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 22 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 104 58 87
Rank change year-on-year -46 +29 -49
Permanent jobs citing QA 191 435 258
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.00% 3.49% 3.43%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 22.24% 25.19% 23.37%
Number of salaries quoted 123 163 174
10th Percentile £28,750 £25,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £27,625 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £43,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +26.44% -20.91% -
75th Percentile £71,250 £53,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £77,500 £73,300 £83,375
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 859 1,727 1,104
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 9.02% 13.84% 14.67%
Number of salaries quoted 486 724 805
10th Percentile £28,286 £25,000 £28,600
25th Percentile £33,125 £32,188 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,750 £46,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.98% -8.00% -
75th Percentile £64,500 £61,006 £66,137
90th Percentile £77,500 £77,500 £81,133
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 22 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 22 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 -40 98 £55,000 +30.53% 146
Yorkshire -21 69 £55,000 +26.44% 53
North East -7 24 £35,000 -22.22% 23
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 2 (1.05%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (1.05%) Apache Spark
1 2 (1.05%) HCL Notes
1 2 (1.05%) IIS
1 2 (1.05%) Oracle SOA Suite
1 2 (1.05%) SAS
1 2 (1.05%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.52%) CMS
2 1 (0.52%) Confluence
2 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.52%) WordPress
Applications
1 10 (5.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (4.71%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (3.14%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.57%) AutoCAD
4 3 (1.57%) Chatbot
5 2 (1.05%) MS Visio
5 2 (1.05%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (3.66%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (3.66%) Shopify
2 2 (1.05%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.52%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 40 (20.94%) Azure
2 32 (16.75%) AWS
3 21 (10.99%) Power Platform
4 17 (8.90%) SaaS
5 8 (4.19%) GCP
5 8 (4.19%) GitHub
6 7 (3.66%) Microsoft Copilot
7 5 (2.62%) Entra ID
8 4 (2.09%) GitHub Actions
8 4 (2.09%) Google Ads
8 4 (2.09%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (1.57%) Datadog
9 3 (1.57%) PaaS
10 2 (1.05%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (1.05%) AWS Lambda
10 2 (1.05%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (1.05%) dbt
10 2 (1.05%) npm
10 2 (1.05%) Serverless
11 1 (0.52%) Yarn
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.57%) HTTP
2 2 (1.05%) Modbus
2 2 (1.05%) MQTT
2 2 (1.05%) PuTTY
2 2 (1.05%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.52%) Broadband
3 1 (0.52%) Internet
3 1 (0.52%) SAN
3 1 (0.52%) WPA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (8.38%) Power BI
2 11 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (4.71%) NoSQL
4 7 (3.66%) MongoDB
4 7 (3.66%) SQL Server
5 6 (3.14%) Relational Database
6 5 (2.62%) Metadata
6 5 (2.62%) Tableau
7 4 (2.09%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (1.57%) Elasticsearch
8 3 (1.57%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (1.57%) GIS
8 3 (1.57%) Looker
8 3 (1.57%) MySQL
8 3 (1.57%) QGIS
8 3 (1.57%) Qlik Sense
8 3 (1.57%) Spatial Data
9 2 (1.05%) BigQuery
9 2 (1.05%) Impala
9 2 (1.05%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 16 (8.38%) JIRA
2 9 (4.71%) Git
2 9 (4.71%) Jenkins
3 8 (4.19%) Selenium
4 6 (3.14%) Cucumber
4 6 (3.14%) Cypress.io
4 6 (3.14%) GitLab
4 6 (3.14%) JMeter
5 4 (2.09%) Appium
5 4 (2.09%) Postman
6 3 (1.57%) WaveMaker
7 2 (1.05%) Gatling
7 2 (1.05%) Locust
7 2 (1.05%) REST Assured
7 2 (1.05%) SpecFlow
7 2 (1.05%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.52%) ESLint
8 1 (0.52%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.52%) Maven
8 1 (0.52%) Storybook
General
1 60 (31.41%) Social Skills
2 35 (18.32%) Manufacturing
3 33 (17.28%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (16.75%) Finance
5 15 (7.85%) Public Sector
6 12 (6.28%) Marketing
7 10 (5.24%) Law
7 10 (5.24%) Legal
7 10 (5.24%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.66%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (2.62%) Advertising
9 5 (2.62%) Retail
10 4 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (2.09%) Military
10 4 (2.09%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (2.09%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.57%) Electronics
