Manual Testing Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Manual Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Manual Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 489 452 521
Rank change year-on-year -37 +69 -109
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 173 91 130
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.22% 0.26% 0.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.31% 0.30% 0.29%
Number of salaries quoted 82 68 80
10th Percentile £27,275 £30,125 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £36,188
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% - -5.26%
75th Percentile £57,500 £53,000 £54,063
90th Percentile £71,250 £62,500 £65,025
UK median annual salary £50,000 £46,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +8.70% -3.16% -5.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Manual 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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 56,526 30,294 45,583
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.25% 86.72% 78.30%
Number of salaries quoted 40,015 16,650 26,994
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -6.86% -7.07%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -1.79% -6.67%

Manual Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Manual Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Manual Testing job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Manual Testing
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Manual Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Manual Testing

Manual Testing
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Manual Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Manual Testing in the UK excluding London

Manual Testing
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Manual Testing within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 August 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
Northern Ireland -37 53 - - 2
South West -53 35 £50,000 +25.00% 12
South East -31 32 £52,500 +16.67% 19
North of England -51 26 £50,000 +25.00% 11
North West +5 16 £47,500 +5.56% 6
Midlands -27 14 £45,000 +5.88% 12
East Midlands -17 10 £42,500 -26.09% 2
East of England -22 9 £55,000 +3.77% 1
North East -56 7 £50,000 +11.11% 4
West Midlands -28 4 £51,250 +36.67% 10
Wales -64 4 £32,000 -46.67% 2
Yorkshire -38 3 £50,000 +42.86% 1
Manual Testing
UK

