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 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 279 159
Rank change year-on-year +27 -120 +17
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 769 457 1,163
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.74% 1.06% 1.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.01% 1.19% 2.07%
Number of salaries quoted 519 332 591
10th Percentile £29,000 £27,500 £33,750
25th Percentile £39,100 £40,011 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £56,215 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.61% +2.21% -4.35%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £88,000 £78,750 £83,750
UK median annual salary £51,102 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -11.13% +4.55% -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 75,808 38,286 56,076
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.42% 88.78% 82.02%
Number of salaries quoted 53,559 21,944 31,035
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,215 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.98% -6.40%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,560
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.45% -4.07%

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 25 September 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 25 September 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 -14 159 £45,000 -10.00% 144
North of England +21 152 £51,619 +11.61% 145
London -49 146 £70,000 +9.38% 335
Midlands +13 124 £52,500 +19.32% 121
South West -31 96 £50,000 -9.09% 92
West Midlands -2 85 £48,750 +153.88% 73
East of England +32 80 £52,500 -0.94% 84
North West +2 63 £45,000 -35.71% 82
North East -23 53 £57,500 +46.96% 18
East Midlands -16 39 £55,000 +1.38% 47
Yorkshire -23 36 £43,474 +42.54% 45
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 13 (1.69%) SharePoint
2 12 (1.56%) IIS
3 11 (1.43%) Confluence
4 10 (1.30%) CMS
5 7 (0.91%) WinCC
6 6 (0.78%) Apache Spark
6 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (0.52%) Apache
8 3 (0.39%) WordPress
9 2 (0.26%) nginx
9 2 (0.26%) Office Communications Server
9 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
10 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.13%) Moodle
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 17 (2.21%) Microsoft Office
1 17 (2.21%) Simulink
2 15 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.65%) AutoCAD
4 5 (0.65%) DaVinci Resolve
5 4 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.39%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.13%) EPLAN
7 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
1 3 (0.39%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.26%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.26%) Shopify
2 2 (0.26%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Equation
3 1 (0.13%) Misys Midas
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 134 (17.43%) Azure
2 132 (17.17%) AWS
3 43 (5.59%) Azure DevOps
4 38 (4.94%) Serverless
5 35 (4.55%) GitHub
6 34 (4.42%) Power Platform
7 33 (4.29%) GCP
8 21 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
8 21 (2.73%) SaaS
9 18 (2.34%) AWS Lambda
10 16 (2.08%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (1.82%) GitHub Copilot
11 14 (1.82%) OpenShift
12 9 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 9 (1.17%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (1.17%) BrowserStack
13 8 (1.04%) Google Workspace
14 7 (0.91%) Amazon EC2
14 7 (0.91%) Azure Functions
15 6 (0.78%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.95%) TCP/IP
2 11 (1.43%) SNMP
3 9 (1.17%) VPN
3 9 (1.17%) Wireshark
4 7 (0.91%) Ethernet
4 7 (0.91%) Modbus
5 6 (0.78%) HTTP
6 3 (0.39%) DNS
6 3 (0.39%) Profibus
7 2 (0.26%) ATM
7 2 (0.26%) Network Security
7 2 (0.26%) Software-Defined Radio
8 1 (0.13%) BGP
8 1 (0.13%) Broadband
