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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 262 160
Rank change year-on-year +10 -102 +18
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 748 464 1,140
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.74% 1.08% 1.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.02% 1.22% 2.05%
Number of salaries quoted 506 329 609
10th Percentile £29,125 £26,450 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,818 £40,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,565 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.02% +1.03% -4.35%
75th Percentile £72,500 £68,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £77,750 £83,750
UK median annual salary £52,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.70% +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 73,454 38,135 55,596
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.14% 88.76% 81.34%
Number of salaries quoted 52,251 21,803 32,273
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,571 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,040
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 15 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 15 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 +4 158 £45,000 -10.00% 150
London -43 147 £70,000 +9.38% 384
North of England +13 141 £52,500 +22.45% 135
Midlands +3 122 £55,000 +28.65% 122
South West -35 93 £50,000 -10.71% 97
West Midlands -3 79 £55,000 +266.67% 72
East of England +22 77 £52,500 -0.94% 123
North West +8 62 £49,700 -29.00% 77
North East -19 49 £55,000 +55.48% 17
East Midlands -9 43 £55,000 +1.38% 49
Yorkshire -41 30 £40,082 +31.41% 43
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 (1.74%) IIS
2 11 (1.47%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.34%) Confluence
4 9 (1.20%) CMS
5 6 (0.80%) WinCC
6 5 (0.67%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.40%) Apache
7 3 (0.40%) WordPress
8 2 (0.27%) Moodle
8 2 (0.27%) nginx
8 2 (0.27%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.13%) Office Communications Server
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 17 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (2.14%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.14%) Simulink
3 6 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.80%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.67%) AutoCAD
4 5 (0.67%) DaVinci Resolve
5 3 (0.40%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
1 3 (0.40%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.27%) Sage 200
2 2 (0.27%) Shopify
2 2 (0.27%) 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
1 134 (17.91%) AWS
2 128 (17.11%) Azure
3 39 (5.21%) Azure DevOps
4 35 (4.68%) Serverless
5 34 (4.55%) GCP
6 33 (4.41%) GitHub
6 33 (4.41%) Power Platform
7 21 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
8 19 (2.54%) SaaS
9 18 (2.41%) AWS Lambda
10 15 (2.01%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (1.74%) OpenShift
12 12 (1.60%) GitHub Copilot
13 10 (1.34%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.34%) BrowserStack
14 8 (1.07%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 7 (0.94%) Amazon EC2
15 7 (0.94%) Anthropic Claude
15 7 (0.94%) Google Workspace
16 6 (0.80%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.87%) TCP/IP
2 11 (1.47%) SNMP
3 10 (1.34%) VPN
4 8 (1.07%) Wireshark
5 7 (0.94%) HTTP
6 6 (0.80%) Modbus
7 4 (0.53%) Ethernet
8 3 (0.40%) DNS
9 2 (0.27%) ATM
9 2 (0.27%) Broadband
9 2 (0.27%) Network Security
9 2 (0.27%) Software-Defined Radio
10 1 (0.13%) 5G
10 1 (0.13%) DHCP
10 1 (0.13%) Internet
10 1 (0.13%) IPv4
10 1 (0.13%) IPv6
10 1 (0.13%) LTE
10 1 (0.13%) MPLS
10 1 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (5.21%) SQL Server
2 28 (3.74%) Power BI
3 17 (2.27%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (2.01%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.87%) DynamoDB
6 13 (1.74%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (1.47%) NoSQL
8 9 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (1.07%) InfluxDB
9 8 (1.07%) MySQL
10 7 (0.94%) OLTP
10 7 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 6 (0.80%) Geospatial Data
12 5 (0.67%) Oracle Database
13 4 (0.53%) Flink
13 4 (0.53%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.53%) Spark SQL
14 3 (0.40%) Crystal Reports
14 3 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
14 3 (0.40%) DTS
Development Applications
1 98 (13.10%) Git
2 71 (9.49%) JIRA
3 58 (7.75%) GitLab
4 57 (7.62%) Selenium
5 44 (5.88%) Jenkins
6 32 (4.28%) Postman
7 29 (3.88%) Cypress.io
8 21 (2.81%) JMeter
9 20 (2.67%) Cucumber
10 19 (2.54%) JUnit
11 18 (2.41%) TestRail
12 15 (2.01%) Zephyr
13 14 (1.87%) Gatling
14 10 (1.34%) REST Assured
15 9 (1.20%) Maven
16 8 (1.07%) Eclipse
16 8 (1.07%) Robot Framework
16 8 (1.07%) Spock
16 8 (1.07%) Visual Studio Code
17 7 (0.94%) Claude Code
General
1 245 (32.75%) Social Skills
2 138 (18.45%) Analytical Skills
3 90 (12.03%) Finance
4 56 (7.49%) Electronics
5 51 (6.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 36 (4.81%) Law
6 36 (4.81%) Manufacturing
7 22 (2.94%) Aerospace
8 20 (2.67%) Banking
8 20 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
8 20 (2.67%) Public Sector
9 15 (2.01%) Automotive
9 15 (2.01%) Aviation
9 15 (2.01%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (2.01%) Retail
10 13 (1.74%) Legal
11 10 (1.34%) Presentation Skills
