Software Testing Job Trends in England

Software Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Software Testing skills. It covers permanent 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 243 284 153
Rank change year-on-year +41 -131 +28
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 771 438 1,144
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.74% 1.01% 1.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.01% 1.14% 2.08%
Number of salaries quoted 520 321 575
10th Percentile £29,225 £27,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £39,613 £40,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £56,430 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.96% +2.60% -4.35%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £83,750
UK median annual salary £51,619 £57,500 £56,750
% change year-on-year -10.23% +1.32% +3.18%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Software Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 76,388 38,475 54,955
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.58% 89.15% 82.30%
Number of salaries quoted 53,883 21,744 29,840
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,215 £36,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £78,267
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,274
% change year-on-year +9.09% -5.62% -2.88%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Software Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Software Testing job vacancy trend in England

Software Testing
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in England over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Testing in England

Software Testing
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Testing within the England region 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -12 159 £45,000 -10.00% 155
North of England +11 151 £51,772 +3.54% 157
London -44 149 £70,000 +9.38% 320
Midlands +10 121 £52,500 +19.32% 134
South West -26 100 £50,000 -9.91% 101
West Midlands -5 83 £45,000 +200.00% 85
East of England +25 79 £52,500 -0.94% 107
North West -1 61 £44,447 -36.50% 87
North East -17 55 £57,500 +21.05% 22
East Midlands -18 38 £55,000 -1.79% 49
Yorkshire -22 35 £44,447 +45.73% 48
Software Testing
UK

Software Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 12 (1.56%) CMS
1 12 (1.56%) SharePoint
2 11 (1.43%) Confluence
2 11 (1.43%) IIS
3 7 (0.91%) WinCC
4 6 (0.78%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.52%) Apache
6 3 (0.39%) WordPress
7 2 (0.26%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.26%) nginx
7 2 (0.26%) Office Communications Server
7 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 17 (2.20%) Simulink
2 16 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.65%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.52%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.52%) DaVinci Resolve
6 4 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.39%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.13%) EPLAN
8 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
1 3 (0.39%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.26%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.26%) Shopify
2 2 (0.26%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Equation
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Midas
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 132 (17.12%) Azure
2 131 (16.99%) AWS
3 41 (5.32%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (5.19%) Serverless
5 35 (4.54%) GitHub
5 35 (4.54%) Power Platform
6 32 (4.15%) GCP
7 21 (2.72%) Microsoft 365
7 21 (2.72%) SaaS
8 18 (2.33%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (2.08%) GitHub Actions
10 14 (1.82%) GitHub Copilot
10 14 (1.82%) OpenShift
11 9 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 9 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
11 9 (1.17%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.04%) Azure Functions
