QA Contracts in England

Quality Assurance (QA)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring QA skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited QA over the 6 months leading up to 30 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 61 65 67
Rank change year-on-year +4 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing QA 966 1,159 1,566
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 3.79% 3.12% 3.31%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 22.98% 23.13% 24.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 683 780 1,143
10th Percentile £281 £310 £325
25th Percentile £375 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £516
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.10% -1.71%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £650
90th Percentile £675 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £469 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -6.20% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 71 32
10th Percentile £12.90 £10.82 £18.50
25th Percentile £13.50 £11.90 £21.24
Median hourly rate £15.96 £14.00 £29.75
Median % change year-on-year +14.00% -52.94% -16.20%
75th Percentile £50.50 £36.13 £50.00
90th Percentile £59.00 £74.00 £59.50
UK median hourly rate £17.66 £14.98 £22.50
% change year-on-year +17.91% -33.42% -39.76%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
England

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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 4,204 5,010 6,409
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.48% 13.49% 13.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,721 3,140 4,337
10th Percentile £270 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 379 231
10th Percentile £15.13 £11.00 £15.21
25th Percentile £21.60 £13.18 £20.25
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.18 £41.04
Median % change year-on-year +34.41% -41.08% +52.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £51.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £84.88 £70.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £31.57 £23.80 £37.50
% change year-on-year +32.63% -36.53% +37.61%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing QA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for QA in England

QA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing QA in England.

Daily rate trend for QA in England

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in England over the 6 months to 30 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for QA in England

QA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing QA in England.

Hourly rate trend for QA in England

QA
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing QA in England over the 6 months to 30 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for QA in England

QA
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the England region over the 6 months to 30 June 2025. 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
London +4 531 £494 -5.95% 3,130
North of England -12 120 £469 -6.20% 1,035
Midlands +17 106 £375 -21.05% 592
South East +12 91 £463 -2.63% 1,079
West Midlands +10 66 £425 -20.93% 354
North West +3 62 £426 -10.89% 605
South West -4 51 £500 -7.83% 448
Yorkshire -12 47 £520 -5.50% 354
East of England +38 42 £479 +27.66% 482
East Midlands +19 40 £370 +13.77% 237
North East +3 11 £450 +9.76% 80
QA
UK

