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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 283 265 172
Rank change year-on-year -18 -93 -11
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 632 509 1,437
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.72% 1.17% 1.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.98% 1.30% 1.98%
Number of salaries quoted 451 369 980
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,150 £31,000
25th Percentile £39,909 £41,000 £39,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £51,259
Median % change year-on-year - +7.30% -10.85%
75th Percentile £74,750 £70,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £83,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,783 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.40% +11.57% -13.04%

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 64,729 39,091 72,686
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.90% 90.22% 82.30%
Number of salaries quoted 45,730 22,350 51,838
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,771 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,201 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.89% +4.00% -8.84%

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 16 July 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 16 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +20 153 £47,500 -9.52% 62
London -51 143 £67,500 +5.47% 53
North of England -5 105 £55,000 +24.65% 30
South West -23 83 £50,000 -10.71% 24
Midlands -17 75 £55,000 +29.41% 29
East of England +27 66 £55,000 +3.77% 32
North West +19 58 £52,500 -16.00% 11
West Midlands -29 48 £62,500 +316.67% 19
East Midlands -33 27 £55,000 +5.77% 10
North East -34 26 £57,500 +43.75% 11
Yorkshire -48 21 £45,711 +53.65% 8
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 15 (2.37%) IIS
2 10 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.27%) Confluence
4 5 (0.79%) CMS
4 5 (0.79%) WordPress
5 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.63%) Moodle
6 2 (0.32%) Apache
6 2 (0.32%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
Applications
1 20 (3.16%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.90%) Simulink
4 6 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.95%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.79%) AutoCAD
5 5 (0.79%) DaVinci Resolve
6 4 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.47%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.16%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.32%) Shopify
1 2 (0.32%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Equation
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 113 (17.88%) Azure
2 107 (16.93%) AWS
3 40 (6.33%) Azure DevOps
4 36 (5.70%) GCP
5 25 (3.96%) GitHub
6 23 (3.64%) Serverless
7 15 (2.37%) Power Platform
8 14 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
9 12 (1.90%) SaaS
10 11 (1.74%) AWS Lambda
10 11 (1.74%) GitHub Copilot
11 10 (1.58%) BrowserStack
11 10 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.42%) Anthropic Claude
12 9 (1.42%) OpenShift
13 6 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
14 5 (0.79%) Tricentis Tosca
15 4 (0.63%) Azure Functions
16 3 (0.47%) BlazeMeter
16 3 (0.47%) Siteimprove
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.74%) VPN
2 8 (1.27%) Broadband
3 7 (1.11%) Ethernet
4 5 (0.79%) SNMP
4 5 (0.79%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.63%) HTTP
5 4 (0.63%) Software-Defined Radio
6 2 (0.32%) ATM
6 2 (0.32%) Cisco ISE
6 2 (0.32%) LTE
6 2 (0.32%) Modbus
6 2 (0.32%) Network Security
6 2 (0.32%) Wireless
7 1 (0.16%) AMQP
7 1 (0.16%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.16%) DNS
7 1 (0.16%) MQTT
7 1 (0.16%) SSL
7 1 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.16%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (5.70%) SQL Server
