QA Contract Job Trends in the East Midlands

Quality Assurance (QA)
England > East Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the East Midlands requiring QA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 37 53
Rank change year-on-year -10 +16 -14
Contract jobs citing QA 38 33 13
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands 2.86% 4.16% 1.65%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 24.84% 23.40% 12.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 28 10
10th Percentile £248 £159 £312
25th Percentile £398 £304 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £375 £440
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -14.77% +4.76%
75th Percentile £484 £459 £544
90th Percentile £507 £483 £796
England median daily rate £475 £475 £488
% change year-on-year - -2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 2 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £12.76 - -
Median hourly rate £16.13 £15.12 -
Median % change year-on-year +6.68% - -
75th Percentile £16.46 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £31.46 £15.96 £13.26
% change year-on-year +97.12% +20.36% -73.48%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
East Midlands

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 East Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 153 141 103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands 11.50% 17.78% 13.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 85 111 57
10th Percentile £241 £300 £263
25th Percentile £400 £358 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £415 £495
Median % change year-on-year +14.46% -16.16% +10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £473 £600
90th Percentile £641 £538 £731
England median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 7 6
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.12 -
25th Percentile £13.32 £17.69 £12.75
Median hourly rate £16.13 £20.83 £13.51
Median % change year-on-year -22.56% +54.18% -33.30%
75th Percentile £16.46 £25.11 £35.25
90th Percentile £21.22 £29.88 £48.63
England median hourly rate £33.00 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year +1.54% -1.72% -10.01%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the East Midlands

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

QA job vacancy trend in the East Midlands

QA
Daily Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in the East Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in the East Midlands over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the East Midlands

QA
Hourly Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA

QA
Contract Job Locations in the East Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the East Midlands region over the 6 months to 22 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Derbyshire +4 15 £450 +163.16% 8
Leicestershire -4 9 £415 +213.61% 18
Northamptonshire +7 8 £475 +26.67% 5
Lincolnshire - 5 £328 - 17
Nottinghamshire -23 1 - - 28
QA
England

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East Midlands 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 2 (5.26%) Umbraco
2 1 (2.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (26.32%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (10.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (10.53%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (2.63%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (2.63%) Lorenzo
1 1 (2.63%) Payment Gateway
1 1 (2.63%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.26%) Lucidchart
2 1 (2.63%) Azure
2 1 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (2.63%) Figma
2 1 (2.63%) GitHub
2 1 (2.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.63%) HTTP
1 1 (2.63%) HTTPS
1 1 (2.63%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.63%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (2.63%) Power BI
1 1 (2.63%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (5.26%) JIRA
2 1 (2.63%) Balsamiq
2 1 (2.63%) Postman
2 1 (2.63%) Selenium
General
1 11 (28.95%) Retail
2 10 (26.32%) Social Skills
3 6 (15.79%) Finance
3 6 (15.79%) Manufacturing
3 6 (15.79%) Police
3 6 (15.79%) Public Sector
4 4 (10.53%) Banking
4 4 (10.53%) Electronics
5 3 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 5 (13.16%) Analyst
1 5 (13.16%) Hardware Technician
2 4 (10.53%) Senior
3 3 (7.89%) Electronics Technician
3 3 (7.89%) QA Manager
3 3 (7.89%) Service Manager
4 2 (5.26%) Business Analyst
4 2 (5.26%) Configuration Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) Project Manager
4 2 (5.26%) QA Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) SAP Analyst
4 2 (5.26%) Senior Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Mechanical Engineer
5 1 (2.63%) Microsoft Engineer
5 1 (2.63%) QC Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Quality Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) SAP Business Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Senior Quality Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Senior Technical Business Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.63%) OpenAPI
1 1 (2.63%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.16%) EPoS
2 2 (5.26%) Product Ownership
3 1 (2.63%) Contactless
3 1 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.63%) Device Driver
3 1 (2.63%) Driving Licence
3 1 (2.63%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (2.63%) EMV
3 1 (2.63%) Mobile App
3 1 (2.63%) NHS
3 1 (2.63%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 2 (5.26%) Windows
2 1 (2.63%) Apple iOS
2 1 (2.63%) Linux
2 1 (2.63%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (28.95%) Logistics
2 9 (23.68%) Problem-Solving
3 6 (15.79%) Functional Testing
4 5 (13.16%) Continuous Improvement
4 5 (13.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 4 (10.53%) Agile
5 4 (10.53%) Anti-Money Laundering
5 4 (10.53%) KYC
5 4 (10.53%) Process Improvement
5 4 (10.53%) Project Governance
5 4 (10.53%) Risk Assessment
5 4 (10.53%) Stakeholder Management
5 4 (10.53%) Telematics
5 4 (10.53%) User Acceptance Testing
5 4 (10.53%) Validation
6 3 (7.89%) Decision-Making
6 3 (7.89%) Performance Metrics
6 3 (7.89%) Root Cause Analysis
6 3 (7.89%) Test Scripting
7 2 (5.26%) Defect Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.63%) C++
1 1 (2.63%) PowerShell
1 1 (2.63%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (15.79%) DBS Check
1 6 (15.79%) Degree
2 1 (2.63%) SC Cleared
2 1 (2.63%) Security Cleared
2 1 (2.63%) Six Sigma Green Belt
2 1 (2.63%) Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.63%) Accessibility
1 1 (2.63%) ISO 8583
1 1 (2.63%) PCI DSS
1 1 (2.63%) PMO
System Software
1 6 (15.79%) Firmware
2 1 (2.63%) BitLocker
2 1 (2.63%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (2.63%) SCCM
Vendors
1 7 (18.42%) Microsoft
2 5 (13.16%) Apple
3 3 (7.89%) CheckPoint
3 3 (7.89%) SAP
4 1 (2.63%) Dell
4 1 (2.63%) HP
4 1 (2.63%) JD Edwards
4 1 (2.63%) MEDITECH
4 1 (2.63%) Oracle
4 1 (2.63%) ServiceNow