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

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 83 75
Rank change year-on-year +32 -8 -20
Permanent jobs citing QA 215 131 145
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 2.86% 3.45% 3.17%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 26.64% 21.20% 28.94%
Number of salaries quoted 133 38 75
10th Percentile £40,000 £26,250 £30,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £35,938 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £48,250 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +24.35% -3.50% -4.58%
75th Percentile £67,500 £59,688 £56,875
90th Percentile £86,250 £69,125 £77,500
South East median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%

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 807 618 501
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 10.72% 16.29% 10.96%
Number of salaries quoted 532 254 232
10th Percentile £33,650 £27,800 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £38,500 £40,013
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.80% -1.83%
75th Percentile £70,875 £69,681 £76,250
90th Percentile £86,250 £83,375 £83,750
South East median annual salary £52,500 £54,500 £52,913
% change year-on-year -3.67% +3.00% +0.79%

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 12 October 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 12 October 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 +15 97 £60,000 +9.09% 82
Buckinghamshire +15 67 £50,000 +81.82% 32
Oxfordshire -1 51 £57,500 +6.98% 40
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 10 (4.65%) Confluence
2 6 (2.79%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.33%) Moodle
3 5 (2.33%) WordPress
4 1 (0.47%) ArchestrA
4 1 (0.47%) CMS
4 1 (0.47%) JBoss
4 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.47%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.93%) Adobe After Effects
2 2 (0.93%) Adobe Illustrator
2 2 (0.93%) Adobe Premiere
2 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.93%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.47%) Mathcad
3 1 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.47%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.47%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 3 (1.40%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.93%) Adobe Campaign
Cloud Services
1 37 (17.21%) Azure
2 22 (10.23%) AWS
3 16 (7.44%) SaaS
4 10 (4.65%) GitHub
5 8 (3.72%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.33%) Adobe Creative Cloud
6 5 (2.33%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.40%) GCP
7 3 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (1.40%) GitHub Copilot
7 3 (1.40%) Power Platform
8 2 (0.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 2 (0.93%) Serverless
9 1 (0.47%) Amazon ECS
9 1 (0.47%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (0.47%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.47%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.47%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.93%) 5G
1 2 (0.93%) DHCP
1 2 (0.93%) DNS
1 2 (0.93%) Firewall
2 1 (0.47%) 3G
2 1 (0.47%) 4G
2 1 (0.47%) Diameter Protocol
2 1 (0.47%) RS-485
2 1 (0.47%) SD-WAN
2 1 (0.47%) Software-Defined Networking
2 1 (0.47%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.40%) Power BI
2 2 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.47%) IBM InfoSphere
3 1 (0.47%) Metadata
3 1 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.47%) Power Query
3 1 (0.47%) Redis
3 1 (0.47%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.47%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (6.98%) JIRA
2 8 (3.72%) Git
3 4 (1.86%) Cucumber
3 4 (1.86%) GitLab
3 4 (1.86%) Postman
4 3 (1.40%) Selenium
4 3 (1.40%) Zephyr
5 1 (0.47%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.47%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.47%) JMeter
5 1 (0.47%) JUnit
5 1 (0.47%) LoadRunner
General
1 86 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 33 (15.35%) Analytical Skills
3 31 (14.42%) Influencing Skills
4 26 (12.09%) Pharmaceutical
5 23 (10.70%) Finance
6 19 (8.84%) Legal
6 19 (8.84%) Manufacturing
7 10 (4.65%) Electronics
8 9 (4.19%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (3.72%) Banking
9 8 (3.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (2.79%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (2.79%) Multimedia
11 5 (2.33%) Telecoms
12 4 (1.86%) Law
12 4 (1.86%) Marketing
13 3 (1.40%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.40%) Local Government
