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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 46 59
Rank change year-on-year -2 +13 -13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,694 1,118 1,293
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.45% 4.61% 3.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.17% 5.07% 3.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,133 773 870
10th Percentile £330 £333 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £640
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 70 9 54
10th Percentile £33.54 £41.66 £39.75
25th Percentile £55.00 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.50 £56.75 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.42% -1.30% -8.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £81.25
90th Percentile - £75.84 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £56.75 £57.50
% change year-on-year +15.42% -1.30% -8.00%

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 32,752 22,033 32,691
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.09% 90.76% 86.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,983 14,520 21,608
10th Percentile £313 £312 £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 2,011 860 2,165
10th Percentile £15.34 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.25 £20.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £37.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.85% - -13.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.34 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.50 £31.88 £32.50
% change year-on-year +11.36% -1.91% -10.48%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +1 827 £500 - 183
North of England +6 337 £477 +5.89% 162
Midlands +8 194 £474 - 83
South East -23 177 £500 -8.26% 145
West Midlands +14 165 £478 -3.87% 57
North West +7 148 £456 +1.39% 82
Yorkshire -5 145 £500 +5.26% 41
South West -7 78 £475 -9.52% 72
East of England -1 61 £570 +16.33% 65
North East +7 47 £425 +8.97% 39
East Midlands -28 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
1 114 (6.73%) Confluence
2 64 (3.78%) SAS
3 26 (1.53%) Apache Spark
4 18 (1.06%) Apache Airflow
5 14 (0.83%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.53%) Apache
7 8 (0.47%) Appian
8 6 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.35%) Camunda
8 6 (0.35%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) nginx
10 4 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.65%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.41%) 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 22 (1.30%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.35%) Findur
2 6 (0.35%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.35%) 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
5 3 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
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%) IntelliMatch
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 465 (27.45%) Azure
2 416 (24.56%) AWS
3 285 (16.82%) GitHub
4 212 (12.51%) Azure DevOps
5 153 (9.03%) GitHub Actions
6 147 (8.68%) GCP
7 116 (6.85%) Serverless
8 76 (4.49%) OpenShift
9 60 (3.54%) AWS Lambda
10 54 (3.19%) Amazon S3
10 54 (3.19%) Power Platform
11 42 (2.48%) Azure AKS
12 33 (1.95%) Amazon ECS
12 33 (1.95%) Azure Data Factory
12 33 (1.95%) Snowflake
13 31 (1.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 30 (1.77%) AWS CloudFormation
15 29 (1.71%) SaaS
16 26 (1.53%) Azure Functions
17 25 (1.48%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.59%) Firewall
2 16 (0.94%) VPN
3 15 (0.89%) HTTP
3 15 (0.89%) TCP/IP
4 13 (0.77%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.77%) WAN
5 11 (0.65%) Network Security
6 10 (0.59%) SSL
6 10 (0.59%) Wireshark
7 9 (0.53%) Ethernet
7 9 (0.53%) SAN
8 8 (0.47%) DNS
8 8 (0.47%) HTTPS
8 8 (0.47%) MPLS
8 8 (0.47%) Multicast
9 7 (0.41%) FTP
10 6 (0.35%) 5G
11 5 (0.30%) AMQP
11 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
