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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 93 126
Rank change year-on-year +19 +33 -21
Contract jobs citing User Acceptance Testing 1,823 937 724
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.34% 2.84% 1.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.96% 3.13% 2.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,087 635 477
10th Percentile £350 £325 £313
25th Percentile £416 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £601 £600 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £732
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £475
% change year-on-year +4.86% -4.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 13 3
10th Percentile £16.95 £30.01 £39.50
25th Percentile £21.03 £30.25 £46.25
Median hourly rate £50.24 £40.49 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.09% -32.52% +34.74%
75th Percentile £65.98 £60.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £63.00 £64.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.01 £32.71 £47.50
% change year-on-year -20.48% -31.14% +37.68%

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 46,089 29,922 32,856
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.33% 90.54% 85.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,886 18,587 19,900
10th Percentile £325 £295 £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 £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,201 1,858 1,386
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.29 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.50 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +57.06% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.88 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.78% -47.67% +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 27 September 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 27 September 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 27 September 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 +21 1,545 £513 +2.50% 1,013
London +25 864 £525 - 526
UK excluding London +19 715 £475 +4.86% 584
Work from Home +17 581 £500 - 406
South East +5 174 £490 +1.34% 180
North of England -15 168 £463 -2.53% 126
Midlands +42 167 £475 +9.20% 92
West Midlands +25 118 £475 - 64
North West -16 106 £475 +4.51% 76
South West +12 76 £500 +17.65% 54
Scotland +9 63 £450 +12.50% 54
East Midlands +9 46 £467 +12.41% 27
Yorkshire -29 44 £450 -14.29% 37
East of England -20 32 £550 +10.00% 59
Wales 0 23 £488 +35.42% 14
North East -20 18 £375 - 13
Northern Ireland -1 14 £450 -12.20% 17
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 126 (6.91%) Confluence
2 54 (2.96%) SharePoint
3 13 (0.71%) CMS
4 9 (0.49%) Camunda
5 6 (0.33%) SAS
5 6 (0.33%) 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%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.11%) IIS
9 2 (0.11%) OpenROAD
9 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
Applications
1 88 (4.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (2.25%) MS Visio
4 21 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
7 7 (0.38%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe Premiere
8 1 (0.055%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.055%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.055%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.055%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 186 (10.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 47 (2.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 38 (2.08%) Oracle EBS
4 32 (1.76%) SAP Payroll
5 27 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
5 27 (1.48%) SAP GRC
6 26 (1.43%) Workday HCM
7 22 (1.21%) Oracle Payroll
7 22 (1.21%) SAP HCM
8 18 (0.99%) SAP FI
8 18 (0.99%) SAP SD
9 17 (0.93%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 14 (0.77%) Aladdin
11 14 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
12 13 (0.71%) NetSuite
12 13 (0.71%) Oracle ERP
12 13 (0.71%) SAP CO
12 13 (0.71%) SAP MM
12 13 (0.71%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 321 (17.61%) Azure
2 189 (10.37%) Azure DevOps
3 159 (8.72%) Power Platform
4 108 (5.92%) Dynamics 365
5 89 (4.88%) AWS
6 60 (3.29%) OCI
6 60 (3.29%) SuccessFactors
7 38 (2.08%) SaaS
8 35 (1.92%) GCP
9 34 (1.87%) GitHub
