Test Planning Contract Job Trends in the South East

Test Planning
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Test Planning skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 142 159 198
Rank change year-on-year +17 +39 +29
Contract jobs citing Test Planning 27 17 7
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.75% 0.40% 0.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.85% 0.48% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 13 5
10th Percentile £314 £358 -
25th Percentile £325 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% - -32.77%
75th Percentile £594 £500 -
90th Percentile £640 £538 £513
England median daily rate £447 £455 £517
% change year-on-year -1.76% -11.99% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £70.95 - -
25th Percentile £71.63 - -
Median hourly rate £73.00 - -
75th Percentile £74.13 - -
90th Percentile £74.65 - -
England median hourly rate £75.00 - £78.73
% change year-on-year - - +179.22%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Test Planning 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,181 3,562 4,917
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 88.76% 83.54% 89.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,991 2,144 3,286
10th Percentile £213 £255 £239
25th Percentile £375 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 328 181 257
10th Percentile £13.50 £16.25 £15.50
25th Percentile £16.17 £30.00 £24.50
Median hourly rate £21.02 £58.49 £54.37
Median % change year-on-year -64.06% +7.58% +55.83%
75th Percentile £42.93 £70.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -5.56% +36.36%

Test Planning
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Planning relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Test Planning job vacancy trend in the South East

Test Planning
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Planning.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Planning

Test Planning
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Planning in the South East over the 6 months to 14 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Planning in the South East

Test Planning
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Planning.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Test Planning

Test Planning
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Planning within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Thames Valley +25 14 £325 -38.10% 2
Buckinghamshire +13 11 £325 -47.37%
Hampshire +6 6 £650 +44.44%
Kent - 4 £625 -
Berkshire +10 3 £475 +3.83% 1
Surrey 0 2 £375 -6.25%
West Sussex - 1 - - 1
Test Planning
England

Test Planning
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (3.70%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (7.41%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 8 (29.63%) Azure
1 8 (29.63%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (3.70%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 3 (11.11%) Broadband
2 2 (7.41%) BGP
2 2 (7.41%) Cisco ASA
2 2 (7.41%) Firewall
2 2 (7.41%) MPLS
2 2 (7.41%) Multicast
2 2 (7.41%) OSPF
2 2 (7.41%) TCP/IP
2 2 (7.41%) VLAN
2 2 (7.41%) VPN
2 2 (7.41%) Wireshark
3 1 (3.70%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (18.52%) SQL Server
2 2 (7.41%) MS Access
2 2 (7.41%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 10 (37.04%) JIRA
2 1 (3.70%) GitLab
2 1 (3.70%) QARun
2 1 (3.70%) WinRunner
General
1 16 (59.26%) Social Skills
2 8 (29.63%) Telecoms
3 3 (11.11%) Retail
4 2 (7.41%) Finance
4 2 (7.41%) Manufacturing
5 1 (3.70%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 11 (40.74%) Analyst
2 8 (29.63%) Test Analyst
3 6 (22.22%) Senior
4 4 (14.81%) Integration Analyst
4 4 (14.81%) Integration Test Analyst
4 4 (14.81%) Test Manager
5 3 (11.11%) Business Analyst
5 3 (11.11%) Change and Release Manager
5 3 (11.11%) Change Manager
5 3 (11.11%) Lead
5 3 (11.11%) Release Manager
5 3 (11.11%) Tester
6 2 (7.41%) Network Manager
6 2 (7.41%) Senior Analyst
6 2 (7.41%) Senior Test Analyst
6 2 (7.41%) Senior Tester
6 2 (7.41%) Systems Engineer
6 2 (7.41%) Test Leader
6 2 (7.41%) Test Validation Manager
6 2 (7.41%) Validation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (14.81%) WebdriverIO
2 2 (7.41%) Middleware
2 2 (7.41%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (7.41%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (7.41%) SAP PI
2 2 (7.41%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (11.11%) Management Information System
2 1 (3.70%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 7 (25.93%) Windows
2 2 (7.41%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (51.85%) Test Automation
2 11 (40.74%) Agile
2 11 (40.74%) Defect Management
2 11 (40.74%) Waterfall
3 10 (37.04%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (37.04%) Test Management
4 9 (33.33%) DevOps
4 9 (33.33%) Logistics
4 9 (33.33%) System Integration Testing
5 8 (29.63%) Integration Testing
5 8 (29.63%) Test Strategy
5 8 (29.63%) Validation
6 7 (25.93%) Data Migration
6 7 (25.93%) End-to-End Testing
6 7 (25.93%) Migration
6 7 (25.93%) SDLC
6 7 (25.93%) Software Testing
6 7 (25.93%) Stakeholder Management
7 6 (22.22%) Scenario Testing
8 5 (18.52%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (18.52%) C#
1 5 (18.52%) VB
2 3 (11.11%) SQL
3 2 (7.41%) Bash
3 2 (7.41%) Python
4 1 (3.70%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (18.52%) Security Cleared
2 3 (11.11%) CCIE
2 3 (11.11%) CCNP
2 3 (11.11%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (3.70%) Degree
3 1 (3.70%) OCA
3 1 (3.70%) Oracle Certification
3 1 (3.70%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (25.93%) QA
2 1 (3.70%) GDPR
Systems Management
1 2 (7.41%) Ansible
1 2 (7.41%) HP ALM
1 2 (7.41%) Iperf
1 2 (7.41%) Nmap
2 1 (3.70%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 6 (22.22%) Microsoft
2 4 (14.81%) Cisco
3 3 (11.11%) Salesforce
4 2 (7.41%) CheckPoint
4 2 (7.41%) Citrix
4 2 (7.41%) Fortinet
4 2 (7.41%) HP
4 2 (7.41%) Oracle
4 2 (7.41%) Palo Alto
4 2 (7.41%) SAP
4 2 (7.41%) SolarWinds
5 1 (3.70%) JDA