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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 242 291 153
Rank change year-on-year +49 -138 +21
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 763 438 1,141
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.73% 1.01% 1.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.00% 1.14% 2.08%
Number of salaries quoted 514 321 572
10th Percentile £29,075 £27,500 £35,000
25th Percentile £39,818 £40,000 £42,500
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 £75,000
90th Percentile £87,425 £80,000 £83,750
UK median annual salary £51,619 £57,500 £56,750
% change year-on-year -10.23% +1.32% +3.18%

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 76,481 38,519 54,833
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.55% 89.12% 82.39%
Number of salaries quoted 53,828 21,783 29,723
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £36,532 £42,608
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.44%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £58,700
% change year-on-year +9.09% -6.30% -2.17%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 -6 156 £45,000 -10.00% 214
North of England +28 153 £51,772 +8.99% 189
London -56 144 £70,000 +9.38% 406
Midlands +14 123 £52,500 +19.32% 166
South West -28 97 £50,000 -9.91% 130
West Midlands +4 84 £45,000 +200.00% 97
East of England +13 78 £50,000 -5.66% 129
North West -2 63 £44,724 -28.44% 98
North East -14 55 £57,500 +21.05% 26
East Midlands -21 39 £55,000 -1.79% 69
Yorkshire -27 35 £44,447 +45.73% 66
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 (1.57%) CMS
2 11 (1.44%) Confluence
2 11 (1.44%) IIS
2 11 (1.44%) SharePoint
3 7 (0.92%) WinCC
4 6 (0.79%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.52%) Apache
6 3 (0.39%) WordPress
7 2 (0.26%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.26%) nginx
7 2 (0.26%) Office Communications Server
7 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 17 (2.23%) Simulink
2 15 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.39%) AutoCAD
6 3 (0.39%) DaVinci Resolve
6 3 (0.39%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
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%) SAP S/4HANA
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 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
1 133 (17.43%) Azure
2 132 (17.30%) AWS
3 41 (5.37%) Serverless
4 39 (5.11%) Azure DevOps
5 36 (4.72%) GitHub
6 34 (4.46%) Power Platform
7 31 (4.06%) GCP
8 21 (2.75%) SaaS
9 20 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
10 18 (2.36%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (2.10%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (1.70%) OpenShift
13 11 (1.44%) GitHub Copilot
14 9 (1.18%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 9 (1.18%) AWS CloudFormation
14 9 (1.18%) Google Workspace
15 8 (1.05%) Azure Functions
16 7 (0.92%) Amazon EC2
16 7 (0.92%) BrowserStack
17 6 (0.79%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.97%) TCP/IP
2 9 (1.18%) SNMP
2 9 (1.18%) Wireshark
3 8 (1.05%) Ethernet
3 8 (1.05%) VPN
4 6 (0.79%) HTTP
4 6 (0.79%) Modbus
5 4 (0.52%) Profibus
6 3 (0.39%) DNS
7 2 (0.26%) ATM
7 2 (0.26%) Network Security
7 2 (0.26%) Software-Defined Radio
8 1 (0.13%) 5G
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%) LTE
8 1 (0.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.59%) SQL Server
2 29 (3.80%) Power BI
3 21 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (1.97%) Relational Database
5 14 (1.83%) DynamoDB
