QA Leader Job Trends in London

Quality Assurance Lead
England > London

The median Quality Assurance Lead salary in London is £77,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 377 409 421
Rank change year-on-year +32 +12 +208
Permanent jobs requiring a QA Leader 18 16 15
As % of all permanent jobs in London 0.13% 0.10% 0.085%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.11% 0.089%
Number of salaries quoted 11 13 13
10th Percentile - £71,000 £43,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £77,500 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £77,500 £85,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.82% +25.93% -35.71%
75th Percentile £110,000 £87,500 £85,000
90th Percentile £125,000 £99,000 £86,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £65,000 £56,250
% change year-on-year -7.69% +15.56% -19.64%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in London. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in London with a recognized job title 12,453 14,685 16,817
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.81% 92.97% 95.16%
Number of salaries quoted 8,230 8,588 13,582
10th Percentile £35,750 £42,500 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £75,000 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - +3.45%
75th Percentile £95,000 £96,000 £95,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £120,000 £115,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%

QA Leader
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'QA Leader' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in London.

QA Leader job vacancy trend in London

QA Leader
Salary Trend in London

Salary distribution trend for QA Leader job vacancies in London.

Salary distribution trend for QA Leader job vacancies in London

QA Leader
Salary Histogram in London

Salary distribution for jobs citing QA Leader in London over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for QA Leader in London

QA Leader Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 1 January 2026, QA Leader 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 permanent job ads across the London region featuring QA Leader in the job title.

1 18 (100.00%) QA
2 11 (61.11%) Test Automation
3 9 (50.00%) Manual Testing
3 9 (50.00%) Non-Functional Testing
4 8 (44.44%) Functional Testing
4 8 (44.44%) SaaS
5 6 (33.33%) API Testing
5 6 (33.33%) JavaScript
5 6 (33.33%) Postman
5 6 (33.33%) Software Testing
6 5 (27.78%) C#
6 5 (27.78%) Compatibility Testing
6 5 (27.78%) Data Validation
6 5 (27.78%) SoapUI
6 5 (27.78%) SQL
6 5 (27.78%) Validation
7 4 (22.22%) Fintech
7 4 (22.22%) Mentoring
7 4 (22.22%) Test Strategy
8 3 (16.67%) Android
8 3 (16.67%) Apple iOS
8 3 (16.67%) JIRA
8 3 (16.67%) Python
8 3 (16.67%) Regression Testing
8 3 (16.67%) TDD
8 3 (16.67%) User Experience
9 2 (11.11%) CI/CD
9 2 (11.11%) DevOps
9 2 (11.11%) Security Testing
10 1 (5.56%) Acceptance Criteria

QA Leader Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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:

Cloud Services
1 8 (44.44%) SaaS
2 1 (5.56%) AWS
2 1 (5.56%) Azure
2 1 (5.56%) Azure Cognitive Search
2 1 (5.56%) Azure Machine Learning
2 1 (5.56%) GCP
Development Applications
1 6 (33.33%) Postman
2 5 (27.78%) SoapUI
3 3 (16.67%) JIRA
4 1 (5.56%) Cucumber
4 1 (5.56%) JMeter
4 1 (5.56%) LoadRunner
4 1 (5.56%) Selenium
4 1 (5.56%) SpecFlow
General
1 5 (27.78%) Finance
1 5 (27.78%) Games
1 5 (27.78%) Marketing
2 4 (22.22%) Banking
3 3 (16.67%) Back Office
3 3 (16.67%) Financial Institution
3 3 (16.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3 (16.67%) Law
3 3 (16.67%) Retail
4 2 (11.11%) Social Skills
5 1 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.56%) Node.js
1 1 (5.56%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 3 (16.67%) Mobile App
1 3 (16.67%) Product Ownership
2 1 (5.56%) Greenfield Project
2 1 (5.56%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 3 (16.67%) Android
1 3 (16.67%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (61.11%) Test Automation
2 9 (50.00%) Manual Testing
2 9 (50.00%) Non-Functional Testing
3 8 (44.44%) Functional Testing
4 6 (33.33%) API Testing
4 6 (33.33%) Software Testing
5 5 (27.78%) Compatibility Testing
5 5 (27.78%) Data Validation
5 5 (27.78%) Validation
6 4 (22.22%) Fintech
6 4 (22.22%) Mentoring
6 4 (22.22%) Test Strategy
7 3 (16.67%) Regression Testing
7 3 (16.67%) TDD
7 3 (16.67%) User Experience
8 2 (11.11%) CI/CD
8 2 (11.11%) DevOps
8 2 (11.11%) Security Testing
9 1 (5.56%) Decarbonisation
9 1 (5.56%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 6 (33.33%) JavaScript
2 5 (27.78%) C#
2 5 (27.78%) SQL
3 3 (16.67%) Python
4 1 (5.56%) PHP
4 1 (5.56%) TypeScript
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (100.00%) QA
System Software
1 1 (5.56%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (5.56%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (5.56%) Microsoft
1 1 (5.56%) OpenAI