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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 53 42
Rank change year-on-year +10 -11 +27
Contract jobs citing QA 103 70 97
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 4.21% 3.97% 4.58%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 24.29% 21.60% 26.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 48 76
10th Percentile £394 £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 £795 £852 £709
Central London median daily rate £550 £521 £550
% change year-on-year +5.67% -5.36% -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 424 324 365
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 17.31% 18.38% 17.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 290 227 256
10th Percentile £363 £372 £363
25th Percentile £451 £456 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £668 £708 £650
90th Percentile £764 £800 £770
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 1 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 6 (5.83%) Confluence
2 2 (1.94%) CMS
2 2 (1.94%) IIS
3 1 (0.97%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.97%) Apache
3 1 (0.97%) nginx
3 1 (0.97%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.97%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (7.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.94%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (3.88%) Workday HCM
2 1 (0.97%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.97%) Magento
2 1 (0.97%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.97%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.97%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.97%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.97%) SAP Payroll
2 1 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 20 (19.42%) Azure
2 11 (10.68%) GitHub
3 10 (9.71%) AWS
4 8 (7.77%) Power Platform
5 7 (6.80%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (5.83%) GitHub Actions
7 5 (4.85%) Serverless
8 4 (3.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 4 (3.88%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 4 (3.88%) GitHub Copilot
8 4 (3.88%) SuccessFactors
9 3 (2.91%) Amazon Kinesis
9 3 (2.91%) Amazon S3
9 3 (2.91%) AWS Lambda
9 3 (2.91%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.94%) Amazon EC2
10 2 (1.94%) Azure API Management
10 2 (1.94%) Azure Functions
10 2 (1.94%) GCP
10 2 (1.94%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.88%) WAN
1 4 (3.88%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (2.91%) Internet
2 3 (2.91%) LAN
3 2 (1.94%) Firewall
3 2 (1.94%) Intranet
4 1 (0.97%) DHCP
4 1 (0.97%) DNS
4 1 (0.97%) MPLS
4 1 (0.97%) Multicast
4 1 (0.97%) Reverse Proxy
4 1 (0.97%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.97%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.97%) VPN
4 1 (0.97%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (11.65%) SQL Server
2 8 (7.77%) NoSQL
3 7 (6.80%) Oracle Database
4 5 (4.85%) Power BI
5 4 (3.88%) DynamoDB
5 4 (3.88%) MongoDB
5 4 (3.88%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (2.91%) Apache Cassandra
6 3 (2.91%) Metadata
6 3 (2.91%) Relational Database
7 2 (1.94%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (1.94%) MySQL
7 2 (1.94%) RDBMS
7 2 (1.94%) Redis
7 2 (1.94%) SQLPlus
8 1 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.97%) Big Data
8 1 (0.97%) GIS
8 1 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.97%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (15.53%) JIRA
2 12 (11.65%) Git
3 10 (9.71%) Jenkins
4 8 (7.77%) GitLab
4 8 (7.77%) Selenium
5 4 (3.88%) Cypress.io
5 4 (3.88%) Maven
5 4 (3.88%) REST Assured
5 4 (3.88%) TeamCity
6 3 (2.91%) Artifactory
6 3 (2.91%) Gradle
6 3 (2.91%) Zephyr
7 2 (1.94%) Appium
7 2 (1.94%) Bitbucket
7 2 (1.94%) Gatling
7 2 (1.94%) JUnit
7 2 (1.94%) Postman
7 2 (1.94%) webpack
8 1 (0.97%) JMeter
8 1 (0.97%) XCUITest
General
1 33 (32.04%) Finance
1 33 (32.04%) Social Skills
2 22 (21.36%) Banking
3 16 (15.53%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (9.71%) Public Sector
5 6 (5.83%) Military
6 5 (4.85%) Manufacturing
7 4 (3.88%) Publishing
8 3 (2.91%) Front Office
8 3 (2.91%) Investment Banking
8 3 (2.91%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (2.91%) Retail
9 2 (1.94%) Back Office
9 2 (1.94%) Corporate Banking
9 2 (1.94%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.94%) Law
9 2 (1.94%) Marketing
9 2 (1.94%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (1.94%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 25 (24.27%) Developer
2 21 (20.39%) Analyst
3 14 (13.59%) Senior
4 12 (11.65%) Lead
5 10 (9.71%) QA Engineer
6 8 (7.77%) Java Developer
7 7 (6.80%) C# Developer
8 6 (5.83%) Business Analyst
8 6 (5.83%) Data Analyst
8 6 (5.83%) Full-Stack Developer
