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 18 February 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 269 497
Rank change year-on-year -23 +228 -109
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Engineer 407 518 278
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.68% 1.17% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 1.28% 0.44%
Number of salaries quoted 276 79 156
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,750 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £37,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -14.29%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £60,185
90th Percentile £76,250 £65,600 £72,500
UK median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -14.29%

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 54,650 40,463 62,780
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.29% 91.38% 94.70%
Number of salaries quoted 35,243 21,304 50,139
10th Percentile £29,250 £33,500 £28,750
25th Percentile £38,208 £45,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%

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 18 February 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 18 February 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
East of England -11 98 £47,500 -13.64% 49
South East -89 71 £45,000 -14.29% 44
North of England +23 66 £45,000 -5.26% 39
South West +34 65 £55,000 +58.27% 18
Midlands -21 51 £50,000 - 31
London +54 46 £55,000 -15.38% 15
North West +30 39 £45,000 -2.70% 28
West Midlands +39 34 £55,000 - 24
North East +8 18 £40,000 -38.46% 3
East Midlands -71 17 £50,000 +17.65% 7
Yorkshire -22 9 £52,000 - 8
Test Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 February 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.

1 129 (31.70%) Test Automation
2 52 (12.78%) Validation
3 49 (12.04%) Python
3 49 (12.04%) Software Testing
4 48 (11.79%) Agile
5 44 (10.81%) Security Cleared
6 43 (10.57%) Problem-Solving
7 40 (9.83%) QA
8 36 (8.85%) Verification and Validation
9 34 (8.35%) CI/CD
9 34 (8.35%) Degree
9 34 (8.35%) Selenium
10 33 (8.11%) Test Scripting
11 31 (7.62%) Playwright
12 28 (6.88%) Manual Testing
12 28 (6.88%) Performance Testing
13 27 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
14 25 (6.14%) Azure
14 25 (6.14%) Java
14 25 (6.14%) LabVIEW
15 24 (5.90%) AWS
15 24 (5.90%) JavaScript
16 22 (5.41%) DevOps
17 20 (4.91%) API Testing
18 19 (4.67%) AI
18 19 (4.67%) Git
18 19 (4.67%) Test Strategy
19 18 (4.42%) HND
19 18 (4.42%) JMeter
19 18 (4.42%) pytest

