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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 265 173
Rank change year-on-year -9 -92 -14
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 640 505 1,366
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.73% 1.17% 1.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.98% 1.30% 1.94%
Number of salaries quoted 458 366 924
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £39,863 £41,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £51,020
Median % change year-on-year - +7.80% -11.27%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,625 £83,375
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,783 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.40% +11.57% -13.04%

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 65,072 38,960 70,273
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.88% 90.13% 82.28%
Number of salaries quoted 46,074 22,313 49,745
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,760 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £93,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,888 £55,000
% change year-on-year +5.47% +3.43% -8.71%

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 July 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 July 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 +12 154 £47,500 -9.52% 58
London -42 142 £67,500 +5.47% 50
North of England -18 107 £55,000 +29.41% 27
South West -25 83 £50,000 -10.71% 19
Midlands -26 78 £55,000 +29.41% 24
East of England +30 69 £58,750 +10.85% 29
North West +23 58 £52,500 -16.00% 11
West Midlands -19 50 £62,500 +316.67% 15
East Midlands -11 28 £55,000 -1.79% 9
North East -31 28 £57,500 +43.75% 10
Yorkshire -46 21 £45,711 +72.49% 7
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 15 (2.34%) IIS
2 10 (1.56%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.25%) Confluence
4 5 (0.78%) CMS
4 5 (0.78%) WordPress
5 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.63%) Moodle
6 2 (0.31%) Apache
6 2 (0.31%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
Applications
1 20 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.88%) Simulink
4 6 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.94%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.78%) AutoCAD
5 5 (0.78%) DaVinci Resolve
6 4 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.47%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.16%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.31%) Shopify
1 2 (0.31%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Equation
2 1 (0.16%) Misys Midas
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 118 (18.44%) Azure
2 112 (17.50%) AWS
3 40 (6.25%) Azure DevOps
4 36 (5.63%) GCP
5 26 (4.06%) GitHub
6 25 (3.91%) Serverless
7 15 (2.34%) Power Platform
8 14 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
9 13 (2.03%) AWS Lambda
10 12 (1.88%) GitHub Copilot
10 12 (1.88%) SaaS
11 10 (1.56%) BrowserStack
11 10 (1.56%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.41%) Anthropic Claude
12 9 (1.41%) OpenShift
13 6 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
14 5 (0.78%) Tricentis Tosca
15 4 (0.63%) Azure Functions
16 3 (0.47%) BlazeMeter
16 3 (0.47%) Siteimprove
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.72%) VPN
2 8 (1.25%) Broadband
3 7 (1.09%) Ethernet
4 6 (0.94%) SNMP
5 5 (0.78%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.63%) HTTP
6 4 (0.63%) Software-Defined Radio
7 2 (0.31%) ATM
7 2 (0.31%) LTE
7 2 (0.31%) Modbus
7 2 (0.31%) Network Security
7 2 (0.31%) Wireless
8 1 (0.16%) AMQP
8 1 (0.16%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.16%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (0.16%) DNS
8 1 (0.16%) MQTT
8 1 (0.16%) SSL
8 1 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.16%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (5.63%) SQL Server
