QA Job Trends in the North of England

Quality Assurance (QA)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring QA skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 122 56 90
Rank change year-on-year -66 +34 -52
Permanent jobs citing QA 214 432 265
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.18% 3.49% 3.43%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 24.18% 25.93% 23.51%
Number of salaries quoted 124 150 188
10th Percentile £28,750 £25,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £40,181 £27,063 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £42,500 £57,291
Median % change year-on-year +29.41% -25.82% +8.61%
75th Percentile £71,250 £56,875 £73,125
90th Percentile £81,750 £73,525 £83,750
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% -15.38% +8.33%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
North of England

QA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the North of England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 885 1,666 1,127
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 9.01% 13.47% 14.59%
Number of salaries quoted 482 675 839
10th Percentile £28,589 £25,000 £28,750
25th Percentile £33,125 £32,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,500 £46,431 £50,139
Median % change year-on-year +6.61% -7.40% +0.28%
75th Percentile £64,875 £61,081 £67,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £79,500 £81,250
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% - +4.35%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing QA relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

QA job vacancy trend in the North of England

QA
Salary Trend in the North of England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing QA.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing QA

QA
Salary Histogram in the North of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing QA in the North of England over the 6 months to 8 November 2025.

Salary histogram for QA in the North of England

QA
Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the North of England region over the 6 months to 8 November 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West -53 126 £56,250 +34.73% 213
Yorkshire -39 62 £55,000 +29.41% 77
North East -10 26 £42,500 -5.56% 34
QA
England

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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:

