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 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 259 248 176
Rank change year-on-year -11 -72 -83
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 613 542 1,477
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.74% 1.37% 1.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.01% 1.48% 1.89%
Number of salaries quoted 449 375 1,035
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £39,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +10.00% -10.71%
75th Percentile £72,500 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £89,000 £87,000 £85,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -10.71%

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 60,860 36,708 78,024
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.03% 92.57% 81.96%
Number of salaries quoted 42,836 20,086 56,665
10th Percentile £30,750 £29,000 £29,440
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £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 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 18 June 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 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +13 159 £47,500 -9.52% 77
London -29 157 £60,000 -6.25% 71
North of England -21 98 £51,619 +14.71% 45
South West -50 73 £48,750 -11.36% 30
Midlands -45 64 £55,000 +29.41% 33
North West +28 57 £50,886 -18.58% 21
East of England +16 55 £50,000 -5.66% 57
West Midlands -29 43 £62,500 +316.67% 20
Yorkshire -50 24 £40,000 +23.08% 7
East Midlands -34 21 £55,000 +14.58% 13
North East -36 17 £55,000 +37.50% 18
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 (2.28%) IIS
2 8 (1.31%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.14%) Confluence
4 5 (0.82%) CMS
4 5 (0.82%) WordPress
5 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.65%) Moodle
6 2 (0.33%) Apache
6 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
Applications
1 18 (2.94%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.31%) Simulink
4 5 (0.82%) AutoCAD
4 5 (0.82%) DaVinci Resolve
4 5 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.82%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.49%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.33%) Shopify
1 2 (0.33%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Equation
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 117 (19.09%) Azure
2 107 (17.46%) AWS
3 42 (6.85%) GCP
4 39 (6.36%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (3.43%) GitHub
6 20 (3.26%) Serverless
7 15 (2.45%) Power Platform
8 14 (2.28%) BrowserStack
9 12 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
10 11 (1.79%) SaaS
11 10 (1.63%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (1.31%) GitHub Copilot
12 8 (1.31%) OpenShift
13 7 (1.14%) Anthropic Claude
13 7 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.82%) Tricentis Tosca
15 4 (0.65%) Azure Functions
16 3 (0.49%) BlazeMeter
16 3 (0.49%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.63%) VPN
2 8 (1.31%) Broadband
2 8 (1.31%) Ethernet
3 5 (0.82%) HTTP
3 5 (0.82%) SNMP
4 4 (0.65%) Software-Defined Radio
5 2 (0.33%) Cisco ISE
5 2 (0.33%) LTE
5 2 (0.33%) Modbus
5 2 (0.33%) MQTT
5 2 (0.33%) Network Security
5 2 (0.33%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.33%) Wireless
6 1 (0.16%) 5G
6 1 (0.16%) AMQP
6 1 (0.16%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.16%) DNS
6 1 (0.16%) SSL
6 1 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (6.20%) SQL Server
2 19 (3.10%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (2.77%) OLTP
4 13 (2.12%) Power BI
5 10 (1.63%) MongoDB
6 9 (1.47%) DynamoDB
