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 16 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 524 559 652
Rank change year-on-year +35 +93 +185
Contract jobs citing Backtesting 10 33 31
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.031% 0.077% 0.055%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.034% 0.091% 0.061%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 21 17
10th Percentile £480 £235 £454
25th Percentile £550 £738 £675
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £750 £825 £875
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% +25.00%
75th Percentile £825 £1,050 £1,188
90th Percentile £843 £1,200 -
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 29,412 36,374 50,495
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.38% 85.33% 89.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,450 23,255 34,776
10th Percentile £300 £304 £325
25th Percentile £405 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,550 2,429 1,686
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.79 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.34 £16.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.12 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.02% -4.70% +50.94%
75th Percentile £51.98 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £76.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.34 £38.12 £39.60
% change year-on-year -36.15% -3.74% +84.19%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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
London +16 8 £750 -9.09% 41
England +9 8 £750 -9.09% 42
Work from Home +23 2 £425 -56.41% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
UK excluding London - 1 - - 2

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 (10.00%) EViews
Cloud Services
1 2 (20.00%) Azure
1 2 (20.00%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (10.00%) AWS
2 1 (10.00%) GitHub
2 1 (10.00%) GitHub Actions
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (30.00%) KDB
2 1 (10.00%) DTS
2 1 (10.00%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (10.00%) JIRA
General
1 6 (60.00%) Finance
2 3 (30.00%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (30.00%) Front Office
3 2 (20.00%) Social Skills
4 1 (10.00%) Automotive
4 1 (10.00%) Presentation Skills
4 1 (10.00%) Retail
Job Titles
1 4 (40.00%) Developer
1 4 (40.00%) Python Developer
2 3 (30.00%) Project Manager
3 2 (20.00%) Test Manager
3 2 (20.00%) Test Project Manager
4 1 (10.00%) Analyst
4 1 (10.00%) Applications Manager
4 1 (10.00%) Energy Trading Developer
4 1 (10.00%) Financial Analyst
4 1 (10.00%) Front Office Developer
4 1 (10.00%) Principal Developer
4 1 (10.00%) Quantitative Developer
4 1 (10.00%) Research Analyst
4 1 (10.00%) Risk Manager
4 1 (10.00%) Risk Project Manager
4 1 (10.00%) Transformation Manager
4 1 (10.00%) Transformation Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (40.00%) NumPy
1 4 (40.00%) Pandas
2 1 (10.00%) CSS
2 1 (10.00%) Kafka
2 1 (10.00%) PySpark
2 1 (10.00%) SciPy
2 1 (10.00%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (30.00%) Equities
1 3 (30.00%) Fixed Income
1 3 (30.00%) Virtual Team
2 2 (20.00%) Derivative
3 1 (10.00%) Credit Risk
3 1 (10.00%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (10.00%) Greenfield Project
3 1 (10.00%) Market Risk
3 1 (10.00%) Onboarding
3 1 (10.00%) OTC Derivatives
3 1 (10.00%) Renewable Energy
3 1 (10.00%) Solar Panel
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (40.00%) Agile
1 4 (40.00%) Computer Science
1 4 (40.00%) Data Engineering
1 4 (40.00%) Quantitative Research
2 3 (30.00%) Clean Code
2 3 (30.00%) Code Quality
2 3 (30.00%) Collaborative Working
2 3 (30.00%) Continuous Deployment
2 3 (30.00%) Decision-Making
2 3 (30.00%) Financial Modelling
2 3 (30.00%) OOP
2 3 (30.00%) Quantitative Finance
2 3 (30.00%) TDD
2 3 (30.00%) Validation
3 2 (20.00%) Analytics
3 2 (20.00%) Programme Management
3 2 (20.00%) Risk Management
3 2 (20.00%) Scenario Testing
3 2 (20.00%) Test Automation
3 2 (20.00%) Test Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (50.00%) Python
2 4 (40.00%) Java
3 2 (20.00%) SQL
4 1 (10.00%) C++
4 1 (10.00%) R
4 1 (10.00%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1 (10.00%) Degree
1 1 (10.00%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (10.00%) QA
System Software
1 1 (10.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (10.00%) Terraform