2027 quality assurance salary guide.
See what QA and testing roles are paying with our 2027 quality assurance salary guide. Compare salaries across manual testing, automation and QA leadership roles, whether you're planning a hire or checking your own market value.
Download our 2027 quality assurance salary guide.
To get started, fill out the form below to access QA salary benchmarks for 2027, 2026 comparisons, 2028 projections and the latest hiring trends.
SALARY TRENDS
Quality assurance salary trends in 2027.
Quality assurance salaries have risen more slowly than the wider UK market this year, at 1.9% against 3.8% across the disciplines we cover. QA is one of the slower-moving specialisms in 2027. Automation and SDET roles are rising, while manual testing salaries have fallen as more testing is automated.
The market is balanced overall in 2027, so employers and candidates are negotiating on more even terms. Demand has moved almost entirely to automation. Playwright, Cypress and TypeScript test engineering are the skills employers are paying for.
KEY FINDINGS
Key findings for quality assurance in 2027.
These figures give you a quick view of salary movement and hiring activity in quality assurance for 2027, whether you’re setting a salary for a role, reviewing your own pay or keeping an eye on the market.
- 1.9% average salary increase compared with 2026
- 45% of employers are hiring now or plan to hire within the next six months
- 44% of quality assurance professionals are actively looking for a new role
- 42% of quality assurance professionals feel their pay doesn’t reflect the work they do
OTHER SALARY GUIDES
Looking at salaries in another area?
Explore our 2027 tech salary guides by discipline to compare pay, regional benchmarks and hiring trends in each one.
FAQs
Quality assurance salary guide FAQs.
The guide covers 11 QA and testing roles from Junior QA Engineer through to Director of QA. It includes 25th, 50th and 75th percentile salaries across the UK and by region, with 2026 comparisons, 2028 projections and our latest QA hiring findings.
The median UK salary across the 11 QA roles in our guide is £51,500. The right benchmark depends heavily on whether the role focuses on manual testing, automation, SDET work or leadership, as well as experience and location.
QA salaries generally rise as the role moves into automation, test engineering, technical ownership and leadership. Experience building test frameworks or integrating testing into CI/CD can also affect where someone sits within the range.
QA Automation Engineer, QA Engineer and Software Development Engineer in Test are the three most in-demand QA roles in our research. Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, TypeScript and CI/CD integration are also among the technical skills employers are looking for.
Start with the benchmark for the exact QA role and region. Positions requiring strong automation, test engineering or CI/CD experience may need to sit higher than manual testing roles, while leadership and wider quality ownership should also be reflected in the salary.
No. The figures are base salary only. Bonuses, pension contributions and other benefits should be considered separately.
Yes. We can benchmark QA, automation and SDET roles around the technology stack, testing responsibilities, seniority, location and experience required.