Senior QA Tester Contract Job Trends

Senior Quality Assurance Tester
UK

The median Senior Quality Assurance Tester daily rate in the UK is £392, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 June 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 641 521 594
Rank change year-on-year -120 +73 +94
Contract jobs requiring a Senior QA Tester 2 3 5
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.004% 0.010% 0.012%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.004% 0.011% 0.012%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 3 3
10th Percentile £327 £383 £256
25th Percentile £349 £391 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £392 £410 £380
Median % change year-on-year -4.39% +7.89% -33.91%
75th Percentile £429 £415 £440
90th Percentile £447 - £476
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £410 -
% change year-on-year -20.73% - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 45,859 27,036 40,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.35% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,926 17,399 25,887
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,063 1,119 2,897
10th Percentile £15.15 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.84 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.73% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.47 £61.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%

Senior QA Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Senior QA Tester' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Senior QA Tester job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior QA Tester
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior QA Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Senior QA Tester job vacancies in the UK

Senior QA Tester
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Senior QA Tester over the 6 months to 9 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Senior QA Tester in the UK

Senior QA Tester
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior QA Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Senior QA Tester job vacancies in the UK

Senior QA Tester
Top 4 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Senior QA Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 9 June 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
England -128 2 £392 -4.39% 1
UK excluding London -100 1 £325 -20.73%
London - 1 £459 - 1
South East - 1 £325 -

Senior QA Tester Skill Set
Top 28 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 9 June 2026, Senior QA Tester contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Senior QA Tester in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) QA
1 2 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) BDD
2 1 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 1 (50.00%) Component Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Continuous Delivery
2 1 (50.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (50.00%) Data Migration
2 1 (50.00%) End-to-End Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Gatling
2 1 (50.00%) Integration Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Kotlin
2 1 (50.00%) Manual Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) Performance Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Playwright
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) SDET
2 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Service Delivery
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (50.00%) TDD
2 1 (50.00%) Test Planning
2 1 (50.00%) Test Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) TypeScript
2 1 (50.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
2 1 (50.00%) Web Development

Senior QA Tester Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (50.00%) Gatling
General
1 1 (50.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 1 (50.00%) Public Sector
1 1 (50.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (50.00%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) BDD
2 1 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 1 (50.00%) Component Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Continuous Delivery
2 1 (50.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (50.00%) End-to-End Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Integration Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Manual Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) Performance Testing
2 1 (50.00%) SDET
2 1 (50.00%) Service Delivery
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (50.00%) TDD
2 1 (50.00%) Test Planning
2 1 (50.00%) Test Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
2 1 (50.00%) Web Development
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) Kotlin
1 1 (50.00%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (100.00%) QA