QA Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Quality Assurance (QA)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring QA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 62 45
Rank change year-on-year -1 -17 +26
Contract jobs citing QA 82 50 110
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 3.51% 3.01% 4.00%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 20.05% 17.01% 20.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 25 81
10th Percentile £309 £301 £325
25th Percentile £385 £363 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £550 £575
90th Percentile £650 £625 -
South East median daily rate £500 £463 £488
% change year-on-year +8.11% -5.13% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 2
10th Percentile £12.25 - £24.33
25th Percentile £29.44 £18.50 £24.44
Median hourly rate £81.00 £19.00 £24.75
Median % change year-on-year +326.32% -23.23% -67.22%
75th Percentile - £19.50 £24.94
90th Percentile £81.50 - £24.98
South East median hourly rate £60.00 £19.00 £20.50
% change year-on-year +215.79% -7.32% -72.85%

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 contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 409 294 535
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 17.49% 17.69% 19.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 293 140 307
10th Percentile £306 £250 £180
25th Percentile £408 £398 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% +6.67%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £575
90th Percentile £650 £677 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 10 23
10th Percentile £17.68 £17.85 £18.19
25th Percentile £18.94 £60.75 £24.30
Median hourly rate £36.00 £61.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.46% +104.98% +25.00%
75th Percentile £88.50 £64.73 £64.75
90th Percentile £107.00 £65.81 £78.22
South East median hourly rate £36.00 £26.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +35.85% -29.33% +53.06%

QA
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

QA job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

QA
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA

QA
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the Thames Valley

QA
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing QA

QA
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing QA in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for QA in the Thames Valley

