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 7 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 51 45
Rank change year-on-year +7 -6 +9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 2,129 1,319 1,346
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.57% 4.72% 4.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.39% 5.19% 4.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,360 901 911
10th Percentile £320 £313 £350
25th Percentile £406 £400 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -7.27%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 96 35 15
10th Percentile £40.00 £41.28 £44.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £48.13 £50.63
Median hourly rate £69.25 £57.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.43% -4.17% -20.00%
75th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £79.75
90th Percentile £77.00 £71.80 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £56.25 £57.50
% change year-on-year +24.44% -2.17% -23.33%

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 39,476 25,411 27,744
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.80% 90.93% 86.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,882 16,117 16,935
10th Percentile £325 £295 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £642
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,976 1,567 1,167
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.50 £17.87 £20.50
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.47 £45.75 £67.01
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.35 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £37.87 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +50.56% -39.40% -2.92%

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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 October 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 +4 963 £500 -2.44% 1,493
North of England -4 431 £452 -4.95% 435
Midlands +14 267 £450 -2.70% 205
West Midlands +27 252 £450 -13.21% 143
South East -12 230 £450 -5.26% 436
Yorkshire -7 180 £463 -7.50% 134
North West -7 156 £492 +23.06% 228
South West -10 114 £450 -17.43% 227
North East +4 102 £425 -11.69% 73
East of England +13 97 £367 -8.25% 194
East Midlands -46 15 £418 +19.29% 62
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
1 179 (8.41%) Confluence
2 59 (2.77%) Apache Airflow
3 44 (2.07%) Apache Spark
4 41 (1.93%) SharePoint
5 35 (1.64%) Apache
6 23 (1.08%) SAS
7 17 (0.80%) CMS
8 14 (0.66%) Camunda
9 10 (0.47%) WebLogic
10 7 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
10 7 (0.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 6 (0.28%) Jupyter
12 5 (0.23%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
14 3 (0.14%) Kentico
14 3 (0.14%) nginx
15 2 (0.094%) Anypoint
15 2 (0.094%) Mule
15 2 (0.094%) Oracle Workflow
15 2 (0.094%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.28%) Chatbot
3 6 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.19%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.14%) Mingle
5 3 (0.14%) Trello
6 2 (0.094%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.047%) Simulink
7 1 (0.047%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 29 (1.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 19 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
3 12 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
4 10 (0.47%) Aladdin
5 7 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
6 6 (0.28%) SAP ERP
7 5 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.23%) SAP GRC
8 4 (0.19%) SAP MDG
9 2 (0.094%) Oracle ERP
10 1 (0.047%) Findur
10 1 (0.047%) FLEXCUBE
10 1 (0.047%) Maximo
10 1 (0.047%) SAP FI
10 1 (0.047%) SAP MM
10 1 (0.047%) SAP PP
10 1 (0.047%) SAP QM
10 1 (0.047%) SAP SD
10 1 (0.047%) Summit
10 1 (0.047%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 674 (31.66%) AWS
2 645 (30.30%) Azure
3 368 (17.29%) GitHub
4 298 (14.00%) Azure DevOps
5 222 (10.43%) GitHub Actions
6 179 (8.41%) GCP
7 170 (7.98%) Serverless
8 124 (5.82%) AWS Lambda
9 109 (5.12%) Power Platform
10 104 (4.88%) Amazon S3
11 84 (3.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 72 (3.38%) OpenShift
13 69 (3.24%) Amazon ECS
14 68 (3.19%) Amazon EKS
15 66 (3.10%) GitHub Copilot
