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 21 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 70 69
Rank change year-on-year -8 -1 -56
Permanent jobs citing QA 427 389 543
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.22% 4.91% 3.19%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 27.23% 29.92% 23.57%
Number of salaries quoted 236 132 352
10th Percentile £28,500 £40,988 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,563 £44,375 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £65,640 £68,750 £62,200
90th Percentile £77,500 £86,250 £70,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 1,568 1,300 2,304
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.14% 16.42% 13.52%
Number of salaries quoted 1,054 603 1,629
10th Percentile £30,000 £25,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £38,825 £35,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £67,500 £66,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £81,250 £82,548
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.35% +9.52% -8.70%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +17 241 £45,000 -14.29% 81
Yorkshire +15 121 £40,000 -27.27% 59
North East -38 65 £45,000 -18.18% 19
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 9 (2.11%) CMS
1 9 (2.11%) WordPress
2 8 (1.87%) Apache Airflow
3 4 (0.94%) IIS
4 3 (0.70%) Apache
4 3 (0.70%) Jupyter
5 2 (0.47%) nginx
5 2 (0.47%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.23%) Confluence
6 1 (0.23%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (2.11%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.64%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (1.87%) SAP ERP
2 5 (1.17%) SAP PM
3 4 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.70%) Shopify
5 2 (0.47%) Academy Housing
6 1 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.23%) Sage 200
6 1 (0.23%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 39 (9.13%) Azure
2 36 (8.43%) AWS
3 30 (7.03%) Power Platform
4 19 (4.45%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (2.58%) GCP
6 10 (2.34%) Amazon S3
6 10 (2.34%) SaaS
7 9 (2.11%) Google Analytics
7 9 (2.11%) Serverless
8 7 (1.64%) AWS Lambda
8 7 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.41%) Amazon EC2
9 6 (1.41%) Apigee
9 6 (1.41%) dbt
10 5 (1.17%) Amazon ECR
10 5 (1.17%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (0.94%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (0.94%) AWS CloudFormation
11 4 (0.94%) AWS Step Functions
11 4 (0.94%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.17%) Broadband
2 4 (0.94%) HTTP
3 3 (0.70%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.47%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.23%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (6.09%) Power BI
2 8 (1.87%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.64%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.64%) DynamoDB
4 5 (1.17%) MySQL
4 5 (1.17%) Relational Database
5 3 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.47%) Data Mining
6 2 (0.47%) Looker
6 2 (0.47%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.47%) PostHog
6 2 (0.47%) Redis
6 2 (0.47%) Tableau
7 1 (0.23%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.23%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 21 (4.92%) Git
2 18 (4.22%) GitLab
3 17 (3.98%) JIRA
4 12 (2.81%) Jenkins
5 9 (2.11%) SonarQube
6 8 (1.87%) Cypress.io
6 8 (1.87%) Postman
7 5 (1.17%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.94%) Maven
9 3 (0.70%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.70%) Selenium
9 3 (0.70%) TestRail
10 2 (0.47%) JMeter
10 2 (0.47%) JUnit
10 2 (0.47%) NUnit
10 2 (0.47%) SpecFlow
10 2 (0.47%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.23%) Gatling
11 1 (0.23%) TestComplete
General
1 140 (32.79%) Social Skills
2 73 (17.10%) Manufacturing
3 70 (16.39%) Finance
4 68 (15.93%) Analytical Skills
5 35 (8.20%) Pharmaceutical
6 26 (6.09%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (5.62%) Public Sector
8 19 (4.45%) Marketing
9 18 (4.22%) Influencing Skills
10 16 (3.75%) Legal
11 15 (3.51%) Law
12 9 (2.11%) Banking
12 9 (2.11%) Games
12 9 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (1.87%) Aerospace
14 6 (1.41%) Retail
15 5 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
15 5 (1.17%) Military
15 5 (1.17%) Telecoms
16 4 (0.94%) French Language
Job Titles
1 54 (12.65%) QA Manager
2 41 (9.60%) Senior
3 40 (9.37%) Quality Manager
4 33 (7.73%) Head of QA
4 33 (7.73%) Lead
5 32 (7.49%) Analyst
6 28 (6.56%) QA Officer
7 26 (6.09%) QA Engineer
8 19 (4.45%) Developer
