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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 46 72
Rank change year-on-year -39 +26 -56
Permanent jobs citing QA 243 408 345
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.17% 4.51% 3.48%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 25.55% 26.22% 25.24%
Number of salaries quoted 118 142 221
10th Percentile £26,000 £25,100 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,074 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -
75th Percentile £71,250 £59,375 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,125 £81,250
England median annual salary £56,250 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -6.25% - -3.23%

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 951 1,556 1,367
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.47% 17.19% 13.78%
Number of salaries quoted 519 611 1,012
10th Percentile £28,714 £30,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £33,063 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
75th Percentile £65,000 £64,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £82,500
England median annual salary £58,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -3.33% +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 January 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 22 January 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 -20 126 £57,500 +21.05% 86
Yorkshire -15 95 £50,000 +14.94% 91
North East -43 22 £43,750 -24.57% 33
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 3 (1.23%) IIS
2 2 (0.82%) HCL Notes
2 2 (0.82%) nginx
2 2 (0.82%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.82%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.41%) Confluence
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (4.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (2.88%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.88%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.23%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.82%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 9 (3.70%) SAP ERP
2 7 (2.88%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.88%) Shopify
3 2 (0.82%) Academy Housing
3 2 (0.82%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.41%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 38 (15.64%) Azure
2 22 (9.05%) AWS
2 22 (9.05%) Power Platform
3 18 (7.41%) SaaS
4 8 (3.29%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (2.88%) Microsoft Copilot
6 6 (2.47%) GCP
7 5 (2.06%) Amazon S3
7 5 (2.06%) AWS CloudFormation
7 5 (2.06%) AWS Lambda
7 5 (2.06%) Serverless
8 4 (1.65%) Amazon ECR
8 4 (1.65%) Amazon ECS
8 4 (1.65%) Apigee
8 4 (1.65%) AWS Step Functions
9 3 (1.23%) Datadog
9 3 (1.23%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.23%) Google Ads
9 3 (1.23%) PaaS
10 2 (0.82%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.06%) Broadband
1 5 (2.06%) HTTP
2 4 (1.65%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.41%) SAN
3 1 (0.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.76%) Power BI
2 7 (2.88%) SQL Server
3 5 (2.06%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.65%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (1.23%) Geospatial Data
5 3 (1.23%) GIS
5 3 (1.23%) Looker
5 3 (1.23%) Metadata
5 3 (1.23%) QGIS
5 3 (1.23%) Spatial Data
6 2 (0.82%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.82%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.82%) PostHog
6 2 (0.82%) Redis
6 2 (0.82%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 2 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.82%) Tableau
7 1 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.41%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 11 (4.53%) Jenkins
2 10 (4.12%) Cypress.io
3 9 (3.70%) JIRA
4 8 (3.29%) GitLab
5 6 (2.47%) Selenium
6 5 (2.06%) Cucumber
6 5 (2.06%) JMeter
6 5 (2.06%) Maven
6 5 (2.06%) Postman
6 5 (2.06%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.65%) Visual Studio
8 3 (1.23%) Appium
9 2 (0.82%) Git
9 2 (0.82%) Locust
9 2 (0.82%) SpecFlow
10 1 (0.41%) Gatling
10 1 (0.41%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.41%) LSMW
10 1 (0.41%) Protractor
10 1 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 73 (30.04%) Social Skills
2 45 (18.52%) Manufacturing
3 40 (16.46%) Finance
4 27 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (7.82%) Organisational Skills
6 18 (7.41%) Influencing Skills
7 17 (7.00%) Public Sector
8 14 (5.76%) Law
9 13 (5.35%) Legal
10 8 (3.29%) Marketing
11 7 (2.88%) Games
12 6 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (2.06%) Retail
