Defect Management Contracts in the UK excluding London

Defect Management
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Defect Management skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Defect Management over the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 272 328 325
Rank change year-on-year +56 -3 +37
Contract jobs citing Defect Management 63 69 108
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.49% 0.33% 0.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.54% 0.40% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 42 78
10th Percentile £302 £266 £309
25th Percentile £357 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.16% -9.52% +20.48%
75th Percentile £473 £546 £669
90th Percentile £508 £738 £721
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £525
% change year-on-year -5.26% -9.52% +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £20.50 -
UK median hourly rate - £20.50 -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,664 17,222 20,402
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.66% 83.58% 89.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,264 10,282 14,009
10th Percentile £235 £250 £260
25th Percentile £375 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +3.04%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £690
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 845 2,110 1,238
10th Percentile £13.83 £12.40 £10.63
25th Percentile £16.95 £15.39 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.82% +8.57% +75.00%
75th Percentile £60.63 £61.30 £64.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £36.50 £36.13
% change year-on-year -24.66% +1.04% +40.67%

Defect Management
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Defect Management as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Defect Management in the UK excluding London

Defect Management
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Defect Management in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Defect Management in the UK excluding London

Defect Management
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Defect Management in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 29 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Defect Management in the UK excluding London

Defect Management
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Defect Management in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Defect Management in the UK excluding London

Defect Management
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 29 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
South East +50 26 £381 -21.95% 16
Midlands +13 12 £450 -14.29% 11
North of England +9 12 £450 +16.13% 5
West Midlands +16 11 £450 -14.29% 10
North West +6 8 £425 +54.55% 3
South West +40 5 £456 -14.32% 10
Scotland +3 4 £425 -24.44% 3
North East - 3 £460 - 1
East of England +28 2 £363 +3.57% 2
East Midlands +7 1 - - 1
Yorkshire +6 1 £475 +3.83% 1
Wales +4 1 £413 +96.43% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
Defect Management
UK

