QA Contract Job Trends in Bristol

Quality Assurance (QA)
South West > Bristol

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Bristol requiring QA skills. It covers contract 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 37 51 54
Rank change year-on-year +14 +3 +4
Contract jobs citing QA 35 13 22
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 4.15% 1.98% 2.27%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 19.55% 13.00% 15.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 6 13
10th Percentile £303 £164 £381
25th Percentile £409 £203 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £363 £450
Median % change year-on-year +37.93% -19.44% -
75th Percentile £538 £400 £569
90th Percentile £552 £444 £738
South West median daily rate £515 £477 £550
% change year-on-year +7.91% -13.23% +22.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 3
10th Percentile - £74.09 £31.25
25th Percentile £71.25 £74.22 £36.88
Median hourly rate £72.50 £74.44 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.61% +56.72% -38.71%
75th Percentile £76.06 £74.72 £60.75
90th Percentile £80.23 £74.89 £67.95
South West median hourly rate £72.50 £19.83 £28.75
% change year-on-year +265.61% -31.03% -48.44%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Bristol

QA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in Bristol.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 179 100 145
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 21.21% 15.22% 14.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 40 80
10th Percentile £325 £183 £374
25th Percentile £405 £273 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £415 £575
Median % change year-on-year +24.10% -27.83% +25.00%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £650
90th Percentile £663 £690 £689
South West median daily rate £524 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +4.80% -9.09% +7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 21 18
10th Percentile £17.69 £61.25 £33.00
25th Percentile £33.50 - £36.31
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -22.06% +138.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 -
South West median hourly rate £61.25 £65.00 £73.31
% change year-on-year -5.77% -11.34% +62.91%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in Bristol

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing QA relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol.

QA job vacancy trend in Bristol

QA
Daily Rate Trend in Bristol

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing QA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing QA

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in Bristol

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in Bristol over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in Bristol

QA
Hourly Rate Trend in Bristol

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing QA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bristol citing QA

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Bristol 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:

Application Platforms
1 8 (22.86%) Apache
Applications
1 3 (8.57%) Simulink
1 3 (8.57%) Stateflow
2 1 (2.86%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 1 (2.86%) Asana
1 1 (2.86%) AWS
1 1 (2.86%) Azure
1 1 (2.86%) Figma
1 1 (2.86%) GCP
1 1 (2.86%) Google Ads
1 1 (2.86%) Google Analytics
1 1 (2.86%) Google Tag Manager
1 1 (2.86%) Power Automate
1 1 (2.86%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.86%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.86%) BigQuery
1 1 (2.86%) Looker
1 1 (2.86%) Power BI
1 1 (2.86%) Relational Database
1 1 (2.86%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 12 (34.29%) Selenium
2 11 (31.43%) Cypress.io
3 10 (28.57%) Postman
3 10 (28.57%) REST Assured
4 8 (22.86%) Artifactory
4 8 (22.86%) GitLab
5 3 (8.57%) Rational DOORS
5 3 (8.57%) Rational Team Concert
6 2 (5.71%) JIRA
7 1 (2.86%) Git
General
1 6 (17.14%) Aerospace
2 5 (14.29%) Social Skills
3 4 (11.43%) Finance
3 4 (11.43%) Public Sector
4 3 (8.57%) Aviation
5 1 (2.86%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (2.86%) Banking
5 1 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.86%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 10 (28.57%) Lead
2 9 (25.71%) DevOps Engineer
2 9 (25.71%) QA Leader
3 8 (22.86%) Senior
4 3 (8.57%) Developer
4 3 (8.57%) QA Manager
5 2 (5.71%) Analyst
5 2 (5.71%) Project Manager
6 1 (2.86%) IT Manager
6 1 (2.86%) IT Project Manager
6 1 (2.86%) Network Specialist
6 1 (2.86%) Performance Analyst
6 1 (2.86%) Senior Analyst
6 1 (2.86%) Senior Software Engineer
6 1 (2.86%) Senior Software Tester
6 1 (2.86%) Senior Tester
6 1 (2.86%) Software Engineer
6 1 (2.86%) Software Tester
6 1 (2.86%) Test Analyst
6 1 (2.86%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (22.86%) Apache NiFi
1 8 (22.86%) REST
2 1 (2.86%) AngularJS
2 1 (2.86%) JMS
2 1 (2.86%) JSON
2 1 (2.86%) Playwright
2 1 (2.86%) React
2 1 (2.86%) SOAP
2 1 (2.86%) SwiftUI
2 1 (2.86%) XML
2 1 (2.86%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 9 (25.71%) Self-Motivation
2 2 (5.71%) Greenfield Project
2 2 (5.71%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.86%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.86%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 8 (22.86%) Windows
2 1 (2.86%) Android
2 1 (2.86%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (40.00%) Test Automation
2 13 (37.14%) Test Strategy
3 12 (34.29%) Software Testing
4 10 (28.57%) CI/CD
4 10 (28.57%) Test Scripting
5 9 (25.71%) DevOps
5 9 (25.71%) User Experience
5 9 (25.71%) Workflow
6 7 (20.00%) AI
6 7 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
7 6 (17.14%) Agile
7 6 (17.14%) Computer Science
8 5 (14.29%) Software Engineering
9 4 (11.43%) Hardware-in-the-Loop
9 4 (11.43%) Integration Testing
10 3 (8.57%) Decision-Making
10 3 (8.57%) Mathematics
10 3 (8.57%) Requirements Management
10 3 (8.57%) Scrum
10 3 (8.57%) Technical Analysis
Programming Languages
1 9 (25.71%) PowerShell
1 9 (25.71%) Python
2 3 (8.57%) Ada
2 3 (8.57%) C
2 3 (8.57%) Fortran
2 3 (8.57%) MATLAB
3 2 (5.71%) SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (77.14%) Security Cleared
2 18 (51.43%) SC Cleared
3 7 (20.00%) DV Cleared
4 6 (17.14%) Computer Science Degree
4 6 (17.14%) Degree
5 1 (2.86%) PMI Certification
5 1 (2.86%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.86%) Accessibility
1 1 (2.86%) GDPR
1 1 (2.86%) PERC
1 1 (2.86%) Software Quality Assurance
Systems Management
1 8 (22.86%) Ansible
1 8 (22.86%) Terraform
2 7 (20.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 8 (22.86%) Red Hat
2 3 (8.57%) MathWorks
3 2 (5.71%) Blue Prism
3 2 (5.71%) ServiceNow
4 1 (2.86%) Facebook
4 1 (2.86%) Google
4 1 (2.86%) Microsoft