9 34 (1.87%) Power Automate
10 30 (1.65%) Snowflake
11 28 (1.54%) PowerApps
12 27 (1.48%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 25 (1.37%) Entra ID
13 25 (1.37%) Microsoft 365
14 21 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
14 21 (1.15%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
15 18 (0.99%) Boomi
16 16 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 16 (0.88%) SSL
2 10 (0.55%) WAN
3 9 (0.49%) Firewall
4 7 (0.38%) DNS
5 6 (0.33%) 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%) 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%) Network Security
8 3 (0.16%) SD-WAN
8 3 (0.16%) VLAN
9 2 (0.11%) DSL
9 2 (0.11%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (6.20%) Power BI
2 66 (3.62%) SQL Server
3 48 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.76%) Relational Database
5 30 (1.65%) Oracle Database
6 27 (1.48%) Oracle Reports
7 21 (1.15%) Data Lake
7 21 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
8 19 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (0.99%) Metadata
10 17 (0.93%) RDBMS
11 16 (0.88%) SAP HANA
12 15 (0.82%) Tableau
13 14 (0.77%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 12 (0.66%) Ingres
15 10 (0.55%) MySQL
16 9 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
17 8 (0.44%) Big Data
18 7 (0.38%) SAP BW
19 6 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 299 (16.40%) JIRA
2 50 (2.74%) Git
3 39 (2.14%) Selenium
4 32 (1.76%) Jenkins
5 30 (1.65%) Postman
6 26 (1.43%) REST Assured
7 21 (1.15%) GitLab
7 21 (1.15%) Zephyr
8 17 (0.93%) Cypress.io
9 13 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.60%) JUnit
10 11 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
11 10 (0.55%) Maven
12 9 (0.49%) Bitbucket Server
12 9 (0.49%) Gradle
12 9 (0.49%) Mockito
12 9 (0.49%) SonarQube
12 9 (0.49%) Team Foundation Server
13 8 (0.44%) Gatling
13 8 (0.44%) Visual Studio
General
1 747 (40.98%) Finance
2 704 (38.62%) Social Skills
3 335 (18.38%) Analytical Skills
4 217 (11.90%) Banking
5 174 (9.54%) Public Sector
6 117 (6.42%) Documentation Skills
7 101 (5.54%) Retail
8 73 (4.00%) Manufacturing
9 67 (3.68%) Legal
10 58 (3.18%) Front Office
11 55 (3.02%) General Ledger
12 46 (2.52%) Billing
12 46 (2.52%) Organisational Skills
13 39 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 37 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
15 36 (1.97%) Investment Banking
16 32 (1.76%) Back Office
17 31 (1.70%) Local Government
17 31 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
18 24 (1.32%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 503 (27.59%) Analyst
2 387 (21.23%) Business Analyst
3 291 (15.96%) Consultant
4 220 (12.07%) Lead
5 130 (7.13%) Senior
6 103 (5.65%) Developer
7 101 (5.54%) Test Manager
8 85 (4.66%) Functional Consultant
9 81 (4.44%) SAP Consultant
10 67 (3.68%) Test Leader
11 64 (3.51%) Oracle Consultant
12 59 (3.24%) Project Manager
13 57 (3.13%) Test Analyst
14 53 (2.91%) Architect
15 51 (2.80%) Tester
16 46 (2.52%) Financial Analyst
17 44 (2.41%) Finance Business Analyst
17 44 (2.41%) Senior Analyst
18 39 (2.14%) Senior Business Analyst
18 39 (2.14%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (4.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 85 (4.66%) REST
3 78 (4.28%) Middleware
4 50 (2.74%) SOAP
5 43 (2.36%) JSON
6 40 (2.19%) XML
7 37 (2.03%) SAP Fiori
8 36 (1.97%) .NET
9 32 (1.76%) Web Services
10 29 (1.59%) Playwright
10 29 (1.59%) Terraform
11 19 (1.04%) React
12 18 (0.99%) ADO
13 17 (0.93%) Kafka
14 15 (0.82%) HTML
15 13 (0.71%) CSS
15 13 (0.71%) Spring Boot
16 12 (0.66%) ARM Templates
16 12 (0.66%) EDI
17 11 (0.60%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 145 (7.95%) Product Ownership
2 96 (5.27%) Onboarding
3 83 (4.55%) Legacy Systems
4 63 (3.46%) Data Structures
5 60 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
6 53 (2.91%) Management Information System
7 34 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (1.87%) Derivative
8 32 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
9 31 (1.70%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 22 (1.21%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 21 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (1.15%) Low-Code
12 20 (1.10%) FMCG
12 20 (1.10%) Replication
12 20 (1.10%) Virtual Team
