Test Automation Contracts in the UK excluding London

Automated Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for Test Automation skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Test Automation over the 6 months to 8 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
8 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 62 45 48
Rank change year-on-year -17 +3 -9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 591 1,096 1,391
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.88% 4.66% 4.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.41% 5.21% 5.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 819 990
10th Percentile £363 £363 £360
25th Percentile £425 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £495
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +6.06% +12.50%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £575
90th Percentile £658 £700 £633
UK median daily rate £514 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -6.59% +2.33% +13.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 33 36
10th Percentile £51.25 £45.50 £17.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £51.25 £31.25
Median hourly rate £62.50 £64.38 £48.75
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% +32.05% +16.07%
75th Percentile £85.00 £78.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £90.00 £64.13
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £67.38 £55.00
% change year-on-year -7.24% +22.50% +22.22%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Test Automation is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 17,341 21,054 27,253
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 84.49% 89.57% 88.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,323 14,598 19,040
10th Percentile £250 £256 £232
25th Percentile £375 £400 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £575
90th Percentile £688 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £550 £530
% change year-on-year -4.55% +3.77% +8.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,053 1,291 1,337
10th Percentile £12.31 £11.00 £12.23
25th Percentile £15.17 £15.50 £14.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £35.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.57% +75.00% -6.98%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £46.12
90th Percentile £72.82 £73.75 £60.00
UK median hourly rate £36.50 £36.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +1.39% +44.00% +2.04%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Test Automation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Test Automation in the UK excluding London

Test Automation
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Test Automation in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Test Automation in the UK excluding London

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK excluding London

Test Automation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Test Automation in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Test Automation in the UK excluding London

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK excluding London

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 8 May 2024. 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
South East -7 195 £550 -2.65% 113
North of England -11 156 £475 -13.64% 120
North West +10 86 £500 +5.26% 71
Scotland -29 77 £475 -2.06% 45
Yorkshire -4 65 £475 -13.64% 45
South West -44 56 £550 +2.33% 72
Midlands -27 44 £419 -10.09% 79
East of England -28 38 £498 -0.50% 73
West Midlands -26 23 £425 -15.00% 51
Wales +33 21 £509 -11.18% 13
East Midlands +5 21 £400 +5.26% 28
North East -20 5 £405 -28.32% 4
Northern Ireland +6 2 - - 7
Isle of Man - 2 - -
Test Automation
UK