9 5 (4.85%) Architect
9 5 (4.85%) Lead Developer
9 5 (4.85%) Lead Full-Stack Developer
9 5 (4.85%) Senior Developer
9 5 (4.85%) Senior Java Developer
10 4 (3.88%) Automation Engineer
10 4 (3.88%) Report Analyst
10 4 (3.88%) Workday Analyst
11 3 (2.91%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 3 (2.91%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (10.68%) .NET
2 10 (9.71%) REST
3 8 (7.77%) Playwright
4 7 (6.80%) .NET Framework
4 7 (6.80%) Kafka
4 7 (6.80%) Spring
4 7 (6.80%) Spring Boot
5 5 (4.85%) GraphQL
5 5 (4.85%) RESTful
6 4 (3.88%) HTML
6 4 (3.88%) OpenTelemetry
7 3 (2.91%) AngularJS
7 3 (2.91%) ASP.NET
7 3 (2.91%) ASP.NET Web Forms
7 3 (2.91%) CSS
7 3 (2.91%) Gherkin
7 3 (2.91%) Middleware
7 3 (2.91%) Node.js
7 3 (2.91%) React
7 3 (2.91%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.71%) Product Ownership
2 8 (7.77%) Cloud Native
3 4 (3.88%) AI Agents
3 4 (3.88%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (3.88%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (3.88%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.91%) Data Structures
4 3 (2.91%) Virtual Team
5 2 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.94%) Data Centre
5 2 (1.94%) Fixed Income
5 2 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (1.94%) Freedom of Information
5 2 (1.94%) Life Science
5 2 (1.94%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.94%) Operational Technology
5 2 (1.94%) Replication
6 1 (0.97%) PKI
6 1 (0.97%) PMI
6 1 (0.97%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.77%) Linux
2 7 (6.80%) Unix
3 6 (5.83%) Windows
3 6 (5.83%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.97%) Android
4 1 (0.97%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (24.27%) Test Automation
2 24 (23.30%) Agile
3 23 (22.33%) CI/CD
4 22 (21.36%) Validation
5 21 (20.39%) DevOps
6 20 (19.42%) Stakeholder Management
7 17 (16.50%) AI
8 14 (13.59%) Roadmaps
9 13 (12.62%) Analytics
9 13 (12.62%) Scrum
9 13 (12.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 12 (11.65%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (11.65%) Data Analysis
10 12 (11.65%) Problem-Solving
11 11 (10.68%) Containerisation
11 11 (10.68%) SDLC
12 10 (9.71%) Decision-Making
12 10 (9.71%) Risk Management
12 10 (9.71%) User Experience
13 9 (8.74%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 28 (27.18%) SQL
2 19 (18.45%) Python
3 13 (12.62%) Java
4 12 (11.65%) C#
5 9 (8.74%) PL/SQL
6 7 (6.80%) JavaScript
7 5 (4.85%) T-SQL
7 5 (4.85%) TypeScript
8 2 (1.94%) Bash
8 2 (1.94%) C
8 2 (1.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (1.94%) Korn
8 2 (1.94%) Kotlin
8 2 (1.94%) ProC
8 2 (1.94%) Scala
9 1 (0.97%) PHP
9 1 (0.97%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.97%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 17 (16.50%) Security Cleared
2 13 (12.62%) SC Cleared
3 11 (10.68%) Degree
4 2 (1.94%) CSPO
4 2 (1.94%) DV Cleared
5 1 (0.97%) APMP
5 1 (0.97%) CBAP
5 1 (0.97%) CCIE
5 1 (0.97%) CCNP
5 1 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (0.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.97%) IIBA
5 1 (0.97%) ISTQB
5 1 (0.97%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.97%) PMI Certification
5 1 (0.97%) PMP
5 1 (0.97%) RIBA
5 1 (0.97%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (11.65%) Data Quality
2 6 (5.83%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.94%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 2 (1.94%) GDPR
3 2 (1.94%) GxP
3 2 (1.94%) WCAG
4 1 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.97%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (0.97%) ISO 20022
4 1 (0.97%) ISO 8583
4 1 (0.97%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.97%) PERC
4 1 (0.97%) PMO
4 1 (0.97%) PSD2
4 1 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.97%) SEPA
4 1 (0.97%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (0.97%) Solvency II
System Software
1 14 (13.59%) Docker
2 3 (2.91%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.97%) GridGain
3 1 (0.97%) Varnish
3 1 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (12.62%) Kubernetes
2 7 (6.80%) Terraform
3 6 (5.83%) Grafana
3 6 (5.83%) Prometheus
4 3 (2.91%) Ansible
5 1 (0.97%) Argo
5 1 (0.97%) Puppet
5 1 (0.97%) Salt
Vendors
1 14 (13.59%) Oracle
2 13 (12.62%) Microsoft
3 5 (4.85%) Citrix
3 5 (4.85%) Databricks
3 5 (4.85%) SAP
3 5 (4.85%) Workday
4 4 (3.88%) Sitecore
5 3 (2.91%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.94%) Adobe
6 2 (1.94%) Cisco
6 2 (1.94%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.94%) Google
7 1 (0.97%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.97%) Bloomberg
7 1 (0.97%) Cognizant
7 1 (0.97%) Informatica
7 1 (0.97%) ION Trading
7 1 (0.97%) Reuters
7 1 (0.97%) Sybase
7 1 (0.97%) VMware