Manual Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 4 (2.31%) Confluence
2 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (5.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.16%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 59 (34.10%) SaaS
2 30 (17.34%) Azure
2 30 (17.34%) Azure DevOps
3 7 (4.05%) GitHub
4 6 (3.47%) Power Platform
5 5 (2.89%) AWS
6 2 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.58%) Amazon ECS
7 1 (0.58%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (0.58%) AWS CodePipeline
7 1 (0.58%) Azure AKS
7 1 (0.58%) BrowserStack
7 1 (0.58%) Copilot Studio
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.31%) 5G
1 4 (2.31%) SD-WAN
1 4 (2.31%) WAN
2 2 (1.16%) HTTP
3 1 (0.58%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.58%) Internet
3 1 (0.58%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.58%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.89%) Power BI
2 1 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.58%) Flink
2 1 (0.58%) Metadata
2 1 (0.58%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.58%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (17.34%) Selenium
2 16 (9.25%) Postman
3 14 (8.09%) JIRA
4 13 (7.51%) Git
5 11 (6.36%) Cypress.io
6 10 (5.78%) Jenkins
7 6 (3.47%) LabVIEW
8 5 (2.89%) Zephyr
9 4 (2.31%) SpecFlow
10 3 (1.73%) Bugzilla
10 3 (1.73%) JMeter
11 2 (1.16%) GitLab
11 2 (1.16%) SoapUI
11 2 (1.16%) TestRail
12 1 (0.58%) Appium
12 1 (0.58%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.58%) Gatling
12 1 (0.58%) Ranorex
12 1 (0.58%) REST Assured
12 1 (0.58%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 84 (48.55%) Social Skills
2 55 (31.79%) Legal
3 28 (16.18%) Law
4 24 (13.87%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (11.56%) Finance
6 12 (6.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (5.78%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (4.05%) Electronics
8 7 (4.05%) Public Sector
9 5 (2.89%) Aviation
10 4 (2.31%) Retail
11 3 (1.73%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.16%) Back Office
12 2 (1.16%) Games
12 2 (1.16%) Military
13 1 (0.58%) Advertising
13 1 (0.58%) iGaming
13 1 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 68 (39.31%) Senior
2 55 (31.79%) Senior Manager
2 55 (31.79%) Testing Manager
3 30 (17.34%) Test Engineer
4 26 (15.03%) Analyst
5 17 (9.83%) Lead
5 17 (9.83%) Test Analyst
6 16 (9.25%) QA Engineer
7 13 (7.51%) Tester
8 9 (5.20%) Senior Test Engineer
9 7 (4.05%) DevOps Engineer
9 7 (4.05%) Head of Testing
9 7 (4.05%) Junior
9 7 (4.05%) Lead DevOps
9 7 (4.05%) Lead DevOps Engineer
10 6 (3.47%) Automation Engineer
10 6 (3.47%) QA Automation Engineer
10 6 (3.47%) QA Leader
10 6 (3.47%) Software Test Engineer
10 6 (3.47%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (13.29%) Playwright
2 8 (4.62%) CSS
3 7 (4.05%) HTML
4 6 (3.47%) Node.js
5 5 (2.89%) pytest
6 3 (1.73%) Gherkin
6 3 (1.73%) REST
7 1 (0.58%) ADO
7 1 (0.58%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.58%) Kafka
7 1 (0.58%) Laravel
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.58%) Middleware
7 1 (0.58%) Swagger
7 1 (0.58%) Terraform
7 1 (0.58%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 55 (31.79%) Virtual Team
2 19 (10.98%) Product Ownership
3 6 (3.47%) Mobile App
4 5 (2.89%) Embedded Systems
5 4 (2.31%) Self-Driving Car
6 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.16%) Hackathon
6 2 (1.16%) Video\Live Streaming
7 1 (0.58%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.58%) Digital Signage
7 1 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.58%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.58%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.58%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.58%) PKI
7 1 (0.58%) Robotics
7 1 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (8.09%) Windows
2 6 (3.47%) Linux
3 4 (2.31%) Unix
4 1 (0.58%) Android
4 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.58%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (93.06%) Test Automation
2 106 (61.27%) DevOps
3 105 (60.69%) Continuous Improvement
4 104 (60.12%) Software Testing
5 83 (47.98%) Test Strategy
6 72 (41.62%) Mentoring
7 61 (35.26%) Agile
7 61 (35.26%) Software Engineering
7 61 (35.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 58 (33.53%) Project Delivery
9 56 (32.37%) Data Management
10 55 (31.79%) Budget Management
10 55 (31.79%) Change Advisory Board
10 55 (31.79%) Enterprise Architecture
10 55 (31.79%) Performance Management
10 55 (31.79%) Programme Management
10 55 (31.79%) Strategic Planning
10 55 (31.79%) Virtual Team Management
11 47 (27.17%) CI/CD
12 38 (21.97%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 79 (45.66%) Python
2 67 (38.73%) JavaScript
3 63 (36.42%) C#
4 58 (33.53%) TypeScript
5 55 (31.79%) PowerShell
6 29 (16.76%) SQL
7 9 (5.20%) Java
7 9 (5.20%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.58%) Bash
8 1 (0.58%) C++
8 1 (0.58%) PHP
8 1 (0.58%) Scala
Qualifications
1 15 (8.67%) ISTQB
2 13 (7.51%) Degree
3 11 (6.36%) Security Cleared
4 8 (4.62%) SC Cleared
5 4 (2.31%) HND
5 4 (2.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.73%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.16%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.58%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 120 (69.36%) QA
2 5 (2.89%) Software Quality Assurance
3 3 (1.73%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 1 (0.58%) GDPR
4 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (1.73%) Firmware
2 2 (1.16%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.16%) Docker
3 1 (0.58%) Terminal Server
3 1 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (0.58%) Ansible
1 1 (0.58%) Kubernetes
1 1 (0.58%) SCCM
1 1 (0.58%) SCOM
Vendors
1 19 (10.98%) Microsoft
2 7 (4.05%) Salesforce
3 6 (3.47%) Oracle
4 5 (2.89%) ServiceNow
5 1 (0.58%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.58%) Cisco
5 1 (0.58%) Juniper
5 1 (0.58%) McAfee
5 1 (0.58%) VMware