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 27 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 61 77
Rank change year-on-year -13 +16 -64
Permanent jobs citing QA 347 267 492
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.30% 4.23% 3.18%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 27.78% 23.32% 22.95%
Number of salaries quoted 164 128 324
10th Percentile £28,000 £37,160 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £41,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +10.53% -13.64%
75th Percentile £65,640 £63,813 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,875 £72,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -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 1,249 1,145 2,144
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.30% 18.16% 13.84%
Number of salaries quoted 742 624 1,561
10th Percentile £29,100 £26,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £35,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,500 £50,000 £49,136
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% +1.76% -1.73%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,070 £82,548
England median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -6.09%

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 27 March 2026.

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 27 March 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West +14 190 £45,000 -14.29% 93
Yorkshire -16 106 £42,500 -2.30% 50
North East -38 51 £46,250 -15.91% 32
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 7 (2.02%) CMS
1 7 (2.02%) WordPress
2 2 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.58%) Confluence
2 2 (0.58%) nginx
3 1 (0.29%) IIS
3 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (2.59%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.02%) Spreadsheet
3 5 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.58%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.59%) SAP ERP
2 5 (1.44%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.58%) Academy Housing
3 2 (0.58%) Shopify
4 1 (0.29%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 33 (9.51%) Azure
2 22 (6.34%) Power Platform
3 21 (6.05%) AWS
4 18 (5.19%) SaaS
5 14 (4.03%) Microsoft 365
6 10 (2.88%) GCP
7 9 (2.59%) Google Analytics
8 6 (1.73%) Serverless
9 5 (1.44%) Amazon S3
9 5 (1.44%) Apigee
9 5 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
9 5 (1.44%) AWS Lambda
9 5 (1.44%) dbt
10 4 (1.15%) Amazon ECR
10 4 (1.15%) Amazon ECS
10 4 (1.15%) AWS Step Functions
10 4 (1.15%) Datadog
10 4 (1.15%) PaaS
11 2 (0.58%) Azure AKS
11 2 (0.58%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.02%) HTTP
2 5 (1.44%) Broadband
3 4 (1.15%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.29%) SAN
4 1 (0.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (4.90%) Power BI
2 5 (1.44%) DynamoDB
2 5 (1.44%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.15%) BigQuery
3 4 (1.15%) Relational Database
4 3 (0.86%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.86%) Metadata
4 3 (0.86%) Tableau
5 2 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.58%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.58%) Geospatial Data
5 2 (0.58%) GIS
5 2 (0.58%) Looker
5 2 (0.58%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.58%) MySQL
5 2 (0.58%) PostHog
5 2 (0.58%) QGIS
5 2 (0.58%) Redis
5 2 (0.58%) Spatial Data
5 2 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 11 (3.17%) Jenkins
2 10 (2.88%) GitLab
2 10 (2.88%) JIRA
3 9 (2.59%) Cypress.io
4 7 (2.02%) Cucumber
4 7 (2.02%) Git
4 7 (2.02%) Postman
5 6 (1.73%) JMeter
6 5 (1.44%) Selenium
6 5 (1.44%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.15%) Maven
7 4 (1.15%) SpecFlow
7 4 (1.15%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.86%) Locust
9 2 (0.58%) Appium
9 2 (0.58%) JUnit
10 1 (0.29%) LSMW
10 1 (0.29%) NUnit
10 1 (0.29%) Protractor
10 1 (0.29%) SoapUI
General
1 132 (38.04%) Social Skills
2 73 (21.04%) Finance
3 67 (19.31%) Manufacturing
4 58 (16.71%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (6.92%) Influencing Skills
6 23 (6.63%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (6.05%) Public Sector
8 20 (5.76%) Marketing
9 17 (4.90%) Law
10 11 (3.17%) Legal
10 11 (3.17%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (2.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (2.59%) Retail
12 8 (2.31%) Games
13 7 (2.02%) Military
13 7 (2.02%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.73%) Banking
15 4 (1.15%) Aerospace
15 4 (1.15%) Automotive
15 4 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 45 (12.97%) QA Manager
2 39 (11.24%) Lead
3 35 (10.09%) Senior
4 32 (9.22%) Quality Manager
