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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 87 117
Rank change year-on-year +14 +30 -8
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,819 922 758
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.34% 2.84% 1.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.96% 3.14% 2.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,086 632 501
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £421 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £714 £700 £732
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +6.89% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 13 3
10th Percentile £16.95 £30.09 £39.50
25th Percentile £21.03 £32.71 £46.25
Median hourly rate £50.24 £51.80 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.01% -13.67% +94.60%
75th Percentile £65.98 £60.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £64.75 £64.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.01 £35.36 £47.50
% change year-on-year -26.43% -25.57% +54.06%

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 45,945 29,375 32,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.44% 90.50% 85.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,954 18,237 20,159
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
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 £625 £625 £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 3,063 1,777 1,475
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.47 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £66.70 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.08 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.13% -47.67% +6.17%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +18 1,544 £511 +2.25% 1,131
London +25 889 £525 - 650
UK excluding London +13 691 £481 +6.89% 585
Work from Home +9 583 £500 - 474
Midlands +46 169 £481 +13.06% 95
South East -4 163 £500 +11.11% 166
North of England -16 157 £460 +0.88% 145
West Midlands +30 119 £478 +6.11% 68
North West -18 98 £484 +6.56% 95
South West +1 78 £500 +17.65% 42
Scotland +18 62 £450 +5.88% 61
East Midlands +16 46 £496 +18.04% 27
Yorkshire -13 41 £440 -12.00% 29
East of England -32 28 £550 +8.70% 45
Wales -2 21 £500 +38.89% 8
North East -21 18 £375 - 21
Northern Ireland +2 14 £450 -12.83% 29
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
1 119 (6.54%) Confluence
2 54 (2.97%) SharePoint
3 12 (0.66%) CMS
4 8 (0.44%) Camunda
5 7 (0.38%) SAS
6 6 (0.33%) Tuxedo
7 5 (0.27%) Apache
8 4 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (0.16%) JBoss
9 3 (0.16%) Kentico
9 3 (0.16%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
9 3 (0.16%) SugarCRM
9 3 (0.16%) 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 85 (4.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
3 40 (2.20%) MS Visio
4 19 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 16 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
6 10 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.27%) 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
1 181 (9.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (2.36%) Dynamics CRM
3 38 (2.09%) Oracle EBS
4 30 (1.65%) SAP Payroll
5 28 (1.54%) Oracle Payables
6 27 (1.48%) SAP GRC
7 22 (1.21%) Oracle Payroll
8 21 (1.15%) SAP HCM
8 21 (1.15%) Workday HCM
9 18 (0.99%) SAP SD
10 17 (0.93%) Oracle Receivables
10 17 (0.93%) SAP FI
11 16 (0.88%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 15 (0.82%) Oracle ERP
12 15 (0.82%) Oracle General Ledger
13 13 (0.71%) Aladdin
13 13 (0.71%) NetSuite
13 13 (0.71%) SAP CO
13 13 (0.71%) SAP MM
13 13 (0.71%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 313 (17.21%) Azure
2 189 (10.39%) Azure DevOps
3 169 (9.29%) Power Platform
4 121 (6.65%) Dynamics 365
5 85 (4.67%) AWS
6 59 (3.24%) OCI
7 54 (2.97%) SuccessFactors
8 39 (2.14%) GitHub
9 37 (2.03%) SaaS
10 34 (1.87%) Power Automate
11 30 (1.65%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 29 (1.59%) GCP
12 29 (1.59%) PowerApps
13 28 (1.54%) Entra ID
