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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 270 159
Rank change year-on-year +29 -111 +12
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 759 459 1,174
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.75% 1.06% 1.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.02% 1.20% 2.08%
Number of salaries quoted 514 330 616
10th Percentile £29,325 £26,475 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,050 £40,004 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £71,250 £68,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £78,750 £83,750
UK median annual salary £51,619 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -10.23% +4.55% -4.35%

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 74,604 38,365 56,474
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.40% 88.79% 81.71%
Number of salaries quoted 52,829 22,080 32,110
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,233 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 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 18 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 +2 159 £45,000 -10.00% 128
North of England +17 152 £52,500 +18.98% 110
London -58 143 £70,000 +9.38% 306
Midlands +6 122 £55,000 +28.65% 115
South West -40 96 £50,000 -10.71% 82
West Midlands -6 82 £52,500 +250.00% 68
East of England +20 77 £52,500 -0.94% 83
North West +20 67 £49,400 -29.43% 65
North East -26 52 £55,000 +40.58% 11
East Midlands -26 40 £55,000 +1.38% 47
Yorkshire -39 33 £44,447 +45.73% 34
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 12 (1.58%) IIS
2 11 (1.45%) Confluence
2 11 (1.45%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.19%) CMS
4 7 (0.92%) WinCC
5 6 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.66%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.40%) WordPress
8 2 (0.26%) Apache
8 2 (0.26%) nginx
8 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.13%) Moodle
9 1 (0.13%) Office Communications Server
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 16 (2.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 16 (2.11%) Microsoft Office
1 16 (2.11%) Simulink
2 6 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (0.79%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.66%) AutoCAD
3 5 (0.66%) DaVinci Resolve
3 5 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.40%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
5 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
1 3 (0.40%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.26%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.26%) Shopify
2 2 (0.26%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
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%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 131 (17.26%) AWS
2 129 (17.00%) Azure
3 41 (5.40%) Azure DevOps
4 36 (4.74%) GitHub
4 36 (4.74%) Serverless
5 33 (4.35%) GCP
6 32 (4.22%) Power Platform
7 21 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
7 21 (2.77%) SaaS
8 18 (2.37%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
10 15 (1.98%) GitHub Copilot
11 13 (1.71%) OpenShift
12 9 (1.19%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (1.19%) BrowserStack
13 8 (1.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 7 (0.92%) Amazon EC2
14 7 (0.92%) Anthropic Claude
14 7 (0.92%) Google Workspace
15 6 (0.79%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.98%) TCP/IP
2 11 (1.45%) SNMP
3 9 (1.19%) VPN
4 8 (1.05%) Wireshark
5 7 (0.92%) Modbus
6 6 (0.79%) HTTP
7 5 (0.66%) Ethernet
8 3 (0.40%) DNS
9 2 (0.26%) ATM
9 2 (0.26%) Broadband
9 2 (0.26%) Network Security
9 2 (0.26%) Software-Defined Radio
10 1 (0.13%) 5G
10 1 (0.13%) DHCP
10 1 (0.13%) IPv4
10 1 (0.13%) IPv6
10 1 (0.13%) LTE
10 1 (0.13%) Profibus
10 1 (0.13%) SSH
10 1 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (5.01%) SQL Server
