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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 39 54
Rank change year-on-year -1 +15 +15
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 35 18 25
As % of all contract jobs in Bristol 3.08% 3.43% 2.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.81% 3.73% 2.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 16 15
10th Percentile £412 £271 £419
25th Percentile £463 £348 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £370 £563
Median % change year-on-year +39.19% -34.22% +2.27%
75th Percentile £541 £538 £594
90th Percentile £614 £571 £720
South West median daily rate £475 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -9.52% -4.55% -6.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 0 5
10th Percentile £62.25 - -
25th Percentile £65.00 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £67.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £68.75 - £57.50
90th Percentile £70.00 - -
South West median hourly rate £67.50 - £50.00
% change year-on-year - - -33.55%

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 918 482 867
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bristol 80.88% 91.81% 82.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 452 290 502
10th Percentile £310 £213 £258
25th Percentile £400 £355 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £457 £514
Median % change year-on-year +9.41% -11.13% +2.85%
75th Percentile £557 £588 £625
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
South West median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 244 68 155
10th Percentile £17.69 £32.05 £36.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £59.38 £45.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% +1.63%
75th Percentile - £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £80.00
South West median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -11.54% +36.84% -22.76%

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 31 March 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 2 (5.71%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 3 (8.57%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 5 (14.29%) AWS
2 3 (8.57%) Azure
2 3 (8.57%) GitHub
3 2 (5.71%) Power Platform
3 2 (5.71%) Snowflake
4 1 (2.86%) GitHub Actions
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.71%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (5.71%) Oracle ODI
1 2 (5.71%) Oracle Reports
1 2 (5.71%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (5.71%) Power BI
1 2 (5.71%) Star Schema
2 1 (2.86%) GIS
Development Applications
1 10 (28.57%) Selenium
2 7 (20.00%) Cypress.io
3 6 (17.14%) Git
3 6 (17.14%) Postman
3 6 (17.14%) REST Assured
4 3 (8.57%) Xcode
4 3 (8.57%) XCTest
4 3 (8.57%) XCUITest
5 2 (5.71%) DBeaver
5 2 (5.71%) GitLab
5 2 (5.71%) Jenkins
6 1 (2.86%) fastlane
6 1 (2.86%) HP UFT
6 1 (2.86%) JUnit
6 1 (2.86%) NUnit
6 1 (2.86%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (2.86%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (2.86%) SoapUI
6 1 (2.86%) WebDriver
General
1 16 (45.71%) Social Skills
2 3 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (8.57%) Finance
3 2 (5.71%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.86%) Aerospace
4 1 (2.86%) Banking
4 1 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (2.86%) Electronics
4 1 (2.86%) Law
4 1 (2.86%) Retail
4 1 (2.86%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 14 (40.00%) Lead
2 7 (20.00%) Test Leader
3 5 (14.29%) QA Leader
3 5 (14.29%) Senior
3 5 (14.29%) Software Engineer
4 4 (11.43%) Mobile Engineer
4 4 (11.43%) Security Engineer
5 3 (8.57%) Developer
6 2 (5.71%) Analyst
6 2 (5.71%) Data Engineer
6 2 (5.71%) ETL Tester
6 2 (5.71%) Lead Software Engineer
6 2 (5.71%) Quality Engineer
6 2 (5.71%) Test Analyst
6 2 (5.71%) Tester
7 1 (2.86%) Automation Test Lead
7 1 (2.86%) Lead Test Engineer
7 1 (2.86%) Python Engineer
7 1 (2.86%) Robotic Process Automation Developer
7 1 (2.86%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.71%) Oracle GoldenGate
1 2 (5.71%) Playwright
2 1 (2.86%) Android Jetpack
2 1 (2.86%) Android SDK
2 1 (2.86%) Flask
2 1 (2.86%) iOS SDK
2 1 (2.86%) Jetpack Compose
2 1 (2.86%) Middleware
2 1 (2.86%) pytest
2 1 (2.86%) Qt
2 1 (2.86%) REST
2 1 (2.86%) SOAP
2 1 (2.86%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 7 (20.00%) Embedded Systems
2 5 (14.29%) Mobile App
2 5 (14.29%) Security Posture
2 5 (14.29%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (5.71%) Replication
4 1 (2.86%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.86%) Product Ownership
4 1 (2.86%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 11 (31.43%) Linux
2 7 (20.00%) Apple iOS
3 5 (14.29%) Android
4 3 (8.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (2.86%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (48.57%) CI/CD
2 16 (45.71%) Test Strategy
3 10 (28.57%) Software Engineering
3 10 (28.57%) TDD
4 8 (22.86%) Software Testing
5 7 (20.00%) Agile
5 7 (20.00%) Code Quality
5 7 (20.00%) Requirements Gathering
5 7 (20.00%) Test Scripting
6 5 (14.29%) SDLC
6 5 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
7 4 (11.43%) Application Security
7 4 (11.43%) Containerisation
7 4 (11.43%) Mentoring
7 4 (11.43%) MVVM
7 4 (11.43%) Problem-Solving
7 4 (11.43%) Secure Coding
8 3 (8.57%) Architectural Patterns
8 3 (8.57%) Async-Await
8 3 (8.57%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 9 (25.71%) C++
2 8 (22.86%) C
3 7 (20.00%) MATLAB
4 6 (17.14%) Python
5 4 (11.43%) Swift
6 3 (8.57%) Java
6 3 (8.57%) SQL
7 2 (5.71%) JavaScript
7 2 (5.71%) Kotlin
8 1 (2.86%) Ada
8 1 (2.86%) Objective-C
8 1 (2.86%) TypeScript
8 1 (2.86%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 20 (57.14%) Security Cleared
2 19 (54.29%) SC Cleared
3 5 (14.29%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.86%) GIAC
4 1 (2.86%) ISTQB
4 1 (2.86%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (42.86%) QA
2 2 (5.71%) Data Quality
2 2 (5.71%) NCSC
3 1 (2.86%) Def Stans
System Software
1 4 (11.43%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (11.43%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.86%) Ansible
2 1 (2.86%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (8.57%) Red Hat
2 2 (5.71%) Microsoft
2 2 (5.71%) Oracle
3 1 (2.86%) Blue Prism
3 1 (2.86%) Micro Focus
3 1 (2.86%) Salesforce