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 6 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 142 145
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 -83
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 129 169 145
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 1.25% 1.85% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.55% 2.11% 1.98%
Number of salaries quoted 109 92 115
10th Percentile £32,750 £36,250 £34,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £61,250 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -26.53% +16.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £63,750 £71,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £73,000 £77,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000

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 8,326 8,020 7,334
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 80.48% 87.89% 89.09%
Number of salaries quoted 4,927 3,878 5,081
10th Percentile £27,750 £32,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,500 £45,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +8.49% -3.64%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 6 January 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 6 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
Thames Valley -35 48 £50,500 -25.19% 45
Berkshire -21 40 £47,500 -29.63% 20
Surrey -4 34 £45,000 -10.00% 11
Hampshire +37 27 £40,000 -9.23% 16
Isle of Wight 0 13 £45,000 -25.00% 8
Kent -2 12 £37,500 -21.05% 12
Buckinghamshire -14 9 £52,500 -16.00% 15
Middlesex - 4 £37,500 - 2
Oxfordshire +15 2 £56,250 -37.50% 11
West Sussex - 2 £65,000 - 7
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 3 (2.33%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.78%) Confluence
2 1 (0.78%) IIS
2 1 (0.78%) WinCC
Applications
1 10 (7.75%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (2.33%) Sage X3
1 3 (2.33%) Unit4 Business World
2 1 (0.78%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 25 (19.38%) Azure
2 21 (16.28%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (5.43%) GitHub
4 4 (3.10%) SaaS
5 3 (2.33%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.33%) GitHub Actions
5 3 (2.33%) Intacct
6 2 (1.55%) AWS CloudFormation
6 2 (1.55%) Google Play
6 2 (1.55%) TestFlight
7 1 (0.78%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (0.78%) Azure Service Bus
7 1 (0.78%) Azure Service Fabric
7 1 (0.78%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.78%) PaaS
7 1 (0.78%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.10%) LAN
1 4 (3.10%) WAN
2 1 (0.78%) Cisco ISE
2 1 (0.78%) Ethernet
2 1 (0.78%) HTTP
2 1 (0.78%) Profibus
2 1 (0.78%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (6.98%) OLTP
1 9 (6.98%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.55%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (1.55%) GIS
2 2 (1.55%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.78%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 47 (36.43%) Selenium
2 43 (33.33%) JIRA
3 35 (27.13%) Postman
3 35 (27.13%) SoapUI
3 35 (27.13%) Team Foundation Server
4 34 (26.36%) WebDriver
5 9 (6.98%) Jenkins
6 7 (5.43%) Visual Studio
7 6 (4.65%) Cypress.io
7 6 (4.65%) Git
8 4 (3.10%) GitLab
8 4 (3.10%) SpecFlow
9 3 (2.33%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (2.33%) Robot Framework
10 2 (1.55%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 2 (1.55%) CMake
10 2 (1.55%) JUnit
10 2 (1.55%) Ranorex
10 2 (1.55%) Subversion
10 2 (1.55%) Xcode
General
1 46 (35.66%) Finance
2 44 (34.11%) Social Skills
3 12 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (5.43%) Legal
5 4 (3.10%) Advertising
5 4 (3.10%) Electronics
5 4 (3.10%) Telecoms
6 3 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (2.33%) Law
6 3 (2.33%) Local Government
6 3 (2.33%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.55%) Aerospace
7 2 (1.55%) Automotive
7 2 (1.55%) Banking
7 2 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.55%) Publishing
7 2 (1.55%) Retail
8 1 (0.78%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 41 (31.78%) Senior
2 32 (24.81%) Analyst
2 32 (24.81%) Test Analyst
3 21 (16.28%) Developer
4 18 (13.95%) Tester
5 14 (10.85%) Lead
6 13 (10.08%) Senior Developer
7 11 (8.53%) Oracle Developer
7 11 (8.53%) Senior Analyst
7 11 (8.53%) Senior Oracle Developer
7 11 (8.53%) Senior Test Analyst
7 11 (8.53%) Software Tester