11 10 (1.34%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.20%) Military
13 8 (1.07%) Games
Job Titles
1 169 (22.59%) Senior
2 127 (16.98%) Software Engineer
3 104 (13.90%) Test Engineer
4 86 (11.50%) Lead
5 82 (10.96%) Developer
6 64 (8.56%) Analyst
7 56 (7.49%) Tester
8 43 (5.75%) Senior Developer
9 40 (5.35%) Software Test Engineer
10 39 (5.21%) Software Developer
11 37 (4.95%) Senior Software Engineer
12 36 (4.81%) QA Engineer
13 32 (4.28%) Software Tester
14 29 (3.88%) Test Automation Engineer
15 28 (3.74%) Embedded Engineer
15 28 (3.74%) Junior
16 24 (3.21%) Embedded Software Engineer
16 24 (3.21%) IT Support
16 24 (3.21%) Support Engineer
17 22 (2.94%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (9.22%) .NET
2 59 (7.89%) Playwright
3 50 (6.68%) HTML
4 47 (6.28%) React
5 29 (3.88%) CSS
6 26 (3.48%) ASP.NET
6 26 (3.48%) REST
6 26 (3.48%) Terraform
7 22 (2.94%) XML
8 21 (2.81%) RESTful
9 16 (2.14%) Node.js
10 13 (1.74%) Gherkin
10 13 (1.74%) React Native
10 13 (1.74%) Spring
11 12 (1.60%) ASP.NET Core
11 12 (1.60%) JSON
11 12 (1.60%) SOAP
11 12 (1.60%) Swagger
12 10 (1.34%) pytest
13 9 (1.20%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 60 (8.02%) Product Ownership
2 35 (4.68%) Distributed Systems
3 27 (3.61%) Algorithms
4 25 (3.34%) Embedded Systems
5 23 (3.07%) Management Information System
6 19 (2.54%) AI Agents
6 19 (2.54%) Analytical Mindset
6 19 (2.54%) Mobile App
7 18 (2.41%) Cloud Native
7 18 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
8 17 (2.27%) Robotics
9 16 (2.14%) Client/Server
9 16 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (1.60%) Driving Licence
11 11 (1.47%) Legacy Applications
12 10 (1.34%) FPGA
13 9 (1.20%) Onboarding
13 9 (1.20%) SCADA
14 8 (1.07%) Private Cloud
14 8 (1.07%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 87 (11.63%) Windows
2 75 (10.03%) Linux
3 20 (2.67%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.07%) CentOS
5 6 (0.80%) VMS
6 5 (0.67%) Android
6 5 (0.67%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.67%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.67%) 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 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.27%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 317 (42.38%) Test Automation
2 280 (37.43%) Agile
3 235 (31.42%) Software Engineering
4 195 (26.07%) CI/CD
5 191 (25.53%) Continuous Improvement
5 191 (25.53%) Problem-Solving
6 159 (21.26%) DevOps
7 126 (16.84%) Code Quality
8 112 (14.97%) Mentoring
9 108 (14.44%) Validation
10 106 (14.17%) AI
10 106 (14.17%) SDLC
11 100 (13.37%) Scrum
12 94 (12.57%) Test Strategy
13 80 (10.70%) Regression Testing
14 69 (9.22%) Computer Science
15 58 (7.75%) Manual Testing
16 56 (7.49%) Stakeholder Management
17 55 (7.35%) Software Architecture
18 52 (6.95%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 194 (25.94%) Python
2 144 (19.25%) SQL
3 109 (14.57%) C#
4 94 (12.57%) JavaScript
5 89 (11.90%) Java
6 80 (10.70%) C++
7 62 (8.29%) C
8 58 (7.75%) TypeScript
9 27 (3.61%) MATLAB
10 24 (3.21%) PowerShell
11 21 (2.81%) Bash
12 14 (1.87%) Embedded C
13 11 (1.47%) Groovy
13 11 (1.47%) PL/SQL
14 10 (1.34%) Julia
15 9 (1.20%) Go
16 8 (1.07%) PHP
16 8 (1.07%) R
17 6 (0.80%) Rust
17 6 (0.80%) VBA
Qualifications
1 166 (22.19%) Degree
2 133 (17.78%) Security Cleared
3 82 (10.96%) SC Cleared
4 39 (5.21%) ISTQB
5 37 (4.95%) DV Cleared
6 34 (4.55%) Master's Degree
7 32 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (1.20%) ISEB
10 8 (1.07%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.80%) PhD
12 5 (0.67%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.67%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.40%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.40%) Chartered Engineer
13 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 3 (0.40%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.27%) Network+ Certification
14 2 (0.27%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 204 (27.27%) QA
2 50 (6.68%) Accessibility
3 24 (3.21%) GDPR
4 20 (2.67%) WCAG
5 14 (1.87%) Software Quality Assurance
6 13 (1.74%) Data Quality
7 8 (1.07%) SLA
8 5 (0.67%) DO-254
8 5 (0.67%) PMO
9 4 (0.53%) IEC 61508
10 3 (0.40%) IEC 61131
10 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 2 (0.27%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.27%) MISRA
11 2 (0.27%) 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 56 (7.49%) Docker
2 37 (4.95%) Firmware
3 19 (2.54%) Embedded Firmware
4 17 (2.27%) Active Directory
5 9 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.27%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.27%) KVM
7 2 (0.27%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 38 (5.08%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.94%) Grafana
3 20 (2.67%) Ansible
4 9 (1.20%) Kibana
5 8 (1.07%) logstash
6 6 (0.80%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.67%) 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 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.27%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 74 (9.89%) Microsoft
2 24 (3.21%) Splunk
3 18 (2.41%) Oracle
4 12 (1.60%) Google
5 11 (1.47%) VMware
6 10 (1.34%) Atlassian
6 10 (1.34%) Citrix
6 10 (1.34%) Red Hat
7 9 (1.20%) Intel
8 8 (1.07%) Adobe
8 8 (1.07%) AppDynamics
8 8 (1.07%) Siemens
9 7 (0.94%) IBM
9 7 (0.94%) ServiceNow
10 5 (0.67%) Avid
10 5 (0.67%) Rockwell
10 5 (0.67%) SolarWinds
11 4 (0.53%) Databricks
11 4 (0.53%) Veracode
11 4 (0.53%) Xilinx