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 6 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 136 119
Rank change year-on-year +54 -17 +33
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,355 612 858
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.00% 2.09% 1.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.51% 2.31% 2.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 849 403 572
10th Percentile £350 £335 £350
25th Percentile £413 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £700 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £500
% change year-on-year +4.97% -9.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 10 16
10th Percentile £21.65 £20.83 £13.55
25th Percentile £24.46 £36.06 £22.40
Median hourly rate £33.43 £58.75 £85.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.10% -30.88% +36.00%
75th Percentile £79.50 £64.69 £86.50
90th Percentile £84.25 £86.15 £92.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.38 £58.75 £36.25
% change year-on-year -51.70% +62.07% -42.00%

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 38,628 26,479 37,892
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.41% 90.55% 86.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,477 17,189 24,572
10th Percentile £314 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,295 988 2,354
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.00 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.00 £19.99 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.91 £31.58 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.71% -2.83% -13.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.73 £70.27
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.55 £30.00 £32.12
% change year-on-year +18.50% -6.59% -13.90%

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 6 April 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 6 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Acceptance Testing in the UK

User Acceptance Testing
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 User Acceptance Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 6 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 +37 1,181 £500 - 331
London +32 654 £500 -4.76% 144
UK excluding London +45 549 £475 +4.97% 229
Work from Home +44 408 £525 +5.00% 137
South East +29 158 £550 +18.92% 93
North of England -19 139 £450 -10.00% 43
Midlands +10 128 £475 -1.30% 42
North West -10 92 £425 -16.88% 25
West Midlands +11 87 £488 -4.41% 30
South West -5 40 £472 +5.47% 18
East Midlands -15 40 £450 +5.88% 12
Yorkshire -23 38 £500 +5.82% 17
Scotland +27 35 £522 +18.90% 10
East of England -14 33 £550 +37.50% 16
Northern Ireland +5 13 £475 +26.67% 5
North East -7 9 £500 +49.25% 1
Wales -6 8 £413 -9.93% 4

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 88 (6.49%) Confluence
2 25 (1.85%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.81%) SAS
4 8 (0.59%) Appian
5 6 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 6 (0.44%) Apache
5 6 (0.44%) CMS
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.15%) Camunda
7 2 (0.15%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.15%) JBoss
7 2 (0.15%) Mendix
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.074%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.074%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.074%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.074%) Jupyter
Applications
1 56 (4.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (2.36%) MS Visio
3 30 (2.21%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 21 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
6 5 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.074%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.074%) S-PLUS
8 1 (0.074%) Trello
Business Applications
1 82 (6.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 47 (3.47%) Oracle Payables
3 44 (3.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 40 (2.95%) Oracle EBS
5 38 (2.80%) Oracle Receivables
6 29 (2.14%) Dynamics CRM
7 28 (2.07%) Oracle General Ledger
8 24 (1.77%) Oracle Assets
9 21 (1.55%) Oracle EBS R12
10 18 (1.33%) Oracle Cash Management
11 17 (1.25%) Oracle ERP
12 15 (1.11%) SAP FI
13 13 (0.96%) iTrent
13 13 (0.96%) Loan IQ
13 13 (0.96%) Payment Gateway
13 13 (0.96%) SAP CO
14 11 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
15 10 (0.74%) NEC Housing
