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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 103 112
Rank change year-on-year +33 +9 +24
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,621 758 860
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.22% 2.55% 1.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.79% 2.80% 2.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 987 504 582
10th Percentile £350 £350 £323
25th Percentile £413 £404 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £502
Median % change year-on-year - -0.40% -4.38%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £600
90th Percentile £713 £700 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +5.11% -5.26% -2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 12 7
10th Percentile £15.57 £31.55 £15.28
25th Percentile £18.00 £47.56 £25.93
Median hourly rate £36.71 £57.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.60% +18.75% -23.20%
75th Percentile £73.50 £64.06 £58.00
90th Percentile £85.85 £65.00 £63.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.01 £55.00 £48.00
% change year-on-year -41.81% +14.58% -1.03%

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 42,754 27,087 37,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.83% 91.00% 85.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,630 17,192 23,755
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.46% -3.79% -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £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 2,570 1,249 2,608
10th Percentile £14.80 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.02 £17.87 £16.02
Median hourly rate £43.96 £26.21 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +67.72% -29.51% +6.14%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.25 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.32 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +17.29%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 +25 1,372 £500 - 281
London +22 778 £525 -0.47% 141
UK excluding London +43 652 £473 +5.11% 214
Work from Home +25 522 £500 - 162
South East +33 173 £460 +5.14% 76
Midlands +33 161 £475 +5.56% 30
North of England -25 133 £450 -1.32% 46
West Midlands +32 108 £475 +5.56% 17
North West -19 88 £458 +0.55% 24
South West +14 65 £475 +8.57% 20
Scotland +26 56 £500 +17.65% 4
East Midlands +6 51 £455 +7.06% 13
Yorkshire -38 34 £450 -12.20% 21
East of England -23 28 £563 +32.35% 9
Wales -1 21 £500 +10.74% 7
Northern Ireland +5 19 £475 -9.52% 28
North East -27 11 £365 +8.96% 7

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
1 108 (6.66%) Confluence
2 29 (1.79%) SharePoint
3 12 (0.74%) SAS
4 9 (0.56%) Appian
5 6 (0.37%) Tuxedo
6 4 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.25%) Apache
6 4 (0.25%) CMS
7 3 (0.19%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.19%) Camunda
7 3 (0.19%) Kentico
7 3 (0.19%) Mendix
8 2 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
8 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.12%) JBoss
8 2 (0.12%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.062%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.062%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 62 (3.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (2.28%) MS Visio
3 34 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
4 28 (1.73%) Microsoft Project
5 19 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 7 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.062%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 131 (8.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (2.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 35 (2.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 31 (1.91%) Oracle Payables
4 26 (1.60%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (1.30%) Oracle Receivables
6 18 (1.11%) Oracle ERP
6 18 (1.11%) SAP GRC
7 15 (0.93%) SAP FI
8 14 (0.86%) Oracle EBS R12
8 14 (0.86%) Payment Gateway
8 14 (0.86%) SAP Payroll
9 13 (0.80%) Aladdin
9 13 (0.80%) Finacle
9 13 (0.80%) SAP CO
10 12 (0.74%) SAP FI/CO
11 11 (0.68%) Oracle General Ledger
11 11 (0.68%) SAP HCM
12 10 (0.62%) Loan IQ
12 10 (0.62%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 227 (14.00%) Azure
2 127 (7.83%) Azure DevOps
3 123 (7.59%) Power Platform
4 97 (5.98%) Dynamics 365
