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 21 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 276 208 179
Rank change year-on-year -68 -29 -107
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 531 575 1,339
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.68% 1.54% 1.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.90% 1.65% 1.90%
Number of salaries quoted 402 429 1,083
10th Percentile £30,125 £31,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,625 £39,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,250 £87,500 £85,800
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -9.09%

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 58,708 34,771 70,627
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 75.38% 93.06% 85.79%
Number of salaries quoted 36,937 20,617 53,431
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £93,750
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.86%

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 21 April 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 21 April 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 -29 145 £50,500 -3.81% 80
London -40 136 £60,000 -7.69% 40
North of England -75 87 £45,000 -10.00% 53
South West -46 62 £47,500 -2.49% 30
Midlands -63 56 £55,000 +22.22% 41
North West -50 42 £49,400 -5.90% 32
East of England -29 36 £52,500 -8.70% 49
Yorkshire -56 35 £35,000 +8.53% 12
West Midlands -44 28 £55,000 +23.60% 28
East Midlands -72 28 £55,000 +15.79% 13
North East -35 10 £55,750 +39.38% 9
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 10 (1.88%) IIS
2 8 (1.51%) Confluence
3 7 (1.32%) Moodle
4 5 (0.94%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.38%) Apache
5 2 (0.38%) WordPress
6 1 (0.19%) CMS
6 1 (0.19%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.19%) Umbraco
Applications
1 13 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.88%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.13%) AutoCAD
3 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (1.13%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.94%) DaVinci Resolve
4 5 (0.94%) Simulink
5 4 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.56%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.38%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.19%) EPLAN
Business Applications
1 3 (0.56%) Misys Midas
2 2 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.19%) Cognos Business Intelligence
3 1 (0.19%) Misys Equation
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.19%) Sage X3
3 1 (0.19%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 111 (20.90%) Azure
2 100 (18.83%) AWS
3 41 (7.72%) Azure DevOps
4 36 (6.78%) GCP
5 22 (4.14%) GitHub
5 22 (4.14%) SaaS
6 14 (2.64%) BrowserStack
7 10 (1.88%) OpenShift
7 10 (1.88%) Power Platform
7 10 (1.88%) Serverless
8 9 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (1.32%) Anthropic Claude
9 7 (1.32%) GitHub Copilot
10 6 (1.13%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (0.94%) AWS Lambda
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (0.94%) PaaS
12 4 (0.75%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (0.75%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.51%) Broadband
2 6 (1.13%) Ethernet
3 5 (0.94%) HTTP
3 5 (0.94%) SNMP
3 5 (0.94%) VPN
4 3 (0.56%) Cisco ISE
4 3 (0.56%) Software-Defined Radio
5 2 (0.38%) Modbus
5 2 (0.38%) MQTT
5 2 (0.38%) Network Security
6 1 (0.19%) AMQP
6 1 (0.19%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.19%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.19%) LTE
6 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (7.91%) SQL Server
2 21 (3.95%) PostgreSQL