2 27 (3.56%) Power BI
3 18 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (1.98%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.84%) DynamoDB
6 13 (1.71%) Elasticsearch
7 12 (1.58%) NoSQL
8 8 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
8 8 (1.05%) InfluxDB
8 8 (1.05%) MySQL
9 7 (0.92%) OLTP
10 6 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
10 6 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.66%) Oracle Database
12 4 (0.53%) Flink
12 4 (0.53%) MongoDB
13 3 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.40%) Big Data
13 3 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
13 3 (0.40%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 98 (12.91%) Git
2 70 (9.22%) JIRA
3 57 (7.51%) GitLab
3 57 (7.51%) Selenium
4 43 (5.67%) Jenkins
5 32 (4.22%) Postman
6 30 (3.95%) Cypress.io
7 20 (2.64%) JMeter
8 19 (2.50%) Cucumber
9 18 (2.37%) JUnit
10 17 (2.24%) TestRail
11 14 (1.84%) Gatling
11 14 (1.84%) Zephyr
12 10 (1.32%) REST Assured
13 9 (1.19%) Maven
14 8 (1.05%) Claude Code
14 8 (1.05%) Eclipse
14 8 (1.05%) Robot Framework
14 8 (1.05%) Spock
14 8 (1.05%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 253 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 138 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
3 86 (11.33%) Finance
4 59 (7.77%) Electronics
5 52 (6.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 40 (5.27%) Manufacturing
7 36 (4.74%) Law
8 24 (3.16%) Aerospace
9 20 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
10 19 (2.50%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.37%) Banking
12 16 (2.11%) Automotive
12 16 (2.11%) Retail
13 15 (1.98%) Aviation
13 15 (1.98%) Legal
13 15 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
14 10 (1.32%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.19%) Military
16 8 (1.05%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 171 (22.53%) Senior
2 125 (16.47%) Software Engineer
3 105 (13.83%) Test Engineer
4 85 (11.20%) Developer
4 85 (11.20%) Lead
5 68 (8.96%) Analyst
6 55 (7.25%) Tester
7 43 (5.67%) Senior Developer
8 41 (5.40%) Software Developer
9 40 (5.27%) QA Engineer
9 40 (5.27%) Software Test Engineer
10 36 (4.74%) Senior Software Engineer
11 32 (4.22%) Software Tester
12 29 (3.82%) Test Automation Engineer
13 28 (3.69%) Junior
14 27 (3.56%) Embedded Engineer
15 25 (3.29%) IT Support
16 24 (3.16%) Support Engineer
17 23 (3.03%) Embedded Software Engineer
17 23 (3.03%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (9.62%) .NET
2 62 (8.17%) Playwright
3 52 (6.85%) HTML
4 48 (6.32%) React
5 31 (4.08%) CSS
6 28 (3.69%) REST
7 27 (3.56%) ASP.NET
8 26 (3.43%) Terraform
9 22 (2.90%) RESTful
9 22 (2.90%) XML
10 17 (2.24%) Node.js
11 14 (1.84%) ASP.NET Core
12 13 (1.71%) Gherkin
12 13 (1.71%) Spring
13 12 (1.58%) JSON
13 12 (1.58%) SOAP
13 12 (1.58%) Swagger
14 11 (1.45%) .NET Framework
14 11 (1.45%) React Native
15 10 (1.32%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 61 (8.04%) Product Ownership
2 36 (4.74%) Distributed Systems
3 29 (3.82%) Algorithms
4 25 (3.29%) Embedded Systems
5 23 (3.03%) Management Information System
6 20 (2.64%) AI Agents
6 20 (2.64%) Cloud Native
7 19 (2.50%) Analytical Mindset
8 18 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (2.24%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (2.24%) Mobile App
9 17 (2.24%) Robotics
10 15 (1.98%) Client/Server
11 13 (1.71%) Legacy Applications
12 12 (1.58%) Driving Licence
13 10 (1.32%) FPGA
14 9 (1.19%) Onboarding
14 9 (1.19%) SCADA
15 8 (1.05%) Life Science
15 8 (1.05%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 88 (11.59%) Windows
2 75 (9.88%) Linux
3 20 (2.64%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.05%) CentOS
5 6 (0.79%) Android
5 6 (0.79%) VMS
6 5 (0.66%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.66%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.66%) Robot Operating System
