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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 43 55
Rank change year-on-year -4 +12 -11
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,578 1,173 1,388
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.54% 4.54% 3.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.20% 5.04% 4.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,067 783 975
10th Percentile £337 £325 £376
25th Percentile £400 £400 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.50% -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £580 £618 £634
90th Percentile £688 £725 £719
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 4 58
10th Percentile £33.90 £52.91 £50.25
25th Percentile £50.94 £65.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £75.60 £69.25
Median % change year-on-year -14.02% +9.16% +18.38%
75th Percentile £67.81 £79.77 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £84.41 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £74.00 £69.25
% change year-on-year -12.16% +6.86% +21.49%

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 30,350 23,294 33,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.25% 90.10% 87.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,414 14,536 22,024
10th Percentile £313 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £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 1,891 752 2,034
10th Percentile £15.22 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.26% - -
75th Percentile £63.32 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.48 £72.68
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £32.81 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.46% -6.26% -

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -1 773 £500 -4.53% 174
North of England +1 316 £500 +17.65% 129
Midlands +5 161 £491 +6.16% 62
South East -21 158 £500 - 157
Yorkshire -18 135 £525 +16.67% 36
North West +5 134 £447 +10.51% 72
West Midlands -2 130 £500 +3.52% 45
South West -4 78 £525 -4.55% 65
East of England +10 61 £570 +30.29% 56
North East +9 50 £488 +28.09% 21
East Midlands -20 31 £400 +8.11% 16
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 96 (6.08%) Confluence
2 57 (3.61%) SAS
3 22 (1.39%) Apache Spark
4 12 (0.76%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.57%) Apache
5 9 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.51%) Appian
7 6 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 5 (0.32%) CMS
8 5 (0.32%) WebLogic
9 4 (0.25%) Camunda
9 4 (0.25%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.25%) Oracle Application Server
10 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.19%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.44%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.063%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (1.14%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.32%) Loan IQ
2 5 (0.32%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.25%) Maximo
3 4 (0.25%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.25%) Shopify
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 2 (0.13%) iTrent
5 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.13%) Summit
6 1 (0.063%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.063%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.063%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.063%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.063%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.063%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.063%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 431 (27.31%) Azure
2 373 (23.64%) AWS
3 255 (16.16%) GitHub
4 178 (11.28%) Azure DevOps
5 155 (9.82%) GCP
6 134 (8.49%) GitHub Actions
7 104 (6.59%) Serverless
8 67 (4.25%) OpenShift
9 54 (3.42%) Power Platform
10 43 (2.72%) Amazon S3
10 43 (2.72%) AWS Lambda
11 41 (2.60%) Azure AKS
12 37 (2.34%) SaaS
13 31 (1.96%) Azure Data Factory
14 30 (1.90%) Snowflake
15 29 (1.84%) AWS CloudFormation
15 29 (1.84%) Entra ID
16 28 (1.77%) Azure Functions
17 27 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
18 26 (1.65%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 33 (2.09%) Firewall
2 21 (1.33%) Wireshark
3 20 (1.27%) VPN