3 14 (2.64%) OLTP
4 12 (2.26%) MongoDB
4 12 (2.26%) MySQL
5 8 (1.51%) NoSQL
6 7 (1.32%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (1.32%) Power BI
7 6 (1.13%) InfluxDB
7 6 (1.13%) Relational Database
7 6 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.94%) DynamoDB
8 5 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.94%) Spark SQL
9 4 (0.75%) Crystal Reports
9 4 (0.75%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.38%) DB2
10 2 (0.38%) Easytrieve
11 1 (0.19%) OLAP
Development Applications
1 82 (15.44%) JIRA
2 68 (12.81%) Selenium
3 48 (9.04%) Git
4 44 (8.29%) Postman
5 37 (6.97%) GitLab
6 30 (5.65%) Jenkins
6 30 (5.65%) SoapUI
7 27 (5.08%) Team Foundation Server
8 26 (4.90%) WebDriver
9 19 (3.58%) TestRail
10 17 (3.20%) Cypress.io
11 12 (2.26%) Zephyr
12 11 (2.07%) Cucumber
12 11 (2.07%) SpecFlow
13 10 (1.88%) JMeter
13 10 (1.88%) Subversion
14 9 (1.69%) JUnit
14 9 (1.69%) REST Assured
15 8 (1.51%) Robot Framework
15 8 (1.51%) Visual Studio
General
1 162 (30.51%) Social Skills
2 75 (14.12%) Finance
3 70 (13.18%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (6.40%) Electronics
5 23 (4.33%) Law
6 21 (3.95%) Retail
7 17 (3.20%) Banking
8 15 (2.82%) Manufacturing
9 12 (2.26%) Public Sector
10 11 (2.07%) Games
10 11 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (1.69%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.32%) Pharmaceutical
13 6 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
14 5 (0.94%) Health Technology
14 5 (0.94%) Marketing
14 5 (0.94%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.75%) Back Office
15 4 (0.75%) Swedish Language
Job Titles
1 113 (21.28%) Senior
2 90 (16.95%) Software Engineer
3 67 (12.62%) Lead
4 65 (12.24%) Analyst
5 63 (11.86%) Tester
6 60 (11.30%) Test Engineer
7 43 (8.10%) Developer
8 38 (7.16%) Software Tester
9 37 (6.97%) Development Engineer
10 36 (6.78%) Software Development Engineer
11 33 (6.21%) Software Test Engineer
12 31 (5.84%) Test Analyst
12 31 (5.84%) Test Development Engineer
13 25 (4.71%) Senior Developer
13 25 (4.71%) Senior Software Engineer
14 23 (4.33%) Test Automation Engineer
15 20 (3.77%) Embedded Engineer
15 20 (3.77%) Senior Analyst
16 19 (3.58%) QA Engineer
17 17 (3.20%) Senior Oracle Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (16.01%) .NET
2 54 (10.17%) HTML
3 41 (7.72%) SOAP
4 38 (7.16%) Playwright
5 31 (5.84%) React
6 24 (4.52%) XML
7 22 (4.14%) Node.js
8 17 (3.20%) REST
9 14 (2.64%) ASP.NET
10 12 (2.26%) JSON
11 11 (2.07%) .NET Framework
12 10 (1.88%) CSS
13 8 (1.51%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (1.51%) React Native
14 7 (1.32%) RESTful
14 7 (1.32%) Spring
15 6 (1.13%) pytest
15 6 (1.13%) Web Services
16 5 (0.94%) PySpark
16 5 (0.94%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.53%) Product Ownership
2 24 (4.52%) Cloud Native
3 21 (3.95%) Algorithms
4 17 (3.20%) Embedded Systems
5 15 (2.82%) Mobile App
6 12 (2.26%) Client/Server
6 12 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (2.07%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.07%) Management Information System
8 10 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (1.69%) Low-Code
9 9 (1.69%) Robotics
10 8 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.32%) e-Learning
11 7 (1.32%) NHS
11 7 (1.32%) Onboarding
11 7 (1.32%) Video\Live Streaming
12 6 (1.13%) FPGA
12 6 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
13 5 (0.94%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 44 (8.29%) Windows
2 34 (6.40%) Linux
3 10 (1.88%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.51%) Android
5 6 (1.13%) CentOS
6 4 (0.75%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.56%) FreeRTOS
