ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
professional in minutes from 15,000 CVs with precise AI matchingCTFL holders understand the basics of software testing, defect reporting, test design, and the role of testing in agile and traditional delivery. Get fast, precise matching with vetted freelancers who can support your quality work from the start.
Meet FRATCH ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
Felix Bauchspiess
Last position:
Digital Consultant and Solution Manager at Vorwerk SE & Co. KG
Launch of a new digital product in the Chinese market as part of a global growth strategy.
Key contact and coordinating interface between central product management, local Chinese teams, and international stakeholders.
Managed the full program management for coordinating complex digital projects.
Successful market launch of a digital product in China (including successful certification for the Chinese market).
Balanced local requirements with global priorities, taking tax and regulatory conditions into account.
Introduced a new way of working to improve collaboration and management across locations.
Developed and implemented a scaling strategy for the digital business model in China.
Used Jira, Confluence, Miro, Scrum, Agile work, SAFe.
Project language: English.
Kathrin Siegmann
Last position:
Requirements Engineer at Governikus GmbH & Co. KG
- Analysis, documentation, and alignment of requirements. Conducting stakeholder analyses, interviews, and workshops for requirements gathering and validation. Carrying out requirements reviews and working closely with business units and development teams.
Techniques & tools: requirements engineering, stakeholder management, workshop facilitation, system context modeling, requirements reviews, quality scenarios, Miro, Jira, Confluence
Onur Kayir
Last position:
Project Manager & Outsourcing Manager at SENEC GmbH (EnBW Group)
- Building a scalable nearshore IT developer hub (Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland) as an independent company using a BOT model (Build – Operate – Transfer)
- Identifying, selecting, and managing full-service agencies; introducing governance and control mechanisms including KPIs, SLAs, and regular service reviews
- Creating and reviewing data processing agreements and framework contracts in coordination with Legal & Compliance; integrating regulatory requirements (including KRITIS) into process design
- Advising on cloud-vs.-on-premise strategies, data storage, and authorization concepts; supporting procurement with tendering and vendor evaluations
- Change management and process harmonization between internal teams and nearshore partners; reporting to management board, CFO, and CIO
Result: Scalable IT developer hub with an audit-proof governance model, lower operating costs, and faster product development.
Wolfgang Orgler
Last position:
Business Analyst at DekaBank
Lead Business Analyst – Analysis and optimization of private banking processes
Responsibility for the business analysis and further development of business processes in private banking, with a focus on CRM, customer data management, and master data processes
Carrying out a comprehensive business process analysis to identify optimization potential, business gaps, and improvement opportunities along the customer lifecycle
Gathering, analyzing, and structuring business requirements in close cooperation with business units, management, IT architecture, and development teams
Creating and aligning business concepts, process models, user stories, and requirement documentation as the basis for technical implementation
Analyzing and optimizing existing master data processes with a focus on data quality, responsibilities, and efficient data maintenance
Designing and further developing CRM customer data processes while taking regulatory requirements and business goals into account
Planning and moderating workshops with business, IT, and stakeholders for requirements analysis, process design, and solution finding
Managing requirements and ensuring consistent communication between business and IT
Using AI-supported analysis tools to help with requirements analysis, structuring information, and improving documentation quality
Goran Popovic
Last position:
Test Manager & Analyst at Festo / Questax GmbH
Project goal: Carrying out system tests and validating industrial communication and control systems, including requirements definition and verification.
