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 29 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 28 50
Rank change year-on-year -50 +22 +9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 38 78 77
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 2.07% 6.74% 3.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.42% 7.22% 4.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 42 36
10th Percentile £348 £456 £444
25th Percentile £401 £516 £522
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £638 £600
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +6.25% +9.09%
75th Percentile £597 £700 £656
90th Percentile £700 - £688
South East median daily rate £500 £513 £550
% change year-on-year -2.44% -6.82% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 0
Median hourly rate - £74.00 -
South East median hourly rate £67.50 £56.75 £38.50
% change year-on-year +18.94% +47.40% -27.36%

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 1,569 1,081 1,750
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 85.32% 93.43% 88.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,037 626 909
10th Percentile £306 £313 £213
25th Percentile £400 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £509
Median % change year-on-year - -1.77% -3.05%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £608
90th Percentile £688 £675 £677
South East median daily rate £513 £500 £501
% change year-on-year +2.50% -0.10% -1.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 27 102
10th Percentile £28.45 £22.76 £20.17
25th Percentile £73.40 £32.05 £41.75
Median hourly rate £83.00 £61.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +34.97% -0.17% +6.54%
75th Percentile £88.00 £76.35 £72.18
90th Percentile £101.50 £88.05 £87.41
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +87.50% -41.05% -5.00%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -28 12 £350 -16.42% 2
Reading -67 12 £405 -37.69% 4
Bracknell - 4 £600 -
Windsor - 4 £700 - 1
Slough - 2 £400 -
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 (2.63%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 11 (28.95%) Azure
2 9 (23.68%) Azure DevOps
3 4 (10.53%) Entra ID
4 3 (7.89%) AWS
4 3 (7.89%) Serverless
5 2 (5.26%) Azure Key Vault
5 2 (5.26%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (2.63%) Azure AKS
6 1 (2.63%) Azure App Service
6 1 (2.63%) Azure Data Factory
6 1 (2.63%) Azure Storage
6 1 (2.63%) GCP
6 1 (2.63%) GitHub
6 1 (2.63%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (2.63%) IaaS
6 1 (2.63%) PaaS
6 1 (2.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 4 (10.53%) MPLS
1 4 (10.53%) VPN
2 3 (7.89%) 2G
2 3 (7.89%) 5G
2 3 (7.89%) Broadband
2 3 (7.89%) WAN
3 2 (5.26%) 3G
3 2 (5.26%) 4G
3 2 (5.26%) Diameter Protocol
3 2 (5.26%) LTE
3 2 (5.26%) NaaS
3 2 (5.26%) SD-WAN
3 2 (5.26%) SIGTRAN
3 2 (5.26%) SS7
3 2 (5.26%) Wireshark
4 1 (2.63%) BGP
4 1 (2.63%) IPsec
4 1 (2.63%) OSPF
4 1 (2.63%) RSVP
4 1 (2.63%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.63%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (2.63%) NoSQL
1 1 (2.63%) Parquet
1 1 (2.63%) Power BI
1 1 (2.63%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (18.42%) HP UFT
2 5 (13.16%) Jenkins
3 2 (5.26%) Burp Suite
3 2 (5.26%) JIRA
4 1 (2.63%) Git
4 1 (2.63%) Katalon Studio
4 1 (2.63%) Metasploit
4 1 (2.63%) Selenium
4 1 (2.63%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 16 (42.11%) Analytical Skills
2 14 (36.84%) Social Skills
3 8 (21.05%) Telecoms
4 4 (10.53%) Presentation Skills