Test Automation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 21 (3.55%) Apache
1 21 (3.55%) Confluence
2 17 (2.88%) Apache Airflow
3 14 (2.37%) Apache Spark
4 7 (1.18%) Alfresco
5 6 (1.02%) Appian
5 6 (1.02%) Camunda
6 3 (0.51%) CMS
6 3 (0.51%) SharePoint
7 2 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.17%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.17%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.17%) IIS
8 1 (0.17%) JBoss
8 1 (0.17%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 15 (2.54%) Simulink
2 14 (2.37%) Stateflow
3 7 (1.18%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
1 3 (0.51%) SAP EWM
2 2 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.17%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.17%) SAP Retail
Cloud Services
1 124 (20.98%) Azure
2 113 (19.12%) AWS
3 65 (11.00%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (6.77%) GitHub
5 32 (5.41%) Serverless
6 26 (4.40%) Amazon S3
7 23 (3.89%) GCP
8 20 (3.38%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (3.05%) Amazon EC2
10 14 (2.37%) Amazon SQS
10 14 (2.37%) AWS CloudFormation
11 12 (2.03%) GitHub Actions
12 11 (1.86%) Azure Monitor
12 11 (1.86%) OpenShift
12 11 (1.86%) PaaS
13 10 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
13 10 (1.69%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (1.69%) Azure Functions
13 10 (1.69%) Azure Service Bus
13 10 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.86%) BGP
1 11 (1.86%) Ethernet VPN
1 11 (1.86%) MPLS
1 11 (1.86%) Radio Access Network
1 11 (1.86%) VPN
2 9 (1.52%) HTTP
3 7 (1.18%) TCP/IP
4 6 (1.02%) DNS
4 6 (1.02%) Kerberos
5 5 (0.85%) Firewall
5 5 (0.85%) FTP
6 4 (0.68%) DHCP
6 4 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.51%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (0.34%) Internet
8 2 (0.34%) Network Security
8 2 (0.34%) SSL
8 2 (0.34%) Wireless
9 1 (0.17%) 2G
9 1 (0.17%) SNA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (7.28%) PostgreSQL
2 29 (4.91%) Relational Database
3 26 (4.40%) NoSQL
4 25 (4.23%) MongoDB
5 15 (2.54%) MySQL
6 14 (2.37%) Elasticsearch
6 14 (2.37%) SQL Server
7 9 (1.52%) Big Data
8 8 (1.35%) Amazon Aurora
9 5 (0.85%) SQLite
10 4 (0.68%) Apache Cassandra
10 4 (0.68%) Couchbase
10 4 (0.68%) GIS
10 4 (0.68%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.51%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.51%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.51%) InfluxDB
11 3 (0.51%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.51%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 113 (19.12%) Selenium
2 97 (16.41%) Jenkins
3 96 (16.24%) Git
4 89 (15.06%) JIRA
5 67 (11.34%) GitLab
6 62 (10.49%) Cucumber
7 44 (7.45%) Cypress.io
8 38 (6.43%) Postman
9 36 (6.09%) TestRail
10 32 (5.41%) REST Assured
10 32 (5.41%) Robot Framework
11 31 (5.25%) SonarQube
12 27 (4.57%) JMeter
13 21 (3.55%) Bitbucket
14 20 (3.38%) Visual Studio
15 18 (3.05%) WebDriver
16 15 (2.54%) JUnit
16 15 (2.54%) Sonatype Nexus
17 11 (1.86%) NUnit
17 11 (1.86%) SpecFlow
General
1 122 (20.64%) Social Skills
2 60 (10.15%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (7.61%) Finance
4 40 (6.77%) Public Sector
5 25 (4.23%) Banking
6 23 (3.89%) Automotive
7 22 (3.72%) Law
8 15 (2.54%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.37%) Legal
10 13 (2.20%) Police
11 11 (1.86%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.18%) Electronics
13 6 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (1.02%) Multimedia
14 5 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
14 5 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
15 4 (0.68%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.68%) Games
15 4 (0.68%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 117 (19.80%) Developer
2 75 (12.69%) Test Engineer
3 59 (9.98%) Tester
4 56 (9.48%) Software Engineer
5 54 (9.14%) Analyst
6 52 (8.80%) Senior
7 39 (6.60%) Test Analyst
8 37 (6.26%) Automation Tester
9 34 (5.75%) Lead
10 31 (5.25%) Java Developer
11 30 (5.08%) Architect
11 30 (5.08%) Test Manager
12 27 (4.57%) Test Automation Engineer
13 25 (4.23%) DevOps Engineer
14 24 (4.06%) Java Engineer
15 21 (3.55%) Senior Test Engineer
16 20 (3.38%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
17 19 (3.21%) Full Stack Developer
18 15 (2.54%) QA Engineer
19 14 (2.37%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (11.34%) React
1 67 (11.34%) REST
2 39 (6.60%) .NET
3 33 (5.58%) JSON
3 33 (5.58%) Node.js
4 31 (5.25%) HTML
5 30 (5.08%) CSS
5 30 (5.08%) Web Services
6 29 (4.91%) XML
7 28 (4.74%) AngularJS
7 28 (4.74%) RESTful
8 26 (4.40%) Kafka
9 25 (4.23%) Java EE
9 25 (4.23%) Playwright
9 25 (4.23%) SOAP
10 24 (4.06%) Spring
10 24 (4.06%) Spring Boot
11 19 (3.21%) AWS CDK
12 15 (2.54%) Gherkin