QA
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 55 (5.69%) Confluence
2 20 (2.07%) IIS
3 15 (1.55%) Apache
3 15 (1.55%) SharePoint
4 13 (1.35%) Oracle Workflow
5 10 (1.04%) WebSphere
6 7 (0.72%) Apache Spark
7 6 (0.62%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (0.62%) CICS
8 5 (0.52%) CMS
9 4 (0.41%) Jupyter
9 4 (0.41%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.31%) ArcGIS
10 3 (0.31%) Drupal
11 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.21%) Appian
11 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.21%) MQSeries
12 1 (0.10%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 47 (4.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.66%) MS Visio
3 11 (1.14%) Chatbot
4 9 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.31%) Sketch
6 3 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.31%) Trello
7 2 (0.21%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.21%) MicroStation
7 2 (0.21%) Revit
8 1 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.10%) EViews
8 1 (0.10%) MadCap Flare
8 1 (0.10%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 15 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.93%) Oracle BPM
4 8 (0.83%) Maximo
5 7 (0.72%) OpenText MBPM
6 5 (0.52%) ION Anvil
6 5 (0.52%) Temenos T24
7 4 (0.41%) Oracle Cash Management
7 4 (0.41%) Oracle EBS R12
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Financials
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.21%) Endur
9 2 (0.21%) NEC Housing
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 2 (0.21%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.21%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 156 (16.15%) Azure
2 151 (15.63%) AWS
3 58 (6.00%) Azure DevOps
4 55 (5.69%) GitHub
5 51 (5.28%) GCP
6 41 (4.24%) Power Platform
7 24 (2.48%) Serverless
8 23 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
9 22 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
10 18 (1.86%) SaaS
11 16 (1.66%) AWS Lambda
12 11 (1.14%) Microsoft 365
13 10 (1.04%) Amazon ECS
13 10 (1.04%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (1.04%) Datadog
14 9 (0.93%) Amazon S3
14 9 (0.93%) dbt
14 9 (0.93%) Power Automate
14 9 (0.93%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.45%) Internet
2 12 (1.24%) Firewall
3 9 (0.93%) WAN
4 7 (0.72%) Wireless
5 6 (0.62%) DNS
5 6 (0.62%) LAN
6 5 (0.52%) Network Security
7 4 (0.41%) VPN
8 3 (0.31%) DHCP
8 3 (0.31%) SSL
8 3 (0.31%) Structured Cabling
9 2 (0.21%) DSL
9 2 (0.21%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.21%) Remote Desktop
9 2 (0.21%) SMS
9 2 (0.21%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
10 1 (0.10%) BGP
10 1 (0.10%) EIGRP
10 1 (0.10%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (6.83%) SQL Server
2 31 (3.21%) Power BI
3 29 (3.00%) PostgreSQL
4 25 (2.59%) Oracle Database
5 22 (2.28%) NoSQL
6 19 (1.97%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (1.66%) MySQL
8 14 (1.45%) BigQuery
8 14 (1.45%) Relational Database
8 14 (1.45%) Tableau
9 12 (1.24%) Metadata
10 11 (1.14%) DB2
11 10 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
12 9 (0.93%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.93%) Hadoop
12 9 (0.93%) MongoDB
13 8 (0.83%) Oracle Reports
14 6 (0.62%) GIS
14 6 (0.62%) MS Access
14 6 (0.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 140 (14.49%) JIRA
2 101 (10.46%) Selenium
3 78 (8.07%) Jenkins
4 77 (7.97%) Git
5 51 (5.28%) Cucumber
6 46 (4.76%) Postman
7 45 (4.66%) GitLab
8 37 (3.83%) JMeter
9 32 (3.31%) JUnit
10 29 (3.00%) Cypress.io
11 23 (2.38%) REST Assured
12 20 (2.07%) Maven
13 14 (1.45%) SpecFlow
14 13 (1.35%) Appium
14 13 (1.35%) TestRail
14 13 (1.35%) WebDriver
15 12 (1.24%) Bitbucket
15 12 (1.24%) LoadRunner
16 10 (1.04%) IntelliJ
16 10 (1.04%) WinRunner
General
1 357 (36.96%) Social Skills
2 197 (20.39%) Analytical Skills
3 190 (19.67%) Finance
4 85 (8.80%) Banking
5 63 (6.52%) Public Sector
6 24 (2.48%) Telecoms
7 23 (2.38%) Retail
8 19 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 19 (1.97%) Investment Banking
9 17 (1.76%) Legal
10 16 (1.66%) Back Office
10 16 (1.66%) Pharmaceutical
11 15 (1.55%) Front Office
11 15 (1.55%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
12 14 (1.45%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.45%) Marketing
13 12 (1.24%) Games
13 12 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 157 (16.25%) Analyst
2 123 (12.73%) Developer
3 99 (10.25%) Senior
4 77 (7.97%) Lead
5 72 (7.45%) Business Analyst
5 72 (7.45%) QA Engineer
6 66 (6.83%) Tester
7 42 (4.35%) Test Engineer
8 41 (4.24%) Test Analyst
9 40 (4.14%) Consultant
10 39 (4.04%) Test Manager
11 36 (3.73%) Project Manager
12 32 (3.31%) Architect
12 32 (3.31%) DevOps Engineer
13 30 (3.11%) QA Tester
14 25 (2.59%) QA Analyst
15 24 (2.48%) Automation Tester
16 23 (2.38%) C# Developer
16 23 (2.38%) QA Leader
16 23 (2.38%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (6.73%) .NET
2 52 (5.38%) REST
3 39 (4.04%) React
4 32 (3.31%) Web Services
5 26 (2.69%) HTML
5 26 (2.69%) Playwright
5 26 (2.69%) RESTful
5 26 (2.69%) Spring
6 25 (2.59%) CSS
7 23 (2.38%) Spring Boot
8 22 (2.28%) Node.js
