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 26 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 95 54
Rank change year-on-year +46 -41 +26
Permanent jobs citing QA 638 295 494
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.65% 3.10% 3.57%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 31.00% 27.04% 27.61%
Number of salaries quoted 408 123 184
10th Percentile £27,500 £32,550 £25,000
25th Percentile £32,375 £42,063 £29,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £40,887
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +34.52% -25.66%
75th Percentile £60,000 £71,250 £56,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £86,000 £71,825
England median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £53,150
% change year-on-year -13.04% +8.18% -13.93%

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 2,058 1,091 1,789
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.56% 11.45% 12.92%
Number of salaries quoted 1,457 464 829
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,300 £25,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £33,125 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £46,000
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -8.00%
75th Percentile £67,625 £64,906 £60,991
90th Percentile £86,250 £76,175 £77,500
England median annual salary £57,500 £57,315 £57,500
% change year-on-year +0.32% -0.32% -4.17%

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 26 September 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 26 September 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 +37 377 £45,000 -18.18% 265
Yorkshire +18 134 £40,000 -27.27% 126
North East +13 127 £55,000 +22.22% 79
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 (1.57%) Apache Airflow
2 7 (1.10%) Apache
2 7 (1.10%) Apache Spark
2 7 (1.10%) Jupyter
2 7 (1.10%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.78%) CMS
4 4 (0.63%) WordPress
5 3 (0.47%) IIS
5 3 (0.47%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.31%) Confluence
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 30 (4.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (3.92%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (1.41%) MS Visio
3 9 (1.41%) Revit
4 7 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.94%) AutoCAD
6 4 (0.63%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (0.63%) Sage 200
1 4 (0.63%) SAP Business One
1 4 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.47%) SystmOne
3 1 (0.16%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 72 (11.29%) AWS
2 62 (9.72%) Azure
3 30 (4.70%) Azure DevOps
4 29 (4.55%) Power Platform
5 27 (4.23%) Microsoft 365
6 22 (3.45%) Serverless
7 21 (3.29%) Amazon S3
8 18 (2.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 17 (2.66%) AWS Lambda
9 17 (2.66%) SaaS
10 16 (2.51%) Amazon EC2
11 14 (2.19%) GitHub
12 11 (1.72%) GCP
13 10 (1.57%) Amazon ECR
13 10 (1.57%) Amazon EKS
13 10 (1.57%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (1.41%) Power Automate
15 7 (1.10%) Amazon ECS
15 7 (1.10%) AWS Fargate
16 6 (0.94%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.10%) DNS
2 6 (0.94%) Remote Desktop
3 5 (0.78%) SSL
3 5 (0.78%) TCP/IP
4 4 (0.63%) Internet
4 4 (0.63%) VPN
5 3 (0.47%) HTTPS
5 3 (0.47%) Structured Cabling
6 2 (0.31%) Broadband
6 2 (0.31%) HTTP
6 2 (0.31%) LAN
6 2 (0.31%) SMS
6 2 (0.31%) VoIP
6 2 (0.31%) WAN
7 1 (0.16%) ADSL
7 1 (0.16%) DHCP
7 1 (0.16%) Intranet
7 1 (0.16%) ISDN
7 1 (0.16%) RIP
7 1 (0.16%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.45%) Power BI
2 15 (2.35%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.25%) MongoDB
4 7 (1.10%) DynamoDB
4 7 (1.10%) MySQL
4 7 (1.10%) Relational Database
5 6 (0.94%) Amazon Athena
5 6 (0.94%) DocumentDB
6 4 (0.63%) BigQuery
6 4 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.63%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.63%) Redis
7 3 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.47%) Big Data
7 3 (0.47%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.31%) EDRMS
8 2 (0.31%) Tableau
9 1 (0.16%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.16%) EDMS
Development Applications
1 37 (5.80%) Git
2 26 (4.08%) GitLab
3 25 (3.92%) JIRA
4 15 (2.35%) Cypress.io
5 11 (1.72%) Jenkins
6 10 (1.57%) Postman
7 7 (1.10%) Selenium
8 5 (0.78%) Cucumber
8 5 (0.78%) JMeter
9 4 (0.63%) JUnit
9 4 (0.63%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.47%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.47%) Claude Code
10 3 (0.47%) RStudio
11 2 (0.31%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.31%) NUnit
11 2 (0.31%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.31%) TestRail
12 1 (0.16%) Gradle
12 1 (0.16%) Xcode
General
1 153 (23.98%) Social Skills
2 111 (17.40%) Manufacturing
3 70 (10.97%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (9.72%) Pharmaceutical
5 57 (8.93%) Finance
6 46 (7.21%) Public Sector
7 32 (5.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 32 (5.02%) Legal
8 25 (3.92%) Aerospace
9 23 (3.61%) Law
10 21 (3.29%) Organisational Skills
11 16 (2.51%) Marketing
12 15 (2.35%) Retail
