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

6 months to
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 251 260 167
Rank change year-on-year +9 -93 +3
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 742 499 1,158
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.76% 1.14% 1.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.04% 1.28% 2.00%
Number of salaries quoted 501 360 681
10th Percentile £29,500 £26,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.35%
75th Percentile £74,500 £68,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £90,000 £78,750 £83,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £56,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.79% +1.82% -4.35%

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 71,357 38,940 57,758
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.40% 88.80% 81.14%
Number of salaries quoted 50,719 22,637 35,999
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,000 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -3.51% -8.80%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,465
% change year-on-year +9.09% -0.84% -7.56%

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 30 August 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 30 August 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 -5 161 £46,250 -7.50% 82
London -48 152 £70,000 +9.38% 85
North of England 0 137 £55,000 +29.41% 61
Midlands +4 115 £55,000 +28.65% 55
South West -32 90 £52,500 -6.25% 44
East of England +33 79 £50,000 -5.66% 41
West Midlands -3 73 £55,000 +266.67% 38
North West +19 67 £52,136 -30.49% 36
North East -22 45 £56,250 +59.01% 11
East Midlands -12 42 £55,000 +1.85% 17
Yorkshire -48 25 £37,663 +23.49% 15
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 14 (1.89%) IIS
2 11 (1.48%) Confluence
3 10 (1.35%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.21%) CMS
5 5 (0.67%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.54%) WinCC
7 3 (0.40%) Apache
7 3 (0.40%) Moodle
7 3 (0.40%) WordPress
8 2 (0.27%) nginx
8 2 (0.27%) Umbraco
Applications
1 18 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.75%) Simulink
4 7 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.81%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.67%) AutoCAD
6 5 (0.67%) DaVinci Resolve
7 3 (0.40%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.40%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.27%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.27%) Shopify
2 2 (0.27%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Equation
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Midas
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 133 (17.92%) AWS
2 129 (17.39%) Azure
3 43 (5.80%) Azure DevOps
4 32 (4.31%) GCP
5 31 (4.18%) GitHub
6 29 (3.91%) Power Platform
6 29 (3.91%) Serverless
7 22 (2.96%) Microsoft 365
8 19 (2.56%) SaaS
9 14 (1.89%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (1.89%) GitHub Copilot
10 12 (1.62%) OpenShift
11 10 (1.35%) BrowserStack
11 10 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.21%) Anthropic Claude
12 9 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.81%) Tricentis Tosca
14 5 (0.67%) Amazon EKS
14 5 (0.67%) Azure Functions
14 5 (0.67%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.48%) SNMP
1 11 (1.48%) TCP/IP
1 11 (1.48%) VPN
2 8 (1.08%) Broadband
3 7 (0.94%) HTTP
4 5 (0.67%) Wireshark
5 4 (0.54%) Ethernet
5 4 (0.54%) Modbus
6 3 (0.40%) DNS
7 2 (0.27%) ATM
7 2 (0.27%) LTE
7 2 (0.27%) Network Security
7 2 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
7 2 (0.27%) Wireless
8 1 (0.13%) 5G
8 1 (0.13%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.13%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (0.13%) IPv4
8 1 (0.13%) SSH
8 1 (0.13%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (5.66%) SQL Server
