Test Strategy Job Trends in the South East

Test Strategy
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Test Strategy skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 203 246 249
Rank change year-on-year +43 +3 +30
Permanent jobs citing Test Strategy 67 60 46
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.65% 0.67% 0.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.80% 0.76% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 17 34 35
10th Percentile £48,850 £45,000 £40,100
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,500 £56,750 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% -5.42% +6.19%
75th Percentile £68,750 £79,063 £69,375
90th Percentile £77,250 £94,625 £75,000
England median annual salary £65,000 £67,500 £77,500
% change year-on-year -3.70% -12.90% +29.17%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Test Strategy 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 8,324 7,915 7,772
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 80.21% 88.16% 88.29%
Number of salaries quoted 4,975 3,773 5,421
10th Percentile £27,750 £33,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,250 £45,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £58,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -14.53% +11.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Test Strategy
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Test Strategy job vacancy trend in the South East

Test Strategy
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Strategy.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Strategy

Test Strategy
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Strategy in the South East over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Strategy in the South East

Test Strategy
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 Test Strategy within the South East 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
Thames Valley +35 56 £55,500 -24.75% 33
Berkshire +27 51 £55,500 -17.78% 21
Hampshire +33 8 £54,500 +21.11% 5
Buckinghamshire +5 4 £57,500 -8.37% 5
Surrey -10 2 £67,500 +23.85% 6
Oxfordshire +13 1 £67,500 -19.40% 7
Kent -16 1 - - 7
Test Strategy
England

Test Strategy
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 2 (2.99%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 44 (65.67%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 42 (62.69%) Azure DevOps
2 6 (8.96%) Azure
3 2 (2.99%) AWS CloudFormation
3 2 (2.99%) Entra ID
4 1 (1.49%) Microsoft 365
Development Applications
1 41 (61.19%) JIRA
2 38 (56.72%) eCATT
2 38 (56.72%) NeoLoad
3 7 (10.45%) Selenium
4 4 (5.97%) Cypress.io
4 4 (5.97%) WebDriver
5 3 (4.48%) Postman
6 2 (2.99%) GitLab
6 2 (2.99%) Jenkins
6 2 (2.99%) Robot Framework
6 2 (2.99%) TestRail
General
1 53 (79.10%) Finance
2 44 (65.67%) Manufacturing
2 44 (65.67%) Marketing
3 22 (32.84%) Presentation Skills
4 19 (28.36%) Social Skills
5 15 (22.39%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (20.90%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (7.46%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (5.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (5.97%) Law
8 4 (5.97%) Public Sector
9 2 (2.99%) Aerospace
9 2 (2.99%) Legal
10 1 (1.49%) Games
Job Titles
1 35 (52.24%) Senior
2 34 (50.75%) Lead
2 34 (50.75%) Test Leader
3 21 (31.34%) Automation Test Lead
4 14 (20.90%) Analyst
5 12 (17.91%) Performance Analyst
5 12 (17.91%) Performance Test Analyst
5 12 (17.91%) Test Analyst
5 12 (17.91%) Testing Analyst
6 10 (14.93%) Performance Test Leader
7 5 (7.46%) Test Manager
8 4 (5.97%) Developer
8 4 (5.97%) Developer in Test
8 4 (5.97%) QA Engineer
8 4 (5.97%) Software Developer
8 4 (5.97%) Tester
9 2 (2.99%) Release Manager
9 2 (2.99%) Senior Analyst
9 2 (2.99%) Senior Software Developer
9 2 (2.99%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (5.97%) Playwright
2 2 (2.99%) .NET
2 2 (2.99%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 4 (5.97%) Self-Motivation
1 4 (5.97%) Team-Oriented Environment
2 2 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
2 2 (2.99%) Management Information System
2 2 (2.99%) Product Ownership
3 1 (1.49%) Data Centre
3 1 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
3 1 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (76.12%) Test Management
2 45 (67.16%) Roadmaps
3 44 (65.67%) Product Roadmap
3 44 (65.67%) Source to Pay
4 38 (56.72%) Performance Testing
4 38 (56.72%) Requirements Gathering
5 32 (47.76%) Test Automation
6 31 (46.27%) ERP
7 26 (38.81%) Continuous Delivery
8 25 (37.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 22 (32.84%) Visualisation
10 20 (29.85%) Agile
11 15 (22.39%) User Experience
12 14 (20.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 13 (19.40%) Risk Management
13 13 (19.40%) Software Testing
14 12 (17.91%) Load Testing
14 12 (17.91%) Performance Analysis
14 12 (17.91%) Problem-Solving
14 12 (17.91%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (13.43%) C#
2 5 (7.46%) Java
3 3 (4.48%) SQL
4 2 (2.99%) Bash
4 2 (2.99%) Python
5 1 (1.49%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.49%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 9 (13.43%) Security Cleared
2 6 (8.96%) SC Cleared
3 5 (7.46%) Degree
3 5 (7.46%) ISTQB
4 4 (5.97%) Computer Science Degree
4 4 (5.97%) DV Cleared
5 3 (4.48%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 2 (2.99%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (1.49%) PMI Certification
7 1 (1.49%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (23.88%) QA
2 5 (7.46%) Accessibility
System Software
1 2 (2.99%) Docker
Systems Management
1 38 (56.72%) HP ALM
2 2 (2.99%) Grafana
2 2 (2.99%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.99%) Nessus
2 2 (2.99%) Prometheus
2 2 (2.99%) Terraform
Vendors
1 44 (65.67%) SAP
2 38 (56.72%) HP
3 2 (2.99%) ServiceNow
3 2 (2.99%) Workday