QA Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Quality Assurance (QA)
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring QA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 41 39
Rank change year-on-year -13 -2 +30
Contract jobs citing QA 39 39 60
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 3.29% 3.72% 3.87%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 19.90% 26.71% 27.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 32 56
10th Percentile £300 £314 £397
25th Percentile £311 £388 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £338 £463 £519
Median % change year-on-year -27.03% -10.84% +10.96%
75th Percentile £484 £617 £694
90th Percentile £553 £700 £706
North West median daily rate £402 £476 £500
% change year-on-year -15.50% -4.85% +17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 0
10th Percentile £40.00 - -
25th Percentile £49.25 - -
Median hourly rate £65.00 - -
75th Percentile £71.25 - -
90th Percentile £73.00 - -
North West median hourly rate £63.40 - £69.59
% change year-on-year - - +121.40%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 196 146 222
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 16.54% 13.94% 14.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 147 96 152
10th Percentile £311 £337 £325
25th Percentile £353 £406 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £433 £469 £519
Median % change year-on-year -7.63% -9.64% +9.21%
75th Percentile £550 £591 £627
90th Percentile £625 £700 £724
North West median daily rate £445 £475 £519
% change year-on-year -6.32% -8.43% +9.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 6 5
10th Percentile £40.00 £14.03 -
25th Percentile £49.38 £16.11 £12.84
Median hourly rate £57.50 £22.63 £16.50
Median % change year-on-year +154.14% +37.12% -13.16%
75th Percentile £66.25 £29.38 £61.25
90th Percentile £72.25 £29.75 £63.50
North West median hourly rate £53.89 £24.18 £20.46
% change year-on-year +122.86% +18.18% -58.13%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

QA job vacancy trend in Manchester

QA
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing QA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing QA

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in Manchester over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in Manchester

QA
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing QA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing QA

QA
Hourly Rate Histogram in Manchester

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing QA in Manchester over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for QA in Manchester

QA
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 18 January 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
Bolton - 3 - - 7
QA
North West

