Operational Acceptance Testing Job Trends

Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT)
UK

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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 635 697 687
Rank change year-on-year +62 -10 +259
Permanent jobs citing Operational Acceptance Testing 12 7 18
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.020% 0.013% 0.034%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.025% 0.014% 0.037%
Number of salaries quoted 8 1 12
10th Percentile £49,837 - £22,600
25th Percentile £51,250 £61,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,750 £62,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +31.58% -13.64%
75th Percentile £80,697 £63,750 £57,813
90th Percentile £85,000 - £58,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £62,500 £48,423
% change year-on-year -8.00% +29.07% -11.96%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Operational Acceptance 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 48,377 48,922 48,139
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.45% 90.25% 90.80%
Number of salaries quoted 28,391 23,950 36,604
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.55%

Operational Acceptance Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Operational Acceptance Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

Operational Acceptance Testing
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Acceptance Testing.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Acceptance Testing

Operational Acceptance Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Operational Acceptance Testing over the 6 months to 6 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Operational Acceptance Testing in the UK

Operational Acceptance Testing
Top 7 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Operational Acceptance Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 6 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
England +71 11 £60,000 -4.00% 9
Work from Home +62 5 £57,500 -8.00% 9
London +56 5 £85,000 - 1
UK excluding London +37 5 £57,500 -8.00% 9
South East +25 3 £57,500 -
West Midlands - 2 £57,500 -
Midlands - 2 £57,500 -

Operational Acceptance 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:

Business Applications
1 3 (25.00%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 2 (16.67%) SuccessFactors
2 1 (8.33%) Azure
2 1 (8.33%) Azure Monitor
2 1 (8.33%) Serverless
2 1 (8.33%) Tricentis Tosca
Development Applications
1 4 (33.33%) Selenium
2 1 (8.33%) Cypress.io
2 1 (8.33%) GitLab
2 1 (8.33%) Jenkins
2 1 (8.33%) JIRA
2 1 (8.33%) JMeter
2 1 (8.33%) LoadRunner
2 1 (8.33%) SoapUI
General
1 5 (41.67%) Finance
2 4 (33.33%) Public Sector
3 2 (16.67%) Social Skills
4 1 (8.33%) Games
Job Titles
1 6 (50.00%) Senior
2 4 (33.33%) Test Engineer
2 4 (33.33%) Test Manager
3 3 (25.00%) Senior Test Engineer
4 2 (16.67%) Automation Tester
4 2 (16.67%) Lead
4 2 (16.67%) Senior Automation Tester
4 2 (16.67%) Senior Test Automation Engineer
4 2 (16.67%) Senior Tester
4 2 (16.67%) Test Automation Engineer
4 2 (16.67%) Tester
5 1 (8.33%) Azure Test Lead
5 1 (8.33%) Defect Manager
5 1 (8.33%) Finance Manager
5 1 (8.33%) Lead Test Engineer
5 1 (8.33%) Migration Manager
5 1 (8.33%) SAP S/4HANA Consultant
5 1 (8.33%) Senior Transformation Manager
5 1 (8.33%) Test Leader
5 1 (8.33%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (8.33%) Playwright
1 1 (8.33%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 1 (8.33%) Data Centre
1 1 (8.33%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 2 (16.67%) Windows
2 1 (8.33%) Linux
2 1 (8.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (66.67%) Agile
1 8 (66.67%) Test Automation
2 5 (41.67%) Manual Testing
2 5 (41.67%) TDD
2 5 (41.67%) User Acceptance Testing
3 4 (33.33%) ATDD
3 4 (33.33%) BDD
3 4 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 4 (33.33%) Coaching
3 4 (33.33%) Non-Functional Testing
3 4 (33.33%) Open Source
3 4 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
3 4 (33.33%) Test Strategy
4 3 (25.00%) Cutover Planning
4 3 (25.00%) Exploratory Testing
4 3 (25.00%) Performance Testing
4 3 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 3 (25.00%) Test Management
5 2 (16.67%) Integration Testing
5 2 (16.67%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (41.67%) Java
2 1 (8.33%) C#
2 1 (8.33%) Python
2 1 (8.33%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 5 (41.67%) Security Cleared
2 2 (16.67%) DV Cleared
2 2 (16.67%) ISTQB
2 2 (16.67%) SC Cleared
3 1 (8.33%) ISEB
3 1 (8.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 1 (8.33%) PMI Certification
3 1 (8.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (66.67%) QA
2 5 (41.67%) Accessibility
3 1 (8.33%) IFRS
3 1 (8.33%) IFRS 17
System Software
1 1 (8.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (8.33%) Grafana
1 1 (8.33%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 3 (25.00%) Ariba
1 3 (25.00%) SAP
2 2 (16.67%) Concur
2 2 (16.67%) Dynatrace
3 1 (8.33%) AppDynamics
3 1 (8.33%) Microsoft
3 1 (8.33%) OneLogin
3 1 (8.33%) YouTube