SDET Job Trends

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring SDET skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 607 631 515
Rank change year-on-year +24 -116 +71
Permanent jobs citing SDET 42 80 201
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.070% 0.15% 0.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.086% 0.16% 0.40%
Number of salaries quoted 37 42 175
10th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 £68,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £75,000 £95,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -21.05% +35.71%
75th Percentile £75,000 £85,000 £112,500
90th Percentile £100,500 £112,500 £113,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £58,750 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +6.82% +4.76% -19.23%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

SDET 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 48,808 48,616 49,870
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.95% 90.71% 89.93%
Number of salaries quoted 28,796 23,669 37,967
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 £77,715
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £51,971
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.83% -5.51%

SDET
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SDET job vacancy trend in the UK

SDET
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SDET.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SDET

SDET
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing SDET over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for SDET in the UK

SDET
Top 7 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SDET within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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 +26 39 £60,000 -22.58% 23
London +29 23 £60,000 -25.00% 14
Work from Home +54 16 £60,000 - 9
UK excluding London +28 15 £58,750 +6.82% 14
South East +35 12 £57,500 +15.00% 12
East of England +24 2 £60,000 -
South West -1 1 £55,000 - 2

SDET
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 1 (2.38%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 7 (16.67%) Azure
2 6 (14.29%) AWS
3 4 (9.52%) GCP
3 4 (9.52%) GitHub
4 3 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (7.14%) BrowserStack
4 3 (7.14%) Datadog
5 1 (2.38%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 1 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (2.38%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 2 (4.76%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (7.14%) SQL Server
2 2 (4.76%) Apache Cassandra
2 2 (4.76%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (4.76%) MongoDB
2 2 (4.76%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (2.38%) Big Data
3 1 (2.38%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 16 (38.10%) Selenium
2 12 (28.57%) Cypress.io
3 9 (21.43%) Cucumber
4 8 (19.05%) WebDriver
5 7 (16.67%) Postman
6 5 (11.90%) JMeter
7 4 (9.52%) Git
7 4 (9.52%) GitLab
7 4 (9.52%) Jenkins
7 4 (9.52%) JIRA
7 4 (9.52%) JUnit
8 3 (7.14%) JBehave
8 3 (7.14%) Visual Studio
9 2 (4.76%) Gatling
9 2 (4.76%) REST Assured
9 2 (4.76%) SpecFlow
10 1 (2.38%) Appium
10 1 (2.38%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (2.38%) Katalon Studio
10 1 (2.38%) mountebank
General
1 13 (30.95%) Social Skills
2 8 (19.05%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (16.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 7 (16.67%) Law
3 7 (16.67%) Public Sector
4 6 (14.29%) Finance
5 2 (4.76%) Banking
5 2 (4.76%) Games
6 1 (2.38%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 18 (42.86%) Software Engineer
2 16 (38.10%) Development Engineer
2 16 (38.10%) Software Development Engineer
2 16 (38.10%) Test Development Engineer
3 11 (26.19%) Developer
3 11 (26.19%) Senior
3 11 (26.19%) Software Developer
4 10 (23.81%) Developer in Test
5 4 (9.52%) Test Automation Engineer
5 4 (9.52%) Test Engineer
6 3 (7.14%) Automation Tester
6 3 (7.14%) Lead
6 3 (7.14%) Senior Development Engineer
6 3 (7.14%) Senior Software Development Engineer
6 3 (7.14%) Senior Software Engineer
6 3 (7.14%) Software Tester
6 3 (7.14%) Tester
7 2 (4.76%) QA Automation Engineer
7 2 (4.76%) QA Test Engineer
7 2 (4.76%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (30.95%) Playwright
2 5 (11.90%) REST
3 4 (9.52%) .NET
4 3 (7.14%) ASP.NET
4 3 (7.14%) Gherkin
5 2 (4.76%) Kafka
5 2 (4.76%) RESTful
6 1 (2.38%) .NET Core
6 1 (2.38%) .NET Framework
6 1 (2.38%) Apache Thrift
6 1 (2.38%) JSON
6 1 (2.38%) RabbitMQ
6 1 (2.38%) React
6 1 (2.38%) Spring
6 1 (2.38%) Spring Boot
6 1 (2.38%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 7 (16.67%) Self-Motivation
1 7 (16.67%) Team-Oriented Environment
2 1 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (2.38%) Greenfield Project
2 1 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
2 1 (2.38%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.38%) Unix
1 1 (2.38%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (83.33%) Software Testing
2 33 (78.57%) Test Automation
3 17 (40.48%) Agile
3 17 (40.48%) Continuous Improvement
4 14 (33.33%) CI/CD
5 12 (28.57%) Computer Science
5 12 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
6 11 (26.19%) API Testing
6 11 (26.19%) Performance Testing
7 9 (21.43%) DevOps
7 9 (21.43%) E-Commerce
7 9 (21.43%) Software Delivery
7 9 (21.43%) Sprint Planning
7 9 (21.43%) Test Strategy
8 8 (19.05%) Fintech
8 8 (19.05%) Root Cause Analysis
8 8 (19.05%) Test Scripting
9 7 (16.67%) Community of Practice
9 7 (16.67%) Sprint Retrospective
9 7 (16.67%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 19 (45.24%) Java
2 17 (40.48%) C#
3 12 (28.57%) JavaScript
4 7 (16.67%) SQL
4 7 (16.67%) TypeScript
5 5 (11.90%) Python
6 1 (2.38%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 11 (26.19%) Degree
2 8 (19.05%) Computer Science Degree
3 7 (16.67%) SC Cleared
3 7 (16.67%) Security Cleared
4 5 (11.90%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (57.14%) QA
2 10 (23.81%) Accessibility
System Software
1 6 (14.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (14.29%) Kubernetes
2 3 (7.14%) Grafana
Vendors
1 1 (2.38%) CA Agile Central
1 1 (2.38%) Oracle