Test Strategy Job Trends in the South West

Test Strategy
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Test Strategy skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 181 182
Rank change year-on-year +14 +1 +37
Permanent jobs citing Test Strategy 17 12 36
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.34% 0.28% 0.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.33% 0.88%
Number of salaries quoted 10 6 27
10th Percentile £48,625 £29,750 £40,500
25th Percentile £53,438 £34,188 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £71,250 £55,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +29.55% -21.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £81,688 £62,500 £88,750
90th Percentile £86,500 £72,500 £96,539
England median annual salary £65,000 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -3.70% -15.63% +33.33%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

Test Strategy falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,620 3,613 4,113
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 72.08% 84.77% 90.63%
Number of salaries quoted 2,465 1,836 3,121
10th Percentile £27,750 £30,000 £30,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £40,000 £40,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,720 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.62% +4.23% +2.94%
75th Percentile £66,250 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £81,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Test Strategy
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Test Strategy relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Test Strategy job vacancy trend in the South West

Test Strategy
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Strategy.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Test Strategy

Test Strategy
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Strategy in the South West over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Strategy in the South West

Test Strategy
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Strategy within the South West region over the 6 months to 5 January 2026. 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Devon - 7 £51,250 - 10
Bristol +14 4 £82,500 +3.13% 9
Wiltshire - 4 £62,500 - 5
Test Strategy
England

Test Strategy
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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:

Cloud Services
1 10 (58.82%) Azure
2 5 (29.41%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (11.76%) AWS
3 2 (11.76%) Azure Pipelines
3 2 (11.76%) GCP
3 2 (11.76%) SaaS
4 1 (5.88%) Firebase
4 1 (5.88%) GitHub
4 1 (5.88%) IaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (11.76%) GIS
2 1 (5.88%) Geospatial Data
2 1 (5.88%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 7 (41.18%) Cypress.io
2 3 (17.65%) REST Assured
3 2 (11.76%) Git
3 2 (11.76%) GitLab
3 2 (11.76%) Postman
3 2 (11.76%) Selenium
4 1 (5.88%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 3 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 1 (5.88%) Aerospace
2 1 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (5.88%) Influencing Skills
2 1 (5.88%) Military
Job Titles
1 7 (41.18%) Lead
2 5 (29.41%) Automation Tester
2 5 (29.41%) Tester
3 3 (17.65%) Architect
3 3 (17.65%) Solutions Architect
3 3 (17.65%) Test Leader
4 2 (11.76%) Automation Test Lead
4 2 (11.76%) Lead Test Engineer
4 2 (11.76%) QA Leader
4 2 (11.76%) Test Automation Engineer
4 2 (11.76%) Test Engineer
5 1 (5.88%) Developer
5 1 (5.88%) Mobile Developer
5 1 (5.88%) Senior
5 1 (5.88%) Service Design Manager
5 1 (5.88%) Service Manager
5 1 (5.88%) Service Transition Manager
5 1 (5.88%) Test Manager
5 1 (5.88%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (47.06%) Playwright
2 3 (17.65%) RESTful
3 1 (5.88%) .NET
3 1 (5.88%) Flutter
3 1 (5.88%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 2 (11.76%) Mobile App
2 1 (5.88%) Management Information System
2 1 (5.88%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.88%) Android
1 1 (5.88%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (70.59%) Test Automation
2 11 (64.71%) DevOps
3 9 (52.94%) API Testing
4 8 (47.06%) CI/CD
4 8 (47.06%) Software Engineering
5 7 (41.18%) Agile
5 7 (41.18%) Test Scripting
6 6 (35.29%) Computer Science
6 6 (35.29%) Manual Testing
7 5 (29.41%) Containerisation
7 5 (29.41%) End-to-End Testing
7 5 (29.41%) Ticket Management
8 4 (23.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 4 (23.53%) ITIL
9 3 (17.65%) AI
9 3 (17.65%) ITSM
9 3 (17.65%) Service Management
9 3 (17.65%) Software Testing
9 3 (17.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 3 (17.65%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 7 (41.18%) TypeScript
2 6 (35.29%) JavaScript
3 5 (29.41%) C#
4 2 (11.76%) Java
5 1 (5.88%) Kotlin
5 1 (5.88%) Swift
Qualifications
1 8 (47.06%) ISTQB
2 7 (41.18%) Degree
2 7 (41.18%) Security Cleared
3 6 (35.29%) Computer Science Degree
4 5 (29.41%) SC Cleared
5 2 (11.76%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 2 (11.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 1 (5.88%) AWS Certification
6 1 (5.88%) Azure Certification
6 1 (5.88%) DV Cleared
6 1 (5.88%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (58.82%) QA
2 2 (11.76%) Accessibility
3 1 (5.88%) Def Stans
System Software
1 3 (17.65%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (17.65%) Kubernetes
2 2 (11.76%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (17.65%) ServiceNow
2 2 (11.76%) Guidewire