Tester Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Tester
South East > Thames Valley

The median Tester salary in the Thames Valley is £33,500 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 158 171 176
Rank change year-on-year +13 +5 +40
Permanent jobs requiring a Tester 13 10 23
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.32% 0.30% 0.58%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.34% 0.61%
Number of salaries quoted 7 4 18
10th Percentile - £36,875 £42,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £45,313 £48,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £50,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -33.00% -16.67% +20.00%
75th Percentile £61,250 - £68,750
90th Percentile £65,250 - -
South East median annual salary £40,500 £47,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -14.74% -13.64% +10.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 3,722 2,948 3,760
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 87.12% 95.00%
Number of salaries quoted 2,181 1,458 2,675
10th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +14.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £90,000 £82,500
South East median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.04% +9.52% -4.55%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Tester job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Tester
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Tester
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

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

Salary histogram for Tester in the Thames Valley

Tester
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Tester within the Thames Valley 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
Berkshire -2 11 £33,500 -33.00% 10
Buckinghamshire +9 2 £57,500 -
Tester
South East

Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region featuring Tester in the job title.

1 6 (46.15%) Degree
1 6 (46.15%) Java
1 6 (46.15%) JIRA
1 6 (46.15%) Selenium
1 6 (46.15%) SQL
1 6 (46.15%) Test Scripting
2 5 (38.46%) Agile
2 5 (38.46%) ISTQB
2 5 (38.46%) Non-Functional Testing
2 5 (38.46%) Postman
2 5 (38.46%) Security Cleared
2 5 (38.46%) SOAP
2 5 (38.46%) SoapUI
2 5 (38.46%) Test Management
3 4 (30.77%) .NET
3 4 (30.77%) API Testing
3 4 (30.77%) C#
3 4 (30.77%) CHECK Team Member
3 4 (30.77%) Cross-Browser Testing
3 4 (30.77%) HTML
3 4 (30.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
3 4 (30.77%) Logistics
3 4 (30.77%) Mentoring
3 4 (30.77%) Scrum
3 4 (30.77%) Software Testing
3 4 (30.77%) Team Foundation Server
3 4 (30.77%) WebDriver
4 3 (23.08%) CI/CD
4 3 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
4 3 (23.08%) Penetration Testing

Tester Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 (7.69%) Apache
Communications & Networking
1 1 (7.69%) Internet
1 1 (7.69%) Intranet
1 1 (7.69%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (7.69%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (46.15%) JIRA
1 6 (46.15%) Selenium
2 5 (38.46%) Postman
2 5 (38.46%) SoapUI
3 4 (30.77%) Team Foundation Server
3 4 (30.77%) WebDriver
4 1 (7.69%) Cucumber
4 1 (7.69%) JMeter
4 1 (7.69%) LoadRunner
General
1 6 (46.15%) Finance
2 5 (38.46%) Social Skills
3 2 (15.38%) Banking
3 2 (15.38%) Public Sector
4 1 (7.69%) Health Technology
4 1 (7.69%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (38.46%) SOAP
2 4 (30.77%) .NET
2 4 (30.77%) HTML
3 1 (7.69%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 2 (15.38%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1 (7.69%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (46.15%) Test Scripting
2 5 (38.46%) Agile
2 5 (38.46%) Non-Functional Testing
2 5 (38.46%) Test Management
3 4 (30.77%) API Testing
3 4 (30.77%) Cross-Browser Testing
3 4 (30.77%) Logistics
3 4 (30.77%) Mentoring
3 4 (30.77%) Scrum
3 4 (30.77%) Software Testing
4 3 (23.08%) CI/CD
4 3 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
4 3 (23.08%) Penetration Testing
5 2 (15.38%) Incident Response
5 2 (15.38%) Manual Testing
5 2 (15.38%) Protective Monitoring
5 2 (15.38%) Security Architecture
5 2 (15.38%) Test Automation
5 2 (15.38%) Vulnerability Management
6 1 (7.69%) Actionable Insight
Programming Languages
1 6 (46.15%) Java
1 6 (46.15%) SQL
2 4 (30.77%) C#
3 1 (7.69%) Go
3 1 (7.69%) PHP
3 1 (7.69%) Python
Qualifications
1 6 (46.15%) Degree
2 5 (38.46%) ISTQB
2 5 (38.46%) Security Cleared
3 4 (30.77%) CHECK Team Member
3 4 (30.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
4 3 (23.08%) SC Cleared
5 2 (15.38%) CHECK Team Leader
5 2 (15.38%) OSCP
6 1 (7.69%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (15.38%) GDPR
1 2 (15.38%) GRC
1 2 (15.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (7.69%) Accessibility
2 1 (7.69%) QA