Posted in: Market Watch, On: September 8th, 2011

Jaspreet Bahra – Tactical Consultant

Market Trends – Contract

• Tactical has seen a large number of contract roles being released within Release Management and Test Management space, though placements this quarter have predominantly been within the Test Management market. The majority of candidates in the market seem to be keen to move at the moment and willing to listen to new opportunities – particularly as we are now mid-year when many contract periods are coming to an end.
• With a number of banks making savings by moving Data Centers and Back office/Support outside of London more placements being made outside of the London area. These areas include Dublin, Belfast and Bournemouth.
• Rates – Contract rates have slowly been improving over the last year, particularly within the testing and vendor support space. In the testing space, Test Managers can now be seen to be paid up to £650/£700pd.

 

Market Trends – Permanent

• Partly as a result of the recent hacking stories in the media, security focused roles in the perm QA world are on the rise. There is a shortage of Securities QA candidates in London across the board and salaries have seen a significant jump in the last year. Banks are interested in these types of candidates from a financial services background and also with a defence industry background. Penetration testing and change transformation programmes are key areas for hiring.
• The Application Support space has seen a surge in roles within the Equities, Fixed Income and Futures areas. These roles generally require candidates from an investment banking background, with strong technical skills in Unix/Windows, SQL and Scripting. Areas within vendor applications such as Calypso and ION Marketview are continually seeking strong perm support specialists, which has been an obvious struggle when competing with high market contract rates.
• Salaries – There has been an approximate increase of 25% in Securities QA roles in the perm market, whilst Service Continuity positions have seen a salary jump and can now pay up to £80k. Senior Support Management roles can pay up to £90k for very specialist technical profiles.

Overview of Rates/Salaries:

 

Role /Compensation	Entry Level		Intermediate		Senior
	Daily rate (£p/d)	Salary (£p/a)	Daily rate (£p/d)	Salary (£p/a)	Daily rate (£p/d)	Salary (£p/a)
Application Support	350	40,000	450	60,000	650	90,000
Desktop Support	250	25,000	300	40,000	350	65,000
Quality Assurance	300	60,000	375	80,000	450	100,000
Database Developer	400	35,000	450	55,000	500	75,000
Database Administrator	250	30,000	350	50,000	400	75,000
Service Continuity	400	50,000	450	65,000	500	80,000
Network Engineer	400	30,000	475	55,000	550	80,000
Platform Engineer	350	60,000	450	80,000	550	100,000
Server Engineer	350	25,000	425	40,000	450	65,000