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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 48 56
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,709 1,105 1,253
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.17% 4.55% 3.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.92% 4.99% 3.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,114 769 826
10th Percentile £331 £326 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £626 £638
90th Percentile £663 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 21 49
10th Percentile £36.79 £40.84 -
25th Percentile £56.00 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £66.75 £55.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +21.36% -12.00% -18.83%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £82.50
90th Percentile - £75.50 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.75 £52.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +27.14% -16.00% -11.97%

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 34,754 22,136 31,448
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.71% 91.24% 86.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,164 14,481 20,585
10th Percentile £320 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,141 934 2,241
10th Percentile £15.34 £14.41 £12.87
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.41 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.07% -20.55% -2.14%
75th Percentile £67.84 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.06 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.41 £36.02
% change year-on-year +49.60% -21.13% +0.06%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 16 May 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 -1 828 £492 -1.60% 219
North of England +10 345 £464 +3.75% 129
Midlands +4 196 £450 - 62
West Midlands +22 171 £463 -7.73% 42
South East -45 163 £505 +0.80% 128
North West +14 154 £466 +4.14% 68
Yorkshire -4 142 £487 +2.53% 27
South West +5 96 £469 -8.54% 67
East of England +9 63 £522 +9.95% 57
North East +7 55 £425 +7.59% 34
East Midlands -35 25 £400 +22.70% 20
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
1 136 (7.96%) Confluence
2 40 (2.34%) SAS
3 32 (1.87%) Apache Spark
4 30 (1.76%) Apache Airflow
5 12 (0.70%) Apache
6 11 (0.64%) SharePoint
7 8 (0.47%) Appian
8 7 (0.41%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 6 (0.35%) Camunda
9 6 (0.35%) CMS
10 4 (0.23%) nginx
10 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.12%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.059%) Ethereum
13 1 (0.059%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.059%) Mendix
13 1 (0.059%) Solana
Applications
1 26 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.64%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.18%) Simulink
7 1 (0.059%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.059%) Mingle
7 1 (0.059%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 21 (1.23%) Aladdin
2 12 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.53%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.41%) Findur
4 7 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.41%) Shopify
5 6 (0.35%) Loan IQ
6 5 (0.29%) BambooHR
6 5 (0.29%) Maximo
6 5 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.29%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.12%) iTrent
8 2 (0.12%) SAP MDG
8 2 (0.12%) Summit
8 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.059%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 459 (26.86%) AWS
2 455 (26.62%) Azure
3 277 (16.21%) GitHub
4 202 (11.82%) Azure DevOps
5 159 (9.30%) GitHub Actions
6 116 (6.79%) GCP
7 112 (6.55%) Serverless
8 73 (4.27%) AWS Lambda
9 69 (4.04%) Amazon S3
10 54 (3.16%) Power Platform
11 53 (3.10%) OpenShift
12 50 (2.93%) Amazon ECS
13 42 (2.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 37 (2.17%) Amazon EKS
14 37 (2.17%) AWS CloudFormation
15 36 (2.11%) Azure Data Factory
16 34 (1.99%) Azure AKS
16 34 (1.99%) Snowflake
17 29 (1.70%) Amazon EC2
18 26 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.17%) Firewall
2 13 (0.76%) HTTP
2 13 (0.76%) SAN
3 11 (0.64%) TCP/IP
4 9 (0.53%) Ethernet
4 9 (0.53%) VPN
5 8 (0.47%) FTP