8 10 (7.75%) Test Engineer
9 9 (6.98%) PL/SQL Developer
9 9 (6.98%) Senior PL/SQL Developer
9 9 (6.98%) Senior SQL Developer
9 9 (6.98%) Software Engineer
9 9 (6.98%) SQL Developer
9 9 (6.98%) Test Leader
10 8 (6.20%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (40.31%) .NET
2 45 (34.88%) SOAP
3 44 (34.11%) HTML
4 13 (10.08%) XML
5 7 (5.43%) ASP.NET
5 7 (5.43%) Playwright
6 4 (3.10%) Gherkin
7 3 (2.33%) JSON
7 3 (2.33%) React
8 2 (1.55%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (1.55%) Google Maps API
8 2 (1.55%) OpenGL
8 2 (1.55%) OpenSceneGraph
8 2 (1.55%) QML
8 2 (1.55%) Qt
8 2 (1.55%) Qt Quick
8 2 (1.55%) REST
8 2 (1.55%) Vulkan
8 2 (1.55%) XSL
9 1 (0.78%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 15 (11.63%) Self-Motivation
2 9 (6.98%) Product Ownership
3 5 (3.88%) Driving Licence
4 4 (3.10%) Algorithms
4 4 (3.10%) CCTV
4 4 (3.10%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (2.33%) e-Learning
5 3 (2.33%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.33%) N-Tier
5 3 (2.33%) Onboarding
5 3 (2.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 2 (1.55%) 3D Graphics
6 2 (1.55%) Client/Server
6 2 (1.55%) Cloud Native
6 2 (1.55%) Embedded Systems
6 2 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.55%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.55%) PMI
6 2 (1.55%) RISC-V
Operating Systems
1 16 (12.40%) Windows
2 4 (3.10%) Linux
2 4 (3.10%) Unix
3 3 (2.33%) Android
3 3 (2.33%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.55%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.55%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.55%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (55.81%) Agile
2 48 (37.21%) Scrum
3 47 (36.43%) Test Scripting
4 41 (31.78%) Test Automation
5 40 (31.01%) Test Management
6 39 (30.23%) Mentoring
7 36 (27.91%) Problem-Solving
8 34 (26.36%) API Testing
9 33 (25.58%) Cross-Browser Testing
9 33 (25.58%) Non-Functional Testing
10 27 (20.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 24 (18.60%) Logistics
12 23 (17.83%) DevOps
13 19 (14.73%) CI/CD
14 16 (12.40%) Computer Science
15 15 (11.63%) Test Strategy
16 13 (10.08%) Software Engineering
17 11 (8.53%) Service Delivery
17 11 (8.53%) Validation
18 10 (7.75%) Mathematics
Programming Languages
1 65 (50.39%) SQL
2 53 (41.09%) C#
3 46 (35.66%) Java
4 11 (8.53%) C
4 11 (8.53%) PL/SQL
5 10 (7.75%) Python
6 8 (6.20%) Bash
6 8 (6.20%) C++
7 4 (3.10%) Fortran
7 4 (3.10%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.55%) Embedded C
8 2 (1.55%) Objective-C
8 2 (1.55%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.78%) Delphi
9 1 (0.78%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.78%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.78%) VB
9 1 (0.78%) VB6
Qualifications
1 69 (53.49%) Degree
2 50 (38.76%) ISTQB
3 34 (26.36%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
4 18 (13.95%) Security Cleared
5 11 (8.53%) ISEB
5 11 (8.53%) SC Cleared
6 9 (6.98%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (5.43%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (4.65%) Numerate Degree
9 5 (3.88%) DV Cleared
10 4 (3.10%) Master's Degree
10 4 (3.10%) PhD
11 3 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (2.33%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (28.68%) QA
2 7 (5.43%) Software Quality Assurance
3 5 (3.88%) SLA
4 3 (2.33%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.55%) ISO 9000
5 2 (1.55%) JTAG
6 1 (0.78%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 4 (3.10%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.33%) Docker
2 3 (2.33%) Firmware
3 2 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.78%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.78%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 3 (2.33%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.55%) Grafana
2 2 (1.55%) Nessus
2 2 (1.55%) Prometheus
2 2 (1.55%) SCCM
2 2 (1.55%) SCOM
2 2 (1.55%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (11.63%) Microsoft
2 13 (10.08%) Oracle
3 4 (3.10%) ServiceNow
4 3 (2.33%) Sage
4 3 (2.33%) VMware
5 2 (1.55%) Apple
5 2 (1.55%) ESRI
5 2 (1.55%) Freshdesk
5 2 (1.55%) Google
5 2 (1.55%) Mapbox
5 2 (1.55%) Workday
5 2 (1.55%) Xamarin
6 1 (0.78%) AVEVA
6 1 (0.78%) Cisco
6 1 (0.78%) Epicor
6 1 (0.78%) Juniper
6 1 (0.78%) McAfee
6 1 (0.78%) Rockwell
6 1 (0.78%) SAP
6 1 (0.78%) Siemens