5 87 (5.37%) AWS
6 49 (3.02%) OCI
6 49 (3.02%) SuccessFactors
7 34 (2.10%) GitHub
7 34 (2.10%) SaaS
8 30 (1.85%) Entra ID
9 28 (1.73%) Power Automate
10 27 (1.67%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 21 (1.30%) GCP
12 19 (1.17%) Boomi
12 19 (1.17%) Microsoft 365
12 19 (1.17%) PowerApps
12 19 (1.17%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 13 (0.80%) Snowflake
14 12 (0.74%) Azure Data Factory
15 11 (0.68%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.11%) Firewall
2 14 (0.86%) Network Security
3 9 (0.56%) WAN
4 7 (0.43%) DNS
5 6 (0.37%) LAN
5 6 (0.37%) SMS
5 6 (0.37%) TCP/IP
5 6 (0.37%) VPN
6 5 (0.31%) BGP
6 5 (0.31%) FTP
6 5 (0.31%) MPLS
7 4 (0.25%) 5G
7 4 (0.25%) DHCP
7 4 (0.25%) Internet
7 4 (0.25%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (0.25%) SSL
8 3 (0.19%) IPsec
8 3 (0.19%) SD-WAN
8 3 (0.19%) VLAN
8 3 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 97 (5.98%) Power BI
2 36 (2.22%) SQL Server
3 32 (1.97%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.60%) Oracle Reports
5 22 (1.36%) Data Warehouse
6 18 (1.11%) RDBMS
7 17 (1.05%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.99%) Tableau
9 15 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
10 14 (0.86%) Metadata
10 14 (0.86%) Oracle Database
11 13 (0.80%) Ingres
12 10 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
13 9 (0.56%) Data Lake
14 8 (0.49%) Pinecone
14 8 (0.49%) SAP HANA
15 7 (0.43%) MySQL
16 6 (0.37%) Big Data
17 5 (0.31%) Neo4j
17 5 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 277 (17.09%) JIRA
2 33 (2.04%) Selenium
3 30 (1.85%) Postman
4 28 (1.73%) Git
5 20 (1.23%) Jenkins
6 17 (1.05%) Zephyr
7 16 (0.99%) REST Assured
8 15 (0.93%) Cypress.io
8 15 (0.93%) Team Foundation Server
9 13 (0.80%) Oracle Forms
9 13 (0.80%) TestRail
10 12 (0.74%) GitLab
11 11 (0.68%) Cucumber
12 9 (0.56%) Gatling
12 9 (0.56%) JMeter
13 8 (0.49%) MLflow
14 7 (0.43%) Bitbucket
15 5 (0.31%) git-flow
15 5 (0.31%) Visual Studio
15 5 (0.31%) WebDriver
General
1 726 (44.79%) Finance
2 579 (35.72%) Social Skills
3 282 (17.40%) Analytical Skills
4 181 (11.17%) Banking
5 169 (10.43%) Public Sector
6 132 (8.14%) Documentation Skills
7 84 (5.18%) Retail
8 61 (3.76%) Manufacturing
9 58 (3.58%) Legal
10 48 (2.96%) Front Office
10 48 (2.96%) Investment Banking
10 48 (2.96%) Law
11 40 (2.47%) General Ledger
12 39 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
13 35 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
14 33 (2.04%) Local Government
15 30 (1.85%) Marketing
16 28 (1.73%) Back Office
17 27 (1.67%) Billing
18 25 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 457 (28.19%) Analyst
2 341 (21.04%) Business Analyst
3 229 (14.13%) Lead
4 215 (13.26%) Consultant
5 127 (7.83%) Senior
6 95 (5.86%) Test Manager
7 81 (5.00%) Developer
8 77 (4.75%) Architect
9 62 (3.82%) SAP Consultant
9 62 (3.82%) Test Analyst
10 59 (3.64%) Project Manager
11 56 (3.45%) Functional Consultant
12 51 (3.15%) Test Leader
13 47 (2.90%) Oracle Consultant
14 43 (2.65%) Senior Analyst
15 38 (2.34%) Tester
16 36 (2.22%) Test Engineer
17 34 (2.10%) Lead Architect
18 33 (2.04%) Senior Business Analyst
19 32 (1.97%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (5.37%) REST
2 60 (3.70%) Middleware
3 57 (3.52%) Oracle Fusion
4 47 (2.90%) SOAP
5 30 (1.85%) JSON
6 29 (1.79%) XML
7 25 (1.54%) Playwright
8 22 (1.36%) ADO
8 22 (1.36%) SAP Fiori
9 17 (1.05%) .NET
10 16 (0.99%) Web Services
11 13 (0.80%) SailPoint
12 12 (0.74%) OAuth
12 12 (0.74%) React
13 11 (0.68%) AngularJS
13 11 (0.68%) Pandas
13 11 (0.68%) RESTful
13 11 (0.68%) Swagger
14 10 (0.62%) NumPy
14 10 (0.62%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 115 (7.09%) Product Ownership
2 107 (6.60%) Legacy Systems
3 71 (4.38%) Onboarding
4 42 (2.59%) Management Information System
5 38 (2.34%) Data Structures
6 37 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
7 36 (2.22%) Public Cloud
8 33 (2.04%) Data Protection Act
9 30 (1.85%) Derivative
10 27 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
11 26 (1.60%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 25 (1.54%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 23 (1.42%) Low-Code
13 23 (1.42%) Self-Motivation
14 18 (1.11%) Reinsurance
15 17 (1.05%) Cloud Native
15 17 (1.05%) CMDB
16 16 (0.99%) Fixed Income