12 8 (1.04%) BrowserStack
13 7 (0.91%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (0.78%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.95%) TCP/IP
2 10 (1.30%) SNMP
3 9 (1.17%) Wireshark
4 8 (1.04%) VPN
5 7 (0.91%) Ethernet
6 6 (0.78%) HTTP
6 6 (0.78%) Modbus
7 3 (0.39%) DNS
7 3 (0.39%) Profibus
8 2 (0.26%) ATM
8 2 (0.26%) Network Security
8 2 (0.26%) Software-Defined Radio
9 1 (0.13%) 5G
9 1 (0.13%) Broadband
9 1 (0.13%) DHCP
9 1 (0.13%) IPv4
9 1 (0.13%) IPv6
9 1 (0.13%) LTE
9 1 (0.13%) SSH
9 1 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (4.80%) SQL Server
2 30 (3.89%) Power BI
3 17 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (1.95%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.82%) DynamoDB
5 14 (1.82%) Elasticsearch
6 13 (1.69%) NoSQL
7 8 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (1.04%) InfluxDB
7 8 (1.04%) MySQL
8 6 (0.78%) Geospatial Data
8 6 (0.78%) OLTP
9 5 (0.65%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.52%) Flink
10 4 (0.52%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.39%) Big Data
11 3 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.39%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 98 (12.71%) Git
2 71 (9.21%) JIRA
3 58 (7.52%) GitLab
4 56 (7.26%) Selenium
5 42 (5.45%) Jenkins
6 31 (4.02%) Postman
7 29 (3.76%) Cypress.io
8 19 (2.46%) JMeter
9 17 (2.20%) Cucumber
9 17 (2.20%) JUnit
9 17 (2.20%) TestRail
10 13 (1.69%) Gatling
10 13 (1.69%) Zephyr
11 9 (1.17%) Eclipse
11 9 (1.17%) Maven
11 9 (1.17%) REST Assured
12 8 (1.04%) Robot Framework
12 8 (1.04%) Spock
12 8 (1.04%) Visual Studio Code
13 7 (0.91%) LabVIEW
General
1 266 (34.50%) Social Skills
2 142 (18.42%) Analytical Skills
3 85 (11.02%) Finance
4 61 (7.91%) Electronics
5 55 (7.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 46 (5.97%) Manufacturing
7 35 (4.54%) Law
8 24 (3.11%) Aerospace
9 23 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
10 22 (2.85%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.33%) Automotive
11 18 (2.33%) Banking
11 18 (2.33%) Retail
12 15 (1.95%) Legal
12 15 (1.95%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.82%) Aviation
14 10 (1.30%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (1.17%) Military
15 9 (1.17%) Telecoms
16 8 (1.04%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 170 (22.05%) Senior
2 120 (15.56%) Software Engineer
3 110 (14.27%) Test Engineer
4 88 (11.41%) Developer
5 84 (10.89%) Lead
6 76 (9.86%) Analyst
7 53 (6.87%) Tester
8 43 (5.58%) Software Developer
9 42 (5.45%) Senior Developer
10 40 (5.19%) QA Engineer
10 40 (5.19%) Software Test Engineer
11 36 (4.67%) Senior Software Engineer
12 29 (3.76%) Junior
13 28 (3.63%) Test Automation Engineer
14 27 (3.50%) Embedded Engineer
14 27 (3.50%) Software Tester
15 26 (3.37%) IT Support
15 26 (3.37%) Support Analyst
15 26 (3.37%) Support Engineer
16 23 (2.98%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (9.86%) .NET
2 63 (8.17%) Playwright
3 52 (6.74%) HTML
4 49 (6.36%) React
5 34 (4.41%) CSS
6 30 (3.89%) REST
7 27 (3.50%) Terraform
8 26 (3.37%) ASP.NET
9 24 (3.11%) RESTful
10 22 (2.85%) Node.js
11 21 (2.72%) XML
12 14 (1.82%) ASP.NET Core
12 14 (1.82%) Spring
13 13 (1.69%) Gherkin
13 13 (1.69%) JSON
13 13 (1.69%) Swagger
14 12 (1.56%) AngularJS
15 11 (1.43%) .NET Framework
15 11 (1.43%) SOAP
16 10 (1.30%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 63 (8.17%) Product Ownership
2 38 (4.93%) Distributed Systems
3 28 (3.63%) Algorithms
4 26 (3.37%) Embedded Systems
5 24 (3.11%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.98%) Management Information System
7 22 (2.85%) AI Agents
8 20 (2.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (2.46%) Enterprise Software
10 18 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (2.20%) Robotics
12 16 (2.08%) Mobile App
13 14 (1.82%) Client/Server
14 13 (1.69%) Driving Licence
14 13 (1.69%) Legacy Applications