16 55 (2.58%) dbt
17 53 (2.49%) AWS CloudFormation
18 52 (2.44%) Snowflake
19 49 (2.30%) Amazon EC2
20 44 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.27%) DNS
2 25 (1.17%) 4G
3 24 (1.13%) Firewall
3 24 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 23 (1.08%) Broadband
4 23 (1.08%) HTTP
4 23 (1.08%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (1.03%) 5G
6 19 (0.89%) Network Security
7 14 (0.66%) 2G
7 14 (0.66%) 3G
7 14 (0.66%) BGP
7 14 (0.66%) Diameter Protocol
7 14 (0.66%) SIGTRAN
7 14 (0.66%) SS7
7 14 (0.66%) WAN
8 12 (0.56%) Ethernet VPN
8 12 (0.56%) IPv4
8 12 (0.56%) IPv6
8 12 (0.56%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (5.97%) PostgreSQL
2 108 (5.07%) Data Warehouse
3 95 (4.46%) NoSQL
4 93 (4.37%) MongoDB
4 93 (4.37%) Relational Database
5 90 (4.23%) SQL Server
6 85 (3.99%) Power BI
7 44 (2.07%) Metadata
8 43 (2.02%) Data Lake
9 36 (1.69%) DynamoDB
10 34 (1.60%) MySQL
11 32 (1.50%) Big Data
11 32 (1.50%) Oracle Reports
11 32 (1.50%) Pentaho
12 31 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
13 30 (1.41%) Redis
14 29 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
14 29 (1.36%) Oracle Database
15 28 (1.32%) Amazon Athena
16 22 (1.03%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 481 (22.59%) Git
2 351 (16.49%) JIRA
3 342 (16.06%) Jenkins
4 304 (14.28%) GitLab
5 279 (13.10%) Selenium
6 170 (7.98%) Cucumber
7 143 (6.72%) Postman
8 134 (6.29%) JUnit
9 101 (4.74%) Cypress.io
10 98 (4.60%) REST Assured
11 86 (4.04%) JMeter
12 85 (3.99%) SonarQube
13 67 (3.15%) Gatling
14 61 (2.87%) Zephyr
15 54 (2.54%) Maven
16 49 (2.30%) Gradle
17 47 (2.21%) Mockito
18 42 (1.97%) WebDriver
19 37 (1.74%) Bitbucket
20 28 (1.32%) TestNG
General
1 604 (28.37%) Social Skills
2 413 (19.40%) Finance
3 321 (15.08%) Analytical Skills
4 263 (12.35%) Public Sector
5 204 (9.58%) Banking
6 69 (3.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 58 (2.72%) Telecoms
8 35 (1.64%) Retail
9 34 (1.60%) Front Office
10 33 (1.55%) Investment Banking
11 31 (1.46%) Military
12 28 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
13 25 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
14 21 (0.99%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.94%) Manufacturing
15 20 (0.94%) Marketing
16 19 (0.89%) Aerospace
16 19 (0.89%) Law
17 16 (0.75%) Back Office
18 14 (0.66%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 454 (21.32%) Developer
2 339 (15.92%) Senior
3 216 (10.15%) Lead
4 208 (9.77%) Test Engineer
5 143 (6.72%) Tester
6 142 (6.67%) Data Engineer
7 133 (6.25%) Java Developer
8 124 (5.82%) Software Engineer
9 106 (4.98%) Analyst
10 104 (4.88%) Architect
11 98 (4.60%) QA Engineer
12 92 (4.32%) DevOps Engineer
13 89 (4.18%) Test Automation Engineer
14 88 (4.13%) Senior Developer
15 76 (3.57%) Automation Engineer
16 75 (3.52%) Full-Stack Developer
17 70 (3.29%) Java Engineer
17 70 (3.29%) Test Leader
18 68 (3.19%) Test Analyst
19 60 (2.82%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 343 (16.11%) REST
2 327 (15.36%) Terraform
3 249 (11.70%) Playwright
4 231 (10.85%) Kafka
5 226 (10.62%) RESTful
6 210 (9.86%) Spring
7 199 (9.35%) React
8 175 (8.22%) Spring Boot
9 154 (7.23%) .NET
10 140 (6.58%) HTML
11 120 (5.64%) Node.js
12 117 (5.50%) CSS
13 102 (4.79%) AngularJS
14 86 (4.04%) OAuth
15 65 (3.05%) JSON
16 62 (2.91%) Middleware
17 57 (2.68%) SOAP
18 56 (2.63%) Web Services
18 56 (2.63%) XML
19 54 (2.54%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 344 (16.16%) Cloud Native
2 179 (8.41%) Product Ownership
3 157 (7.37%) Distributed Systems
4 95 (4.46%) Enterprise Software
5 77 (3.62%) Onboarding
6 70 (3.29%) AI Agents
7 49 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
8 47 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
9 45 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
10 42 (1.97%) Mobile App
11 34 (1.60%) Data Structures
12 31 (1.46%) Security Posture
13 26 (1.22%) Virtual Team
14 25 (1.17%) Management Information System
15 21 (0.99%) Data Centre
15 21 (0.99%) Embedded Systems
16 19 (0.89%) Private Cloud
17 18 (0.85%) Algorithms
17 18 (0.85%) Distributed Architecture
18 16 (0.75%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 151 (7.09%) Linux
2 100 (4.70%) Windows
3 78 (3.66%) Unix
4 42 (1.97%) Apple iOS
