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

6 months to
23 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 248 259 168
Rank change year-on-year +11 -91 -2
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 730 499 1,154
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.76% 1.14% 1.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.04% 1.28% 1.96%
Number of salaries quoted 492 359 715
10th Percentile £29,500 £26,150 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,663 £38,875 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.35%
75th Percentile £73,750 £68,750 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £77,750 £82,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,565 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.02% +1.03% -1.79%

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 70,479 38,967 58,770
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.53% 89.08% 81.04%
Number of salaries quoted 49,893 22,561 37,721
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 £55,762
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -1.37% -10.78%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 23 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 23 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
London -33 158 £70,000 +9.38% 57
South East +6 155 £45,625 -8.75% 71
North of England +6 134 £55,000 +29.41% 55
Midlands +3 107 £55,000 +29.41% 50
South West -31 89 £52,500 -6.25% 30
East of England +32 79 £50,000 -5.66% 34
West Midlands -8 69 £55,000 +266.67% 35
North West +17 65 £52,500 -30.00% 30
North East -18 43 £57,500 +62.54% 14
East Midlands -15 38 £55,000 +1.85% 15
Yorkshire -55 26 £33,497 +9.82% 12
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 (1.92%) IIS
2 10 (1.37%) Confluence
2 10 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.23%) CMS
4 5 (0.68%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.55%) Moodle
5 4 (0.55%) WinCC
6 3 (0.41%) Apache
6 3 (0.41%) WordPress
7 2 (0.27%) nginx
7 2 (0.27%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
Applications
1 18 (2.47%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.51%) Simulink
4 7 (0.96%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.82%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.68%) AutoCAD
6 5 (0.68%) DaVinci Resolve
7 3 (0.41%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.41%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.27%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.27%) Shopify
2 2 (0.27%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.14%) Misys Equation
3 1 (0.14%) Misys Midas
3 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 129 (17.67%) AWS
2 126 (17.26%) Azure
3 42 (5.75%) Azure DevOps
4 33 (4.52%) GCP
5 31 (4.25%) GitHub
6 30 (4.11%) Serverless
7 27 (3.70%) Power Platform
8 20 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
9 17 (2.33%) SaaS
10 14 (1.92%) GitHub Copilot
11 13 (1.78%) AWS Lambda
12 11 (1.51%) OpenShift
13 10 (1.37%) BrowserStack
13 10 (1.37%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (1.23%) Anthropic Claude
15 8 (1.10%) AWS CloudFormation
16 6 (0.82%) Azure Functions
16 6 (0.82%) Tricentis Tosca
17 5 (0.68%) Amazon ECS
17 5 (0.68%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.51%) SNMP
1 11 (1.51%) VPN
2 9 (1.23%) TCP/IP
3 8 (1.10%) Broadband
4 7 (0.96%) HTTP
5 4 (0.55%) Ethernet
5 4 (0.55%) Modbus
6 3 (0.41%) Wireshark
7 2 (0.27%) ATM
7 2 (0.27%) DNS
7 2 (0.27%) LTE
7 2 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
7 2 (0.27%) Wireless
8 1 (0.14%) 5G
8 1 (0.14%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.14%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (0.14%) Internet
8 1 (0.14%) Network Security
8 1 (0.14%) SSL
8 1 (0.14%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (5.89%) SQL Server