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 1 (2.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (20.51%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (2.56%) BambooHR
1 1 (2.56%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (2.56%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 12 (30.77%) Power Platform
2 10 (25.64%) Azure
3 9 (23.08%) Google Tag Manager
4 8 (20.51%) GCP
4 8 (20.51%) Google Analytics
5 2 (5.13%) AWS
5 2 (5.13%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (5.13%) PowerApps
6 1 (2.56%) Azure Data Factory
6 1 (2.56%) Azure Logic Apps
6 1 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (2.56%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 1 (2.56%) Lucidchart
6 1 (2.56%) OCI
6 1 (2.56%) Power Automate
6 1 (2.56%) Siteimprove
6 1 (2.56%) Smartsheet
6 1 (2.56%) SuccessFactors
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (25.64%) Power BI
2 8 (20.51%) BigQuery
2 8 (20.51%) Looker
3 1 (2.56%) MySQL
3 1 (2.56%) Oracle Database
3 1 (2.56%) RDBMS
3 1 (2.56%) Relational Database
3 1 (2.56%) SQL Server
3 1 (2.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (5.13%) GitLab
2 1 (2.56%) Atlassian Bamboo
2 1 (2.56%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (2.56%) Cucumber
2 1 (2.56%) Cypress.io
2 1 (2.56%) fastlane
2 1 (2.56%) Gradle
2 1 (2.56%) IntelliJ
2 1 (2.56%) JIRA
2 1 (2.56%) Selenium
2 1 (2.56%) XCTest
General
1 15 (38.46%) Social Skills
2 10 (25.64%) Public Sector
3 7 (17.95%) Finance
4 4 (10.26%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (10.26%) Banking
4 4 (10.26%) Manufacturing
5 3 (7.69%) Electronics
5 3 (7.69%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (5.13%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (5.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (5.13%) Law
6 2 (5.13%) Legal
7 1 (2.56%) Publishing
7 1 (2.56%) Retail
7 1 (2.56%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 12 (30.77%) Analyst
2 6 (15.38%) Performance Analyst
3 5 (12.82%) Data Analyst
3 5 (12.82%) Senior
3 5 (12.82%) Test Engineer
4 4 (10.26%) Test Manager
5 3 (7.69%) Lead
5 3 (7.69%) Test Leader
5 3 (7.69%) Tester
6 2 (5.13%) Developer
6 2 (5.13%) Java Engineer
6 2 (5.13%) Java Software Engineer
6 2 (5.13%) Manual Tester
6 2 (5.13%) Project Manager
6 2 (5.13%) QA Engineer
6 2 (5.13%) SAP Manager
6 2 (5.13%) SAP Test Manager
6 2 (5.13%) Senior Analyst
6 2 (5.13%) Senior Performance Analyst
6 2 (5.13%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (10.26%) REST
2 3 (7.69%) Spring
2 3 (7.69%) Spring Boot
3 2 (5.13%) GraphQL
4 1 (2.56%) AngularJS
4 1 (2.56%) CSS
4 1 (2.56%) HTML
4 1 (2.56%) JSON
4 1 (2.56%) JSON Schema
4 1 (2.56%) Kafka
4 1 (2.56%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (2.56%) Playwright
4 1 (2.56%) React
4 1 (2.56%) SwiftUI
4 1 (2.56%) UIKit
Miscellaneous
1 3 (7.69%) Low-Code
2 2 (5.13%) AS400
2 2 (5.13%) Cloud Native
2 2 (5.13%) Distributed Systems
2 2 (5.13%) iSeries
3 1 (2.56%) Data Centre
3 1 (2.56%) Greenfield Project
3 1 (2.56%) Legacy Applications
3 1 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.56%) Life Science
3 1 (2.56%) Mainframe
3 1 (2.56%) Management Information System
3 1 (2.56%) Mobile App
3 1 (2.56%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.56%) Product Ownership
3 1 (2.56%) Renewable Energy
3 1 (2.56%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.56%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (53.85%) Agile
2 12 (30.77%) Test Automation
3 11 (28.21%) Data Analysis
3 11 (28.21%) User Experience
4 10 (25.64%) Analytics
4 10 (25.64%) Business Intelligence
4 10 (25.64%) Performance Measurement
5 9 (23.08%) Digital Transformation Programme
6 8 (20.51%) Validation
7 7 (17.95%) Actionable Insight
7 7 (17.95%) Continuous Improvement
7 7 (17.95%) Data Privacy
7 7 (17.95%) Service Design
7 7 (17.95%) User Research
8 6 (15.38%) Dashboard Development
8 6 (15.38%) Mentoring
8 6 (15.38%) Performance Analysis
8 6 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (15.38%) Stakeholder Management
8 6 (15.38%) Statistical Analysis
Programming Languages
1 5 (12.82%) SQL
2 3 (7.69%) Java
3 2 (5.13%) JavaScript
3 2 (5.13%) TypeScript
4 1 (2.56%) C#
4 1 (2.56%) Kotlin
4 1 (2.56%) Objective-C
4 1 (2.56%) PL/SQL
4 1 (2.56%) Swift
Qualifications
1 4 (10.26%) Security Cleared
2 3 (7.69%) SC Cleared
3 2 (5.13%) Degree
4 1 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.56%) CCA
4 1 (2.56%) ISTQB
4 1 (2.56%) PMI Certification
4 1 (2.56%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (35.90%) Accessibility
2 8 (20.51%) Data Quality
3 2 (5.13%) GDPR
4 1 (2.56%) PERC
4 1 (2.56%) PMBOK
4 1 (2.56%) PMO
4 1 (2.56%) WCAG
Systems Management
1 2 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.56%) Grafana
Vendors
1 12 (30.77%) Microsoft
2 9 (23.08%) Google
3 3 (7.69%) SAP
4 1 (2.56%) CA Agile Central
4 1 (2.56%) Facebook
4 1 (2.56%) IBM
4 1 (2.56%) Oracle
4 1 (2.56%) Salesforce
4 1 (2.56%) Workday