QA Contracts

Quality Assurance (QA)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies 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 31 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 66 58 77
Rank change year-on-year -8 +19 -8
Contract jobs citing QA 1,051 1,442 1,715
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 3.60% 3.36% 3.06%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 22.59% 24.06% 22.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 727 961 1,227
10th Percentile £280 £310 £320
25th Percentile £384 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £509 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.59% +1.70% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £610 £638
90th Percentile £688 £750 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 87 35
10th Percentile £15.12 £10.82 £10.92
25th Percentile £19.27 £12.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £14.98 £22.49
Median % change year-on-year +250.47% -33.38% -53.40%
75th Percentile £73.13 £27.50 £33.69
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.13 £55.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £13.76 £13.00
% change year-on-year +336.05% +5.85% -75.93%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 4,652 5,994 7,575
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.95% 13.97% 13.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,978 3,792 5,161
10th Percentile £263 £280 £290
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +1.94%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% +7.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 180 402 240
10th Percentile £15.13 £10.96 £13.29
25th Percentile £22.11 £13.20 £18.50
Median hourly rate £33.50 £22.04 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.01% -41.24% +26.05%
75th Percentile £67.50 £47.81 £63.36
90th Percentile £80.28 £68.87 £77.73
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.88 £18.97 £35.00
% change year-on-year +78.60% -45.80% +55.56%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for QA in the UK

QA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for QA in the UK

QA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the UK

QA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for QA in the UK

QA
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing QA over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for QA in the UK

QA
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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
England -7 879 £475 -9.52% 2,053
London -3 479 £500 -4.76% 914
UK excluding London -9 445 £450 -10.00% 1,293
Work from Home -7 339 £495 -1.00% 1,174
North of England -13 116 £475 -5.00% 354
South East 0 93 £463 -5.13% 320
Midlands +15 87 £405 -10.11% 230
North West -7 62 £447 -10.60% 202
Scotland +1 56 £450 - 56
West Midlands +7 54 £425 -19.05% 139
South West -2 45 £500 -9.09% 148
Yorkshire -10 42 £511 -7.05% 103
East Midlands +20 33 £375 +47.06% 90
East of England +31 30 £489 +30.50% 109
North East +6 12 £420 +2.44% 56
Northern Ireland -12 12 £325 - 43
Wales -14 9 £475 -10.84% 52