13 3 (1.40%) Military
14 2 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 44 (20.47%) Lead
2 29 (13.49%) QA Engineer
3 28 (13.02%) QA Leader
4 27 (12.56%) Quality Engineer
5 25 (11.63%) Senior
6 20 (9.30%) QA Manager
6 20 (9.30%) Quality Manager
7 12 (5.58%) Engineering Manager
8 11 (5.12%) Test Engineer
9 10 (4.65%) Analyst
9 10 (4.65%) Auditor
9 10 (4.65%) Performance Engineer
9 10 (4.65%) QA Team Leader
9 10 (4.65%) Team Leader
10 9 (4.19%) Developer
10 9 (4.19%) Performance Test Engineer
10 9 (4.19%) Software Engineer
11 7 (3.26%) .NET Software Engineer
11 7 (3.26%) C# Software Engineer
11 7 (3.26%) Senior QA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (7.44%) .NET
2 9 (4.19%) React
3 8 (3.72%) Node.js
3 8 (3.72%) Terraform
4 7 (3.26%) HTML
4 7 (3.26%) Playwright
5 6 (2.79%) CSS
5 6 (2.79%) REST
6 5 (2.33%) Blazor
6 5 (2.33%) JSON
6 5 (2.33%) SOAP
7 4 (1.86%) .NET Framework
7 4 (1.86%) Gherkin
7 4 (1.86%) Middleware
7 4 (1.86%) Razor View Engine
7 4 (1.86%) RESTful
7 4 (1.86%) Swagger
7 4 (1.86%) XML
8 3 (1.40%) Kafka
8 3 (1.40%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 22 (10.23%) Pharmacovigilance
2 21 (9.77%) Life Science
3 17 (7.91%) Product Ownership
4 7 (3.26%) Distributed Systems
4 7 (3.26%) Robotics
5 6 (2.79%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.33%) Animation
6 5 (2.33%) Driving Licence
6 5 (2.33%) e-Learning
6 5 (2.33%) Learning Management System
6 5 (2.33%) SCORM
7 4 (1.86%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.40%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.40%) Web Conferencing
9 2 (0.93%) Analogue Electronics
9 2 (0.93%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.93%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 7 (3.26%) Linux
2 4 (1.86%) Windows
3 3 (1.40%) Debian
3 3 (1.40%) Robot Operating System
3 3 (1.40%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.47%) macOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (36.28%) Continuous Improvement
2 48 (22.33%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (18.60%) CAPA
4 38 (17.67%) Agile
5 32 (14.88%) Test Automation
6 29 (13.49%) Software Engineering
7 28 (13.02%) Roadmaps
8 24 (11.16%) CI/CD
9 23 (10.70%) AI
9 23 (10.70%) DevOps
10 22 (10.23%) Change Management
10 22 (10.23%) Customer Service
11 21 (9.77%) Software Testing
12 19 (8.84%) Budgeting and Resource Allocation
12 19 (8.84%) Resource Allocation
13 18 (8.37%) Computer Science
14 17 (7.91%) Mentoring
15 15 (6.98%) Risk Management
16 14 (6.51%) QMS
16 14 (6.51%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (6.98%) C#
2 13 (6.05%) Python
2 13 (6.05%) SQL
3 9 (4.19%) TypeScript
4 7 (3.26%) JavaScript
5 6 (2.79%) Bash
5 6 (2.79%) Java
6 5 (2.33%) C
7 3 (1.40%) C++
8 2 (0.93%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.47%) Embedded C
9 1 (0.47%) Rust
Qualifications
1 69 (32.09%) Degree
2 18 (8.37%) Computer Science Degree
3 5 (2.33%) ISTQB
3 5 (2.33%) Master's Degree
4 4 (1.86%) DBS Check
4 4 (1.86%) PMI Certification
4 4 (1.86%) PMP
4 4 (1.86%) Security Cleared
5 3 (1.40%) Postgraduate
5 3 (1.40%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 3 (1.40%) SC Cleared
6 2 (0.93%) Azure Certification
6 2 (0.93%) HNC
6 2 (0.93%) HND
6 2 (0.93%) PhD
7 1 (0.47%) CHECK Team Leader
7 1 (0.47%) CHECK Team Member
7 1 (0.47%) CSQA
7 1 (0.47%) Cyber Scheme
7 1 (0.47%) Six Sigma Black Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (21.40%) Accessibility
2 37 (17.21%) Good Clinical Practice
3 27 (12.56%) GxP
4 8 (3.72%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 8 (3.72%) GLP
4 8 (3.72%) GMP
5 3 (1.40%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.40%) WCAG
6 2 (0.93%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.93%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.47%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.47%) NCSC
7 1 (0.47%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (5.12%) Docker
2 2 (0.93%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.93%) Hyper-V
2 2 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (3.72%) Kubernetes
2 3 (1.40%) Ansible
3 2 (0.93%) Grafana
3 2 (0.93%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 23 (10.70%) Microsoft
2 7 (3.26%) Adobe
3 3 (1.40%) NVIDIA
3 3 (1.40%) SAP
3 3 (1.40%) ServiceNow
3 3 (1.40%) UiPath
4 2 (0.93%) Databricks
4 2 (0.93%) VMware
5 1 (0.47%) Broadcom
5 1 (0.47%) Cisco
5 1 (0.47%) EMC
5 1 (0.47%) Ericsson
5 1 (0.47%) Fortinet
5 1 (0.47%) IBM
5 1 (0.47%) Informatica
5 1 (0.47%) Nokia