Responsibilities:
- Test planning, test execution
- Test strategy, test cases, and test specifications
- Requirements analysis
- Ensuring traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects
- Carrying out regression and integration tests
- Defect analysis
- Simulation and validation
- NetSniffer Wireshark
- Supporting test automation (Python, CI/CD)
- Reporting
- Stakeholder coordination and agile collaboration (Scrum / SAFe / Kanban)
- V-Model
- CI/CD automation with Python, Groovy, and frameworks (Selenium, PyTest)
Technologies:: CAN, Modbus, Ethernet, PLC, PROFINET, Codebeamer ALM, Scrum, SAFe, MS Teams, Git, CI/CD with GitLab CI and TeamCity, Windows Batch, FAS, Wireshark, Python, Enterprise Architect (EA), AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot), VS Code, Tia Portal, SCL, Python (Selenium, PyTest)
Mario Mohar
Last position:
Co-Founder and CTO at B2B SaaS Recruiting Platform
Complete build of a B2B SaaS platform for recruitment agencies
- Multi-source job aggregation via ATS APIs
- AI-assisted career page scraping
- Rule-based and AI-assisted matching
- Credit-based monetization model with Stripe integration
- Live in production since July 2026
Tech stack
- NestJS
- React
- PostgreSQL
- pgvector
- Claude AI
- Prisma
Joachim Auster
Last position:
Project Manager HubSpot, Tracking + Analytics Expert at Swiss Post
- Create a tracking concept for Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics including data layer, events, triggers, and reporting
- Manage the project team (developers, designers, performance specialists)
- Serve as communication interface between stakeholders and digital departments
Carsten Rösner
Last position:
Enterprise Product Owner at opta data IT GmbH
- Product responsibility for the central platform "one" as a group-wide web-based customer portal
- Coordination of the connection of 20 group companies to the product platform
- Derivation and steering of a group-wide product strategy and roadmap aligned with company goals
- Prioritization and bundling of strategic requirements from the various group companies
- Harmonization of different interests and moderation of complex decision-making processes at management level
- Ensuring the technical and business integration of the product into existing system landscapes, business processes, and business models
- Building transparent governance and decision-making structures for group-wide product development
- Representation of the product towards internal and external stakeholders at leadership level
Christoph Sawicki
Last position:
Test Manager at Logistics
- Coordination and planning, execution, documentation, and analysis of test cases
- Development of test concepts considering best practices (e.g., test pyramid) with a focus on reliable, automatable test runs
- Implementation and maintenance of test cases according to the test concepts
- Technologies: Citrix Workspace, Shopify, Jira, Xray, MS Teams, MS SharePoint, Confluence, MS Office 365
Radosveta Delcheva
Last position:
Jira Training and Creation of Jira Manuals at ML Gruppe
- Development of structured Jira training programs for different target groups such as end users, project administrators, and Jira administrators.
- Delivery of Jira training for end users.
- Creation of two Jira manuals for end users and Jira administrators, usable as training material and for self-service.
- Use of Atlassian Jira Software, Atlassian Confluence, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Office including PowerPoint.
Oliver Fries
Last position:
Modernization of a multi-company backend system at Energy utility company
Enhancement and modernization of a mature Aspire backend application in the environment of a utility company, focusing on new business requirements, testing, legacy code cleanup, and stable backend delivery.
Core contributions & results Implemented new business requirements in the context of customer orders, subcontractors, and cross-company backend processes, and ensured consistent workflows in a distributed system landscape. Modernized existing backend components step by step and reduced technical debt through targeted legacy code cleanup, refactoring, and structured code reviews. Improved the testability of business-critical services by expanding automated tests with xUnit, AutoFixture, and clearer validation structures. Supported the further development of workflow automations and integration processes via microservices, messaging, and API-based communication. Took over source code from external firms, systematically checked code quality, and derived technical improvements for maintainability, stability, and integration. Worked in agile development processes with Jira, Confluence, and Azure DevOps and supported cross-team alignment on architecture, quality, and implementation. Technical metrics Technologies & methods C#, .NET, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, Aspire, Docker, RabbitMQ, gRPC, REST API, Swagger, Microservices, NServiceBus, AutoMapper, Autofac, xUnit, AutoFixture, FluentValidation, Entity Framework Core, MediatR, Redis, Consul, Serilog, SonarQube, Azure DevOps, Azure Monitor, GitLab, Google Protocol Buffers, IronPDF, Mailjet, Jira, Confluence, Miro, agile development, Scrum, code reviews, refactoring, legacy code cleanup, workflow automation, power grids
Ljubomir Obrenovic
Last position:
Senior Software Test Engineer at Keil KTM GmbH