14 27 (1.48%) Snowflake
15 23 (1.26%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
16 22 (1.21%) Microsoft 365
17 21 (1.15%) Boomi
18 19 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
19 15 (0.82%) Azure AKS
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 (0.27%) 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
7 3 (0.16%) DHCP
7 3 (0.16%) FTP
7 3 (0.16%) HTTP
7 3 (0.16%) Network Security
7 3 (0.16%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.11%) HTTPS
8 2 (0.11%) Intranet
8 2 (0.11%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (7.04%) Power BI
2 65 (3.57%) SQL Server
3 49 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.76%) Relational Database
5 28 (1.54%) Oracle Database
6 27 (1.48%) Oracle Reports
7 22 (1.21%) Data Lake
8 21 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (0.99%) Metadata
10 17 (0.93%) RDBMS
11 15 (0.82%) SAP HANA
11 15 (0.82%) Tableau
12 14 (0.77%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 12 (0.66%) Ingres
14 10 (0.55%) MySQL
15 9 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
15 9 (0.49%) Big Data
16 7 (0.38%) SAP BW
16 7 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 290 (15.94%) JIRA
2 50 (2.75%) Git
3 38 (2.09%) Selenium
4 31 (1.70%) Jenkins
5 29 (1.59%) Postman
6 24 (1.32%) REST Assured
7 20 (1.10%) GitLab
7 20 (1.10%) Zephyr
8 16 (0.88%) Cypress.io
9 11 (0.60%) Cucumber
10 10 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.49%) JUnit
11 9 (0.49%) Maven
11 9 (0.49%) Team Foundation Server
12 8 (0.44%) Bitbucket Server
12 8 (0.44%) Mockito
12 8 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
12 8 (0.44%) SonarQube
12 8 (0.44%) TestRail
12 8 (0.44%) Visual Studio
General
1 759 (41.73%) Finance
2 690 (37.93%) Social Skills
3 334 (18.36%) Analytical Skills
4 211 (11.60%) Banking
5 169 (9.29%) Public Sector
6 124 (6.82%) Documentation Skills
7 108 (5.94%) Retail
8 70 (3.85%) Manufacturing
9 67 (3.68%) Legal
10 62 (3.41%) Front Office
11 51 (2.80%) General Ledger
12 47 (2.58%) Organisational Skills
13 41 (2.25%) Billing
14 38 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 38 (2.09%) Investment Banking
15 36 (1.98%) Law
16 34 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
17 33 (1.81%) Back Office
17 33 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
18 25 (1.37%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 513 (28.20%) Analyst
2 398 (21.88%) Business Analyst
3 283 (15.56%) Consultant
4 239 (13.14%) Lead
5 134 (7.37%) Senior
6 107 (5.88%) Test Manager
7 106 (5.83%) Developer
8 85 (4.67%) Functional Consultant
9 83 (4.56%) SAP Consultant
10 69 (3.79%) Architect
11 65 (3.57%) Oracle Consultant
12 62 (3.41%) Test Leader
13 55 (3.02%) Project Manager
13 55 (3.02%) Test Analyst
14 45 (2.47%) Financial Analyst
15 44 (2.42%) Senior Analyst
16 41 (2.25%) Test Engineer
17 40 (2.20%) Finance Business Analyst
17 40 (2.20%) Tester
18 38 (2.09%) Senior Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (4.73%) Oracle Fusion
1 86 (4.73%) REST
2 81 (4.45%) Middleware
3 53 (2.91%) SOAP
4 41 (2.25%) XML
5 40 (2.20%) JSON
6 36 (1.98%) .NET
7 34 (1.87%) SAP Fiori
8 29 (1.59%) Playwright
9 28 (1.54%) Terraform
9 28 (1.54%) Web Services
10 18 (0.99%) ADO
10 18 (0.99%) React
11 15 (0.82%) Kafka
12 14 (0.77%) HTML
13 12 (0.66%) ARM Templates
13 12 (0.66%) CSS
13 12 (0.66%) EDI
13 12 (0.66%) SailPoint
14 11 (0.60%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 146 (8.03%) Product Ownership
2 89 (4.89%) Onboarding
3 81 (4.45%) Legacy Systems
4 63 (3.46%) Data Structures
5 59 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
6 53 (2.91%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.87%) Derivative
8 33 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
8 33 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
9 30 (1.65%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 25 (1.37%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 22 (1.21%) FMCG
11 22 (1.21%) Virtual Team
12 20 (1.10%) CMDB
12 20 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
