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 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 48 46
Rank change year-on-year +5 -2 +8
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 32 12 31
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 3.07% 2.13% 3.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.70% 2.35% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 10 19
10th Percentile £418 £230 £431
25th Percentile £463 £316 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £448 £563
Median % change year-on-year +15.08% -20.44% -0.44%
75th Percentile £537 £538 £660
90th Percentile £552 £641 £800
South West median daily rate £523 £560 £550
% change year-on-year -6.70% +1.82% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 7
10th Percentile £61.88 - -
25th Percentile £63.13 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £55.00
75th Percentile - - £69.38
90th Percentile £66.25 - £81.25
South West median hourly rate £65.00 - £55.00
% change year-on-year - - -3.27%

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 866 511 854
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 83.03% 90.60% 83.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 429 281 485
10th Percentile £325 £205 £275
25th Percentile £410 £335 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -7.14% +5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £685 £695
South West median daily rate £525 £525 £530
% change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 69 153
10th Percentile £17.69 £35.00 £36.25
25th Percentile £41.25 £60.00 £45.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year - +8.33% -2.44%
75th Percentile - £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £70.89 £81.00
South West median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £48.72
% change year-on-year -11.54% +33.42% -20.78%

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 25 February 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:

Application Platforms
1 3 (9.38%) Oracle Application Server
Cloud Services
1 3 (9.38%) AWS
1 3 (9.38%) GitHub
1 3 (9.38%) Power Platform
1 3 (9.38%) Snowflake
2 1 (3.13%) Azure
2 1 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
2 1 (3.13%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.13%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (12.50%) GIS
2 3 (9.38%) Data Warehouse
2 3 (9.38%) Oracle ODI
2 3 (9.38%) Oracle Reports
2 3 (9.38%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (9.38%) Power BI
2 3 (9.38%) Star Schema
3 1 (3.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 12 (37.50%) Selenium
2 11 (34.38%) Cypress.io
3 10 (31.25%) Postman
3 10 (31.25%) REST Assured
4 4 (12.50%) Git
5 3 (9.38%) DBeaver
5 3 (9.38%) Xcode
5 3 (9.38%) XCTest
5 3 (9.38%) XCUITest
6 1 (3.13%) fastlane
6 1 (3.13%) GitLab
6 1 (3.13%) Jenkins
6 1 (3.13%) JIRA
6 1 (3.13%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (3.13%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (3.13%) SoapUI
General
1 5 (15.63%) Social Skills
2 3 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (6.25%) Finance
3 2 (6.25%) Public Sector
4 1 (3.13%) Aerospace
4 1 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 9 (28.13%) Lead
1 9 (28.13%) QA Leader
2 5 (15.63%) Senior
2 5 (15.63%) Software Engineer
3 4 (12.50%) C++ Software Engineer
3 4 (12.50%) Developer
3 4 (12.50%) Mobile Engineer
3 4 (12.50%) Security Engineer
4 3 (9.38%) Data Engineer
4 3 (9.38%) ETL Tester
4 3 (9.38%) Quality Engineer
4 3 (9.38%) Tester
5 2 (6.25%) Analyst
5 2 (6.25%) Test Analyst
6 1 (3.13%) Android Engineer
6 1 (3.13%) Embedded Engineer
6 1 (3.13%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 1 (3.13%) iOS Developer
6 1 (3.13%) Java Developer
6 1 (3.13%) QA Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (12.50%) Middleware
1 4 (12.50%) Qt
2 3 (9.38%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 2 (6.25%) Playwright
3 2 (6.25%) SOAP
4 1 (3.13%) Android Jetpack
4 1 (3.13%) Android SDK
4 1 (3.13%) AngularJS
4 1 (3.13%) iOS SDK
4 1 (3.13%) Jetpack Compose
4 1 (3.13%) JMS
4 1 (3.13%) React
4 1 (3.13%) REST
4 1 (3.13%) Web Services
4 1 (3.13%) XML
4 1 (3.13%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 9 (28.13%) Self-Motivation
2 5 (15.63%) Mobile App
2 5 (15.63%) Security Posture
3 4 (12.50%) Video\Live Streaming
4 3 (9.38%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 7 (21.88%) Apple iOS
2 5 (15.63%) Android
3 4 (12.50%) Linux
3 4 (12.50%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (34.38%) Software Testing
1 11 (34.38%) Test Strategy
2 10 (31.25%) Test Scripting
3 7 (21.88%) Agile
3 7 (21.88%) CI/CD
4 6 (18.75%) AI
4 6 (18.75%) Software Engineering
5 4 (12.50%) Application Security
5 4 (12.50%) Information Security
5 4 (12.50%) MVVM
6 3 (9.38%) Analytics
6 3 (9.38%) Architectural Patterns
6 3 (9.38%) Async-Await
6 3 (9.38%) DevSecOps
6 3 (9.38%) iOS Development
6 3 (9.38%) Mobile Development
6 3 (9.38%) Scrum
6 3 (9.38%) SDLC
6 3 (9.38%) TDD
6 3 (9.38%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 5 (15.63%) C++
1 5 (15.63%) SQL
2 4 (12.50%) Python
2 4 (12.50%) Swift
3 3 (9.38%) Java
4 2 (6.25%) Kotlin
5 1 (3.13%) Ada
5 1 (3.13%) C
5 1 (3.13%) JavaScript
5 1 (3.13%) Objective-C
5 1 (3.13%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 17 (53.13%) Security Cleared
2 16 (50.00%) SC Cleared
3 1 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
3 1 (3.13%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (40.63%) QA
2 3 (9.38%) Data Quality
3 1 (3.13%) Def Stans
Vendors
1 4 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 3 (9.38%) Oracle
3 2 (6.25%) Blue Prism
4 1 (3.13%) Salesforce
4 1 (3.13%) ServiceNow