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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 71 71
Rank change year-on-year -4 0 -58
Permanent jobs citing QA 432 362 548
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.21% 4.69% 3.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 27.20% 29.10% 23.85%
Number of salaries quoted 246 105 357
10th Percentile £28,500 £40,400 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,188 £46,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +15.79% -10.80%
75th Percentile £65,640 £76,250 £60,000
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 1,588 1,244 2,298
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.12% 16.11% 13.27%
Number of salaries quoted 1,076 546 1,622
10th Percentile £30,000 £25,480 £26,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £34,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,473 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.05% +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £66,250 £67,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £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 25 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 25 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 +13 242 £45,000 -18.18% 79
Yorkshire +16 121 £40,000 -36.00% 60
North East -36 69 £45,000 -22.08% 16
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 10 (2.31%) CMS
1 10 (2.31%) WordPress
2 9 (2.08%) Apache Airflow
3 4 (0.93%) Apache
3 4 (0.93%) IIS
3 4 (0.93%) Jupyter
4 2 (0.46%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.46%) nginx
4 2 (0.46%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.23%) Confluence
5 1 (0.23%) WebLogic
Applications
1 22 (5.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (2.08%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.62%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (1.85%) SAP ERP
2 5 (1.16%) SAP PM
3 4 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.69%) Shopify
5 2 (0.46%) Academy Housing
6 1 (0.23%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.23%) Sage 200
6 1 (0.23%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 40 (9.26%) Azure
2 39 (9.03%) AWS
3 32 (7.41%) Power Platform
4 20 (4.63%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (2.55%) Amazon S3
5 11 (2.55%) GCP
6 10 (2.31%) SaaS
7 9 (2.08%) Google Analytics
7 9 (2.08%) Serverless
8 7 (1.62%) Amazon EC2
8 7 (1.62%) AWS Lambda
8 7 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.39%) Amazon ECR
9 6 (1.39%) Apigee
9 6 (1.39%) dbt
10 5 (1.16%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (0.93%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (0.93%) AWS Step Functions
11 4 (0.93%) Entra ID
11 4 (0.93%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.39%) Broadband
2 4 (0.93%) HTTP
3 3 (0.69%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.46%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.23%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.23%) VoIP
5 1 (0.23%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (6.48%) Power BI
2 9 (2.08%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.85%) DynamoDB
4 7 (1.62%) BigQuery
5 5 (1.16%) MySQL
5 5 (1.16%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.93%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.46%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.46%) Data Mining
8 2 (0.46%) Looker
8 2 (0.46%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.46%) PostHog
8 2 (0.46%) Redis
8 2 (0.46%) Tableau
9 1 (0.23%) Big Data
9 1 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.23%) Metadata
9 1 (0.23%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 24 (5.56%) Git
2 19 (4.40%) GitLab
3 17 (3.94%) JIRA
4 12 (2.78%) Jenkins
5 9 (2.08%) SonarQube
6 8 (1.85%) Cypress.io
6 8 (1.85%) Postman
7 5 (1.16%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.93%) Maven
9 3 (0.69%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.69%) Selenium
9 3 (0.69%) TestRail
10 2 (0.46%) JMeter
10 2 (0.46%) JUnit
10 2 (0.46%) NUnit
10 2 (0.46%) SpecFlow
10 2 (0.46%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.23%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.23%) TestComplete
General
1 144 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 70 (16.20%) Manufacturing
3 69 (15.97%) Finance
4 68 (15.74%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (8.33%) Pharmaceutical
6 27 (6.25%) Organisational Skills
7 25 (5.79%) Public Sector
8 20 (4.63%) Marketing
9 16 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
9 16 (3.70%) Legal
10 15 (3.47%) Law
11 9 (2.08%) Banking
11 9 (2.08%) Games
11 9 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.85%) Aerospace
13 6 (1.39%) Retail
13 6 (1.39%) Telecoms
14 5 (1.16%) Documentation Skills
14 5 (1.16%) Military
15 4 (0.93%) French Language
Job Titles
1 52 (12.04%) QA Manager
2 41 (9.49%) Senior