QA
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 18 February 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire +6 63 £550 +10.00% 24
Buckinghamshire +3 19 £375 -24.05% 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 11 (13.41%) SharePoint
2 8 (9.76%) Confluence
3 7 (8.54%) CMS
3 7 (8.54%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
4 3 (3.66%) Anypoint
5 1 (1.22%) Apache
Applications
1 17 (20.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (13.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (12.20%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (2.44%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (8.54%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (1.22%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 20 (24.39%) AWS
2 18 (21.95%) Azure
3 8 (9.76%) OCI
4 7 (8.54%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (6.10%) Serverless
6 2 (2.44%) GCP
6 2 (2.44%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.22%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.22%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 11 (13.41%) Firewall
2 10 (12.20%) Wireless
3 1 (1.22%) 5G
3 1 (1.22%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.88%) NoSQL
2 2 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (2.44%) Metadata
2 2 (2.44%) Power BI
2 2 (2.44%) Tableau
3 1 (1.22%) Data Lake
3 1 (1.22%) Data Mart
Development Applications
1 14 (17.07%) JIRA
2 9 (10.98%) Burp Suite
2 9 (10.98%) Metasploit
3 5 (6.10%) Git
3 5 (6.10%) HP UFT
3 5 (6.10%) Jenkins
4 3 (3.66%) Cypress.io
4 3 (3.66%) Selenium
5 2 (2.44%) WebDriver
6 1 (1.22%) Appium
6 1 (1.22%) Artifactory
6 1 (1.22%) GitLab
General
1 50 (60.98%) Social Skills
2 20 (24.39%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (8.54%) Finance
3 7 (8.54%) Public Sector
4 3 (3.66%) Automotive
4 3 (3.66%) Banking
4 3 (3.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (3.66%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (2.44%) Retail
5 2 (2.44%) Telecoms
6 1 (1.22%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.22%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.22%) Law
6 1 (1.22%) Legal
6 1 (1.22%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 17 (20.73%) Lead
2 10 (12.20%) Tester
3 9 (10.98%) Penetration Tester
4 8 (9.76%) Analyst
5 7 (8.54%) Project Manager
5 7 (8.54%) Test Engineer
6 5 (6.10%) Senior
7 4 (4.88%) AWS Engineer
7 4 (4.88%) Cloud Engineer
7 4 (4.88%) Test Analyst
7 4 (4.88%) Test Leader
7 4 (4.88%) Test Manager
8 3 (3.66%) Product Owner
9 2 (2.44%) Applications Project Manager
9 2 (2.44%) Business Data Analyst
9 2 (2.44%) DevOps Engineer
9 2 (2.44%) Health and Safety Manager
9 2 (2.44%) Mobile Project Manager
9 2 (2.44%) QA Analyst
9 2 (2.44%) QA Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (8.54%) Oracle Fusion
2 4 (4.88%) REST
3 3 (3.66%) Node.js
3 3 (3.66%) React
3 3 (3.66%) SOAP
4 2 (2.44%) Flutter
4 2 (2.44%) JSON
4 2 (2.44%) JWT
4 2 (2.44%) OAuth
4 2 (2.44%) Playwright
4 2 (2.44%) RFC 2544
4 2 (2.44%) SAML
4 2 (2.44%) XML
5 1 (1.22%) Apache NiFi
5 1 (1.22%) PySpark
5 1 (1.22%) SwiftUI
5 1 (1.22%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 9 (10.98%) Mobile App
1 9 (10.98%) Security Posture
2 6 (7.32%) Product Ownership
3 2 (2.44%) Algorithms
3 2 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (2.44%) Data Centre
3 2 (2.44%) Distributed Systems
3 2 (2.44%) Fibre Optics
3 2 (2.44%) Onboarding
3 2 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (2.44%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 1 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (1.22%) IoT
4 1 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.22%) Life Science
4 1 (1.22%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.22%) PMI
4 1 (1.22%) SCADA
4 1 (1.22%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 11 (13.41%) Windows
2 2 (2.44%) Linux
3 1 (1.22%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (39.02%) Problem-Solving
2 29 (35.37%) Agile
3 26 (31.71%) Stakeholder Management
4 23 (28.05%) Test Automation
5 18 (21.95%) Validation
6 17 (20.73%) DevOps
7 16 (19.51%) CI/CD
8 14 (17.07%) Information Security
8 14 (17.07%) Security Management
9 13 (15.85%) Scenario Testing
10 12 (14.63%) Test Strategy
11 11 (13.41%) Penetration Testing
12 10 (12.20%) Commercial Awareness
12 10 (12.20%) Customer Service
12 10 (12.20%) Decision-Making
12 10 (12.20%) Line Management
12 10 (12.20%) Mentoring
12 10 (12.20%) PRINCE2
12 10 (12.20%) Test Scripting
13 9 (10.98%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 8 (9.76%) Python
1 8 (9.76%) SQL
2 7 (8.54%) TypeScript
3 5 (6.10%) VBScript
4 4 (4.88%) JavaScript
5 3 (3.66%) DataWeave
6 2 (2.44%) C#
6 2 (2.44%) Java
6 2 (2.44%) Kotlin
6 2 (2.44%) PowerShell
7 1 (1.22%) Swift
Qualifications
1 24 (29.27%) Security Cleared
2 19 (23.17%) SC Cleared
3 15 (18.29%) Degree
4 9 (10.98%) CHECK Team Member
4 9 (10.98%) CREST Certified
4 9 (10.98%) Cyber Scheme
4 9 (10.98%) PMI Certification
4 9 (10.98%) Postgraduate
5 8 (9.76%) PMP
6 4 (4.88%) AWS Certification
6 4 (4.88%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (1.22%) CFCE
7 1 (1.22%) DV Cleared
7 1 (1.22%) GCFA
7 1 (1.22%) GCIA
7 1 (1.22%) GCIH
7 1 (1.22%) GIAC
7 1 (1.22%) ISTQB
7 1 (1.22%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (1.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (18.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (13.41%) PMO
3 10 (12.20%) GDPR
4 9 (10.98%) PCI DSS
5 6 (7.32%) NIST
6 5 (6.10%) Accessibility
6 5 (6.10%) COBIT
7 4 (4.88%) Data Quality
8 3 (3.66%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (2.44%) ISO 9001
10 1 (1.22%) HIPAA
System Software
1 1 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 9 (10.98%) Nmap
2 3 (3.66%) CloudHub
3 2 (2.44%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.22%) Ansible
4 1 (1.22%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 1 (1.22%) Terraform
Vendors
1 8 (9.76%) Oracle
2 5 (6.10%) CheckPoint
3 4 (4.88%) Salesforce
4 3 (3.66%) MuleSoft
5 2 (2.44%) Cisco
5 2 (2.44%) Foundry
5 2 (2.44%) Microsoft
5 2 (2.44%) Palantir
5 2 (2.44%) SAP
6 1 (1.22%) Apple
6 1 (1.22%) ArcSight
6 1 (1.22%) LogRhythm
6 1 (1.22%) Planview
6 1 (1.22%) Red Hat
6 1 (1.22%) Splunk