Defect Management Contracts

Defect Management
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies 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 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 399 423 513
Rank change year-on-year +24 +90 -9
Contract jobs citing Defect Management 122 160 206
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.42% 0.37% 0.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.46% 0.43% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 91 137
10th Percentile £355 £304 £280
25th Percentile £400 £372 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -12.20% +20.59%
75th Percentile £538 £551 £625
90th Percentile £575 £688 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £444 £465 £540
% change year-on-year -4.57% -13.89% +28.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 5 0
Median hourly rate - £55.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £20.50 -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

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.

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%

Defect Management
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Defect Management in the UK

Defect Management
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Defect Management in the UK

Defect Management
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Defect Management in the UK

Defect Management
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Defect Management in the UK

Defect Management
Top 16 Contract Locations

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 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 +37 110 £475 +5.56% 74
UK excluding London +50 59 £444 -4.57% 41
London +28 52 £500 +11.11% 39
Work from Home +37 47 £460 -0.54% 44
South East +53 24 £400 -17.95% 12
North of England +16 12 £455 +4.00% 11
Midlands +20 11 £491 -6.43% 6
North West +22 10 £450 +55.84% 7
West Midlands +12 10 £491 -6.43% 4
South West +48 7 £456 -14.32% 9
Scotland +5 3 £425 -24.44% 1
East of England +23 1 £413 +10.00% 2
East Midlands +10 1 - - 2
Yorkshire -1 1 - - 4
North East - 1 £460 - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

