QA & Software Tester Market September 2022
2022 has not disappointed as we have continued to see a steady demand for Software Test Engineers (manual and automation) in Dublin, but also throughout Ireland in some of our larger cities outside of the capital such as Limerick and Galway. Organisations opting for this option, offer a close to or fully remote policy which has allowed for a more flexible hiring model. This year we have seen a 20% increase for Software Test Engineer hires outside of the capital being offered a fully remote position.
With such a broad spectrum of skills to choose from within Software Test Engineers (manual and automation), many organisations wrestle with what they truly need and will often lean on a recruitment partner to advise and coach them through the process of defining the right profile. Some of the main consideration points for an organisation when hiring a Software Test Engineer (manual and automation) can be;
- What is the current stage of the product/ application?
- What is the status of the current test environment?
- What testing capabilities do we currently have within the team?
- If considering automation – what level of automation capabilities do we require?
- What testing goals do we need to achieve both now and in the long term?
- What testing tools do we want to utilise?
- How do we retain new Test Engineer hires long-term?
Considering the above points will allow an organisation to hire the right profile and retain them long-term, in addition to a large cost saving. This year alone we have met with over 40 different companies at different levels, to support them in defining their requirements before going to market as they understand the impact of hiring the right profile for their teams.
As software testing is an evolving market, we quite often see a change in tools and tech. In 2022 we have noticed a significantly increased demand for candidates with Cypress UI automation testing tool paired with JavaScript. Selenium and Java are still in demand skillsets, but with Cypress offering more agile capabilities this is a trend we predict to grow for the remainder of this year and into 2023.
As mentioned in previous survey insights, Test Engineers sit across many tech functions and we are seeing new specialisms emerge in the market SDET (Software Developer and Test Engineer), QAOps (QA and DevOps), AI and ML – Testing and Advanced Mobile Testing. This is continuing to attract many new candidates to this field offering a career path that is less rigid and open for individuals to specialise in different tech sectors while remaining focused on testing and quality.
Candidates are motivated by career progression paths, not only towards Principle or Management level but also to make lateral steps into a different team or tech stack. As many Test Engineers have become more technical – Automation Engineers or SDETs crave upskilling opportunities and exposure to innovative project teams. Salaries and day rates have remained steady in 2022 with no real notable change across all levels of Test Engineers.