13 12 (1.88%) Swedish Language
14 11 (1.72%) Banking
14 11 (1.72%) Electronics
15 10 (1.57%) Local Government
16 7 (1.10%) Automotive
16 7 (1.10%) Games
17 6 (0.94%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 85 (13.32%) QA Engineer
2 72 (11.29%) Analyst
3 69 (10.82%) Senior
4 66 (10.34%) Quality Engineer
5 65 (10.19%) QA Officer
6 61 (9.56%) Lead
7 50 (7.84%) Developer
7 50 (7.84%) QA Manager
8 40 (6.27%) Quality Manager
9 26 (4.08%) QA Leader
10 21 (3.29%) Automation Engineer
10 21 (3.29%) QA Automation Engineer
10 21 (3.29%) Test Engineer
11 19 (2.98%) Business Analyst
12 16 (2.51%) Service Analyst
12 16 (2.51%) Service Desk Analyst
13 15 (2.35%) Software Engineer
14 14 (2.19%) Software Developer
14 14 (2.19%) Tester
15 13 (2.04%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (6.90%) .NET
2 33 (5.17%) HTML
3 31 (4.86%) CSS
4 28 (4.39%) Playwright
5 27 (4.23%) Node.js
6 24 (3.76%) REST
7 19 (2.98%) Terraform
8 18 (2.82%) RESTful
9 10 (1.57%) .NET Framework
9 10 (1.57%) AngularJS
10 9 (1.41%) OAuth
10 9 (1.41%) React
11 8 (1.25%) ASP.NET Web API
12 7 (1.10%) .NET Core
12 7 (1.10%) ASP.NET
12 7 (1.10%) Entity Framework
12 7 (1.10%) Jest
12 7 (1.10%) Vue
13 6 (0.94%) JWT
13 6 (0.94%) Nunjucks
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.17%) Product Ownership
2 19 (2.98%) Life Science
3 17 (2.66%) Cloud Native
4 14 (2.19%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (1.88%) Driving Licence
6 11 (1.72%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.41%) Onboarding
8 7 (1.10%) Data Centre
8 7 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (1.10%) Mobile App
9 6 (0.94%) AI Agents
9 6 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (0.78%) Blog
10 5 (0.78%) PMI
10 5 (0.78%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.63%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 4 (0.63%) Legacy Systems
12 3 (0.47%) CCTV
12 3 (0.47%) Online Games
12 3 (0.47%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 20 (3.13%) Windows
2 14 (2.19%) Linux
3 8 (1.25%) Android
4 7 (1.10%) Apple iOS
5 6 (0.94%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.94%) Unix
6 5 (0.78%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.31%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (23.04%) Agile
2 133 (20.85%) Continuous Improvement
3 113 (17.71%) CI/CD
4 101 (15.83%) Test Automation
5 97 (15.20%) Problem-Solving
6 77 (12.07%) DevOps
7 76 (11.91%) Mentoring
8 63 (9.87%) Validation
9 55 (8.62%) Software Testing
10 50 (7.84%) Stakeholder Management
11 48 (7.52%) Software Engineering
12 44 (6.90%) Decision-Making
13 43 (6.74%) Customer Service
14 41 (6.43%) AI
15 36 (5.64%) Coaching
15 36 (5.64%) SDLC
16 35 (5.49%) Collaborative Working
17 34 (5.33%) Scrum
18 31 (4.86%) Microservices
18 31 (4.86%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 68 (10.66%) SQL
2 65 (10.19%) JavaScript
3 50 (7.84%) C#
4 39 (6.11%) Python
5 32 (5.02%) Java
5 32 (5.02%) TypeScript
6 9 (1.41%) Bash
7 5 (0.78%) Go
7 5 (0.78%) PHP
7 5 (0.78%) PowerShell
7 5 (0.78%) R
8 4 (0.63%) Kotlin
9 3 (0.47%) C++
9 3 (0.47%) Groovy
10 2 (0.31%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.16%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.16%) Perl
11 1 (0.16%) Scala
11 1 (0.16%) Swift
11 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 76 (11.91%) Degree
2 61 (9.56%) Security Cleared
3 51 (7.99%) SC Cleared
4 18 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.19%) AWS Certification
6 14 (2.19%) MCSE
7 8 (1.25%) Postgraduate
7 8 (1.25%) RIBA
8 7 (1.10%) DBS Check
8 7 (1.10%) HNC
9 6 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (0.94%) CREST Certified
9 6 (0.94%) HND
10 5 (0.78%) DV Cleared
10 5 (0.78%) PMI Certification
11 4 (0.63%) PMP
12 2 (0.31%) Chartered Engineer
12 2 (0.31%) City & Guilds
12 2 (0.31%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.39%) ISO 9001
2 25 (3.92%) Accessibility
3 13 (2.04%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.88%) GMP
5 9 (1.41%) GDPR
5 9 (1.41%) PMO
6 3 (0.47%) ISO 19650
6 3 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.47%) Software Quality Assurance
7 2 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.31%) ECSS
7 2 (0.31%) P3O
7 2 (0.31%) WCAG
8 1 (0.16%) AQAP
8 1 (0.16%) Good Clinical Practice
8 1 (0.16%) GRC
8 1 (0.16%) NCSC
8 1 (0.16%) NIST
System Software
1 31 (4.86%) Docker
2 3 (0.47%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 19 (2.98%) Kubernetes
2 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.47%) Ansible
3 3 (0.47%) Packer
4 2 (0.31%) Grafana
4 2 (0.31%) Kibana
5 1 (0.16%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.16%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 63 (9.87%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.13%) ServiceNow
3 17 (2.66%) SAP
4 9 (1.41%) Aderant
4 9 (1.41%) Autodesk
5 8 (1.25%) iManage
5 8 (1.25%) Intapp
6 7 (1.10%) Dynatrace
7 6 (0.94%) Confluent
7 6 (0.94%) Databricks
7 6 (0.94%) Sage
8 5 (0.78%) Salesforce
9 4 (0.63%) Google
9 4 (0.63%) IBM
10 3 (0.47%) AppDynamics
10 3 (0.47%) Splunk
10 3 (0.47%) YouTube
11 2 (0.31%) Alteryx
11 2 (0.31%) F5
11 2 (0.31%) Palo Alto