9 21 (2.17%) Kafka
10 20 (2.07%) .NET Framework
11 19 (1.97%) AngularJS
12 18 (1.86%) WPF
13 16 (1.66%) XML
14 15 (1.55%) Middleware
14 15 (1.55%) SOAP
14 15 (1.55%) WinForms
15 14 (1.45%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 63 (6.52%) Product Ownership
2 22 (2.28%) Algorithms
3 20 (2.07%) Onboarding
3 20 (2.07%) Virtual Team
4 19 (1.97%) Cloud Native
5 17 (1.76%) Data Centre
6 16 (1.66%) Management Information System
7 14 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (1.35%) Mobile App
9 12 (1.24%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 11 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (1.04%) Fixed Income
12 9 (0.93%) Derivative
12 9 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (0.83%) Mainframe
13 8 (0.83%) Public Cloud
13 8 (0.83%) Renewable Energy
13 8 (0.83%) SCADA
14 7 (0.72%) Digital Media
14 7 (0.72%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 100 (10.35%) Windows
2 35 (3.62%) Linux
3 18 (1.86%) Unix
4 16 (1.66%) Apple iOS
5 15 (1.55%) Android
5 15 (1.55%) Windows Server
6 11 (1.14%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (0.41%) zOS
9 3 (0.31%) CentOS
9 3 (0.31%) Debian
9 3 (0.31%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.31%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.31%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.21%) Solaris
11 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 372 (38.51%) Agile
2 275 (28.47%) Test Automation
3 253 (26.19%) Problem-Solving
4 195 (20.19%) CI/CD
5 186 (19.25%) DevOps
6 123 (12.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 121 (12.53%) Scrum
8 120 (12.42%) Continuous Improvement
9 117 (12.11%) User Acceptance Testing
10 116 (12.01%) Test Strategy
11 104 (10.77%) Project Management
12 89 (9.21%) Test Scripting
13 87 (9.01%) Migration
14 85 (8.80%) Validation
15 78 (8.07%) SDLC
16 75 (7.76%) Software Testing
17 72 (7.45%) Risk Management
18 70 (7.25%) Manual Testing
19 69 (7.14%) Software Engineering
20 68 (7.04%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 162 (16.77%) Python
1 162 (16.77%) SQL
2 151 (15.63%) Java
3 96 (9.94%) JavaScript
4 88 (9.11%) C#
5 43 (4.45%) TypeScript
6 32 (3.31%) Bash
7 28 (2.90%) VB
8 25 (2.59%) PowerShell
9 22 (2.28%) PL/SQL
10 19 (1.97%) T-SQL
11 15 (1.55%) VBA
12 12 (1.24%) C++
13 11 (1.14%) Shell Script
14 10 (1.04%) PHP
14 10 (1.04%) Scala
15 8 (0.83%) Ruby
16 7 (0.72%) COBOL
16 7 (0.72%) JCL
16 7 (0.72%) Perl
Qualifications
1 178 (18.43%) Security Cleared
2 139 (14.39%) SC Cleared
3 95 (9.83%) Degree
4 42 (4.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.31%) ISTQB
6 27 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 22 (2.28%) AWS Certification
7 22 (2.28%) DV Cleared
8 18 (1.86%) PMP
9 17 (1.76%) Master's Degree
10 15 (1.55%) PMI Certification
11 12 (1.24%) CISSP
12 10 (1.04%) Azure Certification
12 10 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
13 8 (0.83%) CEH
14 6 (0.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 6 (0.62%) GIAC
14 6 (0.62%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 5 (0.52%) CISA
15 5 (0.52%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.21%) Accessibility
1 31 (3.21%) Data Quality
2 14 (1.45%) Software Quality Assurance
3 12 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (1.24%) PMO
4 7 (0.72%) WCAG
5 6 (0.62%) GDPR
5 6 (0.62%) NIST
5 6 (0.62%) SLA
6 5 (0.52%) GxP
6 5 (0.52%) HIPAA
6 5 (0.52%) ISO 9001
6 5 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 4 (0.41%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.31%) COBIT
8 3 (0.31%) EMIR
8 3 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (0.31%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.21%) MISRA
9 2 (0.21%) MISRA C
System Software
1 62 (6.42%) Docker
2 11 (1.14%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.52%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.21%) VirtualBox
5 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.21%) vSphere
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.10%) Time Sharing Option
6 1 (0.10%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
6 1 (0.10%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 52 (5.38%) Kubernetes
2 36 (3.73%) Terraform
3 27 (2.80%) Ansible
4 13 (1.35%) SCCM
5 9 (0.93%) Grafana
5 9 (0.93%) Progress Chef
5 9 (0.93%) Puppet
6 7 (0.72%) HP ALM
6 7 (0.72%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.52%) HP Quality Center
8 4 (0.41%) Kibana
8 4 (0.41%) Salt
9 3 (0.31%) Control-M
9 3 (0.31%) EnCase
9 3 (0.31%) FTK
9 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.31%) Nagios
9 3 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
9 3 (0.31%) RSA Archer
9 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 114 (11.80%) Microsoft
2 75 (7.76%) Oracle
3 35 (3.62%) SAP
4 24 (2.48%) Salesforce
4 24 (2.48%) ServiceNow
5 22 (2.28%) Citrix
6 20 (2.07%) Databricks
7 18 (1.86%) Google
7 18 (1.86%) IBM
8 14 (1.45%) HP
9 11 (1.14%) Informatica
10 9 (0.93%) Adobe
11 8 (0.83%) VMware
11 8 (0.83%) Workday
12 7 (0.72%) Apple
12 7 (0.72%) Cisco
12 7 (0.72%) Dell
12 7 (0.72%) Duck Creek
13 6 (0.62%) OpenText
13 6 (0.62%) Temenos