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 6 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 210 237 219
Rank change year-on-year +27 -18 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Strategy 482 609 1,188
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.11% 1.09% 1.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.30% 1.21% 1.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 438 801
10th Percentile £354 £374 £400
25th Percentile £413 £425 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £681 £713 £680
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 9
10th Percentile - £52.16 £16.85
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 £28.20
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 37,061 50,135 80,019
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.39% 89.71% 90.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,729 34,705 56,261
10th Percentile £300 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £438 £433
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% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,551 1,672 1,888
10th Percentile £12.75 £10.63 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.50 £15.60
Median hourly rate £36.50 £35.90 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +1.67% +39.80% +10.64%
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 6 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 6 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 +32 418 £513 +2.50% 135
London +67 223 £525 -4.55% 45
UK excluding London 0 220 £490 +3.16% 99
Work from Home +31 184 £513 +10.22% 60
East of England +30 44 £513 -26.79% 14
Midlands +5 42 £359 -31.94% 19
South East -29 40 £525 +26.81% 16
North of England -4 37 £463 -11.90% 17
West Midlands -8 32 £358 -32.83% 15
South West +13 26 £531 +1.19% 13
Scotland +22 18 £550 +26.73% 12
North West +8 17 £450 -7.69% 11
Yorkshire -9 17 £534 -3.00% 3
Wales +26 11 £535 -10.83% 2
East Midlands +12 10 £422 -43.27% 4
North East +11 3 £408 +5.16% 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 (1.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.66%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.45%) Confluence
3 7 (1.45%) MTS
4 3 (0.62%) CMS
4 3 (0.62%) Headless CMS
5 2 (0.41%) Apache
5 2 (0.41%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.41%) Maya
3 2 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.21%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.45%) Aligne
2 7 (1.45%) Endur
2 7 (1.45%) EuroRunner
3 5 (1.04%) Oracle Cash Management
3 5 (1.04%) Oracle General Ledger
3 5 (1.04%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (1.04%) Oracle Receivables
4 4 (0.83%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.62%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.41%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle Applications
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.41%) Oracle Payroll
7 1 (0.21%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.21%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.21%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 91 (18.88%) Azure
2 55 (11.41%) Azure DevOps
3 33 (6.85%) Dynamics 365
4 28 (5.81%) AWS
5 23 (4.77%) Power Platform
6 20 (4.15%) Azure API Management
7 16 (3.32%) Azure Logic Apps
8 7 (1.45%) OCI
8 7 (1.45%) Tricentis Tosca
9 6 (1.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 6 (1.24%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (1.24%) SaaS
10 5 (1.04%) GitHub
10 5 (1.04%) Microsoft 365
10 5 (1.04%) PowerApps
11 4 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
11 4 (0.83%) BrowserStack
11 4 (0.83%) Entra ID
11 4 (0.83%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 4 (0.83%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.24%) HTTP
2 3 (0.62%) Network Security
2 3 (0.62%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (0.41%) Internet
3 2 (0.41%) SAN
4 1 (0.21%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (6.02%) MySQL
2 21 (4.36%) Power BI
3 19 (3.94%) Amazon Redshift
4 13 (2.70%) SQL Server
5 12 (2.49%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
7 7 (1.45%) Data Lake
8 6 (1.24%) MongoDB
8 6 (1.24%) NoSQL
9 5 (1.04%) Big Data
9 5 (1.04%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.83%) SAP HANA
10 4 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 4 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.62%) DB2
11 3 (0.62%) Elasticsearch
12 2 (0.41%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.41%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 54 (11.20%) Git
2 53 (11.00%) Selenium
3 43 (8.92%) Postman
4 38 (7.88%) JIRA
5 35 (7.26%) JMeter
6 29 (6.02%) Cucumber
7 28 (5.81%) LoadRunner
8 26 (5.39%) JUnit
9 23 (4.77%) WebDriver
10 18 (3.73%) SpecFlow
10 18 (3.73%) Visual Studio
11 17 (3.53%) Appium
12 15 (3.11%) REST Assured
13 13 (2.70%) Cypress.io
13 13 (2.70%) TestNG
14 12 (2.49%) Jenkins
15 11 (2.28%) Gatling
15 11 (2.28%) SoapUI
16 10 (2.07%) eggPlant
16 10 (2.07%) SOAtest
General
1 145 (30.08%) Social Skills
2 130 (26.97%) Finance
3 41 (8.51%) Manufacturing
4 39 (8.09%) Electronics
5 33 (6.85%) Analytical Skills
5 33 (6.85%) Public Sector
6 31 (6.43%) Aerospace
6 31 (6.43%) Banking
7 22 (4.56%) Presentation Skills
8 18 (3.73%) Back Office
9 15 (3.11%) Retail
