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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 45 55
Rank change year-on-year -4 +10 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,546 1,160 1,400
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.63% 4.43% 3.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.29% 4.94% 4.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,053 766 998
10th Percentile £331 £337 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £580 £613 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £713
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 3 59
10th Percentile £29.06 £73.44 £51.00
25th Percentile £45.88 £74.85 £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.00 £77.19 £71.87
Median % change year-on-year -18.38% +7.40% +22.85%
75th Percentile £67.38 £82.35 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.44 -
UK median hourly rate £62.50 £74.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -15.54% +5.71% +22.81%

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 29,230 23,495 33,456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.56% 89.70% 87.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,709 14,439 22,381
10th Percentile £306 £310 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,843 743 1,976
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.88 £21.00 £16.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% - -
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.50 £61.78
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% +7.69%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -1 755 £500 -2.20% 209
North of England +1 321 £500 +17.65% 131
South East -17 161 £492 -1.60% 173
Midlands +11 144 £492 +3.96% 56
Yorkshire -14 144 £525 +16.67% 33
North West +7 130 £447 +11.12% 85
West Midlands +3 114 £515 +5.97% 34
South West +7 79 £523 -6.70% 73
East of England +7 53 £570 +42.50% 61
North East +16 51 £488 +31.33% 13
East Midlands -8 30 £400 -13.51% 22
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 91 (5.89%) Confluence
2 45 (2.91%) SAS
3 18 (1.16%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.91%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.52%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) Appian
8 6 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.39%) Oracle Application Server
9 5 (0.32%) CMS
9 5 (0.32%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.26%) Camunda
11 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.19%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.13%) nginx
12 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.13%) WordPress
13 1 (0.065%) CICS
Applications
1 23 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.065%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.065%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (1.23%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.32%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.26%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.26%) Maximo
3 4 (0.26%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.13%) Eagle PACE
5 2 (0.13%) iTrent
5 2 (0.13%) Markit EDM
5 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.13%) Shopify
5 2 (0.13%) Summit
6 1 (0.065%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.065%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.065%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.065%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.065%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 412 (26.65%) Azure
2 362 (23.42%) AWS
3 229 (14.81%) GitHub
4 171 (11.06%) Azure DevOps
5 151 (9.77%) GCP
6 120 (7.76%) GitHub Actions
7 105 (6.79%) Serverless
8 60 (3.88%) OpenShift
9 51 (3.30%) Power Platform
10 44 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
11 41 (2.65%) Azure AKS
12 39 (2.52%) Amazon S3
13 38 (2.46%) SaaS
14 33 (2.13%) Snowflake
15 30 (1.94%) Azure Functions
16 28 (1.81%) Amazon EKS
16 28 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
16 28 (1.81%) Tricentis Tosca
17 27 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
17 27 (1.75%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 36 (2.33%) Firewall
2 30 (1.94%) Wireshark
3 21 (1.36%) HTTPS
4 20 (1.29%) VPN
