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 19 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 43 45
Rank change year-on-year -5 +2 +8
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 40 25 30
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 2.98% 3.61% 3.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.91% 3.93% 3.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 19 20
10th Percentile £418 £312 £374
25th Percentile £425 £330 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £370 £513
Median % change year-on-year +41.89% -27.80% -1.44%
75th Percentile £619 £386 £588
90th Percentile £638 £465 £590
South West median daily rate £469 £438 £546
% change year-on-year +7.14% -19.91% +9.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 3
10th Percentile - £45.67 -
25th Percentile £66.25 £52.92 £75.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% -18.75% -
75th Percentile £70.00 - £85.00
90th Percentile - - -
South West median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £80.00
% change year-on-year +3.85% -18.75% +2.56%

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 1,023 636 777
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 76.12% 91.77% 82.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 329 428
10th Percentile £325 £235 £262
25th Percentile £425 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £447 £500
Median % change year-on-year +12.98% -10.60% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £714
South West median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 252 110 170
10th Percentile £19.33 £12.82 £43.75
25th Percentile £45.00 £18.60 £60.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £30.13 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +115.77% -56.96% +7.69%
75th Percentile £68.00 £67.13 £74.00
90th Percentile £74.75 £73.88 £80.00
South West median hourly rate £58.92 £25.15 £67.14
% change year-on-year +134.25% -62.54% +6.56%

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 19 August 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 (7.50%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 9 (22.50%) AWS
1 9 (22.50%) GitHub
2 3 (7.50%) Azure
2 3 (7.50%) GitHub Actions
3 2 (5.00%) GCP
3 2 (5.00%) Pulumi
4 1 (2.50%) Datadog
4 1 (2.50%) Figma
4 1 (2.50%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.50%) Firewall
1 1 (2.50%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.00%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 13 (32.50%) Git
2 6 (15.00%) Xcode
2 6 (15.00%) XCTest
2 6 (15.00%) XCUITest
3 3 (7.50%) GitLab
3 3 (7.50%) Selenium
4 2 (5.00%) Cucumber
4 2 (5.00%) Jenkins
4 2 (5.00%) JUnit
4 2 (5.00%) Postman
4 2 (5.00%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (5.00%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (2.50%) Cypress.io
5 1 (2.50%) fastlane
5 1 (2.50%) HP UFT
5 1 (2.50%) NUnit
5 1 (2.50%) SonarQube
5 1 (2.50%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (2.50%) WebDriver
General
1 23 (57.50%) Social Skills
2 3 (7.50%) Finance
2 3 (7.50%) Retail
3 2 (5.00%) Banking
3 2 (5.00%) Documentation Skills
3 2 (5.00%) Law
4 1 (2.50%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (2.50%) Electronics
4 1 (2.50%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 11 (27.50%) Lead
2 10 (25.00%) Developer
3 8 (20.00%) Test Leader
4 7 (17.50%) Senior
5 5 (12.50%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
5 5 (12.50%) iOS Developer
5 5 (12.50%) Software Engineer
6 4 (10.00%) Senior Developer
6 4 (10.00%) Senior iOS Developer
7 3 (7.50%) DevOps Engineer
7 3 (7.50%) Robotic Process Automation Developer
8 2 (5.00%) Automation Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) AWS DevOps
8 2 (5.00%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) AWS Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) Full-Stack Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) JavaScript Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) Lead Software Engineer
8 2 (5.00%) Senior Software Engineer
9 1 (2.50%) Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (17.50%) React
2 6 (15.00%) REST
3 5 (12.50%) Jest
4 4 (10.00%) Quarkus
5 3 (7.50%) Playwright
6 2 (5.00%) .NET
6 2 (5.00%) Gherkin
6 2 (5.00%) Next.js
6 2 (5.00%) Node.js
6 2 (5.00%) React Native
6 2 (5.00%) RESTful
7 1 (2.50%) Flask
7 1 (2.50%) GraphQL
7 1 (2.50%) Jinja
7 1 (2.50%) Kafka
7 1 (2.50%) NETCONF
7 1 (2.50%) pytest
7 1 (2.50%) Vitest
7 1 (2.50%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 8 (20.00%) Embedded Systems
2 3 (7.50%) Cloud Native
3 2 (5.00%) Mobile App
3 2 (5.00%) Product Ownership
3 2 (5.00%) Security Posture
4 1 (2.50%) Data Centre
4 1 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (2.50%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.50%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 11 (27.50%) Linux
2 7 (17.50%) Apple iOS
3 3 (7.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (2.50%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (57.50%) CI/CD
2 19 (47.50%) TDD
3 14 (35.00%) Software Engineering
4 13 (32.50%) Test Strategy
5 12 (30.00%) DevOps
6 10 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (20.00%) Agile
7 8 (20.00%) Infrastructure as Code
7 8 (20.00%) Requirements Gathering
8 7 (17.50%) Code Quality
8 7 (17.50%) Continuous Integration
8 7 (17.50%) Mentoring
9 6 (15.00%) iOS Development
9 6 (15.00%) MVVM
9 6 (15.00%) Technical Leadership
9 6 (15.00%) Workflow
10 5 (12.50%) Async-Await
10 5 (12.50%) Design Patterns
10 5 (12.50%) Pair Programming
11 4 (10.00%) AI
Programming Languages
1 11 (27.50%) JavaScript
2 10 (25.00%) C
2 10 (25.00%) C++
3 8 (20.00%) MATLAB
3 8 (20.00%) TypeScript
4 6 (15.00%) Swift
5 5 (12.50%) Python
6 4 (10.00%) Java
7 1 (2.50%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 13 (32.50%) Security Cleared
2 12 (30.00%) SC Cleared
3 5 (12.50%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.50%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (2.50%) ISTQB
4 1 (2.50%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (22.50%) QA
2 5 (12.50%) Accessibility
2 5 (12.50%) WCAG
3 2 (5.00%) Def Stans
3 2 (5.00%) NCSC
System Software
1 5 (12.50%) Docker
2 1 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (2.50%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 9 (22.50%) Kubernetes
2 3 (7.50%) Terraform
3 2 (5.00%) Ansible
3 2 (5.00%) Grafana
4 1 (2.50%) FortiGate
4 1 (2.50%) Istio
4 1 (2.50%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 3 (7.50%) Blue Prism
1 3 (7.50%) Red Hat
2 1 (2.50%) Cisco
2 1 (2.50%) Fortinet
2 1 (2.50%) Google
2 1 (2.50%) Micro Focus
2 1 (2.50%) Salesforce
2 1 (2.50%) VMware