QA Contracts in the South West

Quality Assurance (QA)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West 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 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 65 58 98
Rank change year-on-year -7 +40 +19
Contract jobs citing QA 46 107 72
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 2.74% 3.34% 1.99%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 16.37% 18.64% 17.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 66 58
10th Percentile £352 £185 £200
25th Percentile £451 £475 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £453
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +21.55% -7.65%
75th Percentile £572 £706 £569
90th Percentile £775 £769 £679
England median daily rate £478 £516 £510
% change year-on-year -7.39% +1.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 17 3
10th Percentile £75.80 £12.35 £24.40
25th Percentile £76.99 £12.43 £34.00
Median hourly rate £78.98 £14.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +464.14% -72.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £80.97 £68.00 -
90th Percentile £82.16 £75.66 -
England median hourly rate £50.00 £15.75 £22.49
% change year-on-year +217.46% -29.95% -52.66%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
South West

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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 281 574 412
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 16.75% 17.94% 11.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 336 296
10th Percentile £306 £263 £200
25th Percentile £400 £409 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year - +1.94% +7.63%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 57 44
10th Percentile £36.50 £12.41 £17.65
25th Percentile £62.50 £14.00 £49.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £64.57
Median % change year-on-year +44.44% -30.31% -5.84%
75th Percentile £68.75 £68.75 £79.81
90th Percentile £77.96 £72.53 £83.40
England median hourly rate £34.75 £22.34 £41.50
% change year-on-year +55.55% -46.17% +50.91%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Job postings citing QA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Job vacancy trend for QA in the South West

QA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing QA in the South West.

Daily rate trend for QA in the South West

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in the South West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the South West

QA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing QA in the South West.

Hourly rate trend for QA in the South West

QA
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the South West region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Bristol +2 13 £500 -25.93% 50
Wiltshire +36 9 £515 -2.19% 10
Devon +14 7 £500 +86.44% 19
Dorset +2 6 £525 -31.15% 13
Gloucestershire 0 6 £455 -32.59% 46
Somerset -5 4 £600 +50.94% 23
QA
England

