7 4 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 3 (0.16%) JBoss
8 3 (0.16%) Kentico
8 3 (0.16%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
8 3 (0.16%) SugarCRM
8 3 (0.16%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.11%) IIS
9 2 (0.11%) OpenROAD
9 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
Applications
1 88 (4.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
3 43 (2.36%) MS Visio
4 21 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
7 7 (0.38%) 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
1 187 (10.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 47 (2.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 38 (2.08%) Oracle EBS
4 32 (1.75%) SAP Payroll
5 29 (1.59%) Oracle Payables
6 27 (1.48%) SAP GRC
6 27 (1.48%) Workday HCM
7 22 (1.21%) Oracle Payroll
7 22 (1.21%) SAP HCM
8 19 (1.04%) Oracle Receivables
8 19 (1.04%) SAP FI
9 18 (0.99%) SAP SD
10 16 (0.88%) Oracle General Ledger
11 15 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 14 (0.77%) Aladdin
12 14 (0.77%) Oracle ERP
12 14 (0.77%) SAP CO
13 13 (0.71%) NetSuite
13 13 (0.71%) SAP MM
13 13 (0.71%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 323 (17.70%) Azure
2 191 (10.47%) Azure DevOps
3 157 (8.60%) Power Platform
4 107 (5.86%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (4.88%) AWS
6 62 (3.40%) OCI
7 60 (3.29%) SuccessFactors
8 38 (2.08%) SaaS
9 36 (1.97%) GCP
10 34 (1.86%) GitHub
10 34 (1.86%) Power Automate
11 30 (1.64%) Snowflake
12 28 (1.53%) PowerApps
13 26 (1.42%) Entra ID
13 26 (1.42%) Microsoft 365
13 26 (1.42%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 21 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
14 21 (1.15%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
15 18 (0.99%) Boomi
16 16 (0.88%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 16 (0.88%) SSL
2 10 (0.55%) WAN
3 9 (0.49%) Firewall
4 7 (0.38%) DNS
5 6 (0.33%) LAN
6 5 (0.27%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.27%) VPN
7 4 (0.22%) Fibre Channel
7 4 (0.22%) Internet
7 4 (0.22%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (0.22%) Network Security
7 4 (0.22%) SAN
7 4 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.16%) DHCP
8 3 (0.16%) FTP
8 3 (0.16%) HTTP
8 3 (0.16%) SD-WAN
8 3 (0.16%) Unified Communications
8 3 (0.16%) VLAN
9 2 (0.11%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (6.08%) Power BI
2 66 (3.62%) SQL Server
3 49 (2.68%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.75%) Relational Database
5 30 (1.64%) Oracle Database
6 28 (1.53%) Oracle Reports
7 21 (1.15%) Data Lake
7 21 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
8 19 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (0.99%) Metadata
10 17 (0.93%) RDBMS
11 16 (0.88%) SAP HANA
12 15 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 15 (0.82%) Tableau
13 12 (0.66%) Ingres
14 10 (0.55%) MySQL
15 9 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
16 8 (0.44%) Big Data
16 8 (0.44%) SAP BW
17 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 301 (16.49%) JIRA
2 50 (2.74%) Git
3 39 (2.14%) Selenium
4 32 (1.75%) Jenkins
5 30 (1.64%) Postman
6 26 (1.42%) REST Assured
7 21 (1.15%) GitLab
7 21 (1.15%) Zephyr
8 17 (0.93%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.60%) JUnit
10 11 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
11 10 (0.55%) Maven
12 9 (0.49%) Bitbucket Server
12 9 (0.49%) Gradle
12 9 (0.49%) Mockito
12 9 (0.49%) SonarQube
12 9 (0.49%) Team Foundation Server
13 8 (0.44%) Gatling
13 8 (0.44%) Visual Studio
General
1 748 (40.99%) Finance
2 709 (38.85%) Social Skills
3 332 (18.19%) Analytical Skills
4 217 (11.89%) Banking
5 173 (9.48%) Public Sector
6 114 (6.25%) Documentation Skills
7 101 (5.53%) Retail
8 73 (4.00%) Manufacturing
9 68 (3.73%) Legal
10 58 (3.18%) Front Office
11 55 (3.01%) General Ledger
12 48 (2.63%) Billing
13 45 (2.47%) Organisational Skills
14 39 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 36 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
15 36 (1.97%) Investment Banking
16 32 (1.75%) Back Office
17 31 (1.70%) Local Government
17 31 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
18 25 (1.37%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 509 (27.89%) Analyst
2 393 (21.53%) Business Analyst
3 295 (16.16%) Consultant
4 215 (11.78%) Lead
5 131 (7.18%) Senior
6 103 (5.64%) Developer
7 100 (5.48%) Test Manager
8 85 (4.66%) Functional Consultant
9 82 (4.49%) SAP Consultant
10 66 (3.62%) Oracle Consultant
10 66 (3.62%) Test Leader
11 57 (3.12%) Project Manager
11 57 (3.12%) Test Analyst
12 51 (2.79%) Architect
12 51 (2.79%) Tester
13 46 (2.52%) Financial Analyst
14 45 (2.47%) Senior Analyst
15 44 (2.41%) Finance Business Analyst
16 40 (2.19%) Senior Business Analyst
17 39 (2.14%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (5.04%) Oracle Fusion
2 85 (4.66%) REST
3 80 (4.38%) Middleware
4 50 (2.74%) SOAP
5 44 (2.41%) JSON
6 41 (2.25%) XML
7 37 (2.03%) SAP Fiori
8 36 (1.97%) .NET
9 32 (1.75%) Web Services
10 29 (1.59%) Playwright
10 29 (1.59%) Terraform
11 19 (1.04%) React
12 18 (0.99%) ADO
13 17 (0.93%) Kafka
14 15 (0.82%) HTML