2 24 (3.23%) Power BI
3 20 (2.70%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.75%) DynamoDB
4 13 (1.75%) Relational Database
5 12 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
6 9 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (1.21%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.08%) InfluxDB
7 8 (1.08%) NoSQL
7 8 (1.08%) OLTP
7 8 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.94%) MySQL
9 6 (0.81%) Geospatial Data
10 5 (0.67%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.54%) Crystal Reports
11 4 (0.54%) Flink
11 4 (0.54%) Spark SQL
12 3 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.40%) DTS
Development Applications
1 95 (12.80%) Git
2 72 (9.70%) JIRA
3 60 (8.09%) Selenium
4 52 (7.01%) GitLab
5 42 (5.66%) Jenkins
6 30 (4.04%) Postman
7 28 (3.77%) Cypress.io
8 20 (2.70%) Cucumber
9 19 (2.56%) TestRail
10 18 (2.43%) JUnit
10 18 (2.43%) Zephyr
11 17 (2.29%) JMeter
12 14 (1.89%) Gatling
13 12 (1.62%) REST Assured
14 9 (1.21%) Claude Code
15 8 (1.08%) LoadRunner
15 8 (1.08%) Maven
15 8 (1.08%) Robot Framework
15 8 (1.08%) SoapUI
15 8 (1.08%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 239 (32.21%) Social Skills
2 136 (18.33%) Analytical Skills
3 93 (12.53%) Finance
4 54 (7.28%) Electronics
5 48 (6.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 39 (5.26%) Law
7 38 (5.12%) Manufacturing
8 22 (2.96%) Public Sector
9 21 (2.83%) Aerospace
9 21 (2.83%) Banking
10 17 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
11 16 (2.16%) Retail
12 15 (2.02%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.89%) Aviation
13 14 (1.89%) Games
14 13 (1.75%) Legal
15 12 (1.62%) Automotive
16 9 (1.21%) Back Office
16 9 (1.21%) Military
16 9 (1.21%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 172 (23.18%) Senior
2 124 (16.71%) Software Engineer
3 101 (13.61%) Test Engineer
4 85 (11.46%) Developer
5 84 (11.32%) Lead
6 63 (8.49%) Analyst
7 59 (7.95%) Tester
8 45 (6.06%) Senior Developer
9 41 (5.53%) Software Test Engineer
10 38 (5.12%) Software Developer
11 34 (4.58%) QA Engineer
11 34 (4.58%) Senior Software Engineer
11 34 (4.58%) Software Tester
12 29 (3.91%) Embedded Engineer
12 29 (3.91%) Test Automation Engineer
13 26 (3.50%) Junior
14 24 (3.23%) Development Engineer
14 24 (3.23%) Embedded Software Engineer
15 22 (2.96%) Consultant
15 22 (2.96%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (9.30%) .NET
2 55 (7.41%) Playwright
3 44 (5.93%) HTML
4 43 (5.80%) React
5 32 (4.31%) REST
6 27 (3.64%) ASP.NET
7 23 (3.10%) Terraform
8 22 (2.96%) CSS
9 21 (2.83%) XML
10 15 (2.02%) Node.js
10 15 (2.02%) RESTful
11 13 (1.75%) React Native
11 13 (1.75%) SOAP
12 12 (1.62%) ASP.NET Core
12 12 (1.62%) JSON
12 12 (1.62%) Swagger
13 11 (1.48%) Spring
14 10 (1.35%) pytest
15 9 (1.21%) Elastic Stack
15 9 (1.21%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 61 (8.22%) Product Ownership
2 33 (4.45%) Distributed Systems
3 30 (4.04%) Algorithms
4 28 (3.77%) Embedded Systems
5 23 (3.10%) Management Information System
6 19 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (2.56%) Mobile App
7 18 (2.43%) Robotics
8 17 (2.29%) AI Agents
8 17 (2.29%) Cloud Native
9 16 (2.16%) Analytical Mindset
10 15 (2.02%) Client/Server
11 14 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.62%) Video\Live Streaming
13 11 (1.48%) Driving Licence
13 11 (1.48%) Legacy Applications
13 11 (1.48%) Low-Code
14 10 (1.35%) FPGA
15 9 (1.21%) Onboarding
15 9 (1.21%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 90 (12.13%) Windows
2 73 (9.84%) Linux
3 20 (2.70%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.08%) CentOS
5 6 (0.81%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.67%) Android
6 5 (0.67%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.67%) Unix
6 5 (0.67%) VMS
