Software Testing Job Trends in the South East

Software Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Software Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 169 144
Rank change year-on-year +19 -25 -47
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 160 120 334
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 1.09% 1.54% 1.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.52% 1.70% 2.23%
Number of salaries quoted 128 80 232
10th Percentile £27,500 £34,875 £34,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £42,500 £39,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £52,500 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +7.14% -10.91%
75th Percentile £70,313 £68,750 £62,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £72,750 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -10.71%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

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 the South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 10,520 7,053 14,992
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.38% 90.32% 81.19%
Number of salaries quoted 7,447 3,417 10,398
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,750
25th Percentile £39,876 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Software Testing job vacancy trend in the South East

Software Testing
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Testing in the South East over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Testing in the South East

Software Testing
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 Software Testing within the South East region over the 6 months to 17 June 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
Thames Valley +3 58 £65,000 +17.58% 36
Hampshire -30 49 £40,000 -23.81% 27
Berkshire +28 37 £67,500 +9.70% 11
Surrey -11 19 £49,500 -13.91% 7
Buckinghamshire -11 14 £46,250 +6.94% 17
Isle of Wight +11 13 £45,000 -25.00%
Kent -13 12 £30,000 -39.39% 15
West Sussex -13 8 £15,600 -72.14% 5
Oxfordshire -18 7 £53,750 - 8
Sussex - 1 £59,500 -
Software Testing
England

Software Testing
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:

