Test Strategy Contracts in the North West

Test Strategy
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring Test Strategy skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Test Strategy over the 6 months leading up to 14 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 91 122 136
Rank change year-on-year +31 +14 +15
Contract jobs citing Test Strategy 33 15 25
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 1.70% 0.56% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.89% 0.66% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 8 18
10th Percentile £346 £391 £396
25th Percentile £380 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £450 £438
Median % change year-on-year -0.67% +2.86% -7.89%
75th Percentile £507 £503 £575
90th Percentile £529 £524 £615
England median daily rate £475 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -9.52% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £81.75 £67.50 £39.68
Median hourly rate £83.50 £70.00 £42.37
Median % change year-on-year +19.29% +65.23% -
75th Percentile £85.25 £72.50 £45.05
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £60.00 £60.00 £62.55
% change year-on-year - -4.08% +105.08%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,750 2,283 2,831
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 90.07% 85.83% 90.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,140 1,449 1,995
10th Percentile £300 £308 £313
25th Percentile £389 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £588
90th Percentile £660 £688 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 249 139
10th Percentile £16.03 £10.95 £16.80
25th Percentile £22.81 £13.50 £23.15
Median hourly rate £31.88 £23.50 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.66% -34.72% +52.90%
75th Percentile £62.25 £45.88 £49.46
90th Percentile £84.39 £62.50 £66.00
England median hourly rate £29.00 £36.50 £37.34
% change year-on-year -20.55% -2.25% +49.36%

Test Strategy
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Test Strategy as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Test Strategy in the North West

Test Strategy
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

Daily rate trend for Test Strategy in the North West

Test Strategy
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Strategy in the North West over the 6 months to 14 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Strategy in the North West

Test Strategy
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

Hourly rate trend for Test Strategy in the North West

Test Strategy
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 Strategy within the North West region over the 6 months to 14 May 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 +22 17 £400 -11.11% 25
Cheshire +12 14 £497 - 7
Cumbria - 1 £500 -
Merseyside - 1 - - 2
Test Strategy
England

Test Strategy
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West 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 4 (12.12%) CICS
2 2 (6.06%) WebSphere
3 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (18.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (18.18%) MS Visio
2 2 (6.06%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 3 (9.09%) AWS
1 3 (9.09%) Azure
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (9.09%) DB2
1 3 (9.09%) MySQL
1 3 (9.09%) NoSQL
1 3 (9.09%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (6.06%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (6.06%) Hadoop
3 1 (3.03%) Oracle Database
3 1 (3.03%) Relational Database
3 1 (3.03%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (21.21%) Selenium
2 4 (12.12%) JMeter
2 4 (12.12%) LoadRunner
3 3 (9.09%) Jenkins
3 3 (9.09%) REST Assured
4 2 (6.06%) JIRA
4 2 (6.06%) SOAtest
5 1 (3.03%) Cucumber
5 1 (3.03%) Eclipse
5 1 (3.03%) Git
5 1 (3.03%) IntelliJ
5 1 (3.03%) Maven
5 1 (3.03%) Zephyr
General
1 12 (36.36%) Social Skills
2 11 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (12.12%) Banking
4 3 (9.09%) Public Sector
5 2 (6.06%) Finance
5 2 (6.06%) General Ledger
5 2 (6.06%) Retail Banking
6 1 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 11 (33.33%) Analyst
2 9 (27.27%) Business Analyst
2 9 (27.27%) Test Manager
3 8 (24.24%) ServiceNow Business Analyst
4 7 (21.21%) Senior
4 7 (21.21%) Senior Analyst
5 6 (18.18%) Senior Business Analyst
6 5 (15.15%) Tester
7 4 (12.12%) QA Engineer
7 4 (12.12%) Software Tester
8 3 (9.09%) Migration Manager
9 2 (6.06%) Architect
9 2 (6.06%) Data Engineer
9 2 (6.06%) Test Architect
10 1 (3.03%) Automation Tester
10 1 (3.03%) Change and Release Manager
10 1 (3.03%) ITIL Change Manager
10 1 (3.03%) Mainframe Architect
10 1 (3.03%) Programme Test Manager
10 1 (3.03%) Test Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.06%) J2EE
1 2 (6.06%) JSON
1 2 (6.06%) Node.js
1 2 (6.06%) Playwright
1 2 (6.06%) Web Services
1 2 (6.06%) XML
2 1 (3.03%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 9 (27.27%) CMDB
2 5 (15.15%) Data Centre
3 4 (12.12%) Mainframe
3 4 (12.12%) Management Information System
4 3 (9.09%) VSAM
5 2 (6.06%) Mobile Payment
6 1 (3.03%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 2 (6.06%) Unix
2 1 (3.03%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (48.48%) Agile
2 15 (45.45%) User Acceptance Testing
3 13 (39.39%) Test Automation
4 12 (36.36%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (36.36%) Risk Management
4 12 (36.36%) Stakeholder Management
5 11 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (30.30%) CI/CD
6 10 (30.30%) Performance Testing
7 9 (27.27%) Business Analysis
7 9 (27.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 8 (24.24%) Decision-Making
8 8 (24.24%) Focus Group
8 8 (24.24%) ITSM
8 8 (24.24%) Service Management
8 8 (24.24%) Test Planning
8 8 (24.24%) Validation
9 7 (21.21%) End-to-End Testing
9 7 (21.21%) Migration
9 7 (21.21%) Service Catalogue
Programming Languages
1 8 (24.24%) SQL
2 5 (15.15%) Java
3 4 (12.12%) JCL
4 3 (9.09%) COBOL
4 3 (9.09%) Python
5 2 (6.06%) JavaScript
5 2 (6.06%) REXX
Qualifications
1 8 (24.24%) Degree
2 7 (21.21%) ISTQB
3 5 (15.15%) Security Cleared
4 4 (12.12%) SC Cleared
5 1 (3.03%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (42.42%) QA
2 3 (9.09%) Data Quality
System Software
1 1 (3.03%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 1 (3.03%) CA Endevor
1 1 (3.03%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 9 (27.27%) ServiceNow
2 6 (18.18%) Oracle
3 5 (15.15%) Informatica
4 3 (9.09%) Databricks
4 3 (9.09%) Microsoft
4 3 (9.09%) Talend
5 2 (6.06%) Ab Initio
5 2 (6.06%) Parasoft
6 1 (3.03%) Ariba
6 1 (3.03%) HP
6 1 (3.03%) IBM
6 1 (3.03%) SAP