Test Strategy Contracts

Test Strategy
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Test Strategy skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Test Strategy over the 6 months to 1 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 215 242 217
Rank change year-on-year +27 -25 -4
Contract jobs citing Test Strategy 470 610 1,179
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.09% 1.09% 1.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.28% 1.21% 1.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 278 440 788
10th Percentile £357 £374 £391
25th Percentile £413 £420 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £590 £600
90th Percentile £675 £713 £677
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 8 10
10th Percentile - £52.16 £16.93
25th Percentile £60.00 £60.04 £17.00
Median hourly rate £61.25 £62.55 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.08% +229.21% -57.78%
75th Percentile £72.50 £67.54 £26.50
90th Percentile - £84.75 £37.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £62.55 £19.00
% change year-on-year -4.08% +229.21% -57.78%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Test Strategy is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 36,802 50,277 79,372
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.47% 89.69% 90.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,632 34,811 55,790
10th Percentile £300 £325 £345
25th Percentile £413 £438 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £644
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% +9.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,530 1,673 1,868
10th Percentile £12.75 £10.63 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.72 £15.63
Median hourly rate £36.50 £36.25 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +0.69% +41.16% +9.74%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.12 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.91% +75.00% -4.76%

Test Strategy
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Test Strategy as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Test Strategy in the UK

Test Strategy
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Test Strategy.

Daily rate trend for Test Strategy in the UK

Test Strategy
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Strategy over the 6 months to 1 June 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Test Strategy in the UK

Test Strategy
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Test Strategy.

Hourly rate trend for Test Strategy in the UK

Test Strategy
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Strategy within the UK over the 6 months to 1 June 2024. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +28 404 £513 +2.50% 141
London +67 216 £525 -4.55% 54
UK excluding London +1 215 £490 +3.16% 98
Work from Home +28 177 £513 +10.22% 66
East of England +27 42 £513 -26.79% 16
South East -33 41 £525 +26.81% 19
Midlands +9 37 £390 -26.42% 18
North of England -6 37 £463 -11.90% 16
West Midlands -5 28 £359 -33.02% 16
South West +10 25 £562 +7.14% 13
Scotland +22 20 £539 +23.58% 12
North West +14 17 £450 -5.26% 11
Yorkshire -3 17 £534 -3.00% 2
Wales +27 11 £535 -10.83% 2
East Midlands +12 9 £422 -43.27% 2
North East +11 3 £408 +1.88% 3
Isle of Man - 2 - -