Defect Management
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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (4.92%) Confluence
2 4 (3.28%) WebLogic
3 1 (0.82%) Appian
3 1 (0.82%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.64%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (4.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.64%) SAP HR
2 2 (1.64%) SAP SCM
3 1 (0.82%) Misys Midas
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.82%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.82%) SAP CX
3 1 (0.82%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 24 (19.67%) Azure
1 24 (19.67%) Azure DevOps
2 5 (4.10%) AWS
3 4 (3.28%) GitHub
3 4 (3.28%) Power Automate
3 4 (3.28%) Power Platform
4 3 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (2.46%) PowerApps
5 2 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
5 2 (1.64%) SuccessFactors
5 2 (1.64%) Twilio
6 1 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.82%) OCI
6 1 (0.82%) Tricentis Tosca
6 1 (0.82%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (5.74%) Firewall
2 2 (1.64%) 5G
2 2 (1.64%) Diameter Protocol
2 2 (1.64%) LAN
2 2 (1.64%) SIGTRAN
2 2 (1.64%) SMS
2 2 (1.64%) SS7
2 2 (1.64%) Unified Communications
2 2 (1.64%) VoLTE
2 2 (1.64%) VoWiFi
2 2 (1.64%) WAN
2 2 (1.64%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.82%) Cisco Firepower
3 1 (0.82%) Converged Networks
3 1 (0.82%) FlexRay
3 1 (0.82%) Network Security
3 1 (0.82%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.46%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.82%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.82%) IDMS
2 1 (0.82%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.82%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.82%) Power BI
2 1 (0.82%) QlikView
2 1 (0.82%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 47 (38.52%) JIRA
2 15 (12.30%) Jenkins
3 12 (9.84%) JMeter
3 12 (9.84%) Selenium
4 6 (4.92%) Gatling
4 6 (4.92%) LoadRunner
5 5 (4.10%) GitLab
5 5 (4.10%) NeoLoad
5 5 (4.10%) SoapUI
5 5 (4.10%) SpecFlow
5 5 (4.10%) TestRail
6 4 (3.28%) Appium
6 4 (3.28%) CircleCI
6 4 (3.28%) Postman
6 4 (3.28%) REST Assured
6 4 (3.28%) Serenity BDD
6 4 (3.28%) Toad
7 3 (2.46%) Bitbucket
7 3 (2.46%) Cucumber
7 3 (2.46%) Cypress.io
General
1 46 (37.70%) Social Skills
2 29 (23.77%) Finance
3 23 (18.85%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 10 (8.20%) Banking
5 10 (8.20%) Telecoms
6 7 (5.74%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (4.92%) Front Office
8 5 (4.10%) Automotive
8 5 (4.10%) Back Office
8 5 (4.10%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (3.28%) Financial Institution
10 3 (2.46%) Local Government
11 2 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.64%) Investment Banking
11 2 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.82%) Electronics
12 1 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.82%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.82%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 30 (24.59%) Analyst
2 29 (23.77%) Test Manager
3 24 (19.67%) Test Analyst
4 23 (18.85%) Lead
5 16 (13.11%) Senior
6 13 (10.66%) Test Leader
6 13 (10.66%) Tester
7 12 (9.84%) Senior Analyst
8 10 (8.20%) Senior Test Analyst
9 9 (7.38%) Consultant
10 8 (6.56%) Test Engineer
11 7 (5.74%) Defect Manager
11 7 (5.74%) Test Consultant
12 5 (4.10%) QA Leader
13 4 (3.28%) Automation Tester
13 4 (3.28%) Designer
13 4 (3.28%) Performance Test Consultant
13 4 (3.28%) SAP Analyst
13 4 (3.28%) SAP Test Analyst
13 4 (3.28%) Senior Test Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (8.20%) XML
2 7 (5.74%) Middleware
2 7 (5.74%) Oracle Fusion
3 6 (4.92%) Playwright
4 5 (4.10%) SOAP
5 4 (3.28%) Play Framework
5 4 (3.28%) RFC 2544
6 2 (1.64%) .NET
6 2 (1.64%) REST
7 1 (0.82%) Gherkin
7 1 (0.82%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.02%) Product Ownership
2 5 (4.10%) Management Information System
2 5 (4.10%) SCADA
3 4 (3.28%) Data Centre
3 4 (3.28%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (2.46%) Low-Code
5 2 (1.64%) Derivative
5 2 (1.64%) Mobile Banking
5 2 (1.64%) Online Banking
5 2 (1.64%) OTC Derivatives
5 2 (1.64%) PMI
5 2 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.64%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.82%) CMDB
6 1 (0.82%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.82%) Equities
6 1 (0.82%) Fixed Income
6 1 (0.82%) FMCG
6 1 (0.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.82%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 10 (8.20%) Windows
2 3 (2.46%) Unix
3 2 (1.64%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (40.16%) Agile
2 46 (37.70%) Test Automation
3 40 (32.79%) Test Strategy
4 36 (29.51%) User Acceptance Testing
5 35 (28.69%) Test Management
6 32 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
7 31 (25.41%) Stakeholder Management
8 30 (24.59%) Test Scripting
9 26 (21.31%) DevOps
10 22 (18.03%) Software Testing
10 22 (18.03%) System Integration Testing
11 21 (17.21%) Test Planning
12 20 (16.39%) Performance Testing
12 20 (16.39%) Validation
13 18 (14.75%) Scrum
14 17 (13.93%) CI/CD
15 16 (13.11%) Integration Testing
16 15 (12.30%) Scenario Testing
17 14 (11.48%) Manual Testing
17 14 (11.48%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.11%) Java
2 15 (12.30%) JavaScript
3 11 (9.02%) C#
3 11 (9.02%) SQL
4 9 (7.38%) Python
5 6 (4.92%) TypeScript
6 5 (4.10%) C++
7 4 (3.28%) PHP
7 4 (3.28%) Ruby
7 4 (3.28%) Scala
8 2 (1.64%) RPG
8 2 (1.64%) VB
9 1 (0.82%) COBOL
9 1 (0.82%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.82%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 28 (22.95%) Security Cleared
2 20 (16.39%) SC Cleared
3 15 (12.30%) ISTQB
4 7 (5.74%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 6 (4.92%) Degree
5 6 (4.92%) ISEB
6 4 (3.28%) PMI Certification
7 3 (2.46%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 2 (1.64%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.64%) PMP
9 1 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (25.41%) QA
2 3 (2.46%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.64%) PMO
3 2 (1.64%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (0.82%) AUTOSAR
Systems Management
1 10 (8.20%) HP ALM
2 4 (3.28%) Perfmon
3 2 (1.64%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 22 (18.03%) Oracle
2 14 (11.48%) SAP
3 12 (9.84%) Microsoft
4 10 (8.20%) HP
5 7 (5.74%) Charles River
6 6 (4.92%) Cisco
7 5 (4.10%) MuleSoft
7 5 (4.10%) ServiceNow
8 4 (3.28%) Dynatrace
8 4 (3.28%) New Relic
8 4 (3.28%) webMethods
9 3 (2.46%) CheckPoint
9 3 (2.46%) Remedy
10 2 (1.64%) Avaya
10 2 (1.64%) Cramer
10 2 (1.64%) Databricks
10 2 (1.64%) Google
10 2 (1.64%) Infoblox
10 2 (1.64%) OpenText
10 2 (1.64%) Virgin Media