5 8 (0.47%) WAN
6 7 (0.41%) MPLS
6 7 (0.41%) SD-WAN
6 7 (0.41%) SSL
6 7 (0.41%) Wireshark
7 6 (0.35%) VLAN
7 6 (0.35%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.29%) Multicast
8 5 (0.29%) Network Security
9 4 (0.23%) Cisco IOS
9 4 (0.23%) Modbus
9 4 (0.23%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.23%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (5.56%) PostgreSQL
2 81 (4.74%) SQL Server
3 78 (4.56%) NoSQL
4 76 (4.45%) MongoDB
5 70 (4.10%) Data Warehouse
6 58 (3.39%) Relational Database
7 40 (2.34%) DynamoDB
8 38 (2.22%) Power BI
9 34 (1.99%) Pentaho
10 25 (1.46%) Oracle Reports
10 25 (1.46%) Tableau
11 23 (1.35%) Redis
12 22 (1.29%) Big Data
12 22 (1.29%) MySQL
13 21 (1.23%) Amazon RDS
14 20 (1.17%) Amazon Athena
14 20 (1.17%) Data Lake
15 19 (1.11%) Metadata
16 18 (1.05%) BigQuery
17 17 (0.99%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 330 (19.31%) JIRA
2 307 (17.96%) Git
3 292 (17.09%) Jenkins
4 237 (13.87%) GitLab
5 235 (13.75%) Selenium
6 140 (8.19%) Postman
7 128 (7.49%) Cucumber
8 91 (5.32%) JUnit
9 84 (4.92%) REST Assured
10 79 (4.62%) Cypress.io
11 73 (4.27%) JMeter
12 44 (2.57%) SonarQube
12 44 (2.57%) WebDriver
13 42 (2.46%) Zephyr
14 33 (1.93%) Gradle
15 31 (1.81%) Bitbucket
15 31 (1.81%) Gatling
16 30 (1.76%) Maven
16 30 (1.76%) SpecFlow
17 27 (1.58%) Mockito
General
1 455 (26.62%) Social Skills
2 307 (17.96%) Finance
3 235 (13.75%) Public Sector
4 212 (12.40%) Analytical Skills
5 150 (8.78%) Banking
6 39 (2.28%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (2.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 31 (1.81%) Investment Banking
9 27 (1.58%) Front Office
10 22 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 19 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
14 16 (0.94%) Retail
15 15 (0.88%) Legal
16 14 (0.82%) Aerospace
17 13 (0.76%) Financial Institution
18 12 (0.70%) Military
19 10 (0.59%) Back Office
20 8 (0.47%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 351 (20.54%) Developer
2 262 (15.33%) Senior
3 190 (11.12%) Test Engineer
4 185 (10.83%) Tester
5 173 (10.12%) Lead
6 103 (6.03%) Data Engineer
7 100 (5.85%) Java Developer
8 93 (5.44%) Analyst
9 91 (5.32%) Test Automation Engineer
10 89 (5.21%) Software Engineer
11 82 (4.80%) Automation Tester
12 72 (4.21%) Architect
13 69 (4.04%) QA Engineer
14 68 (3.98%) Senior Developer
15 66 (3.86%) DevOps Engineer
16 64 (3.74%) Test Leader
17 55 (3.22%) Full-Stack Developer
18 52 (3.04%) Test Analyst
19 49 (2.87%) Automation Engineer
20 47 (2.75%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 198 (11.59%) Playwright
2 191 (11.18%) REST
3 156 (9.13%) React
4 135 (7.90%) Spring
5 130 (7.61%) Kafka
6 129 (7.55%) RESTful
7 120 (7.02%) .NET
8 112 (6.55%) Spring Boot
9 109 (6.38%) Node.js
10 73 (4.27%) AngularJS
11 62 (3.63%) HTML
12 55 (3.22%) CSS
13 53 (3.10%) pytest
14 47 (2.75%) OAuth
15 46 (2.69%) Jest
16 34 (1.99%) OpenID
17 33 (1.93%) Swagger
18 32 (1.87%) OAuth2
19 31 (1.81%) Gherkin
19 31 (1.81%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 184 (10.77%) Cloud Native
2 120 (7.02%) Product Ownership
3 93 (5.44%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.75%) Data Protection Act
5 45 (2.63%) Mobile App
6 42 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
7 33 (1.93%) Virtual Team
8 31 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.52%) Onboarding
11 25 (1.46%) Algorithms
12 23 (1.35%) Management Information System
13 21 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
13 21 (1.23%) NHS
14 19 (1.11%) Fixed Income
14 19 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (1.05%) Data Centre
16 17 (0.99%) Data Structures
17 16 (0.94%) Equities
17 16 (0.94%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 113 (6.61%) Linux
2 75 (4.39%) Windows
3 46 (2.69%) Unix
4 40 (2.34%) Android
5 34 (1.99%) Apple iOS
6 18 (1.05%) Windows Server
7 16 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 13 (0.76%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.41%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.29%) Solaris
11 4 (0.23%) Embedded Linux
11 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.18%) AIX
12 3 (0.18%) CentOS