2 23 (3.15%) Power BI
3 20 (2.74%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.78%) DynamoDB
5 12 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (1.64%) Relational Database
6 10 (1.37%) Azure SQL Database
7 9 (1.23%) MongoDB
7 9 (1.23%) OLTP
8 8 (1.10%) NoSQL
8 8 (1.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 7 (0.96%) InfluxDB
9 7 (0.96%) MySQL
10 6 (0.82%) Geospatial Data
11 5 (0.68%) Oracle Database
11 5 (0.68%) Spark SQL
12 4 (0.55%) Crystal Reports
12 4 (0.55%) Flink
13 3 (0.41%) Big Data
13 3 (0.41%) DTS
Development Applications
1 92 (12.60%) Git
2 70 (9.59%) JIRA
3 59 (8.08%) Selenium
4 50 (6.85%) GitLab
5 40 (5.48%) Jenkins
6 29 (3.97%) Postman
7 27 (3.70%) Cypress.io
8 18 (2.47%) Cucumber
8 18 (2.47%) TestRail
9 17 (2.33%) JUnit
9 17 (2.33%) Zephyr
10 16 (2.19%) JMeter
11 14 (1.92%) Gatling
12 12 (1.64%) REST Assured
13 9 (1.23%) Claude Code
14 8 (1.10%) LoadRunner
14 8 (1.10%) Visual Studio Code
15 7 (0.96%) Maven
15 7 (0.96%) Robot Framework
15 7 (0.96%) SoapUI
General
1 230 (31.51%) Social Skills
2 126 (17.26%) Analytical Skills
3 95 (13.01%) Finance
4 49 (6.71%) Electronics
5 43 (5.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 39 (5.34%) Law
7 38 (5.21%) Manufacturing
8 23 (3.15%) Banking
9 22 (3.01%) Public Sector
10 21 (2.88%) Aerospace
11 16 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
11 16 (2.19%) Retail
12 14 (1.92%) Aviation
12 14 (1.92%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (1.78%) Games
13 13 (1.78%) Legal
14 12 (1.64%) Automotive
15 9 (1.23%) Back Office
15 9 (1.23%) Military
16 8 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 171 (23.42%) Senior
2 120 (16.44%) Software Engineer
3 98 (13.42%) Test Engineer
4 87 (11.92%) Developer
5 79 (10.82%) Lead
6 65 (8.90%) Analyst
7 59 (8.08%) Tester
8 46 (6.30%) Senior Developer
9 42 (5.75%) Software Test Engineer
10 39 (5.34%) Software Developer
11 37 (5.07%) Software Tester
12 34 (4.66%) QA Engineer
12 34 (4.66%) Senior Software Engineer
13 28 (3.84%) Test Automation Engineer
14 26 (3.56%) Embedded Engineer
14 26 (3.56%) Junior
15 23 (3.15%) Development Engineer
16 22 (3.01%) Consultant
16 22 (3.01%) Embedded Software Engineer
17 21 (2.88%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (9.45%) .NET
2 54 (7.40%) Playwright
3 45 (6.16%) HTML
4 42 (5.75%) React
5 33 (4.52%) REST
6 27 (3.70%) ASP.NET
7 22 (3.01%) CSS
7 22 (3.01%) Terraform
8 20 (2.74%) XML
9 15 (2.05%) Node.js
9 15 (2.05%) RESTful
10 13 (1.78%) React Native
10 13 (1.78%) SOAP
11 12 (1.64%) ASP.NET Core
11 12 (1.64%) JSON
11 12 (1.64%) Swagger
12 11 (1.51%) Spring
13 10 (1.37%) pytest
14 8 (1.10%) Gherkin
14 8 (1.10%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 58 (7.95%) Product Ownership
2 32 (4.38%) Distributed Systems
3 29 (3.97%) Algorithms
4 27 (3.70%) Embedded Systems
5 22 (3.01%) Management Information System
6 20 (2.74%) Enterprise Software
6 20 (2.74%) Mobile App
7 17 (2.33%) Cloud Native
7 17 (2.33%) Robotics
8 16 (2.19%) AI Agents
9 14 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.78%) Client/Server
10 13 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
11 12 (1.64%) Video\Live Streaming
12 11 (1.51%) Driving Licence
12 11 (1.51%) Legacy Applications
12 11 (1.51%) Low-Code
13 10 (1.37%) FPGA
13 10 (1.37%) Onboarding
14 8 (1.10%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 88 (12.05%) Windows
2 70 (9.59%) Linux
3 20 (2.74%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.96%) CentOS
5 6 (0.82%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.68%) Android
6 5 (0.68%) Unix
7 4 (0.55%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.55%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.55%) Robot Operating System
7 4 (0.55%) VMS
8 3 (0.41%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.27%) Debian
