QA Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Quality Assurance (QA)
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring QA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 55 48
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +18
Contract jobs citing QA 105 77 86
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 4.39% 4.12% 4.15%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 24.53% 21.88% 24.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 54 65
10th Percentile £401 £400 £368
25th Percentile £475 £404 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year +7.79% -7.23% -7.95%
75th Percentile £645 £633 £638
90th Percentile £770 £819 £733
Central London median daily rate £550 £521 £550
% change year-on-year +5.67% -5.36% -7.56%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
City of London

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 the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 428 352 348
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 17.90% 18.84% 16.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 255 234
10th Percentile £385 £361 £363
25th Percentile £465 £428 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £551
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -2.41% -8.21%
75th Percentile £668 £695 £658
90th Percentile £775 £806 £761
Central London median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 2
10th Percentile £31.75 £28.05 £16.60
25th Percentile £38.50 £37.13 £17.50
Median hourly rate £51.00 £54.50 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.42% +172.50% -
75th Percentile £64.50 £72.75 £22.50
90th Percentile £71.85 £82.35 £23.40
Central London median hourly rate £42.50 £34.48 £23.80
% change year-on-year +23.26% +44.87% -4.80%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

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

QA job vacancy trend in the City of London

QA
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing QA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing QA

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in the City of London over the 6 months to 28 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the City of London

QA
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing QA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing QA

