Manual Testing Job Trends

Manual Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Manual Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 610 516 627
Rank change year-on-year -94 +111 -141
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing 141 161 292
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.35% 0.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.20% 0.38% 0.34%
Number of salaries quoted 98 120 251
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,450 £33,750
25th Percentile £42,475 £36,250 £36,365
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £45,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.89% +1.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57,500 £64,063 £57,500
90th Percentile £64,125 £67,500 £86,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £40,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year +18.75% -5.88% -5.56%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 70,838 42,616 86,708
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.43% 91.47% 82.17%
Number of salaries quoted 48,971 23,341 61,278
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.09%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,171 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +6.34% - -9.09%

Manual Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Manual Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

Manual Testing
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Manual Testing

Manual Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Manual Testing over the 6 months to 1 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Manual Testing in the UK

Manual 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 Manual Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 1 July 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 -78 128 £50,000 +11.11% 59
UK excluding London -69 101 £47,500 +18.75% 51
Work from Home -31 44 £50,000 +4.17% 39
South West -40 33 £47,500 +18.75% 6
South East -33 32 £52,500 +31.25% 15
London -62 28 £55,000 -12.70% 16
North of England -38 16 £50,000 +42.86% 13
North West +3 12 £50,000 +17.65% 4
Midlands -38 11 £42,500 +13.33% 8
East Midlands -19 8 £30,000 -14.29% 3
East of England -23 7 £45,000 -15.09% 3
West Midlands -36 3 £57,500 +41.98% 5
Yorkshire -34 2 £50,000 +42.86% 5
Wales -47 2 £25,000 -58.33% 2
North East -57 2 £50,000 +44.93% 4