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 6 (1.47%) Confluence
2 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 11 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.98%) Fusion 360
Business Applications
1 2 (0.49%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.49%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 25 (6.14%) Azure
2 24 (5.90%) AWS
3 17 (4.18%) GitHub
4 9 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (1.23%) Power Platform
5 5 (1.23%) SaaS
6 4 (0.98%) BrowserStack
6 4 (0.98%) GCP
6 4 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (0.49%) Azure Pipelines
7 2 (0.49%) BlazeMeter
8 1 (0.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.25%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.25%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.25%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.25%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.21%) SD-WAN
1 9 (2.21%) WAN
2 8 (1.97%) 5G
3 3 (0.74%) HTTP
4 2 (0.49%) Wireless
5 1 (0.25%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.25%) DHCP
5 1 (0.25%) DNS
5 1 (0.25%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.25%) FTP
5 1 (0.25%) SNMP
5 1 (0.25%) Spanning Tree
5 1 (0.25%) SSH
5 1 (0.25%) TACACS
5 1 (0.25%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.25%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.47%) Elasticsearch
2 4 (0.98%) Neo4j
3 2 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.49%) MongoDB
3 2 (0.49%) Oracle Database
3 2 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.49%) Relational Database
3 2 (0.49%) Tableau
4 1 (0.25%) InfluxDB
4 1 (0.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 34 (8.35%) Selenium
2 25 (6.14%) LabVIEW
3 19 (4.67%) Git
4 18 (4.42%) JMeter
5 17 (4.18%) Cypress.io
5 17 (4.18%) JIRA
6 13 (3.19%) Jenkins
6 13 (3.19%) Postman
7 11 (2.70%) Cucumber
7 11 (2.70%) REST Assured
8 8 (1.97%) LoadRunner
9 7 (1.72%) Subversion
10 6 (1.47%) Gatling
10 6 (1.47%) SpecFlow
11 5 (1.23%) GitLab
11 5 (1.23%) WebDriver
12 4 (0.98%) Appium
12 4 (0.98%) NUnit
12 4 (0.98%) SonarQube
12 4 (0.98%) TestRail
General
1 71 (17.44%) Manufacturing
2 57 (14.00%) Electronics
3 32 (7.86%) Social Skills
4 19 (4.67%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (4.42%) Aerospace
5 18 (4.42%) Finance
6 15 (3.69%) Aviation
7 12 (2.95%) Public Sector
8 9 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.72%) Military
11 6 (1.47%) Automotive
11 6 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.47%) Telecoms
12 5 (1.23%) Games
12 5 (1.23%) Social Housing
13 3 (0.74%) Avionics
14 2 (0.49%) Advertising
15 1 (0.25%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (7.62%) Playwright
2 18 (4.42%) pytest
3 9 (2.21%) .NET
3 9 (2.21%) REST
4 5 (1.23%) Kafka
4 5 (1.23%) Web Services
5 4 (0.98%) AngularJS
5 4 (0.98%) MERN Stack
5 4 (0.98%) React
5 4 (0.98%) RESTful
6 3 (0.74%) HTML
6 3 (0.74%) Middleware
6 3 (0.74%) SOAP
6 3 (0.74%) YAML
7 2 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.49%) GraphQL
7 2 (0.49%) Nightwatchjs
7 2 (0.49%) Swagger
8 1 (0.25%) WebAssembly
8 1 (0.25%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 13 (3.19%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (1.97%) Self-Driving Car
3 5 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
3 5 (1.23%) Embedded Systems
3 5 (1.23%) Robotics
4 4 (0.98%) GNSS
4 4 (0.98%) Life Science
4 4 (0.98%) Satnav
5 3 (0.74%) Acoustics
5 3 (0.74%) Analogue Electronics
5 3 (0.74%) e-Learning
5 3 (0.74%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (0.74%) Mobile App
6 2 (0.49%) AI Agents
6 2 (0.49%) Renewable Energy
6 2 (0.49%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.25%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.25%) Hackathon
7 1 (0.25%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.25%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.93%) Windows
2 12 (2.95%) Unix
3 7 (1.72%) Linux
4 3 (0.74%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.49%) Android
6 1 (0.25%) CentOS
6 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (31.70%) Test Automation
2 52 (12.78%) Validation
3 49 (12.04%) Software Testing
4 48 (11.79%) Agile
5 43 (10.57%) Problem-Solving
6 36 (8.85%) Verification and Validation
7 34 (8.35%) CI/CD
8 33 (8.11%) Test Scripting
9 28 (6.88%) Manual Testing
9 28 (6.88%) Performance Testing
10 27 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
11 22 (5.41%) DevOps
12 20 (4.91%) API Testing
13 19 (4.67%) AI
13 19 (4.67%) Test Strategy
14 15 (3.69%) End-to-End Testing
14 15 (3.69%) Kalman Filter
14 15 (3.69%) Mentoring
15 14 (3.44%) Non-Functional Testing
16 13 (3.19%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 49 (12.04%) Python
2 25 (6.14%) Java
3 24 (5.90%) JavaScript
4 16 (3.93%) C#
4 16 (3.93%) TypeScript
5 15 (3.69%) SQL
6 14 (3.44%) MATLAB
7 4 (0.98%) C
8 2 (0.49%) Bash
8 2 (0.49%) Scala
8 2 (0.49%) VB
9 1 (0.25%) Groovy
9 1 (0.25%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.25%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.25%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.25%) Swift
Qualifications
1 44 (10.81%) Security Cleared
2 34 (8.35%) Degree
3 18 (4.42%) HND
4 17 (4.18%) SC Cleared
5 15 (3.69%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (2.21%) DV Cleared
8 8 (1.97%) HNC
9 5 (1.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 4 (0.98%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (0.74%) CCA
12 2 (0.49%) Master's Degree
13 1 (0.25%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 1 (0.25%) Computer Science Degree
13 1 (0.25%) ISEB
13 1 (0.25%) MCSA
13 1 (0.25%) MCSE
13 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
13 1 (0.25%) Numerate Degree
13 1 (0.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (9.83%) QA
2 16 (3.93%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.98%) ISO 13485
3 4 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 17025
4 2 (0.49%) SEPA
5 1 (0.25%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 15 (3.69%) Docker
2 3 (0.74%) Firmware
2 3 (0.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.25%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (3.19%) Kubernetes
2 5 (1.23%) Grafana
2 5 (1.23%) Terraform
3 3 (0.74%) HP Fortify
3 3 (0.74%) Kibana
3 3 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.49%) Control-M
4 2 (0.49%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.25%) Ansible
5 1 (0.25%) Argo
5 1 (0.25%) logstash
5 1 (0.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 9 (2.21%) Microsoft
2 6 (1.47%) EMC
3 5 (1.23%) Oracle
4 4 (0.98%) IBM
4 4 (0.98%) ServiceNow
5 3 (0.74%) Dynatrace
5 3 (0.74%) Samsung
5 3 (0.74%) VMware
6 2 (0.49%) AppDynamics
6 2 (0.49%) CA Agile Central
6 2 (0.49%) Guidewire
6 2 (0.49%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.25%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.25%) Cisco
7 1 (0.25%) Meraki
7 1 (0.25%) OneLogin
7 1 (0.25%) Pega
7 1 (0.25%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.25%) Sitecore
7 1 (0.25%) Splunk