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 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 52 44
Rank change year-on-year +6 -8 +27
Contract jobs citing QA 100 70 97
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 4.12% 3.98% 4.53%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 23.53% 21.54% 26.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 48 76
10th Percentile £390 £400 £369
25th Percentile £475 £410 £472
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £523 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.21% -4.95% -8.33%
75th Percentile £668 £633 £625
90th Percentile £789 £852 £709
Central London median daily rate £550 £510 £550
% change year-on-year +7.79% -7.23% -7.95%

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 425 325 368
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 17.50% 18.50% 17.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 288 228 259
10th Percentile £363 £373 £363
25th Percentile £450 £455 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £668 £706 £650
90th Percentile £763 £800 £775
Central London median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 3
10th Percentile £19.23 £28.05 £16.78
25th Percentile £22.24 £37.13 £17.96
Median hourly rate £27.50 £54.50 £20.61
Median % change year-on-year -49.54% +164.50% -
75th Percentile £52.25 £72.75 £22.65
90th Percentile £66.95 £82.35 £23.46
Central London median hourly rate £27.50 £34.48 £23.40
% change year-on-year -20.24% +47.35% -6.40%

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 June 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 5 (5.00%) Confluence
2 2 (2.00%) IIS
3 1 (1.00%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (1.00%) Apache
3 1 (1.00%) CMS
3 1 (1.00%) nginx
3 1 (1.00%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.00%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (8.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.00%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (1.00%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (4.00%) Workday HCM
2 1 (1.00%) Aladdin
2 1 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.00%) Magento
2 1 (1.00%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (1.00%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (1.00%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (1.00%) SAP HCM
2 1 (1.00%) SAP Payroll
2 1 (1.00%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 19 (19.00%) Azure
2 11 (11.00%) GitHub
3 10 (10.00%) AWS
4 8 (8.00%) Power Platform
5 6 (6.00%) Azure DevOps
5 6 (6.00%) GitHub Actions
6 5 (5.00%) Serverless
7 4 (4.00%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 4 (4.00%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 4 (4.00%) GitHub Copilot
7 4 (4.00%) SuccessFactors
8 3 (3.00%) Amazon Kinesis
8 3 (3.00%) Amazon S3
8 3 (3.00%) AWS Lambda
8 3 (3.00%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (2.00%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (2.00%) Azure API Management
9 2 (2.00%) Azure Functions
9 2 (2.00%) GCP
9 2 (2.00%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.00%) WAN
1 4 (4.00%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (3.00%) Internet
2 3 (3.00%) LAN
3 2 (2.00%) Firewall
3 2 (2.00%) Intranet
4 1 (1.00%) DHCP
4 1 (1.00%) DNS
4 1 (1.00%) MPLS
4 1 (1.00%) Multicast
4 1 (1.00%) Reverse Proxy
4 1 (1.00%) SD-WAN
4 1 (1.00%) TCP/IP
4 1 (1.00%) VPN
4 1 (1.00%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (12.00%) SQL Server
2 8 (8.00%) NoSQL
3 7 (7.00%) Oracle Database
4 5 (5.00%) Power BI
5 4 (4.00%) DynamoDB
5 4 (4.00%) MongoDB
5 4 (4.00%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (3.00%) Apache Cassandra
6 3 (3.00%) Metadata
6 3 (3.00%) Relational Database
7 2 (2.00%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (2.00%) MySQL
7 2 (2.00%) RDBMS
7 2 (2.00%) Redis
7 2 (2.00%) SQLPlus
8 1 (1.00%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (1.00%) Big Data
8 1 (1.00%) GIS
8 1 (1.00%) Hazelcast
8 1 (1.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 15 (15.00%) JIRA
2 12 (12.00%) Git
3 10 (10.00%) Jenkins
4 8 (8.00%) GitLab
4 8 (8.00%) Selenium
5 4 (4.00%) Cypress.io
5 4 (4.00%) Maven
5 4 (4.00%) REST Assured
5 4 (4.00%) TeamCity
6 3 (3.00%) Artifactory
6 3 (3.00%) Gradle
6 3 (3.00%) Zephyr
7 2 (2.00%) Appium
7 2 (2.00%) Bitbucket
7 2 (2.00%) Gatling
7 2 (2.00%) JUnit
7 2 (2.00%) Postman
7 2 (2.00%) webpack
8 1 (1.00%) JMeter
8 1 (1.00%) XCUITest
General
1 32 (32.00%) Finance
2 31 (31.00%) Social Skills
3 22 (22.00%) Banking
4 15 (15.00%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (10.00%) Public Sector
6 6 (6.00%) Military
7 5 (5.00%) Manufacturing
8 4 (4.00%) Publishing
9 3 (3.00%) Front Office
9 3 (3.00%) Investment Banking
9 3 (3.00%) Retail
10 2 (2.00%) Back Office
10 2 (2.00%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (2.00%) Financial Institution
10 2 (2.00%) Law
10 2 (2.00%) Marketing