Temporary employment
- System black-box integration tests (BBIT, IVVQ): Execution of regression, release, acceptance, and compliance tests for safety-critical brake control units in the rail industry
- Software test application & integration: Runtime configuration of software components and libraries, validation of interfaces, configuration dependencies, and component interactions
- Test automation (FEAT framework): Co-development and further development of an automated test framework for test execution, reporting, and result analysis
- Functional safety (SiL4, FuSi): Ensuring compliance with safety requirements, traceability and coverage, as well as standards compliance according to EN50126/28/29
- Test automation for communication components: Configuration and validation of fieldbus (CAN) and Ethernet-based TCMS data communication interfaces (TRDP and CIP)
- Requirements analysis & shift-left (PTC Windchill ALM): Analysis of software and system artifacts to identify gaps, ambiguities, and redundancies early in the SDLC
- Test design & test case development: Derivation of test conditions, coverage strategies, and implementation of data-driven test cases (DDT), including reusable test data fixtures
- CI/CD & automation (Python, PowerShell, Jenkins, SVN): Automation of build, test, and HIL deployment processes as well as integration into CI/CD pipelines
- Test data & configuration management (XML): Maintenance and adaptation of XML test vectors and system configurations with automated integration into test environments
- Non-functional testing: Execution of performance and load tests to assess stability and system behavior
- Agile development & defect management (JIRA, Confluence): Participation in Scrum teams, test coordination, review of test artifacts, as well as defect tracking and root-cause analysis
- Error analysis & debugging (CANoe, CANalyzer): Analysis of errors and message flows across multiple system layers (application to bus)
- Model-based analysis (UML, Enterprise Architect): Specification of SUT/SOW and support for systematic test control
- Process & test documentation: Creation of integration and test documentation according to internal quality and certification requirements
Martin Petermann
Last position:
Business Analyst and Test Manager at ProSiebenSat.1 Tech & Services GmbH
- Analysis of affected business processes, taking numerous stakeholders into account
- Interface analysis, architecture and system design
- Mediating and coordinating different subprojects and interface partners
- Creating epics and user stories, maintaining the backlog, workshops and review presentations
- Implementation support between business departments and development
- Test management including strategy and approach definition
- Test case definition, execution and approval
- Cross-team organization of integration and acceptance tests
- Support for test environments
- Technologies and tools: Java, Angular, Kubectl, REST, AWS SNS/SQS, Kafka, S4/HANA, Bruno
Kapil Bhayani
Last position:
Senior Embedded Systems Engineer at BMW group
Testing and verification of high-voltage systems
- Performed integration and system tests for control units in PHEV/EV vehicles using ECU-TEST (TraceTronic), Vector CANoe, CANalyzer, ETAS INCA, Tornado, E-Sys, and EDIABAS.
- Analyzed the interaction of high-voltage control units (including CCU, BMU, inverter, IPB, and IPF) and carried out software updates and flash processes to verify new software versions.
- Worked closely with software, system, and integration teams in an agile development environment to analyze issues and verify new software versions.
Cherif Sahraoui
Last position:
DevOps Specialist – SCM & CI Platform at Freelancer
- Designed and developed the architecture of an enterprise SCM/CI platform for Kubernetes-native delivery and GitOps workflows.
- Implemented infrastructure automation and Vault & IAM integration for secure, compliant pipelines.
- Coordinated cross-functional teams to improve DevOps, security, and architecture in release processes.
- Increased platform adoption and developer experience by automating onboarding and artifact pipelines.
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
18 years
Position duration
2.1 years
Positions per freelancer
13
Top business areas
Quality Assurance, Information Technology, Product Development
Top industries
Information Technology, Banking and Finance, Automotive
Certification focus areas
Quality Assurance, Information Technology, Project Management
Bachelor's degree or higher
93%
Master's degree or higher
54%
Doctorate
7%
Certifications per freelancer
6
Most common languages
English, German, French
Speak two or more languages
97%
Based on our profile pool as of 21 Aug 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers holding this certification are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Average rates for ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 21 Aug 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
About the certification
What CTFL means
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) is the best-known entry certification in software testing. It shows that a person understands the language, principles, and core practices used to test software in a structured way. Companies look for it when they need someone who can work with test cases, defects, and quality checks without needing a full introduction.
