QA Leader Job Trends

Quality Assurance Lead
UK

The median Quality Assurance Lead salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 591 668 660
Rank change year-on-year +77 -8 +188
Permanent jobs requiring a QA Leader 51 37 66
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.086% 0.069% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.095% 0.074% 0.12%
Number of salaries quoted 37 26 49
10th Percentile £35,000 £48,125 £40,250
25th Percentile £46,250 £57,500 £48,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £68,750 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.73% +19.57% -17.86%
75th Percentile £65,000 £85,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,250 £91,250 £77,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £61,250 £56,250
% change year-on-year -2.04% +8.89% -6.25%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 53,748 49,914 53,281
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.60% 92.93% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 33,232 25,949 41,098
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,500 £30,125
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

QA Leader
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'QA Leader' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

QA Leader job vacancy trend in the UK

QA Leader
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for QA Leader job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for QA Leader job vacancies in the UK

QA Leader
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing QA Leader over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Salary histogram for QA Leader in the UK

QA Leader
Top 12 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing QA Leader within the UK over the 6 months to 11 January 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
England +90 51 £60,000 -17.24% 78
UK excluding London +63 33 £60,000 -2.04% 81
Work from Home +86 21 £61,500 -15.17% 4
London +47 17 £77,500 -8.82% 5
Midlands +32 15 £60,000 - 14
North of England +26 11 £61,500 +29.47% 15
North West +28 8 £61,500 +29.47% 5
East Midlands -4 8 £35,000 -41.67% 11
West Midlands - 7 £61,500 - 3
South West +10 6 £47,500 -24.00% 13
Yorkshire - 3 £61,500 - 8
East of England - 1 £30,000 - 12

QA Leader Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 January 2026, QA Leader job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring QA Leader in the job title.

1 51 (100.00%) QA
2 32 (62.75%) Test Automation
3 22 (43.14%) API Testing
4 18 (35.29%) Selenium
5 17 (33.33%) C#
5 17 (33.33%) Mentoring
5 17 (33.33%) SaaS
6 15 (29.41%) Manual Testing
7 13 (25.49%) QA Automation
8 12 (23.53%) CI/CD
9 11 (21.57%) JavaScript
9 11 (21.57%) Non-Functional Testing
9 11 (21.57%) Postman
10 9 (17.65%) DevOps
10 9 (17.65%) Software Testing
10 9 (17.65%) Test Strategy
11 8 (15.69%) Coaching
11 8 (15.69%) Functional Testing
11 8 (15.69%) Playwright
11 8 (15.69%) Regression Testing
12 7 (13.73%) Azure
12 7 (13.73%) Continuous Improvement
12 7 (13.73%) Cypress.io
12 7 (13.73%) People Management
12 7 (13.73%) Validation
13 6 (11.76%) Acceptance Criteria
13 6 (11.76%) Agile
13 6 (11.76%) Data Validation
13 6 (11.76%) Root Cause Analysis
13 6 (11.76%) SQL

QA Leader Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (1.96%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 17 (33.33%) SaaS
2 7 (13.73%) Azure
3 5 (9.80%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (5.88%) AWS
5 2 (3.92%) GitHub
6 1 (1.96%) dbt
6 1 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 18 (35.29%) Selenium
2 11 (21.57%) Postman
3 7 (13.73%) Cypress.io
4 5 (9.80%) SoapUI
5 4 (7.84%) JIRA
6 3 (5.88%) Cucumber
7 2 (3.92%) JMeter
7 2 (3.92%) JUnit
7 2 (3.92%) REST Assured
7 2 (3.92%) TestNG
8 1 (1.96%) Appium
8 1 (1.96%) Bugzilla
8 1 (1.96%) Git
8 1 (1.96%) Jenkins
8 1 (1.96%) Katalon Studio
8 1 (1.96%) LoadRunner
8 1 (1.96%) SpecFlow
General
1 10 (19.61%) Finance
2 6 (11.76%) Banking
3 5 (9.80%) Games
3 5 (9.80%) Law
3 5 (9.80%) Marketing
4 4 (7.84%) Social Skills
5 3 (5.88%) Back Office
5 3 (5.88%) Financial Institution
5 3 (5.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (5.88%) Retail
6 2 (3.92%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (15.69%) Playwright
2 3 (5.88%) .NET
3 2 (3.92%) AngularJS
3 2 (3.92%) React
4 1 (1.96%) Node.js
4 1 (1.96%) REST
4 1 (1.96%) RESTful
4 1 (1.96%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 12 (23.53%) Product Ownership
2 4 (7.84%) Mobile App
3 2 (3.92%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (1.96%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (1.96%) Hedge funds
4 1 (1.96%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 3 (5.88%) Android
1 3 (5.88%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (62.75%) Test Automation
2 22 (43.14%) API Testing
3 17 (33.33%) Mentoring
4 15 (29.41%) Manual Testing
5 13 (25.49%) QA Automation
6 12 (23.53%) CI/CD
7 11 (21.57%) Non-Functional Testing
8 9 (17.65%) DevOps
8 9 (17.65%) Software Testing
8 9 (17.65%) Test Strategy
9 8 (15.69%) Coaching
9 8 (15.69%) Functional Testing
9 8 (15.69%) Regression Testing
10 7 (13.73%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (13.73%) People Management
10 7 (13.73%) Validation
11 6 (11.76%) Acceptance Criteria
11 6 (11.76%) Agile
11 6 (11.76%) Data Validation
11 6 (11.76%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 17 (33.33%) C#
2 11 (21.57%) JavaScript
3 6 (11.76%) SQL
4 3 (5.88%) Java
4 3 (5.88%) Python
5 2 (3.92%) TypeScript
6 1 (1.96%) Groovy
6 1 (1.96%) PHP
Qualifications
1 3 (5.88%) Degree
2 1 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (1.96%) ISTQB
2 1 (1.96%) SC Cleared
2 1 (1.96%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (100.00%) QA
2 3 (5.88%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.96%) Data Quality
Vendors
1 1 (1.96%) Microsoft