11 5 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (5.55%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (4.25%) SQL Server
3 66 (3.90%) NoSQL
4 58 (3.42%) MongoDB
5 52 (3.07%) Relational Database
6 46 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
7 33 (1.95%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.89%) Pentaho
9 29 (1.71%) Power BI
10 25 (1.48%) BigQuery
11 24 (1.42%) Oracle Database
12 23 (1.36%) MySQL
12 23 (1.36%) Tableau
13 21 (1.24%) Redis
14 17 (1.00%) Amazon RDS
15 15 (0.89%) Oracle Reports
16 14 (0.83%) Metadata
17 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
17 13 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
17 13 (0.77%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 325 (19.19%) Git
2 322 (19.01%) JIRA
3 311 (18.36%) Jenkins
4 246 (14.52%) Selenium
5 241 (14.23%) GitLab
6 140 (8.26%) Cucumber
7 132 (7.79%) Postman
8 107 (6.32%) JUnit
9 93 (5.49%) Cypress.io
10 84 (4.96%) REST Assured
11 76 (4.49%) JMeter
12 42 (2.48%) SonarQube
12 42 (2.48%) WebDriver
13 37 (2.18%) SpecFlow
14 34 (2.01%) Maven
15 31 (1.83%) Zephyr
16 30 (1.77%) TestRail
17 29 (1.71%) Bitbucket
17 29 (1.71%) Gatling
17 29 (1.71%) Gradle
General
1 468 (27.63%) Social Skills
2 299 (17.65%) Finance
3 242 (14.29%) Public Sector
4 180 (10.63%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.56%) Banking
6 35 (2.07%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (1.77%) Investment Banking
8 28 (1.65%) Front Office
8 28 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 23 (1.36%) Telecoms
10 21 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
11 19 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (0.89%) Aerospace
13 15 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
14 14 (0.83%) Financial Institution
14 14 (0.83%) Legal
15 12 (0.71%) Military
16 10 (0.59%) Back Office
16 10 (0.59%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 352 (20.78%) Developer
2 274 (16.17%) Senior
3 189 (11.16%) Lead
4 187 (11.04%) Tester
5 184 (10.86%) Test Engineer
6 90 (5.31%) Java Developer
7 89 (5.25%) Analyst
7 89 (5.25%) Automation Tester
8 86 (5.08%) Data Engineer
9 83 (4.90%) Test Automation Engineer
10 79 (4.66%) Software Engineer
11 71 (4.19%) QA Engineer
11 71 (4.19%) Test Leader
12 64 (3.78%) Senior Developer
13 63 (3.72%) DevOps Engineer
14 60 (3.54%) Architect
15 54 (3.19%) Automation Engineer
15 54 (3.19%) Test Analyst
16 50 (2.95%) Test Manager
17 44 (2.60%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (12.69%) REST
2 195 (11.51%) Playwright
3 144 (8.50%) React
4 135 (7.97%) Spring
5 128 (7.56%) RESTful
6 120 (7.08%) .NET
7 118 (6.97%) Node.js
8 115 (6.79%) Kafka
9 106 (6.26%) Spring Boot
10 81 (4.78%) pytest
11 71 (4.19%) AngularJS
12 52 (3.07%) HTML
13 51 (3.01%) Jest
14 50 (2.95%) OAuth
15 48 (2.83%) CSS
16 38 (2.24%) Web Services
17 36 (2.13%) GraphQL
18 34 (2.01%) WireMock
19 33 (1.95%) JSON
20 32 (1.89%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 179 (10.57%) Cloud Native
2 111 (6.55%) Product Ownership
3 88 (5.19%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.66%) Mobile App
5 40 (2.36%) Algorithms
6 38 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
7 36 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
8 30 (1.77%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.71%) Virtual Team
10 28 (1.65%) Onboarding
11 26 (1.53%) Security Posture
12 25 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
13 22 (1.30%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.24%) Equities
14 21 (1.24%) Management Information System
15 19 (1.12%) Distributed Architecture
15 19 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
15 19 (1.12%) NHS
16 18 (1.06%) Public Cloud
17 15 (0.89%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 126 (7.44%) Linux
2 82 (4.84%) Windows
3 45 (2.66%) Android
4 36 (2.13%) Apple iOS
5 32 (1.89%) Unix
6 19 (1.12%) Windows Server