2 21 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (2.03%) Power BI
4 12 (1.88%) DynamoDB
4 12 (1.88%) Elasticsearch
4 12 (1.88%) OLTP
5 10 (1.56%) MongoDB
6 9 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
7 8 (1.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.09%) InfluxDB
8 7 (1.09%) MySQL
9 6 (0.94%) Geospatial Data
9 6 (0.94%) Spark SQL
10 5 (0.78%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.78%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.63%) Crystal Reports
11 4 (0.63%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.47%) DTS
13 2 (0.31%) Db2
13 2 (0.31%) Easytrieve
Development Applications
1 76 (11.88%) Git
2 63 (9.84%) JIRA
3 53 (8.28%) Selenium
4 52 (8.13%) GitLab
5 37 (5.78%) Jenkins
6 23 (3.59%) Cypress.io
6 23 (3.59%) Postman
7 17 (2.66%) TestRail
8 16 (2.50%) JUnit
9 15 (2.34%) Zephyr
10 14 (2.19%) JMeter
11 13 (2.03%) Cucumber
12 11 (1.72%) Visual Studio Code
13 9 (1.41%) Claude Code
14 8 (1.25%) REST Assured
14 8 (1.25%) SpecFlow
15 7 (1.09%) LoadRunner
15 7 (1.09%) Robot Framework
15 7 (1.09%) WebDriver
16 6 (0.94%) LabVIEW
General
1 186 (29.06%) Social Skills
2 104 (16.25%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (12.03%) Finance
4 38 (5.94%) Electronics
5 31 (4.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 29 (4.53%) Law
7 28 (4.38%) Manufacturing
8 22 (3.44%) Banking
9 14 (2.19%) Public Sector
10 13 (2.03%) Retail
11 12 (1.88%) Aerospace
12 11 (1.72%) Games
13 9 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.41%) Health Technology
13 9 (1.41%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.09%) Advertising
14 7 (1.09%) Aviation
14 7 (1.09%) Legal
14 7 (1.09%) Military
14 7 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 158 (24.69%) Senior
2 114 (17.81%) Software Engineer
3 72 (11.25%) Test Engineer
4 69 (10.78%) Developer
5 62 (9.69%) Analyst
6 61 (9.53%) Lead
7 52 (8.13%) Tester
8 45 (7.03%) Senior Developer
9 39 (6.09%) Senior Software Engineer
10 35 (5.47%) Software Tester
11 30 (4.69%) Software Test Engineer
12 29 (4.53%) Development Engineer
13 28 (4.38%) QA Engineer
14 25 (3.91%) Software Development Engineer
14 25 (3.91%) Test Automation Engineer
15 23 (3.59%) Senior Analyst
16 22 (3.44%) Embedded Engineer
16 22 (3.44%) Test Development Engineer
17 20 (3.13%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 20 (3.13%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (8.75%) .NET
2 40 (6.25%) Playwright
3 37 (5.78%) HTML
4 34 (5.31%) React
5 25 (3.91%) REST
6 24 (3.75%) XML
7 16 (2.50%) ASP.NET
7 16 (2.50%) SOAP
8 15 (2.34%) CSS
8 15 (2.34%) Node.js
9 14 (2.19%) RESTful
10 12 (1.88%) Spring
11 11 (1.72%) Swagger
12 10 (1.56%) JSON
13 9 (1.41%) ASP.NET Core
13 9 (1.41%) React Native
14 8 (1.25%) .NET Framework
14 8 (1.25%) Elastic Stack
14 8 (1.25%) LangChain
14 8 (1.25%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 56 (8.75%) Product Ownership
2 35 (5.47%) Algorithms
3 25 (3.91%) Embedded Systems
4 21 (3.28%) Distributed Systems
5 15 (2.34%) Client/Server
5 15 (2.34%) Management Information System
6 14 (2.19%) FPGA
6 14 (2.19%) Mobile App
7 13 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (2.03%) Robotics
8 12 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
9 10 (1.56%) AI Agents
9 10 (1.56%) Life Science
10 9 (1.41%) Cloud Native
10 9 (1.41%) Low-Code
10 9 (1.41%) Onboarding
10 9 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.25%) Reinsurance
11 8 (1.25%) VHDL
11 8 (1.25%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 73 (11.41%) Windows
2 60 (9.38%) Linux
3 19 (2.97%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.09%) CentOS
5 4 (0.63%) Embedded Linux
5 4 (0.63%) Unix
6 3 (0.47%) FreeRTOS
6 3 (0.47%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.47%) VMS
7 2 (0.31%) Android
