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

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 128 113
Rank change year-on-year +53 -15 +37
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,451 636 877
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.08% 2.18% 2.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.63% 2.40% 2.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 899 419 588
10th Percentile £350 £341 £325
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £588
90th Percentile £700 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 10 10
10th Percentile £17.65 £20.83 £12.92
25th Percentile £25.29 £36.06 £14.85
Median hourly rate £33.43 £58.75 £36.25
Median % change year-on-year -43.10% +62.07% -42.00%
75th Percentile £68.63 £64.69 £78.25
90th Percentile £85.05 £86.15 £87.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.43 £58.75 £36.25
% change year-on-year -43.10% +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 39,921 26,554 37,629
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.61% 90.86% 86.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,152 17,143 24,256
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £483 £500
% change year-on-year +1.04% -3.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,393 1,068 2,439
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.81 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.07 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.95% -16.94% -6.17%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.24 £59.95
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.71 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.52% -23.29% +1.39%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +41 1,257 £500 - 251
London +28 685 £500 -4.76% 105
UK excluding London +59 600 £475 +5.56% 216
Work from Home +34 441 £525 +5.00% 109
South East +51 177 £500 +21.21% 71
North of England -16 142 £449 -10.03% 46
Midlands +13 138 £475 +2.70% 50
West Midlands +10 93 £475 -4.04% 31
North West -14 93 £430 -15.79% 25
South West +1 52 £469 +1.41% 13
East Midlands -7 44 £465 +9.41% 19
Scotland +26 41 £533 +21.23% 14
Yorkshire -25 38 £500 +5.82% 16
East of England -23 31 £550 +29.41% 11
Northern Ireland +9 14 £475 -8.65% 6
North East -8 11 £500 +49.25% 5
Wales -5 9 £488 +7.62% 8

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 97 (6.69%) Confluence
2 23 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 11 (0.76%) SAS
4 8 (0.55%) Appian
5 7 (0.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 6 (0.41%) Apache
7 5 (0.34%) CMS
8 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.21%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.14%) Camunda
9 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
9 2 (0.14%) JBoss
9 2 (0.14%) Jupyter
9 2 (0.14%) Mendix
9 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.069%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.069%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.069%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.069%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 59 (4.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (2.27%) MS Visio
3 31 (2.14%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
5 22 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.14%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.069%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 101 (6.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 47 (3.24%) Oracle Payables
3 44 (3.03%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 42 (2.89%) Oracle EBS
5 36 (2.48%) Oracle Receivables
6 33 (2.27%) Dynamics CRM
7 26 (1.79%) Oracle General Ledger
8 23 (1.59%) Oracle EBS R12
9 22 (1.52%) Oracle Assets
10 19 (1.31%) Oracle ERP
11 17 (1.17%) Oracle Cash Management
11 17 (1.17%) SAP FI
12 15 (1.03%) SAP CO
13 14 (0.96%) Loan IQ
14 13 (0.90%) iTrent
14 13 (0.90%) SAP FI/CO
15 11 (0.76%) Aladdin
16 10 (0.69%) Finacle
16 10 (0.69%) NEC Housing
16 10 (0.69%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 209 (14.40%) Azure
2 117 (8.06%) Power Platform
3 111 (7.65%) Azure DevOps
4 100 (6.89%) Dynamics 365
5 85 (5.86%) AWS
6 55 (3.79%) OCI
7 35 (2.41%) SaaS
7 35 (2.41%) SuccessFactors
8 33 (2.27%) Entra ID
9 31 (2.14%) GCP
9 31 (2.14%) Power Automate
10 25 (1.72%) GitHub
10 25 (1.72%) PowerApps
