Find the right ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) professionals in Germany in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
ISTQB CTFL holders bring a solid grasp of test design, defect reporting, test levels, and core quality concepts. They are useful in agile teams, release testing, and cross-functional delivery. Get fast, precise matching with vetted freelancers who hold this certification.
About the certification
What CTFL means
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) is the entry certification in the ISTQB testing track. It shows that a tester understands the language of software quality and can work with structured testing methods. For companies, it is a clear signal that a freelancer knows the basics of professional test work and can join delivery teams with a shared framework.
Core skills
- Test principles and the purpose of testing
- Test design techniques and how to choose test cases
- Defect reporting and clear communication with developers
- Test levels, test types, and the role of regression testing
- Risk-based thinking and what makes a good test approach
- Basic test management ideas, tools, and test documentation
Typical holders
CTFL is common among junior and mid-level testers, QA specialists, business analysts who support testing, and consultants moving into quality roles. In Germany, it is often seen on profiles for freelancers who work with product teams, delivery leads, or internal QA departments. The certification helps show that the freelancer understands more than ad hoc checking and can contribute in a structured way.
What it tells companies
A freelancer with the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level has a shared vocabulary for test planning, execution, and reporting. That matters when you need someone who can document issues clearly, follow agreed test processes, and collaborate with developers and product owners. It is especially useful in projects where test work must fit into sprint cycles, release trains, or formal acceptance work.
Where it fits
The CTFL is relevant in many settings, from web and mobile products to enterprise software, system integration, and regulated environments. It is not tied to one tool or one method. Instead, it gives a practical base for manual testing, exploratory work, and the first step into broader QA responsibilities. For German teams working across languages or with distributed delivery, it also helps because the concepts are internationally recognized.
Why it matters for hiring
If you need a tester who can start quickly, ask the right questions, and report issues in a disciplined way, CTFL is a useful filter. It does not replace project experience, domain knowledge, or tool skills. But it does tell you that the freelancer has passed through a recognized foundation in software testing and is ready for real project work, whether on site in Germany or remote.
Meet FRATCH ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
Kathrin Siegmann
Requirements Engineer | Business Analyst | Agile Coach
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
Peter Jetter
Principal Management Consultant, Business Coach & Business Trainer
Last position:
external SPC & SAFe Trainer, Scrum Master at Siemens Energy
support SAFe adoption at team, ART and Portfolio level with consulting, coaching and training. Establish hierarchical enterprise backlog and Kanban Systems integrating portfolio, value stream and team level. Make e2e value stream flow across organisational boundaries visible and measurable. Teach "stop starting, start finishing" and Limit WiP.
Wolfgang Orgler
Business Analyst
Last position:
Business Analyst at Österreichische Post AG
IT systems: Azure DevOps, SharePoint, Opal/Repost, JustinMind, Monday, SAP
Analysis of requirements for branch software
Coordination of intercultural teams
Partly agile project organization
Master data management / DMS
UI/UX design and mockup creation
Requirements documentation
Digitalization of signatures
Stakeholder management and workshop facilitation
Billing/bank transfer
Business analysis / requirements engineering
Goran Popovic
Test Manager & Analyst
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)
Joachim Auster
Project Manager HubSpot, Tracking + Analytics Expert
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
Enterprise Product Owner / CTO
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
Test Manager
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
René Adam
QA Lead / Test Manager / Test Engineer
Last position:
Test (Automation) Engineer at BWI GmbH
Introduced a unified test strategy to establish quality gates and define test activities for the 'ICaruS' subproject of the Bundeswehr
Built and implemented manual and automated tests, set up the test infrastructure, and introduced test management tools
Established KPIs and dashboards to present and distribute test metrics to project team members and stakeholders
Technologies used: Playwright, TypeScript, REST, PEGA Systems, Jira, HP ALM, GitLab Runner, Kubernetes, Git, VS Code, Angular, Scrum
Oliver Fries
Senior Analytics Software Engineer & Tech Lead
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
Senior Test Automation Engineer | QA Engineer
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
Business Analyst and Test Manager
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
Cherif Sahraoui
DevOps Specialist
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.