12 20 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (1.04%) Data Centre
13 19 (1.04%) Low-Code
13 19 (1.04%) Public Cloud
13 19 (1.04%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 65 (3.57%) Windows
2 31 (1.70%) Linux
3 17 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.77%) Unix
5 7 (0.38%) VMS
6 3 (0.16%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.16%) 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
Processes & Methodologies
1 687 (37.77%) Stakeholder Management
2 574 (31.56%) Agile
3 515 (28.31%) Migration
4 497 (27.32%) System Integration Testing
5 491 (26.99%) Validation
6 368 (20.23%) Data Migration
7 346 (19.02%) Problem-Solving
8 345 (18.97%) Requirements Gathering
9 315 (17.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 306 (16.82%) ERP
11 291 (16.00%) User Stories
12 274 (15.06%) Workshop Facilitation
13 272 (14.95%) DevOps
14 271 (14.90%) Continuous Improvement
15 254 (13.96%) Defect Management
16 236 (12.97%) Integration Testing
17 227 (12.48%) Business Analysis
18 225 (12.37%) Acceptance Criteria
19 210 (11.54%) Test Automation
20 208 (11.43%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 307 (16.88%) SQL
2 67 (3.68%) Python
3 52 (2.86%) JavaScript
4 50 (2.75%) Java
5 45 (2.47%) C#
6 37 (2.03%) ABAP
7 35 (1.92%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.10%) Bash
9 19 (1.04%) T-SQL
10 15 (0.82%) Apex Code
10 15 (0.82%) PL/SQL
11 12 (0.66%) Bicep
11 12 (0.66%) TypeScript
12 11 (0.60%) VB
13 9 (0.49%) C
13 9 (0.49%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.44%) Korn
14 8 (0.44%) VB6
15 7 (0.38%) R
15 7 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 251 (13.80%) Security Cleared
2 199 (10.94%) SC Cleared
3 155 (8.52%) Degree
4 46 (2.53%) ACCA
5 43 (2.36%) ISTQB
6 41 (2.25%) CIMA
7 35 (1.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.37%) PMI Certification
9 22 (1.21%) PMP
10 20 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (1.10%) DV Cleared
10 20 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (0.93%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.82%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 14 (0.77%) CBAP
14 12 (0.66%) IIBA
14 12 (0.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 10 (0.55%) FFIEC
15 10 (0.55%) ISEB
15 10 (0.55%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 272 (14.95%) QA
2 168 (9.24%) Data Quality
3 43 (2.36%) GDPR
4 34 (1.87%) GRC
5 29 (1.59%) Accessibility
6 24 (1.32%) PMO
7 19 (1.04%) NIST
8 15 (0.82%) ISO 20022
9 14 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 11 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.60%) IFRS
11 10 (0.55%) COBIT
11 10 (0.55%) SLA
12 8 (0.44%) SEPA
13 7 (0.38%) EMIR
13 7 (0.38%) MiFID
13 7 (0.38%) Solvency II
14 6 (0.33%) HL7
15 5 (0.27%) 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 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.16%) 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 (0.82%) HP ALM
3 11 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (0.55%) SCOM
5 9 (0.49%) Grafana
6 7 (0.38%) Ansible
6 7 (0.38%) HP Quality Center
7 5 (0.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.27%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.22%) Argo
8 4 (0.22%) Control-M
8 4 (0.22%) ITRS Geneos
9 3 (0.16%) SCCM
10 1 (0.055%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.055%) Istio
10 1 (0.055%) Network Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.055%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.055%) SnapMirror
10 1 (0.055%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 348 (19.13%) SAP
2 279 (15.34%) Oracle
3 262 (14.40%) Microsoft
4 113 (6.21%) Salesforce
5 81 (4.45%) ServiceNow
6 58 (3.19%) Workday
7 26 (1.43%) Ariba
8 21 (1.15%) Murex
9 20 (1.10%) MuleSoft
10 18 (0.99%) Databricks
11 17 (0.93%) CyberArk
11 17 (0.93%) UiPath
12 16 (0.88%) Bloomberg
12 16 (0.88%) HP
13 15 (0.82%) IBM
14 14 (0.77%) Kronos
15 13 (0.71%) Adobe
15 13 (0.71%) IFS
15 13 (0.71%) Informatica
16 12 (0.66%) Tagetik