16 16 (0.99%) Virtual Team
17 15 (0.93%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 47 (2.90%) Windows
2 28 (1.73%) Linux
3 10 (0.62%) Unix
4 7 (0.43%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.19%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.12%) VMS
6 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.062%) Android
7 1 (0.062%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.062%) Solaris
7 1 (0.062%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.062%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 494 (30.48%) Agile
2 489 (30.17%) Stakeholder Management
3 463 (28.56%) Migration
4 418 (25.79%) Validation
5 391 (24.12%) System Integration Testing
6 335 (20.67%) Data Migration
7 281 (17.33%) ERP
8 280 (17.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 262 (16.16%) Problem-Solving
10 233 (14.37%) Requirements Gathering
11 224 (13.82%) Workshop Facilitation
12 218 (13.45%) User Stories
13 214 (13.20%) Continuous Improvement
14 210 (12.95%) Test Automation
15 203 (12.52%) DevOps
16 199 (12.28%) Scenario Testing
17 183 (11.29%) Acceptance Criteria
17 183 (11.29%) Defect Management
18 182 (11.23%) Test Strategy
19 172 (10.61%) Business Analysis
Programming Languages
1 227 (14.00%) SQL
2 73 (4.50%) Python
3 46 (2.84%) Java
4 41 (2.53%) JavaScript
5 22 (1.36%) C#
6 18 (1.11%) PL/SQL
7 17 (1.05%) ABAP
7 17 (1.05%) Apex Code
8 16 (0.99%) PowerShell
8 16 (0.99%) TypeScript
9 11 (0.68%) Bash
10 10 (0.62%) VB
11 9 (0.56%) C
11 9 (0.56%) VB6
12 7 (0.43%) Korn
13 6 (0.37%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.37%) VBA
14 5 (0.31%) Kotlin
14 5 (0.31%) SOQL
14 5 (0.31%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 195 (12.03%) Security Cleared
2 152 (9.38%) SC Cleared
3 104 (6.42%) Degree
4 52 (3.21%) ISTQB
5 39 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 36 (2.22%) ACCA
7 31 (1.91%) CIMA
8 25 (1.54%) PMI Certification
9 17 (1.05%) PMP
10 14 (0.86%) IIBA
10 14 (0.86%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 14 (0.86%) Master's Degree
11 11 (0.68%) CBAP
12 10 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (0.56%) DV Cleared
14 8 (0.49%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.49%) Microsoft Certification
15 7 (0.43%) ISEB
16 5 (0.31%) CISSP
16 5 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 266 (16.41%) QA
2 137 (8.45%) Data Quality
3 63 (3.89%) GDPR
4 27 (1.67%) Accessibility
4 27 (1.67%) GRC
5 23 (1.42%) IFRS
5 23 (1.42%) SLA
6 20 (1.23%) NIST
7 18 (1.11%) ISO 20022
7 18 (1.11%) PMO
8 15 (0.93%) PSD2
8 15 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 14 (0.86%) IFRS 17
10 10 (0.62%) SEPA
11 9 (0.56%) HL7
11 9 (0.56%) MiFID
11 9 (0.56%) Solvency II
12 8 (0.49%) EMIR
12 8 (0.49%) ISO 8583
13 7 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 36 (2.22%) Active Directory
2 27 (1.67%) Docker
3 8 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.19%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 3 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.12%) Firmware
5 2 (0.12%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.062%) Citrix Presentation Server
6 1 (0.062%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.062%) NFS
6 1 (0.062%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.062%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 30 (1.85%) Kubernetes
2 23 (1.42%) HP ALM
3 16 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (0.56%) Grafana
4 9 (0.56%) Terraform
5 5 (0.31%) HP Quality Center
6 4 (0.25%) Control-M
6 4 (0.25%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.19%) Ansible
8 2 (0.12%) Kibana
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.12%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.12%) SCCM
9 1 (0.062%) Argo
9 1 (0.062%) CASB
9 1 (0.062%) Network Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.062%) Rundeck
9 1 (0.062%) SnapMirror
9 1 (0.062%) WSUS
Vendors
1 278 (17.15%) SAP
2 232 (14.31%) Oracle
3 195 (12.03%) Microsoft
4 97 (5.98%) Salesforce
5 92 (5.68%) ServiceNow
6 34 (2.10%) Workday
7 24 (1.48%) HP
8 22 (1.36%) Ariba
8 22 (1.36%) Murex
9 21 (1.30%) IFS
10 17 (1.05%) Blue Prism
11 16 (0.99%) Cisco
12 15 (0.93%) Infor
13 14 (0.86%) Kronos
13 14 (0.86%) MuleSoft
14 13 (0.80%) Bloomberg
14 13 (0.80%) Zscaler
15 12 (0.74%) Adobe
15 12 (0.74%) CyberArk
15 12 (0.74%) UiPath