QA Automation Contract Job Trends in the North West

Quality Assurance (QA) Automation
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring QA Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 138 - 136
Rank change year-on-year - - +31
Contract jobs citing QA Automation 3 0 1
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.12% - 0.038%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.14% - 0.042%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £312 - -
25th Percentile £313 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £315 - £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.26%
75th Percentile £501 - -
90th Percentile £613 - -
England median daily rate £475 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -13.64% +2.33% +13.88%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

QA Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,177 1,870 2,360
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.60% 86.25% 89.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,423 1,054 1,607
10th Percentile £213 £275 £287
25th Percentile £358 £390 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £656 £656 £681
England median daily rate £506 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.62% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 108 152
10th Percentile £16.38 £16.00 £16.03
25th Percentile £20.44 £21.20 £18.00
Median hourly rate £34.50 £32.01 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.78% -9.83% +37.54%
75th Percentile £55.00 £51.91 £46.35
90th Percentile £70.00 £68.65 £65.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.25
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.90% +18.63%

QA Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

QA Automation job vacancy trend in the North West

QA Automation
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing QA Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing QA Automation

QA Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA Automation in the North West over the 6 months to 14 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for QA Automation in the North West

QA Automation
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA Automation within the North West region over the 6 months to 14 December 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
Manchester - 2 £313 -
Cheshire - 1 £675 -
QA Automation
England

QA Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 (33.33%) Confluence
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (33.33%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
1 1 (33.33%) OneDrive
Development Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Appium
1 1 (33.33%) Jenkins
1 1 (33.33%) JIRA
1 1 (33.33%) Selenium
General
1 3 (100.00%) Analytical Skills
1 3 (100.00%) Finance
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) Automation Engineer
1 2 (66.67%) QA Automation Engineer
1 2 (66.67%) QA Engineer
2 1 (33.33%) Mobile Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Enterprise Software
1 1 (33.33%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 1 (33.33%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (66.67%) Deadline-Driven
2 2 (66.67%) Test Automation
2 2 (66.67%) Time Management
3 1 (33.33%) Agile
3 1 (33.33%) Agile Project Management
3 1 (33.33%) API Testing
3 1 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
3 1 (33.33%) Exploratory Testing
3 1 (33.33%) Kanban
3 1 (33.33%) Project Management
3 1 (33.33%) Scaled Agile Framework
3 1 (33.33%) Scrum
3 1 (33.33%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) Java
1 1 (33.33%) JavaScript
1 1 (33.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (100.00%) QA
Vendors
1 2 (66.67%) Microsoft
2 1 (33.33%) UiPath