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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 94 131
Rank change year-on-year +21 +37 -26
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,859 944 706
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.39% 2.86% 1.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.01% 3.15% 2.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,105 642 467
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £415 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £601 £600 £630
90th Percentile £715 £700 £728
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £454 £475
% change year-on-year +4.68% -4.47% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 14 3
10th Percentile £17.77 £20.02 £39.50
25th Percentile £22.90 £30.10 £46.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £39.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.15% -34.59% +20.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £59.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £62.63 £64.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.97 £32.36 £47.50
% change year-on-year +79.17% -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 46,382 29,970 32,481
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.48% 90.66% 85.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,008 18,622 19,630
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 £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £733 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,245 1,858 1,349
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.32 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.07% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.64 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.01% -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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 +19 1,570 £513 +2.50% 1,020
London +27 876 £526 +0.19% 519
UK excluding London +21 730 £475 +4.68% 568
Work from Home +15 601 £500 - 398
North of England -13 175 £460 -5.35% 129
Midlands +36 173 £475 +9.20% 92
South East +4 171 £490 -0.41% 150
West Midlands +37 123 £475 - 62
North West -17 107 £475 +4.51% 73
South West +10 78 £500 +17.65% 59
Scotland +14 63 £450 +12.50% 58
Yorkshire -19 50 £430 -18.14% 37
East Midlands +12 46 £467 +12.41% 30
East of England -21 37 £538 +7.50% 56
Wales -2 23 £488 +35.42% 17
North East -20 18 £375 - 19
Northern Ireland +4 14 £450 -12.20% 16
Channel Islands - 1 £550 - 1

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
1 133 (7.15%) Confluence
2 58 (3.12%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.70%) CMS
4 9 (0.48%) Camunda
5 6 (0.32%) SAS
5 6 (0.32%) 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%) CICS
9 2 (0.11%) IIS
9 2 (0.11%) OpenROAD
9 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
Applications
1 92 (4.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
3 45 (2.42%) MS Visio
4 23 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
7 7 (0.38%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.054%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.054%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.054%) Adobe Premiere
8 1 (0.054%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.054%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.054%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.054%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 192 (10.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 48 (2.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 39 (2.10%) Oracle EBS
4 32 (1.72%) SAP Payroll
5 29 (1.56%) Oracle Payables
6 27 (1.45%) SAP GRC
6 27 (1.45%) Workday HCM
7 22 (1.18%) Oracle Payroll
7 22 (1.18%) SAP HCM
8 19 (1.02%) Oracle Receivables
8 19 (1.02%) SAP FI
9 18 (0.97%) SAP SD
10 16 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
11 15 (0.81%) Aladdin
11 15 (0.81%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 14 (0.75%) Oracle ERP
12 14 (0.75%) SAP CO
12 14 (0.75%) SAP MM
12 14 (0.75%) SAP PM
13 13 (0.70%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 328 (17.64%) Azure
2 195 (10.49%) Azure DevOps
3 166 (8.93%) Power Platform
4 107 (5.76%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (4.79%) AWS
6 63 (3.39%) OCI
7 61 (3.28%) SuccessFactors
