Test Automation Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Automated Testing
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 30 30 42
Rank change year-on-year 0 +12 +7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 51 26 16
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 7.59% 5.49% 4.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.53% 6.19% 4.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 17 11
10th Percentile £297 £286 £413
25th Percentile £322 £488 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £538 £480
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% +12.08% +11.63%
75th Percentile £478 £575 £529
90th Percentile £557 £576 £538
North West median daily rate £425 £450 £480
% change year-on-year -5.56% -6.25% -8.57%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Cheshire

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 Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 598 420 355
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 88.99% 88.61% 90.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 440 249 224
10th Percentile £268 £325 £265
25th Percentile £358 £390 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £496 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.90% -0.77% +11.11%
75th Percentile £537 £569 £550
90th Percentile £688 £638 £592
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 25 23
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.00 £16.66
25th Percentile £18.87 £19.00 £17.38
Median hourly rate £23.18 £24.18 £23.61
Median % change year-on-year -4.16% +2.41% +54.82%
75th Percentile £40.00 £35.00 £35.38
90th Percentile £70.55 £82.60 £40.00
North West median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -8.92% -8.45% +46.15%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in Cheshire over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in Cheshire

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

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

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 13 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Knutsford -12 32 £359 -31.29%
Warrington - 14 £545 - 6
Wilmslow - 2 £663 -
Chester - 1 £675 - 7
Test Automation
North West

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 (11.76%) Confluence
2 5 (9.80%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.96%) Apache
3 1 (1.96%) IIS
3 1 (1.96%) JBoss
3 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.96%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 16 (31.37%) AWS
2 11 (21.57%) Azure
3 7 (13.73%) GitHub
4 5 (9.80%) GitHub Copilot
4 5 (9.80%) npm
5 4 (7.84%) Datadog
5 4 (7.84%) Power Automate
5 4 (7.84%) Power Platform
5 4 (7.84%) PowerApps
6 3 (5.88%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (3.92%) BrowserStack
7 2 (3.92%) GCP
7 2 (3.92%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (1.96%) OneDrive
8 1 (1.96%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.92%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (9.80%) MySQL
1 5 (9.80%) PostgreSQL
1 5 (9.80%) Relational Database
2 3 (5.88%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (39.22%) Git
2 15 (29.41%) JIRA
3 11 (21.57%) GitLab
4 9 (17.65%) Selenium
5 6 (11.76%) Jenkins
5 6 (11.76%) SonarQube
6 5 (9.80%) Cypress.io
7 4 (7.84%) Cucumber
8 3 (5.88%) Bitbucket
8 3 (5.88%) CircleCI
8 3 (5.88%) Grunt
8 3 (5.88%) gulp
8 3 (5.88%) JUnit
8 3 (5.88%) Maven
8 3 (5.88%) Mockito
8 3 (5.88%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (3.92%) Artifactory
9 2 (3.92%) ESLint
9 2 (3.92%) Postman
9 2 (3.92%) SpecFlow
General
1 16 (31.37%) Social Skills
2 13 (25.49%) Finance
3 9 (17.65%) Banking
3 9 (17.65%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (11.76%) Public Sector
5 3 (5.88%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (3.92%) Publishing
7 1 (1.96%) Electronics
7 1 (1.96%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.96%) Marketing
7 1 (1.96%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 23 (45.10%) Developer
2 14 (27.45%) Java Developer
3 6 (11.76%) Lead
4 3 (5.88%) Automation Tester
4 3 (5.88%) React Developer
4 3 (5.88%) Senior
4 3 (5.88%) Tester
5 2 (3.92%) Automation Test Lead
5 2 (3.92%) DevOps Engineer
5 2 (3.92%) Senior Automation Tester
5 2 (3.92%) Senior Tester
5 2 (3.92%) Software Engineer
5 2 (3.92%) Test Leader
5 2 (3.92%) UI Developer
6 1 (1.96%) Java Software Developer
6 1 (1.96%) Lead Developer
6 1 (1.96%) Principal Software Engineer
6 1 (1.96%) QA Engineer
6 1 (1.96%) Software Developer
6 1 (1.96%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (35.29%) Spring Boot
2 16 (31.37%) REST
3 15 (29.41%) Spring
4 10 (19.61%) React
5 9 (17.65%) Jest
5 9 (17.65%) JMS
6 8 (15.69%) Hibernate
6 8 (15.69%) Redux
7 6 (11.76%) CSS
7 6 (11.76%) HTML
7 6 (11.76%) JSON
7 6 (11.76%) Node.js
8 5 (9.80%) RESTful
9 4 (7.84%) jQuery
9 4 (7.84%) Nightwatchjs
9 4 (7.84%) Spring MVC
9 4 (7.84%) Spring Security
10 3 (5.88%) Enzyme
10 3 (5.88%) Playwright
10 3 (5.88%) React Native
Miscellaneous
1 10 (19.61%) Cloud Native
2 9 (17.65%) Driving Licence
2 9 (17.65%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 5 (9.80%) Mobile App
4 2 (3.92%) Blog
4 2 (3.92%) PKI
4 2 (3.92%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 3 (5.88%) Android
1 3 (5.88%) Apple iOS
2 1 (1.96%) Linux
2 1 (1.96%) Windows
2 1 (1.96%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (54.90%) Agile
1 28 (54.90%) CI/CD
2 18 (35.29%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (33.33%) DevOps
3 17 (33.33%) TDD
4 15 (29.41%) Containerisation
5 13 (25.49%) Unit Testing
6 11 (21.57%) Microservices
7 10 (19.61%) Service Delivery
8 9 (17.65%) Anti-Money Laundering
8 9 (17.65%) Customer Service
8 9 (17.65%) User Acceptance Testing
9 8 (15.69%) SDLC
10 7 (13.73%) Code Quality
10 7 (13.73%) Integration Testing
10 7 (13.73%) Requirements Gathering
11 5 (9.80%) API Design
11 5 (9.80%) Continuous Delivery
11 5 (9.80%) MVC
11 5 (9.80%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 24 (47.06%) Java
2 14 (27.45%) SQL
3 12 (23.53%) JavaScript
4 4 (7.84%) Python
5 3 (5.88%) TypeScript
6 2 (3.92%) Bash
6 2 (3.92%) C#
6 2 (3.92%) PowerShell
7 1 (1.96%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 5 (9.80%) Degree
1 5 (9.80%) Security Cleared
2 4 (7.84%) BPSS Clearance
2 4 (7.84%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (3.92%) ISTQB
4 1 (1.96%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (25.49%) QA
2 10 (19.61%) SEPA
3 9 (17.65%) ISO 20022
3 9 (17.65%) PSD2
4 5 (9.80%) Accessibility
5 2 (3.92%) WCAG
System Software
1 18 (35.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 17 (33.33%) Kubernetes
2 3 (5.88%) Terraform
3 2 (3.92%) Ansible
3 2 (3.92%) Grafana
3 2 (3.92%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.96%) CA Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.96%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 13 (25.49%) Oracle
2 9 (17.65%) ServiceNow
3 3 (5.88%) Microsoft
3 3 (5.88%) Perforce
3 3 (5.88%) Veracode
4 2 (3.92%) Atlassian
4 2 (3.92%) Xamarin
5 1 (1.96%) Broadcom
5 1 (1.96%) SAP
5 1 (1.96%) UiPath