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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 89 112
Rank change year-on-year +18 +23 +23
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,662 835 849
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.23% 2.72% 1.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.81% 2.99% 2.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,009 560 572
10th Percentile £350 £350 £323
25th Percentile £413 £404 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £618
90th Percentile £713 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £468 £455 £488
% change year-on-year +2.75% -6.67% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 15 5
10th Percentile £15.88 £30.10 £24.12
25th Percentile £18.00 £31.86 £35.00
Median hourly rate £36.71 £52.50 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.08% +9.38% +101.22%
75th Percentile £63.75 £63.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.70 £65.00 £64.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.30 £52.15 £48.00
% change year-on-year -47.65% +8.65% +101.22%

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 43,674 27,949 36,811
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.97% 90.88% 85.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,163 17,650 23,450
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £414 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.79% -4.57% -4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,623 1,373 2,554
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.74
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.61 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +3.81%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.86 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.25 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £25.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +75.84% -34.42% +8.91%

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 July 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 July 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 1 July 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 1,408 £500 - 374
London +16 801 £525 - 189
UK excluding London +28 671 £468 +2.75% 241
Work from Home +11 524 £500 - 212
South East +26 173 £455 +4.00% 79
Midlands +33 162 £475 +5.56% 46
North of England -32 141 £455 -4.21% 61
West Midlands +28 108 £474 +5.33% 27
North West -26 93 £460 -1.92% 39
South West +6 66 £475 +4.11% 19
Scotland +36 63 £425 - 10
East Midlands +13 52 £465 +9.41% 19
Yorkshire -28 35 £450 -12.20% 19
East of England -17 28 £550 +29.41% 15
Northern Ireland +8 21 £475 -9.52% 8
Wales -2 21 £500 +10.38% 8
North East -21 13 £365 +8.96% 3

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
1 115 (6.92%) Confluence
2 36 (2.17%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.48%) SAS
4 7 (0.42%) Appian
5 6 (0.36%) Tuxedo
6 5 (0.30%) CMS
6 5 (0.30%) JBoss
7 4 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 4 (0.24%) Apache
8 3 (0.18%) Camunda
8 3 (0.18%) Kentico
8 3 (0.18%) Mendix
9 2 (0.12%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.12%) Jupyter
9 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.060%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.060%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.060%) IIS
10 1 (0.060%) Smallworld
Applications
1 64 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 45 (2.71%) MS Visio
3 37 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
4 27 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
5 19 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.060%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 131 (7.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (1.99%) Dynamics CRM
2 33 (1.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 31 (1.87%) Oracle Payables
4 29 (1.74%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (1.26%) Oracle Receivables
6 19 (1.14%) SAP Payroll
7 18 (1.08%) Oracle ERP
7 18 (1.08%) SAP GRC
8 14 (0.84%) Finacle
8 14 (0.84%) Oracle EBS R12
8 14 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
8 14 (0.84%) SAP HCM
9 12 (0.72%) Oracle General Ledger
9 12 (0.72%) SAP FI
10 11 (0.66%) Aladdin
10 11 (0.66%) Loan IQ
10 11 (0.66%) SAP PM
11 9 (0.54%) SAP CO
11 9 (0.54%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 247 (14.86%) Azure
2 144 (8.66%) Azure DevOps
3 128 (7.70%) Power Platform