5 31 (8.93%) Head of QA
6 27 (7.78%) QA Engineer
7 18 (5.19%) Analyst
8 14 (4.03%) Developer
9 13 (3.75%) QA Leader
10 11 (3.17%) Administrator
10 11 (3.17%) QA Officer
11 10 (2.88%) Quality Engineer
12 9 (2.59%) Automation Engineer
12 9 (2.59%) QA Automation Engineer
12 9 (2.59%) Software Engineer
12 9 (2.59%) Team Leader
13 8 (2.31%) Portfolio Manager
13 8 (2.31%) Senior Manager
13 8 (2.31%) Senior Portfolio Manager
13 8 (2.31%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (4.03%) HTML
2 13 (3.75%) CSS
3 9 (2.59%) .NET
4 8 (2.31%) AngularJS
4 8 (2.31%) Gherkin
5 7 (2.02%) React
6 6 (1.73%) Playwright
6 6 (1.73%) RESTful
6 6 (1.73%) Spring
6 6 (1.73%) Spring Boot
7 5 (1.44%) Jest
8 4 (1.15%) Qt
8 4 (1.15%) REST
8 4 (1.15%) STL
9 3 (0.86%) .NET Framework
9 3 (0.86%) Entity Framework
9 3 (0.86%) Flutter
9 3 (0.86%) QML
10 2 (0.58%) MassTransit
10 2 (0.58%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (10.09%) Analytical Mindset
2 11 (3.17%) Onboarding
3 10 (2.88%) Social Media
4 9 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (2.31%) Cloud Native
5 8 (2.31%) Driving Licence
5 8 (2.31%) PMI
5 8 (2.31%) Product Ownership
6 6 (1.73%) CCTV
7 5 (1.44%) Client/Server
7 5 (1.44%) Management Information System
7 5 (1.44%) NHS
8 4 (1.15%) AI Agents
8 4 (1.15%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.15%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.86%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (0.86%) Mainframe
10 2 (0.58%) Animation
10 2 (0.58%) Derivative
10 2 (0.58%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.32%) Windows
2 5 (1.44%) Android
2 5 (1.44%) Apple iOS
2 5 (1.44%) Linux
2 5 (1.44%) Unix
3 3 (0.86%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (27.67%) Continuous Improvement
2 72 (20.75%) Agile
3 68 (19.60%) Mentoring
4 51 (14.70%) Analytics
5 49 (14.12%) Problem-Solving
6 48 (13.83%) Quality Management
7 45 (12.97%) CI/CD
8 43 (12.39%) PRINCE2
8 43 (12.39%) Test Automation
9 41 (11.82%) Root Cause Analysis
10 40 (11.53%) Change Management
10 40 (11.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 39 (11.24%) Actionable Insight
12 37 (10.66%) DevOps
13 35 (10.09%) Customer Experience
14 33 (9.51%) Service Delivery
15 32 (9.22%) Stakeholder Management
16 30 (8.65%) Anti-Money Laundering
17 28 (8.07%) User Experience
18 25 (7.20%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 22 (6.34%) Python
2 18 (5.19%) C#
2 18 (5.19%) Java
3 14 (4.03%) SQL
4 13 (3.75%) TypeScript
5 11 (3.17%) JavaScript
6 5 (1.44%) Bash
6 5 (1.44%) Go
7 4 (1.15%) C++
7 4 (1.15%) Groovy
8 3 (0.86%) COBOL
8 3 (0.86%) PHP
8 3 (0.86%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.29%) Bicep
9 1 (0.29%) C
Qualifications
1 32 (9.22%) Degree
2 30 (8.65%) IRCA
3 15 (4.32%) PMI Certification
4 13 (3.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.02%) DBS Check
5 7 (2.02%) PMP
6 5 (1.44%) Security Cleared
7 4 (1.15%) HND
7 4 (1.15%) ISTQB
8 3 (0.86%) CCEA
8 3 (0.86%) Citrix Certification
8 3 (0.86%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.86%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (0.86%) SC Cleared
9 2 (0.58%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.58%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.58%) MCSE
9 2 (0.58%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 1 (0.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (10.95%) GDPR
2 32 (9.22%) ISO 9001
3 9 (2.59%) Accessibility
4 8 (2.31%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.31%) P3O
4 8 (2.31%) PCI DSS
5 4 (1.15%) WCAG
6 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.58%) GRC
7 2 (0.58%) ISO 14001
7 2 (0.58%) NIST
7 2 (0.58%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.29%) FINRA
8 1 (0.29%) GMP
8 1 (0.29%) NEBOSH
8 1 (0.29%) PMO
8 1 (0.29%) SLA
8 1 (0.29%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 13 (3.75%) Docker
2 1 (0.29%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.29%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (2.59%) Grafana
2 7 (2.02%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.02%) Terraform
3 4 (1.15%) HP Fortify
4 2 (0.58%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.29%) Ansible
5 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 29 (8.36%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.19%) SAP
3 13 (3.75%) Google
4 4 (1.15%) Siemens
5 3 (0.86%) Planon
5 3 (0.86%) ServiceNow
6 2 (0.58%) Adobe
6 2 (0.58%) ESRI
6 2 (0.58%) Foundry
6 2 (0.58%) Intapp
7 1 (0.29%) Aderant
7 1 (0.29%) AppDynamics
7 1 (0.29%) DevExpress
7 1 (0.29%) iManage
7 1 (0.29%) Nimble Storage
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle
7 1 (0.29%) Splunk
7 1 (0.29%) Veracode