Test Engineer Job Trends in England

Test Engineer
UK > England

The median Test Engineer salary in England is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 May 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 124 501
Rank change year-on-year -117 +377 -43
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Engineer 624 1,071 332
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.76% 2.73% 0.39%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.81% 3.04% 0.41%
Number of salaries quoted 452 95 182
10th Percentile £33,825 £33,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -18.18%
75th Percentile £65,000 £61,250 £55,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £68,250 £65,000
UK median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -16.92%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in England with a recognized job title 76,707 35,242 80,076
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.33% 89.75% 94.53%
Number of salaries quoted 51,919 20,736 60,720
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,087
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +7.48% -12.01%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Test Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Test Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Test Engineer
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in England

Test Engineer
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer in England over the 6 months to 21 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Engineer in England

Test Engineer
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 21 May 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
North of England +91 164 £49,565 +4.35% 40
South East -107 136 £47,539 -9.45% 30
East of England -72 109 £47,500 +13.10% 27
North West +70 87 £45,000 -2.70% 24
South West -15 78 £55,000 +4.76% 30
Midlands -130 66 £50,000 +42.86% 32
London -4 58 £52,500 +9.38% 12
West Midlands -5 47 £50,000 -16.67% 31
North East - 46 £50,000 - 7
Yorkshire -17 31 £40,000 -33.11% 9
East Midlands -124 19 £30,000 -14.29% 1
Test Engineer
UK

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 21 May 2026, Test Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the England region featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 178 (28.53%) Test Automation
2 87 (13.94%) Validation
3 75 (12.02%) Software Testing
4 74 (11.86%) Agile
5 65 (10.42%) QA
6 62 (9.94%) CI/CD
7 53 (8.49%) Security Cleared
7 53 (8.49%) Test Strategy
8 52 (8.33%) Python
9 49 (7.85%) Problem-Solving
9 49 (7.85%) Verification and Validation
10 44 (7.05%) Degree
10 44 (7.05%) Test Scripting
11 43 (6.89%) Java
12 41 (6.57%) AWS
13 40 (6.41%) Continuous Improvement
14 36 (5.77%) Mentoring
14 36 (5.77%) Playwright
15 33 (5.29%) Performance Testing
16 30 (4.81%) DevOps
17 29 (4.65%) JavaScript
18 28 (4.49%) Azure
19 27 (4.33%) Accessibility
19 27 (4.33%) Selenium
20 26 (4.17%) LabVIEW
20 26 (4.17%) Manual Testing
20 26 (4.17%) SC Cleared
21 25 (4.01%) API Testing
21 25 (4.01%) Coaching
22 24 (3.85%) C#