7 8 (1.31%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (1.31%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (1.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.14%) MySQL
8 7 (1.14%) Spark SQL
9 6 (0.98%) Geospatial Data
9 6 (0.98%) InfluxDB
9 6 (0.98%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.82%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.65%) Crystal Reports
11 4 (0.65%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.33%) Big Data
12 2 (0.33%) Db2
12 2 (0.33%) Easytrieve
Development Applications
1 66 (10.77%) Git
1 66 (10.77%) JIRA
2 54 (8.81%) Selenium
3 47 (7.67%) GitLab
4 30 (4.89%) Postman
5 29 (4.73%) Jenkins
6 20 (3.26%) Cypress.io
7 16 (2.61%) Team Foundation Server
7 16 (2.61%) TestRail
8 15 (2.45%) JUnit
8 15 (2.45%) SoapUI
8 15 (2.45%) WebDriver
9 14 (2.28%) JMeter
9 14 (2.28%) Zephyr
10 12 (1.96%) Cucumber
11 11 (1.79%) Visual Studio Code
12 10 (1.63%) REST Assured
13 7 (1.14%) Claude Code
13 7 (1.14%) LoadRunner
13 7 (1.14%) SpecFlow
General
1 168 (27.41%) Social Skills
2 94 (15.33%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (12.56%) Finance
4 30 (4.89%) Electronics
5 25 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 25 (4.08%) Law
6 22 (3.59%) Banking
6 22 (3.59%) Manufacturing
7 18 (2.94%) Retail
8 12 (1.96%) Public Sector
9 11 (1.79%) Aerospace
9 11 (1.79%) Games
10 9 (1.47%) Health Technology
10 9 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.31%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
13 6 (0.98%) Back Office
13 6 (0.98%) Marketing
13 6 (0.98%) Military
14 5 (0.82%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 139 (22.68%) Senior
2 106 (17.29%) Software Engineer
3 76 (12.40%) Test Engineer
4 68 (11.09%) Developer
5 64 (10.44%) Tester
6 56 (9.14%) Lead
7 55 (8.97%) Analyst
8 45 (7.34%) Senior Developer
9 44 (7.18%) Software Tester
10 39 (6.36%) Development Engineer
11 37 (6.04%) Software Test Engineer
12 35 (5.71%) Software Development Engineer
13 32 (5.22%) Test Development Engineer
14 31 (5.06%) Senior Software Engineer
15 26 (4.24%) Test Automation Engineer
16 22 (3.59%) QA Engineer
17 21 (3.43%) Software Developer
18 20 (3.26%) Oracle Developer
18 20 (3.26%) Senior Oracle Developer
18 20 (3.26%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (9.62%) .NET
2 47 (7.67%) HTML
3 37 (6.04%) Playwright
4 32 (5.22%) React
5 30 (4.89%) SOAP
6 26 (4.24%) XML
7 21 (3.43%) REST
8 15 (2.45%) ASP.NET
9 14 (2.28%) Node.js
10 12 (1.96%) CSS
10 12 (1.96%) JSON
10 12 (1.96%) RESTful
11 10 (1.63%) Spring
12 9 (1.47%) React Native
13 8 (1.31%) .NET Framework
13 8 (1.31%) LangChain
13 8 (1.31%) LlamaIndex
14 7 (1.14%) ASP.NET Core
14 7 (1.14%) PySpark
14 7 (1.14%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 53 (8.65%) Product Ownership
2 33 (5.38%) Algorithms
3 18 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (2.61%) Mobile App
5 14 (2.28%) Client/Server
5 14 (2.28%) Embedded Systems
6 11 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
7 10 (1.63%) Cloud Native
7 10 (1.63%) FPGA
7 10 (1.63%) Life Science
7 10 (1.63%) Management Information System
7 10 (1.63%) Robotics
8 9 (1.47%) AI Agents
8 9 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
9 8 (1.31%) Low-Code
9 8 (1.31%) Reinsurance
9 8 (1.31%) Video\Live Streaming
10 7 (1.14%) Onboarding
11 6 (0.98%) Blog
Operating Systems
1 63 (10.28%) Windows
2 42 (6.85%) Linux
3 17 (2.77%) Windows Server
4 6 (0.98%) CentOS
5 4 (0.65%) Unix
6 3 (0.49%) Android
6 3 (0.49%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.49%) Kali Linux
7 2 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.33%) VMS
7 2 (0.33%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.33%) zOS
8 1 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
