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

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 44 81
Rank change year-on-year -38 +37 -67
Permanent jobs citing QA 259 394 378
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.16% 4.69% 3.14%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 26.51% 26.18% 24.00%
Number of salaries quoted 125 132 241
10th Percentile £26,000 £27,325 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £40,741 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% +4.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £60,777 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,375 £81,250
England median annual salary £55,367 £60,000 £58,457
% change year-on-year -7.72% +2.64% -2.57%

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 977 1,505 1,575
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.16% 17.90% 13.08%
Number of salaries quoted 541 579 1,193
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £33,125 £37,500 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £82,548
England median annual salary £59,343 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.10% +9.09% -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 5 February 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 5 February 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 -25 134 £56,250 +8.17% 95
Yorkshire -15 100 £52,500 +20.69% 51
North East -50 25 £55,000 - 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 3 (1.16%) CMS
1 3 (1.16%) WordPress
2 2 (0.77%) Confluence
2 2 (0.77%) nginx
3 1 (0.39%) IIS
3 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (3.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.70%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.16%) AutoCAD
3 3 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (3.47%) SAP ERP
2 7 (2.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.70%) Shopify
3 2 (0.77%) Academy Housing
4 1 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 35 (13.51%) Azure
2 21 (8.11%) Power Platform
3 18 (6.95%) SaaS
4 17 (6.56%) AWS
5 8 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (2.70%) Microsoft Copilot
7 6 (2.32%) GCP
8 5 (1.93%) Amazon S3
8 5 (1.93%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (1.93%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (1.93%) Serverless
9 4 (1.54%) Amazon ECR
9 4 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
9 4 (1.54%) Apigee
9 4 (1.54%) AWS Step Functions
10 3 (1.16%) Datadog
10 3 (1.16%) Google Ads
10 3 (1.16%) Google Analytics
10 3 (1.16%) PaaS
11 2 (0.77%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.93%) Broadband
1 5 (1.93%) HTTP
2 4 (1.54%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.39%) SAN
3 1 (0.39%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.41%) Power BI
2 5 (1.93%) DynamoDB
2 5 (1.93%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.54%) Relational Database
4 3 (1.16%) Geospatial Data
4 3 (1.16%) GIS
4 3 (1.16%) Looker
4 3 (1.16%) Metadata
4 3 (1.16%) QGIS
4 3 (1.16%) Spatial Data
5 2 (0.77%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.77%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.77%) PostHog
5 2 (0.77%) Redis
5 2 (0.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 2 (0.77%) Tableau
6 1 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 11 (4.25%) Jenkins
2 9 (3.47%) GitLab
3 7 (2.70%) Cypress.io
4 6 (2.32%) JIRA
4 6 (2.32%) Postman
4 6 (2.32%) SonarQube
5 5 (1.93%) Cucumber
5 5 (1.93%) JMeter
5 5 (1.93%) Maven
6 4 (1.54%) Selenium
6 4 (1.54%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.77%) Appium
7 2 (0.77%) Git
7 2 (0.77%) Locust
7 2 (0.77%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.39%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.39%) Gatling
8 1 (0.39%) Protractor
8 1 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.39%) TestRail
General
1 82 (31.66%) Social Skills
2 46 (17.76%) Finance
2 46 (17.76%) Manufacturing
3 27 (10.42%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (9.27%) Influencing Skills
5 23 (8.88%) Organisational Skills
6 22 (8.49%) Public Sector
7 13 (5.02%) Marketing
8 12 (4.63%) Law
9 11 (4.25%) Legal
10 7 (2.70%) Games
11 6 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.93%) Retail
13 4 (1.54%) Advertising
13 4 (1.54%) Banking
13 4 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.54%) Electronics
13 4 (1.54%) Military
13 4 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (1.54%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 38 (14.67%) Lead