5 14 (1.83%) Elasticsearch
5 14 (1.83%) NoSQL
6 8 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (1.05%) MongoDB
6 8 (1.05%) MySQL
7 7 (0.92%) InfluxDB
8 6 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
8 6 (0.79%) OLTP
9 5 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.52%) Chroma
10 4 (0.52%) Flink
10 4 (0.52%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.52%) Pinecone
11 3 (0.39%) Big Data
11 3 (0.39%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 100 (13.11%) Git
2 68 (8.91%) JIRA
3 60 (7.86%) GitLab
4 53 (6.95%) Selenium
5 44 (5.77%) Jenkins
6 29 (3.80%) Postman
7 28 (3.67%) Cypress.io
8 18 (2.36%) JMeter
9 17 (2.23%) Cucumber
9 17 (2.23%) JUnit
10 15 (1.97%) TestRail
11 13 (1.70%) Gatling
12 12 (1.57%) Zephyr
13 9 (1.18%) Eclipse
13 9 (1.18%) Maven
13 9 (1.18%) REST Assured
14 8 (1.05%) Spock
15 7 (0.92%) LabVIEW
15 7 (0.92%) Robot Framework
15 7 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 267 (34.99%) Social Skills
2 143 (18.74%) Analytical Skills
3 81 (10.62%) Finance
4 60 (7.86%) Electronics
5 55 (7.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 45 (5.90%) Manufacturing
7 31 (4.06%) Law
8 24 (3.15%) Aerospace
9 23 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
10 22 (2.88%) Public Sector
11 18 (2.36%) Automotive
11 18 (2.36%) Retail
12 17 (2.23%) Banking
13 15 (1.97%) Legal
13 15 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
14 14 (1.83%) Aviation
15 10 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (1.18%) Military
16 9 (1.18%) Telecoms
17 8 (1.05%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 172 (22.54%) Senior
2 118 (15.47%) Software Engineer
3 106 (13.89%) Test Engineer
4 92 (12.06%) Developer
5 83 (10.88%) Lead
6 75 (9.83%) Analyst
7 52 (6.82%) Tester
8 44 (5.77%) Senior Developer
9 43 (5.64%) Software Developer
10 41 (5.37%) QA Engineer
11 39 (5.11%) Software Test Engineer
12 35 (4.59%) Senior Software Engineer
13 29 (3.80%) Junior
14 27 (3.54%) Embedded Engineer
15 26 (3.41%) IT Support
15 26 (3.41%) Software Tester
15 26 (3.41%) Support Analyst
15 26 (3.41%) Support Engineer
15 26 (3.41%) Test Automation Engineer
16 23 (3.01%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (9.70%) .NET
2 61 (7.99%) Playwright
3 53 (6.95%) React
4 52 (6.82%) HTML
5 35 (4.59%) CSS
6 31 (4.06%) Terraform
7 30 (3.93%) REST
8 25 (3.28%) ASP.NET
8 25 (3.28%) RESTful
9 22 (2.88%) Node.js
10 21 (2.75%) XML
11 14 (1.83%) ASP.NET Core
11 14 (1.83%) Spring
12 13 (1.70%) Gherkin
12 13 (1.70%) JSON
12 13 (1.70%) Swagger
13 12 (1.57%) AngularJS
13 12 (1.57%) LangChain
14 10 (1.31%) .NET Framework
14 10 (1.31%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 62 (8.13%) Product Ownership
2 39 (5.11%) Distributed Systems
3 27 (3.54%) AI Agents
3 27 (3.54%) Algorithms
4 25 (3.28%) Cloud Native
5 24 (3.15%) Embedded Systems
6 22 (2.88%) Management Information System
7 20 (2.62%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (2.49%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (2.23%) Robotics
11 16 (2.10%) Mobile App
12 14 (1.83%) Client/Server
13 13 (1.70%) Driving Licence
13 13 (1.70%) Legacy Applications
14 11 (1.44%) FPGA
14 11 (1.44%) SCADA
15 10 (1.31%) Onboarding
16 9 (1.18%) Private Cloud
17 8 (1.05%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 82 (10.75%) Windows
2 69 (9.04%) Linux
3 21 (2.75%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.92%) Android
4 7 (0.92%) CentOS
5 6 (0.79%) Apple iOS
5 6 (0.79%) VMS
6 5 (0.66%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.66%) Robot Operating System