7 15 (0.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.65%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.41%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.41%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.30%) Solaris
11 4 (0.24%) CentOS
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.059%) Robot Operating System
14 1 (0.059%) VMS
14 1 (0.059%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 877 (51.77%) CI/CD
2 799 (47.17%) Agile
3 628 (37.07%) DevOps
4 407 (24.03%) Problem-Solving
5 276 (16.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 265 (15.64%) Microservices
7 257 (15.17%) Test Strategy
8 242 (14.29%) Scrum
9 235 (13.87%) Containerisation
10 216 (12.75%) AI
11 211 (12.46%) Validation
12 209 (12.34%) Software Engineering
13 207 (12.22%) Infrastructure as Code
14 206 (12.16%) Test Scripting
15 193 (11.39%) Analytics
16 191 (11.28%) Observability
16 191 (11.28%) TDD
17 179 (10.57%) Software Testing
18 172 (10.15%) Regression Testing
18 172 (10.15%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 513 (30.28%) Python
2 417 (24.62%) Java
3 369 (21.78%) SQL
4 241 (14.23%) JavaScript
5 235 (13.87%) TypeScript
6 173 (10.21%) C#
7 71 (4.19%) PowerShell
8 58 (3.42%) Bash
9 45 (2.66%) C++
10 30 (1.77%) C
11 28 (1.65%) Kotlin
12 24 (1.42%) Apex Code
12 24 (1.42%) Bicep
13 23 (1.36%) Go
13 23 (1.36%) PL/SQL
14 19 (1.12%) Ruby
15 17 (1.00%) Scala
15 17 (1.00%) Swift
16 15 (0.89%) Groovy
17 12 (0.71%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 515 (30.40%) Security Cleared
2 395 (23.32%) SC Cleared
3 85 (5.02%) Degree
4 80 (4.72%) ISTQB
5 61 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (3.42%) DV Cleared
7 49 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
8 25 (1.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.30%) Master's Degree
10 14 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
11 12 (0.71%) Azure Certification
12 10 (0.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 10 (0.59%) OSCP
13 9 (0.53%) AWS Certification
13 9 (0.53%) CCNP
13 9 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.47%) CEH
14 8 (0.47%) CISSP
14 8 (0.47%) ISEB
15 7 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 379 (22.37%) QA
2 111 (6.55%) Accessibility
3 97 (5.73%) Data Quality
4 43 (2.54%) WCAG
5 30 (1.77%) GDPR
6 20 (1.18%) NIST
7 15 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.83%) NCSC
9 10 (0.59%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.59%) EU AI Act
9 10 (0.59%) ISO 20022
9 10 (0.59%) SLA
10 9 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 8 (0.47%) PSD2
12 6 (0.35%) SEPA
12 6 (0.35%) 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
1 332 (19.60%) Docker
2 26 (1.53%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.65%) Firmware
4 9 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 7 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
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
1 329 (19.42%) Kubernetes
2 196 (11.57%) Terraform
3 102 (6.02%) Grafana
4 87 (5.14%) Ansible
5 80 (4.72%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.53%) Argo
7 20 (1.18%) Puppet
8 19 (1.12%) HP ALM
9 14 (0.83%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.65%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
11 10 (0.59%) Nmap
12 9 (0.53%) Forefront Identity Manager
12 9 (0.53%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 6 (0.35%) Kibana
13 6 (0.35%) Rancher
14 5 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
14 5 (0.30%) Podman
15 4 (0.24%) Istio
Vendors
1 147 (8.68%) Microsoft
2 143 (8.44%) Oracle
3 63 (3.72%) Databricks
4 60 (3.54%) Salesforce
5 56 (3.31%) Splunk
6 52 (3.07%) Google
6 52 (3.07%) ServiceNow
7 47 (2.77%) Red Hat
8 40 (2.36%) SAP
9 37 (2.18%) Talend
10 28 (1.65%) Denodo
11 23 (1.36%) IBM
12 22 (1.30%) HP
12 22 (1.30%) VMware
13 20 (1.18%) Cisco
14 18 (1.06%) Dynatrace
15 16 (0.94%) MuleSoft
16 15 (0.89%) Workday
17 14 (0.83%) OpenAI
18 13 (0.77%) UiPath