8 39 (2.10%) SaaS
9 36 (1.94%) GCP
10 35 (1.88%) Power Automate
11 34 (1.83%) GitHub
12 31 (1.67%) Snowflake
13 28 (1.51%) Microsoft 365
13 28 (1.51%) PowerApps
14 26 (1.40%) Entra ID
15 25 (1.34%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 21 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
16 21 (1.13%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
17 19 (1.02%) Boomi
18 18 (0.97%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 16 (0.86%) SSL
2 10 (0.54%) WAN
3 9 (0.48%) Firewall
4 7 (0.38%) DNS
5 6 (0.32%) 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
1 120 (6.46%) Power BI
2 68 (3.66%) SQL Server
3 50 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.72%) Relational Database
5 30 (1.61%) Oracle Database
6 28 (1.51%) Oracle Reports
7 21 (1.13%) Data Lake
7 21 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
8 19 (1.02%) Metadata
8 19 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 17 (0.91%) RDBMS
9 17 (0.91%) SAP HANA
10 15 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 15 (0.81%) Tableau
11 12 (0.65%) Ingres
12 10 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (0.54%) MySQL
13 9 (0.48%) SAP BW
14 8 (0.43%) Big Data
15 7 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 309 (16.62%) JIRA
2 51 (2.74%) Git
3 38 (2.04%) Selenium
4 32 (1.72%) Jenkins
5 29 (1.56%) Postman
6 26 (1.40%) REST Assured
7 22 (1.18%) Zephyr
8 21 (1.13%) GitLab
9 17 (0.91%) Cypress.io
10 13 (0.70%) Cucumber
11 11 (0.59%) JUnit
11 11 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
12 10 (0.54%) Maven
13 9 (0.48%) Bitbucket Server
13 9 (0.48%) Gradle
13 9 (0.48%) Mockito
13 9 (0.48%) SonarQube
13 9 (0.48%) Team Foundation Server
14 8 (0.43%) Gatling
14 8 (0.43%) TestRail
General
1 763 (41.04%) Finance
2 715 (38.46%) Social Skills
3 338 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
4 220 (11.83%) Banking
5 178 (9.58%) Public Sector
6 115 (6.19%) Documentation Skills
7 103 (5.54%) Retail
8 74 (3.98%) Manufacturing
9 67 (3.60%) Legal
10 59 (3.17%) Front Office
11 57 (3.07%) General Ledger
12 49 (2.64%) Billing
13 45 (2.42%) Organisational Skills
14 40 (2.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 36 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
15 36 (1.94%) Investment Banking
16 33 (1.78%) Back Office
17 32 (1.72%) Local Government
18 30 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
19 25 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 517 (27.81%) Analyst
2 399 (21.46%) Business Analyst
3 299 (16.08%) Consultant
4 221 (11.89%) Lead
5 134 (7.21%) Senior
6 104 (5.59%) Developer
7 102 (5.49%) Test Manager
8 84 (4.52%) Functional Consultant
8 84 (4.52%) SAP Consultant
9 67 (3.60%) Oracle Consultant
9 67 (3.60%) Test Leader
10 61 (3.28%) Project Manager
11 57 (3.07%) Test Analyst
12 51 (2.74%) Tester
13 49 (2.64%) Architect
14 47 (2.53%) Senior Analyst
15 45 (2.42%) Financial Analyst
16 43 (2.31%) Finance Business Analyst
17 40 (2.15%) Senior Business Analyst
17 40 (2.15%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (5.00%) Oracle Fusion
2 87 (4.68%) REST
3 82 (4.41%) Middleware
4 52 (2.80%) SOAP
5 46 (2.47%) JSON
6 42 (2.26%) XML
7 39 (2.10%) SAP Fiori
8 35 (1.88%) .NET
9 34 (1.83%) Web Services
10 30 (1.61%) Terraform
11 29 (1.56%) Playwright
12 19 (1.02%) React
13 18 (0.97%) ADO
14 17 (0.91%) Kafka
15 15 (0.81%) HTML
16 13 (0.70%) ARM Templates
16 13 (0.70%) CSS
16 13 (0.70%) EDI
16 13 (0.70%) OAuth
16 13 (0.70%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 148 (7.96%) Product Ownership
2 98 (5.27%) Onboarding
3 85 (4.57%) Legacy Systems
4 64 (3.44%) Data Structures
5 63 (3.39%) Enterprise Software
6 56 (3.01%) Management Information System
7 36 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
8 34 (1.83%) Derivative
9 32 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
10 30 (1.61%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 23 (1.24%) Low-Code
12 22 (1.18%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 22 (1.18%) Greenfield Project
12 22 (1.18%) Replication
13 20 (1.08%) Fixed Income
13 20 (1.08%) FMCG
13 20 (1.08%) Virtual Team
14 19 (1.02%) SCADA
15 18 (0.97%) CMDB
15 18 (0.97%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 68 (3.66%) Windows
2 30 (1.61%) Linux