4 19 (1.20%) TCP/IP
5 15 (0.95%) HTTPS
6 14 (0.89%) HTTP
6 14 (0.89%) SSL
7 13 (0.82%) SD-WAN
8 12 (0.76%) Network Security
9 11 (0.70%) WAN
10 10 (0.63%) Ethernet
10 10 (0.63%) MPLS
11 9 (0.57%) DNS
11 9 (0.57%) Multicast
11 9 (0.57%) VLAN
12 7 (0.44%) AMQP
12 7 (0.44%) FTP
13 5 (0.32%) BGP
13 5 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
13 5 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (5.58%) PostgreSQL
2 64 (4.06%) MongoDB
2 64 (4.06%) NoSQL
3 62 (3.93%) SQL Server
4 53 (3.36%) Relational Database
5 33 (2.09%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (1.90%) Pentaho
7 28 (1.77%) Power BI
8 27 (1.71%) Oracle Database
9 21 (1.33%) BigQuery
9 21 (1.33%) MySQL
10 19 (1.20%) DynamoDB
11 17 (1.08%) Redis
11 17 (1.08%) Tableau
12 16 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
13 13 (0.82%) Big Data
13 13 (0.82%) Data Lake
13 13 (0.82%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 11 (0.70%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 291 (18.44%) JIRA
2 290 (18.38%) Jenkins
3 289 (18.31%) Git
4 240 (15.21%) GitLab
5 239 (15.15%) Selenium
6 135 (8.56%) Cucumber
6 135 (8.56%) Postman
7 102 (6.46%) Cypress.io
8 98 (6.21%) JUnit
9 87 (5.51%) REST Assured
10 74 (4.69%) JMeter
11 38 (2.41%) SonarQube
12 35 (2.22%) Maven
13 32 (2.03%) SpecFlow
13 32 (2.03%) WebDriver
14 31 (1.96%) Gatling
14 31 (1.96%) TestRail
15 30 (1.90%) Gradle
16 27 (1.71%) Mockito
17 26 (1.65%) Bitbucket
General
1 415 (26.30%) Social Skills
2 249 (15.78%) Finance
3 221 (14.01%) Public Sector
4 181 (11.47%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (7.79%) Banking
6 26 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
6 26 (1.65%) Investment Banking
7 24 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 21 (1.33%) Front Office
9 20 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
9 20 (1.27%) Telecoms
10 19 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
11 15 (0.95%) Military
11 15 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (0.82%) Aerospace
13 13 (0.82%) Financial Institution
14 10 (0.63%) Electronics
15 8 (0.51%) Legal
16 7 (0.44%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 351 (22.24%) Developer
2 269 (17.05%) Senior
3 180 (11.41%) Tester
4 179 (11.34%) Lead
5 174 (11.03%) Test Engineer
6 100 (6.34%) Java Developer
7 83 (5.26%) Software Engineer
8 81 (5.13%) Automation Tester
9 77 (4.88%) Analyst
10 73 (4.63%) Test Automation Engineer
11 72 (4.56%) Data Engineer
12 67 (4.25%) Senior Developer
13 62 (3.93%) Test Leader
14 60 (3.80%) QA Engineer
15 54 (3.42%) DevOps Engineer
16 51 (3.23%) Test Manager
17 48 (3.04%) Architect
17 48 (3.04%) Test Analyst
18 46 (2.92%) Automation Engineer
19 40 (2.53%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 204 (12.93%) REST
2 192 (12.17%) Playwright
3 141 (8.94%) React
4 125 (7.92%) Spring
5 120 (7.60%) .NET
6 115 (7.29%) Node.js
7 113 (7.16%) RESTful
8 109 (6.91%) Kafka
9 106 (6.72%) Spring Boot
10 83 (5.26%) pytest
11 54 (3.42%) AngularJS
11 54 (3.42%) HTML
12 51 (3.23%) CSS
12 51 (3.23%) OAuth
13 48 (3.04%) Jest
14 43 (2.72%) Web Services
15 39 (2.47%) JSON
16 38 (2.41%) SOAP
17 36 (2.28%) GraphQL
18 35 (2.22%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 173 (10.96%) Cloud Native
2 96 (6.08%) Product Ownership
3 66 (4.18%) Distributed Systems
4 43 (2.72%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.60%) Algorithms
6 37 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
7 35 (2.22%) Security Posture
8 32 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.58%) Data Structures
9 25 (1.58%) Onboarding
10 22 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
10 22 (1.39%) Virtual Team
11 21 (1.33%) Management Information System
11 21 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
12 20 (1.27%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (1.20%) Equities
14 18 (1.14%) Public Cloud
15 16 (1.01%) Distributed Architecture
16 14 (0.89%) Derivative
16 14 (0.89%) Genomics
Operating Systems
1 139 (8.81%) Linux
2 74 (4.69%) Windows
3 44 (2.79%) Unix
4 42 (2.66%) Android
5 37 (2.34%) Apple iOS
6 21 (1.33%) Mac OS X
7 18 (1.14%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.70%) Kali Linux
