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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 59 80
Rank change year-on-year -18 +21 -66
Permanent jobs citing QA 303 283 454
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.14% 4.12% 3.11%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 26.19% 22.23% 22.39%
Number of salaries quoted 139 123 293
10th Percentile £26,000 £37,600 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,450 £42,125 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,563 £64,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,250 £82,500 £78,750
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -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 1,157 1,273 2,028
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.15% 18.51% 13.90%
Number of salaries quoted 658 614 1,477
10th Percentile £29,000 £28,150 £26,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,375 £34,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,000 £63,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,070 £83,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +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 13 March 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 13 March 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 +9 168 £50,000 -4.76% 99
Yorkshire -17 99 £42,500 -2.30% 55
North East -49 36 £50,000 -9.09% 28
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 6 (1.98%) CMS
1 6 (1.98%) WordPress
2 2 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.66%) Confluence
2 2 (0.66%) nginx
3 1 (0.33%) IIS
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
1 6 (1.98%) Spreadsheet
2 3 (0.99%) AutoCAD
2 3 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.97%) SAP ERP
2 2 (0.66%) Academy Housing
3 1 (0.33%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 33 (10.89%) Azure
2 18 (5.94%) AWS
3 17 (5.61%) SaaS
4 15 (4.95%) Power Platform
5 10 (3.30%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (2.64%) GCP
7 7 (2.31%) Google Analytics
8 5 (1.65%) Amazon S3
8 5 (1.65%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (1.65%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (1.65%) Serverless
9 4 (1.32%) Amazon ECR
9 4 (1.32%) Amazon ECS
9 4 (1.32%) Apigee
9 4 (1.32%) AWS Step Functions
9 4 (1.32%) dbt
10 3 (0.99%) Datadog
10 3 (0.99%) PaaS
11 2 (0.66%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.66%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.98%) HTTP
2 5 (1.65%) Broadband
3 4 (1.32%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.33%) SAN
4 1 (0.33%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.64%) Power BI
2 5 (1.65%) DynamoDB
2 5 (1.65%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.32%) Metadata
3 4 (1.32%) Relational Database
4 3 (0.99%) BigQuery
4 3 (0.99%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.99%) Geospatial Data
4 3 (0.99%) GIS
4 3 (0.99%) QGIS
4 3 (0.99%) Spatial Data
5 2 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.66%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.66%) MySQL
5 2 (0.66%) PostHog
5 2 (0.66%) Redis
5 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.33%) SAP Data Services
6 1 (0.33%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (3.63%) Jenkins
2 9 (2.97%) GitLab
3 8 (2.64%) JIRA
4 7 (2.31%) Cypress.io
5 6 (1.98%) Git
5 6 (1.98%) Postman
6 5 (1.65%) Cucumber
6 5 (1.65%) Selenium
6 5 (1.65%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.32%) JMeter
7 4 (1.32%) Maven
7 4 (1.32%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.66%) Appium
8 2 (0.66%) Locust
8 2 (0.66%) SpecFlow
9 1 (0.33%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.33%) JUnit
9 1 (0.33%) Protractor
9 1 (0.33%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.33%) TestRail
General
1 109 (35.97%) Social Skills
2 59 (19.47%) Manufacturing
3 58 (19.14%) Finance
4 41 (13.53%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (7.92%) Influencing Skills
6 23 (7.59%) Organisational Skills
7 17 (5.61%) Public Sector
8 15 (4.95%) Marketing
9 12 (3.96%) Law
9 12 (3.96%) Legal
10 10 (3.30%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (2.97%) Retail
12 7 (2.31%) Games
12 7 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.32%) Banking
13 4 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.99%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.99%) Automotive
14 3 (0.99%) Electronics
14 3 (0.99%) Military
Job Titles