13 14 (2.37%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.61%) Product Ownership
2 22 (3.72%) Algorithms
3 18 (3.05%) PKI
4 13 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (2.03%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (1.69%) Data Centre
6 10 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.35%) Client/Server
7 8 (1.35%) Data Structures
7 8 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.35%) Public Cloud
8 7 (1.18%) Management Information System
8 7 (1.18%) Mobile App
8 7 (1.18%) NHS
9 6 (1.02%) Enterprise Cloud
9 6 (1.02%) Life Science
10 5 (0.85%) Low-Code
10 5 (0.85%) Private Cloud
10 5 (0.85%) Social Media
11 4 (0.68%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 61 (10.32%) Linux
2 56 (9.48%) Windows
3 24 (4.06%) Windows Server
4 17 (2.88%) Unix
5 14 (2.37%) Windows Server 2019
6 12 (2.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (1.35%) Ubuntu
8 7 (1.18%) Android
9 6 (1.02%) Mac OS X
10 5 (0.85%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.85%) Embedded Linux
10 5 (0.85%) VMS
11 3 (0.51%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.51%) Windows 2000
11 3 (0.51%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.51%) Windows XP
12 1 (0.17%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 299 (50.59%) Agile
2 180 (30.46%) DevOps
3 166 (28.09%) CI/CD
4 127 (21.49%) Continuous Integration
5 119 (20.14%) Software Engineering
6 96 (16.24%) Scrum
7 84 (14.21%) Problem-Solving
8 75 (12.69%) Software Testing
9 70 (11.84%) Containerisation
10 69 (11.68%) Infrastructure as Code
11 66 (11.17%) TDD
12 65 (11.00%) Test Strategy
13 62 (10.49%) Test Scripting
14 57 (9.64%) Unit Testing
15 53 (8.97%) Microservices
16 51 (8.63%) Full Stack Development
17 48 (8.12%) BDD
18 47 (7.95%) SDLC
19 45 (7.61%) Computer Science
20 44 (7.45%) Test Management
Programming Languages
1 158 (26.73%) Java
2 118 (19.97%) Python
3 86 (14.55%) JavaScript
4 84 (14.21%) SQL
5 74 (12.52%) C#
6 51 (8.63%) PowerShell
7 47 (7.95%) TypeScript
8 31 (5.25%) Bash
9 28 (4.74%) C
9 28 (4.74%) C++
10 18 (3.05%) Scala
11 16 (2.71%) Kotlin
11 16 (2.71%) Shell Script
12 15 (2.54%) MATLAB
13 13 (2.20%) PHP
14 12 (2.03%) Go
15 10 (1.69%) Groovy
15 10 (1.69%) VBScript
16 9 (1.52%) Embedded C
17 7 (1.18%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 131 (22.17%) Security Cleared
2 74 (12.52%) SC Cleared
3 52 (8.80%) ISTQB
4 43 (7.28%) Degree
5 38 (6.43%) DV Cleared
6 30 (5.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 20 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (2.20%) ISEB
9 7 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.02%) AAT
11 5 (0.85%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
12 3 (0.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 2 (0.34%) HNC
13 2 (0.34%) HND
13 2 (0.34%) ISEB Practitioner
14 1 (0.17%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 1 (0.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
14 1 (0.17%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (19.46%) QA
2 36 (6.09%) Accessibility
3 11 (1.86%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.52%) Disclosure Scotland
5 7 (1.18%) RMADS
6 6 (1.02%) HL7
7 5 (0.85%) PMO
7 5 (0.85%) SLA
8 3 (0.51%) WCAG
9 2 (0.34%) GDPR
9 2 (0.34%) JTAG
9 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.17%) GRC
10 1 (0.17%) IEC 61508
10 1 (0.17%) MISRA
10 1 (0.17%) MISRA C
System Software
1 64 (10.83%) Docker
2 32 (5.41%) Active Directory
3 29 (4.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.68%) VirtualBox
5 4 (0.68%) zsh
6 3 (0.51%) KVM
6 3 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.51%) VMware Workstation
6 3 (0.51%) vSphere
7 2 (0.34%) Firmware
7 2 (0.34%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.17%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 1 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.17%) HDFS
8 1 (0.17%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 73 (12.35%) Kubernetes
2 64 (10.83%) Ansible
3 62 (10.49%) Terraform
4 18 (3.05%) Grafana
5 12 (2.03%) Docker Swarm
5 12 (2.03%) Podman
5 12 (2.03%) Puppet
6 10 (1.69%) Progress Chef
7 9 (1.52%) Kibana
7 9 (1.52%) Prometheus
8 8 (1.35%) Zipkin
9 6 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.68%) Nagios
11 3 (0.51%) HP Quality Center
11 3 (0.51%) Rancher
11 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.34%) HP Fortify
12 2 (0.34%) Nessus
12 2 (0.34%) vRealize
13 1 (0.17%) Nmap
Vendors
1 52 (8.80%) Microsoft
2 34 (5.75%) VMware
3 33 (5.58%) Oracle
4 15 (2.54%) ServiceNow
5 12 (2.03%) SAP
6 11 (1.86%) Google
7 9 (1.52%) Pega
8 8 (1.35%) Databricks
9 7 (1.18%) Cadence
9 7 (1.18%) Splunk
10 6 (1.02%) Atlassian
10 6 (1.02%) Ericsson
10 6 (1.02%) Informatica
11 5 (0.85%) Red Hat
11 5 (0.85%) Salesforce
11 5 (0.85%) Talend
12 4 (0.68%) Infragistics
13 3 (0.51%) HP
13 3 (0.51%) Juniper
13 3 (0.51%) Siemens