3 38 (8.80%) Quality Manager
4 34 (7.87%) Lead
5 33 (7.64%) Analyst
5 33 (7.64%) Head of QA
6 29 (6.71%) QA Officer
7 26 (6.02%) QA Engineer
8 22 (5.09%) Developer
9 16 (3.70%) Software Engineer
10 14 (3.24%) Administrator
10 14 (3.24%) Business Analyst
10 14 (3.24%) Quality Engineer
10 14 (3.24%) Tester
11 12 (2.78%) QA Tester
11 12 (2.78%) Test Engineer
12 11 (2.55%) QA Leader
12 11 (2.55%) Technical Assistant
13 9 (2.08%) Senior Manager
14 8 (1.85%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.63%) HTML
2 19 (4.40%) .NET
2 19 (4.40%) CSS
3 11 (2.55%) REST
4 8 (1.85%) .NET Framework
4 8 (1.85%) Entity Framework
4 8 (1.85%) Playwright
4 8 (1.85%) React
4 8 (1.85%) RESTful
5 7 (1.62%) AngularJS
5 7 (1.62%) JSON
5 7 (1.62%) Spring
5 7 (1.62%) Spring Boot
6 6 (1.39%) .NET Core
6 6 (1.39%) ASP.NET
6 6 (1.39%) ASP.NET Web API
6 6 (1.39%) Gherkin
7 5 (1.16%) HTML5
7 5 (1.16%) OAuth
7 5 (1.16%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.10%) Analytical Mindset
2 12 (2.78%) Onboarding
3 11 (2.55%) Cloud Native
4 9 (2.08%) PMI
5 8 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
5 8 (1.85%) Product Ownership
6 7 (1.62%) Life Science
7 6 (1.39%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.39%) Management Information System
7 6 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.39%) Social Media
8 5 (1.16%) CCTV
8 5 (1.16%) Mobile App
9 4 (0.93%) AI Agents
9 4 (0.93%) Online Games
10 3 (0.69%) Animation
10 3 (0.69%) Client/Server
10 3 (0.69%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.69%) Mainframe
10 3 (0.69%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.08%) Windows
2 7 (1.62%) Android
2 7 (1.62%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.93%) Linux
4 3 (0.69%) VME
4 3 (0.69%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.23%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (21.53%) Continuous Improvement
2 81 (18.75%) Agile
3 62 (14.35%) Mentoring
4 57 (13.19%) CI/CD
4 57 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
5 55 (12.73%) Analytics
6 48 (11.11%) Test Automation
7 45 (10.42%) DevOps
7 45 (10.42%) Quality Management
8 41 (9.49%) Stakeholder Management
9 39 (9.03%) Actionable Insight
9 39 (9.03%) PRINCE2
10 37 (8.56%) Change Management
10 37 (8.56%) Root Cause Analysis
11 36 (8.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 33 (7.64%) Service Delivery
13 32 (7.41%) Coaching
14 31 (7.18%) Customer Experience
15 30 (6.94%) AI
15 30 (6.94%) Anti-Money Laundering
Programming Languages
1 37 (8.56%) SQL
2 30 (6.94%) Python
3 29 (6.71%) C#
4 25 (5.79%) Java
5 16 (3.70%) JavaScript
6 12 (2.78%) TypeScript
7 8 (1.85%) Bash
7 8 (1.85%) Go
8 7 (1.62%) Groovy
9 4 (0.93%) PHP
10 3 (0.69%) C++
10 3 (0.69%) COBOL
11 2 (0.46%) Bicep
12 1 (0.23%) C
12 1 (0.23%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.23%) Perl
12 1 (0.23%) PowerShell
12 1 (0.23%) R
12 1 (0.23%) Swift
12 1 (0.23%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 39 (9.03%) Degree
2 30 (6.94%) IRCA
3 12 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (2.55%) Microsoft Certification
4 11 (2.55%) PMI Certification
5 10 (2.31%) Security Cleared
6 8 (1.85%) AWS Certification
6 8 (1.85%) MCSE
6 8 (1.85%) SC Cleared
7 7 (1.62%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.16%) ISTQB
9 4 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.69%) CCEA
10 3 (0.69%) Citrix Certification
10 3 (0.69%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.69%) PMP
11 1 (0.23%) CHECK Team Member
11 1 (0.23%) CREST Certified
11 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 1 (0.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (8.56%) GDPR
2 32 (7.41%) ISO 9001
3 11 (2.55%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.55%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.85%) P3O
5 6 (1.39%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.16%) PMO
7 4 (0.93%) GMP
8 3 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.69%) Software Quality Assurance
8 3 (0.69%) WCAG
9 2 (0.46%) GRC
9 2 (0.46%) ISO 14001
9 2 (0.46%) NIST
9 2 (0.46%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.23%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.23%) SLA
System Software
1 21 (4.86%) Docker
2 1 (0.23%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 11 (2.55%) Terraform
2 8 (1.85%) Kubernetes
3 4 (0.93%) Grafana
3 4 (0.93%) HP Fortify
4 3 (0.69%) Ansible
4 3 (0.69%) Packer
5 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 42 (9.72%) Microsoft
2 18 (4.17%) SAP
3 13 (3.01%) Google
4 12 (2.78%) ServiceNow
5 10 (2.31%) Intapp
6 9 (2.08%) Aderant
6 9 (2.08%) iManage
7 4 (0.93%) Planon
7 4 (0.93%) Siemens
8 3 (0.69%) Adobe
8 3 (0.69%) AppDynamics
8 3 (0.69%) IBM
8 3 (0.69%) Splunk
9 2 (0.46%) Apple
9 2 (0.46%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.46%) Draytek
9 2 (0.46%) Foundry
10 1 (0.23%) CheckPoint
10 1 (0.23%) Sage
10 1 (0.23%) Veracode