Defect Management Contract Job Trends in the South West

Defect Management
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Defect Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 126 113 141
Rank change year-on-year -13 +28 +31
Contract jobs citing Defect Management 6 16 6
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.26% 0.77% 0.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.31% 0.88% 0.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 15 4
10th Percentile £518 £310 £304
25th Percentile £619 £326 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 £400 £558
Median % change year-on-year +75.00% -28.25% +53.69%
75th Percentile £725 £457 £781
90th Percentile - £490 £793
England median daily rate £446 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +4.82% -10.53% -4.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £45.00
England median hourly rate - - £85.00
% change year-on-year - - +431.25%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South West

Defect Management 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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,944 1,817 2,560
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 83.51% 87.27% 87.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,138 1,113 1,700
10th Percentile £263 £264 £300
25th Percentile £413 £418 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £734 £713
England median daily rate £505 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 121 270
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.83 £20.50
25th Percentile £19.72 £48.00 £45.00
Median hourly rate £33.00 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.23% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +22.57%

Defect Management
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Defect Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Defect Management job vacancy trend in the South West

Defect Management
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Defect Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Defect Management

Defect Management
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Defect Management in the South West over the 6 months to 22 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Defect Management in the South West

Defect Management
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Defect Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Defect Management

Defect Management
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Defect Management within the South West region over the 6 months to 22 December 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
Wiltshire -14 3 £700 +105.88%
Devon - 2 - -
Somerset - 1 £450 -
Defect Management
England

Defect Management
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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 4 (66.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (16.67%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 2 (33.33%) AWS
1 2 (33.33%) Serverless
2 1 (16.67%) Azure
2 1 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (16.67%) Entra ID
2 1 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (16.67%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 3 (50.00%) Skype
Development Applications
1 2 (33.33%) Cypress.io
1 2 (33.33%) Postman
2 1 (16.67%) JIRA
General
1 4 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 3 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (33.33%) Military
3 2 (33.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3 (50.00%) Wintel Engineer
2 2 (33.33%) Senior
2 2 (33.33%) Senior Test Engineer
2 2 (33.33%) Test Engineer
3 1 (16.67%) Microsoft 365 Manager
3 1 (16.67%) Migration Manager
3 1 (16.67%) Test Manager
Miscellaneous
1 3 (50.00%) PKI
2 2 (33.33%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 4 (66.67%) Windows
1 4 (66.67%) Windows 10
2 3 (50.00%) CentOS
2 3 (50.00%) Linux
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Change Management
1 3 (50.00%) Critical Thinking
1 3 (50.00%) ITIL
1 3 (50.00%) NsoIT
1 3 (50.00%) Problem Management
1 3 (50.00%) Service Management
1 3 (50.00%) System Testing
2 2 (33.33%) Agile
2 2 (33.33%) API Testing
2 2 (33.33%) End-to-End Testing
2 2 (33.33%) Load Testing
2 2 (33.33%) Minimum Viable Product
2 2 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 2 (33.33%) Test Planning
3 1 (16.67%) Compatibility Testing
3 1 (16.67%) Data Migration
3 1 (16.67%) Migration
3 1 (16.67%) Test Management
3 1 (16.67%) User Acceptance Testing
3 1 (16.67%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 3 (50.00%) PowerShell
1 3 (50.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (83.33%) SC Cleared
1 5 (83.33%) Security Cleared
2 3 (50.00%) Degree
2 3 (50.00%) MCSE
2 3 (50.00%) Microsoft Certification
System Software
1 4 (66.67%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (50.00%) WSUS
2 1 (16.67%) HP ALM
2 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (16.67%) SCCM
2 1 (16.67%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 4 (66.67%) Microsoft
2 3 (50.00%) Red Hat
3 1 (16.67%) HP