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 22 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 34 54 52
Rank change year-on-year +20 -2 +12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 37 13 27
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 4.46% 1.87% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.19% 2.09% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 10 24
10th Percentile £317 £230 £408
25th Percentile £363 £341 £472
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £556
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% -5.62% +2.53%
75th Percentile £526 £566 £645
90th Percentile £552 £641 £776
South West median daily rate £550 £550 £525
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 3
10th Percentile - - £66.15
25th Percentile - - £69.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £77.50
75th Percentile - - £81.25
90th Percentile - - -
South West median hourly rate £65.00 - £42.50
% change year-on-year - - -25.26%

All Process and 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 713 622 847
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 85.90% 89.50% 86.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 362 344 530
10th Percentile £258 £213 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £489 £536
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -8.86% +7.25%
75th Percentile £600 £610 £649
90th Percentile £724 £750 £700
South West median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 82 117
10th Percentile £15.60 £37.15 £35.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £60.75 £56.25
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% - -
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £76.25
90th Percentile £68.00 £75.00 £83.40
South West median hourly rate £33.00 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -49.23% +8.33% -7.69%

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 22 December 2025.

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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (16.22%) Oracle Application Server
Cloud Services
1 7 (18.92%) Azure
2 6 (16.22%) AWS
2 6 (16.22%) Power Automate
2 6 (16.22%) Power Platform
2 6 (16.22%) Snowflake
3 1 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 6 (16.22%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (16.22%) Data Warehouse
1 6 (16.22%) GIS
1 6 (16.22%) Oracle ODI
1 6 (16.22%) Oracle Reports
1 6 (16.22%) PostgreSQL
1 6 (16.22%) Power BI
1 6 (16.22%) Relational Database
1 6 (16.22%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 12 (32.43%) Selenium
2 11 (29.73%) Cypress.io
3 10 (27.03%) Postman
3 10 (27.03%) REST Assured
4 7 (18.92%) Git
5 6 (16.22%) DBeaver
5 6 (16.22%) JIRA
6 1 (2.70%) CMake
6 1 (2.70%) GitLab
6 1 (2.70%) GoogleTest
6 1 (2.70%) Jenkins
6 1 (2.70%) SoapUI
General
1 6 (16.22%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (13.51%) Social Skills
3 2 (5.41%) Finance
3 2 (5.41%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 9 (24.32%) Lead
1 9 (24.32%) QA Leader
2 7 (18.92%) Developer
2 7 (18.92%) Software Engineer
3 6 (16.22%) C++ Software Engineer
3 6 (16.22%) Data Engineer
3 6 (16.22%) Quality Engineer
3 6 (16.22%) Senior
4 4 (10.81%) Mobile Engineer
4 4 (10.81%) Security Engineer
5 3 (8.11%) ETL Tester
5 3 (8.11%) Tester
6 2 (5.41%) Analyst
6 2 (5.41%) Test Analyst
6 2 (5.41%) Test Engineer
7 1 (2.70%) Applications Engineer
7 1 (2.70%) QA Manager
7 1 (2.70%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (18.92%) SOAP
2 6 (16.22%) AngularJS
2 6 (16.22%) JMS
2 6 (16.22%) Middleware
2 6 (16.22%) Oracle GoldenGate
2 6 (16.22%) Qt
2 6 (16.22%) React
2 6 (16.22%) XML
2 6 (16.22%) XSD
3 2 (5.41%) Playwright
4 1 (2.70%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 1 (2.70%) OpenCV
4 1 (2.70%) REST
4 1 (2.70%) Web Services
4 1 (2.70%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (24.32%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (16.22%) Replication
2 6 (16.22%) Video\Live Streaming
3 4 (10.81%) Mobile App
4 3 (8.11%) Security Posture
5 1 (2.70%) CUDA
5 1 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
5 1 (2.70%) Raspberry Pi
5 1 (2.70%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 7 (18.92%) Linux
1 7 (18.92%) Windows
2 5 (13.51%) Android
3 4 (10.81%) Apple iOS
4 1 (2.70%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (40.54%) Agile
2 11 (29.73%) Software Testing
2 11 (29.73%) Test Strategy
3 10 (27.03%) Test Scripting
4 9 (24.32%) CI/CD
5 7 (18.92%) OO
5 7 (18.92%) Scrum
5 7 (18.92%) Software Engineering
6 6 (16.22%) AI
6 6 (16.22%) Analytics
6 6 (16.22%) Business Intelligence
6 6 (16.22%) Dimensional Modelling
6 6 (16.22%) ETL
6 6 (16.22%) Information Security
6 6 (16.22%) OOP
6 6 (16.22%) Project Delivery
7 4 (10.81%) Application Security
8 3 (8.11%) DevSecOps
8 3 (8.11%) Mobile Development
8 3 (8.11%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 13 (35.14%) SQL
2 7 (18.92%) C++
2 7 (18.92%) Python
3 2 (5.41%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.70%) C#
4 1 (2.70%) Java
4 1 (2.70%) Kotlin
4 1 (2.70%) Objective-C
4 1 (2.70%) Swift
4 1 (2.70%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 18 (48.65%) Security Cleared
2 17 (45.95%) SC Cleared
3 1 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (2.70%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (45.95%) QA
2 6 (16.22%) Data Quality
System Software
1 1 (2.70%) Docker
Vendors
1 12 (32.43%) Microsoft
2 7 (18.92%) Blue Prism
3 6 (16.22%) Oracle
3 6 (16.22%) ServiceNow
4 1 (2.70%) Google
4 1 (2.70%) NVIDIA
4 1 (2.70%) Salesforce