2 32 (12.36%) QA Manager
2 32 (12.36%) Senior
3 21 (8.11%) Quality Manager
4 20 (7.72%) QA Engineer
5 17 (6.56%) Developer
6 16 (6.18%) Analyst
7 13 (5.02%) Project Manager
8 12 (4.63%) QA Leader
9 11 (4.25%) Automation Engineer
9 11 (4.25%) QA Automation Engineer
10 9 (3.47%) Team Leader
11 8 (3.09%) Portfolio Manager
11 8 (3.09%) Senior Manager
11 8 (3.09%) Senior Portfolio Manager
12 7 (2.70%) QA Team Leader
12 7 (2.70%) Senior Developer
13 6 (2.32%) Lead Developer
13 6 (2.32%) Software Engineer
14 5 (1.93%) Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.63%) .NET
2 9 (3.47%) React
3 8 (3.09%) AngularJS
4 7 (2.70%) RESTful
4 7 (2.70%) Spring
4 7 (2.70%) Spring Boot
5 6 (2.32%) CSS
5 6 (2.32%) Gherkin
5 6 (2.32%) HTML
5 6 (2.32%) Jest
6 5 (1.93%) Node.js
7 4 (1.54%) Playwright
7 4 (1.54%) Qt
7 4 (1.54%) STL
8 3 (1.16%) Next.js
8 3 (1.16%) QML
9 2 (0.77%) Flutter
9 2 (0.77%) Loki
9 2 (0.77%) MassTransit
9 2 (0.77%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (3.86%) Product Ownership
1 10 (3.86%) Self-Motivation
1 10 (3.86%) Social Media
2 8 (3.09%) Cloud Native
2 8 (3.09%) Driving Licence
2 8 (3.09%) Onboarding
2 8 (3.09%) PMI
3 6 (2.32%) AI Agents
3 6 (2.32%) CCTV
3 6 (2.32%) NHS
4 5 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (1.93%) Client/Server
5 4 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (1.54%) IoT
6 3 (1.16%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.16%) Mobile App
6 3 (1.16%) Renewable Energy
7 2 (0.77%) Derivative
7 2 (0.77%) EPoS
8 1 (0.39%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 15 (5.79%) Windows
2 5 (1.93%) Linux
2 5 (1.93%) Unix
3 4 (1.54%) Android
3 4 (1.54%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (26.64%) Agile
1 69 (26.64%) Mentoring
2 49 (18.92%) Continuous Improvement
3 43 (16.60%) Problem-Solving
4 42 (16.22%) DevOps
5 40 (15.44%) CI/CD
6 39 (15.06%) Test Automation
7 33 (12.74%) Process Improvement
8 29 (11.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 25 (9.65%) Project Management
9 25 (9.65%) Software Engineering
10 22 (8.49%) Coaching
11 20 (7.72%) Project Delivery
12 17 (6.56%) Collaborative Working
13 16 (6.18%) Business Intelligence
13 16 (6.18%) User Experience
14 15 (5.79%) Data Analysis
14 15 (5.79%) Quality Management
14 15 (5.79%) Roadmaps
15 14 (5.41%) AI
Programming Languages
1 19 (7.34%) C#
2 17 (6.56%) Java
3 14 (5.41%) Python
4 13 (5.02%) TypeScript
5 11 (4.25%) SQL
6 9 (3.47%) JavaScript
7 6 (2.32%) Bash
7 6 (2.32%) Go
8 4 (1.54%) C++
8 4 (1.54%) Groovy
8 4 (1.54%) PowerShell
9 2 (0.77%) Elixir
9 2 (0.77%) PHP
9 2 (0.77%) Ruby
10 1 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (10.42%) Degree
2 17 (6.56%) PMI Certification
3 12 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (3.47%) PMP
4 9 (3.47%) Security Cleared
5 7 (2.70%) DBS Check
5 7 (2.70%) SC Cleared
6 4 (1.54%) HND
6 4 (1.54%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.16%) CCEA
7 3 (1.16%) Citrix Certification
7 3 (1.16%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.16%) PRINCE2 Certification
8 1 (0.39%) CISA
8 1 (0.39%) CISM
8 1 (0.39%) CISSP
8 1 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.39%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.72%) Accessibility
2 8 (3.09%) P3O
3 5 (1.93%) GDPR
3 5 (1.93%) PCI DSS
4 4 (1.54%) Data Quality
4 4 (1.54%) PMO
5 3 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.77%) GRC
6 2 (0.77%) NIST
6 2 (0.77%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.77%) WCAG
7 1 (0.39%) FINRA
7 1 (0.39%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.39%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 12 (4.63%) Docker
2 1 (0.39%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.39%) Firmware
2 1 (0.39%) Squid
Systems Management
1 9 (3.47%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.70%) Grafana
3 6 (2.32%) Terraform
4 4 (1.54%) HP Fortify
5 3 (1.16%) Ansible
6 2 (0.77%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.77%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.77%) Puppet
7 1 (0.39%) Kibana
Vendors
1 33 (12.74%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.41%) SAP
3 8 (3.09%) Google
4 4 (1.54%) Siemens
5 3 (1.16%) ESRI
6 2 (0.77%) Foundry
7 1 (0.39%) AppDynamics
7 1 (0.39%) Intapp
7 1 (0.39%) New Relic
7 1 (0.39%) Nimble Storage
7 1 (0.39%) Oracle
7 1 (0.39%) Planon
7 1 (0.39%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.39%) Splunk
7 1 (0.39%) Veracode