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 (7.62%) Confluence
2 2 (1.90%) CMS
2 2 (1.90%) IIS
2 2 (1.90%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.95%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.95%) Apache
3 1 (0.95%) nginx
3 1 (0.95%) WordPress
Applications
1 9 (8.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.90%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (3.81%) Workday HCM
2 2 (1.90%) Aladdin
2 2 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.90%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.95%) Magento
3 1 (0.95%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.95%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.95%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.95%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.95%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.95%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 24 (22.86%) Azure
2 13 (12.38%) GitHub
3 12 (11.43%) Power Platform
4 10 (9.52%) AWS
5 9 (8.57%) Azure DevOps
6 7 (6.67%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (5.71%) GitHub Copilot
7 6 (5.71%) Serverless
8 4 (3.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 4 (3.81%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 4 (3.81%) SuccessFactors
9 3 (2.86%) Amazon Kinesis
9 3 (2.86%) Amazon S3
9 3 (2.86%) AWS Lambda
9 3 (2.86%) Azure Functions
9 3 (2.86%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (2.86%) GCP
9 3 (2.86%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (2.86%) Power Automate
9 3 (2.86%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.86%) Internet
2 2 (1.90%) Firewall
2 2 (1.90%) Intranet
2 2 (1.90%) WAN
2 2 (1.90%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.95%) DHCP
3 1 (0.95%) DNS
3 1 (0.95%) LAN
3 1 (0.95%) MPLS
3 1 (0.95%) Multicast
3 1 (0.95%) Reverse Proxy
3 1 (0.95%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.95%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.95%) VPN
3 1 (0.95%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (13.33%) SQL Server
2 9 (8.57%) Power BI
3 7 (6.67%) NoSQL
3 7 (6.67%) Oracle Database
4 4 (3.81%) DynamoDB
4 4 (3.81%) MongoDB
4 4 (3.81%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (2.86%) Apache Cassandra
5 3 (2.86%) Metadata
5 3 (2.86%) Relational Database
5 3 (2.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.90%) MySQL
6 2 (1.90%) RDBMS
6 2 (1.90%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 2 (1.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 2 (1.90%) SQLPlus
7 1 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.95%) GIS
Development Applications
1 16 (15.24%) JIRA
2 11 (10.48%) Git
3 9 (8.57%) Jenkins
4 8 (7.62%) Selenium
5 7 (6.67%) GitLab
6 4 (3.81%) Cypress.io
6 4 (3.81%) Maven
6 4 (3.81%) TeamCity
7 3 (2.86%) Appium
7 3 (2.86%) Artifactory
7 3 (2.86%) Gatling
7 3 (2.86%) Gradle
7 3 (2.86%) JMeter
7 3 (2.86%) REST Assured
7 3 (2.86%) Zephyr
8 2 (1.90%) Bitbucket
8 2 (1.90%) Cucumber
8 2 (1.90%) JUnit
8 2 (1.90%) NeoLoad
8 2 (1.90%) webpack
General
1 33 (31.43%) Social Skills
2 32 (30.48%) Finance
3 21 (20.00%) Banking
4 19 (18.10%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (10.48%) Public Sector
6 5 (4.76%) Military
7 4 (3.81%) Publishing
8 3 (2.86%) Front Office
8 3 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.86%) Investment Banking
8 3 (2.86%) Manufacturing
8 3 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (2.86%) Retail
9 2 (1.90%) Back Office
9 2 (1.90%) Corporate Banking
9 2 (1.90%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.90%) Law
9 2 (1.90%) Marketing
9 2 (1.90%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (1.90%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 25 (23.81%) Developer
2 18 (17.14%) Analyst
3 15 (14.29%) Lead
4 14 (13.33%) Senior
5 10 (9.52%) QA Engineer
6 7 (6.67%) C# Developer
6 7 (6.67%) Java Developer
7 6 (5.71%) Data Analyst
7 6 (5.71%) Full-Stack Developer
8 5 (4.76%) Business Analyst
8 5 (4.76%) Consultant
8 5 (4.76%) Lead Developer
8 5 (4.76%) Lead Full-Stack Developer
8 5 (4.76%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.76%) Senior Java Developer
8 5 (4.76%) Test Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Automation Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Report Analyst
9 4 (3.81%) Test Manager
9 4 (3.81%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (11.43%) .NET
2 9 (8.57%) REST
3 8 (7.62%) Playwright
4 7 (6.67%) .NET Framework
5 6 (5.71%) Kafka
5 6 (5.71%) Spring
5 6 (5.71%) Spring Boot
6 5 (4.76%) GraphQL
6 5 (4.76%) RESTful
7 4 (3.81%) HTML
8 3 (2.86%) AngularJS
8 3 (2.86%) ASP.NET
8 3 (2.86%) ASP.NET Web Forms
8 3 (2.86%) CSS
8 3 (2.86%) Gherkin
8 3 (2.86%) Middleware
8 3 (2.86%) Node.js
8 3 (2.86%) OpenTelemetry
8 3 (2.86%) React
8 3 (2.86%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 9 (8.57%) Cloud Native
1 9 (8.57%) Product Ownership
2 6 (5.71%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (3.81%) AI Agents
3 4 (3.81%) Data Centre
3 4 (3.81%) Data Structures
3 4 (3.81%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (2.86%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.90%) Clustering
5 2 (1.90%) Fixed Income
5 2 (1.90%) Freedom of Information
5 2 (1.90%) Life Science
5 2 (1.90%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.90%) Operational Technology
5 2 (1.90%) Replication
5 2 (1.90%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.95%) PKI
6 1 (0.95%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.62%) Linux
1 8 (7.62%) Windows
2 7 (6.67%) Unix
3 6 (5.71%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.86%) Android
4 3 (2.86%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.95%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (27.62%) Agile
2 28 (26.67%) Test Automation
3 26 (24.76%) CI/CD
3 26 (24.76%) DevOps
4 24 (22.86%) Validation
5 23 (21.90%) Stakeholder Management
6 20 (19.05%) AI
7 16 (15.24%) Continuous Improvement
8 14 (13.33%) Analytics
8 14 (13.33%) Problem-Solving
8 14 (13.33%) Roadmaps
8 14 (13.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 13 (12.38%) Scrum
9 13 (12.38%) Test Strategy
10 12 (11.43%) Data Analysis
11 11 (10.48%) Migration
11 11 (10.48%) Risk Management
11 11 (10.48%) SDLC
12 10 (9.52%) Data Modelling
12 10 (9.52%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 31 (29.52%) SQL
2 19 (18.10%) Python
3 13 (12.38%) Java
4 12 (11.43%) C#
5 9 (8.57%) PL/SQL
6 8 (7.62%) JavaScript
7 5 (4.76%) T-SQL
7 5 (4.76%) TypeScript
8 4 (3.81%) Korn
9 2 (1.90%) Bash
9 2 (1.90%) C
9 2 (1.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (1.90%) Kotlin
9 2 (1.90%) PowerShell
9 2 (1.90%) ProC
9 2 (1.90%) Scala
10 1 (0.95%) PHP
10 1 (0.95%) R
10 1 (0.95%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.95%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 17 (16.19%) Security Cleared
2 12 (11.43%) SC Cleared
3 11 (10.48%) Degree
4 2 (1.90%) CSPO
4 2 (1.90%) DV Cleared
5 1 (0.95%) CBAP
5 1 (0.95%) CCIE
5 1 (0.95%) CCNP
5 1 (0.95%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (0.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.95%) IIBA
5 1 (0.95%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (0.95%) PMI Certification
5 1 (0.95%) RIBA
5 1 (0.95%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (13.33%) Data Quality
2 8 (7.62%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.90%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 2 (1.90%) GDPR
3 2 (1.90%) GxP
3 2 (1.90%) WCAG
4 1 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.95%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (0.95%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.95%) PERC
4 1 (0.95%) PMO
4 1 (0.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (0.95%) Solvency II
System Software
1 13 (12.38%) Docker
2 4 (3.81%) Active Directory
3 3 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.95%) GridGain
4 1 (0.95%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 12 (11.43%) Kubernetes
2 6 (5.71%) Grafana
2 6 (5.71%) Prometheus
2 6 (5.71%) Terraform
3 2 (1.90%) Ansible
3 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Clustering
3 2 (1.90%) SCOM
4 1 (0.95%) Puppet
4 1 (0.95%) Salt
Vendors
1 19 (18.10%) Microsoft
2 14 (13.33%) Oracle
3 5 (4.76%) Citrix
3 5 (4.76%) Databricks
3 5 (4.76%) SAP
3 5 (4.76%) Workday
4 4 (3.81%) Google
4 4 (3.81%) Sitecore
5 3 (2.86%) VMware
6 2 (1.90%) Adobe
6 2 (1.90%) BMC
6 2 (1.90%) Cisco
6 2 (1.90%) Commvault
6 2 (1.90%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.90%) Remedy
6 2 (1.90%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.95%) Bloomberg
7 1 (0.95%) Informatica
7 1 (0.95%) Reuters
7 1 (0.95%) Sybase