8 1 (0.13%) DHCP
8 1 (0.13%) Internet
8 1 (0.13%) IPv4
8 1 (0.13%) IPv6
8 1 (0.13%) MPLS
8 1 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (4.94%) SQL Server
2 29 (3.77%) Power BI
3 18 (2.34%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (1.95%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.82%) DynamoDB
5 14 (1.82%) Elasticsearch
6 12 (1.56%) NoSQL
7 8 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (1.04%) InfluxDB
7 8 (1.04%) MySQL
8 6 (0.78%) Geospatial Data
8 6 (0.78%) OLTP
8 6 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.65%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.52%) Flink
11 3 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.39%) Big Data
11 3 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.39%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.39%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 98 (12.74%) Git
2 71 (9.23%) JIRA
3 58 (7.54%) GitLab
3 58 (7.54%) Selenium
4 43 (5.59%) Jenkins
5 32 (4.16%) Postman
6 30 (3.90%) Cypress.io
7 20 (2.60%) JMeter
8 18 (2.34%) Cucumber
9 17 (2.21%) JUnit
9 17 (2.21%) TestRail
10 14 (1.82%) Gatling
11 13 (1.69%) Zephyr
12 10 (1.30%) REST Assured
13 9 (1.17%) Eclipse
13 9 (1.17%) Maven
14 8 (1.04%) Robot Framework
14 8 (1.04%) Spock
14 8 (1.04%) Visual Studio Code
15 7 (0.91%) Claude Code
General
1 263 (34.20%) Social Skills
2 140 (18.21%) Analytical Skills
3 88 (11.44%) Finance
4 62 (8.06%) Electronics
5 54 (7.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 44 (5.72%) Manufacturing
7 35 (4.55%) Law
8 26 (3.38%) Aerospace
9 22 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (2.60%) Banking
10 20 (2.60%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.34%) Automotive
11 18 (2.34%) Retail
12 15 (1.95%) Aviation
12 15 (1.95%) Legal
12 15 (1.95%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (1.30%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (1.17%) Military
14 9 (1.17%) Telecoms
15 8 (1.04%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 175 (22.76%) Senior
2 121 (15.73%) Software Engineer
3 108 (14.04%) Test Engineer
4 88 (11.44%) Developer
5 84 (10.92%) Lead
6 74 (9.62%) Analyst
7 53 (6.89%) Tester
8 43 (5.59%) Software Developer
9 42 (5.46%) Senior Developer
10 41 (5.33%) QA Engineer
11 40 (5.20%) Software Test Engineer
12 37 (4.81%) Senior Software Engineer
13 29 (3.77%) Junior
14 28 (3.64%) Embedded Engineer
14 28 (3.64%) Software Tester
14 28 (3.64%) Test Automation Engineer
15 26 (3.38%) IT Support
16 25 (3.25%) Support Analyst
16 25 (3.25%) Support Engineer
17 23 (2.99%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (9.49%) .NET
2 63 (8.19%) Playwright
3 52 (6.76%) HTML
4 50 (6.50%) React
5 33 (4.29%) CSS
6 29 (3.77%) REST
7 26 (3.38%) ASP.NET
7 26 (3.38%) Terraform
8 23 (2.99%) RESTful
9 21 (2.73%) Node.js
9 21 (2.73%) XML
10 14 (1.82%) ASP.NET Core
10 14 (1.82%) Spring
11 13 (1.69%) Gherkin
11 13 (1.69%) JSON
11 13 (1.69%) Swagger
12 11 (1.43%) SOAP
13 10 (1.30%) .NET Framework
13 10 (1.30%) AngularJS
13 10 (1.30%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 60 (7.80%) Product Ownership
2 36 (4.68%) Distributed Systems
3 28 (3.64%) Algorithms
4 26 (3.38%) Embedded Systems
5 23 (2.99%) Management Information System
6 22 (2.86%) Cloud Native
7 21 (2.73%) AI Agents
8 20 (2.60%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
10 18 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (2.21%) Mobile App
12 16 (2.08%) Robotics
13 15 (1.95%) Client/Server
14 13 (1.69%) Driving Licence
14 13 (1.69%) Legacy Applications
15 11 (1.43%) FPGA
16 10 (1.30%) Onboarding
16 10 (1.30%) SCADA
17 9 (1.17%) Private Cloud
18 8 (1.04%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 86 (11.18%) Windows
2 71 (9.23%) Linux
3 21 (2.73%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.04%) CentOS
5 7 (0.91%) Android