7 4 (0.54%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.54%) Robot Operating System
8 3 (0.40%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.27%) Debian
9 2 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.27%) zOS
10 1 (0.13%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 306 (41.24%) Test Automation
2 273 (36.79%) Agile
3 235 (31.67%) Software Engineering
4 196 (26.42%) Continuous Improvement
5 183 (24.66%) Problem-Solving
6 181 (24.39%) CI/CD
7 161 (21.70%) DevOps
8 118 (15.90%) Code Quality
9 113 (15.23%) Validation
10 108 (14.56%) AI
11 106 (14.29%) Mentoring
12 105 (14.15%) SDLC
13 98 (13.21%) Scrum
14 97 (13.07%) Test Strategy
15 79 (10.65%) Regression Testing
16 70 (9.43%) Computer Science
17 64 (8.63%) Manual Testing
18 54 (7.28%) Test Scripting
19 53 (7.14%) Software Architecture
20 51 (6.87%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 199 (26.82%) Python
2 133 (17.92%) SQL
3 110 (14.82%) C#
4 87 (11.73%) Java
4 87 (11.73%) JavaScript
5 77 (10.38%) C++
6 60 (8.09%) C
7 51 (6.87%) TypeScript
8 24 (3.23%) MATLAB
9 23 (3.10%) PowerShell
10 20 (2.70%) Bash
11 14 (1.89%) Go
12 12 (1.62%) Embedded C
13 11 (1.48%) PL/SQL
14 10 (1.35%) Groovy
14 10 (1.35%) PHP
15 9 (1.21%) Julia
16 8 (1.08%) R
17 7 (0.94%) VBA
18 5 (0.67%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 168 (22.64%) Degree
2 129 (17.39%) Security Cleared
3 78 (10.51%) SC Cleared
4 41 (5.53%) ISTQB
5 37 (4.99%) DV Cleared
6 33 (4.45%) Computer Science Degree
6 33 (4.45%) Master's Degree
7 19 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
8 11 (1.48%) ISEB
9 8 (1.08%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 8 (1.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (1.08%) PhD
10 5 (0.67%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.54%) Chartered Engineer
12 3 (0.40%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.40%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.27%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 209 (28.17%) QA
2 47 (6.33%) Accessibility
3 22 (2.96%) GDPR
4 15 (2.02%) Software Quality Assurance
5 13 (1.75%) Data Quality
5 13 (1.75%) WCAG
6 9 (1.21%) SLA
7 5 (0.67%) DO-254
7 5 (0.67%) IEC 61508
7 5 (0.67%) PMO
8 3 (0.40%) IEC 61131
8 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.27%) Automotive SPICE
9 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.27%) MISRA
9 2 (0.27%) MISRA C
10 1 (0.13%) DO-160
10 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 52 (7.01%) Docker
2 36 (4.85%) Firmware
3 19 (2.56%) Active Directory
4 17 (2.29%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.27%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.27%) KVM
7 2 (0.27%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.13%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 35 (4.72%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.96%) Grafana
3 19 (2.56%) Ansible
4 9 (1.21%) Kibana
5 8 (1.08%) logstash
6 6 (0.81%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.67%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.54%) HP Fortify
8 4 (0.54%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.54%) SCCM
8 4 (0.54%) SCOM
9 3 (0.40%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.40%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.40%) Puppet
9 3 (0.40%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.27%) Rancher
10 2 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 71 (9.57%) Microsoft
2 23 (3.10%) Splunk
3 19 (2.56%) Oracle
4 12 (1.62%) VMware
5 11 (1.48%) Citrix
5 11 (1.48%) Google
6 10 (1.35%) Atlassian
6 10 (1.35%) Red Hat
7 9 (1.21%) Intel
8 8 (1.08%) Adobe
8 8 (1.08%) ServiceNow
9 7 (0.94%) AppDynamics
9 7 (0.94%) IBM
10 6 (0.81%) Siemens
11 5 (0.67%) Avid
11 5 (0.67%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.54%) EMC
12 4 (0.54%) HP
12 4 (0.54%) SYSPRO
12 4 (0.54%) Veracode