Test Leader Job Trends in England

Test Lead
UK > England

The median Test Lead salary in England is £67,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 530 625 598
Rank change year-on-year +95 -27 +139
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Leader 87 54 82
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.16% 0.11% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.12% 0.17%
Number of salaries quoted 37 27 37
10th Percentile £50,000 £46,250 £38,900
25th Percentile £56,250 £52,500 £43,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £66,250 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.89% +10.42% -4.00%
75th Percentile £74,762 £81,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £78,000 £84,500 £87,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £66,250 £65,000
% change year-on-year +5.66% +1.92% +4.00%

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 48,032 44,628 46,871
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 92.71% 95.12%
Number of salaries quoted 30,380 23,318 36,700
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,670
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -6.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,750 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

Test Leader
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Test Leader job vacancy trend in England

Test Leader
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in England

Test Leader
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Leader in England over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Leader in England

Test Leader
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 Leader within the England region over the 6 months to 14 January 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 +75 44 £60,250 -7.31% 4
London +62 24 £72,250 -7.37% 3
North of England -1 5 £70,079 +40.16% 9
South West - 5 £60,000 - 3
East of England +26 4 - - 2
Midlands +10 4 £65,271 +40.37% 5
West Midlands +9 4 £65,271 +40.37% 4
North East +12 2 £70,079 +16.80%
North West +11 2 £70,079 +43.75%
Yorkshire -13 1 £75,000 - 9
Test Leader
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Test Leader 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 Leader in the job title.

1 59 (67.82%) Test Automation
2 58 (66.67%) Test Strategy
3 51 (58.62%) Test Management
4 48 (55.17%) Azure DevOps
5 45 (51.72%) JIRA
6 39 (44.83%) SAP
7 34 (39.08%) Performance Testing
7 34 (39.08%) Roadmaps
8 33 (37.93%) SAP S/4HANA
9 32 (36.78%) Product Roadmap
9 32 (36.78%) Source to Pay
10 31 (35.63%) QA
11 30 (34.48%) Continuous Delivery
12 29 (33.33%) HP
12 29 (33.33%) HP ALM
13 28 (32.18%) Agile
13 28 (32.18%) NeoLoad
14 27 (31.03%) DevOps
15 26 (29.89%) eCATT
15 26 (29.89%) Requirements Gathering
15 26 (29.89%) Selenium
16 23 (26.44%) Azure
17 21 (24.14%) CI/CD
17 21 (24.14%) ERP
18 19 (21.84%) User Acceptance Testing
19 18 (20.69%) End-to-End Testing
20 17 (19.54%) Validation
21 16 (18.39%) API Testing
22 15 (17.24%) ISTQB
23 14 (16.09%) SQL

Test Leader 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 2 (2.30%) Confluence
2 1 (1.15%) CMS
Applications
1 2 (2.30%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (2.30%) Microsoft Project
1 2 (2.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 33 (37.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (4.60%) SAP CX
3 3 (3.45%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (2.30%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 48 (55.17%) Azure DevOps
2 23 (26.44%) Azure
3 7 (8.05%) AWS
4 6 (6.90%) Dynamics 365
5 5 (5.75%) BrowserStack
6 4 (4.60%) Datadog
6 4 (4.60%) dbt
6 4 (4.60%) PaaS
6 4 (4.60%) Power Platform
6 4 (4.60%) SaaS
7 2 (2.30%) GCP
7 2 (2.30%) SuccessFactors
7 2 (2.30%) Tricentis Tosca
8 1 (1.15%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.15%) GitHub
8 1 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (1.15%) Power Automate
8 1 (1.15%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.15%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.15%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 45 (51.72%) JIRA
2 28 (32.18%) NeoLoad
3 26 (29.89%) eCATT
3 26 (29.89%) Selenium
4 13 (14.94%) Postman
5 10 (11.49%) Cypress.io
6 9 (10.34%) Cucumber
6 9 (10.34%) JMeter
7 8 (9.20%) Jenkins
7 8 (9.20%) SoapUI
7 8 (9.20%) WebDriver
8 6 (6.90%) GitLab
9 5 (5.75%) SpecFlow
10 4 (4.60%) LoadRunner
10 4 (4.60%) Locust
10 4 (4.60%) Team Foundation Server
11 3 (3.45%) HP UFT
11 3 (3.45%) NUnit
11 3 (3.45%) TestRail
11 3 (3.45%) Visual Studio
General
1 43 (49.43%) Finance
2 33 (37.93%) Marketing
3 32 (36.78%) Manufacturing
4 10 (11.49%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (8.05%) Social Skills
6 5 (5.75%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (5.75%) Legal
7 3 (3.45%) Public Sector
7 3 (3.45%) Retail
8 2 (2.30%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (2.30%) Military
9 1 (1.15%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (12.64%) Playwright
2 7 (8.05%) .NET
3 5 (5.75%) REST
3 5 (5.75%) SOAP
4 4 (4.60%) Gherkin
4 4 (4.60%) HTML
5 3 (3.45%) Middleware
5 3 (3.45%) XML
6 1 (1.15%) Blazor
6 1 (1.15%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 3 (3.45%) Enterprise Software
2 2 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (1.15%) Data Centre
3 1 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
3 1 (1.15%) Onboarding
3 1 (1.15%) Over-the-Top Content
3 1 (1.15%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.15%) Android
1 1 (1.15%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (67.82%) Test Automation
2 58 (66.67%) Test Strategy
3 51 (58.62%) Test Management
4 34 (39.08%) Performance Testing
4 34 (39.08%) Roadmaps
5 32 (36.78%) Product Roadmap
5 32 (36.78%) Source to Pay
6 30 (34.48%) Continuous Delivery
7 28 (32.18%) Agile
8 27 (31.03%) DevOps
9 26 (29.89%) Requirements Gathering
10 21 (24.14%) CI/CD
10 21 (24.14%) ERP
11 19 (21.84%) User Acceptance Testing
12 18 (20.69%) End-to-End Testing
13 17 (19.54%) Validation
14 16 (18.39%) API Testing
15 11 (12.64%) Scrum
16 10 (11.49%) Security Testing
16 10 (11.49%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 14 (16.09%) SQL
2 13 (14.94%) C#
2 13 (14.94%) Java
3 4 (4.60%) Python
4 3 (3.45%) JavaScript
5 2 (2.30%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 15 (17.24%) ISTQB
2 10 (11.49%) Security Cleared
3 9 (10.34%) Degree
4 8 (9.20%) SC Cleared
5 5 (5.75%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 3 (3.45%) ISEB
7 2 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (2.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.15%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (35.63%) QA
2 6 (6.90%) Accessibility
3 4 (4.60%) WCAG
System Software
1 4 (4.60%) Docker
Systems Management
1 29 (33.33%) HP ALM
2 4 (4.60%) Grafana
2 4 (4.60%) Kubernetes
2 4 (4.60%) Terraform
Vendors
1 39 (44.83%) SAP
2 29 (33.33%) HP
3 6 (6.90%) Microsoft
4 4 (4.60%) Oracle
5 3 (3.45%) ServiceNow
5 3 (3.45%) Siebel
6 2 (2.30%) Workday
7 1 (1.15%) Dynatrace
7 1 (1.15%) OpenText
7 1 (1.15%) Roku