Tester
UK

The median Tester salary in the UK is £50,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 203 566 513
Rank change year-on-year +363 -53 -47
Permanent jobs requiring a Tester 1,042 124 297
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.98% 0.25% 0.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.04% 0.28% 0.38%
Number of salaries quoted 232 82 198
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £46,250 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.11% -7.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £60,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £70,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,250 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +2.78% -5.26% -

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 100,469 44,986 78,750
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.01% 89.94% 95.03%
Number of salaries quoted 68,644 26,650 52,502
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,400 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -6.54%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Tester job vacancy trend in the UK

Tester
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in the UK

Tester
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Tester over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Tester in the UK

Tester
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 16 August 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
UK excluding London +322 883 £46,250 +2.78% 107
Work from Home +291 846 £57,500 +15.00% 64
England +200 493 £47,500 +3.26% 82
Wales - 229 £53,171 - 20
Northern Ireland +18 183 - - 3
North of England +32 109 £43,474 -8.48% 21
London +30 107 £48,750 +2.63% 19
South East +41 100 £47,500 +3.26% 25
Scotland +85 89 £62,500 +31.58% 16
Midlands +24 70 £37,500 -3.23% 9
South West -19 70 £51,250 +28.13% 11
North West +39 55 £41,250 -25.00% 9
West Midlands -8 40 £65,000 +67.74% 6
Yorkshire -3 36 £45,000 - 11
East of England - 33 £51,750 - 5
East Midlands - 30 £33,750 - 3
North East -50 18 £35,000 -22.22% 1

Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 August 2026, Tester 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 Tester in the job title.

1 87 (8.35%) QA
2 86 (8.25%) Security Cleared
3 81 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
3 81 (7.77%) Penetration Testing
4 64 (6.14%) Software Testing
5 63 (6.05%) Test Automation
6 61 (5.85%) SC Cleared
7 51 (4.89%) CREST Certified
8 49 (4.70%) Agile
8 49 (4.70%) Azure
9 44 (4.22%) Continuous Improvement
10 40 (3.84%) DevOps
11 39 (3.74%) Security Testing
12 37 (3.55%) Validation
13 36 (3.45%) Offensive Security
14 35 (3.36%) Test Strategy
15 34 (3.26%) AWS
15 34 (3.26%) JIRA
16 32 (3.07%) CI/CD
17 31 (2.98%) Mentoring
17 31 (2.98%) User Acceptance Testing
18 29 (2.78%) CHECK Team Member
18 29 (2.78%) Red Team
19 28 (2.69%) Regression Testing
20 27 (2.59%) Defect Management
20 27 (2.59%) Manual Testing
20 27 (2.59%) Problem-Solving
21 26 (2.50%) Java
21 26 (2.50%) OSCP
22 25 (2.40%) Scenario Testing

