As a quality assurance recruitment agency, we help businesses hire QA engineers, test analysts and automation testers who ensure software performs reliably before release. Whether you're strengthening manual testing, expanding automation coverage or scaling your QA team, we’ll help you secure specialists who improve software quality and release confidence.
Overview
Quality assurance plays a critical role in modern software delivery. QA engineers and testers help ensure applications behave reliably across different environments, devices and user scenarios before software reaches production.
Testing roles vary widely between organisations. Some professionals focus on manual testing and exploratory testing, while others specialise in automation, regression testing or CI/CD integration. As a result, two candidates may both list QA experience, yet their level of responsibility can be very different.
As a quality assurance recruitment agency, we help businesses hire QA engineers, test analysts and automation testers experienced in validating software quality, improving test coverage and identifying defects before release. Whether you're strengthening an existing QA function or building a dedicated testing team, we’ll help you secure specialists who support reliable, high-quality software delivery.
Our disciplines
Alongside our QA recruitment expertise, we also support hiring across the wider tech and product delivery ecosystem that contributes to building, testing and releasing modern digital products, from engineering and DevOps through to design, product and project delivery.
The problem
Modern development teams move quickly, which can leave limited time for structured testing. When QA coverage is inconsistent, defects can reach production and affect users. Businesses often struggle to find QA engineers who can introduce reliable testing processes across fast-moving release cycles.
Manual testing remains important, but many organisations now rely on automated testing to maintain quality across frequent releases. Hiring QA professionals who can design automation frameworks, maintain test suites and integrate testing into CI/CD pipelines is often difficult.
In smaller teams, developers often handle testing alongside development work. While this can work temporarily, it can reduce independent validation and limit overall test coverage. Businesses often need dedicated QA engineers who can introduce structured testing processes and independent verification before release.
Quality assurance titles can mean very different things across organisations. Some candidates focus on manual testing, while others specialise in automation, performance testing or test strategy. From a CV alone, it can be difficult to understand the level of ownership a candidate has had within real testing environments.
How we can help
We introduce QA engineers and testers experienced in manual testing, regression testing and structured test planning. This helps ensure your software is validated properly before release and reduces the risk of defects reaching production.
We work with automation testers who build and maintain reliable automated test suites. These professionals help integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, maintain regression test suites and allow development teams to release software more confidently and more frequently.
We introduce QA professionals who provide independent testing alongside development teams. This improves defect detection, increases test coverage and ensures software behaves reliably across environments and user scenarios.
We’ll take time to understand your testing tools, processes and release workflows before approaching the market. This helps ensure the QA professionals you meet have experience aligned with your testing environment and delivery cadence.
Case studies
"We brought Digital Waffle in to run our hiring through the development hub launch, and they've placed over 50 specialists for us across product, development, design and QA in the two years since. The quality has been consistent throughout, which matters across a stretch that long. They've become the team we go to when we need to hire."
"Digital Waffle were a real help when we were building out our engineering team. It was a fast-moving period, with a lot happening across our website and apps, and they quickly understood the kind of people we needed. They supported us with both perm and contract hires, kept things moving and made the whole process feel straightforward. Really easy team to work with."
"Digital Waffle handled our hiring across data and engineering for the last year, supporting a big period of transformation. They listened to what we needed and brought us qualified candidates for each role, twenty in total. The team they've helped us build is now delivering real results across our digital projects. They got the brief and they got it right."
"Hitting 40 hires in 18 months across infrastructure and engineering was an ambitious target, and we needed an agency that could deliver against it without us having to manage the process closely. Digital Waffle did exactly that. The shortlists were focused and we didn't waste time on candidates who weren't right. Every role landed on schedule, and the people they brought in are already contributing to the programmes they're supporting."
"We needed to grow headcount by 50% in 6 months, including hard-to-fill tech roles, which wasn't something we were going to do on our own. Digital Waffle filled the gap properly. They got us the people we needed at the pace we needed them, and at significantly less cost than building out our own recruitment function. We hit the target on schedule."
