Test Automation Contract Job Trends in the East of England

Automated Testing
England > East of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the East of England requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 56 76
Rank change year-on-year +16 +20 -43
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 92 40 21
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 3.83% 3.05% 1.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.89% 3.40% 1.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 15 10
10th Percentile £74 £203 £280
25th Percentile £313 £239 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £320 £388
Median % change year-on-year +17.19% -17.42% -18.42%
75th Percentile £507 £453 £400
90th Percentile £554 £500 £437
England median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 9 5
10th Percentile £40.00 £37.66 £44.50
25th Percentile £59.56 £65.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £74.00 £67.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.45% +16.52% -36.11%
75th Percentile £74.75 - £63.75
90th Percentile £78.90 £68.60 £78.00
England median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +17.39% -4.17% -21.31%

All Process & Methodology Skills
East of England

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 the East of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,880 1,175 1,233
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England 78.37% 89.69% 81.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 507 449
10th Percentile £190 £200 £204
25th Percentile £363 £388 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £442
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +14.25% -11.60%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £550
90th Percentile £700 £688 £638
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 488 320 347
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.38 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.12 £16.05 £15.62
Median hourly rate £48.84 £22.63 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +115.82% -43.43% +101.92%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £67.50
England median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the East of England

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the East of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in the East of England over the 6 months to 28 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the East of England

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the East of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in the East of England over the 6 months to 28 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the East of England

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in the East of England

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 East of England region over the 6 months to 28 September 2026. 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
Suffolk +2 30 £367 +22.33% 15
Bedfordshire +18 24 £74 -85.20% 13
Hertfordshire -15 24 £550 - 28
Cambridgeshire -3 8 £375 +47.06% 84
Essex -12 6 £480 +20.00% 19
Test Automation
England

