Test Engineer Job Trends

Test Engineer
UK

The median Test Engineer salary in the UK is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 315 270 464
Rank change year-on-year -45 +194 -93
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Engineer 389 579 286
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.09% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.70% 1.17% 0.51%
Number of salaries quoted 253 113 169
10th Percentile £33,350 £31,750 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £49,500
Median % change year-on-year - +1.01% -5.71%
75th Percentile £58,750 £60,000 £60,741
90th Percentile £75,000 £67,400 £72,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £47,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -10.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 55,347 49,429 56,262
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.79% 92.66% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 34,239 25,628 43,493
10th Percentile £28,675 £33,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £76,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -5.25%

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Test Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Test Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Test Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Test Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer over the 6 months to 17 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Engineer in the UK

Test Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 17 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 -46 353 £50,000 +5.26% 222
UK excluding London -57 323 £45,000 -5.26% 240
Work from Home +99 90 £55,000 - 80
East of England -22 84 £45,000 - 48
South West +28 63 £55,000 +37.50% 31
South East -92 58 £45,000 -5.26% 56
North of England +41 52 £50,000 -4.76% 40
Midlands -23 45 £50,000 +11.11% 33
London +75 43 £52,500 -17.32% 21
North West +35 32 £45,000 -2.70% 18
West Midlands +46 29 £55,000 +12.82% 17
East Midlands -62 16 £50,000 +17.65% 15
North East +12 12 £50,000 -16.67% 7
Scotland -8 11 £60,000 +9.09% 22
Yorkshire -8 8 £55,500 - 15
Wales +7 7 £40,000 -44.48% 10
Northern Ireland - 3 £38,000 - 4

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 January 2026, Test Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 133 (34.19%) Test Automation
2 60 (15.42%) Software Testing
3 57 (14.65%) Agile
4 49 (12.60%) Python
5 45 (11.57%) Validation
6 44 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (11.05%) QA
8 42 (10.80%) Selenium
9 41 (10.54%) Security Cleared
10 39 (10.03%) CI/CD
11 35 (9.00%) Degree
12 34 (8.74%) Playwright
13 32 (8.23%) Continuous Improvement
14 31 (7.97%) Verification and Validation
15 30 (7.71%) Azure
16 29 (7.46%) Manual Testing
16 29 (7.46%) Test Scripting
17 28 (7.20%) DevOps
18 27 (6.94%) Java
19 26 (6.68%) JIRA
20 24 (6.17%) ISTQB
20 24 (6.17%) JavaScript
20 24 (6.17%) Performance Testing
21 22 (5.66%) C#
22 21 (5.40%) API Testing
22 21 (5.40%) Jenkins
22 21 (5.40%) SQL
23 20 (5.14%) AWS
23 20 (5.14%) Git
23 20 (5.14%) GitHub