QA
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West 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 2 (4.35%) Confluence
1 2 (4.35%) SharePoint
2 1 (2.17%) Apache
2 1 (2.17%) Appian
Applications
1 1 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 10 (21.74%) Azure
2 4 (8.70%) Azure Machine Learning
3 3 (6.52%) AWS
3 3 (6.52%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (4.35%) GCP
4 2 (4.35%) Power Automate
4 2 (4.35%) Power Platform
4 2 (4.35%) PowerApps
4 2 (4.35%) SuccessFactors
5 1 (2.17%) AWS Lambda
5 1 (2.17%) Azure Pipelines
5 1 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (2.17%) Prefect
5 1 (2.17%) SaaS
5 1 (2.17%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 3 (6.52%) 2G
1 3 (6.52%) 4G
1 3 (6.52%) 5G
1 3 (6.52%) Radio Access Network
1 3 (6.52%) Wireshark
2 2 (4.35%) Wireless
3 1 (2.17%) LAN
3 1 (2.17%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.52%) Geospatial Data
2 2 (4.35%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (4.35%) Metadata
3 1 (2.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (6.52%) JIRA
1 3 (6.52%) Selenium
2 1 (2.17%) Artifactory
2 1 (2.17%) Cypress.io
2 1 (2.17%) GitLab
2 1 (2.17%) MSI
2 1 (2.17%) TestRail
General
1 21 (45.65%) Social Skills
2 10 (21.74%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (17.39%) Public Sector
4 7 (15.22%) Finance
5 5 (10.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (8.70%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (6.52%) Manufacturing
7 3 (6.52%) Military
8 2 (4.35%) Electronics
8 2 (4.35%) Legal
8 2 (4.35%) Multimedia
9 1 (2.17%) Aerospace
9 1 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (2.17%) Local Government
9 1 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (2.17%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 6 (13.04%) Senior
2 5 (10.87%) Architect
2 5 (10.87%) Developer
3 4 (8.70%) Analyst
3 4 (8.70%) QA Engineer
4 3 (6.52%) Network Design Specialist
4 3 (6.52%) Network Specialist
4 3 (6.52%) Solutions Architect
5 2 (4.35%) Applications Developer
5 2 (4.35%) DevOps Engineer
5 2 (4.35%) Governance Analyst
5 2 (4.35%) Governance Manager
5 2 (4.35%) Programme Analyst
5 2 (4.35%) Programme Manager
5 2 (4.35%) Risk Manager
5 2 (4.35%) Senior Developer
5 2 (4.35%) Software Engineer
5 2 (4.35%) Test Analyst
5 2 (4.35%) Tester
5 2 (4.35%) Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (6.52%) AngularJS
1 3 (6.52%) CSS
1 3 (6.52%) HTML
1 3 (6.52%) jQuery
1 3 (6.52%) RESTful
2 2 (4.35%) Middleware
2 2 (4.35%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (2.17%) .NET
3 1 (2.17%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (2.17%) Django
3 1 (2.17%) Metaflow
3 1 (2.17%) NumPy
3 1 (2.17%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 3 (6.52%) Algorithms
1 3 (6.52%) e-Learning
2 1 (2.17%) CMDB
2 1 (2.17%) Data Centre
2 1 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (2.17%) EPoS
2 1 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
2 1 (2.17%) Mobile App
2 1 (2.17%) Onboarding
2 1 (2.17%) Product Ownership
2 1 (2.17%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 3 (6.52%) Windows
2 1 (2.17%) Android
2 1 (2.17%) Apple iOS
2 1 (2.17%) Linux
2 1 (2.17%) Windows 10
2 1 (2.17%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (43.48%) Agile
2 11 (23.91%) Continuous Improvement
2 11 (23.91%) Software Engineering
3 10 (21.74%) Scrum
4 9 (19.57%) Problem-Solving
5 8 (17.39%) User Experience
6 7 (15.22%) CI/CD
6 7 (15.22%) DevOps
6 7 (15.22%) Machine Learning
7 6 (13.04%) Artificial Intelligence
7 6 (13.04%) Data Science
7 6 (13.04%) Roadmaps
7 6 (13.04%) Test Automation
8 5 (10.87%) Software Testing
8 5 (10.87%) Translating Business Requirements
9 4 (8.70%) Business Strategy
9 4 (8.70%) Computer Science
9 4 (8.70%) UX Design
10 3 (6.52%) Business Case
10 3 (6.52%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 9 (19.57%) Python
2 3 (6.52%) JavaScript
2 3 (6.52%) PowerShell
3 1 (2.17%) Bash
3 1 (2.17%) SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (34.78%) Security Cleared
2 12 (26.09%) SC Cleared
3 7 (15.22%) Degree
4 4 (8.70%) Computer Science Degree
4 4 (8.70%) DV Cleared
5 3 (6.52%) ISTQB
5 3 (6.52%) Master's Degree
6 2 (4.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 2 (4.35%) MBA
7 1 (2.17%) APMG
7 1 (2.17%) AWS Certification
7 1 (2.17%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (2.17%) Azure Certification
7 1 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.17%) HNC
7 1 (2.17%) ISEB
7 1 (2.17%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 1 (2.17%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (2.17%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (2.17%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.35%) Data Quality
1 2 (4.35%) ISO 9001
2 1 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 1 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.17%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (2.17%) Docker
1 1 (2.17%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 2 (4.35%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.17%) Ansible
2 1 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (2.17%) SCCM
2 1 (2.17%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (10.87%) Microsoft
2 3 (6.52%) Ericsson
2 3 (6.52%) Nokia
2 3 (6.52%) Oracle
2 3 (6.52%) ServiceNow
3 2 (4.35%) Ariba
3 2 (4.35%) SAP
4 1 (2.17%) Databricks
4 1 (2.17%) ESRI
4 1 (2.17%) Google
4 1 (2.17%) Rapid7
4 1 (2.17%) Red Hat