QA
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 52 (4.95%) Confluence
2 16 (1.52%) IIS
2 16 (1.52%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.14%) Apache
4 10 (0.95%) WebSphere
5 9 (0.86%) Oracle Workflow
6 8 (0.76%) CMS
7 6 (0.57%) WebLogic
8 5 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
8 5 (0.48%) Apache Spark
8 5 (0.48%) CICS
9 4 (0.38%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.38%) Drupal
9 4 (0.38%) Jupyter
9 4 (0.38%) nginx
10 3 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.29%) JBoss
10 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.29%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.29%) WebLogic Portal
Applications
1 50 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (2.00%) MS Visio
3 17 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.95%) Chatbot
4 10 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.38%) Trello
7 3 (0.29%) Sketch
8 2 (0.19%) Notepad++
8 2 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.095%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.095%) EViews
9 1 (0.095%) MadCap Flare
9 1 (0.095%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 31 (2.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.67%) SAP PP
4 5 (0.48%) ION Anvil
4 5 (0.48%) Maximo
4 5 (0.48%) Oracle BPM
4 5 (0.48%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
5 4 (0.38%) Oracle EBS R12
5 4 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.38%) Shopify
6 3 (0.29%) Exstream
6 3 (0.29%) OpenText MBPM
6 3 (0.29%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.29%) SAP CAR
6 3 (0.29%) SAP Retail
6 3 (0.29%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 179 (17.03%) Azure
2 176 (16.75%) AWS
3 68 (6.47%) GitHub
4 66 (6.28%) Azure DevOps
5 62 (5.90%) GCP
6 41 (3.90%) Power Platform
7 33 (3.14%) Serverless
8 29 (2.76%) GitHub Actions
9 22 (2.09%) Dynamics 365
10 21 (2.00%) AWS Lambda
10 21 (2.00%) SaaS
11 15 (1.43%) Microsoft 365
12 11 (1.05%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (0.95%) Amazon SQS
13 10 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (0.95%) BrowserStack
13 10 (0.95%) Datadog
13 10 (0.95%) Snowflake
14 8 (0.76%) Amazon S3
14 8 (0.76%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.33%) Internet
2 11 (1.05%) Firewall
3 9 (0.86%) WAN
4 7 (0.67%) LAN
4 7 (0.67%) Wireless
5 6 (0.57%) VPN
6 5 (0.48%) DNS
6 5 (0.48%) Structured Cabling
7 4 (0.38%) Network Security
7 4 (0.38%) Radio Access Network
7 4 (0.38%) SSL
7 4 (0.38%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.29%) DHCP
8 3 (0.29%) HTTP
8 3 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.19%) DSL
9 2 (0.19%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.19%) IPsec
9 2 (0.19%) Remote Desktop
9 2 (0.19%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (5.99%) SQL Server
2 35 (3.33%) PostgreSQL
3 31 (2.95%) Power BI
4 30 (2.85%) NoSQL
5 27 (2.57%) Oracle Database
6 24 (2.28%) Data Warehouse
7 22 (2.09%) MySQL
8 17 (1.62%) Relational Database
9 12 (1.14%) Metadata
10 11 (1.05%) BigQuery
10 11 (1.05%) Tableau
11 10 (0.95%) Hadoop
11 10 (0.95%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.95%) Oracle Reports
12 8 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (0.76%) DB2
12 8 (0.76%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
13 6 (0.57%) MS Access
13 6 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 141 (13.42%) JIRA
2 110 (10.47%) Selenium
3 95 (9.04%) Git
4 74 (7.04%) Jenkins
5 61 (5.80%) Postman
6 50 (4.76%) Cucumber
7 46 (4.38%) GitLab
7 46 (4.38%) JMeter
8 40 (3.81%) Cypress.io
9 37 (3.52%) REST Assured
10 34 (3.24%) JUnit
11 20 (1.90%) Maven
12 18 (1.71%) TestRail
13 15 (1.43%) Appium
13 15 (1.43%) WebDriver
14 14 (1.33%) LoadRunner
15 12 (1.14%) Bitbucket
15 12 (1.14%) SoapUI
15 12 (1.14%) SpecFlow
16 10 (0.95%) Subversion
General
1 428 (40.72%) Social Skills
2 249 (23.69%) Analytical Skills
3 189 (17.98%) Finance
4 85 (8.09%) Banking
5 80 (7.61%) Public Sector
6 29 (2.76%) Telecoms
7 25 (2.38%) Manufacturing
8 23 (2.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 23 (2.19%) Retail
9 22 (2.09%) Organisational Skills
10 18 (1.71%) Legal
11 17 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
11 17 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
12 15 (1.43%) Investment Banking
12 15 (1.43%) Pharmaceutical
12 15 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
13 14 (1.33%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.33%) Front Office
14 13 (1.24%) Games
14 13 (1.24%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 156 (14.84%) Analyst
2 136 (12.94%) Developer
3 94 (8.94%) Senior
4 92 (8.75%) Lead
5 87 (8.28%) QA Engineer
6 77 (7.33%) Tester
7 67 (6.37%) Business Analyst
8 56 (5.33%) Architect
9 46 (4.38%) Consultant
10 41 (3.90%) QA Tester
11 40 (3.81%) Test Engineer
12 39 (3.71%) Test Manager
13 37 (3.52%) Project Manager
14 35 (3.33%) Test Analyst
15 31 (2.95%) DevOps Engineer
16 29 (2.76%) Data Analyst
16 29 (2.76%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (2.57%) QA Leader
17 27 (2.57%) Test Leader
18 24 (2.28%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (5.71%) .NET
2 45 (4.28%) REST
3 37 (3.52%) React
3 37 (3.52%) RESTful
4 35 (3.33%) Playwright
5 30 (2.85%) Web Services