"Zak has been a real help in building out our talent pool at Commify. His ability to source candidates across diverse roles has been genuinely impressive. His professionalism and commitment to our recruitment needs have made a real difference to the quality of people we've been able to hire."
"Digital Waffle picked the brief up quickly and started delivering people we could actually hire. We were scaling network engineering and software in a tight period of growth and they got us there inside six months. Solid work, I would use them again."
"We were hiring a Lead AI/NLP Engineer to strengthen the core of our product, which is the kind of hire we couldn't afford to get wrong. The quality of candidates Digital Waffle put in front of us stood out, and they understood exactly what we needed from both a technical and team-fit perspective. They had us hiring inside 3 weeks, and the process was smooth from start to finish."
Our services
Businesses hire quality assurance professionals in different ways depending on their testing environment, release timelines and team structure. Whether you're strengthening an existing QA function, bringing in additional testing support for a project or hiring senior QA leadership, we’ll help you secure the right expertise.
Meet the team
Our quality assurance recruiters understand the testing environments, release pressures and technical expertise that shape modern QA teams. They work closely with employers to understand the role, testing approach and delivery goals, making sure every shortlist is relevant from the start.
Salary guides
Skilled QA engineers, automation testers and test analysts are in high demand, and the strongest candidates understand their market value. Without clear salary benchmarks, it can be easy to lose experienced testing specialists to competing offers.
Our 2027 UK quality assurance salary guide provides the insights you need to attract, hire and retain top QA talent.
With comparisons to 2026, projections for 2028 and a wider overview of the QA and testing hiring market, the guide helps businesses make informed decisions when building high-performing quality assurance teams.
LATEST INSIGHTS
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FAQs
Quality assurance recruitment is the process of identifying and hiring professionals responsible for testing software, detecting defects and ensuring applications work reliably before release. As a QA recruitment agency, we help businesses hire QA engineers, test analysts and automation testers who improve test coverage, reduce production bugs and support stable software releases across modern development environments.
Businesses hiring in quality assurance typically recruit professionals responsible for testing software throughout the development lifecycle. Common roles include:
These professionals design test cases, execute regression testing, build automation frameworks and work alongside developers to ensure software meets quality standards before release.
Yes. We recruit QA Automation Engineers, Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs), Manual QA Testers and Performance Test Engineers. Depending on the environment, this can include experience with Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Postman, API testing and automated tests integrated into CI/CD pipelines.
Manual testing involves QA professionals executing test cases by interacting directly with the software to identify defects and usability issues. Automated testing uses scripts and testing frameworks to run tests automatically across applications. Many modern QA teams use both approaches. Manual testing supports exploratory and usability testing, while automated testing improves regression coverage and enables faster testing within CI/CD pipelines.
QA engineers use a range of tools to design tests, manage defects and automate testing workflows. Common tools include automation frameworks such as Selenium, Cypress and Playwright, test management platforms like TestRail and Zephyr, and collaboration tools such as Jira. When assessing candidates, we explore how they use these tools to maintain test coverage and support reliable software releases.
Hiring experienced QA engineers can be challenging because testing responsibilities vary significantly between organisations. Some professionals focus on manual testing, while others specialise in automation frameworks or performance testing. At the same time, experienced automation testers are in high demand across technology teams, meaning the strongest candidates are often already working within active development environments.
When assessing QA candidates, we look beyond testing terminology and explore how they have contributed to real software delivery environments. Our recruitment process focuses on test planning, defect detection, automation framework experience and collaboration with developers. We also explore how candidates integrate testing into CI/CD pipelines and maintain test coverage across evolving software products.
Hiring timelines vary depending on the seniority of the role and the testing expertise required. For mid-level roles such as QA Engineers or Test Analysts, we can often introduce a shortlist within one to two weeks. Senior roles such as QA Leads or Test Managers may take longer due to the smaller pool of experienced professionals with leadership and automation strategy experience.
Get in touch
If you're hiring QA engineers, automation testers or building out your quality assurance team, we can help.
Share a few details about the role and we’ll be in touch to discuss your hiring plans and the type of QA professional your organisation needs.
Prefer to talk? Call us on 0121 517 0357.