13 19 (1.04%) Fixed Income
13 19 (1.04%) SCADA
14 18 (0.99%) CMDB
15 17 (0.93%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 68 (3.73%) Windows
2 31 (1.70%) Linux
3 17 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.77%) 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
9 1 (0.055%) Android
9 1 (0.055%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.055%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.055%) Solaris
9 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.055%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 718 (39.39%) Stakeholder Management
2 564 (30.94%) Agile
3 520 (28.52%) Migration
4 509 (27.92%) System Integration Testing
5 493 (27.04%) Validation
6 364 (19.97%) Data Migration
7 350 (19.20%) Requirements Gathering
8 346 (18.98%) Problem-Solving
9 297 (16.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 283 (15.52%) User Stories
11 280 (15.36%) ERP
12 272 (14.92%) DevOps
12 272 (14.92%) Workshop Facilitation
13 268 (14.70%) Defect Management
14 258 (14.15%) Continuous Improvement
15 236 (12.95%) Integration Testing
16 235 (12.89%) Business Analysis
17 228 (12.51%) Acceptance Criteria
18 218 (11.96%) Scenario Testing
19 205 (11.25%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 308 (16.90%) SQL
2 64 (3.51%) Python
3 54 (2.96%) JavaScript
4 50 (2.74%) Java
5 46 (2.52%) C#
6 41 (2.25%) ABAP
7 34 (1.87%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.10%) Bash
9 19 (1.04%) T-SQL
10 15 (0.82%) PL/SQL
11 13 (0.71%) Apex Code
12 12 (0.66%) Bicep
12 12 (0.66%) TypeScript
12 12 (0.66%) VB
13 9 (0.49%) C
13 9 (0.49%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.49%) VB6
14 7 (0.38%) Korn
14 7 (0.38%) VBA
15 5 (0.27%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 255 (13.99%) Security Cleared
2 201 (11.03%) SC Cleared
3 163 (8.94%) Degree
4 51 (2.80%) ACCA
5 46 (2.52%) CIMA
6 45 (2.47%) ISTQB
7 34 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 24 (1.32%) PMI Certification
9 22 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
10 21 (1.15%) DV Cleared
10 21 (1.15%) Microsoft Certification
10 21 (1.15%) PMP
11 17 (0.93%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.82%) CBAP
13 14 (0.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 14 (0.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (0.66%) IIBA
15 11 (0.60%) Master's Degree
16 10 (0.55%) FFIEC
16 10 (0.55%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 274 (15.03%) QA
2 171 (9.38%) Data Quality
3 44 (2.41%) GDPR
4 39 (2.14%) GRC
5 29 (1.59%) Accessibility
6 25 (1.37%) PMO
7 21 (1.15%) NIST
8 16 (0.88%) ISO 20022
9 13 (0.71%) COBIT
9 13 (0.71%) IFRS
9 13 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 12 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
11 9 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 9 (0.49%) SEPA
11 9 (0.49%) SLA
12 7 (0.38%) EMIR
12 7 (0.38%) MiFID
12 7 (0.38%) Solvency II
13 6 (0.33%) HL7
14 5 (0.27%) GAAP
System Software
1 33 (1.81%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.26%) Docker
3 12 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
7 1 (0.055%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.055%) NFS
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.055%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.055%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.055%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 27 (1.48%) Kubernetes
2 15 (0.82%) HP ALM
3 10 (0.55%) SCOM
3 10 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (0.49%) Grafana
5 8 (0.44%) Ansible
6 7 (0.38%) HP Quality Center
7 6 (0.33%) 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 (0.055%) Data Guard
12 1 (0.055%) Iperf
12 1 (0.055%) Istio
12 1 (0.055%) Network Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.055%) Oracle RMAN
12 1 (0.055%) SnapMirror
12 1 (0.055%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 356 (19.53%) SAP
2 279 (15.30%) Oracle
3 267 (14.65%) Microsoft
4 106 (5.81%) Salesforce
5 79 (4.33%) ServiceNow
6 63 (3.46%) Workday
7 25 (1.37%) Ariba
8 19 (1.04%) MuleSoft
8 19 (1.04%) Murex
8 19 (1.04%) UiPath
9 18 (0.99%) Databricks
10 16 (0.88%) CyberArk
10 16 (0.88%) HP
10 16 (0.88%) IBM
11 15 (0.82%) Bloomberg
12 13 (0.71%) Informatica
12 13 (0.71%) Kronos
13 12 (0.66%) IFS
13 12 (0.66%) Tagetik
14 11 (0.60%) Blue Prism