Tester Job Trends in the South East

Tester
England > South East

The median Tester salary in the South East is £40,500 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 235 279 243
Rank change year-on-year +44 -36 +98
Permanent jobs requiring a Tester 35 27 52
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.34% 0.30% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.33% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 19 15 35
10th Percentile £32,450 £28,250 £41,250
25th Percentile £32,750 £43,125 £43,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,500 £47,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.74% -13.64% +10.00%
75th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £68,750
90th Percentile £59,750 £52,500 £70,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - -13.64% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 9,545 8,181 8,342
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.97% 91.12% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 5,970 4,303 6,010
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,911 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -6.50%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Tester' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Tester job vacancy trend in the South East

Tester
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the South East

Tester
Salary Histogram in the South East

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

Salary histogram for Tester in the South East

Tester
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 Tester 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 +13 13 £33,500 -33.00% 10
Berkshire -2 11 £33,500 -33.00% 10
Isle of Wight - 8 £41,500 - 4
West Sussex +8 7 - - 1
Hampshire - 6 £32,500 - 3
Buckinghamshire +9 2 £57,500 -
Surrey -10 1 £41,500 -14.87% 2
Tester
England

Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Tester 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 South East region featuring Tester in the job title.

1 18 (51.43%) Software Testing
2 14 (40.00%) Test Automation
3 12 (34.29%) SQL
4 11 (31.43%) Selenium
5 10 (28.57%) C#
5 10 (28.57%) Java
5 10 (28.57%) JIRA
5 10 (28.57%) QA
6 9 (25.71%) Degree
6 9 (25.71%) ISTQB
7 8 (22.86%) .NET
7 8 (22.86%) Agile
7 8 (22.86%) Security Cleared
7 8 (22.86%) Test Management
8 7 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
8 7 (20.00%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (17.14%) DevOps
9 6 (17.14%) Non-Functional Testing
9 6 (17.14%) Postman
9 6 (17.14%) Problem-Solving
9 6 (17.14%) Python
9 6 (17.14%) SOAP
9 6 (17.14%) SoapUI
9 6 (17.14%) Test Scripting
10 5 (14.29%) API Testing
10 5 (14.29%) Azure
10 5 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (14.29%) CI/CD
10 5 (14.29%) Cross-Browser Testing
10 5 (14.29%) HTML

Tester Skill Set
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 1 (2.86%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 5 (14.29%) Azure
1 5 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
2 3 (8.57%) GitHub
3 2 (5.71%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.86%) Internet
1 1 (2.86%) Intranet
1 1 (2.86%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (14.29%) SQL Server
2 2 (5.71%) Oracle Database
3 1 (2.86%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 11 (31.43%) Selenium
2 10 (28.57%) JIRA
3 7 (20.00%) Team Foundation Server
4 6 (17.14%) Postman
4 6 (17.14%) SoapUI
5 4 (11.43%) WebDriver
6 3 (8.57%) Visual Studio
7 2 (5.71%) Git
7 2 (5.71%) GitLab
7 2 (5.71%) Jenkins
7 2 (5.71%) Ranorex
7 2 (5.71%) Robot Framework
7 2 (5.71%) TestRail
8 1 (2.86%) Cucumber
8 1 (2.86%) JMeter
8 1 (2.86%) LoadRunner
General
1 9 (25.71%) Social Skills
2 7 (20.00%) Finance
3 3 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.71%) Aerospace
4 2 (5.71%) Banking
4 2 (5.71%) Public Sector
5 1 (2.86%) Health Technology
5 1 (2.86%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (22.86%) .NET
2 6 (17.14%) SOAP
3 5 (14.29%) HTML
4 3 (8.57%) ASP.NET
5 2 (5.71%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (5.71%) XML
5 2 (5.71%) XSL
6 1 (2.86%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 2 (5.71%) Client/Server
1 2 (5.71%) Product Ownership
1 2 (5.71%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 2 (5.71%) Windows
2 1 (2.86%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (51.43%) Software Testing
2 14 (40.00%) Test Automation
3 8 (22.86%) Agile
3 8 (22.86%) Test Management
4 7 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 6 (17.14%) DevOps
5 6 (17.14%) Non-Functional Testing
5 6 (17.14%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (17.14%) Test Scripting
6 5 (14.29%) API Testing
6 5 (14.29%) CI/CD
6 5 (14.29%) Cross-Browser Testing
6 5 (14.29%) Mentoring
6 5 (14.29%) Scrum
7 4 (11.43%) Logistics
7 4 (11.43%) Manual Testing
7 4 (11.43%) Performance Testing
7 4 (11.43%) Test Strategy
8 3 (8.57%) Computer Science
8 3 (8.57%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 12 (34.29%) SQL
2 10 (28.57%) C#
2 10 (28.57%) Java
3 6 (17.14%) Python
4 2 (5.71%) Bash
5 1 (2.86%) Go
5 1 (2.86%) PHP
Qualifications
1 9 (25.71%) Degree
1 9 (25.71%) ISTQB
2 8 (22.86%) Security Cleared
3 4 (11.43%) CHECK Team Member
3 4 (11.43%) DV Cleared
3 4 (11.43%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
4 3 (8.57%) SC Cleared
5 2 (5.71%) CHECK Team Leader
5 2 (5.71%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 2 (5.71%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (28.57%) QA
2 2 (5.71%) GDPR
2 2 (5.71%) GRC
2 2 (5.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (2.86%) Accessibility
System Software
1 2 (5.71%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (5.71%) Grafana
1 2 (5.71%) Kubernetes
1 2 (5.71%) Nessus
1 2 (5.71%) Prometheus
1 2 (5.71%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (5.71%) Oracle