5 19 (1.23%) TCP/IP
6 17 (1.10%) SSL
7 15 (0.97%) HTTP
8 14 (0.91%) Network Security
9 13 (0.84%) SD-WAN
10 11 (0.71%) WAN
11 10 (0.65%) Ethernet
11 10 (0.65%) MPLS
12 9 (0.58%) DNS
12 9 (0.58%) Multicast
12 9 (0.58%) VLAN
13 7 (0.45%) AMQP
13 7 (0.45%) FTP
14 5 (0.32%) BGP
14 5 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
14 5 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (5.43%) PostgreSQL
2 69 (4.46%) NoSQL
3 67 (4.33%) MongoDB
4 60 (3.88%) SQL Server
5 52 (3.36%) Relational Database
6 28 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
7 27 (1.75%) Power BI
8 23 (1.49%) Oracle Database
9 22 (1.42%) BigQuery
9 22 (1.42%) Pentaho
10 21 (1.36%) MySQL
11 17 (1.10%) Redis
11 17 (1.10%) Tableau
12 16 (1.03%) DynamoDB
13 14 (0.91%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (0.84%) Big Data
14 13 (0.84%) Star Schema
15 12 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
15 12 (0.78%) Data Lake
15 12 (0.78%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 274 (17.72%) JIRA
2 273 (17.66%) Jenkins
3 258 (16.69%) Git
4 227 (14.68%) GitLab
4 227 (14.68%) Selenium
5 131 (8.47%) Postman
6 127 (8.21%) Cucumber
7 97 (6.27%) Cypress.io
8 86 (5.56%) REST Assured
9 84 (5.43%) JUnit
10 65 (4.20%) JMeter
11 36 (2.33%) SonarQube
12 34 (2.20%) Maven
13 32 (2.07%) TestRail
14 31 (2.01%) Gradle
15 30 (1.94%) Bitbucket
16 29 (1.88%) Gatling
17 28 (1.81%) Mockito
18 26 (1.68%) SpecFlow
18 26 (1.68%) WebDriver
General
1 401 (25.94%) Social Skills
2 255 (16.49%) Finance
3 209 (13.52%) Public Sector
4 180 (11.64%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (8.02%) Banking
6 26 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
6 26 (1.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 24 (1.55%) Investment Banking
8 22 (1.42%) Front Office
8 22 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
8 22 (1.42%) Telecoms
9 18 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
10 15 (0.97%) Military
11 13 (0.84%) Financial Institution
12 11 (0.71%) Aerospace
12 11 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
13 10 (0.65%) Manufacturing
14 9 (0.58%) Electronics
14 9 (0.58%) Legal
14 9 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 359 (23.22%) Developer
2 258 (16.69%) Senior
3 180 (11.64%) Tester
4 170 (11.00%) Test Engineer
5 163 (10.54%) Lead
6 100 (6.47%) Java Developer
7 85 (5.50%) Automation Tester
8 78 (5.05%) Software Engineer
9 77 (4.98%) Analyst
10 71 (4.59%) Test Automation Engineer
11 67 (4.33%) Senior Developer
12 59 (3.82%) QA Engineer
12 59 (3.82%) Test Leader
13 55 (3.56%) DevOps Engineer
14 54 (3.49%) Data Engineer
15 51 (3.30%) Test Analyst
16 50 (3.23%) Automation Engineer
17 47 (3.04%) Test Manager
18 42 (2.72%) Architect
19 41 (2.65%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 209 (13.52%) REST
2 174 (11.25%) Playwright
3 135 (8.73%) React
4 116 (7.50%) Node.js
4 116 (7.50%) Spring
5 115 (7.44%) .NET
6 114 (7.37%) RESTful
7 111 (7.18%) Kafka
8 107 (6.92%) Spring Boot
9 74 (4.79%) pytest
10 51 (3.30%) HTML
11 50 (3.23%) AngularJS
11 50 (3.23%) SOAP
12 49 (3.17%) JSON
13 48 (3.10%) OAuth
14 46 (2.98%) CSS
14 46 (2.98%) Jest
15 45 (2.91%) XML
16 43 (2.78%) Web Services
17 35 (2.26%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 166 (10.74%) Cloud Native
2 98 (6.34%) Product Ownership
3 58 (3.75%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.91%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.65%) Security Posture
6 38 (2.46%) Algorithms
7 31 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
8 28 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (1.42%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
9 22 (1.42%) Onboarding
10 21 (1.36%) Virtual Team
11 20 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (1.29%) Management Information System
12 19 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
13 18 (1.16%) Equities
14 17 (1.10%) Public Cloud
15 14 (0.91%) Life Science
15 14 (0.91%) Replication
15 14 (0.91%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 145 (9.38%) Linux
2 75 (4.85%) Windows
3 43 (2.78%) Unix
4 41 (2.65%) Android
5 35 (2.26%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.29%) Mac OS X
7 19 (1.23%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.71%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.26%) CentOS