8 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.16%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (41.27%) Test Automation
2 204 (33.28%) Agile
3 156 (25.45%) Software Engineering
4 139 (22.68%) Continuous Improvement
5 129 (21.04%) DevOps
6 120 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
7 117 (19.09%) CI/CD
8 91 (14.85%) Scrum
9 81 (13.21%) Computer Science
10 80 (13.05%) Code Quality
11 79 (12.89%) Mentoring
12 78 (12.72%) SDLC
13 76 (12.40%) AI
14 66 (10.77%) Test Strategy
15 58 (9.46%) Manual Testing
16 57 (9.30%) Regression Testing
17 54 (8.81%) Validation
18 48 (7.83%) Non-Functional Testing
19 44 (7.18%) Test Scripting
20 43 (7.01%) SDET
Programming Languages
1 152 (24.80%) Python
2 125 (20.39%) SQL
3 95 (15.50%) C#
4 79 (12.89%) Java
5 69 (11.26%) JavaScript
6 61 (9.95%) C++
7 41 (6.69%) C
7 41 (6.69%) TypeScript
8 23 (3.75%) MATLAB
8 23 (3.75%) PL/SQL
9 16 (2.61%) PowerShell
10 12 (1.96%) PHP
11 11 (1.79%) Bash
12 10 (1.63%) Go
13 9 (1.47%) Julia
14 8 (1.31%) R
15 7 (1.14%) Embedded C
15 7 (1.14%) Groovy
15 7 (1.14%) VBA
16 6 (0.98%) Rust
Qualifications
1 180 (29.36%) Degree
2 86 (14.03%) Security Cleared
3 62 (10.11%) ISTQB
4 50 (8.16%) SC Cleared
5 36 (5.87%) Master's Degree
6 34 (5.55%) Computer Science Degree
7 33 (5.38%) DV Cleared
8 12 (1.96%) PhD
9 11 (1.79%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (1.79%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 11 (1.79%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 9 (1.47%) ISEB
11 6 (0.98%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.98%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.82%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.65%) Chartered Engineer
13 4 (0.65%) CIPD
14 3 (0.49%) Numerate Degree
15 2 (0.33%) BC Cleared
15 2 (0.33%) CSQA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 178 (29.04%) QA
2 41 (6.69%) Accessibility
3 21 (3.43%) Software Quality Assurance
4 12 (1.96%) SLA
5 11 (1.79%) GDPR
6 7 (1.14%) Data Quality
7 6 (0.98%) WCAG
8 5 (0.82%) PMO
9 4 (0.65%) DO-254
9 4 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.49%) IEC 61508
10 3 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 12207
11 2 (0.33%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.33%) JTAG
11 2 (0.33%) MISRA
11 2 (0.33%) MISRA C
11 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 30 (4.89%) Docker
2 25 (4.08%) Firmware
3 16 (2.61%) Active Directory
4 15 (2.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 12 (1.96%) Embedded Firmware
6 5 (0.82%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.82%) KVM
6 5 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.33%) Terminal Server
7 2 (0.33%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.16%) Xen
Systems Management
1 18 (2.94%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.61%) Terraform
3 11 (1.79%) Ansible
4 9 (1.47%) Grafana
5 7 (1.14%) Kibana
5 7 (1.14%) logstash
6 5 (0.82%) SCCM
6 5 (0.82%) SCOM
6 5 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.65%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.49%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.49%) HP Fortify
8 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.49%) Norton AntiVirus
8 3 (0.49%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.33%) Rancher
10 1 (0.16%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.16%) Istio
Vendors
1 61 (9.95%) Microsoft
2 35 (5.71%) Oracle
3 17 (2.77%) VMware
4 15 (2.45%) Splunk
5 10 (1.63%) Adobe
5 10 (1.63%) Citrix
5 10 (1.63%) ServiceNow
6 9 (1.47%) IBM
7 7 (1.14%) Google
7 7 (1.14%) Red Hat
8 5 (0.82%) Atlassian
8 5 (0.82%) Avid
8 5 (0.82%) HP
8 5 (0.82%) Salesforce
8 5 (0.82%) SolarWinds
9 4 (0.65%) Altera
9 4 (0.65%) AppDynamics
9 4 (0.65%) SYSPRO
10 3 (0.49%) Apple
10 3 (0.49%) Veeam