Design for Test Contracts

Design for Testability (DFT)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Design for Test skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Design for Test 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 517 - 700
Rank change year-on-year - - +150
Contract jobs citing Design for Test 3 0 18
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.010% - 0.030%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.011% - 0.034%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £513 - £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 - £675
Median % change year-on-year - - +133.32%
75th Percentile £538 - £688
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate - - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 17
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £42.50
Median hourly rate - - £45.00
75th Percentile - - £47.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £45.00

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Design for Test 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%

Design for Test
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Design for Test as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Design for Test in the UK

Design for Test
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Design for Test.

Daily rate trend for Design for Test in the UK

Design for Test
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Design for Test.

Hourly rate trend for Design for Test in the UK

Design for Test
Top 4 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design for Test 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 - 3 £525 - 30
UK excluding London - 2 - - 28
South East - 2 - - 9
London - 1 £525 - 3

Design for Test
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 2 (66.67%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) Azure
1 2 (66.67%) Microsoft 365
1 2 (66.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 2 (66.67%) Firewall
1 2 (66.67%) Internet
1 2 (66.67%) Network Security
1 2 (66.67%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (66.67%) Power BI
General
1 2 (66.67%) Military
1 2 (66.67%) Public Sector
2 1 (33.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) IT Manager
1 2 (66.67%) IT Services Manager
1 2 (66.67%) Senior
1 2 (66.67%) Senior IT Manager
1 2 (66.67%) Senior Manager
1 2 (66.67%) Senior Service Manager
1 2 (66.67%) Service Manager
2 1 (33.33%) Development Engineer
2 1 (33.33%) Software Development Engineer
2 1 (33.33%) Software Engineer
2 1 (33.33%) Test Development Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) Video Conferencing
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Analytics
1 2 (66.67%) Antivirus Management
1 2 (66.67%) Business Intelligence
1 2 (66.67%) Case Management
1 2 (66.67%) Contract Management
1 2 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
1 2 (66.67%) Disaster Recovery
1 2 (66.67%) Penetration Testing
1 2 (66.67%) Security Monitoring
1 2 (66.67%) Server Management
2 1 (33.33%) BDD
2 1 (33.33%) Coaching
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (33.33%) Don't repeat yourself (DRY)
2 1 (33.33%) Microservices
2 1 (33.33%) SDET
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Software Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) C#
Qualifications
1 2 (66.67%) SC Cleared
1 2 (66.67%) Security Cleared
Vendors
1 2 (66.67%) Microsoft