QA Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Quality Assurance (QA)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring QA skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 79 61
Rank change year-on-year +36 -18 -29
Permanent jobs citing QA 202 127 243
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.31% 3.55% 3.65%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 31.08% 24.56% 28.35%
Number of salaries quoted 119 22 140
10th Percentile £35,000 £26,500 £31,225
25th Percentile £50,000 £44,063 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £54,250 £48,925
Median % change year-on-year +10.60% +10.88% -8.98%
75th Percentile £75,000 £69,688 £55,750
90th Percentile £78,750 £82,875 £61,436
South East median annual salary £52,500 £47,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year +10.53% - -13.64%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 650 517 857
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 10.65% 14.45% 12.86%
Number of salaries quoted 397 224 493
10th Percentile £35,000 £26,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £43,000 £39,563 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £59,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.54% +31.11% -9.96%
75th Percentile £73,750 £78,750 £61,250
90th Percentile £85,500 £83,750 £78,228
South East median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +22.22% -10.00%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing QA relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

QA job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

QA
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA

QA
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing QA in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 10 July 2026.

Salary histogram for QA in the Thames Valley

QA
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 10 July 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
Berkshire +57 97 £65,000 +17.12% 16
Buckinghamshire -7 65 £50,000 +81.82% 21
Oxfordshire +7 40 £62,500 +8.70% 10
QA
South East

