Exploratory Testing Job Trends

Exploratory Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Exploratory Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 744 634 709
Rank change year-on-year -110 +75 -4
Permanent jobs citing Exploratory Testing 61 33 43
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.052% 0.067% 0.059%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.071% 0.075% 0.072%
Number of salaries quoted 43 29 24
10th Percentile £39,221 £25,750 £35,375
25th Percentile £44,375 £32,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £47,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -17.39% +15.00%
75th Percentile £61,250 £62,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £63,250 £64,000 £80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year +5.26% +11.76% -15.00%

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 requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 86,418 43,977 59,769
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.19% 88.96% 82.26%
Number of salaries quoted 59,113 24,503 32,039
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 job vacancy trend in the UK

Exploratory Testing
Salary Trend

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

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 10 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 10 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
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -103 54 £50,000 +5.26% 52
UK excluding London -107 49 £50,000 +5.26% 20
South East -47 15 £57,500 +15.00% 2
North of England -52 14 £50,000 +88.68% 6
Work from Home -53 14 £44,500 -8.72% 27
North East - 12 £50,000 - 1
South West -71 9 £50,000 +25.00% 2
London -45 8 £45,000 -21.74% 36
Midlands -40 5 £35,000 -33.33% 1
West Midlands -45 5 £35,000 -33.33%
East of England -36 3 £28,500 -52.50% 2
Wales - 3 £39,221 - 1
North West -22 1 - - 4
Yorkshire -36 1 £60,000 +126.42% 1

Exploratory Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 6 (9.84%) Confluence
2 4 (6.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 18 (29.51%) Azure
2 14 (22.95%) Azure DevOps
3 11 (18.03%) GitHub
4 7 (11.48%) AWS
5 6 (9.84%) GitHub Actions
6 4 (6.56%) BrowserStack
6 4 (6.56%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (4.92%) Datadog
7 3 (4.92%) GCP
7 3 (4.92%) Sentry
7 3 (4.92%) Tricentis Tosca
8 1 (1.64%) AWS CodePipeline
8 1 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.64%) BlazeMeter
8 1 (1.64%) GitHub Copilot
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.92%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (3.28%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.64%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 20 (32.79%) Selenium
2 17 (27.87%) Cypress.io
3 14 (22.95%) Git
3 14 (22.95%) Postman
4 11 (18.03%) JIRA
4 11 (18.03%) JMeter
5 10 (16.39%) Cucumber
6 9 (14.75%) Jenkins
7 6 (9.84%) Gatling
8 5 (8.20%) GitLab
8 5 (8.20%) HP UFT
8 5 (8.20%) REST Assured
9 4 (6.56%) Zephyr
10 3 (4.92%) Appium
10 3 (4.92%) Burp Suite
10 3 (4.92%) LoadRunner
10 3 (4.92%) SonarQube
11 2 (3.28%) Robot Framework
11 2 (3.28%) SoapUI
11 2 (3.28%) TestRail
General
1 17 (27.87%) Analytical Skills
2 15 (24.59%) Public Sector
3 13 (21.31%) Social Skills
4 7 (11.48%) Finance
5 3 (4.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.64%) Back Office
6 1 (1.64%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 21 (34.43%) Test Engineer
2 20 (32.79%) QA Engineer
3 12 (19.67%) Senior
4 10 (16.39%) Analyst
4 10 (16.39%) Quality Engineer
5 9 (14.75%) Automation Engineer
6 8 (13.11%) Senior QA Engineer
7 6 (9.84%) QA Automation Engineer
8 5 (8.20%) Senior Quality Engineer
9 4 (6.56%) Lead
9 4 (6.56%) Test Automation Engineer
10 3 (4.92%) Automation Tester
10 3 (4.92%) QA Test Engineer
10 3 (4.92%) Senior Automation Engineer
10 3 (4.92%) Senior Test Engineer
10 3 (4.92%) Tester
11 2 (3.28%) Junior
11 2 (3.28%) Junior QA Analyst
11 2 (3.28%) Junior QA Engineer
11 2 (3.28%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (45.90%) Playwright
2 12 (19.67%) CSS
2 12 (19.67%) HTML
3 11 (18.03%) Node.js
4 7 (11.48%) REST
5 6 (9.84%) .NET
5 6 (9.84%) React
5 6 (9.84%) React Native
5 6 (9.84%) Swagger
6 5 (8.20%) JSON
7 4 (6.56%) .NET Framework
7 4 (6.56%) Gherkin
7 4 (6.56%) Razor View Engine
8 3 (4.92%) GraphQL
8 3 (4.92%) Jest
8 3 (4.92%) RabbitMQ
8 3 (4.92%) Symfony
9 2 (3.28%) Kafka
9 2 (3.28%) Model Context Protocol
9 2 (3.28%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 18 (29.51%) Mobile App
2 9 (14.75%) Product Ownership
3 3 (4.92%) Blog
3 3 (4.92%) Clustering
4 2 (3.28%) Cloud Native
4 2 (3.28%) Distributed Systems
4 2 (3.28%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (3.28%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.64%) Algorithms
5 1 (1.64%) Hackathon
5 1 (1.64%) PropTech
Operating Systems
1 14 (22.95%) Android
1 14 (22.95%) Apple iOS
2 8 (13.11%) Linux
3 3 (4.92%) Kali Linux
4 2 (3.28%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.64%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (96.72%) Test Automation
2 53 (86.89%) Agile
3 35 (57.38%) Regression Testing
4 34 (55.74%) CI/CD
5 30 (49.18%) Problem-Solving
6 28 (45.90%) SDLC
7 24 (39.34%) Continuous Improvement
8 22 (36.07%) Validation
9 21 (34.43%) Sprint Planning
10 20 (32.79%) Software Testing
11 19 (31.15%) Manual Testing
12 16 (26.23%) AI
12 16 (26.23%) Test Planning
13 15 (24.59%) Defect Management
13 15 (24.59%) Functional Testing
13 15 (24.59%) Test Strategy
14 14 (22.95%) DevOps
15 13 (21.31%) Software Engineering
16 11 (18.03%) API Testing
16 11 (18.03%) SFIA
Programming Languages
1 22 (36.07%) JavaScript
2 9 (14.75%) SQL
3 7 (11.48%) Python
3 7 (11.48%) TypeScript
4 6 (9.84%) C#
4 6 (9.84%) Java
5 4 (6.56%) C
6 3 (4.92%) Kotlin
6 3 (4.92%) PHP
6 3 (4.92%) Swift
7 1 (1.64%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 19 (31.15%) Security Cleared
2 15 (24.59%) SC Cleared
3 9 (14.75%) Degree
4 5 (8.20%) ISTQB
5 3 (4.92%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (4.92%) Master's Degree
6 2 (3.28%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (91.80%) QA
2 7 (11.48%) Accessibility
3 5 (8.20%) WCAG
4 1 (1.64%) Data Quality
System Software
1 4 (6.56%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (14.75%) Grafana
2 3 (4.92%) HP Fortify
2 3 (4.92%) Kubernetes
3 1 (1.64%) Kibana
3 1 (1.64%) logstash
Vendors
1 6 (9.84%) Microsoft
2 3 (4.92%) Google
2 3 (4.92%) Veracode
3 2 (3.28%) Pega
3 2 (3.28%) SAP
4 1 (1.64%) CheckPoint