Test Engineer Job Trends in the North West

Test Engineer
England > North West

The median Test Engineer salary in the North West is £40,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 20 October 2025.

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

6 months to
20 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 199 223 181
Rank change year-on-year +24 -42 +111
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Engineer 18 13 23
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.38% 0.18% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.19% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 10 0 14
10th Percentile - - £42,500
25th Percentile - - £42,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 - £50,000
75th Percentile £45,000 - £58,750
90th Percentile £74,375 - £60,000
England median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 North West with a recognized job title 4,191 6,726 4,044
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 88.70% 95.24% 96.35%
Number of salaries quoted 2,298 3,790 3,101
10th Percentile £26,500 £31,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £40,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,250 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.50% -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,550 £82,500
England median annual salary £53,688 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -6.63% -4.17% -

Test Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Test Engineer job vacancy trend in the North West

Test Engineer
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for Test Engineer job vacancies in the North West

Test Engineer
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 20 October 2025.

Salary histogram for Test Engineer in the North West

Test Engineer
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Engineer within the North West region over the 6 months to 20 October 2025. 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
Merseyside - 9 £40,000 -
Lancashire -2 4 - - 13
Cheshire - 3 £75,000 - 5
Manchester +22 2 £67,500 - 25
Test Engineer
England

Test Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 20 October 2025, 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 across the North West region featuring Test Engineer in the job title.

1 6 (33.33%) Degree
1 6 (33.33%) Validation
2 5 (27.78%) Mentoring
3 4 (22.22%) 5G
3 4 (22.22%) Bluetooth
3 4 (22.22%) Coaching
3 4 (22.22%) Customer Requirements
3 4 (22.22%) GSM
3 4 (22.22%) HND
3 4 (22.22%) LTE
3 4 (22.22%) Software Testing
3 4 (22.22%) Test Automation
3 4 (22.22%) Test Strategy
3 4 (22.22%) UMTS
3 4 (22.22%) Verification and Validation
3 4 (22.22%) Wi-Fi
3 4 (22.22%) Wireless
4 3 (16.67%) Asset Management
4 3 (16.67%) Functional Testing
4 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
5 2 (11.11%) Acceptance Criteria
5 2 (11.11%) Agile
5 2 (11.11%) AWS
5 2 (11.11%) CI/CD
5 2 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
5 2 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
5 2 (11.11%) DBS Check
5 2 (11.11%) DevOps
5 2 (11.11%) Functional Safety
5 2 (11.11%) ISO 9001

Test Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (11.11%) AWS
2 1 (5.56%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 4 (22.22%) 5G
1 4 (22.22%) Bluetooth
1 4 (22.22%) GSM
1 4 (22.22%) LTE
1 4 (22.22%) UMTS
1 4 (22.22%) Wi-Fi
1 4 (22.22%) Wireless
2 2 (11.11%) Modbus
Development Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Appium
1 1 (5.56%) Bitbucket
1 1 (5.56%) Cypress.io
1 1 (5.56%) Gatling
1 1 (5.56%) JMeter
1 1 (5.56%) LoadRunner
1 1 (5.56%) Postman
1 1 (5.56%) REST Assured
1 1 (5.56%) Selenium
General
1 7 (38.89%) Pharmaceutical
2 6 (33.33%) Manufacturing
3 5 (27.78%) Electronics
4 2 (11.11%) Finance
5 1 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (5.56%) Marketing
5 1 (5.56%) Public Sector
5 1 (5.56%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 5 (27.78%) Biopharmaceutical
1 5 (27.78%) Renewable Energy
2 4 (22.22%) Driving Licence
3 2 (11.11%) Operational Technology
3 2 (11.11%) SCADA
4 1 (5.56%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (33.33%) Validation
2 5 (27.78%) Mentoring
3 4 (22.22%) Coaching
3 4 (22.22%) Customer Requirements
3 4 (22.22%) Software Testing
3 4 (22.22%) Test Automation
3 4 (22.22%) Test Strategy
3 4 (22.22%) Verification and Validation
4 3 (16.67%) Asset Management
4 3 (16.67%) Functional Testing
5 2 (11.11%) Agile
5 2 (11.11%) CI/CD
5 2 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
5 2 (11.11%) DevOps
5 2 (11.11%) Network Design
5 2 (11.11%) Project Management
5 2 (11.11%) Risk Assessment
5 2 (11.11%) Risk Management
5 2 (11.11%) Software Engineering
5 2 (11.11%) System Testing
Programming Languages
1 1 (5.56%) Java
Qualifications
1 6 (33.33%) Degree
2 4 (22.22%) HND
3 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
4 2 (11.11%) DBS Check
4 2 (11.11%) ISTQB
4 2 (11.11%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 1 (5.56%) City & Guilds
5 1 (5.56%) DV Cleared
5 1 (5.56%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) ISO 9001
1 2 (11.11%) QA
Systems Management
1 2 (11.11%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 1 (5.56%) SAP