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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 45 56
Rank change year-on-year -3 +11 -10
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,673 1,142 1,321
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.47% 4.66% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.17% 5.14% 4.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,127 788 899
10th Percentile £331 £337 £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 £638
90th Percentile £683 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 7 56
10th Percentile £26.24 £38.81 £46.50
25th Percentile £51.56 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% +2.08%
75th Percentile £70.00 £70.01 £84.38
90th Percentile - £76.18 £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 32,374 22,226 32,746
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.47% 90.74% 86.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,766 14,506 21,651
10th Percentile £313 £310 £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 £615 £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 1,980 825 2,147
10th Percentile £15.49 £15.07 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £32.50 £34.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.41% +4.62% -10.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £57.83
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.81 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £30.32 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -6.71% - -7.14%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -1 825 £500 - 189
North of England +7 327 £488 +8.33% 164
Midlands +10 191 £475 +0.32% 77
South East -29 170 £500 -13.04% 158
West Midlands +11 162 £480 -3.52% 48
North West +13 150 £463 +2.78% 81
Yorkshire -12 136 £509 +7.11% 44
South West -2 79 £500 -4.76% 82
East of England +7 59 £570 +19.06% 68
North East +4 44 £481 +26.45% 39
East Midlands -24 29 £400 +8.55% 29
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 (6.93%) Confluence
2 58 (3.47%) SAS
3 26 (1.55%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.78%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.54%) Apache
7 8 (0.48%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.24%) Camunda
10 4 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Application Server
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.18%) nginx
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.66%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.12%) Simulink
8 1 (0.060%) Mingle
8 1 (0.060%) 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 (0.060%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.060%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.060%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 458 (27.38%) Azure
2 418 (24.99%) AWS
3 288 (17.21%) GitHub
4 208 (12.43%) Azure DevOps
5 159 (9.50%) GitHub Actions
6 151 (9.03%) GCP
7 121 (7.23%) Serverless
8 66 (3.95%) OpenShift
9 61 (3.65%) AWS Lambda
10 57 (3.41%) Power Platform
11 56 (3.35%) Amazon S3
12 41 (2.45%) Azure AKS
13 36 (2.15%) Snowflake
14 35 (2.09%) Amazon ECS
15 33 (1.97%) Azure Data Factory
16 32 (1.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 32 (1.91%) AWS CloudFormation
17 30 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
18 29 (1.73%) SaaS
19 27 (1.61%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.67%) Firewall
2 16 (0.96%) VPN
2 16 (0.96%) Wireshark
3 15 (0.90%) TCP/IP
4 13 (0.78%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.78%) WAN
5 12 (0.72%) HTTP
6 11 (0.66%) Network Security
6 11 (0.66%) SSL
7 10 (0.60%) HTTPS
8 8 (0.48%) DNS
8 8 (0.48%) Ethernet
8 8 (0.48%) MPLS
8 8 (0.48%) Multicast
9 7 (0.42%) FTP
9 7 (0.42%) SAN
10 5 (0.30%) AMQP
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.30%) VLAN
11 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (5.98%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (4.30%) NoSQL