7 4 (0.52%) Unix
8 3 (0.39%) Debian
8 3 (0.39%) Kali Linux
8 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 333 (43.64%) Test Automation
2 292 (38.27%) Agile
3 237 (31.06%) Software Engineering
4 217 (28.44%) CI/CD
5 206 (27.00%) Problem-Solving
6 199 (26.08%) Continuous Improvement
7 158 (20.71%) DevOps
8 123 (16.12%) Code Quality
9 121 (15.86%) Mentoring
10 115 (15.07%) Validation
11 107 (14.02%) AI
12 105 (13.76%) SDLC
13 99 (12.98%) Scrum
14 98 (12.84%) Test Strategy
15 86 (11.27%) Regression Testing
16 72 (9.44%) Stakeholder Management
17 67 (8.78%) Computer Science
18 61 (7.99%) Software Delivery
19 56 (7.34%) Manual Testing
19 56 (7.34%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 192 (25.16%) Python
2 143 (18.74%) SQL
3 113 (14.81%) C#
4 94 (12.32%) JavaScript
5 92 (12.06%) Java
6 73 (9.57%) C++
7 69 (9.04%) TypeScript
8 56 (7.34%) C
9 27 (3.54%) MATLAB
10 23 (3.01%) PowerShell
11 21 (2.75%) Bash
12 13 (1.70%) Embedded C
13 12 (1.57%) Go
14 11 (1.44%) Groovy
15 10 (1.31%) Julia
15 10 (1.31%) PL/SQL
16 8 (1.05%) R
17 7 (0.92%) PHP
18 6 (0.79%) Rust
18 6 (0.79%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 164 (21.49%) Degree
2 135 (17.69%) Security Cleared
3 83 (10.88%) SC Cleared
4 36 (4.72%) ISTQB
5 35 (4.59%) DV Cleared
6 31 (4.06%) Master's Degree
7 29 (3.80%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (2.36%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (0.92%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 7 (0.92%) ISEB
10 5 (0.66%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.52%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
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%) CSQA
13 2 (0.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.26%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 205 (26.87%) QA
2 52 (6.82%) Accessibility
3 23 (3.01%) GDPR
4 21 (2.75%) WCAG
5 14 (1.83%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.18%) Software Quality Assurance
7 8 (1.05%) SLA
8 5 (0.66%) PMO
9 3 (0.39%) DO-254
9 3 (0.39%) IEC 61131
9 3 (0.39%) IEC 61508
9 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 2 (0.26%) Automotive SPICE
10 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.13%) DO-160
11 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.13%) MISRA
11 1 (0.13%) MISRA C
System Software
1 66 (8.65%) Docker
2 38 (4.98%) Firmware
3 19 (2.49%) Embedded Firmware
4 16 (2.10%) Active Directory
5 7 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.13%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.13%) KVM
Systems Management
1 46 (6.03%) Kubernetes
2 20 (2.62%) Grafana
3 19 (2.49%) Ansible
4 9 (1.18%) Kibana
5 7 (0.92%) logstash
6 5 (0.66%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.52%) Functional Safety
7 4 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.39%) HP Fortify
8 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.39%) Norton AntiVirus
8 3 (0.39%) Puppet
8 3 (0.39%) Rancher
8 3 (0.39%) SCCM
8 3 (0.39%) SCOM
8 3 (0.39%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.26%) HP ALM
9 2 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 74 (9.70%) Microsoft
2 21 (2.75%) Splunk
3 16 (2.10%) Oracle
4 15 (1.97%) Google
5 14 (1.83%) Siemens
6 9 (1.18%) Atlassian
6 9 (1.18%) Intel
6 9 (1.18%) Red Hat
6 9 (1.18%) VMware
7 8 (1.05%) AppDynamics
7 8 (1.05%) Citrix
8 7 (0.92%) OpenAI
8 7 (0.92%) Rockwell
9 6 (0.79%) Adobe
9 6 (0.79%) Databricks
9 6 (0.79%) SAP
9 6 (0.79%) ServiceNow
10 5 (0.66%) IBM
11 4 (0.52%) EMC
11 4 (0.52%) Xilinx