Software Testing Job Trends

Software Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Software Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 254 253 162
Rank change year-on-year -1 -91 -5
Permanent jobs citing Software Testing 755 585 1,684
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.77% 1.19% 1.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.04% 1.32% 2.02%
Number of salaries quoted 498 420 1,171
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £39,354 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +10.00% -13.04%
75th Percentile £72,500 £71,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £86,375 £80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% -3.85%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Software 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 72,826 44,439 83,222
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.81% 90.30% 82.24%
Number of salaries quoted 50,337 24,847 58,274
10th Percentile £30,250 £28,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,750 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Software Testing job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Testing
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Testing over the 6 months to 12 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Testing in the UK

Software Testing
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 12 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 -8 637 £55,000 - 270
UK excluding London +16 565 £52,500 - 242
Work from Home +29 299 £55,000 -14.06% 106
South East +8 155 £47,500 -9.52% 69
London -34 147 £67,000 +4.69% 65
North of England +2 103 £55,000 +27.17% 49
South West -30 82 £50,000 -9.09% 40
Midlands -31 72 £55,000 +29.41% 31
East of England +28 69 £55,000 +3.77% 37
North West +8 58 £52,500 -16.00% 24
Northern Ireland -12 50 - - 10
West Midlands -17 47 £62,500 +316.67% 21
East Midlands -28 25 £55,000 +5.77% 10
North East -36 25 £57,500 +43.75% 15
Wales -39 25 £44,000 -34.81% 6
Yorkshire -47 20 £46,421 +52.20% 10
Scotland -12 9 £50,000 - 5

Software 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 15 (1.99%) IIS
2 13 (1.72%) Confluence
3 10 (1.32%) SharePoint
4 5 (0.66%) CMS
4 5 (0.66%) WordPress
5 4 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.53%) Moodle
6 2 (0.26%) Apache
6 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
Applications
1 21 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.72%) Simulink
4 6 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.79%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.66%) AutoCAD
5 5 (0.66%) DaVinci Resolve
6 4 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.40%) CANalyzer
7 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.40%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.26%) Shopify
1 2 (0.26%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.13%) Misys Equation
2 1 (0.13%) Misys Midas
2 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 132 (17.48%) Azure
2 123 (16.29%) AWS
3 45 (5.96%) GCP
4 42 (5.56%) Azure DevOps
5 36 (4.77%) SaaS
6 29 (3.84%) GitHub
7 27 (3.58%) Serverless
8 17 (2.25%) Power Platform
9 14 (1.85%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (1.85%) BrowserStack
9 14 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
10 12 (1.59%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (1.59%) OpenShift
11 11 (1.46%) GitHub Copilot
12 9 (1.19%) Anthropic Claude
13 7 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
14 5 (0.66%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (0.66%) Tricentis Tosca
15 4 (0.53%) Azure Functions
15 4 (0.53%) BlazeMeter
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.46%) VPN
2 10 (1.32%) Broadband
3 8 (1.06%) Ethernet
4 5 (0.66%) HTTP
4 5 (0.66%) SNMP
5 4 (0.53%) Network Security
5 4 (0.53%) Software-Defined Radio
5 4 (0.53%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.40%) DNS