6 29 (2.76%) HTML
7 28 (2.66%) CSS
8 27 (2.57%) Node.js
9 23 (2.19%) Spring
10 22 (2.09%) JSON
11 21 (2.00%) AngularJS
11 21 (2.00%) XML
12 18 (1.71%) Spring Boot
12 18 (1.71%) WPF
13 17 (1.62%) Kafka
14 16 (1.52%) .NET Framework
15 15 (1.43%) Middleware
15 15 (1.43%) WinForms
16 14 (1.33%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 63 (5.99%) Product Ownership
2 25 (2.38%) Management Information System
3 23 (2.19%) Data Centre
4 22 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
5 21 (2.00%) Algorithms
5 21 (2.00%) Virtual Team
6 20 (1.90%) Cloud Native
6 20 (1.90%) Onboarding
7 17 (1.62%) Mobile App
8 16 (1.52%) Data Structures
9 13 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (1.05%) Life Science
10 11 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
10 11 (1.05%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 10 (0.95%) Derivative
11 10 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (0.95%) Public Cloud
12 9 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (0.86%) Fixed Income
12 9 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 99 (9.42%) Windows
2 36 (3.43%) Linux
3 20 (1.90%) Unix
4 16 (1.52%) Apple iOS
5 15 (1.43%) Android
6 14 (1.33%) Windows 10
7 13 (1.24%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (0.38%) zOS
9 3 (0.29%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.29%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.19%) Solaris
11 1 (0.095%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 373 (35.49%) Agile
2 310 (29.50%) Test Automation
3 294 (27.97%) Problem-Solving
4 210 (19.98%) CI/CD
5 201 (19.12%) DevOps
6 154 (14.65%) Stakeholder Management
7 122 (11.61%) Test Strategy
8 121 (11.51%) Continuous Improvement
9 120 (11.42%) Scrum
10 115 (10.94%) Project Management
11 114 (10.85%) User Acceptance Testing
12 110 (10.47%) Validation
13 107 (10.18%) Migration
14 92 (8.75%) Test Scripting
15 86 (8.18%) Software Testing
16 78 (7.42%) Manual Testing
17 74 (7.04%) Risk Management
17 74 (7.04%) Software Engineering
18 73 (6.95%) Performance Testing
19 70 (6.66%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 178 (16.94%) Python
1 178 (16.94%) SQL
2 167 (15.89%) Java
3 104 (9.90%) JavaScript
4 82 (7.80%) C#
5 52 (4.95%) TypeScript
6 31 (2.95%) PowerShell
7 29 (2.76%) Bash
8 28 (2.66%) VB
9 19 (1.81%) PL/SQL
9 19 (1.81%) VBA
10 16 (1.52%) Scala
11 15 (1.43%) T-SQL
12 14 (1.33%) Shell Script
13 10 (0.95%) Ruby
14 9 (0.86%) C++
15 8 (0.76%) PHP
16 7 (0.67%) Perl
17 6 (0.57%) COBOL
17 6 (0.57%) JCL
Qualifications
1 197 (18.74%) Security Cleared
2 159 (15.13%) SC Cleared
3 120 (11.42%) Degree
4 51 (4.85%) Computer Science Degree
5 39 (3.71%) ISTQB
6 29 (2.76%) AWS Certification
7 27 (2.57%) BPSS Clearance
8 18 (1.71%) DV Cleared
8 18 (1.71%) PMP
9 17 (1.62%) PMI Certification
10 16 (1.52%) Master's Degree
10 16 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (1.24%) Azure Certification
12 10 (0.95%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 10 (0.95%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 7 (0.67%) ISEB
14 6 (0.57%) CISSP
15 5 (0.48%) CEH
15 5 (0.48%) SAP Certification
16 4 (0.38%) Dell Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (4.38%) Data Quality
2 45 (4.28%) Accessibility
3 20 (1.90%) Software Quality Assurance
4 16 (1.52%) PMO
5 11 (1.05%) SLA
5 11 (1.05%) WCAG
6 9 (0.86%) GDPR
6 9 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (0.57%) GxP
7 6 (0.57%) ISO 9001
8 5 (0.48%) HIPAA
8 5 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 3 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.29%) EMIR
9 3 (0.29%) MiFID
9 3 (0.29%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.19%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.19%) MISRA
10 2 (0.19%) MISRA C
10 2 (0.19%) WAI
System Software
1 80 (7.61%) Docker
2 13 (1.24%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.38%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (0.29%) LXC
6 2 (0.19%) BitLocker
6 2 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.19%) vSphere
7 1 (0.095%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.095%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.095%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
7 1 (0.095%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 64 (6.09%) Kubernetes
2 46 (4.38%) Terraform
3 28 (2.66%) Ansible
4 19 (1.81%) SCCM
5 10 (0.95%) Grafana
6 8 (0.76%) Prometheus
7 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.57%) Progress Chef
8 5 (0.48%) HP ALM
8 5 (0.48%) Kibana
8 5 (0.48%) Puppet
8 5 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.38%) Argo
9 4 (0.38%) HP Quality Center
10 3 (0.29%) Control-M
10 3 (0.29%) EnCase
10 3 (0.29%) FTK
10 3 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.19%) Amdocs OSS
11 2 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 120 (11.42%) Microsoft
2 83 (7.90%) Oracle
3 56 (5.33%) SAP
4 30 (2.85%) Google
4 30 (2.85%) Salesforce
5 28 (2.66%) Databricks
6 24 (2.28%) Citrix
7 23 (2.19%) ServiceNow
8 18 (1.71%) IBM
9 16 (1.52%) HP
10 14 (1.33%) Informatica
11 12 (1.14%) Adobe
11 12 (1.14%) Workday
12 11 (1.05%) Cisco
12 11 (1.05%) Dell
13 9 (0.86%) Red Hat
14 7 (0.67%) Apple
14 7 (0.67%) Talend
14 7 (0.67%) VMware
15 6 (0.57%) ION Trading