1 40 (13.20%) QA Manager
2 39 (12.87%) Lead
3 33 (10.89%) Senior
4 29 (9.57%) Quality Manager
5 24 (7.92%) QA Engineer
6 20 (6.60%) Head of QA
7 17 (5.61%) Developer
8 15 (4.95%) Analyst
9 12 (3.96%) QA Leader
10 10 (3.30%) Administrator
10 10 (3.30%) Automation Engineer
10 10 (3.30%) QA Automation Engineer
10 10 (3.30%) QA Officer
11 9 (2.97%) Team Leader
12 8 (2.64%) Portfolio Manager
12 8 (2.64%) Senior Manager
12 8 (2.64%) Senior Portfolio Manager
13 7 (2.31%) QA Team Leader
13 7 (2.31%) Quality Engineer
13 7 (2.31%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.96%) HTML
2 11 (3.63%) .NET
2 11 (3.63%) CSS
3 8 (2.64%) AngularJS
3 8 (2.64%) RESTful
4 7 (2.31%) React
4 7 (2.31%) Spring
4 7 (2.31%) Spring Boot
5 6 (1.98%) Gherkin
5 6 (1.98%) Jest
6 5 (1.65%) Playwright
7 4 (1.32%) Qt
7 4 (1.32%) STL
8 3 (0.99%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.99%) Entity Framework
8 3 (0.99%) Flutter
8 3 (0.99%) Node.js
8 3 (0.99%) QML
8 3 (0.99%) REST
9 2 (0.66%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.25%) Analytical Mindset
2 10 (3.30%) Onboarding
2 10 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (3.30%) Social Media
3 9 (2.97%) Product Ownership
4 8 (2.64%) Driving Licence
4 8 (2.64%) PMI
5 7 (2.31%) Cloud Native
6 6 (1.98%) AI Agents
6 6 (1.98%) CCTV
6 6 (1.98%) NHS
7 5 (1.65%) Client/Server
8 4 (1.32%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.32%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.32%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.99%) Renewable Energy
10 2 (0.66%) Derivative
10 2 (0.66%) EPoS
10 2 (0.66%) IoT
10 2 (0.66%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.95%) Windows
2 5 (1.65%) Android
2 5 (1.65%) Apple iOS
2 5 (1.65%) Linux
2 5 (1.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (24.42%) Continuous Improvement
2 67 (22.11%) Mentoring
3 66 (21.78%) Agile
4 43 (14.19%) Problem-Solving
5 42 (13.86%) CI/CD
6 39 (12.87%) Test Automation
7 38 (12.54%) Quality Management
8 35 (11.55%) DevOps
9 31 (10.23%) Analytics
9 31 (10.23%) Stakeholder Management
10 30 (9.90%) Change Management
10 30 (9.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 28 (9.24%) Root Cause Analysis
12 26 (8.58%) PRINCE2
13 25 (8.25%) Customer Experience
13 25 (8.25%) Process Improvement
14 23 (7.59%) Service Delivery
14 23 (7.59%) Software Engineering
14 23 (7.59%) User Experience
15 22 (7.26%) Actionable Insight
Programming Languages
1 19 (6.27%) C#
1 19 (6.27%) Java
1 19 (6.27%) Python
2 13 (4.29%) SQL
2 13 (4.29%) TypeScript
3 10 (3.30%) JavaScript
4 6 (1.98%) Bash
5 5 (1.65%) Go
6 4 (1.32%) C++
6 4 (1.32%) Groovy
6 4 (1.32%) PowerShell
7 3 (0.99%) PHP
8 1 (0.33%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 29 (9.57%) Degree
2 20 (6.60%) IRCA
3 14 (4.62%) PMI Certification
4 13 (4.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.31%) DBS Check
6 6 (1.98%) PMP
7 5 (1.65%) Security Cleared
8 4 (1.32%) HND
9 3 (0.99%) CCEA
9 3 (0.99%) Citrix Certification
9 3 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.99%) SC Cleared
10 2 (0.66%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.66%) ISTQB
10 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.33%) CISA
11 1 (0.33%) CISM
11 1 (0.33%) CISSP
11 1 (0.33%) MCSE
11 1 (0.33%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (8.91%) GDPR
2 20 (6.60%) ISO 9001
3 9 (2.97%) Accessibility
4 8 (2.64%) P3O
4 8 (2.64%) PCI DSS
5 4 (1.32%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.66%) GRC
7 2 (0.66%) NIST
7 2 (0.66%) SOC 2
7 2 (0.66%) WCAG
8 1 (0.33%) FINRA
8 1 (0.33%) PMO
8 1 (0.33%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (3.96%) Docker
2 1 (0.33%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.33%) Firmware
2 1 (0.33%) Squid
Systems Management
1 7 (2.31%) Grafana
1 7 (2.31%) Kubernetes
2 6 (1.98%) Terraform
3 4 (1.32%) HP Fortify
4 2 (0.66%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.33%) Ansible
5 1 (0.33%) Kibana
5 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 24 (7.92%) Microsoft
2 13 (4.29%) SAP
3 11 (3.63%) Google
4 4 (1.32%) Siemens
5 3 (0.99%) ESRI
6 2 (0.66%) Foundry
6 2 (0.66%) Intapp
6 2 (0.66%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.33%) Aderant
7 1 (0.33%) AppDynamics
7 1 (0.33%) DevExpress
7 1 (0.33%) iManage
7 1 (0.33%) New Relic
7 1 (0.33%) Nimble Storage
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle
7 1 (0.33%) Planon
7 1 (0.33%) Splunk
7 1 (0.33%) Veracode