5 38 (1.78%) Android
6 30 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 22 (1.03%) Windows Server
8 9 (0.42%) VMS
9 6 (0.28%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.28%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.23%) Mac OS X
10 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
11 3 (0.14%) AIX
11 3 (0.14%) CentOS
11 3 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
11 3 (0.14%) Solaris
11 3 (0.14%) zOS
12 2 (0.094%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,326 (62.28%) CI/CD
2 1,043 (48.99%) Agile
3 803 (37.72%) DevOps
4 438 (20.57%) Continuous Improvement
4 438 (20.57%) Microservices
5 431 (20.24%) Problem-Solving
6 427 (20.06%) Software Engineering
7 375 (17.61%) AI
8 372 (17.47%) Infrastructure as Code
9 371 (17.43%) Scrum
10 368 (17.29%) Validation
11 322 (15.12%) Test Strategy
12 321 (15.08%) Containerisation
13 280 (13.15%) Observability
14 275 (12.92%) SDLC
14 275 (12.92%) Software Testing
15 272 (12.78%) TDD
16 265 (12.45%) Stakeholder Management
17 232 (10.90%) End-to-End Testing
18 214 (10.05%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 605 (28.42%) Python
2 592 (27.81%) Java
3 544 (25.55%) SQL
4 331 (15.55%) JavaScript
5 257 (12.07%) TypeScript
6 183 (8.60%) C#
7 92 (4.32%) PowerShell
8 79 (3.71%) Bash
9 52 (2.44%) Bicep
10 48 (2.25%) Kotlin
11 39 (1.83%) Go
12 37 (1.74%) C++
13 36 (1.69%) Scala
14 25 (1.17%) Shell Script
15 23 (1.08%) PL/SQL
16 18 (0.85%) Apex Code
17 17 (0.80%) Swift
18 16 (0.75%) C
18 16 (0.75%) Groovy
19 13 (0.61%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 677 (31.80%) Security Cleared
2 566 (26.59%) SC Cleared
3 124 (5.82%) Degree
4 94 (4.42%) BPSS Clearance
5 92 (4.32%) ISTQB
6 85 (3.99%) DV Cleared
7 68 (3.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 48 (2.25%) AWS Certification
9 27 (1.27%) Azure Certification
10 26 (1.22%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 14 (0.66%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 14 (0.66%) CISSP
11 14 (0.66%) ISEB
11 14 (0.66%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 14 (0.66%) Master's Degree
12 12 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
14 10 (0.47%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 8 (0.38%) SAFe Agilist
16 7 (0.33%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 588 (27.62%) QA
2 185 (8.69%) Accessibility
3 146 (6.86%) Data Quality
4 94 (4.42%) WCAG
5 34 (1.60%) GDPR
6 17 (0.80%) ISO 20022
6 17 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (0.75%) NIST
8 13 (0.61%) SLA
9 12 (0.56%) GRC
9 12 (0.56%) NCSC
10 8 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (0.33%) SOC 2
12 6 (0.28%) HL7
12 6 (0.28%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.23%) FATCA
13 5 (0.23%) Software Quality Assurance
14 4 (0.19%) HIPAA
15 3 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.14%) SEPA
System Software
1 438 (20.57%) Docker
2 39 (1.83%) Active Directory
3 33 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.52%) Firmware
6 7 (0.33%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.094%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.047%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.047%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.047%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 432 (20.29%) Kubernetes
2 125 (5.87%) Ansible
3 119 (5.59%) Grafana
4 84 (3.95%) Prometheus
5 35 (1.64%) Argo
6 26 (1.22%) Kibana
7 24 (1.13%) Puppet
8 23 (1.08%) Progress Chef
9 12 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.52%) Control-M
11 10 (0.47%) HP ALM
12 8 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
13 7 (0.33%) Kustomize
14 6 (0.28%) HP Fortify
14 6 (0.28%) SCCM
15 5 (0.23%) Dell DRAC
15 5 (0.23%) Istio
15 5 (0.23%) Packer
16 4 (0.19%) Podman
16 4 (0.19%) Rancher
Vendors
1 223 (10.47%) Microsoft
2 149 (7.00%) Oracle
3 95 (4.46%) Databricks
4 83 (3.90%) Google
5 59 (2.77%) Salesforce
6 58 (2.72%) IBM
7 53 (2.49%) ServiceNow
8 50 (2.35%) Red Hat
9 49 (2.30%) Splunk
10 47 (2.21%) Talend
11 44 (2.07%) SAP
12 42 (1.97%) Dynatrace
12 42 (1.97%) VMware
13 40 (1.88%) Informatica
14 32 (1.50%) Cisco
14 32 (1.50%) Denodo
15 31 (1.46%) UiPath
16 20 (0.94%) Foundry
17 18 (0.85%) OpenAI
18 16 (0.75%) MuleSoft