16 9 (0.66%) Aladdin
16 9 (0.66%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 195 (14.39%) Azure
2 116 (8.56%) Power Platform
3 97 (7.16%) Azure DevOps
4 92 (6.79%) Dynamics 365
5 82 (6.05%) AWS
6 51 (3.76%) OCI
7 33 (2.44%) SaaS
8 31 (2.29%) SuccessFactors
9 29 (2.14%) Entra ID
9 29 (2.14%) Power Automate
10 27 (1.99%) GCP
11 26 (1.92%) GitHub
12 22 (1.62%) PowerApps
13 21 (1.55%) Microsoft 365
14 19 (1.40%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 15 (1.11%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
16 13 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
16 13 (0.96%) Serverless
17 11 (0.81%) OpenShift
18 10 (0.74%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.03%) Firewall
1 14 (1.03%) Network Security
2 8 (0.59%) SMS
3 6 (0.44%) LAN
3 6 (0.44%) VPN
4 5 (0.37%) BGP
4 5 (0.37%) MPLS
4 5 (0.37%) SSL
5 4 (0.30%) 5G
5 4 (0.30%) DHCP
5 4 (0.30%) DNS
5 4 (0.30%) FTP
5 4 (0.30%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.30%) WAN
6 3 (0.22%) Internet
6 3 (0.22%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.15%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (0.15%) IPsec
7 2 (0.15%) NGFW
7 2 (0.15%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (6.49%) Power BI
2 29 (2.14%) SQL Server
3 26 (1.92%) Oracle Reports
4 21 (1.55%) Relational Database
4 21 (1.55%) Tableau
5 20 (1.48%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 18 (1.33%) Data Warehouse
7 17 (1.25%) MySQL
8 13 (0.96%) Metadata
9 11 (0.81%) SAP HANA
10 9 (0.66%) Oracle Database
11 8 (0.59%) Pinecone
11 8 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 7 (0.52%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.52%) Electronic Patient Records
13 6 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 5 (0.37%) Data Lake
14 5 (0.37%) RDBMS
15 4 (0.30%) Qlik Sense
15 4 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 235 (17.34%) JIRA
2 39 (2.88%) Selenium
3 30 (2.21%) Postman
4 25 (1.85%) Git
5 20 (1.48%) Jenkins
6 18 (1.33%) GitLab
6 18 (1.33%) TestRail
6 18 (1.33%) Zephyr
7 11 (0.81%) JMeter
7 11 (0.81%) REST Assured
8 10 (0.74%) Cucumber
9 9 (0.66%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.59%) MLflow
10 8 (0.59%) Oracle Forms
11 7 (0.52%) Team Foundation Server
12 5 (0.37%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.37%) git-flow
12 5 (0.37%) LoadRunner
12 5 (0.37%) SoapUI
12 5 (0.37%) Visual Studio
General
1 589 (43.47%) Finance
2 532 (39.26%) Social Skills
3 262 (19.34%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (12.32%) Banking
5 142 (10.48%) Public Sector
6 105 (7.75%) Documentation Skills
7 65 (4.80%) Manufacturing
8 51 (3.76%) Retail
9 50 (3.69%) Law
10 44 (3.25%) Investment Banking
11 40 (2.95%) Legal
11 40 (2.95%) Presentation Skills
12 38 (2.80%) Front Office
13 34 (2.51%) General Ledger
13 34 (2.51%) Marketing
14 30 (2.21%) Local Government
15 29 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
16 18 (1.33%) Back Office
17 16 (1.18%) Retail Banking
18 15 (1.11%) Billing
Job Titles
1 402 (29.67%) Analyst
2 302 (22.29%) Business Analyst
3 221 (16.31%) Lead
4 186 (13.73%) Consultant
5 91 (6.72%) Test Manager
6 85 (6.27%) Senior
7 77 (5.68%) Architect
8 73 (5.39%) Developer
9 66 (4.87%) Project Manager
10 60 (4.43%) Test Analyst
11 56 (4.13%) Functional Consultant
12 55 (4.06%) SAP Consultant
13 53 (3.91%) Test Leader
14 39 (2.88%) Lead Architect
15 37 (2.73%) Oracle Consultant
16 36 (2.66%) Tester
17 33 (2.44%) Functional Architect
17 33 (2.44%) Senior Analyst
18 25 (1.85%) Test Engineer
19 24 (1.77%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (5.83%) REST
2 45 (3.32%) Oracle Fusion
3 41 (3.03%) SOAP
4 34 (2.51%) Middleware
5 22 (1.62%) Web Services
6 20 (1.48%) XML
7 19 (1.40%) .NET
7 19 (1.40%) Playwright
8 18 (1.33%) RESTful
9 17 (1.25%) Spring
10 16 (1.18%) SailPoint
10 16 (1.18%) Spring Boot
11 15 (1.11%) JSON
11 15 (1.11%) OAuth
12 13 (0.96%) Swagger
13 12 (0.89%) ADO
13 12 (0.89%) CSS
13 12 (0.89%) JWT
14 11 (0.81%) HTML
14 11 (0.81%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 104 (7.68%) Product Ownership
2 85 (6.27%) Legacy Systems
3 59 (4.35%) Onboarding
4 36 (2.66%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.51%) Data Structures
6 28 (2.07%) Public Cloud
7 27 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 26 (1.92%) Derivative
9 22 (1.62%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 21 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
