Test Leader Contract Job Trends in the North West

Test Lead
England > North West

The median Test Lead daily rate in the North West is £375, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 November 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 129 111 123
Rank change year-on-year -18 +12 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Test Leader 10 6 23
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.42% 0.26% 0.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.45% 0.28% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 5 16
10th Percentile £328 £268 £393
25th Percentile £340 £275 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £325 £463
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -29.73% -
75th Percentile £450 £348 £534
90th Percentile £500 £353 £538
England median daily rate £463 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +2.78% -10.00% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £50.50
Median hourly rate - - £51.00
75th Percentile - - £51.50
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £41.27 £37.43
% change year-on-year +33.28% +10.25% -17.74%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the North West with a recognized job title 2,200 2,180 2,569
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.36% 93.52% 92.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,454 1,149 1,788
10th Percentile £215 £264 £275
25th Percentile £363 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £678 £656 £674
England median daily rate £510 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 156 177
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.42 £15.75
25th Percentile £19.07 £18.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% -4.64% +56.47%
75th Percentile £48.56 £51.91 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.93 £70.90 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.66 £45.88
% change year-on-year -38.15% -11.37% +52.93%

Test Leader
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Test Leader job vacancy trend in the North West

Test Leader
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in the North West

Test Leader
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Leader in the North West over the 6 months to 4 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Leader in the North West

Test Leader
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Test Leader job vacancies in the North West

Test Leader
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Leader within the North West region over the 6 months to 4 November 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -6 7 £388 +15.16% 3
Cheshire - 3 £340 - 1
Test Leader
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 November 2025, Test Leader contract 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 contract job ads across the North West region featuring Test Leader in the job title.

1 7 (70.00%) Test Automation
2 4 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 4 (40.00%) Selenium
3 3 (30.00%) BrowserStack
3 3 (30.00%) CI/CD
3 3 (30.00%) Coaching
3 3 (30.00%) Java
3 3 (30.00%) JSON
3 3 (30.00%) Mentoring
3 3 (30.00%) Playwright
3 3 (30.00%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (30.00%) REST
3 3 (30.00%) Test Strategy
3 3 (30.00%) User Acceptance Testing
4 2 (20.00%) Agile
4 2 (20.00%) Big Data
4 2 (20.00%) Complex ETL
4 2 (20.00%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (20.00%) Defect Management
4 2 (20.00%) ETL
4 2 (20.00%) Microsoft
4 2 (20.00%) pytest
4 2 (20.00%) Python
4 2 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 2 (20.00%) Security Cleared
4 2 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
4 2 (20.00%) Test Planning
4 2 (20.00%) Test Scripting
4 2 (20.00%) User Stories
4 2 (20.00%) Workload Management

Test Leader 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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (10.00%) CMS
Cloud Services
1 3 (30.00%) BrowserStack
2 1 (10.00%) Power Automate
2 1 (10.00%) Power Platform
2 1 (10.00%) PowerApps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (20.00%) Big Data
1 2 (20.00%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (10.00%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (40.00%) Selenium
2 1 (10.00%) Cucumber
General
1 4 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 3 (30.00%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (30.00%) Public Sector
3 2 (20.00%) Banking
3 2 (20.00%) Finance
3 2 (20.00%) Law
3 2 (20.00%) Legal
4 1 (10.00%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (10.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (10.00%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (30.00%) JSON
1 3 (30.00%) Playwright
1 3 (30.00%) REST
2 2 (20.00%) pytest
3 1 (10.00%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 3 (30.00%) Mobile App
1 3 (30.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (70.00%) Test Automation
2 4 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (30.00%) CI/CD
3 3 (30.00%) Coaching
3 3 (30.00%) Mentoring
3 3 (30.00%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (30.00%) Test Strategy
3 3 (30.00%) User Acceptance Testing
4 2 (20.00%) Agile
4 2 (20.00%) Complex ETL
4 2 (20.00%) Defect Management
4 2 (20.00%) ETL
4 2 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
4 2 (20.00%) Test Planning
4 2 (20.00%) Test Scripting
4 2 (20.00%) User Stories
4 2 (20.00%) Workload Management
5 1 (10.00%) Business Intelligence
5 1 (10.00%) Manual Testing
5 1 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (30.00%) Java
2 2 (20.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (20.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (20.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (10.00%) Accessibility
1 1 (10.00%) Actionable Recommendations
1 1 (10.00%) QA
Vendors
1 2 (20.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (10.00%) Veracode