10 14 (2.90%) Legal
11 12 (2.49%) Front Office
12 11 (2.28%) Marketing
13 9 (1.87%) Investment Banking
14 8 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.66%) Telecoms
15 6 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
15 6 (1.24%) Law
16 5 (1.04%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 101 (20.95%) Test Manager
2 99 (20.54%) Lead
3 57 (11.83%) Analyst
4 54 (11.20%) Architect
5 53 (11.00%) Senior
6 48 (9.96%) Test Leader
7 37 (7.68%) Test Architect
8 35 (7.26%) Test Engineer
9 31 (6.43%) Test Analyst
10 28 (5.81%) Tester
11 19 (3.94%) Business Analyst
11 19 (3.94%) Developer
12 16 (3.32%) Consultant
12 16 (3.32%) Senior Test Engineer
13 14 (2.90%) Senior Analyst
14 13 (2.70%) Automation Tester
15 12 (2.49%) Test Automation Engineer
16 11 (2.28%) Senior Test Analyst
17 10 (2.07%) Project Manager
17 10 (2.07%) QA Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (6.64%) .NET
2 27 (5.60%) XML
3 19 (3.94%) Web Services
4 17 (3.53%) Oracle Fusion
5 16 (3.32%) REST
6 15 (3.11%) Playwright
7 13 (2.70%) .NET Framework
8 12 (2.49%) AngularJS
9 11 (2.28%) Gherkin
10 10 (2.07%) GraphQL
10 10 (2.07%) React
11 7 (1.45%) Middleware
12 6 (1.24%) JSON
13 5 (1.04%) SOAP
13 5 (1.04%) Swagger
14 4 (0.83%) ActiveMQ
14 4 (0.83%) CSS
14 4 (0.83%) HTML
14 4 (0.83%) Kafka
15 3 (0.62%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 36 (7.47%) Analogue Electronics
2 23 (4.77%) Product Ownership
3 15 (3.11%) Mobile App
4 14 (2.90%) Management Information System
5 9 (1.87%) Equities
5 9 (1.87%) Life Science
6 8 (1.66%) Hedge funds
6 8 (1.66%) LIMS
6 8 (1.66%) Market Risk
6 8 (1.66%) Renewable Energy
7 7 (1.45%) Solar Panel
8 6 (1.24%) NHS
8 6 (1.24%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.24%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.04%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (1.04%) Security Posture
10 4 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.83%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.83%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 27 (5.60%) Windows
2 16 (3.32%) Linux
3 13 (2.70%) Unix
4 8 (1.66%) Android
5 4 (0.83%) Mac OS X
6 3 (0.62%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.41%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (35.27%) Test Automation
2 169 (35.06%) Agile
3 81 (16.80%) Software Testing
4 79 (16.39%) Stakeholder Management
5 75 (15.56%) DevOps
6 73 (15.15%) Test Management
7 72 (14.94%) User Acceptance Testing
8 69 (14.32%) CI/CD
9 66 (13.69%) Test Scripting
10 65 (13.49%) Project Management
11 63 (13.07%) Continuous Integration
12 62 (12.86%) Scrum
13 59 (12.24%) Performance Testing
14 51 (10.58%) Problem-Solving
15 50 (10.37%) Non-Functional Testing
15 50 (10.37%) Scenario Testing
16 49 (10.17%) Functional Testing
17 45 (9.34%) Continuous Improvement
18 43 (8.92%) Defect Management
18 43 (8.92%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 60 (12.45%) SQL
2 54 (11.20%) C#
3 53 (11.00%) Java
4 25 (5.19%) Python
5 19 (3.94%) TypeScript
6 18 (3.73%) JavaScript
7 6 (1.24%) Kotlin
7 6 (1.24%) PHP
7 6 (1.24%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.24%) T-SQL
7 6 (1.24%) VB
8 5 (1.04%) C++
9 4 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (0.83%) Groovy
9 4 (0.83%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.83%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.83%) Scala
10 3 (0.62%) C
10 3 (0.62%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.41%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 101 (20.95%) Security Cleared
2 96 (19.92%) SC Cleared
3 46 (9.54%) Degree
4 40 (8.30%) ISTQB
5 17 (3.53%) Master's Degree
6 15 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (2.70%) ISEB
8 9 (1.87%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 7 (1.45%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.83%) CISM
11 4 (0.83%) CISSP
11 4 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (0.83%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.83%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.62%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (0.62%) PMP
13 2 (0.41%) ISEB Practitioner
14 1 (0.21%) CCA
14 1 (0.21%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 120 (24.90%) QA
2 17 (3.53%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.66%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.66%) HL7
4 7 (1.45%) PCI DSS
5 6 (1.24%) PMO
6 4 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.62%) WCAG
8 2 (0.41%) SLA
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 (2.28%) Docker
2 6 (1.24%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.62%) vSphere
4 1 (0.21%) Terminal Services
4 1 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (3.73%) Grafana
2 5 (1.04%) HP Quality Center
2 5 (1.04%) Kubernetes
3 3 (0.62%) HP ALM
3 3 (0.62%) 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 58 (12.03%) Microsoft
2 39 (8.09%) Oracle
3 26 (5.39%) SAP
4 18 (3.73%) Denodo
4 18 (3.73%) Talend
5 11 (2.28%) ServiceNow
6 9 (1.87%) Splunk
7 7 (1.45%) HP
7 7 (1.45%) VMware
8 6 (1.24%) IBM
8 6 (1.24%) InterSystems
9 5 (1.04%) CA Agile Central
9 5 (1.04%) iManage
9 5 (1.04%) Intapp
9 5 (1.04%) OpenAI
10 4 (0.83%) Adobe
10 4 (0.83%) Google
10 4 (0.83%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.62%) AppDynamics
11 3 (0.62%) Qualtrics