Manual 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 5 (3.55%) Confluence
2 1 (0.71%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (5.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (4.96%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (3.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.71%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (0.71%) FLEXCUBE
1 1 (0.71%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 58 (41.13%) Azure
2 43 (30.50%) Azure DevOps
3 18 (12.77%) AWS
4 10 (7.09%) BrowserStack
4 10 (7.09%) GCP
5 8 (5.67%) GitHub
6 7 (4.96%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.84%) GitHub Actions
7 4 (2.84%) SaaS
8 2 (1.42%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (0.71%) Algolia
9 1 (0.71%) AWS CodePipeline
9 1 (0.71%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 1 (0.71%) BlazeMeter
9 1 (0.71%) Copilot Studio
9 1 (0.71%) Microsoft 365
9 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (0.71%) SonarCloud
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.84%) 5G
1 4 (2.84%) SD-WAN
1 4 (2.84%) WAN
2 2 (1.42%) Cisco ISE
2 2 (1.42%) HTTP
3 1 (0.71%) Broadband
3 1 (0.71%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.26%) Power BI
2 3 (2.13%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.42%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (1.42%) Metadata
3 2 (1.42%) Oracle Database
3 2 (1.42%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.71%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.71%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.71%) Power Query
4 1 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 37 (26.24%) Selenium
2 23 (16.31%) Cypress.io
3 22 (15.60%) JIRA
4 21 (14.89%) Postman
5 15 (10.64%) Git
6 13 (9.22%) Jenkins
7 9 (6.38%) Zephyr
8 7 (4.96%) SpecFlow
9 6 (4.26%) REST Assured
10 5 (3.55%) GitLab
10 5 (3.55%) LabVIEW
10 5 (3.55%) TestRail
11 4 (2.84%) JMeter
11 4 (2.84%) JUnit
12 3 (2.13%) SoapUI
13 2 (1.42%) Gatling
13 2 (1.42%) LoadRunner
13 2 (1.42%) Subversion
14 1 (0.71%) Appium
14 1 (0.71%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 37 (26.24%) Social Skills
2 25 (17.73%) Finance
3 20 (14.18%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (12.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 9 (6.38%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.96%) Electronics
6 7 (4.96%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.55%) Digital Healthcare
8 4 (2.84%) Advertising
9 3 (2.13%) Aerospace
9 3 (2.13%) Banking
9 3 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.42%) Back Office
10 2 (1.42%) Law
10 2 (1.42%) Military
10 2 (1.42%) Retail
11 1 (0.71%) Aviation
11 1 (0.71%) Corporate Banking
11 1 (0.71%) Games
11 1 (0.71%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 30 (21.28%) Test Engineer
2 21 (14.89%) QA Engineer
3 20 (14.18%) Lead
4 17 (12.06%) Tester
5 16 (11.35%) Analyst
6 15 (10.64%) Senior
7 14 (9.93%) QA Leader
8 12 (8.51%) Test Analyst
8 12 (8.51%) Test Leader
9 9 (6.38%) Software Engineer
9 9 (6.38%) Software Test Engineer
10 8 (5.67%) Automation Engineer
10 8 (5.67%) Junior
10 8 (5.67%) QA Automation Engineer
11 7 (4.96%) Head of Testing
11 7 (4.96%) Quality Engineer
12 6 (4.26%) Automation Tester
12 6 (4.26%) Graduate
12 6 (4.26%) Software Development Engineer
12 6 (4.26%) Test Development Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (21.28%) Playwright
2 7 (4.96%) CSS
3 6 (4.26%) HTML
4 5 (3.55%) pytest
5 4 (2.84%) .NET
5 4 (2.84%) REST
6 3 (2.13%) Kafka
6 3 (2.13%) React
6 3 (2.13%) Swagger
7 2 (1.42%) Laravel
7 2 (1.42%) Node.js
7 2 (1.42%) Vue
8 1 (0.71%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.71%) ADO
8 1 (0.71%) Gherkin
8 1 (0.71%) GraphQL
8 1 (0.71%) GStreamer
8 1 (0.71%) RabbitMQ
8 1 (0.71%) RESTful
8 1 (0.71%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.93%) Product Ownership
2 7 (4.96%) Mobile App
3 4 (2.84%) Embedded Systems
3 4 (2.84%) Self-Driving Car
4 3 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (2.13%) Hackathon
4 3 (2.13%) Housing Association
5 2 (1.42%) NHS
5 2 (1.42%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.42%) Video\Live Streaming
6 1 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.71%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.71%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.71%) Low-Code
6 1 (0.71%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.71%) PKI
6 1 (0.71%) PropTech
6 1 (0.71%) Reinsurance
6 1 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 12 (8.51%) Windows
2 4 (2.84%) Linux
2 4 (2.84%) Unix
3 2 (1.42%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.42%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.71%) Android
4 1 (0.71%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.71%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 124 (87.94%) Test Automation
2 66 (46.81%) Agile
2 66 (46.81%) CI/CD
3 63 (44.68%) Software Testing
4 62 (43.97%) DevOps
5 53 (37.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 45 (31.91%) Regression Testing
7 40 (28.37%) Test Strategy
8 35 (24.82%) API Testing
9 34 (24.11%) Scrum
10 33 (23.40%) SDLC
11 30 (21.28%) Test Scripting
12 28 (19.86%) User Acceptance Testing
13 26 (18.44%) Acceptance Criteria
13 26 (18.44%) Mentoring
14 24 (17.02%) Defect Management
14 24 (17.02%) Problem-Solving
15 17 (12.06%) Validation
16 15 (10.64%) Coaching
16 15 (10.64%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 27 (19.15%) SQL
2 19 (13.48%) JavaScript
3 18 (12.77%) Python
4 13 (9.22%) C#
5 12 (8.51%) TypeScript
6 10 (7.09%) Java
7 8 (5.67%) MATLAB
8 3 (2.13%) C++
9 2 (1.42%) Bash
9 2 (1.42%) COBOL
9 2 (1.42%) PHP
9 2 (1.42%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.71%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 33 (23.40%) ISTQB
2 19 (13.48%) Degree
3 13 (9.22%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 10 (7.09%) Security Cleared
5 6 (4.26%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (3.55%) SC Cleared
7 4 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.84%) HND
8 3 (2.13%) Chartered Engineer
8 3 (2.13%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (52.48%) QA
2 26 (18.44%) Accessibility
3 3 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 2 (1.42%) GDPR
4 2 (1.42%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.42%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.71%) Data Quality
System Software
1 3 (2.13%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.42%) Docker
2 2 (1.42%) Firmware
2 2 (1.42%) Terminal Server
2 2 (1.42%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (1.42%) Ansible
1 2 (1.42%) SCCM
1 2 (1.42%) SCOM
1 2 (1.42%) Terraform
2 1 (0.71%) Grafana
2 1 (0.71%) Kibana
2 1 (0.71%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 19 (13.48%) Microsoft
2 8 (5.67%) Salesforce
3 6 (4.26%) ServiceNow
4 3 (2.13%) Oracle
5 2 (1.42%) Cisco
5 2 (1.42%) HP
5 2 (1.42%) Juniper
5 2 (1.42%) McAfee
5 2 (1.42%) VMware
6 1 (0.71%) Dynatrace
6 1 (0.71%) Pega