8 2 (0.38%) Kali Linux
8 2 (0.38%) Unix
8 2 (0.38%) VMS
8 2 (0.38%) zOS
9 1 (0.19%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.19%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (39.55%) Test Automation
2 196 (36.91%) Agile
3 132 (24.86%) Continuous Improvement
4 126 (23.73%) Software Engineering
5 119 (22.41%) Problem-Solving
6 111 (20.90%) DevOps
7 106 (19.96%) CI/CD
8 87 (16.38%) Scrum
9 69 (12.99%) Computer Science
10 67 (12.62%) Mentoring
10 67 (12.62%) SDLC
11 59 (11.11%) Test Scripting
12 57 (10.73%) Non-Functional Testing
12 57 (10.73%) Test Management
13 55 (10.36%) Regression Testing
14 54 (10.17%) API Testing
15 51 (9.60%) Code Quality
15 51 (9.60%) Manual Testing
16 48 (9.04%) AI
17 46 (8.66%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 121 (22.79%) SQL
2 104 (19.59%) Python
3 97 (18.27%) C#
3 97 (18.27%) Java
4 66 (12.43%) JavaScript
5 40 (7.53%) TypeScript
6 39 (7.34%) C++
7 35 (6.59%) C
8 18 (3.39%) PowerShell
9 17 (3.20%) Bash
9 17 (3.20%) PL/SQL
10 15 (2.82%) Go
11 11 (2.07%) PHP
12 9 (1.69%) MATLAB
13 7 (1.32%) VBA
13 7 (1.32%) VBScript
14 5 (0.94%) COBOL
14 5 (0.94%) Embedded C
14 5 (0.94%) Rust
14 5 (0.94%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 167 (31.45%) Degree
2 73 (13.75%) Security Cleared
3 69 (12.99%) ISTQB
4 39 (7.34%) SC Cleared
5 32 (6.03%) Computer Science Degree
6 24 (4.52%) DV Cleared
7 22 (4.14%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 22 (4.14%) Master's Degree
8 19 (3.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 12 (2.26%) PhD
10 8 (1.51%) BPSS Clearance
10 8 (1.51%) ISEB
11 7 (1.32%) PMI Certification
12 6 (1.13%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 4 (0.75%) BC Cleared
13 4 (0.75%) CIPD
13 4 (0.75%) Numerate Degree
14 3 (0.56%) CITP
14 3 (0.56%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (27.68%) QA
2 30 (5.65%) Accessibility
3 19 (3.58%) Software Quality Assurance
4 9 (1.69%) SLA
5 6 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.94%) PMO
7 4 (0.75%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.75%) DO-254
7 4 (0.75%) IEC 61508
8 3 (0.56%) WCAG
9 2 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.38%) GDPR
9 2 (0.38%) JTAG
9 2 (0.38%) MISRA
9 2 (0.38%) MISRA C
9 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.19%) IEC 61131
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 25 (4.71%) Docker
2 21 (3.95%) Firmware
3 13 (2.45%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (2.07%) Active Directory
5 10 (1.88%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.75%) KVM
6 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.56%) Terminal Server
8 2 (0.38%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 21 (3.95%) Kubernetes
2 19 (3.58%) Terraform
3 12 (2.26%) Ansible
4 10 (1.88%) Grafana
5 7 (1.32%) SCCM
5 7 (1.32%) SCOM
6 5 (0.94%) Kibana
6 5 (0.94%) logstash
7 4 (0.75%) HP ALM
7 4 (0.75%) Rancher
7 4 (0.75%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.56%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.38%) Functional Safety
9 2 (0.38%) HP Fortify
9 2 (0.38%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.19%) Argo
10 1 (0.19%) Istio
10 1 (0.19%) Nessus
Vendors
1 59 (11.11%) Microsoft
2 30 (5.65%) Oracle
3 14 (2.64%) VMware
4 11 (2.07%) Splunk
5 10 (1.88%) Adobe
5 10 (1.88%) IBM
6 7 (1.32%) Google
6 7 (1.32%) Red Hat
7 6 (1.13%) HP
8 5 (0.94%) Avid
8 5 (0.94%) Citrix
8 5 (0.94%) Salesforce
8 5 (0.94%) SolarWinds
8 5 (0.94%) Zoho
9 4 (0.75%) Altera
9 4 (0.75%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.75%) ServiceNow
9 4 (0.75%) SYSPRO
10 3 (0.56%) Juniper
10 3 (0.56%) McAfee