7 2 (0.26%) ATM
7 2 (0.26%) Cisco ISE
7 2 (0.26%) Firewall
7 2 (0.26%) LTE
7 2 (0.26%) Modbus
7 2 (0.26%) MQTT
7 2 (0.26%) Wireless
8 1 (0.13%) AMQP
8 1 (0.13%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.13%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.13%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (4.77%) SQL Server
2 23 (3.05%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (1.72%) MongoDB
3 13 (1.72%) OLTP
3 13 (1.72%) Power BI
4 12 (1.59%) DynamoDB
5 11 (1.46%) Elasticsearch
6 9 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (1.19%) InfluxDB
6 9 (1.19%) MySQL
7 8 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.93%) Spark SQL
9 6 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
9 6 (0.79%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.66%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.53%) Crystal Reports
11 4 (0.53%) DTS
11 4 (0.53%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.26%) Db2
12 2 (0.26%) Easytrieve
Development Applications
1 79 (10.46%) Git
2 74 (9.80%) JIRA
3 57 (7.55%) Selenium
4 55 (7.28%) GitLab
5 42 (5.56%) Jenkins
6 28 (3.71%) Postman
7 26 (3.44%) Cypress.io
8 20 (2.65%) TestRail
9 18 (2.38%) JMeter
9 18 (2.38%) Zephyr
10 16 (2.12%) Cucumber
11 15 (1.99%) JUnit
12 11 (1.46%) REST Assured
12 11 (1.46%) Visual Studio Code
13 9 (1.19%) Claude Code
13 9 (1.19%) Robot Framework
14 8 (1.06%) SoapUI
14 8 (1.06%) SpecFlow
14 8 (1.06%) WebDriver
15 7 (0.93%) LabVIEW
General
1 229 (30.33%) Social Skills
2 111 (14.70%) Analytical Skills
3 85 (11.26%) Finance
4 79 (10.46%) Law
5 55 (7.28%) Legal
6 39 (5.17%) Electronics
7 35 (4.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 33 (4.37%) Manufacturing
9 28 (3.71%) Legal Technology
10 22 (2.91%) Banking
11 17 (2.25%) Public Sector
12 16 (2.12%) Retail
13 12 (1.59%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
14 11 (1.46%) Games
15 9 (1.19%) Health Technology
15 9 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
17 7 (0.93%) Military
17 7 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 216 (28.61%) Senior
2 130 (17.22%) Software Engineer
3 101 (13.38%) Developer
4 82 (10.86%) Test Engineer
5 73 (9.67%) Senior Developer
6 70 (9.27%) Analyst
7 62 (8.21%) Lead
8 55 (7.28%) Tester
9 42 (5.56%) Senior Software Engineer
10 40 (5.30%) Development Engineer
11 36 (4.77%) Software Development Engineer
11 36 (4.77%) Software Tester
12 33 (4.37%) Test Development Engineer
13 32 (4.24%) Senior Manager
14 31 (4.11%) Software Test Engineer
15 29 (3.84%) QA Engineer
16 27 (3.58%) Software Developer
16 27 (3.58%) Test Automation Engineer
17 25 (3.31%) Testing Manager
18 23 (3.05%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (10.33%) .NET
2 55 (7.28%) Playwright
3 37 (4.90%) HTML
4 33 (4.37%) React
5 26 (3.44%) XML
6 25 (3.31%) REST
7 21 (2.78%) Node.js
8 19 (2.52%) SOAP
9 16 (2.12%) Spring
10 15 (1.99%) CSS
11 14 (1.85%) ASP.NET
11 14 (1.85%) RESTful
12 11 (1.46%) Spring Boot
13 10 (1.32%) Elastic Stack
13 10 (1.32%) JSON
14 9 (1.19%) React Native
14 9 (1.19%) Swagger
15 8 (1.06%) .NET Framework
15 8 (1.06%) Middleware
15 8 (1.06%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 70 (9.27%) Product Ownership
2 35 (4.64%) Algorithms
3 28 (3.71%) Embedded Systems
4 27 (3.58%) Virtual Team
5 20 (2.65%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (2.12%) Mobile App
7 15 (1.99%) FPGA
8 14 (1.85%) Client/Server
8 14 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
9 13 (1.72%) Management Information System
10 12 (1.59%) Cloud Native
10 12 (1.59%) Robotics
11 11 (1.46%) Low-Code
12 10 (1.32%) Life Science
13 9 (1.19%) AI Agents
13 9 (1.19%) Onboarding
13 9 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
14 8 (1.06%) Blog
14 8 (1.06%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 74 (9.80%) Windows
2 63 (8.34%) Linux
3 20 (2.65%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.19%) CentOS
