Test Automation Contract Job Trends in England

Automated Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 50 52
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,969 1,238 1,293
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.30% 4.48% 3.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.05% 4.94% 4.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,254 859 869
10th Percentile £329 £313 £360
25th Percentile £406 £380 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.70% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £630
90th Percentile £663 £725 £740
UK median daily rate £475 £490 £513
% change year-on-year -3.06% -4.39% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 31 24
10th Percentile £38.90 £40.84 £44.00
25th Percentile £60.17 £44.76 £50.94
Median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -13.46%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £71.88
90th Percentile £74.00 £75.00 £81.85
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -14.12%

All Process & Methodology Skills
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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,026 25,062 28,650
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.26% 90.78% 85.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,293 16,024 18,683
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,529 1,392 1,676
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £14.09
25th Percentile £19.85 £17.87 £18.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.27 £70.16 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -37.90% -4.71%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in England

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in England

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

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

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in England over the 6 months to 8 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in England

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in England

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

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

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in England over the 6 months to 8 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in England

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in 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 England region over the 6 months to 8 August 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
London +4 890 £500 -2.44% 600
North of England +12 388 £465 +3.33% 170
Midlands +11 270 £450 +2.86% 97
West Midlands +30 253 £450 -10.00% 63
South East -29 211 £459 -8.20% 205
Yorkshire -1 156 £493 +3.68% 46
North West -5 141 £490 +16.11% 91
South West -5 112 £469 +10.29% 110
North East +15 99 £425 +1.19% 33
East of England +18 82 £450 -1.91% 69
East Midlands -41 17 £425 +25.00% 34
Test Automation
UK