7 2 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.31%) Robot Operating System
7 2 (0.31%) zOS
8 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.16%) ThreadX
8 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 256 (40.00%) Test Automation
2 225 (35.16%) Agile
3 180 (28.13%) Software Engineering
4 159 (24.84%) Continuous Improvement
5 139 (21.72%) CI/CD
6 138 (21.56%) DevOps
6 138 (21.56%) Problem-Solving
7 95 (14.84%) Code Quality
8 92 (14.38%) Scrum
9 91 (14.22%) Mentoring
10 87 (13.59%) AI
11 84 (13.13%) SDLC
12 77 (12.03%) Computer Science
13 73 (11.41%) Test Strategy
14 71 (11.09%) Regression Testing
14 71 (11.09%) Validation
15 61 (9.53%) Manual Testing
16 45 (7.03%) Test Scripting
17 41 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
18 40 (6.25%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 176 (27.50%) Python
2 116 (18.13%) SQL
3 95 (14.84%) C#
4 72 (11.25%) C++
4 72 (11.25%) JavaScript
5 69 (10.78%) Java
6 53 (8.28%) C
7 44 (6.88%) TypeScript
8 24 (3.75%) MATLAB
9 20 (3.13%) PowerShell
10 16 (2.50%) PL/SQL
11 13 (2.03%) Bash
12 12 (1.88%) PHP
13 11 (1.72%) Go
14 9 (1.41%) Julia
14 9 (1.41%) Rust
15 8 (1.25%) Embedded C
15 8 (1.25%) Groovy
15 8 (1.25%) R
16 7 (1.09%) VBA
Qualifications
1 177 (27.66%) Degree
2 105 (16.41%) Security Cleared
3 61 (9.53%) SC Cleared
4 47 (7.34%) ISTQB
5 40 (6.25%) DV Cleared
6 38 (5.94%) Master's Degree
7 33 (5.16%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (1.72%) PhD
10 10 (1.56%) ISEB
11 8 (1.25%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 7 (1.09%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 5 (0.78%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.63%) Chartered Engineer
14 4 (0.63%) CIPD
14 4 (0.63%) PMI Certification
15 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 2 (0.31%) HND
16 2 (0.31%) MCSA
16 2 (0.31%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 180 (28.13%) QA
2 34 (5.31%) Accessibility
3 20 (3.13%) Software Quality Assurance
4 13 (2.03%) GDPR
5 12 (1.88%) SLA
6 9 (1.41%) Data Quality
7 7 (1.09%) WCAG
8 5 (0.78%) DO-254
8 5 (0.78%) PMO
9 4 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.47%) IEC 61508
10 3 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 12207
11 2 (0.31%) Automotive SPICE
11 2 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.31%) MISRA
11 2 (0.31%) MISRA C
11 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.16%) IEC 61131
12 1 (0.16%) JTAG
12 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 37 (5.78%) Docker
2 27 (4.22%) Firmware
3 16 (2.50%) Active Directory
4 15 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure
5 14 (2.19%) Embedded Firmware
6 6 (0.94%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.78%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.78%) KVM
8 2 (0.31%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.16%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.16%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (3.44%) Kubernetes
2 17 (2.66%) Terraform
3 14 (2.19%) Ansible
4 12 (1.88%) Grafana
5 8 (1.25%) Kibana
5 8 (1.25%) logstash
6 6 (0.94%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.78%) Functional Safety
8 4 (0.63%) SCCM
8 4 (0.63%) SCOM
9 3 (0.47%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.47%) HP Fortify
9 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.47%) Norton AntiVirus
9 3 (0.47%) SCOrch
10 2 (0.31%) Rancher
11 1 (0.16%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 63 (9.84%) Microsoft
2 28 (4.38%) Oracle
3 17 (2.66%) Splunk
3 17 (2.66%) VMware
4 11 (1.72%) Citrix
5 10 (1.56%) Adobe
5 10 (1.56%) IBM
5 10 (1.56%) ServiceNow
6 8 (1.25%) Atlassian
6 8 (1.25%) Intel
6 8 (1.25%) Red Hat
7 5 (0.78%) AppDynamics
7 5 (0.78%) Avid
7 5 (0.78%) Google
7 5 (0.78%) HP
7 5 (0.78%) Salesforce
7 5 (0.78%) SolarWinds
8 4 (0.63%) EMC
8 4 (0.63%) Microsemi
8 4 (0.63%) SYSPRO