9 2 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.27%) zOS
10 1 (0.14%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (40.55%) Test Automation
2 264 (36.16%) Agile
3 228 (31.23%) Software Engineering
4 193 (26.44%) Continuous Improvement
5 178 (24.38%) CI/CD
6 174 (23.84%) Problem-Solving
7 159 (21.78%) DevOps
8 117 (16.03%) Code Quality
9 107 (14.66%) Mentoring
10 106 (14.52%) Validation
11 105 (14.38%) AI
12 103 (14.11%) SDLC
13 93 (12.74%) Scrum
14 91 (12.47%) Test Strategy
15 74 (10.14%) Regression Testing
16 70 (9.59%) Computer Science
17 64 (8.77%) Manual Testing
18 52 (7.12%) Software Architecture
18 52 (7.12%) Test Scripting
19 48 (6.58%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 199 (27.26%) Python
2 133 (18.22%) SQL
3 110 (15.07%) C#
4 86 (11.78%) JavaScript
5 84 (11.51%) Java
6 76 (10.41%) C++
7 57 (7.81%) C
8 48 (6.58%) TypeScript
9 22 (3.01%) MATLAB
9 22 (3.01%) PowerShell
10 19 (2.60%) Bash
11 13 (1.78%) Go
12 12 (1.64%) PL/SQL
13 10 (1.37%) Embedded C
13 10 (1.37%) PHP
14 9 (1.23%) Groovy
14 9 (1.23%) Julia
15 8 (1.10%) R
16 7 (0.96%) VBA
17 5 (0.68%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 167 (22.88%) Degree
2 127 (17.40%) Security Cleared
3 77 (10.55%) SC Cleared
4 40 (5.48%) ISTQB
5 36 (4.93%) DV Cleared
6 34 (4.66%) Master's Degree
7 32 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 19 (2.60%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (1.51%) ISEB
10 8 (1.10%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 8 (1.10%) PhD
11 7 (0.96%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 5 (0.68%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.55%) Chartered Engineer
14 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 3 (0.41%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.27%) HND
15 2 (0.27%) MCSA
15 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (0.27%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 209 (28.63%) QA
2 46 (6.30%) Accessibility
3 21 (2.88%) GDPR
4 18 (2.47%) Software Quality Assurance
5 13 (1.78%) Data Quality
5 13 (1.78%) WCAG
6 9 (1.23%) SLA
7 5 (0.68%) DO-254
7 5 (0.68%) IEC 61508
7 5 (0.68%) PMO
8 3 (0.41%) IEC 61131
8 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 3 (0.41%) 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 (0.14%) DO-160
10 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.14%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 51 (6.99%) Docker
2 32 (4.38%) Firmware
3 18 (2.47%) Active Directory
4 15 (2.05%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.27%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.27%) KVM
7 2 (0.27%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.14%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 35 (4.79%) Kubernetes
2 21 (2.88%) Grafana
3 18 (2.47%) Ansible
4 9 (1.23%) Kibana
5 8 (1.10%) logstash
6 6 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.68%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.55%) HP Fortify
8 4 (0.55%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.55%) SCCM
8 4 (0.55%) SCOM
9 3 (0.41%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.41%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.41%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.27%) Puppet
10 2 (0.27%) Rancher
10 2 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.14%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 69 (9.45%) Microsoft
2 21 (2.88%) Splunk
3 20 (2.74%) Oracle
4 12 (1.64%) VMware
5 11 (1.51%) Citrix
5 11 (1.51%) Google
6 10 (1.37%) Atlassian
7 9 (1.23%) Intel
7 9 (1.23%) Red Hat
8 8 (1.10%) Adobe
8 8 (1.10%) ServiceNow
9 7 (0.96%) IBM
10 6 (0.82%) AppDynamics
10 6 (0.82%) Siemens
11 5 (0.68%) Avid
11 5 (0.68%) HP
11 5 (0.68%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.55%) EMC
12 4 (0.55%) Veracode
12 4 (0.55%) Xilinx