4 97 (5.84%) Dynamics 365
5 86 (5.17%) AWS
6 50 (3.01%) SuccessFactors
7 47 (2.83%) OCI
8 38 (2.29%) SaaS
9 36 (2.17%) GitHub
10 30 (1.81%) Entra ID
11 27 (1.62%) Power Automate
11 27 (1.62%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 25 (1.50%) GCP
13 20 (1.20%) Microsoft 365
14 19 (1.14%) Boomi
14 19 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 18 (1.08%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
15 18 (1.08%) Snowflake
16 14 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
17 12 (0.72%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.08%) Firewall
2 14 (0.84%) Network Security
3 9 (0.54%) WAN
4 8 (0.48%) SSL
5 7 (0.42%) DNS
6 6 (0.36%) LAN
6 6 (0.36%) TCP/IP
6 6 (0.36%) VPN
7 5 (0.30%) FTP
8 4 (0.24%) 5G
8 4 (0.24%) BGP
8 4 (0.24%) DHCP
8 4 (0.24%) Internet
8 4 (0.24%) Intrusion Detection
8 4 (0.24%) MPLS
8 4 (0.24%) SMS
9 3 (0.18%) IPsec
9 3 (0.18%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.18%) VLAN
9 3 (0.18%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (6.26%) Power BI
2 42 (2.53%) SQL Server
3 37 (2.23%) Relational Database
4 24 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
5 23 (1.38%) Data Warehouse
6 21 (1.26%) Oracle Database
6 21 (1.26%) RDBMS
7 16 (0.96%) PostgreSQL
8 15 (0.90%) Tableau
9 14 (0.84%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 13 (0.78%) Data Lake
10 13 (0.78%) Ingres
10 13 (0.78%) Metadata
11 11 (0.66%) MySQL
12 10 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (0.60%) SAP HANA
12 10 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 7 (0.42%) Big Data
14 6 (0.36%) Neo4j
14 6 (0.36%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 287 (17.27%) JIRA
2 36 (2.17%) Selenium
3 34 (2.05%) Postman
4 33 (1.99%) Git
5 26 (1.56%) Jenkins
6 18 (1.08%) REST Assured
6 18 (1.08%) Zephyr
7 17 (1.02%) Cypress.io
8 15 (0.90%) Team Foundation Server
9 14 (0.84%) GitLab
10 13 (0.78%) Cucumber
10 13 (0.78%) Oracle Forms
11 12 (0.72%) TestRail
12 10 (0.60%) Bitbucket
12 10 (0.60%) Gatling
12 10 (0.60%) JMeter
13 7 (0.42%) WebDriver
14 6 (0.36%) MLflow
14 6 (0.36%) Visual Studio
15 5 (0.30%) LoadRunner
General
1 741 (44.58%) Finance
2 598 (35.98%) Social Skills
3 286 (17.21%) Analytical Skills
4 195 (11.73%) Banking
5 172 (10.35%) Public Sector
6 125 (7.52%) Documentation Skills
7 87 (5.23%) Retail
8 62 (3.73%) Legal
9 59 (3.55%) Manufacturing
10 53 (3.19%) Front Office
11 50 (3.01%) Investment Banking
12 47 (2.83%) Law
13 45 (2.71%) Organisational Skills
14 44 (2.65%) General Ledger
15 34 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
16 33 (1.99%) Local Government
17 32 (1.93%) Back Office
18 30 (1.81%) Billing
19 27 (1.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 25 (1.50%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 465 (27.98%) Analyst
2 346 (20.82%) Business Analyst
3 235 (14.14%) Lead
4 218 (13.12%) Consultant
5 126 (7.58%) Senior
6 90 (5.42%) Test Manager
7 85 (5.11%) Developer
8 79 (4.75%) Architect
9 65 (3.91%) Test Analyst
10 61 (3.67%) Functional Consultant
11 60 (3.61%) SAP Consultant
12 58 (3.49%) Test Leader
13 55 (3.31%) Project Manager
14 47 (2.83%) Oracle Consultant
15 42 (2.53%) Senior Analyst
16 40 (2.41%) Tester
17 39 (2.35%) Test Engineer
18 34 (2.05%) Lead Architect
19 32 (1.93%) Data Analyst
19 32 (1.93%) Senior Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (5.29%) REST
2 64 (3.85%) Middleware
3 54 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
4 52 (3.13%) SOAP
5 35 (2.11%) JSON
6 34 (2.05%) XML
7 27 (1.62%) Playwright
8 24 (1.44%) SAP Fiori
9 22 (1.32%) ADO
10 19 (1.14%) .NET
11 13 (0.78%) React
11 13 (0.78%) SailPoint
11 13 (0.78%) Web Services
12 11 (0.66%) AngularJS
12 11 (0.66%) OAuth
13 10 (0.60%) Swagger
14 9 (0.54%) Lightning Web Components
14 9 (0.54%) Microsoft Graph
14 9 (0.54%) Pandas
14 9 (0.54%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 117 (7.04%) Product Ownership
2 99 (5.96%) Legacy Systems
3 72 (4.33%) Onboarding
4 45 (2.71%) Management Information System
5 43 (2.59%) Data Structures
6 42 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
7 35 (2.11%) Derivative
7 35 (2.11%) Public Cloud
7 35 (2.11%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 30 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
8 30 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.56%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 23 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
11 21 (1.26%) CMDB