14 4 (1.65%) Advertising
14 4 (1.65%) Banking
14 4 (1.65%) Electronics
14 4 (1.65%) Military
14 4 (1.65%) Telecoms
15 3 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
15 3 (1.23%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 38 (15.64%) Lead
2 33 (13.58%) Senior
3 31 (12.76%) QA Manager
4 24 (9.88%) Developer
5 22 (9.05%) QA Engineer
6 20 (8.23%) Quality Manager
7 17 (7.00%) Analyst
8 13 (5.35%) Project Manager
8 13 (5.35%) QA Leader
8 13 (5.35%) Senior Developer
9 11 (4.53%) Automation Engineer
9 11 (4.53%) QA Automation Engineer
10 9 (3.70%) Team Leader
11 8 (3.29%) Backend Developer
12 7 (2.88%) QA Team Leader
13 6 (2.47%) Consultant
13 6 (2.47%) Lead Developer
14 5 (2.06%) Commercial Manager
14 5 (2.06%) Operations Manager
14 5 (2.06%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (5.76%) .NET
2 10 (4.12%) React
3 7 (2.88%) AngularJS
3 7 (2.88%) Node.js
3 7 (2.88%) Spring
3 7 (2.88%) Spring Boot
4 6 (2.47%) Gherkin
4 6 (2.47%) Jest
5 5 (2.06%) Playwright
5 5 (2.06%) RESTful
6 4 (1.65%) Qt
6 4 (1.65%) STL
7 3 (1.23%) Bootstrap
7 3 (1.23%) Next.js
7 3 (1.23%) QML
8 2 (0.82%) .NET Core
8 2 (0.82%) ASP.NET MVC
8 2 (0.82%) Loki
8 2 (0.82%) Redux
8 2 (0.82%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (4.12%) IoT
1 10 (4.12%) Product Ownership
1 10 (4.12%) Self-Motivation
1 10 (4.12%) Social Media
2 8 (3.29%) Cloud Native
3 7 (2.88%) Driving Licence
3 7 (2.88%) Onboarding
4 6 (2.47%) AI Agents
4 6 (2.47%) NHS
5 5 (2.06%) CCTV
5 5 (2.06%) Client/Server
6 4 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
7 3 (1.23%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.23%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.23%) Renewable Energy
8 2 (0.82%) Derivative
8 2 (0.82%) EPoS
8 2 (0.82%) PMI
9 1 (0.41%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.00%) Windows
2 5 (2.06%) Linux
2 5 (2.06%) Unix
3 4 (1.65%) Android
3 4 (1.65%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (29.63%) Agile
2 70 (28.81%) Mentoring
3 47 (19.34%) DevOps
3 47 (19.34%) Problem-Solving
4 43 (17.70%) Continuous Improvement
5 40 (16.46%) Test Automation
6 38 (15.64%) CI/CD
7 28 (11.52%) Process Improvement
8 25 (10.29%) Software Engineering
9 24 (9.88%) Project Delivery
10 23 (9.47%) Project Management
11 21 (8.64%) Stakeholder Management
12 17 (7.00%) Roadmaps
13 16 (6.58%) Business Intelligence
13 16 (6.58%) Collaborative Working
13 16 (6.58%) Quality Management
14 15 (6.17%) Collaborative Culture
15 13 (5.35%) Coaching
15 13 (5.35%) QMS
15 13 (5.35%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 21 (8.64%) C#
2 15 (6.17%) Java
2 15 (6.17%) SQL
3 14 (5.76%) TypeScript
4 13 (5.35%) Python
5 12 (4.94%) JavaScript
6 11 (4.53%) Go
7 8 (3.29%) Elixir
7 8 (3.29%) Ruby
8 6 (2.47%) Bash
8 6 (2.47%) C++
9 4 (1.65%) Groovy
9 4 (1.65%) PowerShell
10 3 (1.23%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.82%) PHP
Qualifications
1 24 (9.88%) Degree
2 11 (4.53%) BPSS Clearance
2 11 (4.53%) PMI Certification
3 9 (3.70%) PMP
3 9 (3.70%) Security Cleared
4 7 (2.88%) DBS Check
4 7 (2.88%) SC Cleared
5 4 (1.65%) HND
5 4 (1.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (1.23%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 2 (0.82%) CCEA
7 2 (0.82%) Citrix Certification
8 1 (0.41%) CISA
8 1 (0.41%) CISM
8 1 (0.41%) CISSP
8 1 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.41%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.23%) Accessibility
2 5 (2.06%) GDPR
2 5 (2.06%) PCI DSS
3 4 (1.65%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.65%) PMO
4 3 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.82%) GRC
5 2 (0.82%) NIST
5 2 (0.82%) P3O
5 2 (0.82%) SOC 2
5 2 (0.82%) WCAG
6 1 (0.41%) FINRA
6 1 (0.41%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.41%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 12 (4.94%) Docker
2 3 (1.23%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.41%) Firmware
3 1 (0.41%) Squid
Systems Management
1 9 (3.70%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.88%) Grafana
3 6 (2.47%) Terraform
4 4 (1.65%) HP Fortify
5 3 (1.23%) Ansible
6 2 (0.82%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.82%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.82%) Puppet
7 1 (0.41%) Kibana
Vendors
1 37 (15.23%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.76%) SAP
3 5 (2.06%) Google
4 3 (1.23%) ESRI
4 3 (1.23%) Oracle
4 3 (1.23%) Siemens
5 2 (0.82%) Foundry
5 2 (0.82%) Lotus
6 1 (0.41%) AppDynamics
6 1 (0.41%) Intapp
6 1 (0.41%) New Relic
6 1 (0.41%) Nimble Storage
6 1 (0.41%) Planon
6 1 (0.41%) Splunk