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 20 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 74 61
Rank change year-on-year +34 -13 -30
Permanent jobs citing QA 211 141 224
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.37% 3.90% 3.62%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 32.07% 25.22% 27.76%
Number of salaries quoted 127 22 131
10th Percentile £39,875 £26,500 £31,000
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% -3.12%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £55,750
90th Percentile £78,750 £74,750 £63,110
South East median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £48,146
% change year-on-year +5.00% +3.85% -12.46%

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 658 559 807
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 10.52% 15.47% 13.03%
Number of salaries quoted 410 231 464
10th Percentile £35,000 £26,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £57,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - +27.78% -9.96%
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,375 £62,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £83,750 £78,648
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 20 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 20 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 +47 100 £62,500 +13.64% 15
Buckinghamshire -2 70 £50,000 +81.82% 16
Oxfordshire +3 41 £62,500 +8.70% 14
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 (1.90%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.95%) CMS
3 1 (0.47%) ArchestrA
3 1 (0.47%) Confluence
3 1 (0.47%) JBoss
3 1 (0.47%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.47%) Red Hat Fuse
Cloud Services
1 49 (23.22%) Azure
2 35 (16.59%) AWS
3 19 (9.00%) SaaS
4 13 (6.16%) GCP
5 9 (4.27%) GitHub
6 7 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (2.84%) Amazon EKS
7 6 (2.84%) Serverless
8 5 (2.37%) Amazon EC2
8 5 (2.37%) Amazon S3
8 5 (2.37%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (2.37%) Figma
9 4 (1.90%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (0.95%) AWS CodePipeline
12 1 (0.47%) Amazon ECS
12 1 (0.47%) Azure Machine Learning
12 1 (0.47%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.42%) DHCP
1 3 (1.42%) DNS
1 3 (1.42%) Firewall
2 1 (0.47%) Broadband
2 1 (0.47%) SD-WAN
2 1 (0.47%) Software-Defined Networking
2 1 (0.47%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (0.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 1 (0.47%) IBM InfoSphere
3 1 (0.47%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.47%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.47%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (8.53%) Git
1 18 (8.53%) JIRA
2 9 (4.27%) Cucumber
3 8 (3.79%) Jenkins
4 7 (3.32%) Zephyr
5 6 (2.84%) GitLab
6 5 (2.37%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.90%) Artifactory
7 4 (1.90%) Postman
8 2 (0.95%) Polyspace
8 2 (0.95%) Selenium
8 2 (0.95%) VectorCAST
9 1 (0.47%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.47%) JMeter
9 1 (0.47%) JUnit
9 1 (0.47%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.47%) NUnit
General
1 71 (33.65%) Social Skills
2 32 (15.17%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (11.85%) Influencing Skills
4 19 (9.00%) Pharmaceutical
5 18 (8.53%) Legal
5 18 (8.53%) Manufacturing
6 5 (2.37%) Electronics
7 4 (1.90%) Finance
7 4 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.42%) Marketing
8 3 (1.42%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.95%) Aerospace
9 2 (0.95%) Banking
9 2 (0.95%) Games
9 2 (0.95%) Health Technology
9 2 (0.95%) Law
9 2 (0.95%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.47%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.47%) Publishing
10 1 (0.47%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 51 (24.17%) Lead
2 32 (15.17%) QA Leader
3 23 (10.90%) QA Engineer
4 19 (9.00%) QA Manager
5 18 (8.53%) Software Engineer
6 17 (8.06%) Test Engineer
7 16 (7.58%) Quality Engineer
8 15 (7.11%) Performance Engineer
8 15 (7.11%) Quality Manager
9 14 (6.64%) Performance Test Engineer
10 13 (6.16%) Senior
10 13 (6.16%) Team Leader
11 10 (4.74%) Analyst
11 10 (4.74%) Auditor
11 10 (4.74%) Engineering Manager
11 10 (4.74%) QA Team Leader
