Exploratory Testing Job Trends

Exploratory Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs citing Exploratory Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 24 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	754	644	716
Rank change year-on-year	-110	+72	-17
Permanent jobs citing Exploratory Testing	61	28	42
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK	0.050%	0.057%	0.061%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category	0.069%	0.064%	0.074%
Number of salaries quoted	43	26	21
10^th Percentile	£39,627	£29,125	£36,250
25^th Percentile	£44,375	£40,000	£42,500
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£50,000	£50,000	£60,000
Median % change year-on-year	-	-16.67%	+20.00%
75^th Percentile	£61,250	£62,500	£77,500
90^th Percentile	£63,250	£64,000	£80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary	£50,000	£50,000	£43,750
% change year-on-year	-	+14.29%	-6.42%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Exploratory 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 citing process or methodology skills.

	6 months to 24 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies citing process or methodology skills	88,926	43,671	56,803
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK	73.53%	88.34%	82.43%
Number of salaries quoted	60,277	24,895	30,230
10^th Percentile	£31,250	£28,250	£33,500
25^th Percentile	£41,250	£35,750	£45,000
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£60,000	£54,625	£60,000
Median % change year-on-year	+9.84%	-8.96%	-
75^th Percentile	£77,500	£75,000	£78,750
90^th Percentile	£100,000	£95,000	£97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary	£55,000	£46,000	£54,000
% change year-on-year	+19.57%	-14.81%	+1.89%

Exploratory Testing Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Exploratory Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Exploratory Testing Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Exploratory Testing.

Exploratory Testing Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Exploratory Testing over the 6 months to 24 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Exploratory Testing in the UK

Exploratory Testing Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Exploratory Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 24 October 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Salary Past 6 Months	Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
England	-127	54	£50,000	-	46
UK excluding London	-105	49	£50,000	-	21
South East	-61	16	£57,500	+15.00%	3
North of England	-55	15	£50,000	+88.68%	6
Work from Home	-64	15	£44,000	-7.37%	25
North East	-	12	£50,000	-
London	-69	8	£45,000	-21.74%	33
South West	-78	8	£50,000	+25.00%
West Midlands	-47	4	£41,250	-13.16%
Midlands	-66	4	£41,250	-13.16%
East of England	-49	3	£28,500	-52.50%	1
Wales	-	3	£39,221	-	2
North West	-36	2	£42,500	-19.05%	5
Yorkshire	-37	1	£60,000	+126.42%	1

Exploratory Testing Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 October 2026, job vacancies citing Exploratory Testing also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads citing Exploratory Testing.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Test Automation	96.7%	59
2	QA	90.2%	55
3	Agile	86.9%	53
4	Regression Testing	55.7%	34
5	CI/CD	54.1%	33
6	Problem-Solving	50.8%	31
7	Playwright	44.3%	27
7	SDLC	44.3%	27
9	Continuous Improvement	39.3%	24
10	JavaScript	37.7%	23
11	Validation	36.1%	22
12	Sprint Planning	32.8%	20
13	Manual Testing	31.1%	19
13	Security Cleared	31.1%	19
13	Software Testing	31.1%	19
16	Selenium	29.5%	18
17	AI	27.9%	17
17	Azure	27.9%	17
19	Defect Management	26.2%	16
20	Android	24.6%	15
20	Apple iOS	24.6%	15
20	Cypress.io	24.6%	15
20	Functional Testing	24.6%	15
20	SC Cleared	24.6%	15
20	Test Planning	24.6%	15
20	Test Strategy	24.6%	15
27	API Testing	21.3%	13
27	Azure DevOps	21.3%	13
27	DevOps	21.3%	13
27	Git	21.3%	13

Exploratory Testing Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Test Automation	96.7%	59
2	Agile	86.9%	53
3	Regression Testing	55.7%	34
4	CI/CD	54.1%	33
5	Problem-Solving	50.8%	31
6	SDLC	44.3%	27
7	Continuous Improvement	39.3%	24
8	Validation	36.1%	22
9	Sprint Planning	32.8%	20
10	Manual Testing	31.1%	19
10	Software Testing	31.1%	19
12	AI	27.9%	17
13	Defect Management	26.2%	16
14	Functional Testing	24.6%	15
14	Test Planning	24.6%	15
14	Test Strategy	24.6%	15
17	API Testing	21.3%	13
17	DevOps	21.3%	13
17	Software Engineering	21.3%	13
20	End-to-End Testing	18.0%	11