5 6 (0.79%) Unix
6 4 (0.53%) VMS
7 3 (0.40%) Embedded Linux
7 3 (0.40%) FreeRTOS
7 3 (0.40%) Kali Linux
8 2 (0.26%) Android
8 2 (0.26%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.26%) Robot Operating System
8 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.26%) zOS
9 1 (0.13%) AIX
9 1 (0.13%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 322 (42.65%) Test Automation
2 282 (37.35%) Agile
3 252 (33.38%) Software Engineering
4 222 (29.40%) Continuous Improvement
5 182 (24.11%) CI/CD
6 173 (22.91%) Problem-Solving
7 169 (22.38%) DevOps
8 128 (16.95%) Mentoring
9 105 (13.91%) Scrum
9 105 (13.91%) Test Strategy
10 99 (13.11%) Code Quality
11 94 (12.45%) SDLC
12 93 (12.32%) Manual Testing
13 91 (12.05%) AI
14 82 (10.86%) Computer Science
15 76 (10.07%) Validation
16 75 (9.93%) Regression Testing
17 72 (9.54%) Acceptance Criteria
18 68 (9.01%) Microservices
19 62 (8.21%) Business Strategy
Programming Languages
1 206 (27.28%) Python
2 144 (19.07%) C#
3 129 (17.09%) SQL
4 106 (14.04%) JavaScript
5 83 (10.99%) Java
6 77 (10.20%) TypeScript
7 75 (9.93%) C++
8 57 (7.55%) C
9 45 (5.96%) PowerShell
10 25 (3.31%) MATLAB
11 17 (2.25%) PL/SQL
12 16 (2.12%) Bash
13 13 (1.72%) PHP
14 12 (1.59%) Go
15 11 (1.46%) Embedded C
16 9 (1.19%) Julia
17 8 (1.06%) Groovy
17 8 (1.06%) R
17 8 (1.06%) Ruby
17 8 (1.06%) Rust
Qualifications
1 192 (25.43%) Degree
2 118 (15.63%) Security Cleared
3 67 (8.87%) SC Cleared
4 52 (6.89%) ISTQB
5 40 (5.30%) DV Cleared
6 38 (5.03%) Master's Degree
7 37 (4.90%) Computer Science Degree
8 18 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (1.59%) PhD
10 9 (1.19%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 9 (1.19%) ISEB
10 9 (1.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 6 (0.79%) HND
12 5 (0.66%) CIPD
12 5 (0.66%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.53%) Chartered Engineer
13 4 (0.53%) HNC
13 4 (0.53%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 239 (31.66%) QA
2 45 (5.96%) Accessibility
3 21 (2.78%) Software Quality Assurance
4 13 (1.72%) SLA
5 12 (1.59%) GDPR
6 9 (1.19%) WCAG
7 8 (1.06%) Data Quality
8 6 (0.79%) PMO
9 5 (0.66%) DO-254
10 4 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.40%) IEC 61508
11 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 12207
12 2 (0.26%) Automotive SPICE
12 2 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.26%) JTAG
12 2 (0.26%) MISRA
12 2 (0.26%) MISRA C
12 2 (0.26%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.13%) DO-160
13 1 (0.13%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 42 (5.56%) Docker
2 30 (3.97%) Firmware
3 17 (2.25%) Active Directory
3 17 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.12%) Embedded Firmware
5 7 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.66%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.66%) KVM
7 2 (0.26%) Terminal Server
7 2 (0.26%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.13%) Xen
Systems Management
1 31 (4.11%) Kubernetes
2 21 (2.78%) Terraform
3 17 (2.25%) Ansible
4 14 (1.85%) Grafana
5 9 (1.19%) Kibana
5 9 (1.19%) logstash
6 7 (0.93%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.66%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.66%) HP Fortify
7 5 (0.66%) SCCM
7 5 (0.66%) SCOM
8 3 (0.40%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.40%) Norton AntiVirus
8 3 (0.40%) Rancher
8 3 (0.40%) SCOrch
9 1 (0.13%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.13%) Istio
9 1 (0.13%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 66 (8.74%) Microsoft
2 32 (4.24%) Oracle
3 21 (2.78%) VMware
4 19 (2.52%) Splunk
5 12 (1.59%) Atlassian
6 11 (1.46%) Adobe
6 11 (1.46%) Citrix
7 10 (1.32%) IBM
7 10 (1.32%) Red Hat
7 10 (1.32%) ServiceNow
8 8 (1.06%) Intel
9 7 (0.93%) Google
10 5 (0.66%) AppDynamics
10 5 (0.66%) Avid
10 5 (0.66%) EMC
10 5 (0.66%) HP
10 5 (0.66%) Salesforce
10 5 (0.66%) SolarWinds
11 4 (0.53%) Altera
11 4 (0.53%) Microsemi