Test Assurance Contract Job Trends in the South West

Test Assurance
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Test Assurance skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 130 123 -
Rank change year-on-year -7 - -
Contract jobs citing Test Assurance 3 3 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.13% 0.14% -
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.15% 0.16% -
Number of daily rates quoted 3 3 0
10th Percentile - £408 -
25th Percentile - £420 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £440 -
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 - -
90th Percentile £605 - -
England median daily rate £550 £440 £380
% change year-on-year +25.00% +15.79% -10.59%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South West

Test Assurance 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 1,949 1,835 2,588
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 83.65% 86.88% 86.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,137 1,124 1,725
10th Percentile £263 £280 £300
25th Percentile £413 £420 £413
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 £733 £718
England median daily rate £505 £525 £544
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.49% -1.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 296 126 270
10th Percentile £15.25 £21.16 £20.48
25th Percentile £19.70 £48.50 £45.00
Median hourly rate £32.75 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.62% +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% +19.70%

Test Assurance
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Test Assurance job vacancy trend in the South West

Test Assurance
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Assurance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Assurance

Test Assurance
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Assurance.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Assurance

Test Assurance
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 Test Assurance within the South West region over the 6 months to 19 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 £550 +25.00%
Test Assurance
England

Test Assurance
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:

Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Primavera
General
1 1 (33.33%) Military
1 1 (33.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) Lead
2 1 (33.33%) Project Planner
2 1 (33.33%) Test Assurance Manager
2 1 (33.33%) Test Leader
2 1 (33.33%) Test Manager
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Private Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Agile
1 2 (66.67%) Digital Identity
2 1 (33.33%) Change Control
2 1 (33.33%) Cloud Security
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (33.33%) Critical Path Analysis
2 1 (33.33%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (33.33%) Dependency Management
2 1 (33.33%) Identity Access Management
2 1 (33.33%) Integration Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Manual Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Mentoring
2 1 (33.33%) Multi-Factor Authentication
2 1 (33.33%) RBAC
2 1 (33.33%) Risk Identification and Mitigation
2 1 (33.33%) Scaled Agile Framework
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (33.33%) Test Management
2 1 (33.33%) Test Strategy
2 1 (33.33%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 3 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 3 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (33.33%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) P3O
1 1 (33.33%) PMO
1 1 (33.33%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (33.33%) Single Sign-On