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

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 41 83
Rank change year-on-year -48 +42 -69
Permanent jobs citing QA 258 382 381
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 2.08% 4.79% 3.10%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 25.49% 25.88% 23.75%
Number of salaries quoted 122 132 237
10th Percentile £26,000 £27,325 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,563 £40,988 £40,000
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 £61,715 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,375 £81,250
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.17% +4.35% -4.17%

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 1,012 1,476 1,604
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 8.15% 18.49% 13.06%
Number of salaries quoted 561 581 1,198
10th Percentile £28,500 £30,625 £26,750
25th Percentile £33,250 £37,716 £33,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £49,995
Median % change year-on-year - +0.01% -0.01%
75th Percentile £65,640 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £83,750
England median annual salary £59,148 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.42% +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 12 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 12 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 -21 138 £52,500 +0.96% 83
Yorkshire -26 96 £55,000 +26.44% 46
North East -48 24 £57,500 +4.55% 17
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 4 (1.55%) CMS
1 4 (1.55%) WordPress
2 2 (0.78%) Confluence
2 2 (0.78%) nginx
3 1 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.39%) IIS
3 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 9 (3.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (1.55%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (1.16%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (3.49%) SAP ERP
2 5 (1.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.94%) Shopify
3 2 (0.78%) Academy Housing
4 1 (0.39%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 32 (12.40%) Azure
2 19 (7.36%) Power Platform
3 18 (6.98%) SaaS
4 17 (6.59%) AWS
5 8 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (2.71%) GCP
7 5 (1.94%) Amazon S3
7 5 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
7 5 (1.94%) AWS Lambda
7 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Copilot
7 5 (1.94%) Serverless
8 4 (1.55%) Amazon ECR
8 4 (1.55%) Amazon ECS
8 4 (1.55%) Apigee
8 4 (1.55%) AWS Step Functions
8 4 (1.55%) Google Analytics
9 3 (1.16%) Datadog
9 3 (1.16%) dbt
9 3 (1.16%) Google Ads
9 3 (1.16%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.94%) Broadband
1 5 (1.94%) HTTP
2 4 (1.55%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.39%) SAN
3 1 (0.39%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.65%) Power BI
2 5 (1.94%) DynamoDB
2 5 (1.94%) Relational Database
3 4 (1.55%) SQL Server
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 (0.78%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.78%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.78%) PostHog
5 2 (0.78%) Redis
5 2 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 2 (0.78%) Tableau
6 1 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.39%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 11 (4.26%) Jenkins
2 9 (3.49%) GitLab
3 7 (2.71%) Cypress.io
4 6 (2.33%) JIRA
4 6 (2.33%) Postman
4 6 (2.33%) SonarQube
5 5 (1.94%) Cucumber
5 5 (1.94%) Maven
6 4 (1.55%) Git
6 4 (1.55%) JMeter
6 4 (1.55%) Selenium
6 4 (1.55%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.78%) Appium
7 2 (0.78%) Locust
7 2 (0.78%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.39%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.39%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.39%) Protractor
8 1 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.39%) TestRail
General
1 84 (32.56%) Social Skills
2 45 (17.44%) Manufacturing
3 44 (17.05%) Finance
4 26 (10.08%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (9.30%) Influencing Skills
5 24 (9.30%) Organisational Skills
6 18 (6.98%) Public Sector
7 13 (5.04%) Law
7 13 (5.04%) Marketing
8 12 (4.65%) Legal
9 7 (2.71%) Games
10 6 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (1.94%) Retail
12 4 (1.55%) Advertising
12 4 (1.55%) Banking
