ISTQB Job Trends in the South East

International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for ISTQB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 263 273
Rank change year-on-year +39 +10 +63
Permanent jobs citing ISTQB 49 33 23
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.47% 0.37% 0.26%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.52% 0.83% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 43 28 14
10th Percentile - £35,000 £36,775
25th Percentile £32,750 £43,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +5.56% +4.65%
75th Percentile £48,750 £48,750 £50,625
90th Percentile £51,500 £53,750 £59,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

ISTQB falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South East.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 3,214 3,968 3,432
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 31.03% 44.29% 38.77%
Number of salaries quoted 1,364 1,729 2,134
10th Percentile £27,500 £35,000 £27,965
25th Percentile £36,250 £46,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +14.29% +0.96%
75th Percentile £66,620 £77,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £85,250 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -

ISTQB
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing ISTQB relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

ISTQB job vacancy trend in the South East

ISTQB
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing ISTQB

ISTQB
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing ISTQB in the South East over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Salary histogram for ISTQB in the South East

ISTQB
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing ISTQB within the South East region over the 6 months to 13 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
Surrey - 20 £43,750 - 1
Thames Valley +23 16 £42,500 -10.53% 9
Berkshire +3 15 £42,500 -10.53% 5
Kent - 9 £37,500 - 1
Hampshire +9 7 £37,500 -21.05% 4
Middlesex - 3 £37,500 -
Buckinghamshire +6 1 - - 2
ISTQB
England

ISTQB
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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:

Applications
1 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 10 (20.41%) Azure
2 8 (16.33%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (4.08%) AWS CloudFormation
3 2 (4.08%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.04%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.08%) Oracle Database
1 2 (4.08%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 36 (73.47%) Selenium
2 34 (69.39%) JIRA
3 32 (65.31%) Team Foundation Server
4 30 (61.22%) Postman
4 30 (61.22%) SoapUI
4 30 (61.22%) WebDriver
5 4 (8.16%) SpecFlow
6 2 (4.08%) Git
6 2 (4.08%) GitLab
6 2 (4.08%) Jenkins
6 2 (4.08%) Ranorex
6 2 (4.08%) Robot Framework
6 2 (4.08%) TestRail
7 1 (2.04%) Subversion
General
1 28 (57.14%) Finance
2 21 (42.86%) Social Skills
3 4 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (4.08%) Aerospace
4 2 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (4.08%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (4.08%) Legal
Job Titles
1 30 (61.22%) Analyst
1 30 (61.22%) Test Analyst
2 13 (26.53%) Senior
3 10 (20.41%) Senior Analyst
3 10 (20.41%) Senior Test Analyst
4 9 (18.37%) Tester
5 7 (14.29%) Lead
6 4 (8.16%) Automation Test Analyst
6 4 (8.16%) Test Leader
7 3 (6.12%) Lead Test Analyst
7 3 (6.12%) Test Manager
8 2 (4.08%) Infrastructure Tester
8 2 (4.08%) Manual Tester
8 2 (4.08%) Software Tester
8 2 (4.08%) Test Engineer
9 1 (2.04%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 1 (2.04%) Senior Manager
9 1 (2.04%) Senior Test Manager
9 1 (2.04%) Senior Tester
9 1 (2.04%) Test Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (69.39%) .NET
2 30 (61.22%) HTML
2 30 (61.22%) SOAP
3 4 (8.16%) Gherkin
4 2 (4.08%) Elastic Stack
4 2 (4.08%) XML
4 2 (4.08%) XSL
Miscellaneous
1 8 (16.33%) Product Ownership
1 8 (16.33%) Self-Motivation
2 2 (4.08%) Client/Server
2 2 (4.08%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 9 (18.37%) Windows
2 1 (2.04%) Windows Server
2 1 (2.04%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (97.96%) Software Testing
2 42 (85.71%) Agile
3 36 (73.47%) Scrum
3 36 (73.47%) Test Management
4 35 (71.43%) Test Scripting
5 30 (61.22%) API Testing
5 30 (61.22%) Cross-Browser Testing
5 30 (61.22%) Non-Functional Testing
6 29 (59.18%) Mentoring
7 23 (46.94%) Logistics
8 12 (24.49%) Test Automation
9 11 (22.45%) Problem-Solving
10 9 (18.37%) CI/CD
10 9 (18.37%) DevOps
11 8 (16.33%) Code Quality
11 8 (16.33%) Continuous Improvement
12 5 (10.20%) Test Strategy
13 4 (8.16%) BDD
13 4 (8.16%) Root Cause Analysis
13 4 (8.16%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 39 (79.59%) SQL
2 36 (73.47%) C#
3 30 (61.22%) Java
4 2 (4.08%) Bash
4 2 (4.08%) Python
Qualifications
1 34 (69.39%) Degree
2 33 (67.35%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
3 10 (20.41%) ISEB
4 7 (14.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 5 (10.20%) Security Cleared
6 3 (6.12%) DV Cleared
6 3 (6.12%) SC Cleared
7 1 (2.04%) PMI Certification
7 1 (2.04%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (18.37%) QA
2 6 (12.24%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 2 (4.08%) Docker
2 1 (2.04%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.04%) Terminal Server
2 1 (2.04%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (4.08%) Grafana
1 2 (4.08%) Kubernetes
1 2 (4.08%) Nessus
1 2 (4.08%) Prometheus
1 2 (4.08%) Terraform
2 1 (2.04%) SCCM
2 1 (2.04%) SCOM
Vendors
1 6 (12.24%) Microsoft
2 2 (4.08%) Oracle
2 2 (4.08%) ServiceNow
2 2 (4.08%) Workday
3 1 (2.04%) Cisco
3 1 (2.04%) Juniper
3 1 (2.04%) McAfee
3 1 (2.04%) VMware