Exploratory Testing
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for Exploratory Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited Exploratory Testing over the 6 months to 4 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
4 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 854 887 795
Rank change year-on-year +33 -92 -70
Permanent jobs citing Exploratory Testing 57 112 444
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.058% 0.11% 0.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.067% 0.11% 0.30%
Number of salaries quoted 41 93 184
10th Percentile £28,250 £37,500 £34,125
25th Percentile £32,500 £43,500 £42,188
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £56,549 £50,750
Median % change year-on-year -20.42% +11.43% +1.50%
75th Percentile £57,500 £81,250 £74,063
90th Percentile £65,000 £100,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £55,000 £46,000
% change year-on-year -31.82% +19.57% +2.22%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Exploratory Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 84,620 99,018 149,592
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 85.90% 95.62% 95.60%
Number of salaries quoted 59,724 58,165 83,321
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,000 £33,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.57% +2.50% +9.09%
75th Percentile £72,500 £81,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £100,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +9.38%

Exploratory Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Exploratory Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Exploratory Testing in the UK

Exploratory Testing
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Exploratory Testing.

Salary trend for Exploratory Testing in the UK

Exploratory Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Exploratory Testing over the 6 months to 4 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Exploratory Testing in the UK

Exploratory Testing
Top 15 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 4 May 2024. 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 +23 44 £45,000 -20.42% 15
Work from Home +61 32 £55,000 -15.38% 7
UK excluding London -36 28 £37,500 -31.82% 12
London +87 23 £55,000 -3.55% 4
South East -7 7 - - 1
North of England +28 6 £45,000 +5.88% 3
Scotland - 5 £35,000 - 1
Yorkshire +84 4 £45,000 +5.88%
South West -22 3 £32,500 -35.00% 2
Northern Ireland - 3 - -
East of England +21 2 £37,500 -25.00% 1
North West +10 2 £37,500 -6.25% 3
West Midlands +16 1 £35,000 - 3
Midlands +14 1 £35,000 +2.94% 3
Wales - 1 £57,500 - 1

Exploratory Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 5 (8.77%) Trello
2 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 17 (29.82%) Azure
2 8 (14.04%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (8.77%) ClickUp
4 3 (5.26%) AWS
4 3 (5.26%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.75%) GCP
5 1 (1.75%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.75%) 3G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.26%) Big Data
1 3 (5.26%) Power BI
1 3 (5.26%) Tableau
2 1 (1.75%) MongoDB
2 1 (1.75%) MySQL
2 1 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 20 (35.09%) Selenium
2 18 (31.58%) JIRA
3 8 (14.04%) WebDriver
4 7 (12.28%) JMeter
5 6 (10.53%) Appium
6 4 (7.02%) Cucumber
6 4 (7.02%) Git
6 4 (7.02%) IntelliJ
6 4 (7.02%) Postman
6 4 (7.02%) Protractor
6 4 (7.02%) Team Foundation Server
6 4 (7.02%) Visual Studio
6 4 (7.02%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (3.51%) Cypress.io
7 2 (3.51%) JUnit
7 2 (3.51%) SoapUI
7 2 (3.51%) TestComplete
8 1 (1.75%) GoogleTest
8 1 (1.75%) Jenkins
8 1 (1.75%) Zephyr
General
1 26 (45.61%) Social Skills
2 9 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (14.04%) Law
4 5 (8.77%) Finance
5 3 (5.26%) Banking
5 3 (5.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (5.26%) Investment Banking
5 3 (5.26%) Marketing
5 3 (5.26%) Retail
6 2 (3.51%) Automotive
6 2 (3.51%) Pharmaceutical
6 2 (3.51%) Public Sector
7 1 (1.75%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 16 (28.07%) Analyst
2 15 (26.32%) Tester
3 12 (21.05%) QA Engineer
4 11 (19.30%) Test Analyst
5 10 (17.54%) Software Tester
6 7 (12.28%) Test Specialist
7 6 (10.53%) Test Engineer
8 5 (8.77%) Graduate
8 5 (8.77%) Junior
8 5 (8.77%) Junior QA Engineer
8 5 (8.77%) Security Engineer
9 4 (7.02%) Automation Tester
9 4 (7.02%) Senior
10 3 (5.26%) Business Analyst
10 3 (5.26%) Lead
10 3 (5.26%) QA Automation Engineer
10 3 (5.26%) QA Leader
10 3 (5.26%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
10 3 (5.26%) Technical Analyst
10 3 (5.26%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (8.77%) .NET
1 5 (8.77%) HTML
2 4 (7.02%) CSS
2 4 (7.02%) DOM
3 3 (5.26%) REST
3 3 (5.26%) Web Services
4 2 (3.51%) RESTful
5 1 (1.75%) HTML5
5 1 (1.75%) Puppeteer
5 1 (1.75%) pytest
5 1 (1.75%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (26.32%) Product Ownership
2 7 (12.28%) Client/Server
3 3 (5.26%) Linux Command Line
3 3 (5.26%) Low-Code
4 1 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (1.75%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 11 (19.30%) Linux
2 5 (8.77%) Debian
2 5 (8.77%) Ubuntu
3 3 (5.26%) Windows
4 1 (1.75%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (80.70%) Agile
2 40 (70.18%) Test Automation
3 28 (49.12%) Software Testing
4 26 (45.61%) Regression Testing
5 16 (28.07%) Functional Testing
6 14 (24.56%) Scrum
7 13 (22.81%) Manual Testing
7 13 (22.81%) User Acceptance Testing
8 12 (21.05%) Acceptance Criteria
8 12 (21.05%) DevOps
8 12 (21.05%) Test Scripting
8 12 (21.05%) Test Strategy
9 11 (19.30%) API Testing
9 11 (19.30%) Defect Tracking
9 11 (19.30%) Problem-Solving
9 11 (19.30%) Test Management
10 10 (17.54%) End-to-End Testing
10 10 (17.54%) Non-Functional Testing
10 10 (17.54%) Validation
11 9 (15.79%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 20 (35.09%) Python
2 18 (31.58%) SQL
3 15 (26.32%) Java
4 9 (15.79%) JavaScript
5 7 (12.28%) C#
6 5 (8.77%) PowerShell
7 3 (5.26%) T-SQL
8 1 (1.75%) C
8 1 (1.75%) C++
8 1 (1.75%) Go
8 1 (1.75%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 15 (26.32%) Degree
1 15 (26.32%) ISEB
2 9 (15.79%) ISTQB
3 5 (8.77%) SC Cleared
3 5 (8.77%) Security Cleared
4 3 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (5.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (3.51%) HND
6 1 (1.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (52.63%) QA
2 3 (5.26%) Accessibility
3 2 (3.51%) PMO
System Software
1 2 (3.51%) Docker
2 1 (1.75%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (1.75%) Consul
1 1 (1.75%) Kubernetes
1 1 (1.75%) Packer
Vendors
1 3 (5.26%) Microsoft
2 1 (1.75%) Google
2 1 (1.75%) OpenAI
2 1 (1.75%) Splunk