Defect Manager Contract Job Trends

Defect Manager
UK

The median Defect Manager daily rate in the UK is £400, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 546 565 622
Rank change year-on-year +19 +57 +189
Contract jobs requiring a Defect Manager 5 5 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.015% 0.013% 0.018%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.017% 0.014% 0.019%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 4 7
10th Percentile £365 - £363
25th Percentile £388 £263 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £325 £483
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% -32.64% +0.52%
75th Percentile £406 £408 £509
90th Percentile £418 £444 £526
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £325 £466
% change year-on-year +30.77% -30.29% -1.58%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 29,660 35,201 46,399
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.98% 92.93% 94.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,746 21,341 31,770
10th Percentile £275 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £749 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,598 1,564 1,514
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.85 £14.62
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.50 £19.02
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £51.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.61 £74.83 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.08 £43.00 £44.25
% change year-on-year -41.69% -2.82% +101.14%

Defect Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Defect Manager in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Defect Manager in the UK

Defect Manager
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Defect Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Defect Manager job vacancies in the UK

Defect Manager
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Defect Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Defect Manager job vacancies in the UK

Defect Manager
Top 6 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Defect Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 29 September 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
Work from Home +32 4 £400 -
England +22 3 £413 +26.92% 3
London +22 2 £400 -
UK excluding London 0 1 £425 +30.77% 3
Midlands - 1 £425 -
West Midlands - 1 £425 -

Defect Manager Skill Set
Top 29 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 September 2025, Defect Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Defect Manager in the job title.

1 3 (60.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 3 (60.00%) Defect Management
1 3 (60.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (40.00%) System Integration Testing
2 2 (40.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (40.00%) Greenfield Project
2 2 (40.00%) Agile
2 2 (40.00%) JIRA
2 2 (40.00%) User Acceptance Testing
2 2 (40.00%) Test Management
2 2 (40.00%) SAP
2 2 (40.00%) Pharmaceutical
2 2 (40.00%) Migration
3 1 (20.00%) Scrum
3 1 (20.00%) Finance
3 1 (20.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (20.00%) Business Intelligence
3 1 (20.00%) HP
3 1 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 1 (20.00%) Security Cleared
3 1 (20.00%) SCADA
3 1 (20.00%) Waterfall
3 1 (20.00%) HP ALM
3 1 (20.00%) Decision-Making
3 1 (20.00%) Power Platform
3 1 (20.00%) Organisational Skills
3 1 (20.00%) Power BI
3 1 (20.00%) TestRail
3 1 (20.00%) Defect Tracking

Defect Manager Skill Set
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 (20.00%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (40.00%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1 (20.00%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (20.00%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (40.00%) JIRA
2 1 (20.00%) TestRail
General
1 3 (60.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (40.00%) Pharmaceutical
3 1 (20.00%) Finance
3 1 (20.00%) Organisational Skills
Miscellaneous
1 2 (40.00%) Greenfield Project
2 1 (20.00%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (60.00%) Defect Management
1 3 (60.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 2 (40.00%) Agile
2 2 (40.00%) Migration
2 2 (40.00%) System Integration Testing
2 2 (40.00%) Test Management
2 2 (40.00%) User Acceptance Testing
3 1 (20.00%) Business Intelligence
3 1 (20.00%) Decision-Making
3 1 (20.00%) Defect Tracking
3 1 (20.00%) Scrum
3 1 (20.00%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 1 (20.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (20.00%) Security Cleared
Systems Management
1 1 (20.00%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 2 (40.00%) SAP
2 1 (20.00%) HP