Arndt Maas
Project Manager for ServiceNow Vulnerability Response
Last position:
Project Manager for ServiceNow Vulnerability Response at Union Investment Services & IT GmbH
- Led the subproject for implementing Vulnerability Response as part of DORA
- Documented the current processes in compliance, risk & security
- Created the functional design for introducing application, infrastructure, and cloud vulnerabilities
- Agile management of the integration service provider, the technical department, and the company's cross-functional teams
- Integrated the V scanners Tenable, Qualys and Defender, as well as NVD and CISA/KEV
- Integrated GitLab Ultimate for importing and processing SBOMs
- Developed automation rules to match scan results with CIs in the CMDB, assign vulnerabilities and remediation tasks, handle approvals (false positives, exceptions) and closures
- Calculated multiple risk scores and priorities
- Defined dashboards and reports (Workspaces, Performance Analytics)
- Aligned the new processes, especially to improve the CMDB data quality (according to CSDM)
Steffen Seitz
Senior Technical PM, CRM Core Experience & AI
Last position:
Senior Technical PM, CRM Core Experience & AI at Propstack GmbH (Scout24 S.E.)
- Built a JTBD-based prioritization framework for 3,000+ accumulated feature requests, identified 27 broker jobs, validated 8 through 25 user interviews, and used the resulting job map as a live prioritization filter for all incoming channels (Upvoty, CSAT, consulting tickets).
- Responsible for the Scout24 Lighthouse initiative: Document Intelligence with full RAG architecture (semantic chunking, bge-m3 embeddings, pgvector, BM25+Dense hybrid retrieval).
- Reduced lead time of customer feature requests to 3.1 days through code analysis, ticket specification, and independent implementation using a coding agent (Codex).
- Developed an LLM-based support agent (GPT-4o mini, Codex-generated merge requests) that reduced 3rd-level escalations from 40% to 5% of all monthly tickets.
- Integrated six partners through technical coordination, specification, backlog and release management, and led seven full stack developers.
- Eliminated regulatory exposure for brokers in six weeks through risk analysis (BGH ruling on distance selling/GDPR), new audit features, and coordination with legal and data protection officers.
Mert Bicer
Senior Test Manager ISTQB | Scrum Master | Business Analyst
Last position:
Freelancer at Freelancer
Consulting in testing
- Development and implementation of a test strategy for structured quality assurance
- Consulting on building and improving test processes
- Support in introducing QA standards
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) statistics
Typical experience
20 years
Average project duration
2.2 years
Certifications per freelancer
6
Top business areas
Quality Assurance, Information Technology, Product Development
Top industries
Information Technology, Banking and Finance, Automotive
Most common languages
German, English, French
Bachelor's degree or higher
91%
Master's degree or higher
49%
Doctorate
7%
Salary / 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. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) & Seniority distribution
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.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Want to know more? Check out our simple guide about FRATCH
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) validates a solid grounding in software testing. It covers the ideas, methods, and language that testers use to plan, design, execute, and report tests. For hiring teams, that means a freelancer should be able to fit into a structured QA process without needing basic concepts explained first.
CTFL is the foundation level, so it focuses on core concepts rather than deep specialization. More advanced ISTQB paths go further into areas like test management, test analysis, or technical testing. If you need someone for hands-on delivery, CTFL shows the person has the base knowledge; if you need leadership or specialist depth, you may want a higher level as well.
CTFL is a good fit for software testers, QA engineers, business analysts who support testing, and consultants who work closely with delivery teams. It is also common for people who are building a testing career and want a recognized starting point. Companies often look for it when they need reliable manual testing and clear defect reporting.
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level is designed as an entry certification, so it does not assume years of specialist experience. That said, people usually prepare better if they have seen real test work, even in a small project or internship. The exam itself checks understanding of concepts, not only memorized terms.
In Germany, CTFL is often useful when teams mix local staff, international colleagues, and freelance specialists. The certification gives a common testing vocabulary that helps in both remote collaboration and on-site work. It is especially helpful when German companies want a freelancer who can join structured QA processes quickly.
Preparation usually combines study of the official syllabus with practice questions and simple test scenarios. The focus is on understanding terminology, test design techniques, and the purpose of each test level and test type. Many candidates also review how defects are written and how test cases are structured in real projects.
CTFL is part of the ISTQB Foundation track, and holders should always check the current ISTQB rules for any updates. In practice, the main point is that the certificate is widely recognized as a baseline qualification for testing work. For hiring, the key question is less about renewal and more about whether the freelancer still uses the concepts in current projects.
The certification matters most in projects where testing needs structure, traceability, and clear communication. That includes software releases, regression cycles, system integration work, and acceptance testing in enterprise environments. It is useful wherever a team needs a freelancer who can test carefully and report problems in a way developers and product owners can act on.
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