12 8 (3.79%) Architect
12 8 (3.79%) DevOps Engineer
12 8 (3.79%) Tester
13 7 (3.32%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (9.48%) REST
2 14 (6.64%) .NET
3 13 (6.16%) JSON
4 9 (4.27%) Playwright
4 9 (4.27%) React
5 8 (3.79%) RabbitMQ
5 8 (3.79%) SOAP
6 7 (3.32%) Middleware
6 7 (3.32%) XML
7 6 (2.84%) Blazor
7 6 (2.84%) Web Services
8 5 (2.37%) .NET Framework
8 5 (2.37%) Django
8 5 (2.37%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (2.37%) RESTful
8 5 (2.37%) Twisted
8 5 (2.37%) WebSockets
9 4 (1.90%) OAuth
9 4 (1.90%) XML Messaging
9 4 (1.90%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 26 (12.32%) Product Ownership
2 18 (8.53%) Distributed Systems
2 18 (8.53%) Life Science
3 17 (8.06%) Pharmacovigilance
4 9 (4.27%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.37%) Client/Server
5 5 (2.37%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.37%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (1.90%) Onboarding
6 4 (1.90%) Renewable Energy
6 4 (1.90%) Virtual Team
7 3 (1.42%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.42%) Public Cloud
8 2 (0.95%) AS400
8 2 (0.95%) Driving Licence
8 2 (0.95%) Embedded Systems
8 2 (0.95%) Management Information System
8 2 (0.95%) Robotics
8 2 (0.95%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.95%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 18 (8.53%) Linux
2 5 (2.37%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (30.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 51 (24.17%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (20.38%) Test Automation
4 42 (19.91%) Agile
5 34 (16.11%) CAPA
5 34 (16.11%) Software Engineering
6 28 (13.27%) CI/CD
6 28 (13.27%) DevOps
7 26 (12.32%) Roadmaps
8 22 (10.43%) Computer Science
9 18 (8.53%) Customer Service
9 18 (8.53%) Software Testing
10 15 (7.11%) Change Management
10 15 (7.11%) Containerisation
10 15 (7.11%) Scrum
10 15 (7.11%) Test Strategy
11 14 (6.64%) Budgeting and Resource Allocation
11 14 (6.64%) Code Quality
11 14 (6.64%) Full-Stack Development
11 14 (6.64%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 31 (14.69%) Python
2 16 (7.58%) C#
2 16 (7.58%) Java
3 14 (6.64%) SQL
4 13 (6.16%) TypeScript
5 12 (5.69%) JavaScript
6 9 (4.27%) C
7 8 (3.79%) C++
8 5 (2.37%) Bash
8 5 (2.37%) Groovy
8 5 (2.37%) Rust
9 3 (1.42%) Perl
9 3 (1.42%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.47%) Go
10 1 (0.47%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 70 (33.18%) Degree
2 23 (10.90%) Computer Science Degree
3 9 (4.27%) ISTQB
4 7 (3.32%) DBS Check
5 6 (2.84%) Master's Degree
5 6 (2.84%) Security Cleared
6 4 (1.90%) PhD
7 3 (1.42%) Postgraduate
7 3 (1.42%) SC Cleared
8 2 (0.95%) CHECK Team Leader
8 2 (0.95%) CHECK Team Member
8 2 (0.95%) CREST Certified
8 2 (0.95%) CSQA
8 2 (0.95%) Cyber Scheme
8 2 (0.95%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (17.06%) Accessibility
2 31 (14.69%) Good Clinical Practice
3 21 (9.95%) GxP
4 7 (3.32%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 7 (3.32%) GLP
4 7 (3.32%) GMP
5 3 (1.42%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.95%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.95%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.95%) ISO 26262
6 2 (0.95%) NCSC
6 2 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.47%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.47%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (7.11%) Docker
2 8 (3.79%) Hyper-V
2 8 (3.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.37%) KVM
3 5 (2.37%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.42%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 15 (7.11%) Terraform
2 14 (6.64%) Kubernetes
3 9 (4.27%) Ansible
4 4 (1.90%) Packer
5 3 (1.42%) Grafana
5 3 (1.42%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.47%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.47%) Netcool
6 1 (0.47%) Netcool/OMNIbus
Vendors
1 19 (9.00%) Microsoft
2 8 (3.79%) VMware
3 6 (2.84%) IBM
3 6 (2.84%) ServiceNow
4 4 (1.90%) AppDynamics
5 2 (0.95%) Google
6 1 (0.47%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.47%) Blue Prism
6 1 (0.47%) Cisco
6 1 (0.47%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.47%) Informatica
6 1 (0.47%) Oracle
6 1 (0.47%) Pega
6 1 (0.47%) UiPath