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in 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
1 172 (8.74%) Confluence
2 49 (2.49%) Apache Airflow
3 44 (2.23%) Apache Spark
4 43 (2.18%) SAS
5 28 (1.42%) SharePoint
6 22 (1.12%) Apache
7 13 (0.66%) CMS
8 11 (0.56%) WebLogic
9 6 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.25%) Camunda
10 5 (0.25%) nginx
10 5 (0.25%) Tomcat
11 4 (0.20%) Jupyter
11 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
12 3 (0.15%) Kentico
12 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
13 2 (0.10%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.10%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.10%) Appian
13 2 (0.10%) Mule
Applications
1 19 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.36%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
4 6 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.20%) Simulink
7 3 (0.15%) Trello
8 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.051%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 25 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (0.81%) Aladdin
3 12 (0.61%) Payment Gateway
4 11 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
5 8 (0.41%) Findur
6 7 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
7 6 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.30%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) BambooHR
9 3 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
10 2 (0.10%) Infor CloudSuite
10 2 (0.10%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.10%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.10%) Loan IQ
10 2 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
10 2 (0.10%) SAP MDG
11 1 (0.051%) Maximo
11 1 (0.051%) Summit
11 1 (0.051%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 588 (29.86%) Azure
2 583 (29.61%) AWS
3 357 (18.13%) GitHub
4 265 (13.46%) Azure DevOps
5 222 (11.27%) GitHub Actions
6 152 (7.72%) Serverless
7 150 (7.62%) GCP
8 106 (5.38%) AWS Lambda
9 88 (4.47%) Power Platform
10 87 (4.42%) Amazon S3
11 68 (3.45%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 67 (3.40%) Amazon ECS
13 60 (3.05%) OpenShift
14 52 (2.64%) dbt
15 49 (2.49%) Amazon EKS
16 46 (2.34%) GitHub Copilot
16 46 (2.34%) Snowflake
17 45 (2.29%) Amazon EC2
18 43 (2.18%) Azure Data Factory
19 40 (2.03%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.12%) Firewall
2 18 (0.91%) HTTP
3 16 (0.81%) 4G
3 16 (0.81%) Network Security
4 15 (0.76%) 5G
5 14 (0.71%) 2G
5 14 (0.71%) 3G
5 14 (0.71%) Diameter Protocol
5 14 (0.71%) SIGTRAN
5 14 (0.71%) SS7
6 13 (0.66%) WAN
7 12 (0.61%) DNS
7 12 (0.61%) SAN
7 12 (0.61%) TCP/IP
8 10 (0.51%) LAN
9 9 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
10 7 (0.36%) BGP
11 6 (0.30%) Ethernet VPN
11 6 (0.30%) HTTPS
11 6 (0.30%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (6.15%) PostgreSQL
2 120 (6.09%) Data Warehouse
3 102 (5.18%) NoSQL
4 95 (4.82%) MongoDB
5 81 (4.11%) SQL Server
6 74 (3.76%) Power BI
7 57 (2.89%) Relational Database
8 48 (2.44%) DynamoDB
9 41 (2.08%) Oracle Reports
10 38 (1.93%) Pentaho
11 36 (1.83%) Data Lake
12 31 (1.57%) Metadata
13 30 (1.52%) Amazon Athena
14 28 (1.42%) Big Data
15 26 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
15 26 (1.32%) MySQL
16 25 (1.27%) Redis
17 24 (1.22%) Amazon Redshift
18 18 (0.91%) Oracle Database
18 18 (0.91%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 395 (20.06%) Git
2 362 (18.38%) JIRA
3 324 (16.46%) Jenkins
4 266 (13.51%) GitLab
5 242 (12.29%) Selenium
6 137 (6.96%) Cucumber
7 133 (6.75%) Postman
8 101 (5.13%) JUnit
9 98 (4.98%) Cypress.io
10 86 (4.37%) REST Assured
11 76 (3.86%) JMeter
12 68 (3.45%) Zephyr
13 60 (3.05%) SonarQube
14 55 (2.79%) WebDriver
15 49 (2.49%) Gatling
16 43 (2.18%) Gradle
17 41 (2.08%) Bitbucket
18 36 (1.83%) Mockito
19 34 (1.73%) Maven
20 25 (1.27%) SpecFlow
General
1 541 (27.48%) Social Skills
2 374 (18.99%) Finance
3 268 (13.61%) Analytical Skills
4 253 (12.85%) Public Sector
5 166 (8.43%) Banking
6 62 (3.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 39 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
8 36 (1.83%) Telecoms
9 32 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (1.63%) Retail
10 29 (1.47%) Investment Banking
11 27 (1.37%) Front Office
12 23 (1.17%) Financial Institution
13 21 (1.07%) Military
14 19 (0.96%) Aerospace
15 16 (0.81%) Back Office
15 16 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
16 14 (0.71%) Automotive
16 14 (0.71%) Legal
17 13 (0.66%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 398 (20.21%) Developer
2 321 (16.30%) Senior
3 210 (10.67%) Lead
4 190 (9.65%) Test Engineer
5 172 (8.74%) Tester
6 141 (7.16%) Data Engineer
7 126 (6.40%) Java Developer
8 114 (5.79%) Software Engineer
9 100 (5.08%) Analyst
10 92 (4.67%) DevOps Engineer
11 90 (4.57%) Architect
11 90 (4.57%) Senior Developer
12 86 (4.37%) QA Engineer
13 82 (4.16%) Test Automation Engineer
14 71 (3.61%) Test Leader
15 67 (3.40%) Full-Stack Developer
16 62 (3.15%) Automation Tester
16 62 (3.15%) Test Analyst
17 60 (3.05%) Automation Engineer
18 54 (2.74%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 260 (13.20%) REST
2 219 (11.12%) Playwright
3 181 (9.19%) RESTful
4 179 (9.09%) React
5 175 (8.89%) Kafka
6 161 (8.18%) Spring
7 141 (7.16%) .NET
8 123 (6.25%) Spring Boot
9 105 (5.33%) Node.js
10 89 (4.52%) AngularJS
