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 22 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 439 455 425
Rank change year-on-year +16 -30 -10
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 82 145 128
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.22% 0.30% 0.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.27% 0.37% 0.45%
Number of salaries quoted 60 87 113
10th Percentile £27,500 £30,000 £32,750
25th Percentile £35,000 £36,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £62,500 £57,500 £53,750
90th Percentile £64,125 £65,250 £67,000
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 30,561 39,252 28,341
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 82.72% 81.41% 93.88%
Number of salaries quoted 18,580 19,304 21,029
10th Percentile £27,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £32,500 £40,000 £38,837
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £54,150 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.28% +3.14% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £69,500 £67,500
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 22 November 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 22 November 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 +52 34 £49,000 +3.16% 26
South West +26 20 £37,625 -16.39% 13
Midlands +53 13 £40,000 -28.89% 3
East Midlands +34 8 £48,750 +8.33% 2
West Midlands +38 5 £40,000 -30.43%
East of England +22 5 £60,000 +50.00% 6
North of England +9 5 £45,000 - 10
Yorkshire +5 3 £46,250 +48.04% 2
North West +27 2 £45,000 - 6
Northern Ireland +6 2 £52,500 - 4
Scotland +2 2 £50,000 +25.00% 4
Wales +6 1 £60,000 -36.84% 4
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 1 (1.22%) Apache
1 1 (1.22%) CMS
1 1 (1.22%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 9 (10.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.22%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 19 (23.17%) Azure DevOps
2 17 (20.73%) Azure
3 8 (9.76%) AWS
4 2 (2.44%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (1.22%) dbt
5 1 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (1.22%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.22%) SaaS
5 1 (1.22%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.88%) Cisco ISE
2 1 (1.22%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.88%) Relational Database
2 3 (3.66%) MongoDB
3 1 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.22%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 25 (30.49%) JIRA
2 18 (21.95%) Selenium
3 16 (19.51%) Postman
4 12 (14.63%) Jenkins
5 10 (12.20%) Cypress.io
6 9 (10.98%) eCATT
6 9 (10.98%) Git
7 4 (4.88%) JMeter
7 4 (4.88%) SoapUI
7 4 (4.88%) TestRail
8 3 (3.66%) LoadRunner
9 2 (2.44%) CircleCI
9 2 (2.44%) Gatling
9 2 (2.44%) GitLab
9 2 (2.44%) Katalon Studio
9 2 (2.44%) Locust
9 2 (2.44%) Robot Framework
9 2 (2.44%) Subversion
9 2 (2.44%) Zephyr
10 1 (1.22%) Bitbucket
General
1 21 (25.61%) Social Skills
2 15 (18.29%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (15.85%) Finance
4 9 (10.98%) Influencing Skills
4 9 (10.98%) Manufacturing
4 9 (10.98%) Marketing
4 9 (10.98%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.66%) Aerospace
6 3 (3.66%) Law
6 3 (3.66%) Public Sector
6 3 (3.66%) Tech for Good
7 2 (2.44%) Automotive
7 2 (2.44%) Health Technology
8 1 (1.22%) Digital Healthcare
8 1 (1.22%) Electronics
8 1 (1.22%) Games
8 1 (1.22%) Legal
Job Titles
1 24 (29.27%) Analyst
1 24 (29.27%) Senior
1 24 (29.27%) Tester
2 17 (20.73%) Test Analyst
3 14 (17.07%) QA Engineer
4 11 (13.41%) Test Engineer
5 9 (10.98%) Automation Test Analyst
5 9 (10.98%) Software Tester
6 8 (9.76%) Senior Test Engineer
7 7 (8.54%) QA Analyst
7 7 (8.54%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 7 (8.54%) Test Specialist
8 6 (7.32%) Test Automation Engineer
9 5 (6.10%) Automation Tester
9 5 (6.10%) Junior
9 5 (6.10%) Junior Analyst
9 5 (6.10%) Lead
9 5 (6.10%) Senior Test Automation Engineer
10 4 (4.88%) Developer
10 4 (4.88%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (14.63%) Playwright
2 6 (7.32%) XML
3 4 (4.88%) RESTful
3 4 (4.88%) SOAP
4 3 (3.66%) AngularJS
4 3 (3.66%) REST
5 2 (2.44%) .NET
5 2 (2.44%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (2.44%) React
6 1 (1.22%) CSS
6 1 (1.22%) HTML
6 1 (1.22%) JWT
6 1 (1.22%) OAuth
6 1 (1.22%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (4.88%) Product Ownership
2 3 (3.66%) Analytical Mindset
2 3 (3.66%) IoT
3 2 (2.44%) Operational Technology
3 2 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (2.44%) Virtual Team
4 1 (1.22%) AS400
4 1 (1.22%) CAN bus
4 1 (1.22%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (1.22%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.22%) FMCG
4 1 (1.22%) Low-Code
4 1 (1.22%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 6 (7.32%) Windows
2 5 (6.10%) Windows Server
2 5 (6.10%) Windows Server 2019
3 4 (4.88%) Linux
4 1 (1.22%) Embedded Linux
4 1 (1.22%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (76.83%) Test Automation
2 46 (56.10%) Agile
3 33 (40.24%) Software Testing
4 29 (35.37%) Test Scripting
5 25 (30.49%) CI/CD
6 24 (29.27%) Continuous Improvement
7 21 (25.61%) Regression Testing
8 20 (24.39%) Scenario Testing
9 19 (23.17%) End-to-End Testing
10 18 (21.95%) DevOps
10 18 (21.95%) Test Strategy
11 16 (19.51%) API Testing
12 14 (17.07%) Integration Testing
13 13 (15.85%) Test Management
14 12 (14.63%) Defect Management
14 12 (14.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 11 (13.41%) Problem-Solving
15 11 (13.41%) Scrum
16 10 (12.20%) ERP
16 10 (12.20%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 30 (36.59%) SQL
2 15 (18.29%) C#
2 15 (18.29%) JavaScript
3 9 (10.98%) Java
4 8 (9.76%) TypeScript
5 6 (7.32%) Python
6 2 (2.44%) Bash
7 1 (1.22%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 23 (28.05%) ISTQB
2 20 (24.39%) Security Cleared
3 15 (18.29%) SC Cleared
4 11 (13.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 7 (8.54%) Degree
5 7 (8.54%) DV Cleared
6 3 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (1.22%) CHECK Team Leader
7 1 (1.22%) CHECK Team Member
7 1 (1.22%) HNC
7 1 (1.22%) HND
7 1 (1.22%) ISEB
7 1 (1.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (43.90%) QA
2 6 (7.32%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.22%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (1.22%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.22%) NCSC
System Software
1 5 (6.10%) Active Directory
1 5 (6.10%) Docker
2 4 (4.88%) Terminal Server
2 4 (4.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.22%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (1.22%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (10.98%) HP ALM
2 5 (6.10%) Kubernetes
2 5 (6.10%) SCCM
2 5 (6.10%) SCOM
3 3 (3.66%) Nessus
4 2 (2.44%) Grafana
4 2 (2.44%) Prometheus
4 2 (2.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 9 (10.98%) HP
1 9 (10.98%) SAP
2 5 (6.10%) VMware
3 4 (4.88%) Cisco
3 4 (4.88%) Juniper
3 4 (4.88%) McAfee
3 4 (4.88%) Oracle
4 3 (3.66%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.22%) Atlassian
5 1 (1.22%) EMC
5 1 (1.22%) Genesys
5 1 (1.22%) Pega
5 1 (1.22%) Siebel
5 1 (1.22%) Splunk