11 21 (1.26%) Low-Code
12 19 (1.14%) Cloud Native
12 19 (1.14%) Virtual Team
13 18 (1.08%) Reinsurance
14 15 (0.90%) Fixed Income
14 15 (0.90%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 56 (3.37%) Windows
2 28 (1.68%) Linux
3 11 (0.66%) Windows Server
4 10 (0.60%) Unix
5 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.060%) Android
7 1 (0.060%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.060%) Solaris
7 1 (0.060%) VMS
7 1 (0.060%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.060%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 513 (30.87%) Agile
2 506 (30.45%) Stakeholder Management
3 465 (27.98%) Migration
4 424 (25.51%) Validation
5 412 (24.79%) System Integration Testing
6 346 (20.82%) Data Migration
7 289 (17.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 283 (17.03%) ERP
9 279 (16.79%) Problem-Solving
10 243 (14.62%) Requirements Gathering
11 224 (13.48%) User Stories
12 223 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
13 222 (13.36%) Workshop Facilitation
14 220 (13.24%) DevOps
15 215 (12.94%) Test Automation
16 195 (11.73%) Scenario Testing
17 192 (11.55%) Defect Management
18 185 (11.13%) Acceptance Criteria
19 182 (10.95%) Test Strategy
20 178 (10.71%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 247 (14.86%) SQL
2 73 (4.39%) Python
3 51 (3.07%) Java
4 41 (2.47%) JavaScript
5 26 (1.56%) C#
6 24 (1.44%) ABAP
7 22 (1.32%) PowerShell
8 19 (1.14%) PL/SQL
9 18 (1.08%) TypeScript
10 17 (1.02%) Apex Code
11 12 (0.72%) Bash
11 12 (0.72%) VB
12 9 (0.54%) C
12 9 (0.54%) VB6
13 8 (0.48%) Korn
13 8 (0.48%) T-SQL
14 7 (0.42%) R
15 6 (0.36%) Cypher
15 6 (0.36%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.36%) VBA
Qualifications
1 201 (12.09%) Security Cleared
2 157 (9.45%) SC Cleared
3 114 (6.86%) Degree
4 53 (3.19%) ISTQB
5 40 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 33 (1.99%) ACCA
7 28 (1.68%) CIMA
8 23 (1.38%) PMI Certification
9 16 (0.96%) PMP
10 15 (0.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 15 (0.90%) Master's Degree
11 12 (0.72%) Azure Certification
11 12 (0.72%) CBAP
11 12 (0.72%) IIBA
12 11 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
12 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (0.60%) DV Cleared
14 7 (0.42%) ISEB
15 5 (0.30%) CISSP
15 5 (0.30%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (16.00%) QA
2 135 (8.12%) Data Quality
3 56 (3.37%) GDPR
4 29 (1.74%) Accessibility
5 28 (1.68%) GRC
6 24 (1.44%) SLA
7 21 (1.26%) ISO 20022
8 20 (1.20%) NIST
9 19 (1.14%) IFRS
10 17 (1.02%) PMO
11 15 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.84%) PSD2
13 11 (0.66%) IFRS 17
13 11 (0.66%) SEPA
14 9 (0.54%) HL7
14 9 (0.54%) MiFID
15 8 (0.48%) EMIR
15 8 (0.48%) ISO 8583
15 8 (0.48%) Solvency II
16 7 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 37 (2.23%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.56%) Docker
3 8 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.18%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 3 (0.18%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (0.12%) Firmware
6 2 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.060%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (0.060%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.060%) NFS
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.060%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 28 (1.68%) Kubernetes
2 26 (1.56%) HP ALM
3 16 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
4 11 (0.66%) Terraform
5 10 (0.60%) Grafana
6 7 (0.42%) HP Quality Center
7 5 (0.30%) Control-M
7 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.24%) ITRS Geneos
8 4 (0.24%) SCOM
9 3 (0.18%) SCCM
10 2 (0.12%) Ansible
10 2 (0.12%) Argo
10 2 (0.12%) Kibana
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (0.12%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.060%) CASB
11 1 (0.060%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.060%) Network Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.060%) WSUS
Vendors
1 281 (16.91%) SAP
2 241 (14.50%) Oracle
3 206 (12.39%) Microsoft
4 102 (6.14%) Salesforce
5 97 (5.84%) ServiceNow
6 36 (2.17%) Workday
7 28 (1.68%) HP
8 24 (1.44%) Murex
9 21 (1.26%) Ariba
10 20 (1.20%) IFS
11 17 (1.02%) Blue Prism
12 16 (0.96%) Cisco
12 16 (0.96%) MuleSoft
13 15 (0.90%) Bloomberg
13 15 (0.90%) Infor
14 14 (0.84%) CyberArk
14 14 (0.84%) Kronos
15 13 (0.78%) Adobe
15 13 (0.78%) Zscaler
16 11 (0.66%) Tagetik