Test Strategy
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 9 (1.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.70%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.49%) Confluence
3 7 (1.49%) MTS
4 3 (0.64%) CMS
4 3 (0.64%) Headless CMS
5 2 (0.43%) Apache
5 2 (0.43%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.43%) Maya
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.21%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 7 (1.49%) Aligne
1 7 (1.49%) Endur
1 7 (1.49%) EuroRunner
1 7 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 5 (1.06%) Oracle Cash Management
3 5 (1.06%) Oracle General Ledger
3 5 (1.06%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (1.06%) Oracle Receivables
4 4 (0.85%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.85%) Oracle Financials
5 3 (0.64%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.43%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.43%) Oracle Applications
6 2 (0.43%) Oracle Payroll
7 1 (0.21%) Magento
7 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.21%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.21%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 92 (19.57%) Azure
2 54 (11.49%) Azure DevOps
3 33 (7.02%) Dynamics 365
4 28 (5.96%) AWS
5 24 (5.11%) Power Platform
6 20 (4.26%) Azure API Management
7 16 (3.40%) Azure Logic Apps
8 9 (1.91%) OCI
9 7 (1.49%) Tricentis Tosca
10 6 (1.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 6 (1.28%) SaaS
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (1.06%) GitHub
11 5 (1.06%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (1.06%) PowerApps
12 4 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (0.85%) BrowserStack
12 4 (0.85%) Entra ID
12 4 (0.85%) GCP
12 4 (0.85%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.28%) HTTP
2 3 (0.64%) Network Security
2 3 (0.64%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (0.43%) Internet
3 2 (0.43%) SAN
4 1 (0.21%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (5.11%) MySQL
2 22 (4.68%) Power BI
3 14 (2.98%) Amazon Redshift
4 10 (2.13%) Data Warehouse
4 10 (2.13%) SQL Server
5 8 (1.70%) Oracle Reports
6 7 (1.49%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.06%) Big Data
7 5 (1.06%) DynamoDB
7 5 (1.06%) MongoDB
7 5 (1.06%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (0.85%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.85%) SAP HANA
8 4 (0.85%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 4 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.43%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.43%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 53 (11.28%) Selenium
2 49 (10.43%) Git
3 43 (9.15%) Postman
4 40 (8.51%) JIRA
5 32 (6.81%) JMeter
6 29 (6.17%) Cucumber
7 26 (5.53%) JUnit
7 26 (5.53%) LoadRunner
8 23 (4.89%) WebDriver
9 17 (3.62%) Appium
9 17 (3.62%) SpecFlow
9 17 (3.62%) Visual Studio
10 15 (3.19%) REST Assured
11 13 (2.77%) Cypress.io
11 13 (2.77%) TestNG
12 12 (2.55%) Jenkins
13 11 (2.34%) Gatling
13 11 (2.34%) SoapUI
14 10 (2.13%) eggPlant
14 10 (2.13%) SOAtest
General
1 140 (29.79%) Social Skills
2 127 (27.02%) Finance
3 40 (8.51%) Manufacturing
4 38 (8.09%) Electronics
5 36 (7.66%) Public Sector
6 31 (6.60%) Aerospace
7 30 (6.38%) Analytical Skills
8 26 (5.53%) Banking
9 22 (4.68%) Presentation Skills
10 17 (3.62%) Back Office
11 15 (3.19%) Retail
12 13 (2.77%) Legal
13 11 (2.34%) Front Office
13 11 (2.34%) Marketing
14 8 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.70%) Investment Banking
14 8 (1.70%) Telecoms
15 6 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
15 6 (1.28%) Law
16 5 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (20.85%) Lead
2 97 (20.64%) Test Manager
3 57 (12.13%) Analyst
4 55 (11.70%) Architect
5 52 (11.06%) Senior
6 47 (10.00%) Test Leader
7 38 (8.09%) Test Architect
8 33 (7.02%) Test Engineer
9 30 (6.38%) Test Analyst
10 28 (5.96%) Tester
11 18 (3.83%) Business Analyst
11 18 (3.83%) Developer
12 16 (3.40%) Consultant
13 14 (2.98%) Senior Analyst
13 14 (2.98%) Senior Test Engineer
14 13 (2.77%) Automation Tester
15 12 (2.55%) Test Automation Engineer
16 11 (2.34%) Project Manager
16 11 (2.34%) Senior Test Analyst
17 10 (2.13%) QA Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (6.60%) .NET
2 27 (5.74%) XML
3 19 (4.04%) Web Services
4 17 (3.62%) Oracle Fusion
5 15 (3.19%) REST
6 14 (2.98%) Playwright
