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 12 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 516 465 493
Rank change year-on-year -51 +28 -83
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 169 81 132
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.24% 0.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.28% 0.27% 0.33%
Number of salaries quoted 84 59 73
10th Percentile £26,750 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,625 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -2.70%
75th Percentile £57,500 £59,250 £57,500
90th Percentile £70,125 £63,750 £65,250
UK median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +10.00%

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 61,098 29,971 40,475
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.75% 87.08% 79.67%
Number of salaries quoted 42,849 16,150 20,303
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,733 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £46,750 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -10.95% -2.78%
75th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £68,049
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £81,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -

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 12 October 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 12 October 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 -30 53 - - 3
South West -55 35 £50,000 +25.00% 3
South East -52 30 £52,500 +14.13% 20
North of England -34 25 £50,000 +42.86% 27
North East - 13 £50,000 - 12
East of England -40 11 £44,000 -16.98% 5
Midlands -41 11 £43,750 -3.85% 17
East Midlands -26 8 £42,500 -10.53% 2
North West - 8 £47,500 - 8
Yorkshire -40 4 - - 7
West Midlands -41 3 £47,500 +10.47% 15
Wales -66 3 £32,000 -46.67% 1
Scotland +3 1 - - 12
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 (2.37%) Confluence
1 4 (2.37%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.78%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 11 (6.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (4.73%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.18%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 57 (33.73%) SaaS
2 20 (11.83%) Azure
2 20 (11.83%) Azure DevOps
3 9 (5.33%) GitHub
4 7 (4.14%) AWS
4 7 (4.14%) Power Platform
5 3 (1.78%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon ECS
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon S3
6 1 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (0.59%) Azure AKS
6 1 (0.59%) BrowserStack
6 1 (0.59%) Copilot Studio
6 1 (0.59%) GitHub Copilot
6 1 (0.59%) IaaS
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.37%) 5G
1 4 (2.37%) SD-WAN
1 4 (2.37%) WAN
2 1 (0.59%) HTTP
2 1 (0.59%) Internet
2 1 (0.59%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.55%) Power BI
2 1 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.59%) Flink
2 1 (0.59%) Metadata
2 1 (0.59%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.59%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 28 (16.57%) Selenium
2 12 (7.10%) Git
3 10 (5.92%) Cypress.io
4 9 (5.33%) JIRA
5 8 (4.73%) Jenkins
6 7 (4.14%) Postman
7 6 (3.55%) JMeter
7 6 (3.55%) LabVIEW
8 4 (2.37%) SpecFlow
9 3 (1.78%) Bugzilla
9 3 (1.78%) GitLab
9 3 (1.78%) Zephyr
10 2 (1.18%) Appium
10 2 (1.18%) TestRail
11 1 (0.59%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.59%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.59%) Gatling
11 1 (0.59%) LoadRunner
11 1 (0.59%) Ranorex
11 1 (0.59%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 88 (52.07%) Social Skills
2 55 (32.54%) Legal
3 32 (18.93%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (16.57%) Law
5 13 (7.69%) Public Sector
6 12 (7.10%) Finance
7 10 (5.92%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (4.14%) Electronics
8 7 (4.14%) Retail
9 6 (3.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (2.96%) Aviation
11 3 (1.78%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.78%) Automotive
11 3 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.78%) Publishing
12 2 (1.18%) Military
12 2 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.59%) Games
13 1 (0.59%) iGaming
13 1 (0.59%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 70 (41.42%) Senior
2 55 (32.54%) Senior Manager
2 55 (32.54%) Testing Manager
3 33 (19.53%) Test Engineer
4 31 (18.34%) Analyst
5 21 (12.43%) QA Engineer
6 19 (11.24%) Test Analyst
7 12 (7.10%) Lead
8 11 (6.51%) Automation Engineer
8 11 (6.51%) QA Automation Engineer
8 11 (6.51%) Senior Test Engineer
8 11 (6.51%) Tester
9 7 (4.14%) DevOps Engineer
9 7 (4.14%) Junior
9 7 (4.14%) Lead DevOps
9 7 (4.14%) Lead DevOps Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Junior Analyst
10 6 (3.55%) Software Test Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Test Automation Engineer
11 5 (2.96%) Junior Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (15.38%) Playwright
2 12 (7.10%) CSS
2 12 (7.10%) Node.js
3 11 (6.51%) HTML
4 4 (2.37%) Gherkin
4 4 (2.37%) pytest
4 4 (2.37%) REST
5 1 (0.59%) ADO
5 1 (0.59%) GStreamer
5 1 (0.59%) Kafka
5 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.59%) Middleware
5 1 (0.59%) React
5 1 (0.59%) Spring
5 1 (0.59%) Spring Boot
5 1 (0.59%) Swagger
5 1 (0.59%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 55 (32.54%) Virtual Team
2 18 (10.65%) Product Ownership
3 8 (4.73%) Mobile App
4 4 (2.37%) Embedded Systems
4 4 (2.37%) Self-Driving Car
5 3 (1.78%) Client/Server
5 3 (1.78%) FMCG
6 2 (1.18%) Hackathon
7 1 (0.59%) Arduino
7 1 (0.59%) Digital Signage
7 1 (0.59%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.59%) IoT
7 1 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.59%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.59%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.59%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.59%) PKI
7 1 (0.59%) Robotics
7 1 (0.59%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.59%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 16 (9.47%) Windows
2 9 (5.33%) Linux
3 4 (2.37%) Unix
4 3 (1.78%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.18%) Android
5 2 (1.18%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (92.90%) Test Automation
2 103 (60.95%) Continuous Improvement
3 100 (59.17%) Software Testing
4 94 (55.62%) DevOps
5 72 (42.60%) Test Strategy
6 69 (40.83%) Mentoring
7 62 (36.69%) Software Engineering
8 61 (36.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 57 (33.73%) Project Delivery
10 56 (33.14%) Data Management
11 55 (32.54%) Budget Management
11 55 (32.54%) Change Advisory Board
11 55 (32.54%) Enterprise Architecture
11 55 (32.54%) Performance Management
11 55 (32.54%) Programme Management
11 55 (32.54%) Strategic Planning
11 55 (32.54%) Virtual Team Management
12 53 (31.36%) Agile
13 45 (26.63%) CI/CD
14 43 (25.44%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 82 (48.52%) Python
2 77 (45.56%) JavaScript
3 64 (37.87%) C#
4 60 (35.50%) TypeScript
5 55 (32.54%) PowerShell
6 35 (20.71%) SQL
7 9 (5.33%) Java
7 9 (5.33%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.59%) Bash
8 1 (0.59%) C
8 1 (0.59%) C++
8 1 (0.59%) Perl
8 1 (0.59%) Scala
Qualifications
1 16 (9.47%) Security Cleared
2 14 (8.28%) Degree
3 13 (7.69%) SC Cleared
4 10 (5.92%) ISTQB
5 5 (2.96%) HND
6 3 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.78%) Chartered Engineer
7 2 (1.18%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.59%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.59%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (71.60%) QA
2 5 (2.96%) Software Quality Assurance
3 3 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 1 (0.59%) Accessibility
System Software
1 3 (1.78%) Docker
1 3 (1.78%) Firmware
2 1 (0.59%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
2 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (1.18%) Ansible
1 2 (1.18%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.59%) Grafana
2 1 (0.59%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 16 (9.47%) Microsoft
2 6 (3.55%) Oracle
3 3 (1.78%) ServiceNow
4 1 (0.59%) Atlassian
4 1 (0.59%) EMC
4 1 (0.59%) Salesforce
4 1 (0.59%) SaltStack
4 1 (0.59%) VMware