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 21 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 499 431 537
Rank change year-on-year -68 +106 -145
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 102 100 225
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.15% 0.33% 0.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.21% 0.36% 0.35%
Number of salaries quoted 68 73 185
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,800 £33,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £32,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +18.75% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £57,500 £48,750 £52,500
90th Percentile £61,625 £53,000 £65,682
UK median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% - -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 47,467 27,409 63,439
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 69.93% 90.91% 79.64%
Number of salaries quoted 33,286 13,983 44,276
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,984 £32,851 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%

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 21 June 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 21 June 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
South West -40 34 £47,500 +18.75% 4
South East -32 30 £52,500 +31.25% 11
North of England -28 15 £50,000 +42.86% 7
Midlands -19 14 £30,000 -23.08% 2
North West +11 12 £50,000 +17.65% 4
East Midlands -16 11 £30,000 -14.29% 1
East of England -22 7 £45,000 -15.09% 1
West Midlands -31 3 £57,500 +38.55% 1
Yorkshire -36 2 £50,000 +42.86%
Wales -49 2 £25,000 -58.33% 2
North East -53 1 £50,000 +44.93% 3
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 3 (2.94%) Confluence
2 1 (0.98%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (6.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (4.90%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (4.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 37 (36.27%) Azure
1 37 (36.27%) Azure DevOps
2 6 (5.88%) Power Platform
3 5 (4.90%) GitHub
4 3 (2.94%) AWS
4 3 (2.94%) SaaS
5 2 (1.96%) BrowserStack
6 1 (0.98%) AWS CodePipeline
6 1 (0.98%) Copilot Studio
6 1 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.98%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.98%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.92%) 5G
1 4 (3.92%) SD-WAN
1 4 (3.92%) WAN
2 2 (1.96%) Cisco ISE
2 2 (1.96%) HTTP
3 1 (0.98%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.90%) Power BI
2 2 (1.96%) Metadata
3 1 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.98%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.98%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 25 (24.51%) Selenium
2 19 (18.63%) Cypress.io
3 14 (13.73%) JIRA
3 14 (13.73%) Postman
4 12 (11.76%) Git
5 7 (6.86%) Jenkins
6 6 (5.88%) Zephyr
7 4 (3.92%) LabVIEW
8 3 (2.94%) GitLab
9 2 (1.96%) JMeter
9 2 (1.96%) JUnit
9 2 (1.96%) SoapUI
9 2 (1.96%) Subversion
10 1 (0.98%) Gatling
10 1 (0.98%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.98%) Ranorex
10 1 (0.98%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.98%) SpecFlow
10 1 (0.98%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.98%) TestRail
General
1 20 (19.61%) Finance
2 19 (18.63%) Social Skills
3 12 (11.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 10 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.84%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (6.86%) Electronics
7 3 (2.94%) Aerospace
7 3 (2.94%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.96%) Back Office
8 2 (1.96%) Law
8 2 (1.96%) Military
9 1 (0.98%) Advertising
9 1 (0.98%) Aviation
9 1 (0.98%) Games
9 1 (0.98%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.98%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.98%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 30 (29.41%) Test Engineer
2 21 (20.59%) Lead
3 15 (14.71%) QA Leader
4 12 (11.76%) QA Engineer
4 12 (11.76%) Test Leader
5 10 (9.80%) Analyst
5 10 (9.80%) Software Test Engineer
6 9 (8.82%) Senior
7 7 (6.86%) Head of Testing
7 7 (6.86%) Test Analyst
8 6 (5.88%) Graduate
8 6 (5.88%) Graduate Test Engineer
8 6 (5.88%) Test Automation Engineer
8 6 (5.88%) Tester
9 5 (4.90%) Applications Specialist
9 5 (4.90%) Applications Support
9 5 (4.90%) Applications Support Specialist
9 5 (4.90%) Software Tester
9 5 (4.90%) Support Specialist
10 4 (3.92%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (19.61%) Playwright
2 5 (4.90%) pytest
3 4 (3.92%) CSS
4 3 (2.94%) HTML
5 2 (1.96%) Laravel
5 2 (1.96%) REST
5 2 (1.96%) Vue
6 1 (0.98%) .NET
6 1 (0.98%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.98%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.98%) ADO
6 1 (0.98%) Blazor
6 1 (0.98%) GStreamer
6 1 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.98%) Node.js
6 1 (0.98%) React Native
6 1 (0.98%) Spring
6 1 (0.98%) Swagger
6 1 (0.98%) WebAssembly
Miscellaneous
1 13 (12.75%) Product Ownership
2 4 (3.92%) Mobile App
2 4 (3.92%) Self-Driving Car
3 3 (2.94%) Embedded Systems
3 3 (2.94%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (1.96%) Hackathon
4 2 (1.96%) Video\Live Streaming
5 1 (0.98%) Cloud Native
5 1 (0.98%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.98%) PKI
5 1 (0.98%) Robotics
5 1 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 11 (10.78%) Windows
2 4 (3.92%) Linux
2 4 (3.92%) Unix
3 2 (1.96%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.96%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.98%) Android
4 1 (0.98%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.98%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (88.24%) Test Automation
2 49 (48.04%) DevOps
3 44 (43.14%) Agile
4 41 (40.20%) Software Testing
5 38 (37.25%) CI/CD
6 31 (30.39%) Continuous Improvement
7 30 (29.41%) API Testing
7 30 (29.41%) Regression Testing
8 27 (26.47%) Test Strategy
9 25 (24.51%) SDLC
10 23 (22.55%) Scrum
11 20 (19.61%) Test Scripting
12 19 (18.63%) Acceptance Criteria
12 19 (18.63%) User Acceptance Testing
13 17 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
14 16 (15.69%) Customer Service
15 13 (12.75%) Continuous Integration
15 13 (12.75%) Defect Management
16 12 (11.76%) Mentoring
16 12 (11.76%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 17 (16.67%) SQL
2 12 (11.76%) Python
3 7 (6.86%) JavaScript
3 7 (6.86%) MATLAB
4 6 (5.88%) C#
5 4 (3.92%) Java
5 4 (3.92%) TypeScript
6 2 (1.96%) PHP
7 1 (0.98%) C++
Qualifications
1 17 (16.67%) ISTQB
2 14 (13.73%) Degree
3 7 (6.86%) Security Cleared
4 6 (5.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 5 (4.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (3.92%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (3.92%) HND
7 3 (2.94%) Chartered Engineer
7 3 (2.94%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.96%) SC Cleared
9 1 (0.98%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (52.94%) QA
2 16 (15.69%) Accessibility
3 3 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 2 (1.96%) GDPR
4 2 (1.96%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.96%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 3 (2.94%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.96%) Terminal Server
2 2 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.98%) Docker
3 1 (0.98%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 2 (1.96%) SCCM
1 2 (1.96%) SCOM
Vendors
1 16 (15.69%) Microsoft
2 7 (6.86%) Salesforce
3 6 (5.88%) ServiceNow
4 2 (1.96%) Cisco
4 2 (1.96%) Juniper
4 2 (1.96%) McAfee
4 2 (1.96%) VMware
5 1 (0.98%) Oracle