11 24 (1.65%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 20 (1.38%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 16 (1.10%) Microsoft 365
14 14 (0.96%) Serverless
15 13 (0.90%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (0.83%) OpenShift
17 10 (0.69%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.17%) Firewall
2 14 (0.96%) Network Security
3 8 (0.55%) SMS
4 6 (0.41%) LAN
4 6 (0.41%) VPN
5 5 (0.34%) BGP
5 5 (0.34%) FTP
5 5 (0.34%) MPLS
5 5 (0.34%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.34%) WAN
6 4 (0.28%) 5G
6 4 (0.28%) DHCP
6 4 (0.28%) DNS
7 3 (0.21%) Internet
7 3 (0.21%) IPsec
7 3 (0.21%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.21%) SSL
7 3 (0.21%) VLAN
8 2 (0.14%) SIGTRAN
8 2 (0.14%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (6.06%) Power BI
2 30 (2.07%) SQL Server
3 29 (2.00%) Oracle Reports
4 23 (1.59%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 23 (1.59%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.24%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.24%) Tableau
6 16 (1.10%) MySQL
7 13 (0.90%) Metadata
7 13 (0.90%) Oracle Database
8 9 (0.62%) RDBMS
9 8 (0.55%) Pinecone
9 8 (0.55%) SAP HANA
9 8 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 7 (0.48%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.41%) Data Lake
12 5 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
12 5 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 4 (0.28%) BigQuery
13 4 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 254 (17.51%) JIRA
2 39 (2.69%) Selenium
3 29 (2.00%) Postman
4 25 (1.72%) Git
5 19 (1.31%) Jenkins
5 19 (1.31%) TestRail
6 17 (1.17%) GitLab
7 15 (1.03%) Zephyr
8 10 (0.69%) Cucumber
8 10 (0.69%) JMeter
8 10 (0.69%) REST Assured
9 9 (0.62%) Oracle Forms
10 8 (0.55%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.55%) MLflow
11 7 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
12 6 (0.41%) Visual Studio
13 5 (0.34%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.34%) git-flow
13 5 (0.34%) SoapUI
14 4 (0.28%) Gatling
General
1 648 (44.66%) Finance
2 548 (37.77%) Social Skills
3 266 (18.33%) Analytical Skills
4 175 (12.06%) Banking
5 144 (9.92%) Public Sector
6 115 (7.93%) Documentation Skills
7 68 (4.69%) Manufacturing
8 65 (4.48%) Retail
9 48 (3.31%) Law
10 45 (3.10%) Investment Banking
11 44 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
12 42 (2.89%) Legal
13 41 (2.83%) Front Office
14 40 (2.76%) General Ledger
15 34 (2.34%) Marketing
16 33 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
17 26 (1.79%) Local Government
18 24 (1.65%) Back Office
19 22 (1.52%) Billing
20 16 (1.10%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 410 (28.26%) Analyst
2 306 (21.09%) Business Analyst
3 233 (16.06%) Lead
4 200 (13.78%) Consultant
5 101 (6.96%) Test Manager
6 99 (6.82%) Senior
7 78 (5.38%) Architect
7 78 (5.38%) Developer
8 61 (4.20%) Functional Consultant
8 61 (4.20%) Project Manager
9 60 (4.14%) Test Analyst
10 52 (3.58%) Test Leader
11 51 (3.51%) SAP Consultant
12 46 (3.17%) Oracle Consultant
13 38 (2.62%) Lead Architect
13 38 (2.62%) Senior Analyst
13 38 (2.62%) Tester
14 33 (2.27%) Functional Architect
15 26 (1.79%) Senior Business Analyst
15 26 (1.79%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (6.00%) REST
2 47 (3.24%) SOAP
3 45 (3.10%) Oracle Fusion
4 40 (2.76%) Middleware
5 25 (1.72%) XML
6 23 (1.59%) .NET
7 21 (1.45%) JSON
8 19 (1.31%) Web Services
9 17 (1.17%) Playwright
9 17 (1.17%) RESTful
10 16 (1.10%) ADO
10 16 (1.10%) SailPoint
10 16 (1.10%) Spring
11 15 (1.03%) OAuth
11 15 (1.03%) Spring Boot
12 13 (0.90%) Swagger
13 12 (0.83%) AngularJS
13 12 (0.83%) JWT
14 11 (0.76%) Pandas
14 11 (0.76%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 109 (7.51%) Product Ownership
2 95 (6.55%) Legacy Systems
3 67 (4.62%) Onboarding
4 41 (2.83%) Data Structures
5 39 (2.69%) Management Information System
6 32 (2.21%) Public Cloud
7 31 (2.14%) Derivative
8 30 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (1.52%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 22 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 21 (1.45%) Low-Code
11 20 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
12 19 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
13 18 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (1.10%) Cloud Native
14 16 (1.10%) Fixed Income
15 13 (0.90%) Credit Risk
16 12 (0.83%) CMDB
16 12 (0.83%) Reference Data