5 3 (7.89%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (5.26%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.63%) Automotive
7 1 (2.63%) Law
7 1 (2.63%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 9 (23.68%) Test Engineer
2 7 (18.42%) Senior
2 7 (18.42%) Test Manager
2 7 (18.42%) Tester
3 3 (7.89%) Software Engineer
3 3 (7.89%) Strategy Manager
3 3 (7.89%) Test Strategy Manager
4 2 (5.26%) Designer
4 2 (5.26%) Developer
4 2 (5.26%) IP Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) Penetration Tester
4 2 (5.26%) Principal Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
4 2 (5.26%) Senior Software Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) Telecoms Specialist
5 1 (2.63%) Architect
5 1 (2.63%) Enterprise Architect
5 1 (2.63%) QA Engineer
5 1 (2.63%) Senior Test Engineer
5 1 (2.63%) Web Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (10.53%) OAuth
1 4 (10.53%) SAML
2 3 (7.89%) JWT
2 3 (7.89%) React
3 2 (5.26%) .NET
4 1 (2.63%) .NET Core
4 1 (2.63%) .NET Framework
4 1 (2.63%) ARM Templates
4 1 (2.63%) CSS
4 1 (2.63%) Entity Framework
4 1 (2.63%) Jest
4 1 (2.63%) JSON
4 1 (2.63%) Next.js
4 1 (2.63%) Node.js
4 1 (2.63%) OpenID
4 1 (2.63%) REST
4 1 (2.63%) Sass
4 1 (2.63%) Tailwind CSS
4 1 (2.63%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.53%) Distributed Systems
2 3 (7.89%) Cloud Native
2 3 (7.89%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (5.26%) IoT
3 2 (5.26%) Product Ownership
3 2 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.63%) AI Agents
4 1 (2.63%) Algorithms
4 1 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (2.63%) IVR
4 1 (2.63%) Mobile App
4 1 (2.63%) Security Posture
4 1 (2.63%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 2 (5.26%) Kali Linux
1 2 (5.26%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (39.47%) CI/CD
1 15 (39.47%) Problem-Solving
2 14 (36.84%) DevOps
3 13 (34.21%) Agile
4 12 (31.58%) AI
5 11 (28.95%) Test Strategy
6 9 (23.68%) Software Testing
7 8 (21.05%) Continuous Improvement
8 7 (18.42%) Code Quality
8 7 (18.42%) Functional Testing
8 7 (18.42%) Microservices
8 7 (18.42%) Stakeholder Management
8 7 (18.42%) Test Management
9 6 (15.79%) Mentoring
9 6 (15.79%) Scenario Testing
10 5 (13.16%) Decision-Making
10 5 (13.16%) Machine Learning
10 5 (13.16%) Resilience Testing
10 5 (13.16%) SDLC
10 5 (13.16%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (26.32%) JavaScript
2 9 (23.68%) Python
3 7 (18.42%) VBScript
4 4 (10.53%) TypeScript
5 2 (5.26%) C#
5 2 (5.26%) PowerShell
5 2 (5.26%) SQL
6 1 (2.63%) Bash
6 1 (2.63%) Bicep
6 1 (2.63%) Groovy
6 1 (2.63%) Java
6 1 (2.63%) R
Qualifications
1 8 (21.05%) Security Cleared
2 5 (13.16%) SC Cleared
3 3 (7.89%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (7.89%) ISTQB
4 2 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (5.26%) CCNP
4 2 (5.26%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 1 (2.63%) Azure Certification
5 1 (2.63%) CCIE
5 1 (2.63%) CCIP
5 1 (2.63%) CEH
5 1 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (2.63%) Degree
5 1 (2.63%) GPEN
5 1 (2.63%) OSCP
5 1 (2.63%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (28.95%) QA
2 2 (5.26%) SLA
3 1 (2.63%) Accessibility
System Software
1 1 (2.63%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (5.26%) Nmap
1 2 (5.26%) Terraform
2 1 (2.63%) Nessus
Vendors
1 4 (10.53%) Cisco
1 4 (10.53%) Fortinet
1 4 (10.53%) Juniper
1 4 (10.53%) ServiceNow
2 3 (7.89%) SAP
3 2 (5.26%) Workday
4 1 (2.63%) Arista
4 1 (2.63%) BT
4 1 (2.63%) CheckPoint
4 1 (2.63%) Databricks
4 1 (2.63%) Ericsson
4 1 (2.63%) F5
4 1 (2.63%) Microsoft
4 1 (2.63%) Nokia
4 1 (2.63%) Splunk