Tester 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 6 (0.58%) Confluence
2 4 (0.38%) CMS
3 2 (0.19%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.19%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.096%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.096%) FLEXCUBE
Cloud Services
1 49 (4.70%) Azure
2 34 (3.26%) AWS
3 22 (2.11%) Azure DevOps
4 11 (1.06%) SaaS
5 10 (0.96%) GCP
6 5 (0.48%) GitHub
7 3 (0.29%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.19%) Amazon EKS
8 2 (0.19%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (0.19%) BlazeMeter
8 2 (0.19%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.19%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (0.19%) Tricentis Tosca
9 1 (0.096%) Algolia
9 1 (0.096%) Apigee
9 1 (0.096%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.096%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (0.096%) Kong
9 1 (0.096%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.86%) Firewall
2 8 (0.77%) HTTP
3 4 (0.38%) Wireless
3 4 (0.38%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.096%) Bluetooth
4 1 (0.096%) LoRaWAN
4 1 (0.096%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.096%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.29%) Relational Database
1 3 (0.29%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.19%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.096%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 34 (3.26%) JIRA
2 19 (1.82%) Selenium
3 14 (1.34%) Jenkins
4 12 (1.15%) Burp Suite
4 12 (1.15%) JMeter
4 12 (1.15%) Metasploit
5 11 (1.06%) Postman
6 10 (0.96%) Git
7 8 (0.77%) TestRail
8 7 (0.67%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.58%) Cucumber
9 6 (0.58%) Zephyr
10 5 (0.48%) GitLab
10 5 (0.48%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.38%) Gatling
11 4 (0.38%) LoadRunner
12 3 (0.29%) Bugzilla
12 3 (0.29%) Maven
13 2 (0.19%) Ranorex
13 2 (0.19%) Yeoman
General
1 743 (71.31%) Games
2 61 (5.85%) Social Skills
3 42 (4.03%) Public Sector
4 35 (3.36%) Finance
5 34 (3.26%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (2.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 18 (1.73%) Law
8 15 (1.44%) Retail
9 13 (1.25%) Banking
10 8 (0.77%) Telecoms
11 7 (0.67%) Aerospace
12 6 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.48%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.29%) Financial Institution
15 2 (0.19%) Back Office
15 2 (0.19%) Legal
15 2 (0.19%) Military
16 1 (0.096%) Corporate Banking
16 1 (0.096%) Investment Banking
16 1 (0.096%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.25%) Playwright
2 6 (0.58%) SailPoint
3 5 (0.48%) CSS
3 5 (0.48%) Gherkin
3 5 (0.48%) HTML
4 4 (0.38%) .NET
4 4 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (0.19%) Kafka
5 2 (0.19%) React
5 2 (0.19%) Web Services
5 2 (0.19%) XML
6 1 (0.096%) JSON
6 1 (0.096%) OAuth
6 1 (0.096%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.096%) REST
6 1 (0.096%) SOAP
6 1 (0.096%) Swagger
6 1 (0.096%) WireMock
6 1 (0.096%) XSL
6 1 (0.096%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 742 (71.21%) Mobile Games
1 742 (71.21%) Smartphone
2 15 (1.44%) Mobile App
3 11 (1.06%) Product Ownership
3 11 (1.06%) Security Posture
4 8 (0.77%) Operational Technology
5 6 (0.58%) Onboarding
6 5 (0.48%) Cyber Threat
7 4 (0.38%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (0.38%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (0.38%) Marketing Technology
7 4 (0.38%) Online Gambling
7 4 (0.38%) Video\Live Streaming
8 3 (0.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (0.29%) Legacy Applications
8 3 (0.29%) Mainframe
8 3 (0.29%) Management Information System
9 2 (0.19%) Cloud Native
9 2 (0.19%) Hackathon
9 2 (0.19%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 16 (1.54%) Windows
2 13 (1.25%) Linux
3 12 (1.15%) Android
3 12 (1.15%) Apple iOS
4 5 (0.48%) Unix
5 4 (0.38%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.29%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.29%) VME
7 1 (0.096%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
1 81 (7.77%) Penetration Testing
2 64 (6.14%) Software Testing
3 63 (6.05%) Test Automation
4 49 (4.70%) Agile
5 44 (4.22%) Continuous Improvement
6 40 (3.84%) DevOps
7 39 (3.74%) Security Testing
8 37 (3.55%) Validation
9 36 (3.45%) Offensive Security
10 35 (3.36%) Test Strategy
11 32 (3.07%) CI/CD
12 31 (2.98%) Mentoring
12 31 (2.98%) User Acceptance Testing
13 29 (2.78%) Red Team
14 28 (2.69%) Regression Testing
15 27 (2.59%) Defect Management
15 27 (2.59%) Manual Testing
15 27 (2.59%) Problem-Solving
16 25 (2.40%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 26 (2.50%) Java
2 20 (1.92%) Python
2 20 (1.92%) SQL
3 9 (0.86%) C#
4 7 (0.67%) Bash
4 7 (0.67%) JavaScript
4 7 (0.67%) PowerShell
5 5 (0.48%) Go
6 3 (0.29%) COBOL
6 3 (0.29%) Groovy
7 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.096%) C
8 1 (0.096%) C++
8 1 (0.096%) Perl
8 1 (0.096%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 86 (8.25%) Security Cleared
2 61 (5.85%) SC Cleared
3 51 (4.89%) CREST Certified
4 29 (2.78%) CHECK Team Member
5 26 (2.50%) OSCP
6 20 (1.92%) CHECK Team Leader
7 17 (1.63%) ISTQB
8 12 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (1.15%) DV Cleared
9 10 (0.96%) Degree
10 8 (0.77%) Cyber Scheme
11 3 (0.29%) CISA
11 3 (0.29%) CISSP
11 3 (0.29%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (0.19%) CRISC
12 2 (0.19%) CSQA
12 2 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
12 2 (0.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 2 (0.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 2 (0.19%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (8.35%) QA
2 15 (1.44%) Software Quality Assurance
3 14 (1.34%) Accessibility
4 12 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (0.77%) GDPR
6 6 (0.58%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.48%) WCAG
8 3 (0.29%) NCSC
8 3 (0.29%) WAI
8 3 (0.29%) WAI-ARIA
9 2 (0.19%) COBIT
9 2 (0.19%) COSO
9 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.19%) GRC
10 1 (0.096%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.096%) JTAG
10 1 (0.096%) NIST
System Software
1 7 (0.67%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.48%) Docker
Systems Management
1 12 (1.15%) Nmap
2 8 (0.77%) Grafana
2 8 (0.77%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.67%) Terraform
4 6 (0.58%) Kibana
4 6 (0.58%) Nessus
5 5 (0.48%) Ansible
6 3 (0.29%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.19%) logstash
7 2 (0.19%) Puppet
Vendors
1 8 (0.77%) Microsoft
1 8 (0.77%) Oracle
2 5 (0.48%) Dynatrace
3 4 (0.38%) AppDynamics
4 2 (0.19%) CA Agile Central
4 2 (0.19%) Splunk
5 1 (0.096%) Pega
5 1 (0.096%) Red Hat