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 4 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 74 59
Rank change year-on-year +35 -15 +14
Permanent jobs citing QA 231 141 182
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 3.34% 3.65% 3.67%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 31.34% 21.36% 30.80%
Number of salaries quoted 148 31 97
10th Percentile £40,000 £28,750 £30,750
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,625 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £50,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% +5.26% -6.68%
75th Percentile £72,188 £61,375 £55,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £70,000 £63,866
South East median annual salary £52,500 £46,000 £48,925
% change year-on-year +14.13% -5.98% -11.05%

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 737 660 591
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 10.64% 17.06% 11.92%
Number of salaries quoted 496 244 292
10th Percentile £35,750 £26,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £39,625 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £49,213
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +11.76% -4.72%
75th Percentile £73,750 £71,563 £69,063
90th Percentile £86,250 £83,750 £83,750
South East median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £49,941
% change year-on-year - +10.13% -4.42%

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 4 September 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 4 September 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 +50 97 £60,000 +30.43% 41
Buckinghamshire +7 76 £50,000 +5.26% 29
Oxfordshire +6 58 £61,250 +6.52% 32
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 6 (2.60%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.30%) Moodle
2 3 (1.30%) WordPress
3 2 (0.87%) CMS
3 2 (0.87%) Confluence
4 1 (0.43%) ArchestrA
4 1 (0.43%) JBoss
4 1 (0.43%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.43%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.43%) Mathcad
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.43%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 3 (1.30%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 46 (19.91%) Azure
2 34 (14.72%) AWS
3 15 (6.49%) SaaS
4 9 (3.90%) GitHub
5 8 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
5 8 (3.46%) GCP
6 7 (3.03%) Serverless
7 6 (2.60%) Amazon EKS
7 6 (2.60%) Amazon S3
7 6 (2.60%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (2.16%) Amazon EC2
8 5 (2.16%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (1.30%) Adobe Creative Cloud
9 3 (1.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (1.30%) Figma
10 2 (0.87%) AWS CodePipeline
10 2 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.43%) Amazon ECS
11 1 (0.43%) iPaaS
11 1 (0.43%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.30%) DHCP
1 3 (1.30%) DNS
1 3 (1.30%) Firewall
2 1 (0.43%) Broadband
2 1 (0.43%) RS-485
2 1 (0.43%) SD-WAN
2 1 (0.43%) Software-Defined Networking
2 1 (0.43%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (0.87%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 1 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
2 1 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
2 1 (0.43%) IBM InfoSphere
2 1 (0.43%) Metadata
2 1 (0.43%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.43%) Power BI
2 1 (0.43%) Power Query
2 1 (0.43%) Redis
2 1 (0.43%) Relational Database
2 1 (0.43%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (7.79%) Git
2 17 (7.36%) JIRA
3 9 (3.90%) Cucumber
4 8 (3.46%) GitLab
4 8 (3.46%) Jenkins
5 6 (2.60%) Zephyr
6 5 (2.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.73%) Artifactory
7 4 (1.73%) Postman
8 3 (1.30%) Selenium
9 2 (0.87%) Polyspace
9 2 (0.87%) VectorCAST
10 1 (0.43%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.43%) JMeter
10 1 (0.43%) JUnit
10 1 (0.43%) LoadRunner
General
1 85 (36.80%) Social Skills
2 37 (16.02%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (12.99%) Influencing Skills
4 25 (10.82%) Pharmaceutical
5 20 (8.66%) Manufacturing
6 19 (8.23%) Legal
7 13 (5.63%) Finance
8 8 (3.46%) Electronics
9 6 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.73%) Banking
11 3 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.30%) Law
11 3 (1.30%) Multimedia
11 3 (1.30%) Public Sector
11 3 (1.30%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.87%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.87%) Games
12 2 (0.87%) Local Government
12 2 (0.87%) Military
13 1 (0.43%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 47 (20.35%) Lead
2 32 (13.85%) QA Engineer
3 30 (12.99%) QA Leader
4 25 (10.82%) Senior
5 23 (9.96%) QA Manager
