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 8 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 46 58
Rank change year-on-year -3 +12 -11
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,687 1,130 1,259
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.32% 4.64% 3.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.03% 5.11% 3.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,123 776 842
10th Percentile £331 £340 £363
25th Percentile £401 £400 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.80% -4.76% -5.23%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £639
90th Percentile £675 £725 £737
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 9 52
10th Percentile £34.57 £41.66 £38.25
25th Percentile £55.00 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% +3.18% -12.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £78.75
90th Percentile - £75.84 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £53.38 £55.00
% change year-on-year +21.78% -2.95% -12.00%

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 33,535 22,134 32,375
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.78% 90.89% 86.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,490 14,584 21,356
10th Percentile £313 £313 £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 £614 £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 2,083 869 2,177
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.72 £19.00 £15.89
Median hourly rate £39.00 £32.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -1.71% -11.83%
75th Percentile £65.60 £65.00 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.65 £70.43
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £31.51 £33.00
% change year-on-year +14.25% -4.52% -11.17%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 8 April 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 +8 322 £475 +5.56% 162
Midlands +9 191 £469 -1.58% 83
South East -23 179 £505 -2.98% 145
West Midlands +6 163 £475 -6.40% 57
North West +13 142 £465 +3.33% 82
Yorkshire -11 135 £500 +5.26% 41
South West -4 84 £475 -9.52% 72
East of England +2 60 £615 +25.51% 65
North East +4 48 £425 +8.97% 39
East Midlands -24 28 £400 -0.93% 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
1 108 (6.40%) Confluence
2 66 (3.91%) SAS
3 23 (1.36%) Apache Spark
4 20 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
5 15 (0.89%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.53%) Apache
7 8 (0.47%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.36%) Camunda
8 6 (0.36%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) nginx
10 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 26 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.18%) Simulink
8 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.059%) Mingle
9 1 (0.059%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 22 (1.30%) Aladdin
2 7 (0.41%) Findur
3 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
3 6 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (0.36%) Shopify
4 5 (0.30%) Maximo
5 4 (0.24%) BambooHR
5 4 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.24%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) iTrent
7 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.12%) SAP HR
7 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
7 2 (0.12%) Summit
8 1 (0.059%) CODA-Financials
8 1 (0.059%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.059%) PORTIA
8 1 (0.059%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 457 (27.09%) Azure
2 410 (24.30%) AWS
3 275 (16.30%) GitHub
4 208 (12.33%) Azure DevOps
5 153 (9.07%) GitHub Actions
6 130 (7.71%) GCP
7 108 (6.40%) Serverless
8 76 (4.51%) OpenShift
9 58 (3.44%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (3.14%) Amazon S3
11 51 (3.02%) Power Platform
12 38 (2.25%) Azure AKS
13 35 (2.07%) Snowflake
14 33 (1.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 33 (1.96%) Amazon ECS
14 33 (1.96%) Azure Data Factory
15 31 (1.84%) AWS CloudFormation
16 27 (1.60%) Azure Monitor
17 26 (1.54%) SaaS
17 26 (1.54%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.36%) Firewall
2 15 (0.89%) HTTP
3 12 (0.71%) TCP/IP
4 11 (0.65%) VPN
5 10 (0.59%) Network Security
