Test Assurance Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Test Assurance
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Test Assurance skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 108 122
Rank change year-on-year -47 +14 +18
Contract jobs citing Test Assurance 3 2 3
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.099% 0.12% 0.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.12% 0.13% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 2 3
10th Percentile £251 £228 -
25th Percentile £293 £234 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £246 £375
Median % change year-on-year +52.75% -34.53% -14.29%
75th Percentile £488 £257 £450
90th Percentile £548 £264 £488
South East median daily rate £663 £246 £375
% change year-on-year +169.86% -34.53% -14.29%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,504 1,546 1,850
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 82.26% 90.36% 85.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,487 954 1,047
10th Percentile £330 £267 £300
25th Percentile £431 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +6.00% -1.96% -0.97%
75th Percentile £610 £588 £625
90th Percentile £713 £650 £675
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 302 108 73
10th Percentile £13.37 £14.75 £18.71
25th Percentile £16.38 £15.91 £27.75
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -56.86% +7.03%
75th Percentile £85.19 £49.28 £63.00
90th Percentile £100.00 £73.65 £75.17
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £21.02 £58.49
% change year-on-year +125.98% -64.06% +7.58%

Test Assurance
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Test Assurance job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Test Assurance
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Test Assurance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Test Assurance

Test Assurance
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Assurance in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Assurance in the Thames Valley

Test Assurance
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 October 2026. 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
Buckinghamshire -23 3 £375 +52.75% 1
Test Assurance
South East

Test Assurance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

General
1 1 (33.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Analyst
1 1 (33.33%) DV Cleared Software Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Functional Tester
1 1 (33.33%) Integration Tester
1 1 (33.33%) Senior
1 1 (33.33%) Senior Software Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Software Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Test Analyst
1 1 (33.33%) Tester
1 1 (33.33%) UAT Tester
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Operational Technology
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Defect Management
1 2 (66.67%) Knowledge Transfer
1 2 (66.67%) Regression Testing
1 2 (66.67%) Scenario Testing
1 2 (66.67%) User Acceptance Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Analytics
2 1 (33.33%) API Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Data Analysis
2 1 (33.33%) Data Migration
2 1 (33.33%) Integration Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Manual Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Migration
2 1 (33.33%) Project Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Software Architecture
2 1 (33.33%) Software Engineering
2 1 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Test Planning
2 1 (33.33%) Test Scripting
2 1 (33.33%) Test Strategy
2 1 (33.33%) Validation
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) Degree
1 1 (33.33%) DV Cleared
1 1 (33.33%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (100.00%) QA
2 1 (33.33%) Data Quality
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) CheckPoint