3 69 (4.12%) SQL Server
4 58 (3.47%) MongoDB
5 50 (2.99%) Relational Database
6 49 (2.93%) Data Warehouse
7 32 (1.91%) Power BI
8 31 (1.85%) DynamoDB
9 29 (1.73%) Pentaho
10 24 (1.43%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.43%) Oracle Database
11 23 (1.37%) Tableau
12 21 (1.26%) MySQL
12 21 (1.26%) Redis
13 18 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
13 18 (1.08%) Oracle Reports
14 14 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
15 13 (0.78%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (0.78%) Data Lake
16 12 (0.72%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 318 (19.01%) JIRA
2 313 (18.71%) Git
3 310 (18.53%) Jenkins
4 251 (15.00%) GitLab
5 243 (14.52%) Selenium
6 143 (8.55%) Cucumber
7 127 (7.59%) Postman
8 105 (6.28%) JUnit
9 97 (5.80%) Cypress.io
10 85 (5.08%) REST Assured
11 78 (4.66%) JMeter
12 40 (2.39%) WebDriver
13 36 (2.15%) SpecFlow
14 34 (2.03%) Maven
15 33 (1.97%) SonarQube
16 31 (1.85%) Gradle
16 31 (1.85%) Zephyr
17 30 (1.79%) Gatling
17 30 (1.79%) TestRail
18 29 (1.73%) Bitbucket
General
1 470 (28.09%) Social Skills
2 301 (17.99%) Finance
3 237 (14.17%) Public Sector
4 193 (11.54%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.67%) Banking
6 31 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (1.73%) Investment Banking
8 27 (1.61%) Front Office
9 26 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 21 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 19 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
13 15 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 14 (0.84%) Military
15 12 (0.72%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.72%) Legal
16 10 (0.60%) Electronics
17 9 (0.54%) Retail
Job Titles
1 352 (21.04%) Developer
2 275 (16.44%) Senior
3 193 (11.54%) Lead
4 187 (11.18%) Tester
5 178 (10.64%) Test Engineer
6 88 (5.26%) Analyst
7 87 (5.20%) Automation Tester
8 86 (5.14%) Data Engineer
9 84 (5.02%) Java Developer
10 80 (4.78%) Test Automation Engineer
11 75 (4.48%) Software Engineer
12 72 (4.30%) QA Engineer
12 72 (4.30%) Test Leader
13 66 (3.95%) Senior Developer
14 60 (3.59%) DevOps Engineer
15 59 (3.53%) Architect
16 54 (3.23%) Test Analyst
17 53 (3.17%) Automation Engineer
17 53 (3.17%) Test Manager
18 41 (2.45%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 210 (12.55%) REST
2 194 (11.60%) Playwright
3 142 (8.49%) React
4 135 (8.07%) Spring
5 121 (7.23%) RESTful
6 119 (7.11%) .NET
7 118 (7.05%) Kafka
8 115 (6.87%) Node.js
9 108 (6.46%) Spring Boot
10 78 (4.66%) pytest
11 58 (3.47%) AngularJS
12 53 (3.17%) OAuth
13 52 (3.11%) HTML
14 50 (2.99%) CSS
15 49 (2.93%) Jest
16 39 (2.33%) Web Services
17 37 (2.21%) GraphQL
18 36 (2.15%) WireMock
19 34 (2.03%) JSON
19 34 (2.03%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 174 (10.40%) Cloud Native
2 105 (6.28%) Product Ownership
3 86 (5.14%) Distributed Systems
4 46 (2.75%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.45%) Algorithms
6 39 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
7 37 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
8 27 (1.61%) Onboarding
8 27 (1.61%) Security Posture
9 25 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
9 25 (1.49%) Virtual Team
10 24 (1.43%) Data Structures
11 23 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.37%) Equities
12 22 (1.32%) Distributed Architecture
13 21 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
13 21 (1.26%) Management Information System
14 19 (1.14%) Public Cloud
15 16 (0.96%) Fixed Income
15 16 (0.96%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 125 (7.47%) Linux
2 79 (4.72%) Windows
3 43 (2.57%) Android
4 36 (2.15%) Apple iOS
5 31 (1.85%) Unix
6 18 (1.08%) Windows Server
7 13 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.66%) Kali Linux
8 11 (0.66%) Mac OS X
9 6 (0.36%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.24%) CentOS
11 3 (0.18%) Solaris
12 2 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