Defect Management
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 (6.35%) WebLogic
2 1 (1.59%) Confluence
2 1 (1.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (6.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.59%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (3.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (1.59%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 4 (6.35%) Azure
1 4 (6.35%) Azure DevOps
2 2 (3.17%) Power Platform
3 1 (1.59%) GitHub
3 1 (1.59%) Power Automate
3 1 (1.59%) SuccessFactors
3 1 (1.59%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 6 (9.52%) Firewall
2 2 (3.17%) 4G
2 2 (3.17%) 5G
2 2 (3.17%) Diameter Protocol
2 2 (3.17%) SIGTRAN
2 2 (3.17%) SMS
2 2 (3.17%) SS7
2 2 (3.17%) VoLTE
2 2 (3.17%) VoWiFi
2 2 (3.17%) Wireshark
3 1 (1.59%) Converged Networks
3 1 (1.59%) FlexRay
3 1 (1.59%) LAN
3 1 (1.59%) RTP
3 1 (1.59%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.76%) SQL Server
2 2 (3.17%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 32 (50.79%) JIRA
2 7 (11.11%) Jenkins
3 6 (9.52%) Selenium
4 5 (7.94%) SoapUI
5 4 (6.35%) Cucumber
5 4 (6.35%) Postman
5 4 (6.35%) Toad
6 2 (3.17%) Cypress.io
6 2 (3.17%) JMeter
6 2 (3.17%) QARun
6 2 (3.17%) REST Assured
6 2 (3.17%) TestRail
6 2 (3.17%) WinRunner
6 2 (3.17%) Zephyr
7 1 (1.59%) GitLab
7 1 (1.59%) LoadRunner
7 1 (1.59%) Maven
7 1 (1.59%) SpecFlow
7 1 (1.59%) TestNG
7 1 (1.59%) WebDriver
General
1 16 (25.40%) Social Skills
2 13 (20.63%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (20.63%) Telecoms
3 10 (15.87%) Finance
4 8 (12.70%) Public Sector
5 6 (9.52%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.76%) Automotive
7 2 (3.17%) Banking
7 2 (3.17%) Financial Institution
7 2 (3.17%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.59%) Electronics
8 1 (1.59%) Games
8 1 (1.59%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 24 (38.10%) Analyst
2 21 (33.33%) Test Analyst
3 12 (19.05%) Test Manager
4 9 (14.29%) Tester
5 8 (12.70%) Senior
5 8 (12.70%) Test Engineer
6 7 (11.11%) Senior Analyst
6 7 (11.11%) Senior Test Analyst
7 5 (7.94%) Lead
7 5 (7.94%) Network Engineer
8 4 (6.35%) SAP Analyst
8 4 (6.35%) SAP Test Analyst
9 3 (4.76%) Business Analyst
9 3 (4.76%) Network Analyst
9 3 (4.76%) Project Manager
9 3 (4.76%) Test Leader
10 2 (3.17%) QA Tester
10 2 (3.17%) Senior Network Analyst
10 2 (3.17%) Technical Analyst
10 2 (3.17%) Telecoms Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (17.46%) XML
2 6 (9.52%) RFC 2544
2 6 (9.52%) SOAP
3 5 (7.94%) Middleware
4 2 (3.17%) JSON
5 1 (1.59%) .NET
5 1 (1.59%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (1.59%) Playwright
5 1 (1.59%) REST
5 1 (1.59%) RESTful
5 1 (1.59%) WireMock
5 1 (1.59%) XML Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 7 (11.11%) Product Ownership
1 7 (11.11%) SCADA
2 6 (9.52%) Data Centre
3 4 (6.35%) Fibre Optics
3 4 (6.35%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.17%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (3.17%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.59%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.59%) PMI
5 1 (1.59%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 1 (1.59%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 6 (9.52%) Windows
2 2 (3.17%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (47.62%) Agile
2 26 (41.27%) Test Automation
3 22 (34.92%) Test Scripting
4 20 (31.75%) Test Strategy
5 19 (30.16%) Test Management
6 14 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
7 13 (20.63%) Validation
8 12 (19.05%) Software Testing
8 12 (19.05%) System Integration Testing
8 12 (19.05%) User Acceptance Testing
9 11 (17.46%) Scrum
10 9 (14.29%) Manual Testing
10 9 (14.29%) Scenario Testing
10 9 (14.29%) User Stories
10 9 (14.29%) Waterfall
11 8 (12.70%) Change Management
11 8 (12.70%) Integration Testing
11 8 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
11 8 (12.70%) Test Planning
12 7 (11.11%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (9.52%) Java
2 5 (7.94%) JavaScript
2 5 (7.94%) SQL
3 3 (4.76%) C#
4 2 (3.17%) VB
5 1 (1.59%) C++
5 1 (1.59%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (25.40%) Security Cleared
2 10 (15.87%) ISTQB
2 10 (15.87%) SC Cleared
3 7 (11.11%) ISEB
4 6 (9.52%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 3 (4.76%) Degree
5 3 (4.76%) PMI Certification
6 2 (3.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (3.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (3.17%) DV Cleared
6 2 (3.17%) PMP
7 1 (1.59%) CCNA
7 1 (1.59%) CCNP
7 1 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (22.22%) QA
2 4 (6.35%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.59%) AUTOSAR
3 1 (1.59%) SEPA
3 1 (1.59%) Software Quality Assurance
3 1 (1.59%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.59%) Docker
Systems Management
1 8 (12.70%) HP ALM
2 2 (3.17%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 13 (20.63%) Oracle
2 9 (14.29%) SAP
3 8 (12.70%) HP
3 8 (12.70%) Microsoft
4 6 (9.52%) Cisco
5 5 (7.94%) MuleSoft
6 4 (6.35%) webMethods
7 2 (3.17%) CheckPoint
7 2 (3.17%) Cramer
7 2 (3.17%) Databricks
7 2 (3.17%) Infoblox
7 2 (3.17%) Remedy
7 2 (3.17%) ServiceNow
7 2 (3.17%) Virgin Media
8 1 (1.59%) Micro Focus