10 4 (0.26%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.13%) VMS
11 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.065%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.065%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.065%) Windows Embedded Compact
12 1 (0.065%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 766 (49.55%) CI/CD
2 741 (47.93%) Agile
3 564 (36.48%) DevOps
4 402 (26.00%) Problem-Solving
5 245 (15.85%) Microservices
6 232 (15.01%) Test Strategy
7 223 (14.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 219 (14.17%) Containerisation
9 200 (12.94%) Test Scripting
10 198 (12.81%) Scrum
11 190 (12.29%) AI
12 189 (12.23%) Software Engineering
13 184 (11.90%) Infrastructure as Code
13 184 (11.90%) TDD
14 181 (11.71%) Validation
15 172 (11.13%) Software Testing
16 152 (9.83%) API Testing
17 144 (9.31%) Observability
18 143 (9.25%) BDD
19 142 (9.18%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 468 (30.27%) Python
2 391 (25.29%) Java
3 307 (19.86%) SQL
4 237 (15.33%) JavaScript
5 222 (14.36%) TypeScript
6 139 (8.99%) C#
7 72 (4.66%) Bash
8 58 (3.75%) PowerShell
9 38 (2.46%) Go
10 37 (2.39%) C++
11 23 (1.49%) Bicep
12 22 (1.42%) Kotlin
13 21 (1.36%) PL/SQL
14 16 (1.03%) Apex Code
14 16 (1.03%) Scala
15 14 (0.91%) C
16 13 (0.84%) Swift
17 11 (0.71%) Groovy
17 11 (0.71%) PHP
17 11 (0.71%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 432 (27.94%) Security Cleared
2 330 (21.35%) SC Cleared
3 92 (5.95%) Degree
4 67 (4.33%) ISTQB
5 56 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
5 56 (3.62%) DV Cleared
6 52 (3.36%) Computer Science Degree
7 30 (1.94%) Master's Degree
8 21 (1.36%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (1.16%) OSCP
10 15 (0.97%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 14 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.84%) CEH
12 13 (0.84%) GPEN
12 13 (0.84%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.78%) AWS Certification
14 11 (0.71%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.71%) CISSP
14 11 (0.71%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 329 (21.28%) QA
2 113 (7.31%) Accessibility
3 70 (4.53%) Data Quality
4 36 (2.33%) WCAG
5 32 (2.07%) NIST
6 31 (2.01%) GDPR
7 20 (1.29%) NCSC
8 18 (1.16%) EU AI Act
9 15 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 14 (0.91%) ISO 20022
11 12 (0.78%) PSD2
12 10 (0.65%) SEPA
12 10 (0.65%) SLA
13 9 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 6 (0.39%) NIST 800
14 6 (0.39%) PCI DSS
14 6 (0.39%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.32%) Def Stans
15 5 (0.32%) PERC
16 4 (0.26%) MiFID
System Software
1 316 (20.44%) Docker
2 29 (1.88%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.45%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.26%) Firmware
5 4 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.19%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.19%) QEMU
6 3 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
8 1 (0.065%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.065%) KVM
8 1 (0.065%) Squid
8 1 (0.065%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.065%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.065%) zsh
Systems Management
1 288 (18.63%) Kubernetes
2 175 (11.32%) Terraform
3 94 (6.08%) Ansible
4 83 (5.37%) Grafana
5 56 (3.62%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.23%) Nmap
7 18 (1.16%) HP ALM
8 14 (0.91%) Progress Chef
9 13 (0.84%) CSIRT
9 13 (0.84%) Puppet
10 12 (0.78%) Argo
11 11 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
12 10 (0.65%) NetBackup
13 9 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
14 8 (0.52%) Kibana
15 7 (0.45%) Nessus
16 5 (0.32%) Forefront Identity Manager
16 5 (0.32%) NetIQ Identity Manager
16 5 (0.32%) Podman
17 4 (0.26%) Iperf
Vendors
1 140 (9.06%) Microsoft
2 131 (8.47%) Oracle
3 63 (4.08%) Splunk
4 56 (3.62%) ServiceNow
5 54 (3.49%) Databricks
6 51 (3.30%) Salesforce
7 49 (3.17%) Google
8 44 (2.85%) SAP
9 23 (1.49%) Red Hat
9 23 (1.49%) Talend
10 22 (1.42%) Denodo
11 21 (1.36%) Cisco
12 19 (1.23%) VMware
13 18 (1.16%) HP
13 18 (1.16%) webMethods
14 17 (1.10%) F5
14 17 (1.10%) IBM
14 17 (1.10%) MuleSoft
15 16 (1.03%) OpenAI
16 15 (0.97%) Workday