Backtesting Contracts

Backtesting
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Backtesting skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Backtesting over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 513 554 685
Rank change year-on-year +41 +131 +141
Contract jobs citing Backtesting 7 28 33
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.024% 0.064% 0.055%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.026% 0.074% 0.062%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 18 17
10th Percentile £410 £235 £608
25th Percentile £575 £569 £650
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £800 £850 £800
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +6.25% +4.92%
75th Percentile £913 £1,017 £825
90th Percentile - £1,091 £906
UK excluding London median daily rate - - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Backtesting 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Backtesting
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Backtesting as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Backtesting in the UK

Backtesting
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Backtesting.

Daily rate trend for Backtesting in the UK

Backtesting
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Backtesting over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Backtesting in the UK

Backtesting
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Backtesting.

Hourly rate trend for Backtesting in the UK

Backtesting
Top 5 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Backtesting within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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
England +34 5 £800 -5.88% 79
London +15 5 £800 -5.88% 72
Work from Home +34 2 £300 -68.42% 16
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
UK excluding London - 1 - - 30

Backtesting
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Applications
1 1 (14.29%) EViews
Cloud Services
1 2 (28.57%) AWS
1 2 (28.57%) Azure
1 2 (28.57%) Azure DevOps
1 2 (28.57%) GitHub
1 2 (28.57%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 1 (14.29%) FIX Connectivity
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (28.57%) NoSQL
2 1 (14.29%) KDB
General
1 4 (57.14%) Finance
2 3 (42.86%) Social Skills
3 2 (28.57%) Presentation Skills
4 1 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (14.29%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 4 (57.14%) Developer
2 3 (42.86%) Python Developer
3 2 (28.57%) Energy Trading Developer
3 2 (28.57%) Principal Developer
3 2 (28.57%) Project Manager
3 2 (28.57%) Quantitative Developer
3 2 (28.57%) Test Manager
3 2 (28.57%) Test Project Manager
4 1 (14.29%) Analyst
4 1 (14.29%) Electronic Trading Developer
4 1 (14.29%) Electronic Trading Java Developer
4 1 (14.29%) Financial Analyst
4 1 (14.29%) Java Developer
4 1 (14.29%) Research Analyst
4 1 (14.29%) Transformation Manager
4 1 (14.29%) Transformation Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (42.86%) NumPy
1 3 (42.86%) Pandas
2 2 (28.57%) Kafka
2 2 (28.57%) PySpark
2 2 (28.57%) SciPy
3 1 (14.29%) FIX Protocol
3 1 (14.29%) HTML
3 1 (14.29%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 3 (42.86%) Derivative
2 2 (28.57%) Renewable Energy
2 2 (28.57%) Solar Panel
3 1 (14.29%) Equities
3 1 (14.29%) Fixed Income
3 1 (14.29%) OTC Derivatives
3 1 (14.29%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (42.86%) Computer Science
1 3 (42.86%) Data Engineering
2 2 (28.57%) Agile
2 2 (28.57%) Analytics
2 2 (28.57%) Applied Mathematics
2 2 (28.57%) Defect Management
2 2 (28.57%) DevOps
2 2 (28.57%) Greeks
2 2 (28.57%) Mathematics
2 2 (28.57%) Performance Optimisation
2 2 (28.57%) Probabilistic Modelling
2 2 (28.57%) Programme Management
2 2 (28.57%) Risk Management
2 2 (28.57%) Software Engineering
2 2 (28.57%) TDD
2 2 (28.57%) Test Automation
2 2 (28.57%) Test Management
2 2 (28.57%) Test Planning
2 2 (28.57%) Validation
2 2 (28.57%) Web Development
Programming Languages
1 4 (57.14%) Java
1 4 (57.14%) Python
2 2 (28.57%) C++
2 2 (28.57%) Rust
2 2 (28.57%) SQL
3 1 (14.29%) R
Qualifications
1 2 (28.57%) Degree
1 2 (28.57%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (14.29%) QA
System Software
1 2 (28.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (28.57%) Terraform