Application Platforms
1 3 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
1 3 (1.40%) Apache Spark
1 3 (1.40%) SAS
2 2 (0.93%) Confluence
2 2 (0.93%) HCL Notes
2 2 (0.93%) IIS
2 2 (0.93%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.93%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.47%) CMS
3 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.47%) WordPress
Applications
1 13 (6.07%) Microsoft Project
2 11 (5.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (3.27%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (2.80%) MS Visio
4 6 (2.80%) Trello
5 3 (1.40%) AutoCAD
5 3 (1.40%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (3.27%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (3.27%) Shopify
2 2 (0.93%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.47%) Q-Pulse
Cloud Services
1 69 (32.24%) Azure
2 64 (29.91%) AWS
3 22 (10.28%) Power Platform
4 12 (5.61%) SaaS
5 10 (4.67%) GitHub
6 9 (4.21%) GCP
7 7 (3.27%) Microsoft Copilot
8 5 (2.34%) Entra ID
8 5 (2.34%) GitHub Actions
9 4 (1.87%) Google Ads
9 4 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.40%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (1.40%) Datadog
10 3 (1.40%) PaaS
10 3 (1.40%) Serverless
11 2 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (0.93%) Amazon S3
11 2 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.93%) dbt
11 2 (0.93%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.40%) HTTP
1 3 (1.40%) Network Security
1 3 (1.40%) PuTTY
2 2 (0.93%) Modbus
2 2 (0.93%) MQTT
2 2 (0.93%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.47%) Broadband
3 1 (0.47%) Internet
3 1 (0.47%) WPA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (17.29%) SQL Server
2 17 (7.94%) Power BI
3 11 (5.14%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (4.67%) NoSQL
5 7 (3.27%) MongoDB
6 6 (2.80%) Metadata
6 6 (2.80%) Tableau
7 5 (2.34%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.87%) MySQL
8 4 (1.87%) Qlik Sense
8 4 (1.87%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (1.40%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.40%) GIS
9 3 (1.40%) Impala
9 3 (1.40%) Looker
9 3 (1.40%) QGIS
9 3 (1.40%) QlikView
9 3 (1.40%) Spatial Data
9 3 (1.40%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 50 (23.36%) JIRA
2 37 (17.29%) Selenium
3 36 (16.82%) GitLab
4 35 (16.36%) Cucumber
5 31 (14.49%) Bitbucket
5 31 (14.49%) Maven
5 31 (14.49%) SonarQube
5 31 (14.49%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (4.21%) Git
6 9 (4.21%) Jenkins
7 6 (2.80%) Cypress.io
8 5 (2.34%) JMeter
9 4 (1.87%) Postman
10 3 (1.40%) Appium
10 3 (1.40%) WaveMaker
11 2 (0.93%) Gatling
11 2 (0.93%) Locust
11 2 (0.93%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.93%) Visual Studio
12 1 (0.47%) ESLint
General
1 63 (29.44%) Finance
2 60 (28.04%) Social Skills
3 36 (16.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 35 (16.36%) Analytical Skills
5 34 (15.89%) Retail
6 32 (14.95%) Banking
7 31 (14.49%) Manufacturing
8 30 (14.02%) Corporate Banking
8 30 (14.02%) Investment Banking
9 16 (7.48%) Public Sector
10 13 (6.07%) Legal
11 10 (4.67%) Marketing
11 10 (4.67%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (4.21%) Influencing Skills
13 7 (3.27%) Law
14 4 (1.87%) Advertising
14 4 (1.87%) Pharmaceutical
15 3 (1.40%) Games
15 3 (1.40%) Military
15 3 (1.40%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 34 (15.89%) Software Engineer
2 33 (15.42%) Developer
2 33 (15.42%) Senior
3 27 (12.62%) Lead
4 16 (7.48%) Analyst
4 16 (7.48%) Project Manager
5 12 (5.61%) Lead Developer
5 12 (5.61%) QA Manager
5 12 (5.61%) Senior Developer
6 10 (4.67%) Quality Manager
7 9 (4.21%) Backend Developer
7 9 (4.21%) Software Developer
8 8 (3.74%) QA Engineer
8 8 (3.74%) Tester
9 7 (3.27%) Lead Software Developer
10 6 (2.80%) Consultant
10 6 (2.80%) Senior Backend Developer
11 5 (2.34%) Operations Manager
11 5 (2.34%) QA Tester
11 5 (2.34%) Support Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (20.09%) React
2 37 (17.29%) RESTful
3 35 (16.36%) CSS
3 35 (16.36%) HTML
4 34 (15.89%) Kafka
4 34 (15.89%) REST
4 34 (15.89%) Spring
4 34 (15.89%) Spring Boot
5 33 (15.42%) Jest
5 33 (15.42%) Redux
6 32 (14.95%) CSS3
6 32 (14.95%) HTML5
7 31 (14.49%) Sass
8 30 (14.02%) JPA
9 16 (7.48%) .NET
10 15 (7.01%) Node.js
11 7 (3.27%) AngularJS
12 4 (1.87%) ASP.NET
12 4 (1.87%) Bootstrap
12 4 (1.87%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 38 (17.76%) Product Ownership
2 31 (14.49%) Enterprise Software
3 11 (5.14%) IoT
4 10 (4.67%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (3.74%) Social Media
6 6 (2.80%) Onboarding
7 5 (2.34%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (2.34%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.34%) NHS
7 5 (2.34%) Renewable Energy
8 4 (1.87%) AI Agents
9 3 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.40%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (1.40%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.40%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.93%) CCTV
10 2 (0.93%) Client/Server
10 2 (0.93%) EPoS
10 2 (0.93%) SCADA
10 2 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.01%) Windows
2 4 (1.87%) Unix
3 3 (1.40%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (42.52%) Agile
2 79 (36.92%) Mentoring
3 66 (30.84%) DevOps
4 62 (28.97%) CI/CD
5 56 (26.17%) Test Automation
6 51 (23.83%) Software Engineering
7 42 (19.63%) User Experience
8 39 (18.22%) Microservices
8 39 (18.22%) Problem-Solving
8 39 (18.22%) SDLC
9 38 (17.76%) Containerisation
10 36 (16.82%) Front End Development
11 33 (15.42%) Performance Optimisation
12 31 (14.49%) Full-Stack Development
13 30 (14.02%) Migration
13 30 (14.02%) Responsive Web Design
13 30 (14.02%) Strategic Thinking
14 29 (13.55%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (13.08%) Project Delivery
16 23 (10.75%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (25.70%) SQL
2 54 (25.23%) Java
2 54 (25.23%) JavaScript
3 40 (18.69%) TypeScript
4 17 (7.94%) C#
4 17 (7.94%) Python
5 9 (4.21%) Go
6 8 (3.74%) Elixir
6 8 (3.74%) Ruby
7 6 (2.80%) Bash
8 5 (2.34%) C++
9 3 (1.40%) PHP
9 3 (1.40%) PowerShell
9 3 (1.40%) PROC SQL
9 3 (1.40%) R
9 3 (1.40%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.47%) C
10 1 (0.47%) Dart
Qualifications
1 36 (16.82%) Degree
2 18 (8.41%) Security Cleared
3 17 (7.94%) SC Cleared
4 12 (5.61%) PMI Certification
4 12 (5.61%) PMP
5 8 (3.74%) DBS Check
6 6 (2.80%) HND
7 4 (1.87%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.87%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.40%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.40%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 2 (0.93%) Chartered Engineer
9 2 (0.93%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.93%) HNC
10 1 (0.47%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 1 (0.47%) CISA
10 1 (0.47%) CISM
10 1 (0.47%) CISSP
10 1 (0.47%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (23.83%) Accessibility
2 7 (3.27%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.34%) GDPR
3 5 (2.34%) PMO
4 4 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.40%) NCSC
5 3 (1.40%) NIST
5 3 (1.40%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.93%) WCAG
7 1 (0.47%) FINRA
7 1 (0.47%) GLP
7 1 (0.47%) Good Clinical Practice
7 1 (0.47%) GxP
7 1 (0.47%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.47%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.47%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 39 (18.22%) Docker
2 5 (2.34%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.40%) Apache Flume
3 3 (1.40%) HDFS
4 2 (0.93%) Squid
Systems Management
1 38 (17.76%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.74%) Terraform
3 6 (2.80%) Grafana
4 5 (2.34%) Kibana
5 3 (1.40%) Ansible
5 3 (1.40%) logstash
5 3 (1.40%) Oozie
6 2 (0.93%) Functional Safety
6 2 (0.93%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.93%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.93%) Puppet
Vendors
1 30 (14.02%) Microsoft
1 30 (14.02%) Solace
2 7 (3.27%) Google
3 6 (2.80%) SAP
4 3 (1.40%) Databricks
4 3 (1.40%) ESRI
4 3 (1.40%) Informatica
4 3 (1.40%) MicroStrategy
4 3 (1.40%) Oracle
5 2 (0.93%) AVEVA
5 2 (0.93%) Lotus
5 2 (0.93%) New Relic
5 2 (0.93%) Rockwell
5 2 (0.93%) ServiceNow
5 2 (0.93%) Siemens
6 1 (0.47%) AppDynamics
6 1 (0.47%) Sage
6 1 (0.47%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.47%) Splunk