9 15 (3.51%) Software Engineer
10 14 (3.28%) Administrator
10 14 (3.28%) Business Analyst
10 14 (3.28%) Quality Engineer
10 14 (3.28%) Tester
11 12 (2.81%) QA Tester
12 11 (2.58%) QA Leader
12 11 (2.58%) Technical Assistant
12 11 (2.58%) Test Engineer
13 9 (2.11%) Senior Manager
14 8 (1.87%) Portfolio Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.45%) HTML
2 18 (4.22%) .NET
2 18 (4.22%) CSS
3 11 (2.58%) REST
4 8 (1.87%) .NET Framework
4 8 (1.87%) Entity Framework
4 8 (1.87%) Playwright
4 8 (1.87%) React
5 7 (1.64%) AngularJS
5 7 (1.64%) JSON
5 7 (1.64%) RESTful
6 6 (1.41%) .NET Core
6 6 (1.41%) ASP.NET
6 6 (1.41%) ASP.NET Web API
6 6 (1.41%) Gherkin
6 6 (1.41%) Spring
6 6 (1.41%) Spring Boot
7 5 (1.17%) CSS3
7 5 (1.17%) JWT
7 5 (1.17%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.20%) Analytical Mindset
2 11 (2.58%) Onboarding
3 10 (2.34%) Cloud Native
4 9 (2.11%) PMI
5 8 (1.87%) Product Ownership
6 7 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.41%) Life Science
7 6 (1.41%) Management Information System
7 6 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.41%) Social Media
8 5 (1.17%) Driving Licence
8 5 (1.17%) Mobile App
9 4 (0.94%) CCTV
9 4 (0.94%) Online Games
10 3 (0.70%) AI Agents
10 3 (0.70%) Animation
10 3 (0.70%) Client/Server
10 3 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.70%) Mainframe
10 3 (0.70%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.11%) Windows
2 6 (1.41%) Android
2 6 (1.41%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.94%) Linux
4 3 (0.70%) VME
4 3 (0.70%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.23%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (21.55%) Continuous Improvement
2 79 (18.50%) Agile
3 62 (14.52%) Mentoring
4 58 (13.58%) Problem-Solving
5 55 (12.88%) Analytics
5 55 (12.88%) CI/CD
6 47 (11.01%) Quality Management
7 46 (10.77%) Test Automation
8 44 (10.30%) DevOps
9 41 (9.60%) Stakeholder Management
10 39 (9.13%) Actionable Insight
10 39 (9.13%) PRINCE2
11 37 (8.67%) Change Management
12 36 (8.43%) Root Cause Analysis
12 36 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 33 (7.73%) Service Delivery
14 31 (7.26%) Coaching
14 31 (7.26%) Customer Experience
15 30 (7.03%) Anti-Money Laundering
16 29 (6.79%) AI
Programming Languages
1 35 (8.20%) SQL
2 28 (6.56%) Python
3 26 (6.09%) C#
4 22 (5.15%) Java
5 14 (3.28%) JavaScript
6 11 (2.58%) TypeScript
7 7 (1.64%) Bash
7 7 (1.64%) Go
7 7 (1.64%) Groovy
8 3 (0.70%) COBOL
8 3 (0.70%) PHP
9 2 (0.47%) Bicep
9 2 (0.47%) C++
10 1 (0.23%) C
10 1 (0.23%) Perl
10 1 (0.23%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.23%) R
10 1 (0.23%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 37 (8.67%) Degree
2 30 (7.03%) IRCA
3 12 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (2.58%) PMI Certification
5 10 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 7 (1.64%) AWS Certification
6 7 (1.64%) MCSE
6 7 (1.64%) Security Cleared
7 6 (1.41%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.17%) ISTQB
8 5 (1.17%) SC Cleared
9 4 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.70%) CCEA
10 3 (0.70%) Citrix Certification
10 3 (0.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.70%) PMP
11 1 (0.23%) CHECK Team Member
11 1 (0.23%) CREST Certified
11 1 (0.23%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (8.67%) GDPR
2 32 (7.49%) ISO 9001
3 11 (2.58%) Data Quality
4 10 (2.34%) Accessibility
5 8 (1.87%) P3O
6 6 (1.41%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.94%) GMP
7 4 (0.94%) PMO
8 3 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.70%) Software Quality Assurance
8 3 (0.70%) WCAG
9 2 (0.47%) GRC
9 2 (0.47%) ISO 14001
9 2 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.47%) NIST
9 2 (0.47%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.23%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.23%) SLA
System Software
1 20 (4.68%) Docker
2 1 (0.23%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 10 (2.34%) Terraform
2 7 (1.64%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.94%) Grafana
3 4 (0.94%) HP Fortify
4 3 (0.70%) Ansible
4 3 (0.70%) Packer
5 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 40 (9.37%) Microsoft
2 18 (4.22%) SAP
3 13 (3.04%) Google
4 11 (2.58%) ServiceNow
5 10 (2.34%) Intapp
6 9 (2.11%) Aderant
6 9 (2.11%) iManage
7 4 (0.94%) Planon
7 4 (0.94%) Siemens
8 3 (0.70%) Adobe
8 3 (0.70%) AppDynamics
8 3 (0.70%) IBM
8 3 (0.70%) Splunk
9 2 (0.47%) Apple
9 2 (0.47%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.47%) Draytek
9 2 (0.47%) Foundry
10 1 (0.23%) CheckPoint
10 1 (0.23%) Sage
10 1 (0.23%) Veracode