QA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 (1.98%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.99%) CMS
3 1 (0.50%) ArchestrA
3 1 (0.50%) Confluence
3 1 (0.50%) JBoss
3 1 (0.50%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.50%) Red Hat Fuse
Cloud Services
1 55 (27.23%) Azure
2 39 (19.31%) AWS
3 19 (9.41%) SaaS
4 17 (8.42%) GCP
5 9 (4.46%) GitHub
6 7 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (2.97%) Amazon EKS
7 6 (2.97%) Serverless
8 5 (2.48%) Amazon EC2
8 5 (2.48%) Amazon S3
8 5 (2.48%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (2.48%) Figma
9 4 (1.98%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.49%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 3 (1.49%) iPaaS
11 2 (0.99%) AWS CodePipeline
12 1 (0.50%) Amazon ECS
12 1 (0.50%) Azure Machine Learning
12 1 (0.50%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.49%) DHCP
1 3 (1.49%) DNS
1 3 (1.49%) Firewall
2 1 (0.50%) Broadband
2 1 (0.50%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (0.99%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.99%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 1 (0.50%) IBM InfoSphere
3 1 (0.50%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.50%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 18 (8.91%) Git
1 18 (8.91%) JIRA
2 9 (4.46%) Cucumber
3 8 (3.96%) Jenkins
4 7 (3.47%) GitLab
4 7 (3.47%) Zephyr
5 5 (2.48%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.98%) Artifactory
6 4 (1.98%) Postman
7 2 (0.99%) Polyspace
7 2 (0.99%) Selenium
7 2 (0.99%) VectorCAST
8 1 (0.50%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.50%) JMeter
8 1 (0.50%) JUnit
8 1 (0.50%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.50%) NUnit
General
1 71 (35.15%) Social Skills
2 33 (16.34%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (11.39%) Influencing Skills
4 18 (8.91%) Manufacturing
5 17 (8.42%) Legal
6 16 (7.92%) Pharmaceutical
7 4 (1.98%) Electronics
8 3 (1.49%) Finance
8 3 (1.49%) Marketing
8 3 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.49%) Public Sector
9 2 (0.99%) Aerospace
9 2 (0.99%) Banking
9 2 (0.99%) Games
9 2 (0.99%) Health Technology
9 2 (0.99%) Law
9 2 (0.99%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 50 (24.75%) Lead
2 30 (14.85%) QA Leader
3 21 (10.40%) Software Engineer
4 19 (9.41%) QA Engineer
5 17 (8.42%) QA Manager
5 17 (8.42%) Test Engineer
6 15 (7.43%) Performance Engineer
6 15 (7.43%) Quality Engineer
7 14 (6.93%) Performance Test Engineer
7 14 (6.93%) Team Leader
8 13 (6.44%) Quality Manager
9 11 (5.45%) Architect
10 10 (4.95%) Analyst
10 10 (4.95%) Auditor
10 10 (4.95%) QA Team Leader
10 10 (4.95%) Senior
11 8 (3.96%) DevOps Engineer
11 8 (3.96%) Tester
12 7 (3.47%) Engineering Manager
12 7 (3.47%) Integration Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (10.89%) REST
2 16 (7.92%) .NET
3 15 (7.43%) JSON
4 10 (4.95%) SOAP
5 9 (4.46%) Middleware
5 9 (4.46%) Playwright
5 9 (4.46%) XML
6 8 (3.96%) RabbitMQ
6 8 (3.96%) React
7 6 (2.97%) Blazor
7 6 (2.97%) RESTful
7 6 (2.97%) Web Services
8 5 (2.48%) .NET Framework
8 5 (2.48%) Django
8 5 (2.48%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (2.48%) Twisted
8 5 (2.48%) WebSockets
9 4 (1.98%) OAuth
9 4 (1.98%) XML Messaging
9 4 (1.98%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (12.38%) Product Ownership
2 22 (10.89%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (8.91%) Life Science
4 16 (7.92%) Pharmacovigilance
5 11 (5.45%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (3.96%) Client/Server
7 6 (2.97%) Cloud Native
8 5 (2.48%) Renewable Energy
8 5 (2.48%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (2.48%) Virtual Team
9 4 (1.98%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.49%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.49%) Public Cloud
11 2 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.99%) AS400
11 2 (0.99%) Embedded Systems
11 2 (0.99%) Management Information System
11 2 (0.99%) Robotics
11 2 (0.99%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.99%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 21 (10.40%) Linux
2 5 (2.48%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (31.19%) Continuous Improvement
2 54 (26.73%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (22.28%) Test Automation
4 43 (21.29%) Agile
5 38 (18.81%) Software Engineering
6 32 (15.84%) CAPA
7 28 (13.86%) Computer Science
8 27 (13.37%) CI/CD
8 27 (13.37%) DevOps
9 24 (11.88%) Roadmaps
10 19 (9.41%) Software Testing
11 17 (8.42%) Customer Service
12 16 (7.92%) Code Quality
12 16 (7.92%) Scrum
12 16 (7.92%) TDD
13 15 (7.43%) Containerisation
13 15 (7.43%) Test Strategy
14 14 (6.93%) Change Management
14 14 (6.93%) Full-Stack Development
14 14 (6.93%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 34 (16.83%) Python
2 20 (9.90%) Java
3 18 (8.91%) C#
4 16 (7.92%) SQL
5 13 (6.44%) TypeScript
6 12 (5.94%) C
6 12 (5.94%) JavaScript
7 11 (5.45%) C++
8 8 (3.96%) Rust
9 5 (2.48%) Bash
9 5 (2.48%) Groovy
10 3 (1.49%) Perl
10 3 (1.49%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.50%) Go
11 1 (0.50%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 74 (36.63%) Degree
2 27 (13.37%) Computer Science Degree
3 9 (4.46%) ISTQB
4 7 (3.47%) DBS Check
4 7 (3.47%) Security Cleared
5 5 (2.48%) Master's Degree
6 4 (1.98%) PhD
6 4 (1.98%) SC Cleared
7 3 (1.49%) Postgraduate
8 2 (0.99%) CHECK Team Leader
8 2 (0.99%) CHECK Team Member
8 2 (0.99%) CREST Certified
8 2 (0.99%) CSQA
8 2 (0.99%) Cyber Scheme
8 2 (0.99%) OSCP
9 1 (0.50%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.50%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.50%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (16.83%) Accessibility
2 29 (14.36%) Good Clinical Practice
3 19 (9.41%) GxP
4 6 (2.97%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 6 (2.97%) GLP
4 6 (2.97%) GMP
5 3 (1.49%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.99%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.99%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.99%) ISO 26262
6 2 (0.99%) NCSC
6 2 (0.99%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.50%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.50%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (7.43%) Docker
2 11 (5.45%) Hyper-V
2 11 (5.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.96%) KVM
4 5 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.49%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (6.93%) Kubernetes
1 14 (6.93%) Terraform
2 9 (4.46%) Ansible
3 4 (1.98%) Packer
4 3 (1.49%) Grafana
4 3 (1.49%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.50%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.50%) Netcool
5 1 (0.50%) Netcool/OMNIbus
Vendors
1 19 (9.41%) Microsoft
2 11 (5.45%) VMware
3 6 (2.97%) IBM
3 6 (2.97%) ServiceNow
4 4 (1.98%) AppDynamics
5 3 (1.49%) Google
6 2 (0.99%) Oracle
7 1 (0.50%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.50%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.50%) Informatica
7 1 (0.50%) Pega
7 1 (0.50%) UiPath