7 13 (2.77%) .NET Framework
8 12 (2.55%) AngularJS
9 11 (2.34%) Gherkin
10 10 (2.13%) GraphQL
10 10 (2.13%) React
11 6 (1.28%) JSON
12 5 (1.06%) SOAP
12 5 (1.06%) Swagger
13 4 (0.85%) ActiveMQ
13 4 (0.85%) CSS
13 4 (0.85%) HTML
13 4 (0.85%) Kafka
13 4 (0.85%) Middleware
14 3 (0.64%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.45%) Analogue Electronics
2 23 (4.89%) Product Ownership
3 15 (3.19%) Mobile App
4 14 (2.98%) Management Information System
5 9 (1.91%) Equities
5 9 (1.91%) Life Science
6 8 (1.70%) Hedge funds
6 8 (1.70%) LIMS
6 8 (1.70%) Market Risk
6 8 (1.70%) Renewable Energy
7 7 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
7 7 (1.49%) Solar Panel
8 6 (1.28%) NHS
8 6 (1.28%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.28%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.06%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.06%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.85%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.85%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 25 (5.32%) Windows
2 14 (2.98%) Linux
3 13 (2.77%) Unix
4 8 (1.70%) Android
5 4 (0.85%) Mac OS X
6 3 (0.64%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.43%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 168 (35.74%) Test Automation
2 160 (34.04%) Agile
3 81 (17.23%) Software Testing
4 76 (16.17%) Stakeholder Management
5 74 (15.74%) DevOps
6 72 (15.32%) User Acceptance Testing
7 70 (14.89%) Test Management
8 68 (14.47%) CI/CD
9 67 (14.26%) Test Scripting
10 64 (13.62%) Project Management
11 58 (12.34%) Continuous Integration
12 56 (11.91%) Performance Testing
13 55 (11.70%) Scrum
14 50 (10.64%) Non-Functional Testing
14 50 (10.64%) Scenario Testing
15 49 (10.43%) Functional Testing
15 49 (10.43%) Problem-Solving
16 45 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
17 42 (8.94%) Mentoring
18 41 (8.72%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 57 (12.13%) SQL
2 53 (11.28%) C#
2 53 (11.28%) Java
3 25 (5.32%) Python
4 19 (4.04%) TypeScript
5 18 (3.83%) JavaScript
6 6 (1.28%) Kotlin
6 6 (1.28%) PHP
6 6 (1.28%) Shell Script
6 6 (1.28%) T-SQL
6 6 (1.28%) VB
7 5 (1.06%) C++
8 4 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.85%) Groovy
8 4 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.85%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.85%) Scala
9 3 (0.64%) C
9 3 (0.64%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.43%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 97 (20.64%) Security Cleared
2 92 (19.57%) SC Cleared
3 45 (9.57%) Degree
4 40 (8.51%) ISTQB
5 17 (3.62%) Master's Degree
6 15 (3.19%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (2.55%) ISEB
8 9 (1.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 7 (1.49%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.85%) CISM
11 4 (0.85%) CISSP
11 4 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (0.85%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.85%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.64%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (0.64%) PMP
13 2 (0.43%) ISEB Practitioner
14 1 (0.21%) CCA
14 1 (0.21%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 120 (25.53%) QA
2 16 (3.40%) Accessibility
3 9 (1.91%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.70%) HL7
5 7 (1.49%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.28%) PMO
7 4 (0.85%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.43%) SLA
8 2 (0.43%) WCAG
9 1 (0.21%) EMIR
9 1 (0.21%) GDPR
9 1 (0.21%) IFRS
9 1 (0.21%) MiFID
9 1 (0.21%) NIST
System Software
1 11 (2.34%) Docker
2 6 (1.28%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.64%) vSphere
4 1 (0.21%) Terminal Services
4 1 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (2.77%) Grafana
2 5 (1.06%) HP Quality Center
2 5 (1.06%) Kubernetes
3 3 (0.64%) HP ALM
3 3 (0.64%) Kibana
4 1 (0.21%) Puppet
4 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.21%) Terraform
4 1 (0.21%) vRealize
Vendors
1 54 (11.49%) Microsoft
2 38 (8.09%) Oracle
3 24 (5.11%) SAP
4 13 (2.77%) Denodo
4 13 (2.77%) Talend
5 11 (2.34%) ServiceNow
6 9 (1.91%) Splunk
7 7 (1.49%) HP
8 6 (1.28%) InterSystems
9 5 (1.06%) Adobe
9 5 (1.06%) CA Agile Central
9 5 (1.06%) IBM
9 5 (1.06%) iManage
9 5 (1.06%) Intapp
9 5 (1.06%) OpenAI
9 5 (1.06%) Salesforce
9 5 (1.06%) VMware
10 4 (0.85%) Google
11 3 (0.64%) AppDynamics
11 3 (0.64%) Qualtrics