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.12%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.059%) FreeRTOS
14 1 (0.059%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 901 (52.72%) CI/CD
2 790 (46.23%) Agile
3 605 (35.40%) DevOps
4 359 (21.01%) Problem-Solving
5 286 (16.73%) Microservices
6 284 (16.62%) Continuous Improvement
7 253 (14.80%) Scrum
8 250 (14.63%) Test Strategy
9 231 (13.52%) Software Engineering
10 223 (13.05%) Infrastructure as Code
10 223 (13.05%) Validation
11 218 (12.76%) Containerisation
12 207 (12.11%) Observability
13 203 (11.88%) TDD
14 193 (11.29%) AI
15 186 (10.88%) Test Scripting
16 174 (10.18%) Software Testing
17 172 (10.06%) ETL
18 171 (10.01%) User Acceptance Testing
19 165 (9.65%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 441 (25.80%) Python
2 435 (25.45%) Java
3 401 (23.46%) SQL
4 234 (13.69%) JavaScript
5 217 (12.70%) TypeScript
6 174 (10.18%) C#
7 68 (3.98%) PowerShell
8 53 (3.10%) Bash
9 44 (2.57%) C++
10 40 (2.34%) Kotlin
11 32 (1.87%) C
12 29 (1.70%) Apex Code
12 29 (1.70%) PL/SQL
13 26 (1.52%) Scala
14 23 (1.35%) Bicep
14 23 (1.35%) Go
15 19 (1.11%) Ruby
16 17 (0.99%) Swift
17 13 (0.76%) Groovy
18 11 (0.64%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 532 (31.13%) Security Cleared
2 410 (23.99%) SC Cleared
3 80 (4.68%) ISTQB
4 76 (4.45%) Degree
5 66 (3.86%) DV Cleared
6 59 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
7 41 (2.40%) Computer Science Degree
8 19 (1.11%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 13 (0.76%) Master's Degree
10 12 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 11 (0.64%) SAFe Agilist
12 10 (0.59%) CCNP
12 10 (0.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 8 (0.47%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 8 (0.47%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.47%) DBS Check
14 7 (0.41%) AWS Certification
14 7 (0.41%) CISSP
15 6 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
16 5 (0.29%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 366 (21.42%) QA
2 121 (7.08%) Accessibility
3 101 (5.91%) Data Quality
4 53 (3.10%) WCAG
5 29 (1.70%) GDPR
6 14 (0.82%) ISO 20022
7 10 (0.59%) Def Stans
7 10 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (0.59%) NCSC
8 8 (0.47%) NIST
8 8 (0.47%) SLA
9 7 (0.41%) SEPA
10 6 (0.35%) PSD2
10 6 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (0.29%) FATCA
12 4 (0.23%) HL7
12 4 (0.23%) MiFID
12 4 (0.23%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.23%) Software Quality Assurance
13 3 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 298 (17.44%) Docker
2 19 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (1.05%) Active Directory
4 13 (0.76%) Firmware
5 11 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 6 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
10 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
11 2 (0.12%) SRDF
12 1 (0.059%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.059%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.059%) KVM
12 1 (0.059%) Squid
12 1 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.059%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 294 (17.20%) Kubernetes
2 201 (11.76%) Terraform
3 100 (5.85%) Grafana
4 85 (4.97%) Prometheus
5 77 (4.51%) Ansible
6 26 (1.52%) Argo
7 16 (0.94%) HP ALM
8 15 (0.88%) Puppet
9 11 (0.64%) Kibana
9 11 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.59%) Forefront Identity Manager
10 10 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
10 10 (0.59%) NetIQ Identity Manager
11 8 (0.47%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.41%) Progress Chef
13 6 (0.35%) NetBackup
14 5 (0.29%) Rancher
15 4 (0.23%) Istio
15 4 (0.23%) Nmap
15 4 (0.23%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 147 (8.60%) Oracle
2 140 (8.19%) Microsoft
3 66 (3.86%) Salesforce
4 60 (3.51%) Databricks
5 57 (3.34%) Splunk
6 54 (3.16%) ServiceNow
7 50 (2.93%) Talend
8 45 (2.63%) Red Hat
9 42 (2.46%) Google
10 33 (1.93%) Denodo
11 27 (1.58%) SAP
12 25 (1.46%) VMware
13 21 (1.23%) Cisco
13 21 (1.23%) Dynatrace
14 20 (1.17%) Informatica
15 19 (1.11%) HP
15 19 (1.11%) IBM
16 18 (1.05%) UiPath
17 15 (0.88%) MuleSoft
18 14 (0.82%) Blue Prism