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 17 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 450 473 404
Rank change year-on-year +23 -69 +9
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 81 130 172
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.24% 0.26% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.27% 0.33% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 61 72 133
10th Percentile £27,500 £30,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £35,938 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £46,250 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.51% +2.78% -
75th Percentile £59,250 £58,750 £55,000
90th Percentile £63,750 £69,525 £69,750
UK median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -

All Process and 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 29,646 39,237 30,421
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 86.97% 79.59% 94.15%
Number of salaries quoted 16,222 19,605 22,483
10th Percentile £26,750 £31,250 £28,750
25th Percentile £32,000 £40,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,750 £53,500 £53,888
Median % change year-on-year -12.62% -0.72% +2.64%
75th Percentile £63,750 £68,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £81,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025. 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 East +39 33 £46,000 -16.36% 19
South West +41 17 £40,000 -15.79% 2
East of England +16 13 £53,000 +92.73% 3
Midlands +42 9 £37,500 -33.33% 5
East Midlands +20 5 £37,500 +15.38% 4
West Midlands +39 4 £43,000 -25.22% 1
North of England -20 4 £42,500 -5.56% 14
Yorkshire +11 3 £35,000 -6.67% 9
Northern Ireland +11 2 £52,500 -
Scotland -14 2 £50,000 +29.03% 3
Wales +9 1 £60,000 -36.84% 2
North West -17 1 £50,000 +11.11% 5
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:

Business Applications
1 9 (11.11%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 15 (18.52%) Azure DevOps
2 11 (13.58%) Azure
3 7 (8.64%) AWS
4 3 (3.70%) SaaS
5 1 (1.23%) BrowserStack
5 1 (1.23%) dbt
5 1 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (1.23%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.23%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.94%) Cisco ISE
2 1 (1.23%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.94%) Relational Database
2 3 (3.70%) MongoDB
3 1 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.23%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 28 (34.57%) JIRA
2 23 (28.40%) Selenium
3 12 (14.81%) Git
3 12 (14.81%) Postman
4 10 (12.35%) Jenkins
5 9 (11.11%) eCATT
6 8 (9.88%) Cypress.io
7 4 (4.94%) SoapUI
8 3 (3.70%) CircleCI
8 3 (3.70%) Gatling
8 3 (3.70%) JMeter
8 3 (3.70%) LoadRunner
8 3 (3.70%) Locust
8 3 (3.70%) TestRail
8 3 (3.70%) Zephyr
9 2 (2.47%) Katalon Studio
9 2 (2.47%) Subversion
10 1 (1.23%) Appium
10 1 (1.23%) Bitbucket
10 1 (1.23%) Burp Suite
General
1 18 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 14 (17.28%) Finance
3 12 (14.81%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (12.35%) Law
4 10 (12.35%) Legal
4 10 (12.35%) Presentation Skills
5 9 (11.11%) Influencing Skills
5 9 (11.11%) Manufacturing
5 9 (11.11%) Marketing
6 4 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (3.70%) Aerospace
8 2 (2.47%) Automotive
8 2 (2.47%) Digital Healthcare
8 2 (2.47%) Public Sector
9 1 (1.23%) Electronics
9 1 (1.23%) Games
9 1 (1.23%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 30 (37.04%) Senior
2 23 (28.40%) Analyst
3 18 (22.22%) QA Engineer
4 17 (20.99%) Test Analyst
5 16 (19.75%) Tester
6 10 (12.35%) Senior QA Engineer
6 10 (12.35%) Test Engineer
7 9 (11.11%) Automation Test Analyst
7 9 (11.11%) Software Tester
8 8 (9.88%) QA Analyst
8 8 (9.88%) Senior Test Engineer
9 7 (8.64%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 7 (8.64%) Test Specialist
10 5 (6.17%) Junior
10 5 (6.17%) Junior Analyst
10 5 (6.17%) Senior Test Automation Engineer
10 5 (6.17%) Test Automation Engineer
11 4 (4.94%) Developer
11 4 (4.94%) Junior QA Analyst
11 4 (4.94%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (8.64%) Playwright
2 4 (4.94%) RESTful
2 4 (4.94%) SOAP
2 4 (4.94%) XML
3 3 (3.70%) REST
4 2 (2.47%) CSS
4 2 (2.47%) HTML
4 2 (2.47%) Qt
5 1 (1.23%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 3 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
1 3 (3.70%) Embedded Systems
2 2 (2.47%) AS400
2 2 (2.47%) IoT
2 2 (2.47%) Operational Technology
2 2 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.23%) CAN bus
3 1 (1.23%) Cyber Defence
3 1 (1.23%) FMCG
3 1 (1.23%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 6 (7.41%) Windows
2 5 (6.17%) Windows Server
2 5 (6.17%) Windows Server 2019
3 2 (2.47%) Linux
4 1 (1.23%) Embedded Linux
4 1 (1.23%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (77.78%) Test Automation
2 51 (62.96%) Agile
3 42 (51.85%) Software Testing
4 33 (40.74%) Test Scripting
5 20 (24.69%) Regression Testing
6 19 (23.46%) CI/CD
6 19 (23.46%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (22.22%) End-to-End Testing
7 18 (22.22%) Scenario Testing
8 14 (17.28%) Integration Testing
8 14 (17.28%) Process Improvement
8 14 (17.28%) User Acceptance Testing
9 13 (16.05%) API Testing
9 13 (16.05%) DevOps
9 13 (16.05%) Test Management
10 12 (14.81%) Test Strategy
11 11 (13.58%) Defect Management
11 11 (13.58%) ERP
11 11 (13.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 11 (13.58%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 27 (33.33%) SQL
2 11 (13.58%) Java
2 11 (13.58%) JavaScript
3 10 (12.35%) C#
4 7 (8.64%) Python
5 5 (6.17%) TypeScript
6 2 (2.47%) C
6 2 (2.47%) C++
7 1 (1.23%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 25 (30.86%) ISTQB
2 17 (20.99%) Security Cleared
3 14 (17.28%) SC Cleared
4 8 (9.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 5 (6.17%) DV Cleared
6 3 (3.70%) Degree
7 1 (1.23%) CHECK Team Leader
7 1 (1.23%) CHECK Team Member
7 1 (1.23%) HNC
7 1 (1.23%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (44.44%) QA
2 5 (6.17%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (1.23%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.23%) NCSC
3 1 (1.23%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (6.17%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.94%) Terminal Server
2 4 (4.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (3.70%) Docker
4 1 (1.23%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (1.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (11.11%) HP ALM
2 5 (6.17%) SCCM
2 5 (6.17%) SCOM
3 3 (3.70%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.23%) Nessus
Vendors
1 9 (11.11%) HP
1 9 (11.11%) SAP
2 5 (6.17%) VMware
3 4 (4.94%) Cisco
3 4 (4.94%) Juniper
3 4 (4.94%) McAfee
4 3 (3.70%) Oracle
4 3 (3.70%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.23%) Atlassian
5 1 (1.23%) EMC
5 1 (1.23%) Pega