7 4 (0.53%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.53%) Unix
8 3 (0.40%) Debian
8 3 (0.40%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.26%) zOS
10 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 326 (42.95%) Test Automation
2 284 (37.42%) Agile
3 236 (31.09%) Software Engineering
4 199 (26.22%) CI/CD
5 195 (25.69%) Problem-Solving
6 194 (25.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 158 (20.82%) DevOps
8 128 (16.86%) Code Quality
9 115 (15.15%) Mentoring
10 112 (14.76%) Validation
11 108 (14.23%) AI
12 107 (14.10%) SDLC
13 99 (13.04%) Scrum
14 96 (12.65%) Test Strategy
15 82 (10.80%) Regression Testing
16 71 (9.35%) Computer Science
17 60 (7.91%) Stakeholder Management
18 56 (7.38%) Manual Testing
19 55 (7.25%) Software Architecture
20 53 (6.98%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 195 (25.69%) Python
2 143 (18.84%) SQL
3 114 (15.02%) C#
4 96 (12.65%) JavaScript
5 87 (11.46%) Java
6 79 (10.41%) C++
7 62 (8.17%) C
8 58 (7.64%) TypeScript
9 27 (3.56%) MATLAB
10 24 (3.16%) PowerShell
11 22 (2.90%) Bash
12 14 (1.84%) Embedded C
13 11 (1.45%) Groovy
13 11 (1.45%) PL/SQL
14 10 (1.32%) Go
14 10 (1.32%) Julia
15 8 (1.05%) PHP
15 8 (1.05%) R
16 7 (0.92%) Rust
16 7 (0.92%) VBA
Qualifications
1 169 (22.27%) Degree
2 132 (17.39%) Security Cleared
3 81 (10.67%) SC Cleared
4 39 (5.14%) ISTQB
5 37 (4.87%) DV Cleared
6 34 (4.48%) Master's Degree
7 32 (4.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (2.37%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (1.05%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 8 (1.05%) ISEB
10 5 (0.66%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.66%) PhD
11 4 (0.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 3 (0.40%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.40%) Chartered Engineer
12 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.40%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.26%) CSQA
13 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.26%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (27.80%) QA
2 53 (6.98%) Accessibility
3 23 (3.03%) GDPR
4 22 (2.90%) WCAG
5 14 (1.84%) Data Quality
5 14 (1.84%) Software Quality Assurance
6 8 (1.05%) SLA
7 5 (0.66%) DO-254
7 5 (0.66%) PMO
8 4 (0.53%) IEC 61508
9 3 (0.40%) IEC 61131
9 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 2 (0.26%) Automotive SPICE
10 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.26%) MISRA
10 2 (0.26%) MISRA C
11 1 (0.13%) DO-160
11 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 58 (7.64%) Docker
2 37 (4.87%) Firmware
3 19 (2.50%) Embedded Firmware
4 17 (2.24%) Active Directory
5 9 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.26%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.26%) KVM
7 2 (0.26%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 39 (5.14%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.90%) Grafana
3 20 (2.64%) Ansible
4 9 (1.19%) Kibana
5 8 (1.05%) logstash
6 6 (0.79%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.66%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.53%) HP Fortify
8 4 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.40%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.40%) Puppet
9 3 (0.40%) Rancher
9 3 (0.40%) SCCM
9 3 (0.40%) SCOM
9 3 (0.40%) 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 73 (9.62%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.16%) Splunk
3 18 (2.37%) Oracle
4 12 (1.58%) Google
5 11 (1.45%) VMware
6 10 (1.32%) Atlassian
6 10 (1.32%) Red Hat
6 10 (1.32%) Siemens
7 9 (1.19%) Citrix
7 9 (1.19%) Intel
8 8 (1.05%) Adobe
8 8 (1.05%) AppDynamics
9 7 (0.92%) IBM
9 7 (0.92%) ServiceNow
10 6 (0.79%) Rockwell
11 5 (0.66%) Avid
11 5 (0.66%) Databricks
11 5 (0.66%) SolarWinds
12 4 (0.53%) EMC
12 4 (0.53%) Veracode