Software Quality Assurance Contract Job Trends in the South East

Software Quality Assurance
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Software Quality Assurance skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 212 146 -
Rank change year-on-year -66 - -
Contract jobs citing Software Quality Assurance 1 3 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.017% 0.10% -
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.100% 0.59% -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £525 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 - -
75th Percentile £575 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £550 £195 £408
% change year-on-year +182.05% -52.15% -2.69%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
South East

Software Quality Assurance 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 1,003 512 860
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 17.33% 17.10% 15.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 692 303 444
10th Percentile £309 £200 £232
25th Percentile £413 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £618 £600 £575
90th Percentile £700 £650 £639
England median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 32 65
10th Percentile £17.63 £21.32 £10.82
25th Percentile £35.50 £24.66 £15.38
Median hourly rate £60.00 £46.30 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.59% +68.36% -11.29%
75th Percentile £82.25 £62.24 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.40 £77.27 £65.00
England median hourly rate £30.58 £34.75 £21.12
% change year-on-year -12.00% +64.57% -50.32%

Software Quality Assurance
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Quality Assurance relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Software Quality Assurance job vacancy trend in the South East

Software Quality Assurance
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Quality Assurance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Quality Assurance

Software Quality Assurance
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Quality Assurance.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Software Quality Assurance

Software Quality Assurance
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Quality Assurance within the South East region over the 6 months to 26 April 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
Hampshire - 1 £550 -
Software Quality Assurance
England

Software Quality Assurance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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:

Development Applications
1 1 (100.00%) GitLab
1 1 (100.00%) Jenkins
1 1 (100.00%) JIRA
1 1 (100.00%) JUnit
1 1 (100.00%) Selenium
1 1 (100.00%) TestNG
General
1 1 (100.00%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (100.00%) QA Engineer
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (100.00%) Agile
1 1 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 1 (100.00%) Code Quality
1 1 (100.00%) Computer Science
1 1 (100.00%) Data Validation
1 1 (100.00%) Performance Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Regression Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Scenario Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Scrum
1 1 (100.00%) Test Automation
1 1 (100.00%) Test Scripting
1 1 (100.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1 (100.00%) Java
1 1 (100.00%) Python
1 1 (100.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 1 (100.00%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (100.00%) Degree
1 1 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (100.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (100.00%) QA