11 87 (4.42%) HTML
12 82 (4.16%) CSS
13 58 (2.95%) OAuth
14 49 (2.49%) JSON
15 47 (2.39%) Jest
15 47 (2.39%) pytest
16 46 (2.34%) .NET Framework
17 44 (2.23%) Quarkus
18 43 (2.18%) HTML5
19 42 (2.13%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 288 (14.63%) Cloud Native
2 144 (7.31%) Product Ownership
3 141 (7.16%) Distributed Systems
4 66 (3.35%) Enterprise Software
5 52 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
5 52 (2.64%) Onboarding
6 50 (2.54%) Data Protection Act
7 49 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
8 39 (1.98%) Mobile App
9 34 (1.73%) AI Agents
10 32 (1.63%) Virtual Team
11 29 (1.47%) Distributed Architecture
12 28 (1.42%) Embedded Systems
13 25 (1.27%) Security Posture
14 21 (1.07%) Management Information System
15 19 (0.96%) Fixed Income
16 17 (0.86%) Data Structures
16 17 (0.86%) NHS
17 16 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
18 15 (0.76%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 133 (6.75%) Linux
2 82 (4.16%) Windows
3 71 (3.61%) Unix
4 39 (1.98%) Apple iOS
5 36 (1.83%) Android
6 26 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (0.91%) Windows Server
8 13 (0.66%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.36%) Solaris
10 6 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.30%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.20%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.15%) AIX
13 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.10%) CentOS
15 1 (0.051%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,156 (58.71%) CI/CD
2 934 (47.44%) Agile
3 753 (38.24%) DevOps
4 387 (19.65%) Problem-Solving
5 382 (19.40%) Continuous Improvement
6 381 (19.35%) Microservices
7 344 (17.47%) Software Engineering
8 329 (16.71%) Scrum
9 320 (16.25%) Infrastructure as Code
10 306 (15.54%) Validation
11 295 (14.98%) Test Strategy
12 287 (14.58%) AI
13 268 (13.61%) Containerisation
14 258 (13.10%) TDD
15 257 (13.05%) Observability
16 227 (11.53%) ETL
17 219 (11.12%) SDLC
18 212 (10.77%) Software Testing
19 211 (10.72%) Data Pipeline
20 205 (10.41%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 515 (26.16%) Python
2 493 (25.04%) Java
3 473 (24.02%) SQL
4 252 (12.80%) JavaScript
5 208 (10.56%) TypeScript
6 186 (9.45%) C#
7 84 (4.27%) PowerShell
8 70 (3.56%) Bash
9 49 (2.49%) Kotlin
10 45 (2.29%) Bicep
11 43 (2.18%) C++
12 32 (1.63%) C
13 27 (1.37%) PL/SQL
13 27 (1.37%) Scala
14 25 (1.27%) Go
15 23 (1.17%) Apex Code
16 21 (1.07%) Swift
17 18 (0.91%) Ruby
18 17 (0.86%) Groovy
19 16 (0.81%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 627 (31.84%) Security Cleared
2 521 (26.46%) SC Cleared
3 93 (4.72%) Degree
4 92 (4.67%) ISTQB
5 58 (2.95%) BPSS Clearance
5 58 (2.95%) DV Cleared
6 48 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (1.63%) AWS Certification
8 22 (1.12%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (0.91%) Azure Certification
10 15 (0.76%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 11 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
11 11 (0.56%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 11 (0.56%) SAFe Agilist
12 10 (0.51%) CISSP
13 9 (0.46%) Master's Degree
13 9 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.41%) CCNP
15 7 (0.36%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 7 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 501 (25.44%) QA
2 149 (7.57%) Accessibility
3 139 (7.06%) Data Quality
4 79 (4.01%) WCAG
5 40 (2.03%) GDPR
6 14 (0.71%) NCSC
7 12 (0.61%) ISO 20022
8 11 (0.56%) SLA
9 10 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 9 (0.46%) NIST
11 7 (0.36%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
13 5 (0.25%) FATCA
13 5 (0.25%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.20%) GRC
15 3 (0.15%) EU AI Act
15 3 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 3 (0.15%) MiFID
System Software
1 381 (19.35%) Docker
2 28 (1.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (1.22%) Active Directory
4 16 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (0.71%) Firmware
6 5 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.15%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.10%) SRDF
10 1 (0.051%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.051%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.051%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 386 (19.60%) Kubernetes
2 281 (14.27%) Terraform
3 110 (5.59%) Ansible
4 103 (5.23%) Grafana
5 89 (4.52%) Prometheus
6 41 (2.08%) Argo
7 22 (1.12%) Puppet
8 17 (0.86%) Progress Chef
9 12 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.56%) HP ALM
11 10 (0.51%) Dell DRAC
12 9 (0.46%) Kibana
13 7 (0.36%) Kustomize
14 6 (0.30%) NetBackup
14 6 (0.30%) Packer
15 5 (0.25%) Control-M
15 5 (0.25%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 5 (0.25%) HP Quality Center
15 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
15 5 (0.25%) NetIQ Identity Manager
Vendors
1 193 (9.80%) Microsoft
2 158 (8.02%) Oracle
3 76 (3.86%) Databricks
4 75 (3.81%) Salesforce
5 63 (3.20%) Red Hat
6 57 (2.89%) Google
6 57 (2.89%) Talend
7 51 (2.59%) Splunk
8 42 (2.13%) ServiceNow
9 41 (2.08%) Denodo
10 36 (1.83%) IBM
11 34 (1.73%) Informatica
11 34 (1.73%) VMware
12 32 (1.63%) Dynatrace
13 28 (1.42%) SAP
14 26 (1.32%) Cisco
15 25 (1.27%) UiPath
16 18 (0.91%) HP
17 11 (0.56%) Fortinet
17 11 (0.56%) OpenAI