Test Automation Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Automated Testing
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Berkshire requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 37 64
Rank change year-on-year -24 +27 -11
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 57 68 68
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 3.27% 5.57% 3.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.77% 5.99% 3.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 37 35
10th Percentile £357 £446 £425
25th Percentile £403 £568 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £625 £575
Median % change year-on-year -32.00% +8.70% +6.98%
75th Percentile £550 £700 £625
90th Percentile £625 - £645
South East median daily rate £500 £573 £550
% change year-on-year -12.66% +4.09% +0.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 0
Median hourly rate £75.00 £75.60 -
Median % change year-on-year -0.79% - -
South East median hourly rate £60.00 £60.90 £53.75
% change year-on-year -1.48% +13.31% -14.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Berkshire

Test Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,510 1,135 1,811
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 86.73% 93.03% 90.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,000 635 993
10th Percentile £299 £300 £213
25th Percentile £401 £409 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £500 £505 £500
% change year-on-year -0.99% +1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 32 99
10th Percentile £19.38 £26.03 £19.93
25th Percentile £40.22 £44.90 £41.88
Median hourly rate £81.50 £61.50 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +32.53% +5.48% -4.08%
75th Percentile £88.00 £65.62 £67.66
90th Percentile £106.00 £85.47 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £25.20 £45.65 £45.00
% change year-on-year -44.81% +1.44% -

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in Berkshire over the 6 months to 3 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in Berkshire

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

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 Berkshire region over the 6 months to 3 March 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
Wokingham -16 23 £420 +0.30% 4
Reading -40 19 £413 -34.00% 8
Bracknell +2 6 £588 -
Slough - 2 £518 - 8
Windsor - 2 £700 - 1
Test Automation
South East