16 12 (0.83%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 33 (2.27%) Windows
2 17 (1.17%) Linux
3 4 (0.28%) VMS
3 4 (0.28%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.21%) Mac OS
4 3 (0.21%) Unix
5 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
5 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.069%) Android
6 1 (0.069%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.069%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.069%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 459 (31.63%) Agile
2 418 (28.81%) Stakeholder Management
3 411 (28.33%) Migration
4 316 (21.78%) Validation
5 302 (20.81%) System Integration Testing
6 284 (19.57%) Data Migration
7 256 (17.64%) ERP
8 251 (17.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 231 (15.92%) Problem-Solving
10 217 (14.96%) Workshop Facilitation
11 203 (13.99%) Requirements Gathering
12 197 (13.58%) Test Automation
13 196 (13.51%) DevOps
14 186 (12.82%) Scenario Testing
15 185 (12.75%) Continuous Improvement
16 180 (12.41%) Test Strategy
17 179 (12.34%) User Stories
18 156 (10.75%) Business Analysis
19 148 (10.20%) Defect Management
20 145 (9.99%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 195 (13.44%) SQL
2 74 (5.10%) Python
3 51 (3.51%) Java
4 36 (2.48%) JavaScript
5 24 (1.65%) C#
6 19 (1.31%) PL/SQL
7 17 (1.17%) PowerShell
7 17 (1.17%) TypeScript
8 11 (0.76%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.62%) ABAP
9 9 (0.62%) Bash
10 8 (0.55%) PHP
11 6 (0.41%) Korn
11 6 (0.41%) T-SQL
12 5 (0.34%) R
12 5 (0.34%) SOQL
12 5 (0.34%) SOSL
13 4 (0.28%) Perl
13 4 (0.28%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.21%) VB6
Qualifications
1 162 (11.16%) Security Cleared
2 123 (8.48%) SC Cleared
3 104 (7.17%) Degree
4 52 (3.58%) ISTQB
5 36 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (1.93%) PMI Certification
7 23 (1.59%) ACCA
7 23 (1.59%) CIMA
8 21 (1.45%) PMP
9 15 (1.03%) Master's Degree
10 13 (0.90%) Computer Science Degree
10 13 (0.90%) IIBA
11 9 (0.62%) CBAP
12 8 (0.55%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
13 7 (0.48%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.48%) DV Cleared
13 7 (0.48%) ISEB
14 6 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 263 (18.13%) QA
2 123 (8.48%) Data Quality
3 61 (4.20%) GDPR
4 24 (1.65%) Accessibility
5 22 (1.52%) IFRS
5 22 (1.52%) PMO
6 20 (1.38%) PSD2
6 20 (1.38%) SLA
7 19 (1.31%) ISO 20022
8 17 (1.17%) NIST
9 16 (1.10%) IFRS 17
10 15 (1.03%) GRC
11 12 (0.83%) SEPA
12 11 (0.76%) ISO 8583
13 10 (0.69%) MiFID
14 9 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 8 (0.55%) HL7
15 8 (0.55%) NCSC
15 8 (0.55%) PCI DSS
16 7 (0.48%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 28 (1.93%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.72%) Docker
3 13 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.21%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 3 (0.21%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.14%) Firmware
6 2 (0.14%) HDFS
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.069%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (0.069%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.069%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.069%) UAG
7 1 (0.069%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 29 (2.00%) Kubernetes
2 27 (1.86%) HP ALM
3 16 (1.10%) Terraform
4 15 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (0.41%) Grafana
6 5 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.28%) Ansible
7 4 (0.28%) Control-M
8 3 (0.21%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.14%) ITRS Geneos
9 2 (0.14%) Kibana
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.14%) SCCM
10 1 (0.069%) CASB
10 1 (0.069%) CEMLI
10 1 (0.069%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.069%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.069%) Network Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.069%) Rundeck
10 1 (0.069%) WSUS
Vendors
1 225 (15.51%) Oracle
2 207 (14.27%) SAP
3 181 (12.47%) Microsoft
4 103 (7.10%) ServiceNow
5 79 (5.44%) Salesforce
6 28 (1.93%) HP
7 21 (1.45%) Murex
7 21 (1.45%) Workday
8 19 (1.31%) IFS
9 14 (0.96%) Ariba
9 14 (0.96%) Blue Prism
10 13 (0.90%) Adobe
10 13 (0.90%) Infor
10 13 (0.90%) UiPath
11 12 (0.83%) Bloomberg
11 12 (0.83%) Cisco
11 12 (0.83%) Citrix
12 11 (0.76%) Splunk
13 10 (0.69%) NEC
13 10 (0.69%) Zscaler