Test Engineer Skill Set
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 (1.29%) Confluence
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 11 (2.83%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.03%) Fusion 360
3 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.26%) Doxygen
4 1 (0.26%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 2 (0.51%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.51%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.26%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 30 (7.71%) Azure
2 20 (5.14%) AWS
2 20 (5.14%) GitHub
3 11 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
4 7 (1.80%) BrowserStack
5 6 (1.54%) Power Platform
6 5 (1.29%) GitHub Actions
7 4 (1.03%) Azure Data Factory
7 4 (1.03%) GCP
7 4 (1.03%) Microsoft Purview
7 4 (1.03%) SaaS
8 2 (0.51%) Azure Pipelines
8 2 (0.51%) BlazeMeter
9 1 (0.26%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (0.26%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.26%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.26%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.26%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.06%) SD-WAN
1 8 (2.06%) WAN
2 7 (1.80%) 5G
3 2 (0.51%) Wireless
4 1 (0.26%) Cisco IOS
4 1 (0.26%) DHCP
4 1 (0.26%) DNS
4 1 (0.26%) Ethernet
4 1 (0.26%) FTP
4 1 (0.26%) Modbus
4 1 (0.26%) SNMP
4 1 (0.26%) Spanning Tree
4 1 (0.26%) SSH
4 1 (0.26%) TACACS
4 1 (0.26%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.26%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.29%) Relational Database
2 4 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
2 4 (1.03%) Metadata
2 4 (1.03%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (0.77%) Neo4j
4 2 (0.51%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.51%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.51%) Tableau
5 1 (0.26%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 42 (10.80%) Selenium
2 26 (6.68%) JIRA
3 21 (5.40%) Jenkins
4 20 (5.14%) Git
5 18 (4.63%) Cypress.io
5 18 (4.63%) JMeter
5 18 (4.63%) LabVIEW
5 18 (4.63%) Postman
6 14 (3.60%) REST Assured
7 11 (2.83%) Cucumber
8 9 (2.31%) Appium
9 7 (1.80%) GitLab
9 7 (1.80%) SpecFlow
9 7 (1.80%) Subversion
9 7 (1.80%) WebDriver
10 6 (1.54%) LoadRunner
11 5 (1.29%) Bitbucket
12 4 (1.03%) Gatling
12 4 (1.03%) SonarQube
12 4 (1.03%) TestRail
General
1 64 (16.45%) Manufacturing
2 59 (15.17%) Electronics
3 39 (10.03%) Social Skills
4 25 (6.43%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (5.91%) Finance
6 16 (4.11%) Aerospace
7 12 (3.08%) Aviation
8 9 (2.31%) Public Sector
9 7 (1.80%) Military
9 7 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (1.80%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.54%) Banking
10 6 (1.54%) Retail
11 5 (1.29%) Automotive
11 5 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.29%) Social Housing
12 4 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.77%) Games
13 3 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (8.74%) Playwright
2 17 (4.37%) pytest
3 11 (2.83%) .NET
3 11 (2.83%) REST
4 7 (1.80%) RESTful
5 6 (1.54%) Web Services
6 5 (1.29%) Kafka
6 5 (1.29%) SOAP
7 4 (1.03%) XML
8 3 (0.77%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.77%) HTML
8 3 (0.77%) MERN Stack
8 3 (0.77%) Middleware
8 3 (0.77%) React
9 2 (0.51%) Elastic Stack
9 2 (0.51%) GraphQL
9 2 (0.51%) JSON
9 2 (0.51%) Nightwatchjs
9 2 (0.51%) Swagger
9 2 (0.51%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 11 (2.83%) Self-Motivation
2 7 (1.80%) Self-Driving Car
3 6 (1.54%) Embedded Systems
4 5 (1.29%) Mobile App
4 5 (1.29%) Renewable Energy
5 4 (1.03%) Algorithms
5 4 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (1.03%) GNSS
5 4 (1.03%) Life Science
5 4 (1.03%) Product Ownership
5 4 (1.03%) Reference Data
5 4 (1.03%) Satnav
6 3 (0.77%) Driving Licence
6 3 (0.77%) e-Learning
6 3 (0.77%) Fibre Optics
6 3 (0.77%) Onboarding
6 3 (0.77%) Robotics
7 2 (0.51%) PDA
7 2 (0.51%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 1 (0.26%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.86%) Windows
2 14 (3.60%) Unix
3 7 (1.80%) Linux
4 4 (1.03%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.77%) Android
6 1 (0.26%) CentOS
6 1 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.26%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (34.19%) Test Automation
2 60 (15.42%) Software Testing
3 57 (14.65%) Agile
4 45 (11.57%) Validation
5 44 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
6 39 (10.03%) CI/CD
7 32 (8.23%) Continuous Improvement
8 31 (7.97%) Verification and Validation
9 29 (7.46%) Manual Testing
9 29 (7.46%) Test Scripting
10 28 (7.20%) DevOps
11 24 (6.17%) Performance Testing
12 21 (5.40%) API Testing
13 20 (5.14%) Non-Functional Testing
14 19 (4.88%) Test Strategy
15 18 (4.63%) Mentoring
16 16 (4.11%) AI
16 16 (4.11%) Test Management
17 15 (3.86%) Scrum
17 15 (3.86%) System Testing
Programming Languages
1 49 (12.60%) Python
2 27 (6.94%) Java
3 24 (6.17%) JavaScript
4 22 (5.66%) C#
5 21 (5.40%) SQL
6 17 (4.37%) TypeScript
7 13 (3.34%) MATLAB
8 5 (1.29%) C
9 3 (0.77%) C++
10 2 (0.51%) Bash
10 2 (0.51%) Scala
11 1 (0.26%) Groovy
11 1 (0.26%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.26%) Pascal
11 1 (0.26%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.26%) Swift
11 1 (0.26%) VB
11 1 (0.26%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 41 (10.54%) Security Cleared
2 35 (9.00%) Degree
3 24 (6.17%) ISTQB
4 18 (4.63%) HND
5 17 (4.37%) SC Cleared
6 9 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (2.31%) HNC
6 9 (2.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 8 (2.06%) City & Guilds
7 8 (2.06%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.03%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 3 (0.77%) CCA
9 3 (0.77%) ISEB
9 3 (0.77%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.51%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.26%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 1 (0.26%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.26%) Numerate Degree
11 1 (0.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (11.05%) QA
2 17 (4.37%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.54%) Data Quality
4 4 (1.03%) ISO 13485
5 2 (0.51%) SEPA
6 1 (0.26%) IEC 62304
6 1 (0.26%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 15 (3.86%) Docker
2 2 (0.51%) Firmware
2 2 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.26%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (2.83%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.03%) Terraform
3 3 (0.77%) Grafana
3 3 (0.77%) HP Fortify
3 3 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.51%) Control-M
4 2 (0.51%) HP Quality Center
4 2 (0.51%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.26%) Ansible
5 1 (0.26%) Argo
5 1 (0.26%) Kibana
5 1 (0.26%) logstash
5 1 (0.26%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 8 (2.06%) Microsoft
2 6 (1.54%) EMC
2 6 (1.54%) Oracle
3 3 (0.77%) IBM
3 3 (0.77%) Samsung
4 2 (0.51%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.51%) Dynatrace
4 2 (0.51%) Guidewire
4 2 (0.51%) Salesforce
4 2 (0.51%) Sitecore
4 2 (0.51%) VMware
5 1 (0.26%) AppDynamics
5 1 (0.26%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.26%) Cisco
5 1 (0.26%) Meraki
5 1 (0.26%) Pega
5 1 (0.26%) Red Hat
5 1 (0.26%) SAP
5 1 (0.26%) ServiceNow
5 1 (0.26%) Splunk