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England 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 (3.26%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (2.17%) OpenStack
3 1 (1.09%) Apache
3 1 (1.09%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (2.17%) SAP ERP
1 2 (2.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (1.09%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 17 (18.48%) Azure
2 12 (13.04%) Azure DevOps
3 9 (9.78%) GitHub
4 8 (8.70%) GitHub Actions
5 4 (4.35%) Apple Pay
6 3 (3.26%) AWS
6 3 (3.26%) GitHub Copilot
6 3 (3.26%) Google Ads
7 2 (2.17%) Anthropic Claude
7 2 (2.17%) Azure AKS
7 2 (2.17%) Azure Data Factory
7 2 (2.17%) BlazeMeter
7 2 (2.17%) Google Gemini
8 1 (1.09%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 14 (15.22%) Wi-Fi
2 13 (14.13%) Broadband
3 9 (9.78%) IPv4
3 9 (9.78%) IPv6
4 8 (8.70%) 4G
4 8 (8.70%) 5G
5 6 (6.52%) TCP/IP
6 5 (5.43%) xDSL
7 4 (4.35%) PPP
7 4 (4.35%) UPnP
7 4 (4.35%) Wireless
8 3 (3.26%) RTP
8 3 (3.26%) tcpdump
8 3 (3.26%) VoIP
8 3 (3.26%) Wireshark
9 2 (2.17%) DNS
9 2 (2.17%) HTTP
9 2 (2.17%) INAP
9 2 (2.17%) SSH
10 1 (1.09%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.43%) MySQL
1 5 (5.43%) PostgreSQL
2 4 (4.35%) Redis
3 2 (2.17%) MongoDB
3 2 (2.17%) NoSQL
3 2 (2.17%) Relational Database
4 1 (1.09%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (1.09%) GIS
4 1 (1.09%) InfluxDB
4 1 (1.09%) Spatial Data
4 1 (1.09%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 27 (29.35%) GitLab
2 23 (25.00%) Git
3 17 (18.48%) JIRA
4 9 (9.78%) Gradle
5 8 (8.70%) Visual Studio
6 7 (7.61%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (4.35%) Jenkins
7 4 (4.35%) Newman
7 4 (4.35%) Postman
7 4 (4.35%) Robot Framework
8 3 (3.26%) Ranorex
9 2 (2.17%) Claude Code
9 2 (2.17%) JMeter
9 2 (2.17%) LabVIEW
9 2 (2.17%) Locust
9 2 (2.17%) MSTest
9 2 (2.17%) Selenium
9 2 (2.17%) TestCafe
10 1 (1.09%) eggPlant
10 1 (1.09%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 20 (21.74%) Telecoms
2 13 (14.13%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (7.61%) Manufacturing
3 7 (7.61%) Social Skills
4 5 (5.43%) Aerospace
4 5 (5.43%) Electronics
5 3 (3.26%) Finance
5 3 (3.26%) Retail
6 2 (2.17%) Banking
6 2 (2.17%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.09%) Law
7 1 (1.09%) Legal
7 1 (1.09%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 26 (28.26%) Test Engineer
2 21 (22.83%) Software Engineer
3 17 (18.48%) Principal Engineer
4 16 (17.39%) Principal Software Engineer
5 14 (15.22%) Developer
6 9 (9.78%) Java Developer
6 9 (9.78%) Test Automation Engineer
7 7 (7.61%) Broadband Engineer
7 7 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 6 (6.52%) Lead
8 6 (6.52%) Software Developer
8 6 (6.52%) Software Test Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Hardware Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Hardware Test Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Java Software Developer
9 5 (5.43%) Python Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) QA Engineer
10 4 (4.35%) Analyst
10 4 (4.35%) Lead Test Engineer
10 4 (4.35%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (9.78%) .NET
1 9 (9.78%) REST
1 9 (9.78%) Spring Boot
2 8 (8.70%) pytest
3 7 (7.61%) WinForms
3 7 (7.61%) WPF
4 6 (6.52%) Pandas
4 6 (6.52%) Spring
5 4 (4.35%) FastAPI
5 4 (4.35%) Kafka
5 4 (4.35%) Playwright
5 4 (4.35%) RabbitMQ
5 4 (4.35%) React
5 4 (4.35%) Terraform
5 4 (4.35%) XML
5 4 (4.35%) XML Schema
6 3 (3.26%) Great Expectations
7 2 (2.17%) Next.js
7 2 (2.17%) Taurus
7 2 (2.17%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 17 (18.48%) Embedded Systems
2 4 (4.35%) Cloud Native
2 4 (4.35%) IoT
2 4 (4.35%) Wiki
3 3 (3.26%) Greenfield Project
3 3 (3.26%) Onboarding
3 3 (3.26%) Replication
4 2 (2.17%) Analogue Electronics
4 2 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
4 2 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (2.17%) Life Science
4 2 (2.17%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.09%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.09%) Device Driver
5 1 (1.09%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.09%) Media Streaming
5 1 (1.09%) Smart Home
5 1 (1.09%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 25 (27.17%) Linux
2 11 (11.96%) Windows
3 7 (7.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (4.35%) VMS
5 2 (2.17%) CentOS
5 2 (2.17%) Ubuntu
6 1 (1.09%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (1.09%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (45.65%) CI/CD
2 40 (43.48%) Agile
3 36 (39.13%) Software Engineering
4 31 (33.70%) Software Testing
5 28 (30.43%) DevOps
6 25 (27.17%) Test Scripting
7 24 (26.09%) Scrum
7 24 (26.09%) Validation
8 20 (21.74%) Microservices
9 17 (18.48%) Containerisation
9 17 (18.48%) Problem-Solving
10 13 (14.13%) Continuous Integration
11 11 (11.96%) AI
11 11 (11.96%) Integration Testing
12 9 (9.78%) Continuous Delivery
12 9 (9.78%) Continuous Improvement
12 9 (9.78%) Test Strategy
13 8 (8.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 8 (8.70%) Root Cause Analysis
13 8 (8.70%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 29 (31.52%) Python
2 13 (14.13%) SQL
3 11 (11.96%) C#
3 11 (11.96%) C++
3 11 (11.96%) Java
4 5 (5.43%) Shell Script
5 4 (4.35%) C
6 3 (3.26%) Bash
6 3 (3.26%) PowerShell
6 3 (3.26%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 24 (26.09%) Security Cleared
2 18 (19.57%) SC Cleared
3 7 (7.61%) Degree
4 4 (4.35%) ISTQB
5 3 (3.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (3.26%) MOS
6 2 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (2.17%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (1.09%) DV Cleared
7 1 (1.09%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (25.00%) QA
2 5 (5.43%) Data Quality
3 4 (4.35%) PCI DSS
4 1 (1.09%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 14 (15.22%) Docker
2 4 (4.35%) Firmware
3 1 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (11.96%) Ansible
2 7 (7.61%) Kubernetes
3 2 (2.17%) Grafana
3 2 (2.17%) HP ALM
3 2 (2.17%) HP Quality Center
3 2 (2.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 5 (5.43%) IBM
2 4 (4.35%) Databricks
3 3 (3.26%) SAP
4 2 (2.17%) Dialogic
4 2 (2.17%) HP
4 2 (2.17%) Metaswitch
4 2 (2.17%) Microsoft
4 2 (2.17%) Siemens
5 1 (1.09%) EMC
5 1 (1.09%) ESRI
5 1 (1.09%) NVIDIA
5 1 (1.09%) Red Hat