Application Platforms
1 11 (6.88%) IIS
2 1 (0.63%) Confluence
2 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (3.75%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.50%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.63%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (1.25%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 28 (17.50%) Azure
2 16 (10.00%) Azure DevOps
3 15 (9.38%) AWS
4 8 (5.00%) GitHub
5 7 (4.38%) GCP
6 5 (3.13%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.50%) GitHub Actions
7 4 (2.50%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (1.88%) BrowserStack
9 2 (1.25%) SaaS
10 1 (0.63%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.63%) Azure Service Bus
10 1 (0.63%) Azure Service Fabric
10 1 (0.63%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (6.25%) VPN
2 4 (2.50%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (1.88%) Broadband
4 2 (1.25%) Cisco ISE
4 2 (1.25%) HTTP
4 2 (1.25%) MQTT
5 1 (0.63%) 5G
5 1 (0.63%) LTE
5 1 (0.63%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (14.38%) SQL Server
2 17 (10.63%) OLTP
3 10 (6.25%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (3.13%) Oracle Database
4 5 (3.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 4 (2.50%) Crystal Reports
5 4 (2.50%) Power BI
6 3 (1.88%) MongoDB
7 2 (1.25%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.63%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (14.38%) Git
2 20 (12.50%) JIRA
3 19 (11.88%) Selenium
4 16 (10.00%) GitLab
5 13 (8.13%) Team Foundation Server
6 10 (6.25%) Postman
6 10 (6.25%) Visual Studio Code
7 9 (5.63%) SoapUI
8 8 (5.00%) WebDriver
9 6 (3.75%) Zephyr
10 4 (2.50%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 4 (2.50%) Jenkins
10 4 (2.50%) Ranorex
11 3 (1.88%) Cypress.io
12 2 (1.25%) Cucumber
12 2 (1.25%) JMeter
12 2 (1.25%) JUnit
12 2 (1.25%) MSTest
12 2 (1.25%) Subversion
12 2 (1.25%) TestNG
General
1 45 (28.13%) Social Skills
2 20 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (9.38%) Finance
4 6 (3.75%) Electronics
4 6 (3.75%) Law
4 6 (3.75%) Military
5 5 (3.13%) Aerospace
5 5 (3.13%) Manufacturing
5 5 (3.13%) Retail
6 4 (2.50%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.88%) Games
8 2 (1.25%) Aviation
9 1 (0.63%) Banking
9 1 (0.63%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 53 (33.13%) Senior
2 28 (17.50%) Developer
2 28 (17.50%) Software Engineer
3 27 (16.88%) Tester
4 25 (15.63%) Software Tester
5 23 (14.38%) Senior Developer
6 22 (13.75%) Analyst
7 20 (12.50%) Oracle Developer
7 20 (12.50%) Senior Oracle Developer
8 16 (10.00%) Lead
9 14 (8.75%) PL/SQL Developer
9 14 (8.75%) Senior PL/SQL Developer
9 14 (8.75%) Senior SQL Developer
9 14 (8.75%) SQL Developer
10 12 (7.50%) Support Analyst
11 11 (6.88%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (6.88%) Senior Software Engineer
12 10 (6.25%) Automation Tester
12 10 (6.25%) Test Engineer
13 8 (5.00%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (19.38%) .NET
2 29 (18.13%) HTML
3 27 (16.88%) SOAP
4 21 (13.13%) XML
5 9 (5.63%) Playwright
6 8 (5.00%) ASP.NET
7 5 (3.13%) .NET Framework
8 4 (2.50%) JSON
8 4 (2.50%) Lightning Web Components
8 4 (2.50%) REST
8 4 (2.50%) Visualforce
8 4 (2.50%) XSL
9 3 (1.88%) React
10 2 (1.25%) ADO
10 2 (1.25%) Next.js
10 2 (1.25%) Yocto
11 1 (0.63%) ASP.NET Core
11 1 (0.63%) Blazor
11 1 (0.63%) OAuth2
11 1 (0.63%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 17 (10.63%) Algorithms
2 14 (8.75%) Client/Server
3 11 (6.88%) Product Ownership
4 6 (3.75%) Hackathon
5 5 (3.13%) Distributed Systems
5 5 (3.13%) Embedded Systems
6 4 (2.50%) Low-Code
6 4 (2.50%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.50%) Video\Live Streaming
7 3 (1.88%) PMI
8 2 (1.25%) Acoustics
8 2 (1.25%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.25%) FPGA
8 2 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.25%) Life Science
8 2 (1.25%) Renewable Energy
8 2 (1.25%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.25%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.63%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 25 (15.63%) Windows
2 14 (8.75%) Linux
3 8 (5.00%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.25%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.63%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (35.00%) Test Automation
2 55 (34.38%) Agile
3 45 (28.13%) Problem-Solving
4 41 (25.63%) Software Engineering
5 38 (23.75%) Scrum
6 33 (20.63%) Continuous Improvement
6 33 (20.63%) DevOps
7 30 (18.75%) Computer Science
8 22 (13.75%) SDLC
9 21 (13.13%) Test Scripting
10 20 (12.50%) CI/CD
11 19 (11.88%) Kanban
12 18 (11.25%) Manual Testing
12 18 (11.25%) Regression Testing
13 17 (10.63%) Mentoring
14 16 (10.00%) Non-Functional Testing
15 15 (9.38%) API Testing
15 15 (9.38%) Mathematics
15 15 (9.38%) Test Strategy
16 14 (8.75%) Software Architecture
Programming Languages
1 52 (32.50%) SQL
2 42 (26.25%) C#
3 39 (24.38%) Python
4 28 (17.50%) Java
5 27 (16.88%) C++
6 20 (12.50%) PL/SQL
7 15 (9.38%) C
8 12 (7.50%) JavaScript
9 6 (3.75%) MATLAB
10 5 (3.13%) Rust
11 4 (2.50%) Apex Code
11 4 (2.50%) Ruby
11 4 (2.50%) TypeScript
11 4 (2.50%) VBA
11 4 (2.50%) VBScript
12 3 (1.88%) Go
13 1 (0.63%) Groovy
13 1 (0.63%) PowerShell
13 1 (0.63%) VB
13 1 (0.63%) VB6
Qualifications
1 77 (48.13%) Degree
2 21 (13.13%) ISTQB
3 20 (12.50%) Security Cleared
4 12 (7.50%) Master's Degree
5 10 (6.25%) DV Cleared
5 10 (6.25%) SC Cleared
6 9 (5.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (4.38%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 3 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.88%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (1.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (1.88%) Numerate Degree
8 3 (1.88%) PMI Certification
9 2 (1.25%) CSQA
10 1 (0.63%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.63%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (33.13%) QA
2 5 (3.13%) SLA
3 3 (1.88%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 3 (1.88%) Software Quality Assurance
4 2 (1.25%) JTAG
4 2 (1.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 13 (8.13%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.38%) Docker
2 7 (4.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (3.13%) Hyper-V
3 5 (3.13%) KVM
4 4 (2.50%) Firmware
5 3 (1.88%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (1.25%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 2 (1.25%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.25%) SCCM
1 2 (1.25%) SCOM
2 1 (0.63%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 27 (16.88%) Oracle
2 21 (13.13%) Microsoft
3 10 (6.25%) Citrix
4 7 (4.38%) VMware
5 6 (3.75%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.50%) Google
6 4 (2.50%) Salesforce
6 4 (2.50%) SYSPRO
7 2 (1.25%) Cisco
7 2 (1.25%) Juniper
7 2 (1.25%) McAfee
7 2 (1.25%) NVIDIA