10 2 (2.00%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (2.00%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (2.00%) Retail Banking
11 1 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (25.00%) Developer
2 20 (20.00%) Analyst
3 14 (14.00%) Senior
4 11 (11.00%) Lead
5 9 (9.00%) QA Engineer
6 8 (8.00%) Java Developer
7 7 (7.00%) C# Developer
8 6 (6.00%) Data Analyst
8 6 (6.00%) Full-Stack Developer
9 5 (5.00%) Architect
9 5 (5.00%) Business Analyst
9 5 (5.00%) Lead Developer
9 5 (5.00%) Lead Full-Stack Developer
9 5 (5.00%) Senior Developer
9 5 (5.00%) Senior Java Developer
10 4 (4.00%) Automation Engineer
10 4 (4.00%) Report Analyst
10 4 (4.00%) Workday Analyst
11 3 (3.00%) Python Engineer
11 3 (3.00%) QA Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (11.00%) .NET
2 10 (10.00%) REST
3 8 (8.00%) Playwright
4 7 (7.00%) .NET Framework
4 7 (7.00%) Kafka
4 7 (7.00%) Spring
4 7 (7.00%) Spring Boot
5 5 (5.00%) GraphQL
5 5 (5.00%) RESTful
6 4 (4.00%) HTML
6 4 (4.00%) OpenTelemetry
7 3 (3.00%) AngularJS
7 3 (3.00%) ASP.NET
7 3 (3.00%) ASP.NET Web Forms
7 3 (3.00%) CSS
7 3 (3.00%) Gherkin
7 3 (3.00%) Middleware
7 3 (3.00%) Node.js
7 3 (3.00%) React
7 3 (3.00%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 9 (9.00%) Product Ownership
2 8 (8.00%) Cloud Native
3 4 (4.00%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (4.00%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (4.00%) Onboarding
4 3 (3.00%) AI Agents
4 3 (3.00%) Data Structures
4 3 (3.00%) Virtual Team
5 2 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (2.00%) Data Centre
5 2 (2.00%) Fixed Income
5 2 (2.00%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (2.00%) Freedom of Information
5 2 (2.00%) Life Science
5 2 (2.00%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.00%) Replication
6 1 (1.00%) Marketing Technology
6 1 (1.00%) PKI
6 1 (1.00%) PMI
6 1 (1.00%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 8 (8.00%) Linux
2 7 (7.00%) Unix
3 6 (6.00%) Windows
3 6 (6.00%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.00%) Android
4 1 (1.00%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (24.00%) Test Automation
2 23 (23.00%) Agile
2 23 (23.00%) CI/CD
3 22 (22.00%) Validation
4 20 (20.00%) DevOps
5 19 (19.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 15 (15.00%) AI
7 13 (13.00%) Roadmaps
8 12 (12.00%) Analytics
8 12 (12.00%) Scrum
8 12 (12.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 11 (11.00%) Containerisation
9 11 (11.00%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (11.00%) Data Analysis
9 11 (11.00%) Problem-Solving
9 11 (11.00%) SDLC
10 10 (10.00%) Risk Management
11 9 (9.00%) Data Modelling
11 9 (9.00%) Decision-Making
11 9 (9.00%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 28 (28.00%) SQL
2 19 (19.00%) Python
3 13 (13.00%) Java
4 12 (12.00%) C#
5 9 (9.00%) PL/SQL
6 7 (7.00%) JavaScript
7 5 (5.00%) T-SQL
7 5 (5.00%) TypeScript
8 2 (2.00%) Bash
8 2 (2.00%) C
8 2 (2.00%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (2.00%) Korn
8 2 (2.00%) Kotlin
8 2 (2.00%) ProC
8 2 (2.00%) Scala
9 1 (1.00%) PHP
9 1 (1.00%) Shell Script
9 1 (1.00%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 17 (17.00%) Security Cleared
2 13 (13.00%) SC Cleared
3 10 (10.00%) Degree
4 2 (2.00%) CSPO
4 2 (2.00%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.00%) APMP
5 1 (1.00%) CBAP
5 1 (1.00%) CCIE
5 1 (1.00%) CCNP
5 1 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (1.00%) ISTQB
5 1 (1.00%) Master's Degree
5 1 (1.00%) PMI Certification
5 1 (1.00%) PMP
5 1 (1.00%) RIBA
5 1 (1.00%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (12.00%) Data Quality
2 6 (6.00%) Accessibility
3 2 (2.00%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 2 (2.00%) GDPR
3 2 (2.00%) GxP
3 2 (2.00%) WCAG
4 1 (1.00%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (1.00%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (1.00%) ISO 20022
4 1 (1.00%) ISO 8583
4 1 (1.00%) PCI DSS
4 1 (1.00%) PERC
4 1 (1.00%) PMO
4 1 (1.00%) PSD2
4 1 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (1.00%) SEPA
4 1 (1.00%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (1.00%) Solvency II
System Software
1 14 (14.00%) Docker
2 3 (3.00%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.00%) GridGain
3 1 (1.00%) Varnish
3 1 (1.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (13.00%) Kubernetes
2 7 (7.00%) Terraform
3 6 (6.00%) Grafana
3 6 (6.00%) Prometheus
4 3 (3.00%) Ansible
5 1 (1.00%) Argo
5 1 (1.00%) Puppet
5 1 (1.00%) Salt
Vendors
1 14 (14.00%) Oracle
2 13 (13.00%) Microsoft
3 5 (5.00%) Citrix
3 5 (5.00%) Databricks
3 5 (5.00%) SAP
3 5 (5.00%) Workday
4 4 (4.00%) Sitecore
5 3 (3.00%) Salesforce
6 2 (2.00%) Adobe
6 2 (2.00%) Cisco
6 2 (2.00%) Fortinet
6 2 (2.00%) Google
7 1 (1.00%) Atlassian
7 1 (1.00%) Bloomberg
7 1 (1.00%) Cognizant
7 1 (1.00%) Informatica
7 1 (1.00%) ION Trading
7 1 (1.00%) Reuters
7 1 (1.00%) Sybase
7 1 (1.00%) VMware