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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 47 59
Rank change year-on-year -1 +12 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,683 1,123 1,303
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.48% 4.63% 3.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.20% 5.09% 3.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,118 779 881
10th Percentile £331 £335 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £644
90th Percentile £675 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 8 56
10th Percentile £32.37 £40.23 £46.50
25th Percentile £54.89 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £70.25 £84.38
90th Percentile - £76.01 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
% change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% +2.08%

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 32,394 22,046 32,724
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.25% 90.85% 86.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,755 14,514 21,646
10th Percentile £313 £313 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £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 1,983 845 2,157
10th Percentile £15.34 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.30 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.55 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -1.52% -12.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £76.20 £76.25 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £32.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.81% -1.54% -9.72%

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 26 March 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 26 March 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 26 March 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 +2 831 £500 - 183
North of England +5 331 £483 +7.85% 162
Midlands +15 191 £472 -0.32% 83
South East -28 171 £500 -10.71% 145
West Midlands +15 162 £477 -4.22% 57
North West +5 150 £450 - 82
Yorkshire -8 138 £509 +7.11% 41
South West -1 80 £500 -4.76% 72
East of England +3 61 £570 +19.06% 65
North East +8 46 £425 +11.67% 39
East Midlands -24 29 £400 +8.55% 26
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
1 116 (6.89%) Confluence
2 59 (3.51%) SAS
3 26 (1.54%) Apache Spark
4 16 (0.95%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.77%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.53%) Apache
7 8 (0.48%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.30%) Camunda
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.18%) nginx
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.65%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.18%) Simulink
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.059%) Mingle
8 1 (0.059%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 24 (1.43%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.36%) Findur
2 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.30%) Maximo
3 5 (0.30%) Shopify
3 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.18%) BambooHR
6 2 (0.12%) iTrent
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.12%) Summit
7 1 (0.059%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.059%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.059%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 463 (27.51%) Azure
2 415 (24.66%) AWS
3 281 (16.70%) GitHub
4 210 (12.48%) Azure DevOps
5 154 (9.15%) GitHub Actions
6 151 (8.97%) GCP
7 116 (6.89%) Serverless
8 73 (4.34%) OpenShift
9 58 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
10 54 (3.21%) Amazon S3
10 54 (3.21%) Power Platform
11 40 (2.38%) Azure AKS
12 35 (2.08%) Snowflake
13 33 (1.96%) Amazon ECS
13 33 (1.96%) AWS CloudFormation
14 32 (1.90%) Azure Data Factory
15 30 (1.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 29 (1.72%) SaaS
17 26 (1.54%) Azure Functions
17 26 (1.54%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.60%) Firewall
2 16 (0.95%) VPN
3 15 (0.89%) TCP/IP
4 13 (0.77%) HTTP
4 13 (0.77%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.77%) WAN
