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 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 487 463 507
Rank change year-on-year -24 +44 -96
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 169 82 131
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.24% 0.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.29% 0.27% 0.30%
Number of salaries quoted 80 62 71
10th Percentile £29,450 £27,875 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +13.33% -5.26%
75th Percentile £57,813 £59,125 £56,250
90th Percentile £71,875 £63,750 £65,250
UK median annual salary £50,000 £52,250 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.31% +4.50% -

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 58,301 29,869 43,377
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.01% 86.65% 78.29%
Number of salaries quoted 41,307 16,135 23,985
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 14 September 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 14 September 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 -36 53 - - 7
South West -58 35 £50,000 +25.00% 3
South East -36 32 £52,500 +14.13% 22
North of England -38 26 £50,000 +25.00% 15
North West -4 14 £47,500 +5.56% 6
Midlands -42 11 £43,750 -21.17% 14
East of England -33 9 £55,000 +3.77% 7
East Midlands -25 8 £42,500 -26.09% 3
North East -55 8 £50,000 +11.11% 4
Yorkshire -29 4 £50,000 +42.86% 5
West Midlands -37 3 £47,500 +10.47% 10
Wales -70 3 £32,000 -46.67% 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 (2.37%) Confluence
2 1 (0.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (5.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.18%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 57 (33.73%) SaaS
2 28 (16.57%) Azure
2 28 (16.57%) Azure DevOps
3 8 (4.73%) GitHub
4 6 (3.55%) AWS
4 6 (3.55%) 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 CodePipeline
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%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
6 1 (0.59%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.37%) 5G
1 4 (2.37%) SD-WAN
1 4 (2.37%) WAN
2 2 (1.18%) HTTP
3 1 (0.59%) Internet
3 1 (0.59%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.59%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.96%) Power BI
2 1 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.59%) Flink
2 1 (0.59%) Metadata
2 1 (0.59%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 29 (17.16%) Selenium
2 15 (8.88%) Postman
3 12 (7.10%) Git
3 12 (7.10%) JIRA
4 10 (5.92%) Cypress.io
4 10 (5.92%) Jenkins
5 6 (3.55%) LabVIEW
6 5 (2.96%) JMeter
6 5 (2.96%) Zephyr
7 4 (2.37%) SpecFlow
8 3 (1.78%) Bugzilla
8 3 (1.78%) GitLab
9 2 (1.18%) TestRail
10 1 (0.59%) Appium
10 1 (0.59%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (0.59%) Gatling
10 1 (0.59%) JUnit
10 1 (0.59%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.59%) Ranorex
10 1 (0.59%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 82 (48.52%) Social Skills
2 55 (32.54%) Legal
3 28 (16.57%) Law
4 23 (13.61%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (11.24%) Finance
6 12 (7.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (5.92%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (4.73%) Electronics
8 8 (4.73%) Public Sector
9 5 (2.96%) Aviation
10 4 (2.37%) Retail
11 3 (1.78%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.18%) Games
12 2 (1.18%) Military
13 1 (0.59%) Advertising
13 1 (0.59%) Back Office
13 1 (0.59%) iGaming
13 1 (0.59%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 67 (39.64%) Senior
2 55 (32.54%) Senior Manager
2 55 (32.54%) Testing Manager
3 31 (18.34%) Test Engineer
4 26 (15.38%) Analyst
5 19 (11.24%) QA Engineer
6 17 (10.06%) Test Analyst
7 14 (8.28%) Lead
8 10 (5.92%) Tester
9 9 (5.33%) Senior Test Engineer
10 8 (4.73%) Automation Engineer
10 8 (4.73%) QA Automation Engineer
11 7 (4.14%) DevOps Engineer
11 7 (4.14%) Head of Testing
11 7 (4.14%) Lead DevOps
11 7 (4.14%) Lead DevOps Engineer
12 6 (3.55%) Junior
12 6 (3.55%) Software Test Engineer
13 5 (2.96%) Applications Specialist
13 5 (2.96%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (13.61%) Playwright
2 9 (5.33%) CSS
3 8 (4.73%) HTML
4 7 (4.14%) Node.js
5 5 (2.96%) pytest
6 4 (2.37%) Gherkin
6 4 (2.37%) REST
7 1 (0.59%) ADO
7 1 (0.59%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.59%) Kafka
7 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.59%) Middleware
7 1 (0.59%) Swagger
7 1 (0.59%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 55 (32.54%) Virtual Team
2 19 (11.24%) Product Ownership
3 6 (3.55%) Embedded Systems
3 6 (3.55%) Mobile App
4 4 (2.37%) Self-Driving Car
5 2 (1.18%) Hackathon
5 2 (1.18%) Video\Live Streaming
6 1 (0.59%) Arduino
6 1 (0.59%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.59%) Digital Signage
6 1 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.59%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.59%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.59%) Operational Technology
6 1 (0.59%) PKI
6 1 (0.59%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 13 (7.69%) Windows
2 7 (4.14%) Linux
3 4 (2.37%) Unix
4 1 (0.59%) Android
4 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.59%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 159 (94.08%) Test Automation
2 104 (61.54%) DevOps
3 103 (60.95%) Continuous Improvement
4 100 (59.17%) Software Testing
5 81 (47.93%) Test Strategy
6 69 (40.83%) Mentoring
7 61 (36.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 60 (35.50%) Software Engineering
9 57 (33.73%) Agile
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 47 (27.81%) CI/CD
13 37 (21.89%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 79 (46.75%) Python
2 69 (40.83%) JavaScript
3 62 (36.69%) C#
4 59 (34.91%) TypeScript
5 55 (32.54%) PowerShell
6 30 (17.75%) SQL
7 9 (5.33%) MATLAB
8 8 (4.73%) Java
9 1 (0.59%) Bash
9 1 (0.59%) C
9 1 (0.59%) C++
9 1 (0.59%) Scala
Qualifications
1 14 (8.28%) ISTQB
2 13 (7.69%) Degree
3 12 (7.10%) Security Cleared
4 9 (5.33%) SC Cleared
5 5 (2.96%) HND
6 3 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.78%) Chartered Engineer
6 3 (1.78%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.18%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.59%) HNC
8 1 (0.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 119 (70.41%) QA
2 5 (2.96%) Software Quality Assurance
3 3 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 2 (1.18%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.59%) GDPR
5 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (1.78%) Firmware
2 2 (1.18%) Docker
3 1 (0.59%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (0.59%) Ansible
1 1 (0.59%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 19 (11.24%) Microsoft
2 7 (4.14%) Salesforce
3 6 (3.55%) Oracle
4 5 (2.96%) ServiceNow
5 1 (0.59%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.59%) EMC