5 10 (0.59%) SAN
5 10 (0.59%) SSL
6 9 (0.53%) Ethernet
6 9 (0.53%) FTP
6 9 (0.53%) Wireshark
7 8 (0.47%) MPLS
7 8 (0.47%) SD-WAN
7 8 (0.47%) WAN
8 7 (0.41%) HTTPS
8 7 (0.41%) Multicast
9 6 (0.36%) 5G
9 6 (0.36%) DNS
10 5 (0.30%) AMQP
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (5.28%) PostgreSQL
2 73 (4.33%) SQL Server
3 68 (4.03%) NoSQL
4 59 (3.50%) MongoDB
5 51 (3.02%) Relational Database
6 50 (2.96%) Data Warehouse
7 35 (2.07%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.90%) Pentaho
9 27 (1.60%) Power BI
10 25 (1.48%) BigQuery
11 24 (1.42%) Oracle Database
11 24 (1.42%) Tableau
12 23 (1.36%) MySQL
13 21 (1.24%) Redis
14 19 (1.13%) Oracle Reports
15 17 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
16 15 (0.89%) Metadata
17 14 (0.83%) SAS Enterprise Guide
18 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
18 13 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 329 (19.50%) Git
2 321 (19.03%) JIRA
3 292 (17.31%) Jenkins
4 252 (14.94%) Selenium
5 227 (13.46%) GitLab
6 135 (8.00%) Postman
7 134 (7.94%) Cucumber
8 109 (6.46%) JUnit
9 87 (5.16%) Cypress.io
10 86 (5.10%) REST Assured
11 73 (4.33%) JMeter
12 42 (2.49%) WebDriver
13 40 (2.37%) SonarQube
14 35 (2.07%) Maven
14 35 (2.07%) Zephyr
15 34 (2.02%) SpecFlow
16 32 (1.90%) Gradle
17 30 (1.78%) TestRail
18 29 (1.72%) Mockito
19 26 (1.54%) Bitbucket
General
1 465 (27.56%) Social Skills
2 302 (17.90%) Finance
3 239 (14.17%) Public Sector
4 179 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
5 143 (8.48%) Banking
6 36 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (1.72%) Front Office
7 29 (1.72%) Investment Banking
8 24 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 24 (1.42%) Telecoms
9 20 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
10 17 (1.01%) Legal
10 17 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
11 16 (0.95%) Aerospace
11 16 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (0.71%) Financial Institution
13 11 (0.65%) Electronics
13 11 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
14 10 (0.59%) Back Office
14 10 (0.59%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 354 (20.98%) Developer
2 264 (15.65%) Senior
3 186 (11.03%) Lead
3 186 (11.03%) Tester
4 175 (10.37%) Test Engineer
5 94 (5.57%) Java Developer
6 91 (5.39%) Analyst
7 85 (5.04%) Automation Tester
8 84 (4.98%) Data Engineer
9 80 (4.74%) Test Automation Engineer
10 73 (4.33%) QA Engineer
11 72 (4.27%) Software Engineer
12 67 (3.97%) Senior Developer
13 66 (3.91%) Test Leader
14 64 (3.79%) Architect
15 62 (3.68%) DevOps Engineer
16 55 (3.26%) Test Analyst
17 52 (3.08%) Automation Engineer
18 49 (2.90%) Test Manager
19 46 (2.73%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 211 (12.51%) REST
2 185 (10.97%) Playwright
3 146 (8.65%) React
4 135 (8.00%) Spring
5 122 (7.23%) RESTful
6 118 (6.99%) .NET
7 117 (6.94%) Node.js
8 115 (6.82%) Kafka
9 108 (6.40%) Spring Boot
10 77 (4.56%) pytest
11 70 (4.15%) AngularJS
12 50 (2.96%) HTML
13 49 (2.90%) Jest
13 49 (2.90%) OAuth
14 46 (2.73%) CSS
15 38 (2.25%) Web Services
16 34 (2.02%) GraphQL
16 34 (2.02%) WireMock
17 33 (1.96%) JSON
17 33 (1.96%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 171 (10.14%) Cloud Native
2 109 (6.46%) Product Ownership
3 83 (4.92%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.79%) Mobile App
5 39 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
6 38 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
7 35 (2.07%) Algorithms
8 31 (1.84%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.78%) Virtual Team
10 29 (1.72%) Onboarding
11 28 (1.66%) Security Posture
12 26 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
13 22 (1.30%) Data Structures
13 22 (1.30%) Management Information System
14 21 (1.24%) Equities
15 19 (1.13%) Distributed Architecture
15 19 (1.13%) NHS
16 18 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
17 17 (1.01%) Fixed Income
18 16 (0.95%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 124 (7.35%) Linux
2 85 (5.04%) Windows
3 47 (2.79%) Android
4 39 (2.31%) Apple iOS
5 34 (2.02%) Unix
6 19 (1.13%) Windows Server
7 17 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 13 (0.77%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.41%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.36%) Kali Linux