15 13 (0.71%) CSS
15 13 (0.71%) EDI
15 13 (0.71%) Spring Boot
16 12 (0.66%) ARM Templates
17 11 (0.60%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 145 (7.95%) Product Ownership
2 97 (5.32%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.55%) Legacy Systems
4 62 (3.40%) Data Structures
5 60 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
6 53 (2.90%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.86%) Derivative
8 32 (1.75%) Analytical Mindset
9 30 (1.64%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 22 (1.21%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 21 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (1.15%) Low-Code
11 21 (1.15%) Replication
12 20 (1.10%) FMCG
12 20 (1.10%) Virtual Team
13 19 (1.04%) Fixed Income
13 19 (1.04%) SCADA
14 18 (0.99%) CMDB
14 18 (0.99%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 68 (3.73%) Windows
2 31 (1.70%) Linux
3 17 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.77%) Unix
5 7 (0.38%) VMS
6 4 (0.22%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.16%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.055%) Android
9 1 (0.055%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.055%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.055%) Solaris
9 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.055%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 725 (39.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 568 (31.12%) Agile
3 523 (28.66%) Migration
4 507 (27.78%) System Integration Testing
5 494 (27.07%) Validation
6 365 (20.00%) Data Migration
7 354 (19.40%) Requirements Gathering
8 348 (19.07%) Problem-Solving
9 294 (16.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 289 (15.84%) User Stories
11 280 (15.34%) ERP
12 275 (15.07%) Workshop Facilitation
13 273 (14.96%) DevOps
14 268 (14.68%) Defect Management
15 255 (13.97%) Continuous Improvement
16 239 (13.10%) Business Analysis
17 236 (12.93%) Integration Testing
18 234 (12.82%) Acceptance Criteria
19 218 (11.95%) Scenario Testing
20 203 (11.12%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 310 (16.99%) SQL
2 64 (3.51%) Python
3 54 (2.96%) JavaScript
4 50 (2.74%) Java
5 46 (2.52%) C#
6 41 (2.25%) ABAP
7 34 (1.86%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.10%) Bash
9 19 (1.04%) T-SQL
10 15 (0.82%) PL/SQL
11 12 (0.66%) Apex Code
11 12 (0.66%) Bicep
11 12 (0.66%) TypeScript
11 12 (0.66%) VB
12 9 (0.49%) C
12 9 (0.49%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.49%) VB6
13 7 (0.38%) Korn
13 7 (0.38%) VBA
14 5 (0.27%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 254 (13.92%) Security Cleared
2 200 (10.96%) SC Cleared
3 165 (9.04%) Degree
4 51 (2.79%) ACCA
5 46 (2.52%) CIMA
6 45 (2.47%) ISTQB
7 34 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.37%) PMI Certification
9 23 (1.26%) Computer Science Degree
10 21 (1.15%) DV Cleared
10 21 (1.15%) Microsoft Certification
10 21 (1.15%) PMP
11 17 (0.93%) Azure Certification
12 16 (0.88%) CBAP
13 14 (0.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 14 (0.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (0.66%) IIBA
15 11 (0.60%) Master's Degree
16 10 (0.55%) FFIEC
16 10 (0.55%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 275 (15.07%) QA
2 171 (9.37%) Data Quality
3 43 (2.36%) GDPR
4 39 (2.14%) GRC
5 29 (1.59%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.37%) PMO
7 21 (1.15%) NIST
8 16 (0.88%) ISO 20022
9 13 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
9 13 (0.71%) COBIT
9 13 (0.71%) IFRS
9 13 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 9 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 9 (0.49%) SLA
11 8 (0.44%) SEPA
12 7 (0.38%) EMIR
12 7 (0.38%) MiFID
12 7 (0.38%) Solvency II
13 6 (0.33%) GAAP
14 5 (0.27%) HL7
System Software
1 34 (1.86%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.26%) Docker
3 12 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.22%) 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 27 (1.48%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.82%) HP ALM
3 10 (0.55%) SCOM
3 10 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.44%) Ansible
4 8 (0.44%) Grafana
5 7 (0.38%) HP Quality Center
6 6 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.27%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.22%) Argo
9 3 (0.16%) ITRS Geneos
9 3 (0.16%) SCCM
10 2 (0.11%) Control-M
11 1 (0.055%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.055%) Iperf
11 1 (0.055%) Istio
11 1 (0.055%) Network Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.055%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.055%) SnapMirror
11 1 (0.055%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 357 (19.56%) SAP
2 281 (15.40%) Oracle
3 267 (14.63%) Microsoft
4 105 (5.75%) Salesforce
5 79 (4.33%) ServiceNow
6 63 (3.45%) Workday
7 25 (1.37%) Ariba
8 19 (1.04%) MuleSoft
8 19 (1.04%) Murex
8 19 (1.04%) UiPath
9 18 (0.99%) Databricks
10 16 (0.88%) CyberArk
10 16 (0.88%) HP
10 16 (0.88%) IBM
11 15 (0.82%) Bloomberg
12 13 (0.71%) Informatica
12 13 (0.71%) Kronos
13 12 (0.66%) Tagetik
14 11 (0.60%) Blue Prism
14 11 (0.60%) IFS