Test Engineer Skill Set
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 4 (0.64%) Confluence
2 3 (0.48%) Apache
2 3 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
2 3 (0.48%) Jupyter
3 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 16 (2.56%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.64%) Fusion 360
3 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Endur
1 1 (0.16%) Findur
Cloud Services
1 41 (6.57%) AWS
2 28 (4.49%) Azure
3 15 (2.40%) Azure DevOps
4 13 (2.08%) GitHub
5 10 (1.60%) SaaS
6 5 (0.80%) Azure Pipelines
7 4 (0.64%) Amazon S3
7 4 (0.64%) GCP
7 4 (0.64%) OpenShift
8 3 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (0.48%) Amazon EC2
8 3 (0.48%) Amazon EMR
8 3 (0.48%) AWS CodePipeline
8 3 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.32%) BrowserStack
9 2 (0.32%) Serverless
10 1 (0.16%) Amazon ECR
10 1 (0.16%) Azure Functions
10 1 (0.16%) Dynamics 365
10 1 (0.16%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.60%) SD-WAN
1 10 (1.60%) WAN
2 9 (1.44%) 5G
3 8 (1.28%) HTTP
4 6 (0.96%) Wireless
5 1 (0.16%) 3GPP
5 1 (0.16%) Broadband
5 1 (0.16%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.16%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.16%) FTP
5 1 (0.16%) SNMP
5 1 (0.16%) Spanning Tree
5 1 (0.16%) SSH
5 1 (0.16%) TACACS
5 1 (0.16%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.16%) VoIP
5 1 (0.16%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
2 4 (0.64%) InfluxDB
3 3 (0.48%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (0.48%) DynamoDB
4 2 (0.32%) Neo4j
5 1 (0.16%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.16%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 27 (4.33%) Selenium
2 26 (4.17%) LabVIEW
3 23 (3.69%) JMeter
4 22 (3.53%) Git
5 18 (2.88%) Cypress.io
5 18 (2.88%) JIRA
6 17 (2.72%) Jenkins
7 16 (2.56%) GitLab
8 14 (2.24%) REST Assured
9 12 (1.92%) Gatling
10 11 (1.76%) LoadRunner
10 11 (1.76%) Postman
11 9 (1.44%) Cucumber
12 8 (1.28%) SpecFlow
13 6 (0.96%) WebDriver
14 5 (0.80%) Robot Framework
14 5 (0.80%) Subversion
14 5 (0.80%) TestRail
15 3 (0.48%) NUnit
15 3 (0.48%) Serenity BDD
General
1 116 (18.59%) Manufacturing
2 111 (17.79%) Electronics
3 50 (8.01%) Aerospace
4 37 (5.93%) Social Skills
5 36 (5.77%) Public Sector
6 27 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
7 20 (3.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 17 (2.72%) Automotive
8 17 (2.72%) Aviation
9 16 (2.56%) Finance
10 10 (1.60%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.28%) Games
13 6 (0.96%) Retail
14 5 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.64%) Health Technology
16 3 (0.48%) Legal
16 3 (0.48%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (5.77%) Playwright
2 17 (2.72%) pytest
3 11 (1.76%) .NET
4 6 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.80%) Gherkin
5 5 (0.80%) REST
6 3 (0.48%) React
6 3 (0.48%) Web Services
7 2 (0.32%) AngularJS
7 2 (0.32%) GraphQL
7 2 (0.32%) HTML
7 2 (0.32%) MERN Stack
7 2 (0.32%) Nightwatchjs
7 2 (0.32%) RESTful
7 2 (0.32%) SOAP
7 2 (0.32%) YAML
8 1 (0.16%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Django
8 1 (0.16%) Kafka
8 1 (0.16%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 13 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
2 11 (1.76%) Embedded Systems
2 11 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (1.44%) Mobile App
3 9 (1.44%) Product Ownership
3 9 (1.44%) Self-Driving Car
4 5 (0.80%) Acoustics
4 5 (0.80%) Robotics
5 4 (0.64%) Analogue Electronics
5 4 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (0.64%) Life Science
5 4 (0.64%) Online Games
5 4 (0.64%) Smart Energy
6 3 (0.48%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (0.48%) Cloud Native
6 3 (0.48%) Low-Code
6 3 (0.48%) Renewable Energy
7 1 (0.16%) AI Agents
7 1 (0.16%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.16%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 17 (2.72%) Windows
2 12 (1.92%) Linux
3 10 (1.60%) Unix
4 4 (0.64%) CentOS
5 3 (0.48%) Android
5 3 (0.48%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 178 (28.53%) Test Automation
2 87 (13.94%) Validation
3 75 (12.02%) Software Testing
4 74 (11.86%) Agile
5 62 (9.94%) CI/CD
6 53 (8.49%) Test Strategy
7 49 (7.85%) Problem-Solving
7 49 (7.85%) Verification and Validation
8 44 (7.05%) Test Scripting
9 40 (6.41%) Continuous Improvement
10 36 (5.77%) Mentoring
11 33 (5.29%) Performance Testing
12 30 (4.81%) DevOps
13 26 (4.17%) Manual Testing
14 25 (4.01%) API Testing
14 25 (4.01%) Coaching
15 24 (3.85%) End-to-End Testing
16 23 (3.69%) Non-Functional Testing
17 20 (3.21%) Defect Management
18 19 (3.04%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 52 (8.33%) Python
2 43 (6.89%) Java
3 29 (4.65%) JavaScript
4 24 (3.85%) C#
5 16 (2.56%) TypeScript
6 15 (2.40%) SQL
7 12 (1.92%) MATLAB
8 11 (1.76%) Bash
9 7 (1.12%) C
10 6 (0.96%) C++
11 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
12 4 (0.64%) VB
13 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 53 (8.49%) Security Cleared
2 44 (7.05%) Degree
3 26 (4.17%) SC Cleared
4 15 (2.40%) HND
5 12 (1.92%) DV Cleared
5 12 (1.92%) HNC
6 11 (1.76%) ISTQB
7 8 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 5 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.64%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 4 (0.64%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 3 (0.48%) CCA
10 3 (0.48%) Chartered Engineer
10 3 (0.48%) NVQ Level 3
11 1 (0.16%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.16%) ISEB
11 1 (0.16%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (10.42%) QA
2 27 (4.33%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 17025
4 4 (0.64%) ISO 13485
5 3 (0.48%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 2 (0.32%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.32%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.32%) ISO 26262
6 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.16%) COSHH
7 1 (0.16%) GDPR
7 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.56%) Docker
2 10 (1.60%) Firmware
3 5 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 17 (2.72%) Terraform
2 14 (2.24%) Kubernetes
3 12 (1.92%) Grafana
4 8 (1.28%) Kibana
5 5 (0.80%) Ansible
6 4 (0.64%) logstash
6 4 (0.64%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.48%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.16%) Argo
8 1 (0.16%) Functional Safety
8 1 (0.16%) HP Fortify
8 1 (0.16%) Puppet
Vendors
1 9 (1.44%) Microsoft
2 8 (1.28%) EMC
3 5 (0.80%) Dynatrace
3 5 (0.80%) Red Hat
3 5 (0.80%) VMware
4 4 (0.64%) AppDynamics
4 4 (0.64%) Atlassian
4 4 (0.64%) Splunk
5 3 (0.48%) Keysight
5 3 (0.48%) ServiceNow
6 2 (0.32%) Guidewire
6 2 (0.32%) IBM
7 1 (0.16%) Cisco
7 1 (0.16%) Meraki
7 1 (0.16%) OneLogin
7 1 (0.16%) OpenLink
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle
7 1 (0.16%) Peregrine
7 1 (0.16%) Perfecto Mobile