Test Planning Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Test Planning
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Test Planning skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 443 532 513
Rank change year-on-year +89 -19 +85
Permanent jobs citing Test Planning 66 34 60
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.16% 0.095% 0.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.20% 0.11% 0.20%
Number of salaries quoted 32 21 41
10th Percentile £42,500 £36,249 £37,500
25th Percentile £56,018 £36,250 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £47,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +36.84% -17.39% +2.68%
75th Percentile £75,900 £70,600 £68,750
90th Percentile - £71,250 £72,500
UK median annual salary £62,500 £67,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +12.50% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Test Planning 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 33,283 31,985 30,588
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 78.49% 89.04% 88.64%
Number of salaries quoted 19,187 14,363 22,780
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £33,500 £41,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £66,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Test Planning
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Test Planning relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Test Planning job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Test Planning
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Test Planning.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Test Planning

Test Planning
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Planning in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Planning in the UK excluding London

Test Planning
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 Test Planning within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 14 January 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 East +42 19 £75,900 +12.44% 19
Scotland +19 13 £75,900 +89.75% 4
Midlands +29 11 £65,000 +78.09% 9
South West +22 11 £62,500 - 9
East Midlands -1 7 £65,000 +100.00% 4
North of England +4 5 £65,000 +73.33% 6
West Midlands +22 4 £45,000 +21.01% 5
Yorkshire -9 4 £66,700 - 2
East of England +27 3 £65,000 +23.81% 10
Wales +8 2 £75,900 +49.41% 1
Northern Ireland -10 2 £57,500 -
North West +13 1 £65,000 +73.33% 4
Test Planning
UK