5 11 (0.65%) Network Security
5 11 (0.65%) Wireshark
6 10 (0.59%) SSL
7 9 (0.53%) Ethernet
8 8 (0.48%) DNS
8 8 (0.48%) HTTPS
8 8 (0.48%) MPLS
8 8 (0.48%) Multicast
8 8 (0.48%) SAN
9 7 (0.42%) FTP
10 5 (0.30%) 5G
10 5 (0.30%) AMQP
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (5.64%) PostgreSQL
2 69 (4.10%) NoSQL
2 69 (4.10%) SQL Server
3 58 (3.45%) MongoDB
4 51 (3.03%) Relational Database
5 46 (2.73%) Data Warehouse
6 31 (1.84%) DynamoDB
7 29 (1.72%) Pentaho
7 29 (1.72%) Power BI
8 25 (1.49%) BigQuery
9 24 (1.43%) Oracle Database
10 23 (1.37%) MySQL
10 23 (1.37%) Tableau
11 20 (1.19%) Redis
12 18 (1.07%) Amazon RDS
13 16 (0.95%) Oracle Reports
14 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
14 13 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
14 13 (0.77%) Metadata
15 12 (0.71%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 320 (19.01%) JIRA
2 316 (18.78%) Git
3 312 (18.54%) Jenkins
4 245 (14.56%) GitLab
5 243 (14.44%) Selenium
6 140 (8.32%) Cucumber
7 131 (7.78%) Postman
8 106 (6.30%) JUnit
9 94 (5.59%) Cypress.io
10 83 (4.93%) REST Assured
11 76 (4.52%) JMeter
12 41 (2.44%) SonarQube
13 40 (2.38%) WebDriver
14 36 (2.14%) SpecFlow
15 34 (2.02%) Maven
16 31 (1.84%) Zephyr
17 30 (1.78%) Gatling
17 30 (1.78%) Gradle
17 30 (1.78%) TestRail
18 28 (1.66%) Bitbucket
General
1 475 (28.22%) Social Skills
2 304 (18.06%) Finance
3 241 (14.32%) Public Sector
4 184 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
5 146 (8.67%) Banking
6 33 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (1.78%) Investment Banking
8 28 (1.66%) Front Office
8 28 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (1.31%) Telecoms
10 21 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
11 19 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
12 17 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (0.89%) Aerospace
13 15 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
14 14 (0.83%) Financial Institution
14 14 (0.83%) Legal
14 14 (0.83%) Military
15 10 (0.59%) Electronics
16 9 (0.53%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 352 (20.92%) Developer
2 278 (16.52%) Senior
3 193 (11.47%) Lead
4 185 (10.99%) Test Engineer
5 181 (10.75%) Tester
6 89 (5.29%) Java Developer
7 87 (5.17%) Analyst
8 86 (5.11%) Automation Tester
9 84 (4.99%) Data Engineer
10 82 (4.87%) Test Automation Engineer
11 75 (4.46%) Software Engineer
12 73 (4.34%) Test Leader
13 71 (4.22%) QA Engineer
14 68 (4.04%) Senior Developer
15 63 (3.74%) DevOps Engineer
16 61 (3.62%) Architect
17 54 (3.21%) Test Analyst
18 53 (3.15%) Automation Engineer
18 53 (3.15%) Test Manager
19 43 (2.55%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 213 (12.66%) REST
2 193 (11.47%) Playwright
3 141 (8.38%) React
4 133 (7.90%) Spring
5 129 (7.66%) RESTful
6 117 (6.95%) Kafka
6 117 (6.95%) Node.js
7 116 (6.89%) .NET
8 104 (6.18%) Spring Boot
9 76 (4.52%) pytest
10 68 (4.04%) AngularJS
11 53 (3.15%) HTML
12 51 (3.03%) OAuth
13 50 (2.97%) Jest
14 49 (2.91%) CSS
15 38 (2.26%) Web Services
16 36 (2.14%) GraphQL
17 35 (2.08%) WireMock
18 33 (1.96%) Gherkin
18 33 (1.96%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 175 (10.40%) Cloud Native
2 113 (6.71%) Product Ownership
3 89 (5.29%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.67%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.44%) Algorithms
6 39 (2.32%) Data Protection Act
7 38 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
8 30 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
9 27 (1.60%) Virtual Team
10 26 (1.54%) Onboarding
10 26 (1.54%) Security Posture
11 25 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
12 24 (1.43%) Equities
13 23 (1.37%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.25%) Greenfield Project
14 21 (1.25%) Management Information System
15 20 (1.19%) Distributed Architecture
16 19 (1.13%) Public Cloud
17 17 (1.01%) Fixed Income
17 17 (1.01%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 127 (7.55%) Linux
2 81 (4.81%) Windows
3 46 (2.73%) Android
4 36 (2.14%) Apple iOS
5 29 (1.72%) Unix
6 18 (1.07%) Windows Server
7 14 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.65%) Mac OS X
