Test Automation Contract Job Trends in Bristol

Automated Testing
South West > Bristol

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Bristol requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 29 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 48 40
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +14
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 37 15 35
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 2.87% 2.60% 3.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.65% 2.82% 4.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 12 20
10th Percentile £416 £328 £431
25th Percentile £436 £355 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £370 £544
Median % change year-on-year +41.89% -31.95% +3.57%
75th Percentile £613 £400 £590
90th Percentile £634 £708 £599
South West median daily rate £469 £475 £550
% change year-on-year -1.32% -13.64% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 8
10th Percentile £62.38 - -
25th Percentile £65.31 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £67.50 £40.84 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.28% -25.75% -
75th Percentile £69.69 - £85.00
90th Percentile £70.00 - -
South West median hourly rate £67.50 £40.84 £55.00
% change year-on-year +65.28% -25.75% -29.49%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Bristol

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 Bristol.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,013 532 874
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 78.59% 92.20% 81.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 499 294 487
10th Percentile £345 £235 £254
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -3.61%
75th Percentile £575 £562 £600
90th Percentile £644 £650 £675
South West median daily rate £525 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 275 80 197
10th Percentile £19.33 £18.51 £40.00
25th Percentile £53.53 £21.24 £45.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £61.25 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.12% -9.26% +20.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.37 £80.00
South West median hourly rate £57.50 £35.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +61.97% -35.45% -4.35%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in Bristol

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in Bristol

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in Bristol

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

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

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in Bristol

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in Bristol over the 6 months to 29 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in Bristol

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in Bristol

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

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

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Bristol 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:

Applications
1 3 (8.11%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 9 (24.32%) GitHub
2 5 (13.51%) AWS
3 4 (10.81%) GitHub Actions
4 3 (8.11%) Azure
5 2 (5.41%) GCP
6 1 (2.70%) Figma
6 1 (2.70%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.70%) Firewall
1 1 (2.70%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (2.70%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (35.14%) Git
2 7 (18.92%) Xcode
2 7 (18.92%) XCTest
2 7 (18.92%) XCUITest
3 3 (8.11%) Selenium
4 2 (5.41%) fastlane
4 2 (5.41%) GitLab
4 2 (5.41%) Jenkins
4 2 (5.41%) JUnit
5 1 (2.70%) Cucumber
5 1 (2.70%) Cypress.io
5 1 (2.70%) HP UFT
5 1 (2.70%) NUnit
5 1 (2.70%) Postman
5 1 (2.70%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (2.70%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (2.70%) SonarQube
5 1 (2.70%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (2.70%) WebDriver
General
1 23 (62.16%) Social Skills
2 3 (8.11%) Retail
3 2 (5.41%) Banking
3 2 (5.41%) Finance
4 1 (2.70%) Aerospace
4 1 (2.70%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (2.70%) Electronics
4 1 (2.70%) Law
4 1 (2.70%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.70%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 10 (27.03%) Developer
1 10 (27.03%) Lead
2 8 (21.62%) Test Leader
3 7 (18.92%) Software Engineer
4 6 (16.22%) Senior
5 4 (10.81%) iOS Developer
5 4 (10.81%) Robotic Process Automation Developer
6 3 (8.11%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
6 3 (8.11%) Senior Developer
6 3 (8.11%) Senior iOS Developer
7 2 (5.41%) Automation Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Full-Stack Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) JavaScript Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Lead Software Engineer
7 2 (5.41%) Senior Software Engineer
8 1 (2.70%) C++ Software Engineer
8 1 (2.70%) Linux Engineer
8 1 (2.70%) Security Engineer
8 1 (2.70%) Software Team Leader
8 1 (2.70%) Software Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (13.51%) React
2 4 (10.81%) REST
3 3 (8.11%) Jest
4 2 (5.41%) Gherkin
4 2 (5.41%) Next.js
4 2 (5.41%) Node.js
4 2 (5.41%) Playwright
4 2 (5.41%) Quarkus
4 2 (5.41%) React Native
5 1 (2.70%) Android SDK
5 1 (2.70%) Flask
5 1 (2.70%) iOS SDK
5 1 (2.70%) Jetpack Compose
5 1 (2.70%) Jinja
5 1 (2.70%) Kafka
5 1 (2.70%) Middleware
5 1 (2.70%) NETCONF
5 1 (2.70%) pytest
5 1 (2.70%) Qt
5 1 (2.70%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 8 (21.62%) Embedded Systems
2 4 (10.81%) Security Posture
3 3 (8.11%) Mobile App
4 2 (5.41%) Cloud Native
4 2 (5.41%) Product Ownership
5 1 (2.70%) Data Centre
5 1 (2.70%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.70%) Public Cloud
5 1 (2.70%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 12 (32.43%) Linux
2 8 (21.62%) Apple iOS
3 3 (8.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (5.41%) Android
5 1 (2.70%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (54.05%) CI/CD
2 18 (48.65%) TDD
3 13 (35.14%) Software Engineering
4 11 (29.73%) Test Strategy
5 9 (24.32%) Agile
6 8 (21.62%) Code Quality
6 8 (21.62%) MVVM
6 8 (21.62%) Requirements Gathering
7 7 (18.92%) Continuous Improvement
7 7 (18.92%) Continuous Integration
7 7 (18.92%) DevOps
7 7 (18.92%) iOS Development
7 7 (18.92%) Mentoring
8 6 (16.22%) Async-Await
8 6 (16.22%) Pair Programming
8 6 (16.22%) Workflow
9 5 (13.51%) Infrastructure as Code
9 5 (13.51%) Scrum
9 5 (13.51%) Technical Leadership
9 5 (13.51%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (27.03%) C++
2 9 (24.32%) C
3 8 (21.62%) MATLAB
4 7 (18.92%) JavaScript
4 7 (18.92%) Swift
5 6 (16.22%) TypeScript
6 5 (13.51%) Python
7 4 (10.81%) Java
8 1 (2.70%) Ada
8 1 (2.70%) Kotlin
8 1 (2.70%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 17 (45.95%) Security Cleared
2 15 (40.54%) SC Cleared
3 6 (16.22%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.70%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (2.70%) ISTQB
4 1 (2.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (21.62%) QA
2 3 (8.11%) Accessibility
2 3 (8.11%) WCAG
3 2 (5.41%) NCSC
4 1 (2.70%) Def Stans
System Software
1 5 (13.51%) Docker
2 1 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (2.70%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 7 (18.92%) Kubernetes
2 2 (5.41%) Ansible
2 2 (5.41%) Terraform
3 1 (2.70%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.70%) Grafana
3 1 (2.70%) Istio
3 1 (2.70%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 4 (10.81%) Blue Prism
2 3 (8.11%) Red Hat
3 1 (2.70%) Cisco
3 1 (2.70%) Fortinet
3 1 (2.70%) Google
3 1 (2.70%) Micro Focus
3 1 (2.70%) VMware