11 19 (1.40%) Low-Code
11 19 (1.40%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 16 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
13 15 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
14 14 (1.03%) Cloud Native
14 14 (1.03%) CMDB
14 14 (1.03%) Fixed Income
15 13 (0.96%) Credit Risk
15 13 (0.96%) PMI
16 12 (0.89%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 27 (1.99%) Windows
2 15 (1.11%) Linux
3 5 (0.37%) Windows 10
4 4 (0.30%) Mac OS
4 4 (0.30%) VMS
5 3 (0.22%) Unix
5 3 (0.22%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.15%) Android
6 2 (0.15%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.15%) OpenVMS
6 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 432 (31.88%) Agile
2 392 (28.93%) Stakeholder Management
3 358 (26.42%) Migration
4 270 (19.93%) Validation
5 263 (19.41%) System Integration Testing
6 253 (18.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 240 (17.71%) Data Migration
8 234 (17.27%) Problem-Solving
9 231 (17.05%) ERP
10 223 (16.46%) Workshop Facilitation
11 189 (13.95%) Requirements Gathering
12 182 (13.43%) Continuous Improvement
13 176 (12.99%) DevOps
13 176 (12.99%) Test Automation
14 170 (12.55%) Test Strategy
15 164 (12.10%) User Stories
16 162 (11.96%) Scenario Testing
17 159 (11.73%) Business Analysis
18 136 (10.04%) End-to-End Testing
19 129 (9.52%) Test Management
Programming Languages
1 195 (14.39%) SQL
2 72 (5.31%) Python
3 49 (3.62%) Java
4 33 (2.44%) JavaScript
5 20 (1.48%) C#
6 18 (1.33%) PL/SQL
7 17 (1.25%) TypeScript
8 15 (1.11%) PowerShell
9 12 (0.89%) ABAP
10 8 (0.59%) Bash
10 8 (0.59%) PHP
11 7 (0.52%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.37%) T-SQL
13 4 (0.30%) Korn
13 4 (0.30%) Perl
13 4 (0.30%) R
14 3 (0.22%) Cypher
14 3 (0.22%) Scala
14 3 (0.22%) SOQL
14 3 (0.22%) VB6
Qualifications
1 158 (11.66%) Security Cleared
2 117 (8.63%) SC Cleared
3 111 (8.19%) Degree
4 54 (3.99%) ISTQB
5 36 (2.66%) PMI Certification
6 35 (2.58%) BPSS Clearance
7 25 (1.85%) PMP
8 17 (1.25%) Master's Degree
9 14 (1.03%) ACCA
9 14 (1.03%) CIMA
10 13 (0.96%) CBAP
10 13 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
10 13 (0.96%) IIBA
11 10 (0.74%) DV Cleared
12 8 (0.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Certification
13 7 (0.52%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.52%) ISEB
14 6 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.44%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 253 (18.67%) QA
2 113 (8.34%) Data Quality
3 51 (3.76%) GDPR
4 24 (1.77%) PMO
4 24 (1.77%) PSD2
5 21 (1.55%) Accessibility
5 21 (1.55%) SLA
6 20 (1.48%) IFRS
7 18 (1.33%) ISO 20022
8 16 (1.18%) IFRS 17
9 15 (1.11%) ISO 8583
10 13 (0.96%) MiFID
10 13 (0.96%) NIST
10 13 (0.96%) SEPA
11 12 (0.89%) PCI DSS
12 9 (0.66%) GRC
12 9 (0.66%) NCSC
13 8 (0.59%) HL7
13 8 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 8 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 25 (1.85%) Docker
2 23 (1.70%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.22%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 3 (0.22%) ISA Server
4 3 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.15%) Firmware
5 2 (0.15%) HDFS
5 2 (0.15%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.074%) Citrix Presentation Server
6 1 (0.074%) UAG
6 1 (0.074%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 29 (2.14%) Kubernetes
2 27 (1.99%) HP ALM
3 17 (1.25%) Terraform
4 15 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (0.52%) Grafana
6 5 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.30%) Control-M
8 3 (0.22%) Ansible
8 3 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.15%) ITRS Geneos
9 2 (0.15%) Kibana
10 1 (0.074%) CASB
10 1 (0.074%) CEMLI
10 1 (0.074%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.074%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.074%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.074%) Rundeck
10 1 (0.074%) SCOM
10 1 (0.074%) WSUS
Vendors
1 211 (15.57%) Oracle
2 186 (13.73%) SAP
3 165 (12.18%) Microsoft
4 99 (7.31%) ServiceNow
5 71 (5.24%) Salesforce
6 28 (2.07%) HP
7 21 (1.55%) Murex
8 19 (1.40%) Workday
9 15 (1.11%) Ariba
9 15 (1.11%) IFS
10 13 (0.96%) UiPath
11 12 (0.89%) Adobe
11 12 (0.89%) Citrix
12 11 (0.81%) Bloomberg
12 11 (0.81%) Cisco
12 11 (0.81%) Splunk
13 10 (0.74%) Infor
13 10 (0.74%) NEC
13 10 (0.74%) Zscaler
14 9 (0.66%) IBM