Test Strategy Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Test Strategy
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Test Strategy skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 72 63 94
Rank change year-on-year -9 +31 +30
Contract jobs citing Test Strategy 15 18 15
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 1.43% 1.57% 0.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.58% 1.81% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 13 10
10th Percentile £400 £317 £416
25th Percentile £402 £350 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £489 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.12% -6.86% +19.32%
75th Percentile £500 £613 -
90th Percentile £585 £633 £575
North West median daily rate £429 £498 £525
% change year-on-year -13.77% -5.24% +22.81%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Manchester

Test Strategy falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 949 994 1,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 90.29% 86.96% 88.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 617 566 1,080
10th Percentile £300 £313 £270
25th Percentile £385 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £678 £675 £675
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 34 58
10th Percentile £16.37 £18.17 £15.21
25th Percentile £19.07 £28.75 £16.26
Median hourly rate £22.57 £36.00 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year -37.32% +87.01% -23.00%
75th Percentile £32.44 £62.50 £43.75
90th Percentile £60.00 £73.60 £68.50
North West median hourly rate £25.15 £40.33 £35.00
% change year-on-year -37.64% +15.21% +41.19%

Test Strategy
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Strategy relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Test Strategy job vacancy trend in Manchester

Test Strategy
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Test Strategy.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Test Strategy

Test Strategy
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Strategy in Manchester over the 6 months to 21 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Strategy in Manchester

Test Strategy
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Test Strategy.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Test Strategy

Test Strategy
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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:

Business Applications
1 2 (13.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (6.67%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 3 (20.00%) Azure
2 2 (13.33%) AWS
2 2 (13.33%) Power Platform
2 2 (13.33%) SuccessFactors
3 1 (6.67%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (6.67%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (6.67%) Power Automate
3 1 (6.67%) PowerApps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (13.33%) Big Data
1 2 (13.33%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (6.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Selenium
2 1 (6.67%) Cucumber
2 1 (6.67%) Cypress.io
2 1 (6.67%) Postman
2 1 (6.67%) REST Assured
General
1 8 (53.33%) Public Sector
2 5 (33.33%) Finance
3 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (6.67%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 6 (40.00%) Test Manager
2 3 (20.00%) Lead
2 3 (20.00%) Test Leader
3 2 (13.33%) SAP Manager
3 2 (13.33%) SAP Test Manager
3 2 (13.33%) Test Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Architect
4 1 (6.67%) Automation Tester
4 1 (6.67%) Principal Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Principal Test Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Programme Manager
4 1 (6.67%) Programme Test Manager
4 1 (6.67%) QA Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Salesforce Specialist
4 1 (6.67%) Senior
4 1 (6.67%) Senior Automation Tester
4 1 (6.67%) Senior Tester
4 1 (6.67%) Test Programme Manager
4 1 (6.67%) Test Specialist
4 1 (6.67%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (26.67%) Playwright
2 2 (13.33%) pytest
3 1 (6.67%) CrewAI
3 1 (6.67%) Node.js
3 1 (6.67%) OAuth
3 1 (6.67%) Semantic Kernel
Miscellaneous
1 3 (20.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 2 (13.33%) Legacy Systems
2 2 (13.33%) Product Ownership
3 1 (6.67%) Data Protection Act
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (73.33%) Test Automation
2 9 (60.00%) Agile
2 9 (60.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 7 (46.67%) Test Scripting
4 6 (40.00%) End-to-End Testing
5 4 (26.67%) CI/CD
6 3 (20.00%) Cash Management
6 3 (20.00%) Coaching
6 3 (20.00%) Defect Tracking
6 3 (20.00%) DevOps
6 3 (20.00%) Risk Management
6 3 (20.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 3 (20.00%) System Integration Testing
6 3 (20.00%) Test Planning
6 3 (20.00%) User Acceptance Testing
7 2 (13.33%) ETL
7 2 (13.33%) Functional Testing
7 2 (13.33%) Integration Testing
7 2 (13.33%) Regression Testing
7 2 (13.33%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 5 (33.33%) Python
2 2 (13.33%) Java
2 2 (13.33%) JavaScript
3 1 (6.67%) C#
Qualifications
1 2 (13.33%) ISTQB
1 2 (13.33%) SC Cleared
1 2 (13.33%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (53.33%) QA
2 1 (6.67%) Accessibility
Systems Management
1 2 (13.33%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 2 (13.33%) HP
1 2 (13.33%) SAP
2 1 (6.67%) Google
2 1 (6.67%) Microsoft
2 1 (6.67%) OpenAI
2 1 (6.67%) Salesforce