Test Planning
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 (1.52%) Apache
1 1 (1.52%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (4.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.52%) CATIA
3 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (1.52%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (9.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (3.03%) Oracle Cash Management
2 2 (3.03%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (1.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 6 (9.09%) Azure
2 3 (4.55%) AWS
3 2 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (3.03%) GCP
3 2 (3.03%) Google Workspace
4 1 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (1.52%) IaaS
4 1 (1.52%) PaaS
4 1 (1.52%) Power Platform
4 1 (1.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.03%) Firewall
1 2 (3.03%) Network Security
2 1 (1.52%) Internet
2 1 (1.52%) LAN
2 1 (1.52%) MPLS
2 1 (1.52%) SD-WAN
2 1 (1.52%) SNA
2 1 (1.52%) WAN
2 1 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
2 1 (1.52%) Wireless
2 1 (1.52%) Wireshark
2 1 (1.52%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (6.06%) SQL Server
2 2 (3.03%) MS Access
2 2 (3.03%) Oracle Database
3 1 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (1.52%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 31 (46.97%) Rational DOORS
2 4 (6.06%) JIRA
3 3 (4.55%) Selenium
4 2 (3.03%) Cypress.io
4 2 (3.03%) Gatling
4 2 (3.03%) Git
4 2 (3.03%) Jenkins
4 2 (3.03%) Postman
4 2 (3.03%) Ranorex
4 2 (3.03%) REST Assured
4 2 (3.03%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (1.52%) Burp Suite
5 1 (1.52%) GitLab
5 1 (1.52%) JMeter
5 1 (1.52%) LoadRunner
5 1 (1.52%) Metasploit
General
1 30 (45.45%) Electronics
2 17 (25.76%) Finance
3 12 (18.18%) Social Skills
4 9 (13.64%) Manufacturing
5 8 (12.12%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (10.61%) Legal
7 6 (9.09%) Marketing
8 2 (3.03%) Banking
8 2 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (3.03%) Law
8 2 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (3.03%) Retail
9 1 (1.52%) Automotive
9 1 (1.52%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.52%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 32 (48.48%) Principal Engineer
2 31 (46.97%) Systems Engineer
3 30 (45.45%) Principal Systems Engineer
4 13 (19.70%) Lead
5 9 (13.64%) Analyst
5 9 (13.64%) Business Analyst
6 7 (10.61%) Test Leader
7 6 (9.09%) Change Analyst
7 6 (9.09%) Senior
8 4 (6.06%) Test Engineer
9 3 (4.55%) Automation Test Lead
9 3 (4.55%) Developer
9 3 (4.55%) Lead Business Analyst
9 3 (4.55%) Software Developer
10 2 (3.03%) Business Analyst Team Leader
10 2 (3.03%) C# Software Developer
10 2 (3.03%) Principal Test Engineer
10 2 (3.03%) Team Leader
10 2 (3.03%) Test Manager
10 2 (3.03%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (6.06%) Playwright
2 2 (3.03%) .NET
2 2 (3.03%) .NET Framework
2 2 (3.03%) ADO
2 2 (3.03%) Blazor
2 2 (3.03%) ODBC
2 2 (3.03%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (3.03%) REST
2 2 (3.03%) Spring
2 2 (3.03%) Spring Boot
2 2 (3.03%) WPF
2 2 (3.03%) XML
2 2 (3.03%) XSL
Miscellaneous
1 30 (45.45%) Algorithms
2 6 (9.09%) Product Ownership
3 3 (4.55%) Public Cloud
4 2 (3.03%) Client/Server
4 2 (3.03%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (3.03%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.52%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.52%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.52%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.52%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.52%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 4 (6.06%) Windows
2 1 (1.52%) Android
2 1 (1.52%) Apple iOS
2 1 (1.52%) Linux
2 1 (1.52%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (46.97%) Systems Engineering
1 31 (46.97%) Technical Leadership
2 30 (45.45%) Signal Processing
3 19 (28.79%) Agile
4 15 (22.73%) User Acceptance Testing
5 14 (21.21%) Continuous Improvement
6 13 (19.70%) Validation
7 12 (18.18%) Coaching
8 11 (16.67%) Test Automation
8 11 (16.67%) Test Strategy
9 10 (15.15%) Roadmaps
10 9 (13.64%) System Integration Testing
11 8 (12.12%) Integration Testing
11 8 (12.12%) Test Management
12 7 (10.61%) Business Case
12 7 (10.61%) Change Management
12 7 (10.61%) Process Improvement
12 7 (10.61%) Project Management
12 7 (10.61%) Risk Management
12 7 (10.61%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 7 (10.61%) C#
2 6 (9.09%) Java
3 4 (6.06%) JavaScript
4 3 (4.55%) Python
4 3 (4.55%) SQL
5 2 (3.03%) Delphi
5 2 (3.03%) XAML
Qualifications
1 31 (46.97%) BPSS Clearance
2 10 (15.15%) Degree
3 7 (10.61%) PMI Certification
3 7 (10.61%) PMP
4 3 (4.55%) ISTQB
4 3 (4.55%) SC Cleared
4 3 (4.55%) Security Cleared
5 1 (1.52%) CAPM
5 1 (1.52%) CBAP
5 1 (1.52%) CCNP
5 1 (1.52%) CCSP
5 1 (1.52%) CHECK Team Member
5 1 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (1.52%) CREST Certified
5 1 (1.52%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.52%) GPEN
5 1 (1.52%) Master's Degree
5 1 (1.52%) MBA
5 1 (1.52%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (46.97%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 11 (16.67%) QA
3 3 (4.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (3.03%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.52%) Basel III
5 1 (1.52%) EMIR
5 1 (1.52%) GRC
5 1 (1.52%) MiFID
5 1 (1.52%) NCSC
System Software
1 1 (1.52%) Active Directory
1 1 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (1.52%) Ansible
1 1 (1.52%) FortiGate
1 1 (1.52%) Grafana
1 1 (1.52%) Kubernetes
1 1 (1.52%) Nessus
1 1 (1.52%) Nmap
Vendors
1 31 (46.97%) IBM
2 6 (9.09%) Oracle
2 6 (9.09%) SAP
3 3 (4.55%) Microsoft
4 2 (3.03%) Google
4 2 (3.03%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.52%) Cisco
5 1 (1.52%) Fortinet
5 1 (1.52%) Qualys
5 1 (1.52%) Splunk