2 20 (3.16%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.06%) OLTP
3 13 (2.06%) Power BI
4 10 (1.58%) DynamoDB
4 10 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (1.58%) MongoDB
5 8 (1.27%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (1.11%) InfluxDB
6 7 (1.11%) MySQL
7 6 (0.95%) Geospatial Data
7 6 (0.95%) Spark SQL
8 5 (0.79%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.79%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.63%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.63%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.32%) Db2
10 2 (0.32%) DTS
10 2 (0.32%) Easytrieve
Development Applications
1 74 (11.71%) Git
2 64 (10.13%) JIRA
3 51 (8.07%) GitLab
3 51 (8.07%) Selenium
4 35 (5.54%) Jenkins
5 23 (3.64%) Cypress.io
6 22 (3.48%) Postman
7 17 (2.69%) TestRail
8 15 (2.37%) JUnit
8 15 (2.37%) Zephyr
9 14 (2.22%) JMeter
10 12 (1.90%) Cucumber
11 11 (1.74%) Visual Studio Code
12 9 (1.42%) Claude Code
13 8 (1.27%) REST Assured
13 8 (1.27%) SpecFlow
14 7 (1.11%) LoadRunner
14 7 (1.11%) Robot Framework
14 7 (1.11%) WebDriver
15 6 (0.95%) LabVIEW
General
1 182 (28.80%) Social Skills
2 100 (15.82%) Analytical Skills
3 76 (12.03%) Finance
4 37 (5.85%) Electronics
5 29 (4.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 29 (4.59%) Law
6 26 (4.11%) Manufacturing
7 22 (3.48%) Banking
8 14 (2.22%) Public Sector
9 13 (2.06%) Retail
10 12 (1.90%) Aerospace
11 11 (1.74%) Games
12 9 (1.42%) Health Technology
12 9 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
14 7 (1.11%) Advertising
14 7 (1.11%) Legal
14 7 (1.11%) Military
14 7 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (1.11%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 154 (24.37%) Senior
2 112 (17.72%) Software Engineer
3 70 (11.08%) Test Engineer
4 67 (10.60%) Developer
5 62 (9.81%) Lead
6 61 (9.65%) Analyst
7 50 (7.91%) Tester
8 44 (6.96%) Senior Developer
9 38 (6.01%) Senior Software Engineer
10 35 (5.54%) Software Tester
11 30 (4.75%) Software Test Engineer
12 29 (4.59%) Development Engineer
13 27 (4.27%) QA Engineer
14 25 (3.96%) Software Development Engineer
15 23 (3.64%) Test Automation Engineer
16 22 (3.48%) Senior Analyst
16 22 (3.48%) Test Development Engineer
17 20 (3.16%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 20 (3.16%) Embedded Engineer
17 20 (3.16%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (8.54%) .NET
2 39 (6.17%) Playwright
3 37 (5.85%) HTML
4 32 (5.06%) React
5 25 (3.96%) XML
6 24 (3.80%) REST
7 17 (2.69%) SOAP
8 15 (2.37%) CSS
8 15 (2.37%) Node.js
9 14 (2.22%) ASP.NET
10 12 (1.90%) RESTful
10 12 (1.90%) Spring
11 10 (1.58%) JSON
12 9 (1.42%) React Native
12 9 (1.42%) Swagger
13 8 (1.27%) .NET Framework
13 8 (1.27%) ASP.NET Core
13 8 (1.27%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (1.27%) LangChain
13 8 (1.27%) LlamaIndex
Miscellaneous
1 56 (8.86%) Product Ownership
2 34 (5.38%) Algorithms
3 24 (3.80%) Embedded Systems
4 20 (3.16%) Distributed Systems
5 15 (2.37%) Client/Server
6 14 (2.22%) FPGA
6 14 (2.22%) Management Information System
6 14 (2.22%) Mobile App
7 13 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.90%) Robotics
9 11 (1.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.58%) AI Agents
10 10 (1.58%) Life Science
11 9 (1.42%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.42%) Low-Code
11 9 (1.42%) Onboarding
12 8 (1.27%) Reinsurance
12 8 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (1.27%) VHDL
12 8 (1.27%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 72 (11.39%) Windows
2 56 (8.86%) Linux
3 20 (3.16%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.11%) CentOS
5 4 (0.63%) Unix
6 3 (0.47%) Embedded Linux
6 3 (0.47%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.47%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.47%) VMS
7 2 (0.32%) Android