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire 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 (1.75%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 18 (31.58%) Azure
2 12 (21.05%) Azure DevOps
3 8 (14.04%) AWS
3 8 (14.04%) Entra ID
4 5 (8.77%) Serverless
5 3 (5.26%) Azure Monitor
5 3 (5.26%) GCP
6 2 (3.51%) Azure API Management
6 2 (3.51%) Azure Functions
6 2 (3.51%) GitHub
6 2 (3.51%) GitHub Actions
6 2 (3.51%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.75%) Azure AKS
7 1 (1.75%) Azure App Service
7 1 (1.75%) Azure Storage
7 1 (1.75%) Datadog
7 1 (1.75%) IaaS
7 1 (1.75%) OCI
7 1 (1.75%) PaaS
7 1 (1.75%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (14.04%) Wireshark
2 3 (5.26%) Broadband
2 3 (5.26%) MPLS
2 3 (5.26%) SSL
2 3 (5.26%) VPN
2 3 (5.26%) Wireless
3 2 (3.51%) 2G
3 2 (3.51%) 5G
3 2 (3.51%) Internet
3 2 (3.51%) Intranet
3 2 (3.51%) LTE
3 2 (3.51%) Mobile Backhaul
3 2 (3.51%) NaaS
3 2 (3.51%) SD-WAN
3 2 (3.51%) VoIP
3 2 (3.51%) WAN
4 1 (1.75%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (1.75%) Ethernet VPN
4 1 (1.75%) Multicast
4 1 (1.75%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (8.77%) NoSQL
2 2 (3.51%) Power BI
2 2 (3.51%) Tableau
3 1 (1.75%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (1.75%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 10 (17.54%) Burp Suite
2 8 (14.04%) Metasploit
3 7 (12.28%) HP UFT
3 7 (12.28%) Jenkins
4 6 (10.53%) JIRA
5 4 (7.02%) Selenium
6 2 (3.51%) Cucumber
6 2 (3.51%) Cypress.io
7 1 (1.75%) Appium
7 1 (1.75%) Git
7 1 (1.75%) Katalon Studio
7 1 (1.75%) NUnit
7 1 (1.75%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 33 (57.89%) Social Skills
2 29 (50.88%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (10.53%) Influencing Skills
3 6 (10.53%) Telecoms
4 5 (8.77%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (8.77%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (7.02%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.75%) Automotive
6 1 (1.75%) Billing
6 1 (1.75%) Law
6 1 (1.75%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 17 (29.82%) Tester
2 11 (19.30%) Penetration Tester
2 11 (19.30%) Test Manager
3 8 (14.04%) Test Engineer
4 6 (10.53%) Senior
5 4 (7.02%) AWS Engineer
5 4 (7.02%) Cloud Engineer
6 3 (5.26%) Developer
6 3 (5.26%) DevOps Engineer
6 3 (5.26%) Software Engineer
6 3 (5.26%) Strategy Manager
6 3 (5.26%) Test Strategy Manager
7 2 (3.51%) Active Directory Engineer
7 2 (3.51%) Azure DevOps Engineer
7 2 (3.51%) Azure Engineer
7 2 (3.51%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 2 (3.51%) Senior Software Engineer
7 2 (3.51%) Technical Leader
7 2 (3.51%) Telecoms Specialist
7 2 (3.51%) Test Strategist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (12.28%) OAuth
1 7 (12.28%) SAML
2 4 (7.02%) .NET
2 4 (7.02%) JWT
3 3 (5.26%) .NET Core
3 3 (5.26%) .NET Framework
3 3 (5.26%) ARM Templates
3 3 (5.26%) OpenID
3 3 (5.26%) React
3 3 (5.26%) REST
4 2 (3.51%) ASP.NET
4 2 (3.51%) GraphQL
4 2 (3.51%) Microsoft Graph
4 2 (3.51%) OAuth2
5 1 (1.75%) CSS
5 1 (1.75%) Entity Framework
5 1 (1.75%) JSON
5 1 (1.75%) Node.js
5 1 (1.75%) Spring
5 1 (1.75%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 6 (10.53%) Enterprise Software
2 5 (8.77%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (5.26%) Algorithms
3 3 (5.26%) Cloud Native
3 3 (5.26%) IoT
3 3 (5.26%) Product Ownership
4 2 (3.51%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (3.51%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.75%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.75%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 11 (19.30%) Linux
2 10 (17.54%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (49.12%) Problem-Solving
2 22 (38.60%) CI/CD
2 22 (38.60%) DevOps
3 19 (33.33%) Agile
4 18 (31.58%) Software Testing
5 15 (26.32%) Penetration Testing
5 15 (26.32%) Scenario Testing
6 14 (24.56%) OWASP
7 12 (21.05%) AI
8 11 (19.30%) Continuous Improvement
8 11 (19.30%) Red Team
8 11 (19.30%) Stakeholder Management
8 11 (19.30%) Test Management
8 11 (19.30%) Test Strategy
8 11 (19.30%) Validation
9 9 (15.79%) Resilience Testing
9 9 (15.79%) Root Cause Analysis
9 9 (15.79%) SDLC
10 8 (14.04%) Ethical Hacking
10 8 (14.04%) Functional Testing
Programming Languages
1 23 (40.35%) Python
2 14 (24.56%) JavaScript
3 11 (19.30%) PowerShell
4 10 (17.54%) Bash
5 7 (12.28%) SQL
5 7 (12.28%) VBScript
6 5 (8.77%) Java
7 4 (7.02%) C#
7 4 (7.02%) TypeScript
8 2 (3.51%) PHP
8 2 (3.51%) R
9 1 (1.75%) Bicep
9 1 (1.75%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 19 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 16 (28.07%) SC Cleared
3 9 (15.79%) OSCP
4 8 (14.04%) CEH
4 8 (14.04%) GPEN
5 7 (12.28%) ISTQB
6 5 (8.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 4 (7.02%) AWS Certification
8 3 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (3.51%) Degree
9 2 (3.51%) Master's Degree
9 2 (3.51%) SANS
10 1 (1.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (1.75%) CCIE
10 1 (1.75%) CCNP
10 1 (1.75%) CCSP
10 1 (1.75%) CISSP
10 1 (1.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (28.07%) QA
2 2 (3.51%) Data Quality
2 2 (3.51%) SLA
3 1 (1.75%) Accessibility
System Software
1 3 (5.26%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 10 (17.54%) Nmap
2 3 (5.26%) Nessus
2 3 (5.26%) Terraform
3 1 (1.75%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 7 (12.28%) ServiceNow
2 5 (8.77%) Workday
3 3 (5.26%) Cisco
3 3 (5.26%) Fortinet
3 3 (5.26%) Juniper
3 3 (5.26%) Microsoft
3 3 (5.26%) SAP
4 1 (1.75%) BT
4 1 (1.75%) CheckPoint