9 8 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 7 (0.44%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.25%) CentOS
12 2 (0.13%) Solaris
12 2 (0.13%) VMS
12 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.063%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.063%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.063%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 807 (51.14%) CI/CD
2 772 (48.92%) Agile
3 580 (36.76%) DevOps
4 411 (26.05%) Problem-Solving
5 267 (16.92%) Microservices
6 247 (15.65%) Test Strategy
7 244 (15.46%) Continuous Improvement
8 230 (14.58%) Containerisation
9 221 (14.01%) Scrum
10 211 (13.37%) AI
11 209 (13.24%) Test Scripting
12 202 (12.80%) Software Engineering
13 198 (12.55%) Validation
14 197 (12.48%) TDD
15 193 (12.23%) Infrastructure as Code
16 181 (11.47%) Software Testing
17 166 (10.52%) Analytics
18 162 (10.27%) Observability
19 156 (9.89%) API Testing
20 152 (9.63%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 484 (30.67%) Python
2 403 (25.54%) Java
3 318 (20.15%) SQL
4 246 (15.59%) JavaScript
5 232 (14.70%) TypeScript
6 149 (9.44%) C#
7 64 (4.06%) Bash
8 58 (3.68%) PowerShell
9 43 (2.72%) C++
10 31 (1.96%) Go
11 25 (1.58%) Bicep
12 23 (1.46%) Kotlin
13 21 (1.33%) PL/SQL
14 19 (1.20%) C
15 16 (1.01%) Apex Code
15 16 (1.01%) Scala
15 16 (1.01%) Swift
16 11 (0.70%) Groovy
16 11 (0.70%) Ruby
16 11 (0.70%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 461 (29.21%) Security Cleared
2 353 (22.37%) SC Cleared
3 92 (5.83%) Degree
4 71 (4.50%) ISTQB
5 57 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (3.42%) DV Cleared
7 53 (3.36%) Computer Science Degree
8 28 (1.77%) Master's Degree
9 23 (1.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 18 (1.14%) OSCP
11 15 (0.95%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 13 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.82%) GPEN
12 13 (0.82%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.76%) Azure Certification
13 12 (0.76%) CEH
14 11 (0.70%) AWS Certification
15 10 (0.63%) CISSP
15 10 (0.63%) ISEB
15 10 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 341 (21.61%) QA
2 117 (7.41%) Accessibility
3 82 (5.20%) Data Quality
4 39 (2.47%) WCAG
5 30 (1.90%) GDPR
5 30 (1.90%) NIST
6 18 (1.14%) EU AI Act
7 17 (1.08%) NCSC
8 13 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 11 (0.70%) ISO 20022
10 9 (0.57%) PSD2
10 9 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 9 (0.57%) SLA
11 7 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 7 (0.44%) SEPA
12 6 (0.38%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.32%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.32%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.32%) PERC
14 4 (0.25%) HL7
System Software
1 334 (21.17%) Docker
2 31 (1.96%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.44%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 6 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.25%) Firmware
7 3 (0.19%) ISA Server
7 3 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.13%) QEMU
8 2 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.063%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.063%) KVM
9 1 (0.063%) Squid
9 1 (0.063%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.063%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 310 (19.65%) Kubernetes
2 180 (11.41%) Terraform
3 92 (5.83%) Ansible
4 89 (5.64%) Grafana
5 62 (3.93%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.20%) Nmap
7 16 (1.01%) HP ALM
8 15 (0.95%) Puppet
9 14 (0.89%) Argo
9 14 (0.89%) Progress Chef
10 13 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.57%) HP Quality Center
11 9 (0.57%) NetBackup
12 7 (0.44%) Kibana
12 7 (0.44%) Nessus
13 6 (0.38%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 6 (0.38%) NetIQ Identity Manager
14 5 (0.32%) Podman
15 4 (0.25%) CSIRT
15 4 (0.25%) Iperf
Vendors
1 142 (9.00%) Microsoft
2 131 (8.30%) Oracle
3 58 (3.68%) ServiceNow
4 57 (3.61%) Databricks
5 54 (3.42%) Splunk
6 53 (3.36%) Salesforce
7 51 (3.23%) Google
8 38 (2.41%) SAP
9 31 (1.96%) Talend
10 27 (1.71%) Denodo
10 27 (1.71%) Red Hat
11 20 (1.27%) Cisco
12 19 (1.20%) IBM
12 19 (1.20%) VMware
13 17 (1.08%) MuleSoft
14 16 (1.01%) HP
15 15 (0.95%) OpenAI
15 15 (0.95%) Workday
16 14 (0.89%) Foundry
17 13 (0.82%) Atlassian