7 2 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.32%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.32%) zOS
8 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.16%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 254 (40.19%) Test Automation
2 221 (34.97%) Agile
3 177 (28.01%) Software Engineering
4 157 (24.84%) Continuous Improvement
5 136 (21.52%) DevOps
6 134 (21.20%) CI/CD
6 134 (21.20%) Problem-Solving
7 94 (14.87%) Code Quality
8 90 (14.24%) Scrum
9 89 (14.08%) Mentoring
10 86 (13.61%) AI
11 84 (13.29%) SDLC
12 77 (12.18%) Computer Science
13 72 (11.39%) Test Strategy
14 71 (11.23%) Regression Testing
15 69 (10.92%) Validation
16 62 (9.81%) Manual Testing
17 45 (7.12%) Test Scripting
18 40 (6.33%) Collaborative Culture
18 40 (6.33%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 171 (27.06%) Python
2 116 (18.35%) SQL
3 93 (14.72%) C#
4 71 (11.23%) JavaScript
5 69 (10.92%) C++
5 69 (10.92%) Java
6 51 (8.07%) C
7 42 (6.65%) TypeScript
8 24 (3.80%) MATLAB
9 20 (3.16%) PowerShell
10 17 (2.69%) PL/SQL
11 13 (2.06%) Bash
12 12 (1.90%) PHP
13 11 (1.74%) Go
14 9 (1.42%) Julia
15 8 (1.27%) Embedded C
15 8 (1.27%) Groovy
15 8 (1.27%) R
15 8 (1.27%) Rust
16 7 (1.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 176 (27.85%) Degree
2 102 (16.14%) Security Cleared
3 58 (9.18%) SC Cleared
4 48 (7.59%) ISTQB
5 40 (6.33%) DV Cleared
6 38 (6.01%) Master's Degree
7 33 (5.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (1.74%) PhD
10 10 (1.58%) ISEB
11 9 (1.42%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 7 (1.11%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 5 (0.79%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.63%) Chartered Engineer
14 4 (0.63%) CIPD
14 4 (0.63%) PMI Certification
15 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 2 (0.32%) HND
16 2 (0.32%) MCSA
16 2 (0.32%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 178 (28.16%) QA
2 33 (5.22%) Accessibility
3 20 (3.16%) Software Quality Assurance
4 13 (2.06%) GDPR
5 12 (1.90%) SLA
6 8 (1.27%) Data Quality
7 6 (0.95%) WCAG
8 5 (0.79%) DO-254
8 5 (0.79%) PMO
9 4 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.47%) IEC 61508
10 3 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 12207
11 2 (0.32%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.32%) MISRA
11 2 (0.32%) MISRA C
11 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.16%) IEC 61131
12 1 (0.16%) JTAG
12 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 33 (5.22%) Docker
2 27 (4.27%) Firmware
3 17 (2.69%) Active Directory
4 16 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (2.22%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (0.95%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.79%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.79%) KVM
8 2 (0.32%) Terminal Server
8 2 (0.32%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.16%) Xen
Systems Management
1 20 (3.16%) Kubernetes
2 17 (2.69%) Terraform
3 14 (2.22%) Ansible
4 12 (1.90%) Grafana
5 8 (1.27%) Kibana
5 8 (1.27%) logstash
6 6 (0.95%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.79%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.79%) SCCM
7 5 (0.79%) SCOM
8 3 (0.47%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.47%) HP Fortify
8 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.47%) Norton AntiVirus
8 3 (0.47%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.32%) Rancher
10 1 (0.16%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 63 (9.97%) Microsoft
2 29 (4.59%) Oracle
3 18 (2.85%) VMware
4 17 (2.69%) Splunk
5 11 (1.74%) Citrix
6 10 (1.58%) Adobe
6 10 (1.58%) IBM
6 10 (1.58%) ServiceNow
7 8 (1.27%) Atlassian
7 8 (1.27%) Intel
7 8 (1.27%) Red Hat
8 5 (0.79%) AppDynamics
8 5 (0.79%) Avid
8 5 (0.79%) Google
8 5 (0.79%) HP
8 5 (0.79%) Salesforce
8 5 (0.79%) SolarWinds
9 4 (0.63%) EMC
9 4 (0.63%) Microsemi
9 4 (0.63%) SYSPRO