Core skills
A CTFL holder is expected to know how testing supports delivery and risk control.
- Test principles and basic terminology
- Test levels, test types, and test design techniques
- Defect reporting and incident handling
- Static testing, reviews, and exploratory thinking
- Test tools, automation awareness, and test data basics
- Agile testing basics and collaboration with developers and analysts
Typical profiles
The CTFL is common among manual testers, QA analysts, test coordinators, business analysts who support testing, and developers who want a shared testing vocabulary. It is also a sensible first step for people moving into quality assurance from adjacent roles. In many teams, ISTQB Foundation Level is the baseline certification that helps new testers fit into established QA processes.
What it tells employers
A freelancer with the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level certificate can usually join a team and follow agreed test practices quickly. That matters when you need support for regression testing, user story validation, acceptance checks, or defect triage. The certificate does not prove deep domain expertise on its own, but it does show a solid grasp of testing fundamentals and a common way of working.
How it is used
CTFL is relevant in projects where quality needs to be controlled from the start, not only at the end.
- Web and app releases
- Enterprise software and integration work
- Agile product teams
- UAT support and release readiness
- Outsourced QA and short-term test coverage
Hiring fit
If you hire in-house or remotely, the CTFL helps you filter for people who speak the same testing language as your team. That is useful when the role needs clear defect communication, structured test execution, and basic coverage across functional areas. For freelancers, it is a straightforward signal that they know how testing works in real projects, not just in theory.
Frequently asked questions
Before you brief your next project: the most common questions about ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL).
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) validates that a person understands the foundations of software testing. That includes test principles, basic techniques, defect reporting, review activities, and the role of testing in a delivery team. It is a broad starting point, not a deep specialist certificate.
Yes. CTFL is the common abbreviation for the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level, and many people simply say ISTQB Foundation Level or ISTQB Foundation. All of these usually refer to the same entry-level software testing certification.
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level is a good fit for manual testers, QA analysts, and people starting a career in testing. It also suits business analysts, product team members, and developers who want a stronger testing mindset. Companies often use it as a baseline for freelancers who will support structured testing work.
A freelancer with CTFL can usually join a project and work within an existing QA process with little ramp-up on the basics. They should be able to write and execute test cases, report defects clearly, and support regression or acceptance testing. That makes the certification useful for delivery teams that need dependable test execution.
CTFL is the foundation layer. It focuses on core concepts and shared language, while higher ISTQB levels go deeper into specialisms, advanced testing practice, or test management. If you need someone for leadership, strategy, or niche testing topics, CTFL alone is usually not enough.
Preparation for the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level usually means studying the syllabus, learning the terminology, and practicing how to apply test design techniques. Many candidates use training, self-study, or both. No specific work experience is always required, but practical exposure to software projects helps a lot.
The CTFL has traditionally been treated as a foundation certificate that is not tied to a short renewal cycle like some other credentials. However, certification policies can change over time, so candidates should always check the current ISTQB rules before planning their path. For employers, the important point is that the certificate signals a stable testing baseline.
This certification matters most in projects where structured testing is part of everyday delivery: web apps, business software, integration work, and agile teams. It is also useful when companies need clear communication between QA, development, and business stakeholders. In markets such as Germany, it is a familiar signal for employers looking for reliable test support.
The average hourly rate for freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) is 95 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 758 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL), 93% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 54% hold at least a Master's degree, and 7% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) have 18 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2.1 years.
The most common languages among freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) are English (96%), German (95%), and French (26%).
The most common industries among freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) are Information Technology (85%), Banking and Finance (50%), and Automotive (43%).
The most common business areas among freelancers with ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) are Quality Assurance (95%), Information Technology (94%), and Product Development (76%).
FRATCH ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Request a free demo
Get in touch with the FRATCH team and we will get back to you within 4 hours.
Would you rather directly get in touch?
We always have the time for a call or email!
Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