9 8 (0.48%) Kali Linux
10 6 (0.36%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.24%) CentOS
12 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
12 3 (0.18%) Solaris
13 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.059%) FreeRTOS
14 1 (0.059%) Robot Operating System
14 1 (0.059%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 871 (51.75%) CI/CD
2 796 (47.30%) Agile
3 625 (37.14%) DevOps
4 409 (24.30%) Problem-Solving
5 272 (16.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 268 (15.92%) Microservices
7 259 (15.39%) Test Strategy
8 242 (14.38%) Scrum
9 233 (13.84%) Containerisation
10 214 (12.72%) AI
11 210 (12.48%) Software Engineering
12 207 (12.30%) Validation
13 206 (12.24%) Infrastructure as Code
14 204 (12.12%) Test Scripting
15 195 (11.59%) TDD
16 187 (11.11%) Observability
17 186 (11.05%) Analytics
18 182 (10.81%) Software Testing
19 176 (10.46%) Regression Testing
20 172 (10.22%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 512 (30.42%) Python
2 410 (24.36%) Java
3 363 (21.57%) SQL
4 242 (14.38%) JavaScript
5 234 (13.90%) TypeScript
6 169 (10.04%) C#
7 72 (4.28%) PowerShell
8 61 (3.62%) Bash
9 48 (2.85%) C++
10 31 (1.84%) C
11 29 (1.72%) Kotlin
12 26 (1.54%) Go
13 24 (1.43%) Bicep
14 23 (1.37%) Apex Code
15 21 (1.25%) PL/SQL
16 19 (1.13%) Ruby
17 18 (1.07%) Scala
18 17 (1.01%) Swift
19 15 (0.89%) Groovy
20 12 (0.71%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 500 (29.71%) Security Cleared
2 381 (22.64%) SC Cleared
3 87 (5.17%) Degree
4 78 (4.63%) ISTQB
5 60 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 56 (3.33%) DV Cleared
7 51 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
8 23 (1.37%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.31%) Master's Degree
10 14 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
11 12 (0.71%) Azure Certification
12 11 (0.65%) OSCP
13 10 (0.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 9 (0.53%) AWS Certification
14 9 (0.53%) CCNP
14 9 (0.53%) CEH
14 9 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
15 8 (0.48%) CISSP
15 8 (0.48%) ISEB
16 7 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 384 (22.82%) QA
2 116 (6.89%) Accessibility
3 95 (5.64%) Data Quality
4 43 (2.55%) WCAG
5 30 (1.78%) GDPR
6 20 (1.19%) NIST
7 15 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.89%) NCSC
8 10 (0.59%) Def Stans
8 10 (0.59%) EU AI Act
8 10 (0.59%) ISO 20022
8 10 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 10 (0.59%) SLA
9 8 (0.48%) PSD2
10 6 (0.36%) SEPA
10 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
11 5 (0.30%) HL7
11 5 (0.30%) MiFID
11 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 5 (0.30%) PERC
System Software
1 326 (19.37%) Docker
2 26 (1.54%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.65%) Firmware
4 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.12%) SRDF
9 1 (0.059%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.059%) KVM
9 1 (0.059%) Squid
9 1 (0.059%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 325 (19.31%) Kubernetes
2 189 (11.23%) Terraform
3 105 (6.24%) Grafana
4 91 (5.41%) Ansible
5 81 (4.81%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.43%) Argo
7 20 (1.19%) Puppet
8 18 (1.07%) HP ALM
9 14 (0.83%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.65%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.65%) Nmap
10 11 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
12 9 (0.53%) Forefront Identity Manager
12 9 (0.53%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 7 (0.42%) Kibana
14 6 (0.36%) Rancher
15 5 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
15 5 (0.30%) Podman
16 4 (0.24%) Istio
Vendors
1 142 (8.44%) Microsoft
2 135 (8.02%) Oracle
3 63 (3.74%) Databricks
4 60 (3.57%) Salesforce
5 56 (3.33%) Splunk
6 52 (3.09%) Google
6 52 (3.09%) ServiceNow
7 43 (2.55%) Red Hat
8 40 (2.38%) SAP
9 34 (2.02%) Talend
10 25 (1.49%) Denodo
11 21 (1.25%) HP
12 20 (1.19%) Cisco
12 20 (1.19%) IBM
12 20 (1.19%) VMware
13 18 (1.07%) Dynatrace
14 16 (0.95%) MuleSoft
15 15 (0.89%) Workday
16 14 (0.83%) OpenAI
17 13 (0.77%) UiPath