3 17 (0.91%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.75%) 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
8 2 (0.11%) zOS
9 1 (0.054%) Android
9 1 (0.054%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.054%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.054%) Solaris
9 1 (0.054%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 743 (39.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 583 (31.36%) Agile
3 528 (28.40%) Migration
4 522 (28.08%) System Integration Testing
5 509 (27.38%) Validation
6 369 (19.85%) Data Migration
7 364 (19.58%) Requirements Gathering
8 354 (19.04%) Problem-Solving
9 301 (16.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 299 (16.08%) User Stories
11 287 (15.44%) Workshop Facilitation
12 281 (15.12%) ERP
13 277 (14.90%) DevOps
14 275 (14.79%) Defect Management
15 258 (13.88%) Continuous Improvement
16 242 (13.02%) Acceptance Criteria
16 242 (13.02%) Business Analysis
17 240 (12.91%) Integration Testing
18 220 (11.83%) Scenario Testing
19 206 (11.08%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 313 (16.84%) SQL
2 65 (3.50%) Python
3 54 (2.90%) JavaScript
4 50 (2.69%) Java
5 45 (2.42%) C#
6 43 (2.31%) ABAP
7 35 (1.88%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.08%) Bash
9 19 (1.02%) T-SQL
10 15 (0.81%) PL/SQL
11 13 (0.70%) Bicep
12 12 (0.65%) Apex Code
12 12 (0.65%) TypeScript
12 12 (0.65%) VB
13 9 (0.48%) C
13 9 (0.48%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.48%) VB6
14 7 (0.38%) Korn
14 7 (0.38%) VBA
15 5 (0.27%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 262 (14.09%) Security Cleared
2 206 (11.08%) SC Cleared
3 164 (8.82%) Degree
4 52 (2.80%) ACCA
5 47 (2.53%) CIMA
6 45 (2.42%) ISTQB
7 37 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.34%) PMI Certification
9 22 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
10 21 (1.13%) DV Cleared
10 21 (1.13%) Microsoft Certification
10 21 (1.13%) PMP
11 17 (0.91%) Azure Certification
11 17 (0.91%) CBAP
12 14 (0.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 14 (0.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 13 (0.70%) IIBA
14 11 (0.59%) Master's Degree
15 10 (0.54%) FFIEC
15 10 (0.54%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 275 (14.79%) QA
2 185 (9.95%) Data Quality
3 43 (2.31%) GDPR
4 39 (2.10%) GRC
5 30 (1.61%) Accessibility
6 27 (1.45%) PMO
7 21 (1.13%) NIST
8 16 (0.86%) ISO 20022
9 14 (0.75%) IFRS
10 13 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
10 13 (0.70%) COBIT
10 13 (0.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 9 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 9 (0.48%) SLA
12 8 (0.43%) SEPA
13 7 (0.38%) EMIR
13 7 (0.38%) MiFID
13 7 (0.38%) Solvency II
14 6 (0.32%) GAAP
15 4 (0.22%) HL7
System Software
1 34 (1.83%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.24%) Docker
3 12 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.054%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.054%) NFS
7 1 (0.054%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.054%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.054%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.054%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 27 (1.45%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.81%) HP ALM
3 12 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (0.54%) SCOM
5 8 (0.43%) Ansible
5 8 (0.43%) Grafana
6 7 (0.38%) HP Quality Center
7 6 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.27%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.22%) Argo
10 3 (0.16%) ITRS Geneos
10 3 (0.16%) SCCM
11 2 (0.11%) Control-M
12 1 (0.054%) Data Guard
12 1 (0.054%) Iperf
12 1 (0.054%) Istio
12 1 (0.054%) Network Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.054%) Oracle RMAN
12 1 (0.054%) SnapMirror
12 1 (0.054%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 363 (19.53%) SAP
2 283 (15.22%) Oracle
3 278 (14.95%) Microsoft
4 104 (5.59%) Salesforce
5 83 (4.46%) ServiceNow
6 63 (3.39%) Workday
7 27 (1.45%) Ariba
8 21 (1.13%) Databricks
9 19 (1.02%) MuleSoft
9 19 (1.02%) Murex
9 19 (1.02%) UiPath
10 16 (0.86%) CyberArk
10 16 (0.86%) HP
10 16 (0.86%) IBM
11 15 (0.81%) Bloomberg
12 14 (0.75%) Informatica
13 13 (0.70%) Kronos
14 12 (0.65%) IFS
14 12 (0.65%) Tagetik
15 11 (0.59%) Blue Prism