15 11 (1.43%) FPGA
15 11 (1.43%) SCADA
16 10 (1.30%) Onboarding
17 9 (1.17%) Private Cloud
18 8 (1.04%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 84 (10.89%) Windows
2 70 (9.08%) Linux
3 21 (2.72%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.04%) CentOS
5 7 (0.91%) Android
6 6 (0.78%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.78%) VMS
7 5 (0.65%) Embedded Linux
7 5 (0.65%) Robot Operating System
8 4 (0.52%) Unix
9 3 (0.39%) Debian
9 3 (0.39%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 338 (43.84%) Test Automation
2 293 (38.00%) Agile
3 237 (30.74%) Software Engineering
4 214 (27.76%) CI/CD
5 206 (26.72%) Problem-Solving
6 202 (26.20%) Continuous Improvement
7 159 (20.62%) DevOps
8 124 (16.08%) Code Quality
9 120 (15.56%) Mentoring
10 117 (15.18%) Validation
11 106 (13.75%) AI
11 106 (13.75%) SDLC
12 102 (13.23%) Scrum
13 98 (12.71%) Test Strategy
14 87 (11.28%) Regression Testing
15 71 (9.21%) Stakeholder Management
16 69 (8.95%) Computer Science
17 60 (7.78%) Software Delivery
18 58 (7.52%) Manual Testing
19 56 (7.26%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 192 (24.90%) Python
2 144 (18.68%) SQL
3 117 (15.18%) C#
4 96 (12.45%) JavaScript
5 93 (12.06%) Java
6 74 (9.60%) C++
7 65 (8.43%) TypeScript
8 56 (7.26%) C
9 27 (3.50%) MATLAB
10 24 (3.11%) PowerShell
11 22 (2.85%) Bash
12 13 (1.69%) Embedded C
13 12 (1.56%) Go
14 11 (1.43%) Groovy
15 10 (1.30%) Julia
15 10 (1.30%) PL/SQL
16 8 (1.04%) R
17 7 (0.91%) PHP
18 6 (0.78%) VB.NET
18 6 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 169 (21.92%) Degree
2 135 (17.51%) Security Cleared
3 82 (10.64%) SC Cleared
4 38 (4.93%) ISTQB
5 35 (4.54%) DV Cleared
6 32 (4.15%) Master's Degree
7 30 (3.89%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.04%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 7 (0.91%) ISEB
11 5 (0.65%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 4 (0.52%) PhD
13 3 (0.39%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.39%) Chartered Engineer
13 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
13 3 (0.39%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.26%) CompTIA Security+
14 2 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 210 (27.24%) QA
2 53 (6.87%) Accessibility
3 23 (2.98%) GDPR
4 21 (2.72%) WCAG
5 14 (1.82%) Data Quality
6 10 (1.30%) Software Quality Assurance
7 8 (1.04%) SLA
8 5 (0.65%) PMO
9 3 (0.39%) DO-254
9 3 (0.39%) IEC 61131
9 3 (0.39%) IEC 61508
9 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 2 (0.26%) Automotive SPICE
10 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.13%) DO-160
11 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.13%) MISRA
11 1 (0.13%) MISRA C
System Software
1 62 (8.04%) Docker
2 38 (4.93%) Firmware
3 19 (2.46%) Embedded Firmware
4 16 (2.08%) Active Directory
5 8 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.13%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.13%) KVM
Systems Management
1 42 (5.45%) Kubernetes
2 21 (2.72%) Grafana
3 20 (2.59%) Ansible
4 10 (1.30%) Kibana
5 8 (1.04%) logstash
6 6 (0.78%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.52%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.39%) HP Fortify
8 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.39%) Norton AntiVirus
8 3 (0.39%) Puppet
8 3 (0.39%) Rancher
8 3 (0.39%) SCCM
8 3 (0.39%) SCOM
8 3 (0.39%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.26%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 76 (9.86%) Microsoft
2 23 (2.98%) Splunk
3 17 (2.20%) Oracle
4 15 (1.95%) Google
5 13 (1.69%) Siemens
6 10 (1.30%) Atlassian
6 10 (1.30%) Red Hat
6 10 (1.30%) VMware
7 9 (1.17%) Intel
8 8 (1.04%) AppDynamics
8 8 (1.04%) Citrix
9 7 (0.91%) Adobe
9 7 (0.91%) Rockwell
10 6 (0.78%) Databricks
10 6 (0.78%) SAP
10 6 (0.78%) ServiceNow
11 5 (0.65%) IBM
12 4 (0.52%) EMC
12 4 (0.52%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.52%) Xilinx