12 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.060%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.060%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.060%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 868 (51.88%) CI/CD
2 786 (46.98%) Agile
3 624 (37.30%) DevOps
4 412 (24.63%) Problem-Solving
5 272 (16.26%) Continuous Improvement
6 271 (16.20%) Microservices
7 259 (15.48%) Test Strategy
8 237 (14.17%) Containerisation
9 233 (13.93%) Scrum
10 217 (12.97%) AI
11 207 (12.37%) Test Scripting
12 205 (12.25%) Validation
13 203 (12.13%) Infrastructure as Code
13 203 (12.13%) Software Engineering
14 199 (11.89%) TDD
15 189 (11.30%) Observability
16 187 (11.18%) Analytics
17 182 (10.88%) Software Testing
18 177 (10.58%) Regression Testing
19 164 (9.80%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 519 (31.02%) Python
2 408 (24.39%) Java
3 369 (22.06%) SQL
4 243 (14.52%) JavaScript
5 236 (14.11%) TypeScript
6 167 (9.98%) C#
7 74 (4.42%) PowerShell
8 64 (3.83%) Bash
9 47 (2.81%) C++
10 29 (1.73%) Kotlin
11 28 (1.67%) C
12 27 (1.61%) Go
13 24 (1.43%) Bicep
14 22 (1.32%) PL/SQL
15 21 (1.26%) Apex Code
16 18 (1.08%) Scala
17 17 (1.02%) Ruby
17 17 (1.02%) Swift
18 14 (0.84%) Groovy
19 12 (0.72%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 491 (29.35%) Security Cleared
2 375 (22.41%) SC Cleared
3 87 (5.20%) Degree
4 79 (4.72%) ISTQB
5 58 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (3.23%) Computer Science Degree
6 54 (3.23%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.43%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 23 (1.37%) Master's Degree
9 14 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
9 14 (0.84%) OSCP
10 12 (0.72%) Azure Certification
10 12 (0.72%) CEH
11 11 (0.66%) AWS Certification
12 10 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 9 (0.54%) CCNP
13 9 (0.54%) GPEN
13 9 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.48%) CISSP
14 8 (0.48%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 382 (22.83%) QA
2 116 (6.93%) Accessibility
3 95 (5.68%) Data Quality
4 41 (2.45%) WCAG
5 30 (1.79%) GDPR
6 22 (1.32%) NIST
7 15 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.90%) NCSC
8 12 (0.72%) EU AI Act
9 10 (0.60%) ISO 20022
9 10 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 10 (0.60%) SLA
10 9 (0.54%) Def Stans
11 8 (0.48%) PSD2
12 6 (0.36%) SEPA
12 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
13 5 (0.30%) HL7
13 5 (0.30%) MiFID
13 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.30%) PERC
System Software
1 334 (19.96%) Docker
2 26 (1.55%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.48%) Firmware
4 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.12%) SRDF
9 1 (0.060%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.060%) KVM
9 1 (0.060%) Squid
9 1 (0.060%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.060%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 329 (19.67%) Kubernetes
2 192 (11.48%) Terraform
3 105 (6.28%) Grafana
4 91 (5.44%) Ansible
5 79 (4.72%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.20%) Puppet
7 19 (1.14%) HP ALM
8 18 (1.08%) Argo
9 14 (0.84%) Nmap
9 14 (0.84%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.66%) HP Quality Center
10 11 (0.66%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (0.48%) Forefront Identity Manager
11 8 (0.48%) NetIQ Identity Manager
12 7 (0.42%) Kibana
13 6 (0.36%) Rancher
14 5 (0.30%) Podman
15 4 (0.24%) Dell DRAC
15 4 (0.24%) Istio
Vendors
1 145 (8.67%) Microsoft
2 135 (8.07%) Oracle
3 64 (3.83%) Databricks
4 58 (3.47%) Splunk
5 54 (3.23%) Salesforce
6 52 (3.11%) Google
7 51 (3.05%) ServiceNow
8 40 (2.39%) SAP
9 38 (2.27%) Red Hat
10 33 (1.97%) Talend
11 25 (1.49%) Denodo
12 22 (1.32%) HP
13 21 (1.26%) IBM
14 20 (1.20%) Cisco
14 20 (1.20%) VMware
15 18 (1.08%) Dynatrace
16 16 (0.96%) MuleSoft
17 15 (0.90%) Workday
18 14 (0.84%) Atlassian
18 14 (0.84%) OpenAI