6 6 (0.78%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.78%) VMS
7 5 (0.65%) Embedded Linux
7 5 (0.65%) Robot Operating System
8 4 (0.52%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.52%) Unix
9 3 (0.39%) Debian
9 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
11 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 335 (43.56%) Test Automation
2 292 (37.97%) Agile
3 235 (30.56%) Software Engineering
4 208 (27.05%) CI/CD
5 200 (26.01%) Problem-Solving
6 198 (25.75%) Continuous Improvement
7 162 (21.07%) DevOps
8 124 (16.12%) Code Quality
9 120 (15.60%) Mentoring
10 114 (14.82%) Validation
11 107 (13.91%) SDLC
12 106 (13.78%) AI
13 101 (13.13%) Scrum
14 99 (12.87%) Test Strategy
15 86 (11.18%) Regression Testing
16 71 (9.23%) Computer Science
17 67 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
18 57 (7.41%) Manual Testing
19 55 (7.15%) Software Architecture
19 55 (7.15%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 193 (25.10%) Python
2 142 (18.47%) SQL
3 115 (14.95%) C#
4 99 (12.87%) JavaScript
5 92 (11.96%) Java
6 75 (9.75%) C++
7 63 (8.19%) TypeScript
8 58 (7.54%) C
9 28 (3.64%) MATLAB
10 24 (3.12%) PowerShell
11 22 (2.86%) Bash
12 14 (1.82%) Embedded C
13 11 (1.43%) Go
13 11 (1.43%) Groovy
14 10 (1.30%) Julia
14 10 (1.30%) PL/SQL
15 8 (1.04%) R
16 7 (0.91%) PHP
17 6 (0.78%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 171 (22.24%) Degree
2 134 (17.43%) Security Cleared
3 81 (10.53%) SC Cleared
4 39 (5.07%) ISTQB
5 35 (4.55%) DV Cleared
6 34 (4.42%) Master's Degree
7 31 (4.03%) Computer Science Degree
8 19 (2.47%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.04%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 8 (1.04%) ISEB
10 5 (0.65%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 4 (0.52%) PhD
12 3 (0.39%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.39%) Chartered Engineer
12 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.39%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.26%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.26%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (27.44%) QA
2 54 (7.02%) Accessibility
3 23 (2.99%) GDPR
4 22 (2.86%) WCAG
5 13 (1.69%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.43%) Software Quality Assurance
7 8 (1.04%) SLA
8 5 (0.65%) PMO
9 4 (0.52%) DO-254
9 4 (0.52%) IEC 61508
10 3 (0.39%) IEC 61131
10 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 2 (0.26%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.26%) MISRA
11 2 (0.26%) MISRA C
12 1 (0.13%) DO-160
12 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 61 (7.93%) Docker
2 39 (5.07%) Firmware
3 20 (2.60%) Embedded Firmware
4 17 (2.21%) Active Directory
5 8 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.13%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.13%) KVM
Systems Management
1 41 (5.33%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.86%) Grafana
3 20 (2.60%) Ansible
4 10 (1.30%) Kibana
5 8 (1.04%) logstash
6 6 (0.78%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.65%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.52%) HP Fortify
8 4 (0.52%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.39%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.39%) Puppet
9 3 (0.39%) Rancher
9 3 (0.39%) SCCM
9 3 (0.39%) SCOM
9 3 (0.39%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.26%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 78 (10.14%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.12%) Splunk
3 17 (2.21%) Oracle
4 14 (1.82%) Google
5 12 (1.56%) Siemens
6 10 (1.30%) Atlassian
6 10 (1.30%) Red Hat
6 10 (1.30%) VMware
7 9 (1.17%) Citrix
7 9 (1.17%) Intel
8 8 (1.04%) Adobe
8 8 (1.04%) AppDynamics
9 7 (0.91%) Rockwell
10 6 (0.78%) Databricks
10 6 (0.78%) ServiceNow
11 5 (0.65%) Avid
11 5 (0.65%) IBM
11 5 (0.65%) SAP
11 5 (0.65%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.52%) Xilinx