11 3 (1.57%) Games
11 3 (1.57%) Welsh Language
12 2 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 34 (17.80%) Senior
2 33 (17.28%) Developer
3 31 (16.23%) Lead
4 18 (9.42%) Analyst
5 14 (7.33%) Project Manager
6 12 (6.28%) Lead Developer
6 12 (6.28%) QA Engineer
6 12 (6.28%) Senior Developer
7 11 (5.76%) QA Manager
8 9 (4.71%) Backend Developer
8 9 (4.71%) Software Developer
9 8 (4.19%) Automation Engineer
9 8 (4.19%) QA Automation Engineer
9 8 (4.19%) Quality Manager
9 8 (4.19%) Tester
10 7 (3.66%) Lead Software Developer
11 6 (3.14%) Commercial Manager
11 6 (3.14%) Commercial Project Manager
11 6 (3.14%) Consultant
11 6 (3.14%) QA Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (8.38%) .NET
1 16 (8.38%) Node.js
2 13 (6.81%) React
3 8 (4.19%) RESTful
4 7 (3.66%) AngularJS
5 5 (2.62%) CSS
5 5 (2.62%) HTML
6 4 (2.09%) ASP.NET
6 4 (2.09%) Bootstrap
6 4 (2.09%) Playwright
7 3 (1.57%) Jest
7 3 (1.57%) Kafka
7 3 (1.57%) PySpark
7 3 (1.57%) Redux
7 3 (1.57%) REST
7 3 (1.57%) SOAP
7 3 (1.57%) Spring
7 3 (1.57%) Spring Boot
8 2 (1.05%) JSON
8 2 (1.05%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.28%) Product Ownership
2 11 (5.76%) IoT
3 9 (4.71%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (3.14%) NHS
4 6 (3.14%) Onboarding
4 6 (3.14%) Social Media
5 5 (2.62%) Analytical Mindset
5 5 (2.62%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.62%) Renewable Energy
6 4 (2.09%) AI Agents
7 3 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.57%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (1.57%) Mobile App
8 2 (1.05%) CCTV
8 2 (1.05%) Client/Server
8 2 (1.05%) EPoS
8 2 (1.05%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.05%) SCADA
8 2 (1.05%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.85%) Windows
2 6 (3.14%) Unix
3 5 (2.62%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (30.89%) Agile
2 56 (29.32%) Mentoring
3 38 (19.90%) DevOps
4 37 (19.37%) Problem-Solving
5 32 (16.75%) CI/CD
6 30 (15.71%) Continuous Improvement
6 30 (15.71%) Test Automation
7 26 (13.61%) Project Delivery
8 22 (11.52%) Process Improvement
8 22 (11.52%) Project Management
8 22 (11.52%) Software Engineering
9 20 (10.47%) Roadmaps
10 18 (9.42%) Business Intelligence
11 14 (7.33%) Coaching
11 14 (7.33%) User Experience
12 13 (6.81%) Budget Management
12 13 (6.81%) Change Management
12 13 (6.81%) Data Analysis
13 12 (6.28%) Data Protection
13 12 (6.28%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 25 (13.09%) JavaScript
1 25 (13.09%) SQL
2 22 (11.52%) Java
3 20 (10.47%) C#
4 15 (7.85%) Python
5 11 (5.76%) TypeScript
6 10 (5.24%) Go
7 8 (4.19%) Elixir
7 8 (4.19%) Ruby
8 5 (2.62%) Bash
8 5 (2.62%) C++
9 4 (2.09%) PowerShell
10 3 (1.57%) PHP
10 3 (1.57%) T-SQL
11 2 (1.05%) PROC SQL
11 2 (1.05%) R
12 1 (0.52%) C
12 1 (0.52%) Dart
Qualifications
1 31 (16.23%) Degree
2 16 (8.38%) Security Cleared
3 14 (7.33%) SC Cleared
4 10 (5.24%) PMI Certification
4 10 (5.24%) PMP
5 6 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (3.14%) DBS Check
5 6 (3.14%) HND
6 4 (2.09%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.57%) AWS Certification
7 3 (1.57%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.57%) PRINCE2 Certification
8 2 (1.05%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.05%) Chartered Engineer
8 2 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (1.05%) HNC
9 1 (0.52%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 1 (0.52%) CISA
9 1 (0.52%) CISM
9 1 (0.52%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (10.99%) Accessibility
2 6 (3.14%) GDPR
3 5 (2.62%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.62%) PMO
4 4 (2.09%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.05%) WCAG
6 1 (0.52%) FINRA
6 1 (0.52%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.52%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.52%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 9 (4.71%) Docker
2 5 (2.62%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.05%) Apache Flume
3 2 (1.05%) HDFS
3 2 (1.05%) Squid
Systems Management
1 7 (3.66%) Kubernetes
1 7 (3.66%) Terraform
2 6 (3.14%) Grafana
3 4 (2.09%) Kibana
4 3 (1.57%) Ansible
5 2 (1.05%) Functional Safety
5 2 (1.05%) logstash
5 2 (1.05%) Oozie
5 2 (1.05%) Progress Chef
5 2 (1.05%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.05%) Puppet
Vendors
1 32 (16.75%) Microsoft
2 8 (4.19%) SAP
3 6 (3.14%) Google
4 3 (1.57%) ESRI
4 3 (1.57%) Oracle
5 2 (1.05%) AVEVA
5 2 (1.05%) Databricks
5 2 (1.05%) Informatica
5 2 (1.05%) Lotus
5 2 (1.05%) MicroStrategy
5 2 (1.05%) New Relic
5 2 (1.05%) Rockwell
5 2 (1.05%) ServiceNow
5 2 (1.05%) Siemens
6 1 (0.52%) AppDynamics
6 1 (0.52%) Nimble Storage
6 1 (0.52%) Sage
6 1 (0.52%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.52%) Splunk