11 5 (0.30%) Solaris
12 4 (0.24%) CentOS
12 4 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
12 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.059%) FreeRTOS
14 1 (0.059%) Robot Operating System
14 1 (0.059%) VMS
14 1 (0.059%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 872 (51.69%) CI/CD
2 790 (46.83%) Agile
3 611 (36.22%) DevOps
4 400 (23.71%) Problem-Solving
5 273 (16.18%) Continuous Improvement
6 263 (15.59%) Microservices
7 255 (15.12%) Test Strategy
8 239 (14.17%) Scrum
9 228 (13.52%) Containerisation
10 224 (13.28%) Validation
11 208 (12.33%) AI
12 206 (12.21%) Infrastructure as Code
12 206 (12.21%) Test Scripting
13 198 (11.74%) TDD
14 197 (11.68%) Software Engineering
15 195 (11.56%) Observability
16 194 (11.50%) Analytics
17 177 (10.49%) Regression Testing
18 176 (10.43%) Software Testing
19 174 (10.31%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 490 (29.05%) Python
2 416 (24.66%) Java
3 375 (22.23%) SQL
4 233 (13.81%) JavaScript
5 224 (13.28%) TypeScript
6 174 (10.31%) C#
7 73 (4.33%) PowerShell
8 58 (3.44%) Bash
9 47 (2.79%) C++
10 33 (1.96%) C
11 29 (1.72%) Kotlin
12 25 (1.48%) Apex Code
12 25 (1.48%) Bicep
13 23 (1.36%) PL/SQL
14 20 (1.19%) Ruby
15 19 (1.13%) Go
16 18 (1.07%) Scala
16 18 (1.07%) Swift
17 14 (0.83%) Groovy
18 13 (0.77%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 524 (31.06%) Security Cleared
2 404 (23.95%) SC Cleared
3 84 (4.98%) ISTQB
4 80 (4.74%) Degree
5 61 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
6 59 (3.50%) DV Cleared
7 47 (2.79%) Computer Science Degree
8 25 (1.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (1.07%) Master's Degree
10 15 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
11 12 (0.71%) Azure Certification
12 9 (0.53%) AWS Certification
12 9 (0.53%) CCNP
12 9 (0.53%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 9 (0.53%) OSCP
13 8 (0.47%) CISSP
13 8 (0.47%) ISEB
13 8 (0.47%) Microsoft Certification
14 7 (0.41%) CEH
14 7 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 377 (22.35%) QA
2 102 (6.05%) Accessibility
3 100 (5.93%) Data Quality
4 43 (2.55%) WCAG
5 34 (2.02%) GDPR
6 16 (0.95%) NIST
7 15 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 13 (0.77%) NCSC
9 12 (0.71%) ISO 20022
10 10 (0.59%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.59%) SLA
11 9 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 8 (0.47%) PSD2
13 7 (0.41%) SEPA
14 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.30%) EU AI Act
15 5 (0.30%) HL7
15 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
15 5 (0.30%) PERC
15 5 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 324 (19.21%) Docker
2 25 (1.48%) Active Directory
3 12 (0.71%) Firmware
4 10 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 7 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
9 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
10 2 (0.12%) SRDF
11 1 (0.059%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.059%) KVM
11 1 (0.059%) Squid
11 1 (0.059%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.059%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 324 (19.21%) Kubernetes
2 193 (11.44%) Terraform
3 92 (5.45%) Grafana
4 72 (4.27%) Ansible
4 72 (4.27%) Prometheus
5 26 (1.54%) Argo
6 20 (1.19%) HP ALM
7 16 (0.95%) Puppet
8 13 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
9 12 (0.71%) Progress Chef
10 10 (0.59%) Forefront Identity Manager
10 10 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
10 10 (0.59%) NetIQ Identity Manager
11 9 (0.53%) Nmap
12 8 (0.47%) NetBackup
13 6 (0.36%) Dell DRAC
13 6 (0.36%) Kibana
13 6 (0.36%) Rancher
14 4 (0.24%) Istio
14 4 (0.24%) Podman
Vendors
1 150 (8.89%) Oracle
2 147 (8.71%) Microsoft
3 62 (3.68%) Databricks
4 61 (3.62%) Salesforce
5 52 (3.08%) ServiceNow
6 48 (2.85%) Splunk
7 47 (2.79%) Google
8 45 (2.67%) Red Hat
9 38 (2.25%) SAP
9 38 (2.25%) Talend
10 32 (1.90%) Denodo
11 23 (1.36%) HP
11 23 (1.36%) IBM
11 23 (1.36%) VMware
12 18 (1.07%) Dynatrace
13 17 (1.01%) Cisco
14 15 (0.89%) MuleSoft
15 14 (0.83%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.83%) Workday
16 13 (0.77%) Informatica