5 23 (9.96%) Quality Engineer
6 22 (9.52%) Quality Manager
7 14 (6.06%) Test Engineer
8 12 (5.19%) Performance Engineer
8 12 (5.19%) Software Engineer
9 11 (4.76%) Engineering Manager
9 11 (4.76%) Performance Test Engineer
10 10 (4.33%) Analyst
10 10 (4.33%) Auditor
10 10 (4.33%) QA Team Leader
10 10 (4.33%) Team Leader
11 8 (3.46%) Developer
11 8 (3.46%) DevOps Engineer
12 7 (3.03%) Architect
12 7 (3.03%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (7.79%) REST
2 15 (6.49%) .NET
2 15 (6.49%) Terraform
3 13 (5.63%) JSON
4 11 (4.76%) React
5 9 (3.90%) Playwright
6 8 (3.46%) RabbitMQ
6 8 (3.46%) SOAP
7 7 (3.03%) Middleware
7 7 (3.03%) Node.js
7 7 (3.03%) XML
8 6 (2.60%) Blazor
9 5 (2.16%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (2.16%) RESTful
10 4 (1.73%) .NET Framework
10 4 (1.73%) CSS
10 4 (1.73%) HTML
10 4 (1.73%) OAuth
10 4 (1.73%) Web Services
10 4 (1.73%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.96%) Product Ownership
2 21 (9.09%) Life Science
2 21 (9.09%) Pharmacovigilance
3 16 (6.93%) Distributed Systems
4 7 (3.03%) Robotics
4 7 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.16%) Cloud Native
6 4 (1.73%) Driving Licence
6 4 (1.73%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.30%) Animation
7 3 (1.30%) e-Learning
7 3 (1.30%) Learning Management System
7 3 (1.30%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.30%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.30%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (1.30%) SCORM
7 3 (1.30%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (1.30%) Virtual Team
7 3 (1.30%) Web Conferencing
8 2 (0.87%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 15 (6.49%) Linux
2 4 (1.73%) Windows
3 2 (0.87%) Debian
3 2 (0.87%) Robot Operating System
3 2 (0.87%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (32.90%) Continuous Improvement
2 53 (22.94%) Problem-Solving
3 48 (20.78%) Test Automation
4 44 (19.05%) Agile
5 39 (16.88%) CAPA
6 35 (15.15%) Software Engineering
7 33 (14.29%) CI/CD
7 33 (14.29%) DevOps
8 26 (11.26%) Roadmaps
9 23 (9.96%) Computer Science
9 23 (9.96%) Software Testing
10 22 (9.52%) Change Management
11 21 (9.09%) Customer Service
12 18 (7.79%) AI
12 18 (7.79%) Budgeting and Resource Allocation
12 18 (7.79%) Resource Allocation
13 17 (7.36%) Test Strategy
14 16 (6.93%) Containerisation
15 15 (6.49%) Risk Management
15 15 (6.49%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 29 (12.55%) Python
2 16 (6.93%) C#
2 16 (6.93%) Java
2 16 (6.93%) SQL
3 12 (5.19%) TypeScript
4 10 (4.33%) JavaScript
5 7 (3.03%) Bash
5 7 (3.03%) C
6 5 (2.16%) C++
6 5 (2.16%) Groovy
7 3 (1.30%) Perl
7 3 (1.30%) PowerShell
8 2 (0.87%) Rust
9 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.43%) Embedded C
9 1 (0.43%) Go
9 1 (0.43%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 76 (32.90%) Degree
2 24 (10.39%) Computer Science Degree
3 8 (3.46%) ISTQB
4 7 (3.03%) Security Cleared
5 6 (2.60%) Master's Degree
6 4 (1.73%) DBS Check
6 4 (1.73%) PMI Certification
6 4 (1.73%) PMP
6 4 (1.73%) SC Cleared
7 3 (1.30%) PhD
7 3 (1.30%) Postgraduate
7 3 (1.30%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 2 (0.87%) CHECK Team Leader
8 2 (0.87%) CHECK Team Member
8 2 (0.87%) CREST Certified
8 2 (0.87%) CSQA
8 2 (0.87%) Cyber Scheme
8 2 (0.87%) OSCP
9 1 (0.43%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (18.61%) Accessibility
2 36 (15.58%) Good Clinical Practice
3 26 (11.26%) GxP
4 8 (3.46%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 8 (3.46%) GLP
4 8 (3.46%) GMP
5 3 (1.30%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.30%) SOC 2
5 3 (1.30%) Software Quality Assurance
5 3 (1.30%) WCAG
6 2 (0.87%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.87%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.87%) ISO 26262
6 2 (0.87%) NCSC
7 1 (0.43%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.43%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (6.93%) Docker
2 5 (2.16%) Hyper-V
2 5 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.30%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.87%) KVM
Systems Management
1 15 (6.49%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.90%) Ansible
3 4 (1.73%) Packer
4 3 (1.30%) Grafana
4 3 (1.30%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.43%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 21 (9.09%) Microsoft
2 5 (2.16%) IBM
2 5 (2.16%) ServiceNow
2 5 (2.16%) VMware
3 4 (1.73%) AppDynamics
4 3 (1.30%) Adobe
4 3 (1.30%) SAP
4 3 (1.30%) UiPath
5 2 (0.87%) NVIDIA
6 1 (0.43%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.43%) Cisco
6 1 (0.43%) EMC
6 1 (0.43%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.43%) Google
6 1 (0.43%) Informatica