Defect Management Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Defect Management
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Defect Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 109 103 101
Rank change year-on-year -6 -2 +52
Contract jobs citing Defect Management 29 8 9
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.26% 0.48% 0.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.46% 0.56% 0.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 5 6
10th Percentile £423 £263 £405
25th Percentile £473 £356 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £425 £438
Median % change year-on-year +16.76% -2.86% -1.69%
75th Percentile £525 £507 £516
90th Percentile £538 £548 £569
England median daily rate £450 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £55.00
England median hourly rate - - £85.00
% change year-on-year - - +431.25%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,986 1,425 1,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 86.57% 86.31% 84.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,258 889 1,025
10th Percentile £263 £222 £263
25th Percentile £400 £400 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £519 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% +3.80% -
75th Percentile £584 £613 £600
90th Percentile £675 £715 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 48 51
10th Percentile £13.51 £14.70 £14.54
25th Percentile £16.13 £16.63 £17.72
Median hourly rate £18.87 £21.59 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.60% -13.64% +44.36%
75th Percentile £27.21 £34.06 £61.25
90th Percentile £35.76 £52.50 £68.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +25.00%

Defect Management
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Defect Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Defect Management job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Defect Management
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Defect Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Defect Management

Defect Management
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Defect Management in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Defect Management in the West Midlands

Defect Management
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Defect Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Defect Management

Defect Management
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

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 West Midlands region over the 6 months to 30 December 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
Shropshire -23 19 £492 -3.00%
Warwickshire - 8 £500 - 2
Birmingham -10 2 £500 +17.65% 1
Defect Management
England

Defect Management
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 17 (58.62%) SAS
2 5 (17.24%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (6.90%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (3.45%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (6.90%) Dynamics NAV
1 2 (6.90%) Workday HCM
2 1 (3.45%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 11 (37.93%) OpenShift
2 9 (31.03%) Azure
3 5 (17.24%) AWS
3 5 (17.24%) PaaS
4 3 (10.34%) Power Platform
5 2 (6.90%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (6.90%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (6.90%) iPaaS
5 2 (6.90%) Power Automate
5 2 (6.90%) Tricentis Tosca
6 1 (3.45%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (6.90%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (37.93%) Oracle Database
1 11 (37.93%) SAS Enterprise Guide
2 6 (20.69%) SAS Visual Analytics
3 3 (10.34%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 11 (37.93%) Git
1 11 (37.93%) GitLab
1 11 (37.93%) Jenkins
1 11 (37.93%) JUnit
1 11 (37.93%) Selenium
2 7 (24.14%) JIRA
3 2 (6.90%) Toad
4 1 (3.45%) REST Assured
General
1 18 (62.07%) Social Skills
2 7 (24.14%) Public Sector
3 5 (17.24%) Finance
4 2 (6.90%) Manufacturing
5 1 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 11 (37.93%) Test Specialist
2 6 (20.69%) Analyst
2 6 (20.69%) Release Manager
2 6 (20.69%) Test Automation Specialist
3 4 (13.79%) Test Analyst
3 4 (13.79%) Test Manager
4 2 (6.90%) Business Systems Analyst
4 2 (6.90%) Infrastructure Manager
4 2 (6.90%) Infrastructure Test Manager
4 2 (6.90%) SAP Analyst
4 2 (6.90%) SAP Test Analyst
4 2 (6.90%) Systems Analyst
4 2 (6.90%) Workday Manager
5 1 (3.45%) Data Analytics Specialist
5 1 (3.45%) Lead
5 1 (3.45%) Network Specialist
5 1 (3.45%) Payroll Manager
5 1 (3.45%) Server Analyst
5 1 (3.45%) Test Leader
5 1 (3.45%) Windows Server Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (37.93%) pytest
2 10 (34.48%) REST
3 2 (6.90%) Middleware
3 2 (6.90%) RFC 2544
3 2 (6.90%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 2 (6.90%) Data Centre
1 2 (6.90%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 3 (10.34%) Windows
2 1 (3.45%) Windows 10
2 1 (3.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (68.97%) Test Strategy
2 19 (65.52%) DevOps
3 17 (58.62%) Analytics
3 17 (58.62%) CI/CD
3 17 (58.62%) Test Automation
3 17 (58.62%) Test Scripting
4 16 (55.17%) Agile
4 16 (55.17%) Problem-Solving
4 16 (55.17%) Visual Analytics
5 14 (48.28%) Regression Testing
5 14 (48.28%) Stakeholder Management
5 14 (48.28%) Validation
6 13 (44.83%) Data Management
6 13 (44.83%) Integration Testing
7 11 (37.93%) Containerisation
7 11 (37.93%) Data Pipeline
7 11 (37.93%) Sprint Planning
7 11 (37.93%) Sprint Retrospective
8 10 (34.48%) Data Strategy
9 8 (27.59%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (34.48%) Python
2 2 (6.90%) Java
2 2 (6.90%) SQL
3 1 (3.45%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 17 (58.62%) Security Cleared
2 16 (55.17%) SC Cleared
3 2 (6.90%) ISEB
3 2 (6.90%) ISTQB
3 2 (6.90%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 1 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (3.45%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (10.34%) QA
2 1 (3.45%) Accessibility
System Software
1 10 (34.48%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (37.93%) Kubernetes
2 2 (6.90%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 14 (48.28%) Oracle
2 4 (13.79%) Microsoft
3 2 (6.90%) Cisco
3 2 (6.90%) HP
3 2 (6.90%) SAP
3 2 (6.90%) webMethods
3 2 (6.90%) Workday
4 1 (3.45%) Atlassian
4 1 (3.45%) MuleSoft