12 4 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.55%) Military
13 3 (1.16%) Electronics
13 3 (1.16%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 38 (14.73%) Lead
2 32 (12.40%) QA Manager
2 32 (12.40%) Senior
3 21 (8.14%) QA Engineer
3 21 (8.14%) Quality Manager
4 16 (6.20%) Developer
5 14 (5.43%) Analyst
6 12 (4.65%) QA Leader
7 11 (4.26%) Automation Engineer
7 11 (4.26%) Project Manager
7 11 (4.26%) QA Automation Engineer
8 9 (3.49%) Team Leader
9 8 (3.10%) Portfolio Manager
9 8 (3.10%) Senior Manager
9 8 (3.10%) Senior Portfolio Manager
10 7 (2.71%) QA Team Leader
11 6 (2.33%) Lead Developer
11 6 (2.33%) QA Officer
11 6 (2.33%) Senior Developer
11 6 (2.33%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.65%) .NET
2 9 (3.49%) React
3 8 (3.10%) AngularJS
3 8 (3.10%) CSS
3 8 (3.10%) HTML
4 7 (2.71%) RESTful
4 7 (2.71%) Spring
4 7 (2.71%) Spring Boot
5 6 (2.33%) Gherkin
5 6 (2.33%) Jest
6 5 (1.94%) Node.js
7 4 (1.55%) Playwright
7 4 (1.55%) Qt
7 4 (1.55%) STL
8 3 (1.16%) Next.js
8 3 (1.16%) QML
9 2 (0.78%) .NET Core
9 2 (0.78%) Flutter
9 2 (0.78%) MassTransit
9 2 (0.78%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (3.88%) Product Ownership
1 10 (3.88%) Self-Motivation
1 10 (3.88%) Social Media
2 8 (3.10%) Cloud Native
2 8 (3.10%) Driving Licence
2 8 (3.10%) Onboarding
2 8 (3.10%) PMI
3 6 (2.33%) AI Agents
3 6 (2.33%) CCTV
3 6 (2.33%) NHS
4 5 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (1.94%) Client/Server
5 4 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (1.16%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.16%) Mobile App
6 3 (1.16%) Renewable Energy
7 2 (0.78%) Derivative
7 2 (0.78%) EPoS
7 2 (0.78%) IoT
8 1 (0.39%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.43%) Windows
2 5 (1.94%) Linux
2 5 (1.94%) Unix
3 4 (1.55%) Android
3 4 (1.55%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (26.36%) Mentoring
2 67 (25.97%) Agile
3 49 (18.99%) Continuous Improvement
4 44 (17.05%) Problem-Solving
5 40 (15.50%) CI/CD
5 40 (15.50%) Test Automation
6 37 (14.34%) DevOps
7 31 (12.02%) Process Improvement
7 31 (12.02%) Stakeholder Management
8 24 (9.30%) Project Management
9 23 (8.91%) Software Engineering
10 20 (7.75%) Coaching
11 17 (6.59%) Collaborative Working
12 16 (6.20%) Quality Management
12 16 (6.20%) Scrum
13 15 (5.81%) Project Delivery
13 15 (5.81%) QMS
13 15 (5.81%) User Experience
14 14 (5.43%) Data Analysis
15 13 (5.04%) AI
Programming Languages
1 19 (7.36%) C#
2 17 (6.59%) Java
3 15 (5.81%) Python
4 13 (5.04%) SQL
4 13 (5.04%) TypeScript
5 10 (3.88%) JavaScript
6 6 (2.33%) Bash
7 4 (1.55%) C++
7 4 (1.55%) Go
7 4 (1.55%) Groovy
7 4 (1.55%) PowerShell
8 2 (0.78%) PHP
9 1 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (10.47%) Degree
2 17 (6.59%) PMI Certification
3 12 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (3.49%) PMP
5 7 (2.71%) DBS Check
6 6 (2.33%) Security Cleared
7 4 (1.55%) HND
7 4 (1.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 4 (1.55%) SC Cleared
8 3 (1.16%) CCEA
8 3 (1.16%) Citrix Certification
8 3 (1.16%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 2 (0.78%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.39%) CISA
10 1 (0.39%) CISM
10 1 (0.39%) CISSP
10 1 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.39%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.20%) Accessibility
2 8 (3.10%) P3O
3 5 (1.94%) GDPR
3 5 (1.94%) PCI DSS
4 4 (1.55%) PMO
5 3 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.78%) GRC
6 2 (0.78%) NIST
6 2 (0.78%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.78%) WCAG
7 1 (0.39%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.39%) FINRA
7 1 (0.39%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.39%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 13 (5.04%) Docker
2 1 (0.39%) Firmware
2 1 (0.39%) Squid
Systems Management
1 9 (3.49%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.71%) Grafana
2 7 (2.71%) Terraform
3 4 (1.55%) HP Fortify
4 3 (1.16%) Ansible
5 2 (0.78%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.78%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.78%) Puppet
6 1 (0.39%) Kibana
Vendors
1 29 (11.24%) Microsoft
2 13 (5.04%) SAP
3 9 (3.49%) Google
4 4 (1.55%) Siemens
5 3 (1.16%) ESRI
6 2 (0.78%) Foundry
6 2 (0.78%) Intapp
7 1 (0.39%) Aderant
7 1 (0.39%) AppDynamics
7 1 (0.39%) iManage
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